Fighting Terrorism, Oil Theft Is A Tough Task - Buhari

Ridding the country of terrorists and oil thieves has not been an easy fix for the Buhari government.

President Buhari said so in Abuja on Thursday while receiving President Faure Gnassingbe of Togo at the Presidential Villa.

Buhari said that his administration is saddled with the difficult tasks of fighting insurgents in the North East, oil thieves in the South South and providing infrastructure for the citizens.

Noting that development is impossible without security, Buhari called for cooperation among African countries to fight insurgency and other security challenges facing the continent.

President Gnassingbe said he was in Nigeria to invite President Buhari to a summit holding in Togo in November this year. The summit will be addressing the issues of piracy, oil theft, environmental pollution, immigration, as well as human and drug trafficking.

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Buhari Is Clearing PDP Mess

Following claims by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP governors that President Buhari is turning Nigeria into a dictatorship, APC chieftain, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has risen to the defense of the President.

Tinubu was in Aso Rock Villa, Abuja on Wednesday in the company of Senator Shehu Sani and Chief Bisi Akande to confer with President Buhari.

According to him, "He (Buhari) was elected on a platform of democracy; he has adhered to the rule of law so far. What is dictatorship about what he has done? He has helped to stimulate the economy in the various states and that is where the people are. So what is dictatorship?

“An institutional paralysis had occurred in the country. It is very important for a steady man like the President to really help the nation recover from the paralysis and that is what he is doing; so I don’t see what is dictatorial about that.”

Chief Akande told correspondents that they were at the Villa to encourage the president in his fight against the rot he inherited from the past administrations.

“I understand that President Buhari inherited piles of rot in the Villa and I said, let me see him, talk to him and report to my party with a view to knowing how to encourage him to change the rot to good, " he said.

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Suspected Kidnappers Kill Israeli National In Abuja

An Israeli construction worker was killed on Wednesday at Apo Mechanic Village, Abuja during a kidnap attempt.

According to an eyewitness account, the late staff of Gilmore Construction Company was one his way to a construction site when he was intercepted by a gang of four men in a Toyota saloon car.

They dragged him out of his car and attempted to force him into their own, but in the scuffle that ensued as he resisted abduction, they fatally shot him.

The gunshot sound was said to have attracted the police who engaged the hoodlums in a gun battle. Two of the Kidnappers died in the encounter while two others reportedly escaped.

Operatives from the Apo Police Division are already on the trail of the fleeing criminals.

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NNPC Signs OPA To Sustain Fuel Supply

To sustain the present nationwide availability of petroleum products, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC has signed an interim Offshore Processing Agreement (OPA) with three of its joint venture partners. The companies are Duke Oil, Carlson and Napoil.

In a statement issued yesterday, the corporation's spokesman, Ohi Alegbe said that under the OPA arrangement which is expected to run for three months, the NNPC will allocate a certain volume of crude oil for refining at offshore locations in exchange for refined petroleum products at agreed yield patterns.

The statement said ;
“Determined to sustain the prevailing unimpeded nationwide supply and distribution of petroleum products, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC on Wednesday announced an interim Offshore Processing Agreement (OPA) with three of its Joint Venture companies namely Duke Oil, Carlson and Napoil to boost the supply of refined petroleum products.

“The stop-gap OPA arrangement which is designed to run for three months obliges the Corporation to allocate a certain volume of crude oil within the period for refining at offshore locations in exchange for petroleum products at pre-agreed yield pattern.

“The Corporation explained that the temporary OPA package will lapse with the advent of the fresh OPA contracts envisaged to come into effect at the end of the ongoing public tender process."

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Power Failures Disrupt Senate Power Sector Probe

Members of the Senate probe panel on the power sector yesterday halted their sitting following incessant power outages.

THE NATION reports that a total of eight power outages occurred within four hours, forcing the panel to bring the day's proceedings to an early end. 

According to THE NATION, the first power failure happened around 2.30 p.m. when the Permanent Secretary,Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali was speaking on behalf of the various electricity generating and distributing companies. The first outage lasted for 10 minutes, the second 14 minutes, the third five minutes, the fourth, eight minutes and the fifth five minutes. The sixth, seventh and eight outages lasted for 12 minutes.

The panel was so determined to continue with the proceedings that the members had to bring in candles and torchlights to illuminate the venue of the sitting.

However, with the sweltering heat and the absence of functioning microphones, they had no option than to bring the day's sitting to a close.

An obviously embarrassed Committee Chairman, Senator Abubakar Kyari said that the power failure would be investigated to ascertain whether it was an act of sabotage.

See THE NATION for more.

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Finding Ministers Has Been Difficult - Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari says that he is having a tough time concluding the process of selecting his ministers. He attributed this to the massive rot in the system.

However, he reaffirmed his commitment to have his cabinet in place before the end of September. He said ;

“The process is difficult to finish. So, we would continue the screening to come up with people that deserve to hold the positions. This is because, what I see daily in terms of the damage inflicted on Nigeria in the last 10 years is enormous. Only God knows its magnitude."

Giving a hint that some people earlier penciled down for appointments were found to be tainted with corruption, Buhari said ;

‘’There are people that deserve to hold the position because of their knowledge in either financial issues or oil sector or even in governance. But you discover that in one way or the other, and whether they knew it or not, they were dragged to such unwholesome practices.

" Bringing such people will be tantamount to leaving your doors open when you have gone to rest in your apartment. Putting such people in either financial, petrol or works ministry would be dangerous because behind the scene, some people control a person. They would be dictating to them with a threat to award them contracts."

Some analysts argue that the delay in appointing ministers is impacting the economy negatively, especially as regards the confidence of investors, both local and foreign.

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NNPC Is Nigeria's Biggest Arena Of Theft - Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has described the NNPC as the biggest avenue for stealing the country's resources.

He told the BBC that he dissolved the board of the corporation in order to address this situation.

“The biggest area of stealing of Nigeria’s funds was through NNPC, which is the apex oil selling corporation. That was why we dissolved their board and brought someone who knows the oil sector very well, but who is not from NNPC and entrusted him with the leadership of the NNPC. And instead of the eight major departments, four were liquidated and four continue to exist. This is because, for the past 10 years, the crude oil stealing has been going on using some vessels. By law, their owners, captains and where they are taking the crude must be known.

“So, the method for the crude oil stealing was that those involved shipped the crude through smaller vessels and then transfer the crude to the larger vessels at distant locations in the ocean, before they head to other countries. Some of them carry the crude but later change the destination.

“Our new approach is to get support from European countries, the US and China. Those doing the bunkering, you need to know the amount first and the banks they deposit the monies, etc. These are the things we are doing currently. And you know, those developed countries are strict on evidences and you have to show the evidences of such cases before they can assist you. If you recall, during the military regimes, such people were arrested, thoroughly interrogated and arraigned before the courts with evidences.

“But that is impossible now. It is democracy and even the foreign countries, where the money is being taken to, practice democracy. The companies involved in buying the crude and the banks that kept the money would be identified so that we would determine whether they are Nigerians or not; whether the stolen crude and its quantity was actually taken from here, sold with the Nigerian name and how what accrued to Nigeria was diverted.

“So, the situation is a complex one,but we are getting support from governments of those countries, including their security agencies. When we get the relevant documents, we would bring them (culprits) back to our courts and try them. We would then show the evidence to the world that the crude oil they traded was actually stolen or shipped with Nigerian name but later changed the papers and took away the money, instead of depositing them into the Central Bank of Nigeria.”

The President promised that Nigerians would soon witness the prosecution of looters of the country's resources.

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