$29.96B Foreign Loan: What Happened To Recovered Loots?” PDP Asks Buhari

Written by Editor

28 October 2016
Politics
President Muhammadu Buhari President Muhammadu Buhari

Following plans by President Muhammadu Buhari to borrow the sum of $29.96bn for infrastructural and oth­er social intervention initiatives , the People’s Democratic Party has asked for explanations on why the government was going outside the budgetary provisions for capital expenditure.

The party said this in a statement issued by Prince Dayo Adeyeye, on behalf of the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the party.

Buhari had on Tuesday asked the National Assembly to approve the external borrowing plan to enable his government to raise funds to execute key infrastructure projects across the country between now and 2018.

But Adeyeye emphasized that the President must itemise what he intended to finance with the proposed borrowing of almost $30bn instead of lumping everything up in a coded term “and to plunge the nation’s future into a burden of debt”.

He said that the President’s approach could not be the preferred solution to the economic quagmire, which he alleged was created by the present government.

Adeyeye, a former Minister of State for Works, said, “This government budgeted N6.07tn for the 2016 fiscal year with a deficit of N2.22tn, and according to the breakdown, N1.8tn was budgeted for capital expenditure and President Buhari is now seeking to borrow over N9tn ($29.96bn) for ‘critical infrastructure’.

“This is absurd and way outside the government’s budgetary provisions for capital expenditure and must be rejected by all well-meaning Nigerians.

“Nigerians will recall that the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in June made public through a press statement an account of recovered looted funds between May 2015 and May 2016 amounting to N78.3bn, $185.1m, £3.5m and €11,250m in cash, while others were under interim forfeiture. What happened to the recovered funds?”

Adeyeye added that the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, recently said that the commission had recovered more money in the last eight months than it did in 12 years.

He said that Nigerians needed to know how much revenue the government had been able to generate from crude oil, non-oil and independent revenue sources since assumption.

The PDP leader said that the clarification would boost the confidence of Nigerians on the management of their resources, especially in this period of recession, and was necessary before thinking of engaging in external borrowing.

“The APC-led Federal Government is again taking Nigeria prior to year 2005 when the external debt burden derailed the growth of Nigeria’s economy and weakened the GDP before the total cancellation of her debt,” he added.
Adeyeye also said that the proposed action of the Federal Government would be a great injustice to the citizens now and in the future if they were plunged back into debt.

He said, “Let us state unequivocally that history will not forgive this APC government and its collaborators if they allow this injustice and maladministration of our economy and citizens to stand.

“We, therefore, call on the two chambers of the National Assembly to reject this anti-people request by an anti-people government that has no genuine interest for the growth and development of the people of this country.

“We again call on all Nigerians to speak with one voice and stop President Buhari from further destroying of our great nation, Nigeria, and by extension, Africa.”

Biafra will never be member of any Islamic body, but will accept Shiite – IPOB

30/Oct/2016

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on Saturday declared that the sovereign state of Biafra when actualised will not be a member of the Organisation of Islamic Countries, OIC, but that it will welcome the Shiite movement.

This was as the secessionist group announced that the constitution of the proposed Republic of Biafra would be a collective responsibility of all the people and not that of an individual as was the case of Nigeria where the former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar wrote the 1999 Constitution and forced Nigerians to accept.

In a statement by its spokesperson, Emma Nmezu and Dr Clifford Chukwuemeka Iroanya, the group also said the Biafra constitution would not make provisions for Sharia.

The statement reads, “The Constitution of Biafra shall be a collective effort of Biafran citizens. Every Biafran will participate in the formulation and ratification of the constitution. No single individual will arrogate the powers to himself/herself to write the nation’s constitution.

“This was the case in Nigeria where General Abdulsalami Abubakar singlehandedly wrote the constitution and falsely stated in the introduction that We the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria…Do hereby make, enact and give to ourselves the following Constitution…
“Nothing can be farther from the truth because the people of Nigeria never came together to discuss, enact and give themselves the constitution. Technically, a constitution is made by the citizens of a nation and not the people; because the people may or may not be the citizens of that nation.

“The blessed nation of Biafra shall never be a member of any Islamic body. Biafra shall maintain its secularity both in principles and in practice unlike the British-created country called Nigeria that professes secularity in principle but a ranking member of OIC in practice.

“Also, citizens will not be forced to practice a particular religion. There will be freedom of worship for adherents of all faiths without molestation. If the persecuted Shiite sect members wish to relocate to Biafraland, we would gladly accommodate them along with other tormented Christians in the North (Arewa land).

The group recently urged the National Assembly to sack President Muhammadu Buhari, citing the rise in human right violation since he was sworn in last year.

We Will Accept Shiite Into Biafra – IPOB
By
Staff Writter -
October 30, 2016 0

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on Saturday declared that the sovereign state of Biafra when actualised will not be a member of the Organisation of Islamic Countries, OIC, but that it will welcome the Shiite movement.

In a statement by its spokesperson, Emma Nmezu and Dr Clifford Chukwuemeka Iroanya, the group also said the Biafra constitution would not make provisions for Sharia.

The statement reads, “The Constitution of Biafra shall be a collective effort of Biafran citizens. Every Biafran will participate in the formulation and ratification of the constitution. No single individual will arrogate the powers to himself/herself to write the nation’s constitution.

“The blessed nation of Biafra shall never be a member of any Islamic body. Biafra shall maintain its secularity both in principles and in practice unlike the British-created country called Nigeria that professes secularity in principle but a ranking member of OIC in practice.

“Also, citizens will not be forced to practice a particular religion. There will be freedom of worship for adherents of all faiths without molestation. If the persecuted Shiite sect members wish to relocate to Biafraland, we would gladly accommodate them along with other tormented Christians in the North (Arewa land).

The group recently urged the National Assembly to sack President Muhammadu Buhari, citing the rise in human right violation since he was sworn in last year.

#FreeNnamdiKanu

Embrace Dialogue Or Face Full Military Force, NAF Warns Militants

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar, has warned Niger Delta militants to dialogue with the Federal Government and embrace peace, otherwise full weight of the law would descend on them.

Air Marshall Abubakar declared this yesterday, while commissioning new blocks of Airmen quarters at the 97 Special Operations Group (SOG) of NAF, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The NAF boss advised militants to stop pipeline vandalism and destruction of oil installations, which have caused environmental pollution and economic damage to the nation’s economy.

Abubakar said NAF placed priority on the training of Air Force personnel, adding that it had groomed over 700 professional.

He said: “I think the Niger Delta problem requires a comprehensive solution.

“Our response is to protect Nigeria and Nigerians and Nigeria’s territory. That is what we are doing. And the whole thing is about ensuring we have professional service.

“Professionalism requires training and about providing for the welfare of the people; that informed this accommodation.

“We have trained over 700 of our personnel in the last one year, in different parts of the world. And all these are about efficiency service. As we take care of training, we also take care of the welfare of the people”, Abubakar noted.

He recalled: “Our message to them is that they should embrace and dialogue with the Federal Government. On our part, we will continue to discharge our constitutional responsibility. We are not unaware of our responsibility. We are doing everything possible to protect Nigerians.

“We will do everything humanly possible to protect lives and ensure peace. The constitution has given us mandate to protect our people. Let them embrace peace; but, if they fail to do that, we have a constitutional responsibility to protect lives”, he declared.

Biafra's must come

This is our own...