Nigeria must be restructured, says Ekweremadu

 

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu

John Ameh, Abuja

The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said on Tuesday that Nigeria must embrace restructuring as the surest solutions to its current economic challenges.

He argued that to succeed, the country must abandon its “feeding bottle federalism “ for true fiscal federalism.

The deputy Senate President also disagreed with the views expressed in certain quarters that all the country needed was good governance and not restructuring.

He spoke at the Second Annual Conference of the Young Parliamentarians Forum, which took place at the National Assembly in Abuja.

The theme was “Political /Economic Inclusion and Participation of Young People in Nigeria.”

He noted that the age-long culture of federating states running to the centre to ask for money monthly while resources wasted in their backyards would at best give temporary succour, but that the problem would continue.

 Ekweremadu added, “I disagree with those who say that Nigeria does not necessarily need restructuring, but good governance that will eliminate corruption.

“The truth is that it is difficult to tame corruption where the federating units virtually run on free federal allocations that some people see as national cake, not their own sweat.

“Conversely, the people will be more vigilant and ready to hold their leaders accountable when the federating units begin to live largely on internally generated revenues and their sweat.

“However, restructuring should be on incremental basis to ease the country into a more prosperous future.”

 He urged the nation’s youths to take active part in the affairs of their political parties.

Ekweremadu added, “We need to reinvigorate the youth arm of our political parties as in the days of the First Republic and pre-independence era when vibrant youth movements and arms of the political parties thrived and served as platforms for political apprenticeship for aspiring political leaders.

 “Unfortunately, there is little we can do about meaningful youth economic inclusion and employment until we restructure our behemoth federalism.

“I still hold the view that this feeding bottle federalism, this act of robbing Peter to pay Paul, which we have gradually enthroned as state policy since the fall of the First Republic, remains cause of our economic quandary.”

A member of the House of Representatives and National Chairman, Young Parliamentarians Forum of Nigeria, Mr. Nnanna Igbokwe, called for more economic empowerment for youths.

He stated that this should precede the clamour to reduce the eligibility age of young people to participate in politics.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House,  Mr. Yakubu Dogara, has stated that the country had little choice but to diversify its economy from dependence on oil revenue.

Dogara was speaking at the Chattered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria Abuja Tax Week on the Dilemma of Improving Tax Revenue in Tough Economic Times.

The Speaker told his audience how the House initiated a sectoral debate by ministers on the state of the economy to underscore the importance of diversifying the economy of the country.

Dogara also assured the session that administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was working hard to re-engineer Nigeria’s economic development.

He explained, “Midway into fiscal year 2016, the challenges of meeting yearning expectations is still as daunting as ever but the government is as resolute as it remains dedicated to bringing succour to the plight of the average Nigerian…

“To do this, the government deliberately tinkered with the federal budget in order to ensure that it delivers a 70:30 recurrent to capital spending per total budget expenditure in order to boost capital formation in the economy.

“We realise that capital project financing is vital to providing new infrastructure that would help build the badly needed capital formation for our economy to grow. We need to do even better in the 2017 budget and afterwards.”

On taxation, he said the news in most of the states was not cheering, except Lagos.”

He added, “Our tax buoyancy does not leave us with any much to cheer as well at -3.21 in 2015 from its previous levels of -0.08 for year 2014. Combined contribution of the states to tax revenue stood at 15.43 per cent of total tax revenue with Federal tax revenue making up 84.57 per cent for year 2015.

 “This was only a 2.38 percentage point increase in States’ Internally Generated Revenue. Among the states, Ebonyi State tops states with average annualised growth rate in Internally Generated Revenue  of 98.59 per cent, while Kwara State is lowest with 0.77 per cent.

“On the basis of IGR per states’ population, Lagos understandably tops the chart with N22, 954.65 per capita, while Zamfara is lowest with N 652.15 per capita as at 2015.

“This means that Lagos is more able to serve its people 35.2 times with tax revenue over its Zamfara counterpart.”

Timi Dakolo stole my song – Majek Fashek

 

Majek

No matter how incoherent some people may feel veteran artiste, Majek Fashek is, nobody could take away his sound state of mind and the bitterness he felt when he claimed in a chat with Saturday Beats recently how Timi Dakolo, the R&B singer, “stole” his evergreen hit song, Send Down the Rain.

Timi, in 2013, had done a remix of the song but Fashek said Timi never took permission from him before doing the song.

In an exclusive chat with Satuday Beats, the reggae singer said Timi Dakolo capitalised on his state of health and remade his song without taking permission from him.

He said, “He broke the rules of copyright. He is a thief because in music business, he must take permission before he works on someone’s song. That is why we have COSON. I did not give anyone the right to do anything with my song. I have a management team I work with headed by Omenka Uzoma.  Dakolo never bothered to look for me before stealing my song. He has infringed on the laws of copyright and he is not an original artiste. It is only people like Tuface, Wizkid, Olamide that are original.

“I felt bad when I learnt that he worked on my song without my consent. He did not even give me credit. He is a very bad artiste and he took advantage of the circumstance that I was facing during that time. The song is not a normal song; it is a spiritual hit song. Timi Dakolo does not know how I suffered to get that song. I fasted for seven days before I got that song. I partook in three days ‘white’ fasting  before the song came to me.  Timi Dakolo did not go through that. I did not fight him because I do not have time. Let God judge us.” Also commenting on the situation, Majek Fashek’s music business consultant, Omenka Uzoma, said they would soon begin to fish out all those who have been exploiting Majek Fashek.

In a telephone conversation with Timi Dakolo to get his side of the story, the young lad was quick to cut short the conversation even before our correspondent could explain reasons for calling.

 “I am not in the country. There is no allegation levelled against me. Go ahead and write a better story. I am not in Nigeria,” he said before he rudely ended the call

EFCC detains Abia REC over Diezani poll bribe

Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke

Eniola Akinkuotu and Ramon Oladimeji

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has detained the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Abia State, Mr. Sylvester Ezeani, for his alleged role in the N23bn ($115m) that was disbursed by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, during the build-up to the 2015 presidential election.

According to the EFCC, the suspect allegedly received N20m out of N241m while he was the REC in Cross River State during the March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections.

An EFCC operative told one of our correspondents on Tuesday that the REC had failed to explain what the N20m was meant for and had thus been detained.

He said, “The REC was on Tuesday interrogated by operatives of the EFCC in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in connection with an alleged N20m electoral scam.

“While serving in Cross River State, he was alleged to have collected the sum of N20m out of the entire N241,000,000, which was released to Cross River State from the controversial $115m lodged in a bank by Diezani.

“Ezeani, who has now been redeployed to Abia State, was quizzed over his involvement in the scam. He is still in custody.”

The commission also quizzed the lawmaker representing Oron Federal Constituency in Akwa Ibom State, Nse Ekpenyong, for his alleged involvement in a certificate forgery scam.

According to the anti-graft agency, Ekpenyong ran into trouble when a non-governmental organisation petitioned the EFCC, alleging that he committed perjury and financial crimes by submitting a forged National Diploma/statement of result of the Abia State Polytechnic to the Independent National Electoral Commission in the build-up to the 2015 National Assembly election.

The petitioner also alleged that Ekpenyong fraudulently obtained salaries, allowances and other financial benefits through his contrived certificate.

A detective at the commission added, “Investigations by the EFCC showed that Ekpenyong did not attend the polytechnic as alleged by the petitioner and the ND did not emanate from the institution.

“Further investigations are ongoing on the case. Ekpenyong has been released on bail.”

Meanwhile, a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Fred Agbaje, says the concern expressed by President Muhammadu Buhari over delay in the trial of corruption cases is a serious indictment on the judiciary.

Agbaje, who said this in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents on Tuesday, pointed out that it was up to the judiciary to redeem itself and change the negative perception.

The lawyer was reacting to the President’s call on the judiciary to support his anti-graft war by ensuring that criminal cases in court were not delayed but expeditiously concluded.

Buhari reportedly spoke at the opening ceremony of an ‘‘International Workshop on the Judiciary and Fight against Corruption.’’

The two-day event was jointly organised by the National Judicial Institute and the Prof. Itse Sagay-led Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption with the theme, ‘The Roles of Judges in the Fight Against Corruption.”

The President was quoted to have called on the judiciary to put its house in order, tackle corruption in the judiciary, be impartial and politically-neutral, remove causes of delay in adjudication of cases and stop tolerating the dilatory tactics of defence lawyers that prolonged high-profile corruption cases.

Speaking on Tuesday against the background of Buhari’s comment, Agbaje said, “It is a serious indictment to say the courts are the ones encouraging delay tactics to frustrate the hearing of corruption cases. It is a serious indictment on the judiciary. It is now for the judiciary to redeem itself.”

Agbaje, however, said the executive, through the anti-corruption agencies and the police, should also share in the blame.

But a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Godwin Obla, frowned on a situation where the President would blame the judiciary for the delay in corruption cases, adding that the delays were caused by some procedural challenges in the country’s laws.

Obla stated, “The President is less than two years in the saddle and I do not think that his opinion as to whether time is wasted or time is not wasted reflects the true position of the law. The truth of the matter is that there are procedural challenges in our laws and some of us have repeatedly spoken about it.

“The fact that someone is facing trial does not mean that we will abridge their right to actually defend themselves. They have the right to defend themselves; and at times in the course of doing so, they rely on unorthodox techniques of delaying trial, but it is within their right and it is within the confines of the law.

“Mr. President cannot indict the judiciary. Just as he is complaining that it is actually taking long for criminal cases to be decided, Nigerians are also saying that it is taking too long for the promises that he made to be fulfilled. It is not a one-way traffic.

“The law does not work in the way it works in the military. This is a democracy. The courts have tried, they’ve brought out certain practice directions, they are making certain levels of progress but it is not overnight.

“If we want to make substantial progress, we must invest in practical amendment to our procedural rule of the court.”

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, had, in his speech at the Abuja event, promised that the judiciary would no longer dismiss cases of corruption against high-profile persons without trial.

Teenagers attack school, beat principal, steal N1.5m

 

• The school

Samson Folarin

Pandemonium broke out at the Lagooz Schools on Omotoye Estate in the Orile Agege area of Lagos State after some hoodlums invaded the school premises.

PUNCH Metro learnt that some Hausa teenagers, numbering about 100, stormed the school with machetes and other weapons.

They were said to have attacked the school’s principal and a teacher, identified as Uncle John, during a free-for-all which lasted for about two hours.

Our correspondent was told that the rampaging youths, aside damaging some property of the school, allegedly made away with N1.5m.

Policemen from the Elere divison, operatives of the Special Anti-robbery Squad and some members of the Oodua People’s Congress, were said to have repelled the attack as residents fled the area.

Our correspondent was told that seven of the hoodlums were arrested, while others escaped after SARS operatives opened fire on them.

A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said trouble started when the school finished its valedictory service party on Saturday, but the teenagers refused to leave the school premises.

He said, “They were actually relatives of some of the school-leavers. The valedictory service party ended around 5pm, but they refused to leave. A teacher, Uncle John, tried to force them out. One of them abused the teacher and ran away.

“The teacher, who was embarrassed by the abuse, held one of the Hausa teenagers. There was a struggle between them. As the teacher hit the man, he also fought back and held the teacher by the neck, almost strangulating him.

“The principal, who wanted to settle the fight, was held by the tie by one of the intruders and beaten up. The principal’s brother, who wanted to rescue him, was given a fist blow in the eye.”

Our correspondent was told that the teenagers damaged about four dozen of the chairs used for the party. Three of them were later apprehended by the school.

Those apprehended were reportedly held hostage in a classroom, while the others wreaked havoc on the school premises.

A source told PUNCH Metro that the apprehended teenagers, however, mobilised more gang members into the community on the telephone.

He said, “Those boys had their phones and they started calling their friends, who trooped into the school with cutlasses and weapons.

“Policemen at the school’s gate prevented them from gaining entrance as they shot into the air. The hoodlums, however, grew in number, which overwhelmed the security agents.

 “Despite the gunshots, the teenagers refused to go. In fact, while some of them knelt, others prostrated and were begging the police to shoot at them. They were saying, ‘Please shoot us; we want to die’.”

It was gathered that some OPC members later came out with weapons and engaged the hoodlums.

The proprietor of the school was reported to have called for reinforcement from SARS operatives, who stormed the community.

“The SARS operatives started shooting into the air. They chased the teenagers and arrested seven of them. They also seized their motorcycles and recovered some of the weapons they brought,” another source said.

It was learnt that some Hausa leaders had visited the school and held a truce meeting with the management.

The Proprietor of the school, Chief Yomi Otubela, said it was only a minor disagreement among pupils of the school.

He said, “The issue was about some teenagers who had issues with themselves on where to park their cars. The police that were on duty at the school gate actually mediated. No school property was damaged; nothing happened during our valedictory service.”

But the Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, confirmed the attack, adding that seven suspects had been arrested.

She said, “Some hoodlums entered the school’s premises and destroyed some property. They allegedly made away with N1.5m.

“Our operatives from the Elere divison were contacted and they swiftly moved in and arrested seven of the suspects. The suspects have been handed over to the Area G headquarters for further investigation.”

NLC wants security votes for President, govs scrapped

NLC President, Mr. Ayuba Wabba

Olalekan Adetayo with agency report

The Nigeria Labour Congress has called for the abolition of security vote for the president and governors in the country.

The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja that security vote had become an avenue for siphoning public funds.

“The issue of security vote is another form of corruption; in fact, there was a particular state which took N1bn in one month as security vote.

“It is an avenue for corruption. In good governance, all monies spent by government are budgeted and transparently applied.

“That is what happens in other spheres; so for our sake, the issue of security vote should be done away with.

“All monies to be spent should be transparently budget for, including the so-called security vote, so that it can be tracked, to prevent corruption.’’

Also, Waba called for the removal of the immunity clause from the constitution, to enable the president, the vice-president, governors and their deputies to be prosecuted for a criminal offence.

He noted that such political leaders in other parts of the world did not enjoy immunity against criminal prosecution, adding that Nigeria should not be an exception.

The NLC president said that immunity was hindering the fight against corruption and decried a situation whereby political office holders could not be prosecuted for criminal offence.

He said, “Even after they leave office, they use their influence and resources they have accumulated to frustrate prosecution.

“I have seen cases that lasted for eight to 14 years and were inconclusive. Some of these cases outlived the life of the administration that started the probe, due to this particular challenge.”

“There are some cases that started before the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo till now, it is still ongoing.

Waba said that nobody should be given immunity against criminal prosecution while in office.

He, therefore, stressed the need to review the constitution to address loopholes that gave room for some political leaders to steal the commonwealth.

Doctor rapes woman during abortion

  

 

A doctor allegedly raped a woman during an abortion procedure two weeks after he masturbated in front of her during a physical examination, a court has heard.
According to Tribune 242, after Dr. Gerald Mark Forbes informed the 20-year-old she would need a medical examination to work at his clinic in Freeport, the Bahamas, last February, he was alleged to have rubbed her vagina and masturbated before her.
The report added that two week’s later, after the victim asked him to terminate a pregnancy, he was accused of raping her during the procedure.
The 47-year-old is also said to have given the alleged victim a packet of Methotrexate, a drug used to induce abortions.

The defendant told the police as heard by the Grand Bahama Court that the woman was a ‘friend of a friend’, who simply worked at his office for two months. He denied the allegations of rape and indecent assault.
However, he refused to answer officers when asked about the alleged incidents, telling them he ‘had nothing to say’.
The court was told that in a WhatsApp exchange that took place after the alleged rape, the doctor told the woman he didn’t owe her salary because he had provided her with medication.
During the police interview an officer told him, “The virtual complainant informed you that she will not return to work because she was uncomfortable that you violated her, and you said you were sorry she felt that way and you told her to still come in for follow-up and medication.”
The trial resumes at 11am on Friday

Hoolidiums kills suya seller in calabar

   

Mudiaga Affe, Calabar

Some hoodlums on Friday robbed and killed a 35-year-old ‘suya’ seller, Habibu Maude, after robbing the deceased.

The late Maude, a father of four, was shot dead at his suya spot along White House Street in Calabar, Cross River State.

Shops and other businesses in Bogobiri, an Hausa settlement in Calabar, were closed on Saturday and Sunday as a result of the incident.

It was gathered that the deceased, an indigene of Tangaza Local Government Area of Sokoto State, did not argue with the hoodlums before he was shot.

When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Irene Ugbo, confirmed the incident, saying investigation was ongoing to unravel the killers.

“Yes, we got the investigation that a suya seller was shot by an unknown gunman along White House streets. We have not made any arrest yet, but I can assure that we would track the killers,” she said.

 

How married woman died in a hotel-Residents

Afeez Hanafi

Neighbours of a woman, who died last Friday in a hotel in Ikotun, Lagos State, have opened up on what transpired shortly before her death.

They said the deceased, who was identified only as Iya Ginika, had left home around 9pm on the day, telling her husband that she wanted to visit a friend in the neighbourhood.

The residents told our correspondent on Tuesday that the woman, in her 50s, had claimed that she wanted to collect something from the friend.

They added that they were shocked when news filtered in that she was found dead in Taola Hotel on Prince Adeyemi Street, Ikotun.

The deceased lived on K & S Street, Abaranje Road – a few kilometres from the hotel.

PUNCH Metro had reported on Monday that the woman and her lover had stayed in the hotel around 9.30pm on Friday and paid to spend an hour.

However, workers of the hotel became apprehensive when it was 12am the following day and the lovers did not check out.

One of the workers was said to have entered the room to discover that the woman was dead while her lover had fled.

The case was reported to the police at the Ikotun division.

A neighbour of the deceased told PUNCH Metro on Tuesday that she had lied to her husband, identified simply as Henry, that she wanted to visit a friend who lived on Prince Adeyemi Street.

The neighbour, who did not want her name in print, said she was shocked when she learnt that the woman died in the hotel.

She said, “Around 9pm on Friday, she told her husband that she wanted to visit a friend on the street where the hotel is located. The husband and her children became confused when she did not return.

“It was the following day when the news of her death was broken that the husband realised he had lied to him. She was about 50 years old.

“Her husband is a motorcyclist and he tries his best to provide for the family. She used to run a lotto shop but later stopped. She sold fish and soup ingredients before her death,” he added.

When contacted, the deceased’s husband, Henry, who spoke with our correspondent on the telephone, said she would be buried later this month. He, however, declined comments when asked where her late wife told him he was going on the day.

“She suffered from high blood pressure before her death. We will bury her later this month,” he said.

But the deceased’s daughter, who collected the phone from her father, said the family did not want to dwell on the incident in order to protect its image.

“We don’t want to be discussing this matter. We have our future to protect and we don’t want the incident to destroy the image of the family. Please, don’t call this number again,” she added.

The Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, SP Dolapo Badmos, said the police were still on the trail of the fleeing lover.