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Nigeria might have
lost 130 billion dollars from 2000-2008 to illicit financial flows, a
new report issued by US-based group, Global Financial Integrity (GFI),
said. The report entitled “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing
Countries: 2000-2009,” said Nigeria has the 10th highest measured
illicit outflows in the developing world, an average of 15 billion
dollars per year.

The GFI report
ranks countries according to magnitude of illicit outflows and
according to the report China is ranked the highest country of measured
illicit outflows in the developing world with 2.18 trillion dollars,
followed by Russia, 427 billion dollars and Mexico, 416 billon dollars.

It also shows the
annual outflows for each country and breaks outflows down into two
categories of drivers: trade mispricing and “other,” which includes
“kickbacks, bribes, embezzlement, and other forms of official
corruption.” Others in the top 10 are Saudi Arabia, 302 billion
dollars, Malaysia, 291 billion dollars; United Arab Emirates, 276
billion dollars; Kuwait, 242 billion dollars; Venezuela, 157 billion
dollars; and Qatar, 138 billion.

Primary findings
from the report said illicit outflows increased from $1.06 trillion in
2006 to approximately $1.26 trillion in 2008. It found that that
approximately $6.5 trillion was removed from the developing world from
2000 through 2008. According to the report, average annual illicit
outflows from developing countries averaged 725 billion dollars to 810
billion dollars per year, over the 2000-2008 period measured.

“Illicit flows
increased in current dollar terms by 18.0 percent per annum from 369.3
billion dollars at the start of the decade to 1.26 trillion dollars in
2008.

“When adjusted for inflation, the real growth of such outflows was 12.7 percent,” it said.

The report put real
growth of illicit flows over nine years in the African region at 21.9
per cent, compared with 24.3 per cent in the Middle East and North
Africa, 23.1 per cent in developing Europe, Asia 7.85, and Western
Hemisphere 5.18 per cent.

The report’s
author, Dev Kar, a former International Monetary Fund economist, said
bribery, theft, kickbacks, and tax evasion were the greatest conduit
for the illicit financial flows.

He said oil-exporting countries were becoming more important sources of illicit capital.

GFI director
Raymond Baker said every year developing countries were losing 10 times
the amount of Official Development Assistance (ODA) remitted for
poverty alleviation and economic development,” “This report measures
the quantity and pattern of these harmful outflows and provides stark
proof of the impact of these illicit financial practices,” Baker said.

GFI said the authors of the report used a World Bank model to calculate developing countries’ missing billions.

An Oyo State High
Court, on Wednesday, ordered the dethronement of Oba Samuel Adebayo
Adegbola, the Eleruwa of Eruwa, 13 years into his reign.

The presiding
judge, Muktar Abimbola, in a three-hour judgement, hinged his verdict
on his findings that the name of the current occupant of the throne was
proposed by a faction of the Ajao Alapinni family, in contravention of
the custom and chieftaincy declaration of the town.

The court also
ordered that the Oyo State government, the state attorney general,
Ibarapa East local government, and the chiefs of the town stop
recognising the deposed monarch as the Eleruwa.

It also ordered the
conveyance of a meeting of the kingmakers of the town within seven days
from the judgement where a list of recommended candidates to the stool
will be produced. The judge also said that the list must include names
of Rasheed Oyedepo Ajao and Joseph Oke, who approached the court for
inclusion in the list.

In spite of
protests by other ruling houses that it was not his turn then, Mr.
Adegbola was recommended by the kingmakers to the Oyo State government
which later installed him in 1998.

The court submitted
that he should not have been nominated for the throne since he was from
the Akalako ruling house where his predecessor, Bolanle Olaniyan, also
came from. Mr. Olaniyan died in 1994, and Laribikusi and Akalako, the
two ruling families, had been struggling to produce the next
traditional head of the town.

James Olatunde
Idowu and Rasheed Oyedepo Ajao, who approached the court for redress
over the ascension of Mr. Adegbola, joined the governor of Oyo State,
the AG, Ibarapa LG, Mr. Adegbola, Jacob Adewusi, Femi Atanda, Idowu
Okeowo, E. Ojebisi and Mr. Kasali I in their suit.

They prayed the
court to declare the selection and approval of the monarch by
kingmakers ultra vires, null and void, and give an order to set aside
the purported nomination, selection and approval of the first defendant
(Mr. Adegbola) as the new Eleruwa of Eruwa.

The plaintiffs also
sought an order of the court to restrain the 2nd-10th defendants from
recognising or continuing to recognise Mr. Adegbola as the Eleruwa of
Eruwa, as well as an order directing the 2nd-6th defendants and the
Ikolaba of Eruwa, if any, to reconsider the nomination made by the
Laribikusi Ruling Quarters and select a candidate to the stool of
Eleruwa for approval of the 8th defendant.

Presenting the
summary of his findings on the suit, the judge granted all the eight
requests of the plaintiffs and gave judgement in their favour. He
punctured the claim of the deposed monarch that he hails from the
Ajao-Alapinni royal family, saying that the evidence before the court
proved otherwise as minutes of meetings of the family and records of
attendance of their meetings did not show that he ever attended any of
their meetings.

The judge also said
he discovered that the meeting that produced Mr. Adegbola was factional
and that it gives recognition to Mr. Sanusi Alao as the eldest person
of the ruling house, saying it was unlawful for Mr. Sangotiku to summon
a meeting since he was not recognised as the eldest.

“The exercise by
the kingmakers is ultra vires, null and void. The first defendant is of
female line… I hereby hold that there is merit in the plaintiff’s
case and it subsists that the first defendant being the member of
Akalako which produced the last king, it is a bastardisation of the
customary law of Eruwa. The approval of the first defendant by the
eigth defendant (Oyo State government) is hereby set aside and that it
should not accord recognition to him as the Eleruwa of Eruwa,” the
judge said.

Lasun Sanusi,
counsel to the plaintiff, praised the judgement, describing it as
“brilliant, comprehensive and incisive”. According to him, the verdict
had confirmed the saying that though the machinery of justice grinds
slowly, it grinds surely and fine. The judgement also attracted wild
jubilation at the court premises as those who came from Eruwa burst
into songs of victory as the news was broken to them.

Meanwhile, the deposed monarch had vowed to challenge the judgement
at the Appeal Court. Describing the court’s position as a miscarriage
of justice, Mr. Adegbola told journalists that he had instructed his
legal team to proceed to the appellate court to seek a reversal of the
judgement.

I had a good laugh
when I read the reports of ‘surprise’ that many youth corps members did
not know how to operate the laptops being used with the Direct Data
Capture machines for the voter’s registration exercise. I say that I
laughed, but I was laughing with despair, not with happiness.

For the past 10
years, at least, academics, students, parents, educators, and employers
have raised concerns, expressed alarm, and lamented the state of
education in our country.

In our secondary
schools, classes are over crowded, with about 100 pupils per teacher in
the worst cases, rendering whatever teaching that takes place almost
completely ineffective. Some classrooms are labeled laboratories but
have no Bunsen burners or other basic Science equipment.

I am glad to report
that in recent years, the situation has improved a lot. But not too
long ago, in many of our colleges of higher education, some graduates
of Computer Science were experts in programming but did not have access
to functioning computers in their faculties. They learnt the theory and
had to pick up the practical themselves after graduation.

I recently listened
to a re-intepretation of Bobby Benson’s famous song, ‘Taxi Driver’,
performed during the Ajumogobia Foundation Concert in December by Ibiai
Ajumogobia and Nimi Akinkugbe. The sheet music for the pianos and all
the other classical and African musical instruments was composed by a
professor of Music in Ife. The composition was a virtuoso piece of
music combining high-life, jazz, and classical genres in harmonious
accord.

That this kind of
overwhelming talent and skillful expertise could exist in our public
university system that has suffered such resource neglect with old and
faulty equipment and poorly stocked libraries is a marvel; and our
dogged graduates are a marvel too.

The youth corpers
should be congratulated for having learned within a week how to operate
the machines and get the job done in the face of infrastructure
challenges such as incorrect software, insufficient power from the
batteries, from the grid, or from standby generators; and inordinate
pressure managing large numbers of impatient and irate voters who queue
up mostly in outdoor locations to register. The fault does not lie with
them.

Let me go back to
my laughter. I laughed because it really seems as though our fellow
citizens in positions of power, influence, or in the civil service do
not have a realistic idea of what the prevailing conditions of life are
for the people they serve. If that is the case, then it makes sense
that they would not have planned adequately for the logistics of the
exercise.

In opting to close
all schools down so that public schools could be used as centres for
the registration exercise, perhaps the Ministry of Education is unaware
that the bulk of educational institutions are private not public.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that in Lagos the ratio is approximately 80% private to 20% public.

In closing down all
schools, they have interrupted the education of 80% of our school-age
children in the so-called ‘interest’ of the 20% in public schools who
would be affected.

To respond to some
of the accusations of ‘elitism’ that I have been reading in the press
about the drive to keep the private schools open. 80% means that
students from every and all economic groups are educated in private
schools. The children of street sweepers, cleaners, drivers,
messengers, and domestic staff also attend private schools.

They also want
their children to be taught in classrooms without holes in the roof,
and to be seated on chairs and not on the floor. Since they have to pay
‘unofficial fees’ for their children’s education in our ‘free’ public
schools, they choose to pay official fees in private schools and have
some measure of comfort, care, and a guarantee that teachers will turn
up to teach provided for their children. Get the facts right! Open your
eyes and look around, ask questions.

I am not saying that all public schools are like that, but too many to be comfortable are.

Yes, we have
graduates who enter the National Youth Service Corps. Yes, almost all
of them have a facebook page and one of the popular internet email
accounts. No, most of them do not have a computer at home, have never
plugged in a computer, let alone turned it on, or used multimedia
software other than to upload their electronic passport photographs.
They use computer in internet cafes where they are already switched on
and all you have to do is click on the appropriate icon on the desktop
screen.

Yet, these are a
bunch of very smart, very ambitious young people who are hungry to
learn and to be exposed to the many experiences that a working life can
offer them.

I salute them and
their parents for their mere participation in this major exercise in
democracy that brings them in close contact with their fellow citizens
everywhere in Nigeria, that exposes them to the wide range of
professions, cultures and backgrounds in the neighbourhoods they serve.

I salute their
courage in the face of general insecurity in our country, and the added
risk of political thuggery. I envy them the experience of real
down-home Nigerian care and hospitality.

The neighbourhood
old folks who express concern for their welfare and protect them from
the ‘area boys and girls’. The mamas and babas who bring them cool
drinks, snacks and food unasked for, and unrewarded. The good souls who
keep them company and share the local gossip with them, who keep their
belongings safe while they are otherwise occupied. The homes,
businesses, and umbrellas that are offered to them when it rains or the
sun gets too hot. The laughter, the jokes, the camaraderie, the
arguments, the posing, the fronting – such a diverse and enriching
experience that they will never forget as long as they live.

May they live long, and may this registration exercise, these
elections, and the next administration be better off due to their
participation. Let’s give them all the support and encouragement that
we can.

Aspirants who
emerged from political parties’ primary elections held after the 15
January deadline issued by the Independent National Electoral
Commission will not be eligible to contest in the 2011 general
elections, Atahiru Jega, chairman of the commission, has said.

Mr. Jega said this
on Wednesday while appearing before the Senate over hiccups in the
ongoing voters’ registration project. He said that the timetable issued
by INEC is an equivalent of a law, as provided by the 2010 Electoral
Act.

“The provision of
the Act clearly says that INEC should provide guidelines for political
parties’ primaries and convention and the guidelines for the election,”
Mr. Jega said.

He added that the decision to stick with the timetable is meant to bring sanity and discipline to the system.

“The timetable is
very clear; every primary ends on the 15th of January. All nominations
should be submitted by the 31st of January. If we wake up and somebody
says he is going to do primary again long after 15th of January, we are
obligated to draw his attention to the provision that the date for
primary has closed. That is what we have done, and I do not see how we
can be seen to break any law or acted contrary to the provision of the
law,” he further said.

The INEC chair said
his commission has consulted with many lawyers on the issue and are
confident they took the right decision. His verdict, although
astounding to some senators who are hoping to be re-elected in a rerun
of their primary election, clarifies contrary moves by some political
parties to hold primary election long after the 15 January deadline.

Ten finger prints

Mr. Jega also
defended the decision of the commission to capture ten fingerprints in
the ongoing voter registration, saying it was the safest way to avoid
multiple registrations during the project.

He added that the
commission took the decision considering that in 2006, some politicians
used palm kernel nuts to thumb print voter registration documents.

“The more fingers
you use, the less the possibility of multiple registrations. It reduces
the possibility of multiple registrations to 1 to 5 million if you use
ten fingers. We are so confident because it will reduce the problem of
credibility in our electoral system,” he explained.

He argued that only
one in five million multiple registrations could beat the system and
that the software even has the ability to distinguish indents of the
fingers from other indented objects like the palm kernel nuts.

He added that the software can also identify still images captured from photographs.

The Federal
government has said it is now ready to begin an assessment of the
budget performance for the 2010 fiscal year and has ordered all
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) to without delay supply it
with their performances for the year, 2010.

The Minister of
Information and Communication, Labaran Maku disclosed this yesterday
while briefing State House correspondents shortly after the weekly
Federal Executive Council meeting, which was presided over by President
Goodluck Jonathan and attended by Vice President Namadi Sambo and most
ministers.

He also said the
order became necessary to enable the federal government to concentrate
on the assessment of the performance of the 2010 budget, as well as the
formulation of new policies for 2011.

“The Federal
Executive Council (FEC) at its meeting presided over by Mr Jonathan
today took far reaching decisions. Today marks the end of contract
awards under the 2010 budget, so as from the next FEC meeting we will
no longer award contracts. All the MDAs have been mandated to submit
their 2010 performance to enable us concentrate of policy formulations”
he stated.

Performance appraisal

Mr Maku also said
the performance assessment is to enable government re-appraise its
priorities and concentrate on those areas that lacked adequate
attention under the 2010 budget.

“Every MDAs have
been asked to prepare a progress report on all contracts so far
awarded, so that Nigerians can see the state of the contracts and the
progress made in all the various sectors into which we have committed a
lot of resources” he said.

He added that “from
subsequent meetings, you are now going to hear the reports of all the
contracts. It is not just enough to award contracts, we also want to
know what has been achieved and the level of the performance of the
2010 budget” he said.

Project completion orders

The minister
further said as part of the President’s commitments to improving
agriculture in the northern part of the country, he has ordered the
completion of all ongoing dam projects in the area, including the
abandoned Ganye dam in Adamawa State and the Kontagora dam in Niger
State.

He said the FEC
during its meeting gave approval for the award of contracts for the
completion of the Hadeija Valley Irrigation project in Jigawa State
which was first awarded in 2001 but was abandoned by the previous
government at the cost of N5.908 billion.

According to Mr
Maku, the project was abandoned at 80 percent completion stage, when
the contractor requested for an upward review of the contract sum to
N10, 333, 167, 334.42, representing an augmentation of
N4,424,923,799.38.

He also noted that on completion, the project will provide irrigation in 2 stages covering a total of 12,500 hectares.

Council also
approved the award of contract for the establishment of E-Passport
Public Key Directory (PKD) which will make it easier to verify personal
data information contained in the current E-Passport both locally and
internationally, in the sum of N229.125Million.

According to the
Minister of Interior Emmanuel Iheanacho who expanded on the contract
“Other benefits of the PKD include provision of fast and secured means
of validating e-passport; easy detection of compromised or forged
documents, making it easy for citizens to travel internationally, and
allowing states to improve security at international borders”.

Earlier, the
Minister of Finance, Olusegun Aganga, also briefed journalists on the
successful launch of the 500 Million US Dollars Debut Eurobond
Offering, which he said will serve as a benchmark for private
borrowers; including banks, oil and gas companies as well as
manufacturers.

The bond, he said, will also act as a catalyst in stimulating and
accelerating the country’s growth by bridging the gap between the
Nigerian corporate and global investor community.

Officials of the
Labour Ministry will this year spend more than three times on domestic
and international travel than what obtained in 2010, according to the
ministry’s budget plan which proposes a massive slash on funds meant
for employment programmes.

In the estimate
which awaits National Assembly’s approval, a bulk of annual job
programmes such as skills acquisition, agricultural and entrepreneurial
training will this year receive N775.9 million, a far cry from last
year’s N5.2 billion.

Yet, funds
earmarked for international and domestic travel of officials, mostly
the Minister and the Permanent Secretary, draws the highest raise in
years, climbing from N207.5 million to N622.5 million.

The two travel
subheads featured prominently in a presentation made before the House
of Representatives yesterday, and were listed first and second in a
list of 17 “critical vote and requirements” for 2011.

Each trip within Africa is estimated at N20 million while distances beyond will cost N40 million each, the ministry stated.

In a prepared
analysis, the Minister, Emeka Worgu, told the lawmakers that many of
the international trips will be for “mandatory meetings” of labour
organisations, in which Nigeria is executive member.

“In view of the
several official trips required of the Honorable Minister and Permanent
Secretary to various events, coupled with the official travels engaged
in by other ministry staff for verification exercise, monitoring and
manpower audit, substantial fund allocation is requested,” he said on
Wednesday.

But the budget
details, allocations and their listing will highlight the Labour
Ministry’s priority as unemployment rate stays high amid ceaseless
industrial unrest.

In all, the
Ministry’s estimate is to drop from N12.3 billion for last year, to
N9.15 billion. With an administrative and personnel cost of N3.287
billion and N4.9 billion respectively, the bulk of the budget slash is
on the capital. Most part of the capital proposal, although with a
perennial poor implementation record, resides with the National
Directorate of Employment.

The funds, past
budgets say, are usually directed at vocational skills for school
leavers, entrepreneurial training for small owners, agricultural
training for rural employment, creation of job centres, and a few
office procurement.

In this year’s
proposal, allocation to the Directorate’s capital is N500 million,
against last year’s N4.67 billion. Also, more funds are directed at
recurrent cost, underpinning a traditional practice which the
executive, and even the legislature have recently pledged to reverse.

The House
committee on labour, headed by Ado Audu, which received the proposals,
said more meetings will be scheduled to properly sort out the contents
of the Ministry’s budget estimates.

President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of Zakari Ibrahim as coordinator for Anti-Terrorism.

This is coming
twenty-three days after the initial promise was made to appoint an
anti-terrorism boss, following the spate of bombings across the country
which included the twin bomb blasts in Jos, Plateau State, and the
December 31st bombing of the Mogadishu Barracks (Abacha Barracks) in
Abuja.

The special adviser
to the president, Ima Niboro, on the 3rd of January, while briefing
journalists after an emergency meeting of the Security Council chaired
by the president, had said, “Mr. President in the next one week is to
appoint a special adviser on terrorism.”

The council had
also decided to introduce Close Circuit Televisions (CCTVs) in public
and private places for access control, in a bid to strengthen security
networks across the country.

A statement by the
presidential spokesman, which was made available to journalists, also
stated that the president has also appointed Kingsley K. Kuku as
Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, to fill in the
gap created by Timi Alaibe who resigned to pursue his political
ambition.

The statement also
said the wife of Odumegwu Ojukwu, former flagbearer of the All
Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Bianca Ojukwu, has been appointed as
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora Affairs.

Oyewole Olugbenga Leke has also been appointed Senior Special Assistant to the President on Maritime Services.

The statement added that “The appointments take immediate effect”.

Tension is building
up in the House of Representatives as some members who lost in their
bid to return to the lower legislative chamber are allegedly plotting
to impeach the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole.

The members, most
of who belong to the majority People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are
alleging that the Speaker worked in tandem with President Goodluck
Jonathan to truncate the gentleman agreement reportedly reached to give
them automatic tickets.

Over 80 percent of
the 360 members of the lower legislative chamber could not pick the
ticket of their parties to return. Among them is the deputy speaker,
Usman Nafada who hurriedly withdrew from the governorship race of Gombe
State.

It was gathered
yesterday that the moves against the Speaker informed the hurried
adjournment of the House for two weeks on Tuesday, the same day it
reconvened from the Christmas/New Year break though the Speaker said it
was aimed at allowing members to participate fully in the anticipated
extension of voter registration.

The aggrieved members, it was learnt were disappointed when Mr Bankole suspended the plenary and called for adjournment.

Our source said
that ahead of Tuesday’s resumption of the House, about 75 of the
lawmakers met on Monday night in a hotel in the Central Business
District to fine tune their plot. They had earlier met in the Apo
Legislators Quarters’ residence of one of them.

No threat to leadership

But Kayode Odunaro,
the special adviser on Communication to Mr Bankole said he is not aware
of the impeachment. He said, “I am not aware of any impeachment plot
against the Speaker or the leadership. Everybody, including the Speaker
went and contested the primaries and they either won or lost. So, even
the Speaker had to struggle for his own ticket before he won. Assuming
such a plot exists against Mr Bankole and the leadership, will such a
move make them get the ticket back?”, Mr Odunaro said in an interview
last night.

It was, however,
gathered that the members moving against Mr Bankole are very angry that
despite the assurance given to them by Mr Jonathan, they lost to their
challengers during the primaries.

It was further
gathered that an influential member from the South-South geo-political
zone is leading the aggrieved lawmakers in the plot.

The member, who
belonged to the Integrity Group, a coalition of groups of members that
influenced Mr Bankole’s emergence as Speaker in 2007, also championed
the introduction of a bill to include all federal lawmakers as members
of the National Executive Committees (NEC) of their parties.

“We had a 60-40
agreement although it was not written. We had an understanding and they
(president, governors and leadership of both chambers) agreed that we
should support the president in return for automatic tickets. But they
turned around to witch-hunt us,” one of the lawmakers, who does not
want his name mentioned, told journalists yesterday.

“As you can see,
only about two percent of us from South-South were given tickets and
little over 25 percent in the South East. Although, it is a bit better
for our colleagues in the north, may be about 50 percent got the
tickets. This is unfair.” However, it was learnt that though the plot
to oust Mr Bankole and the leadership is thickening, the target of the
lawmakers is Mr Jonathan himself.

According to our
source, they also want to rattle the president by initiating
investigation into some key agencies and probably commence impeachment
plans against him as soon as Mr Bankole is out of the way.

One of the
strategies is to frustrate the passage of 2011 Budget until they get a
commitment from the leadership of their parties, in this case the PDP.

Another strategy is
that the aggrieved lawmakers will institute suits in courts against the
leadership over the alleged N2.3 billion vehicle scam and the alleged
misappropriation of N9 billion House capital votes, which led to the
suspension of some members last year.

The
Speaker, Bauchi State House of Assembly, Abubakar Faggo (PDP) has been
impeached and Haliru Jika (ACN) representing Ganjuwa Constituency has
been elected as the new speaker. The impeachment followed a motion
under notice of public importance moved by Aminu Tukur (ACN)
representing the Lere/Bula constituency, who urged the House to impeach
Mr. Faggo over alleged “poor leadership”.

“Since the
inception of Faggo (Shira Constituency) as the speaker of the House,
there has been no progress and he has retarded the activities of the
House, therefore, there was need for us to remove him as speaker,” said
Mr. Tukur.

Seconding the
motion, Baba Gaide (PDP) who also urged the House to impeach Mr. Faggo
because the activities of the House had continued to move at a “snail
pace” over the inactivity of the speaker. The House, presided over by
the Deputy Speaker, Saleh Dumba, (PDP) representing Dass constituency,
adopted the motion in which 20 members out of the 31 members of the
House signed the impeachment notice while two of the members including
Mr. Faggo were absent.

The Deputy Majority
Leader, Auwal Jatau, was also removed and was also replaced by Ibrahim
Bappa (PDP). He was removed over what the members described as
“loyalist of Faggo and an impediment to the House”.

The new speaker was sworn in by the deputy clerk designate, Muhammed Tulu.

Mr. Jika, the new
speaker, told journalists in an interview after being sworn in that he
was happy with the mature manner in which the lawmakers had handled the
impeachment saga.

Mr. Jika, who is
occupying the number three position in the state for the second time
under Mr. Yuguda’s administration, assured that he would reposition the
House to ensure that all the activities of the House take a vibrant
dimension within the few months left for the tenure of the legislators
to expire.

No political motive

Aminu Tukur, the
mover of the motion, said, after the session, that the legislators had
failed to legislate laws that could be beneficial to the people of the
state due to a lack of sittings. He said that it was constitutional for
the lawmakers to exercise their right whenever the need arises.

He said: “Without
malice, it was under Faggo that the House has failed many times to
convene, sit down and take any decision towards the development of the
state. Out of the five former speakers we had in the state, Faggo is
the worst we ever had, therefore, we have decided to impeach him.”

He however denied
the allegations from some quarters that the Secretary to the Government
of the Federation, (SFG), Ahmed Yayale and the FCT Minister Bala
Muhammed had masterminded the impeachment of Mr. Faggo. He also denied
the allegations that the impeachment of Mr. Faggo was to lay the ground
for the impeachment of the state governor, Isa Yuguda.

Commenting on his
removal, Mr. Faggo, who spoke in a telephone interview, said that he
was still the speaker, describing the move of the legislators as
illegal. He said that the 20 members out of the 31 members that sat on
his impeachment lacked the two-thirds majority required by the
constitution.

Mr. Faggo, who refused to disclose the location he was speaking
from, stated: “I am still the incumbent speaker of the House as the
actions by my colleagues were unconstitutional, considering the fact
that they have even failed to serve me with a notice of impeachment.”

One hundred and
eighty-eight megawatts have now been added to the power generation in
the country, through the Olorunsogo power plant, which brings power
generation in the country to a total of 3,800mw with an estimated
4,000mw expected by the end of March this year. This is among the first
three projects in the National Independent Power Projects to be
completed to this stage. Besides the Olorunsogo plant in Osun state,
the generating plants in Aloaji in Abia state and Sapele in Delta state
are also being test run.

This was disclosed
by the Minister of State for Power, Nuhu Wya while briefing alongside
the minister of information and communication Labaran Maku, after the
second federal executive council meeting of the year, who also said the
power plant has been test run and connected to the power grid.

Mr. Wya who
enthusiastically spoke on the successful completion of the test run of
the Olorunsogo plant, said this was to show that government was serious
about delivering on its promise as some people had not believed that
the NIPP projects would even see the light of day, adding that the
Aloaji and Sapele plants are also being test run in preparation for the
commissioning in the first quarter of this year.

He however said
more generation would be made via the Olorunsogo plant as it had the
capacity to generate much more than it is currently generating.

“We are on top of
the situation in the power sector… with this we can assure Nigerians
of significant improvement in power supply from now on,” Mr. Wya told
journalists.

Other matters

Mr. Maku also
briefed journalists on the issues discussed during the closed door FEC
meeting, noting that council had primarily focused on memos tendered by
the Federal Capital Territory minister, Bala Mohammed, which included
the construction of 3 solid waste transfer stations for the FCT worth
N2.9billion. According to the information minister, Council approved
this contract because of the impact it would have on the city of Abuja
and its environs.

“Council approved the award of this contract for the construction of
three solid waste transfer stations at Mpape, Apo and Kubwa areas of
the city, in favour of Messrs Goodness International Resources Ltd. in
the sum of N2,957,572,096.35 with 12 months completion period,” Mr.
Maku said.