12012021 - COVID-19: FG may suspend NIN registration — MINISTER

8 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2021
:Vanguard News
:@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
Forces plotting to unleash religious
violence on Nigeria —DSS alerts
•DSS only out to create fear, panic —CAN
•Says it’s ploy to stop clerics from speaking on state of
the nation
By Soni Daniel &
Luminous
Jannamike
ABUJA — The Department
of State Services,
DSS, has raised the
alarm that some unnamed
forces were plotting to unleash
religious violence on
the country any moment
from now.
However, spokesman of
the agency, Dr. Peter
Afunanya, assured that its
men were on top of the situation
and would work to
protect the interest of the
country and Nigerians.
The agency listed states
being targeted by the masterminds,
said to be working
with external forces, to
include Sokoto, Kano, Kaduna,
Plateau, Rivers, Oyo,
Lagos and those in the
South East.
The statement said: “The
DSS wishes to alert the public
about plans by some elements
working with external
forces to incite religious
violence across the country.
“Targeted states include
Sokoto, Kano, Kaduna, Plateau,
Rivers, Oyo, Lagos
and those in the South East.
“Part of the plans is to
cause inter-religious conflicts
as well as use their foot
soldiers to attack some worship
centres, religious leaders,
personalities, key and
vulnerable points.
“Consequently, Nigerians
are advised to be wary of
these antics and shun all
divisive tendencies aimed
at inciting or setting them
against one another.
“While the Service pledges
to collaborate with sister
agencies to ensure that public
order is maintained,
those hatching these plots
are warned to desist from
such in the interest of peace,
security and development
of the country.
“However, law abiding
citizens and residents are
encouraged to report suspected
breaches of peace
around them to the nearest
security agencies.’’
But reacting to the alarm
raised by the DSS, Christian
Association of Nigeria,
CAN, alleged that it was
aimed at causing fear and
panic among people.
It also said the alert by
the DSS was being perceived
as a ploy to stop
some clerics from expressing
their views on the state
of the nation.
CAN Vice Chairman
(Northern region), Rev.
John Hayab, told Vanguard
last night that the
DSS ought to pursue, arrest,
and expose those plotting
to destabilize the country
through the instruments
of religion before sharing
intelligence report with the
public.
He said: “It has become
a weekly or monthly practice
for our dear security
agency to make statements
that only help to create fear
and pave ways for evil people
to cause citizens harm.
“If you truly have security
report about anyone or
any group trying to instigate
violence just do to
them what the law says. But
coming out to create panic
every time is not good for
the people who are already
living in self-pity and have
lost hope due to the high
level of insecurity in the
nation. Sometimes, these
statements are seen as a
strategy to stop people from
expressing their views.
Whenever a strong view
has been made and others
are saying theirs too, that
is when you will hear security
alert.”
Hayab also accused security
agencies of not showing
enough concerns when
places of worship were attacked
and people killed.
He added: “As a leader
of the church, I know my
people have been attacked,
killed and have had their
homes and places of worship
destroyed or vandalized
when there was no
quarrel between them and
anyone. “In all these pains,
the security agencies did
not show serious concern or
go after the arsonist or criminals.
“We, therefore, do not
understand why they
should be making statements
that will only create
panic when no arrest has
been made and no good
steps taken to show or teach
law breakers serious lessons?”
He urged the DSS
to go after those planning
evil against Nigeria to
prove the credibility of their
intelligence report about
the plots to invite religious
crisis in some states.
“Coming out always to
make statements that will
only create more fear in
the minds of citizens at a
time they are already in fear
at home, on the road and
everywhere in the country
is not a good way to secure
us,” Hayab added.
How Ministry of Health
mismanaged N4.6bn Ebola
Fund —Senate
By Henry Umoru
ABUJA— THE Senate has
uncovered how the Ministry
of Health mismanaged
N4.6 billion fund
meant to tackle Ebola
scourge in Nigeria.
The Senate Committee on
Public Accounts, led by Senator
Matthew Urhoghide,
PDP, Edo South, is raising the
alarm of how the money
was spent and sustained the
indictment report against
the Ministry of Health over
the issue due to failure of the
officials of the Ministry to
explain their own side of the
allegation.
The committee sustained
the Auditor General Report
against the Ministry of
Health after the officials of
the Ministry declined the
series of invitations of the
committee.
According to the committee,
series of invitations were
extended to the Ministry in
the matter with no response
and the committee had no other
option than to sustain the
query.
The committee is relying
on the query raised by the
Office of the Auditor General
of the Federation in the 2015
report and brought before it
for probe and subsequent
presentation to the Senate at
plenary.
The query read: “Following
the sudden outbreak of
the Ebola scourge/disease in
Nigeria and the determination
of the Federal Government
to contain and control
the spread of the disease, a
total sum of
N4,887,079,750.00 was
released to control the Ebola
disease.
“The sum of
N1,992,548,500.00 was
released on August 11, 2014,
while the balance of
N2,894,531,250.00 was
released on 4th November
2014. The funds were said
to be kept in a commercial
bank Account Number
0122391169.
Retired envoys disagree over funding of Nigerian missions
By Victoria Ojeme
ABUJA —SOME retied
envoys who have served
in different countries of posting
yesterday differed over
funding of Nigerian missions
abroad.
While some agreed that the
federal government had adequately
funded its missions
abroad, arguing that the financial
difficulty faced by
the mission was due to corruption,
others blamed it on
inadequate funding of the
missions by the government.
Retired Ambassador and
former Deputy Chief of Mission
in the embassy of Nigeria
in Beijing, China, Ambassador
Shola Onadipe debunked
claims that Nigerian
embassies abroad were in
disarray over funding.
Yesterday, some media
outlets reported that Nigerian
embassies across the
world had been undergoing
challenges in recent times
due to scarcity of funds or a
prolonged non-deployment
of ambassadors.
Onadipe said the federal
government has tried tremendously
in funding diplomatic
outposts, adding that missions
that had problems paying
their local staff didn’t get
their priorities right.
He said: “Government has
brought a lot of innovationwe
now have separate accounts
for personnel and overhead
expenditures- you dare
not touch personnel funds for
any other thing apart from
personnel services and that
has helped a lot.
“I have worked in a mission
where I was getting paid every
quarter when money
comes and by the time everybody
takes what has been put
out, you will wait again till the
next quarter. Here in Beijing,
it is well funded. I came from
Washington and it is well funded
too. Even when I was in
Congo, we were well funded.
“Most of the missions are
well funded, officers have to
be very careful, corruption has
a hand in it.
‘’At the end of the day, you
cannot pay your local staff
because the money meant for
them has gone into your pock-
VISIT:
Member,
Senate
Committee on
Army, Sen.
Suleiman
Abdul (right),
consoling one
of the
wounded
officers,
during the
visit of Senate
Committee to
the Nigerian
Army
Reference
Hospital in
Kaduna,
yesterday.
Photo: NAN.
et because of corruption.
“The simple fact is that these
local staff members are right
there with you and they see
everything. Nigerian government
is funding its missions, I
will say 80- 85 per cent. Corruption
and recklessness are
causing problems in some
missions.
‘’If some missions are going
to be truthful to you, they don’t
need to complain. When you
take your FSA and everything,
what are you complaining
about? You operate according
to the budget you present.
Government has done well in
funding missions; it is the operators
of the missions that
need to do better,” Ambassador
Onadipe said.
However, retired Nigerian
diplomat, Ambassador Dahiru
Sulieman, disagreed with
Onadipe. He noted that the
problem of funding had always
been with the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs.”
“You see missions will send
their estimate or budget to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and these are collated and
sent to the Ministry of Finance
or to the budget office. Invari-
Lagos govt jittery over rising
cases of COVID-19 among
workers ....Issues fresh directive
By Olasunkanmi
Akoni
LAGOS — The Lagos
State Government
has expressed worries over
rising cases of civil servants
testing positive for COVID-
19 in the state.
Determined to stem the
dangerous trend, the Head
of Service, Mr. Hakeem
Muri-Okunola has issued
a new directive to workers
on safety protocols.
Muri-Okunola, in an internal
memo addressed to
Accounting Officers, decried
the rate at which civil servants
were testing positive
to Covid-19, saying the development
called for serious
concern and caution.
ably what the mission will get,
will be about half or even less
than half of what they requested.
"So where they have to
pay for the houses that you
rented for officers to occupy
and you reduce the amount,
then how will the rent be
paid. If you reduce the allocation
for payment of utilities,
electricity, water, garbage
disposal how will the
mission be able to take care
of those expenses when you
have specific number of children
in school and you did
not allocate the exact
amount for the payment of
the school fees, how do you
expect the children to go to
school?
“When you didn’t allocate
exactly the amount requested
for payment of the allowances
of the officers and the salaries
and wage of the local staff,
how do you expect the mission
to perform? So this under-funding
has been going
on for long and unless it is taken
care of, the foreign affairs
ministry will be handicapped
in discharging its obligations.
I remember when I was in
He, therefore, directed
them to come up with a strategy
to stem the outbreak in
their respective Ministries,
Department and Agencies,
MDAs, to reduce the spread.
The memo read in part: “I
wish to note with deep concern
the spate at which Officers
are testing positive to
COVID-19 and hereby enjoin
all Accounting Officers
to come up with Duty Rosters
to stem the outbreak in
your respective MDAs.
“The roster should be prepared
with an Officer having
to report for duty at most
twice a month. Please note
that this directive is without
prejudice to existing directives
and only reinforces
same which are in effect and
compliance abysmal.”
Abidjan that was between
1990-1992, there was a time
we spent six months we were
not paid our allowance because
there was no money and
headquarters was not sending
the money.
“So, this kind of thing will
result in a two-ward situation
when you have an officer who
has a family and you have not
paid him for six months such
an officer could be easily
compromised so why do you
send officers to countries when
you cannot pay them.
. and why do you rent houses
and you cannot pay the rent
then you find a landlord taking
an embassy to court, these
are things that do happen
from time to time.
“I can say for a fact that
when I was in the service the
funding was very poor and
that affected the performance
of the missions
abroad. When I say the officers
get compromised, it was
all encompassing so that
whoever reads it will say
compromise in what? They
go out of their diplomatic
duties to do things they
should not do,” he said.