Actress Omotola Jalade is heading for the United States again but this time around for a not so obvious reason, “Breast Implant”.She will be heading to the state of New Jersey where world class facelift and implants surgeons are headquartered. The whole thing started after an alleged love affair with Desmont Elliot, another top Nigerian actor, turned sour.According to the source, Elliot expressed disappointment after he discovered that the five star actress he had so much love for carry such a small thing (Breast). Another source had it that Omotola wants her breast to be bigger than her rival Genevieve who is scoring high above her recently.
Read more…
More Speculations arise why He was killed including revelations that he was going for Spiritual Cleansing probably linked to fetish and occultic practices at a River Shrine Read Compass Artice here.This was suggested by the Police who have so far not given a clue why he was murdered .The VP Goodluck Jonathan has given THe IG of Police Onovo an ultimatum to fish out the dastardly perpertrators
Also The area where the killed governorship candidate of Action Congress in Ogun State, Dipo Dina, was attacked is a known black spot that has received little attention from the police, members of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria said on Wednesday.
The group addressed a press conference at the palace of the Olota of Ota during which they claimed that at least six murders have occurred in the location.
‘Poor policing caused Dipo Dina's murder'' AS if Policing could have saved him !
The group's Administrative Commander, Nurudeen Serikudi, who briefed reporters alongside other top officials, said: "we know this to be the fact because our vigilante teams have the responsibility to provide security for the area of Ado-Odo/Cannanland axis where this unfortunate incident occurred.
"The lack of visibility of police on these routes clearly explains why the murder of such a prominent politician was carried out with relative ease on such a busy route without any speedy response from the police."
Mr. Serikudi said his organisation has repeatedly complained to security agencies about insecurity in the area and the need to complement the efforts of vigilante groups.
"Unfortunately, our persistence calls to the police have fallen on deaf ears," he said.
Tension in the polity
A top member of his party in the state, Kayode Soyinka, said Mr. Dina's assassination points to the atmosphere of tension which Nigeria has been experiencing lately.
"There is something so weird about this Dipo Dina killing. It is so sad that because of politics, power and position the life of a fellow human being means nothing to some people and they can just decide to snuff it off just like that.
"It is so sad that the people of darkness could waste his young life just like that. Please, though I am not in Nigeria at the moment, I would like to express our heartfelt condolences to his wife, children and the entire Dina family. This loss is too much to bear".
THE REAL REASON HE WAS MURDERED ! ! !
In the first fourteen editions of these series which were published in various national newspapers, DDM, led by Otunba Dipo Dina (D.D. DIRECT), commended laudable strides, where such existed, and unearthed some among the myriad of deficiencies
of the Otunba Gbenga Daniel administration. In this series, we shall dwell on “THE PROPAGANDA GOVERNMENT - ANATOMY OF THE PRODIGAL 2”.
2. ANATOMY OF THE PRODIGAL 2
In the Wednesday, 15th and Thursday, 16th November, 2006 publication of the first part of ‘Anatomy of the Prodigal’, published in the Punch newspaper of the respective dates, we brought to the attention of our people how the Governor of Ogun state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, emptied its treasury to the tune of N817m. This plundering was done using various means including outright dipping of his hands into the treasury of the state and erection of unnecessary billboards and media propaganda among others.
A. GOVERNOR AND WIFE’S FOREIGN TRIPS – N450, 000,000
The till of the state was also depleted in other areas. We shall presently show this with factual evidence. Available official records of the government shows that Governor Daniel made no fewer than 49 trips abroad since assumption of office. In like manner, his wife, Yeye Olufunke Daniel made no less than 31 trips abroad during the same period. For each of these trips, Ogun state government was made to pick up the bill. For the total number of times Otunba Daniel and his wife travelled abroad, both husband and wife expended a total sum of N450,756,676.50 (Four hundred and fifty million seven hundred and fifty six thousand six hundred and seventy six naira and fifty kobo). While less than ten percent of the trips made by the governor was necessary, there is simply no justification for the trips made by the wife and for which the state government was forced to expend so much. The husband is the governor of the state and not the wife. Besides, the state is yet to reap bountiful direct foreign investment as a result of the many foreign trips of the governor.
A few examples of the expenditure on trips by the governor are as follows: an Oceanic Bank cheque number 0000216 of the sum of N3,237,437.50 was issued for a trip to Germany in May 2005. In the same month of May, the governor claimed the sum of N4,896,092 through cheque number 00040595 of First City Monument Bank for a trip to United Arab Emirates. The same trip cost additional sum of N2,905,730 vide cheque number 00040594 of First City Monument Bank. A trip to South Africa in January 2006 cost the state N4,239,692 (Wema Bank cheque number 41640557). A certain Versatile Travel and Tour Limited billed Ogun state government the sum of N7,406,517 for unspecified trips of the governor in May, July and November 2004 via cheques including a Guaranty Trust Bank cheque of N2,966,518 number 0000972. The globe-trotting governor also expended, among others, the sum of N6,260,355 in June 2004 for a trip to the United States of America (Wema Bank cheque number 025737889).
His wife, Yeye Olufunke Daniel, on her part, expended Ogun state money of the sum of N4,514,658 on a trip to United Kingdom in April 2006 alone. Various Intercontinental Bank cheques were issued with cheque numbers 00005997, 00005998, 00005999 and 00006000 for various trips around that period. In April and May 2005, Yeye Olufunke Daniel assaulted the till of Ogun state to the tune of N9,969,059 for a trip to the United Kingdom and China through various cheques with numbers including, but not limited to, 324244611, 32424462, 32424459 and 32424460 all of Wema Bank. See the following table for a few more expenditure by husband and wife on trips.
GOVERNOR’S TRIPS
DATE DESTINATION BANK CHEQUE NO. AMOUNT
18.06.04 USA WEMA BANK 025737889 6,260,355
27.08.04 UK GUARANTY TRUST BANK 4544553 11,275,405
20.05.05 UNITED ARAB EMIRATE FIRST CITY MONUMENT BANK 00040595 4,896,092
02.12.05 SOUTH AFRICA WEMA BANK 04164044 5,433,000
06.01.06 UK GUARANTY TRUST BANK 00003993 3,219,000
13.01.06 SOUTH AFRICA WEMA BANK 41640557 4,239,629
28.04.06 SOUTH AFRICA FIRST CITY MONUMENT BANK 00046916 1,006,942
14.07.06 CHINA SKYE BANK 0003129 561,365
21.07.06 UK GUARANTY TRUST BANK 00004794 3,276,450
30.09.06 UK WEMA BANK 41640825 5,905,291
GOVERNOR’S WIFE TRIPS
DATE DESTINATION BANK CHEQUE NO. AMOUNT
15.04.05 CHINA WEMA BANK 32424459 2,784,922
09.12.05 UK (ESTACODE) INTERCONTINENTAL 00005074 1,653,160
UK (AIR TICKET) INTERCONTINENTAL 00005075 929,564
07.04.06 UK (ESTACODE) ICB 00005997 976,800
07.04.06 UK (AIR TICKET) ICB 00005998 3,537,858
07.04.06 UK (TRIP & ESTACODE) ICB 00005999 1,653,160
07.04.06 UK (AIR TICKET) ICB 00006000 1,179,281
B. GOVERNOR’S EXPENSES – N718,010,167
Apart from these so called trips, Governor Daniel, also, during the period, claimed the sum total of N718,010,167 (Seven hundred and eighteen million ten thousand one hundred and sixty seven naira) on various claims and what he called “reimbursement of expenses” during unspecified official assignments. These exclude the normal imprest of the governor. These are also different from the donations which the governor claimed to have made totaling N518m as reported in our series 14 on Wednesday 15th November, 2006. Other huge sums of money are simply listed in official vouchers of government as “expenses of HE”. ‘HE’ connotes ‘His Excellency’. For instance in January 2006, the sum of N9,908,600 and N8,760,000 were claimed as reimbursement by Otunba Daniel. He was paid with cheque number 4909000 and 41640599 of Guaranty Trust Bank and 0005461 of Intercontinental Bank. In June 2006, he also claimed the sum of N23,570,227.50, among others, as “reimbursement of expenses” for that month alone. He was paid with cheque number 41641000 of Wema and 00004479 of Guaranty Trust Bank among others. On a single day, 7th May, 2004, Governor Daniel got another N7,671,780 with cheque number 4337711 of Guaranty Trust as “reimbursement” of strange expenses. Ogun state account with Intercontinental Bank suffered depletion to the tune of N8,207,000 on 4th August, 2006 through what Governor Daniel called “official duty tour”.. Cheque number is 00000912 took care of that particular claim of the govenor. The table below shows a few of other questionable “reimbursements of the governor”.
DATE PURPOSE BANK CHEQUE NO. AMOUNT
07.05.04 Reimbursement: 2nd – 15th March GUARANTY TRUST BANK 4337711 7,671,780
07.04.06 Duty Tour Allowance - Governor OCEANIC BANK 0000629 2,521,770
02.06.06 Reimbursement – H.E WEMA BANK 41641000 7,900,000
16.06.06 H.E – Imprest GUARANTY TRUST BANK 00004479 936,150
04.08.06 Duty Tour Allowance - Governor INTERCONTINENTAL 00000912 8,207,000
C. KAYLORD MOTORS N1,815,119,075
Another, probably more ingenuous act of plundering of Ogun state riches came in other areas. Government official records show that no fewer than 643 vehicles were reported to have been purchased by the government. These automobiles, according to invoices and claims made by suppliers, were reported to have been purchased for various ministries. The vehicles, many of which are unseen, are also in various types including exotic jeeps, trucks and official pleasure cars. A couple of automobile companies including Utobra Motors Nigeria Limited and Kaylord Motors benefited in these ignoble deals.
Majority of the vehicles were however claimed to have been supplied by Kaylord Motors, which also forwarded invoices for same and got paid for everyone of the vehicles. At the end of the day, total amount of money claimed and collected from Ogun state government treasury by Kaylord Motors alone adds up to N1,815,119,075 (one billion, eight hundred and fifteen million, one hundred and nineteen thousand and seventy five naira). This sum was claimed to be payment for some 474 pieces of vehicles.
This favoured automobile company is owned by Mr. Kunle Sokunbi, a self-confessed bosom friend of Governor Daniel. Sokunbo it was in August 2006 who claimed that a controversial custom-made bus (Motor Home) costing N82m was donated to Governor Daniel by his (the governor) friends including himself (Sokunbi). Sokunbi came to the rescue of his friend following DDM shocking revelation of the acquisition of the bus with tax payers’ money and the attendant public indignation and brouhaha. According to him, his group of friends purchased the bus to express support for the second term bid of Otunba Daniel both morally and financially.
DDM, however, is in possession of hard fact to prove that the controversial bus was bought by the governor for his campaign, even though no Nigerian president or governor ever bought such an expensive bus for campaign. The point being raised is that the purchase of such a bus shows the insensitivity of the governor, giving the situation in the state regarding joblessness, hunger, despair, lack of potable water, health care, housing, etc.
Although Sokunbi’s claim of Father Christmas in the issue of the bus remains unconvincing, foggy and floppy, the huge sum of money that went into his company account through the largely alleged fictitious automobile purchases will leave in doubt that Sokunbi alone could purchase the controversial bus as part of payback to a benefactor. Let Mr. Kunle Sokunbi give the names of other friends of the governor as claimed by him who contributed to the purchase of the bus. The Ogun state people are interested in knowing the faceless friends who possibly have been part of the milking of the resources of the state. It is also instructive that since our publication on the bus and the public disgust and negative reaction to its use after Governor Daniel did his farewell tour of Odogbolu and Ipokia Local Governments with the controversial automobile, the governor inexplicably halted its use. We, in Ogun state are asking for the whereabout of the bus because there is incontrovertible fact that it is the property of the state.
As almost the sole supplier of vehicles to Ogun state government, the people of Ogun state are interested in knowing from Mr. Sokunbi how much tax (apart from the normal levy deducted at source) he paid to the coffers of Ogun state following his claim of such a huge amount for the allegedly supplied vehicles.
Invoices of purchased vehicles flood accounts departments of governor’s office monthly as if the Daniel administration is into automobile business. The Ogun Stakeholders are interested in having a schedule of all the motor vehicles purchased by this government including their current state, location and assigned users in order to verify the existence of all these vehicles.
Kaylord supplies both new and used (tokunbo) vehicles, even when there are authorized and renowned distributors of such new vehicles who would give better prices in line with good economic and business decision. Only on a few occasion did the state government purchase some vehicles from Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) and Dana Motors.
Of no fewer than 120 invoices raised by Kaylord Motors and settled from various state government accounts, here are few examples. These exclude sales made directly to some state parastatals or extra ministerial departments and local government councils.
S/N DATE BANK CHEQUE NO. AMOUNT
1. 07.07.04 GUARANTY TRUST BANK 00004496 28,840,000.00
2. 15.08.05 WEMA BANK 041671677 20,700,627.00
3. 27.01.06 WEMA BANK 41640625 44,207,391.25
4. 17.03..06 INTERCONTINENTAL BANK 00005869 39,900,000.00
5. 31.03.06 WEMA BANK 41640823 49,750,000.00
6. 07.04.06 ICB 00006095 25,380,000.00
7. 28.04..06 GUARANTY TRUST BANK 00004280 21,760,000.00
8. 05.05.06 GUARANTY TRUST BANK 00004282 27,630,000.00
9. 19.05.06 GUARANTY TRUST BANK 00004363 22,530,000.00
D. PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY (PDP) – N19,628,156
Perhaps a most disgusting display of irresponsibility is the emerging fact that Governor Daniel government also recklessly spent government money to service members of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party. A total sum of N19,628,156 was found to have been expended on party activities. This is with respect to very few official records at DDM disposal. There are certainly more. This expenditure comes under various headings such as “reimbursement of PDP expenses”; “hosting of meeting of PDP Board of Trustee”’, “mobilization of party members for rally” among others. In a particular instance in May 2005, the sum of N6,300,000 was pulled out of the First City Monument Bank account of the state through cheque number 00040583 as ‘logistic support for South-West Zonal Committee of PDP’.
Less than a month earlier in April, records show that another N7,175,000 was withdrawn from government Bond Bank account to service the same committee through cheque number 0001888.Similarly, a grand reception for members of PDP working committee gulped N1,000,000 in September 2003. Official cash record of that date recorded the expenditure. In July 2006, PDP National Executive Council was recorded to have spent N500,000 of Ogun state money in Guaranty Trust Bank through cheque number 00004795. Record also revealed that N960,000 was spent by the party’s Board of Trustees. The governor and his wife also expended the sum of N1,250,000 on hosting of South-West PDP governors in September 2006. On 20th September, 2003, N1,000,000 was expended on reception for members of PDP working committee.
E. LAW AND ORDER – 281m
Inspite of this financial horror that the governor imposes on the state, no less than N281m has also been so far claimed to have been expended on maintenance of law and order in the state under the Daniel administration. This money, DDM can authoritatively confirm, goes through the office of the secretary to the state government in the same way the huge sum spent on security around the governor do.
Several cheques were issued under all kinds of headings including “reimbursement on maintenance of law and order”; reimbursement of expenses on law and order”; and “donation to non-governmental organizations on maintenance of law and order”. A few examples: on 30th October, 2005, a cheque of N10m number 00003985 of Guaranty Trust Bank was picked by the secretary to the state government for the purpose of “maintenance of law and order”. On 15th December, 2005, another cheque of N7.5m was issued with number 41640523. The cheque belongs to Wema Bank. Another Wema Bank cheque of N3.7m with number 41640540 was issued on 30th December, 2005 as “part payment on maintenance of law and order”. The sum of N8m went out of state government coffers for “maintenance of law and order” on 30th December, 2005. The number of the cheque is 00003984 of Guaranty Trust Bank. N2.6m was expended for the same purpose on 31st March, 2006. Cheque bears number 41640856 of Wema. Governor Daniel was severally “reimbursed for his expenses on law and order” through various cheques including an Intercontinental Bank cheque of N8.7m bearing number 00005929 of 15th March, 2006 and another cheque bearing number number 41640801 of Wema for the sum of N9,971,000 of 3rd March, 2006.
According to financial records of the Daniel administration, various scarring sum of money were similarly claimed to have been expended on “assistance or donation to agencies and organizations for maintenance of law and order”. One of such occasions, an FCMB cheque of N8m number 00046764 dated 21st January, 2005 was issued to the secretary to the state government. On another occasion, the office of the secretary to the government picked a N5m cheque of Guaranty Trust Bank on 28th June, 2006 as “donation to non-governmental organizations for maintenance of law and order”. It should be noted that no specific organization or agency is named as beneficiary of the “donations” and “assistance”. The table below shows a few more lurid picture of a lot of largely imaginary claims on law and order:
S/N AMOUNT PURPOSE BANK DATE
1. 10,000,000 Maintenance of law and order Government cash position 12.05.05
2. 8,000,000 Maintenance of law and order Government cash position 12.08.05
3. 9,000,000 Maintenance of law and order Government cash position 11.11.05
4. 8,000,000 Maintenance of law and order Government cash position 18.11.05
5. 10,000,000 Maintenance of law and order Government cash position 30.12.05
6. Reimbursement of expenses on law and order GTB 00004083 10.03.06
7. 8,000,000 Financial assistance on maintenance of law and order GTB (00004083) 10.03.06
8. 8,000,000 Financial assistance on maintenance of law and order Intercontinental (00005928) 17.03.06
9. 8,658,000 Financial assistance on maintenance of law and order Intercontinental (00005929) 17.03.06
10. 2,600,000 Donation on maintenance of law and order Wema (41640856) 31.03.06
F. CULTISM AND THUGGERY – N23m
Available cash position of government similarly revealed that a huge sum of N23m has found its way out of government pocket through often suspicious effort at “curbing violence on Ogun state campuses of tertiary institutions. Government of Otunba Daniel claims that it spends an average of N1m on “anti-violence committee” on campuses per month. Cash position of government on 21st May, 2004 recorded that N1.5m was spent for this purpose. On 26th November, 2004, the document revealed that N300,000 was paid to the anti-violence committee for the month of August 2004. The sum of N1m was recorded in the document on 5th March, 2004 as having been spent on “eradication of cultism”. On 23rd December, 2005, the sum of N7.4m was recorded to have been dolled out to “youth leaders in Ogun state”.
It, however, remains a fact that incidences of thuggery, vandalism, cultism and other forms of violence have been more rampant during the Daniel administration more than any other government in Ogun state. Ogun state people are witnesses to unfortunate incidences where all forms of weapons of violence especially guns have found their ways into the hands of vulnerable youths. There has therefore been several occasions that a whole town would fall under the siege of gun-trotting youths loyal to the Daniel government. What the huge expenditure on eradication of violence in Ogun state therefore suggests is that the monies are expended to service thugs, vandals, arsonists and murderers on the payroll of the Daniel government.
G. SUMMARY OF FRIVOLOUS EXPENDITURE
As reported also in our series 14, and now in series 15, a lot of money which otherwise could have been better judiciously spent has gone into servicing personal cravings. The summary of the ones we have highlighted so far is as follows:
S/N BENEFICIARY
AMOUNT
N
1. Artistes 100m
2. Clocks 87m
3. Billboards 150m
4. Media Campaign 360m
5. “Newsletter” 70m
6. Choice Band 50m
7. Governor and Wife’s Foreign Trips 450m
8. Governor’s Expenses 718m
9. Kaylord Motors 1.8b
10. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 18.6m
11. Law and Order 281m
12. Cultism/Thuggery 23m
T O T A L 4,107,600,000
3. MATTERS ARISING
Suspended Workers
In character with the Otunba Daniel administration, it went into less than noble panicky reaction last week when it suspended 12 officers of the Accountant-General’s office. This came in reaction to the series 14 of the DDM which exposed a mountain of calamitous graft of the Daniel government. The officers are already being tried for an alleged leak of government financial records to us. As we sincerely empathize with the affected workers, we make bold to say they are innocent of the offence. They are only being persecuted by a sadistic, intolerant and sinking regime. The witch-hunting must stop. These people and others suffering all forms of oppression under this administration will have their cases redressed when, by the Grace of Almighty, Otunba Dipo Dina assumed political leadership of the state in May 2007. Our heart goes out to them. They are heroes of the struggle, cast in the mould of Nelson Mandela, Amical Cabra and Corazon Acquino.
Click for FULL Series HereRead more…
Death could have been prevented if…, says vigilance group
Detectives yesterday received shocking revelations, while investigating the Monday night murder of Ogun State Action Congress (AC) governorship candidate in 2007, Otunba Dipo Dina.
After the crack team of detectives, led by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) in charge of investigations, Mr Israel Ajao, visited the crime scene and interrogated Dina’s driver and the prophetess, who was in his car when the killers struck, the police boss said: “We have good clues to solve this crime.”
When Ajao, who had earlier visited the Lagos home of the slain politician, later led a long convoy of detectives to one Odo-Ore River, at Onigbongbo village, near Atan Ota, where the prophetess, Funmilayo Olagoke, had allegedly told the police that Dina was going for a ‘spiritual cleansing’, he was told how the gunmen, after killing their victim, drove to the riverside with the driver and the spiritualist and spent over 20 minutes there before they parted ways.
He also learnt that the bandits shot Dina twice, when they cornered his Toyota Camry car near the Living Faith World Outreach Ministries (a.k.a. Winners Chapel) area of the Ota-Owode-Idiroko Road, as he was trying to negotiate some speed breakers on the road.
Ajao, who did not comment on the revelation, said that Nigerians should be rest assured that the police would get Dina’s killers. He also pleaded that members of the public should help the police with further information, that could unmask the killers quickly.
Ajao’s tour, which began in Lagos, and ended at the riverside, followed Vice President Goodluck Jonathan’s order that the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, should fish out the killers within a week.
For about one and half hours at the Ogun State Police Command Headquarters, Eleweran, yesterday, the DIG interrogated Dina’s driver, Tunde Oyediran, and Funmilayo behind closed doors.
As the prophetess was being led away, she could be heard crying and lamenting that she never knew that things would take “this turn”.
The DIG, who arrived at the state capital at about 1p.m., grilled the two suspects between 2p.m. and 3.30p.m., after being briefed by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Musa Daura.
The Nigerian Compass learnt that Ajao later took over the case file, after he went through it.
The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, denied reports that the late Dina’s vehicle, which was stolen after the killing, had been recovered.
“It is not true. The car has not been recovered. But we are intensifying efforts to track down the killers,” the police spokesman stated.
Meanwhile, the Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN), Ado Odo/ Ota Local Government Command, Ogun State, yesterday, described the location where Dina was killed as a black spot and hotbed for armed robbery incidents.
Addressing a press conference in Ota, the VGN Sector Commander, Alhaji Adeyemi Aiyetoto, said his association had complained severally to the police authorities about the black spot.
According to him, the community opposite the Winners Chapel had for long been a notorious hideout for suspected criminals, hemp hawkers and people of questionable character.
The association’s Assistant Commander (Administration), Mr. Nurudeen Serinkudi, who spoke on behalf of Aiyetoto, explained that criminals capitalised on the lack of police presence on the routes to strike.
He said: “We feel that it is our responsibility, as an informal medium of security, to draw attention to the fact that the spot at which Otunba Dipo Dina met his unfortunate end has for long been a black spot and hot bed of armed robbery incidents in Ota.
“Robbery attacks in that place have become a recurring decimal of sorrow and tragedy. We know this to be the fact because our vigilante teams have the responsibility to provide a level of security for the area of Ado Odo/ Canaanland axis where this unfortunate incident occurred.
“Preliminary report and investigation so far indicated that the incident may be a case of armed robbery. Our interest is the wider picture of the implication of the murder of Otunba Dina and what has been happening in Ado-Odo/ Ota Local Government Area in general and in particular, on the roads stretching from Sango through Ota-Idiroko and from Atan to Igbesa to Agbara axis.”
Aiyetoto claimed that the Chief Security Officer of the church some months back ordered his men to vacate the church areas, over undisclosed reasons.
He added that the absence of his men coupled with the security lapses at the area enabled criminals to attack innocent motorists at will.
He said: “If our men were at the area, this type of thing would not have occurred because we were always on ground. When some banks in the Winners Chapel were attacked by robbers, we pursued them to Imeko and recovered the vehicles of the church used for the robbery operation.
Although, we couldn’t recover the stolen money. Even the Bishop of the church gave us two jeeps in appreciation of our effort,” he said.
“The Idiroko-Sango route is also a dangerous haven of smugglers and robbers. However, police presence on these routes is scanty and ineffective. It makes the Idiroko-Sango route and the Atan-Agbara route the most dangerous routes to ply in Ogun State.”
He submitted that “the lack of visibility of police on these routes clearly explains why the murder of such a prominent politician was carried out with relative ease on such a busy route without any speedy response from the police”.
Aiyetoto called on police authorities to mount surveillance at the noted spots and guarantee effective policing, while expressing his association’s preparedness to cooperate with the police in unmasking the killers of Dina.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Action Congress (AC) members yesterday took to the streets in Ijebu-Ode, protesting the killing of Dina by unknown gunmen.
Led by a close associate of the slain politician, Alhaji Rasheed Alatishe, the protesters, who first converged on the Endurance Garden, GRA Ijebu-Ode residence of the Dinas, went round the town with placards to demonstrate their grievances.
Alatishe said the police authorities should not allow Dina’s death to be among the growing list of unresolved murders in the country.
The AC chieftain urged the police to fish out the killers and bring them to justice to serve as a deterrent to criminally-minded people.
The senators representing Ogun West and Ogun East Senatorial Districts, Felix Kola Bajomo and Lekan Mustapha, yesterday joined the list of sympathisers over the gruesome murder, describing it as “unfortunate and barbaric”.
In separate statements made available to the Nigerian Compass, the two senators said the latest killing was an indication that the nation’s security apparatus needed total overhauling to cope with modern security challenges.
Bajomo, in a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant, Dapo Oke, said the Federal Government must address the growing insecurity in the polity ahead of the 2011 general elections.
He lamented that Dina’s murder had robbed the state of one of the great future leaders of the country.
Bajomo said: “The killing, to say the least, is tragic, uncivilized and quite unfortunate. Without prejudice to the outcome of police investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death, I condemn the barbaric killing while leaving judgement to the All-knoweth God.
“This development further raises the fear of most Nigerians on the problem of insecurity in the polity which the Federal Government must address urgently before the next general election. The fact that investigations into all the previous killings have not yielded any positive results is an indication that the security apparatus of the nation needs total overhauling to cope with the challenges of securing the nation.
“I join other compatriots to mourn the demise of Dipo, a professional colleague, an astute politician and one of the great future leaders God has endowed to our dear state.”
While expressing shock and dismay at Dina’s death, Mustapha, in his own statement, charged security operatives to be more determined in exposing the culprits behind the incident to serve as deterrent to other criminals, especially as the 2011 election approaches.
He said: “I am saddened by the death of this dogged politician, who has impacted positively on the education and health sectors, the political terrain and also built churches for the Christian faithful, among other philanthropic gestures.
“Otunba Dina had in no small means contributed his own quota to the development of Ogun State, which was why he became a household name, especially among indigent students and the downtrodden.”
Senator Mustapha prayed God to grant the Dina family, his associates, supporters and the people of the state the fortitude to bear the loss.
By Dipo Kehinde, Juliana Francis & Kunle Olayeni, Abeokuta
Read more…
OTUNBA GBENGA DANIEL ADMINISTRATION IN OGUN STATE: AN ASSESSMENT
(SERIES 16)
1. INTRODUCTION
In the first fifteen editions of these series which were published in various national newspapers, DDM, led by Otunba Dipo Dina (D.D. DIRECT), commended laudable strides, where such existed, and unearthed some among the myriad of deficiencies of the Otunba Gbenga Daniel administration. In this series, we shall dwell on “THE PROPAGANDA GOVERNMENT - ANATOMY OF THE PRODIGAL 3”.
2. ANATOMY OF THE PRODIGAL 3
In Parts 1 and 2 of Anatomy of the Prodigal, published in the Punch Newspaper of 15th, 16th and 22nd November, 2006, we delved into gross mismanagement of the resources of Ogun state by the Daniel administration.. Specifically, we quoted various trips of the governor and his wife abroad at the expense of Ogun state people, his flimsy claim of large sums of money as donations and financial assistance from government coffers, erection of campaign billboards and media propaganda for which the state was financially pummeled. The story of Otunba Daniel’s atrocity against the state treasury did not end there. We decided to let the good people and stakeholders of Ogun state and indeed all Nigerians know the true picture of the finances of the state because the governor, in a recent newspaper interview, claimed that the opposition in the state have not been able to prove that a single kobo is missing or imprudently spent since he assumed office. We took up the gauntlet knowing that this was a challenge to us if we were serious about debunking Governor Daniel’s claim. What we are doing therefore, is to bring various facts to the people’s parliament in order for the people to make an informed opinion about the present state government. Happy reading.
A. FRIVOLOUS SPENDING – N487,968,745
In various annoying ways, Otunba Daniel caused tax payers of Ogun state to pick up the bills of his pastime. In some cases, the bills are either grossly exaggerated or outrightly fictitious and personal. Others are simply irrelevant to the affairs of the people of Ogun state. When the governor turned 50 years of age in April 2006, the state was made to cough out the sum of N15,202,560 to pay for the celebration. This is with respect to the few officially recorded expenses DDM could lay hands on. There is strong evidence that there are a lot more. This excludes the expenses by the local government councils, government parastatals, corporations and state institutions.
Frivolously spent money during the birthday celebration includes the N1,200,000 expense on production of personal memoir of the governor with cheque number 00000695 of Intercontinental Bank. Another N7,242,560 through cheque number 00000692 of Intercontinental Bank was also expended on the occasion without explanation of the purpose. The relevant voucher simply recorded this expenditure as “oiling government machinery”.
Furthermore, financial record of government also revealed that another sum of N1,500,000 flew out of government’s Wema Bank account via cheque number 41640863 with respect to “50th birthday drama presentation”. This is not all, the birthday celebration was rounded up with a get-together party at MKO Abiola stadium. This cost the State a scandalous N5,260,000 via Wema Bank cheque number 41640885. His 49th birthday in 2005 also took away, among others, the sum of N1,550,000 through Bond Bank cheque number 00001821. For the 49th birthday, a lecture cost the people N807,400.. The cheque used for this was number 0000822 of Bond Bank. This is aside from the money spent by one of the state universities.
Other spendings which any sane mind will regard as unnecessary, frivolous, improper and even tragic also come in different shades and colours. All put together, the whole sums up to N487,908,745 of tax payers money. Among them is a N10,000,000 recorded in October 2006 as having been spent in ‘mobilizing eligible voters’. On 10th December, 2004, government cash statement recorded that N1,234,000 was spent for “provision for Bode George Soccer Competition”. Chief Olabode George is the Deputy Chairman, South of PDP. In the same month, as recorded by the government record, a so called “resolution of conflict between the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and students gulped N2,500,000. Another sum of N5,000,000 was allegedly spent on a certain “provision of logistics and financial support”.
Governor Gbenga Daniel in December 2006 claimed that he spent N7,000,000 on “provision of food and drinks for civil servants on Grade Level 15 and above “during his interactive meeting” with them. He got paid according to government cash position of 14th December, 2006. The on-going campaign rallies of the governor across the state also exact their toll on the state finances. An example of this is the June 30, 2006 expenditure of N3,370,000 of the State. All manners of events claimed government money in Governor Daniel custody. For instance, cheque number 00004192 for the sum of N3,000,000 was issued with respect to an ‘award night’ in Ogun state.
The list is sadly endless. Anyone who is familiar with Oke-Imosan will know Kudirat Abiola Complex. Otunba Daniel, on assumption of office re-named it South-West Resource Centre. We do not begrudge him for this. What any sane mind would find unacceptable, however, is that the people of the state would be charged N0.5m to inscribe the new name on the building. In other words, writing the name “South-West Resource Centre” cost N500,000. This is recorded in the government cash position of 5th March, 2004. The actual commissioning of the center itself gulped a scandalous N2,325,000 as recorded officially on 6th February, 2004.
Official document of government similarly recorded that N5,000,000 of tax payers money was spent by the governor for a trip to Gombe state in September 2006. Government cash position of 11th September, 2006 revealed that the governor engaged a chartered flight for the trip which purpose was neither explained nor ascertained
The following are few of the other over 314 questionable expenses of the governor.
DATE PURPOSE CHEQUE NO BANK AMOUNT
18.03.05 Emergency Assignment Govt. cash position 7,515,320
18.03.05 Painting of vehicles and okadas to OGD Govt. cash position 2,000,000
22.09.06 Meeting Council Members Govt. cash position 1,700,000
23.12.06 Operation of administrative machinery 0000451(151) & 00002799 Oceanic Bank 8,700,000
B. RISK ALLOWANCE – N303m
The governor of Ogun state appears to be living in morbid fear of the unknown going by facts emerging from claims of huge expenditure on provision of security for the governor. This lurid expenditure is incurred inspite of heavy load of security provided by government law enforcement agencies such as the police and state security service among others.
Financial documents of government expenditure available to DDM with regard to the large sum of money allocated for the governor’s security would make anyone wonder – “who has this man offended?” and “why is he so much frightened?”
A frighteningly huge sum of N303 has been expended on what the government called “payment of Risk and Security Allowance (RSA) and Special Security Vote” for the governor. It should be noted that this sum is different from the statutory security vote which itself comes to the governor monthly. It also excludes monthly expenditure to the police and other security agencies for the smooth running of their operations.
Risk and Security Allowance is collected through the office of the Secretary to the Government on behalf of the governor on monthly basis. An monthly minimum of N5m fly out of government coffers through this channel. A few instances: the office of SSG picked a cheque of N5,095,455 on 24th July, 2006. The cheque is that of Guaranty Trust Bank number 00004800. According to government record, the money is for “Risk and Security “ for the month of May 2006 alone. Another N5m was picked on 17th July, 2006 through cheque number 000004784 of Guarantee Trust Bank for the month of June 2006. For a single month of September, two years ago in 2004, the sum of N8.8m was snatched from government treasury for the same purpose. Number of cheque is 031639439 of 5th November, 2004.
What will most likely wrench anyone’s heart as it is soul-tearing, however, is the shocking discovery that the governor each time he embarks on his on-going “assessment tour of government projects (farewell tour)” he billed the people of Ogun state N10m as “special security vote”. On 7th June, 2006, for one of such tour, a Wema Bank cheque number 41641060 of N10m was issued as “special security vote for the Governor’s Assessment tour of projects executed”. On 12th May, 2006, another N10.2m was spent in this regard through cheque number 41640973 of Wema Bank. So far, no less than N90m has gone into private pocket of the governor under the cover of “special security vote” which the statutory security vote ought to have taken care of.
C. CHOICE BAND AND GATEWAY FRONT
As the spending spree continued to exact its toll on the till of Ogun state government, Otunba Daniel’s private musical outfit, Choice Band, also benefited from the government largesse. The governor set up the Choice Band during the campaign preparatory to his becoming governor in 2003. Upon his swearing in as the governor, he converted the band to the official band of government, even though there was an existing musical group in the department of culture within the government. He has been using the band from the very beginning of his government as a megaphone towards plans for his second term. Records available to DDM suggests that some N35,619,000 has gone into making the band comfortable. The band got the sum of N10,000,000 as honorarium according to official cash position of 24th December, 2004. The document also on 18th March, 2005 recorded that N6,588,750 was spent on purchase of musical equipments. Other expenses also abound with respect to the band covering cost of transportation, repairing equipments and welfare of members. An example is another honorarium of N1,800,000 of 9th September, 2004 to members.. The government of Otunba Daniel also pays members of the band monthly honorarium of N1,225,000 aside from other monthly expenses. An example is the one recorded on 11th March, 2005 by government cash position.
Similarly, the Gateway Front Foundation, GFF, personally owned by Otunba Daniel and his wife, Yeye Olufunke Olubunmi Daniel, had most of its bills picked by the government of Ogun state. A certain “financial assistance to GFF” was recorded on 17th October, 2003 to the tune of N510,000 of government money. Provision of photographs by GFF also illegally cost the government a whooping sum on 12th December, 2003. These are just a few of the so many payments made to the organization.
The Gateway Front Foundation was the political campaign organization used by the governor when he was campaigning to become the governor prior to 2003. You will also recollect that the land in which the governor’s hotel in Abeokuta was built was allocated by the governor to Gateway Front Foundation through C of O No. D024245 of 16th February, 2004 personally signed by the governor.
D.. WOMEN IN POLITICS – N73m
The salacious tale of inappropriate spending of Ogun state fund is not restricted to these acts of frivolous spending alone. Since 2004, the government of Otunba Gbenga Daniel has expended various huge expenditure on women of the PDP in the name of stipend. At the last recorded instance, no less than N73,452,000 has been expended on quarterly provision for this group of politicians. In the third quarter of 2005, the sum of N2,490,000 was released from government treasury to the 83 members of the group. This is contained in the government official cash position of 2nd July, 2004. By 13th May, 2005 the sum went up to N5,190,000. The money was pulled out from government’s First City Monument Bank account with cheque number 00040534. This same amount of N5,190,000 was also expended for the same purpose as recorded by cash position of 27th October, 2006. Wema Bank account of government also suffered the fate of depletion to the tune of N5,190,000 through cheque number 41671093 in July 2006. First City Monument Bank account of government was similarly pummeled to the tune of N2,490,000 in May 2004 through cheque number 708144 while cheque number 00004818 of Guaranty Trust Bank pulled government money out for the favoured women of PDP in August 2006. There are many more. Ogun stakeholders would want the governor to unveil the identities of all the 83 women in politics who are paid from government treasury. It is frustrating to the toiling masses of Ogun state who have consistently remained cheated, oppressed and depressed.
E. GATEWAY HOTEL – N280,652,000
In similar vein and in no small measure, the unwieldy number of appointees, hangers-on, associates and friends of all sexes of the governor of Ogun state, Otunba Daniel, has taken its crushing toll on the finances of the state. It is instructive that inspite of the history the Daniel administration created as the government whose officials occupied the most quarters since the creation of the state in 1976, huge sum of financial obligation is owed the three Gateway Hotels in terms of lodging, feeding and other comforts enjoyed by lodgers on government bill.
Government cash position of 20th November, 2003 recorded that a huge sum of N3,500,000 was paid to the Hotel as part payment of outstanding bills. By April 2004, the state government debt to the hotel steadily rose to N15,000,000. This amount was paid from government coffers along with another N10,797,013 in April and May 2005. In May 2004, the hotel received a cheque of N10,153,573 through cheque number 3878671 of Gateway Bank account of government. An Oceanic Bank cheque of N20,000,000 bearing number 0000875 was also issued by government to the hotel to settle outstanding bill. Ogun state treasury was depleted in June 2006 for another settlement of hotel bill to the tune of N10,000,000. Cheque number 41671022 of Wema Bank took care of this. The listed cases are a drop in the ocean.
In all and in accordance with official documents at the disposal of DDM, the Daniel administration has expended a total sum of N280,652,000 on settlement of hotel bills alone. It is even more worrisome, as the state government is presently owing the Gateway hotels the sum of over N45,000,000 (Forty Five Million Naira). One wonders what the business of this government is to warrant such huge hotel expenditure. See table below for more expenditure on hotels:
HOTEL BILLS
DATE PURPOSE BANK CHEQUE NO. AMOUNT
16.04.04 Settlement of outstanding bills Government cash position 15,000,000.00
28.05.04 Settlement of bills GATEWAY BANK 3878671 10,153,573.00
10.09.04 State Government debts Government cash position 5,000,000.00
10.09.04 Settlement of bills Government cash position 5,954,487.00
24.12.04 Settlement of government bill Government cash position 5,655,276.95
02.12.05 July & August 2005 bills Government cash position 5,079,270.00
23.06.06 Services rendered WEMA BANK 41671022 10,000,000.00
14.07.06 Bill for the month of April 2006 OCEANIC BANK 0000815 20,000,000.00
16.12.06 Settlement of outstanding bills GUARANTY TRUST BANK 000039321 1,681,018.00
Bills for the month of September GUARANTY TRUST BANK 00004061 15,000,000.00
F. CLAYPOT CATERING – N47,297,497
With the scaringly huge figure expended on services of government-controlled Gateway Hotels, any prudent person would conclude that Otunba Daniel’s crowd have lodged, wined and dined in comfort to last a life time. It is not so with them. The governor’s crowd is also beneficiary of the culinary dexterity of a catering services company, Claypot Catering Limited. This caterer came into reckoning in the state from the inception of this government in 2003. The services of the official catering company to the government has cost Ogun state tax payers N47,297,497.. In July 2005, the company picked up a cheque of N7,000,000 through cheque number 00000978 of Guaranty Trust Bank. Claypot also picked a cheque of N1,500,000 through cheque number 025737807 of Wema Bank in May 2004. In March 2006, a cheque of N5,131,252 bearing number 00005868 was also paid to Claypot for services rendered to friends and associates of Governor Daniel. There are several other payments to the company. One starts to wonder whether all there is to governance is just about provision of food and drinks. This government does not appreciate the biblical saying that states you shall not live by bread alone. The following table explains further.
CLAYPOT CATERING SERVICES
DATE PURPOSE BANK CHEQUE AMOUNT
26.09.03 Catering Services Govt. cash position 1,900,000
24.12.03 Services rendered Govt. cash position 1,800,000
27.02.04 Catering Services Govt. cash position 1,750,000
14.05.04 Service at Govt. House WEMA BANK 025737807 1,500,000
05.11.04 Service at Govt. House Govt. cash position 667,027
26.11.04 Catering Services Govt. cash position 1,200,000
26.11.04 Service at Govt. House GUARANTY TRUST BANK 00000978 700,000
18.03.05 Catering Services Govt. cash position 736,678
02.12.05 State Govt. Guests – April Govt. cash position 1,117,028
17.03.06 Catering Services – 2006 Treasury Board Meeting 00005868 5,131,252
As reported also in our series 14,15 and now 16, a lot of money which otherwise could have been better judiciously spent has gone into servicing personal cravings. The summary of the ones we have highlighted so far is as follows:
S/N BENEFICIARY
AMOUNT
1. Artistes 100m
2. Clocks 87m
3. Billboards 150m
4. Media Campaign 360m
5. “Newsletter” 70m
6. Choice Band 50m
7. Governor and Wife’s Foreign Trips 450m
8. Governor’s Expenses 718m
9. Kaylord Motors 1.8b
10. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 18.6m
11. Frivolous Spending 487.9m
12. Women in Politics 73m
13. Gateway Hotel 280.6m
14. Claypot Catering Limited 47.2m
15.. Law and Order 281m
16. Cultism/Thuggery 23m
17. Risk Allowance 303m
T O T A L 5,346,500,000
3. OUR BLUE PRINT
As reported in our last edition, we are pleased to inform the general public that we have completed our Blue Print for the liberation and positive transformation of Ogun State to make life more abundant for the people. This action plan, for strategic reasons, would only be released from the second half of December 2006.
The blue print gives clear and specific details of what, by the Special Grace of God, our Action Congress government in Ogun state headed by Otunba Dipo Dina (D.D. Direct) will do in rendering purposeful and selfless service to our people from 29 May, 2007 when, by the Grace of God and the support of the people, Otunba Dipo Dina will be sworn in as the next Ogun state governor.
OTUNBA GBENGA DANIEL ADMINISTRATION IN OGUN STATE: AN ASSESSMENT
(SERIES 17)
1. INTRODUCTION
In the first sixteen editions of these series which were published in various national newspapers, DDM, led by Otunba Dipo Dina (D.D. DIRECT), commended laudable strides, where such existed, and unearthed some among the myriad of deficiencies of the Otunba Gbenga Daniel administration. In this series, we shall dwell on “THE PROPAGANDA GOVERNMENT - ANATOMY OF THE PRODIGAL”.
2. ANATOMY OF THE PRODIGAL 4
(i) Preamble
In the last three editions of the Dipo Dina Movement series, a lot of facts were provided to show how the Daniel administration in Ogun state has plundered the treasury since May 2003 when Otunba Gbenga Daniel assumed custody of the finances of the state. In graphic factual detail, we narrated how the governor dipped his hands into the treasury and authorized payment of over N5.4b of the people’s money under all kinds of guises including phantom ‘donations’, endless claims or reimbursement of the governor for expenses allegedly made, huge financial claim for unverifiable ‘emergency assignments’ and outright false claims of heavy sums. Others areas of fraud perpetrated and reported by DDM includes imaginary purchases especially scores of automobiles, heavily inflated, unnecessary and sometime unreal expenditure on billboards and media expenses. We also categorically stated how he and his wife, Yeye Olufunke Daniel short-changed the state to the tune of N450m on largely personal trips abroad.
(ii) A Mortgaged State
What will however be considered most condemnable is the fact that greater chunk of the huge sum of money mindlessly misapplied by the governor are loans obtained from banks. As you read this, you will be shocked to know that the state is indebted to banks to the tune of over N6b. The following narration will lead you into the underbelly of mismanagement of resources and blatant disregard for economic growth and development of the state. It also shows a government that is not bothered about the future of the younger and unborn generation, by not keen on leaving a good, enviable and enduring legacy. But before we move on, here is an assurance to the banks.
(iii) Banking Relationship and Support
We wish to state unequivocally that we in DDM do not have any ill feelings towards the banks who do business with the state government. Infact, part of the reasons why banks are in business is to support the government in its various projects and programmes in the overall objective of growing the economy. The banks are meant to make money through lending out money deposited with them for onward use by those who need such. We wish to state that what we are against in this series, the earlier ones and subsequent series, is what the money borrowed by the government is used for. It is on record that the Osoba administration did not go about obtaining loans from the banks for flimsy projects. If the loans obtained by the Daniel administration had been used for productive and viable projects, we would not have raised any objection.
Our major grouse is that such loans were expended on things that do not add value to the economic growth, well being and development of Ogun state. We wish to assure the banks that we in DDM appreciate their importance and the strategic pivotal role they play as catalyst for quick economic growth. We want to assure the them of our unflinching preparedness to partner with them for the realization of smooth re-engineering of the development of the state for real growth when by May 29, 2007 through God and with the support of our people our Otunba Dipo Dina (D.D. Direct) is sworn in as the next Ogun state governor.
3.. WALLOWING IN DEBT
(a) Olumo Rock Redevelopment – N650m
In January 2006, Oceanic Bank Plc granted a N500m loan facility to Ogun state government for onward utilization by Rafsaco Nigeria Limited, the contractor which handled the Olumo rock redevelopment work. The loan was taken to augment other funds for the project which amounted to N650m. Ogun state government headed by Otunba Daniel took the loan and also guaranteed to re-pay the loan with interest and all related bank charges.
Rafsaco was the contractor that was awarded the re-development project of the Olumo rock. It is widely held that the real reason why the government had to hurriedly apply for and obtain the loan for the re-development of Olumo rock was because the governor’s company – Kresta Laurel, wanted to supply the 3 lifts for the project. You will recall that the governor’s company supplied and installed the 3 lifts being presently used at Olumo rock. The 3 lifts form the major component of the contract, hence the payment for the 3 lifts got the largest chunk of the N650 million expended on the project.
A letter dated January 19, 2006 from the bank put effective date for the loan at the above date while it has to be paid up by March 20, 2007 thus allowing for a pay back period of 14 months. This includes the 17.5% interest per annum, management fee of 1%, processing fee of 1% aside from COT and other charges. To be sure its money would be recovered, the bank caused the state government to issue irrevocable standing payment order that monthly payment of N35,714,285.71 would be deducted from the state’s federation allocation proceeds and internally generated revenue every month. The irrevocable payment instruction was dated 20th January, 2006 and signed by senior government officials. By February 2007 when the loan is expected to have been repaid, interest alone will amount to N53,184,931.51 thus bringing total indebtedness of Ogun state to the bank to N553,184,931.51.
The interest element, apart from other bank charges, is an avoidable expenditure if the loan was not taken. Is there really the need for such a loan? Imagine what the N53m interest on the loan alone can do for the people of Egba area. The Egba people see the investment of N650m on the re-development of Olumo rock as a monumental waste as it does not meet with their needs. They prefer to ensure that their taps run with good potable water, good motorable roads, provision of necessary facilities for their secondary schools, affordable health care delivery system and employment opportunities for a large number of graduates roaming the streets, among others. The people’s view was that if the Olumo rock needs to have such a huge sum of N650m invested in it, it would have been better to have it done completely by private investors.
(b) (i) Trailer Park, Ogere/Iperu – N1.5b
It is disheartening to know that the trailer park built by the state government at Ogere/Iperu which is yet to be fully utilized as a result of the disagreement between the state government, trailers owners union and the trailer drivers, was funded solely from loan obtained from the bank. The loan was obtained to service the building of the trailer park whose contracts were mainly awarded to the cronies of the governor.
The loan for the park along with Owode Yewa International Market was sourced from Intercontinental Bank in November 2004. The value of the loan is N1.5b. While granting the facility, the bank charged 21% interest rate. Loan is payable over a 24-month period. The bank also charged 1% management fee, monitoring fee of 0.5%, VAT and COT. The bank also insisted on monthly instalmental repayment from the government’s federation account allocation. The government paid the bank up to September 2006 when the arrangement was restructured and total indebtedness of the Daniel administration came down to N1b which is the figure as at now.
(ii) Owode International Market: N1b
By April 2004 again, the Daniel administration went cap in hand to another bank – Wema Bank Plc – for a billion naira loan. At first, the government did not specify what project the sought loan was meant for until Wema Bank on 26th April, 2005 insisted in writing that it would not grant the loan except specific projects were listed “in conformity with statutory requirements of the regulators”. The facility was made available to the Daniel government in July 2005 on 17% interest rate per annum inclusive six months moratorium requested by government. Aside the interest, management fee of 0.5% and processing fee of 0.5% apart from VAT and COT were charged. The government is required to surrender N100m monthly from its federal allocation which stands as security for the loan. The tenor of the loan stands at 18 months and repayment runs from January 2006. The interest on the loan therefore comes up to N202,862,439.
In September 2006, Zenith Bank was approached for another loan of N300m payable in 6 months.. Interest rate was pegged at 18.5%. The bank also charged management fee of 0.5%, processing fee of 0.25% and commitment fee of 0.5%. Repayment schedule is given as six “equal consecutive monthly payment of the sum of N52,732,307.98 from Ogun state federal allocation account with Intercontinental Bank. By bringing Intercontinental Bank to guarantee the loan, the bank also charged its own interest.
Please note that although the market is yet to operate, loan is already being repaid. The Yewa/Awori people have not hidden their disdain for the misplacement of priority. Their view Is that good road, potable water, electricity, schools and functional hospital will serve them better. The counterpart of the market in Sagamu, although completed, is yet to be put to remarkable use. In June 2006, the Daniel government pulled out N10,000,000 from government account to purchase shuttle buses to lift people almost free to the market when people would not patronize it!
(c) Ijebu-Ode Stadium Re-development – N2b
On three occasions in 2005 and 2006, the Daniel administration took a total of N2b loan from Guaranty Trust Bank. The loan was taken with respect to the Ijebu-Ode Stadium project preparatory to the Gateway Games of 2006. First, the government approached the bank in January 2005 and obtained a loan of N1b. According to a memo dated 14th January, 2005, the loan was necessary as Aron Nigeria Limited, the project contractor, could not source the fund on its own. The memo stated that the loan would be “warehoused by the state government and be periodically released to Aron Nigeria Limited whenever approval for payment is released”. The memo forwarded and approved by the state governor Otunba Daniel stated that the facility would be paid in 24 equal monthly instalments and from “our internally generated revenue and federation account allocation”.
The bank charged 19% interest on the loan apart from 1% facility fee, 1.5% management fee, VAT, COT, etc are also included. Thus, from February 2005, Guaranty Trust Bank took N41.67m monthly from government account domiciled with the bank. By this arrangement, by January 2007 when the loan would have been fully repaid, the state would have paid N187,397,260.26 as interest alone. Is this not an avoidable expenditure? However, by November 2005 the government again approached the bank for an additional loan of N500m which was granted, thus bringing the facility to N1.5b. From the initial monthly repayment of N41.67m, monthly repayment came up to N61m. The government lived up to the repayment schedule up till January 2006 when it went back to the bank for another N500m thus bringing the facility sourced on behalf of Aron Nigeria Limited to a whooping N2b on the stadium project alone. On monthly basis, the bank now picks N96m from the state government directly from federation account. As at now, the state government has spent well over N4.5b on the stadium alone.
This is a project largely seen by the Ijebu people as a white elephant as it does not meet with their needs. The Ijebus are eager to have potable water supply, good motorable roads, employment opportunities for the children, efficient running of the State Hospital (when Power Holding Company Nigeria takes away electricity supply, the place is always in darkness), affordable food supply, properly run public schools, amongst other things.
(d) Comil Buses – N168m
The Daniel administration stuck its head into another debt in March 2004 with respect to purchase of 12 Comil Svelto buses for its transportation project. According to government official record, the administration offered a Lagos-based automobile Company, Utobras Nigeria Limited the contract to supply the buses in the sum of N168,000,000.
The actual cost of the buses according to government documents is N110,554,000. Interest on the loan is N58m and the sum goes to Universal Trust Bank while 2% pricing of the contract sum which is N3,360,000 is payable to Gateway bank. In essence, the interest paid to banks for financing the buses comes to N61.3m aside from other bank charges. Is this a really wise investment?
The automobile company approached its bankers, then Universal Trust Bank for a loan to service the project. The bank refused to grant the loan facility unless it had a bank guarantee issued at the instance of Ogun state government that it would recover its investment. The Daniel administration consequently approached Gateway Bank which on 8th March, 2004 issued the guarantee in favour of Utobras Nigeria Limited on an interest of 2% flat of the total sum guaranteed. Gateway Bank offered the facility on condition that, among others, government would continue to domicile its monthly federal statutory allocation with the bank. The bank also asked for 12 post-dated cheques to cover 12 equal monthly repayments.
In other words, this loan was being managed by two banks each of which collected its interest and other charges. One of the many questions that arose in this deal is why should the state government caused Gateway bank to guarantee the loan, thus increasing the debt profile the government was eventually saddled with? Why shouldn’t the government simply approach Gateway Bank, pick its loan and purchase the buses directly thereby doing away with a middleman bank?
In no time the bubble burst. According to the contract terms, the 12 monthly instalmental would commence immediately the buses were delivered by Utobras Nigeria Limited. The company delivered them on September 27, 2004 and they were commissioned by Governor Daniel on October 1, 2004. Utobras however received the first payment in December 2004 leaving two instalments in arrears. Its bank came calling and Utobras, now frustrated, wrote on June 27, 2005 “it is disheartening that the state government has reneged in her obligation in the contract by default payments. We are left at the mercy of our bankers with penalty interest rate of 37% per annum”. Utobras went further, “our bankers, Universal Trust Bank Plc apparently disappointed with non-compliance of the repayment schedule is already threatening to challenge the Gateway Bank guarantee, meaning that the Central Bank of Nigeria will force Gateway Bank to honour its guarantee by paying all the debt with interest”. Is it worth putting the government in such a ridiculous situation in the first instance? The answer is NO.
It is noteworthy to state that the buses have various inscription on them ranging from OGD workers, OGD students, amongst several others. Is OGD the benefactor or personal employer of the workers or the father of the students? After all, the banks are being paid from tax payers money.
(e) Gateway Holding – N1..74b
In July 2004, the Daniel administration reached for another loan. This time through the Daniel administration-created Gateway Holdings. The loan, according to government, was sourced to finance equipments purchased by Gateway Holding. As is the pattern in previous cases, government of Ogun state was committed to guarantee the loan which came to N1.74 billion including a whopping interest of N641m. The actual cost of the equipment was N1.094b.
The loan was sourced in favour of Bibson Engineering, a private Lagos-based engineering company. The firm sought to sell various road construction equipments to Gateway Holding.
Bibson’s bankers asked for a guarantor in the form of a bank in which the government domiciled its internally generated revenue account and federal allocation account. Intercontinental Bank Plc came in handy at this point. For consenting to guarantee the loan, Intercontinental Bank charged an interest of 0.75% payable upfront. The loan has a validity period of 36 months. By the terms of the agreement, a special condition was introduced. The special condition is “the government shall issue a post-dated cheque (dated 1st March, 2007) for the sum of N365,324,752 (Three hundred and sixty five million, three hundred and twenty four thousand, seven hundred and fifty two naira) in favour of Intercontinental Bank being instalmental payment for the period between March and October 2007”. The bank opted for this smart move because it was eager to cover its exposure in case the government changes (which, by the Grace of God, it will) as a result of the coming gubernatorial election in April, 2007.
The government, through a letter of authorization dated 27th December, 2007 to Intercontinental Bank, gave an irrevocable and unconditional authority to the bank to deduct the sum of N365,324,752 from its statutory allocation account anytime from 1st March 2007. This goes to show that the Daniel administration has already committed his successors (By the Grace of God, Action Congress government led by Otunba Dipo Dina) to the loan of that magnitude. This is not the only one. There are several others.
As in other cases, double interest was charged on this loan. In other words, while Bibson’s bankers charged its own interest on it, Intercontinental Bank also did same thus bringing the interest profile alone to a frightening N641m.
Before this however, Gateway Holding had already taken a loan of N175m in December 2004 from a second generation bank. The loan, according to available documents, was sourced to finance purchase of public transportation buses. The tenor of this loan was given as 27 months on 19.5% interest per annum apart from 0.25% management fee per quarter, 0.5% advisory fee, and also COT and VAT.
(f) Another Bank Loan
A loan of N450m was taken from a second generation bank in December 2004.. Interest charged was 17.5% and the loan was payable in 24 months from Ogun state internally generated revenue. On this loan, advisory fee of 1% was charged apart from other charges.
In August 2005, the same bank granted Ogun state government a loan facility of N1b. This loan also attracted an interest rate of 17.5% and expired in 18 months. The loan, like the others, was to be serviced from monthly federal allocation proceeds for the state and internally generated revenue. Other charges apart from interest are also applicable.
The government also maintains several note discount facilities with this bank. This facility runs into billions of naira. Note discount facility are short term loans usually payable in days. Because of the shortness of repayment period, they attract heavy interest. In most cases, when the government cannot redeem its obligation to repay, the note discount facilities are usually rolled over. A lot of interest charges are also payable by the government on these Note Discount Facilities.
(g) Bond Bank
In the case of Bond Bank, it is only highly favoured in the area of deposit. Loans were usually not taken from it. It is preferred to the others whenever government had deposits to make. For instance, a controversy raged among top officials of government when the bank offered to do a 14% interest on a N20m deposit from the current account of Assemblemen Motor Vehicle account. That was in April 2005. Gateway Bank and Oceanic Bank offered 16.5% and 16% respectively. But the government preferred to lodge the money with Bond Bank on the excuse that “what is important is the safety of government money”. The question arose as to whether government money was no longer safe in Gateway Bank owned partly by the government itself or Oceanic Bank which offered better interest profile on the deposit. It is a known fact that Otunba Gbenga Daniel is a major shareholder in Bond Bank.
It is instructive to note that the first 3 oldest generation banks are not involved in the main banking transactions of the government for reasons best known to the people in government.
4. A GLIMPSE OF DEBT PROFILE
The following table represents total bank charges for he period indicated. Charges by banks is a eflection of transaction with banks. In the case being discussed, interest on loans takes a great deal of the charges. Other charges include COT, VAT, administration and penalty charges, among others.
2003
(June – Dec) 2004
(Jan – Dec) 2005
(Jan – Dec) 2006
(Jan – May) TOTAL
Bank charges and interest N16,501,529 N77,263,440 N833,470,667 N2,211,692,359 3,138,927,995
From the above table, it is clear that by May 2003 when Otunba Daniel took over, no loan was ever taken by his predecessor, Chief Olusegun Osoba. This is reflected in the meager sum of N6.5m for the last six months of 2003 when Governor Daniel was in charge. However, by 2004, the tap of bank charges were released full blast with N77.2m as charges alone. In 2005, it went further up to N833.5m. The alarm bell came in 2006 with the sum of N2.2b going for interest and other charges by banks. This brings the total to N3.1b bank charges. When this is added to the N6.3b, value of various loans itself, our dear state is in for a N9.4b mortgage!
Following from this, Ogun state stakeholders are at loss about what the state government did with the enormous resources from federal allocation proceeds and internally generated revenue amounting to over N128b in 31/2 years.
The over N9b debt position of the state under the Daniel administration is big. However, we are undaunted in the believe that, with God on our side, when we get to government on 29th May, 2007, with the help of God and support of the people, we shall embark on a major positive turn around.
All Ogun state stakeholders can now see why the Audited Accounts of the state have not been published.
We are awaiting the published Audited Accounts before we come out with greater bombshell and incontrovertible facts relating to the state finances.
Alhaji Sola Lawal Mr. Saheed Durosaro Apostle Kehinde Bamgboye
Director, Media and Publicity Secretary, Research, Planning Member, Mobilization Committee
And Strategic Committee
DIPO DINA MOVEMENT (DDM)
Secretariat: 62 Old Owode Road, Beside Macjob Grammar SchoSol, Onikolobo, Abeokuta, Ogun State
Tel: 0803 449 2471. E-mail: info@ddmovement.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; www.ddmovement.com; www.ddmovement.orgRead more…
Posted by 9jabook.com on January 27, 2010 at 7:30pm
View Brutal Video as Navy beats her like a dog NowA Lagos State High Court in Igbosere yesterday ordered Rear Admiral Harry Arogundade, the Nigerian Navy and four naval ratings to pay Miss Uzoma Okere and her friend, Mr. Abdullahi Abdulazeez, N100 million as damages for assaulting them.
In a judgment that lasted one and a half hours, presiding judge, Justice Opeyemi Oke, vehemently rebuked the officers, describing them as people who are not fit for a decent society.
He described their behaviour as “barbaric” and unlawful and a violation of the plaintiffs’ fundamental human rights.
The judge ordered the officers and the Navy to offer unreserved “apology” to the victims within one month of the judgment in four national newspapers, namely: THISDAY, The Guardian, The Nation and The Punch. She also extended the apology order to some electronic media namely: NTA, AIT, Raypower and Cool FM stations.
“Miss Okere was brutalized, beaten, pushed, pulled and dragged on the road and her blouse pulled off her by one of the naval ratings thereby exposing her nakedness from waist up, leaving her with only the brassiere. This was done to a young lady, a citizen of this country,” lamented the judge.
She said the ratings ought to undergo psychiatric test to determine their sanity, adding that they apparently forgot they were not in a high sea fighting a war but in an enlightened society.
“The averments in their counter-affidavits were cooked-up lies to the extent that they were overcooked and got burnt,” the judge said.
The court resolved the three issues for determination in favour of the applicants, namely: whether they established the fact that their fundamental human rights were infringed; whether the respondents can be held liable, and whether the applicants are entitled to the reliefs sought.
She said after going through the documentary evidence before her, it was a clear case of res inter locutor (facts speak for themselves), adding that no amount of money can adequately compensate the violation of a persons’ human dignity.
Justice Oke added: “Miss Okere was violated by the ratings in glaring eyes of the public with her upper anatomy exposed to all sorts of eyes. Her private property became the object of a cinema for those who witnessed the unfortunate and disgraceful incident in a country like ours. This was man’s inhumanity to man.”
According to her, Okere’s partial nakedness likely made “imaginations to run riot” as “most people who witnessed the incident were able to describe the size of her bra”.
She went on: “These ratings can only be described as barbarians in uniforms as they have shown by this incident that they have no respect for womanhood – dragging a woman on the road and partially getting her naked. They have no fear of God at all.
“It is highly shameful and unimaginable that such could happen in this 21st Century in a civilized society and democratic one. It should therefore be condemned in very strong language.
“The naval ratings have disgraced the uniform they wear as officers of the Nigerian Navy. They are therefore a disgrace to the whole nation. The rebranding gospel should therefore be commenced with this group of officers.”
Arogundade, the judge held, was liable and could not claim ignorance of what his men were doing.
Okere and her friend, Abdulazeez, were beaten and humiliated by the naval ratings in late 2008 for allegedly denying them right of passage on the road.
They went to court to seek for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents and their agents from horse-whipping motorists and putting them in apprehension through reckless driving in siren-blaring convoy. They asked the court to award them N100 million as damages for the assault among other reliefs that they sought.
Arogundade and the Nigerian Navy had attempted to frustrate the matter when they came up with an application seeking stay of proceedings. But Justice Oke dismissed the application on grounds that it was frivolous, unwarranted and a time wasting exercise.
They had also challenged the ruling of the court, which dismissed their application seeking leave of the court to admit oral evidence in a suit which the learned judge dismissed on grounds that there were documentary evidence before the court that could be used to adjudicate on the matter, saying that there was no need for oral evidence.
Dissatisfied, the respondents urged the court to stay further proceedings in the matter pending the final determination of an appeal filed at the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division.
However, the court in its ruling held that granting of an application for stay of proceedings is at the discretion of the court and that the court must take into consideration the rights of parties involved before arriving at a just conclusion.
Read more…
Posted by 9jabook.com on January 27, 2010 at 7:00am
After more than Sixty Days The Senate The highest lawmaking body in Nigeria has seen the Light like Papa Iyabo and they are
trying to get into VP Goodlucks good books like OBJ
Loks like they now know something OBJ knew when he made his statement !
The Senate today resolved, in a landmark move, that sickly Nigerian leader, Umary Yar’Adua, should hand over power to his deputy by transmitting a letter to the upper house without delay. The resolution was swiftly commended by the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), which commended the Senate for coming to patriotic and democratic judgment in the resolution of the unwarranted constitutional crisis imposed by President Umaru Musa Yaradua and his handlers. It further called on the House of Representatives to follow suit. The Senate, which is dominated by Yar'Adua's People's Democratic Party, had been meeting in last 48 hours in the effort to come to a resolution. The issue has generally generally polarized and paralyzed the upper chamber.
The Conference said in a statement, signed by Osita Okechukwu, its National Publicity Secretary, "CNPP has maintained that it is incongruous, unpatriotic and undemocratic for President Yaradua and his handlers to subordinate constitutional order under personal survival, in other words the survival of our fledgling democracy under self glorification and self service."
It commended the Senate for appreciating that the power vacuum created by the absence of the Commander-in-Chief has unleashed unintended consequencies on Nigerians, thence sliding our democracy to quasi-dictatorship, rubbishing our image abroad and hindering peace, order and good governace.
"We had wondered on what is wrong for a president availing himself of section 145 of the constitution which in all intents and purposes is the safety-net and common ground in the midst - 143,144 and 146."
It further asked "the handlers of Mr President and the pliable Federal Executive Council to place the interest of the corporative existence of Nigeria above petty and selfish concerns."
One missing element in the resolution of the Senate today, observed analysts, is the absence of an ultimatum. "What if Yar'Adua simply ignores the Senate," asked one in Abuja, "when will the Senate take further action?
Read more…
Posted by Jane Okinedo on January 27, 2010 at 4:33am
In "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," Davy Jones asks Johnny Depp's iconic character, Jack Sparrow, if he felt dead. Sparrow replies, as might Johnny Depp right now, "You have no idea."Despite untimely rumors to the contrary, not only is Johnny Depp very much alive, he's also just been named the runner-up in the much-ballyhooed Harris Poll. The poll, which measures public opinion on movie stars living and long gone, named Depp the second-most-loved Hollywood celebrity. Clint Eastwood came in first.It's been an interesting week for Depp. Over the weekend, an Internet rumor that the 46-year-old star had perished in a traffic accident in France gained traction on Twitter. Then today, the "Public Enemies" star learned that he finished second in the new Harris Poll to an actor who hasn't been in a movie in over a year. (Clint was last seen in his 2008 film "Gran Torino"; he directed - but does not appear in - this year's critical favorite, "Invictus.")John Wayne, who died in 1979 and hasn't been featured in a film since 1976, is the only actor to be ranked in the countdown every year since its inception in 1994. Wayne finished first in 1995, when he barely edged out this year's winner, Clint Eastwood.Denzel Washington, who has finished in the top spot on the poll for the last three consecutive years, fell to No. 3 this year.John Wayne aside, the Harris Poll has a history of honoring actors that haven't appeared in any recent films. Mel Gibson -- who before this upcoming weekend's release of "The Edge of Darkness" has not starred in a film since 2002's "Signs" -- topped the poll in 2003 and continuously ranked in the top 10 until 2006. Conversely, Meryl Streep, who has been nominated for 15 Academy Awards, made her first-ever appearance on the poll, finishing eighth. "The Blind Side" star Sandra Bullock was the highest ranking woman, finishing fourth.The top 10 in this year's "America's Favorite Movie Star" Harris Poll (with last year's rank in parenthesis) is as follows:1. 1. Clint Eastwood (2)2. 2. Johnny Depp (8)3. 3. Denzel Washington (1)4. 4. Sandra Bullock (not ranked)5. 5. Tom Hanks (7)6. 6. George Clooney (not ranked)7. 7. John Wayne (3)8. 8. Meryl Streep (not ranked)9. 9. Morgan Freeman (9)10. 10. Julia Roberts (6)
Read more…
Court says deposit 150Billion Naira and you can go away .Money laundering charges await in US
Despite a court order releasing her passport, a former Managing Director of Oceanic Bank International Plc, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, has not been able to travel to the United States for medical treatment.
The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Daniel Abutu, had on December 19, 2009 granted the request of Ibru to travel to Washington DC , the United States for medical treatment.
But the judge gave her up to January 24 to return to the country in view of her trial which is coming up on January 26.
Investigation by The Nation however revealed that the CBN has secured another court order to protect depositors’ funds.
The order asked Ibru to deposit N150billion with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Ibru to cover part of her liabilities before she can travel for medical treatment.
It was learnt that the CBN made the demand following fears that she might run away from the country under the guise of medical check-up.
A highly-placed source said: "Since she has about N235billion exposure, the CBN wanted her to deposit about N150billion as a guarantee that she will return to the country.
"Based on the court order obtained by the CBN, Mrs. Ibru asked her counsel to negotiate with the apex bank on the fresh demand.
"When Ibru’s counsel met with the CBN team, they said they would go and consider the proposal. But they have not returned since then.
"The situation has left Mrs. Ibru stranded in the country as she is legally barred. The CBN is also not ready for any waiver."
Asked when the negotiation on the medical trip will resume, the source added: "It is left to Mrs. Ibru if she is ready to part with N150billion.
"We have reached a level that suspect standing trial for alleged financial crimes would not be allowed to hide under the law to escape from justice."
Another source in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission also said: "Mrs. Ibru is still in the country because we have initially watch-listed her to relevant agencies in the United States .
"If she goes to the US today, she will also face a fresh trial for money laundering. I think she chose to stay in Nigeria to bear her cross.
Out of 75 properties which Mrs. Ibru allegedly with slush funds, 12 houses are in the United States.
Buildings suspected to have been bought by Cecilia Ibru in the United States with the funds of Oceanic Bank International Plc, through Agape Global Real Estate LLC, are located at 4155 Chariot Way, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, USA, purchased for the sum of US$452,508.00 (registered in the name of Anita DaSilva Ibru); 4145 Chariot Way, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, USA, purchased for the sum of US$440,105.00 (registered in the name of Anita DaSilva Ibru); 4139 Chariot Way, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, USA, purchased for the sum of US$451,629.00 (registered in the name of Edesiri Onatejerohene Ibru); and 4149 Chariot Way, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, USA, purchased for the sum of US$473,657.00 (registered in the name of Obaro and Hirut Ibru).
Others are 4141 Chariot Way, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, USA, purchased for the sum of US$441,790.00 (registered in the name of Cecilia Ibru); 4143 Chariot Way, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, USA, purchased for the sum of US$439,362.00 (registered in the name of Cecilia Ibru); 14605 Hawley Lane, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, USA, purchased for the sum of US$399,990.00 (registered in the name of Janet Ibru); 14630 Hawley Lane, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, USA, purchased for the sum of US$460,703.00 (registered in the name of Janet Ibru); 14721 Argos Place, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, USA, purchased for the sum of US$457,950.00 (registered in the name of Janet Ibru); 14719 Argos Place, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, USA, purchased for the sum of US$451,840.00 (registered in the name of Janet Ibru); 11300 Dappled Grey Way, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, USA, purchased for the sum of US$987,949.00 (registered in the name of Cecilia Ibru).
Read more…
The Nigerian Army has restricted the movement of soldiers because of “rising tension” as President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua remains in Saudi Arabia receiving medical treatment.
Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazau, told reporters yesterday that troops must have passes, and good reasons to travel outside the places their units are stationed.
Fears of a military coup are rising because of Yar'Adua's absence since November 23, 2009 and the ensuing tension in the country occasioned by nationwide protests by civil society groups, Associated Press (AP) reported yesterday.
Danbazau dismissed the “unnecessary, unwarranted and inflammatory comments” circulating which suggest that a coup might be needed to pull the country out of a constitutional crisis in Yar’Adua’s absence.
He warned that a military coup would be akin to “dragging us back to the dark days of our nation's history”.
“We are aware of the fact that there is tension in the country. We know it's not a secret," Danbazau said. "Everybody knows that. And we also got intelligence information that some people are trying to infiltrate our ranks."
The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Paul Dike, also told reporters that military officials would not seek to overthrow the government.
“Meddling in political issues does not complement our constitutional role in any way, shape or form,” Dike said. “I therefore warn all members of the armed forces to steer clear of politics. Ours is a military that is mindful of its past, conscious of its present and hopeful of the future.”
Dike said: “Regardless of the imperfections of our political experiments, democracy remains the only acceptable form of governance.”
Both men stated this at the inauguration of the Nigerian Army Peacekeeping Forward Operations Base along the Bill Clinton Drive that leads to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
According to Dike, “Pertaining to developments in our political scene, the Nigerian military would not in any way meddle in the political affairs of the country. Politics is better played by politicians.”
Dike stated that it is the duty of all military personnel to defend the nation’s democracy “at all cost”.
The Defence Chief further warned that meddling in political issues does not complement the military’s job of protection of the nation’s territorial integrity.
Reacting to comments in the news media expressing fears of possible military take-over, Dike said: “From the recent comments and innuendos about our Armed Forces by certain segments of our society pertaining to developments in our political scene, I am compelled to remind everyone of the constitutional role of the Armed Forces which is primarily anchored on the protection of Nigeria’s territorial integrity. I therefore warn all members of the Armed Forces to steer clear of politics. Ours is a military that is mindful of its past, conscious of its present and hopeful of its future.”
The Defence Chief further stated that it is imperative for all personnel of the military to “justify the trust of the nation’s leadership by exhibiting unflinching loyalty.”
On peacekeeping operations, he noted that “Nigeria would, in the foreseeable future, continue to play a pivotal role at both regional and global levels in the efforts to create and sustain a peaceful environment. We must also realise that for as long as the nation exists, conflicts will occur that will require the deployment of peacekeeping troops. Furthermore, our deployment outside the shores of Nigeria confers the status of ambassadors of this nation. This presupposes that our troops will obey the laws of their host countries and must upon return join us in our collective resolve to serve our great nation with pride while upholding the tenets of democratic governance at all times.”
Dambazau in his comment earlier noted that with “the subsisting democratic environment giving us a lot of advantages in our pursuit of professionalism, the Nigerian Army affirms its commitment to its constitutional responsibilities and will continue to contribute meaningfully to the enthronement of democracy in Nigeria. The Nigerian Army urges all stakeholders in our national affairs to eschew violence and promote peace and tranquility in Nigeria.”
Reacting to accusations that the Army is culpable in the recent Jos crisis which claimed hundreds of lives, the Army Chief said that those who are accusing the Army of taking sides in the recent crisis in Jos, Plateau State, are missing the issues as all Army personnel, by their training “has placed us above primordial sentiments”.
He said “no [Nigerian Army] soldier fired a shot. For this operation, there was no order for any soldier to fire. So, soldiers have not fired a shot.”
Danbazau dismissed the accusations of genocide against the Nigerian Army during the crisis in Jos, saying that “we are too clean to do that.”
Defending the Nigerian Army stoutly from any untoward acts, Dambazau blamed the accusations against the Army on “some persons who apparently do not value peace and are hell-bent on creating disaffection between the military and the public, particularly with reference to the Jos crisis.
“Of course, we can safely assume that such persons find it impossible to commit other atrocities whenever we deploy to keep the peace, hence their frustration. Lest we forget, the military was swift and decisive in containing the Boko Haram debacle and will therefore not hesitate to equally deal decisively with any form of mayhem whenever the need arises. We want to state categorically that in the Nigerian Army, our religion is espirit de corps, while our tribe is the military profession. And our training has placed us above primordial sentiments. The barracks is not a political battlefield and our soldiers are not tools to be used for creating disunity.”
He added that accusations that the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 3 Division, Major Gen Saleh Maina, is Muslim does not mean he would move against Christians as “the Chief of Staff is Yoruba. He is responsible for organising operations. The Garrison Commander is a Yoruba and Christian. And he supervises, deploys the troops. Anyone bringing religion into this is trying to bring tension.”
Read more…
Chapter 1 - We're in a Spiritual Battle
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
EPHESIANS 6:10–12
God’s Word reveals that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but demonic powers. Our fight isn’t against people, but the spiritual forces influencing them. However, most of us simply don’t recognize the role that the spirit realm plays in what occurs in our daily life. We think it’s just human—natural—but the devil is busy influencing people every day.
It’s useless to debate whether or not an individual is possessed, oppressed, or just depressed. When the New Testament calls someone demon-possessed, the Greek word there literally means “demonized.” They are under the influence—and therefore, control—of the devil. This issue people make about whether someone is possessed, oppressed, or just depressed isn’t in the Scriptures. The truth is that people all around the world today are being influenced, controlled, and used—to whatever degree—by the devil.
Proper Perspective
Many westerners honestly believe that all the demons are over in some third-world country. But anyone who is spiritually perceptive knows that there is an abundance of demonic activity anywhere you go in the world, including the West. We just tend to look at things as being normal and natural for this day and age. We miss the fact that the origin of many things that happen in our day—things that tick us off and come against us—is spiritual. We fail to recognize the spiritual influence behind it.
If you were to adopt the biblical mindset, it would make a huge difference in the way you respond. You’d recognize that it’s not that person who sits next to you at work, it’s not your neighbor, your spouse, or your circumstances that are really what’s coming against you. They can be influenced, inspired, and used of Satan, but they themselves aren’t really the source. When you genuinely understand that this isn’t a physical battle, it changes the way you respond.
I get a lot of hate mail and criticism because of the things I say. There was a time when I took these things personally and thought, Why is this individual so upset with me? I just looked at their criticisms and always tried to deal with them on the human level. Since then, I’ve come to recognize that Satan is the one who’s trying to get my attention off of what God has told me to do. I recognize that the enemy is using some person to come against me. He’s trying to gain an inroad into my life so he can steal God’s Word from me. (Mark 4:16–17.) But because I look beyond the individual and don’t take their comments personally, I’m able to put things into proper perspective and deal with it differently.
I’ve actually had some good friends come against me. Even though they did some pretty mean things, I’ve been able to look past that and forgive them. I recognized that they had a sensitivity in some area that Satan took advantage of and used them against me. I haven’t been angry or bitter toward them because I understood what the devil was trying to do. Since then, they’ve turned around and realized what happened. We’ve been able to completely reestablish our friendship because I recognized that it wasn’t those people, but Satan trying to get at me.
Satan Uses People
Jesus exemplified this same perspective. He recognized when the devil was trying to get to Him through a person.
After Peter—under the influence of God—confessed Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt.16:16), the Lord started explaining to His disciples about His soon coming crucifix- ion, death, and resurrection. Immediately, Peter began to rebuke Him, saying:
Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
MATTHEW 16:22
Apparently, Peter had missed Jesus’ statement that He would rise again on the third day. Peter didn’t even want to consider the thought of his beloved Lord being taken and killed. This was the same man who just moments before had been inspired and con- trolled by the Holy Spirit. Yet now Jesus…
Turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
MATTHEW 16:23
The Lord recognized that Satan was speaking through Peter. This wasn’t something coming from God. Jesus knew it was inconsistent with what the Father had clearly revealed to Him of His will. So even though Peter had previously spoken forth a glorious revelation by the Holy Spirit, Christ knew that the inspiration for this rebuke was from hell.
There are times when the devil speaks to you through people. He’ll use people to get at you. Of course, they may be unaware of the fact that they’re being used of Satan. Peter was probably shocked, hurt, and offended when Jesus turned around and said, “Get behind me, Satan!”However, there are times when you need to rebuke the devil that way too.
Whose Voice Is It?
Now don’t misunderstand me and go around blasting people. I’m not saying you should rebuke everyone who disagrees with you, declaring, “You’re of the devil. Satan is using you in my life.” That’s not what I’m trying to get across. You just need to recognize that Satan—as well as God—can speak through and use the people in your life. Like Jesus, you need to discern whose voice is coming through.
More than thirty years ago, my mother wanted to take my wife, my oldest son (who was one at the time),and me to the Smoky Mountains. This was back during our “poverty days.”Jamie and I were struggling financially and didn’t have any money, but since Mother offered to pay for everything on the trip, we decided to go ahead and go.
At that time, my mother had just started believing God for healing. Since she hadn’t seen the manifestation yet in the specific areas she’d been believing for, basically she had suffered a defeat. Due to this, Mother was on the bubble about whether this “healing stuff” really worked or not. Since then, she’s turned around and received great healing, but this was way back in the beginning of our ministry when Mother still thought I was somewhere out on the lunatic fringe.
Anyway, as we began our trip, Mother was nursing a little bit of a cold. She started saying negative things about my son like, “Keep him away from me or he’ll catch this cold.”
I’d answer, “No, Mother. He’s not going to catch this cold.”
Then she’d complain about the money, saying, “I really shouldn’t be taking this trip. I don’t have the money to do it.”
So I just told her, “Hey, Mother. We have zippo, zilch, nada. If you don’t have the money to take this trip, we need to go home now because I can’t help you.”
She’d respond, “Oh no! I’ve got plenty of money.”Mother was just in a negative mindset, which made it a bad situation.
During the hot summer day, my son sat right in front of the air conditioner. Since I understood that we can have what we say (Mark 11:23),it really bothered me when she said things like, “Don’t put him there. He’ll catch a cold!”
I’d have to counter that with, “No, he’s not going to catch a cold.”
“Shut Up!”
All this griping and complaining was really out of character for my mother. She is a super lady and is usually very positive, but she was just stuck in this negative mindset. She talked doubt and unbelief all day long. It was a constant battle back and forth to counter what was being said. Since this was my mother, I tried to be as polite and kind as I possibly could.
The very first night of the trip, we all stayed in a hotel room together. Our son was sleeping in a little crib. Around eleven o’clock, he woke up with this croup in his throat that you could have heard in the next room. It was loud and he could hardly breathe, so I got up, prayed in tongues, rebuked the croup, and released my faith. He went back to sleep and everything was fine.
Thirty minutes later, the same thing happened. I got up, prayed over him, and he went back to sleep. Every thirty minutes, I was up and down like a yo-yo, praying over our son and trying to get him back to sleep. Finally, about three in the morning on one of my trips back to bed, my mother said, “Admit it, Andy. He’s sick!”
I got right down there, stuck my finger in her face, and said, “Satan, in the name of Jesus, I command you to shut up! I will not receive any of your criticism or any of your curses. My son is blessed and not cursed!” Then I started speaking the Word. Mother never said another word, and our son never got up again that night. He was just fine, but Mother didn’t say anything for two whole days— and we were together all the time in a car on vacation.
Finally, when she did speak, she cried, “Well, I’m sorry you think I’m the devil” and started into this self-pity party.
I said, “Mother, you know enough to know better. I’ve told you the Word of God. You knew that stuff you were saying was exactly opposite the Word. You’d just given yourself over to Satan. I’m not mad at you. I was just standing against the devil. He was trying to steal my faith for healing.”
To this day, Mother continues to be one of my very best friends. She’s over ninety five years old and enjoys the blessing of good health. My approach that night was pretty strong, but I knew Satan was behind this attack trying to steal my faith.
You can certainly take a stand against what people say with more tact than I displayed back then. I was young in the Lord and that’s just the way I responded, but the principle applies regardless of how you administer it.
Stretched to the Max
We are in a spiritual battle! Unfortunately, most of the time people don’t recognize it. They’re just looking at things from a natural, human perspective. They factor God, the devil, and the whole supernatural realm right out of the equation. The average person doesn’t realize the spiritual dynamics taking place. God doesn’t send bad things our way. It’s not just happenstance or fate. There’s a real enemy out there that we must learn to deal with.
The first time I tried to produce a book was about twenty years ago. It was my Life for Today—Gospels Edition study Bible and commentary, which is almost six hundred pages long. This was going to be a major expense. At that time, my ministry income was so low that to come up with $50,000 to print a book was two or three months’ worth of income for me. This project was really stretching me to the max!
A number of different publishers came and offered to help us with the project. One offered to reduce our cost to $27,000 if we would pay right away. They said, “We’re in a bind and need the money. If you pay right away, we’ll give you this discount.”So I went to my partners, raised the money—more than a month’s worth of income at the time—and gave it to them. This was a major deal for us.
Within a month, I learned that the salesman had run off with our money. In fact, he’d burned several other well-known preachers at the same time!
I remember when I heard this news. My employee said, “This salesman just took our $27,000.We’re going to have to come up with an additional $45,000 just in the next week or so to be able to make this project work. All together, we’re looking at about $70,000.”
Sevenfold
My first reaction was shock. Is this really true? Then came a fleshly twinge of wanting to beat up this salesman. But I recognized who the real culprit was. Satan had come against me and was trying to steal from me.
Immediately, Proverbs 6:31 came to mind.
But if [a thief] be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.
I recognized that this wasn’t just a person trying to steal from me. Obviously, there were demonic entities working behind the scenes. So within seconds of getting this news, I realized, This is the devil stealing from me, and I’ve caught him. Therefore, according to the Word of God, I demand it back seven times! Immediately, I took a piece of paper and figured out seven times $70,000.Instead of being angry, depressed, and hurt, I started dancing and praising God, saying, “Hallelujah, this is awesome. I’m getting $490,000 back this year!” As I continued praising God, that situation never did get me down or discouraged.
When that year was over, we had increased nearly to the penny $490,000—exactly seven times the amount of money that was taken from us. That was back during a period of time when our entire income was only about $500,000 a year. We nearly doubled our income that year!
What could have been a tragic scenario turned into a positive situation because I recognized that I’m not fighting flesh and blood. I’m fighting a spiritual battle, with spiritual weapons, against spiritual enemies. I realized that Satan was trying to come against me, and then acted on the Word.
Who’s Influencing Whom?
I’ve actually loaned people money before who have never paid me back. They said they would, but for whatever reason, they didn’t. Instead of taking an offense and getting mad at the person, I recognize that this is Satan. Of course, the person cooperated in some measure and allowed him to do it, but I recognize that the devil was trying to get me into unforgiveness. So I just forgive them. My attitude is, “Hey, just take it as a gift. I’m not going to sit here and harbor any animosity over this. It’s not worth it.”
You might think, Man, I’d never do something like that. But I recognize that there is a spiritual battle raging—and nobody is going to rent space in my mind! Nobody is going to occupy my heart except God. I refuse to harbor unforgiveness toward anyone. I will not allow bitterness even a toehold in my life. I’m aware that Satan uses such things as an inroad against me.
Like it or not, there’s a spiritual battle raging right now for your heart and mind. As you think in your heart is the way that you’ll be. (Prov.23:7.) Your thoughts become what you say and do, with your actions being the greatest expression of your authority. Therefore, you’ll be influenced, dominated, and ruled by whomever you yield yourself to—God or Satan.
Read more…
It's good being Diddy's son. Not only do you get one of the most lavish sixteenth birthday parties ever bestowed upon a teenage boy, you also get a car worth more than $350,000. See, everyone, the recession is over ... if your name is Diddy. Oh, and he also donated ten grand to Haiti.The son of the rap mogul was greeted with a Maybach, one of the world's most expensive and luxurious cars which is being valued at $360,000.Justin Dior Combs' party over the weekend will be available for the world to see, as MTV's 'My Super Sweet Sixteen' cameras were in tow to document all of the extravagance. Aside from a club full of Justin's friends and family, rappers Fabolous, Lil' Kim and Jim Jones performed for the teenager.According to the New York Daily News, Diddy also gave his son a check for $10,000, which was then kindly donated to the relief efforts in Haiti.
Read more…
Posted by 9jabook.com on January 25, 2010 at 11:52pm
Investigators were tonight carrying out DNA tests on severely burned bodies recovered from the sea after an Ethiopian Airlines flight carrying 90 people caught fire during a lightning storm and crashed into the Mediterranean minutes after taking off from Beirut.
As darkness fell no survivors had been found in the stormy waters off Lebanon, despite search and rescue efforts by the country's military, UN naval peacekeepers and units from nearby Cyprus who were tonight joined by British and French helicopter teams.
The plane's 83 passengers included 56 Lebanese – two with dual British nationality – 22 Ethiopians and individuals from Canada, Syria, Iraq and Russia, as well as the American-born wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon. By tonight at least 34 bodies had been recovered.
Lebanon's National News Agency tonight confirmed that 57-year-old Afif Karshat was one of two Lebanese with dual British nationality among the casualties.
Lebanon's president, Michel Suleiman, said terrorism was not suspected in the crash of the Boeing 737-800, which was headed for the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. "Sabotage is ruled out as of now," he said. Lebanon's defence minister, Elias Murr, blamed bad weather for the crash. An official investigation has been launched, but the plane's black box has yet to be recovered.
Several eyewitnesses reported hearing an explosion and seeing a ball of flame in the sky just after 2.30am today, during a fierce winter thunderstorm.
"There was huge thunder and it was raining like crazy. The lightning was coming down from the clouds. The electricity had gone out, but I couldn't sleep. Then I heard an explosion," said Hassan Ramadan, a 39-year-old engineering contractor from Khalde, just a few miles from where the plane went down.
"I thought it was a building collapsing. I opened the window and saw a huge flame going down in different pieces. I can't believe what happened. You usually only see that on TV," he said.
The prime minister, Saad Hariri, who toured the crash site by helicopter, declared a day of mourning in honour of the dead. "This is a tragedy for Lebanon, and we are working to find the missing passengers," he told reporters. Divers from the country's tiny navy were on the scene within a couple of hours of the crash and continued to be winched in and out of the churning grey seas throughout the day as the bodies and personal belongings of passengers washed up on beaches just south of the capital.
Mothers and relatives of those killed wept and screamed as ambulances brought the burned bodies for identification at the governmental hospital in Beirut. At the airport families of those missing sat in shock, waiting for news, some weeping silently, others collapsing as they tried to walk outside.
Specialist trauma psychologists were sent to the airport to try and comfort distraught families.
"We've never suffered a catastrophe like this air crash before in Lebanon," said Dr Mirna Ghannage, from the Centre for Mental Health.
Riad Ismael's 36-year-old nephew Yasser was among those missing. Like so many in this nation of expatriates, Yasser had left Lebanon soon after graduating, having been unable to find a job. After five years working in a Lebanese restaurant in London he moved to Sudan to pursue his speciality – computer engineering – before starting his own business in Angola. The young father had taken time off to fly home to Lebanon via Ethiopia to visit his wife and two children, aged five and two.
"When we find answers to who is responsible for this crash we have to ask another question: why does the young generation of Lebanese have to live in exile?" said Riad Ismael, the mayor of a village near the south Lebanon town of Nabatiyeh.
"Yasser is like all young guys in Lebanon. , His motives were to build a better future and provide for his family. He was far away from his family and always wanted to return home. He came home to give them money and then died. It is a tragedy."
Many of the Ethiopians killed in the crash were also economic migrants, but in the reverse direction – young women who left homes and families to travel to Lebanon to work as domestic helpers in the homes of wealthy Lebanese.
Many are treated as little more than slaves, human rights activists claim. In many cases servants go unpaid, are confined indoors and made to work long hours seven days a week. Some are beaten and even sometimes raped.
"Why do you Lebanese never treat us good?" screamed one Ethiopian woman as security forces prevented her from entering the governmental hospital in Beirut today to identify a body. "We are human beings like you. God created us. Why don't I have the right to come in and see my sister?"
Outside the hospital a group of Ethiopian women stood quietly in a corner, waiting for news of friends on the flight – young women like the friend they knew as Warkey, who arrived in Lebanon to work for a family in Nabatiyeh,
"She had worked for two years and her family had not paid her salary once," said one of Warkey's friends, who asked not to be named. "She even had to buy her own clothes. So she ran away and I took her in. But she said she missed her parents so much and had to go home. She was only 20.
"We went to the embassy and they did not help. Because she had run away and did not have any papers, she ended up being arrested and put in prison," she said, her dark brown eyes welling up with tears.
"They let her out of prison on Saturday and drove her to the airport, so she could take that flight."
Read more…
Sade returns at 51 with first album release for a decadeWith a £40million fortune maintained by daily airplay of some of her earliest hits, singer Sade Adu has been more than happy to maintain a low profile over the years.But the singer has let go of some of her desire for anonymity as she is set to make a return to the spotlight with her first album in ten years, Soldier Of Love.Sade, was seen leaving BBC Radio 2 on the weekend, and despite her advancing years, now aged 51, the singer still maintains the striking looks that gained her a legion of fans.The singer born Helen Folasade Adu in Nigeria, is promoting her new release, Soldier Of Love, which will be her first album in ten years.Buzz is building around the recently released video for the title track and single which shares the same name as that of the highly anticipated album.Sade is in seen in the video as a commander of a group of male military styled dancers, looking remarkably youthful, and still in fine voice.A source told the Mirror: 'She is unique compared to other artists. She just wants to make music, and she's not interested in publicity.'A fierce desire to protect her private life means she rarely gives interviews. And friends even nicknamed her 'Howie' after the reclusive American billionaire Howard Hughes.But she will always break cover to tour for her fans.She has said: 'If you just do TV or video, then you become a tool of the record industry.'It’s when I get on stage with the band and we play that I know that people love the music.'Sade's huge fortune - she has sold 50million records - has allowed her to disappear from sight, and she runs around in a 10-year-old Mercedes, preferring the company of old friends.It is eight years since Sade last made a public appearance - at Buckingham Palace to collect an OBE in 2002.She now lives mainly in a mansion in the Gloucestershire countryside with her new partner, said to be a scientist.The singer has spent most of the last decade as a full-time mother to daughter Ila, 14, from her relationship with a Jamaican record producer.Sade's friend Sophie Muller, whom she met at St Martin's Art College, in London, directed the striking video for the single Soldier of Love.The album is released in the UK on February 9th.Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1245959/Reclusive-singer-Sade-returns-album-release-decade.html#ixzz0diJzbKD8Read more…
Gary Coleman Arrested for Domestic ViolencePosted Jan 24th 2010 5:44PM by TMZ StaffGary Coleman was arrested this afternoon in Utah, TMZ has learned.what you talking about willis ?aw enforcement in Santaquin, UT says they were called to Coleman's house for a domestic disturbance. They found no crime was committed, but he was was picked up because of a warrant stemming from a prior incident.The jailer told TMZ the warrant for which Coleman was arrested was for domestic violence incident in 2009. Coleman was cited, but never showed up for court, thus the warrant.He is currently being held on $1,725 bail.Monday morning update -- Gary Coleman is still in custody. On Sunday night, he had a hot dog, chili, and some vegetables for dinner.Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2010/01/24/gary-coleman-arrested-domestic-violence/#ixzz0de4xCJ6zRead more…
Godwin Emefiele replaces Ovia at Zenith Bank
Godwin Emefiele, the Deputy Managing Director Zenith Bank Plc has been appointed the new Group Managing Director for the bank, in replacement of Jim Ovia, who has occupied that position since 1990.
His appointment follows a crucial meeting of the executive committee and the board of directors on Monday (today) to decide on Mr Ovia's successor, in line with the new CBN directive on banks CEOs' tenure.
Although Zenith is yet to officially confirm Mr Emefiele's appointment, sources privy to the meeting confirmed to NEXT that "his appointment did not come as a surprise."
Read more…
Classic Case of Californication as Students get X-rated surprise in class DVD
Teacher seen having sex in video; district tells parents to destroy the disk
ELK GROVE, Calif. - A Northern California elementary school teacher sent her students home for the summer with a video of class memories, only the DVD included six seconds of her having sex on a couch.
Officials at the Elk Grove Unified School District asked families of the teacher's 24 students to get rid of the DVD after the unintended clip was found spliced in a scene where children were sharing stories in class.
"Just destroy them," said spokeswoman Torrey Johnson.
Johnson said the teacher, whose name isn't being released, sent the DVD home with her students from Isabelle Jackson Elementary on the last day of class Friday. She learned of the mistake after a parent called her. She then called all the parents to ask them to destroy the DVD.
The school district, located just south of Sacramento, initially sent a letter home to parents asking them to return the DVDs, but then asked parents to simply destroy them.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Read more…
There were indications yesterday that the Royal Palace of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may be getting increasingly uncomfortable with the continuing stay of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Jeddah, as they believe “he is well enough to travel back to Nigeria to continue his recuperation,” diplomatic sources told THISDAY.
Yar’Adua left Nigeria for Saudi Arabia to seek medical attention for acute Pericarditis, a heart-related disease, 62 days ago.
While the Saudis are “happy and indeed honoured” to host the Nigerian leader, they are worried that “his continuing stay in hospital may lead to other complications resulting from long hospitalisation which may expose him to other ailments.”
Signals from the Saudi Royalty coupled with last Friday ruling by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Dan Abutu, that the Executive Council of the Federation should within 14 days make public resolution to determine the state of health of the president have intensified the pressure on him to return home to restore his presidency in the face of mounting protests at home over his continuing stay abroad and refusal to constitutionally hand power to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to act on his behalf.
Aside from the Saudi authorities growing unease and the court ruling, the statement on Thursday by former President Olusegun Obasanjo calling on Yar’Adua to take the path of honour and morality if his health would not allow him to perform his responsibilities, has also become a strong source of pressure on Yar’Adua to return to Nigeria as many of his supporters, especially among governors and lawmakers are jumping ship in droves.
Obasanjo’s statement had divided the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as some believe the ex-president had spoken the minds of many party leaders who are only exercising restraints for the sake of decorum.
The Saudi authorities believe doctors have done their work and that he is well enough to return home while the rest can be taken care of by Nigerian doctors and post-hospitalisation consultations.
THISDAY checks reveal that Yar’Adua often moves around his hospital suite unaided but may have lost as much as eight to 10 kilos of his normally lean weight, prompting his wife, Turai and family members to wanting him to regain some of his weight and stability before returning home.
It is also believed that his continuing stay in hospital could lead to unenvisaged problems, which long stay in hospital can bring, especially through nurses and other hospital staff.
The Saudis are believed to be reaching out to influential Nigerians to urge the First Lady, Turai, to persuade her husband to return home as soon as possible.
Hajia Yar’Adua, the Nigerian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ambassador Abdullahi Aminchi, who was deputy to Yar’Adua as governor of Katsina State, and a few personal aides are said to be the only ones that have access to the President at the hospital. The access, is said not to always translate to influence while those with influence and constitutional authority have no access to the President in his hospital suite.
The Saudi thinking feeds on the political dynamics in Nigeria. For example, it is believed that the Friday court ruling has added to the pressure on ministers who will now have to show their hands in the face of mounting public outcry.
The full import of the ruling is such that in line with the provision of Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution, ministers cannot take an informed decision to comply with the court ruling without access to the president by the minister of health and other senior cabinet members.
Said an analyst in Abuja, “how can ministers pass a resolution on the health of the president they have not seen or spoken to? Such a resolution would not only expose them to legal challenges, but make them a laughing stock of the nation. For them to pass a credible resolution, they must have access to the president.”
It is also believed that since the last Thursday statement by Obasanjo on the options available to Yar’Adua, there are fears in the president’s inner circle that he may return to Nigeria and become a president lacking in crucial support as several governors and lawmakers have jumped ship.
The fear of the unsettling impact of the various developments on Yar’Adua’s absence from the country may be constituting intense pressure on the President to return to Nigeria earlier than he and his wife have envisaged and that may be as early as next week.
Read more…
James Cameron did it to James Cameron.Cameron's unstoppable Avatar hit $1.29 billion at the international box office, Fox said today, passing Cameron's Titanic mark of $1.24 billion to set the new record. By Monday, the studio estimates, Avatar will top Titanic's worldwide gross of $1.848 billion to become Earth's biggest money-maker of all-time.And, no, the film is not stopping there.Within a week to a week-and-a-half, Fox guestimated, the 3D- and IMAX-powered Avatar should swipeTitanic's last remaining major record: all-time domestic champ.Avatar, which grossed $36 million domestically Friday-Sunday, and, oh, by the way, led the box office for a sixth straight weekend, is now at $552.8 million on that ledger. On Saturday, it blew past The Dark Knight for second place on the domestic list. Titanic's once-believed unbeatable $600.8 million will be the next to go.Rose and Jack, we hardly knew ye."Milestones like this are great," calm and composed Fox exec Chris Aronson said today. "It's part of an amazing ride the film has taken us on. [But] this film is still just captivating audieces on global basis."So, to answer the question, you celebrate becoming the world's No. 1 film after you're finished being the world's No. 1 film.Away from China !Audiences love Avatar. The Golden Globes love Avatar. Chinese mucky-mucks...that's another story.Officials behind the Great Wall are yanking James Cameron's fantasy flick to make way for a biopic of favorite son Confucius.And no, it's not in eye-popping 3-D. But it does have Chow Yun-Fat.China's state-run movie distributor, China Film Group, is responsible for the switcheroo, according to Hong Kong's Apple Daily (via the Los Angeles Times), and finalized its decision after propaganda officials complained that Avatar, playing in 1,628 Chinese theaters, was taking away too much market share from homegrown flicks and bringing unwanted attention to the communist country's issue of forced evictions.Chinese people have been relocated by the millions to make room for government projects. In Avatar, humans try to displace an alien race to mine a precious element.Avatar has been playing in China for just two weeks and has banked $73.2 million—making it the top-grossing film in the nation's history.Which, in Avatar's case, may take a while.Avatar Lords Over Rings, Now No. 2 All TimeLooks like James Cameron is the King of Middle Earth, too.With $1.14 billion worldwide and counting, Avatar has now overtaken the $1.1 billion raked in by 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King to become the second-highest-grossing film in history.In fact, Avatar is going so strong that what once seemed an out-of-this-world impossibility now seems within the realm of (virtual) reality. If the 20th Century Fox movie, which screens in both 2-D and 3-D formats, keeps up its current pace, it could catch the $1.8 billion in global ticket sales tallied by the Oscar-winning filmmaker's own Titanic.It that wasn't enough (and it never is in Tinseltown), Fox's FX cable network has reportedly paid upward of $25 million for the TV rights to Avatar, which will premiere in 2012.And that makes Cameron's blue folk even more green.Some more notes on the box-office weekend:• The $25 million Legion (second place, $18.2 million) did well for a $25 million angel-action movie.• The $31 million Extraordinary Measures (seventh place, $7 million) did poorly for a $31 million Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford movie.• The $48 million The Tooth Fairy (fourth place, $14.5 million) did better than Extraordinary Measures, but not much better.• Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (eighth place, $6.5 million) topped $200 million domestically; It's Complicated (ninth place, $6.2 million) moved in on $100 million.• Sandra Bullock's The Blind Side ($4.5 million) departed the Top 10 after nine long weeks, and a super $234 million run.• Leap Year ($3 million; $23 million overall) got bounced from the Top 10 after two short weekends.Here's a rundown of the weekend's top-grossing films, per estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:Avatar, $36 millionLegion, $18.2 millionThe Book of Eli, $17 millionThe Tooth Fairy, $14.5 millionThe Lovely Bones, $8.8 millionSherlock Holmes, $7.1 millionExtraordinary Measures, $7 millionAlvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, $6.5 millionIt's Complicated, $6.2 millionThe Spy Next Door, $4.8 million(Originally published on Jan. 24, 2010, at 9:18 a.m. PT)
Read more…
Posted by 9jabook.com on January 24, 2010 at 6:26am
I recently watched an interesting video lecture on stealing botnets. A group of researchers at UCSB recently managed to take control over a part of Torpig botnet for 10 days. During this time, they observed 180 thousand infections and recorded almost 70GB of data that bots collected. This data included submitted form information from all the websites the infected person had visited, smtp, ftp, pop3, windows, passwords, credit card numbers and passwords from various password managers.
Here are the most interesting facts from the lecture:
Torpig uses a technique called “domain fluxing” to avoid being shut down by simply blocking the IP or the domain name of control center servers. The idea is simple - depending on date and time the algorithm generates a domain name to connect to. If the domain gets shut down, the bots will simply use a different domain after some time.
The researchers were able to take control over a part of the botnet by cracking the domain name generating algorithm and registering some of the domain names to be used for communication in the future.
The bad guys noticed that a part of botnet has been taken over and issued a software update to all bots to use a new domain flux algorithm, which used Twitter’s popular topics for the day to generate domain names. It was no longer possible to predict the domain that would be used tomorrow.
When communicating with command & control server, the bots included a unique id field that was generated from machine’s hardware. This allowed researchers to estimate the real number of unique computers infected. Researchers saw 1.2 million unique IP addresses but only 180k unique machines.
The bots would steal financial data from 410 financial institutions (top 5: PayPal, Poste Italiane, Capital One, E*Trade, Chase), they would log credit card information (top 5 cards: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Maestro, Discover), and they would also steal all the passwords from browser’s password manager.
In a 2008 study Symantec estimated that credit card information is valued at $.10 to $25 per card in the underground market. The bank account information is valued at $10.00 to $1,000 per account. Using this study, researchers estimated that during 10 day period the amount of financial data bots collected were worth $83k to $8.3 million.
Using various estimations researchers calculated that if the bots are used for denial of service the total bandwidth would be 17Gbps.
Researchers observed that there was a fraction of people who’d fill out the phishing page and then immediately email the company’s security group telling that they may have been victims of identity theft.
Since Torpig was sending all the HTTP POST data and emails to command & control servers, researchers did statistics on emails and found out that 14% of all captured emails were about jobs and resumes, 10% discussed computer security/malware, 7% discussed money, 6% were sports fans, 5% were worried about exams and their grades, 4% were seeking partners online.
Researchers collected 300,000 unique credentials on 370,000 websites. 28% of people reused their password on multiple domains. There were 173,686 unique passwords.
Researchers converted the passwords in Unix format and tried to crack them with John the Ripper. 56,000 were cracked in less than 65 minutes using brute-force. Using a wordlist 14,000 passwords were cracked in the next 10 minutes. And another 30,000 passwords were cracked in the next 24 hours. That’s 58% of all passwords cracked in 24 hours.
You’re welcome to watch the video lecture. It’s 1h 15m long. It’s presented by Richard A. Kemmerer.
Direct URL:http://www.9jamovies.com/play.php?vid=801
Here are all the topics in the lecture:
* [02:00] Botnet terminology - bot, botnet, command & control server, control channel, botmaster.
* [03:00] Introduction to the Torpig trojan and Mebroot malware platform.
* [05:00] How Torpig works.
* [11:30] Torpig HTML injection.
* [15:00] Domain fluxing.
* [19:15] Taking over Torpig’s c&c server.
* [24:10] Data collection principles.
* [26:00] C&c server protocol.
* [31:10] Botnet’s size estimation.
* [37:00] Botnet’s threats: theft of financial information, denial of service, proxy servers, privacy thefts.
* [37:30] Threat: Theft of financial information.
* [42:00] Threat: Denial of service.
* [43:30] Threat: Proxy servers.
* [44:20] Threat: Privacy theft.
* [47:00] Password analysis.
* [50:40] Criminal retribution.
* [53:00] Law enforcement.
* [58:00] Repatriating the data.
* [01:00:00] Ethics.
* [01:02:00] Conclusions.
* [01:06:00] Questions and answers.
For more information see the publication “Your Botnet is My Botnet: Analaysis of a Botnet Takeover.”
Read more…
Posted by 9jabook.com on January 24, 2010 at 5:16am
CAIRO – Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas in a new audio message released Sunday threatening more attacks on the United States.
A senior U.S. intelligence official in Washington said there is "no evidence whatsoever" that bin Laden had any involvement on the Christmas Day attack — or even knew about it beforehand. The message suggests the al-Qaida leader wants to appear in direct command of the terrorist group's many affiliates around the world at a time when some analysts have suggested he is mostly a figurehead.
In the minute-long recording carried by Al-Jazeera Arabic news channel, bin Laden addressed President Barack Obama saying the Christmas attack was meant to send a message similar to that of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the Sept. 11," he said. "America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine," he added.
"God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support for the Israelis continues."
On Christmas Day, Nigerian Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up his Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit Metro Airport. But the explosive powder he was hiding in his underwear failed to detonate.
He told federal agents shortly afterward that he had been trained and given the explosives by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, an al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen.
The U.S. intelligence official said the Yemen-based group is linked with the central al-Qaida group that bin Laden heads and recent intelligence indicates there are ongoing contacts between al-Qaida in Yemen and Pakistan. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.
Bin Laden's message, coming long after AQAP gave its own claim of responsibility, appears to be an effort on his part to stay relevant, said Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror."
"The training and the definition of the attack was by the local leaders of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, so in many ways you can say bin Laden is exploiting for his benefit this particular attack," he said. "Bin Laden still wants to claim leadership for the global jihad movement."
Of all the various offshoots and branches of al-Qaida around the world, Gunaratna said the group in Yemen is one of the closest to bin Laden since it is made up of bodyguards and associates of the organization's top ideologues. Yemen is bin Laden's ancestral homeland.
"Today the operational relationship has somewhat suffered, but the ideological relationship is very strong and that is why bin Laden claimed this attack," Gunaratna said.
Two of the group's top members were former detainees released in November 2007 from the U.S. military prison Guantanamo Bay.
Since the Christmas Day attempt, the Yemeni government, at the U.S.'s urging has stepped up its attacks on the group's hideouts in the rugged country's remote hinterland.
Analysts have long debated how much control bin Laden, who is believed to be somewhere in Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, really has over the various organizations using his group's name.
The Yemen-based group, however, has closer ties than most to bin Laden and his key lieutenants, many having once been their bodyguards.
There was no way to confirm the voice on the audio message was actually that of bin Laden, but it resembled previous recordings attributed to him.
The U.S. says it can't immediately authenticate the message but White House adviser David Axelrod told CNN's "State of the Union" that whatever the source, the message "contains the same hollow justification for the mass slaughter of innocents."
In the past year, bin Laden's messages have concentrated heavily on the situation of the Palestinians in attempt to rally support from Muslims around the world.
Some analysts say bin Laden is focusing on the close U.S.-Israeli relationship because he is worried about Obama's popularity across the Middle East with his promises to withdraw from Iraq and because his father was a Muslim from the African nation of Kenya.
The plight of the Palestinians, especially in the blockaded Gaza Strip where 1,400 were killed in an Israeli offensive a year ago, angers many in the Arab world.
"The Palestinian conflict was never part of the al-Qaida original mandate, but Osama is clearly exploiting it," Gunaratna said.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Andy David dismissed the latest al-Qaida message and its attempt to link Israel with attacks on the U.S.
"This is nothing new. He has said this before," he said. "Terrorists always look for absurd excuses for their despicable deeds."
The last public message from bin Laden appears to have been on Sept. 26, when he demanded that European countries pull their troops out of Afghanistan. The order came in an audiotape that also warned of "retaliation" against nations that are allied with the United States in fighting the war.
Listen hereRead more…
