kizito96:

What are we navigating, our streets have not been mapped out and programed to satelite. It will not work

Beaf:

It is a tough action that will bring pain to some, but the civil service is an avenue of waste and ghost workers. It needs to be trimmed down.
The fact is that many have seen govt as the only source of livelihood, which is a direct result of the unitary system we deceive ourselves is federalism. I don't know of any country that has so many federal civil servants (in most countries they are employed mainly by states and LG's).
It is obvious that we have reached the limits of what is possible from oil alone, somethings gotta give without the states and LG's chipping in.

walex2:

He entered plead bargain so he is not going to jail but only be convicted to return part of his looted funds and some of his properties would be seized, sold and returned to the coffin of the Fed govt.

bulksms247:

It makes no sense, seems like a well planned muder to me. (1) Is it the first time he is coming to the government house?. (2)Didn't the soldiers see his plate number?

badesco:

I hope Gov. Fashola of Lagos State will copy from Gov.Rochas Okorocha. Despite Imo is not as rich as Lagos yet he could come out with a plan of free education at all level. Okorocha you are the best Governor in Nigeria.

Beaf:

My own surprise is that Kabiru Sokoto is still alive, boko haram is known to summarily kill those it fears might have been compromised, so why wasn't he killed?
If you ask me, it points to people with emotional ties to each other running boko haram, either friends or family.

All Kabiru Sokoto's friends and family should be brought in and the secret to boko haram will be found.

Yours GEJ,:

the last time i checked, two-thirds of 21 was 14. Or have mathematics changed?

chines4:

Bros we are talking of more than =N=100B and your referring to 5B

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) operatives have uncovered over N5billion fraud in the Pensions Unit of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.


Of the cash, the EFCC allegedly found N500million and $2million in the account of a Deputy Director (Finance and Accounts), Mrs. Phiana U. Chidi and N12million in the account of a 29-year old clerk, Grace Francis.


Six suspects, including a former director of the unit, are being detained at the commission’s Abuja headquarters.




In custody are a former Director (Pension Administration in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, M.A. Abdallah; Mrs. Chidi; Grace Francis; Haruna Maigida (a.k.a Danjuma Bakowasa); a Confidential Secretary to the former Director (Pension Administration), Luke Eloanyi; and Aliyu Bello, who allegedly recruited people into whose accounts fraud proceeds were paid.


An interim report indicates the recovery from some of the suspects as follows: Mrs. Chidi (N500m and $2m); Maigida (N21.452,000) domiciled in an account in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State and N8m in an Abuja account); Eloanyi (N13m); and Grace Francis (N12m).


The EFCC team, which worked in collaboration with a Pension Verification Team in the Office of the Head of Service, headed by Deputy Director AbdulRasheed Maina, uncovered the N5billion scam.


According to the “Interim Report of the Case of Pension Fraud”, more than N5billion may have been stolen from pension funds in the last one year, allegedly by the suspects and other accomplices yet to be apprehended.


The report reads: “On Saturday, we arrested a Deputy Director (Finance and Accounts) in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Phiana U. Chidi (now on secondment to the Ministry of Transport) at Sheraton Hotel in Abuja at about 8pm.


“By the time we checked her account, we found N500million and another $2million in one account. She is the sole signatory to the account.


“Prior to her arrest, our investigators working in the Pension Verification Committee had discovered ghost pensioners.


“Out of 141,970 pensioners on the payroll of the Federal Government, less than 90,000 were verified and over 34,000 were ghost.


“In one instance, names of 554 pensioners were drawing pensions from one single account. By our investigation, it means one pension is operating the account.


“Also, over 11,000 pensioners, who were on the payroll and had been drawing pensions, do not have identities. The committee does not have information about them.


“The committee is set to recover over N5billion from the accounts of the suspects and other accomplices.”


The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said: “It is a matter we are working on with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, but I am yet to have the full details of the findings.”


The new Head of Service, Prof. Oladapo Afolabi, recently said the verification of pensioners had reduced monthly pension bill from N2.3billion to N1.2billion.


“We have secured about 50 per cent reduction in monthly pension bill. At the end of the second phase of the exercise, we may be able to save N600million monthly.”

Ndume
An Abuja Federal High Court Judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, on Thursday threatened to dismiss the criminal charge against Senator Ali Ndume.
Ndume is charged for allegedly sponsoring the Boko Haram sect.
Justice Kolawole had on December 19, 2011, made an order for accelerated hearing and adjourned till February 2, 7 and 14, 2012 for trial.
At the resumed hearing of the case on Thursday, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) was absent.
Mr. Cliff Osagie who stood in for her informed the court she was away on national matter.
He said a letter informing the court and the defense had been served.
He therefore asked for a short adjournment.
Mr. A. A Vangos, holding brief for lead defense counsel, Chief Rickey Terfa, expressed reservations but did not object to the request.
Osagie told the court that the DPP wanted a new date in the last week of February, instead of the March 6 and 7 which she reportedly asked for in the letter.
Surprised by the development, Justice Kolawole threatened to dismiss the charge and discharge the accused person if the prosecution was not prepared.
He wondered why law enforcement agencies are quick at arraigning accused but develop cold feet after the initial noise in the media.
He said to Osagie, "Tell the DPP that if she is not ready I will discharge the suspect and that will be the end of the matter.
"If the state is not ready to prosecute the accused person, withdraw the charges and go to another place."
"In view of the background of the last adjourned date, this will be an anti-climax. The national assignment which she is going to, or has gone for, was not even disclosed to our office.
"I am still wondering which other national assignment can actually prevent her presence in this court today.
"The case had earlier, with her consent, been adjourned to today and 7th February 2012, for trial.
"I have always expressed my displeasure with regards to applications for adjournment of criminal cases."
He went on: "A trend one has noticed from the bench is that the state is always so anxious, perhaps too nervous, to arraign accused persons in high profile criminal cases such as this with a lot of media blitz, but when it gets to the nitty gritty of the real trial, the excitement and eagerness wanes."
He added, "I have made the point to Mr. Osagie that this court is so flooded with many cases that it has no time, resources or energy, to spare for cases that are not to be prosecuted immediately.”

Funkymallam:

Young man, where r u pulling those figures frm? Provide a link or source to back up a claim or shushhhh!
SR should have started a new song if ur dream comes tru.

133 aides

An official document obtained by NEXT, titled ‘List of presidential Aides as at February, 2011’ shows that the country currently pays for at least 133 personal aides to the president, the vice-president, and the first lady. These aides, who are mostly political appointees, include the Chief of Staff to the President, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Vice President, Principal Secretary to the President, Principal Secretary to the Vice President, 25 special advisers, 42 senior special assistants, 52 special assistants and 12 personal assistants. Two of the personal assistants are Malian and Senegalese tailors who sow the president’s clothes.

Activist Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress, said most of the appointees were simply engaged by President Jonathan as campaign foot soldiers.

“The president is simply wasting our national resources and applying pressure on the economy by settling cronies, bootlickers and parasites on the corridors of power with appointments,” said Mr. Sani who wants labour, civil society and opposition parties to check the trend.

Looking through the list, some of the appointments indeed appear to be duplication of duties. For instance, there are six physicians (two senior special assistants and four special assistants) who attend to the health needs of the president, the vice president and the first lady. They include two chief physicians to the president and vice president, two personal physicians to the President and the vice president, an assistant personal physician to the president and a personal physician to the first lady. Yet some public hospitals across the country do not have a single physician.

Apart from the large number of domestic staff in the presidential villa, who are civil servants, there are also six special assistants in charge of domestic matters for the president and his vice. Their job descriptions are special assistants on presidential household matters, domestic affairs, domestic matters, household administration, social events and household matters, and domestic affairs.

Eleven of the presidential aides on the list work for the unconstitutional office of the First Lady. They are Ike Neliaku and Oroyemisi Oyewole, both senior special assistants on administration to Mrs. Jonathan; Mary Oba, a special assistant on administration; Grace Koroye, coordinator, Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS, and Martha Owuzurumba, coordinator, African First Ladies Peace Mission. Other aides of Mrs Jonathan are Hannah Offor, a special assistant on protocol, Isiaku Aliagan, her media assistant, and Elizabeth Austin Amadi, her personal physician. On August 13, 2010, Mrs. Jonathan’s stylist, Agnes Aineneh, was appointed a presidential assistant. Two ladies-in-waiting were also appointed for the president’s wife. In the United Kingdom, the term Lady-in-Waiting, according to Wikipedia, is used to describe a woman attending a female member of the royal family other than the Queen or Queen Consort. In Cambodia, the term refers to high ranking female servants who served food and drink, fanned and massaged, and sometimes provided intimate services to the King. It is however not clear what Justin Adaba and Amina Iye Ahmadu do for Mrs. Jonathan.

Yet, there are other aides of the First Lady that are not on the list. Among them are her steward, Benson Okpara; her luggage officer, Geoffrey Obuofforibo; her aide-de-cap, Jacob Tamunoibuomi; her orderly, Abigail Jonah, her chief security officer; Francis Ibiene; her director of protocol, Mfama Abam; her principal protocol officer, Nuhu Kwache; and another media assistant, Ayobami Adewuyi.

It remains unclear the exact number of official staff permanently employed by the federal government for the state house in addition to the 133 personal aides. This would include bureaucrats, directors, security personnel, administrative staff, and cleaners. Indications are that this figure would be higher than that of the special aides since the State House has budgeted an additional N1.42 billion for the payment of salaries of these other staff this year.

The situation in other climes

In the United States, there are 470 employees working in the White House. But most of them are employees on permanent appointments who have worked there for years. President Barack Obama only appointed a handful of key advisers.

Similarly, in South Africa, according to the 2009 annual report of the presidency, President Jacob Zuma appointed only seven advisers while the remaining 582 members of staff were mostly career civil servants.

klas:

The number of GEJ's aides is not 24. That is just for Special Advisers which is equivalent to full cabinet minister. He got approval to appoint 20 from the national assembly but appointed 24. There are still many Senior Special Assistants (equivalent to minister of state) and Special Assistants all numbering more than a hundred.

GEJ has the highest number of Special Advisers (not necesarily highest number of aides) in nigeria presidential history.

Kobojunkie:

How did there Tenure end back in May 2011, yet they were allowed to continue as Governors? Was there no election? Is this news even real? How does a governor get to hang on to power even after an election where he looses? Or am I missing something here?

Meme Inc.:

Bull poo, He doesn't practise no religion,how would he know all.
He thinks westenr knowledge does it all, afteralll he was among the pioneers of cultism in Nigeria and now he stands to speak against violence.
What about the ones killed by cultists?
What can you say about it?

NEITI Awards N364m Audit Contracts to Indigenous Firms

22 Jan 2012
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Mrs Zainab Ahmed


By Chineme Okafor

Two reputable indigenous and independent audit firms have been chosen by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative to conduct the 2009-2011 oil and gas industry audit and the 2009-2011 solid minerals audit.

The two audit reports are expected to be completed within the year after which NEITI will commission them for dissemination and reporting.

The firms, Sada Idris & Co. will undertake the oil and gas industry audit for a contract sum of N226.6 million, while Haruna Yahaya & Co. is to conduct the first Nigeria’s solid minerals sector audit at the cost of N137 million, bringing the combined total contract  sum to N363.6 million.

According to a statement from NEITI’s Director of Communications, Mr. Orji Ogbonnanya Orji Saturday in Abuja, the two auditors were selected after a competitive international bidding process that involved 22 companies expressing interests and out of which eight of them were considered upon meeting requirements in both the NEITI Act and Nigeria’s Public Procurement Act in relation to the job offerings.

The same process was adopted for the solid minerals sector audit, after which these companies were offered the bid documents to submit their technical and financial proposals.

Orji explained that the technical and financial evaluations were carried out by a seven-man committee under a rigorous quality and cost-based procurement selection methods saw the emergence of the two companies as preferred bidders and were accordingly recommended to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) for vetting and issuance of Due Process Certificates of “No Objection” thus, leading to Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval.
The projects were accordingly approved by the FEC on Wednesday January 17 for award of contract.

Accordingly, the emergence of Sada Idris & Co to carry out the oil and gas sector audit and Haruna Yahaya & Co to carry out the solid minerals audit were considered by NEITI as a positive statement on the ability and capability of Nigerian firms to compete favourably with international companies in addressing Nigeria’s national challenges if given a level-playing ground.

Their engagements to carry out oil and gas audit from 2009 to 2011 will bring NEITI up-to-date in compliance with the rules of global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and NEITI national mandate.