NAIJAFEED

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

U.S. embassy in the capital of Nigeria attacked

The United States of America Embassy in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, came under attack yesterday by unknown gunmen.

Details of the attack were sketchy, but it was learnt that the gunmen were over-powered by superior fire of a combined team of security men on guard at the embassy located along the Diplomatic Drive, Central Business District.

According to reports, several shots were heard within the vicinity of the embassy in the afternoon, when the Ambassador was having a meeting with staff of the embassy. The internal security had to set off the alarm and got everyone to take cover.

It was gathered that as the shooting was going on everyone within the embassy ran for dear life before the situation was brought under control. Two suspected assailants were apprehended and taken into custody at the end of the incident.

The embassy has been under heavy security watch since the attack on the United Nations Building in Abuja, last year. It has been heavily barricaded, while fierce-looking security men keep watch around its vicinity.

A terse statement by the US authorities confirming the incident said, “we believe there were shots fired in the vicinity of the U.S. Embassy. The Nigerian authorities have two individuals in custody. We refer you to the Nigerian police for further information.”

Strangely however, the police authorities in Abuja denied knowledge of the shooting and the arrest of the two individuals at the scene of the incident.

When contacted, the FCT Police Public Relations officer, Superintendent of Police Jimoh Moshood, told Vanguard that some senior police officers had been dispatched to the embassy to ascertain what really happened. An Anti-Terrorist Squad and Bomb disposal units were also said to have been deployed to carry out investigations about the alleged shooting incident but they said nothing of such happened.

Vanguard

Bomb explosion at UN office in Abuja leaves several dead

Video - Who are Nigeria's Boko Haram?

Halliburton bribe suspects walk free after sloppy prosecution by EFCC

The trial of the Halliburton bribery suspects reached an anti-climax yesterday when a high court struck out the case against them because of sloppy prosecution by the EFCC.

Ibrahim Aliyu, Mohammed Gidado Bakari and four companies were standing trial over serving as conduits and receiving bribes in hard currency to facilitate natural gas contracts between 1994 and 2005.

Aliyu, a former Federal permanent secretary, was at the time chairman of contract award committee of the Bonny Liquefied Natural Gas, which awarded the contracts. The four companies are Urban Shelter Ltd, Intercellular Nigeria Ltd, Sherwood Petroleum Ltd and Tri-Star Investment Ltd.

The Halliburton bribery scandal gained international attention over the past years, and it led to convictions of companies and individuals in the U.S.

But the Abuja High Court yesterday said it was striking out the case against Aliyu and the others because of lack of diligent prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The accused had not appeared in court since the EFCC filed the case more than a year ago.

A leave for their arraignment was granted by the court on February 17, 2011. However, following their non-appearance to take their plea on January 23, the court warned it would strike out the case if the EFCC failed again to bring them to court.

When the case was called yesterday, Kauna Peziki of the EFCC applied for a bench warrant against the accused and requested for more time to prosecute the case.

In his ruling, Justice Abubakar Sadiq Umar said the prosecution has failed to diligently prosecute the case.

"The court has the duty to discharge its duties diligently; court business is a very serious business. Court should not be turned into a warehouse of keeping moribund cases," the judge said.

"It has been over a year now and still the EFCC is coming up with excuses; the EFCC should know that if it is not ready to prosecute and bring cases to conclusion, it should not apply for leave of court to arraign anybody," he added.

The Halliburton bribery case involved the funnelling of $180 million in bribes to Nigerian government officials to facilitate natural gas contracts valued at $6 billion.

In 2009, former Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), pleaded guilty and admitted that it paid $180 million in bribes to Nigerian officials to win the $6 billion contracts. Partner companies from Italy, France and Japan were also involved.

The bribes - some delivered in a briefcase stuffed with $100 bills - were paid to officials in Nigeria's executive branch as well as the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp, the U.S. Justice Department said.

At various points, huge sums of money were wired through banks in Amsterdam and New York to accounts in Monaco and Switzerland.

In 2010, London lawyer Jeffrey Tesler, who served as conduit for sharing the bribes, and 72-year-old retired sales executive Wojciech Chodan were extradited from Britain to the US to face charges over the Halliburton case.

But in the same year, the Federal Government withdrew charges earlier filed at a high court in Abuja against Tesler as well as Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, George Mark, Hans George Christ, Heinrich J. Stockhausen and Bilfinger Berger GMBH.

Chodan pleaded guilty in December 2010, while Tesler also pleaded guilty in March last year. They were sentenced last month, along with ex-KBR chief Albert Stanley, who was also convicted in the bribery scam. Tesler, 63, received the harshest punishment of 21 months imprisonment.

In a reaction to the Abuja court ruling that stuck out the case against Aliyu and the others yesterday, the EFCC said it would consult with its legal team on the way forward.

"EFCC will study the ruling and seek legal advice from our counsel on the way forward," spokesman for the commission, Wilson Uwujaren, told Daily Trust.

Daily Trust

EFCC drops charges against Dick Cheney

KBR former CEO sentenced to 30 years in prison for bribing Nigerian officials

Monday, March 26, 2012

German engineer kidnapped in Nigeria

The kidnap of a German engineer, Edgar Fritz Raupach, in Kano has developed into a knotty issue for Nigeria’s security agencies, following claims that it was carried out by Al Qaeda.

THISDAY learnt that hitherto, the security agencies worked on the theory that Boko Haram was the only terrorist group in Northern Nigeria, but indications are now very strong that this may not be true.

It was even believed that Boko Haram was working in conjunction with Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a faction of Al Qaeda.

Raupach, who works with Dantata and Sawoe, was abducted from one of the company's road building projects on a bridge on the outskirts of the city since January 26.

A purported spokesman of Al Qaeda later said the group was responsible for the kidnap and the group is now demanding that German authorities should release a Muslim woman, Oum Seif Allah Al Ansari, who they said was being subjected to inhumane treatment in a German prison.

Boko Haram is not known to carry out kidnappings and promptly denied claims that it was responsible for the kidnap and eventual deaths of a Briton and an Italian in Sokoto State early this month.

The kidnap of Raupach has led to a manhunt mounted by a combined team of security operatives in the country.

The police said they had no immediate "clear suspicions" as to who were behind the kidnap.

However, AQIM, based in North Africa, last Wednesday, declared that it was responsible for the abduction.

The statement by the group was published by a Mauritanian news portal, Nouakchott Infor-mation Agency website, a medium which has always been used by the group to send messages. The statement published on Wednes-day by the AQIM is demanding the release of Al Ansari

THISDAY gathered at the weekend that Nigerian security chiefs are concerned about the latest development especially the link with Al Qaeda.

They have launched investigation into the Al Qaeda claim and the “swap” demand by the group. They are also looking at the possibility of the faction having a different command structure.

Meanwhile, there was a reported excitement in the camp of Boko Haram leader, Sheikh Abubakar Shekau, over the reported death of a factional militant leader, Abu Mohammed.

Intelligence sources confirmed to THISDAY last night that the Shekau group indirectly helped with the information that led to the location of the hostages held by the Mohammed group in Sokoto, although the rescue operation failed as the two foreigners were killed by their captors.

The Shekau faction of the Boko Haram might have inadvertently given the intelligence that led to the arrests of Mohammed and his “fellow traitors” in Adamawa, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto and Kebbi States during a Shura Council (the highest decision-making body) meeting in Layin Hanwa, Zaria, and the subsequent failed rescue mission in Mabera Estate in Sokoto.

Mohammed broke away and ran a faction of the Boko Haram until he was arrested March 7, 2012 after a gun battle with security agents.

He died March 9 from gunshot wounds. Other suspects may be taken to court next week.
Security sources said Mohammed’s men appeared well-trained and organised, with weapons and armoury that security agents were still trying to unravel their origin.

This sophistication of the faction, apparently aided externally, readily showed in their ability to keep the two hostages away from the extensive security hunt for 10 months.

This dents the claim by the security agencies that they had acquired equipment that could track terrorists anywhere in Nigeria.

This Day

Murderers of British and Italian hostages explain their reason for killing them

Five hostages taken from oil rig

Nigeria loses $20bn in oil theft yearly

Every year, Nigeria loses about 40 million metric tonnes of petroleum products amounting to about $20 billion (N3 trillion) to crude oil theft and illegal bunkering, Mr Leke Oyewole, a Senior Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Maritime Affairs has said.
Oyewole made this known in Lagos, on Sunday, in an interview on a Channels Television programme tagged ‘Sunday Business’.

He said the loss was sequel to sharp practices characterised by numerous leakages, adulteration of products, as well as diversion of refined imported products by some of the players in the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry.

The presidential aide, who stated further that the estimated loss was what obtained as of 2009, said diversion of petroleum products to neighbouring African countries by fuel importers amounted to a drain on the nation’s foreign exchange, adding that employment opportunities were being left to nationals of countries where fuel was being imported.

He pointed out that it was in order to put a stop to the revenue haemorr-hage arising from these leakages that President Goodluck Jonathan was resolute on the deregulation of the oil sector.

“Deregulation will allow investment in refineries, which will in turn create jobs in Nigeria and pave the way for export of products to other countries around us.

“Nigeria cannot claim to be poorer than Ghana or Chad where fuel is sold for about N170 per litre. Total removal of subsidy will enable the government to save more money for capital projects. Beyond that, it will minimise smuggling of the products across borders,” he said.

According to him, the porous nature of the country’s waterways also provided a lee way for unscrupulous importers to short-change government, by not paying duties to relevant government agencies.

“Our waterways are currently not so well monitored by the relevant maritime agencies. For instance, most of the vessels bringing products to Nigeria do not pay a dime to government, either though the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) or Customs. This constitutes serious revenue losses to the economy,” he added.

The presidential aide said although Customs had been told not to collect import duties from vessels coming into the country, its officials had the task of rummaging the vessels, adding that NIMASA and NPA ought to collaborate to address issues in the offshore operations in the oil industry and mitigate the insecurity arising therefrom.

Nigeria Tribune

Ship with 5000 tons of stolen oil seized by Nigerian forces

Nigerian government signs deal with U.S. electric company GE

The Federal Government and GE Energy, weekend, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, for a $10 billion to be invested in various power plants with combined capacity of 10,000 Megawatts, MW.

Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, insisted that the cost had not been padded or inflated in any way, as globally, it costs $100 million to generate 1,000MW of electricity.

Some sections of the media had reported that GE was constructing a 10,000MW plant in Nigeria.

But, at the agreement signing at the Nigerian High Commission in London, Prof. Nnaji, told journalists that GE only agreed to take up at least 15 per cent equity in each of the plants to be constructed.

He noted that GE's support was the highest expression of investment support for government's target to achieve 40,000MW generation capacity by 2020.

He said: "To have a company willing to work with us on delivering 10,000MW is a show of confidence in Mr President's vision. Even if the equity is one per cent, it is still significant because it will take us somewhere. And, with 15 per cent, Federal Government will provide the balance."

He clarified that government will not be involved in any of the projects, but will provide guarantees for the private sector participants.

According to him, "The local content will be huge because GE and any other foreign investor must have local partners."

Previous agreements

He explained that what government and GE had signed after a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja, was a series of general agreements for support in various sectors of the economy including power, transportation especially rail, and health.

"What we are doing is the culmination of a series of work done, some behind-the-scenes, and some in the open. With the meeting between President Jonathan and the Chairman of GE last month in Abuja, there was a narrowing of areas of focus for the country and GE to collaborate on specific areas of focus.

"Accordingly, GE developed MoUs specific to the various sectors, and today, the MoU we are signing relates to power alone."

Agreeing that $10 billion was very ambitious in the face of cash crunch at the international capital market, Nnaji said with GE's cash and government's bank guarantees, the projects will become more bankable, as investors can approach financial institutions to raise funds.

He noted that the relationship between the Nigerian government and GE was a long-term one, as the energy company has moved from just being a supplier of power equipments in Nigeria, to an equity investor.

Vanguard

President Goodluck Jonathan promises steady power before May 2015