25042019 - Free web operators threaten national security — EXPERTS

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8—Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 25 , 2019 :Vanguard News :@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058 El-Zakzaky: Reps adjourn, as protesting Shi'ites storm NASS, pull down gate By Kingsley Omonobi & Emman Ovuakporie ABUJA—THE House of Representatives ended its sitting abruptly, yesterday, following the invasion of the National Assembly complex by protesting Shi’ites who pulled down one of the gates of the facility. The Shi’ites, who are also members of Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, have been protesting the continued detention of their leader, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, calling for his release by the Federal Government. A witness told Vanguard that the IMN members overpowered security and broke down the first gate, before proceeding towards the second gate. Deputy Speaker of the House, Yusuf Lasun, announced that members of the IMN crashed into the first gate of the National Assembly, as lawmakers were at plenary. The development forced the legislators to abruptly adjourn their plenary, which was on before the announcement. Lasun said more security operatives had been deployed to the second gate, which is just metres away from where the lawmakers hold their sitting. Security has also been beefed up around the premises of the legislative chamber. Members of the IMN have held regular protests to demand the release of their leader since December 2015. Their leader, Ibrahim El- Zakzaky, was arrested along with his wife after soldiers killed hundreds of IMN members in Zaria, Kaduna State, between December 12 and 15, 2015. Some of Mr El- Zakzaky’s children were amongst those killed. Police dispel insinuations But reacting to the development, FCT Police Command dispelled insinuations and reports that members IMN broke the gates of the National Assembly.. Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of operations, DCP Umar Usman, however, noted that the Shi'ites protesters tried to broke into the police barricade mounted by officers of FCT command to no avail. He added that sanity later prevailed when the group was persuaded to present the letter containing their grievances to Sergeant-at- Arms of the National Assembly, who promised to deliver it to the NASS leadership for action. “Consequent upon the collection of the letter, the Shi'ites peacefully dispersed. There was no shooting of tear gas, no confrontation and no Shi’ite was arrested,” the DC Ops said. Asked why no arrests were made, he noted that since they elected to be peaceful and not confrontational or unruly by embarking on destruction of property, the Police had no reason to arrest any of them. HEARING: Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun (left); Dr Yusuf Ali (SAN) (right) and Chief Wole Olanipekun, during the Court of Appeal hearing, in Abuja, yesterday. Dogara decries high rate of foreign medical trips, brain drain among professionals By Levinus Nwabughiogu ABUJA—SPEAKER of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has decried the high rate of foreign medical trips by Nigerians. He also described as worrisome the attendant brain drain in the heath sector, which has prompted mass exodus of medical professionals to foreign countries. Suggesting a quick intervention to guarantee efficient and effective service delivery, Dogara called for total overhaul of the health sector. The speaker spoke at a public hearing on two bills organised, yesterday, by the Chike Okafor-led Committee on Health at the National Assembly. The two bills are a bill for an Act to Repeal the Health R e c o r d s Officers(Registration, etc) Act, CAP. H2 of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and Re-enact the Health Information Practitioners Council of Nigeria for effective and efficient Health Information Management, Regulate the Training, Practice and Management of Health Information System in Nigeria and a Bill for an Act to Amend the Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria Act, CAP 1.112, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, provide for the Role of the Chemist, the Regulation of Practicing Fees by members of the Institute; and for Other Related Matters. Dogara said: “The ultimate aim of these legislation is to ensure that we have a more efficient service delivery in the health sector. There is a compelling need for us to overhaul our health sector, in view of the continuous public outcry against our defective healthcare delivery. ‘’The high number of Nigerians who go on foreign medical trips and the brain drain that we witness among our professionals in the sector are indications that our health sector requires a serious surgical operation. “On our part, the National Assembly will always use its powers to legislate for the betterment of our health sector as a matter of priority. ‘’In this digital age, there will always be need to update our laws to meet with the contemporary global best practices, and the National Assembly will continue to be responsive in that regard." MTN Nigeria moves to list on NSE, converts to a public company — Official L AGOS—MTN N i g e r i a Communications, MTN, yesterday announced that it had completed its conversion from a private concern into a public company. Chief Executive Officer of MTN, Mr Ferdi Moolman, said the conversion to a public company was a legal requirement and key milestone in the preparatory process for the company’s listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE. According to him, MTN’s intended listing on NSE will create a new telecoms asset class for investors and provide a wider group of Nigerians with a chance to participate in the MTN investment opportunity. He said: “Our conversion to a public company is a major step towards listing by introduction on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in the first half of 2019. “It is a re-affirmation of our long-term commitment to expanding investment opportunities for Nigerians, in addition to providing everyday services to them. “We look forward to continuing our engagement with the SEC and NSE to take forward the listing process.” Govt programmes've created about 8m jobs— Ngige •Says Nigeria has enough doctors THE Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr Chris Ngige, said, yesterday, that programmes of the Federal Government have so far created about eight million jobs through agriculture and vocational skills training. He also said there was nothing wrong with doctors leaving Nigeria as the country has “more than enough” medical personnel. Ngige, who disclosed this on a Channels TV programme, Sunrise, noted that rice production had created new groups of millionaires in Nigeria. Decrying the responses given to blue collar jobs by youths in the country, he said: “We did food security arrangements, tackled agriculture. The government went into agriculture, started encouraging farmers. “Government programmes have yielded a lot of fruits if you go to the Agric belts of Nigeria; Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Anambra, Enugu, Ogun, Kebbi states. Rice production created a new group of millionaires, the farmers. "And there is the backward integration of the rice mills, jute bag manufacturers and the rest of them all, a lot of jobs have been created numbering about eight million now. He said the government had embarked on advocacy, promoting blue collar jobs. “We did advocacy and told people not to look at white collar jobs, there are blue collar jobs, skills. You have to train your hands, you have to do plumbing, carpentry, tailoring. “We have a mini in collaboration with the state government, we send people to the skills centre to train them and people come in there as an apprentice and after we finish with them, we empower them. But the problem is that how many people are ready to come here and train? “The responses to the programmes are low, they regard those jobs as unbefitting to people’s status, but it is not true,’’ the minister said. On brain drain in the health sector, the minister said there was nothing wrong with doctors leaving Nigeria as the country has “more than enough” medical personnel. He defended the doctors searching for green pastures elsewhere, saying “if you have surplus, you export.” Ngige’s comment comes weeks after Saudi officials stormed Nigeria to recruit medical doctors, an opportunity that was highly sought for. One of the programme anchors had asked him if he was worried about the rate doctors leave Nigeria to which he responded: “No, I am not worried (about doctors leaving the country). We have surplus. If you have surplus, you export. “It happened some years ago here. I was taught chemistry and biology by Indian teachers in my secondary school days. “There are surplus in their country and we also have surplus in the medical profession in our country. I can tell you this. In my area, we have excess." Malabu Oil scandal: Adoke asks court to set aside order of arrest FORMER Minister of Justice, Mr Mohammed Adoke, has asked a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory to set aside its earlier order issued for his arrest over his alleged involvement in deals regarding the sale of Malabu oil. Justice Danlami Senchi had on April 17, 2019, issued an order for the arrest of Mr Adoke, a former Minister of Petroleum, Dan Etete and four others over their complicity in the Malabu oil scam. The others are Raph Wetzels, Roberto Casula, Stefeno Pujato, and Sebastiano Burrato. The bench warrant for the arrest of the defendants was sequel to an exparte application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. But Adoke in a motion exparte filed on April 23, by his lawyer Mike Ozekhome, asked the court to set aside the order for his arrest on grounds that the court was missed in the first place in issuing the order by the Federal government (plaintiff) in the other suit. The motion with number M/5494/19, is also praying the court to strike out the name of Adoke as a defendant in the suit by the Federal government against Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company Limited and 10 others.
Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019—9 NYSC debunks rumour of N31,800 stipend for corps members By Luminous Jannamike A BUJA—NATIONAL Youth Service Corps, NYSC, has dismissed as fake news reports making the rounds on social media that serving corps members will be paid N31,800 as monthly stipends, following the signing of the new minimum wage into law by President Reps move to probe $27bn oil revenue loss to IOCs ...ask FRSC to penalise indiscriminate parking of trailers By Emman Ovuakporie & Levinus Nwabughiogu ABUJA—THE House of Representatives yesterday resolved to probe the $27 billion oil revenue loss to international oil companies, IOCs, from 1999 till date. The resolution was passed after the debate on the executive bill which seeks to increase Federal Government’s share of the revenue accruing from oil trading. The Committee in charge of the probe was given one week to report back for further legislative action. Lawmakers also asked the leadership of the House for more time to enable them conduct adequate research toward passing a more beneficial amendment to the current Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract Act of 2004. The lawmakers who cited Order 12 Rule 3 of the House Standing Orders dealing with matters of legislative compendium, called for the allocation of additional legislative days for the debate on the bill to Muhammadu Buhari. A Deputy Director at the NYSC headquarters Abuja, Eddy Megwa, told Vanguard yesterday that the federal government was yet to inform the Scheme of any increases in the stipends of serving corps members. He stressed that though the NYSC does not pay corps members directly, the be total and thorough. Leading the debate on the executive bill titled: ‘A Bill for an Act to Amend the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act, Cap. D3 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to Review the share of the Federation in the Additional Revenue under the Production Sharing Contracts; and for Related Matters’, Deputy House Leader, Ahmed Idris Wase, urged his colleagues to urgently give the bill all necessary support. However, Uzoma Nkem Abonta, a PDP member from Abia State cited order 12 sub-Rule 3, saying he didn’t have a copy of the bill by way of compendium which he would have used to prepare adequately for the debate, considering the importance of the bill. His views were also supported by Ossai Nicholas Ossai, from Delta who called for the debate to be suspended, pending the availability of the compendium to members willing to do a good job on the amendment. Advancing the argument further was the Deputy Speaker, Sulaimon Lasun Yussuff, who urged the speaker to allow the debate federal government will inform the Scheme of any increases before a stipend figure different from the current N19,800 was made available to the public. He said: “The NYSC does not pay corps members any sum of money directly as stipends but the federal government does. “Until the government is to go on, while appealing that more legislative days be set aside for the debate to enable members exhaust their thoughts on the subject matter. “The way things stand, we may end up being pushed out of the sharing formula in future because the IOCs own the expertise and the funds and they can even decide to apply international laws to claim that the locations of the deep offshore wells are outside our shores," Yussuff noted. According to the existing Act authorising the sharing formula, IOCs are to drill crude and sell with the proceeds shared between them and the government on a 60/40 basis at $20 per barrel of crude. This, according to the House, means that the companies keep and have been keeping whatever excess revenue they generated arising from increase in the price of crude and share, based on $20 agreement, irrespective of the prevailing market price. ...ask FRSC to penalise indiscriminate ready to implement the N30,000 minimum wage, we cannot say what corps members will earn for their service to the nation. “Disregard any figure you find making the rounds on social media. When the federal government is ready, it will inform NYSC and we will announce it to corps members through official channels.” LAUNCHING: From left—Onyinyechi Nwosu, Brand Manager, Molped Sanitary Pads and Familia Tissues & Papia Tissues categories; Ayobami Kalesanwo, Asst Brand Manager, diapers category; Roseline Abaraonye, Marketing Manager; Hakan Misri, MD, Hayat Kimya Nigeria; Mr Yunus Atmaca, Group Campus and Plant Manager, Hayat Kimya; Chioma Mgbaramuko, Senior Brand Manager, diapers category (Molfix & Bebem); and Motayo Latunji, Sales Director, Hayat Kimya Nigeria, at Molped Sanitary Pads and Molfix Pants product launch event at Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, yesterday. parking of trailers Also yesterday, the House of Representatives urged the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, to give strict warnings and subsequently penalize any trailer that parks indiscriminately on the Ogolonto-Ebute road. It also urged the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, to take advantage of vacant land along the Lagos-Ikorodu road to create modern trailer parks and ensure that only trailers scheduled for loading had access to the lighter terminal vicinity. Members of the House reached the resolution following a motion, titled “Urgent Need to Rehabilitate Ebute- Ogolonto Road that Leads to Ikorodu Lighter Terminal and Address the indiscriminate parking of Trailers on the Road”, sponsored by Hon. Babajimi Benson from Lagos State at the plenary. While moving the motion at plenary, Babajimi Benson (Lagos) noted that the traffic situation caused by the trailers had become unbearable. He urged the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing to immediately commence palliative works on the Ebute-Ogolonto road that leads to Ikorodu Lighter Terminal. Absence of c'ttee chair, vice at Senate plenary stalls 2019 budget passage •As Senate throws out motion to recognise Kogi as oil producing state By Henry Umoru ABUJA—THE passage of 2019 Budget, yesterday suffered another setback, following the absence of Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Danjuma Goje, and his vice, Sunny Ogbuoji, at plenary. Consequently, the Senate has for the second time in a week, postponed till next week passage of the Appropriation Bill. The postponement yesterday became imperative as Senators were not able to get details of the budget prior to plenary. Therefore, as part of moves to ensure that the budget is passed next week, Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who presided, urged the Clerk of the Senate, Nelson Ayewor, to ensure that all 109 senators had printed copies of details of the budget by Monday, April 29. Earlier, Senate Majority Leader, Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe) had informed his colleagues that the Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, Senator Danjuma Goje, APC, Gombe Central and the Vice Chairman, Senator Sunny Ogbuoji, APC, Ebonyi South were absent. In his remarks, Saraki said: “The Chairman (of the Appropriations Committee, Danjuma Goje) did speak to me that some of the members had not got printed copies of the details. And I have directed the Clerk to make sure that latest by Monday, we all have printed copies of the budget so that everybody can see the details of the budget. ‘’By so doing, we can now pass it at the next legislative day, because we don’t want to run into problems where we pass it without details and our colleagues will now comment on that.” Senate throws out motion to recognise Kogi as oil producing state In another session yesterday, the Senate, threw out a motion seeking to recognise Kogi State as an oil producing state. The Upper legislative chamber said it lacked the constitutional powers to go into such a proposal. The rejection followed observations by lawmakers on the impossibility of the Senate to recognise Kogi as one of the oil producing states through what it described as the adoption of mere motion sponsored by Senator Isaac Alfa, PDP- Kogi East. Efforts by senators to convince the sponsor to withdraw the motion didn’t yield result as he declared that “I have made the motion and I’m not ready to withdraw it”. The Senate has, however, urged the governors of Anambra, Dr. Willie Obiano, Enugu, Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to resolve the communal crises among the various communities in their states. It also advised the communities of Ibaji, Igga and Aguleri in Kogi, Enugu and Anambra states to sheath their swords and allow peace to reign, while the National Boundary Commission delineate the correct boundaries. The Senate also urged the federal government to direct the commission to immediately release its report on the determination of the boundaries contiguous to OPLs 915 & 916. Similarly, it asked the government to ensure that the displaced communities in the disputed area, were allowed to return to their ancestral homes and compensated for their loss. Further more, the Upper chamber directed its committees on States and Local Governments, Petroleum Upstream, National Security and Intelligence to ensure compliance with the above resolutions. Presenting the motion,entitled, “Need to recognize Kogi State as an Oil Producing State “ before its rejection, Alfa informed that oil exploration commenced in Ibaji as far back as 1952 by three companies, including Shell BP, now known as Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC; Elf, now Total Fina Elf, and AGIP Energy. He said the companies collectively drilled 25 exploration wells, two appraisal wells and eight core drill wells in the entire Anambra Basin, out of which majority of them fell within Kogi State with facts made available through a letter, dated November 21, 2003, to the President by the former manager, drilling (NPDC-NNPC), Engr. Sam A. Uchola.
Page 1 and 2: OLU FASAN STATE OF THE NATION Lord,
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