Jonathan holds world press conference in Geneva, Wednesday

Former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, will on Wednesday, hold a world press conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

The press conference, which holds at 3pm local time, is part of activities lined up by the Circle of Diplomats (Circle Diplomatique), Geneva in honour of Jonathan, which would be concluded with a dinner same day.

According to a statement by Guy Mettan, Executive Director, the Geneva Press Club, Jonathan will address two most crucial topics in Nigeria and West Africa at the press briefing.

Mettan said the former Nigerian president will talk about security and civil peace in Nigeria and West Africa, on one hand, as well as improvement of health and education of children, on the other.

He said accredited United Nations correspondents and Swiss journalists are expected at the press conference, which will most likely see Jonathan talking about Boko Haram activities in Nigeria and the fight against insurgency.

The Circle of Diplomats will also host a dinner in honour of Jonathan on Wednesday night at the Intercontinental Hotel, Geneva.

Since leaving office on May 29, 2015, Jonathan has engaged in peace missions and election monitoring on behalf of the United Nations. He has also received global awards and acclaim for peacefully relinquishing power after losing the presidential election last year.

Jonathan had conceded defeated to President Muhammadu Buhari last year even before the final results of the 2015 Nigerian presidential election was announced.

Vanguard

NITEL/MTEL: A second coming

• Ayeni

From the ashes of the fallen telecommunications behemoth, NITEL and its late kid brother, MTEL, has arisen a world class brand that promises to take telecommunications services to the next level in Nigeria come March this year. Welcome to the world of ntel, the brainchild of NATCOM, the corporate vehicle that acquired the telecommunications assets of the NITEL and MTEL, under a guided liquidation process supervised by the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE

At a recent Public Hearing on the acquisition of NITEL/MTEL by the House Committee on Telecommunications in Abuja, Olatunde Ayeni, the Chairman of NATCOM disclosed to the committee members that his company’s first “mass market offering will comprise high-speed mobile broadband services over a brand new 4G/LTE network providing coverage to suburban communities in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt”.

In addition to this, NATCOM will offer high definition voice and high speed data services over direct fiber connections (freshly laid by NATCOM), to enterprise customers where locations are adjacent to this new metro fiber network.

A Phase 1 market launch of this network is scheduled for March, this year.

For NITEL/MTEL and, indeed, for NATCOM, to say that the journey to the present destination has been tortous is to put it mildly. For an entity with a record of five failed privatisation attempts between 2001 and 2011, NITEL’s misfortune has been multi-dimensional and truly troubling.

Having come to terms with the fact that this former sole national telecommunications provider could end up as mere scrap unworthy of any investors fleeting attention, the National Council on Privatisation, NCP in February 2012 approved the privatisation of NITEL/MTEL through a guided Liquidation process.

This strategy, proposed 12 years after the first in the series of earlier failed five attempts of privatization, was adopted in recognition of the huge liabilities of these companies, recorded at over N350 billion, a monumental burden the Federal Government was not prepared to bear.

Ayeni painstakingly took the Honorary Committee members through the guided Liquidation process; an explanation that was in agreement with those of the Bureau of  Public Enterprises (BPE) and the liquidator appointed for the two critically ailing entities.

Earlier in April, last year at the official NITEL/MTEL handing Over Ceremony to NATCOM, BPE had disclosed that the process commenced with the selection of Otunba Senbore as Liquidator for NITEL/MTEL in a very competitive process. The National Council on Privatization, NCP, approved the appointment on November 11, 2013. After a review of the procurement process, a certificate of No Objection was issued by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) on  December 17, 2013.

According to the chairman of NATCOM, following the liquidator’s advertisement in Local and International publications in June 2014, calling for Expression of Interests (EoIs) from prospective bidders, NATCOM threw its hat in the ring.

Said Ayeni: “NATCOM’s submission clarified that its interest covered the intention to bid for ALL and ANY COMBINATION OF NITEL and MTEL ASSETS, Specifically: (a) The combined business, assets and licences of NITEL and MTEL;(b) The business, assets and licenses of NITEL and MTEL separately; (c) Percentage interest held in SAT-3 Consortium;(d) Identifiable assets capable of generating viable business units.”

NATCOM was one of the companies prequalified for the bid, with the liquidator releasing a Request for Proposal (RFP) to the company. In response to the Liquidator’s invitation to submit a technical and financial bid for the companies, NATCOM’s full submission was made to the liquidators and BPE                on November 7, 2014. The submission was accompanied by the Bid Bond, in the amount of $10M USD, in accordance with the liquidator’s RFP.

On completion of the evaluation of bids submission by the liquidators and BPE, NATCOM got an invitation to be present at the opening of its financial bid at a public ceremony which held December 3, 2014. Officials of BPE, NCP, EFCC and Ministry of Communications Technology attended the event.

At the Public Ceremony, NATCOM offered to buy the businesses and assets of NITEL/MTEL for $221million United States Dollars. But the offered price was below the liquidator’s reserve price. NATCOM was given a short break to consult and revise the bid price. NATCOM resumed the session with an offer of $252.25million US Dollars.

The NATCOM boss explained that what informed the decision to settle for that figure was his group’s resolve not to bid higher that the value of Orascom’s 2005 bid of $256million US Dollars.

He explained further: “ This is because, one, NITEL/MTEL was at that time (when Orascom bided) fully operational, with revenue; two, Nigeria’s tele-density was less than 20 per cent, and three, the portfolio for sale included core and non-core assets the later of which has since been completely stripped along with a substantial part of the former.”

A telecommunications analyst, Otunba Biodun Ajiboye, agrees with the NATCOM boss. “if you factor in the fact that by 2005 when ORASCOM offered N256million, NITEL/MTEL was jointly a vibrant entity with a lot of core and non-core assets, and then add the fact that the companies equipment had become obsolete, and valueless by 2014 you will agree that at $251million US Dollars, the transaction weighed heavily in favor of Nigeria. It was a good transaction for the country.’

As stipulated by the liquidators, not only did NATCOM pay 30 per cent of the bid price within 14 days of the approval, it also met the 90 days deadline set for the payment of the balance of 70 per cent. But even then, the tortours journey to the acquisition of NITEL/MTEL was far from over.

The liquidator insisted that the decline in the value of naira from N168 to N197 to a US Dollar, had created a payment short fall which NATCOM most cough out. It was a tidy sum of N6.6billion. NATCOM’s compliance with the additional payment instruction by the liquidator brought the deal to a close with acquisition of NITEL/MTEL by NATCOM.

Ayeni told the committee members: “We therefore state categorically, and with all humility, that NATCOM faithfully followed the rules laid down by NITEL/MTEL’s liquidator and BPE in all aspects of its participation in the guided liquidation process. In addition, NATCOM believes that the guided Liquidation process, as executed by the liquidator and supervised by the BPE, followed the best practices, globally, for privatization and complied fully with due process.”

And following the handover of NITEL/MTEL businesses and assets to NATCOM, the company has continued to play by the rules. The chairman noted: “that NATCOM, via its well-advanced business start-up and network roll-out activities, is faithfully executing its understanding to BPE, as defined in the Sale and Purchase Agreement’s Post-Acquisition plan, to establish and sustain a new Telecommunications operator and to deploy the assets acquired wholly and exclusively within the enterprise.”

In line with that agreement, NATCOM has since recruited a team of world class executives and senior managers, led by Kamal Abbas, a former top official of Ericson; it has executed a comprehensive technical sites survey and audit of its towers and masts across Nigeria.

It has completed the digital mapping of NITEL duct network in Lagos State; contracted the services of Fort Knox Guards, a security services company with nationwide presence, to provide static and patrol based security and access control services at NATCOM’s locations and commissioned an ongoing refurbishments to derelict buildings so that they may be reused for business purposes. Since NATCOM took over NITEL/MTEL, it has expended about $1billion US Dollar in getting the moribund former National teleco back to work, about 100 Nigerians have been employed. Hundreds more will be engaged, directly or indirectly, by NATCOM in the months ahead.

It is in the light of the above that Ayeni submitted to the Honorable Committee members that “the objective of the NCP, which was to execute the full and final privatisation of NITEL/MTEL and in doing so to resolve these companies liabilities of some N350billion without recourse to the Federal Government’s coffers, was successfully achieved in full and should not be reversed or undermined in any way’’.

Indeed, after the presentation, one went away with the conclusion that the honorary members and other citizens who witnessed the hearing are in agreement with Ayeni’s parting shot: “That NATCOM should be commended and encouraged in its efforts towards reviving NITEL/MTEL’s dormant assets and creating a new Nigerian-Owned Telecommunications company of which the nation can be justifiably proud.” He could not have put it better.

• Adedoyin wrote in from Ikeja, Lagos.

Source: The Nation

#IDOMAAGENDA: NO AMOUNT OF SPONSORED LIES WILL SAVE MARK FROM DEFEAT – DANIEL ONJEH

All Progressives Congress, APC’s Comrade Daniel Onjeh has warned that no amount of deception will save his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP opponent and Former Senate President, David Mark from imminent defeat in the forthcoming Benue South rerun senatorial elections.

Comrade Onjeh was responding to a Twitter campaign #IdomaAgenda in which some allegedly sponsored social media heavyweights highlighted his opponent’s achievements during his 16 year spell at the senate.

” #BenueSouthReRun: No amount of sponsored lies or deceit will save #DavidMark from his imminent colossal defeat come Feb,13th ! #IdomaAgenda ” He tweeted.

Similarly, a group, under the aegis of Ogigo K’Idoma, has warned the media team of immediate past Senate President, David Mark against using the social media to feed Nigerians with lies.

The group accused Mark of resorting to social media campaign in a desperate move to save his already sinking political career.

Ogigo K’Idoma was reacting to a social media trend, #IdomaAgenda, which has been highlighting the achievements of Mark on Twitter.

The group said it was unfortunate for Mark “to stoop so low by using the social media platform to feed the world with imaginary achievements that never existed in the constituency.”

A statement by secretary of the group, Maria Adoyi, said Mark’s decision to settle for social media campaign where he does not even have an account shows how desperate he had become.

According to her, “our attention has been drawn to an online trend, #Idomaagenda, which has been projecting the non-existing projects of Senator David Mark in Benue South on Twitter.

“It is laughable that the former Senate President and his team have resorted to social media to save his career by sending out lies to the general public.

“The money he used to start up the trend can feed over 100 families in our community.

“The faces behind trend claimed Mark single handedly tarred the Ochi’Idoma road and as well renovated the palace; meanwhile, the Och’Idoma Palace and the road remain in a sorry state. This can be verified.

“They claimed Mark has sponsored over 200,000 Idoma students in school without proving it. Where are the students?

“It is sad and unfortunate that Mark has refused to step down despite the advice from his kinsmen after 16 years.

“Anyone who cares to know more about Mark’s monumental failure should take a walk to Otukpo round about, Otukpo general hospital, Otukpo Otukpa road, Aho-Ukwo Owukpa road and see what they call Idoma agenda,” the group said.

Adoyi enjoined Idoma citizens to liberate themselves by voting out Mark in the forthcoming rerun.

Source: Benue News

The Politician, the Citizen, and the Thing. By Prof. Pius Adesanmi

Flint, Michigan, is one backyard American town. It is one very worwor town, roughly half the size of Warri or Omu-Aran.

The Governor of the state of Michigan is in deep shit and may lose his job. To cut costs and save a buck or two, he and his administration cut corners with the public water supply to the town of Flint.

The Governor has been begging and dobale-ing and kneeling all over the place. Nothing doing. He will most likely lose his job. And that is the least of his problems.

New Jersey's Governor, Chris Christie, that one who looks like Fagunwa's Ibembe Olokunrun and is always abusing the father and the mother of Barack Obama on the campaign trail, will not be sworn in as President of the United States of America in January 2017. In a woolly-headed fit of political vindictiveness, he got his aides to mess around with traffic and bridges in his state and cause Lagos-like traffic jam for ordinary people.

In Washington, DC, the Mayor has spent the better part of the last 48 hours apologizing and begging and kneeling all over the place for her initial sluggish response to the snowstorm.

Where do these American politicians and their Nigerian political kinsmen meet? What unites them? What unites them is the nature of power. In America as in Nigeria, power's first instinct, power's natural inclination is to trample on the dignity and humanity of the citizen - if she can get away with it.

Power will never, of her own volition, accord you your dignity and humanity.

So why are all these American politicians begging and kneeling and pleading and promising Joe the plumber and Jane the nurse that they will not do so again o?

Because they broke the social contract in an environment where their actions will never be justified, excused, rationalized, endured, tolerated by the very people whose dignity they trampled upon.

There will be no degree holder to argue that the current Governor of Michigan is not the first Governor to allow water pollution on his watch.

There will be no emergency archivists who will litter social media with every past instance of water pollution in American history as justification of the action of the current Michigan Governor.

There will be no Stockholm Syndromed lunatics who will invade social media, wailing that the current investigations in Michigan amount to persecution of the Governor.

There will be no alakoris claiming that unless water pollution investigations extend all the way back to George Washington, nothing must be done.

The American politician and the Nigerian politician are the same, prone to exploitation of the people and abuse of power.

What makes the difference between them is that the American politician has to contend with a citizen who insists on his rights and dignity.

What makes the difference between them is that the Nigerian politician rules over a thing which cleans his shoes and goes to war to defend the politician's right to treat it as a thing.

In Michigan, the Governor's ethnicity, race, faith, and political affiliation will not help him. They are of no moment.

In his shoes, I would move to Nigeria to lord it over things that would excuse my mediocrity and corruption on account of my ethnicity, religion, and political affiliation.

By Pius Adesanmi

Wenger blames Costa for Mertesacker’s sending off

The Gunners boss has once again taken issue with the striker, blaming him for what seemed an easy decision for the referee early on in the London derby.

Costa had been sent clear through by Willian’s pass in the 18th minute, with Mertesacker chopping the striker down as the Spaniard sped towards goal. Still, Wenger took issue with what appeared to be an easy decision for referee Mark Clattenburg.

“He got him sent off – you cannot say it’s not true,” Wenger told Sky Sports. “Costa has had two of our players sent off in two games… so he is clever.

“In the first game he got Gabriel sent off, today he got Mertesacker off. Was the tackle irregular or not? Did he touch him? I’ll have to watch it again – but a fact is a fact.

“I am not accusing him (Costa) of anything – it’s just what happened.”
minutes after the sending off, Costa got on the end of Branislav Ivanovic’s cross at the front post, finishing first time to score what would be the only goal of the match in a feisty encounter.

Source: Vanguard

Kerosene to sell at N83 – PPPRA

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA)‎ has increased the price of Household Kerosene from N50 to N83.

This is contained in its products pricing template, released on Sunday in Abuja.

It stated that the N83 per litre price applied only to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) outlets.

The template also showed that at N83, the Federal Government will be making a gain of N10.72 on every litre.

It further puts the expected open market price, which is the landing cost plus total margins at N72.28 per litre.

The expected open market price is the prevailing open market rate for the product in Nigeria, after taking certain costs into consideration.

Giving a breakdown of the price, the PPPRA template put the landing cost of ‎the product at N57.98 per litre, while the total margin due‎ middlemen was put at N14.30. The retailers’ margin was put at N5 per litre; transporters at N3.05 per litre while dealers at N1.95 per litre.

It further put the bridging fund at N5.85 per litre; marine transport average at N0.15 and Administrative‎ Charges – N0.15.

It stated that the official ex-depot price, which depot owners would sell to marketers, is N68.70 per litre.

The official ex-depot price for collection is N73 per litre, while ex-coastal price is N68.02 per litre.

The Rule Of Law And The Arrogance Of Corruption by Tayo Ogunbiyi

FILE PHOTO: Former National Security Adviser, NSA, Sambo Dasuki, in court in Abuja Photo: Femi Ipaye

It is no longer news that President Muhammadu Buhari abhors corruption like the plague. He, indeed, made the war against corruption one of the most focal points of his electioneering campaigns. At every opportunity, he told Nigerians that: “If we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us”. That, of course, underscores the endemic and institutionalized nature of corruption in our nation. In Nigeria, corruption is worse than any killer disease one can ever think of. From independence to date, corruption has been bad news for our country. It has been recently estimated that over $300bn has either been stolen or misappropriated by government officials and their collaborators since the advent of the current political dispensation in 1999.

Buhari would have none of that. For him, corruption must die for our nation to live. Now, true to his promise and, perhaps, true to type, Buhari has begun to tackle corruption headlong as evident in the various on-going corruption trials and investigations in the country. Revelations from such investigations, as usual, have been mindboggling. Weird disclosures concerning the arms deal scandal, in particular, is quite nauseating. That a group of Nigerians could assertively divert money meant for such vital national need as purchase of arms for soldiers fighting insurgency to other use, is a reflection of how low we have sunk as a people. It is, therefore, a welcome development that legitimate means are being used to bring perceived culprits in the arms deal saga to book. The only thing that evil needs to thrive in any given society is for evil to constantly go unpunished.

But, for the President to actually succeed in his war against corruption, he has a big hurdle to cross. This hurdle is called the rule of law. Universally, the rule of law operates on the legal theory that law should govern a nation and not capricious verdicts of ‘powerful’ individuals. The rule of law underlines the power and weight of law within society, principally as a restraint upon behavior, including that of public officials. Democracy and the rule of law are mutually interwoven. For democracy to sufficiently thrive in any country, the supremacy of the rule of law must be jealously guarded. The guiding principle behind the rule of law is the prevention of anarchy and the creation of a just society where everyone is equal before the law. The rule of law presupposes that no law breaker must go unpunished.

From the foregoing, it could be affirmed, at least in theory, that the rule of law provides a legal framework for Buhari to wage his war against corruption. Since supposed looters of the treasury have actually acted in defiance of the law, the law must take its toll on them. But it is not really that simple as the rule of the law equally protects alleged looters of the nation’s economy from arbitrary persecution and prosecution. This is the beauty of the principle of the rule of law. Since offence allegedly committed by the perceived looters is yet to be substantially proven before a competent court of law, they are presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

This, however, is the dilemma of Buhari in his war against corruption. Over the years, corruption has found comfort in the provision of the rule of law to strengthen its evil hold on the nation. So, all it takes for an alleged corrupt individual to escape from or frustrate the wheel of justice is to hire a brilliant legal luminary who understands the strength and weakness of the law and uses same to the full advantage of his client. Since corruption has given the alleged looter enormous access to ill gotten wealth, money is not likely to be a problem in the scheme to subvert justice. On the long run, rather than the law taking care of corruption, corruption takes care of the law. Ultimately, corrupt public officials and individuals become atrociously arrogant as they revel in their above the law status.

Confronted by the enormous wealth and the smart legal backing of corrupt public officials and ‘powerful’ individuals, the law simply becomes a mere paper tiger and a toothless bulldog. Of what use is a properly crafted law that cannot be enforced? This is exactly the reason why many of the high profile corruption cases that have been in court for years remain mostly inconclusive. The majority of former governors and other prominent political figures whose corruption cases were once widely celebrated in the media are now walking free in the society and equally playing vital roles in the nation’s social-political and economic spheres. This has made many Nigerians to become dispirited about the likely outcome of the current onslaught against corruption. Many believe that, characteristically, corruption would have its way, irrespective of what the law says.

Does it now follow that the law aids corruption? Has corruption become so deeply entrenched in our system that the law has become helpless to hack it down? Though past experiences point to the fact that the law might no longer be sufficient in the war against corruption, the truth, however, is that corruption is not bigger than the law. There is enough in the law to annihilate corruption from the land. We only need to take decisive steps to reform the administration of justice in the country. The judiciary is, unfortunately, as corrupt as other institutions in the country. Allegations of fraudulent deals and gross misuse of office by judicial officers have continued to increase. Not a few judges have been accused of collaborating with criminals to undermine the judicial process. At every stage in the judicial system, one is confronted with unbelievable monumental acts of corruption. From the Investigating Police Officer, IPO, to other judicial officers involved, at one stage or the other, in a corruption case, one is bound to come face to face with the awesome ingenuity of corruption machinery in the country.

For the war against corruption to be effectively fought and won, we need to do a total overhaul of the nation’s legal institution. Justice cannot be said to be served in a system that allows ‘small’ thieves to rot in prison while ‘big’ ones walk in absolute freedom. Equally important is the need for accelerated hearing of high profile corruption cases at all tiers of Courts. Ordinarily, the trial of such cases ought to be conducted on a daily basis at the Federal High Court, but this is not being strictly adhered to as corruption cases are often adjourned for every flimsy and spurious reason.

Perhaps, more importantly, government prosecuting counsel should brace up to dispel the theory that they sometimes conspire with individuals accused of corruption to go scot-free. Constant filing of amendment of charges after the arraignment of the accused, non-appearance in court and unending demands for adjournments are some of the ploys purportedly used by prosecuting lawyers to frustrate high profile cases.

The law is meant to trounce evil and evil doers. In any society where the reverse is the case, injustice would reign supreme. Sadly, this is the path we have treading for years. Obviously, it has led us to nowhere. Now, if we are to move forward, we must change our ways.

—Ogunbiyi is of the Features Department of the Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy

Source: PM News

FG set to change tax regime, says Osinbajo

The federal government  plans to tinker with the tax regime as part of efforts to deal with the financial crisis brought on by falling oil prices, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has stated.

The sharp drop in crude revenues, which provide 95 percent of foreign earnings, has led to the naira hitting record lows on the parallel market as foreign exchange reserves dwindle.

Crude oil is Nigeria’s number one revenue earner.

Crude prices have fallen in the last few days to their lowest levels since 2003 at just over $27 a barrel, although they staged a rebound on Friday.

The 2016 budget assumes an oil price of $38 per barrel.

Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun has said Nigeria plans to borrow up to $5 billion from multiple sources, including the Eurobond market, to plug its budget deficit and Osinbajo said changes to taxation were also being considered.

“We are looking at increasing our tax coverage,” Osinbajo, who is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, told CNBC in a television interview.

“VAT, for instance — we have been doing just about 20 percent coverage. We think that just by increasing coverage we could do much more and so we could earn more in terms of local resources,” he said.

Increasing value-added tax from 5 percent, among the world’s lowest VAT rates and broadening the tax base were among suggestions put forward by International Monetary Fund (IMF), head Christine Lagarde, during a visit to Nigeria this month.

During her visit, Lagarde also said the IMF did not support foreign exchange restrictions.

The Central Bank, whose monetary policy committee will meet tomorrow  and Tuesday, imposed FX restrictions last year aimed at conserving foreign exchange reserves and there have been calls from investors for these to be eased.

“We know that the Central Bank will just have to do the right thing at this time,” said Osinbajo.

“The Central Bank has told us and it was announced even in the President’s budget speech, that they intend to take a flexible approach and deploy whatever tools are necessary to ensure that we stay competitive.”

The naira, which has been hit by the foreign exchange scarcity, fell to a record low of N305 to a dollar on the parallel market last week, compared with the official rate of N197.

The slump has prompted speculation that a formal devaluation of the currency may be imminent.

Source: The Nation

THE "RULE OF LAW" AT WORK IN NIGERIA.........

1. Abdul Rasheed Maina, the maelstrom that sucked up N195 billion pension fund, has escaped out of the country to enjoy his loot in a small exotic Island because the rule of law provided a cover for him to go for medical treatment from which he never returned for trial.

2. Farouk Lawan demanded a $3 million bribe. The rule of law was invoked to permit his fundamental human rights. He got away with it. Today, the trial is dead.

3. Mohammed Abacha has a case of N446 billion hanging on his neck. The rule of law guaranteed that he walks free and enjoys his loot to the fullest. Nothing has been heard of the matter till today.

4. $6 billion fuel subsidy scandal has been swept under the carpet and all the criminals that shared this loot are walking free because the rule of law says so.

5. Peter Odili plundered the Rivers state treasury to the tune of about $500 million. The rule of law protected and gave him an everlasting immunity from prosecution so that the man can be left in peace to enjoy his loot.

6. Dan Etete and his gang of seven or more thieves shared $1.1 billion in the celebrated Malabu oil scandal. The rule of law ensured that they walked free and have all relocated out of Nigeria.

7. Abubakar Kigo and his gang of five stole almost N33 billion police pension fund. The rule of law gave them a feeble slap on the wrist with 2 years jail term and N750,000 fine.

8. Steve Oronsaye, the former Head of Service of the Federation was found culpable in mismanaging and diverting N123 billion and the rule of law has made sure that the matter never saw the light of the day again.

9. Sambo Dasuki, after mismanaging, looting, diverting and sharing $2.1 billion arms purchase money to his friend and cronies is asking to be let out to travel abroad for medical treatment because the rule of law guarantees him that privilege. A trip if he be allowed to make will ensure he never returns to the country to face trial.

10.The PDP and lovers of corruption are asking and demanding for the release of Olisa Metuh from EFCC detention because the rule of law guarantees him freedom for corruptly enriching himself. Olisa Metuh, a man who collected over N400 million of arms purchase money for his personal enjoyment to the detriment of our soldiers and innocent Nigerians who are killed daily by Boko Haram.

These criminals still enjoy their loot while many workers remain yet unpaid and there you are telling me about one rule of law. This thing called "rule of law" has only favoured the thieves. looters and plunderers among us. I mean those people who have milked this country dry. It only serves as a lee way of escape for them to enjoy their loot in any country they chose to live or run away to as outlined above. Hence, i dare ask again................

In whose interest does the "RULE OF LAW" serve?

#Dasukigate: Falana asks ICC to investigate Dasuki, others

•Falana

Lagos lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate allegations of crimes against humanity committed by some former and serving military officers, public officials and private persons including former security adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki who are involved in the alleged diversion of $8 billion earmarked for procurement of arms and armaments for the armed forces to fight insurgency.

The request is contained in a petition dated January 19, 2016 and sent to the Prosecutor of the ICC Mrs Fatou Bensouda.

Specifically, Falana urged the ICC prosecutor to “urgently investigate proprio motu the allegations of the criminal diversion of the security fund of $2.1 billion and N643 billion earmarked by suspected perpetrators, with a view to determining whether these amount to crimes against humanity within the Court’s jurisdiction”
He said the ICC prosecutor should also invite representatives of the Nigerian government to provide written or oral testimony at the seat of the Court, “ so that the Prosecutor is able to conclude on the basis of available information whether there is a reasonable basis for an investigation, and to submit a request to the Pre-Trial Chamber for authorization of an investigation.

According to Falana, the prosecutor should bring to justice those suspected to bear full responsibility for deliberate under funding of the armed forces through widespread and systematic corruption in Nigeria.

He urged the Nigerian government to fulfill its obligations under the Rome Statute to cooperate with the ICC; including complying with your requests to arrest and surrender suspected perpetrators of the criminal diversion of security fund, testimony, and provide other support to the ICC.

The lawyer whose firm represented a majority of the soldiers charged with mutiny, cowardly behavior and sundry offences before the courts-martial instituted by the former military authorities said the only “offence” proved against the soldiers in the military courts were that they had the temerity to demand for weapons to fight the well equipped troops of the Boko Haram sect.”

Falana alleged that the insurgents have killed about 25,000 soldiers and civilians including children and displaced over 2,000,000 people because of the refusal of the former military authorities to equip and motivate the members of the armed forces involved in combat operations.

He alleged further that the former military authorities compromised the security of the people of Nigeria by collaborating with the terrorists and deliberately encouraged the brutal killing of innocent people including ill-equipped officers and soldiers.

He submitted that the former public officials, serving and military officers as well as civilian collaborators who engaged in the criminal diversion of the security fund are liable to bear full responsibility for the death of about 25,000 people who were killed by the Boko Haram sect and the over 2,000,000 people displaced by the terrorist organisation.

Source: The Nation