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APC leaders to woo Atiku

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar

As part of its membership drive, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress has concluded plan to woo former Vice President Atiku Abubakar into its fold.

Atiku, a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, was the presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, a party that was among the three political  parties that merged to form the APC.

The other two political parties were the Congress for Progressive Change and the All Nigeria Peoples Party.

The former Vice- President however returned to the PDP shortly before the presidential primaries of the PDP in 2010, which he lost to President Gododluck Jonathan.

Atiku was also a member of the aggrieved members of the PDP that walked out of the PDP mini convention in Abuja few months ago to form the New PDP.

Investigations by our correspondent showed that Atiku would receive the leaders of the APC at his residence in Asokoro, Abuja.

The spokesperson for the former Vice-President, Mallam Garba Shehu, confirmed  the visit in a test message to our correspondent.

He said, “Yes, the leadership of the APC would visit Turaki at his residence in Asokoro tomorrow (today) at 11am.”

If the leadership of the opposition party succeeds in wooing Atiku from the ruling party, he would be joining five other governors from the PDP to have defected to the opposition party.

Governors who have left the party are Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Rabiu Kwankwanso (Kano); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto); Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara); and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa).

 

Nigeria not broke but cash-strapped –DG Budget, AGF

Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Dr. Bright Okogu

The Director-General of Budget Office of the Federation, Dr. Bright Okogu, and  the Accountant- General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Otunla, told a National Assembly Committee on Tuesday that Nigeria was not broke but was currently cash-strapped.

Okogwu and Otunla said this when they appeared before the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Appropriation and Finance  during consideration of the 2012-2014 Medium Term Expenditure Framework.

The MTEF was forwarded to the National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan preparatory to the 2014 budget presentation in November. The committee  is headed by Senator Ahmed Makarfi.

Responding to a question  from a member of the committee,  Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, on the insinuations that the country was broke, Otunla said, “Nigeria is not broke but it’s currently having cash flow problems.”

Also Okogwu said though, “the nation is currently experiencing cash flow problems from time to time; it does not suggest that it is broke.

“Nigeria is not broke. We may have cash flow problem. But countries like Greek and Spain are broke. They are now approaching their international neighbours for bail out, but Nigeria has not done that and are nowhere near that situation.”

The Central Bank Deputy Governor, Mrs. Maria Alade, who represented the CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi, at the joint sitting was, however, evasive when she was asked the same question.

She said, “Since the AGF and the DG Budget, have answered that Nigeria is not broke, that was also the position of the CBN.

“As bankers of the Federal Government, it is not our duty to tell the nation whether it is broke or not, but we can tell her the amount it has in accounts at anytime. But since the AGF and the DG, Budget have clearly declared that Nigeria is not broke, we in CBN also believe so.”

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has written the Senate, requesting permission to present the 2014 Budget.

The President, in a two-paragraph letter dated October 23, 2013, to the Senate President, David Mark, said he was seeking permission to address the “Joint Session of the National Assembly on the 2014 Budget.”

The letter to the Senate President, made available to newsmen read,” I write to crave your kind indulgence to grant me the slot of 12:00 noon on Tuesday, 12th November 2013, to address a Joint Session of the National Assembly

B’Haram: Death toll in Yobe attack hits 127

Members of the boko haram sect

A five-hour battle between Islamic extremists and army troops in the capital of Yobe State killed at least 127 people, all but two combatants, according to reports from army and police officers.

This has raised doubts about military claims that they have the upper hand in Nigeria’s fight to halt an Islamic uprising in the northeast.

AFP reported the stench of rotting corpses from the morgue hung over Damaturu Specialist Hospital on Tuesday, where a reporter counted 31 bodies identified as those of extremists.

Details still are trickling in about the attack, which militants began at dusk Thursday on an army barracks 20 kilometres (12 miles) outside Damaturu, the state capital, where they overpowered the soldiers, seized an armoured car, looted the armoury and set the barracks ablaze with improvised explosive devices.

The reports were given to Yobe State Governor Ibrahim Gaidam by military officers as he toured the destroyed sites with a heavily armed escort on Monday. Journalists accompanying the tour heard the reports.

The attackers then moved down the main road into the city where they rammed the armoured car through the gates to the headquarters of the Police Anti-Terrorist Squad. There, they burned down three buildings.

While some of the extremists exchanged fire with the police, the armored car and others in all-terrain pickup trucks and on foot went on to shoot up and set fire to the police Criminal Investigation Department offices and four other police offices scattered across the city until they arrived at the Mobile Police Base, where the armored car caught fire and was abandoned.

The militants went to the hospital where they looted drugs and bandages as the medical staff fled in terror, according to doctors at the hospital.

This account differs from the official version of events that extremists attacked an army checkpoint along the road from Damaturu to Benisheikh — where militants have killed hundreds of civilians in recent weeks — at around 3 a.m. on Friday. A “firefight ensued and the insurgents were effectively neutralised,” according to a statement Monday from the army spokesman in Damaturu, Ibrahim Attahiru.

He said 70 militants were killed there.

“Fleeing insurgents” then “regrouped to carry out attacks on Damaturu town,” Attahiru said. Security forces killed another 25 insurgents in the city, he said.

Col. A. O. Abdullahi told the governor that 22 soldiers were killed in the attacks.

A police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak about the incident said eight police officers were killed in the shootout at the mobile base. A reporter who visited the hospital mortuary on Sunday saw 17 bodies in police uniform.

On Monday, the morgue held only the bodies of 31 suspected insurgents. Nigeria’s military regularly inflates the numbers of militants killed and downplays its own toll.

The number of civilians caught up in the fighting also is uncertain, with local newspapers reporting that dozens of travelers were caught in crossfire. A civil servant was shot Saturday by soldiers who accused him of breaking the hastily announced curfew. He died in the hospital on Monday, according to witnesses. Another man whose car broke down at the side of the road was shot and killed, apparently by the insurgents, according to reporters who knew him.

The Damaturu attack — on a city that had been free from assault for months — overshadowed a military success in neighbouring Borno State.

Aerial bombardments and a ground assault on two “terrorist camps” killed 74 insurgents and wounded several others who fled, according to spokesman Lt. Col. Muhammed Dole. He said two soldiers were wounded in the attacks.

  Ahmadu Ali urges ASUU to end strike

•PDP ex-chair heads NUC board •Minister: Govt can’t fully fund tertiary education
A former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Senator Ahmadu Ali, yesterday in Abuja begged the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to return to the classroom “in the name of God”.
The university system, he said, is the most critical variable in the development of the country’s education.
Ali, a former Federal Commissioner for Education during the military government of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, spoke at the inauguration of the governing boards and councils of Federal Ministry of Education’s corporations/institutions and the Committee on NEEDS Assessment for Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.
The politician is the chairman of the Governing Council of the National Universities Commission (NUC).
He decried the challenges facing the sector.
Ali said: “I beg ASUU, in the name of God, to return to the classroom. This is coming at a time when our educational system is facing major challenges. We consider our appointment as very important. The importance is heightened by the fact that the university system, which the NUC is supervising, is the most critical variable in the development of our national education.
“The quality of our education depends largely on maintaining a good quality in the university. We promise to do our best to contribute to a more robust system.”

The Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, who inaugurated the governing boards/councils, urged the members to ensure that the industrial actions experienced in the institutions are resolved.
He said: “It is clear that the sustenance of the ongoing processes may continue to be problematic since the Federal Government lacks the capacity to fully and solely meet the funding needs of tertiary education. Consequently, effective fund mobilisation, through diverse sources and greater prudence and efficient utilisation of available funds, must be of utmost concern to you.
“You have no excuses to give since you already have the institutional freedom and flexibility to respond to the challenges of limited public funding through proactive initiatives on endowments, sourcing research grants, the provision of consultancy services, as well as courting the involvement of the private sector in the development of the institutions.”
The Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Education Aminu Suleiman said the National Assembly was trying to resolve the ASUU crisis.
He urged the boards and councils to put the interest of the country above personal interests.
The lawmaker advised the members to aim at excellence, adding that giving excuses would lead to failure.
Suleiman noted that the corporations had suffered because they did not have boards and councils.
Osun State Deputy Governor Mrs. Grace Laoye-Tomori hailed the government for appointing those capable of running the governing boards and councils.
She urged the members to work hard and avoid distractions from various quarters. 

Crude oil theft another face of terrorism – FG

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke

Oil theft in Nigeria and its global support system represents another face of terrorism which has continued to be a clog in the wheel of the nation’s economic growth, the Federal Government has said.

It said efforts at combating the menace locally had been made more complicated as a result of the international slant to the crime.

A statement on Sunday said the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, said this while delivering the keynote address at the Powerlist 2014 programme in London.

The statement from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation quoted the minister as saying that oil theft had continued to thwart the efforts of sustaining economic growth.

 “The grave phenomenon of oil theft and its global support system represents another face of terrorism counteracting our efforts at sustaining the trajectory of our high-growth economy, the stability of our society, and the enhancement and wellbeing of our people,” Alison-Madueke was quoted to have said.

According to her, the level of oil theft perpetuated in Nigeria is beyond the ability of local residents in the areas where such crimes occur.

She said, “Theft of this magnitude is not only highly technical, but it is also an international level crime. It is aided and abetted by syndicates outside of Africa who are the patrons and merchant-partners of the oil thieves. This crime against Nigeria must be resisted, as we simultaneously deploy in-country resources to fight this menace.”

“It perpetuates criminality, defrauds economies and discourages investment. This is a crime that threatens not only Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, but also threatens the security of the Gulf of Guinea, and by extension threatens the global economic order.”

The minister however stated that the Nigerian oil and gas industry had been placed on the path of growth and irreversible progress.

She said, “The Nigerian Content Act, signed into law in 2010 by President (Goodluck) Jonathan, vigorously advocates for indigenous participation, job creation and in-country capacity development and has nurtured leading edge indigenous companies capable of competing with the traditional multinationals.

“The very topical Petroleum Industry Bill is a historic piece of legislation designed to effect extensive and much needed legal, regulatory, financial and environmental reform to Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.”

According to the statement, Alison-Madueke is also listed as one of the 25 Africans who are transforming the continent by the United Kingdom-based Power List Magazine.

Army foils B’Haram attack on Yobe church

Special Forces from Division ‘3’ of the Nigerian Army foiled what would have been a devastating attack on a major new generation church situated in Jerusalem Area of Damaturu.

The suspect was said to have been driving towards the church from a bush path when he ran into a military blockade and was arrested.

It was learnt that the soldiers who arrested him recovered one AK 47 assault rifle, and three Improvised Explosive devices from him.

“The man tried to attack some churches at the Jerusalem area of the city where there are many churches.

“He thought he could drive straight from the bush into the church but couldn’t because of the many barricades.

 “The soldiers on duty were able to stop him, searched him and arrested him when they found the explosives and the AK 47 in his Honda car.”

It was further gathered that three Boko Haram members were arrested in the evening of Saturday at Jango, a red light area of Damaturu.

It was learnt that the three terror suspects one of whom was injured were said to have been arrested with their AK 47.

A source said that their arrest and shootings in the area led to a stampede as the clients of the prostitutes and people fled in different direction.

When our correspondent contacted the spokesperson of the ‘3’ Division of the Nigerian Army Special Operation Battalion, Lt. Eli Lazarus, he said he was not aware of the developments.