“The president did not believe that those girls were abducted for almost 18 days,” — Mr. Obasanjo.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan lived in denial about the abducted Chibok schoolgirls for more than two weeks, withholding valuable decisions that would have led to the rescue of the girls, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said.
The former president said this in an interview with Bloomberg TV Africa, aired on Saturday.
“The president did not believe that those girls were abducted for almost 18 days,” Mr. Obasanjo said in the interview. “If the president got the information within 12 hours of the act and he reacted immediately, I believe those girls would have been rescued within 24 hours, maximum 48 hours.”
Mr. Obasanjo said that rather than spring into action after receiving briefings about the abduction, “the president had doubts.”
He said the president’s initial action was to ask: “‘Is this true, or is it a ploy by people who don’t want me to be president again?’”
President Jonathan’s lethargic approach to the kidnapping was the “most unfortunate aspect of the whole issue,” the former president said.
The insurgent group, Boko Haram, kidnapped over 250 schoolgirls from their hostels in Government Secondary School Chibok, in the early hours of April 14, but President Jonathan only acknowledged it 20 days later, after international pressures mounted, ahead of the World Economic Forum for Africa.
The president first spoke about the abduction in a media chat where he blamed the parents of the schoolgirls for not volunteering information about the victims and the incident.
Mr. Obasanjo, who is currently in talks with mediators to help free the victims, said an equal lethargy by President Jonathan greeted his earlier efforts to end the insurgency three years ago.
Boko Haram, whose name means “western education is sin,” is thought to be waging a violent campaign to impose Islamic law in most of Northern Nigeria.
More than 4,000 people have been killed in the campaign since it started in 2009, with the highest number of killings occurring this year alone.
The Boko Haram insurgency has also been explained as political, especially by members of the President Jonathan administration, who often argue the group was set up to “destabilize” the regime, even though the group’s history pre-dates the current government.
In his Democracy Day speech, the president said he has ordered security forces to “launch a full-scale operation” and use any lawful means to defeat the group.
Mr. Obasanjo’s criticism of President Jonathan’s style is the second in less than one year.
In December, he wrote the president an 18-page letter where he accused Mr. Jonathan of serving the ethnic interests of his native Ijaw people and fostering divisions between the largely Muslim north and the Christian south in a bid to win re-election in 2015.
“I don’t believe he has performed to the expectations of many Nigerians, not just me,” Mr. Obasanjo said in the Bloomberg interview.
Watch the interview here: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9fkAKQf1O5k
Saturday, 31 May 2014
Boko Haram Has Exposed Nigeria by Charles Ifoji
number of its victims, then such a country is obviously a cassava republic that cannot guarantee security of lives and property.
While Aso Rock makes noise about the determination of the government to bring back the abducted Chibok girls and also to finally thumb Boko Haram, the group continues to strike audaciously as it pleases – in Borno (four times, with the recent killing of forty soldiers and policemen), Kano and Plateau (twice).
It seems they want prove that this government has no clue of what it is talking about. Boko Haram wants to tell Nigerians that we live at their mercy. And that our so-called leaders are only making speeches – as usual.
Nigeria is now a laughing stock, especially among Africans, who had seen our country as a giant in the continent and had looked up to us for leadership. A Ghanaian, living in Berlin, had recently joked that they (Ghanians) never knew they were fearing Nigeria for nothing. „So we could have defeated Nigeria in war?“he had jested, due to the inability of the Nigeria State to deal with a little insurgency.
Though a war against terror is a different ballgame, the view of the Ghanian might not necessarily be correct, nevertheless it is representative of how others see us at the moment.
The helplessness of our poorly trained and poorly equipped military (no thanks to corruption) to deal with a hitherto unknown terror group is a national embarrassment with international acclaim. I felt sorry for President Goodluck Jonathan when he was corrected by the United States of America that Boko Haram has nothing to do with Al-qaeda. In their bid to mystify Boko Haram and excuse their inability to crush the group, Jonathan was misled by his intelligence chiefs into believing that Boko Haram is an offshoot of Al-qaeda. And he believed!
Nkem Chidebelu is a student of University of Jos. Her late mother, Monica Chidebelu, an orange seller at the Jos Terminal Market, threw all she got from peeling oranges into making sure her daughter does not end up like her. She sent her to the university to acquire education. While she studied, amid her numerous challenges as the daughter of an orange seller, her mother was her life-wire. Unfortunately, that wire was cut when Nkem's mother was sent to her early grave as terrorists bombed the Jos Terminal market last week.
Speaking to one of the national dailies, Nkem regretted that she was born a Nigerian. She could not understand why the Nigerian government, with the amount of resources at its disposal, can not protect the citizens.
I understand Nkem's disenchantment and frustration. Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala recently revealed that defence takes almost a trillion of the budget. During a press conference in Abuja last Friday, Okonjo-Iweala disclosed that the Federal Government has released a total amount of N130.7bn to the Ministry of Defence for military operations between January and April this year. She also told journalists that in 2013, N281.51bn was allocated to the three security agencies (Army, Air Force and Navy) in Nigeria. This is almost $2billion US dollars.
Juxtaposed against the impunity with which Boko Haram is killing the citizens, one can only ask: where did this money go? If $2billion dollars were diligently spent in the fight against terror, surely Boko Haram would have been history. As I said on this platform recently, the country is in the mess it is because of depraved corruption. The defence budget has been seen over the years as a big cake to be shared by the top military brass and their collaborators in government.
The result is that we now live in a country that cannot actually be called a country since it is incapable of protecting its citizens. This is also why over 200 Chibok school girls, who thought they could pursue quietly their dreams by seeking education, were taken into bondage by Boko Haram (we should not forget the 59 school boys who were also butchered by the same group in February).
The lives of the Chibok girls got shattered, because like Nkem, they had the misfortune of being born citizens of one country called Nigeria. Whether Jonathan finds them as he promised, with international help, certainly their lives will never be the same again. If they ever return alive, they will forever live with the trauma of their ordeal in the captivity of Boko Haram.
Normally, people aspire to govern because they have a vision or a direction of where they want to take the country or people. But in Nigeria, people aspire to govern because they want to line up their pockets with public funds. This is a national tragedy. Our leaders, apart from being vision-less and clueless, are simply wicked people. They neither love the people nor their country. They never spare time to sit down and figure out what is good for the people and the country.
For them, leadership is a frolic and meeting at midnights to decide how to share the budget. A typical Nigerian leader would do everything to get money to maintain a permanent suite at Hilton Abuja for his girlfriend than to do the least that would benefit the shoeless boy in Otuoke. So is anyone still trying to figure out why we got where we are today?
Nigeria was not run how a normal country should be. The leaders were fooling the people (they foolishly failed to realize that they were in the same boat with the people). That foolishness left Nigeria a skeleton of a nation. Mindless corruption and bad governance reduced the nation to a bubble. Now, Boko Haram has burst that bubble.
Parents Weep, Pray As Escaped Girls Commence NECO Exams Kareem Haruna
It was another moment of deep grief for the parents of over 200 Chibok school girls still in the captivity of Boko Haram, when their fellow abducted girls who escaped back home returned to school to write their second phase final examination organised by the National Examination Council, LEADERSHIP Weekend reports.
The escaped girls, according to LEADERSHIP Weekend’s findings are to write their NECO exams in different schools across the state following the complete destruction of their school by the Boko Haram terrorist when it was attacked on the 14th of April, 2014.
One of the parents of the yet to be rescued abducted girls, Mr Lucky Chibok said he wished his girl was among those writing the second phase of the final exams, earlier planned before the Boko Haram insurgents came and abducted her and her over 200 other classmates.
“It is another sad day for me and her mother and other siblings of her; when we heard that some of the girls would be traveling out of Chibok to write the NECO exams, I became sad because the dream my little girl has for the future is gradually slipping off our hands and we cannot do anything to help her as parents”. said Lucky.
“We have nothing more we can do other than continue to pray for all of them; these innocent girls meant no harm to any one; they are just school girls; we will continue to pray for God’s mercy and protection over them; we also count on the good meaning Nigerians who have shown us love and support over this unfortunate incident, to continue their solidarity so that our girls would not be forgotten. We hope one day to set our eyes on them once again”, he said.
One of the missing girls who escaped, Sarah Lawan had told LEADERSHIP Sunday that about 15 girls from the attacked Government Seconday School, Chibok were to one of the examination centres in Maiduguri to take the papers.
“We are 15 girls that came from Chibok to write the exams here in Maiduguri, but I don’t know what number of boys that were brought here as well”, said Sarah.
Sarah said she still misses her abducted friends “especially now that we are to write our NECO exams”.
Though the Borno state government had brought the number of those that had so far escaped to 75, it is was not all that number that came out to sit for the NECO exams.
Friday, 30 May 2014
Perry Brimah: Is changing #BringBackOurGirls to #ReleaseOurGirls part of the transformation agenda? by Perry Brimah
Why is the President of Nigeria being advised and investing so much in fighting to transform #BringBackOurGirls to #ReleaseOurGirls. Is there so much in a ‘mere’ name and a hashtag?
It means a lot to Nigeria’s president that the world stops protesting and requiring it of him and the nation’s security service to rescue over 200 girls abducted since mid April this year. President Goodluck Jonathan appears more and more everyday to simply wish this could just go away and everyone forget these poor girls in Sambisa forest; after all, ‘they are not the first to have been kidnapped and forgotten with Boko Haram and they are not likely to be the last during his administration, so why all the hullabaloo?’ Towards this end, the government of Nigeria has invested billions; it can be imagined, in an eleventh hour campaign to transform the face of the Nigerian protest. Nigeria’s president has been advised to invest in attempting to use #ReleaseOurGirls to replace #BringBackOurGirls, which has been perhaps the most viral and globally participated hashtag protest of all times, with public figures including Michelle Obama, the United States president’s wife prominently and passionately getting publicly involved.
Why is the President of Nigeria being advised and investing so much in fighting to transform #BringBackOurGirls to #ReleaseOurGirls. Is there so much in a ‘mere’ name and a hashtag?
A week after the abduction, Nigeria’s president constituted a Chibok committee to look into the case of the abducted girls. What the role of this committee is in this security matter is left to speculation. Almost two months after the abduction, the committee is yet to visit Chibok. Is it this committee that advised the rebranding of the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign to #Release Our Girls Boko Haram? If so, then what is the thinking of this committee and how does this rebranding assist the plight of the missing girls?
#BringBackOurGirls puts pressure on the Nigerian and international security departments to ramp up efforts and harness all equipment and skills at their disposal, to rescue the abductees. #Release Our Girls however reads as a position of surrender and resignation. #Release Our Girls is a message for one ear and one ear alone, that of the terrorists. When a nation hires miscreants to protest and cry for terrorists to have mercy; what image does this portray? A nation on its knees? If the entire nation joined the #ReleaseOurGirls campaign, in what way will this plea affect Boko Haram or the desperate predicament of our abducted girls? Has a begging nation ever touched a terrorist’s heart? If not so then why would the Chibok committee and all other advisers of the Nigerian president further humiliate him and his plight and the plight of the nation as a whole with this meaningless counter-campaign?
Are Nigeria’s president’s advisers not aware that the world is watching and noticed how his government initially challenged and denied the abduction, then lied, as the Economist candidly put it, that Nigeria’s security agents had rescued all but eight girls; and when this was humiliatingly exposed, now employ all tactics of intimidation, harassment, diversion and terrorist begging as avoidance strategies in the face of embarrassing terror and terror response?
#ReleaseOurGirls is really a reason for concern. Is there any sensible reason why money that could be used to aid the hunt for the missing girls and to console and rehabilitate the people of Chibok is being wasted in sponsoring a humiliating, violent counter campaign?
The entire world is watching. Seriously, the obvious #ReleaseOurGirls distraction is not a good look, Goodluck.
—————————–
Shocker! Kala-Balge Villagers Allegedly Holding 40 Soldiers Caught In Boko Haram Raid Prisoner Action / 1 day ago
ENDS has received exclusive, distressing information that the villagers of Kala-Balge in Borno state, caught over 40 suspected soldiers of the Nigerian army and have held them prisoner since the defensive two weeks ago where they successfully thwarted a Boko Haram invasion and killed over 200 terrorists.
Since we were alerted to this highly incriminating story, four days ago, ENDS has conducted several investigations and sourced more evidence supporting this allegation. We have sourced information from several townsmen who allege that they have in their custody, over 40 soldiers of the Nigerian army and the Nigerian government is aware of this and pleading for their release.
The villagers of Kala-Balge are sworn to secrecy and this has limited the out-flow of this information. The unity of purpose and strength of resistance of the Kala-Balge people against Boko Haram can be recollected from their several successful united actions against Boko Haram in which they have repossessed two light weight tanks, one APC, several hilux trucks and dozens of motorcycles from the terrorists and killed and arrested numerous. A vigilante in an interview with ENDS last week told our officer in Abuja that due to distrust of the State security services, they refused to hand over the APC and rather burned it, because they were convinced if returned it will find its way back into Boko Haram hands.
The villagers believe these are not terrorists dressed as soldiers, but actual employed men of the Nigerian army. They also stated that this is not the first such event where soldiers have been implicated in Boko Haram raids.
A BBC Hausa report last week as carried by DailyTrust, stated that a soldier of the Nigerian army had complained on air about his unit of over 200 able men, being told to stand down and watch as only 50 Boko Haram terrorists destroyed Gamboru-Ngala town this Month, killing over 300 and burning down the entire town. The solder who spoke to BBC said a government military helicopter hovered above, providing cover to the terrorists and did not fire to immobilize their tank and repel their onslaught.
The United States has commented on the level of sabotage in the Nigerian army under the Goodluck Jonathan administration; their distrust of the Nigerian operations was so immense, it limited their information sharing with Nigeria.
The possibility of 40 Nigerian soldiers being caught while involved in an alleged Boko Haram raid is obviously very serious and has great implications in the current state of success of Boko Haram and the continuous genocide in the north with destruction of local farming. We have been unable to get an official response from the Nigerian military who did not answer our calls.
Dr. Peregrino Brimah for http://ENDS.ng [Every Nigerian Do Something]
Email: drbrimah@ends.ng Twitter: @EveryNigerian
Since we were alerted to this highly incriminating story, four days ago, ENDS has conducted several investigations and sourced more evidence supporting this allegation. We have sourced information from several townsmen who allege that they have in their custody, over 40 soldiers of the Nigerian army and the Nigerian government is aware of this and pleading for their release.
The villagers of Kala-Balge are sworn to secrecy and this has limited the out-flow of this information. The unity of purpose and strength of resistance of the Kala-Balge people against Boko Haram can be recollected from their several successful united actions against Boko Haram in which they have repossessed two light weight tanks, one APC, several hilux trucks and dozens of motorcycles from the terrorists and killed and arrested numerous. A vigilante in an interview with ENDS last week told our officer in Abuja that due to distrust of the State security services, they refused to hand over the APC and rather burned it, because they were convinced if returned it will find its way back into Boko Haram hands.
The villagers believe these are not terrorists dressed as soldiers, but actual employed men of the Nigerian army. They also stated that this is not the first such event where soldiers have been implicated in Boko Haram raids.
A BBC Hausa report last week as carried by DailyTrust, stated that a soldier of the Nigerian army had complained on air about his unit of over 200 able men, being told to stand down and watch as only 50 Boko Haram terrorists destroyed Gamboru-Ngala town this Month, killing over 300 and burning down the entire town. The solder who spoke to BBC said a government military helicopter hovered above, providing cover to the terrorists and did not fire to immobilize their tank and repel their onslaught.
The United States has commented on the level of sabotage in the Nigerian army under the Goodluck Jonathan administration; their distrust of the Nigerian operations was so immense, it limited their information sharing with Nigeria.
The possibility of 40 Nigerian soldiers being caught while involved in an alleged Boko Haram raid is obviously very serious and has great implications in the current state of success of Boko Haram and the continuous genocide in the north with destruction of local farming. We have been unable to get an official response from the Nigerian military who did not answer our calls.
Dr. Peregrino Brimah for http://ENDS.ng [Every Nigerian Do Something]
Email: drbrimah@ends.ng Twitter: @EveryNigerian
Akpabio says criticisms against scandalous N200 million pension law “laughable”
uThe governor fails to defend the provision of a new house and other perks in the law.
The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio has described as “laughable”, the barrage of criticisms against the new pension law which will allow him pocket over N200 million annually as retirement perks.
Speaking on a morning show on Channels Television Friday, Mr. Akpabio said the law was meant to check excesses in the implementation of the old pension law.
“It’s a laughable situation that people generate controversy over the pension law. The law has been in existence in Akwa Ibom State. I am the one implementing it.
“I know what I am talking about and because I wear the shoe, I know where it pinches. All the former elected governors and their deputies have been enjoying the pension. The pension was first established in 2000 and was further amended with certain provisions added in 2006.”
While explaining the general principles of the new law, he said, “It’s really not a retroactive law, neither is it a new law. It is an existing law that went through amendment.
“In legislative drafting, one can put a provision there, where substantial amendment has been made, to repeal the former law for the current one to take effect.
“My tenure is not ending 2014. So the law is not meant for Godswill Akpabio. It is meant to check the excesses in the system.
“I swore to an oath to ensure that everything I can do positively to bring the greatest good to the greatest number of people and I should do so. And when I saw a lacuna in the law, I had to take up the issues with the leadership of the State House of Assembly and they went to work.”
Mr. Akpabio claimed the new law, exposed exclusively by PREMIUM TIMES, has been politicised. He said people have also “sponsored” all sorts of write-ups against him.
He said the old law was open-ended in terms of benefits payable to past governors, deputies and their spouses.
He said, “We had a situation where bills from former deputies and their spouses worth N29 million were brought from several hospitals they claimed they went for treatment abroad.
“Because the bill did not specify whether the hospital should be in Nigeria or not, most of what I have seen in the past seven years has been bills from hospitals abroad.”
In the course of implementing the existing law, Mr . Akpabio said some former governors and their deputies have brought bills ranging from $50,000, $70,000, and sometimes $112,000.
He argued that it was against decorum to question the medical bills of past leaders on grounds that there are high, and mentioned an instance where a former leader requested for funds to hire an airline to take his spouse for treatment abroad.
“For instance, there was one instance, where in one go I had to pay as much as N41 million. If someone brings a bill of about N39 million for the treatment of maybe cataract or glaucoma in Dubai or London in one quarter or two months, if that happens three to four times in a year, the state would have spent far more than N200 million.
“Then, the law does not tell the state to question these bills. The highest that could be done is to set up a probe panel to go to the hospital to try to find out what was the real situation.
“The next time they will tell you the bill was supposed to have included estacodes, or they were supposed to have stayed for three weeks and the trip extended beyond that. If you do not have men of integrity, they can hide under the open-ended bill to go for their yearly holidays abroad in the name of medical bill.”
Ex-Govs’s endless requests
When asked why the law did not include a caveat to limit treatment to Nigerians hospitals, Mr. Akpabio said that was not practicable.
“How many hospitals in Nigeria have equipment to perform open heart surgery or liver transplant,” he asked?
“What the law is seeking to do is try to create a ceiling so that before a person brings a bill to the government in a year, the person must actually be ill. What this means is that there are years when not one naira of this money would be spent, because the government is expected to pay this money to the hospital and not the individual.
“When government says that the spouse of a former deputy governor cannot spend above N50 million, the interpretation is that one cannot go above $250, 000 or $280,000 in a year. It means the person has to be careful before submitting a bill to government to ensure that one does not end up exhausting what should be available for him in times of emergency.
“Like a healthy governor like Godswill Akpabio, I will not expect that I retire next year from government and start sending bills to government on medical. It means that for at least three to five years, I may not benefit from N1 of the so called N100 million.
“That does not mean that in the event of certain uncertainties or circumstances that I need to go for major medical operation, the ceiling that the government can contribute will be N100 million. Before the governor or deputy can access the money, he must show evidence that he is actually ill.
“Before now, up to May 2014, the money was paid directly into the account of the beneficiaries. It covers people who were elected under Cross River State, including Donald Etiebet, are still receiving pension under that law.”
Mr. Akpabio said the medical bills of the late Akpan Isemin as well as monthly stipends as enshrined in the law were paid in full, adding that the wife, Imo, enjoyed free medical treatment from the government too.
He, however, noted that the free medical services to Mrs. Isemin stopped when the husband died because the law did not provide for it.
“The current amendment makes a provision for N12 million a month to be paid for the medical attention of the governor or deputy governor’s spouses after the death of their husbands.
“The misunderstanding people have is that they thought it is a new law to only to take care of the interest of Mr. Akpabio. The law also has provisions for certain complementary services, like a chauffeur, cleaner, cook, etc.
“Imagine if there was no ceiling, it means that whenever the governor sends the list of his staff enshrined in the law, whatever amount he gives, the government would have no option than to comply.
“So, if the governor goes to employ cooks that all have master degrees in akara making, pounded yam and pay them $10,000, it means if the governor has two cooks and brings them to government, the government would be spending a minimum of N6million on them, without money to pay the cleaners, security men, stewards, chauffeur.”
Mr. Akpabio said the new law has indicated how much would be paid to private staff of former governors and their deputies, adding that based on the new law, the monies would be paid directly to the staff.
He said a cleaner would be entitled to the national minimum wage of N18, 000 monthly salary while other emoluments would be in line with existing labour laws.
He said, “These monies are not paid to the governors, but directly to the staff listed. If someone has a degree and is on Level 10, he would be paid his entitlement. That means that the N5million would not be spent in totality, but it must not exceed that ceiling set in the law.
“If these people are highly qualified and are ICT compliant, and the former governor chooses to have Bill Gates or somebody that worked with Bill Gates as his secretary, and comes up with a bill of N7.5 million a month.”
The governor did not explain- and was not pressed by his interviewers about- the provision of a new house for former governors, given that past leaders of the state would have been given accommodations, and he stands to be the chief beneficiary.
The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio has described as “laughable”, the barrage of criticisms against the new pension law which will allow him pocket over N200 million annually as retirement perks.
Speaking on a morning show on Channels Television Friday, Mr. Akpabio said the law was meant to check excesses in the implementation of the old pension law.
“It’s a laughable situation that people generate controversy over the pension law. The law has been in existence in Akwa Ibom State. I am the one implementing it.
“I know what I am talking about and because I wear the shoe, I know where it pinches. All the former elected governors and their deputies have been enjoying the pension. The pension was first established in 2000 and was further amended with certain provisions added in 2006.”
While explaining the general principles of the new law, he said, “It’s really not a retroactive law, neither is it a new law. It is an existing law that went through amendment.
“In legislative drafting, one can put a provision there, where substantial amendment has been made, to repeal the former law for the current one to take effect.
“My tenure is not ending 2014. So the law is not meant for Godswill Akpabio. It is meant to check the excesses in the system.
“I swore to an oath to ensure that everything I can do positively to bring the greatest good to the greatest number of people and I should do so. And when I saw a lacuna in the law, I had to take up the issues with the leadership of the State House of Assembly and they went to work.”
Mr. Akpabio claimed the new law, exposed exclusively by PREMIUM TIMES, has been politicised. He said people have also “sponsored” all sorts of write-ups against him.
He said the old law was open-ended in terms of benefits payable to past governors, deputies and their spouses.
He said, “We had a situation where bills from former deputies and their spouses worth N29 million were brought from several hospitals they claimed they went for treatment abroad.
“Because the bill did not specify whether the hospital should be in Nigeria or not, most of what I have seen in the past seven years has been bills from hospitals abroad.”
In the course of implementing the existing law, Mr . Akpabio said some former governors and their deputies have brought bills ranging from $50,000, $70,000, and sometimes $112,000.
He argued that it was against decorum to question the medical bills of past leaders on grounds that there are high, and mentioned an instance where a former leader requested for funds to hire an airline to take his spouse for treatment abroad.
“For instance, there was one instance, where in one go I had to pay as much as N41 million. If someone brings a bill of about N39 million for the treatment of maybe cataract or glaucoma in Dubai or London in one quarter or two months, if that happens three to four times in a year, the state would have spent far more than N200 million.
“Then, the law does not tell the state to question these bills. The highest that could be done is to set up a probe panel to go to the hospital to try to find out what was the real situation.
“The next time they will tell you the bill was supposed to have included estacodes, or they were supposed to have stayed for three weeks and the trip extended beyond that. If you do not have men of integrity, they can hide under the open-ended bill to go for their yearly holidays abroad in the name of medical bill.”
Ex-Govs’s endless requests
When asked why the law did not include a caveat to limit treatment to Nigerians hospitals, Mr. Akpabio said that was not practicable.
“How many hospitals in Nigeria have equipment to perform open heart surgery or liver transplant,” he asked?
“What the law is seeking to do is try to create a ceiling so that before a person brings a bill to the government in a year, the person must actually be ill. What this means is that there are years when not one naira of this money would be spent, because the government is expected to pay this money to the hospital and not the individual.
“When government says that the spouse of a former deputy governor cannot spend above N50 million, the interpretation is that one cannot go above $250, 000 or $280,000 in a year. It means the person has to be careful before submitting a bill to government to ensure that one does not end up exhausting what should be available for him in times of emergency.
“Like a healthy governor like Godswill Akpabio, I will not expect that I retire next year from government and start sending bills to government on medical. It means that for at least three to five years, I may not benefit from N1 of the so called N100 million.
“That does not mean that in the event of certain uncertainties or circumstances that I need to go for major medical operation, the ceiling that the government can contribute will be N100 million. Before the governor or deputy can access the money, he must show evidence that he is actually ill.
“Before now, up to May 2014, the money was paid directly into the account of the beneficiaries. It covers people who were elected under Cross River State, including Donald Etiebet, are still receiving pension under that law.”
Mr. Akpabio said the medical bills of the late Akpan Isemin as well as monthly stipends as enshrined in the law were paid in full, adding that the wife, Imo, enjoyed free medical treatment from the government too.
He, however, noted that the free medical services to Mrs. Isemin stopped when the husband died because the law did not provide for it.
“The current amendment makes a provision for N12 million a month to be paid for the medical attention of the governor or deputy governor’s spouses after the death of their husbands.
“The misunderstanding people have is that they thought it is a new law to only to take care of the interest of Mr. Akpabio. The law also has provisions for certain complementary services, like a chauffeur, cleaner, cook, etc.
“Imagine if there was no ceiling, it means that whenever the governor sends the list of his staff enshrined in the law, whatever amount he gives, the government would have no option than to comply.
“So, if the governor goes to employ cooks that all have master degrees in akara making, pounded yam and pay them $10,000, it means if the governor has two cooks and brings them to government, the government would be spending a minimum of N6million on them, without money to pay the cleaners, security men, stewards, chauffeur.”
Mr. Akpabio said the new law has indicated how much would be paid to private staff of former governors and their deputies, adding that based on the new law, the monies would be paid directly to the staff.
He said a cleaner would be entitled to the national minimum wage of N18, 000 monthly salary while other emoluments would be in line with existing labour laws.
He said, “These monies are not paid to the governors, but directly to the staff listed. If someone has a degree and is on Level 10, he would be paid his entitlement. That means that the N5million would not be spent in totality, but it must not exceed that ceiling set in the law.
“If these people are highly qualified and are ICT compliant, and the former governor chooses to have Bill Gates or somebody that worked with Bill Gates as his secretary, and comes up with a bill of N7.5 million a month.”
The governor did not explain- and was not pressed by his interviewers about- the provision of a new house for former governors, given that past leaders of the state would have been given accommodations, and he stands to be the chief beneficiary.
Nigerian military arrests Boko Haram’s bomb expert behind Nyanya, Jos bombings says he is working for the powers that be!
A young man in his mid 20s, who confessed being a bomb expert for the extremist Boko Haram sect has been arrested by military operatives in Borno state while on his way to Sambisa forest, the dreaded hideout of the Boko Haram terrorists, reliable high-ranking military sources have told PREMIUM TIMES.
The man, whose identity is being concealed by the authorities, appears a big catch for the military as he has confessed being involved in the recent Nyanya and Jos bombings that killed more than 300 people.
The man, who was traveling from Abuja to Sambisa was arrested on Sunday near Bama town of Borno state by soldiers of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army.
Our sources said soldiers on patrol nabbed the man during a stop-and-search operation at a checkpoint after finding suspicious items like “sophisticated communication gadgets, a map, a very expensive laptop and 30 pieces of Flash-Drives in his bag”.
The soldiers, our sources said, immediately whisked him to the Maimalari barracks in Maiduguri, a distance of about 100km away and handed him over to relevant military personnel for further interrogation.
During interrogation, the man reportedly confessed being a bomb expert working for Boko Haram and claimed to be carrying out assignments for “the power that be”
The suspect also confessed being responsible for both Nyanya and Jos bomb blasts that claimed about 300 lives.
“He said he was to meet with some operatives of Boko Haram for yet another work (bomb attack)”, said one of our sources who cannot be named because he was not authorised to make these disclosures to anyone.
The source added that the suspect boasted during interrogation that those who arrested him merely wasted their time as he was confident of being released by the powers behind his deadly activities.
“He boasted that he will soon be released as was the case at DSS headquarters when he was arrested late last year but only to be released three months after to start work again,” one of our sources, said.
When contacted, the spokesperson of the Defence Headquarters, Chris Olukolade, a Major General, declined to confirm or deny the arrest.
“Many terrorists are being interrogated as we speak and I do not want to comment on any specific case at this time,” Mr. Olukolade said.
A deadly car bomb at Nyanya bus station near Abuja, had on April 14 killed at least 75 people and injured 124 more.
Two weeks later, on May 1, another round of explosion went off around the same area, killing 19 and injuring 66 others.
On May 20, multiple explosions occurred around the ever-busy Jos Main Market, between Railway Terminus and the temporary site of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, killing over 200 people.
At least three people were killed and three others injured when another explosion near a football viewing centre rocked the city four days later on May 24.
The arrested suspect reportedly confessed his involvement in the four bombings.
The man, whose identity is being concealed by the authorities, appears a big catch for the military as he has confessed being involved in the recent Nyanya and Jos bombings that killed more than 300 people.
The man, who was traveling from Abuja to Sambisa was arrested on Sunday near Bama town of Borno state by soldiers of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army.
Our sources said soldiers on patrol nabbed the man during a stop-and-search operation at a checkpoint after finding suspicious items like “sophisticated communication gadgets, a map, a very expensive laptop and 30 pieces of Flash-Drives in his bag”.
The soldiers, our sources said, immediately whisked him to the Maimalari barracks in Maiduguri, a distance of about 100km away and handed him over to relevant military personnel for further interrogation.
During interrogation, the man reportedly confessed being a bomb expert working for Boko Haram and claimed to be carrying out assignments for “the power that be”
The suspect also confessed being responsible for both Nyanya and Jos bomb blasts that claimed about 300 lives.
“He said he was to meet with some operatives of Boko Haram for yet another work (bomb attack)”, said one of our sources who cannot be named because he was not authorised to make these disclosures to anyone.
The source added that the suspect boasted during interrogation that those who arrested him merely wasted their time as he was confident of being released by the powers behind his deadly activities.
“He boasted that he will soon be released as was the case at DSS headquarters when he was arrested late last year but only to be released three months after to start work again,” one of our sources, said.
When contacted, the spokesperson of the Defence Headquarters, Chris Olukolade, a Major General, declined to confirm or deny the arrest.
“Many terrorists are being interrogated as we speak and I do not want to comment on any specific case at this time,” Mr. Olukolade said.
A deadly car bomb at Nyanya bus station near Abuja, had on April 14 killed at least 75 people and injured 124 more.
Two weeks later, on May 1, another round of explosion went off around the same area, killing 19 and injuring 66 others.
On May 20, multiple explosions occurred around the ever-busy Jos Main Market, between Railway Terminus and the temporary site of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, killing over 200 people.
At least three people were killed and three others injured when another explosion near a football viewing centre rocked the city four days later on May 24.
The arrested suspect reportedly confessed his involvement in the four bombings.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)