The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps will need N310m to feed and administer drugs to dogs that will be deployed in states for the 2019 elections.

The Nigeria Police Force will also require N7m to feed 50 horses that would be used for patrol during the elections which will take place between February 16 and March 2, 2019.

The information is contained in the 2018 virement proposal sent to the National Assembly for the 2019 general election by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The total police budget for the elections stands at N30.5bn; the Office of the National Security Adviser, N4.2bn; the Department of State Services, N12.2bn; NSCDC, N3.5bn and the Nigeria Immigration Service, N2.6bn.

Buhari, in a letter he wrote to the National Assembly on Tuesday, requested a total virement of N228.8bn, largely allocated to new projects “inserted” in the 2018 by the National Assembly to offset part of the proposed cost of funding the 2019 general elections.

The balance of N242bn needed to fund the 2019 elections will be captured in next year’s budget.

According to the details of the 2018 virement request the President submitted to the National Assembly, the NSCDC needs N1.2bn this year to prepare for the elections.

The virement request reads, “Medical and general expenses for dogs, N143,782,000; feeding of dogs: N166,315,000.

“Hiring of speedboats: N499,500,000; welfare packages (contingency of N7,000 per state and FCT) N259m; accommodation allowances for monitors: N185,000,000.”


According to the virement document, police election budget this year stands at N679m, with N7.7m earmarked for feeding of horses and N100m for printing of non-security materials.

The police also asked for N87.5m for the maintenance of aircraft and N407m for maintenance of the vehicles to be used for election monitoring.

The budget states in part, “Feeding of 50 horses: N7, 719, 454; maintenance of existing vehicles for 2019 elections for the period of 20 days: N407, 400, 000.”

In the virement details, the NIS also requested N126m for printing name tags for its personnel that would be involved in the elections while N166m was requested for pre-election training.

The DSS, in the virement request would need N2.9bn to prepare for the polls this year.

The DSS requested N2.2bn for local election and travel allowances while N100m was earmarked for perception management involving stakeholders, political parties and traditional/religious leaders.

About N120m was budgeted for fuelling generators during the elections which will last for 21 days while N100m was set aside for post-election investigations.

In the N1.6bn virement details, the ONSA requested N250m for a national election crisis response exercise involving all security agencies and relevant ministries, departments and agencies.

About N200m was budgeted for the deployment of equipment including satellites while N130m was earmarked for election monitoring.

In his letter which was sent to both chambers of the National Assembly, the President said the figures had been subjected to “the usual budget evaluation.”

The breakdown of INEC’s budget was, however, not stated in the proposal sent to the National Assembly.

Speaking with one of our correspondents recently, however, the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, Prince Solomon Soyebi, had said the commission would require the services of at least one million workers comprising ad hoc workers and INEC employees.

He had also stated that they would all be insured.

Soyebi had stated, “We conduct our elections with many officials. Next year it may be close to a million people. What I want to assure you is that most of the work we do is done by a variety of staff most of whom are ad hoc. INEC has a staff strength of over 16,000.

But two civil society organisations, the Socio-Economic Right and Accountability Project and the Campaign for Democracy, have said the National Assembly must not grant the N229bn virement brought forward by Buhari without seeking clarifications from INEC, the police and other agencies which the funds are earmarked for.

The SERAP Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, said the agencies to share the virement must be invited by the legislature to justify the appropriation before it would be granted.

Mumuni said, “What is important is for the Senate and the House of Representatives to invite INEC and the other agencies to seek clarifications on the sums in the virement.

“The President has said that this money is meant for INEC and to meet the security needs towards the elections. So the next question is that let us confirm from INEC and the security agencies whether such amounts of money are what they submitted to the Presidency.

“Basically, nothing must be done to frustrate the 2019 electoral process. Whatever is needed to ensure a free, fair and credible election must be provided. But what we kick against is the attempt to use the elections to meet other deliberate fraudulent purposes and intentions.”

Also, the CD President, Usman Abdul, said, “The Senate has a duty to embark on a total scrutiny of the funds before approval. This is to ascertain that there is no misappropriation. The National Assembly must cut down unnecessary expenses to ensure that our funds do not end up in political campaigns for 2019.”

Meanwhile, the Centre for Social Justice has called on the National Assembly to exercise its powers by recalling the bill on the amendment to Sections 81 and 121 of the 1999 constitution which stipulates the time frame for budgets.

The Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, said this during a chat with journalists in Abuja.

He said that the bill had been transmitted by the National Assembly to Buhari for over a month, adding that the delay in assenting to the document was an indication that the President was unwilling for it to become a law.

The constitution amendment bill proposes that instead of the old order, where the President and governors present the budget estimates at any time in each financial year, they would now be bound to present same not later than 90 days to the end of the financial year.

The essence of the amendment is to give the legislature adequate time to examine, vet and approve the budget before the end of the presentation year and the beginning of the New Year.

The amendment also proposes a new subsection 1 (a) to the two sections by giving a timeline to the national and state Houses of Assembly to pass the budget for the incoming year before the end of the commencement of the next financial year.

Essentially, budgets will no longer be presented late or approved late like it had happened in the last three years.

The budget will now be ready on or before January 1 of every year.

Onyekpere wondered why a bill that should have checked the incessant delays in the country’s budgeting process had yet to be assented to by the President despite receiving Parliamentary approval.

He said, “If the NASS had given the executive a timeline without prescribing one for itself, the President may have had a defence for his refusal to assent.

“It could have been argued that both the executive and legislature need to regulate themselves by submitting to a constitutional timeline.

“And it would be considered improper for legislators to exempt themselves from the time frame. In this case, no reasonable person can fathom a reason that makes sense in the company of reasonable Nigerians.”

On how the issue should be resolved, Onyekpere said the lawmakers should veto the president by approving the bill so that it could become law.

He said, “The constitution is clear and requires no further elaboration. It is now up to NASS to exercise its powers for the peace, order and good government of Nigeria and override the presidential veto without any further delay.

“Any other course of action will be a great disservice to the long suffering people of Nigeria.

“Nigerians do not expect that the executive-legislative rift should get in the way of such clear headed amendments.

“There must be irreducible minimum levels of cooperation between the two arms of government, no matter the situation; otherwise the government will need to throw in the towel and call for fresh elections under the doctrine of necessity.”

Nollywood Actor, Kenneth Okonkwo, has declared his intentions to run for the position of Enugu State Governor.

The ‘Living In Bondage’ star who declared his ambition some weeks back under the platform of the All Progressive Congress, APC, in Enugu with the immediate past governor of the state, Sullivan Chime, in attendance, has now shared his poster.

“Without God I can do nothing but with Him I can do all things because He strengthens me. Join the wining team. By the grace of God, I am the next Governor of Enugu State.”

A former Military Administrator of Akwa Ibom State, Colonel Yakubu Bako, retd, has revealed what President Muhammadu Buhari will do if he loses the 2019 presidential election.

Col. Bako, who was in charge of Akwa Ibom from December 1993 to August 1996, told Sun that he had no fear that if Buhari loses the election, there might be trouble in Nigeria.

He, however, added that things would be calmer if Buhari hurriedly accepts defeat, adding that with his supporters, there might be trouble if he fails to do so

According to him, “Look Buhari, himself as a person, if he loses the election, he would pack and go back to Daura.

“Buhari as a person would not shed the blood of a chicken to win election. He would not want to shed the blood of an individual to win election. No!

“Like what happened in 2015, if 2019 comes out and he sees he didn’t win the elections and he says ‘yes I have accepted this result,’ there would not be trouble.

Yes, like we had in 2015. If Jonathan had not come out hurriedly to accept the results of the elections, there might have been trouble in some parts of Nigeria.

“My take, therefore, is that the same should apply in 2019. Whosoever loses in the elections should make haste to concede defeat like what we had in 2015.”

The federation accounts allocation committee (FAAC) paid states an excess of N10 billion while sharing bailout funds in 2016, TheCable can report.

This is contained in the recently released annual report of the auditor general of the federation obtained by TheCable.

In 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari approved funds to help governors pay salaries in their various states.

“Our review of records at the FAAC secretariat revealed that under the salary bailout arrangement, the sum of N406,368,202,413.97 was the total principal amount released to state governments that benefited from salary bailout in 2015 and 2016 as recorded in the OAGF summary submitted for audit,” the auditor-general said.

“Whereas audit scrutiny of the documents presented revealed that the actual total principal amount released to the benefiting states were the sum of N416,368,202,413.97, resulting in an overpaid difference of N10,000,000,000.

“The FAAC secretariat is requested to explain this overpayment and take steps to correct its accounting records where appropriate.”

UNDERSTATED REPAYMENTS

States are expected to return the bailout funds because it is a loan facility that will be repaid over a period of 20 years.

However, the auditor-general discovered that the amount to be deducted from Oyo and Cross River states is less than the amount repayable.

“We observed that the computation of the total amount of loan payable by each state on the salary bailout facility was based on the summation of the principal amount and the interest,” he wrote.

“Our examination of the records revealed that for Oyo and Cross River states, the total amount repayable by the two states was understated by N1,895,797,986.24 and N3,571,237,190.24 respectively, resulting to a total understated amount of N5,467,035,176.48.”

“The accountant-general of the federation has been requested to explain the reasons for the reduction in monthly deductions for the two states, and where necessary, recompute the monthly deductions to arrive at the appropriate monthly deductions that would clear the accounts in 240 months.”

Anthony Ayine, the auditor-general, is required by Section 85 (5) of the constitution to submit the report on the audit of the accountant-general’s financial statements to the national assembly within 90 days of receipt of the statements from the accountant-general.

In the executive summary, Ayine wrote: “The Financial Statements of the Federal Government for the year ended 31st December, 2016 were first submitted to me by the Accountant-General of the Federation on 30th June, 2017. Following my preliminary observations, the Statements were significantly amended and resubmitted on 29th September, 2017. Further amendments to the Financial Statements led to another re-submission on 29th December, 2017 and 16th January, 2018 before the final version was eventually submitted on 20th March, 2018.”

Source: The Cable

The tragic death of a young wife has left her husband devastated. The deceased identified as Hindatu Yahaya, was said to have gotten married three days before she was swept away in the massive flood which wrecked havoc in Jibia town in Katsina.

According to Katsina Post, the heartbroken husband, Malam Sani Yahaya, revealed on Wednesday (yesterday) that the corpse of his young wife was recovered in Niger Republic. Yahaya said that the flood occurred on Monday night at about 2:00am, cleared his house and took away his wife.

The emotional man said; “the Corpse of my missing wife was retrieved at Girka village in Mada-Rumfa town of Niger Republic,” he said, with emotions flowing in his voice. “We searched in the river and rubles of the collapse walls of my house and the houses of our neighbours but could not locate her.

“As we are searching, we got a phone call from people that are helping us in Mada-Rumfa town of Niger Republic, that the corpse of a young woman has been retrieved from the river that pass through their town.

“We rushed to the town and discovered that it was the remains of my wife that was fished out of the river. “We collected her dead body and brought her back to Jibia town, where we buried her in accordance with Islamic injunctions” he said.

Yahaya said that for past three days, he had not been able to eat because of the trauma of missing his new wife that was with him for only three days.

Some police officers stormed a Nigerian restaurant in China over an undisclosed purpose. In a trending video footage posted online, the officers can be seen walking around the restaurant in what looks like an inspection as a man who was about eating his local dish (garri and soup) was interrupted during the 'invasion'....

According to multiple unconfirmed reports by various internet users, the Chinese government is planning to close down some African restaurants in the country with the clampdown on illegality and criminality which has been associated with Africans, intensified.

The former Chairman of Akugbe Ventures and member of the All Progressives Congress in Edo State, Comrade Tony Adun also known as Tony Kabaka has reiterated his earlier position that Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki has neglected those who worked for his success during the 2016 governorship election.

Watch the interesting video above:

There is palpable fear in Rivers state following the arrest of over 20 Northern youths  who smuggled over 50 cows with 27 recorded dead in a truck with registration number (RGM 104 XA), through Adamawa, Okigwe routes to Igwuruta in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.

Hon. Engr Samuel Nwanosike JP, the Executive chairman, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, swam into action by contacting Igwuruta Division of   Nigerian police for immediate arrest and investigation.

Hon. Nwanosike also contacted Dr. Ekanam, Director Primary Health Care and Dr. Joy Wohioka, who is in charge of Health Care, Ikwerre Local government area of the state, to join force with the police for proper investigation.

The ugly development have infused palpable fear on the  residents of the LGA

Numerous Kelga residents who spoke off camera, were of the opinion that the development has political under tone and therefore called on the government not to sweep the investigation under the carpet.

It was revealed that over four cows among the dead had been distributed and sold for public consumption before the arrival of security agents.

Former minister of Education and campaigner of #BBOG has taken to the socia media to criticize the move by the Fedral Government to float a national carrier -

The Nigerian Air. In a series of tweets the former minister called it a monumental waste and clearly a wrong priority by the Fedral Government. In her words, "..The proposed national carrier is clearly WRONG. It shall FAIL, for the sake of the country, it must FAIL."

Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue state, says efforts are in place to resolve the issues he has with the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Ortom said this less than 24 hours after meeting with leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara state.

On Thursday, he met with Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the APC, in Abuja and spoke with journalists biefly.

“I am here in APC; a member of APC. I am still flying the flag of APC. I only said I was given a red card but the leadership of the party told me that the decision of the party leadership at the national level is superior to any individual and I think that is good enough,” he said.

“Stakeholders are going to be consulted… we have not concluded the matter, it is an ongoing process because I have always stood for peace and I always want peace to prevail. I appreciate the intervention and I hope that we would be able to resolve the matter of differences and this is the funny thing about politics.”

Apart from Ortom, Abdulfatah Ahmed and Aminu Tambuwal, his Kwara and Sokoto counterparts, also met with leaders of the opposition party.

Muyideen Akorede, spokesman of Ahmed, later said the APC governors met PDP leaders at the burial of the mother of Kawu Baraje, leader of the nPDP.

He, however, made it clear that the governor was considering leaving the APC.

nPDP pulled out of the PDP in the buildup of the 2015 election. The bloc teamed up with APC to dislodge the former ruling party in 2015.

Senate President Bukola Saraki, Uche Secondus, national chairman of PDP and Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, were among those who attended the Ilorin meeting.

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A 34-year-old Nigerian national, Kingsley Otuya was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for his part fraud, money laundering and romance schemes in Austin, Texas that netted more than $1 million.
One of Otuya's victims killed herself after losing hundreds of thousands of dollars and being "emotionally devastated" by the romance scam, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said on Tuesday, July 17.
Multiple victims faced serious financial hardship as a result of the schemes. According to court documents, Otuya used an online dating profile to target at least one of the victims.
“This case brutally illustrates how fraud schemes hurt victims not only financially but also emotionally,” said U.S. Attorney John F. Bash. “We will remain steadfast in our efforts to protect Americans from transnational criminal conspiracies.”
Otuya pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in April 2018.
Authorities began investigating him as part of a series of investigations in Austin into the activities of West African fraud schemes, officials said.
Acting as a "catcher," Otuya would quickly withdraw fraudulently obtained funds from bank accounts where the victims had deposited money, and would then send the money to his co-conspirators before victims tried to recover their funds.
Authorities said he used fake passports to open nine different bank accounts under false names in Austin and often withdrew $10,000 or less to avoid bank reporting requirements.
Otuya was paid a fee for the fraud proceeds that went through his accounts, the U.S. attorney's office said.
Court records show Otuya will likely be deported back to Nigeria following his prison term.
He has been ordered to pay more than $966,000 and be placed under supervised release for three years after he is released.