Headline

Senate Draws Battle Line With NNPCL Boss Kyari Over N12trn Spent On Refineries

Published

6 months ago

November 22, 2023

Editor

The Senate on Wednesday vowed to ensure that the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, and other top executive officers of the company are sacked and face prosecution over the N12 trillion allegedly spent on turn-around maintenance (TAM) of the nation’s comatose refineries.

The Red Chamber noted that over N12 trillion has been spent on TAM, saying it has records of over $592 million, €4.8 million and £3.4 million spent between 2010 and 2023 on TAM, and yet the refineries are not working.

The threat was made by the Senate Ad hoc Committee investigating the various TAM projects of Nigerian refineries during an interactive session with NNPCL management and other executives of the oil sector.

Some of the agencies invited, whose chief executive officers failed to turn up but sent representatives instead, and who the committee threatened to sack and jail, include NNPCL, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and their subsidiaries.

The chairman of the ad hoc committee, Senator Isa Jibrin (APC, Kogi East), noted that so much has been heard about the turn-around efforts and so much has been spent on operational materials for refineries that are not working.

He avowed that they want to know the solutions to all the leakages, as there are a lot of them.

He said: “We will ask for refunds and dismissals of all the chief executives involved in the turn-around maintenance. We sent them invitations more than two weeks ago requesting documents and the documents have not been released after two weeks. So, we want the chief executives to be present.

“More worrisome is that between 2010 and 2020, the sum of N4.8 trillion was said to have been spent as operational expenses. How do you incur operational expenses that have to do with the purchase of raw materials and similar expenses on factories that are moribund? How did we come up with operational expenses? We need to know.

“These are issues that Nigerians want to know about; they want solutions to all these leakages. We know they are leakages. Whether you accept it [or not], there are leakages, and they are all forms of compromise within your various establishments.

“We know and we will not hesitate to escalate it to the highest possible level, including the possibility of refund and outright dismissal of some of the heads of some of these agencies and possibly going to jail,” he stressed.

Also speaking, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (PDP, Kebbi South) said the officials who appeared before the committee to represent their bosses should be sent back to tell their chief executives that they must appear in person.

Senator Sumaila Kawu (NNPP, Kano South) said: “We are not in the Senate for personal functions. We are representing the entire legislature. We are in a very serious business. We are independent. We can go to any length to defend our people.”

He said to the representatives who appeared for their chief executives: “We will suspend this interaction until you are ready. We have 100 ways in which we can achieve our legislative work. We just wanted to give you a fair hearing and you must respect the Constitution.”

Senator Danjuma Goje (APC, Gombe Central) added that the committee deals with heads or chief executives rather than their representatives.

“We will have to agree on new dates for the submission of the documents, both hard copies and soft copies, and a date for a meeting where the chief executives must appear,” he said.

The agencies were given until Tuesday to submit the documents before the meeting with their chief executives.

Headline

Iran Gets Interim President After Raisi’s Death

Published

8 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assigned vice president Mohammad Mokhber to assume interim duties after the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash a day earlier.

“In accordance with Article 131 of the constitution, Mokhber is in charge of leading the executive branch,” said Khamenei in a statement, adding that Mokhber will be required to work with the heads of legislative and judicial branches to prepare for presidential elections “within a maximum period of 50 days”.

Recall that President Raisi was confirmed dead on Monday after his helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of the country.

Raisi was travelling with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who also died in the accident.

Rescue teams had been scouring the area since Sunday afternoon after a helicopter carrying Raisi, the foreign minister and other officials had gone missing.

Early Monday, relief workers located the missing helicopter, with state TV saying the president had died.

“The servant of Iranian nation, Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi has achieved the highest level of martyrdom whilst serving the people,” state television said Monday, with Mehr news agency also saying he was dead.

State television broadcast photos of Raisi, with the voice of a man reciting the Koran playing in the background.

Iran’s vice president for executive affairs Mohsen Mansouri posted on X a Koranic verse used to express condolences.

Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has announced a five days of mourning for President Raisi.

“I announce five days of public mourning and offer my condolences to the dear people of Iran,” said Khamenei in an official statement a day after the death of Raisi and other officials in the crash in East Azerbaijan province.

Headline

UK Threatens To Deport Physically-challenged Nigerian After 38 Years

Published

8 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

The United Kingdom has threatened to deport a physically-challenged Nigerian man, Anthony Olubunmi George, over an alleged forged entry stamp in his passport.

George who has lived in the UK for 38 years, after he left Nigeria at the age of 24 in 1986, according to the Guardian UK.

The 61-year-old Nigerian has no criminal convictions and made several applications for leave to remain in the UK, which the Home Office has rejected, most recently on 7 May.

George’s case became the second African facing a huge disappointment with the UK Home Office after spending several years in Britain.

Vanguard reported last week that a 74-year-old Ghanaian Nelson Shardey, who has resided in the UK since 1977, was refused indefinite leave to remain despite being in the country for most of his adult life.

As the case of the Nigerian, he has never left the UK and has no criminal convictions, with the reports of having two strokes, which left him with problems with speech and mobility in 2019.

When George arrived, Margaret Thatcher was prime minister and Rishi Sunak is the ninth to hold office since George has lived in the UK.

He has endured many periods of homelessness and disclosed he has lost count of the number of friends who have given him shelter over the years, adding that he no longer has any close family in Nigeria.

The Guardian UK said in 2005, his previous solicitors submitted a forged entry stamp in his passport and have subsequently been reported to the police and the legal regulatory bodies.

George told the Guardian he knew nothing about the passport stamp until many years later. His current lawyer, Naga Kandiah of MTC Solicitors, cited his poor previous legal representation as the reason for George’s problems.

In his most recent refusal, Home Office officials said: “Unfortunately this is not something that is considered an exceptional circumstance.”

Kandiah has lodged an appeal against the latest refusal.

A previous Home Office rejection of his case states: “It’s open to your family and friends to visit you in Nigeria.”

George said, “I don’t know how many different sofas I’ve slept on – too many to count. I don’t have my life, living the way I’m living now. My health problems since I had my stroke are my biggest worry. All I’m asking for is some kindness from the Home Office.”

Headline

JUST IN: ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu, Hamas Leaders

Published

9 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’s leader in Gaza for war crimes.

According to BBC, Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe that both men bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from at least 7 October 2023.

The ICC, based in The Hague, has been investigating Israel’s actions in the occupied territories for the past three years – and more recently the actions of Hamas as well.

Mr Netanyahu recently called the prospect of senior Israel figures joining the ICC’s wanted list “an outrage of historic proportions”.

Last week, 13 Western countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, Japan and others cautioned Israel over its resolve to launch a full-scale operation in Rafah.