Kaduna: As governor Yero faces debt owed before he was born el-Rufai laments

                                     Malam Nasir el-Rufa’i and Mukhtar Ramalan Yero
Beginning from late last year when he indicated his interest to run for the governorship election, Kaduna state governor-elect, Malam Nasir El-Rufa’i, has consistently harped on what he describes as the  level of indebtedness of the state government, to various financial institutions, from even across the shores of Nigeria.  El-Rufa’i has often said that the development would likely constitute a problem for the next governor.
In fact, in the course of his governorship campaigns, El-Rufa’i  said in an interview in December 2014 that, “from our estimates, every child born in Kaduna state has a debt of N15,000. If you have a child going to be born tomorrow, that child already has a debt burden of N15,000 and there are about eight million people in Kaduna state. So, you do the calculation.”
But having emerged the governor-elect and with his slogan, “Time to make Kaduna great again,” El-Rufa’i, has since pledged to reverse the “several years of  mismanagement of the state’s resources by successive administrations.” Receiving his certificate of return at the INEC headquarters in Kaduna on April 16, El-Rufa’i also raised the debt issue, lamenting that there may be constraints for his administration.

POLICE/VANDALS CLASH: IG ORDERS ARREST OF ASP • Four policemen, six rifles missing

The Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Solomon Arase, yesterday ordered the immediate arrest and detention of a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), who led the ill-fated operation against pipeline vandals on Thursdays at the Obadore area of Igando, Lagos, describing it as illegal.
The operation left four policemen dead, two battling to stay alive at the Igando General Hospital and six AK47 rifles missing. The vandals, who attacked with pump action rifles, went away with the corpses of the four policemen.
This was even as fresh facts emerged that the team was not really the IG’s team as the policemen claimed, but Anti- Vandalism Task Force, based in Lagos. Eleven members of the team embarked on the operation.
It was learnt that the vandals attacked the policemen after they threatened to arrest a female member of the gang following a disagreement over alleged N10 million bribe allegedly demanded by the cops.
The task force went to Igando Police Station, to book for the operation, posing as the IG’s Monitoring Unit from Abuja. According to a police source, Arase became angry when he was informed that the team impersonated his Monitoring Unit. After the bloody clash, Arase was said to have ordered a preliminary investigation, insisting he did not authorise any such operation.

I founded FRSC, not Soyinka, –Salawu

                                  
                                                   Major Rasaki Salawu (retd.)
Major Rasaki Salawu (retd.) was the pioneer Director of Operations, Federal Road Safety Commission, an author and a columnist. He tells ASHIWAJU.ORG  that an accident he had as a child inspired the road safety initiative in him

What were the unique features of the time when you were young?

I am from a rural setting in Egbeda in Ibadan. Like any other youth in the environment where I grew up, I longed for education and a good future. My intention was to be a mechanical engineer. My father was among the elite in the community at the time. He had a corn mill and transport businesses and he was popular.

Different tactics Nigerian banks use in defrauding customers

                           
Francis Agadaga still remembers events of that fateful evening. He could have been a widower by now. On September 12, 2014, he rushed to an Automated Teller Machine point in his neighbourhood at Igando, a Lagos suburb, to pick some cash with which to take his ailing wife, Sandra, to the hospital. It was a tough period for the family. The N7, 850 left in his bank account would go a long way in dousing the situation if he could get access to the fund. After inserting his card into one of the ATMs and requesting to withdraw N7, 000, what followed almost left the father of two in tears.

“It was on a Sunday afternoon and we had just returned from church when my wife started feeling feverish,” he began. “Her temperature became so high that we needed to quickly rush her to a hospital. I didn’t have any money on me at the time and so I hurried to the nearest ATM point to withdraw the little money I had in the account.

“However, to my utmost shock, I got a debit alert but did not get any money from the machine. I was so confused and tensed because I had never experienced such before and the kind of situation on ground then was a matter of life and death,” he said.

JOHN FASHANU IS A CONMAN –ABIGAIL, ESTRANGED WIFE ■ Says he conned her into marriage and business

Last week, Saturday Sun ran an interview by ex-international, John Fashanu in which he painted gory experience with his estranged wife, Abigail Onyekwelu.
In her swift reaction, Abigail in this inter¬view in Abu¬ja, gave a blow-by-blow account of how she met Fashanu and how he conned her into marriage and business.
In this explosive interview, Abigail coun¬tered all the allegations levelled against her by the ex-international that she is violent and loves money, dismissing Fashanu as a fraud and habitual liar. Excerpts:
Your estranged husband said you tried to stab him. Is it true?
It is ridiculous. I didn’t do that.
But he has a live stab. Did he stab him¬self?
I don’t know how he came about it. I don’t know whether he faked it or something. I, too, was surprised when I saw that thing. He had one encounter with my son and I three years ago when I caught him sleeping with my maid. I told him that ‘by the time I come back from church, let it be that you have moved from this house. And if I see you here, I will call the police.’ So, when I went to church with my son and we came back, he had packed every¬thing, including my trinket box and some other things. Immediately, we went to his uncom¬pleted building where he moved to.

WHY OBAMA SHOULD VISIT ABUJA IN JULY

Former United States’ Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson has implored President Barrack Obama to prioritise repairing relations with Nigeria by stopping over in Abuja when he visits East Africa in July.
Carson, who served in the first cabinet of Obama, said the visit will help to sooth the frayed relationship between the two countries. He also suggested that the US President formally invite Nigeria’s President-elect to the White House to iron issues out.
According to Carson who was a former ambassador to Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe, Nigeria is the sixth largest democracy in the world and that “the success of the elections has also raised Nigeria’s political profile”.
Nigeria, he noted, is also the most important country in Africa and it would be unfair to ignore the successes the country has achieved in spite of its many challenges.
President Obama is slated to visit Kenya, a longstanding economic, democratic and security partner, and Ethiopia, an important security partner whose democratic and human rights performance has been strongly criticized in the international community.
Carson said, “It would be deeply troubling for many Nigerians to see Africa’s largest democracy snubbed at this important moment in its history.”

PIPELINE SURVEILLANCE: BUHARI TO REVOKE JONATHAN’S CONTRACTS TO OPC, EX-MILITANTS

Anyone who thinks that the administration of the incoming president, General Mohammadu Buhari would tolerate the surveillance of oil pipelines and waterways by private individuals or groups should better think again as there are now plans to discard the practice and revert to the use of conventional security agencies.
Saturday Vanguard’s investigations during the week indicated that already some highly placed persons in Buhari’s camp with military and security backgrounds have begun to fashion out ways that would facilitate the process.
It was gathered that the man behind the process was a Director in the All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Campaign Organisation.
His briefs included to liaise with experts in the sector and other people with rich legal background to work out the template for the new surveillance policy.
When this is completed, the incoming administration, we gathered, would further equip the Nigerian Armed Forces, especially the Army and Navy, as well as the police and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC and hand them over the job of protecting the oil pipelines and other installations both onshore and offshore.

DOKPESI PREDICTS DIFFICULT TIMES FOR JOURNALISTS

Media Mogul, and owner of Raypower FM, African Independent Television (AIT), and DaarSat , High Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi, has predicted hard times for Nigerian journalists in the years ahead.
Dokpesi, who made the prediction, yesterday at his ‘Kpaduma’ top Hill residence in Abuja, at a meeting between a group of media professionals under the aegis of South- South Pen Pushers (SSPP) and Dokpesi, expressed fear that there are signs that journalists may be subjected to difficult working condition except practitioners work in tandem to defend the values of the profession.
While calling for a formidable media collaboration of the South, Dokpesi said journalists in the discharge of their official duties must be resolute, determined and united as any injustice to one journalist amounts to injustice to all journalists.

Babangida berates Mu’azu for holding on as PDP chair

                                                                Babangida and Mu'azu

Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State yesterday, took a swipe at the Adamu Muazu- led National Working Committee NWC of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for holding on to power after leading the party to a ‘’disastrous defeat,’’ in the last general elections in the country, saying that the best and most civilised thing was to throw in the towel.
Aliyu who spoke at the commissioning of the multi -billion Naira Shiroro Bridge linking Niger and Kaduna States, however said that the loss suffered by the party at presidential level and in most states coupled with the massive defection of some members to the All Progressives Congress, APC, were not enough reasons for him to dump the party.
Also, his Jigawa State counterpart, Alhaji Sule Lamido, who spoke on the occasion said that he would not leave the PDP which he was a foundation member for tenants saying that defection was not the answer to such defeat in a democracy.
However, Governor Aliyu said, ‘‘how could you lead a party to disastrous outing in an election and you are still in that place, take the blame for the defeat by quitting and if the PDP still wants you they will beg you to stay?’’

N9bn for Buhari’s ministers, lawmakers outrageous –Nigerians

A cross section of Nigerians have condemned the planned payment of about N9bn as perks to ministers and lawmakers who will assume office in the government of President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)
The newspaper on May 9, 2015, in an investigative report, said lawmakers to constitute the 8th National Assembly and ministers to be appointed by Buhari would receive N9bn as perks on assumption of office.

The perks include housing, furniture and motor vehicle allowances, among others.

For instance, the housing allowance for the lawmakers is 200 per cent of their annual salaries; furniture is 300 per cent and motor vehicle loan is 400 per cent.

The report, which has been read about 40,000 times on www.punchng.com as of Friday, generated mixed reactions from the public, many of who demanded pay cut for political office holders in the country.