Happenings

As the purported rift between President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi generates mixed reaction in the polity, the National Assembly, according to Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila will not aid the president’s request to sack the governor from office. Gbajabiamila, who is the House of Representatives Minority Leader, was speaking on the backdrop of recent media reports that the president had directed Sanusi to turn in his resignation letter following the perceived embarrassment caused to his administration by a memo the CBN governor wrote but which later leaked to the press, raising the alarm over alleged unremitted oil revenue funds by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to the tune of $49.8 billion (about N8 trillion). Sanusi has since revised the amount down to $10.8 billion. However, the lawmaker advised the president to first of all sack the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah before calling for Sanusi’...

The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) yesterday frowned at the “unprofessional creative accounting method” of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on the $10.8 billion “missing” oil revenue fund. CNPP, which is the umbrella body of the nation’s opposition parties, called on President Goodluck Jonathan to set up an independent enquiry panel to probe the “blatant scam in the NNPC creative accounting, for the $8.49 billion could have been used to build two mega refineries and stop fuel products importation”. A statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, read: “We regret that each time the pervasive leakage of funds and monumental corruption in the corporation comes under public scrutiny, the NNPC recklessly adopts the unprofessional creative accounting method. “We recall how painfully and grudgingly Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, wrote our dear President and raised the issue of the missing $49.8 billion ...

Ten persons, including children, were on Sunday afternoon burnt beyond recognition in a bus accident which occurred in Effurun, Delta. The accident, which involved an 18-seater bus, also left five of its passengers with various degrees of burn injuries. An eyewitness told newsmen that the vehicle was coming from the PTI roundabout, but stopped to pick a passenger who allegedly carried a jerrycan filled with petrol. One of the survivors, Mr Martins Nwaowolo, said there were 18 passengers in the bus, including children and a pregnant woman. “The driver stopped at the roundabout to pick a woman carrying a jerrycan, and in less than two minutes after the woman entered the bus, the jerrycan burst into flame. “Only myself, the driver, his conductor, a pregnant woman and one other survived the incident, but with various degree of burns”, he said. However, the Delta Commissioner for Transport, Mr Ben Igbakpa, who visited the scene, said that it was wrong for people to be moving about wi...

In a session in Lagos, Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah, took us through her two-year old administration of the aviation sector. She spoke on the rot she met on her assumption of office, the reforms she introduced to make our skies safer, and the airports’ remodelling she initiated as part of the efforts to key into the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan. Opinions differ about the situation on ground in the aviation sector when you came in as minister in 2011. Some people claim the situation was bad. Others say it was not so bad. What exactly was the situation? The first thing I did upon my appointment as Minister of Aviation on July 2, 2011, was to take a comprehensive assessment tour of all airports, all agencies and parastatals as well as their facilities and installations across the country. I found that safety and security-critical equipment and installations were obsolete, unserviceable or unavailable. Infrastructure all round-airport terminals were di...

The governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has accused the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, of playing a role in shielding Erastus Akingbola, the corrupt former Chief Executive Officer of InterContinental Bank PLC, from serious prosecution. Nigerian authorities asserted that the rogue former banking executive siphoned over N200 billion from the commercial bank he ran. Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission also accused Mr. Akingbola of using his loot to buy swanky properties in Europe and other parts of the world. The former InterContinental Bank chief also reportedly manipulated his bank’s stocks in insider trading deals. Mr. Akingbola fled to the UK as soon as Nigerian authorities indicated their desire to try him. He was later forced to return to Nigeria, but his prosecution soon fizzled in what EFCC sources privately confided to be a deal hatched at the highest levels to let him walk free...

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Lamorde stated that property acquisitions in Abuja has become an avenue for money laundering by unscrupulous persons. He said evidence of the trend is the number of palatial but unoccupied houses that dot the Abuja landscape. The EFCC, in a statement revealed that the Commission’s boss who was speaking during a courtesy visit to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed in Abuja on Thursday, January 9, stated that the Commission had uncovered money laundering schemes in the FCT in which the perpetrators disguise the proceeds of crime by investing in properties. He explained that those involved in this nefarious act do not purchase properties with bank instrument but prefer to pay for their acquisition with cash. He further revealed that the laundered funds are frequently converted into foreign currencies through the Bureau de Change before the purchases are made. He noted that suc...

Nigerian diplomats and senior government officials have been granted visa exemption by the government of China. The new regime will be implemented from February 01, 2014. The decision of the Chinese government was made public in Lagos by the outgoing Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Deng Boqing, at a Nigeria-China Business Roundtable and Luncheon hosted by the Professor Bola Akinterinwa led Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA). The Ambassador said the Chinese government’s decision followed the agreement made between President Goodluck Jonathan and the Chinese President, Xi Jinping. Deng said both governments will in the future work towards simplifying visas for citizens. “China is prepared to promote people-to-people interaction between the two countries. We have decided to offer visa exemption for Nigerian diplomats and senior government officials in the first phase,” he said. - See more at: http://thewillnigeria.com

Jennifer Lopez has been dragged into what looks like the craziest catfish debacle of all time -- a man just sued the singer, claiming she duped him into sending her naked photos in the mail ... but it appears a rando 53-year-old woman is secretly behind everything. Rodrigo Ruiz filed the $10,000 suit against Lopez in L.A., claiming she sent him a letter out of the blue in 2008, demanding he reply with naked photos ... as well as his demo CDs. He claims the letters led him to believe he had a chance at a music career -- and even a romantic relationship with Lopez, but she never followed through and he eventually gave up hope. Ruiz says he was so depressed he sought out professional help. Ruiz sent us a few of the 3-line letters he received from "Lopez" and they're obviously bogus ... the first reads, "I just wanted to let you know that I do remember you and that I am interested in you. I have plans on leaving my husband. But I can't say much right now so that...

Jonathan-and-Obasanjo-In what maybe considered as a major step towards mending the fence of their broken relationship, Information Nigeria has learnt that President Goodluck Jonathan has telephoned former President Olusegun Obasanjo to dissuade him from going ahead with his decision to quit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), just as he reportedly denied responsibility for elevating a controversial member of the party and subject of Obasanjo’s latest grouse, Prince Buruji Kashamu, as an influential party leader in the south-west geo-political zone. According to sources close to the former president, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday, Mr. Obasanjo was travelling in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, at the time of the conversation with Mr. Jonathan. It was gathered from usually reliable presidency sources that Mr. Jonathan hurriedly called the former president on Thursday shortly after he received the former president’s latest letter informing him and the PDP National Chairma...

Following clash of rival factions of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) in Ekiti State, indications emerged at the weekend that the embattled Chairman of the Ekiti State Chapter of the association, Mr. Rotimi Olanbiwonninu, (aka Mentilo), may have been arrested and flown to Abuja by security operatives. Although no life was lost in the clash which involved use of dangerous weapons, the state police command had earlier warned the association to stop putting the community in apprehension, advising them to settle or be arrested. Although, it was not known why he was arrested or the agency that arrested him, but a source confirmed to journalists that Olanbiwonninu might have been arrested by men of the State Security Services (SSS) or the police. “I too have heard that he (Mentilo) and his wife have early today (yesterday) been arrested by men who were in mufti. I also learned that some people have gone to the Police Headquarters in Ado-Ekiti here where they (th...