Explosion rocks Gombe gov’s house

The private residence of the Gombe State Governor, Ibrahim Dakwambo, was on Thursday rocked by an explosion.

According to SaharaReporters, the house also serves as the official residence of the governor.

It reported that a Police Armoured Personnel Carrier that was stationed in front of Dakwambo’s house was the target of the blast.

The Liaison Officer to the state government in Abuja confirmed the attack to SaharaReporters over the phone.

The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Abdullahi Jalo, an indigene of the state who is one of the governor’s close associates, also confirmed the incident.

Jalo described the incident as “an accidental discharge” by policemen on guard duty.

He said, “It is true that there was some kind of explosion in an armoured car near the house of the Governor of Gombe State. It was not a bomb attack.

“There was an accidental discharge, I cannot confirm casualties yet but I understand there were some.”  

University Of Lagos Campus Shut Down By Students Protesting Tuition Hike

 

Students of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) have blocked entrances to the school this morning, preventing vehicular movements in or outside of the campus in protest against tuition fee hike.

The students are protesting against the sudden imposition of course registration fee.
The protesting students claimed the management shut the school portal against registration and began demanding for N10,000, which again increased to N15,000 and N20,000 progressively in the last few days..

One of the protest leaders told Saharareporters that poor technical capability of students’ portal and the attitude of the personnel at the institution's IT center  caused delay in students registration for a new semester.

The students are singing protest songs, accusing the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Rahman Bello of corruption.
They said the ban on their Students Union, since 2005 will not hinder them from protest action against oppressive policies of the school management.

"If they do not immediately re-open the portal for registration", one of the protesting students said, "this will be a springboard to demand lifting the unacceptable ban on the students’ union government.”

The Emir Of Kano Is Dead

One of Nigeria’s most prominent traditional rulers, Ado Abdullahi Bayero, the Emir of Kano has died. The Emir died early today in Kano according to family sources.

The late Emir was aged 83. He be became the Emir of Kano in 1963 at the age of 33.

 The late emir will be buried today in Kano according to Islamic rites.

Senate panel blames Jonathan for illegal N685bn spending

The Senate Committee on Finance has said that President Goodluck Jonathan should be blamed for the unilateral spending of N685.910bn by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation   on kerosene subsidy in 2012 and 2013.

The committee which probed the alleged $49.8bn missing oil money, said Jonathan set aside a directive by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2010 that kerosene subsidy payments should be stopped.

It added that the President defended the disbursement of the whopping sum   by the NNPC without appropriation by the National Assembly.

   In the report which was obtained by our correspondent on Monday, the committee noted that Yar’Adua stopped the subsidy payments because Nigerian masses were not the   beneficiaries.

The committee lamented that Jonathan’s decision to set aside   the directive by Yar’Adua made the Federal Government to spend N353.3bn in 2012 and N332.5bn in 2013 on kerosene subsidy payments.

It said that Nigerian masses bought the kerosene above the pump price during the periods under review.

The report stated that the “amount may exceed this (figure quoted) because certification by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency   between August and December 2013 was an interim one”.

It added, “Mr. President (Jonathan), having publicly defended payments of kerosene subsidy clearly shows that the said Presidential directive by the late   Yar’Adua had been set aside by the current President.

“Therefore, it (kerosene subsidy payment) is not a unilateral action of any individual (in the petroleum agency). However, it remains unconstitutional since it is not appropriated for by the National Assembly.”

The report further stated that investigations revealed that the Federal Government spent N965.4m every day in 2012 on   kerosene subsidy and N908.5m daily in 2013.

The N685.910bn, according to the report, was part of the $20bn to be accounted for based on the submission of a   former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Lamido Sanusi.

The report noted that Jonathan’s action was contrary to Section 80 (2), (3), and (4) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria constitution (as ammended), which stipulates that, no money shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation without the approval of the National Assembly.

The committee therefore asked Jonathan to prepare and present to the National Assembly, a supplementary budget to cover the N685.910bn spent by the NNPC without appropriation for kerosene subsidy.

It further noted that since no amount was asked for kerosene subsidy in the 2014 budget, the NNPC should not make further deductions in that regard.

The committee   also recommended the immediate stoppage of the subsidy regime both on petrol (pms) and kerosene (DPK).

The report added, “The Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Petroleum Resources differ on position of subsidy on kerosene.

“The Coordinating Minister for the Economy/Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo – Iweala, testified that she had not authorised any payment/expenditure of subsidy on kerosene and that there was no budgetary provision for it.

“The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison – Madueke, also agreed that there was no budgetary provision for subsidy on DPK (kerosene) but noted that her ministry continued to make payments for it in the overall interest of the masses.

“Mr. President,   in his media chat on   February 24, 2013 aired on the Nigerian Television Authority and other television stations, defended the deductions for kerosene subsidy.

“There is therefore, the need for the subsidy regime to be totally discontinued with. However, all stakeholders should be consulted and carried along as much as possible before abolishing the subsidy.”

Why I’m dumping APC for PDP —Fani-Kayode

A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has dumped the All Progressives Congress for the Peoples Democratic Party, accusing the party of having an Islamic agenda and being intolerant.

Fani-Kayode, who spoke with our correspondent on the phone, on Monday, said that the leadership of the APC was insincere.

A statement by the former minister described the spokesperson for the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, as a liar – for allegedly saying that he (Fani-Kayode) never joined the party.

Mohammed did not pick the calls made to his lines by our correspondent.

The statement by Fani-Kayode read in part, “I have stated these facts and set the record straight – due to the fact that Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the spokesman of the APC, had the effrontery to say in an interview with a magazine earlier today, that I was never a member of the APC and that I never joined them formally. The truth is that Mohammed is not only a liar but he is also a coward.

“I cannot remain in a party where a handful of people that have sympathies for Boko Haram and that have a clear Islamic agenda are playing a leading role.

“This is made all the more untenable when some of those people are working hard silently and behind the scenes to impose a Muslim/Muslim ticket on the party for the Presidential elections next year.

“I cannot be in a party where a few of its leaders are more interested in playing politics with the whole Chibok issue and hurling bricks at our military for not doing a better job. I cannot be in a party in which the role of one of its governors is not clear on the Chibok issue.”

Account for your allocations, Okonjo-Iweala dares govs

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has challenged state governors to tell Nigerians what they do with the huge allocations they receive regularly from the Federal Government.

According to the minister, many of the states get monetary allocations that far outweigh the annual budget of some neigbouring countries to Nigeria.

Okonjo-Iweala spoke on Sunday at Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, while delivering the Babcock University’s convocation lecture entitled: ‘Transforming Nigeria’s economy: Opportunities and challenges’.

The minister alongside the Executive Producer of Moments with Mo on Ebonyi Live TV, Mo Abudu, received the university’s honorary doctorate degrees.

Okonjo-Iweala, who urged Nigerians to be more discerning, noted that the governors had no reason not to develop their states, given the huge amounts they regularly got from Federation Account.

According to her, it is high time Nigerians held their governors accountable over the money collect on their behalf to accelerate development of their states.

Noting that the constitution had placed the provision of some basic public services on the concurrent list, making it the joint responsibilities of the three arms of government, she decried that Nigerians seldom asked what the governors were doing to develop their states.

Okonjo-Iweala said, “Clearly, the Federal Government cannot do it alone; we need the private sector to work with us and we have reached out to them in transforming Nigeria. But, in addition to that, we should ask ourselves what is the role of the state and local governments in supporting our transformation.

“A lot of attention is turned on the Federal Government. So, we also need to ask what our states and local governments do with the resources they get.”

The minister said the states were getting their monthly allocations, adding that the information was being published in the media so that the people would know what accrued to the federal, state and local governments.

She added, “We need to ask more questions; poverty eradication and building of infrastructure are not only by the Federal Government. In 2013, the top 10 allocations were going to the following states: Akwa Ibom, N260bn; Rivers, N220bn; Delta N209bn; Bayelsa, N173bn; Lagos, N168bn; Kano, N140bn; Katsina, N103bn; Oyo, N100bn; Kaduna N97bn; and Borno at number 10 with N94bn.

“These were the allocations all these states got last year. The question is what did they do with the money?”

Earlier, the President and Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. James Makinde, said the institution was committed to the pursuit of academic excellence.

Makinde, who dedicated the convocation to the abducted female pupils of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, noted that of the 1,560 graduands, 44 obtained first class from the university.

Another batch of 1,227 obtained second class upper division, while 59 candidates obtained doctorate degrees, he said.

Football - Pele's son and former goalkeeper Edinho sentenced to 33 years in jail

Edinho, the son of Brazil football legend Pele, has been sentenced to 33 years in prison.

The 43-year-old, a retired footballer himself, will serve the sentence for laundering money raised for drug trafficking, the BBC has reported.

Edinho was first arrested back in 2005 and has served a sentence for drug trafficking offences, in addition to having links with a notorious drug dealer in the city of Santos.

The son of the great Pele played as a goalkeeper for his father’s old club Santos in the 1990s.

Edinho, who currently works as a goalkeeping coach at Santos, reportedly says that he is a drug addict but denies the trafficking charges levelled against him.

Brazilian media have not been able to reach Edinho, whose real name is Edson Cholbi do Nascimento. He is expected to appeal.

Edinho is Pele’s third son from his first marriage and was just five when the family moved to New York with his father playing for the Cosmos.

He was the Santos goalkeeper in 1995 when the team reached the Brazilian league final, losing the title to Botafogo.

In 2006, Pele went to visit his son in jail and said: "God willing, justice will be done. There is not a shred of evidence against my son.”

Pele won the World Cup in 1958, 1962 and 1970 and was acclaimed as the greatest footballer of his generation.