NAIJAFEED

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Nuhu Ribadu appointed Head of Petroleum Task Force

Former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Mallam Nuhu Ribadu has been nominated to chair the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force to determine and verify all petroleum upstream and downstream revenues due and payable to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Other members of the task force are: Mr. Steve Oronsaye (Dep. Chairman), Mallam Abba Kyari, Ms. Benedicta Molokwu, Mr. Supo Sasore (SAN), Mr. Tony Idigbe (SAN), Mr. Anthony George-Ikoli (SAN), Dr. (Mrs.) Omolara Akanji, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) Mr. Ituah Ighodalo, and Mr. Bon Otti.

The rest are: Prof. Olusegun Okunnu, Mallam Samaila Zubairu, Mr. Ignatius Adegunle, Mr. Gerald Ilukwe, and representatives of the Federal Inland Revenue Service and Federal Ministry of Finance.

The committee, according to a statement from the Ministry of Petroleum, is "To work with consultants and experts to determine and verify all petroleum upstream and downstream revenues (taxes, royalties, etc.) due and payable to the Federal Government of Nigeria;

"To take all necessary steps to collect all debts due and owing; to obtain agreements and enforce payment terms by all oil industry operators;

"To design a cross debt matrix between all Agencies and Parastatals of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources;

"To develop an automated platform to enable effective tracking, monitoring, and online validation of income and debt drivers of all Parastatals and Agencies in the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources;

"To work with world-class consultants to integrate systems and technology across the production chain to determine and monitor crude oil production and exports, ensuring at all times, the integrity of payments to the Federal Government of Nigeria; and,

"To submit monthly reports for ministerial review and further action."

Daily Trust

Nuhu Ribadu Testifies before U.S. Financial Services Committee

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Video - Chevron oil drilling disaster in Nigeria enters fourth week

It used to be a Chevron natural gas rig in Nigeria. Now it is an inferno, entering its fourth week ablaze off Nigeria’s Atlantic coast, polluting nearby waters and making local people sick.

The fire began on Jan. 16, killing two workers and forcing Chevron Nigeria Limited to evacuate 152 others. In a statement on its website, the company says it does not know exactly what caused the fire, or how long it will take to extinguish it.

The Associated Press reports dead fish surfacing in surrounding waters and increasing skin and gastrointestinal problems reported among the Nigerians living in the villages on shore. At its hottest point, the fire is 1,340 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 730 degrees Celsius), which is “hot enough to soften steel.”

The increasing illnesses are a result of warmer water temperatures causing bacteria to grow rapidly, according to Dr. Oladipo Folorunso, the only doctor treating patients in Ikebiri, a town affected by the fire.

“The community here has no other source of water apart from the river water, which on its own isn’t even safe enough to drink, but the pollution has made the water even worse,” he told the AP.

International Business Times reports that on Jan. 26, company officials said the fire could take another month to extinguish. The company says plans to build a well to put out the fire have been finalized, and it is monitoring the environmental impact.

In a statement posted on Feb. 2, Chevron said it had hired people to search the beaches to for crude oil, and found none.

“The fire is still burning at the well, but continues to diminish,” reads the statement.

The company also said it was moving food and supplies into the area — home to tens of thousands of people — but Environmental Rights Action, a Nigerian activist group says the actions are not enough. The group called for increased government intervention, saying the fire is also having a political impact in Nigeria, a country already in turmoil.

“The failure of government to compel prompt actions has started generating bad blood among the youth,” reads a report posted on the Environmental Rights Action website.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with 160 million people and the continent's largest oil exporter, is already facing several security crises, including near daily attacks from Islamist militants that have killed hundreds this year alone.

In a separate incident, President Goodluck Jonathan's government today identified seven suspects in an oil pipeline bombing over the weekend, and denied that a former rebel militia was responsible for the attack, according to Reuters.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) originally took credit for the attack on the Italian-owned pipeline, which stopped the flow of 4,000 barrels of oil daily. The group warned it was planning more attacks on foreign-owned entities in the Niger Delta. The government said criminal gangs posing as rebels were behind the attack, Reuters reports.

Global Post

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Boko Haram threatens to kill Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka

Following a threat by the Boko Haram sect that Professor Wole Soyinka would be their next target for attack, the Nobel laureate has raised the alarm, urging security agencies to take action immediately or risk possible disintegration of the country should the sect carry out its threats.

Soyinka, who disclosed this to journalists during a heart-rendering interview in Lagos, said he had reported the series of threats to the security operatives in the country, noting that the operatives had confirmed the information but have not taken action on the threat.

He said: "The reason for this programme (elimination), which I know is very much in the third phase, is that those pushing this agenda know very well that this could be the last straw that will break the camel's back.

"And they would rather this country broke up and possibly in an inferno than continue to accept the loss, even though temporary loss, of power in this country. For these people, government is the only business around."

Obviously unruffled by the threat, he noted that he was not averse to any form of dialogue and negation with the highly dreaded sect, pointing out that the sect ought to have sat at a roundtable with government and make their demands public.

The frontline freedom fighter fondly called "Kongi" by his teeming admirers said he is above any form of human destruction, adding that no violent group including the so called Boko Haram can frighten him to submission.

"I believe that one should not beg for existence. If the price of not coming to table is that you want to eliminate me, and you can do so, please do so. I am 77," he stated. "Please, come to the debating table, but you will not persuade me simply because you have the capacity to blow me and my family up. You can simply go ahead, blow us up if you think that is the way you can do your conversation. But you will not bomb me to sit with you at table."

He lamented that President Gookluck Jonathan is treating the desperation of the forces behind the masquerading Boko Haram sect with kid gloves by not considering the enormity of Islamic struggles in countries like Iraq where fundamentalist Islamic groups had unleashed mayhem on the people.

While noting that dialogue with the sect could be done without resorting to violence, he reminisced that PRONACO, which he joined during former President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration, successfully organised its conference, amended the constitution of the country and presented the document to the government without violence.

Leadership

Video - 120 killed in bomb blasts in Kano, Nigeria

Monday, February 6, 2012

Teenager sells two week old baby for $122 USD

The absurdity of child trading came to fore on Friday as a two-week old baby was sold by the mother, Blessing John, an SSS II student for a paltry $122 USD to one Mrs. Chikodili Jude of Mechanic Bye pass, Minna, Niger state.

The police who arrested the mother of the child and the buyer of the child as well as the guardian of Blessing, Mrs. Martha Obino who negotiated the sale of the two week-old baby said they acted based on a tip off.

The Police Public Relations officer Richard Adamu Oguche told journalists that his office got the information and swung into action and arrested them.

The PPRO said from information available to the police, Blessing was forced into an agreement to give away her baby girl to Mrs. Jude at a sum of $122 USD.

He said that the police would commence further investigation to unearth the circumstances surrounding the sale of the baby and also charge those found to have run foul of the law to court.

The 17 year old Blessing in an interview with LEADERSHIP said the decision to "lease" her daughter to Mrs. Jude was because she was unable to take care of the baby.

Leadership

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UK Court sentences Nigerian air hostess to 5 years in prison for cocaine trafficking

A Nigerian air stewardess, Chinwendu Uwakaonyenma Ogbonnaya, who was caught trying to smuggle cocaine worth N60million into the United Kingdom (UK) recently has been sentenced to five and a half years inprisonment.

The 29-year-old crew member had flown into London's Heathrow airport from Lagos as a member of crew on Arik Air flight from Lagos on December 18, 2011.

She was apprehended during screening by UK Border Agency officers at the airport's crew clearance facility, as her luggage revealed that she was carrying a rucksack with a false back hiding package of cocaine.

Forensic tests later showed that the package contained approximately two kilogrammes of high purity cocaine, with UK street value of about £250,000.

Ogbonnaya claimed that she had been given the bag by a friend and that she was unaware it contained drugs.

However, she later pleaded guilty to attempting to import a class A drug, and a judge at Isleworth Crown Court in West London on Thursday February 2 sentenced her to five and a half years in prison.

She will also face deportation at the end of her sentence.

Assistant director Pete Avery, from the UK Border Agency's Criminal and Financial Investigation Team, said: "The cocaine found here was of a very high purity and there is no doubt that had this woman not been stopped it would've ended up being cut and sold on the streets of London.

"Ogbonnaya sought to abuse her position as a crew member by bringing these drugs in. As a result she now faces a long time away from home and behind bars."

"UK Border Agency officers are on constant alert to keep class A drugs and other banned substances out of the UK and take them out of the supply chain before they reach the streets."

Speaking on the issue, managing director of Arik Air, Mr. Chris Ndulue said that the airline is taking measures in-house to ensure it forestalls such situations in the future.

He said the airline has put stringent checks in place but that despite all efforts one can never do enough in the area of security.

He said," When we started international operations, we were particular about drugs and all other banned substances as well as explosives. We bought equipment that has helped us and it has helped give credibility to our operations."

"We have a lot of personnel in-house that are experienced to deal with such difficulties and they are doing their job. If in three years that incident happened once, it means there are some checks. Despite all efforts you can never do enough."

"We have to and we will tighten all loose ends, bring in more equipment and personnel. We are also urging the press to educate and sensitise people and appeal to their sense of morality because it is a crime that affects innocents too."

Daily Champion

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