Oil Spills: Reps Investigate Oil Coys’ Equipment In Niger Delta- Edegbe Odemwingie and Bode Gbadebo

The House of Representatives yesterday resolved to investigate the state and age of operational equipment used by oil exploration companies in the country.
This followed a motion sponsored by Hon. Goodluck Opiah (Imo/PDP) on the need to investigate oil pollution in Ohaji-Egbema and Oguta local government areas of Imo State and adopted by the lawmakers.
Opiah, who described the affected areas as operational base of Agip Oil Company, said that the areas suffered oil spillage and fire explosions that were avoidable.
Leading debates, Opiah pointed out the need to investigate the state of equipment used by Agip Oil Company in its 50 years of operations in the communities.
“The recent one (oil spill) at Ebocha-Egbema led to a stoppage of exploration of crude oil, and consequent loss of over 20,000 barrels of crude oil per day,’’ Opiah told lawmakers.
He alleged that virtually all oil companies operating in the Niger Delta use substandard and outdated equipment that are unsafe and pollute the environment.
“They (oil companies) have little regard for the safety of lives and property of the host communities,’’ the lawmaker alleged.
Speaking in support of the motion, Hon. Aliyu Magaji (Jigawa/APC) said there was need to regularly monitor the activities of the oil companies to ensure they complied with the extant laws regulating their operations.
“There is need to find out if these oil companies are actually doing what they are supposed to do. There is also need to ensure their facilities are monitored to guarantee they are up to standard and this is crucial in averting poor maintenance services,’’ Magaji stated.

Culled from Leadership

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Boy of 11 charged with manslaughter after three-year-old boy shot dead- By Christopher Bucktin

Little Elijah Walker was shot once in the face by the boy, who is believed to be one of the youngest ever to be charged with taking a life

Tragic: Elijah Walker was shot once in the face

A boy of 11 has been charged with manslaughter after a three-year-old boy was shot dead at his home.
Prosecutors charged the schoolboy with death by weapon aimed with intent but without malice, and using a firearm during a felony.
The older boy is believed to have taken a handgun from a wardrobe in a bedroom at his father's home in Detroit and tossed it from a window into the backyard.
Later, he reportedly retrieved the gun and got into a car parked in the yard.
The three-year-old, named as Elijah Walker, is then thought to have climbed into the car and was shot once in the face, police said.
Authorities said the boys had been "playing with" the gun. Exactly who was supposed to be watching the boys is unclear.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement: "I cannot remember a time where we have charged someone so young with taking a life.
"Very unfortunately and very tragically, the alleged facts in this case demanded it.
"The charged respondent here will remain in the Juvenile system, but the case remains under investigation..."
Police said they were trying to determine if the boys are related.
The family has set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for Elijah's funeral.

Culled from Daily Mirror

Kachikwu Takes over as GMD NNPC, Danbatta is CEO of NCC-Tobi Soniyi, Ejiofor Alike and Emma Okonji

President Muhammadu Buhari

• Stakeholders hail appointment of new NNPC boss
• Report: Nigeria lost over $32bn to corporation’s oil sales


After weeks of bated breath, President Muhammadu Buhari finally approved the appointment of Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

He formally took over from Dr. Joseph Dawha, who was appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan last year, at NNPC’s head office in Abuja on Tuesday.

Talk of Kachikwu’s appointment was rife in the oil and gas industry for weeks, but the president was reported to have taken his time to do a thorough background check before approving his appointment.

Others considered for the job included Mr. Reginald Stanley, a past Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), who clashed with former Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke over payments to NNPC for kerosene subsidy claims.

In addition to Kachikwu’s appointment, Buhari also approved the appointment of Professor Umaru Garba Danbatta as the new Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Danbatta replaces Dr. Eugene Juwah whose five-year tenure expired last week.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the President, Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said Kachikwu, who was the Executive Vice-Chairman and General Counsel of Exxon-Mobil (Africa), hails from Onicha-Ugbo in Delta State.

He is a First Class graduate of Law from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and the Nigerian Law School, where he was the best graduating student and multiple awards winner in both institutions.

The new NNPC chief executive also has Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Law from the Harvard Law School.

He started his working career with the defunct Nigerian-American Merchant Bank before moving on to Texaco Nigeria Limited where he remained for about eight years before joining ExxonMobil.

Kachikwu, who assumed duty shortly after the announcement on his appointment was made, expressed gratitude to his predecessor, Dawha, for his hard work in holding the corporation.

He also pledged to work assiduously in achieving the president’s growth aspirations for the oil and gas industry.

In addition to Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications, the new NCC boss, Danbatta, holds a Doctoral degree in Electronic Engineering.

The new NCC CEO is a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and has had a meritorious career, during which he rose to become a professor of Electrical Engineering and Electronics at Bayero University, Kano, specialising in Telecommunications Engineering and Information and Communications Technology.

Before his new appointment, Danbatta held top management and leadership positions at different times including Head of Department, Dean of Faculty, Director, Centre for Information Technology, Chairman of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (Kano Branch), Deputy Vice-Chancellor and acting Vice-Chancellor.

His appointment is for five years in the first instance.

Reacting to Kachikwu’s appointment, stakeholders in the oil and gas sector yesterday lauded the appointment of a private sector-based professional to drive NNPC’s operations.

Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr. Emmanuel Iheanacho, Managing Director, Integrated Oil and Gas Limited, called it a welcome development.

“While I congratulate him on his new appointment, I also urge him to reform the corporation and ensure it is corruption-free.

“The new man is a well known, experienced oil and gas captain of so many years; he will use his good experience to reform the corporation,” Iheanacho said.

Mr. Chinedu Okoronkwo said that the era of impunity in the corporation was over, adding that the oil and gas sector would begin to experience a rebirth in the hands of a private sector-driven person.

Okoronkwo said: “That is the change the people had been clamouring for. Buhari understands the system and he is the man for the job”.

A source at NNPC told NAN that the appointment was a welcome development, adding that Kachikwu would address the issues of corruption and dubious accounting practices in the corporation.

The source said Kachikwu, who had been scheduled to perform a wider role, was a very well respected technocrat with an impeccable record.
The source said that the new GMD would be expected to use his vast experience to restructure the NNPC, pursue creditors and recover missing funds. He is also expected to reposition the NNPC into a world-class corporation, among other tasks.

But as Kachikwu assumed office on Tuesday, he was confronted with yet another report, this time by the New York-based Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), which claimed that Nigeria lost over $32 billion oil revenue due to the mismanagement of domestic crude allocations (DCA) by NNPC, as well as the opaque revenue retention practices and oil-for-product swap agreements signed between the corporation and some oil traders.

The report also recommended the overhaul of how NNPC sells its share of crude oil output to save billions of dollars in wasted and lost revenues.
About half of Nigeria’s 2 million barrels per day (bpd) crude output goes to NNPC. NNPC sells about half of that oil to its subsidiary Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) for the country’s refineries.

The poorly maintained plants are however unable to process the bulk of the oil and over the years this allocation has devolved into a “nexus of waste and revenue loss,” the report by NRGI, a non-profit body, said.

The other half of NNPC's oil share is mostly sold to “unqualified intermediaries”, earning significant margins for little or no added value, rather than directly to the end-users, NRGI said.

A summary of the report signed by the Director of Communications of NRGI, Mr. Lee Bailey, which was made available to THISDAY, said: “Some buyers of this oil are unqualified intermediaries who capture margins for themselves while adding little or no value to deals.

“Several contracts, including oil-for-fuel swap agreements, are opaque and contain unbalanced terms, researchers found.”
Oil sales are Nigeria’s biggest revenue stream, but management has worsened in recent years, said NRGI

“By our estimate, just three of the problematic provisions in a single swap contract may have cost the government $381 million, or $16.09 per barrel of oil, in a single year (or over $1.9 billion between 2010 to date).
“The combination of a new government and the current budgetary shortfalls offers Nigeria its best chance in years for overhauling NNPC’s oil sales. The status quo is unaffordable,” said one of the authors of the report.

Bailey added: “Everyone from trading companies to Nigerian citizens is waiting to see how the new government will approach these transactions, including the allocation of new export or swap contracts. Our research maps the current state of play, and we suggest what issues reformers in Nigeria ought to urgently address.”

This is aside the fact that NNPC channelled Nigeria’s precious crude — worth $35 billion – to swap deals between 2010 and 2014, the recent OPAs containing unbalanced terms that did not efficiently serve Nigeria’s needs and interest.

NRGI said it sent couriered letters, faxes and e-mails to the NNPC and several of its subsidiaries, informing them of the report and asking detailed questions but they did not respond.

NRGI observed that the national oil company’s discretionary spending from domestic crude oil sale revenues has skyrocketed, exceeding $6 billion a year for the 2011 to 2013 period  (over $18 billion in three years).

Specifically, the NGO said in the report there was no evidence that NNPC, between 2004 and 2014, forwarded to the treasury any revenues from sales of Okono crude with volumes of over 100 million barrels, with an estimated value of $12.3 billion.

THISDAY last June had exclusively reported that the Department of State Security (DSS) had opened a probe into the crude oil swaps and offshore processing agreements (OPAs) entered into by NNPC and oil traders.

But the traders claimed that the probe was a witch-hunt instigated by one of their competitors in the industry and argued that swaps and OPAs were covered by irrevocable standing letters of credit for the value of the crude oil lifted or petroleum products scheduled for delivery to PPMC.

The traders also explained that a quarterly reconciliation process is carried out by NNPC to ascertain under or over-deliveries of product cargoes, following which refunds are made to the corporation or vice versa.

Culled from Thisday

EFCC quizzes NAFDAC DG-From Fred Itua

The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr Paul Orhii, was yesterday interogated by ‎the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged spending of billions of naira generated by the agency, without approval from the relevant authorities.
It was also alleged that the NAFDAC boss was being interrogated for alleged contract scam and abuse of office. Although the spokesman of EFCC, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, could not be reached on phone to give more details into the circumstances that led to Orhii’s interrogation, a competent source however, told Daily Sun that his invitation was sequel to a petition adressed to the commission.
The agency however said the DG was never arrested nor detained.
“He honoured the invitation of EFCC to respond to questions and is back and was at the office later and now at home”.
The director general had, in recent times, held series of media conferences and placed advertorials in major national newspapers to explain how monies were spent by the agency.
Daily Sun gathered that he arrived at the Abuja headquarters of the EFCC at about 9am yesterday, and was grilled for several hours.
It was further gathered that this followed an invitation sent to him by the anti-graft agency, mandating him to appear before it for interrogation.
As at the time of filing in this report, Daily Sun could not confirm if Dr Orhii had been released on administrative. ‎

Culled from The sun

Kenya and US agree deal on stringent measures to stem runaway corruption- by Isac Ongiri and Samuel Born Maina

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (right) and US President Barack Obama give a joint press conference at the State House in Nairobi on July 25, 2015. Kenya and US have signed an agreement aimed at curbing corruption and help seal loopholes in the dwindling war against the vice in the government. AFP PHOTO | SAUL LOEB 

In Summary

• But the initiative could dampen hopes of Cabinet secretaries mentioned in various corruption scandals of ever getting back to government.
• Under the agreement, Kenya plans to join the Egmont Group to enhance its surveillance against money laundering and terrorism financing.
• The group brings together several financial intelligence units to combine forces against the two issues, which largely affect Kenya.

An agreement signed between Kenya and the American government could introduce new drastic measures in curbing corruption and help seal loopholes in the dwindling war against the vice in the government.

But the initiative could dampen hopes of Cabinet secretaries mentioned in various corruption scandals of ever getting back to government after the US demanded a much more combative approach to the vice, said to be consuming 10 per cent of the country’s annual budget.

Cabinet Secretaries Charity Ngilu (Lands), Michael Kamau (Roads), Felix Koskey (Agriculture), Kazungu Kambi (Labour) and Davies Chirchir (Energy) are out in the cold after they were suspended by President Kenyatta over claims of corruption.

Some of the Cabinet secretaries have been cleared on some of the allegations.

There has been pressure to take the same action against Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru, who has been questioned in relation to a case on the procurement of Integrated Finance Management System (IFMIS) software.

Ms Waiguru was previously the director, Integrated Financial Management and Information System.

29-POINT DEAL

A 29-point deal on anti-corruption between Kenya and the US was Sunday officially released by State House, just days after the White House published its contents on its own website.

“The Government of Kenya will sustain its commitment to conduct thorough investigations into corruption cases and, where investigations adduce sufficient evidence, to professionally prosecute such corruption cases, including cases recommended by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC),” the agreement said in part.

The revelations of a detailed anti-corruption war agreement signed by Kenyan and American officials in the presence of President Kenyatta and his US counterpart Barack Obama came at the height of an audit report showing that some Sh67 billion may have been spent on unauthorised commitments by various government ministries in the last financial year.

The Auditor-General’s office has also exposed massive theft of public funds by officials’ working in the devolved government, further leading to a shrinking economy attacked on all fronts by merchants of corruption.

COMMITTED TO FIGHT GRAFT

Sunday, Attorney-General Githu Muigai said Kenya was committed to the war against corruption and would implement every part of the deal signed by the two governments.

“We have nothing to hide in the agreement.

"It is true we have an elaborate agreement on war against graft and we have made a commitment to stick to it,” Prof Muigai told Nation.

The deal was signed after President Obama raised concerns over runaway corruption in the Kenyan government in a boardroom engagement with President Kenyatta and his ministers but gave it a diplomatic and non-combative approach in his public appearances.

A recently formed taskforce to review the anti-corruption legislations and policies at the Attorney General’s office is to benefit from the US support.

“The US government commits to provide best practices and advice on Kenya’s anti-corruption legislation, including supporting the Kenyan Attorney-General’s interagency taskforce review of anti-corruption laws and policies for possible revisions to strengthen them,” said a statement by the White House on the deal.

JOIN GLOBAL ORGANISATIONS

Kenya committed to join various global organisations that may strengthen its war on corruption, including offering intelligence services that may help spot illegal and suspicious cash flows both locally and internationally.

Said Prof Muigai: “We have an agreement that will also see us have annual bilateral meetings with the attorney general of the United States as we strengthen our capacity.”

Under the agreement, Kenya plans to join the Egmont Group to enhance its surveillance against money laundering and terrorism financing.

The group brings together several financial intelligence units to combine forces against the two issues, which largely affect Kenya.

“The US Government commits to support Kenya’s efforts to join the Egmont Group and to work with the Government of Kenya in meeting the requirements for membership,” the White House said.

Kenya also committed to join and domesticate the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives, Partnership on Illicit Finance, Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) of the World Bank, as part of US demands to help in the war on corruption.

MONITOR FINANCE FLOWS

Focus on monitoring of finance flows was high on agenda, with the Kenyan government committing to accelerate work to strengthen the capacity of the Financial Reporting Centre (FRC) and Central Bank of Kenya to track illicit financial flows.

This will include outfitting the FRC with the requisite platform to run anti-money laundering software.

President Obama pledged the US support in helping Kenya achieve this objective.

In the agreement, the government also committed to leveraging technology to reduce and eradicate opportunities for corruption.

Sources indicated that the American government has pledged financial support but demanded the government’s fidelity in the new anti-corruption war.

Under the agreement, Kenya is to initiate fresh trainings and sensitisation of corruption among all public officials.

“The Government of Kenya commits to introduce compulsory ethics training for all public officials across all levels of government, and the National Anti-Corruption Steering Committee is to commence execution of this programme within three months,” says the agreement.

DEVOLVED UNITS

That means that even governors and officials in the devolved governments would be required to train on new ways of curbing corruption as agreed by the two governments.

If Kenya implements the agreement, it could then qualify to benefit from millions of dollars earmarked for the development by the US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

The millions are normally given as grants and therefore impose no burden on qualifying countries.

The latest information by the US government shows that Kenya did not qualify for the 2015 funding due to high level corruption the country.

Countries that qualified for the fund are Benin, Lesotho, Liberia, Morocco, Niger, and Tanzania.

MCC was created by the US Congress in 2004 to allow the American government to deliver smart foreign assistance by focusing on good policies, country ownership, and results.

Culled from Daily Nation

We Will Defeat Boko Haram by December, Buhari Vows-By Tobi Soniyi in Abuja and Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano

 President Muhammadu Buhari

•      Insurgency in North-east will soon be history, says Osinbajo      

Despite the increase in bombing of civilian targets by Boko Haram, President Muhammadu Buhari has given assurance that the Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Commission will defeat the insurgents by the end of this year.

Buhari, who was on a one-day visit to Cotonou as the special guest of honour at the 55th independence anniversary of Benin Republic,  said this yesterday at a gala lunch held in his honour by the President of Benin Republic, Boni Yayi.

Similarly, Vice President Yomi Osinbajo, while on an official visit to the IDPs Camp in Kano over the weekend, said that the on-going insurgency ravaging the North-eastern part of the country would in a matter of time become a thing of the past and that those displaced from their homes would soon return to their normal lives.

According to Osinbajo, the scourge of insurgency had disastrously taken a heavy toll on the economic potentials of the North most especially the North-east saying the federal government is doing everything possible to inject succour into the minds of those traumatised by the destructive conflict.

Also, President Buhari commended Yayi for increasing the number of Benin troops to 800 for the MNJTF, saying "and I assure you that we will defeat Boko Haram by the end of this year."

He also said he was completely overwhelmed by the honour of inviting him for the independence anniversary and by bestowing a national honour of the Republic of Benin on him and noted that even when he was a military head of state, Nigeria had always learnt to live peacefully with her neighbours.

He said: "I am impressed by your concern and critical approaches by increasing your contributions to the multinational task force of the Lake Chad Commission. This is a great sacrifice on the part of the Benin Republic.

"Even in my first coming into office under a different arrangement, we have learnt to live in peace with our neighbours. Within the week I was sworn in, I went to Niger, Chad. I was supposed to go to Cameroon but I was summoned by the G7 leaders to brief them about the security situation in Nigeria concerning Boko Haram, which declared allegiance to ISIS which gives it international dimension."

Earlier, Yayi had pledged that his country was ready to send about 800 troops as part of its contributions to the fight against terrorism.
Yayi said that his country would collaborate with Nigeria in the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency, noting that "Your Excellency, I am by your side. You are not alone. We are ready to send about 800 men."

Yayi acknowledged that the Republic of Benin is the 37th state of Nigeria and described Buhari as a man of integrity who, according to him, was concerned about the integration of the sub-region.

He said: "You are a man of integrity. The integration of the sub-region is your concern. Your coming here brings our two countries together. Our customs services should meet about economy. Benin is the 37th state of Nigeria."

Meanwhile, Vice President Osinbajo also assured people displaced and affected by Boko Haram that the Federal Government will remove all mines laid on their farms by the insurgents.

A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President Media and Publicity, Mr Laolu Akande said the Vice President spoke yesterday in Kano at a reception held at the Kano State Government House in honour of Mallam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant- Media and Publicity to the President.

Osinbajo said the government was doing a comprehensive de-mining of the affected areas to enable the displaced persons to return to their communities to resume their businesses and economic activities, including farming.

According to him, several farms in the North East had been planted with mines by the insurgents and that it was the plan of the Federal Government to remove all the impediments in the land.

Osinbajo had earlier visited the IDP camp in Mariri, Kano where he told the children displaced from Borno State not to lose hope.
He was accompanied by the Kano State Governor Dr Abdullai Umar Ganduje and other officials and dignitaries from the state.

Osinbajo interacted with the children at the Internally Displaced Persons’ School, where some 100 children from Borno state are receiving education and psychological therapy courtesy of the Kano state government.

According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was committed to the Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE) to take care of all those affected by insurgency in the country.

He recalled the interaction the President had on Friday with the Victims Support Fund, VSF committee, headed by Gen. Theophilus Danjuma in Abuja, adding that besides the education of the children, the government was also interested in rebuilding places destroyed by terrorists.

He said PINE and the VSF have huge plans that had immediate, medium and long term plans, which the Buhari administration will ensure are well implemented.

At a reception held in honour of Mallam Garba Shehu, the Vice President explained that there was a somewhat ideological question on how to handle the problem of the poor, but that the Buhari administration was very clear on what needed to be done.

He then restated that the All Progressives Congress (APC) social welfare policies of the N5000 Conditional Cash Transfer help for the aged and the disabled among others "are well on target."

Speaking earlier at the reception, elder-statesman Alhaji Maitama Sule said God put President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo together and then added the biblical phrase "what God has joined together let no man put asunder."

The former Nigerian Permanent Representative to the United Nations said the president and the vice president could bring the desired change to the country, adding that the international community had also observed the discipline and integrity of both leaders.

On return to Abuja from Kano, the Vice President later at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport received the President who just returned from a visit to Benin Republic.

Culled from Thisday

Buhari Appoints Kari as NAICOM's CEO- Tobi Soniyi

 Alhaji Mohammed Kari, new Commissioner for Insurance

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Alhaji Mohammed Kari as the Commissioner for Insurance and Chief Executive of the National Insurance Commission.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina said  Kari’s appointment which is for a term of four years in the first instance, takes effect from Friday, July 31, 2015.

The new Commissioner for Insurance started his career with Royal Exchange Assurance in  1979.  He later worked with Yankari Insurance Company until 1989, when he was appointed Executive Director in Niger Insurance Plc.

In January 1992, he was appointed Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation, a position he held until March 1993 when he was appointed Managing Director of NICON Insurance Corporation. He served in that capacity until January 2000 when he resigned.

He returned to insurance management in 2007 as the Managing Director/Chief Executive of Unity Kapital Assurance Plc, were he served for four years.

A Chartered Insurer and Professional IT Consultant, Alhaji Mohammed Kari was until his new appointment, the Deputy Commissioner (Technical) in the National Insurance Commission.

President Buhari has also renewed the appointment of Mr. Joshua Okpo as the Rector of the Maritime Academy, Oron for a second and final term of four years.

Culled from Thisday