Nigeria Content Online

Former
commissioners of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)
have a case to answer over financial misappropriation and abuse of
office, an Abuja High Court has ruled.

The seven former
commissioners: Ransome Owan, Abdul-Rahman Ado, Onwuameze Iloeje,
Muhammed Alimi-Rasaq, Muhammed Baba Gana Bunu, Abimbola Odubiyi, and
Grace Eyoma are facing an 85-count charge of criminal conspiracy,
breach of trust, and inflation of salaries and allowances to the tune
of three billion naira.

Counsel to two of
the accused persons, Tunji Abayomi, on Friday, February 12, 2010, had
filed an application seeking to quash the charges before the accused
took their plea. Mr. Abayomi argued that the charges were based on the
penal code, which the EFCC was not legally permitted to do; and that
the EFCC commenced its investigations based on a frivolous and forged
petition by a non-existent person called Mohammed Abimbola Iloeje.

The High Court
judge, Salisu Garba, in dismissing the application yesterday, ruled
that the EFCC, based on Section 7(2) of the EFCC Act, can prosecute
financial crimes using any Nigerian law, and that the EFCC could
investigate any crime based on an anonymous petition, or on no petition
at all.

Reacting to the
ruling, the representative of Godwin Obla, counsel to the EFCC, stated
that “we are pleased with the ruling; we believe that we have a case.
At least let the case go on, let the judge determine the matter either
for or against.”

Mr. Garba, after
consultation between the various counsels, adjourned the case to July
14, 2010, when the accused would take their plea as to whether they are
guilty of the charges or not.

The seven
commissioners were suspended from office by late President Umaru
Yar’Adua, based on the recommendations of the EFCC and Lanre Babalola,
the former Minister of Power.

Farida Waziri, the
EFCC chairman, had written to then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan and
Mr. Babalola that “on 2nd of June 2008, one Mohammed Abimbola Iloeje on
behalf of some concerned staff of NERC, petitioned the EFCC over the
financial misconduct of the chairman and commissioners of the Nigeria
Electricity Regulatory Commission.”

NEXT on Sunday, in an earlier edition, detailed how the control of
the N32 billion, released by the Federal Government as part of the
subsidy for the multiyear tariff order (MYTO) to subsidise electricity
tariff for Nigerians, caused a disagreement between the commissioners
and Mr. Babalola, leading to their investigation and subsequent
prosecution.

Nigeria will
develop more rapidly if our leaders appoint the right people to
political offices, a former presidential aspirant and leader of mega
party, Pat Utomi said yesterday in Lagos.

Receiving an award
of excellence from the Igbo Studies Association of the United States of
America in his office yesterday, Mr. Utomi recalled how late president
Umar Yar’Adua shunned his advice to appoint credible and resourceful
people into his cabinet.

“He actually asked
me to send him a list of such people. I did, but nothing happened when
he reshuffled his cabinet,” he said. “Let me tell you a private
conversation that I had with President Yar’Adua in March last year. He
invited me to come and give my input, my advice on certain things and I
basically said to him, you know, what you need is to find seven to ten
capable people who have commitment. They are not hungry, they are not
looking to award contract, they just want a place in history.

People who have knowledge, they have a sense of service and they are passionate about the area you assigned them.

“Give them the
critical drivers ministry, then you can give whatever’s remaining to
the PDP. And let the world know that this seven to ten people have your
ears and that you are supportive of the thrust of their activities and
this country will be transformed in a few short years.”

Mr. Utomi charged
political office holders in the country to see the opportunity to serve
as sacred means towards the achievement of a future for the country.
According to him, Nigeria has relegated its brightest to the background
and installed the greedy ones at its helms.

Wanted INEC chairman

Mr. Utomi also
said that though appointing an INEC chairman is almost like appointing
any political office holder, two important things should be considered.
“If you have capacity, character, then with a job like INEC, you need
distance to the contesting force,” he said. “When there has not been
enough distance, then you take somebody who is close to AC or you take
somebody who is close to PDP. Even if the person does a good job there
would be the appearance of closeness and that is enough to create a
lot.”

He said there is
nothing more important than a sense of where you are going. “You have a
sense of where you are going and you then find the most capable people
relative to the sense of where you are going. The truth of the matter
is that they will keep a chord that will lead to rapid transformation.”

The representative
of the Igbo Studies Association, Williams Obiozor, an assistant
Professor at the University of Bloomsburg, said Mr. Utomi has
consistently partaken in the activities of Nigerians in Diaspora and
has remained a source of inspiration to members of the group.

“We brought the
award to Nigeria for him because he could not wait to receive his
plaque after he delivered a lecture during our last annual conference
in United States,” he said.

Authorities of the
Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, Louis Edet House, Abuja, have denied
reports of grumbles by some officers over the restoration of the rank
to the former chairman of the EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu.

A newspaper had, on
Tuesday, speculated about the existence of a discontent in the force
with regard to the restoration of police rank and subsequent retirement
of Mr. Ribadu, who was promoted over two ranks to the position of
Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) by the administration of former
President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The Police Service
Commission subsequently demoted Mr. Ribadu to the rank of Deputy
Commissioner (DC), after criticising the rapid promotion during the
heat of the war orchestrated against Mr. Ribadu by the administration
of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

Responding to the
report in an interview with NEXT, the Deputy Force Public Relations
Officer, Yemi Ajayi, described it as a figment of the reporter’s
imagination that is untrue of the present reality in the police.

“It is not to the
knowledge of the Nigeria Police Force leadership that there is a rumble
over anything, whatsoever,” Mr Ajayi said.

“It is not true.
Such a conclusion must have originated from the reporter’s imagination.
The Nigeria Police Force is a disciplined organisation of credible and
patriotic personnel. If any police personnel is not satisfied over the
way anything is being done in the force, there are ways and means of
registering his or her dissatisfaction within legal provisions made for
such reaction instead of grumbling.”

According to the
report, some unnamed officers of the force were reported to be
grumbling over the restoration of the rank of Mr. Ribadu who, according
to the Minister of Police Affairs, had appealed for a fair and just
review of his case in a letter to the Police Service Commission.

Furthermore, the
report persuasively argued that Ribadu’s case should not have been
reviewed justly, especially as it did not include the cases of the
other police officers who were demoted along with Ribadu.

Contrary to the
argument of the report, however, a civil society group, Journalists for
Social Justice, has hailed the government of President Goodluck
Jonathan for restoring Mr. Ribadu’s rank.

Restore other officers’ ranks

In a statement
signed by one Benedict Ahanonu and made available to our correspondent
in Abuja, the group also implored Mr. Jonathan to reconsider the plight
of the remaining officers who were not included in the PSC rank
restoration.

“(T)he
administrative reversal of that demoralising exercise is one of the
populist decisions that will endear the government of Goodluck Jonathan
to the masses. It will also go a long way in showcasing the
administration and the PSC leadership as one that value superior
reasoning, justice and fairness, and respects public opinion,” the
group said.

“Unfortunately,
while we celebrate this courageous act by the Presidency and the Police
Service Commission, we must not forget that aside of Ribadu, about
three hundred other officers demoted along with him on the same faulty
logic are still in police service. Consequently, to completely reverse
this act of injustice and close this sordid chapter in the history of
the Nigeria Police, our amiable President and the Police Service
Commission should be magnanimous and fair enough to also restore the
ranks of those other officers who were demoted along with Ribadu.”

The group also
absolved Mr. Obasanjo of any wrong doing in approving the rapid
promotion of the gallant officers, in the first place, arguing that the
former president did so in his powers under the Constitution as head of
Police Council, and in his powers under Section 6 (1) (g) and Section
19 of the Police Service Commission Act 2001, empowering the president
on general directives to the commission in relation to its functions
with which the commission must comply.

What was once
simply known as ‘nature study’ metamorphosed into biology and more
recently emerged under the camouflage of what is now commonly referred
to as ‘ecology.’ This week, we are reminded by the United Nations of
World Environment Day on June 5th, in a year that is also dedicated
globally to biodiversity and the gorilla. In view of the acknowledged
deleterious impacts of global warming, but also because of scholarship
infused into public opinion by the American entomologist, Edward O.
Wilson and others, research of the natural world and its conservation
will increasingly graduate into a Darwinian process of survival.

Nations that ignore
the health of forests, rivers, lakes, and their coastal habitats run
the risk of ecological disasters, economic collapse, social dislocation
and political instability. Judged by the state of our physical
environment, it appears that Nigerians are blind to a perception of the
proverbial handwriting that everyone else sees on the wall. Citizens in
this country who either enjoy a pension, or not, but had gone to school
in the 1940s and 50s will not easily forget the green, hardback
textbook, “Nature Study for West Africa,” by one legendary
A.J.Carpenter. If they went on to secondary school, science textbooks,
often supplied free-of-charge in those days by school authorities were
lying in wait: Stone and Cozens biology,physics by Nelkon, the chemistry of Holderness and Lambert, and the dreaded mathematics in C.V.Durrell.

Messrs Stone and Cozens were principals of Government College Umuahia in the 1950s.

A.B.Cozens, the
more famous and celebrated of the two authors was a seminal figure,
some sort of icon in Eastern Nigeria, where the Nigerian Field Society
was conceived and founded by Frank Bridges, a Government Administrative
Officer in 1930.

Unsung and unknown
to many, the Field Society still exists to this day under the
leadership of David Okali, professor, in Ibadan, with memberships in
Nigeria and in the United Kingdom. Simply, the Nigerian Field Society
is 80 years old.

The Society’s
publication, The Nigerian Field, first appeared in 1931 and has
continued with the objective ‘to encourage interest in the fauna and
flora of Nigeria, its history, legends and customs, its native arts and
crafts, its science, sport and hobbies.’ This magazine serves as a
resource that has laid the foundations, cornerstones and columns
supporting nature conservation in Nigeria and West Africa.

What is known in
international circles about tropical forests and their biological
diversity is to an appreciable extent the result of work accomplished
and published by the Nigerian Field Society. Despite these cutting-edge
achievements in colonial times, Nigeria presently does not possess a
single comparable botanical garden or museum of natural history.
President Goodluck Jonathan who happens to be a biologist should give
some thought to a natural world that is rapidly decaying around us.

Clueless generation

The colonial
administrators and teachers from the United Kingdom described
everything of natural and cultural interest they came across – from
chewing sticks to sculpture, from the cult of Adamu-Orisha to elephants.

The treasure trove
of The Nigerian Field includes accounts on reptiles by G.S.Cansdale and
G.T.Dunger; mammalian biology and zoogeography by J.H.C.Ball,
J.C.Happold and M. W. J. Jeffreys; botanical and forestry studies from
Bridges and D. R. Rosevear; the bird people – J. H. Elgood, C. H. Fry,
W. Serle, Marchant and Robert Sharland.

One governor of Nigeria, Bernard Bourdillon found time to study and publish a paper on the birds of the Lagos coast in 1947.

Biology, the discourse of life, is not a popular subject in Nigeria
anymore. The younger “Gucci-on-my-wrist” generation of Nigerians find
it difficult to comprehend the country’s extreme vulnerability to the
impacts of climate change, because of a fractured knowledge base.

The senate
yesterday confirmed Samuel Ukura as the Auditor-General of the
Federation (AGF), shoving aside stiff opposition to his appointment
from some senators.

Senators,
especially those from the south western Nigeria, strongly opposed the
confirmation of Mr. Ukura, who is from Benue State on the ground that
the appointment lacked transparency, accountability and rule of law.

The senators argued
that two directors in the office of the Auditor-General, both from the
south-west, were qualified for the position and were deliberately
excluded in favour of Mr. Ukura.

Sola Akinyede (PDP
Ekiti state) argued that a requirement in the job advert that a
candidate for the position must not be retiring in two years from the
date of appointment excluded his constituents, who all had less than
two years to spend in the civil service.

“The process lack
accountability, transparency and rule of law,” Mr. Akinyede said. “We
should not set a flood gate to marginalize people.”

Arguing in the same
line with Mr. Akinyede, Isiaka Adeleke (PDP Osun state) said the
appointment of Mr. Ukura as the AGF by the president was a deliberate
attempt to exclude those directors in the office of the auditor-general
because they are from the South West geo-political zone. The senate
president David Mark, however, warned the senators against trivialising
the office, saying it will be unruly for the senate to interfere with
the selection procedure of auditor generals, especially when the
constitution has given the Federal Civil Service Commission the powers
to conduct such rudimentary screenings.

Ahmed Lawan (Yobe
North), who led debate on the confirmation, countered the arguments of
the opposing senators by saying the nominee was screened based on his
character, qualification and his credible performance when he was the
auditor-general of Benue State.

Leading the debate
on the report of the Committee on Public Accounts, the Chairman of the
Committee, Dairu Kuta however commended the Committee for a job well
done, adding that there was nowhere in the Constitution that says the
person for the position should be director or assistant to the
auditor-general.

“The submission is in the right direction,” he said.

Opposition to Mr.
Ukura’s appointment has been long. In October last year, when he was
nominated by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, there have been
outcry in some quarters that confirming Ukura, an indigene of Benue
state in the North Central Zone, would amount to handing over the
entire public finance system of the country to the northern
geo-political sector.

In the end, majority of the senators voted for his confirmation as the AGF.

An Oyo State High
Court has fixed June 28 for adoption of addresses and replies to
addresses by lawyers to parties in a legal suit between Rashidi Ladoja,
former Oyo State governor, and a 5-man Judicial Commission of Enquiry
set up by the state government.

The judge, Waheed Olaifa gave the order on Wednesday after listening to arguments from lawyers in the suit.

The judge, at the
last session on the case, had ordered the counsel to prepare their
written addresses for submission on Wednesday, June 2.

But only Lasun
Sanusi (SAN), Mr Ladoja’s lead counsel was able to submit his own
address yesterday, while representative of Lateef Fagbemi (SAN)
chambers, who is advocating for the judicial commission and Governor
Alao-Akala, in the matter, could not complete his presentation.

The court also
directed Mr. Sanusi to file his reply to the defendants address within
72 hours and prepare for the adoption on the fixed date.

Mr Alao-Akala had
last year set up a judicial commission of enquiry to probe the last six
months of his predecessor but Mr Ladoja dragged the commission before
the court asking for an order to restrict it from sitting.

Mr. Sanusi explained that he was asking for a restraining order against the commission because its constitution was illegal.

The former governor joined the state governor and his attorney-general and commissioner for justice in the suit.

Mr Ladoja, in his
motion on notice, prayed the court to stop the panel from ‘probing or
investigating or trying any part of the tenure pending the
determination of the substantive motion’.

Singled for probe

He also asked the
court to restrict the panel members from ‘acting or further acting in
pursuance of their inauguration as Judicial Commission of Enquiry to
probe part of the tenure’ pending the time of determination of the
substantive motion.

Among his prayers,
was also that the governor and the state Attorney-General and
commissioner for justice be stopped from mobilizing the panel or
facilitating its sitting before the substantive motion is determined.

In the original
suit, the former governor prays the court to declare the inauguration
of a panel of enquiry to probe a potion of his tenure illegal.

According to him,
setting up of the panel of enquiry to probe a portion of his
administration is not only discriminatory and against the provisions of
the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999, but the
public property and fund (Investigation and Recovery) Panel law of Oyo
State Cap 138 of Oyo state 1996, upon which the commission was
inaugurated, was inconsistent with the 1999 constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria.

He argued further
that singling him out for probe without Mr Alao-Akala, who was the
deputy-governor during the period under probe,

is illegal, and then asked the court to declare the setting up of the commission null and void.

The House of
Representatives, yesterday, rejected moves to investigate the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for disbursing N500 billion to airlines without
seeking approval of the lawmakers.

Femi Gbajabiamila
(AC, Lagos) had sought to move a motion of urgent of public importance
for the next legislative chamber to investigate the disbursement.

“In the last to
three months, CBN has released subsidy of N500 billion to private
airlines. I feel this is a matter we should discuss dispassionately. We
should guard jealously the powers of the institution,” he told the
House.

Mr. Gbajabiamila
noted that, last year, the CBN “in its wisdom and unilaterally gave out
N600 billion to some ailing banks in violation of the law of the land.”

He said in order to assert its legislative powers, the House should look into the matter.

However, when the deputy speaker, who presided at the session, put it to vote, members voted against it.

Virgin Nigeria Airways said it was changing its name to Air Nigeria Development Limited to make it fully indigenous.

The airline, which
is now to be called Air Nigeria, was in September last year renamed
Nigerian Eagle Airlines by the then chief executive officer, Dapo
Olumide.

Jimoh Ibrahim,
group managing director of the carrier said at the airlines head office
in Lagos that this recent name change was effected sequel to the
resolution of the board on May 14, and that the name has been approved
by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and registered with a
certificate number RC501975.

Image of the nation

In April, Mr. Ibrahim had hinted at a name change saying that the carrier’s new name will reflect the image of the nation.

“If I buy any
foreign company, I change the name to reflect Nigeria even if Virgin
gives me their name for free of charge I will change the name.”

It would be
recalled that Virgin Nigeria, which was launched amid great pomp in
2005, last year changed its name to Nigerian Eagle Airlines after
cutting ties with its founder – Virgin Atlantic Limited.

Prior to the name
change on September 17, last year, British billionaire and chairman of
Virgin Atlantic disclosed that the founding company of Virgin Nigeria
was looking forward to selling its 49 per cent stake in the carrier,
for which it paid about $25m in 2005.

Meanwhile, Mr.
Ibrahim said that the first branded aircraft in the new name will
arrive Nigeria before the end of next week from France, while the
remaining aircraft follow shortly after.

Assuring customers
that the on-going turnaround will be concluded within a short time, the
carrier’s managing director disclosed that by October 1, a minimum of
ten aircraft will be launched at a time by the company.

“We are expecting ten aircraft before October to boost our operations and increase our destinations,” he said.

Mr. Ibrahim further
assured his workforce that no employee will be laid off as a result of
the on-going turnaround, stressing that since the nation’s flag carrier
was acquired in April, no worker has been fired.

“If anyone is incompetent, we will make him competent,” he said.

The federal government on Wednesday described reports that it is planning to sack 50,000 workers as mere speculation.

Emmanuel Aziken, a
special assistant to the minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka
Wogu, said in a statement released in Abuja that the clarification was
necessary in order to dispel rumours making the rounds that the Federal
Government would sack the workers as part of its civil service reform.

“The federal
government would not, with one hand give to the populace and take same
with another hand,” he said. “President Goodluck Jonathan has, in
various ways, demonstrated his sincere empathy with Nigerian workers
both physically and otherwise. The latest of such his gestures was his
quick approval of the recommendations to bridge the disparity in the
salary scheme of the core civil service.

It is, as such, out
of place for him to go against his track record of proclivity to the
interests of Nigerian workers by approving the plans to unduly retrench
workers. The ministry, however, restate its commitment to actively
promoting employment of more citizens either in the public service or
in the empowerment of business entrepreneurs. As such, I want to
emphatically declare that there is no such proposal to retrench civil
servants for whatever purpose.”

The report quoted sources from the office of the Head of Civil
Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye, as saying that he issued a
circular to compile the data of the affected staff and that he had also
inaugurated a committee to advise him on how to reposition the
Executive Officer cadre in the Federal Civil Service as part of efforts
to reinvigorate the service for effective performance and efficient
service delivery.

A man suspected to
be a member of the alleged Boko Haram group that unleashed mayhem on
Kano in July 2009, has been set free, after the prosecution withdrew
charges preferred against him on technical grounds.

Abdulrahman
Dayyabu, who was standing trial before a Magistrate Court on a six
count charge of criminal conspiracy, inciting public disturbance,
joining unlawful assembly, armed with deadly weapon, and causing hurt
to public servant, regained his freedom after almost a year in
detention.

State prosecuting
counsel from the Kano State Ministry of Justice, Yakubu Sule, urged the
court to release the accused and remove his name from the charge sheet.

The freed man, in
company of other suspected persons, were on trial before a Magistrate
Court. They are accused of having allegedly acted contrary to sections
of the Penal Code law, alleging that they injured five police officers
in Wudil local government area in Kano State.

The presiding
magistrate, Sani Ismail, advised the freed suspect, Mr. Dayyabu, to
refrain from any unlawful act, adding that the best way to live in a
multi economic, political, and religious complex society like Nigeria
is to respect the views of others, devoid of infringements on the other
from all ends.

Consolidate charges

In his prayers
before Magistrate Courts 10 and 24, the state counsel said, “Pursuant
to the jurisdiction of this court, following the advice from the office
of the Attorney General in the Kano State Ministry of Justice, cases
against the accused person have been consolidated, the two FIR have
been directed by the office of the Chief Registrar, High Court of
Justice to the Chief Magistrate Court 8.”

Chief Magistrate
Court 24 and 10 separately ruled that the accused Boko Haram suspects,
and documents related to their trial before both courts, be transferred
with immediate effect to Chief Magistrate Court 8, presided over by
chief Magistrate Ismail.

Ruling on the new
charge sheet, on which all those arrested in connection with Boko Haram
saga in the state were arraigned before his court, Mr. Ismail ordered
that the accused persons remain in prison custody, while adjourning the
matter to June 10 for mention.

The new charge
sheet stated that the twenty six accused persons connived with Salihu
Al-Jasawi, who is at large, in inciting public disturbances.

in Wudil local government area of the state.

“You attacked Wudil
divisional police station, you were found in possession of some
chemical substance used in making explosive, cutlass, bow and arrows,”
said the charges read to the accused persons.