Senate to probe Kachikwu over alleged irregularities in oil and gas

The Senate on Wednesday mandated its Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) to investigate issues relating to ongoing lease renewals in the oil and gas sector of the economy.

 It is believed that process is being undertaken by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). The resolution followed consideration of a motion by Sen. Omotayo Alasoadura (APC Ondo) and three other senators.

 The motion was entitled “Irregularities in Ongoing Oil and Gas Lease Renewal and Massive Loss of Government Revenue”. Leading debate on the motion, Alasoadura said that the Committee on Petroleum Resources had since December, 2017 been inundated with petitions and complaints over alleged multiplicity of irregularities surrounding the renewal of oil and gas leases. 

He said there were also allegations that Kachikwu was granting illegal discounts and rebates in the exercise. Alasoadura added that “the action of the Minister of State is capable of short-changing the country and denying the Federation the appropriate revenue accruable from the renewal of the leases. 

“The Minister and the Department of Petroleum Resources were proceeding to renew leases of companies that had brazenly and illegally refused to pay royalties from oil and gas lifted by the companies in contravention of extant laws. “Under the provision of extant laws, failure to pay royalties is a ground for revocation of leases and a legal barrier to renewal of applicable leases. 

“There is a subsisting legal framework and due process mandated by extant law for the renewal of leases that are due,” he said. According to him, the alleged irregularities are capable of denying government revenue in excess of 10 billion dollars as a result of illegal discounts and rebates in the process of lease renewal.

 The lawmaker said that efforts by the senate committee to engage DPR on the matter failed. According to him, the Department of Petroleum Resources wilfully and deliberately refused to provide the committee with relevant information and data related to the lease renewal. 

“There is need to thoroughly investigate the lease renewal in view of the potentially alarming impact this will have on government in terms of loss of revenue accruable to the federation.” 

In his contribution, Sen. Shehu Sani (APC- Kaduna) said that the motion was an indication of the rot in the oil and gas industry, adding that 10 billion dollars was huge revenue that the country could not afford to lose. “From the substance of this motion, it is very clear that the Minister of State has in every possible way been engaged in acts that contravene the law. “Over a year ago, he wrote an open letter raising issues about transparency and impunity in the oil sector.

 “The issue of lease is something that has been on the front burner of national discourse in the last few weeks. “What this parliament can do is to once and for all bring the minister to make clarification on the actions he has taken as 10 billion dollars is no small amount of money. “I am of the belief that if we can get to the root of this matter, it will also open other cans of worm,” he said.

Sen. Rafiu Ibrahim (APC Kwara) stressed the need to expand the investigation. “The President is the Minister of Petroleum Resources, maybe that is why this motion is not mentioning the Minister of Petroleum Resources. “We are aware that the Minister of State ordinarily does not have the final approval for this type of case. 

“There is a Board of NNPC and the Ministry and it is out there, though yet to be substantiated that the Chief of Staff to the President is a member of the board and is literally in charge of the board and the ministry. “I will just want the prayer to expand those to be called in the investigation.” In his remarks, Deputy President of the Senate, Mr Ike Ekweremadu, who presided at plenary, charged the committee to carry out thorough investigation on the issue. 

He stressed the need for proper oversight by the committee, adding that “what matters most in cases like this is transparency in our oversight functions”. 

Ekweremadu called on regulatory and enforcement agencies to discharge their responsibilities with a view to ensuring transparency in governance irrespective of those involved. (NAN)

Buhari’s Govt confused, has gotten to the end of its tethers – Obasanjo

ABUJA- FORMER President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Wednesday lampooned the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration, saying that the government is at the moment confused in addressing the mirage of problems and challenges confronting Nigeria as a country, just as he warned that if serious action was not taken, they would be the death knell to the country’s democracy.

According to Obasanjo, the Buhari government has gotten to the end of its tethers and the nation at present is being left divisively and perilously to drift.

Speaking in Abuja as the Special Guest at a one- day Extra Ordinary Summit of Leaders and Elders of Nigeria convened by the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Afenifere, Ohaeneze Ndigbo, Pan Niger Delta Forum, the former President while taking a swipe at the government, said that Nigeria, in recent times, has not been so divided along religious and regional lines as at today with what he termed, inexcusable killings and devastating poverty and with government’s wringing hands and apparently incompetent to stern the tide except giving one unrighteous and unacceptable justification after the other

Music Video Alert: Reality by Rudeboy

Shock as undergraduate barks after spiritual cleansing by Alfa

A 29-year-old female student of the College of Education, Akoka, in Lagos, who visited a Muslim cleric, popularly known as Alfa, for spiritual help, is currently barking like a dog after undergoing cleansing in Ikorodu area of Lagos State.

 Shock as undergraduate barks after spiritual cleansing by Alfa The Alfa, Mustapha Hammed, 23, who was subsequently arrested, admitted to have put a live frog in the water the undergraduate used to bathe during the cleansing process. Investigations by the Police further revealed that the suspect raped the student on discovering that she is a student. 

Thereafter, he used a piece of cloth to wipe her private part. Parading the suspect before journalists at the command headquarters yesterday, the Lagos State Police Commissioner, Imohimi Edgal, said: “On July 12, a case of sexual assault by penetration was brought from Bariga Police Station to the Gender Section for further investigation. “The suspect, Mustapha Hammed, who claims to be an Alfa, was introduced to the survivor through a mutual friend. “The Alfa deceived the victim, saying he saw in a vision that she was going to die within 24 hours. 

He took the girl to Ikorodu, Lagos, for cleansing so that she would not die. “At Ikorodu, he forcefully had canal knowledge of the girl who was a virgin and allegedly wiped off her blood with a white handkerchief. Since then her father alleged that the girl has been behaving abnormally because she was devastated and traumatised by the incident.” Confession The suspect admitted to have raped the victim, but denied wiping the blood with a cloth. 

He said his girlfriend brought the victim to him for consultation and in the process, he decided to marry her. He said: “I told her (victim) that during divination, I saw that she had a spiritual husband. She confirmed it and said that had been the cause of her problem. I told her she would need to undergo spiritual cleansing in my house at Ikorodu. “When we got there, I instructed her to bathe and pray three times. After the first bath, I secretly put a live frog in her water. When she saw it, she ran out to inform me. “I told her it was a bad omen and that the only solution was for her to sleep with a man. I told her to call her boyfriend, but she said I should sleep with her since he was far away. “I did it because I love her and intend to marry her. But because she is my girlfriend’s friend, I couldn’t express my love for her. I did not clean the blood with a cloth.” The suspect, according to Edgal, will be charged to court. www.vanguardngr.com

VIDEO: Married woman caught stealling in warri

PDP to Buhari, APC: rigged election election in Ekiti, does not mean acceptance by Nigerians

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has advised President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) not to be deceived about the election in Ekiti state, saying the rigged election does not mean acceptance by Nigerians. PDP The party also said it was shameful that that President Muhammadu Buhari, who, according to it, claims to be an anti-corruption champion, could “glee over acts of electoral corruption that can truncate our democratic process.”

 The PDP, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, and made available to newsmen on Monday evening also said that it found as strange that President Buhari “could not condemn the emasculation and subversion of the will of Ekiti people and the stealing of another party’s victory by brute force.”

According to the statement, “The PDP has also noted the unsavoury statements by the Presidency, celebrating the subjugation of Ekiti people as a stamp for President Buhari, wherein it further boasted of a triumph for the President in the 2019 general election.

If,  for President Buhari and the APC, the subjugation of the people, as witnessed in Ekiti, amounts to an election, then the nation is headed to a serious crisis, as such will be resisted with all legitimate force available within our laws in the defence of our nation’s democracy.

 The APC and INEC must note that what happened in Ekiti, as a single state, cannot be pulled through in a general election, especially where the people have made up their minds to seek a new president. Nigeria is too big and too complex to be subjugated by a single individual or group of individuals, as any attempt to do so will definitely consume the conspirators.

Moreover, while we are still pursuing the recovery of our stolen mandate in Ekiti, we state in very strong terms that this will be the last time the PDP will, under any circumstance whatsoever, allow itself to be manipulated out at the polls at any level. Finally, the PDP urges all our members and supporters to continue to remain calm over the daylight robbery that happened in Ekiti state, despite the provocations by the APC and the Presidency, as our leaders concert effort to ensure that justice is done,”Courtesy vanguardngr.com

President Buhari orders repatriation of Nigerians stranded in Russia

Abuja – President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Geoffrey Onyeama, and Minister of State, Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, to commence the process of repatriating Nigerians stranded in Russia.

Malam Garba Shehu, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, confirmed this development in a statement in Abuja on Monday.

Nigeria’s forward Ahmed Musa and teammates celebrate their victory at the end of the Russia 2018 World Cup Group D football match between Nigeria and Iceland at the Volgograd Arena in Volgograd on June 22, 2018. / AFP The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the affected Nigerians had travelled to Russia for the FIFA 2018 World Cup but got stranded after the competition.

The football fans got stranded in the country following the activities of some unscrupulous travel agents who cancelled their return tickets and abandoned them to their fate.

The presidential aide observed that already the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Aviation had in compliance with the President’s directive taken the necessary actions to bring the Nigerians back.

 According to Shehu, the Presidential directive is in line with the policy of the current administration to ensure the welfare of all Nigerians in every part of the world. It would be recalled that the Buhari administration had on several occasions ensured the repatriation of Nigerians from foreign countries like Libya.