Buhari Restates Confidence That Military Will Defeat Boko Haram By December

President Muhammadu Buhari has once again restated his confidence in the capacity of the Nigerian military to halt the ability of Boko Haram to attack, seize or hold any territory in Nigeria by December this year.

President Buhari spoke during a meeting with the Commander of the US Africa Command, Gen David Rodriguez.

He said that with more effective support from his government, Nigerian forces now have access to improved training, equipment, logistics and welfare and are therefore well positioned to meet the December deadline for ending the activities of Boko Haram.

Gen Rodriguez told the president that his mission in Nigeria was to strengthen the military relationship between Nigeria and the USA and to explore further ways of working with the Multi-National Joint Task Force set up by the Lake Chad Basin Commission to defeat Boko Haram.

President Buhari thanked the USA for supporting Nigeria's efforts to eliminate terrorism and insurgency.

He said ;
“We must thank the United States of America for sending training teams and equipment to us. The positive results of our collaboration are evident.

“Structured attacks by the insurgents have reduced and by the end of the year, we should see the final routing of Boko Haram as an organized fighting force."

He also appealed to the USA is help stem Nigeria's heavy revenue losses by securing the Gulf of Guinea through which stolen Nigerian oil is shipped to other countries.

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NIMC Presents Buhari With National Identity Card

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday received his National Identity Card from the Director General of the National Identity Management Commission, Chris Onyemenam. The brief presentation ceremony was done at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

During the presentation at which President Buhari made no speech, Onyemenam said that NIMC had already captured the database of about 20 million Nigerians.

"We did two things. First we demonstrated to the President how the national identification number can be used to confirm the identity of an individual, even if the person is not present and that is the reason why we said the identification number is a security number, because with that and if you have access to our database, you can confirm the identity of an individual.

“Secondly, we presented the electronic card to the President and we demonstrated to him how it will be taken round. This is one Rome that was not built in a day.”

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House Of Reps To Probe N18b Rail Contracts Across The Country

The House of Representatives on Tuesday directed the Committee on Transport to look into the 18 billion naira contracts for the rehabilitation of rail tracks, standard gauge, bridges, coaches, wagons and locomotives between 2010 and 2014.

The move to probe the rail contracts originated from Hon Solomon Ahwinawhi (PDP/Delta) via a motion entitled Need to Investigate the Ministry of Transport and the Nigeria RailwaysCorporation, NRC, on the Award of Contracts for Rehabilitation of Railway Tracks, Maintenance of Bridges and Procurement/Rehabilitation of Coaches and Locomotives from 2010-2014.

He said ;
“The level of performance, with respect to the 463km Port Harcourt-Markurdi rail track rehabilitation of the eastern line with N19,963,752,330, out of which NRC has paid N4,017,054,841, while SURE -P paid N5,594,021,377 and only about 3km of ballast has been done with 400km left undone and the total money released so far is N9, 611, 076, 218.

“The Abuja-Kaduna rail project had 841 million US dollars as the project cost, out of which the China EXIM Bank provided a loan of 500 million US dollars with about 25 percent of the project completed, when the entire project was envisaged to have been completed in 2014.“

Also to the probed is the  Lagos-Jebba track rehabilitation project which was awarded at a contract sum of N12, 293,390 with about 95% payment made so far at N11, 699, 999,218, without any tangible work done.

Source : Vanguard

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10 Killed As Fresh Suicide Attacks Rock Borno

Ten persons were killed in Borno State on Tuesday night when three female suicide bombers attacked different locations in Tuka Tuka village on the outskirts of Maiduguri.

However, Army spokesman, Col Sani Usman told newsmen in Abuja that seven people including the suicide bombers died in the attacks while 11 others sustained injuries.

An eyewitness said that one of the suicide bombers detonated her bomb at a local tea vendor's killing herself and four others.

He added that some of the victims later died of their injuries.
“We also heard that one or two of those wounded could not make it at the hospital, following severe bleeding as their relations confirmed to us that they could not be treated or attended to on time because most of the medical workers were off duty."

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Buhari, Remember Your Promise Of Free Education - Lawmaker

A federal lawmaker Hon Mohammed Gudaji has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to remember his campaign promise of free education for all.

Hon Gudaji representing Kazaure Federal Constituency spoke in Dutse, Jigawa State during a chat with newsmen.

He said ;
“As you might be aware, things will be too much on our President as such he may likely forget this vital promise he made of providing free education if voted into power.

“There is urgent need to alert him so that parents will stop taking their children to private schools and end up paying exorbitant amounts as school fees of their wards.”

He lamented the high fees charged by private schools, some of which are yet to provide the required standard of education for the children.

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Reps Order Ministry To Absorb NIS Recruitment Tragedy Victims

The House of Representatives on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Interior to implement without further delay, the presidential directive to employ the 176 victims of the 2014 Immigration Service recruitment stampede.

The three man panel set up by the House of Representatives and headed by Majority Leader, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila directed the Ministry to liaise with the Immigration/Prisons Service Board to ensure the absorption of the victims into the Nigeria Immigration Service.

It would be recalled that 15 persons died during stampedes that ensued across the various Immigration Service recruitment centers across the country in March 2014 while 131 sustained various degrees of injuries.

Following the national outcry that arose from the tragedy, former President Goodluck Jonathan had directed that three members of the family of each dead victim should be given employment in the Service while the injured among the job seekers should be given automatic employment.

However, 18 months after the incident, the presidential directive was yet to be complied with, prompting the victims to protest at the National Assembly last Thursday.

The House Panel which also had Hon Leo Ogor and Hon Aminu Shagari as members expressed shock at the words of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Abubakar Magaji that the presidential directive was not backed by a letter of approval.

The panel was dismayed that a Federal government agency would disobey a presidential directive on the flimsy excuse of waiting for another approval.

The panel therefore directed the Permanent Secretary to in his own interest, " give effect to the presidential directive by employing the 176 beneficiaries immediately.

“Work out their salaries and include everything in your 2016 budget and forward to the House.

“We will withhold your 2016 budget if it comes without a provision for these 176 stampede victims. You are advised.”

Hon Leo Ogor lamented that rather than being ashamed and sorry for the national embarrassment that was the 2014 Immigration Service recruitment, the Ministry of Interior was relying on unnecessary technicalities to sit on a presidential directive.

He said ;
“All you are saying are technicalities; what happened that day was an embarrassment to the whole nation. This was an issue of an abnormal situation. There was a presidential directive,which was not obeyed."

The Permanent Secretary had argued that there was no official letter from the former president to back up the directive. His words ;

“The letters issued were ceremonial, symbolic, but I asked the board to quickly follow it with a letter to Mr. President to formalise the appointments so that salaries can be processed for these people.”

However, the panel disagreed with him. Hon Gbajabiamila speaking for his colleagues said;

“This thing is taking a whole new dimension. Don’t allow people go away with the impression that the original immigration recruitment was a scam.

“Where were you supposed to get salaries in the first place to pay those to be recruited?

“Why are you now saying that there should have been another presidential approval before you could process salaries for the 176victims?”

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Buhari Blames Selfish Elite For Criticisms Of Appointments

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday blamed those he tagged 'selfish elite' for promoting criticisms of his appointments into government positions.

Buhari who was represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the opening of the 21st Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) in Abuja lamented the unfortunate situation where Nigerians are more concerned about sectional and religious interests rather than the competence of appointees.

The president blamed the selfish elite for fuelling the complaints about the ethnic and religious background of appointees. .

He said ;
: “You find out that the elite, whether from the Southwest, Northwest or wherever, are willing to collaborate in stealing the resources of the state. It is important to point out that the idea of where a person appointed into government comes from is meant to divert attention.”

He reaffirmed his commitment to see that only Nigerians of proven integrity were chosen to serve in his administration.

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