Fani Kayode Run to the PDP out of fear for the EFFC - Tinubu

Former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, says Femi Fani-Kayode, left the All Progressives Congress for the PDP because the party refused to influence the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to drop the charges against him. In statement released through his media aide, Sunday Dare, the APC chieftain, alleged that since Fani-Kayode returned to the PDP and became the spokesman for President Jonathan's Campaign Organisation, 38 of the 40 charges against him for alleged money laundering have been dropped. Bola Tinubu helped build the great platform for change; he wholeheartedly supports the APC ticket because he believes it is the last best hope to rescue Nigeria from the disaster Fani-Kayode and his ilk will want to continue. "I pray Nigerians will not allow them to misgovern us a day past May 29. If Fani-Kayode pretends not to know of Tinubu’s efforts to build and support the APC, it comes as no surprise. Fani-Kayode tried before to be part of the party but left when he found out there was no room for his games. Because the APC could not help to free him from the EFCC and the aviation fraud, he ran away to the party that blocked the EFCC on his behalf. "That Fani-Kayode is the best a ruling party can present as a spokesman speaks volumes about the PDP. They are bereft of talent and character. They are filled with lies and chicanery. Fani-Kayode is simply the worst and most outspoken of a bad lot. However, we welcome his interventions. They are of such low quality and base character. His utterances frighten people but not in the way Fani-Kayode intended. "Instead of scaring people away from the APC, his work scares people that someone so unfit is so close to the seat of power, someone so unhinged is given free rein to spit bile and call that public discourse. One must wonder who is unbalanced, the misfit or he who hires him. Keep at it Fani-Kayode. Continue! "Fani-Kayode is not as smart as he thinks. If you read between the lines of his hysteria, you see another extreme sentiment: that of surging desperation. His statement indicates that even he now realises that his paymaster has lost to Buhari/Osinbajo. "The game is over. The whistle has blown. What the fantasy man seeks to do is change the game. He seeks to run against Tinubu in hopes the outcome will be better. Fani-Kayode now grasps at straws in the night wind."

How Jonathan, IBB, Are Plotting Interim Govt Instead Of Presidential Polls

More details are emerging on the plot to install an undemocratic Interim National Government (ING) and pre-empt Nigeria’s presidential election scheduled for later this month. Informed sources disclosed over the weekend that a key element in the plot is the need to forestall a Buhari presidency, for which reason the schemers of the plot have tried to woo the former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, now a chieftain of the opposing All Progressives Congress (APC) with the offer of being the Vice President in the interim structure. Even though there are now major obstacles to the plan, it is yet unclear if the schemers have completely set the idea aside. If Tinubu accepts, then he will be expected to rally the South-West, while IBB would rally the North, and Jonathan the South-East and South-South to accept the idea of an interim administration. They will use the excuse that the present times are not good to hold elections in the country, especially because of what David Mark had already called a state of war with Boko Haram. But it was Tinubu’s rejection of any form of compromise that now appears to be the greatest obstacle to the ING plot. Sources say this explains the recent outburst of Femi Fani-Kayode, the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign spokesperson alleging that the former Lagos State Governor intends to take over presidential power after the generally-awaited victory of the Buhari-Osinbajo campaign at the polls. Fani-Kayode wildly alleged that Tinubu has entered into an oath to compel Osinbajo to relinquish the office of VP to him after the election, an allegation and scenario that watchers of the Nigerian polity simply dismiss as both untenable and unrealistic. Investigations spanning over one week by Empowered Newswire on the interim government plot revealed that the two major schemers in the plot are the President himself, Dr. Jonathan, and former Military president Ibrahim Babangida. IBB, as he is popularly known, has told close aides that he would have to leave Nigeria the day Buhari is declared winner of the presidential election, a prospect he is working hard to avoid by all means. Jonathan is also said to be under intense pressure to negotiate a soft landing for from power since handing over to Buhari would likely expose the intense corruption that he and the Petroleum Minister Diezani Maduekwe, among others, have perpetrated. In fact the oil minister is said to be one of the hardest protagonists of a soft landing for the Jonathan presidency, mortally afraid of what a Buhari-Osinbajo ascendancy could mean for her. Knowledgeable Empowered Newswire sources confirm that IBB held two meetings with Tinubu to discuss the issue of the Interim National Government. The first was held in Lagos before the Council of State meeting the week before the February 14 elections were postponed. The second took place in Abuja home of IBB’s son on the night of the said Council of State meeting. The sources said that for the first meeting, IBB told Tinubu he had a wedding in Lagos and would like to use that opportunity to greet the former Lagos State Governor. Arriving with his son, he told Tinubu about the need to proceed with an interim government and forget about the election. Tinubu, who was shocked at the proposition, reportedly told IBB to forget the idea. But on the night after the Council of State meeting in Abuja which considered the subject of the readiness of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct the election, IBB again invited Tinubu to his son’s house in Abuja. At that meeting, former Head of State General Abdusalami was also present, and to the utter shock and annoyance of the former Lagos State Governor, President Jonathan showed up in a two-car convoy in the thick of the night. It was at that meeting that IBB and Jonathan promised Tinubu the slot of the Vice President in the Interim government. The sources say Tinubu promptly repeated his rejection of the idea, insisting that the elections are the best and only viable option to choose Nigeria’s next president and vice president. The interim government plan includes the cancellation of the elections and the imposition of a well-known Northerner as the head of the administration, with Tinubu as VP. The interim government will be put in place for two years, following which new elections would be conducted, with the definite exclusion of Buhari. Another source revealed to Empowered Newswire that some of the names that have been mentioned as possible heads of the interim government include David Mark, the president of the Senate; General Aliyu Gusau, the current Defence Minister who has always wished to be president “even if for a day”; and Abdusalami Abubakar, also a former head of state. All three are known allies of IBB. But the name of former president Olusegun Obasanjo was also thrown into the picture when a formal statement from the presidency signed by Dr. Ruben Abati said Obasanjo himself wanted to be head of the Interim govt. Observers say that formal statement by the president’s spokesperson is the best confirmation that indeed interim governmentG plot is real. Said one source, “If the presidency is saying they know that Obasanjo wanted to be the head of the Interim government, that means the presidency is not only aware of such plans, but is also involved in such a plot.” There had been previous attempts including monetary and other juicy offers to get Tinubu to prevent the emergence of Buhari in the primaries, and after that, to have Tinubu dump Buhari and enter into a deal with Jonathan to frustrate the potential emergence of Buhari as winner of the presidential polls. Sources believe that the recent wild allegation from the Jonathan camp that Tinubu was planning to force Osinbajo to relinquish the office of VP after being sworn-in is merely an outcome of the frustration generated first by Tinubu’s insistence that the elections must go on; his rejection of the offer from Jonathan to be VP of an Interim government for two years; and finally his insistence never to dump Buhari. It is believed that Prof Osinbajo, Buhari’s running mate, has actually never been asked to sign any undertaking or oath of any kind and that he accepted the party and Buhari’s offer to be VP unconditionally. Both he and the APC also over the weekend formally denied any such arrangements. In the absence of a key figure in the South-West to support and sell the idea of an Interim government, sources said options left on the table is to ensure the elections are “decently rigged” in favor of Jonathan or a crisis precipitated that will lead to Jonathan handing over power to David Mark as the Senate President, as was the case in the First Republic when power devolved to Senator Nwafor Orizu in the absence of the then President Nnamdi Azikiwe. In that scenario, in 1966, the elected civilian leaders had to voluntarily hand over power to the military. Speculations, backed by a comment by the Supervising Minister of Information Edem Duke, are rife that the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, may be asked to proceed on terminal leave sometime this month in line with civil service rules. This option, sources say, would boost the plan to “decently rig the election” in the incumbent president’s favor. But several legal opinions have been articulated that not only will such a move by the federal government to remove Jega be unconstitutional, it would also rubbish the credibility of the entire electoral process and will result in a definite tailspin into national and international crisis. - See more at: http://247nigerianewsupdate.co/how-jonathan-ibb-are-plotting-interim-govt-instead-of-presidential-polls/#sthash.EW44UYZ9.dpuf

Nigerians Beware! Jonathan procures N11 billion equipment to tap your phones

Nigeria’s active 120 million GSM subscribers need to know this: The Nigeria Police, the State Security Service [SSS] and the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited [NIGCOMSAT] are, on behalf of the Nigerian government, possibly hacking your phones and listening in to your conversations. The three state agencies are able to do this with the aid of an over N11 billion sophisticated equipment procured and installed for them by President Goodluck Jonathan. Knowing what Nigerians are discussing over the telephone was too important a necessity for Mr. Jonathan that he awarded two different contracts for the same purpose in less than two months interval. On August 31, 2010, less than six months after he became acting president, Mr. Jonathan awarded an approximately N6billion contract to an Israeli-owned but Abuja-based security firm, V & V Nigeria Limited, for the “Procurement of strategic GSM Tracking System for the Nigeria Police Force and expansion/upgrade of the existing system with the DSS”. The project, awarded to the contractor by the Ministry of Police Affairs, was jointly hosted by the Nigeria Police and Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), under the Nigeria Police Reform Programme. Less than two months after – October 21, 2010 – another N2.61 billion contract was awarded by the same Ministry of Police Affairs “for the procurement of Strategic GSM Tracking and Interception Systems for the Department of State Services, under the Nigeria Police Reform”. This other contract, which appears a duplicate of the first, was awarded to a British security firm, Gamma TSE Limited, which, according to the information on its website, “manufactures highly specialized surveillance vehicles and integrated surveillance systems, helping government agencies collect data and communicate it to key decision-makers for timely decisions to be made”. The two clearly similar projects were however neither budgeted for nor listed among contracts approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in 2010. They were also not captured in the government’s budget implementation reports for that year. There is also no indication that the contracts complied with Nigeria’s public procurement law, which requires competitive bidding for government contracts of that magnitude. Yet there was a separate project in the 2010 budget by the Nigeria Police Force (not the Ministry of Police Affairs) for “the procurement of GSM interception and tracking equipment installed in 10 configured vehicles (security/criminal intelligence)” for which N2.5billion was budgeted. It is not clear whether this other project was executed at the time, but it was also not captured in the budget implementation report as well as FEC approvals for the year. Insiders at the State Security Service, the Nigerian Police and the NIGCOMSAT said while Gamma TSE delivered on the contract awarded to it, they were not sure that V & V, linked to a top politician from the South-South, performed satisfactorily. Gamma TSE could not be reached for comments. Repeated telephone calls to its London office were neither answered nor returned. V & V also declined to comment when contacted by PREMIUM TIMES. The official, who answered the call made to the company’s Abuja office, directed all enquiries on the project to the Ministry of Police Affairs. But the spokesperson for the Ministry of Police Affairs, James Odaudu, also declined comments, just like his counterpart at NIGCOMSAT, Sonny Aragba-Akpore. Both officials said they should not be expected to divulge details about security-related installations. Details about these new surveillance contracts emerged about 22 months after PREMIUM TIMES exposed a similar $40 million surveillance contract the administration secretly, also in open violation of lawful contracting procedures, awarded to an Israeli firm, Elbit Systems, with headquarters in Haifa. At the time, Nigerian rights activists considered the project one of the most far-reaching policies ever designed in the country’s history to invade the privacy of citizens. The clandestine programme allows the government spy on citizens’ computers and Internet communications and emails under the guise of intelligence gathering and national security. Embarrassed by the widespread national outrage that arose after this newspaper exclusively exposed the secret contract, the presidency had summoned the management of Elbit Systems for a meeting to explain why the contract should not be revoked after it allegedly breached a confidential clause in the contract. In May 2013, the House of Representatives asked the federal government to suspend the contract, saying it was awarded in breach of the Fiscal Responsibility Act and that the deployment of such spy equipment would violate citizens’ constitutional rights. The House then ordered the immediate suspension of the project to allow its Committees on Information and Computer Technology, Human Rights, and National Security, to conduct an inquiry. The House is however yet to make the outcome of its enquiry public, and the project has since gone ahead. Intelligence sources say the Internet Spy device has since come alive. The spying on telephone and Internet communications of citizens is continuing despite the country not having any law in place to regulate such undertakings by the nation’s security agencies. The Cybercrime Bill 2014, which allows a measure of communication interception, is yet to be passed into law by the National Assembly. Part 3 Section 22 of the Bill, which deals with Interception of electronic communications, says: “Where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the content of any electronic communication is reasonably required for the purposes of a criminal investigation or proceedings, a Judge may on the basis of information on oath: (a) order a service provider, through the application of technical means to collect, record, permit or assist competent authorities with the collection or recording of content data associated with specified communications transmitted by means of a computer system; or (b) authorize a law enforcement officer to collect or record such data through application or technical means.” However, the bill, initiated by the presidency, was passed in December by the Senate but it only scaled second reading in the House of Representatives on Tuesday and was referred to the House committees on justice and information for further scrutiny. When eventually passed by both chambers, it would be harmonised and then sent to the President for assent. CREDIT > PREMIUM TIMES

Nigerian lawmakers give govt one week to submit full report of audit on missing $20billion

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has again requested the Federal Government to avail his committee the full report of the forensic audit done on the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation by Price Water Coopers, PWC, to enable it perform its constitutional duty as enshrined under Section 85 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic. The lawmakers gave the government one week to make the report available to their committee. According ‎to the committee’s chairman, Solomon Adeola, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, several weeks had passed with several demands made for the report without success. He said it took a public outcry before snippets of the reports in a “highly condensed version was released to the Press by the Auditor General”. He stated this in a press statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES after a press briefing alongside members of his committee in Abuja on Wednesday. The committee frowned at the role of the Ministry of Finance in the commissioning and appointment of auditors “without the involvement of the Auditor General whose office is eminently and exclusively empowered for the duty by the 1999 Constitution”. Mr. Adeola said by virtue of Section 85(6) of the Constitution, the auditor general ought not to be directed by Mr. President to deal with the report in a particular manner. The lawmaker said for yet unclear reasons, no reference whatsoever was made to the need to send the report to the National Assembly where the Public Accounts Committee is empowered and equipped to deal with it as constitutionally required adding that the PAC “hereby request that the full report on the Forensic Audit by PWC, which must include the initial Draft Report, Executive Summary, management/internal Control Letters be forwarded to the national Assembly not later than one week”.

Nigerian Army To Promote Soldiers Fighting Insurgency

The Nigerian Army on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 announced a special promotion for all soldiers involved in liberating Baga in Borno from Boko Haram insurgents.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minimah, announced the promotion while addressing the soldiers during an official visit to Baga in Kukawa Local Government Area.
Minimah said the promotion was to reward the soldiers for their gallant effort in flushing out the insurgents.
He added that soldiers who died in the battle with the insurgents would also be promoted posthumously.
The entire country is singing praises of Nigerian soldiers for the bravery exhibited in the fight against the insurgents.
I urge you to keep the tempo by striving hard to record more successes, Minimah said.
He expressed optimism that insurgency would end in the next couple of weeks.
Never again will Nigerians suffer this kind of large scale destruction in the name of insurgency, Minimah said.
He said his visit was aimed at boosting the soldiers’ morale and building more confidence in them.
The war is almost ended, we will liberate Dikwa, Bama, Gwoza, Marte and other places in a few days time, Minimah said.
He advised Nigerians to support the military in its quest to end the insurgency.
Nigerians should maintain confidence with Nigerian armed forces. They should support our military because there is no other.
War is war. War does not often come out in favour of any one. In fact, it is the end that justifies the means.
The war, as it stands, has turned out for the good of Nigerian Armed Forces, and God willing, in a matter of time, it will be over.
So, I encourage Nigerians to support their military, Minimah emphasised.
He said that the six weeks offered by the Federal Government for the military to clear the insurgents was achievable, going by the recent developments.
t is achievable; we are still within the time frame. But six weeks should not be taken that everything must be attained because this is war, he added.
Minimah assured that the military would strive harder to ensure the return of peace to all the affected areas in a short while.