Sambo Dasuki, former national security adviser, received an
extra-budgetary allocation of $2.1 billion from the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) within nine months after approvals by
former President Goodluck Jonathan, TheCable can report.
Dasuki is
currently being investigated by the federal government over the billions
of dollars released for the procurement of arms for counter-terrorism
operations under Jonathan.
Documents seen by TheCable showed the
breakdown of NNPC’s disbursements to the office of the NSA as follows:
$1 billion on March 27, 2014; $200 million on April 9, 2014; $600
million on May 5, 2014; and, same day, $200 million following a request
for $250 million.
The documents also showed that on January 12, 2015,
he got $100 million, bringing the total amount his office received from
the NNPC to $2.1 billion within the nine months.
All these were
outside the statutory budgetary allocations to security during the same
period, in addition to another $1 billion loan secured by the Jonathan
administration to fight Boko Haram.
President Muhammadu Buhari
recently ordered the arrest of Dasuki for awarding “fictitious
contracts” in excess of N300 billion while he was NSA.
It is
believed that the arms and ammunition were either not purchased at all
or that substandard ones were procured instead, reportedly leading to
the death of many Nigerian soldiers in the hands of the better-equipped
Boko Haram insurgents.
There were various media reports, both local
and foreign, quoting unnamed Nigerian soldiers complaining about
inadequate arms as well as poor welfare in the counter-terrorism war.
Thousands
of soldiers deserted the military and those who refused to fight were
court-martialled and jailed or sentenced to death.
But Dasuki has
denied any wrong doing, maintaining that there was no fraud involved in
the procurement process and that the military succeeded in chasing the
insurgents out of 22 local governments under his watch.
He also
said all the contracts were awarded with the approval of Jonathan, but
the former president swiftly denied giving such approvals.
TheCable
can report, however, that Jonathan approved all the disbursements by
NNPC, with his senior special assistant on administrative matters, Matt
Aikhionbere, writing the covering letters conveying presidential consent
to the corporation after the president had minuted on Dasuki’s
requests.
Jonathan further approved that the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) should give Dasuki N40 billion following another
extra-budgetary request.
This was after the removal of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the central bank governor in 2014.
Dasuki
had written to the then acting governor, Sarah Alade, requesting for
N60 billion, but she did not act on the request, reportedly because the
president was not copied and there was no presidential approval.
Following
the appointment of Godwin Emefiele as governor in June 2014, Dasuki
re-presented his request but Emefiele too did not act on it because of
procedural concerns.
However, Dasuki sent another request, this
time copying Jonathan, who — TheCable understands — now sat the two men
together and instructed that the bank should give N40 billion to Dasuki
and another N20 billion to the Department of State Services (DSS),
although there was no prior request from the department.
It is
believed in security circles that the N20 billion went to the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), the former president’s party, apparently to
finance the 2015 electioneering.
There was a slight twist in the
story after the 2015 general election when a senator got wind of the N60
billion expenditure and tried to blackmail Emefiele, demanding N5
billion in order to keep it away from public scrutiny.
Emefiele reportedly resisted the pressure from the senator, insisting that he acted based on a presidential order.
The
senator is now a principal officer of the national assembly against the
wishes of Buhari, who was made aware of the blackmail in May before he
was sworn in as president.
TheCable could not confirm if Emefiele eventually paid anything to the senator.
Monday, 30 November 2015
Arrival Of World Leaders In Paris For UN Climate Change Conference
David Mark Is An Asset To Nigeria – PDP
The Peoples Democratic Part (PDP) has described the former senate president David Mark as an asset to the Nigerian nation.
A statement by the party’s national publicity secretary, Oliseh Metu said the PDP and the entire people of Benue state are “solidly” behind Mark in an election re-run for Benue South senatorial zone.
Metu said the former Senate president is expected to repeat his victory in a re-run ordered by the court of appeal.
He said the Benue people and supporters of the PDP since 1999 would remain steadfast in giving Mark another resounding victory at the rerun election.
He said the party is confident the senatorial seat will be retained even stronger now.
He said this is possible now that ruling party, All Progressive Congress (APC) deceit has become obvious to Nigerians.
Metu said: “The inexplicable ruling of the Appeal Court, even when all evidence pointed to Mark’s victory as upheld by the lower tribunal, is yet another evidence of APC’s dangerous interference in the judiciary, which negative consequences the PDP has continued to alert the nation.”
He said contributions by the senator in the growth and stability of the nation’s democracy growing and stabilizing through his mature, responsible and patriotic leadership of the senate is still highly needed in the polity.
The party also urged its members in Benue South to resist any attempt of intimidation, especially in their determination to ensure effective and result-oriented representation in the senate as typified in senator Mark.
Mark’s elections as senator representing the Benue South zone was nullified by the Court of Appeal on Saturday.
The court also ordered a re-run of the election.
However, Mark has also said he is confident of winning the election many times.
‘I won the election clean and clear. If we go back to the polls 100 times , I will still win convincingly,” Mark said in a statement by his media assistant.
former Senate President, David Mark
A statement by the party’s national publicity secretary, Oliseh Metu said the PDP and the entire people of Benue state are “solidly” behind Mark in an election re-run for Benue South senatorial zone.
Metu said the former Senate president is expected to repeat his victory in a re-run ordered by the court of appeal.
He said the Benue people and supporters of the PDP since 1999 would remain steadfast in giving Mark another resounding victory at the rerun election.
He said the party is confident the senatorial seat will be retained even stronger now.
He said this is possible now that ruling party, All Progressive Congress (APC) deceit has become obvious to Nigerians.
Metu said: “The inexplicable ruling of the Appeal Court, even when all evidence pointed to Mark’s victory as upheld by the lower tribunal, is yet another evidence of APC’s dangerous interference in the judiciary, which negative consequences the PDP has continued to alert the nation.”
He said contributions by the senator in the growth and stability of the nation’s democracy growing and stabilizing through his mature, responsible and patriotic leadership of the senate is still highly needed in the polity.
The party also urged its members in Benue South to resist any attempt of intimidation, especially in their determination to ensure effective and result-oriented representation in the senate as typified in senator Mark.
Mark’s elections as senator representing the Benue South zone was nullified by the Court of Appeal on Saturday.
The court also ordered a re-run of the election.
However, Mark has also said he is confident of winning the election many times.
‘I won the election clean and clear. If we go back to the polls 100 times , I will still win convincingly,” Mark said in a statement by his media assistant.
Subsidy: Senate Directs NNPC To Harmonize Claims
The Senate on Monday, November 30, directed the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to harmonize all subsidy claims from October to December 2015.
The Senate in its directive said the harmonization of the subsidy claims will forestall a recurrence of scarcity especially during the Yuletide.
The Senate in its directive said the harmonization of the subsidy claims will forestall a recurrence of scarcity especially during the Yuletide.
The committee led by Danjuma Goje said the N413 billion
Maura proposed for subsidy payment did not include the claim for the
three months and therefore charged the stakeholders to harmonize.
The breakdown of the budget includes subsidy payment for
petroleum imports which is the major reason for fuel scarcity the
country has been experiencing over the past weeks.
Goje who is the chairman of the senate committee on
appropriation pointed out that the amount for subsidy payment did not
have the sum for October to December 2015 included.
He queried the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) over forward carry-over of subsidy bills from 2014 fiscal year to
join the ones from January to September 2015, leaving out three
critical months of the year.
Albert Akpan representing Akwa-Ibom senatorial district
said that NNPC had deducted without appropriation by hiding its own
share of over N700 billion subsidy payment.
The committee also approved the request of Jamila Suara,
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum resources, that all
agencies of government concerned with subsidy including the Budget
Office, Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF), CBN, and NNPC to return to
the drawing board and submit later in the day, 3 pm, a comprehensive bill, that covers the remaining months of the year, 2015.
“This government is about change; change from sordid
past; change is to totally eliminate queues from our filling stations;
every person must play a role to effect positive changes in the
economy,” the chairman continued.
Meanwhile, Naij.com
recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari had requested the sum of N2.10
trillion to finance the budget as against an earlier approved N882
billion.
The letter which was read on the floor of the senate by senate
president, Bukola Saraki indicates that the N1.2209 trillion increments
was predicated emerging realities in the country and the loans would be
sourced from both local and foreign sources.Meet Ishaya Bako, Director of Road To Yesterday
Ishaya Bako is a filmmaker who is currently based in
Abuja. As a child, he was inspired to direct and produce films after
watching movies like Jurassic Park and The Silence of the Lambs. Before
studying film-making at the London Film School, he obtained a Bachelors
in management information systems.
Ishaya has been a filmmaker for five years now. He tells Naij.com during an exclusive interview at his studio in Durumi, Abuja, that his first major project was his graduation film, Braids on a Bald Head, for which he won recognition at some film festivals.
“It was what would let me know whether or not I would finish my course,” he said of the 25-minute short.
However, the film that brought him out, so to speak, to the Nigerian audience was another short, Fuelling Poverty, a documentary, he says, about the fuel subsidy scam. It was banned by the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board for being “highly provocative and likely to incite or encourage public disorder and undermine national security.”
In spite of this, it won Best Documentary at the 2013 African Movie Academy Award. Ishaya says the movie inspired itself because at the time it was made, subsidy was the big issue in the country.
“I did a couple of other short films with PPDC – Public and Private Development Centre (Homevida Awards),” he says of his other projects. “After that I did Henna with Afrinolly and now my first feature length film, Road to Yesterday.”
The latter is a collaboration with popular Nollywood actress Genevieve Nnaji. It is her first self-produced film based off a story she conceived. Apart from directing the film, Ishaya co-wrote it with his writing partner Emile B. Garuba.
On how he came to work with an established star like Genevieve, being what some would consider next to an unknown in Nollywood himself, Ishaya said: “We met through a collaborative medium. We were developing a project Uzo Iweala, who wrote Beast of No Nation, a novel. From our conversations, she had the idea for Road to Yesterday and she talked to me about it and said, ‘This is something I want to do, this is a film I want to make; can you write it?’ It was a challenge because I had really little time to fully understand her idea and the story she wanted to tell and then to bring out a screenplay from it. But then it was a collaboration through and through.”
He praised the actress, calling her “iconic” and noting her “wealth of experience.”
The movie, which stars British actor Oris Erhuero, Majid Michel, Ebele Okaro and comedian Chi Gurl, Ishaya says, is a road film and a modern day love story about a couple in distress.
“At the point in time we meet them we are not sure why but we know that marriage is difficult. So they go on a road trip to mend their relationship and in trying to mend their relationship, they discover what is wrong.”
It premiered on November 29 in cinemas around Nigeria.
Already, Ishaya has moved on to his next project. He is writing a comedy this time.
“It’s something I haven’t done in a while,” he said, which to those who know his work may sound like an understatement, seeing as he has done only “serious” films up till now.
But his lighter side may not come as a surprise, considering that one of the people he looks up to is the late Amaka Igwe, director and producer of such fare as Fuji House of Commotion and Pastor Kasali.
“Rattlesnake is one of my all-time favourite Nigerian films,” he says citing one of the late director’s iconic works. “I think it was the first one I watched and was like, ‘Wow! This is how films should be in Nigeria.’”
Although, up till now, his major projects have been done away from the mainstream Nigerian film industry and have been produced independently or by a NGO or CSO, Ishaya still considers himself a Nollywood filmmaker.
“Yes, I am a Nollywood filmmaker,” he said. “Because I do make films in Nigeria. I live and work in Nigeria. There has been criticism of the film industry in Nigeria but with the criticism, I think there is a lot to appreciate and acknowledge because Nollywood as an industry exists very differently from every other film industry in the world. It adopted home video technology very fast, found an audience and this were people that were telling their own stories.”
He hopes that Nollywood will be an industry that “we can still work in.”
“We can pay rent with; marry, have our children with. That is it now. At least, let us be able to eat from making films, that’s all.”
Ishaya Bako, the director of Road to Yesterday.
Ishaya has been a filmmaker for five years now. He tells Naij.com during an exclusive interview at his studio in Durumi, Abuja, that his first major project was his graduation film, Braids on a Bald Head, for which he won recognition at some film festivals.
“It was what would let me know whether or not I would finish my course,” he said of the 25-minute short.
However, the film that brought him out, so to speak, to the Nigerian audience was another short, Fuelling Poverty, a documentary, he says, about the fuel subsidy scam. It was banned by the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board for being “highly provocative and likely to incite or encourage public disorder and undermine national security.”
In spite of this, it won Best Documentary at the 2013 African Movie Academy Award. Ishaya says the movie inspired itself because at the time it was made, subsidy was the big issue in the country.
“I did a couple of other short films with PPDC – Public and Private Development Centre (Homevida Awards),” he says of his other projects. “After that I did Henna with Afrinolly and now my first feature length film, Road to Yesterday.”
The latter is a collaboration with popular Nollywood actress Genevieve Nnaji. It is her first self-produced film based off a story she conceived. Apart from directing the film, Ishaya co-wrote it with his writing partner Emile B. Garuba.
On how he came to work with an established star like Genevieve, being what some would consider next to an unknown in Nollywood himself, Ishaya said: “We met through a collaborative medium. We were developing a project Uzo Iweala, who wrote Beast of No Nation, a novel. From our conversations, she had the idea for Road to Yesterday and she talked to me about it and said, ‘This is something I want to do, this is a film I want to make; can you write it?’ It was a challenge because I had really little time to fully understand her idea and the story she wanted to tell and then to bring out a screenplay from it. But then it was a collaboration through and through.”
He praised the actress, calling her “iconic” and noting her “wealth of experience.”
Senator
Ben Murray-Bruce, Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed,
Genevieve Nnaji and Ishaya Bako at a screening of Road to Yesterday in
Abuja.
The movie, which stars British actor Oris Erhuero, Majid Michel, Ebele Okaro and comedian Chi Gurl, Ishaya says, is a road film and a modern day love story about a couple in distress.
“At the point in time we meet them we are not sure why but we know that marriage is difficult. So they go on a road trip to mend their relationship and in trying to mend their relationship, they discover what is wrong.”
It premiered on November 29 in cinemas around Nigeria.
Already, Ishaya has moved on to his next project. He is writing a comedy this time.
“It’s something I haven’t done in a while,” he said, which to those who know his work may sound like an understatement, seeing as he has done only “serious” films up till now.
But his lighter side may not come as a surprise, considering that one of the people he looks up to is the late Amaka Igwe, director and producer of such fare as Fuji House of Commotion and Pastor Kasali.
Amaka Igwe
Although, up till now, his major projects have been done away from the mainstream Nigerian film industry and have been produced independently or by a NGO or CSO, Ishaya still considers himself a Nollywood filmmaker.
“Yes, I am a Nollywood filmmaker,” he said. “Because I do make films in Nigeria. I live and work in Nigeria. There has been criticism of the film industry in Nigeria but with the criticism, I think there is a lot to appreciate and acknowledge because Nollywood as an industry exists very differently from every other film industry in the world. It adopted home video technology very fast, found an audience and this were people that were telling their own stories.”
He hopes that Nollywood will be an industry that “we can still work in.”
“We can pay rent with; marry, have our children with. That is it now. At least, let us be able to eat from making films, that’s all.”
Faleke Picks Mohammed Audu As Running Mate
The running mate to the late Prince Abubakar Audu in the November 21
governorship election in the state, Mr James Faleke, has vowed to
reclaim the mandate of the people of the state given freely to the APC
during the election.
Faleke who has been picked as the substitute for the late Abubakar Audu, made this assertion while addressing hundreds of APC supporters in Lokoja on Monday.
Quoting a section of the constitution while picking Mohammed Audu as his running mate, he pointed out that attempts to snatch power from the reins of the APC in Kogi State were fruitless as the party is poised to chart a new course for the state.
He explained that there is no contention between him and the immediate political family of late Abubakar Audu and described the task ahead as a moral burden on him to fight on, till the victory of APC is accomplished.
Going back to the primary election conducted on August 28, 2015, he noted that he remained the only person holding on to the votes cast for the APC.
Some APC leaders from the three senatorial districts of the state were present as Mr Faleke made his decision known to his supporters.
Faleke who has been picked as the substitute for the late Abubakar Audu, made this assertion while addressing hundreds of APC supporters in Lokoja on Monday.
Quoting a section of the constitution while picking Mohammed Audu as his running mate, he pointed out that attempts to snatch power from the reins of the APC in Kogi State were fruitless as the party is poised to chart a new course for the state.
He explained that there is no contention between him and the immediate political family of late Abubakar Audu and described the task ahead as a moral burden on him to fight on, till the victory of APC is accomplished.
Going back to the primary election conducted on August 28, 2015, he noted that he remained the only person holding on to the votes cast for the APC.
Some APC leaders from the three senatorial districts of the state were present as Mr Faleke made his decision known to his supporters.
Prominent artist buried in massive shoe casket in Akwa Ibom (pics)
A prominent Akwa Ibom artist popularly called Teacher Ite was buried on
Saturday November 28th in this magnificent shoe casket made by his two
sons who are also artists. The burial took place in Ibesikpo LGA
in the state and was attended by other prominent individuals in the
community. The photos were shared on Facebook by Emmanuel Emmanuel Udoh.
More photos after the cut...
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