The Action Congress has described President Goodluck Jonathan as a trainee President.

In a statement issued in Ilorin on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed the party wondered how else one can describe the administration’s lack of capacity to be proactive or respond in a timely and robust manner to the recent catalogue of woes and national calamities.

In the opinion of the party, the continued bungling of the Boko Haram insurgency which is harvesting more deaths almost on a daily basis , the unstoppable carnage on our roads, the executive somersaults of the administration on policy issues, and in general the slow, unfocused and uncertain responses of government to issues depict a government on internship.

According to the Action Congress of Nigeria, the closure of the Lokoja-Abuja highway which had cut off Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city due to flooding of roads and bridges along the Abuja-Lokoja highway signposts the extent of our decayed national infrastructure and exposes the incapable hands entrusted to salvage them. However, even worse is the fact that the President has not deemed it fit to comment on this disaster, neither has there been any visit by a federal minister or any co-ordinated response to the disaster from the central government.

On a week-end of multiple disasters such as the Lokoja flooding , the bomb blast in Bauchi, and the two weeks of non stop flooding all around the country, the President’s handlers showed more concern in informing Nigerians about President Jonathan’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly summit than explaining or proposing a co-ordinated response to these calamities, the party said

The disposition of President Jonathan’s administration to the welfare of Nigerians confirms the widely held belief that the welfare or well being of Nigerians is definitely not a priority to his government otherwise why could the President not find time to visit even by helicopter the disaster zones to at least give hope to the victims or their relations, the party queried.

Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has accepted the resignation of Hon Commissioner for Environment and Public Utilities,  Mr. Clem Agba.  This is to enable him return to his employment with Chevron which had granted him leave of absence.

According to a statement signed yesterday by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr.  Louis Odion, the leave of absence given Mr. Agba by Chevron ended last week. He walks into a new office at Chevron as Manager, Community Procurement Operations. Before joining the Oshiomhole administration in 2008, Agba was Senior Contracts Advisor to Facilities Engineering to the oil company.

While wishing the former Commissioner for Environment and Public Utilities well in his new assignment, the Edo governor expressed appreciation for his “robust contributions to the state in the last four years.” Before his stint at the Environment and Public Utilities Ministry, Agba briefly served as Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Housing.

Mr. Odion quoted Governor Oshiomhole as saying that “While Mr. Agba always showed uncommon enthusiasm to work, perhaps most outstanding was his role in the design and execution of the flood and erosion-control programme of our administration”

Also, the Edo governor thanked Chevron for graciously releasing Agba to serve his home state, adding that “it’s my hope that this great oil company will still be magnanimous enough to avail us of Clem’s prodigious skills if the need arises in future.”

The United States Government has congratulated Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State on his re-election in the July 14, 2012  governorship election.

Consul-General of the United States to Nigeria, Mr Jeffrey Hawkins expressed his government’s felicitations to Comrade Oshiomhole during a visit to his office, yesterday.

The Consul-General said, “I have come to congratulate you on your re-election.”

He however declined to make further comments in front of the cameras, preferring to hold a private audience with the Governor.

The private meeting lasted close to two hours after which the Consul-General and his entourage departed the Edo State Government House.

The Governor thanked the Consul-General for the visit and for congratulating him on his re-election.

It would be recalled that Governor Adams Oshiomhole beat his closest rival, Maj.-Gen Charles Arhiavbere (rtd) at the July 14 polls, which has been regarded as the freest ever held in the state with 477,478  to 144,235 votes.

From the EFCC below –

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Justice Okorowa of FHC 7 sitting in Abuja has been transferred to FHC sitting in Taraba. The judge’s absence today stalled the trial of former speaker Dimeji Bankolewho is being tried by the EFCC over a N9 Billion loan Scam. The trial was scheduled for four days (September 24, 25, 26 and 27). EFCC prosecution counsel, Festus Keyamo, says he was waiting to hear from the CJ of the FHC if Justice Okorowa will be coming from Taraba to preside over the trial or if the case will be assigned to another judge. Anyhow it goes, this is part of the problem of corruption trial. It is for this reason that a special court for the trial of corruption cases remains the way out. You may use the details of the case provided below to do your story. Stay blessed my beloved colleagues and do have a fulfilled week ahead.

PRESS RELEASEAS AT DECEMBER 19, 2011,

N9 Billion loan Scam: BANKOLE, LOSES BID TO STOP TRIAL.

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on December 19, 2011, dismissed two applications filed by a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole to stop his trial, as the presiding judge, Justice Donatus Okorowa, insisted that there is sufficient evidence placed before the court linking him to the alleged crime. Bankole had lost similar applications at the High Court of the FCT.

Bankole who was arraigned on Wednesday, 08 June 2011, on a 16 criminal count charge of contract inflation and fraudulent embezzlement of public fund, had on June 13 and July 26, 2011, filed two separate motions seeking the court to quash the case against him on the ground that the proof of evidence did not disclose any shred of criminality against him and on another ground that Mr. Keyamo, the EFCC counsel, should be disqualified from prosecuting the case as he has though his previous antecedents, shown that his is biased and impartial towards the accused person.

He had sought the relief of the court to quash the 16^th count charge case against him on the ground that the proof of evidence did not disclose any shred of criminality against him. He had also prayed the court to disqualify Festus Keyamo, the EFCC counsel, from prosecuting the case as he argued that he has shown that he is biased and impartial towards him; more so that there was no Attorney General in the office when the charges were filed.

But in his ruling, the judge cited section 4 of the constitution which states that the legislative powers of the House of Representatives shall be vested in the National assembly. He further said that under the Public Procurement Act, PPA, the National Assembly is a contemplation of the Act which makes it culpable. On the question of who should be charged under the act, the Judge pointed out that the PPA had shown in the extended scope of the Act that the National assembly can be charged and it is on record that there is a body of principal officers responsible for awarding contracts. He added that under the Criminal Code, the first accused is liable.

On whether a prima-facie case has been established, Justice Okorowa said there is enough evidence tendered by the prosecution linking the accused and the offences charged against him. He said that the case cannot be struck out because the prosecution filed evidences and that the insufficiency of prove of evidence is immaterial as it is the duty of the court to determine otherwise.

Also speaking on the disqualification of prosecution counsel, Mr. Keyamo from prosecuting the case, the judge said that it is on record that the EFCC blanket permission from the office of the Attorney general, whether or not a substantive minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation is on sit. “The office of the Attorney General is a legal creation, and can perform even if a substantive AG is not appointed”, the charges, he therefore said remains valid. Before adjourning the case till February 7 and 8, 2012 for trial, the judge said that the constitution does not question the subjectivity of a prosecutor but it questions the subjectivity of the tribunal or the court. “A prosecutor can be biased in the cause of prosecuting his case; but the biasness of the prosecutor cannot influenced the court as it is the evidence before the court that influences the decision of the court”, he added.

EFCC counsel, Festus Keyamo, had urged the court to dismiss two motions brought by Bankole’s counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN seeking to quash the charges against him and to disqualify Keyamo from prosecuting the case. Keyamo argued that the former Speaker was in breach of certain Sections of the Procurement Act and stands accused in the 16 count charge over a N9billion loan scam.

While moving his motion, Keyamo pointed out that Sections 57 and 58 of the Procurement Act clearly emphasizes that ‘all other parties’ other than those mentioned such as contractor and procurement officers, can be prosecuted within that provision.

He further argued that parties to the offence can be those that have the authority to stop the commission of a crime as in the case of Bode George and others. “My Lord there is a striking similarity between this case and that of Bode George because the same arguments were made for them stating that they were not procurement officers but board members. Our argument then and even now, is that Section 7 of the criminal Code recognizes other parties who in one way or the other may have aided or abetted a crime.”

He equally noted some loopholes in the defence arguments concerning his disqualification as a prosecutor which he said arises from their inability to support their claim of ‘personal bias ‘from their affidavit. He said that his petition to the national assembly which they cited as a proof of his ‘bias’ was clear on its intention which stated that the former Speaker was not being accused of any financial impropriety but was being asked for explanation to Nigerians on his role in the matter. Keyamo also said that he had written a similar letter to another former Speaker Ghali Na’aba as far back as 2005 seeking an explanation on a national issue which clearly shows that there was no personal interest in the matter,

Keyamo had also stated that the law does not question in explicit language the impartiality of prosecution but that of the tribunal. “The court’s role is to hold the scale. In fact, if a prosecutor does not believe in the guilt of the accused person, there is no need taking the brief. Impartiality in this regard they want to put it means I do not have a mind and this is not correct.” He pointed out that even if they want to ague on partiality or otherwise of the prosecutor, it should not have come now when the accused person has taken his plea.“My lord it is too late in the day to raise this objection because what qualifies the prosecutor to prefer a charge qualifies him also to proceed with the trial why they didn’t raise it before taking of plea or even filing of charge”, he questioned, adding that all the motions by Bankole were subterfuges to truncate the trial.

Awomolo, while making his submissions posited that under Section 58(4a) of the Public Procurement Act, offences can only be committed by specified person namely contractors, suppliers and procurement officers and that his client is none of the aforementioned.

Count one of the 9 count charge against Bankole who was arraigned on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 reads that “That you, Dimeji Bankole and others now at large on or about 28th of May, 2008, within the jurisdiction of Federal High court, being body of principal officers of the house of representatives for the approval of contracts in the house of representatives, with intent to defraud, did conspire amongst yourselves to inflate the cost of 400 units of 40-inch Samsung [LNS.341] television sets. By approving the purchase of said items at the rate of N525,000 per unit, instead of prevailing market price of N295,000 and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 58[4][a] of the public procurement Act No. 14 of 2007 and punishable under Section 58[5] of the same Act”.

Piqued by the lingering delay over commencement of administrative and academic activities in the Federal Gas Polytechnic, Bonny brought about by what has been described as bureaucratic bottleneck and perhaps federal politics youths of the Bonny Kingdom are demanding that the federal government must urgently commence administrative and academic activities for it to achieve set objective.

Speaking at a press conference in Port Harcourt, the leader of Bonny Youth Federation, Gift Furo Hart lamented that years after, the upgrade of the institution from National Technical Institute of Petroleum and Gas to Federal Gas Polytechnic the institution is yet to take off fully as expected. He said as a responsible leadership, the Bonny Youths federation realizes that development delayed is development denied, hence is poised to ensure that priority is given to the urgent commencement of activities allowing things to be placed in their right perspective.

In a four page statement it reads;

“The Federal Gas Polytechnic, Bonny formerly known as the National Technical Institute for Petroleum and Gas, Bonny was conceived by the Rivers State Government in the year 2000 to serve as a feeder institution to the Liquefied National Gas Project in terms of manpower training and development. The foundation stone of the project was therefore laid to coincide with the opening ceremony of the Liquefied Natural Gas Project with the intention that trainees of the Institute will feed the manpower requirement of the newly built LNG project.

The Institution was handed over to Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) to complete in 2006 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo who said the institute is part of government plan to develop the Niger Delta youths. The decision attracted rave reviews and rousing applause from home and abroad. It left a semblance of a country poised to put a round peg in a round hole taking into account the strategic role of the area in the oil and gas sector of the country.

Similarly, the Federal Government under the Jonathan administration went further to upgrade the National Technical Institute into a full fledged Federal Gas Polytechnic that will specialize in Gas Technologies, alternative energy technologies, and Environmental Sciences by directing that the National Board of technical Education, NBTE and Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) to put modalities on ground to ensure the smooth take off of the institution.

We were encouraged because the importance of an institution of this nature with a corresponding industry cannot be misplaced. Bonny is an oil and gas hub in the region. Hence, the Polytechnic was expected to churn out the much-needed middle manpower in the oil and gas industry, considering that. it will not only be training Bonny people, but will also be training pipeline communities people from the Niger Delta and of course students cutting across the length and breadth of the whole country.

Disappointingly, years after, the upgrade the Polytechnic is yet to take off fully as expected, and this basically forms the reasons for our meeting here today. The Bonny Youth federation is piloted by a responsible leadership, which equally realizes that development delayed is development denied hence is poised to ensure that things are placed in their right perspective.

This has become necessary, as we are yet to come to terms with reason for the lingering commencement of the Federal Gas Polytechnic, Bonny. We know a mandate has been giving out to the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to look at what are the requirements and harmonize for the eventual take off, however that objective has continued to hit a brick wall.

We as Bonny youths are the once directly affected by this inaction because the earlier it commences the better for us. That is why to contribute our quota in ensuring that the various issue of decision making and bureaucratic bottleneck militating against the commencement are nipped in the bud, we are demanding that;

1) PTDF should be persuaded to hand over the custodianship of the completed facilities to either the Bonny kingdom development committee (BKDC) or to a Federal Government empanelled Governing council to oversee the day to day facilities, security maintenance of the structures in the institution as well as general liaison with extraneous governmental, community and third parties agencies, with a view to fast tracking the development of the polytechnic, the recruitment of appropriate staff members and other aspects of the institution’s development.

2) We believe this has become imperative because a similar Polytechnic being developed by the PTDF in Ekowe, Bayelsa state on getting such a governing council, was helped by the council in no small measure, in sorting out most of the teething infrastructural, administrative, community, academic and other related problems besetting that institution. Today, the Federal Polytechnic at Ekowe in Bayelsa state which was initiated about the same time, by the PTDF with its counterpart in Bonny LGA, is completed and fully functional.

3) For emphasis, the issue of appointing and inaugurating a Governing Council for the Federal Gas Polytechnic the, Bonny can no longer be delayed in our national interest, if those lofty ideals conceived by the founding fathers, which inspired Federal Government’s approval for the establishment of the institution are to be realized.

4) We demand full administrative and academic work to commence if the federal government is sincere about this project.

5) We also request that the Minister of Education should interface with her counterpart in the Petroleum Ministry to harmonize whatever processes remaining to fast track the commencement of the Polytechnic and its desired objective”.

The Bonny youths in view of this are demanding that government and its relevant agencies reposed with the mandate of making the Polytechnic dream a reality must give full attention to the smooth take off of administrative and academic work in the Bonny Polytechnic.

According to the statement, youths are not only the future of Nigeria, but also a major stakeholder and useful resource in nation building. For the youths to become useful resource in the Nigerian project; they must be trained and made useful beneficiaries of endeavors sited in their communities; hence they stress that Government should make effective the Federal Gas Polytechnic for youths to attain their full potentials.

It further stated that the bonny youths have watched with burning heart, how the federal government play politics and treat with levity everything that is meant to benefit Bonny community and its people.

Hear the youth leader: “There are so many unfulfilled promises; the construction and completion of the Bonny /Bodo road which was promised to Bonny people by the past Federal administration (since Gowon’s administration), the botched Federal Gas Polytechnic are just one among many unfulfilled promises in spite of the sacrifice and pain we had to go through as a people due to pollution of our air and waterways”.

The Bonny youth federation alo appealed to Niger Delta sons in authority like the President and Commander in- Chief of the Armed of Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and his proactive Minister of State for Education, Chief Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike to come to their rescue and help address this important issue with a view to achieving set objective, adding that the Minister should visit the site to facilitate commencement of the school.

That the so-called “secret” video of Gov. Mitt Romney from May, published by Mother Jones this week, had been on YouTube for months should have had the media suspecting a plant — but they seem nose-deaf to what the supporters of the Obama campaign shovel.

In the video, Romney says in part that he will not win the 47 percent of voters Obama has locked up, claiming those are people “who are dependent upon government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them, who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.”

There are two truths in Romney’s remarks: Obama has locked up 47 percent that few argue would be swayed by Romney, and the entitlement state has ballooned, with more than 100 million people on some form of government support.

But as New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks explained well in Thurston Howell Romney: “The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big-government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees.”

The video was brought to Mother Jones by none other than former President Jimmy Carter’s grandson, an opposition researcher, and it worked to Obama’s advantage by preceding an appearance on the David Letterman’s Late Show.

How this story has played out in the last few days highlights the stark contrast of media coverage between the two candidates, raising deeply concerning issues of class in America, as well as what’s at the heart of the leadership style of these two very different men.

But if you listened just to the media coverage, you’d think minds were made up and Americans have already re-elected Obama.

Yet Gallup daily tracking shows the president up by just one point — coincidentally, with 47 percent.

What’s more, USA Today/Gallup shows that Obama does not have a lock on swing states; even more confounding is that his glorified post-convention bounce fizzled.

As if there needs to be further proof of the media’s unembarrassed partiality to Obama, let’s consider weeks of hard and fast criticism from the media directed at Romney — over moves that would have gotten a pass were they made by Obama.

Endlessly, the media criticized Romney’s response to the embassy killings, but polling shows that job approval of Obama’s foreign policy took a massive hit. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found the president’s foreign policy approval at 49 percent, down from 54 percent a month ago. NBC reported that the cross tabs were more damning among independents, dropping from 53 percent to 41 percent.

Just as initial word of the mob attacks on American diplomatic outposts began to hit the airwaves, the condemnation of Romney’s justified criticism of the president was called ““crass and tone deaf” by MSNBC’s Chuck Todd.

That was the story for days: Romney’s inappropriate response.

Never mind the four American deaths, embassies burning, mobs running amok — on the 11th anniversary of 9/11. It’s that laser focus on Romney to exclusion of all else that indicates what’s at stake: the media’s choice for president.

It was opportunistic, they screamed, for Romney to criticize the president in the midst of a foreign crisis, even though the State Department didn’t know where Ambassador Chris Stevens was at the time.

Let the president be the president, the media commanded.

And while scrutiny dogged Romney day and night, the media showed footage of the president scooting off mid-crisis to Las Vegas for a campaign fundraiser. Where was the outrage?

Then, a British journalist reported that there were warnings of the embassy attack after what’s now being considered a long, ongoing security breach.

The Independent in Great Britain continued to cover what the American media had not. On September 14, it reported that “senior officials are increasingly convinced” that the attacks had nothing to do with an online video called “Innocence of Muslims.”

It took a full 10 days before the White House called it a terrorist attack yesterday.

It’s downright galling for the media to charge Romney with being “tone deaf,” while turning a blind eye to Obama’s foreign policy weaknesses and playing along with the proud display of opportunism at the DNC, where for three days, the Democrats shamelessly exploited the military raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden.

But that level of orgiastic display of self-aggrandizement’s different. Because, well… obviously.

And let’s not forget about the media’s attacks on class differences over Romney’s remarks on the “secret” video, continually branding them as out of touch with Americans of all income brackets.

When Romney released his tax returns yesterday, showing that he pays 14 percent in taxes and donates a praiseworthy 30 percent of his income to charity, even the New York Times had to give it a rest, but not before noting that his “$13.7 million in income puts him in the top 0.01 percent of earners, by the way.”

And yet Gallup shows Romney with as much support among the lowest-income voters as Obama has with the highest-income voters.

But disparaging the Romney’s prosperous image is fair game. The LA Times joined in the class warfare, noting that in some cases the “government-hugging freeloaders” are his “fellow millionaires.”

“Romney may want to keep that in mind when he speaks of these people. They ain’t heavy. They’re his brothers.”

Conversely, liberals applauded the president’s $4 million, $40,000-a-plate fundraiser hosted by Beyonce and Jay-Z last week. Even ABCNews joined in the adoration, reporting that Beyonce sent an email to Obama supporters saying “she’s a huge fan and will do whatever it takes to help him win in a close race.”

The Huffington Post gushed that Obama raised a record $84.7 million in August, saying he “Crushes Mitt Romney in Advertising Spending.”

But the Koch Brothers are made out as evil for hosting three fundraisers and raised $3 million total. Those fundraisers were hounded by 200 protesters, many of whom singled out the ticket price as objectionable:

Some of the 200 protesters marched down mile-long Coopers Beach toward the home in a cloud of sand, bearing banners and signs: “Your $50,000 ticket equals my child’s education,” “End corporate personhood” and “Don’t forget to tip the help.”

I’m not surprised that Occupy wasn’t there to protest the Beyonce fundraiser tickets, but where was the media to make the connection? No wonder distrust of the media has hit a new high, according to Gallup.

Romney’s not facing an easy challenge in defeating a president with a friendly press corps.

But he can be formidable, particularly if he recognizes the opportunities revealed in the last week of polling to unpack some of Obama’s greatest failings — foreign policy and America’s position as a superpower — along with the ongoing domestic concerns of the economy.

Americans get to compare these two very different candidates on the national stage with the first debate on October 3 focused on domestic policy with Jim Lehrer of KPS’ NewsHour.

– Follow me @erica_holloway.