PDP Will Start Campaigning in Six Months- Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would kick off campaigns for the 2015 elections in the six months.

The president made this know while on a visit to the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Sulu Gambari, as part of his one-day visit to the state. The president said with the new timetable made public for the 2015 elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), he and other national officers of the PDP would return to Ilorin in six months to campaign for the party.

“So we are here to ginger our members,” he said “also to use that opportunity to tell others that they need to join PDP.   

Earlier in his address, the Emir thanked the president for paying homage to him, adding that the emirate was a home for all.

SSS Parades Seven Boko Haram Suspects in Abuja

The Department of State Security Services (SSS) paraded seven suspected Boko Haram insurgents linked to the assassination of Kaduna Islamic cleric Auwal Albani at its headquarters in Abuja yesterday.

SSS spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar stated that one of the seven was a commander of the sect, and all were arrested in connection with the murder of the cleric, who was killed along with his wife and son last month because of his pro-western ways and anti-Boko Haram preaching.

Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, had released a video saying the group was responsible for the murder.

The suspects were identified as Yabuk Abdullahi, 42, the Kaduna/Niger state sub-regional commander of the sect who allegedly masterminded the murder; Yasir Salihu, 35; Ibrahim Shuaibu, 22; Bilyaminu Usman, 22; Sahabi Ismail, 27; Umar Ismail, 35 and Musa Abubakar, 54.

Ms. Ogar stated that "the hatred [of cleric Albani] culminated in a meeting by members of the sect under the leadership of Yakub Abdullahi at Hayin Danmani in Rigasa area of Kaduna. This is where Abdullahi declared that the Shura Council - the highest decision making body of Boko Haram - ordered the killing of Albani."

Ms. Ogar said after an attempted attack on the cleric on 24 January, he was placed under surveillance but tracked down on February 1 by members of Boko Haram at Markaz Salafiya Centre, where they waited for him to finish preaching before following him then killing him along with his wife and son.

Two AK 47 rifles that were brought from Katsina were used in the assassination, with Usman firing 30 rounds at the victims.

Tourism Minister Urges Nigerians to Limit Wildlife Consumption

The Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, has called on Nigerians to refrain from eating the wild animals native to Nigeria in order to encourage wildlife tourism in the country.

The minister was speaking at the Presidential Summit on Tourism held recently in Abuja designed to promote the sector as an avenue for employment creation and contributor to the Nigerian economy.

"Today, if you want to see mountain gorillas in Rwanda, you will pay $750 (about N120,000) online and have to wait for six months to be given a date and the queue is usually very long. But we have mountain gorillas in Afi Mountain, not far away from the Obudu Ranch, and our own mountain gorilla species are more pristine than the ones in Rwanda and Congo.

"But unless there is a policy and we are able to inform our people, we will continue to find people who will be consuming the wildlife which is going into extinction. Our people must control their palate for wildlife so that the animal species don't run out of stock," said the minister.

The minister noted that such practice is against some international conventions that Nigeria is a global signatory to. He referenced the Rwandan government which has developed a policy through which people are enlightened and informed with proof that protecting those mountain gorillas will generate finance and foreign exchange to the country.

Auditors Search NNPC’s Finances for Missing $20bn

A team of 20 auditors have started combing through the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in search of the $20bn (N3.2trillion) of missing oil revenues.

The Auditor General of the Federation Samuel Ukura, who appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts in Abuja, said the auditors had received specialised training on oil and gas accounts examinations in order to adequately determine the whereabouts of the funds that was unremitted to the Federation Account.

"We had a budget of N60 million for training and we were able to train 20 officers who are presently on the field auditing the accounts of the NNPC," he said.

The suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had revealed that the NNPC had failed to remit the trillions in naira of oil resources it exported on behalf of some partners and government agencies.

Since then the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and many Nigerians have been calling for an independent probe of NNPC's accounts.

FG: Why We Gave Abacha Centenary Award

The Federal Government defended its decision to honour General Sani Abacha with a centenary award by listing the economic achievements of the late military head of state’s regime.

Although admitting that Abacha’s tenure from 1993 to 1998 was controversial, the FG stated that the military dictator deserved to be among the 100 Nigerians to receive an award posthumously during the ceremony at the Presidential Villa in Abuja because of various economic successes recorded during his tenure.

These ‘unprecedented economic achievements’ included an increase in the country's foreign exchange reserves from $494 million in 1993 to $9.6 billion by the middle of 1997, and the reduction of Nigeria’s debt from $36 billion in 1993 to $27 billion in 1997. 

 

Abacha was also credited with ending all the controversial privatisation programs of the Babangida administration, reducing the inflation rate from 54 per cent to 8.5 per cent between 1993 and 1998, and it was during his tenure that oil averaged $9 per barrel.

Mr. Abacha's administration was also described as creating the most ‘comprehensive and realistic blueprint’ for Nigeria's development through the Vision 2010 committee chaired by his predecessor, Ernest Shonekan.   

However, many criticised the government’s award, stating that Abacha's regime was characterised by massive corruption, state-sponsored murder and assassination, and random imprisonment of persons seen as critical of government.

The government recently revealed that it spent the $500 million stolen money recovered from Abacha's accounts on rural development.

Mass Immunisation Begins In FCT

The first round of the 2014 National Immunisation Plus Days was launched at the weekend in Damagaza village, Abuja Municipal Area Council. 

The Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Territory Primary Health Care Development Board (FCTPHCDB), Dr. Rilwanu Mohammed, who flagged off the programme, revealed that the first round of the Immunisation Plus days will hold from March 1 to March 4 across the federation. He stated that efforts were being made to ensure that Nigeria was certified a polio-free country. 

“Immunisation remains the most cost effective and efficient child survival strategy for children who are the future of tomorrow,” he said.

He therefore called on mothers and caregivers to make their babies and wards available for the vaccinations, adding that children under five years of age at homes, playgrounds, markets, religious places, car parks and event centres would be specifically targeted, irrespective of their immunisation status.

FCT Health Scheme Set to Provide Affordable Care

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Health Services Scheme has expressed its readiness to provide affordable and qualitative healthcare services to the workforce and other residents of the territory, reports the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

The Programme Manager of the scheme, Dr Evans Onyekele, told NAN in Abuja recently that the social health insurance programme was designed to promote and improve the health situation in the FCT.

“The FHSS is a healthcare financing reform, or Social Health Insurance Scheme, which operates on the principles of solidarity, risk-sharing and pooling of resources,” he explained.

He added that its mission was to facilitate easy and stress-free healthcare financing through the pooling and judicious utilisation of financial resources to provide financial risk protection and cost burden-sharing for people.

Enrollees, he said, will have the right to choose a provider, the right to be issued with means of identification, and the right to easy access to quality healthcare without hindrance.