Kano to renovate deputy governor’s residence for N180milion

The Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje has ordered the release of N180 million for the renovation of the residence of the deputy governor of the state. 
Ganduje also approved the termination of the employment of 2,620 sanitation workers on N10,000 stipend.
An office complex built for the deputy governor, at the cost of N303 million, was commissioned by the immediate past governor of the state, Rabiu Kwankwaso, on March 13.
A statement signed by the state Commissioner of Information, Youth and Sport, Malam Muhammad Garba made available to newsmen in Kano, said the report that the governor approved renovation of the deputy governor’s office complex was untrue, stating that the government only awarded a contract for renovation and construction of the deputy governor’s residence.
The statement read in parts: " As for the alleged approval of N180million for the rehabilitation of the Deputy Governor's Office, no organization or individual or group in the name of government or otherwise ever talked about that since the inception of the administration because the said office was renovated and occupied just four months ago.
"The amount, as mentioned by the Commissioner during the briefing, is for the general renovation of the official residence of the Deputy Governor including construction of additional structures. The house was built since colonial era and remains so till date when the present administration recognized the need to give it a modern facelift befitting to the status of the Deputy Governor."
Mohammed Garba, further said the decision to lay off the casual workers was prompted by government’s resolve to ensure probity in their payroll.
Garba, a former president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), said the state government plans to start the recruitment exercise afresh in order to select diligent workers for quality service delivery.
The commissioner also disclosed that the state governor approved the sum of N12 million for renovation of a ruptured bridge in Yaryasa village in Tudun Wada Local Government Area of the state.

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Buhari orders production of military weapons in Nigeria

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Federal Ministry of Defence to produce a plan for the establishment of a modest Military Industrial Complex for the local production of weapons to meet some of the requirements of the country's armed forces.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony of the National Defence College, President Buhari described as unacceptable, Nigeria's current over-dependence on other countries for critical military equipment and logistics.

In a statement signed by Mallam Garba Shehu, his Senior Special Assistant on media and publicity, Buhari said "We must evolve viable mechanisms for near-self-sufficiency in military equipment and logistics production complemented only by very advanced foreign technologies.

"The Ministry of Defence is being tasked to draw up clear and measurable outlines for development of a modest Military Industrial Complex for Nigeria.

"In this regard, it is to liaise with other strategic MDAs and industries to re-engineer the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) to meet national military hardware and logistics requirements."

He told the gathering that his administration had,  since its assumption of office, reviewed the nature and character of Nigeria's  security threats and challenges.

"We recognized first and foremost, the external dimensions of these threats and the need for international cooperation and common security mechanisms to tackle them," the President said.

The President added that in the light of this realization, his Administration was "convinced that the best approach was to work within the framework of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) to mobilize a collective regional effort in the fight against terrorism and insurgency.

The President urged the graduates and officers and men of the Armed Forces to work harder to win the war against Boko Haram, terrorism and insurgency.

 "We must apply a comprehensive strategy and coordinate all elements of national power against terrorism and insurgency; we must show result oriented leadership at all levels of military Command; we must set up an optimal organization to manage and sustain operational performance; and we must show confidence and winning mentality," President Buhari told them.

The President assured that  the Federal Government under his leadership will  strive to meet the operational, logistic, training and welfare requirements of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

He also reaffirmed his commitment to ameliorating the hardships of people living in areas most affected by insurgency and terrorism.

"We have the will, resolve and conviction to apply a comprehensive strategy and coordinate all elements of national power against terrorism and insurgency," the President reassured Nigerians and the international community.

Buhari said that the National Defence College had fulfilled the vision of its founding fathers, by becoming a strategic human capacity-building institution, making credible contributions to Nigeria and other friendly countries.

The President urged graduates of the College's Course 23 to resolve to make "a marked difference in your future deployments and contribute your quota to the evolution and implementation of national security, defence and military strategies."

"You should be the source that lights up the environment wherever you find yourselves," he told them.

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500 West Africans Deported from Gabon Arrive Calabar

Over 500 nationals from West African countries including Nigeria who were allegedly deported from Gabon arrived Calabar on Thursday.

The vessel that conveyed the deportees, with the registration number EMILIANA CARNEIRO L-05-IS-2017 berthed at the National Inland Waterways Authority jetty in Calabar, Cross River State.

Aside from those who arrived Calabar safely, a corpse whose identity and country could not be ascertained by journalists was offloaded from the ship.
It was gathered that the corps is the remains of one of the deportees who died before the vessel departed Gabon.

Some of the deportees disclosed that they spent four days on the high sea.
A breakdown of the deportees indicate  that 36 of them are from Nigeria, Mali (130), Burkina Faso (87), Senegal (51), Niger (39), Guinea Conakry (37), Ghana (eight), Togo (43), Benin (21) and Gambia (three).

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Rep calls for negotiation with Boko Haram to free Chibok girls

A member of the House of Representatives, Akeem Adeyemi, on Wednesday called President Muhammadu Buhari to negotiate with Boko Haram for the release of the abducted Chibok girls.
President Buhari, during an interview with the CNN on July 21, had expressed willingness to negotiate with Boko Haram for the release of the girls.
 Adeyemi, who represents Afijio/Atiba/Oyo East/Oyo West Federal Constituency, stressed the importance of saving the lives of the school girls abducted by Boko Haram more than a year ago.
The legislator however advocates that federal government should only negotiate the freedom of the girls.
“However, if it is about the Chibok girls, I support negotiating with Boko Haram. Life is precious. Anything that will bring the girls back is in order.
“Outside that, we should not negotiate with them. By the way who are we negotiating with? They have no agenda; nothing! They say they are anti book, yet they kill uneducated farmers. They say they are muslims, yet they kill Rasheeds and Ibrahims innocently selling goods at markets in the North East.
“Meanwhile, with Buhari who has deep background in military and security, I believe we will soon end them (Boko Haram). We also have to block corruption in the military,” the lawmaker said.
Mr. Adeyemi also urged the Federal Government to attend to the issue of abandoned projects scattered across the country, instead of initiating new ones.
He said one of the projects deserving attention is Oyo-Ogbomoso-Ilorin expressway, which was commissioned in 2000.
“It affects my constituency. And it’s the road that links the South with the North; so you know it’s important to the national unity and economy. I urge the Federal Government to complete project,” he said.

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CBN extends loan repayment period for states

As part of bailout for financially ailing states, the Central Bank of Nigeria has restructured existing bank loans owed by state government from a short term repayment period of about seven years to a minimum of 20 years.

Bank loans acquired for salary arrears will also be extended to a minimum of 15 and not more than 20 years.

The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, announced the apex bank’s restructuring at the National Economic Council Meeting.

A four-man probe committee, which was constituted at the NEC’s inaugural meeting in June to review the books of the NNPC, Excess Crude Account as well as the federation account, failed to submit its report at the almost five hours meeting.

The NEC also admonished state governors to find ways of reducing their cost of governance. The NEC was chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Governors of the 36 states and Permanent Secretary (or Minister) of the Federal Capital Territory, are members of NEC, which is the highest economic advisory body to the President on the economic affairs of the nation.

The state governors had in June while seeking bailouts tabled some requests before President Muhammadu Buhari. The governors requested amongst others an extension of repayment periods of loans’ balances owed by states from durations normally between four and seven years to 20 years.

A working document of the council, obtained by journalists after the meeting, showed that NEC received a presentation from the CBN governor on the update of restructuring of bank loans for the states and payment of salary arrears.

Mr. Emefiele told the council that following meetings with banks, it was agreed that existing loans should be restructured for a minimum of 20 years, while salary arrears should also be restructured for the minimum of 15 years and not exceed more than 20 years.

States could opt for two options: the bond option, which will attract market rate, and the debt restructuring option, which will attract single digit rate.

The council resolved that a four-man team made up of the governors of Bauchi, Rivers, Ondo and Osun states, are to follow up with the CBN to ensure that the issues of Excess Crude Collateral for the states are sorted out by next week Tuesday.

The NEC was also briefed by the permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Anastasia Daniel-Nwaobia, on the Excess Crude proceeds.

The document said the permanent secretary took the council through the summary of inflow and outflow of Excess Crude Savings account from January 2011 to 21 July 2015.

“According to the Perm Sec, the ECA currently stands at $2.078 billion,” it said.

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Buhari Orders Arrest of Wife’s Younger Brother Over Alleged Extortion

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered Nigeria’s security agents to arrest his brother-in-law for allegedly extorting money from an unnamed businessman, a close confidante of the Nigerian leader told SaharaReporters. He said the suspect, named Musa Yola, is the immediate younger brother of Mr. Buhari’s wife. 
The source disclosed that the suspect, also addressed as “Alhaji Yola,” reportedly received N300 million from a businessman after promising to provide his dupe with political access to secure an oil block from the Buhari administration.
According to our source, Mr. Buhari personally ordered last Monday night that Mr. Yola be produced before him in handcuffs in the company of the businessman he duped.
After telling the businessman that he was stupid to part with such significant cash when he should know that he, Mr. Buhari, would not participate in fraud, the president ordered agents of the State Security Services (SSS) attached to Aso Rock Villa to thoroughly investigate the scam. He also ordered the SSS operatives to ensure that the businessman recovered his money from his brother-in-law.
An SSS source told SaharaReporters, “Alhaji Yola has refunded the money to the affected businessman.” He added: “Alhaji Yola has been released on bail.”
d the suspect, named Musa Yola, was the immediate younger brother of Mr. Buhari’s wife. 
(SaharaReporters)

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Boko Haram: No plan to transfer detainees to Anambra – APC

Some youth in Awka and Onitsha in Anambra state, on Saturday protested against the alleged plan by the Federal Government to relocate Boko Haram sect members currently serving jail terms in some prisons in the north to the state.
But the South East chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said on Sunday that there was no plan by the Federal Government to send Boko Haram detainees to any prison in Anambra state.
In a statement by its spokesperson, Osita Okechukwu, the APC described the news of the relocation of the prisoners as “blatant falsehood”.
“We have made contacts with the Presidency and the Nigeria Prison Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and they assured us that there is no iota of truth in the mischievous rumour,” the party said.
“In the clarification the Nigeria Prison Service stated unequivocally that, ‘Most of the terror suspects are awaiting trial and so there is no way they can be moved to another state, because they must be tried in the state where they committed the crime.’
“They went further to state that their primary and traditional duty is to move detainees from prison to trial courts and wondered how easy it is to move the detainees more than 1000 kilometers from Onitsha to Maiduguri if they are relocated.”
The party appealed to “our dear compatriots to disregard the blackmail and sinister rumour of rear-guard elements; who are yet to recover from their failure in the March 28th presidential election”.
It assured the people of the South East zone that the change President Muhammadu Buhari promised is real and that the 2nd Niger Bridge, federal roads, Enugu Coal and other physical and social infrastructure in the region would be revamped.

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