20:05
Monday, 5 September 2016
Thursday, 9 June 2016
20:05
adebayo
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97
Many of the Iraqis who came back to Iraq after the US-led invasion were people of high principle who had sacrificed much as opponents of Saddam Hussein. But fast forward 10 years and the prediction of the unnamed civil servant about the rapacity of Iraq’s new governors turns out to have been all too true. As one former minister puts it, “the Iraqi government is an institutionalised kleptocracy”.
It is a view shared by Iraqis in the frontline of business in Baghdad. Property prices in the capital are high and there are plenty of buyers. I asked Abduk-Karim Ali, a real-estate broker, who was paying so much for houses. He replied with a laugh that there were investors from Kurdistan and Bahrain, but most purchasers he dealt with are “the thieves of 2003 who have the money”. “Who are they?” I asked. “I mean the officials in the government,” said Mr Ali. “They buy the best properties for themselves.”
“The corruption is unbelievable,” says Ghassan al-Atiyyah, a political scientist and activist. “You can’t get a job in the army or the government unless you pay; you can’t even get out of prison unless you pay. Maybe a judge sets you free but you must pay for the paperwork, otherwise you stay there. Even if you are free you may be captured by some officer who paid $10,000 to $50,000 for his job and needs to get the money back.” In an Iraqi version of Catch-22 everything is for sale. One former prison detainee says he had to pay his guards $100 for a single shower. Racketeering is the norm: one entrepreneur built his house on top of a buried oil pipeline, drilled into it and siphoned off quantities of fuel.
Corruption complicates and poisons the daily life of Iraqis, especially those who cannot afford to pay. But the frequent demand for bribes does not in itself cripple the state or the economy. The highly autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government is deemed extremely corrupt, but its economy is booming and its economic management is praised as a model for the country. More damaging for Iraq is the wholesale theft of public funds. Despite tens of billions of dollars being spent, there is a continuing shortage of electricity and other necessities. Few Iraqis regret the fall of Saddam, but many recall that, after the devastating US air strikes on the infrastructure in 1991, power stations were patched up quickly using only Iraqi resources.
There is more to Iraqi corruption than the stealing of oil revenues by a criminalised caste of politicians, parties and officials. Critics of Nouri al-Maliki, Prime Minister since 2006, say his method of political control is to allocate contracts to supporters, wavering friends or opponents whom he wants to win over. But that is not the end of the matter. Beneficiaries of this largesse “are threatened with investigation and exposure if they step out of line”, says one Iraqi observer. Even those who have not been awarded contracts know that they are vulnerable to being targeted by anti-corruption bodies. “Maliki uses files on his enemies like J Edgar Hoover,” the observer says. The system cannot be reformed by the government because it would be striking at the very mechanism by which it rules. State institutions for combating corruption have been systematically defanged, marginalised or intimidated. Five years ago, a senior US embassy official testified before Congress that Mr Maliki had issued “secret orders” preventing cases being referred to the courts by the Integrity Commission (an independent government commission tasked with tackling and preventing corruption) “if the cases involve former or current high-ranking Iraqi government officials, including the PM… The secret order is, literally, a license to steal.”
Nothing much has changed since then. Blatant scams continue and receive official protection. In 2011 Rahin al-Ugaili, the head of the Integrity Commission, unmasked “shell companies” abroad used by senior officials to award contracts to themselves. Full payment was made to the companies even if the contracts were never fully implemented. A report by the International Crisis Group, a not-for-profit organisation established to prevent and resolve conflict says that “when the [Integrity] Commission sought to engage the courts to prosecute it found the government blocked all avenues, pressuring Ugaili to resign in protest”. His duly did on 9 September 2011, the same day that Hadi al-Mahdi, a prominent journalistic critic of the government and leader of street protests, was assassinated in his home. A few hours before he was shot he had written on his Facebook page that he was “living in a state of terror” and had been threatened by government reprisals.
Not all Iraqi officials are corrupt. But all are vulnerable to anti-corruption charges. This has a crippling impact. A US businessman explained that he was dealing with a ministry in which he thought only 10 per cent of officials took bribes. “But the other 90 per cent know they might be targeted for investigation and therefore the safest course for them is to take their salaries and do nothing. The ministry is effectively paralysed.”
There are other reasons why director generals in ministries do nothing. Kassim, a senior engineer in the Electricity Ministry, says “director generals get their jobs through political connections. They control the big projects, but they have no experience to plan for the future so they do nothing to avoid being fired.” He is derisive about official promises to end the electricity shortage, saying this will not happen for 20 or 30 years “because they are putting too much of the emphasis on electricity production and not enough on transmission and distribution”.
The new elite benefiting from the system lead a mysterious existence, hidden behind the ramparts of the Green Zone or sweeping through the streets of Baghdad in armoured convoys. Most of the money embezzled is believed to go abroad while the rest is kept in the bank or discreetly invested in property. In Erbil in Kurdistan, businessmen say the housing market is partly sustained by money laundering by investors from Baghdad. “They turn up here with suitcases filled with millions of dinars,” one said.
There is plenty of money in Baghdad but little conspicuous consumption. Violence is down but fear of kidnapping is real and nobody wants draw attention to themselves by appearing wealthy. Mr Ali, the real-estate broker, says: “I drive a poor car so people don’t know I have money.” Rich Iraqis lived sealed off behind walls and bodyguards.
When I visited the bird market in Shorja, central Baghdad, a shopkeeper asked if I would like to buy a tiger or lion cub and showed me a picture of them gambolling at his farm outside the city. I asked who was buying them and he said “mostly tribal leaders – there is quite a fashion for them at the moment.”
Why is the corruption in Iraq so bad? The simple answer that Iraqis give is that “UN sanctions destroyed Iraqi society in the 1990s and the Americans destroyed the Iraqi state after 2003”. Patronage based on party, family or community determines who gets a job. There are many winners as well as losers and all depends on Iraqi oil exports going up and prices staying high. “I only once saw panic in the cabinet,” says an ex-minister, “and that was when there was a sharp drop in the price of oil.”
By Patrick Cockburn
Source: CLICK HERE
Iraqis are not naïve. Grim experience of their country’s rulers over the past 50 years leads many to suspect them of being self-serving, greedy, brutal, and incompetent. Ten years ago, some had hoped Iraqis might escape living in a permanent state of emergency as the US and Britain prepared to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Others were wary of Iraqis returning from abroad who promised to build a new nation.A few months before the invasion, an Iraqi civil servant secretly interviewed in Baghdad made a gloomy forecast. “The exiled Iraqis are the exact replica of those who currently govern us… with the sole difference that the latter are already satiated since they have been robbing us for the past 30 years,” he said. “Those who accompany the US troops will be ravenous.”
Many of the Iraqis who came back to Iraq after the US-led invasion were people of high principle who had sacrificed much as opponents of Saddam Hussein. But fast forward 10 years and the prediction of the unnamed civil servant about the rapacity of Iraq’s new governors turns out to have been all too true. As one former minister puts it, “the Iraqi government is an institutionalised kleptocracy”.
It is a view shared by Iraqis in the frontline of business in Baghdad. Property prices in the capital are high and there are plenty of buyers. I asked Abduk-Karim Ali, a real-estate broker, who was paying so much for houses. He replied with a laugh that there were investors from Kurdistan and Bahrain, but most purchasers he dealt with are “the thieves of 2003 who have the money”. “Who are they?” I asked. “I mean the officials in the government,” said Mr Ali. “They buy the best properties for themselves.”
“The corruption is unbelievable,” says Ghassan al-Atiyyah, a political scientist and activist. “You can’t get a job in the army or the government unless you pay; you can’t even get out of prison unless you pay. Maybe a judge sets you free but you must pay for the paperwork, otherwise you stay there. Even if you are free you may be captured by some officer who paid $10,000 to $50,000 for his job and needs to get the money back.” In an Iraqi version of Catch-22 everything is for sale. One former prison detainee says he had to pay his guards $100 for a single shower. Racketeering is the norm: one entrepreneur built his house on top of a buried oil pipeline, drilled into it and siphoned off quantities of fuel.
Corruption complicates and poisons the daily life of Iraqis, especially those who cannot afford to pay. But the frequent demand for bribes does not in itself cripple the state or the economy. The highly autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government is deemed extremely corrupt, but its economy is booming and its economic management is praised as a model for the country. More damaging for Iraq is the wholesale theft of public funds. Despite tens of billions of dollars being spent, there is a continuing shortage of electricity and other necessities. Few Iraqis regret the fall of Saddam, but many recall that, after the devastating US air strikes on the infrastructure in 1991, power stations were patched up quickly using only Iraqi resources.
There is more to Iraqi corruption than the stealing of oil revenues by a criminalised caste of politicians, parties and officials. Critics of Nouri al-Maliki, Prime Minister since 2006, say his method of political control is to allocate contracts to supporters, wavering friends or opponents whom he wants to win over. But that is not the end of the matter. Beneficiaries of this largesse “are threatened with investigation and exposure if they step out of line”, says one Iraqi observer. Even those who have not been awarded contracts know that they are vulnerable to being targeted by anti-corruption bodies. “Maliki uses files on his enemies like J Edgar Hoover,” the observer says. The system cannot be reformed by the government because it would be striking at the very mechanism by which it rules. State institutions for combating corruption have been systematically defanged, marginalised or intimidated. Five years ago, a senior US embassy official testified before Congress that Mr Maliki had issued “secret orders” preventing cases being referred to the courts by the Integrity Commission (an independent government commission tasked with tackling and preventing corruption) “if the cases involve former or current high-ranking Iraqi government officials, including the PM… The secret order is, literally, a license to steal.”
Nothing much has changed since then. Blatant scams continue and receive official protection. In 2011 Rahin al-Ugaili, the head of the Integrity Commission, unmasked “shell companies” abroad used by senior officials to award contracts to themselves. Full payment was made to the companies even if the contracts were never fully implemented. A report by the International Crisis Group, a not-for-profit organisation established to prevent and resolve conflict says that “when the [Integrity] Commission sought to engage the courts to prosecute it found the government blocked all avenues, pressuring Ugaili to resign in protest”. His duly did on 9 September 2011, the same day that Hadi al-Mahdi, a prominent journalistic critic of the government and leader of street protests, was assassinated in his home. A few hours before he was shot he had written on his Facebook page that he was “living in a state of terror” and had been threatened by government reprisals.
Not all Iraqi officials are corrupt. But all are vulnerable to anti-corruption charges. This has a crippling impact. A US businessman explained that he was dealing with a ministry in which he thought only 10 per cent of officials took bribes. “But the other 90 per cent know they might be targeted for investigation and therefore the safest course for them is to take their salaries and do nothing. The ministry is effectively paralysed.”
There are other reasons why director generals in ministries do nothing. Kassim, a senior engineer in the Electricity Ministry, says “director generals get their jobs through political connections. They control the big projects, but they have no experience to plan for the future so they do nothing to avoid being fired.” He is derisive about official promises to end the electricity shortage, saying this will not happen for 20 or 30 years “because they are putting too much of the emphasis on electricity production and not enough on transmission and distribution”.
The new elite benefiting from the system lead a mysterious existence, hidden behind the ramparts of the Green Zone or sweeping through the streets of Baghdad in armoured convoys. Most of the money embezzled is believed to go abroad while the rest is kept in the bank or discreetly invested in property. In Erbil in Kurdistan, businessmen say the housing market is partly sustained by money laundering by investors from Baghdad. “They turn up here with suitcases filled with millions of dinars,” one said.
There is plenty of money in Baghdad but little conspicuous consumption. Violence is down but fear of kidnapping is real and nobody wants draw attention to themselves by appearing wealthy. Mr Ali, the real-estate broker, says: “I drive a poor car so people don’t know I have money.” Rich Iraqis lived sealed off behind walls and bodyguards.
When I visited the bird market in Shorja, central Baghdad, a shopkeeper asked if I would like to buy a tiger or lion cub and showed me a picture of them gambolling at his farm outside the city. I asked who was buying them and he said “mostly tribal leaders – there is quite a fashion for them at the moment.”
Why is the corruption in Iraq so bad? The simple answer that Iraqis give is that “UN sanctions destroyed Iraqi society in the 1990s and the Americans destroyed the Iraqi state after 2003”. Patronage based on party, family or community determines who gets a job. There are many winners as well as losers and all depends on Iraqi oil exports going up and prices staying high. “I only once saw panic in the cabinet,” says an ex-minister, “and that was when there was a sharp drop in the price of oil.”
By Patrick Cockburn
Source: CLICK HERE
- 19:55
- adebayo
- No comments
0
A conviction under RICO comes when the Department of Justice proves that the defendant has engaged in two or more examples of racketeering and that the defendant maintained an interest in, participated in or invested in a criminal enterprise affecting interstate or foreign commerce. There is ample evidence already in the public record that the Clinton Foundation qualifies as a criminal enterprise and there’s no doubt that the FBI is privy to significantly more evidence than has already been made public.
Under RICO, the sections most relevant in this case will be section 1503 (obstruction of justice), section 1510 (obstruction of criminal investigations) and section 1511 (obstruction of State or local law enforcement). As in the case with Richard Nixon after the Watergate Break-in, it’s the cover-up of a crime that will be the Clintons’ downfall. Furthermore, under provisions of title 18, United States Code: Section 201, the Clinton Foundation can be held accountable for improprieties relating to bribery. The FBI will be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that through the Clinton Foundation, international entities were able to commit bribery in exchange for help in securing business deals, such as the uranium-mining deal in Kazakhstan.
It is a Federal Crime to negligently handle classified information under United States Code (USC) 18 section 1924. It is a Federal Class A Felony under USC 18 section 798. Hillary certified under oath to a federal judge that she had handed over to the state department all of her emails, which she clearly did not. In spite of her repeated statements to the effect that everything that she did with her home brewed email server as Secretary of State was above-board and approved by the State Department, the Inspector General Report vehemently refutes this claim. Hillary refused to be interview by the Inspector General’s office in their investigation, claiming that her upcoming FBI interview took precedent but it seems more likely that Hillary is more concerned about committing perjury or admitting to anything that can be used against her in a court of law.
Hillary Clinton is guilty of exposing classified documents to foreign governments by placing them illegally on her server, of sending and receiving classified documents and conspiring with her staff to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by avoiding the use of the State Department run servers. Some of the documents were so highly classified the the investigators on the case weren’t even able to examine the material themselves until they got their own clearances raised to the highest levels.
While there is an excellent cast to be made the Hillary committed treasonous actions, the strongest case the FBI has is charging both Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as the Clinton Foundation of Racketeering. There’s no wonder why it’s taken this long for the FBI to bring forward a recommendation. The rabbit hole is so deep on this one that it has taking dozens of investigators to determine the full extent of the crimes that have been committed. Perhaps the most interesting question here is whether or not the FBI’s investigation will be able to directly link The Clinton Foundation with The Hillary Victory Fund. If this happens, the DNC itself may be in jeopardy of accusations of either being an accomplice or of being complicit in racketeering.
James Comey and The FBI will present a recommendation to Loretta Lynch, Attorney General of the Department of Justice, that includes a cogent argument that the Clinton Foundation is an ongoing criminal enterprise engaged in money laundering and soliciting bribes in exchange for political, policy and legislative favors to individuals, corporations and even governments both foreign and domestic.
Initially, Comey had indicated that the investigation into Hillary’s home brewed email server was to be concluded by October of 2015. However, as more and more evidence in the case has come to light, this initial date kept being pushed back as the criminal investigation has expanded well beyond violating State Department regulations to include questions about espionage, perjury and influence peddling.Here’s what we do know. Tens of millions of dollars donated to the Clinton Foundation was funneled to the organization through a Canadian shell company which has made tracing the donors nearly impossible. Less than 10% of donations to the Foundation has actually been released to charitable organizations and $2M that has been traced back to long time Bill Clinton friend Julie McMahon (aka The Energizer). When the official investigation into Hillary’s email server began, she instructed her IT professional to delete over 30,000 emails and cloud backups of her emails older than 30 days at both Platte River Networks and Datto, Inc. The FBI has subsequently recovered the majority, if not all, of Hillary’s deleted emails and are putting together a strong case against her for attempting to cover up her illegal and illicit activities.
A conviction under RICO comes when the Department of Justice proves that the defendant has engaged in two or more examples of racketeering and that the defendant maintained an interest in, participated in or invested in a criminal enterprise affecting interstate or foreign commerce. There is ample evidence already in the public record that the Clinton Foundation qualifies as a criminal enterprise and there’s no doubt that the FBI is privy to significantly more evidence than has already been made public.
Under RICO, the sections most relevant in this case will be section 1503 (obstruction of justice), section 1510 (obstruction of criminal investigations) and section 1511 (obstruction of State or local law enforcement). As in the case with Richard Nixon after the Watergate Break-in, it’s the cover-up of a crime that will be the Clintons’ downfall. Furthermore, under provisions of title 18, United States Code: Section 201, the Clinton Foundation can be held accountable for improprieties relating to bribery. The FBI will be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that through the Clinton Foundation, international entities were able to commit bribery in exchange for help in securing business deals, such as the uranium-mining deal in Kazakhstan.
It is a Federal Crime to negligently handle classified information under United States Code (USC) 18 section 1924. It is a Federal Class A Felony under USC 18 section 798. Hillary certified under oath to a federal judge that she had handed over to the state department all of her emails, which she clearly did not. In spite of her repeated statements to the effect that everything that she did with her home brewed email server as Secretary of State was above-board and approved by the State Department, the Inspector General Report vehemently refutes this claim. Hillary refused to be interview by the Inspector General’s office in their investigation, claiming that her upcoming FBI interview took precedent but it seems more likely that Hillary is more concerned about committing perjury or admitting to anything that can be used against her in a court of law.
“Secretary Clinton should have preserved any Federal records she created and received on her personal account by printing and filing those records with the related files in the Office of the Secretary. At a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with Department business before leaving government service and, because she did not do so, she did not comply with the Department’s policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act.”Inspector General Report
Hillary Clinton is guilty of exposing classified documents to foreign governments by placing them illegally on her server, of sending and receiving classified documents and conspiring with her staff to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by avoiding the use of the State Department run servers. Some of the documents were so highly classified the the investigators on the case weren’t even able to examine the material themselves until they got their own clearances raised to the highest levels.
While there is an excellent cast to be made the Hillary committed treasonous actions, the strongest case the FBI has is charging both Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as the Clinton Foundation of Racketeering. There’s no wonder why it’s taken this long for the FBI to bring forward a recommendation. The rabbit hole is so deep on this one that it has taking dozens of investigators to determine the full extent of the crimes that have been committed. Perhaps the most interesting question here is whether or not the FBI’s investigation will be able to directly link The Clinton Foundation with The Hillary Victory Fund. If this happens, the DNC itself may be in jeopardy of accusations of either being an accomplice or of being complicit in racketeering.
Activity considered to be racketeering may include bribery, counterfeiting, money laundering, embezzlement, illegal gambling, kidnapping, murder, drug trafficking, slavery, and a host of other nefarious business practices.The racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act (rico) is a United States federal law passed in 1970 that was designed to provide a tool for law enforcement agencies to fight organized crime. Rico allows prosecution and punishment for alleged racketeering activity that has been executed as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise.
James Comey and The FBI will present a recommendation to Loretta Lynch, Attorney General of the Department of Justice, that includes a cogent argument that the Clinton Foundation is an ongoing criminal enterprise engaged in money laundering and soliciting bribes in exchange for political, policy and legislative favors to individuals, corporations and even governments both foreign and domestic.
“The New York Times examined Bill Clinton’s relationship with a Canadian mining financier, Frank Giustra, who has donated millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation and sits on its board. Clinton, the story suggests, helped Giustra’s company secure a lucrative uranium-mining deal in Kazakhstan and in return received “a flow of cash” to the Clinton Foundation, including previously undisclosed donations from the company’s chairman totaling $2.35 million.Source: CLICK HERE
Monday, 6 June 2016
- 09:56
- adebayo
- No comments
Sunday, 5 June 2016
- 04:24
- adebayo
- No comments
After Clinton's broadside, Donald Trump defends foreign policy views
After Hillary Clinton delivered a scathing indictment of Donald Trump's approach to foreign policy on Thursday, the presumptive Republican nominee fired back Friday in an interview with "Face the Nation," saying the former secretary of state's criticism was "ridiculous.""It was supposed to be foreign policy and it was really Trump policy," Trump said of Clinton's address. "And she got it all wrong."
"I mean first of all, you know, she talked about that I want to nuke all of these countries," Trump explained. "It's ridiculous. No, I want these countries to pay for protection. We are protecting them. We have $19 trillion in debt, it's very soon going to $21 trillion...And I want these countries to reimburse us at least for our cost. We're talking about ultimately trillions of dollars over a period of time. And we just can't be doing that anymore. This isn't 30 years ago and 40 years ago."
"I don't want to see Japan go nuclear," he added. "I want to see Japan help us out. I have great relationships with Japan. I have a lot of friends in Japan. And they even laugh at it. I mean, we're defending Japan, and a general got up and said, 'No, no, they pay for half the cost.' He thought that was a good thing. I said, 'Why aren't they paying for 100 percent of the cost?' ...Saudi Arabia, the same thing. They have nothing but money, and we subsidize Saudi Arabia. For what? What are we doing? Why are we doing that?"
Trump has repeatedly suggested that U.S. allies in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East must begin paying more in exchange for American help with defense. He's said he'd be okay with some of those countries acquiring nuclear weapons if they decide they'd rather defend themselves than pay for American help, upsetting some arms control advocates and national security experts who view America's global military presence - particularly along the Pacific Rim and among the Persian Gulf states - as a cornerstone of U.S. security policy.
Trump suggested he'd be prepared to walk away from America's current security arrangements with Japan and Saudi Arabia if those countries don't begin shouldering more of the financial burden. And he suggested the U.S. will never negotiate a better deal if its leaders aren't ready to walk.
"You always have to be prepared to walk... [Clinton] said, 'We will never walk for these countries.' Well, then we'll continue to lose billions and billions of dollars. You have to be prepared to walk. You can't go into a negotiation without it," Trump said. "However, I think that what's going to happen is they'll all come through."
"Face the Nation" moderator John Dickerson followed up, "But it is a fair characterization of your view to say, if you walk and they get nuclear weapons, you said, you know-that'd be okay?"
"I didn't say get nuclear," Trump replied. "Maybe they will, maybe they won't. But at a certain point, you know Japan will, if they're not going to pay us what it's going to cost...The fact is, they are paying a small fraction of what it's costing. So is Germany, so is Saudi Arabia, so is South Korea. We are losing a fortune. We're the policemen for the world. We're losing a fortune. What I say is this: You have to be prepared to walk. I don't think they'll let us walk, frankly, because they like it the way it is. But they have to pay."
Trump also expanded on his recent remark that he knows more about the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) than the generals in the U.S. military.
"Do you still feel like you know more about ISIS than the generals?" Dickerson asked.
"Well, they don't know much, because they're not winning," Trump said. "That I can tell you. Now, I think they're not winning for a different reason. I think Obama's hurting them."
"How so?" Dickerson asked.
"Well from what I hear, it's being run from the White House," Trump said. "It's all being run from the White House. I've spoken to certain generals, I'll keep it quiet as to who, but highly respected people they say we could knock them out fast."
Dickerson asked if those generals are currently serving, or whether they are retired, and Trump responded, "In one case in office, and in one case, out of office. And they said both of them said the same thing: if we had the leadership, meaning the go ahead, you could knock them out fast. But for some reason, Obama's not doing that."
- 00:32
- adebayo
- No comments
Debra Messing deleted her “ironic” tweet already (see above), but the internet never forgets, nor does I-A-B…
To get you up to speed, you remember this post from earlier this morning about the UCLA campus shooting (which turned out to be a murder-suicide), right? Well, Messing thought it was the perfect time to tweet. Note her pensive stare into the ether, pondering life’s complexities, and hoping she got her good angle.
Don’t worry, I-A-B — she excused her opportunistic, self-centered, hand-wringing tweet as “horrible irony.” Is there any other kind?
This all happened because she was supposedly told to take a photo in her “Under the Gun” t-shirt. (Side note: the shirt is supporting an anti-gun ‘documentary’ by Katie Couric which has already been critisized by its use of “creative editing.”)
Oddly enough, the shirt’s logo is barely visible and there is no link or information to help her Twitter followers associate her shirt with Couric’s documentary. Now THAT’S ironic.
Some of the better comments her Twitter followers left her…
“People dying…better take a selfie!” — @SaveLazz
“Kim Kardashian called. She says you’re being an attention whore.” — @CrankyGordon.
She deleted her original tweet, then posted a “Sorrynotsorry you pleebs didn’t get it” apology (see below)…
Take a stand. This day was predetermined as a day of awareness. Don’t belittle the effort. #wecandobetter https://t.co/ufHHkeGXQX— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) June 1, 2016
Debra Messing deleted her “ironic” tweet already (see above), but the internet never forgets, nor does I-A-B…
To get you up to speed, you remember this post from earlier this morning about the UCLA campus shooting (which turned out to be a murder-suicide), right? Well, Messing thought it was the perfect time to tweet. Note her pensive stare into the ether, pondering life’s complexities, and hoping she got her good angle.
Don’t worry, I-A-B — she excused her opportunistic, self-centered, hand-wringing tweet as “horrible irony.” Is there any other kind?
This all happened because she was supposedly told to take a photo in her “Under the Gun” t-shirt. (Side note: the shirt is supporting an anti-gun ‘documentary’ by Katie Couric which has already been critisized by its use of “creative editing.”)
Oddly enough, the shirt’s logo is barely visible and there is no link or information to help her Twitter followers associate her shirt with Couric’s documentary. Now THAT’S ironic.
Some of the better comments her Twitter followers left her…
“People dying…better take a selfie!” — @SaveLazz
“Kim Kardashian called. She says you’re being an attention whore.” — @CrankyGordon.
She deleted her original tweet, then posted a “Sorrynotsorry you pleebs didn’t get it” apology (see below)…
- See more at: http://www.i-am-bored.com/2016/06/actor-debra-messing-posts-selfie-during-ucla-shooting-pics.html#sthash.7kE29JLw.dpufTake a stand. This day was predetermined as a day of awareness. Don’t belittle the effort. #wecandobetter https://t.co/ufHHkeGXQX— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) June 1, 2016
Debra Messing deleted her “ironic” tweet already (see above), but the internet never forgets, nor does I-A-B…
To get you up to speed, you remember this post from earlier this morning about the UCLA campus shooting (which turned out to be a murder-suicide), right? Well, Messing thought it was the perfect time to tweet. Note her pensive stare into the ether, pondering life’s complexities, and hoping she got her good angle.
Don’t worry, I-A-B — she excused her opportunistic, self-centered, hand-wringing tweet as “horrible irony.” Is there any other kind?
This all happened because she was supposedly told to take a photo in her “Under the Gun” t-shirt. (Side note: the shirt is supporting an anti-gun ‘documentary’ by Katie Couric which has already been critisized by its use of “creative editing.”)
Oddly enough, the shirt’s logo is barely visible and there is no link or information to help her Twitter followers associate her shirt with Couric’s documentary. Now THAT’S ironic.
Some of the better comments her Twitter followers left her…
“People dying…better take a selfie!” — @SaveLazz
“Kim Kardashian called. She says you’re being an attention whore.” — @CrankyGordon.
She deleted her original tweet, then posted a “Sorrynotsorry you pleebs didn’t get it” apology (see below)…
- See more at: http://www.i-am-bored.com/2016/06/actor-debra-messing-posts-selfie-during-ucla-shooting-pics.html#sthash.7kE29JLw.dpufTake a stand. This day was predetermined as a day of awareness. Don’t belittle the effort. #wecandobetter https://t.co/ufHHkeGXQX— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) June 1, 2016
Sunday, 29 May 2016
- 07:58
- adebayo
- No comments
David Cameron and Michael Gove to face EU Referendum Question Time - but not together
The PM has declined to take part in any 'blue-on-blue' TV clashes with fellow Conservatives such as Mr Gove or Boris Johnson
The BBC said the Prime Minister and Michael Gove will face questions from a live audience GETTY
David Cameron and Michael Gove will take part in EU referendum debates on the BBC - but not head-to-head.
The broadcaster said the Prime Minister and Justice Secretary - who are on opposite sides of the campaign - will face questions from a live audience in two special editions of its Question Time programme.
Pro-Brexit Mr Gove will feature in the first of the shows - moderated by usual host David Dimbleby - on June 15 from Nottingham, with Mr Cameron representing the Remain camp on June 19 in Milton Keynes.
Read more
What will happen to UK immigration if there's Brexit?
The PM has declined to take part in any "blue-on-blue" TV clashes with fellow Conservatives such as Mr Gove or Boris Johnson, arguing he wanted to show the debate went wider than within his own party.
He has already agreed to feature on an ITV show on June 7 straight after Nigel Farage, whose inclusion instead of a figure from the official campaign sparked angry accusations by Vote Leave - firmly denied - of bias by the broadcaster.
What has the EU ever done for us?
Sky News will broadcast separate shows featuring Mr Cameron and Mr Gove on June 2 and 3.
The BBC also announced the line-up for its first debate show to be broadcast on May 26 - which will be hosted in Glasgow by Victoria Derbyshire with an audience of 18 to 29-year-olds.
SNP MP and former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond and the head of the Labour In campaign, former home secretary Alan Johnson, will make the case for continued membership while the anti-EU camps are represented by Tory ex-defence secretary Liam Fox and senior Ukip MEP Diane James.
Saturday, 23 April 2016
- 06:39
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One of the bank accounts of Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode has been frozen by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) amid investigation into the alleged N4billion campaign cash received from ex-President Goodluck Jonathan in the build-up to the 2015 elections.
It was gathered that the funds were withdrawn from the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) and shared to 10 other directors, directorates, zonal directors and state directors of the Presidential Campaign Organization of Jonathan.
Fani-Kayode in a lenghty statement declared yesterday that he knew nothing about the withdrawal of the cash from the CBN or funding of the campaign by the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki but he admitted that campaign funds were paid into the account of a company linked with a former Minister of Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Usman, from where it was shared to him and others.
He dared the EFCC to “do their worse” in the statement in Abuja entitled “The Money Transfers and the Truth about the Presidential Campaign Funds.”
Saturday, 16 April 2016
- 16:25
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aa
The Presidency and the National Assembly
inched towards resolving the controversies surrounding the 2016 budget
on Friday following alleged “fruitful exchange of ideas” between
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara.
The House of Representatives had on
Wednesday resolved to “re-examine” the budget for the sake of
“overriding national interest and the prevailing economic situation in
the country.”
Members took the decision after a
two-hour closed-door session, where they mandated Dogara to meet with
President Muhammadu Buhari to find a common ground on the dispute.
“The House in executive session, was
briefed by the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Mr.
Abdulmumin Jibrin, on the budget.
“We delegated the speaker to go ahead and engage the executive, identify the areas of concern and report back to the House.
“If the issues of concern are of
national interest, we will look at them again by accommodating them in
the budget”, the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs,
Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, had told reporters soon after the closed-door
session of the House.
In the absence of Buhari, Saturday PUNCH gathered that Dogara met with Osinbajo instead.
Findings by Saturday PUNCH showed that
the Presidency, in the course of the exchange of ideas, itemised the
“grey areas” in the N6.06trn budget, politely requesting the National
Assembly re-work them.
“What happened was that the speaker
received a list of items from the VP and the understanding is that the
National Assembly should retain some of the provisions in the budget the
way they came from the executive.
“There were distortions, which were
itemised and they are to be re-worked and retained the way they came
originally from the executive”, a senior legislative official, who was
privy to the development, confided in Saturday PUNCH in Abuja on Friday.
Investigations showed that, flowing from
the understanding, a letter from the Presidency to formalise the
understanding is expected to be read on the floor of the House on
Tuesday, next week.
“The Senate too is expected to work in line with what the House will do”, the source added.
It was learnt that all the projects that generated the controversies would be returned to the Committee on Appropriation.
The committee will in turn revert to the
affected Ministries, Departments and Agencies where the projects are
domiciled, for the differences in the details to be sorted out through
their relevant standing committees of the National Assembly.
“All of this will not alter the total
budget size of N6.06tn; it is only to correct the details and resolve
the differences that created the controversies in the first place,” the
official added.
It was further gathered that among the
lawmakers, most of the “lopsided” projects injected into the budget by
the Committee on Appropriation to the exclusion of other constituencies,
would be re-adjusted.
Among the projects are the N40bn
inserted in the budget for projects in the geo-political zones of the
leadership of the Senate and the House.
It had been programmed that principal
officers in the two chambers would benefit N20bn projects apiece in
their areas from the budget in line with a tradition kept since 1999.
But, owing to the protests that have
trailed the inclusion of such projects this year, they will be
re-ordered to free the N40bn.
Jibrin too is to forfeit projects worth
N4.169bn, which he allocated to his constituency in Kano State. The
projects were not in the budget proposed by the executive.
Among Jibrin’s controversial projects
are rehabilitation of Gwarzo Kiru, Kwanar Maiyaki road, N180m; sum of
N100m for town hall; construction of roads in Kiru/Bebeji, N150m; solar
street lights, N300m; Badaf road construction, N405m; and Bebeji earth
dam, N270m.
Namdas confirmed to Saturday PUNCH that he was aware that Osinbajo and Dogara met.
But, he declined to give information on
the “items” submitted to Dogara, saying that “the speaker prefers to
handle that aspect by himself on the floor.”
Speaking in a similar vein, the Senate
said it was on the same page with the House of Representatives with
respect to the 2016 budget.
It said that the decision of the House to revisit the budget did not mean the process would begin afresh.
Senate Spokesperson, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, said this in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents.
Abdullahi said, “We have one single
national budget in a year. If we say we are going to follow a particular
provision of the constitution, then we have to do what needed to be
done now.
“So there is no difference between what
we are saying in the Senate and the position of the House of
Representatives to revisit the issue.
“Revisiting the issue of budget means that the House of Reps is also considering incorporating supplementary budget.
“When you are revisiting something that means you are not done with it. There is only one single budget.
“We in the Senate have made it very
clear that we are not opposed to that (Calabar – Lagos) project. It is a
very important national project and we support it in totality.
“National Assembly is one and we are working together. There is no conflict, there is no difference.”
When contacted on the matter, the Senior
Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters
(Senate), Senator Ita Enag, said, “All I can confirm to you now is that
the President is not yet back.”
- 16:22
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Again, Saraki loses bid to stop corruption trial
Ade Adesomoju, Abuja
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday
dismissed the suit filed by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to
stop his trial on charges of false asset declaration before the Code of
Conduct Tribunal in Abuja.
The judgement, delivered by Justice
Abdulkadir Abdu-Kafarati, was one in the series of recent decisions of
the CCT and other courts dismissing the numerous legal actions filed by
the Senate President at various levels of court asking for an order to
stop his trial.
Saraki had, through the fundamental
human rights enforcement suit, asked the court to quash the charges and
nullify the proceedings before the CCT on the grounds that they were
initiated in violation of his rights to fair hearing.
But Justice Abdu-Kafarati held in his
judgement that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit since
the prayers sought by the applicant were not available under Chapter 4,
which deals with fundamental human rights.
The judge also ruled that the suit
constituted an abuse of court process, the Supreme Court having earlier
validated the trial of the Senate President before the CCT and that
Saraki, having also filed similar application before the CCT.
The judge also dismissed the contention
by Saraki that the charges instituted against him were borne out of
political witch-hunt.
“This allegation is a mere sentiment which has no place in our law,” the judge said.
He ruled that granting the prayers
sought by the applicant would amount to the court interfering with the
powers of the respondents conferred on them by the Constitution to
investigate and prosecute crimes.
Justice Abdu-Kafarati added that the
court lacked the power to interfere with the proceedings of the CCT,
which he noted was granted the power by the Constitution to hear the
type of charges preferred against the Senate President.
He ruled, “A careful examination of the
reliefs sought shows that if granted, it will amount to interference
with the powers of the respondents. The prayers are not captured under
Chapter 4 of the Constitution.
“The court cannot interfere with the
proceedings of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, which has the power to
conduct by the Constitution.
“I cannot also do anything that will
interfere with the activities of the respondents to prosecute and
investigate crimes which the Constitution has given them the power to
do.
“Since the apex court has ruled that the
prosecution of the applicant before the Code of Conduct Tribunal is in
order, it is not appropriate for the respondents to approach this court
to seek reliefs quashing the charges.”
The respondents to the suit against whom
Saraki had sought to restrain him from further prosecuting or
investigating him included the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr.
Abubakar Malami (SAN); the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission; the
Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission;
and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase.
Others were the Code of Conduct Bureau;
the CCT; the CCT Chairman, Danladi Umar; the second member of the CCT
panel, Mr. Ataedzeagu Adza; CCB Chairman, Mr. Sam Saba; and the Director
of Public Prosecutions of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr. Mohammed
Diri.
Saraki had contented in the suit that
the CCB failed to invite him to either admit or deny the alleged
infractions in his asset declaration forms before charges were
instituted against him as stipulated in the Code of Conduct and Tribunal
Act.
The Senate President argued that on the
basis of that, the trial had fallen short of the requirements of Article
3 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and Section 36 of
the 1999 Constitution.
He, therefore, asked the court to nullify the charges and the proceedings of the CCT on that basis.
But the judge ruled that the argument by
Saraki’s lawyer, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede, was misconceived, adding that “an
investigation remains what it is, an investigation.”
He said the only option open to the
applicant was to wait for the prosecution to conclude its case and then
raise a no-case submission.
“If the no-case submission is upheld by the tribunal, that will be the end of the case,” the judge ruled.
The judge recalled that as of the time
of hearing the suit, Saraki had filed an application before the CCT
asking for similar prayers as contained in the suit.
“If I go ahead to grant the reliefs, it will be in conflict with the decision of the Code of Conduct Tribunal,” the judge ruled.
The judge held, “In view of the above
findings, I hold that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the suit
because the reliefs are not available under Chapter 4 of the
Constitution.
“The originating motion constitutes an
abuse of court process. The suit is liable to be dismissed and it is
accordingly dismissed.”
The Danladi Umar-led tribunal had on
March 24, 2016 dismissed the application by Saraki praying for reliefs
similar to the one contained in his suit.
- 16:20
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Cash crunch: Tithes, offerings drop in churches
Churches are experiencing the impact of
the economic crisis and the attendant cash crunch with considerable drop
in tithes and offerings by members, Saturday PUNCH investigation has revealed.
Beyond the drop in churches’ cash
inflow, our correspondents learnt that there has been increasing demand
on the church leaders by their congregation for financial support
towards feeding, accommodation and children’s tuition.
The founder of True Vine Bible Church, Akure, Pastor Dayo Ajisafe, told Saturday PUNCH that his church had been seriously affected by the current economic situation of the country.
Ajisafe added that the attendance on
Sunday services in the church had dropped from 500 to between 200 and
350 members, while an average of 90 members attend midweek services.
He blamed the development on irregular payment of salaries to workers in the state.
Ajisafe said, “We used to have as much
as N350, 000 as offering on Sundays in our services and as much as N1m
as tithe monthly. But now, we hardly get N150, 000 as offering and N400,
000 as tithes monthly.
“This is because most of our members are
civil servants and they are being owed salaries. The little we are
getting now comes from the businessmen.”
Pastor Festus Oyewunmi of Arise and Build Bible Church, Ibadan, shared similar experience.
Oyewunmi said, “The church is a
component of the society. So, what is happening in the society will
affect the church. Before, members would pay little, but now, they are
not ready to pay anything. In fact, they are looking for ways to get
something from the church.
“They want the pastor to dip his hands
into his purse and pay for their transport and feeding for a whole
month, especially in smaller churches in places like Ibadan.” Also, the
Senior Pastor at the Worship Centre and Apostolic Church, Oregun, Lagos,
Seyi Adeyemi, described the church as part of the society, saying,
“the church consists of people who engage in various economic activities
and if they are being impacted by the economic situation in the
country, it will affect their ability to meet their obligations in terms
of tithes and offering, which are the major sources of revenue for a
church that does not engage in commercial activities.”
He added, “If the income of a church
reduces, its ability to assist more people will also be curtailed. Be
that as it may, people are still expecting more from the church in spite
of what is going on. So, most churches now provide transportation to
assist members get to church.”
According to Pastor Emmanuel Oyegoke of
the Gospel Faith Mission International, Ikorodu, Lagos, the message for
the people at this time is to look unto God.
He said, “There is no cash flow, there
is inflation, there is no fuel, no electricity and there is hike in
transport fare. So, it is affecting the purse, businesses, and the
health of the people. Some members of my church stay home because of the
situation.
“We have told our members to turn to God
at this time. You can read it on the faces of many people that they
have issues they are passing through.
“The cash inflow has dropped. It is when
you receive salary that you will pay tithe. The people are just living
by faith. If you see anybody in church today that is still paying his
tithe and offering the way he used to, you should know it is by faith.”
The General Superintendent of Holy
Spirit Mission (Happy Family Chapel), Bishop Charles Ighele, described
the economic situation in the country as “never been this bad.”
Ighele confirmed that members of some of
the church’s branches had been adversely affected by the economy, which
has in turn impacted on the religious houses.
He said, “It is a big problem with
people losing their jobs and the prices of things increasing such that
sachet water that used to sell for N5 is now N15 in some towns. The
situation is really bad. Over the years, we have been redirecting the
focus of our members towards entrepreneurship, so the situation has not
really affected the headquarter, but the cash inflow of the branches of
the church where we did not drive such teachings down well has been
affected.
“In those branches, it has affected the
cash inflow, so we have it good in some places and in some; the cash
inflow has been affected. The welfare department of the church has been
strengthened more to help people with feeding, and so on. So, many
members have nowhere to stay; some are unable to pay their house rents,
so we have such things to handle. We have people still under the effect
of the economic condition and it is really tough on them. And it is not
only about members of our church as other people also keep coming for
help.”
In Jos, many churches have also been hard hit by the economic crisis as they now record less in tithes and offerings.
At the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church, one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Saturday PUNCH
that in the last few months, collections from offerings had fallen by
about 60 per cent. According to him, the situation is also putting
pressure on the churches as more members seek soft loans from the
church. The situation is the same at the St. Theresa’s Catholic Church,
Jos.
In Bayelsa State, a cleric, Pastor
Elijah Oigbochie, of the Mark of Overcomers International Church,
Yenagoa, said non-payment of workers’ salaries in the state had affected
the income of the church.
He said the development had also increased the burden of the church in taking care of members in need.
Oigbochie said, “If you do not get your
salary, definitely, you will not be able to pay your tithe. Actually, it
has in one way or the other affected the income of the church because
you pay from whatever you earn.”
Some Christians also confirmed the situation.
A communications expert, Mr. Williams
Ogundeji, said he sometimes stayed away from church to avoid the
attendant financial obligations.
A member of a pentecostal church in
Plateau State, who identified herself simply as Gloria, said apart from
not being able to pay her tithe and offering, she had been having
difficulty in transporting herself to church.
A Deacon in one of the parishes of the
Redeemed Christian Church of God, Ado-Ekiti, told one of our
correspondents that “our members are still complying, but the level of
payment has diminished due to the economic crisis.”
A member of the Ushering Committee in
Gospel Faith Mission International in Ado-Ekiti, who spoke on condition
of anonymity, said, “We have noticed the decline in payment from
members, but we understand the situation.”
- 16:18
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My madam opened my legs and poured pepper in my ‘thing’– Housemaid, 8, brutalised for stealing food
The police in Lagos on Monday took into
custody, a 40-year-old trader, Mrs. Deborah Gabriel, who brutalised her
housemaid, eight-year-old Glory Ugbon, and then put pepper in the girl’s
eyes and private part when the girl decided to steal a plate of rice
when she was hungry.
Five months after Glory started living
with the trader as her housemaid, the girl has been allegedly brutalised
many times and there are so many marks all over her body.
Glory, who had been in the servitude of
Deborah in Surulere, Lagos since November 2015, said her elder sister
simply took her to the woman at the time during her visit to Akwa Ibom
State and said she would follow her to Lagos to be her housemaid.
“Madam said she would put me in school
and my sister told me that she would treat me well. The woman is not
related to us. I work at home all the time but sometimes when she is not
happy with me, she beats me till I cannot walk” Glory said.
But on Sunday, April 10, the co-tenants
of Deborah decided to take action to prevent the woman from killing the
girl when they noticed that she had taken the torture of the girl a
notch higher.
The neighbours alerted child rights activists, who promptly notified the police when the little girl would not stop screaming.
Glory, who was later brought to the
Aguda Police Division, Surulere, Lagos along with Deborah, said on that
particular day, she was simply eating at the backyard of their house,
when her madam accused her of stealing food.
Because of that, Deborah brutalised the girl first.
“When she was tired of beating me, she
forced my legs apart and rubbed some pepper that she had just ground in
my eyes and my bum bum (private part),” she said.
When the pain became unbearable, neighbours raised the alarm when they learnt what the woman did to the girl.
Glory, who was sobbing as she was
brought to the police station along with her madam, explained that she
was very hungry when Deborah caught her eating and became furious.
Glory’s case is one of many similar incidents in which housemaids have been brutalised by their bosses.
It is unclear under what circumstances
Glory was handed over to Deborah. She said she was in Primary 3 before
she left her parents in their village.
The girl told our correspondent that her mother and father were in the village in Akwa Ibom State.
“Since November that she brought me to Lagos, she has not talked about any school for me,” Glory said.
On Monday after our correspondent spoke
with the sobbing girl, she had to be taken to Mirabel Sexual Assault
Referral Centre in Ikeja, Lagos for treatment because she would not stop
complaining about the pepper, some of which had become lodged inside
her.
When our correspondent spoke with
Deborah, the woman was apologetic as she explained that “something just
came over me” when she tortured the girl.
“Please, help me. I am so sorry for what
I did. I know it is wrong but I just could not control my anger. I
promise to take care of her and give her adequate treatment now. I am so
sorry for what I did.”
When our correspondent spoke with the
woman’s husband, Victor, he said that he slept too deeply that day that
he did not hear as his wife brutalised the girl and put pepper in her
private part.
He said, “My wife flogged the girl
because she caught her eating in the backyard. I told the girl too that
she should not have eaten at the back of the house. I was the one who
even prepared the stew.
“I went to sleep later and when I woke
up the following morning, I saw all the wounds on the girl’s body. That
was when I also knew that she had put pepper in the girl’s private part.
“I did not know that she beat her so
badly. I guess I slept too deeply and did not hear the girl’s screaming
because of the drug I took that day. I would have intervened.”
Asked how such an underage girl was
brought into their home as a housemaid, Victor said that when his wife
brought the girl from Akwa Ibom, during a visit to their hometown, he
challenged her because the girl was very young.
“I told her the girl was too young, but
she said the girl is hardworking and that she would cope. I really blame
my wife for what happened but I assure you sir that we would treat her.
We would take her to the hospital for treatment and return her to her
parents,” he said.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that
Deborah was charged with child abuse and assault against a minor at the
Surulere Magistrate’s Court, Lagos on Tuesday.
She was remanded at the Kirikiri Prison, pending the perfection of her bail.
Founder and Coordinator of the Jeshabel Touch-A-Heart Foundation, Mrs. Favour Benson, who took up the girl’s case, told Saturday PUNCH that
at the moment, Glory is being given refuge in a state government home
in Lagos but that effort would be made to contact her parents so that
they could take custody of her.
She said, “The girl’s case was
particularly annoying because the woman did not express any remorse for
the way she tortured the girl.
“With the kind of scars on the girl’s
body within the six months she had been with her, it is clear she had
been torturing the girl as soon as she started living with her.
“She said she tortured the girl out of
frustration and she told us that the girl was always stealing food. We
asked her if the girl was stealing anything else, she said no, that it
was just food. If Glory was not constantly hungry, she would not steal
food.”
- 16:16
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China trip yields over $6bn investments, says Buhari
Amid criticisms of his frequent overseas
trip, President Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday, expressed satisfaction
that his just-concluded one week official trip to China had yielded over
$6bn additional investments for Nigeria.
The Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this in a statement
made available to journalists.
Shehu said the President believed that
the agreements concluded with the Chinese during the visit would have a
huge and positive impact on key sectors of the Nigerian economy
including power, solid minerals, agriculture, housing and rail
transportation.
He said, “In the power sector, North
South Power Company Limited and Sinohydro Corporation Limited signed an
agreement valued at $478,657,941.28 for the construction of 300
megawatts solar power in Shiriro, Niger State.
“In the solid minerals sector, Granite
and Marble Nigeria Limited and Shanghai Shibang signed an agreement
valued at $55m for the construction and equipping of granite mining
plant in Nigeria.
“A total of $1bn is to be invested in
the development of a greenfield expressway for Abuja-Ibadan-Lagos under
an agreement reached by the Infrastructure Bank and Sinohydro
Corporation Limited.
“For the housing sector, both companies
also sealed a $250m deal to develop an ultra modern 27-storey high rise
complex and a $2.5bn agreement for the development of the Lagos Metro
Rail Transit Red Line project.”
According to the presidential spokesman,
other agreements announced and signed during the visit include $1bn for
the establishment of a Hi-tech industrial park in Ogun-Guangdong Free
Trade Zone in Igbesa, Ogun State.
He added that the Ogun-Guangdong Free
Trade Zone and CNG (Nigeria) Investment Limited also signed an agreement
valued at $200m for the construction of two 500MT/day floating gas
facilities.
“An agreement valued at $363m for the
establishment of a comprehensive farm and downstream industrial park in
Kogi state was also announced at the Nigeria-China business forum.
“Other agreements undergoing
negotiations include a $500m project for the provision of television
broadcast equipment and a $25m facility for production of pre-paid smart
meters between Mojec International Limited and Microstar Company
Limited.
“About 100 Nigerian businesses and 300
Chinese firms participated in the Nigeria-China business forum which
took place a day after President Buhari began his visit to China,” Shehu
added.
Buhari, in another statement, said his administration would take urgent steps to restructure Nigeria’s economy.
He said he would achieve this by encouraging new investments in mining, agriculture and manufacturing.
The President was quoted as saying this in Guangzhou, China, at a reception in his honour by the Chinese Communist Party.
Buhari was further quoted as saying that
Nigeria would welcome the support of the Chinese government, foreign
investors and local businesses for efforts to diversify the nation’s
economy.
He noted that the diversification of the
Nigerian economy was long overdue as continued reliance on crude oil
exports had always made the economy vulnerable to shocks.
‘‘This time, we will be more deliberate. The government and businesses will be involved,” Buhari said.
In his remarks, the Secretary of the
Communist Party, who is also the Governor of the Guangdong Province, Mr.
Hu Chinhua, pledged that the region would support the implementation of
all the bilateral agreements reached with the Chinese government during
Buhari’s visit.
The President also visited the
Sino-Singapore Knowledge City in Guangzhou, which showcases advancements
by China in medical, science and technological inventions.
- 16:14
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2019: How PDP will choose presidential candidate, others –Metuh
Olusola Fabiyi, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party has
revealed plans to adopt a more transparent process of choosing its
candidates in the 2019 general elections.
Towards this end, the party said it
would adopt the option A4 method to pick candidates for the
Presidential, governorship and other elections.
Option A4, which was used during the
regime of a former military dictator, Gen Ibrahim Babangida (retd.), is a
process which allows voters queue behind candidates of their choice.
Voters on each queue are counted to the hearing of everyone present before voting starts.
National Publicity Secretary of the PDP,
Chief Olisa Metuh, said this in Abuja, on Friday, while receiving in
audience a former National Chairman of New Patriotic Party, Ghana, Mr.
Peter Manu. According to him, the new process is necessary in order to
allow members take ownership of the leadership selection process.
He said the era when the party would organise a national convention to elect its presidential candidate was over.
Metuh said this option would be adopted by his party, as such there would be no secret voting during the primaries.
He, however said in order to have this done, the party would have to amend its constitution.
Metuh said already, a proposal to amend
the party’s constitution to achieve this had been prepared and would be
tabled at the next national convention which comes up on May 21. Apart
from this, state chapters of the party had been served copies of the
proposed amendment for their input noting that the proposal would first
be tabled before the National Executive Committee before the convention.
Metuh said, “We intend to elect our
presidential candidate starting from Ward level. We are going to apply
Option A4 in electing our presidential candidate.
“It is not going to be restricted to
presidential primaries alone, but others like governorship, senatorial,
House of Representatives and all, everybody would be elected from the
ward level.
“People would have to queue behind the
candidates of their choice. This proposed amendment had been sent to the
state chapters of our party for their inputs in line with our desire to
have people’s opinion.
“We are going to change our system so that our presidential candidate would be voted by all our party members in the country.
“It would be done at the ward level, we
would no longer elect presidential candidate at the national convention.
It would now be for every party member to vote for whoever would be our
presidential candidate.
“Whoever would vie for our presidential
ticket would have to tour the entire country before he can be elected.
This is part of the reform we are coming up with. Basically, this would
be the last convention where we would have people to be elected at the
national convention. We are taking the party back to the Nigerian
people.”
He said the party didn’t prepare for opposition which it suddenly found itself in 2015 after being in power for 16 years.
Metuh said the loss of power made some members of the party to defect to the APC, citing different reasons.
He said, “This is the first time we are
witnessing the change of guards and we have a lot of our people
defecting to the ruling party. In Ghana, you people are much more stable
in terms of party politics.”
Earlier, Manu told Metuh how his party
reviewed events that made it lose the election in Ghana. This, he said,
made it possible for it to make reforms.
He said he was sad that the then
opposition party in his country was referring to his party as being
corrupt due to the way it conducted its primaries.
Manu said this was the reason why he led the reforms that changed the fortune of the party.
He said, “When we lost election, there
was need to review and make amends and these amends led to some critical
reforms in the party structure and organisation.
“We realised for example, that the modus
operandi of how our presidential candidate was elected had a hand in
why we lost the general election. There are as many as 17 presidential
candidates.
“When the then president, John Kufor was
given the party ticket at that time, about 17 presidential candidates
were running for votes from a mere 3,500 delegates.
“So, it was money, money, money until
the day of congress. And we realised that the opposition party, which is
now in government, used that against us and cast smell on us as being
corrupt, that we were throwing money at the people.”
- 16:12
- adebayo
- No comments
ICPC seizes 61 houses from female civil servant
Eniola Akinkuotu
The Independent Corrupt Practices and
Other Related Offences Commission says it has begun arresting civil
servants who live beyond their means, adding that it seized 61 houses
from one female public servant.
The commission also revealed that it
would soon begin publishing a list of the most corrupt Ministries,
Departments and Agencies.
The Chairman of the ICPC, Mr. Ekpo Nta,
said this while addressing participants of the National Institute for
Policy and Strategic Studies at the Abuja headquarters of the agency on
Friday.
Speaking on the theme, ‘The role of the
ICPC in the War Against Corruption: Mandate, Strategies and Challenges’,
the ICPC boss said, “We are developing scorecard like Transparency
International which rates countries as to the level of corruption of
countries. We have developed one for ministries departments and
agencies. Hopefully, we know those who will take the first prize.”
Nta added that once the 2016 Budget is passed, the ICPC would begin monitoring how monies are being spent.
He revealed that the commission had begun prosecuting public servants that live beyond their means.
“From one of the employees of one of the
organisations, we seized about 61 or 62 houses in an estate. The matter
is in court so I can’t say too much but I want to say that the officer
was not a man. We do prosecution but also try to seize the assets
acquired (through corrupt means) so that apart from prosecution, we can
strip you of the assets within and outside the country,” he said.
Nta said the ICPC is also investigating university lecturers who demand sex from female students in return for good grades.
He said even though it was the role of
the police to investigate cases of sexual harassment and rape, it was
also the role of the ICPC to investigate cases bordering on abuse of
office.
Nta said, “We have special teams that
investigate universities here. Quite a number of students that have
spent more than the statutory period, like young girls who have spent
eight years for a four-year programme because they refused to do what
should not be done. We got involved and they have graduated and we are
still looking at the possibility of prosecution.”
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