NIGERIA COULD RETALIATE AGAINST BRITAIN OVER £3,000 CHARGE TO ENTER ENGLAND-ABIKE DABIRI

It is no longer news that the U.K's Home Secretary is initiating a pilot scheme where citizens from certain "high risk" countries, including Nigeria, pay £3,000 as a surety bond before being allowed entry to Britain.

British Home Secretary, Theresa May was quoted by the media as saying that Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party is serious about cutting immigration and abuses of the system.

“This is the next step in making sure our immigration system is more selective, bringing down net migration from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands, while still welcoming the brightest and the best to Britain,” May was quoted as saying.

“In the long run, we’re interested in a system of bonds that deters overstaying and recovers costs if a foreign national has used our public services,” she added.

A Home Office official said the six countries highlighted were those with “the most significant risk of abuse.”

Reacting to the development, Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Abike Dabiri-Erewa said that Nigeria could retaliate.

She said: “I have not studied the new policy and I don’t understand what they (UK) classified as high risk. However, if indeed all this is true, the principle of reciprocity should apply. You can recall there was a time South Africa had some policy for Nigerians, when the then Ambassador Mohamed Marwa introduced same to South Africans coming to Nigeria; they suspended the policy.”

Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ogbole Amedu Ode (Deputy Director Communications), when contacted on phone last night said, “I am sure you know that Nigeria has a mission in the UK. By tomorrow, I will speak with the Nigerian High Commissioner in London on the matter first before I can say anything on it.”

In a related development, bilateral tie between Nigeria and Portugal may soon snap following outbreak of diplomatic row between both countries.

Barely a week after Nigeria was entangled with the East African country, Kenya, over “illegal deportation of Nigerians,” the Federal Government at the weekend refused to accept another Nigerian deported from Portugal.

The Federal Government had said that the deportation of the Nigerian, simply identified as Raymond Junior, did not follow due process.

A Portuguese plane, which registration number could not be ascertained at press time, had brought Raymond into the country from Lisbon, Portugal through the cargo session of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos.

However, officials of the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, attached to the airport refused to accept him, citing irregular process.

A source close to the NIS confided in our correspondent that the officials on duty, after making phone calls to their boss in Abuja, ordered the plane to return the deportee to Lisbon and told the pilot and the Portuguese officials to follow the law on deportation of Nigerian nationals before he could be accepted into the country.

The source insisted that Portugal did not file a proper documentation before Raymond was deported, stressing that Federal Government only asked Portugal to take back the deportee and comply with international law before bringing him back to Nigeria.

The same situation is playing out between Nairobi and Abuja following the deportation of three Nigerians, with the Federal Government claiming that Kenya flouted all known international laws in deporting her citizens.

The Kenyan government brought a legislative order from its Minister of Interior to deport foreign nationals.

Media had reported last Thursday of the grounding of a Kenyan plane with the American registration number 5Y-SAS belonging to Cavok Airlines in Kenya.

The aircraft, which is still grounded at the airfield of the Lagos airport, had arrived the country about 6.36pm on June 3 with 18 passengers, including three deportees from Kenya.

CONTENDER FOR ACCOUNTANT-GENERAL OF THE FEDERATION IN RITUAL MESS

 

The Director of Finance, Bayelsa State Ministry of Special Duties, Federal Project, Office of the Governor, Dr Isaac Ogugu is now embroiled in a ritual mess in his desperate moves to become the Accountant-General of Nigeria.

 

Dr Ogugu a self-acclaimed pastor with winner’s chapel church in Yenagoa, is now telling his stories of what he knows about the list of candidates submitted to a herbalist for elimination. The living faith pastor left his office and his church to seek spiritual power in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, to enhance his chance of becoming the Accountant –General of Nigeria, and because of his mother which he tagged a witch. 

Indeed the high octane scandal revealed the desperations of Public servants in Nigeria.

 

Dr. Ogugu, in a letter headed paper with the emblem of the Bayelsa State Government, submitted the list of allege competitors for the office of the Accountant General of the Federation for elimination to pave way for his candidature. The list includes that of his boss in the office and other contenders for the post of the Accountant –General, for spiritual affliction submitted to the spiritualist to cast spells on them.

 

 

On the day of the ritual, according to our investigation, Dr Ogugu lodged at Havana hotel in Ikere and the marabouts came to visit him there, in the early hour of the fateful day according to our source, he was taken to a notorious shrine where the sacrifice was made and he was made to bathed with human blood.

 

May 26th 2013 was then given to him as the appointed date that he will resume as the Accountant –General of Nigeria, when the date passed and he did not received any letter or calls to that effects he ran back to the spiritualist and another date 15th June 2013 was mentioned as the appropriate date.

 

When Dr Ogugu was contacted on 4th June 2013 in his office in Yenagoa Bayelsa state, he first denied the allegation but later confessed in the face of the overwhelming evidence. In his narration, his ordeal started with oneSunday a pastor, that said he will help him break the unseen pot that has been affecting and deterring his progress since birth, according to himSunday later told him that his power cannot handle the people behind his problem, he later introduced him to Baba Makinde and Aworo at the Ikere-Ekiti shrine, Dr Ogugu recalled the day he lodged at Havana hotel that a big pot was brought out from his hotel room after which they followed him to Yenagoa and brought out another bigger pot from his bedroom.

 

About the post of Accountant –General, Dr Ogugu confirmed to us that he went for the examination and interview for the post and he passed, that he will resume as the next Accountant-General of the Federation on 15th June 2013, we want to know the genesis of the crisis between him and some top officials of his ministry and why he brought their names to the shrine to cast spells on them, he was confronted with the contents of the documents he wrote the name of his serving Commissioner and Permanent Secretary, he said he wrote their names for the spiritualist so that any one of them that did not want his progress or want to be a stumbling block for the post of the Accountant–General should not have progress, he referred our crew to the contents of the document with an emphasis that “any one that want to be stumbling block for his ambition let happiness be far away from them, so that it’s not a crisis to me, any one that want my progress will have progress too” he specifically mentioned the name of one Sanni as co contender for the plum job, that the said Saani have more money to spend than him so he has to go spiritual to enhance his chances.

 

Investigation on the matter continues, we are making frantic efforts to have the views of the Hon Commissioner and his Permanent Secretary on the lingering crisis within the ministry, also other pictures and documents related to the wife and families of Dr Ogugu, the activities and the names of spiritualist that gave Dr Ogugu several unseen dates to attained the post of the Accountant-General of Nigeria will be made public at the end of our investigation.  

SOURCE: GLOBAL VILLAGE EXTRA.

CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA Clarification on allegations made by CAN and Islamic Council of Nigeria

 
 Press Release

The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to some reports being circulated in the media to the effect that the CBN had ordered the freezing of the accounts of some religious organisations, citing alleged suspicion of links with terrorist groups.

We wish to state as follows:

1. That the CBN has NOT ordered the closure or freezing of the bank account of any religious body or any institution whatsoever as alleged in the publications and posts. There is, therefore, no iota of truth in these allegations.

2. Prior to 2006, Nigeria was the infamous list of the Non-Cooperating Countries and Territories (NCCTs) of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog financial crimes.

3. Nigeria was removed from this undignified list on account of stringent actions taken by the Nigerian Government.

4. However, by 2007, as a result of loopholes in Nigeria’s legal and regulatory system, the country was included in the ‘grey list’ of countries that had not made appreciable progress in their Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime by FATF. It was therefore incumbent on Nigerian authorities to ensure that her financial processes and procedures as well as the provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act (MLPA) of 2011 and the Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) Act of 2011, were in conformity with FATF recommendations and international best practice.

5. Consequently, all Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs) operating accounts in all financial institutions in Nigeria were required to update their account information to ensure that their respective businesses and vocations were registered as stipulated by the relevant statutes.

6. DNFBPs refer to dealers in jewelry, precious metals and stones, cars and luxury goods, audit firms, tax consultants, clearing and settlement companies, lawyers, notaries, other independent legal practitioners and chartered accountants, trust and company service providers (who provide services to third parties), hotels, casinos (including internet and ship-based casinos), supermarkets, real estate agents, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), religious and charitable organisations, or such other businesses or professions as the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investments, or appropriate regulatory authorities may, from time to time, designate.

7. The only requirement to this effect is:
· The presentation of evidence of registration, specifically, certificate of registration showing registration number with the Special Control Unit Against money Laundering (SCUML)

8. On August 2, 2012, the CBN issued a circular requiring all such account holders classified as DNFBPs to update, within 6 months, their account information in their respective banks.

9. This deadline was extended by another 3 months through another circular dated February 25, 2013.

10. On June 18, 2013, following exhaustive discussions with various interest groups, the CBN conceded yet another 8-month extension to December 31, 2013, for all such account holders to comply.

11. It is, therefore clear that the new deadline has neither come nor is the measure targeted at any institution or person, be it religious, financial or social.

12. The circulars are in line with global best practice and consistent with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

13. We wish to state, however, that upon the expiration of this final deadline, the CBN shall ensure that FATF rules are complied with. We, therefore, urge all affected DNFBPs to comply as soon as possible.

14. Once again, we appeal to reporters and publishers to exercise great circumspection in the publication and circulation of rumours and fabrications that undermine the good intentions of public policies.

Ugochukwu A. Okoroafor

Director, Corporate Communications

Obasanjo's Atrocities As President Including The Murder Of Bola Ige & Harry Marshall part 2

I don't know what you think of this interview but s what watching!  Happy watching

( PRESS RELEASE) Jonathan regime and the politicization of Nigeria’s security- CPC

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) is aware that the pre-eminent desire of Nigerians under this Nation-space is Security, which under this PDP-led regime, has been an elusive phenomenon. This is sadly so because the Jonathan regime prefers Political profiting from the menace of insecurity to obliterating the scourge from the Nation’s landscape.

After the Monday the 15th April, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, the American President, Mr Barack Obama reassuringly told a traumatized Nation: “We do not know who did this. We will find them, and we will bring them to Justice.” In less than five days, the two suspected bombers have been decapitated. On 1st October, 2010, there were bomb blasts near the Eagle square, Abuja. The Nigerian President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, being more preoccupied with gaining some electoral credit through guiding public opinion to a decided outcome, declared to the Nation: “it is not MEND!” It did not matter anymore that formal investigation and subsequent litigious procedure had confirmed the culpability of MEND in the bombing. In essence, the Nigerian President, not only showed insularity unbecoming of National leaders, but was only pre-eminently concerned about winning his Party’s nomination while the Nation burned!

The post-election violence in April 2011 that disrupted the peace in some parts of Northern Nigeria was seen as a spontaneous reaction of the people to the subversion of their electoral rights. Pastor Ayodele Oritsejafor, the President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and President Jonathan’s side-kick, called a Press conference and bizarrely demanded the arrest of General Muhammadu Buhari. It did not matter that the fashionable Cleric did not possess verifiable evidence to support his claim. This was seen as President Jonathan’s attempt at polarizing the Polity along religious lines in an iniquitous divide-and-rule scheme. As a fitting reward for that execrable service and many others, Pastor Oritsejafor was rewarded on 10th November, 2012 with the gift of a Bombardier Private jet at a ceremony in which the President was physically present! We were later told the Cleric’s congregation made the donation.

After the initial Presidential reticence in agreeing to amnesty for the Boko-Haram insurgents, and when confronted with reasoned argument, President Jonathan decided on commencement of talks ostensibly leading to amnesty. Yet again, Pastor Oritsejafor continued to obdurately urge the government not to yield to the dialogue option. As the President’s confidante, was he projecting the President’s unexpressed desire? This double-faced posturing by the Federal government is, undoubtedly, a show of its insincerity, which has quite rightly alienated some of the members of the proposed amnesty committee. Is it not a matter of concern that the more money voted to combat insecurity brings more insecurity, thereby giving justification for more Security allocation?

In the last two years, the Nigerian government has been patronizing ex-militant lords with hefty security contracts in a manner that showed abandonment of the constitutional function of the Nigeria Police. This government’s action, perceived as deleterious to the Socio-Political harmony of the land, is being intensified in other regions of the Country, ahead of the regime’s preparation for another election in 2015.

The regime’s Propagandist machine has caused the Boko Haram phenomenon to defy reasonable logic. In February 2013, a French family of seven persons was held hostage by Terrorists in Cameroon. Boko Haram was reported to be responsible. They were allegedly brought to Nigeria by Boko- haram. The hostages were freed last week in Cameroon and released to the French government. Was it the ‘ghostly’ Boko haram that negotiated the hostages’ release with the French? Was any insurgent (in captivity in Nigeria) released in exchange for the hostages? How did Boko Haram cross (at will) Nigeria’s borders, with all the hostages, without the knowledge of Nigeria large security apparatus? Shall we assume that Boko Haram has spread its operational base to Cameroon? Undoubtedly, this leaves many more questions than answers!

As a Party, we are not unaware of the desperation of the Jonathan regime ahead of the 2015 general election. The regime, in a despicable manner that is unprecedented, played up the fragile fault lines of ethnicity and religion for its own aggrandizement in delusive electoral victory in 2011. A regime that is unwilling and incapacitated in implementing none of the fundamental objectives (entrenched in the Nation’s statute book) now seeks to use unconscionable schemes to delude, confuse and over-awe the citizenry, ahead of the next general election in 2015. We stand shoulder to shoulder with the Nigerian people in ensuring the noble ideals of the rule of law reign in our land. We shall continue to campaign against the vestiges of impunity and all forms of corruption and corruptive tendencies that are prevalent in this PDP-led administration.

God bless Nigeria.



Rotimi Fashakin (Engr.)
National Publicity Secretary, CPC
(Sunday, April 21, 2013).

Bayelsa will no longer sponsor AMAA,Governor Seriki Dickson....Why?

Organizers of the African Movie Academy Awards demonstrated courage and independence Saturday night when they declared banned film, Fuelling Poverty, winner of the Best Documentary Category of the 2013 edition of the awards held in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.

The hall erupted in thunderous cheers after the documentary, which was banned two weeks ago by the Nigerian government, was pronounced winner, in an event which had top government officials in attendance.

The Minister of Tourism and Culture, Edem Duke, the Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, and other government officials at the event looked on helplessly as the organizers declared Fuelling Poverty (Nigeria) as having prevailed over Gun To Tape (South Africa), Swimming The Zambezi (South Africa), Give Me Back My Home (Kenya), and The African Cypher Fly On The Wall (South Africa).

“This is an humiliation for the Nigerian government,” says Femi Falade, an Ijebu-Ode based writer and media consultant. “It is a shame that a man the government declared a person non grata is now being lavishly celebrated right in President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state.”

 

watch the video of the banned documentary below... 

 

(PHOTO SPEAK) IF YOU ARE THIS DANFO DRIVER WHAT WILL YOU DO?

This is really crazy, Fashola needs to talk to his boys this lawlessness must stop.....

Photo coutesy of Hope For Nigeria.

Breaking News: CHINUA ACHEBE IS DEAD

 

Tragedy has befallen the land. The iroko has fallen. THE EAGLE ON THE IROKO, Prof. Chinua Achebe, is dead.
Achebe, one of the best fiction writers in recent memory, died in his USA base, according to information just reaching News Express.
He was 82, having been born on November 16, 1930, and had been in hospital in recent days.
Achebe is best known for his classical novel Things fall Apart. His last book, There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra, is still making waves.
Details later.
•Photo: late Prof. Chinua Achebe.
Source News Express

PHOTO OF CHRIS BROWN SMOKING WEEDS ON STAGE AND GETTING PAID IN DOLLARS

R&B star Chris Brown’s troubles seem to know no end since he got in the news for molesting his ex-girlfriend Rihanna. He is in the news again for yelling at a valet and refusing to pay a $10 charge at the PINZ Bowling Center in Los Angeles, CA.

Brown is reported to have refused the payment on the grounds that he did not stay at the bowling alley long enough to be charged $10.

But that does not seem to be his biggest problem at the moment. A Minister of State and Member of Parliament in Ghana, Rashid Pelpuo has called for his arrest for abusing controlled substances in public and inciting the public to civil disobedience.

Chris Brown was the main act for a mammoth show organized by Charterhouse, Ghana’s leading event organizer for rLG Communications to launch the IT company’s Home Office People Environment (HOPE) City project.

The American entertainer hit the stage and performed to the admiration of a huge audience who had come to the Accra Sports stadium to see him. He combined dazzling dance moves, light and visual effects as well as several costume changes to make his show outstanding. He particularly enthralled Ghanaians when he brought on Nigerian singer/rapper Wizkid to do the Ghanaian ‘azonto’ dance with him.

The controversy then started when Chris Brown is purported to have -at a point in his performance promoted the use of marijuana and actually gone ahead to smoke a joint to the amazement of the cheering crowd. "…if anybody's tripping on you smoking weed, f**k them", he is alleged to have said.

The embattled R&B singer is also getting a lot of criticism for the excessive use of vulgar language (particularly the F word) in the course of the show.

A post performance assessment however suggests that the singer may be getting flack for more than these stated reasons. A number of people have also berated rLG for dishing out $1 million to him as payment while Ghanaian artists played almost no part in the event. A peeved Hiplife artist, speaking on condition of anonymity whined “That’s what they do all the time; they bring all these yawa artists and pay them gargantuan amounts, and they don’t even know we exist at such times. And when we are lucky enough for them to approach us sometimes, they will not pay you even a decimal of that amount... Even azonto, someone has to come from Naija to dance it?”

Speaking in an interview with Sahara Reporters however, George Quaye, one of the event organizers refuted the claim. Even though he refused to disclose exactly how much was paid, he emphasized that the figure was less than a million dollars. “We did not pay him a million dollars, I can put that on record” he stated. “It is not our policy to disclose how much we pay our clients without their express permission, but I can tell you for a fact that it was not a million dollars”.

On the issue of smoking weed on stage, Mr. Quaye said “it was just part of his stage act. People interpreted it variously but it was just a part of an overall performance and a lot of people also did not see it as a big deal at all”.

Some social critics have suggested that the whole mêlée is just calculated towards the industrious Mr. Roland Agambire, CEO of rLG who is seen as ‘close to the presidency’. The Hope City project was launched by President John Mahama.

SAHARA REPORTER

2015: I Will Fight Back, Obasanjo Tells Jonathan

As the cold war between President Goodluck Jonathan and his benefactor, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, rages, some of Obasanjo’s loyalists who are at the receiving end have chosen to quit the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

But the former president has vowed to remain in the party and fight to the finish.

The relationship between the two leaders of the party has been everything but cordial despite the public show of friendship and mutual trust. Those who know better have read the handwriting on the wall, which aims at dismantling Obasanjo’s political structure for daring to ask Jonathan to quit the presidency come 2015 as he promised two years ago.

Before Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State reminded President Jonathan of the one-term pact he struck with the PDP chieftains before he was endorsed for the 2011 presidential race, Obasanjo, LEADERSHIP Sunday learnt, had asked the president to suspend the second term bid. The president was said to have replied, “Sir, I have never thought of 2015.”

LEADERSHIP Sunday checks revealed that Obasanjo’s loyalists recently met with him to sound him out on their intention to quit the PDP for another political party as “it is becoming evident that the party wants to adopt President Jonathan as its presidential candidate for 2015”.

The former president was said to have told them they would not be intimidated out of the party.
“We are going nowhere, nobody would kick us out of our party,’’ he reportedly said. “We will fight back. ”

To ensure that Jonathan does not win a second term ticket, it was learnt, the former president has engaged a former ambassador from the north-east geopolitical zone as one of his foot soldiers in the north, while the governors of Niger, Jigawa, Sokoto, Bauchi and two others are working behind the scenes to actualise a northern president come 2015.

Since that time, according to our checks, the president had ambushed his godfather severally, looking for ways of forcing him to endorse his candidacy. As fate would have it, the court ruling that voided the election of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the national secretary of the party became a weapon as he was asked to go in obedience to the court verdict, and his deputy was sworn.

However, President Jonathan made a u-turn on his rift with Obasanjo when he agreed to reach out to the former president at a meeting with some former national chairmen of the party led by the incumbent, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, at the presidential villa.

“The party elders and the president spoke at length on the ways to resolve the crisis in the party. But one of the decisions reached was the need for Jonathan to mend fences with Obasanjo. They believed that once the two leaders are together, the tension in the party will be reduced to the barest minimum,” a PDP leader who attended the meeting said.

The meeting also advised Jonathan to attend a civic reception organised in honour of Obasanjo by the south-west PDP in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on his way to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, for an extraordinary session of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Authority of Heads of State and Government.

The meeting also prevailed on him to withdraw support for Chief Tony Anenih’s bid for Board of Trustees (BoT) chairmanship. It was thought that this would persuade Obasanjo to reconcile with the president. Those that were at the reception included the former PDP national vice-chairman (south-west), Mr. Segun Oni, Oyinlola, Chief Bode George, Chief Dapo Sarumi, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, Chief Bode Olajumoke, and Otunba Oyewole Fashawe. Others were Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, Alhaji Tajudeen Oladipo, Chief Yekeen Adeojo, Chief Lekan Balogun, Chief Richard Akinjide, Chief Tunji Olurin, and Chief Joju Fadairo.

But the president never showed up. Instead it was Tukur that attended, saying that he represented the president. That was when Obasanjo told him that he would never stop criticising the president despite the fact that he held him in high esteem as president, a source said.

However, both Jonathan and Obasanjo had a private meeting in London after the launch of Obasanjo’s foundation. LEADERSHIP Sunday learnt that Jonathan solicited Obasanjo’s support for his second term bid to enable him continue with his transformation agenda. Obasanjo reportedly told him point blank to bury the thought, noting that it would impugn on his integrity as a former military head of state and two-term civilian president.

culled from leadership newspaper