Media Advisor to former president Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, has taken to Twitter to ask a very strange question concerning the physical appearance of President Buhari.
See the tweet and the Photo below:
Strange: The New Buhari in The Photo is different from the Old Buhari in the Photo ?
– Reno Omokri Asks
Report reaching us has it that the federal government is currently holding another round of conciliatory meeting with striking Health workers under the aegis of JOHESU.
This second conciliatory meeting is holding after the first meeting which was held on September 27, ended in deadlock.
The meeting is chaired by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige. Ngige and his Ministry of Health-counterpart, Professor Isaac Adewole, are said to be absent at the meeting today. They are represented by the Minister of State for Labour and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health.
The Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) is currently on strike, demanding among other issues, that the government pay earned salary arrears of their members...
Source: Channels Television
PORT HARCOURT- Reports reaching our news desk reveals that, the police is in the news again for the wrong reasons.
There is an ongoing protest in Port-Harcourt, Rivers state capital as result of a trigger-happy policeman shooting and killing a young boy selling pure (sachet) water along Okporo road, Port Harcourt. The boy was reportedly shot by the policeman over declared environmental sanitation in the area of which the said boy failed to obey but instead was seen hawking sachet (pure) water for sale during the said sanitation hours.
Reports have it that an angry mob have already gathered to protest the unfortunate incidence leading to the shooting and eventual murder of the young defenceless lad. As at the time of filing this report, the angry mob are marching towards the Okporo police station with threats to burn down the Okporo Police Station...
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has withdrawn its motion that had sought an order of the Federal High Court in Abuja to allow it serve Dino Melaye the recall petition through substituted service.
The electoral body had sought to serve Melaye's recall petition through substituted means rather than personal service.
Reports have it that Justice Nnamdi Dimgba struck out the motion after INEC’s lawyer, Yunus Ustaz (SAN), announced its withdrawal in court on Thursday, September 28.
The judge also ordered that all issues related to the case be taken to the Court of Appeal.
The judge said all pending applications including the Kogi senator for stay of execution be taken to the Appeal Court since Melaye’s appeal against the court’s judgment had been entered at the Court of Appeal
INEC had filed the motion after it alleged that the senator was dodging the petition and other accompanying documents.
INEC’s lawyer also said the Kogi senator also dodged them during the Senate’s plenary on Tuesday, September 26.
Nkem Okoro who is the counsel to the senator opposed the hearing on the grounds that the court no longer had jurisdiction to hear any application concerning the case since his client’s appeal had been entered at the Court of Appeal.
In the course of the proceeding, INEC’s lawyer withdrew the motion and it was struck out by the judge.
As The wind of restructuring debate continued to sweep across the country, northern states of Kano, Kastina, Jigawa, Nasarawa and Benue, yesterday, gave condition upon which they would support it: retention of a strong Federal Government.
At the North West Zonal Public Hearing on True Federalism held at the Coronation Hall, Kano State Government House, Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje expressed support for “a strong Federal Government founded on a clear responsibility and sufficient resources to guarantee the development of the federating units.”
While restating support for the indivisibility of the country, he cast his vote for a strong Federal Government that would be strengthened to define and set uniform minimum national standards in all facets of national life with the objective of ensuring even spread of social amenities and balanced economy.
His Katsina State counterpart, Governor Aminu Masari equally backed a strong central government. While calling for an arrangement that would recognise the peculiar needs of the different federating units, he said the powers of the central government must not be weakened in the process of the devolution.
He argued that recent agitations, rebellion and insurgency in some parts of the country had all made a case for a strong central government that could deal with such situations, but objected to the creation of additional states.
In its contribution, Jigawa State government also rejected the push for the creation of additional states, saying it made no sense when most of the existing states were not viable.
Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Adamu Abdulkadiri Fanini, who represented the governor, canvassed the idea of independent candidacy in the political process and state police, saying it was well known that most state governments were providing huge support to the police in the area of equipment and logistics.
Jigawa also made a strong case for the devolution of the functions of the Federal Government in the area of agriculture, education, road construction and health while asking for increased allocation to states and local governments.
Kaduna State was not represented at the public hearing chaired by the former governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime and some other top party members of the APC.
In a related development, Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-makura kicked against restructuring that would disintegrate the country.
Speaking during the public consultation of the APC Committee on true federalism, in Plateau, Benue and Nasarawa State, held at the Hill Station Hotel, Jos, he said:
“We will not support those who want restructuring that will balkanise this country, we will kick against those people and they need to think very well. I believe we have come too far to start changing the system. It will be disastrous and unproductive. I don’t share the same opinion with those advocating for disintegration. Those people are using the word restructuring loosely and I don’t want to fall into that trap.
“I want to look at restructuring or true federalism as a way of looking into how our constitution works and making it more effective.”
Director of Research, Planning and Doc**entation, Government House, Jos, Prof. John Wade said there was no going back on restructuring in Nigeria if the country must remain peaceful and united.
But he said restructuring must be done within the confine of the law to douse tension occasioned by current agitations for self-determination by various sections of the country.
On his part, legal adviser of APC in Benue State, Omale Omale, threw his weight behind land tenure administration, devolution of power and local government autonomy.
While not opposed to restructuring, Niger State governor, Abubakar Sani Bello and presidential spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina said the agitations should be geared towards maximising the potential of the various ethnic nationalities rather than how to dismember it.
Both men who spoke at the fifth anniversary lecture of News Express in Lagos urged Nigerians to respect each others rights and have abiding faith in Nigeria in their agitation, because the hallmarks of democracy was the right of people to hold dissenting views.
Governor Bello who was represented by his Chief Press Secretary, Mallam Jubril Ndache, said there were red lines that must not be crossed in the demand for restructuring.
“As we discuss restructuring, we must be aware of the red lines that must not be crossed. The red lines are not because we are afraid but because there are certain basics that must not be toyed with. Our national unity must not be toyed with., breaking Nigeria into smaller units will diminish our relevance, .
“Restructuring must be done with decorum and the realisation that the hallmarks of democracy is the right to hold dissenting views. Niger State is today run on the basis of restructured governance. There is an unwritten zoning arrangement that rotates the governorship among the three zones of the state,” he said.
In his contribution, Adesina noted that Nigerians have no uniform definition of what they meant by restructuring, which he said was why the APC-led Federal Government set up a committee on restructuring to go round the country and collate the views of the citizenry.
He regretted that some people have turned the issue of restructuring to another tool of opposition.
“There is nothing wrong with restructuring that will deepen the unity and strengthen the country. But if the restructuring is to dismember or weaken the country or when it becomes an instrument of saber-rattling, it is bad,” he sated.
Adesina also condemned the circulation of “fake” news that the APC government was against the restructuring of the country, noting that the APC government was committed to its manifesto to strengthen the security of the country and revive the economy.
Source: Sunnews
Civil servants in Kogi State, have made a special appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari, to intervene in the case of their prolonged non-payment of salaries by the Governor Yahaya Bello-led administration of the State.
This was contained in a statement jointly released on Wednesday, in Lokoja, by the State chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC; Trade Union Congress, TUC; and the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council.
The workers specifically requested that the President directs the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, and other humanitarian agencies to send them food, drugs, and other relief materials.
They also called on Buhari to consider the condition of their children, who they said had been sent out of school because they could no longer pay their school fees.
The civil servants revealed that they were being owed between 11 and 21 months salaries. “The situation of workers in the State is worse than the condition of the Internally Displaced Persons in various camps.
“The agony of the workers is not in any way less than the experiences of victims of natural disasters.
“A situation where workers cannot afford even one meal a day and pay the school fees of their children, is already a humanitarian issue.
“As it stands today, over 30 percent of the workforce is owed 21 months salaries. Twenty percent have unpaid salaries of between 11 and 18 months, while about 45 percent took their salaries up till June this year.
“These are the category of workers the Kogi State Government is forcing to embrace the ‘clock-in, clock-out’ work policy”, the workers said.
They also begged the indigenes of the State at home and abroad, to show concern and assist them in whatever form they could.
Secret assets belonging to the current governor of Niger State, Abubakar Bello, have been uncovered in offshore tax havens, including the notorious British Virgin Islands.
The discoveries were made as PREMIUM TIMES continues to scrutinize the over 11 million Mossack Fonseca documents contained in the sleaze dossier now known worldwide as the Panama Papers.
At least two offshore companies were traced to the governor, one of which was used to acquire a property on Harvey Lodge London.
One of the companies, Best International Holding Limited, was registered in 1999 in the British Virgin Islands. The company was registered on May 26, 1999 with $50,000 as shares capital.
The company, with registration number 314717, has the governor and his son, Shehu Bello, as directors.
Governor Bello himself is the son of Sani Bello , a retired colonel and military governor of Kano State between 1975 and 1978.
Tax authorities the world over view the British Virgin Islands with a certain level of notoriety and suspicion.
Offshore company structures are sometimes marketed to rich businessmen and politically-exposed individuals to avoid or evade tax obligations in their home countries or conceal ill-gotten wealth.
While the two directors of Best International Holding Limited gave their Nigerian address as 17A Wurno Rd, Off Katuna Rd, Kaduna, Nigeria; a Lagos address was used for the registration of a second offshore company.
Another set of Mossack Fonseca documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES showed that Governor Bello is the sole shareholder of a secret offshore entity by the name Eyre Investments Incorporated.
This company, located in Hitchin, Herts, was incorporated on September 3, 2007 and had Ajibola Raphael Oluyede as director with Abubakar Sani Bello as sole shareholder.
Mr. Oluyede, a senior advocate of Nigeria, is one of the lawyers who defended Senate President Bukola Saraki in his recent corruption trial before the Code of Conduct Bureau.
Investigations revealed that for all his offshore dealings, the governor was using the services of Mr. Oluyede, the principal partner at TRLP LAW, as his legal front.
In one of the documents, it is stated that the registers of Best International Holding Limited are kept at D96 Landbridge Ave, Victoria Island Ext, Lagos, Nigeria. An online search of this address leads directly to TRLP Law office.
Yet another Mossack Fonseca document reveals the minutes of a meeting of the board of directors of Eyre Investments Incorporated. The minutes claimed that the meeting was held on September 3, 2007 and that in attendance were Mr. Oluyede and Mr. Bello.
A letter from UK lawyers on behalf of the Niger governor to Mossack Fonseca hinted that business relationship between Mr. Bello and his lawyer, Mr. Oluyede, was not all smooth sailing. The letter came at a time when the governor was having apparent difficulties in selling off a property he had acquired using his offshore company Eyre Investments Incorporation.
The difficulties arose when the front director either refused to cooperate or was nowhere to be found. It took the UK lawyers, the certificate of incorporation and other documents to have the offshore company returned to Governor Bello.
The letter from Shaima Jillood of the firm Charles Russell LLP to Mossack Fonseca, dated July 3, 2007, reads in part:
“I am the property solicitor acting on behalf of Eyre Investments Inc in respect of the sale of a property Flat 18 Harvey Lodge, Admiral Walk Harrow Road, London W9 3TH. In order to exchange contracts with the buyers and sell this property, we need to establish who is authorised to sign the contract and sell this property on behalf of Eyre Investments.”
Mossack Fonseca was at the time administering Eyre Investments Incorporation after it was transferred to it from ILS Fiduciary Limited (British Virgin Island) on June 7, 2000.
The UK lawyers requested from Mossack Fonseca evidence of the list of authorised signatories, directors, certified copy of passport and the shareholder so as to establish who was legally authorised to sign the legal sale documents. The letter further explained that:
“My client, Mr Abubaker S Bello, has advised us that he is the shareholder of this company but has lost the documentation and has only provided me with the Memorandum and Articles of Association & Certificate of Incorporation but no mention of who the directors or shareholders are and who the authorised signatories.”
When contacted on the propriety of a public office holder holding secret offshore accounts, Jibrin Ndace, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Bello said that before his principal became the governor of Niger State, he had been for years an international businessman of repute doing legitimate businesses across the world.
“The governor was a well-known international businessman just like Donald Trump was before he became the President of America. It is like if Dangote becomes President tomorrow; you would see their footprints everywhere because they were once international businessmen,” he said.
Mr. Ndace insisted that Niger State is benefiting from Governor Bello’s international business exposure given the foreign investors he has attracted to the state. He however did not provide details of the investments the governor has attracted to the state.
“The difference between this governor and others is that he is a professional in politics not a professional businessman,” Mr. Ndace said.
Violation of Nigerian law?
There is no evidence that Governor Bello is no longer involved with the shell companies. There is also no evidence that the governor declared his interests in the offshore entities to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) as required by law.
The governor’s spokesperson was evasive when asked whether his boss included the shell companies (with which he has dealt in properties) in the assets declaration form he filed at the CCB. Mr. Ndace merely insisted that the governor’s imprint as an international businessman cannot be easily erased.
While not all owners or operators of such offshore entities are criminals, participating in the running of private companies while serving as public officials is against Nigerian laws.
Section 6(b) of the Code of Conduct Act says a public office holder shall not, “except where he is not employed on full‐time basis, engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession or trade.”
The companies are also believed to own bank accounts. Yet Nigerian public officials owning foreign accounts, either individual or through their corporate interests, is a contravention of the code of conduct for public officials, which prohibits the holding of foreign bank accounts.
The code states: “Any public officer specified in the Second Schedule to this Act or any other persons as the President may, from time to time, by order prescribe, shall not maintain or operate a bank account in any country outside Nigeria.”
This revelation makes Governor Bello the sixth serving Nigerian official who has been shown to own shell companies in offshore tax havens in clear violation of the country’s law.
The others include President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki; former Senate President, David Mark; Senator Ibrahim Gobir (All Progressives Congress, Sokoto East); Senator David Umaru (APC – Niger East); Senator Andy Uba (APC, Anambra South).
The Nigerian government claimed it was investigating the officials as well as other former public officers who popped up in the Panama Papers to have violated Nigerian Nigerians by owning undeclared assets abroad. But the report of the investigation has not been made public and no one has been charged to court yet.
The former officials the government claimed it is investigating include former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Abubakar Yar’Adua; former Delta Governor, James Ibori; late former Bayelsa Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha; and late former Minister of National Planning.
Another former NNPC GMD, Funsho Kupolokun, appears to have acquired his offshore assets after leaving office office in 2007.
Credit- Premium Times
The Honorable Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr (Senator) Chris Ngige, said the Federal Government should not be blamed for the ongoing strike by the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU).
He stated this at the opening of a conciliation meeting with JOHESU leaders, Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole and relevant government agencies on Tuesday in Abuja.
The minister deplored media reports credited to National Chairman of JOHESU, Mr Biobeleye Josiah, that the Federal Government should be blamed for the union’s strike.
He also decried allegation by the union that he travelled on the day government officials were expected to meet with leaders of the striking workers.
According to Ngige, as a minister, I am fully aware of the sanctity of my responsibilities as a servant and it is wrong for a servant to be maligned or brutalized for no just cause.
“We are ministers; we are servants and we are serving you. How can you vilify your servant, or start beating him or killing him when there is no offence?
“No, you cannot do so. You cannot brutalize me in the media for nothing. Even these ministers here, you cannot brutalize them, because they are serving the nation.
“It is not in the best interest of fair labour practices. It is unconscionable.
“So, I take your explanations and it is good you explained because the impression you gave in the media is grossly erroneous.
“We invited you to a meeting on Thursday, September 21, 2017, your union failed to turn up and later requested for Friday, September 22, 2017.
“I already had an official engagement at Owerri and the Health Minister was also involved in a different function,” he said.
Ngige advised that freedom of association and speech should be carefully exercised to avoiding hurting the rights of others.
He acknowledged that freedom of association and freedom of speech were constitutionally guaranteed, but stated that trade unionism had a boundary.
“They have a limit. You cannot use yours to hurt mine; slandering or libeling anybody can have consequences.”
He also called for permanent structures for peace in trade unionism through selfless assessment of the extant economic situation in the country.
The minister said that this was only possible through social dialogue and constant negotiation so as to forestall perennial strikes.
“We all know the economy is not in good shape.
“If there were promises made when oil was selling at 150 dollars per barrel and those promises were not kept, it will be difficult to meet it now.
“It will not be very reasonable to expect a government that came in while oil is selling at 40 or 50 dollars to pay backlogs.
“But, that is what we are suffering here. So, I made it clear to the resident doctors, university teachers and I am making it clear here. We all have to make sacrifices to make Nigeria great,’’ he said.
The health workers embarked on an indefinite nationwide strike on Wednesday over non-implementation of agreement reached with the Federal Government.
The union’s demand includes adjustment of CONHESS salary as done for CONMESS since 2014, abolition of scale-to-scale promotion, payment of outstanding arrears of promotion and “skipping and relativity”.
Others are autonomy of Teaching and Specialist Hospitals, non-implementation of court judgments, review of retirement age from 60 years to 65 years as done for tertiary education sub-sector.
The meeting between the federal government and striking members of the Joint Health Sector Unions, JOHESU, which held between Tuesday and Wednesday has failed to resolve the crisis.
The leaders of various unions who convened at the meeting held in Abuja to review the negotiation between the parties did not concede to the appeal made by federal government’s negotiation team led by Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, to end the strike.
Ahead of the meeting, Mr. Ngige had accused the union of not following procedure before they began their nationwide strike.
The minister who called the reconciliation meeting said the union neglected to give the government a 14-day notice required by law.
While the union said the strike will continue; it, however, urged its counterparts in the state who had billed to join the industrial action on Thursday to hold for now.
Biobelemoye Josiah, JOHESU National Chairman and Ekpebor Florence, JOHESU National Secretary in a joint statement, Thursday, conveyed the resolution of the union.
“As a result of the ongoing negotiation between JOHESU and the Federal Government, the leadership of JOHESU wishes to inform all members that negotiation is ongoing and the strike continues nationwide in all federal health institutions and further directives will be given after meeting with Federal Government on Saturday, 30th, September, 2017.
“In the light of the above, state councils are further directed to put on hold the commencement of their strike initially billed for Thursday, 28th of September, 2017 due to the ongoing talks”, the statement read.
JOHESU had on Wednesday last week insisted on going on strike over the alleged failure of the federal government to meet its demands.
The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, had pleaded with the association not to embark on strike; but it ignored the plea as the strike commenced in the early hours of Thursday. The members of the union are hospital workers apart from medical doctors.
In compliance with the declaration of an indefinite strike by JOHESU, the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, NANNM directed its members to stay away from all federal health institutions across the country.
Meanwhile, checks have revealed that private hospitals, mission homes and traditional birth attendants in across the country are recording tremendous increase in patronage following the on-going nationwide strike by the health workers.
