Sahara Reporters Latest News Thursday 10th October 2019

Sahara Reporters Latest News Thursday 10th October 2019

Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 10/10/19

E2%80%99s-oil-output OPEC Increases Nigeria’s Oil Output

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries has granted Nigeria’s wish and increased its oil output under the petroleum production quota deal member states renewed in December 2018, according to a report by Reuters.
The unannounced deal will see Nigeria produce 1.774m barrels per day, as against the 1.685 it was allowed previously.
“It’s happened. I’ve not heard of any other changes to the agreement,” an OPEC delegate told Reuters.
Sources said the consideration was down to the coming on stream of the Total-owned Egina offshore oil field, which began production in January 2019.
The officials claim that the oil field was not factored into determination of the quota structure.
Nigeria has persistently produced above the said 1.695m bpd ceiling, pumping out 1.866m in August according to a survey.
The country has also factored in a production quota of 2.18m bpd at $57 to fund its 2020 budget.
It was observed, however, that Nigeria adds condensates— an ultra-light variant that is not counted by OPEC, into its production output figures.
According to the news agency, data from the Department of Petroleum Resources notes that condensate production in 2017 – the most recent figures available, ranged between 414,000 and 497,000 bpd.
The difference between 2020’s oil production assumption and the OPEC quota is 410,000 bpd, which means the country might be able to obey OPEC’s production quota and meet its budget assumptions in the coming year.

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Nigerians In America Now Pay $200 Egunje For E-passport And Beg For Visa To Visit Naija By Churchill Okonkwo

In the United States, the Nigerian embassies in Atlanta and Washington DC have mysteriously run out of e-passport booklets. Thus, Nigerians coming home for 2019 Christmas are given appointment dates in March 2020 for e-passports in New York. This is technically telling thousands of Nigerians in the US that we love you but sorry, you are not going home for Yuletide this year.
Meanwhile, dangerously corrupt immigration officials in the same New York office are collecting egunje$200 for same-day e-passport service. Syndicates at the Nigeria Immigration Service offices under the pretense of a shortfall of e-passport booklets across Nigeria and in the US, are ripping Nigerians off. So, Nigerians in the US are now begging for visa to visit Naija. Shameful!
When the details of one of the syndicates, who requested $200 for a passport was brought to my attention, I had the option of speaking out or keeping mute. I could have continued to enjoy my break from writing since I was not the one paying. I have, however, chosen to speak up simply because it is the right thing to do.
This is not about taking people down or snitching; it’s about pointing at the incompetence and the flaws of processes and suggesting improvements. It is the failure of the leadership of the immigration service in Nigeria to adequately prepare and produce enough e-passport booklets that created this enabling environment for officers to engage in corrupt acts.
Incompetence in the Nigerian Immigration Service is a progenitor of corruption. For Rauf Aregbesola, the challenge is to lead the way he wants to be followed. The work environment he builds isn’t just what he says; it’s also what he does. A minister whose agency is ripping Nigerians off should either shake things up or will be caught up in the culture of incompetence and corruption. It should be that simple.
What these immigration officers in New York are confirming, once more, is that corruption is a central part of Nigeria’s cultural landscape. These dangerously corrupt officers are not different from the armed police officers on Lagos-Benin Road collecting egunjefrom motorists travelling home for Christmas. They are not different from corrupt Nigerian Customs officials swindling citizens at the ports. They are not different from the “s**-for-grade” lecturers in our universities.
In a system, full of incompetent people, delivery of service is the first casualty and, hence, it has a premium. As is the case with e-passports in immigration offices across Nigeria and around the world, one who pays for it, gets it. The one who does not – or cannot – ends up getting none.
I have stated this before and will say it again: the fight against corruption by President Muhammadu Buhari is meaningless when ordinary Nigerians are being forced to part with their hard-earned money in government offices by Nigerians that are paid to do their work.
I don’t care if $200bn is recovered from Sambo Dasuki and Diezani Alison-Madueke if a dangerously corrupt immigration official by way of creating artificial scarcity of e-passport extorts $200 egunjeor makes me pay for a visa to visit the motherland. Mama Ogoo does not give a damn how much was recovered from Patience Jonathan if she must part with N5,000 to get her pension.
Yes, Buhari has failed to comprehensively fight corruption; yes, Nigerians rejected Atiku Abubakar because corruption runs in his veins but here we are with fellow citizens corruptly enriching themselves at every point of service delivery to the public.
Where is Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa? Her reluctance to treat corruption at Nigerian embassies as a direct rights violation of Nigerians in the Diaspora makes nonsense of everything she pretends to stand for. Where is Aregbesola, who promised to deliver quality service to Nigerians? This is the time to stand with Nigerians and come out swinging at the “insidious plague” at the NIS offices across the world.
Where there is no shame, there is no honour. Dabiri-Erewa and Aregbesola should be ashamed that the giant of Africa cannot produce ordinary paper passports for its citizens. They should be ashamed that thousands of Nigerians are begging for visas to visit home. They should be ashamed that immigration officials are openly and arrogantly demanding $200 bribe for e-passports they claim are not available.
It is only this shame that will make Dabiri-Erewa and Aregbesola do the right thing. As the saying goes, you cannot climb the mountain top without crushing some weeds with your feet. To be exemplary, the two officials must without fear crush some weeds and stand with conscientious Nigerians anywhere in the world. They must confront individuals and institutions that break the law and commit fraud.
The arrow the child uses to kill the vulture was carved for him by an adult. Some top people at the Nigerian Consulate in the United States are aware of this malpractice in New York. I wonder how they go to bed with clean conscience knowing that one grandmother that visited her child cannot go back to Nigeria and enjoy the joy and peace of Christmas because of their incompetence and corrupt act.
Finally, fellow Nigerians, the struggle against official corruption is akin to fighting a mutating virus. If we keep treating symptoms of the problem, cases of corruption will continually mutate and multiply. As such, we should not remain quiet but speak out in the face of glaring injustice or daylight robbery. We need to continuously speak out against corrupt acts and corruption as Nigerians until our voices rise to a crescendo that can no longer be ignored or silenced.

Together, we can.
You can contact Churchill at Churchill.okonkwo@gmail.comor follow him on Twitter @churchillnnobi

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E2%80%99s-dog-tears-scalp-abuja-barracks Baby Battles For Life After Soldier’s Dog Tears Off Scalp In Abuja Barracks

A 13-month-old baby, Michael Duniya, is currently battling to stay alive after being almost mauled to death by a pitbull at Mambilla Barracks, Abuja, according to a report by PUNCH.
The incident was said to have occurred on Tuesday around 7:30am.
The dog, believed to be a pitbull, was said to have broken free from its cage and wandered off into the block where little Michael was playing with his four-year-old brother.
Upon seeing the dog, his older brother immediately fled into the house but Michael was not quick enough as the dog pounced on him.
The dog subsequently grabbed him by the head and pulled him about 30 metres away and began to bite him repeatedly.
A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said she quickly raised the alarm.
She said, “I was by my balcony when I saw the dog grab Michael by the head. The dog bit his ear and tore off his scalp, exposing his brain.
“Incidentally, Michael did not scream as his blood littered everywhere. About four of us began throwing stones at the dog in a bid to get him to free Michael to no avail.
“Someone was able to get a cutlass and slashed the dog with it but it would not let Michael go. It was when the cutlass hit the face of the dog that the dog fell and died.”
It was learnt that a soldier, a Regimental Sergeant Major, who owns the dog, became furious at the killing of his dog when he was informed.
Another neighbour, who craved anonymity because military personnel are not allowed to speak to the press, said the RSM had about seven dogs.
He said the dogs had been terrorising residents especially children but all complaints to military authorities had fallen on deaf ears.
He said, “Some weeks ago, the same dog was let loose and began chasing children all over the place.
“A little girl fell into a gutter while running. I personally had to save the girl and chase the dog away.
“As a soldier, I am not afraid of the dog but these little children playing in the barracks are not safe.”
Michael was said to have been given first aid at the barracks clinic before being transferred to a hospital in the Apo area of Abuja.
The father of the victim was said to have donated two pints of blood to his son, who was still in a critical condition on Wednesday.

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LASU: Arresting The Drift Towards Authoritarianism By Adewale Agbaje

The continued spate of degeneration in academic administration in the form of widespread infractions and impunities by management and governing councils in many universities across Nigeria is indeed disturbing and precarious for the country’s university system specifically, and societal progress in general. In many universities, the administrators (Vice Chancellors in particular) repeatedly ignore and violate statutory university laws and regulations in their day-to-day running of affairs. These include illegal appointments, unmerited promotions and punishment of academic and non-academic staff, as well as undeserved appointments of their cronies into administrative and other positions on the basis of favouritism and nepotism. They also mismanage university funds with reckless abandon and unrivalled rapacity. There are numerous unpleasant stories especially in state universities about the mismanagement of various funds, leaving one to wonder why the disbursing agencies and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as well as the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission have continued to look the other way if indeed there are no insider collusions as the public is made to believe.
Increasingly, university administrators are showing lower tolerance level for checks by labour unions, thereby curtailing the freedom needed to play their legitimate role as watchdogs and stakeholders for efficient administration, staff welfare, academic excellence, and community and national development. In fact, many of the VCs see the unions as distractions and undesirable elements that should be rendered comatose or decimated completely through various oppressive strategies such as unwarranted queries and dismissal of steadfast union leaders. This is even more so where efforts to compromise and co-opt the unions have failed. In some cases, some unions easily capitulate for pecuniary benefits or as part of fallouts of the politics of opportunities and cronyism.
In all these, many university governing councils are not exonerated but are in fact often complicit. Whereas the governing councils are statutory bodies appointed by the visitors i.e governors and the President to oversee effective and progressive administration of state and federal universities respectively, many operate as collaborators and willing tools for the self-centred, corrupt and oppressive policies of the Vice Chancellors.
At present, the Lagos State University, Ojo, presents a classic case of a university wholly permeated and bedevilled by abysmal maladministration, corruption, naked violation of university principles and rights of workers. Impunities, infractions and show of shame in LASU especially under Dr Olanrewaju Fagbohun’s administration are legion and threatening academic excellence, university culture, peace and progress. Recently, LASU’s ASUU Financial Secretary, Comrade Hamzat Edu, was queried for expressing his view about accusation against Dr Fagbogun of aiding former NUC Executive Secretary, Prof Peter Okebukola, conceal an age falsification case. Premium Times had alleged with details that the VC connived with the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, Prof Adebayo Ninalowo, to make illegal withdrawals of over N600m from LASU Pension Funds ostensibly for NUC accreditation of courses but diverted N198m to purchase luxury cars for top university officials including Ninalowo. The defence of the university is that the state government did not release accreditation funds on time. It offered no explanation as to why the money was diverted to buy luxury cars.
What has followed are desperate measures to gag members of staff suspected to have leaked this infraction to the public through a new policy of oath of secrecy. The frenzy to create a culture of silence and fear in LASU has become so palpable that those who witness on a daily basis the ongoing illegalities are unable to expose them.
This effort by the administration of Dr Fagbohun and the immediate past council raises the question of why the university is desperately seeking to conceal information if indeed all is well with the university. An additional question is, did the Lagos State Government make a budget for LASU accreditation exercise in 2018? If it did, why did the Fagbohun administration and Ninalowo-led governing council illegally take LASU pension funds?
It must be emphatically stated that to take the hard-earned pension savings of toiling workers for any purpose including the purchase of exotic cars, especially by a supposed professor of Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria is not only wicked, condemnable and illegal but an egregious moral sin. Sadder still is the fact that Prof Ninalowo presumably has his own pension savings secured in his place of employment but had no scruples in violating the financial rules of the university by granting executive approvals.
There is need to note that Dr Fagbohun’s vice chancellorship was bound to be problematic from inception having been conceived and delivered in circumstances that now appear to be illegitimate. It is this self-imposed legitimacy crisis that motivated his strategy of deploying his office to silence contrary views, particularly those concerning his qualification, conduct and integrity. This was exactly his response sometime in 2018 when LASU’s ASUU sent a petition requesting the governing council to investigate the illegal backdating of his unmerited promotion to full professor ?from May7, 2014, the real date of conferment, to October 1, 2008 unilaterally by the former registrar of the university, Mr Akinwunmi Lewis. The VC connived with the Ninalowo-led governing council to ensure that the matter was not investigated but instead the governing council backed the VC to query the secretary and assistant secretary, who signed the petition on behalf of the Union. The duo, alongside the treasurer, who had earlier written to the management over her delayed promotion, were recently summarily and unjustly dismissed after a laughable and predetermined trial over “illegal possession, retention and circulation of official documents”. This is a classic case of impunity with audacity.
In summary, it is certain that regardless of Dr Fagbohun’s crackdown on contrary views in a desperate bid to conceal the litany of infractions and impunities by the university administration under him, he will ultimately be brought to account sooner than later. However, it is essential for the visitor, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to act swiftly and effectively in order not to allow a misinterpretation by the public that he is complicit in the degeneration of LASU under the current VC and the legacies of the immediate past governing council.
Instituting a visitation panel in LASU as entrenched in the university laws is a good way to start addressing the situation. It is unfortunate that the past state administration failed to follow the law, which requires that there be a visitation once in at least five years. The last visitation to LASU was in 2009 under former Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola.
Governor Sanwo-olu needs to demonstrate a commitment to the rule of law by setting a visitation panel of eminent and knowledgeable persons to look into the affairs of the university. This should then be followed with the constitution of a credible governing council that is capable of calling an errant Vice Chancellor to order rather than conniving with it to cover up iniquities and cow dissenting voices.
Agbaje is a public affairs analyst based in Lagos.

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E2%80%99s-growth-forecast-01-cent World Bank Reduces Nigeria’s Growth Forecast By 0.1 Per Cent

The World Bank on Wednesday revised Nigeria’s economic growth for 2019 from 2.1 to 2.0 per cent.
A report by Reuters said that the revision was made in the institution’s ‘Africa’s Pulse report for October.
The New York-based global lender had in April predicted that the largest economy in Africa will grow by 2.1 per cent.
The bank added that it expects Nigeria to grow by 2.1 per cent in 2020 and 2121 as well.
The global lender said the reason for its lowered forecast for Nigeria is because, “The medium-term growth outlook continues to be constrained by a weak macroeconomic policy environment and slow policy implementation.”
It also blamed issues such as multiple exchange rates, foreign exchange restrictions, high inflation and low non-oil revenues as some of the hurdles to the economy’s growth.
Overall, the continent’s projected economic growth is expected to reduce from the April prediction of 2.8 per cent to 2.6 per cent.
It projects that the continent’s economic mass will soar by 3.1 per cent in 2020 and 3.2 per cent in 2121.
The bank however, noted that when the economic growth forecast of the three largest economies in Africa – Nigeria, South Africa and Angola, which make up 60 per cent of the continent’s economic value, are subtracted from the equation, the remaining countries will grow by four per cent.
This is a drop from the previous prediction of 4.4 per cent.
The bank said the reason for its lowered expectation of the African economy was down to the trade war between the two largest economic players in the globe – China and the United States.

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Nine-year-old Lagos Pupil Narrates How Policeman Defiled Her Many Times

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A nine-year-old pupil on Wednesday narrated before an Ikeja Special Offences and Domestic Violence Court in Lagos how a 40-year-old policeman, Andy Eghobamien, lured her into his apartment and defiled her on numerous occasions.
The little girl made the revelation during the trial of Eghobamien on a one-count charge of defilement contrary to Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
The primary five pupil was led in evidence by Inumidun Solarin, a state prosecutor.
The nine-year-old said that on the last occasion she was defiled by the policeman, he had lured her into his apartment under the pretext of giving her N200 to buy milk for him.
The child told the court that Eghobamien after defiling her had hid her under his bed when her elder sister was frantically searching for her.
She said, “I know Andy (the defendant). He is our neighbour. He is popularly known as ‘officer’.
“On that day, he called me when I got back from school and sent me on an errand. He sent me to go and buy milk for him. Then he gave me N200.
“I bought the milk and when I returned, he asked me to bring it inside his room. He then said I should drop the milk on the table and sit down.
“When I sat down, he told me to lie on the bed and remove my pant. He put his penis in my bum. He put his penis in my front bum (vagina).
“After that, he asked me to hide under the bed when my elder sister came calling my name.
“One of our neighbours, Chioma, even entered his room to buy recharge card for him, though she didn’t see me, I saw her from under the bed.
“And because my elder sister was shouting my name and looking for me, officer told me to pretend like nothing happened and that I should pass through the backyard gate.”
The child said that when she was found by her sister, she lied and said that she was at her friend’s house and that her sister had insisted that she took her to the friend’s house.
She added, “I started begging her not to beat me, and I told her that I was inside officer’s room. My sister beat me and reported to my father who was very angry.
“When my mother came back from the market, my sister reported me again.
“This time my mother threatened to kill me if I don’t tell her what happened. I became afraid and told her the truth.
“Immediately my mother called all her brothers and they came to our house the following morning and took us to Amukoko Police Station to report.
“It was after we made a report at the station that the police came and arrested Andy.”
The witness said she was referred by authorities to the Mirabel Center (a Sexual Assault Referral Center) where doctors revealed that she had been sexually abused on several occasions by the defendant.
Justice Sybil Nwaka adjourned the case until October 30 for continuation of trial.

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Shell Resumes Export Of Bonny Light Crude

Oil giant, Shell, has resumed the export of Nigeria’s favoured Bonny Light petroleum variant.
The company announced it had lifted its force majeure on the sweet crude on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
Shell had stopped exporting Bonny Light following the breakdown of the Nembe creek trunk line, which is operated by indigenous oil company – Iteo.
The line carries between 100,000 to 150,000 barrels of Bonny Light per day to the Bonny Export Terminal in Rivers State.
It is one of two pipelines conveying the product for export, the other being the Trans Ramos pipeline.
The Nembe creek line has suffered several setbacks since 2018.

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NIMC Urges Prospective Nigerian Undergraduates To Enrol For NIN

The National Identity Management Commission has advised all 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination candidates not yet enrolled for the National Identification Number to visit any NIMC office nationwide to do so.
Information Technology/Identity Database Officer of NIMC, Chuks Onyepunuka, made the call on Wednesday, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
Onyepunuka said NIN was mandatory for the UTME examination, hence obtaining the NIN qualifies candidates for its registration.
He stated, “We have indeed made tremendous progress and of course we can do better.
“We have successfully built the National Identity Database with capacity to hold over two hundred million records. Also in place is a sophisticated ABIS.”
In June, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board stated that starting from year 2020, UTME/Direct Entry candidates will register for its examinations with their NIN to solve the challenges of multiple registration.

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Woman Jailed For Stabbing Fiance To Death

A 27-year-old woman, Blessing Edet, was on Wednesday sentenced to 10 years in prison for stabbing her 33-year-old fiance, Edet Ebong, to death during a fight.
Earlier, the young woman had been charged with one count charge of murder, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
The sentence was however, commuted to voluntary manslaughter by the trial judge, Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo.
Justice Taiwo said, “By stabbing the deceased in the lower part of his abdomen, she did not intend to cause grievous harm to the defendant.
“The defendant has established factors necessary to prove the self-defence.
“I find that the defendant acted in self-defence as she was a victim of an unprovoked assault.
“The defendant is not guilty of murder but I find her guilty of the involuntary manslaughter of Edet Ebong.
“I hereby sentence the defendant to 10 years imprisonment with no option of fine.
“The sentence will take effect from August 2015 which is when she had been in custody.”

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Police Arrest Two Leaders Of Notorious Kidnap Gangs In Bayelsa

The police in Bayelsa State has arrested leaders of two notorious kidnapping gangs, Nelson Waripamo popularly known as Mandela, and Jackson Dakolo.
Mandela, 34, and Dakolo, 35, both from Gbarantoru community in Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state, were identified as leaders of the kidnap gangs responsible for various armed robberies and high profile abductions in the Bayelsa.
It was gathered that some members of their gangs include wanted boys from Azuzuama, Kokorose communities of Southern Ijaw and Okubie in Rivers State respectively.
The gang was said to have split after a misunderstanding over sharing formula adopted for monies made during operations.
Mandela’s gang was said to be responsible for the May 26, 2019 abduction of Mrs Orela Oyibo, wife of a lecturer at the Niger Delta University.
Dakolo, who is a known social figure in Yenagoa, was arrested while trying to secure the release of his cousin arrested for armed robbery.
A policeman identified him as being responsible for the abduction of a retired oil worker, Engr Duncan Eke, in Igbedi community of Southern Ijaw area of Bayelsa.
SaharaReporters gathered that the Dakolo and gang members shot Eke in the leg for the reluctance of the family to pay the N70m demanded as ransom money.
After 21 days in the kidnappers den and series of his nude pictures taken to blackmail the family, a sum of N20m was paid to Dakolo’s gang.
Spokesperson for the police in Bayelsa, Asimin Butswat, confirmed the development and said more details will be made available later.

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