400 More Heads To Roll at Nigerian Customs Service

In addition to the top officers who voluntarily retired from the Nigerian Customs Service last week, about 400 officers are fast on their way out of the service.

Reasons adduced for the imminent retirement of these officers include corruption, indiscipline, insubordination and absenteeism.

While some of the officers marked for retirement are alleged to have influenced their own promotions, others are said to have flouted redeployment directives by refusing to report at their new postings.

Some of the officers are also said to be in the habit of lobbying legislators to influence Customs management.

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I won't stop telling Nigerians how PDP plundered the economy - Buhari

Following a recent criticism by PDP spokesman, Chief Olisa Metuh that President Buhari was demarketing Nigeria, the presidency has said that Buhari will remain true to Nigerians and the International community by always telling them the truth.

Buhari had during his recent visit to India said that Nigeria was broke and could therefore not afford to engage 42 ministers as was done by the previous administration.

The PDP spokesman had subsequently criticized him for selling Nigeria cheap before the international community by saying that the country could not afford to pay cabinet ministers.

Reacting to Metuh's claims, Presidential spokesman, Mr Femi Adeshina said in a statement he issued to newsmen that Buhari would not be distracted from his obligations to the Nigerian people.

He said ; “Our attention has been drawn to the latest statement by the PDP spokesman, Olisa Metuh, alleging that President Muhammadu Buhari is ‘demarketing Nigeria’.

“We restate for the umpteenth time to Mr. Metuh and his ilk that their attempts to distract President Buhari from the job he has been elected to do will fail.

“President Buhari will remain true to the virtues of honesty, integrity, sincerity, incorruptibility and plain-speaking, which endeared him to Nigerians and made them prefer his leadership to that of a lying and deceptive PDP administration.

“The President will not, in the guise of ‘marketing’ the country, refrain from telling Nigerians and the world, the emerging truths about the abject state in which years of plundering by a PDP leadership has left the Nigerian treasury and economy.

“President Buhari will not in the name of ‘marketing’ or ‘attracting’ investors, follow in the footsteps of the ousted PDP administration and its discredited officials, who shamelessly lied to Nigerians and the world about the buoyancy and vibrancy of an economy they had bled dry for personal gain, when it was very obvious to the discerning, that the Nigerian economy was headed for serious trouble.”

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$5.2b Fine :MTN Pleads For Staggered Payment

Telecommunications giant, MTN has pleaded for staggered payment of the $5.2b fine imposed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC for violating its guidelines on the deactivation of unregistered SIM cards.

Feelers from government quarters indicate that following a series of meetings between the company's management team from South Africa and Nigeria and the Federal Government, an agreement is being reached on the modalities for the payment.

“There have been series of meetings at the Presidency between the Vice President Osinbajo and MTN team both from South Africa and the Nigerian arm. MTN wanted a waiver considering their level of investments in the country, but government did not buy the idea of waiver. Instead, I think there will be concession, but certainly not a waiver. At the conclusion of the meeting, the MTN people negotiated on how to stagger the payment. The Presidency is even angry because MTN was a signatory to the regulation, but they are failing to comply with rules," said a source close to the negotiations.

NCC had earlier hinted that MTN risked losing its license if it failed to pay the fine.

It is believed that Government's hard stance on the matter is due to the enormous implications of the offense on national security.

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How some IDP camps leaders sell donations meant for IDPs

Some Internally displaced persons taking shelter in Abuja have cried out that their leaders have been selling items donated to them by well-meaning people and organizations.

At the IDP camp in Kuchigoro, Abuja where the practice has been going on for some time, a resident confirmed to Vanguard that the act is perpetrated by those in charge of the camp.

Vanguard reports the source as saying that leaders from Gwoza and other faraway camps in the Northeast take advantage of the long distance of the camps to remove parts of their share of the donations which they sell to traders.

‘‘It is true that some of the donations made to us are not getting to us. They sell some of the gift items to people. What the leaders do is that they sell some to the food items to food sellers and those that care to buy. Some IDPs too, sell theirs after collecting their share when they need money,’’ he said.

Some other IDPs at the camp corroborated the story.

Source : Vanguard

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UN To Help Nigeria Restore Security To Northeast

The United Nations has pledged to support Nigeria in her efforts to restore security and normalcy in the Northeast of the country.

Speaking on behalf of UN agencies in the country at the North East humanitarian stakeholders meeting organised by the Federal Government in Maiduguri, UNFPA Country Representative in Nigeria, Ms RatiDzai Ndhlovu said that
the humanitarian situation in the region required a multi sectoral response.

Her words ;

“Nigeria has the great capacity to deliver what it wants to do. Nigeria equally has the capacity to restore the shattered lives of the IDPs. Nigeria is determined to succeed in this regard.

“In search of all this is the government ownership in leadership among all stakeholders to complement and support government effort.“

And I think the presence of the Vice President, Prof. Osinbajo here, the presence of governors of the North East, deputy governors, royal highnesses here present and all dignitaries present in this hall today is a clear testimony of Nigeria’s determination to make a change.

“Allow me to commend the Government of Nigeria, especially NEMA and SEMA, for the great work that they are doing in supporting and coordinating the humanitarian response.

“I wish to express great appreciation to the military that is fighting to end insurgency and also ensuring that security is there for us the humanitarian workers to enable us do our work.

“It is quite elevating to notice the change that is happening. As you know there was a time we could never hold a meeting in Maiduguri.

“There was a time when we as the humanitarian agencies could not even think of holding a training workshop here in Maiduguri, but here we are today; it is a sign that we are making a strive in the right direction and we need to keep it up.

“I would like also to give special commendation to Governor Kashim Shettima’s steadfastness, resilience and determination to restore quality of life to the people of Borno state.

“I was here about four months ago and I am here today, and I have seen a change already.

“This interactive forum is very critical because it affords us the opportunity to come up with the most effective avenue to discuss ways that would enable us to come up with a consensus centred at most effective strategies that allow us to achieve what we want to achieve.

“It is desirable for us to restore peace, so let us work together, put our differences aside and work together for the progress of Borno State and the country.”

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The Days Of Boko Haram Are Numbered - Gov Shettima

Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State has declared that the days of Boko Haram are numbered as they no longer pose a threat to the territorial integrity of the country.

Shettima made the remark in Maiduguri while addressing the
Northeast humanitarian stakeholders meeting organised by the Federal Government.

According to Shettima, the meeting marked a significant step forward in the journey to forever chase insurgency out of the land and place the Northeast on the trajectory to sustainable development and peaceful coexistence.

In the address he read at the occasion, Gov Shettima said ;
“It is a well known fact that since the year 2009, our region has been caught in war that is imposed by unquestionable matters of health, a war of brutality that has no correlation in human history.

“A war that is characterised by wanton destruction of lives and properties, genocidal scale, fatal destruction of towns and territorial occupation by terrorists, mass abduction of innocent vulnerable boys and girls and even adults, displacing of millions of Nigerians into refugees in their own land.

“But it is equally a well known fact that in the last six months we have witnessed a new impetus in the counter insurgency effort so much so that a new hope of optimism is assured that the end of all this madness is finally in sight.

“Thanks to the ample political will demonstrated by President Muhammadu Buhari which has manifested in the creation of regional international anti-terrorist alliances as well as the remarkable improvement in the training and equipping of our armed forces.

“Our gallant and patriotic troops have become better motivated and have taken the war to the insurgents and have largely succeeded in degrading their capacity as a fighting force.

“These undesirable elements no longer constitute a potent threat to Nigeria's territorial integrity. Thus, despite the renewed but desperate and cowardly campaign of bomb detonations currently undertaken by the ungodly Boko Haram sect maiming and killing multiples of innocent people, we all know that their days are numbered."

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Osinbajo Tasks Civil Society Organizations

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has urged Civil Society Organizations, CSOs to help rebuild, reconstruct, reconcile and resettle victims of Boko Haram activities in the Northeast.

Speaking at the Northeast Humanitarian Multi-stakeholder Engagement meeting in Maiduguri, Osinbajo said that the region would have been worse off without the contributions of the CSOs and other voluntary organizations.

“The many civil society groups, funding partners, regional and international partners, have given up their time, resources and even lives in some cases and deserve to be commended.

“But for you, first responders we would have been far worse off than we are today.

“The CSO community is the heart and conscience of underserved people and communities.

“You have shown uncommon compassion and offered a voice to the most vulnerable, especially when others were nowhere to be found.

“You have supported governments at all levels, in this region in particular, when things were very tough.

“As we deal with what is evidently the greatest human challenge in Nigeria’s recent history, we will need you to be even stronger.

“This challenge will require dedication, innovation and creativity especially from the NGO and CSO community.

“This meeting is more important for the fact that it is taking place here in Maiduguri, the city that has suffered the most loss of lives and property in the past six years of the Boko Haram scourge.

“Your being here underscores not just our empathy for the victims of the terror but also demonstrate the outreach that we all feel about the mindless killings, abductions and wanton destruction perpetrated by the sect.

“Our being here is equally a collective determination to find the most cost effective ways to intervene in restoring the dignity of the tens and thousands of IDPs from the North East.

“We may not know them by their names or faces, we may speak different faith but we are in the eyes of our Creator one and the same.

“We too, but for time and chance could have been in the same position.

“Rebuilding, restoring and rehabilitation would cost money and time but no money nor time can treat the trauma or loss of family, the shame and the pain of the raped, the scars and tears of the abducted,” Osinbajo said.

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