Why Islamic Organisations Rejected Jonathan's $3m

Abdullahi Shuaib, the coordinator of Conference of Islamic Organisations (CIO), has revealed how the group was approached with $3million by the immediate past administration of Dr Goodluck Jonathan.
The reporter said that two of the Islamic organisations were offered the said to secure their members’ support towards the re-election of ex-president Jonathan.

Two Islamic groups have said that ex-president Goodluck Jonathan offered them about $3million to support him.

Speaking on Saturday, December 26 at the 22nd National Islamic Training Programme held at Odosengolu near Ijebu-Ode, Ogun state, Shuaib said the CIO and The Muslim Congress rejected the money after they were offered under the label of ‘religious fund’.
He said: “It is not a secret, they came, offering us over $3 million. “We said no… It came through their proxies to us and we said no. And today we have been vindicated.
“It is not even part of our own culture to take bribe. We prefer to go hungry than to collect a bribe from somebody and then eat what is unlawful.”
On why they rejected the money the CIO official stated that “because we know very well that it was bait; it was a poison and you cannot eat and dine with the devil and think the devil will not come after you.
“We said clearly no. It is completely un-Islamic. All those organisations that actually took and swallowed the bait, today, they all know what it means for them to have allowed the devil and themselves to eat and dine with the devil.”
The organisation’s comment is coming in the wake of the EFCC’s prosecution of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, who is being accused of mismanaging about $2.1 billion security funds.

And about N4 billion of the money was allegedly given to ex-governor of Sokoto state, Attahiru Bafarawa, to distribute to Islamic organisations.
Former PDP chairman, Haliru Mohammed, and the owner of Daar Communications, Raymond Dokpesi, are also involved in the allegations.
While condemning all those involved in the shady deal, Shuaib said: “It is morally wrong, it is unethical for any organisation, either Muslim or Christian or traditionalist to have indulged in that reckless looting of treasury, the common wealth and there is no way they can exonerate themselves because they have desecrated the house of God because they symbolise the House of God and they have desecrated it and it is a sacrilege and it is wrong.
“Ethically it is wrong, morally it is wrong, socially, it is wrong, economically it is wrong, legally it is wrong. And I think, we should allow the long arm of the law to catch up with them and let the law take it cause over them.”

3,200 migrants die in the Mediterranean in one year

The director general of Migrantes Foundation, Carlo Perego, said no fewer than 3,200 migrants died in the Mediterranean between 2014 and 2015.
He said that the number of the migrants’ casualties in the sea had risen from 1,600 in 2014 to 3, 200, adding that children accounted for 700 of the deaths so far in 2015.
Mr. Perego, a reverend father, said Europe always found resources to drop bombs, but not to save innocent victims.
The Catholic priest said the European Triton operation had not been able to rescue more human lives at sea than the Italian operation, Mare Nostrum.
“This is a real shame that weighs on Europe’s conscience.
“Faced with a terrorist threat, Europe seems now to justify building walls and closing of borders,” he said.
The director general also accused Europe of failing to create humanitarian channels that could save lives and combat human trafficking, one of the resources of terrorism.

“We keep receiving people in closed centres, the so-called ‘hotspots’, instead of in open reception centres.
“Take Lampedusa, for example, more than 20,000 people have been taken to the centre, which is closed at every entrance and exit.
“Fear, along with convenience, seems to have set Europe’s contribution to international protection years back,” he said.
He insisted that migrants seeking asylum and international protection should continue to be welcomed.
Mr. Perego said that after the appeal by Pope Francis on September 6, the widespread and united commitment of churches, parishes and families, had grown.
“This intelligent way of receiving also helps to get to know the people and their stories.
“Once again, the Church is making a concrete gesture, which exceeds prejudices and ideological conflicts, and accompanies people in the prospect of a ‘culture of encounter’ that regenerates our cities,” he said.

China abolishes 1-child policy, couples can now have two children

China has revised its law on population and family planning, thereby abolishing its policy of one child per couple instituted in the 1970s.
The Asian country now allows every couple to have up to two children, starting January 1, 2016.
The new legislation on two-child policy was passed on Sunday during session of National People’s Congress the state-controlled Xinhua news agency reported.
“The state advocates that one couple shall be allowed to have two children,” the newly revised Law on Population and Family Planning states.
According to NPC, the new policy takes effect on January 1.
The policy “is a proactive response to the issue of an aging population,” the state news says.
The policy of one child per couple was implemented in the 1970s to control population growth in the world’s most populous country.

Kaduna refinery restarts production

Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company, which has the capacity to refine 110,000 barrels of crude oil a day, restarted production on Saturday after it was closed for months for repairs.
The managing director, Pipelines and Products marketing Company, Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue, said on Sunday that the plant, which was closed in September, came back on stream ahead of the December deadline for Nigeria’s four refineries to return to full production.
The group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Ibe Kachikwu, had issued a 90-day ultimatum to the managements of the four refineries shortly after his appointment last August.
Mrs. Nnamdi-Ogbue said the Kaduna plant, which is currently undergoing a test run of its production lines, is expected to commence trucking of petrol by the end of next week.
“Kaduna refinery came back on stream on Saturday as scheduled and is running,” the PPMC boss told PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday, via text message.
“PMS (Premium Motor spirit, also called petrol) should be available for trucking by the end of the week. The refinery is expected to produce an average of about 1.6 million litres of PMS daily once in full operation,” she said.
Prior to its closure in September, Kaduna refinery had stopped working for most part of the year, except briefly in July and August, when its utilisation capacity dropped to about 2.6 per cent and 10.5 per cent respectively, according the NNPC monthly operational report for October.

On Friday, Mrs. Nnamdi-Ogbue said resumption of production in other refineries would follow before the end of the year, first by the 210,000 bpd-capacity Port Harcourt refinery shut-down since OctoberThe 125,000 bpd-capacity Warri refinery, which was closed since September for repairs, would be the last to come back on stream, according to the resumption timeline expected to see all the refineries come back on before the end of the year.

The restart of production at the Kaduna refinery should be a cheering news for Nigerians, who have endured weeks of scarcity of petroleum products.
Part of the problem is because PPMC is currently saddled with the responsibility of importing and supplying 100 per cent of the average 40 million litres daily national fuel consumption capacity, as none of the major and independent oil marketers is involved in the fuel importation programme in the country at the moment.
Before now, the PPMC and the other oil marketers used to split the responsibility of importing fuel at the ratio of 52:48.
But, with the backlog of unpaid fuel subsidy and accumulated foreign exchange differential, the oil marketers had opted out of further importation, leaving it to the PPMC.

Celestial Prophet Murders Church Member With Charm

A Celestial Church pastor, Prophet Samson Olorunisola (alias Orun mi si), who is the Shepherd in charge of Jehovah Lass Parish, Powerline, Peace Estate, Ajasa-Command, Lagos, is currently cooling his heels at Panti police command for allegedly murdering a male member of his church.
Olorunisola was said to have hit the deceased, identified as Kehinde, on the head with a diabolic ring.

A group of worshipers at a Celestial Church of Christ branch.

Kehinde, who died after three days in the hospital, confirmed that he was hit on the head with a spiritual ring, but the pastor claimed that he used one of the big crucifixes in the church on his victim.
Immediately Olorunisola saw the gravity of his offence, he absconded, but was later arrested by the police.
The unfortunate incident took place on the night of Tuesday, December 8, 2015, after the pastor accused Kehinde of trying to have carnal knowledge of his four-year old daughter.
He claimed that it was the anger and effort to save his daughter that prompted him to hit the deceased with the crucifix.
But before he eventually died, Kehinde who was receiving treatment at a Lagos private hospital, claimed that his pastor actually hit him with a charm (ring).
Taiwo, the twin brother of the deceased, who resides abroad, is said to have vowed that justice must be done in the case.
He has been communicating with other family members in Nigeria to ensure that the killer of his twin does not go unpunished.

Buhari Speaks: How we intend to fund Nigeria’s N6 trillion budget

President Muhammadu Buhari has explained that despite the fall in the international price of crude oil, measures taken to block leakages in the nation’s revenue generating agencies would ensure enough cash to fund the N6 trillion budget he recently submitted to the National Assembly.
The president gave the explanation in an interview with Mansur Liman of the BBC Hausa service on Christmas eve. He also spoke on his government’s ‘success’ at defeating the Boko Haram insurgents.

Q: You recently submitted the biggest budget estimates in Nigeria’s history to the National Assembly, and this came at a time the price of oil has drastically gone down in world markets. How do you intend to get money to fund the budget?
Buhari: As a government, we inherited N1.5 trillion domestic debt and when foreign debt is added we have about N2.2 trillion. Everybody knows Nigeria is not a poor country, we are rich, and we have human resources, the problem had been that leadership did not take seriously, curbing corrupt tendencies.
Apart from highlighting our debt profile, we have also shown the changes we have made in the Customs for instance, how; much we are making from the Customs service, how much from petroleum, that is NNPC; how much we are making from the ports. There have been lots of leakages in these sectors. If we block these leakages, we would make much more money to run the country despite the fall in the price of oil.
Q: Are you sure you can block all the leakages? Because if one looks at it, it was just the leaders of these agencies that were changed while most of the lieutenants who were part of the system of the “leakages” are still in place. What do you think would change to make sure that “business as usual” does not continue and Nigeria would get those monies?

A: It is generally believed that a fish begins to rot from the head; once the head is rotten, the whole body is also rotten. We have tried to remove all the heads of the organisations, and most of the lieutenants have been changed. A lot is happening in this government that people do not appear to understand; many permanent secretaries of ministries have been changed; we used to have 42 ministers, now we have 36 because the constitution requires that each state of the federation must have a minister; we used to have 42 ministries, now we have 24.
Q: You have also allocated 30 per cent of the budget to capital projects; what informed that decision?
A: It is a must. Remember during the campaigns, we said Nigeria is facing three things and nobody disputed that assertion. Firstly; there was widespread insecurity, war in the north east, while the country’s oil was being stolen at random in the south; secondly; there is massive unemployment, 62 per cent of the nation’s population are youth from the age of 35 years downward; most of them are unemployed, including those who went to school and those who did not, that is a serious problem. Therefore, it has become necessary to restore peace and create employment.
That is why we are returning to agriculture and mineral resources. Thirdly, bribery and corruption was basically suffocating the country. If we don’t kill these monsters, this country would go down.
That is why those who stole monies meant for arms procurement and shared it among themselves are being arrested and are being shown documents, so that they would be asked to refund the money or face prosecution; we would use those documents to prove what they stole, collect all the assets acquired from the proceeds and then jail them.
Q: You have initiated a programme in which poor and vulnerable Nigerians would be paid N5,000 monthly; what have you put in place to ensure that there is justice and fairness in the running of this programme?
A: It is not possible for everyone needing it to get it; but the Federal Government has said it would collaborate with the states and local governments. At the local government level, almost everyone knows each other. It would be easy to identify those to give who would go into trading and how to get it back. It would be like a cooperative and we all know how it operates. Also, state governments would identify those who have capacity to employ more people and all we need to do is to empower them. Our people already know how to go about implementing these modalities to create employment for the citizens.
Q: You earlier mentioned Boko Haram. After your assumption of office, you gave a deadline of December to bring an end to Boko Haram insurgency. We are almost at the end of December, does it mean you and the armed forces have failed?
A: I want people to understand that after I settled down and got good grasp of what the country is going through, we removed all the service chiefs and appointed new ones. We also undertook an investigation and found out how the monies meant for arms procurement were diverted and shared by officials in the last administration. They sent the boys to the war front without arms and ammunition, leading some of them to mutiny after which they were arrested and detained.
We have been able to raise money and fund the war. Go and ask the people of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa; how many of their local governments were under the control of insurgents? And how many are currently still under the insurgents?
May be we would not win the war completely by the end of the month, but the insurgents have now resorted to putting on explosive vests on young children, mostly girls aged 15 and below and then sending them to markets, mosques and churches to detonate. Boko Haram themselves know that the era of them taking over communities and local governments are over. If people would be fair to us, they would know that the Nigerian Army has basically met the deadline and are winning the war. You cannot find any significant number of Boko Haram members in Adamawa, and Yobe, only may be in about three local governments of Borno in the area around our borders with Chad Republic. They are not in a position to threaten Nigeria now, so we have won.

Labaran Maku To Air His Views Over $2.1 Arms Deal Scandal

Labaran Maku, a former minister of information, claimed he would soon speak up over the $2.1bn arms deal scandal that involves the former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki.
According to the former minister, “it is virtually too early for me as a former minister of information to begin to talk about what is going on at the moment.” However, he added that he would make his views known when the right time comes.
Labaran Maku also criticised the planned N17 billion airport project by Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa state. He described it as an avenue to steal and warned commercial banks not to give a N26 billion loan to the governor.
“If the governor insists on an airport, what Nasarawa State’s people need now is an airstrip, and not an airport of N17 billion,” Maku said.
He added: “I don’t want to comment on this administration now because I was in the previous government as minister of information and our voice was all over the nation. It is too early for me to say anything. The processes that are going on are in the full glare of Nigerians and what I will say is that the media should be very careful. That’s my advice and I will not say anything else.
“What happened in Nasarawa State between April 11 and 13, 2015 was worse than June 12, 1993 presidential election. The situation is now worse that even admission into Nasarawa State University was conducted on ethno-religious grounds. Ironically, this is a state where Muslims, Christians and traditional worshippers are equal in number.”

Former Governor Accuses PMB Of Marginalising Igbos

Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, the former governor of the Old Anambra state has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of trying to push the Igbos out of Nigeria and threatening the peace that existed in the country.
In an interview with Daily Independent, the former governor claimed President Buhari’s appointments were a testimony of how he was marginalising the people of the south east. He said that prior to appointing ministers, Buhari made 39 appointments and none of the appointees were Igbos. He said this, coupled with the arrests of Nnamdi Kanu, the director of Radio Biafra led to some Igbos taking to the streets in protest.

Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife.

He said: “Everybody in government knows that the people of the South-East are aggrieved but the flashpoint is the detention of Kanu. Let me go over the issues the people of the South-East are complaining about: One, those who killed our people in the North in the name of Boko Haram or who have been imprisoned in the North after the election of (President Muhammadu) Buhari. People were speculating whether the attacks were the first action for Islamisation or not. People reacted so autonomously in every state of the country, yet the government did not act. Following that, 39 appointments were made by the new president – Out of these, there was none for the South-East. What does that say?

In a country that has six geopolitical zones and six principal offices, of which the SGF (Secretary to the Government of the Federation) is the least of them, the South-East was not able to get the SGF position. This is what made me to say that Buhari appears to be pushing the South-East out of Nigeria or making them (Igbo) think they are not welcome. We have made all efforts on these issues; we had cried and expressed our feelings. But on top of these, we saw his list of ministers and saw where we belonged in his calculation.”
Ezeife also said the ministerial appointments did not favour the Igbos as they got positions like the minister of labour and productivity and minister of science and technology while Babatunde Fashola – whom he referred to as a friend – was made the minster of “power housing and works; three heavy ministries that are too big for one person.”
He claimed that the Boko Haram insurgency was created to so as to make the administration of Goodluck Jonathan ungovernable and subsequently return power to the north.
“When an eastern person was president, some people concocted insecurity by way of Boko Haram to get power back to the North. All northern people, including the Muslims, decided they must have it. Whether the northerners were in the Peoples Democratic Party or the other party, they voted for Buhari. When we discovered that, we clapped for them. We are not against anybody. God loves us and we will survive; we will succeed, whatever happens.”
He advised the president to do things that will make south eastern people feel inclusive in his administration as the perception is that they were being marginalized.

“The actions of the president make us feel he shouldn’t have been president. If he says something, he doesn’t mean it. He said ‘I belong to everybody, I belong to nobody.’ It later turned out that he gave more to the South-West, and more to the North than to the South.”
On the issue of what the Igbos plan to do, he said: “Nigeria is better off with Igbo people remaining there (in the country); if there are more Igbo people, it will be the best. Igbo, having voted for one Nigeria and in consonance with their belief that where you live you mend, are not keen to leave Nigeria now. But as we say, it is not by force that we will make Nigerians have us with them. If they say no, we will accept no.”

Suspected Suicide Bomber Is Alleged Cross-dressed Homo

A man dressed as a female has been reportedly caught and arrested on suspicion of terrorist attack on Friday morning at the ECWA church in Biliri LGA in Gombe state.
Muslim youths who were reportedly guarding the church on Christmas day apprehended an alleged suicide bomber in his late twenties who was carrying the explosives, The Whistler reports.
However, the police in Gombe state has later reported that no explosive device was found on the suspect.
Fwaje Atajiri, the police public relations officer in the state, confirmed the arrest and said the suspect was being questioned.
Faruk Dankuka, the chairman of caretaker committee of Billiri local government council of Gombe state, also looked into the matter and after an investigation he debunked rumors about the bomber.

Suspected cross-dresser who allegedly planned Christmas day suicide bombing attack at the ECWA church in Gombe.

“Police arrested someone in Komta village, but the news has started going round that the suspect was trying to plant a bomb. The information we gathered from police is that no device was found with him. He was just one of those that dresses like women.
“From the ongoing investigation, the man could be one of the homosexuals. For now, nobody can say he is a suicide bomber or not until investigation is concluded,” Dankuka said.
Dankuka called on the people to continue to live in peace and to be their brothers’ keeper at all times as well as to be security-conscious.