10 states yet to access N30bn UBEC funds — Reps

THE House of Representatives yesterday lamented that despite the poor funding of the education sector, about 10 states had been unable to access the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, intervention fund of N3 billion each was entitled since 2011.  
The House also decried non-compliance in payment of counterpart funding to access the grant by 27 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja. Consequently, the House in its resolution yesterday, called on the Federal Government to remit the statutory allocations for the months of January to April, 2015 to UBEC fund without delay. It also urged the defaulting state governments and the FCT to, in the national interest, contribute their counterpart funds to enable them access the UBEC fund to bring education in the states to the reach of every child. It was also said that about N58 billion of the UBEC fund, which was meant for the provision of infrastructure for primary and secondary education, was lying moribund in the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, because the defaulting states had failed to pay up their counterpart funding. The resolution was a result of a motion sponsored by Rep Aishatu Jibril Dukku which was titled, “Need to Urge States Defaulting on Universal Basic Education Funds to Pay Up.” Leading the debate on the motion, Dukku, a former Minister of State for Education, noted that primary and secondary education were facing myriads of problems, including dilapidated and sometimes, non-existent infrastructure, lack of qualified manpower and outdated teaching aids, especially at the local government level, to the fact that many states have failed to provide their counterpart funding. She decried the lukewarm attitude exhibited by state governments in accessing UBEC’s conditional and non-conditional funds, adding that a lot could be achieved with states paying the stipulated fifty percent counterpart funding to the commission, which in turn provides an additional fifty percent to the money presented by the states. The lawmaker said: “The idea of UBEC has been hailed as one of the best policies to have been introduced in the education sector as it helps to provide free and universal basic education for every Nigerian child of school-going age, thereby laying a solid foundation for life-long learning. “But it is worrisome that some states have failed to claim their grants since 2005, while over N58 billion of the commission’s fund is idling away in the Central Bank of Nigeria unclaimed, yet states moan that they do not have money to develop the education sector.” She listed states lsuch as Abia, Benue, Cross River, Ekiti, Enugu, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Osun and Oyo, as having an average of over N3 billion each idling away in the CBN, having failed to access their allocations since 2011, despite what she described as the dilapidated state of infrastructure in  primary and secondary schools in those states. The House at yesterday’s plenary, presided over by the speaker, Yakubu Dogara, directed its Committee on  Tertiary Education and Services and Banking and Currency to investigate the current status of the Nigerian Education Bank, with a view to bringing about its revival. This followed the adoption of a motion, entitled: “Urgent Need to Investigate the Status of the Nigerian Education Bank”, sponsored by Ahmed Yerima. Yerima in the motion, told the House that the idea for the Nigerian Education Bank was mooted in 1993 as replacement for the Nigerian Students Loans Board. He said the Board, established in 1972, had by 1991 provided loans totaling N46 million (US$ 3.8 million) to enable students finance undergraduate or graduate studies within Nigeria and abroad, but by 1992, the Board was faced with the problem of recovering outstanding loans of over N40 million (US$ 3.34 million), thus leading to its suspension and the establishment of an educational bank However, the lawmaker said the bank, which other functions included provision of advisory services and undertaking scientific research on the economics and financing of education, never really took off.

FG plans 3 million jobs in 3 years

The Federal Government envisages the addition of three million jobs to the Nigerian economy within the next five years with the first 1.2 million jobs being created in the year, 2016, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said yesterday. 
 
Nigerian youths.

The three million jobs to be created largely in the private sector, Osinbajo said yesterday, is within the framework of what he described as President Buhari’s directive that all policies of government should be framed with the question, “how many jobs would the policy create?” The vice-president spoke yesterday while receiving the implementation report jointly packaged by the Job Creation Unit of the Presidency and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, NESG on job creation and youth employment in the country. “We are in a situation now when the only way is up,” Prof. Osinbajo declared while thanking the NESG “for working so hard on this project,” the vice-president was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his spokesman, Laolu Akande. Under the proposal, entitled “Strategic Framework & Implementation Plan for Job Creation & Youth Employment in Nigeria,” more than 3 million jobs would be created in the country within three years starting in 2016 especially in Technology, Wholesale & Retail, Construction and Agro-allied sectors of the Nigerian economy.” 700,000 private sector jobs, majority of which are expected in the Agro-allied sector are expected to be created in the year under the initiative, which is said to be besides the 500,000 teaching jobs for unemployed graduates planned by the Buhari administration. Akande quoted the vice-president as saying that President Buhari had set job creation as the central focus of government policy when he instructed that policy planning must address the question, “how many jobs would the policy create? Even though job creation might be “painfully slow,” Prof Osinbajo assured Nigerians that the Buhari presidency is addressing the constraints that businesses face including regulatory and institutional delays. He noted that government and the private sector only need to work together and get it right this time. According to him, “I am extremely excited at all that is available. We really have everything we need, we just need to get it right,” indicating the role of effective implementation of the job creation plan. The Job Creation Unit in the presidency initiated the job creation plan and the NESG as private sector players validated it through a joint committee, and would be working together with government in the implementation process. Speaking earlier at the meeting, the chairman of the NESG, Mr. Kyari A. Bukar noted that “NESG is honored to be part of the Committee, and we commit to collaborate with the JCU whilst leveraging our vast private sector network to collectively solve the unemployment challenges Nigeria faces.” He added that the NESG “have had the opportunity to review the Strategic Framework & Implementation Plan for Job Creation developed by the JCU, with the support of Dahlberg, and understand the urgency in addressing unemployment in Nigeria,” and urged the federal government to address the sectoral constraints of job creation particularly in the four selected sectors of Technology, Wholesale & Retail, Construction and Agro-allied businesses.

N’Assembly committee detects fresh flaws in 2016 budget

Senate

The Senate and House Joint Committee on Appropriation has detected fresh errors in the 2016 budget, investigations by The PUNCH have revealed.

It was gathered that the errors were responsible for the failure of the committee to present its report to the two chambers of the National Assembly on Wednesday as it had promised.

Investigations, however, showed that the errors would not affect the plan of the National Assembly to transmit the budget to President Muhammadu Buhari before Easter as efforts were being made to correct them.

It was learnt that one of the anomalies detected was in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, where provisions had been made for procurement and installation of security systems every year since 2013.

For example, in 2013, the sum of N527,000,000 was budgeted for the item; in 2014, N1,161,356,582 was allocated to the same item; in 2015, N316,420,274 was budgeted for it; and N1,710,322,610 is to be spent on the procurement and installation of security system in the SGF office in 2016.

The committee also detected items without project locations in the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing (headquarters).

Such projects include the construction of a block of three classrooms at the cost of N85,592,483; construction of a maternity centre for N91,124,858; and the allocation of N172,623,767 for the building of skill acquisition centres.

The committee pointed out that oversight function would not be possible without project locations.

It was learnt that the committee also discovered anomalies in the allocation of large amounts of money for the rehabilitation and repair of office buildings as well as purchase of office items and fittings.

Not less than N21bn was allocated to such repairs and purchase at the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the government.

The committee also detected duplication of items. For example, N2.3bn was earmarked for former heads of state in the service wide vote of the Ministry of Budget and Planning, while N400,190,000 was allocated to the affairs of the former heads of state in the SGF office.

Other examples of duplication include allocation of N256,920,000 for the purchase of equipment, vehicles and furniture for the National Bureau of Statistics and the N230,705,000 by the NBS for the same purpose.

It was also learnt that the committee discovered instances where allocations for the purchase of items were made without stating the quantities to be bought.

Such include the construction of solar boreholes at the cost of N140m in the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing and in the National Power Training Institute, N81m was budgeted for operational vehicles.

The committee described some items as curious. These include the allocation of N340m for wildlife conservation at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and N150m for growing girls and women project at the Federal Road Maintenance Agency.

Another curious budgetary item is the refund of N2,479,581,721 to states for federal roads, which was placed under the National Intelligence Agency.

When contacted, the Senate spokesperson, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, said the errors had been corrected at the committee stage.

He said that there were no fresh errors and challenged anyone with contrary information to publish the source.

Abdullahi said, “The errors in the budget were identified at the various committee levels. The Appropriation committees of both chambers had jointly scrutinised the document and had come up with an error-free copy.

“As a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, I can confirm to you that I am not aware of any fresh error discovered after the joint committee of the two chambers had worked on the budget.

“I challenge anyone with contrary information to publish it together with the source.”

But opposition party lawmakers told The PUNCH that the report was not submitted because there were still areas to be re-touched.

For example, the Minority Leader of the House, Mr. Leo Ogor, said the report was undergoing “finishing touches.”

Ogor added, “There are areas that require finishing touches. It will cut across several parts of the budget.

“But, I know it is something that will be quickly sorted out and the report will be laid by the grace of God tomorrow (today).”

Witness: Badeh’s son rejected a N340m house, so we bought him another one for N330m

Salisu Abdullahi, a retired air commodore and former director of finance of the Nigeria air force, on Wednesday said Alex Badeh, instructed him to buy houses for two of his sons in an highbrow area of Abuja, while he was chief of air staff.
Abdullahi, a prosecution witness in the trial of Badeh, told Justice Okon Abang of the federal high court, Abuja, that the former defence chief instructed him to look for choice property for his first son, Alex Badeh jr, because he wanted him to own a house.
The witness claimed that Badeh bought a house at Wuse 2 at N260m for his first son, renovated it with N60m and furnished it with N90m. He also said that when Badeh’s second son turned down a house worth N340m, a second house had to be bought for N330m.
“My chief also told me he wanted his second son, Kam, to own a house. The name of the owner of house is Isiaka Rabiu,” he narrated to the court.
“I told him the price of the house was about N340m. He directed me to pay. I paid the dollar equivalent of the money to Rabiu. The money was from the normal amount I take to my chief monthly.
“When Kam saw the house, he didn’t like it. When my chief saw it, he said we should look for another one.
“One evening, I was sitting in my house. One Honourable Bature called and requested me to see him. He was then living at Kumasi crescent at Wuse 2. When I saw him, he told me he wanted to sell his house. He was building another house somewhere.
“He requested me to find someone who can buy the house. I told my chief and he said he wouldn’t like Honourable Bature to know that he was the one buying.
“I told him we could use Barrister Useni Umar. I told Useni that my chief would like to buy a house, but he wouldn’t want the buyer to know he is the one buying.
“I took Useni to Honourable Bature as an agent. After two days, the barrister told me he had concluded negotiation with Bature and that he had agreed to sell the house for N330m.
“My chief directed that I should pay for the house. I took the equivalent of N330m in dollars, which was deducted from his (Badeh’s) own money, and effected the payment.
“I collected the title documents for the house and handed them over to my chief.”

N3.1b ‘fraud’: Ex-minister travels as EFCC closes in

We got money from PDP, say Udenwa, Falae, Fani-Kayode 

A former minister has sneaked out of the country as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) closes in on the suspected architects of an alleged N3.145b fraud, The Nation learnt yesterday.

Six chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Goodluck Support Group (GSG) have been named in the investigations.

The cash, meant for the funding of the campaign of former President Goodluck Jonathan  was drawn on the orders of the Presidential Villa and paid into a coded account tagged Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Library.

The account was said to have been deployed by the Presidential Villa (allegedly on Dr. Jonathan’s instructions) and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) for “strategic assignments”.

Some of the key suspects, including some bureaucrats, have offered to return the funds, even as the EFCC plans to invite some of those implicated for interrogation “any moment from now”.

According to sources, the former minister left the country on Sunday, her destination unknown – as at press time.

A source, who spoke in confidence “in order not to jeaopardise the investigation”,  said: “The EFCC has been on the case for some time and one or two of the suspects at a point came to make statements. But one of the former ministers who was also connected with the matter has jetted out.

“The ex-minister left the country quietly on Sunday. No one can say her actual destination and whether or not it was a routine trip abroad or a self-imposed exile.

“The reality is that there is no hiding place for any former public officer. Wherever a suspect is, the EFCC will repatriate such a person.”

It was confirmed last night that the N3.145billion was drawn from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) following directives from the Presidential Villa.

The cash was wired into the coded account.

It was learnt that after the withdrawal of the cash from CBN, an account was provided by the Director of Finance of the PDP Presidential Campaign, former Minister Nenadi Usman, for disbursement to beneficiaries.

Another source added: “The CBN released the funds based on orders from the Presidential Villa. Some documents on the withdrawal have been obtained by the EFCC.

“From the preliminary investigation, MEA was a coded account used by the Presidential Villa and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) for strategic assignments, including funding of the re-election campaign of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.

“After the cash was moved to MEA account, it was moved into the account of Joint Trust Dimension Nigeria Limited, which was allegedly provided by ex-Minister Nenadi Usman.

“In fact, some of the bureaucrats connected with the withdrawal of the funds from the CBN have not been comfortable. Some suspects have actually offered to return the cash quietly to EFCC.

“I am aware that some persons have made statement to the EFCC on what they knew about the deal. But most of the beneficiaries have not been quizzed. They will soon be invited by the EFCC for interrogation and how to return the money.”

The beneficiaries include a former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode (N840m); a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and leader of the Social Democratic Party, Chief Olu Falae (N100m); a former Minister of Finance, Nenadi Usman(N36.9m); a former Imo State Governor, Chief Achike Udenwa and a former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Viola Onwuliri(N350m)  and Okey Ezenwa(N100m).

One of the beneficiaries, who spoke in strict confidence, said: “The cash was actually N2billion as reported to the campaign directorate.

“When ex-Minister Nenadi Usman briefed us, some of us insisted on knowing the source(s) of the funds. In fact, somebody asked repeatedly whether or not the cash was from public funds but she told us that the money came from some private individuals. She disclosed some names behind the so-called “donation.”

“Having heard that the cash was donated to the campaign, we decided to use it for that purpose. None of us knew that the money came from the CBN and it was also disbursed through a company’s account which Nenadi Usman said she had been using for her campaign.

“Now, we are just realizing that the N3.145billion was drawn from the CBN. It is just unfortunate. Some of us would have rejected the cash if we knew it came from the apex bank.”

Power distribution firms reject supply from generating plants

 Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babtunde Fashola

The rejection of load allocations from power generating plants by some electricity distribution companies is one of the factors preventing the country from fully benefitting from the 6,500 megawatts generation capacity of the existing power plants.

Our correspondent gathered that some power plant units were being shut due to high frequency occasioned by the inability of the distribution companies to pick their load allocations.

For instance, the nation lost about 2,821.5MW of electricity generation on Monday partly due to the rejection of loads by the Discos, it was exclusively gathered from top industry sources.

The nation’s electricity generation as of 6.00am on Monday stood at 3,548.7MW, while the combined generation capacity of the power plants was put at 6,370.2MW.

Some of the plants affected by the load rejection or low load demand were Shiroro, Jebba, Egbin, Okpai and Afam VI.

Others are plants under the National Integrated Power Project, including Alaoji, Odukpani and Ihovbor.

Shiroro and Jebba saw their generation levels reduce to 200MW and 260MW, compared to capacities of 300MW and 341MW, respectively. Odukpani generated 60.1MW instead of its capacity of 360MW; Egbin, 820MW (880MW); Alaoji, 51.5MW (117MW); Ihovbor, 78.4Mw (109MW); Okpai, 282MW (366MW); and Afam VI, 378MW (555MW).

The General Secretary, National Union of Electricity Employees, Mr. Joe Ajaero, had claimed in a statement on Monday that the real saboteurs of the power sector were those who refused allocations from the national grid for onward distribution to consumers.

A former top executive in one of the power firms explained to our correspondent that a distribution company could decide to reject load due to low revenue generation from a segment of its customer base.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Eko Electricity Distribution Company, Mr. Oladele Amoda, told our correspondent in a telephone interview that load rejection could be as a result of capacity issues between the transmission and distribution networks.

He said, “In some cases, there is no enough transmission equipment capacity to wheel power to the Discos. Sometimes, the Discos also do have issues; that is when there is powerful wind, which, sometimes, leads to tripping of the breaker. But it doesn’t take time before that is restored.

“Everybody knows that the weakest link in the power value chain is transmission. So, the blame cannot be put solely on the Discos.”

According to Amoda, the nation’s transmission network cannot wheel more than 6,000MW, while the distribution networks nationwide can take more than 10,000MW.

“At Eko Disco, we are not rejecting load. We are not even getting up to our allocated percentage because of constraints on the transmission equipment,” he said, adding that the company had spent more than N11bn on network rehabilitation and reinforcement, among others.

Amoda said the government was working on improving the transmission capacity, noting that the Transmission Company of Nigeria had been starved of funds for a very long time.

“The government is looking into how to quickly strengthen it financially and with all the provisions that it will require to quickly ramp up its capacity,” he stated.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, Mr. Rumundaka Wonodi, said, “When the Discos reject load allocation, the question is why are they rejecting it? It could be that their system is weak, which is why we keep talking about the need for investment.

“When this (load rejection) happens, it has an effect all through the value chain because generation companies cannot generate power and maybe they have ‘take or pay’ obligation on their gas supply; so, they have to pay for gas that they did not utilise at that time.”

The Chairman, Egbin Power Plc, Mr. Kola Adesina, said the talk that the Discos were rejecting allocation was an indication that there was a major problem far more significant than frequency and pressure of gas.

“There is no justification for somebody to reject power. You need power to make money. You need money to be able to pay your loan, to be able to continue to service the system. So, nobody will naturally want to do that,” he said.

The spokesperson for the Kano Electricity Distribution Company, Mr. Muhammed Kandi, said, “In Kano Disco, we do not drop load. In fact, we don’t get enough allocation; so why should we even drop load in the first place?”

He explained that the company only received about 260MW on Tuesday morning, compared to a maximum energy demand of 600MW.

The Acting Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Mr. Anthony Akah, said, “Clearly, the issue of load rejection has been addressed by the commission. Under the new regime, that is the Transitional Electricity Market, the distribution companies can no longer reject load that is within the allocation level that they are supposed to get.

“If it is due to the constraint of the distribution companies, they will be penalised for that. If it is the transmission company, it will also have to be penalised. That essentially has been taken care of, unless there are other reasons behind why it happened.”

The Chief Executive Officer, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, Mr. Azu Obiaya, said, “It is irrational that anyone of these Discos will reject load right now because they desperately need the power to, first of all, meet their revenue requirements as well as distribute to their customers.”

I’ll be merciless in pursuing looters, says Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday vowed that his administration would not show mercy to any person in its ongoing anti-corruption war.

He said his administration would pursue the anti-graft war relentlessly until Nigerians began to see how the nation’s elite conspired to run the country down.

According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the President spoke during an interactive session he had in Malabo with Nigerians resident in Equatorial Guinea.

Buhari assured the Nigerians that he would not entertain any fear in his quest to rid the nation of corruption by bringing those who compromised their positions to book.

“We will be merciless and relentless in pursuing all those who abused public trust. Nigerians will see how some of the elite conspired to run the nation down,” the President said.

He also condemned recent political violence in Rivers State, saying the killing of people over political differences was primitive, barbaric and unacceptable.

He promised to deal decisively with those responsible for the development.

“We will deal decisively with all sponsors of violence. I have given the security services clear directives in this regard.

“We will show that violence in any form will no longer be tolerated before, during or after elections,” he stated.

Buhari promised that the Independent National Electoral Commission would be encouraged to explore the possibility of Nigerians abroad participating in the 2019 general elections by casting their votes wherever they might reside.

He noted that some African countries had started allowing their citizens, resident abroad, to vote in national elections and Nigeria could not afford not to join them.

He identified with the desire of Nigerians in the Diaspora to vote in national elections, pledging that he would do all within his powers to fulfil that desire.

“I want all Nigerians to know that I respect them and their right to choose their leaders,” he said.

The President disclosed that establishing a new national airline was not currently on the Federal Government’s list of priorities.

He said his administration’s main area of focus was reducing the level of poverty.

Buhari said developing the infrastructure needed to boost production in all sectors of the economy and creating more jobs for young Nigerians, as well as other actions that would directly enhance the living conditions of ordinary Nigerians would continue to be prioritised by his administration.

He was responding to complaints by members of the Nigerian community about the absence of direct flights between Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea.

Buhari vows to deal with sponsors of Rivers violence

•President Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday condemned the political violence in Rivers State, describing it as  “primitive, barbaric and unacceptable”.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, Buhari said: “We will deal decisively with all sponsors of violence. I have given the security services clear directives in this regard.

“We will show that violence in any form will no longer be tolerated before, during or after elections.”

The President spoke in Malabo at an interactive meeting with Nigerians resident in Equatorial Guinea.

President Buhari said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be encouraged to explore the possibility of Nigerians abroad voting in the 2019 general elections.

Noting that some African countries now allow their citizens resident abroad to vote in national elections, the President said he empathised with the desire of Nigerians in the diaspora to vote in national elections.

He promised to do all within his powers to fulfil that desire.

“I want all Nigerians to know that I respect them and their right to choose their leaders,” he said.

President Buhari also said that establishing a new national airline was not on the Federal Government’s list of priorities.

His administration’s main area of focus is reducing poverty, he said.

The President said that developing the infrastructure needed to boost production in all sectors of the economy and creating more jobs for young Nigerians and other actions that will directly improve the living conditions of ordinary Nigerians will continue to be prioritised by his administration.

President Buhari was responding to complaints by members of the Nigerian community about the absence of direct flights between Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea.

He assured them that his administration’s war against corruption will remain “fearless, relentless and merciless”.

“We will be merciless and relentless in pursuing all those who abused public trust. Nigerians will see how some of the elite conspired to run the nation down,” he said.

Rivers APC chiefs have alleged that 32 of their members have so far been shot, clubbed or beheaded in the run up to Saturday’s election.

The killings started before last year’s general election. A report of the Rivers Commission of Inquiry headed by the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, said a monthly average of 19 killings occurred in the state between November 2014 and April 2015.

The Commission noted that of the 97 allegations of killings it received, 94 of them occurred between November 15, 2014, and April 11, last year.

This report, Odinkalu said, reaffirms that no state or country should allow a repeat of such violence in the name of politics.

Reacting to the recent brutal killings, Governor Wike described those killed as cultists, saying killings were done in the course of clashes by rival cult members.

He slammed the APC for claiming killed cultists as their members.

Technically Out, Battle is Between Faleke and Wada.

As hearing continues at the Kogi Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja, one issue is crystal clear, even to the blind, is that the current sojourner in Lugard House, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, is a goner.

With godly sincerity, Yahaya Bello has the worst case in the history of governorship petition in Nigeria.

Today, the social media came alive, first, with the pictures of the Chief of Staff, Mr. Edward Onoja dozing uncontrollably during tribunal sitting before he was docked in the witness box. Unfortunate confessions by this star witness  left Yahaya Bello supporters gasping for breathe.

Right before our eyes, Edward Onoja admitted, in the witness box, that his oga at the top, Yahaya Bello, is not a registered voter in Kogi state. Edward claimed Yahaya Bello applied to transfer his permanent voters card, PVC, to Kogi state but the application up till now has not been approved. This 11th hour confession is a sharp departure from the bold claims by his associates that he voted in Kogi State during the last elections.

It is worthy to note that the laws guiding our country Nigeria states that:

A person shall be qualified to contest the Presidential, Governorship or National Assembly elections if:

(a) he is ordinarily resident in the constituency in which he intends to contest the election or is an indigene of that constituency;

(b) he is registered as a voter in the Constituency in which he intends to contest the election;

(c) he produces evidence of tax payment as and when due for a period of three consecutive years immediately preceding the year of the election or is exempted therefrom;

And other requirements.

 You will recall that you published one of my well-researched article on your platform on 22nd January, 2016 (Incontrovertible Proofs That Yahaya Bello Was Invalidly Nominated for Dec. 5 ‘Supplementary’ Election – Adamu Ojonugwa).   In that piece I argued that Without a running mate, nomination of a Governorship candidate is INVALID.Today, in the witness box, our dear Edward Onoja was shown the form filled by Yahaya Bello, the space required to be filled by the deputy was not filled. That is, Yahaya Bello ran the unfortunate supplementary election without a deputy. Onoja had no choice, he agreed that Yahaya Bello never had a running mate for the controversial December 5 supplementary election.

It will take Judgement crafted outside the laws of the land for Yahaya Bello to survive. Technically, he is out of contention. The highly anticipated tribunal ruling is obviously a race between former Governor Wada and Honourable James Faleke.

The logical conclusion is the declaration of Wada as winner of the badly fought election as the living candidate with the highest number of votes or overrule INEC’s decision that the November 21 was inconclusive and declare Faleke winner. While Yahaya Bello lawyers labour day and night to discover or create a ‘legal lacuna’ that can be capitalised upon to knock out these mighty cases on ‘technical grounds’, it is becoming more and more difficult to achieve that as the counsels to both Wada and Faleke are well experienced in election petitions processes and games.

Edward Onoja Sleeping at Tribunal

James Faleke Docked at Tribunal

Edward Onoja Docked at Tribunal

Gowon accepts son, 48 years after.

Former military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, retd; yesterday owned up to fathering a love child with the late public relations expert, Princess Edith Ike Okongwu, bringing to an end the 48-year-old paternity dispute over Musa Gowon.

Musa,  who returned to Nigeria at the end of last year, after about 23 years in a United States prison, was acknowledged by Gen. Gowon upon the report of a conclusive DNA test. The paternity dispute was the subject of a legal action that reached the Supreme Court in Nigeria, which Okongwu won. However, execution of the judgment was thwarted by the arrest of Musa by United States law enforcement officials in Dallas on the charge of importing heroin into that country. The young Musa was sentenced to 27 years in prison and was only released last November on compassionate ground and good behaviour. He was said to have pursued graduate school from prison and was of exemplary behaviour. In 2003, while in US custody he lost his mother, a leading socialite in Nigeria who was also a one-time public relations manager of Guinness Nigeria Plc. Both the former Head of State and Okongwu were friends in the 60s. Gowon later married Victoria Zakari, a nurse, on April 19, 1969. In acknowledging Musa as his son in a statement issued yesterday, Gen. Gowon, now 81 nevertheless asked for privacy after a very difficult period. He said: “Following years of doubts and speculation, a DNA test was recently conducted to ascertain the paternity of Musa Gowon, who recently returned to the country. ”The results of the tests were conclusive, and they confirm his paternity. We, the family, are working to assist in his rehabilitation following a very difficult period in his life. ”As we look forward to the future with faith in God, we request that our privacy be respected.”

Biafra: Anyaoku rejects IPOB’s appointment

A former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has rejected his nomination as one of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra’s representatives to negotiate or discuss on behalf of the group.

IPOB had on Wednesday listed Anyaoku as one of the “credible Igbo elders” that would represent it in “negotiations” and “discussions”.

Also on the list are former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme; Prof. Ben Nwabueze; the   Archbishop of Owerri Catholic Diocese, Archbishop Anthony Obinna; a Biafran civil war army commander, Alex Madiebo; and an activist, Dr. Arthur Nwankwo.

But in an email exchange with one of our correspondents, Anyaoku, who said he had yet to be contacted by the Pro-Biafra group, stated that he would not accept the appointment.

He said, “I have not been approached nor would I be willing to undertake such an assignment in the present circumstances.’’

In a statement signed by its spokesmen, Emma Mmezu and Clifford Iroanya, IPOB said the selection of Ekwueme, Anyaoku and the others came on the heels of its rejection of the alleged meeting between the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and a United States of America delegation in Enugu.

In the statement entitled, ‘Beware of impostors’, the group dissociated itself from any discussions or negotiations entered into on its behalf by Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

IPOB alleged that the Ohanaeze leaders claimed they were speaking on its behalf at the alleged meeting with the US officials, who were said to be on a fact-finding mission.

The statement read in part, “We do not deal with nor condone the idea of washed- out political contractors and compromised merchants of misery speaking for Biafrans.

“We value our reputation as IPOB and would like to warn that anybody dealing with any group that is not IPOB under the supreme command of Nnamdi Kanu (our detained leader) is engaging in an exercise in futility.

“Our focus now is to ensure the release of our leader first before we negotiate with anyone.

“We would view anyone discussing or attempting to cut a deal without the knowledge of the leadership of IPOB as an enemy of the people.

“IPOB has chosen Dr Arthur Nwankwo, Dr Alex Ekwueme, Archbishop Anthony Obinna, Gen. Alex Maduebo, Prof. Ben Nwabueze and Chief Emeka Anyaoku as credible elders, who will speak the truth without being easily compromised.”

Fed Govt probes 11,000 ghost workers

Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun

THE Federal Government is investigating additional 11,000 workers to know if they are ghost workers, Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun said yesterday.

About 23,000 such workers were uncovered recently, saving the government N2.29 billion monthly.

Briefing State House correspondents, Mrs. Adeosun said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved continuous audit process, particularly on the payroll.

According to her, the audit would be extended to other areas of government’s expenditure to block fraud.

She said: “The approval of a presidential initiative on continuous audit. In the budget speech, the President said we would introduce a continuous audit process, particularly of the payroll and that work has resulted in the elimination of about 23,000 fraudulent recipients of federal salary and more work is still on.

“We felt that the continuous audit should not be limited to payroll, there is actually need to strengthen internal audit across government and to that extent, the World Bank in 2010 started an initiative to try and introduce real-space internal audit in Nigeria, but it wasn’t successful.”

Stressing that the World Bank indicated its readiness to support Nigeria in the initiative, she added that it would take six months to get the required legislation through.

As a way forward, she said: “So, in the interim, we have agreed to do the presidential initiative on continuous audit, which will give backing to the work we are doing and will allow us to extend this work beyond payroll to other areas of expenditure.”

The minister explained that FEC deliberated about the need for this and agreed that the control framework over finance and spending of government’s money needed to be strengthened, “especially in anticipation of the approval of the budget, which is an extended budget”.

She added: “There was a discussion on the role of existing internal audit offices, the problem they have is that they report to the people they are supposed to be checking on and so they are not able to be as effective as we would like.

“Also, most of what we do now is computerised and we need special audit techniques, computer assistants to do the techniques and special techniques, which some of these auditors do not have,” Mrs. Adeosun said.

She said the government would not recruit any additional people to do the auditing work.

“We are going to use existing staff, qualified accountants within the Office of the Accountant General within the Federal Civil Service and redeploy them to create this function, which we believe will strengthen the control of our public money,” she added.

On the earlier 23,000 ghost workers and the new investigation, she said: “Our payroll has reduced by N2.29 billion per month. The update on that is that we are now investigating another potential 11,000.

“Again we are using computer techniques to identify those who we need to investigate. So, we are now looking at the second batch and as we resolve those cases, we would inform you of the amount saved and the number of people removed.

Court dissolves 10 months marriage over sex starvation

A Lugbe Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, on Thursday dissolved 10 months marriage between Usman Aisha and her husband, Ibrahim for starving the wife of sex.

In his judgment, the judge, Mr Garba Ogbede, said that the marriage had broken down irretrievably and efforts to reconcile them proved abortive.

“Since both parties consented to the dissolution of their marriage, this court has no choice than to dissolve the marriage.

“The couple can no longer stay together because the marriage has broken down totally; both parties are no longer husband and wife, they are free to go their separate ways.

“Both parties are to keep the peace all the time; any violation of the order should be reported to the police for redress,” Ogbede held.

Aisha of Aco Estate, Airport Road, Abuja, had approached the court for dissolution of the marriage because Ibrahim refused to satisfy her during love making.

She said that she spend one month with Ibrahim after their marriage and he always arose her but refused to satisfy her when making love to her.

“ I pleaded so bitterly to him to satisfy me but he refused to change,’’ She said.

Aisha said that whenever she called him so that they could sit and discuss the issue, he would threaten to beat her.

She said that she had reported the matter to both parents but nothing changed.

“I intentionally left our house for months after he refused to change but he never care to look for me.

“Though when I was with him for one month, he feeds me well, but when it comes to sex matters it will turn to fight. I am a woman and I have feelings for him.

“He has failed in his matrimonial obligations, I am totally fed up, please sir, separate us. I am no more interested in the marriage,’’ Aisha added.

She begged the court to dissolve the marriage because she did not want to offend God and to enable her move on with her life.

Ibrahim denied all the allegations but conceded to the dissolution of the marriage because he was also fed up with the union.

“I take good care of her and provide all she wants. Please my Lord, do as she wishes, I have tried my best to settle with her but all my effort prove abortive. I am also fed up,’’ he said.

Minister’s driver may face prosecution

•The Lexus Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV)...yesterday

The driver of the Lexus SUV in which Minister of State (Labour and Employment) James Ocholi died may face prosecution, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal, said yesterday.

Ocholi, his wife and son died in an accident on Sunday on the Kaduna-Abuja road.

An interim report of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) claims that the driver, James Elegbede, was over speeding and had no license.

Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, the SGF said the final report on the accident will determine if Elegbede will be prosecuted.

He said: “As to the issue of whether we would prosecute the driver, yes, Nigeria is not short of laws; the problem is that Nigerians find it very difficult to obey the laws.

“There is a speed limit in place and so if anybody chooses not to obey the traffic laws, of course, it is subject to prosecution by the agencies concerned. But as to this

particular incident, I think we will leave it until the final report of the investigation comes out.

“But, of course, as we say, accident is accident and nobody goes out deliberately to summersault and die, but as to allegations you claimed from the family, we are not aware and anybody who has anything to the contrary –  that they didn’t die in an accident – is free to report to the law enforcement agencies who will appropriately take it up.”

Lawal said the Federal Government did not extend automatic employment and scholarship benefits to the driver’s relatives and other surviving victims because they are alive and still on the government’s payroll.

He said: “The government decided to give employment to the children of the late minister because he was the breadwinner and the children are now orphans. On the other hand, the driver survived and the government is taking care of their medical bills at the National Hospital and they are also government workers as some of them are policemen, SSS operatives and others.

“So they are on salary and are treated free, but God forbids that had any of them suffered the same fate as those who died, the President would have willingly included them on the list of beneficiaries.”