658 Lagos pensioners get N2.27bn

Lagos State said it had given out Retirement Benefit Bond Certificates worth N2.17bn to 658 retirees in the state as part of efforts to ensure comfortable future for them.

A statement obtained from the Lagos State Pension Commission on Sunday, said the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, who was represented by his deputy, Dr. Idiat Adebule, made the presentation to the retirees.

“For retires in the state, Local Government and SUBEB, a total number of 428 retirees already had accrued rights for a total sum of N1.5bn credited into their RSA (Retirement Savings Account). In essence, for the 18th batch retirement bond presentation ceremony, the state has expended the sum of N2.27bn on a total number of 658 retirees,” he said.

He stated that since the inception of the Contributory Pension Scheme in the country, Lagos had continued to be in the forefront of ensuring efficient and effective pension scheme administration.

With the 18th retirement benefit bond certificate presentation, a total liability of N761.82m was absorbed by the State Government on behalf of 230 retirees from 12 State Government Parastatals, he said.

The Director-General, Lagos State Pension Commission, Mrs. Folashade Onanuga, said it was the practice of the Lagos State Pension Board to issue bond certificates to public servants who have retired from the mainstream service, primary and secondary schools and also from Local Government establishments.

She also noted that all those who had retired in the state but were yet to receive their entitlements would soon be paid.

“The Lagos Sate Government has consistently funded Retirement Bond Redemption Fund Account with an amount equal to five per cent of the total monthly personnel cost of the active workers,” she said.

According to her, the retirement benefit bond certificates indicate the accrued pension rights made up of gratuity and pension entitlements for active service rendered before the commencement of the CPS in April 2007.

Nigeria wins Tunisia 2015 Afrobasket

The Nigeria senior basketball team, D’tigers, has emerged the African champion after beating the defending champion Angola, at the finals of the 2015 Afrobasket with 65 – 74.

The team emerged champion of the tournament for the first time ever as they create a record for the Nation.

The game started on a low-key note for the Nigerian team when the first quarter ends 13 – 10 in favour of the Angolans, the game changed when Olumide Oyedeji was substituted for Chamberlain Oguchi after he was roughly tackled.

Nigeria bounced back with speed to win the second quarter after resisting the physically strong Angolans, they later played 24 – 37 to end the quarter. However, the Angolans nailed their own coffin in the game by conceding a lot of fouls which was twice as much as the D’tigers’.

Naij.com sports recalled, the Nigerian team were bundled out of the 2013 Afrobasket at the Quarter-finals after putting up a shambolic performance. The introduction of Will Voights, an American Coach seems to be the ace as the team which comprised of 80% of the same boys that  played in 2013 became triumphant.

Third Quarter ended 36 – 51 as the Angolans appeared demoralized. Fourth quarter ended 65 – 74 which dethroned the Angolans as Nigeria took over the basketball throne in Africa.

Nigerian guard, Chamberlain Oguchi was awarded the tournament MVP and best 3 Point shooter, while Minnesota Timberwolves and Senegal’s rebound machine Gorgui Dieng won the best Rebounder and Scoring titles.

100 days of Buhari

As President Muhammadu Buhari marks his first 100 days in office, we note with joy the positive atmosphere that has enveloped the nation and the renewed hope and optimism it has engendered among Nigerians that ‘change’ has indeed come and that we have begun the journey to achieving our deferred dream of making Nigeria a great country. Since after Nigeria’s independence in 1960, never has there been such a groundswell of optimism in our collective ability to resurrect the ‘crippled and sleeping giant’ of a nation and begin to position it to achieve its manifest destiny of being the voice of and leading Africa and the black world.

Right from the day of his swearing-in, President Buhari made it clear that this would be a new beginning for the country and that he would wage a relentless war against insecurity, corruption and impunity. True to his words, he set about almost immediately on a shuttle diplomacy to rally Nigeria’s neighbours to act in concert to defeat the Boko Haram insurgents that had been terrorising the country and, recently, neighbouring countries. He visited Chad, Niger, and Cameroon, and hosted a summit on the Lake Chad Basin Commission. These visits achieved the important aim of starting and deploying the Multi National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) with headquarters in N’Djamena, Chad, to comprehensively tackle the Boko Haram menace. Between these, he also travelled to Germany, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States – all aimed at winning key supports, assistance and friends for the country in the fight against insurgency.

Expectedly, the president wasted no time in sounding the battle cry in the war against corruption and impunity, which many Nigerians have identified as among the main reasons for our national malaise. Through his body language and some concrete steps taken, like the change of guards at the NNPC and other institutions, the president indicated clearly that it would no longer be business as usual and that his administration would vigorously pursue and prosecute corrupt and erring officials. He has been particularly successful in building a national consensus against, and intolerance of, corruption and impunity encompassing the media, civil society groups and the general public. He is also determined to see to the recovery of looted funds stashed in foreign accounts/countries by corrupt government officials and has sought the help of the international community, particularly the United States and United Kingdom, to achieve this.

However, we are constrained to point out that despite the groundswell of support for the war on corruption and the posturing of the administration in this area, no one has as yet been charged to court for corruption. What appears to be happening is a carefully orchestrated campaign of calumny, terror, and media trial that may not conform to the rule of law.

For instance, there was a media blitz against the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, to the effect that he purchased fake military hardware and could not account for a large cache of funds meant for the purchase of military equipment. This led to a commando-like storming of his house in Abuja and his father’s house in Sokoto by the Department of State Security with all the drama that went with it. To our utmost shock, when he was charged to court, he was only charged over offences relating to possession of firearms without licence and not the corruption/mismanagement the administration had earlier touted. This is a dangerous signal. Government must stop the smear campaign and media trials on citizens and take its cases to the courts if there is evidence of corruption on anyone.

Again, even after several denials, and despite our best efforts to ignore the trend, the president’s appointments thus far have shown a tendency towards provincialism, and this is already generating tension among Nigerians, on social media and elsewhere. We are strictly in favour of merit-based appointments as sine qua non for the country to move forward. However, we urge the president to take into account the fragile nature of Nigeria’s unity and extend his searchlight to other sections of the country as he seeks to appoint only highly qualified people of good repute and integrity.

It can bear stressing that President Buhari is not the president of Northern Nigeria alone and must not allow himself to be seen as such. We recall the resounding line in his inaugural speech: “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody”. We, therefore, urge the president to live up to the letter and spirit of those words and not fritter the goodwill that came with his elections and the early days of his administration. Understandably, many people in his party are now angry and embarrassed at what they termed his unilateral and sectional appointments and actions. As one of the president’s backers recently commented on social media, “A president who ran for election on the mantra of change can’t continue the tradition of invidiously clannish appointments and expect to continue to enjoy national goodwill.”

All said, we agree with Gregory Kronsten, an analyst, that “the president has been very active in the three months since the handover on 29 May”. Even though he has not appointed his ministers, he has, however, “wielded the axe at leading public agencies and indicated policy preferences for a number of industries such as textiles and aviation”.

Going forward, we urge the president to seize the opportunity of the moment to build a national consensus and unite the entire country around the quest for growth and development. The clock is ticking.

How civil servant allegedly stole N103 million meant for feeding students in Federal Govt. Colleges

An official of the Federal Pay Office, Abeokuta, is currently assisting investigators from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, to recover over N100m meant for the use of three government colleges in Ogun State, which he diverted for personal use.

The suspect, Olusegun Lawal, stole the funds budgeted for students’ meal subsidies and also payment of contractors carrying out developmental projects in the three schools.

The schools affected are Federal Government College, Odogbolu, Federal Government Girls College, Sagamu, and Federal Science Technical College, Ijebu-Mushin.

The suspect, over a two-year period, carried out an elaborate scam, whereby funds channelled to the three schools were diverted through the use of companies operated by him and his cronies.

Between February, 2014, and March, 2015, Mr. Lawal allegedly diverted the monies sent to the three schools via the Zenith Bank account of the Pay Office and another Central Bank of Nigeria account and utilized the funds for personal purposes.

The amount he allegedly stole through the pay office account with Zenith is N61, 150, 691.75 while he also diverted a total of N42, 520, 755. 00 from the CBN account.

In all, he stole a total of N103, 671, 466. 75.

Apparently, Mr. Lawal came up with the ingenious scheme to divert the schools’ funds after the other official signatory of the accounts operated by the pay office, one Mrs. Iyabode, was redeployed from the Abeokuta office in 2012.

Mr. Lawal neither informed the relevant authorities of Mrs. Iyabode’s transfer nor did he ask for another co-signatory to be deployed or assigned to the school.

Subsequently, Mr. Lawal alone regularly signed checks for withdrawals of funds from the two accounts, contrary to civil service rules.

The elaborate scam that Mr. Lawal allegedly orchestrated involved the setting up of fake companies, opening an account for them and then the transfer of huge sums into the accounts purportedly for either supplying food or executing contracts.

Some of the companies investigators said he established to defraud the system are Oris Fish Industry Nigeria Ltd, SOG Best Concept, Oris Farms and Food and Toyinlolu Gbade and Sons.

Checks at the Corporate Affairs Commission show that none of the companies was registered to do any kind of business.

The companies received various bulk sums of money from the suspect at various times between February 2014 and March 2015 for undisclosed jobs.

While the elaborate fraud was going on, developmental projects were stalled at the three schools due to lack of funds to pay the relevant contractors.

The schools also could not subsidize the feeding of their students and staff due to financial difficulties occasioned by the diversion of funds allocated to them by the federal government.

When officials of the schools approached the suspect to know why they were not receiving monies due to them, they were told by Mr. Lawal that the government had not remitted the statutory funds into the pay office accounts.

Investigations revealed that whenever the bursars of the affected schools raised vouchers for the schools’ financial needs and sent same to Mr. Lawal to credit the institutions’ accounts as was the usual practice, Mr. Lawal always claimed that he had not received any funds from the federal government.

Matters, however, got to a head when contractors started abandoning ongoing projects due to the inability of the schools to fund such work.

Perhaps, unconvinced by the weak explanations given by Mr. Lawal, the principal of one of the affected schools was said to have made independent investigations to find out why the schools were no longer receiving funds via the pay office.

She was said to have also travelled to the Federal Ministry of Education and later to the Accountant General of the Federation, AGF’s office in Abuja where, curiously, the AGF’s office initially did nothing until the pressure and complaints from the schools became unbearable. That was when the office forwarded a petition to the ICPC, which launched an immediate investigation into the alleged scam.

The initial findings of ICPC revealed a shocking scheme whereby the suspect regularly moved funds meant for the three schools from the pay office account and the CBN dedicated account into account owned by fictitious companies.

This led to his subsequent arrest by the operatives of the commission.

He was said to have confessed to the crime while promising to refund the looted funds.

As at last week, the ICPC, it was learnt, had recovered about N50 million from the suspect.

Investigations reveal that the suspect has equally paid N26, 237, 603.40 into the Federal Pay Office account, using one of his companies, SOG Best, to issue the payment.

With a total amount of N76, 237, 603.40 already refunded by the suspect, he is yet to account for the balance of N27, 433, 843.35.

Mr. Lawal has been granted administrative bail by the ICPC to enable him pay back all the money he allegedly stole. Even as officials try to recoup the stolen funds from him, there are so many questions still begging for answers.

What kind of system allows a civil servant divert so much funds for so long without raising suspicion? How did a key signatory to an account be transferred from his/her post without being replaced? So many questions but few answers.

Attempts to get the principals of the schools to speak on the matter were fruitless as they declined comments. A. N. Bassey – Duke, the principal of the Federal Governement College, Odogbolu and A.A. Owolabi, principal of the Federal Government Girls College, Sagamu, said they were civil servants and directed the reporter to the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja.

When our reporter visited the ministry to seek explanations, he was directed to meet the deputy director, Press and Public Relations, Olu Lipede, who however was not available for comments.

However, an assistant in the Press/Public Relations Unit of the ministry, who simply identified himself as Abubakar, said he was not aware of the details of the case so could not comment.

“I can’t comment on a case I don’t even know anything about. And certainly I can’t even issue an official statement without the express permission of my boss or the ministry,” he said.

The reporter also made efforts to get officials of the office of the Accountant-General to comment on the matter and explain the delay in acting on the initial petition it received but no one was ready to talk to him.

The deputy director, Press and Public Relations, Kenechukwu Offie, took down the reporter’s enquiries and promised to get back to him.

In a telephone interaction a few hours later, she said the office would not comment on a matter still under investigation.

She added that at the appropriate time, when investigations have been concluded by the ICPC, the OAGF would issue a statement if it deemed it necessary.

Protect Nigeria from Global Economic Crisis-IMF tells FG

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ms. Christine Lagarde, has advised that the Federal Government should take further steps to protect Nigeria from the adverse effects of the crises in the global economy.

Lagarde, who gave the advice on Monday in Abuja while meeting President Goodluck Jonathan however informed the President that the feedback she had received from the IMF team which recently undertook a review of the Federal Government’s economic programme was “very positive”.

The IMF Managing Director said that the IMF team had been very impressed with the Government’s prioritization of job creation, agriculture, power supply, education and health-care.

President Jonathan had said his Administration remains totally committed to engineering a positive transformation of the Nigerian economy that will ensure that the country becomes a much bigger player in the global economy as envisioned in its Vision 20:2020.

He said that the team established to oversee the implementation of the administration’s economic agenda will receive all the political support it requires to ensure that the objective of significantly improving the national economy is attained.

“We are totally committed to changing things in Nigeria. Our vision is that by the year 2020, Nigeria will have become a much bigger player in the global economy.  We have established a good team and we will give them the full political backing they need to succeed,” the President said.

Noting that Nigerians had become wary and skeptical of dealings with the IMF in the aftermath of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), President Jonathan said that he believed that the IMF was now a changed institution which could contribute positively to the economies of Nigeria and other developing nations.

“I believe the present IMF is different. Our emphasis is on poverty alleviation and job creation. We are also looking at ways of improving education and health-care delivery.  I believe we can work together constructively,” he said.

Reviewing international developments with Ms. Lagarde, President Jonathan said that he believed that the IMF had a key role to play in resolving the ongoing crises in the global economy, noting that events in the developed economies were bound to affect developing countries.

Nigeria has highest number of displaced persons – UN

The highest number of displaced people in the world are in Nigeria, the United Nations has said.

According to the UN, the continued rise in the number of displaced persons in Nigeria was largely due to the destructive activities perpetuated by the terrorists, Boko Haram, in the North Eastern part of the country.

The UN Resident Coordinator for Nigeria, Mr. Daouda Toure, revealed that over 1.5 million people were displaced in Nigeria, adding that there was an urgent need to realise the great extent of responsibility that was associated with this development.

Toure spoke during the 2015 World Humanitarian Day programme organised by the National Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said, “We need to remind everyone that 1.5 million displaced people is one of the biggest figures as we speak today in the world. So the highest number of displaced people today in the world is in Nigeria. It is not in Iraq or in any other part of the world, it is here in Nigeria and we need to do something about it.”

He noted that out of the 1.5 million displaced persons in Nigeria, almost 90 per cent of them were living in displaced persons camp, adding that they need humanitarian assistance from people that were not directly affected by the activities of insurgents.

Toure said, “We need to come and help them have a better future for their children. Many of them have lost their sources of livelihood and it will be difficult for them to find their feet. This is one reason why we should mobilise ourselves and resources to assist those directly affected by the activities of insurgents and is one of the key reasons for the World Humanitarian Day.”

In his address, the Director-General, NEMA, Mr. Sani Sidi, stated that in Nigeria, the Boko Haram insurgency in the North Eastern region constitutes the most challenging crisis for government and humanitarian actors in the recent history of Nigeria.

Sidi, however, observed that to guarantee the safety of the humanitarian workers during service delivery in the North-East, NEMA in liaison with the military had created safe corridors for movement by humanitarian service providers.

He explained that the universal event scheduled for 19th August of every year had been set aside by the UN General Assembly since 2008 to celebrate the gallantry of humanitarian services providers.

“These are people who have lost their lives or survive different threats to live while providing humanitarian services to persons caught on the web of natural or human induced disasters especially in violent conflict situations,” Sidi said.

He added that the August 19 date coincided with the 2003 anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Canal Hotel in Bagdad, Iraq, where 22 people lost their lives including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Iraq, Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello.

“This marked the epoch of dastardly act by terrorists and brought to fore the risk faced by humanitarian officials in different parts of the globe. There is every reason, therefore, to celebrate these heroes of our time,” the NEMA boss added.