[flagallery gid=37 name=Gallery]
Oshiomhole dismisses 20 teachers for absenteeism [photos]
TWENTY teachers of three schools who were absent from their duty posts when the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole paid an unscheduled visit to the schools, yesterday, have been dismissed.
Comrade Oshiomhole who disclosed this during an unscheduled visit to Asoro Primary School, Emokpae Model Primary School, Western Boys High School, George Idah Model School and Esonere Primary School in Benin City also ordered deductions from the salaries of some teachers who got to their schools after the 8:00am resumption time.
The Governor who frowned at the lackadaisical attitude of some teachers to work said “the state government has provided suitable environment in the schools, the teachers are paid good wages and inducement allowances. These beautiful classrooms are useless if teachers don’t teach the students.”
The governor who was at the Asoro Primary School by 7:45am went through the teachers’ attendance register and discovered that names of teachers who were not present in school were signed in. He then directed that adequate punishment be meted out to those who filled in the names of the absent teachers.
“Any time a teacher does not show up in school, the students will be wasting their time. The head mistress will also be queried because she has the responsibility to explain to me why people are allowed to sign fraudulently on the register when they are not present,” he noted.
Comrade Oshiomhole queried the long stay of some teachers in a particular school before being posted out to other schools, directing the State Universal Basic Education Board to ensure fairness and transparency in the transfer of teachers.
At the Western Boys High School, the governor condemned the dress code of some teachers, noting “teachers should be role models in their dressing by being properly dressed. I am here to look at this school to see what we can do to make it more comfortable.
“I am not happy with some teachers who are not punctual and are in the habit of not coming to work. The government will take disciplinary action against them,” he added.
According to the governor, Edo State Government has the responsibility to protect the future of the children with quality education and improvement of the environment and he urged the teachers to complement that effort.
In his words, “those teachers who are absent from school will be dismissed because we cannot continue to pay them. We will employ those ready to work to earn their wages, while those who are late will forfeit part of their pay.
The Governor was also at the Emokpae Model Primary School, George Idah model primary School and Esonere Primary School where he commended the teachers for been punctual and assured that the state government will restore integrity to public schools to make them compete with the private schools.
Seven Senior Secondary School teachers were absent at Western Boys High School when the governor visited while five Junior Secondary School teachers of the same school were not on their duty posts.
At Asoro Primary School, seven teachers were absent from work while one teacher was absent from work at Emokpae Model Primary School.
However, all the teachers at George Idah Model Primary School and Esonere Model Primary School were on their duty post and were also punctual according to the times signed in on the teachers’ register.
Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, Sir Joseph Emabino and other members of the board were in the Governor’s entourage for the inspection.
Gov Mimiko, UBA Staff, Petitioned for Illegal Withdrawal of N700million, and Forgery [petition]
The Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Mimiko along with the management staff of the United Bank of Africa [UBA] has been petitioned to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] over illegal withdrawal of N700million from an account domiciled at the UBA Lagos. The Governor was also charged with forgery – in the attempts forge the name of a preexisting company in order to continue to make withdrawals from the said accounts.
See the complete petition below –
—
23 August 2012
The Chairman
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
15A, Awolowo Road,
Ikoyi, Lagos.
Dear Sir,
FRAUDULENT CONVERSION OF ASSETS OF OWENA OIL AND GAS LIMITED, FRAUD BY MR. GOKE ADENIYI & OTHERS AND OWENA ENERGY LIMITED
We hereby bring to your information and for necessary action the criminal activities of some persons incorporated as Owena Energy Limited acting under the cover of the Ondo State Government to perpetrate fraud against our Company.
BRIEF BACKGROUND
Owena Oil & Gas Limited is a private company duly incorporated in Nigeria in 2001 and jointly owned by the Ondo State Government (OSG) and Integrated Mineral Development Company Limited (IMDC). Sometime in year 2001, IMDC a firm of Mineral Development consultants and Investors approached the Ondo State Government under the governance of late Governor Adebayo Adefarati for the purpose of providing the Ondo State Government with Consultancy, Technical assistance and finance for the development of Oil and gas businesses that will include but not limited to establishment of a petroleum refinery, acquisition of oil assets, construction of an oil terminal, deep offshore supply base, etc on Public-Private-Partnership(PPP) model.
In line with this vision, Owena Oil and Gas limited a private company registered by the Ondo State Government with its nominees as shareholder was agreed to be the Joint Venture Company in the following ratio
- 30% equity participation – Ondo State Government
- 30% – Private Local Sector participants -IMDC
- 40% – Foreign Investors and Technical Partners (to be held by IMDC).
The referenced agreements were to serve as a pre operation/incorporation contract between the government of Ondo State and private sector participants led by IMDC. In pursuance of the agreement and MOU a validly convened board meeting of Owena Oil and Gas Limited was held to ratify the objects of the agreement and the necessary documents were filed at the Corporate Affairs Commission, Abuja in November 2001. IMDC nominated directors were appointed to the Board of Owena Oil and Gas Limited and shareholding equal to 30% of the Company’s authorized share capital was allotted to these IMDC directors to reflect the Agreement (Attached as ‘A’ are copies of the MOU, and forms filed at CAC in 2001). A successful bid was made for the acquisition of 45% interest in OML 95 ‘Ororo Field’ with the 55% going to Guaranty Petroleum Limited.
In 2007, Ondo State, as the Joint Venture partner of IMDC also assisted Owena Oil and Gas Limited to participate in the mini-bid round during which it bidded unsuccessfully for OPL-241, an exercise that saw Oilworld Limited emerge as the winner. Owena Oil and Gas Limited later acquired 80% farm-in-interest in OPL-241 leaving Oilworld with 20% interest in the block vide referenced Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) between parties, an activity supported financially with a ‘soft loan’ to the Company by the then Dr. Agagu led administration.
EFFORTS TO FRAUDULENTLY CONVERT THE ASSETS OF THE COMPANY AND TRANSFER SAME TO OWENA ENERGY LTD UNDER GOVERNOR MIMIKO LED
In 2009 one Mr Goke Adeniyi of Lake, Seas & Creeks 15B, Josep Street, Lagos Island, at the unilateral instance of the Ondo State Government led by Dr. Olusegun Mimiko illegally and without recourse to the Board and other shareholders took over the assets of the Company.
It is now emerging that since Mr. Goke Adeniyi was forced on the Company a total sum of about N700,000,000.00 million Naira held in 2 deposit accounts of the Company with United Bank for Africa Plc, Idowu Taylor Street, Victoria Island, Lagos has been withdrawn in obvious collusion with officers of the Bank and without authorisation of the Board and members of the Company .
It is also emerging that spirited attempts are also being made to illegally transfer the oil assets of Owena Oil and Gas Limited to a newly formed entity Owena Energy Ltd a private limited liability company in which they have personal interests as shareholders.
In further perfection of the above evil agenda, the promoters of Owena Energy Limited has been parading the company as if its a subsidiary of Owena Oil and Gas Ltd or a sister company where no such interest exist. Please find attached as ‘B’ the current CAC 2 and CAC 7 of both Owena Energy Limited and Owena Oil and Gas Ltd.
In view of the foregoing, we strongly believe that those behind Owena Energy Limited in the persons of Mr. Goke Adeniyi et al will not relent in their fraudulent pursuit of our Company’s assets for their personal parochial gain except they are forced to confront the law.
We therefore petition and urge that you use your good office to kindly have this matter investigated and verify the authority by which the fund was moved from the account and the use to which it was put by Mr. Goke Adeniyi without the knowledge and consent of the Board of the Company. Furthermore, we seek that you investigate and verify the part played by officers of United Bank for Africa in effecting this illegality. Also to ensure that the promoters of Owena Energy Limited and any other person(s) linked thereby in the fraudulent coversion of our Company’s assets are brought to book for their unlawful acts.
We thank you for your kind and prompt attendance to this matter of grave financial concern to, and continuing survival of Owena Oil and Gas Limited.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
For: Owena Oil & Gas Limited
Samuel Kolajo
Executive Vice-Chairman
Uniport Massacre: “I knew one of the boys personally. He was not a thief” – Senator Ike Ekweremadu
The upper chamber of the National Assembly in their seating today [October 9, 2012] tabled the issue of the brutal murder of the four students of the University of Port Harcourt, River State – Ugonna, Lloyd, Tekana and Chidiaka by the vigilante operatives of Aluu community.
The Senate plenary which began at about 12:30pm saw the Senators rise to speak in denunciation of the brutal killings. Among the Senator who spoke against the killings included Senator Akume, Senator Egba, Senator Bello, Senate President David Mark, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and others.
One of the Senators who spoke passionately and personally on the killings was Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu who told the Chamber that he knew one of the boys personally. “The mother is from one of the local government areas which I represent here in the Senate” said the deputy president who also noted that “the boy travels to the United States of America [USA] frequently” and so has no need to steal phones and laptops. “The mother of the boy works for a top bank in Nigeria and the father is a top shot in NNPC”. The Senator stated that he spoke with the parents of Chidiaka recently.
The Deputy Senate president added that preliminary investigation suggests that the brutal killings may have been the result of misunderstanding between students. But the Senator stopped short of elaborating on the details of the misunderstanding – citing that the matter remains under investigation.
Adding a strong voice to the condemnation of the killings was Senator Akume of Benue State who seized to opportunity to rally for the creation of State police. The Senator indicated that the creation of State police will help halt the type of needless killings currently taking place around the tertiary institutions of Nigeria. He made it clear also that anyone for kills should be killed.
The Senate President seconded the call for creation of State police – adding that the increased killings of innocent souls in the various part of Nigeria caused him to change his original stand on the issue.
A one minute silence was observed by the Senate in honor of the murdered boys.
35 killed in Maiduguri after soldiers open fire
At least 35 people were killed on Monday when Nigerian soldiers opened fire after a bomb blast struck their convoy in Maiduguri, Borno State, nurses at the hospital that received the bodies said.
The nurses in the Umaru Shehu hospital said 30 of the dead were in civilian clothes, while another five wore military uniforms. Militants of the Boko Haram Islamist sect, headquartered in Maiduguri, sometimes wear civilian clothes.
“They brought in so many dead bodies. They were more than 30 civilians, in civilian dress. We counted five dead soldiers as well,” a nurse, who declined to be named, said. Most had died of gunshot wounds, she added.
Boko Haram is waging an insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan’s government with the avowed aim of reviving an ancient Islamic kingdom in majority Muslim northern Nigeria.
Styled on the Afghan Taliban, the sect’s purported leader Abubakar Shekau has said he wants to impose sharia, Islamic law, on the country of 160 million people, around half of whom are Christians and the other half Muslim. His movement has become the number one security threat to Africa’s top energy producer.
Borno state security spokesman Sagir Musa said he could not confirm or deny the casualty toll, but he admitted troops had opened fire after a bomb they suspected to be remotely detonated wounded two of them in a patrol.
He said the military would give a statement on Wednesday morning (Reuters).
Federal lawmaker, group denote to Isoko flood victims
Our Reporter, Delta state
More succors have continued to pour in for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in Isoko South and North as well as Ndokwa East and West local government areas of Delta state following the ravaging flood that has rendered them homeless in the past weeks.
Presenting the relief materials separately yesterday to the victims at AGGS Ozoro, headquarters of Isoko North and St. Michaels’college and Odoro primary school, Oleh, headquarters of Isoko South, the member representing Isoko Federal constituency in the national Assembly, Hon. Leo Ogor Okuweh and founder of Umeh Need Road facebook forum (UNR), Barrister Duncan Akpovienehe Afahokor sympathized with all the victims of the flood.
According to the duo, they should all have their trust in God and not to lose hope lamenting that the situation was a pathetic one and all hands should be on desk so as to assist the people in every little way they can.
While stressing the need for everyone to think on what could be done after the flooding crisis to rehabilitate the victims, the administrator of (UNR), Afahokor called on all and sundry to as a matter of importance come out enmass to give a helping hand to the victims.
Afahokor however expressed worries over the way the flooding has continued to increase daily as well as rendering people homeless and loss of valuables.
The presentation which attracted members of the facebook forum and lasted few minutes saw the affected victims jubilating and thanking the donors and called on other spirited individuals to come to their aid.
Items presented by the lawmaker and the group include, materials, yams, bags of rice and beans, mattresses, foams, toiletries, provisions among others. The ravaging flood has sacked over fifty communities of Isoko origin.
Mitt Romney wipes out Obama’s lead after debate victory
Mitt Romney has effectively erased Barack Obama’s lead in the polls after last week’s one-sided presidential debate, according to Pew Research.
Romney now leads Obama by 4% among likely voters, according to the newly release poll. That’s a 12-point turnaround from last month.
Among registered voters, Romney and Obama are now tied at 46%. Just a month earlier, Obama held a 9% lead over his Republican rival.
“Fully 66% of registered voters say Romney did the better job in last Wednesday’s debate, compared with just 20% who say Obama did better,” Pew said in a release Monday. “…More generally, the poll finds Romney’s supporters far more engaged in the campaign than they were in September. Fully 82% say they have given a lot of thought to the election, up from 73% in September.”
The poll was conducted between October 4 and 7 and included 1,511 U.S. adults — 1,201 of whom were registered voters and 1,112 who were likely voters.
Romney also achieved gains over the past month among women, white non-Hispanics and those younger than 50, Pew said. It noted that likely women voters are now evenly divided at 47% each for Obama and Romney, when last month, Obama led Romney by 18 points among women likely to vote.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GettyImagesBarack Obama arrives at San Francisco International Airport on Monday. Obama is on a three-day trip during which he will campaign in California and Ohio as well as attend the establishment of the Cesar Chavez National Monument.
This week, the focus of the campaign shifts to the debate on Thursday between Vice President Joe Biden and the Republican nominee to replace him, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan.
With polls tightening, Obama’s campaign is banking on a massive get-out-the-vote operation and state-by-state shades of economic improvement to maintain its apparent polling edge in battlegrounds from Ohio to Virginia.
Meanwhile, a re-energized Romney is flashing new confidence on the campaign trail and pressing toward the political center on both foreign and domestic issues. But aides have outlined no clear path to winning the 270 Electoral College votes required to gain the White House.
Ultimately this is a tight race, and it’s going to remain a tight race until the end
“Things are going pretty good,” the usually cautious Romney said Monday with a smile.
Among Democrats, the swagger of the previous few weeks has all but vanished since the debate.
“Ultimately this is a tight race, and it’s going to remain a tight race until the end,” said Bill Burton, who runs Priorities USA Action, a pro-Obama super political action committee.
Indeed, one month from Election Day, polls show a close race. And with millions of Americans already voting and the potential for game-changing moments diminishing, the candidates have little room for error as they seek to sway a narrow swath of undecided voters.
Obama aides acknowledge Romney’s strong turn on the debate stage helped him shift gears from a rocky September. But they also argue that Romney’s momentum was arrested somewhat by a Friday jobs report showing the unemployment rate declined to 7.8%, the lowest level of Obama’s presidency.
They say the president was thrown during the debate by what they call Romney’s willingness to abandon his previous positions, including his US$5-trillion tax cut proposal. In the next debate — and in television advertisements before then — the Democrat and his aides are expected to accuse Romney of lying about his own plans.
Romney’s team, meanwhile, is tempering expectations that tightening national polls will translate into success on the ground in the key states most likely to decide the race. Things may be moving in the right direction, they say, but significant work remains.
Still, they’re seeking to paint Obama’s campaign as desperate.
“It seems pretty clear that their new strategy is basically just call us liars, to descend down into a mud pit and hopefully, with enough mudslinging back and forth and distortion, people will get demoralized and they can win by default,” said Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan.
Both Democrats and Republicans say internal campaign surveys following last week’s debate show Romney has cut into the lead Obama had built up in many key battleground states. But they say Obama still has an advantage in most of the nine or so critical states, including Ohio and Virginia. A lack of independent polling makes it difficult to know whether that’s true.
In a foreign policy speech at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va., on Monday, Romney cast himself as a statesman who would be part of a long, bipartisan tradition of American leadership in the world. He said the U.S. should use its power “wisely, with solemnity and without false pride, but also firmly and actively.”
At the same time, he is moving away from some of the more conservative positions he pressed during the GOP primary. The shift is aimed at appealing to the independents and disaffected members of both parties who could swing the race. He is to deliver at least two more policy speeches in the coming weeks focused on job growth and debt and spending.
As Obama’s aides worked to poke holes in Romney’s foreign policy address, Obama declared a national monument at the Keene, Calif., home of Latino labor leader Cesar Chavez, the United Farmworkers Union founder who died in 1993.
Sure to appeal to some Hispanic voters in swing states, Obama’s move came at the start of a day in which he also was raising political cash at events in San Francisco, as his campaign closed in on US$1-billion in donations. Democrats said the US$181-million they raised in September would allow Obama to keep advertising heavily on television in all battleground states and fully fund major registration and early voting efforts in the campaign’s crucial final weeks.
The president has more get-out-the-vote offices than Romney in every competitive state; some offices never closed after the 2008 campaign. Democrats say that network helped them register more than 130,000 new voters — most in battleground states in the week before the debate. There are more registered Democrats than Republicans in nearly every competitive state with party registration, including Florida and Nevada.
Romney’s team is working hard to chip away at that margin.
Democrats have an edge in Iowa, where 62% of the 111,000 voters who have cast absentee ballots so far were registered Democrats. Twenty-percent were Republicans and 18% were unaffiliated, according to the Iowa secretary of state’s office.
In Ohio, a perennial battleground state, Democrats have an edge over Republicans among people who have requested absentee ballots, though relatively few completed ballots have been submitted. Among the 691,000 people who have requested absentee ballots in 49 of the state’s 88 counties, 30 percent are Democrats and 24% are Republicans. Forty-six percent are unaffiliated voters, according to data collected by the AP.
But Romney’s early voting efforts are showing signs of paying off in North Carolina and Florida, two competitive states that the Republican nominee can ill afford to lose.
Despite a strong debate performance, Romney’s path to the presidency remains narrower than Obama.
Particularly worrisome for Republicans is Ohio, a state that every Republican presidential candidate has needed to win the White House.
If Obama wins Ohio’s 18 electoral votes, Romney would need to win Florida and in all likelihood secure several up-for-grabs states such as Virginia, Iowa, Colorado, New Hampshire and Nevada to take the White House.
Romney, following his selection of Wisconsin Rep. Ryan as his running mate, has tried to put Wisconsin into the toss-up category, but public polling has shown Obama ahead, giving the president more breathing room.
In the season of debates, next up is the only match-up between Vice President Joe Biden and Ryan.
Believe you me, I understand this man is extremely experienced, he’s a gifted speaker, he’s a proven debater
A strong performance by Biden, a former senator who essentially made a career out of debating colleagues, could quell nervousness among some Democrats, though neither party expects undecided voters to be swayed by the face-off between the running mates. Ryan’s challenge is to overcome his lack foreign policy expertise or national debate experience against Biden, who has extensive experience on both fronts.
“Believe you me, I understand this man is extremely experienced, he’s a gifted speaker, he’s a proven debater,” Ryan said on The Frank Beckman Show on Detroit radio station WJR. “So we definitely have our work cut out for us. But the problem the vice president has that he just can’t get around is he has to try and defend Barack Obama’s record, and it’s not a very good record to defend.”
Biden was preparing for the face-off in his hometown of Wilmington, Del., where he has held two mock debates with Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who is playing the role of Ryan.
Obama and Romney will face off again on Oct. 16 in Hempstead, N.Y. in a town hall debate.
Please Don’t Let Our Son’s Killers Go Free —Father of lynched UNIPORT student cries out
By News Express,
The father of Lloyd Toku, the 200 level undergraduate of Civil Engineering at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) lynched alongside three friends has appealed to the Nigerian Government not to allow the perpetrators to go scot-free.
As previously reported by News Express and other media, Llyod and fellow UNIPORT students Chiadikobi Biringa, Tekena Elkanah and Ugonna Obuzor were extra-judicially killed by Aluu community of Rivers State, South-South Nigeria, where several UNIPORT students live in off-campus accommodations. They were accused of stealing phone handsets and laptops, an allegation that has yet to be proved.
While Chiadikaobi’s father Onyema has handed the matter over to God, Lloyd’s father, Mr. Mike Toku, is demanding justice.
Insisting that his son was neither a thief nor a cult member, Toku, Assistant Director, Presentation, Radio Rivers, yesterday cried for justice in an interview he granted Nigeria’s mass circulating PUNCH newspaper.
“All I want is for justice to be done. That’s all. Whoever carried out that dastardly act should be brought to book. That is all I want. I have not got assurance from anybody that justice will be done. I am yet to get that (assurance). Nobody has talked to us yet,” he said.
Speaking in a similar vein, Llyod’s mother, Mrs. Jane Toku, said: “How can I erase the fact that my son was lynched from my mind? He studied very hard and got admission into the university.”
She proclaimed Llyod’s innocence, disclosing that he was a very religious child who could not hurt a fly.
The police have confirmed the arrest of 13 suspects in connection with the dastardly act.
Video clip of Pres. Jonathan’s visit to wife, belated attempt at damage control – ACN
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described as a belated attempt at damage control the presidency’s
decision to show on the NTA the video clip of President Goodluck Jonathan’s visit to his wife in Germany,
saying the video has not addressed the demand for full disclosure on the First Lady’s seven-week disappearance.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party
said the comments attributed to presidential spokesman Reuben Abati concerning the video also shows that the
presidency either does not understand the issues at stake, or is deliberately playing the ostrich.
”Let’s be clear, there is nothing to be ashamed of in someone been sick since we are all human and anyone can fall
ill at any time. In particular, people occupying the public space, including the First Lady, who take ill deserve nothing
but our prayers and sympathy.
”However, where information about such persons are with-held or deliberately distorted, people tend to shift their focus
to unravelling the truth about the situation, which is the case with our First Lady,” it said.
ACN described as a shocking irony the fact that President Jonathan, who is aware that the poor management of information
over the illness of his predecessor, Pres. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, contributed to the erosion of public sympathy for the late
President and instead swung it in favour of his then Vice President (Jonathan), would make the same mistake by hoarding
information on the sickness of his wife.
”It is a shame that people just do not learn from the past. Irrespective of the cheeky and unprofessional comments by the
presidential spokesman, that the video has put paid to all the lies that people who play politics with almost everything have
been spreading, the indisputable fact, going by available information, is that the First Lady indeed took ill and was flown to
Germany for treatment.
”Had the information managers at the presidency lived up to their billing, there would have been a full disclosure immediately
the First Lady fell ill, and instead of the unnecessary controversy over her whereabouts, the good people of Nigeria would have
offered prayers in torrents for the First Lady and her family.
”Now making it look like the First Lady went to Germany on holiday ‘to rest’ or she is on a pilgrimage of sorts when indeed she is
recuperating from an illness is another testimony to the increasingly legendary incompetence and cluelessness that permeate this
presidency, and we expect all those involved in this amateurish attempt at cover-up to be ashamed of themselves, instead of
engaging in empty bravado and pointing fingers at imaginary enemies,” the party said.
Broadcast by His Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR – Flooding in Parts of the Country
Abuja. October 2012
Fellow Nigerians,
1. Over the past few weeks, unprecedented floods have ravaged many parts of our country, rendering tens of thousands of fellow Nigerians homeless, and causing massive destruction of property, farmlands, and infrastructure across the country.
2. I wish to express our deep commiseration with all those who have lost loved ones; those who have lost their property; as well as all the affected communities and institutions.
3. It is sad that this global phenomenon of devastating floods has come to Nigeria at this time.
4. I want to reassure all Nigerians that the Federal Government is prepared to do everything possible to mitigate the impact of this natural disaster.
5. I had earlier set up a Presidential Technical Committee to visit all affected areas with a view to properly assessing the impact of the floods. The Committee has since submitted an interim Report.
6. The Report, which contained a number of recommendations, was presented to key stakeholders including the leadership of the National Assembly and Governors of the affected States.
7. The Technical Committee will continue to go round the country while the Vice President and I will also visit some of the affected communities. When we receive the Committee’s final Report, the Federal Government will further initiate medium and long-term measures to check future flood disasters.
8. In the meantime, relevant government agencies have intervened to provide relief to the affected persons in collaboration with the State governments.
9. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has so far spent N1.314 billion to provide immediate relief materials. The Ministry of Works has spent N556 million on the repair of collapsed bridges and the construction of bye-passes; while the Ministry of Environment has spent N95 million on sundry relief measures.
10. In addition to this, the Federal Government has decided on a number of measures to further ameliorate the situation. These include the immediate provision of a total of N17.6 billion in direct financial assistance to the affected States and some Federal Government Agencies responsible for disaster management. The States will receive a total of N13.3 billion while the Federal Agencies will receive N4.3 billion.
11. Based on the present assessment, the States have been categorized into four groups: A to D. All Category A States will receive N500 million each; Category B States, N400 million each; Category C States, N300 million each; and Category D States, N250 million each.
12. Category A States: Oyo, Kogi, Benue, Plateau,
Adamawa, Delta, Bayelsa and Anambra.
Category B: Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi, Kaduna, Niger,
Nasarawa, Taraba, Cross-River, Edo,
Lagos and Imo.
Category C: Kwara, Katsina, Gombe, Ogun, Ondo,
Ebonyi, Abia and Rivers.
Category D: Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Yobe, Enugu,
Ekiti, Osun, Akwa-Ibom, Borno and FCT.
13. To further intensify their intervention activities, the following agencies of the Federal Government have also been allocated funds as follows:
· Ministry of Works – N2.6 billion
· National Emergency Management Agency
– N1.1 billion
· Ministry of Environment – N350 million
· National Commission for Refugees – N150m
· Technical Committee on Floods Impact Assessment – N100 million
14. I have also set up a National Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation to assist the Federal Government to raise funds to mitigate the pains and ensure the effective post-impact rehabilitation of victims. This Committee will be co-chaired by Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, while Dr. Mike Adenuga, Jr. will serve as the Chief Funds Mobiliser.
15. The full membership of the Committee will be announced immediately after this broadcast.
16. Fellow Nigerians, let me use this opportunity to thank State Governments, members of the National Assembly, private individuals, agencies of government, private sector institutions, NGOs, faith-based organizations, and philanthropic groups who individually and collectively have risen to the aid of persons and communities affected by the floods.
17. This humanitarian and compassionate spirit that has been on display in the past few weeks reassures us that, at critical moments, Nigerians are able to come together in pursuit of a common purpose.lk
18. My Fellow Compatriots, let me once again reassure you that this Administration remains fully committed to the welfare and well being of all Nigerians at all times.
19. May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
20. I thank you all.
