Nigeria News Forum

Nine foreign drug convicts are set to be executed in Indonesia after losing all appeals for clemency. Here are brief profiles of the inmates, who include two from Australia, one each from Brazil, France and the Philippines, and four from Africa.   Myuran Sukumaran.  A ringleader of the Bali Nine drugs smuggling syndicate, Sukumaran was born in London in 1981 and moved with his Sri Lankan family to Australia when he was a child. He dropped out of university and became involved in the Sydney drugs and party scene. Enticed by the prospect of easy money, in 2005 he helped to organise a shipment of heroin destined for Australia, but was caught and sentenced to death a year later. In this tv grab picture taken from Indonesian Metro TV on March 5, 2015, show undated photograph of Nigerian death row prisoner Raheem Agbaje Salami is seen in penitentiary in Madiun, eastern Java island and Silvester Obiekwe Nwolise in Nusakambangan prison. Sukumaran said the shock of jail prompte...

No fewer than 100 people suspected to be militants have been reportedly killed as the Nigerian military on Saturday continued the aerial bombardment of Fatola, the base of militants and pipeline vandals in the Arepo area of Ogun State. One of our correspondents who was around the scene of the incident at the time, observed that the attack started at about 12pm and lasted for about 30 minutes. Our correspondent counted at least eight missiles fired by a fighter jet, which flew across the creek at intervals. Another aircraft was observed hovering around the area. Residents, who were caught unawares, ran for their lives due to the ground-shaking effects of the missiles. Business activities were grounded and many residents fled their houses for fear of being hit by missiles. A resident who was on the road when the shots were fired said the Saturday attack was more intense than previous air raids. Speaking on condition of anonymity, she said, “The air raid started on Th...

THE Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said on Saturday that it had reached an agreement with the Federal Government for the conditional release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, and former MEND leader, Henry Okah. The militant group in the Niger Delta disclosed that the Federal Government also agreed that Okah’s younger brother, Charles, and Obi Nwabueze would be granted conditional freedom. MEND in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo, said the agreement was reached after the Aaron Team representatives from Abia and Imo States, Senator Adolphus Wabara, made a proposal for their freedom. The condition given by the Federal Government was that Kanu and his cohorts would renounce the agitation for the Republic of Biafra. The statement read, “Thus far, the deliberations have been fruitful. Various concessions and guarantees have already been secured; some of which include, but are not limited to: release of Henry O...

Former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, has insisted that restructuring Nigeria is required to enhance national integration and stability. Atiku said this in a paper he presented at the Late Gen.Usman Katsina Memorial Conference, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Memorial Hall, Murtala Square, Kaduna, on Saturday. He spoke on the theme of the conference, “The Challenges of National Integration and Survival of Democracy in Nigeria.” The former vice-president explained that he has been an advocate of restructuring for over a decade because be truly believes it was the key to solving some, if not most of the nation’s problems. He stressed that Nigeria had struggled to build a nation where the component units would feel a true sense of belonging. Atiku said, “As a country we have struggled to live up to this ideal. We have obviously not done enough to realise national integration, and the survival of our democracy is still a work in progress. “The cost to us has been enormous. We even f...

Speaker Yakubu Dogara The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent an open letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mr Dogara Yakubu requesting him and other principal officers “suspected to be involved in the alleged budget padding to step aside pending the outcome of investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other agencies.” The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent an open letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mr Dogara Yakubu requesting him and other principal officers “suspected to be involved in the alleged budget padding to step aside pending the outcome of investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other agencies.” Yakubu Dogara The letter dated July 29, 2016 and signed by SERAP executive director, Adetokunbo Mumuni stated that, “Following confirmation received by SERAP from the EFCC that it has taken up and looking into SERAP’s pet...

LAGOS — FEDERAL senior civil servants have threatened to down tools over unpaid salary arrears, appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct immediate payment of their backlog of salaries and allowances. The workers said their patience had been overstretched. Speaking through their umbrella body, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN , the workers said the current state of affairs in the country, where sufferings had been lifted to a frightening level, was the time to settle the  arrears to calm all frayed nerves and restore normalcy in the system. Addressing delegates at ASCSN National Delegates Conference, NDC, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, outgoing President of the body, Mr. Bobboi Kaigama, said: “You will recall that in one of our correspondences to President Buhari before his inauguration, we did set out an agenda for him towards moving the nation forward. “One of the items on the agenda is the settlement of all outstanding salaries and allowances ...

Michael Titus Igweh Indonesia on Friday executed one local and three Nigerian drug convicts by firing squad, an official said. They were put to death shortly after midnight, Noor Rachmad, deputy attorney general for general crimes, told reporters. He did not say why 10 other drug convicts, who had been expected to face the firing squad, were not executed, although the island where the convicts were being put to death was hit by a major storm as the executions took place. “The executions were for now conducted on four convicts on death row,” he said. “This is not a fun job. For us, this is really a sad job because it involves people’s lives. “This was done not in order to take lives but to stop evil intentions, and the evil act of drug trafficking.”

President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, Aisha, on Wednesday sued Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State for claiming she was involved in the Halliburton scandal. Mr. Fayose had in June said Mrs. Buhari was the “Aisha Buhari” named in a U.S. court document, alleged to have been involved in bribery case involving a convicted former U.S. lawmaker, Williams Jefferson. The governor, in what appeared to be an error, referred to the Jefferson bribery as the Halliburton scandal, which is an entirely different case. Mr. Fayose however insisted he was right, despite Mrs. Buhari’s denial and threat of lawsuit. In the ex-parte motion, filed July 20, 2016, and made exclusively available to PREMIUM TIMES , Mrs. Buhari prayed the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, to grant her reliefs to issue writ of summons against Mr. Fayose and his media advisers, Idowu Adelusi and Lere Olayinka. Olukayode Adeniyi, the presiding judge, granted all reliefs sought by Mrs. Buhari, including an order of subst...

French Coach Paul Le Guen has reportedly turned down an offer by the Nigeria National Football to coach the Super Eagles. The NFF Technical Committee had on Monday named the former PSG Coach as the Technical Adviser for the Super Eagles, albeit subject to approval from the Executive committee However reports from Le Guen’s home country (France) sparked up by French journalist, Herve Penot, who writes for L’Equipe, suggests that the 52-year-old failed to agree on some knotty issues with the NFF. “Paul le Guen will not go to Nigeria. Conditions not met to be coach. Nothing to do with the selection today,” a tweet from the official handle of Penot read. PREMIUM TIMES gathered that one of the knotty issues Le Guen failed to agree on with the NFF was that he would prefer to operate from France while the NFF wants him permanently stationed in Nigeria. On Monday, the committee of the Nigeria Football Federation confirmed the appointment of Frenchman Le Guen as the new Technical ...

A Federal Capital Territory High Court has granted bail to Abiodun Agbele, an aide to the Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose. Mr. Agbele was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on July 1 on allegations of fraud. The EFCC said Mr. Agbele received huge public funds from a former defence minister, Musiliu Obanikoro, and delivered same to Mr. Fayose. The judge, Olukayode Fadeniyi, declared that the failure of the EFCC to charge Mr. Agbele to court, since his arrest, amounted to an abuse of his fundamental rights. He ordered the commission to pay a compensation of N5 million to Mr. Agbele. The court also ruled that Mr. Agbele be admitted to bail with a bond of N50 million and a surety not below the cadre of a director in the civil service. Alternatively, Mr. Agbele is required to provide a surety who is a responsible Nigerian citizen, with landed property in any part of Abuja. “The surety shall depose an affidavit of means,” the court also r...

President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday in Abuja said his administration was talking to Niger Delta militants through oil companies and law-enforcement agencies to find a lasting solution to insecurity in the region. Speaking at a farewell audience with Michael Zinner, the outgoing Ambassador of Germany to Nigeria at the State House, President Buhari said the government was studying the instruments of the Amnesty Programme inherited from the previous administration with a view to carrying out commitments made that were undelivered. “We understand their feelings,” the president said. “We are studying the instruments. We have to secure the environment, otherwise investment will not come. We will do our best for the country,” he said. The president used the opportunity to thank the government of Germany for its continuing support to Nigeria in the efforts to tackle insecurity and the on-going rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced citizens in crisis areas in the North-Eastern ...

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Thursday, changed the leaderships of some Senate committees, offering top positions to his staunchest opponents. Mr. Saraki will also host the All Progressives Congress Senate caucus at his Lake Chad, Maitama residence Thursday night, PREMIUM TIMES understands. It is the first time Mr. Saraki will be hosting his APC colleagues. The moves, apparently part of efforts to heal a senate polarized by Mr. Saraki’s election, came hours after he denied he was returning to the Peoples Democratic Party. Under the new plan, Kabiru Marafa, the Senate leadership’s most outspoken and harshest critic, will head the committee on petroleum downstream. He will be assisted by Phillip Aduda, who is the deputy minority leader. Mr. Marafa is the former chairman of the committee on national population, who refused to convene the committee’s 2016 budget defence session on the claim that committees were illegally composed. Suleiman Hukunyi, the secretary o...

Some members of the Senate’s self-styled Unity Forum who have expressed intention to testify in court against the senate president, Bukola Saraki, and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, in the ongoing forgery case, face suspension, PREMIUM TIMES learnt on Wednesday. Dino Melaye, the senator representing Kogi west, suggested the punishment during an executive session on Tuesday, and the leadership of the house appeared to be in favour of the proposal, our sources said. Mr. Melaye said the action of senators was capable of inflicting irreparable damage to the sanctity and integrity of the National Assembly, sources present at the closed-door session told PREMIUM TIMES. Senators Kabiru Marafa, Suleiman Hunkuyi, Ahmed Lawan, Ajayi Borofice, Gbenga Ashafa and Abdullahi Gumel are joining other witnesses to testify against Messrs Saraki and Ekweremadu. They all opposed the emergence of Mr. Saraki as president. Mr. Melaye said the only way to instill discipline amongst senators was to p...

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has reshuffled the leaderships of the Senate’s committees. Mr. Saraki’s most outspoken critic, Kabiru Marafa, was appointed chairman of the Petroleum (downstream) Committee. He was chairman of the Committee on National Population. Also, Oluremi Tinubu, a key member of the anti-Saraki Unity Forum, was named chairperson of the Committee on Environment. Previously, she headed the Committtee on Women Affairs. Mr. Saraki made the announcement shortly before the senate adjourned on Thursday. Suleiman Hukunyi, another critic of the senate president, is now in charge of the Committee on National Identity. The re-composition of the Senate committees was one of the conditions put forward by Unity Forum Senators for peace to return to the troubled assembly. More details later.

A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Fred Agbaje, has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari on his recent concern over the delay in the trial of corruption cases. Agbaje told Punch that it was up to the judiciary to redeem itself and change the negative perception raised by the president. The lawyer was reacting to the recent call by President Buhari on the judiciary to support his anti-graft war by ensuring that the criminal cases in court were not delayed but expeditiously concluded. Buhari while speaking at the opening ceremony of an ‘International Workshop on the Judiciary and Fight against Corruption,’ was quoted asking the judiciary to put its house in order, tackle judicial corruption, be impartial and politically neutral, remove causes of delays in adjudication of cases and stop tolerating the dilatory tactics of defence lawyers that prolonged high- profile corruption cases. Speaking on Tuesday against the background of Buhari’s comment, Agbaje said, “It is a serious indictment to say...