CBN extends deadline for bank number registration

The Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday announced the extension of the deadline for Bank Verification Number (BVN), registration exercise to October 31, 2015.

The Director, Banking and Payments System Department of the CBN, Dipo Fatokun, said it had become imperative that the deadline for the registration be extended from June 30, 2015 to enable a smooth completion for all customers, particularly those in the Diaspora.

In a memo to all deposit money banks, Mr. Fatokun said the extension became necessary following the tremendous interest elicited from bank customers who crowded banking halls in order to beat the deadline for the registration.

The director said the decision was informed by the need to give Nigerian Banks’ customers in the Diaspora ample opportunity to enrol, pointing out that the guidelines for the enrolment were being finalized pending release soon.

The implementation of the BVN was launched February 2014, followed circulars that stipulated that all DMBs customers should, by June 30, 2015, have their bio-metric data captured.

“Any bank customer without the BVN attached to the account would be deemed to have inadequate requirement with respect to the Know Your Customer guidelines,” Mr. Fatokun said.

Since the commencement of the exercise, registration has been going on to enable bank capture the biometric data of their customers as part of CBN directive to ensure an effective banking and payment system in the country’s banking industry.

Former CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi, who launched the BVN in Lagos, said it was designed to ensure safety of funds and to check losses of customers’ deposits through the compromise of their personal identification numbers.

PRESIDENT BUHARI PROMISES REFORMS IN OIL & GAS SECTOR

President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday restated his administration’s promise to initiate appropriate reforms and implement policies to boost income from the oil and gas industry.

Speaking at separate meetings with delegations from ExxonMobil and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company, President Buhari listed the removal of bureaucratic bottlenecks created by multiple government agencies that currently impede the operations of companies in the oil and gas sector as one of the reforms to be undertaken by his administration.

The President said that his government would also give priority attention to the security of oil and gas installations as well as maritime security in its bid to boost national earnings from the sector.

“It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to secure the environment. The vandalism of oil installations and pipelines, piracy, oil theft and the fall in the international price of oil have made our economic situation very disturbing.

“This government will do all within its powers to secure the environment and encourage more investments in the oil sector,’’ President Buhari said, adding that his administration would ensure that Nigeria’s oil and gas industry quickly became more globally competitive.

Assuring the NLNG delegation of his administration’s full support for plans to expand the total production capacity of the company, the President regretted that political squabbles and interference in the past had prevented it from attaining its full potentials.

“Today, we are celebrating six trains. It could have been 12 trains if all had gone according to plan,” President Buhari said.

The NLNG delegation included the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Joseph Dawha, and the Managing Director of NLNG, Babs Omotowa.

Mr. Omotowa requested the President’s support for Train seven of the NLNG, which, he said would create additional 18,000 construction jobs and an additional three billion dollars dividend to government when operational.

He also asked for the President’s intervention in reducing the number of multiple government agencies around the plant that have made its business globally uncompetitive.

Premium Times

ARGENTINE ENGINEER KIDNAPPED IN NIGERIA: ‘LIONEL MESSI SAVED MY LIFE’

A 28-year-old Argentine agricultural engineer, recently liberated from abduction likely committed by nomadic criminal groups in Nigeria, told his family to thank soccer superstar Lionel Messi for saving his life. 

The athlete’s name, claims Santiago López Menéndez, was the only way he could communicate to his captors that he was Argentine and not American.

López was abducted in Niger State last Wednesday, while working for Flour Mills, allegedly by a truck full of heavily-armed criminals. His captors barely spoke English, much less Spanish, and López found himself with limited resources to communicate with them and understand why he had been kidnapped and what they wanted.

Multiple attempts to explain to his captors that he was from Argentina, not the United States, failed, according to López’s brother. It was not until he began to shout, “Messi, Messi, Messi,” that the captors understood his meaning. López, now currently safe in the Argentine embassy in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, noted that following the communication breakthrough, he was no longer subject to beatings and deprivation of water or food, and his captors made quick contact with the Argentine embassy to demand a ransom. “Tell them to thank Messi for me,” López told his brother from Nigeria to tell the press, “mentioning his name saved my life.”

Upon being freed, his brother—currently working in Sierra Leone—told Argentine newspaper Clarín, he was forced to “walk more than 150 kilometers” and “drink water from puddles” until he was found.

The prime suspects of López’s kidnapping, upon the news of his capture were, of course, the jihadist terror group Boko Haram, though the area near the Nigerien border where he was abducted does not boast a very strong Boko Haram presence.

Now that López is safe, thanks to a payment of unknown quantity to the kidnappers, Argentina’s ambassador to Nigeria has stated that they do not believe Boko Haram was involved in his capture. “This is not an area where there is a very visible Islamist presence,” said Gustavo Dzugala, “and they have not made any political statements to us. This [kidnapping] has all the characteristics of a criminal group demanding ransom.”

López’s family and the Argentine government have not released the price they had to pay to save López, though reports before his release indicated that the group had demanded $500,000 to return him to safety.

BREITBART

Nigeria's Central Bank lowers FX peg, naira falls in black market

LAGOS, June 30 (Reuters) - Nigeria's central bank inched its exchange rate peg lower on Tuesday while domestic investors worried about a slide in the naira pushing inflation higher switched out of bonds into short-dated paper, traders said.

The naira slid to 228 to the dollar on the parallel market on Tuesday, down 0.88 percent from the previous day, while the yield on the 2024 bond in the JP Morgan Government Bond Index (GBI-EM) rose 40 basis point to 14.74 percent.

The central bank moved its naira peg to 196.95 against the dollar on Tuesday from 196.90 naira it set last week, the fourth time it has tweaked the peg since it was introduced in February.

Traders said the move may indicate that the bank is beginning to think about how to loosen its currency regime.

"There is no change to FX policy, therefore the locals are getting a bit nervous thinking that offshore investors will not be coming back any time soon," said Kevin Daly, portfolio manager at Aberdeen asset management.

"Effectively, the bond market is starting to price in a much wider move on the currency," he said.

Traders said on Monday the negative outlook for inflation , which is hovering around the central bank's upper limit of 9 percent, was one reason why local investors were selling bonds.

The most liquid 5-year bond yield rose to 14.95 percent, up from 14.71 percent the day before the bank unveiled the currency rules last week, but below 15.5 percent on the eve of the presidential election in March.

On the interbank market, the naira traded $50.15 million, with bulk of the trades executed at the new central bank rate of 196.95, traders said.

Another trader said the central bank may be trying to gauge the level at which it can defend the naira, but noted the bank was running low on ammunitions to do this.

Foreign reserves in Africa's top oil producer declined to $29 billion as of June 26, the central bank said, down from $29.6 billion at the end of May and 22.1 percent lower than a year ago.

Last week the bank, seeking to conserve dollar reserves, stopped importers from accessing hard currency from the interbank market, further tightening liquidity and adding to market jitters.

JP Morgan has warned it may remove Nigeria from its Government Bond Index by the end of the year unless Africa's biggest economy restored liquidity to currency markets in a way that allowed foreign investors tracking the benchmark to transact with minimal hurdles. 

(Additional reporting by Oludare Mayowa in Lagos and Sujata Rao in London; Editing by David Clarke and James Macharia)

Revealed: NNPC GENERATES N8.1 TRILLION IN THREE YEARS; PAID ONLY N4.3 TRILLION INTO FEDERATION ACCOUNT; SQUANDERS N3.8 TRILLION

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, generated about N8.1trillion between 2012 and May 2015, but paid only N4.3trillion to the federation account, Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, said Monday, citing new details from the federal economic council meeting.

The balance of the oil money — about N3.8trillion — was withheld and spent by the NNPC unilaterally without approval or National Assembly appropriation, the governor told journalists.

Also, the governor confirmed at the meeting that from November 2014, about $2.1billion was withdrawn from the excess crude account without the approval of the National Economic Council, NEC.

Mr. Oshiomhole, who, alongside the governors of Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, and Zamfara governor, Abdulazeez Yari, briefed journalists, said following the discovery, the NEC has set up a four-member committee to comb the books of the NNPC to confirm its remittances and how the excess crude account was utilised.

President Muhammadu Buhari dissolved the board of the NNPC on Friday, to pave way for full investigation of the corporation.

Mr. Oshiomhole said Monday’s meeting was the first time the NNPC and the office of the Accountant General of the Federation, briefed the National Economic Council, as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The governor said Mr. Buhari “compelled” the NNPC to provide information in “black and white” on issues relating to the total sales of Nigeria’s crude oil from 2012 to May 2015.

“This has never happened before and for us this is profound. We are talking about transparency, we are talking about change. And what we saw from those numbers I believe that Nigerians are entitled to know, is that whereas the NNPC claimed to have earned N8.1 trillion, what NNPC paid into the federation account from 2012 to May 2015 was N4.3trillion.

“What it means is that NNPC withheld and spent N3.8 trillion.

“The major revelation here is that for the entire federation — that is the federal government, the states and all the 774 local governments — the amount the NNPC paid into the federation account for distribution to this three tiers of government came to N4.3 trillion and NNPC alone took and spent N3.8 trillion. Which means the cost of running NNPC is much more than the cost of running the Federal Government. That tells you how much is missing, what is mismanaged, what is stolen, they are huge figures.”

He said it had become clear that the NNPC had not respected the Constitution on how government money should be spent.

“If NNPC needs to spend money, it is obliged to prepare its budget like every other business

enterprise. That budget will be scrutinized by the executive and forwarded to the National Assembly and the National Assembly will accordingly appropriate it.

“If the federal government cannot spend without appropriation, why should any agency spend without appropriation?”

Mr. Oshiomhole said President Buhari promised that henceforth, all monies must go to the federation account.

“What you need you budget for, Nigeria cannot continue with you earn the money and spend it. Where is transparency? Where is the role of the National Assembly? So if you were doing that you won’t have a situation where the NNPC alone will spend N3.8 trillion and remit to the federal, states and local governments N4.3 trillion which means NNPC is taking about 47 per cent and that explains all the leakages you are talking about.”

He said parastatals must return to spending on a budget.

“We are not reinventing the wheel, that is the way it used to be and that is the way the constitution says it should”

EXCESS   CRUDE ACCOUNT

The Edo governor also disclosed $2.1 billion was withdrawn from $4.1 billion reported to be in the excess crude account as at November 2014 without the approval of the National Economic Council (NEC). The account now has $2.0bilion.

“We looked at the numbers for the Excess crude account, the last time the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy reported to the Council and it is in the minute, she reported by November 2014, that we had $4.1 billion.

“But today the Accountant General Office reported we have $2.0 billion. Which means the Honourable Minister spent $2.1billion without authority of the NEC. And that money was not distributed to states, it was not paid to the three tiers of government. This is why the NEC has set up a panel to look at what accrued, what it was spent for, when and by whom. So that Nigerians will have the full picture of all the transactions as regards the much talked about Excess crude,” Mr. Oshiomhole said.

The four-member committee, which consists of the governors of Edo, Gombe, Kaduna and Akwa Ibom states.

Explaining further, Kaduna State Governor, Mr. El-Rufai, noted that the Federal Government had in the last year been unilaterally withdrawing from the excess crude account without consulting the other owners.

According to him “The Excess Crude account was started by President Olusegun Obasanjo around

2004-2005.

“It was an administrative arrangement to save for a rainy day. And it was meant to have very clear accountability such that every state and local government, in a particular state knows their balance in the Excess Crude Account, though you can’t spend it but you know how much of it is yours.

“That was the arrangement. And in those days, before we spend any money from the Excess Crude Account, the federal and states governments will meet and agree. That is how we agreed to build the seven power stations which is NIPP today, it was from Excess Crude Account. And we also met and agreed to build the Lagos – Kano Standard Gauge Rail Line from the Excess Crude Account.

“But what we have seen, in the last few months or years is that the Excess Crude Account was operated unilaterally by the federal government, drawings were made unilaterally without consulting those that actually own the money because the Excess Crude Account is 52 percent owned by the federal government and 48 by the states and LGA.

“So the decision of the NEC is to set up this committee of four to look at the operations of the Excess Crude Account and make recommendations to council on its future.

“The other thing the committee will do is to look at the operations of the federation accounts particularly the shortfall and again come back to council with very clear recommendations as to what to do.

“We have not been given a time frame but as you can imagine states government are under pressure, many of our state governments are unable to pay salaries on time without recourse to borrowing, so this is very important to us. This is an all governors committee, we wear the shoes we know where it pinches. So we are going to do this as quickly as possible,” he said.

The Council’s next meeting of the council is on July 23rd, and Mr. El- Rufai said he hopes the committee will complete its work and be in position to report to council on that day.

Zamfara governor, Abdulazeez Yari, said the council also agreed that the Federal Government in conjunction with the Central Bank, will see how to support financially ailing states.

PREMIUMTIMES

Israel Confirms It Was Cyber Attack Target

By Barbara Opall

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon confirmed Wednesday that Israel was the target of cyber attacks by Iran during last summer's Gaza war and by Hezbollah, which reportedly ran an operation going back three years.

Speaking at an international cyber security conference at Tel Aviv University, Ya'alon insisted "no significant damage" was inflicted by Iranian operatives, terror organizations and hackers who targeted government, military and economic sites during the July-August 2014 Operation Protective Edge.

He also confirmed for the first time findings from Tel Aviv-based Check Point Software Technologies, which reported to its clients in March that Israel, several Western countries and other Mideast states had since 2012 been targets of a sustained cyber spying campaign that the company believed was run out of Lebanon.

At the time, Check Point did not specifically name Hezbollah as the culprit for the cyber spying campaign, which the company dubbed "Volatile Cedar." It only noted that command-and-control servers supporting malware activities were traced to a hosting company in Lebanon, while several other servers were registered with "a very similar" Lebanese address. According to the cyber security and information technology firm, the campaign was based on Trojan horse computer malware planted in its targets, which was activated to collect data over extended periods.

"Monitoring these cyber infections was very challenging, due to the numerous ways in which they were disguised by the hackers," the Check Point report noted.

But Ya'alon, in his Wednesday address, flagged Hezbollah for the Trojan horse penetrating cyber campaign. "A few months ago it was reported that activities by Israeli security specialists uncovered and destroyed a Trojan horse planted in Israeli systems by, according to the report, the Hezbollah organization," he said.

"Today it's obvious that the cybernetic field is a war-fighting domain in and of itself, which includes defense and offense. While conventional warfare is conducted in geographic theaters and on land, sea, air and even space, this domain knows no borders. The cyber domain has no geographic boundaries," Ya'alon said.

More than 10 years ago, as then-Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, Ya'alon recalled, he authorized the establishment of the C4I Branch as part of the IDF General Staff.

Last week, he approved a decision by Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, IDF chief of staff, to establish a Cyber Command within two years that would integrate defensive operations and developments now performed by the C4I Branch with collection and offensive operations performed by Unit 8200 and other sectors of Military Intelligence.

"The capabilities and the requirements of today oblige us to make organizational changes and to stand up this new command," Ya'alon said.

Source:DEFENCE NEWS

BUHARI DISSOLVES NNPC BOARD

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the immediate dissolution of the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC).

The decision was conveyed in a letter, dated June 26, 2015, signed by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Danladi Kifasi.

The letter quoted President Buhari as thanking members of the dissolved board for their services to the nation.

The NNPC is the state-run oil company which oversees Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. It’s board is statutorily headed by the minister of petroleum resources.

The corporation regulates the oil and gas sector, and also operates as a joint venture partner representing the government in deals with oil multinationals.

The NNPC has in recent years been accused of large scale corruption, the latest being the alleged disappearance of $20 billion oil money.

An independent audit ordered by the Nigerian government in 2014 concluded that the corporation has an outstanding $1.48 billion to pay to the government.

The NNPC has yet to make the payment several months after the release of the audit report.

BUHARI APPOINTS NEW ACCOUNTANT GENERAL OF THE FEDERATION

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Ahmed Idris as the new Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), a statement said.

The statement on Thursday, signed by Haruna Imrana, the Director Communications, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, said the appointment took effect immediately.

“`The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation Barrister Danladi Kifasi who announced the appointment said that the appointment is with effect from 25th of June 2015,” the statement said.

It said the new AGF who hails from Kano State, was born on Nov. 25, 1960, and was until his appointment, the Director of Finance and Accounts, Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.

The position of AGF became vacant after the former Accountant General, Jonah Otunla, resigned on June 12.

The Office of the Head of Service later conducted examinations for prospective candidates for the position.

All Directors of Finance and Accounts and some in the Audit department, from all the Ministries, numbering over 60, attended the first round of examination.

NOW THAT CHANGE HAS COME

By Anthony OMOH

"People should not be afraid of their governments;   governments should be afraid of their people.”

The immortal words of writer,   Alan Moore, which proved instructive given the outcome of the April general elections in Nigeria and the role played by the electorates, who made their voices heard en masse and voted in a new era.

Same way the people should be commended for standing up and entrenching their collective will through the democratic process is the same way they should be reminded that it is not enough to vote out a leadership but equally important to keep their preferred government on their toes, doing the right thing at all times.

However, when I use the word government, people from all walks of life erroneously tend to equate it with the Executive arm alone but if our democracy is to thrive, the people should hold all arms of government, Executive, Legislature and Judiciary responsible.

More so, the Legislature as we may not be directly in control of what the Executive does and the Judiciary is there to mediate and interpret for the above duo.

People must realize that the same way they were able to effect change in the leadership of the country is the same way they can determine how successful the country is run by making input through the arm that gives them a voice- the Legislature.

Where we can effect change or make our voices heard is through the National Assembly. There, we can channel our thoughts and make the elected national assembly members debate on our ideas and turn them to positive bills that will be transformed into laws that will move this country forward .

It should no longer be business as usual in the NASS as there is the need for concerted efforts to ensure that legislators  do the bidding of those who elected them in and not seek personal gratification because for Nigeria to move forward, things that will improve the lives of the masses need to be propagated.

Meaningful Bills should be passed into laws[Acts]  and not endless probes that will do no good. In fact all the probes that have been carried out since 1999 at the inception of this nascent  democracy  point to one that have not  led to people being held accountable.

From the power probe to the subsidy probe which eventually led to another probe of the lawmakers involved, all swept under the rug. I think Nigerians deserve a better deal than the fraud of the last assembly that could come up with just ...in four years and this is me being conservative as most of them have been there for 16years without even generating a bill.

Members of this 8th Assembly should know that they stand on the threshold of taking Nigeria above the horizon by working with the executive to legislate and implement laws that will show Nigerians that they have their best interests at heart and not to fight over committees membership, or where bread are buttered.

In fact, one way to show good fate is for the legislators on their own accord to move for the reduction of their take home and the take home across board (executive and judiciary) as the money accrued to the out gone 7th National Assembly in comparison with their productivity  was ridiculous.

To say that in four years they could only pass 108 of 1,068 sponsored bills brought to their attention is even  shameful.  Funny still, this NASS after living their lives at the expense of Nigerians went on to pass 46 bills in one hour of their valedictory session.

This is unacceptable and this 8th Assembly needs to be proactive and in the case where they monumentally mess up, they can and should be recalled by the electorates  who put them there because in truth everyone needs to be involved in moving this country forward.

Just as legislatures pride themselves in their powers to impeach the president as was almost the case during the President Olusegun Obasanjo and even President Goodluck Jonathan era, where they kept on appending signatures to impeachment notices, they should also be reminded that they too can be recalled by the electorate.

Not a usual practice in this neck of the woods but it is in the constitution and serves as a deterrent to legislators, a form of who watches the watchmen because in truth, these lawmakers are elected not just to answer the nomenclature of legislator, but to affect the lives of their people.

Many people would say 'no, it can't be done they won't listen', but I say thee nay... According to Chapter V of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, Section 69 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria : A member of the Senate or of the House Representatives may be recalled as such a member if -

(a) there is presented to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission a petition in that behalf signed by more than one-half of the persons registered to vote in that member's constituency alleging their loss of confidence in that member; and
(b) the petition is thereafter, in a referendum conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission within ninety days of the date of receipt of the petition, approved by a simple majority of the votes of the persons registered to vote in that member's constituency.

We, the electorates, have proven with our resolve that what we want must be, no matter whose ox is gored and with this realization we must admit that we cannot continue to allow this country to deal with the trivia and allow the few, without our permission, derail us.

Everyone should be kept on their toes, not just the president and as I said earlier, it may not have happened in this clime before but there is a first time for everything and this is an idea, just like the idea of change, ideas are bulletproof.

If you have been  opportune to see the movie where I got that idea quote from, V for Vendetta and you have seen beyond the surface you will understand why it is a people that move a nation forward through sheer determination and will and not what a sect or political party say.

A lot of emphasis has to be placed on the people here because as a people we do not know the kind of power we wield but a glimpse of it was wielded when we single handedly toppled a party that promised to rule us no matter what we do for 50 years.

That is the kind of power we wield and knowing that the president is true to his words that he will allow the rule of law prevail no matter what, you can be rest assured that if the electorate follow the constitution and do a recall it will sail through because in truth government is an act of service and if we don't get that service we reserve the right to recall whoever is a clog to the wheel of progress.

Instead of criticizing at newspaper stands  and arguing and fighting ourselves, we can take a pen,  laptop or iPad and write to the national assembly on issues bothering you, knowing fully well that these are letters that will be read on the floor of the house, investigated and discussed upon.

Our assembly should not be a rubber stamp always looking for where it would suit them and there will be no change the minute we look away while those we voted into office after much pleading and promises continue recklessly trampling on us without the realization that for every action there is a proportionate reaction

On the Executive, already many have started saying that the president has not hit the ground running and that certain issues still persists from the terrorism in the North East to the subsidy situation that grounded this country to a halt for a month while the last administration rounded off.

There is the question of  why he has travelled to every summit on earth since inauguration, but he needs some of these consultations and the best time to negotiate anything good for a country is during the inception of a new government.

Then there is the distraction of who he picks as a minister and how soon as time is far spent  all these are well and good but I doubt if we want to make the same mistake of putting just about anybody who waves a party flag in office forgetting what party flags did to the last administration forcing the president to inactivity.

We are all involved in this change we are canvassing, every analyst, every political watcher, every man that goes to the newsstands to argue about who did what when, where, why and how in this polity called Nigeria .

There has always been this adage with the fish, if the head is rotten, the body obviously is but now we have a rare opportunity to change a lot in this country and we have an elderly gentleman whom Nigerians in their millions agree is incorruptible so naturally the political class would try to fall in line.

Plus now we have an electoral process we can improve upon that will enable us to elect our choice without fear or favour ,  a dynamic and intellectually growing electorate that know that we all as Nigerians are the grass that suffer the consequences of bad governance .

So, if the president against all expectations , does not do well and I say this with all modesty that I believe he would, Nigerians have an opportunity to vote him out if he decides he wants another term in office.

I do not know the man and have not met or interacted with him directly as I have other presidents as a journalist but I know of his antecedents and I believe him to be a unique politician and one who is not just angling to rule this country but serve it the way he served the military and carve his name not in the sands but in the concrete of time.

Sincerely speaking, the change we have craved all these long years which we are about to experience is one that needs our input, our commitment and our collective will to ensure that Nigerians are not taken once again for a merry ride at the expense of some.

The change we are about to experience means that Nigerians will have to dig deep, be innovative, and be prepared to face challenges because the road to the desired  result  is tumultuous and goes beyond folding our arms and  expecting  President Mohammed Buhari (PMB)  to wave a magic wand and make all our woes go away.



Anthony Patrick Omoh is a Journalist and wrote in from Lagos

MAJOR CHANGES IN NNPC TOP MANAGEMENT

The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has approved major changes in the Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) The movements of the Management personnel are as listed below   S/NO NAME CURRENT POSITION NEW POSITION GMD’S OFFICE 1 Isa Inuwa GM, Finance NAPIMS Acting GGM, Audit 2 Bello B. Rabiu Mgr/TA to GMD GM/TA to GMD GAS AND POWER 3 Engr. V. Mukoro MD, NGC Acting Coordinator 4 Farouk G. Said GM, GAS NAPIMS Acting GGM, GAS 5 Mr. S. O. Ndukwe Mgr. NGC, Plasnning GM, Gas Devt. 6 Buhari Bello GM, LNG Acting GGM, LNG 7 Gabby Meheux GM, GMD’s Office GM, LNG 8 Bashir Koko MD, Hyson DMD, NLNG CORPORATE PLANNING AND STRATEGY 9 Dr. Tim Okon GGM, Strategy Director of Corp. Transformation & GGM, Corp. Planning & Strategy 10 Abdussalam Shehu Mgr. Strategy GMD’s Office GM, Corp. Strategy 11 Mrs. E. Olubanjo GM, ERID, CPDD GM, Econ Res and Data Mgt 12 C. I. Eke Mgr. OKLNG Planning GM, Corp. Planning FINANCE AND ACCOUNTS 13 AbdulMalik Aminu GM, GGA, F&A Acting GGM, Accounts 14 Ahmadu Sambo Acting GGM, Finance GGM, Finance 15 Muazu A. S. Acting GM, Budget & Project GM, Budget & Proj 16 O. A. Adabonyan Mgr Finance PPMC GM, Method & Procedure 17 Godwin Okonkwo Mgr Planning Brass LNG GM, GM, Grp. Gen Acct CORPORATE SERVICES (GHR) 18 Auwalu Abubakar MD, Nidas Acting GGM, GHR 19 Mr. R. S. Ambibi  EDS NETCO EDS WRPC 20 Donatus Odum  GM, HR, Nidas  EDS KRPC 21 Timoty Bamaiyi GM, GHR EDS NETCO 22 Ken Nwanze GM, ISD EDS Hyson 23 Mrs. M. Sani  GM, GAS GM, GHR 24 Mal. I. Y. Bawa Mgr. HR KRPC   GM, GAS 25 S. Ademola Raji Mgr Comm. NGC GM, London Office ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY 26 Kenneth Ejuoneatse GM, GMMD Acting MD, NETCO 27 Musa Bamanga  GM, NCD Acting GGM, ETD 28 Mrs. Dupe Akindele GM, CTQD Acting GGM, RED 29 Mr. A. Odusina GM, E&P, R&D Acting GGM, R&D 30 S. O. Akinboyo  Mgr. LNG&P GM, Tech. RED 31 Don Aholo Mgr. IT PPMC GM, ISD 32 Uthman Muhammed GM, London Office GM, GMMD 33 Dr. A. O. Adewale EDO, NETCO GM, Proj Engineering ETD 34 I. B. Olaoye GM, Rev. COMD GM, Tech Services ETD 35 Rabiu Suleiman  Mgr. HSE NLNG  GM, Env. & Safety COMMERCIAL AND INVESTMENT 36 Isiaka AbdulRazaq  GGM, Special Projects Finance  GGM, NNPC Capital 37 Dr. M. K. Baru GGM, NAPIMS GGM, NNPC Services 38 M. M. Bello GGM, Special Projs. (GMD) NiGaz Nigeria Ltd 39 A. M. Raji   Planning Mgr COMD  GM, GED’s Office NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIVISION 40 Mr. Sam Okeke MD, Nikorma Acting GGM 41 Tayo Sokunbi  Mgr. BDD, CPDD GM, Upstream – (New Bus) 42 M. A. Babalola GM, Downstream (Inv. Div)  GM, Downstream (New Bus) 43 Mrs. Amina Abdullahi  GGM Invt GGM, Property Division 44 Mr. E. A. Ejekam GM, PID GM, Property Dev. 45 Mrs. E. Coker  GM, CPD  GM, Property Invt PPMC 46 Basil O. Odigie GM, Proj Engineering ETD EDO 47 Faruk Ahmed  Mgr. Pro & Nomination  EDC 48 Zubairu Aliyu Mgr. F&A NETCO   EDF CRUDE OIL MARKETING DIVISION 49 Faruk Bello EDC, PPMC  Acting GGM 50 Musa Usman Mgr Duke Oil London GM, S&T 51 G. Jeddy Agba Mgr. Sales & Marketing GM, Commercials 52 Mr. U. Egbe   GM, COSM RETAIL 53 Dr. R. O. Ajiboye GM, S&T COMD GGM, Retail HYSON 54 Aisha Abdurrahman EDS MD REFINING AND PETROCHEMICALS 55 Abdulahi Dandume GM, Tech Serv. ETD EDO KRPC 56 Adebayo Ibirogba GM, BDD, CPDD  Acting GGM Greenfield REFINING AND PETROCHEMICALS 57 Muhammed Said Aliyu  EDO, NGC Acting MD, NGC 58 Mr. O. Olaosebikan Acting MD, NPDC MD, NPDC   59 G. A. Ahanmisi   Mgr. Planning NAPIMS EDO, NGC 60 S. O. Babatunde GM, Greenfield  EDO, NETCO NAPIMS 61 Dr. Ayo Balogun GGM, New Bus (C&I)   GGM 62 P. D. Ajisafe Mgr Proj Gas NAPIMS GM, GAS   63 M. A. Fiddi    ED, JDA GM, PSC 64 H S. Tahir Mgr. JV (MM) GM, MMD, NAPIMS 65 M. A. Agbuza  Mgr. JV NAPIMS  GM, JV, NAPIMS RETIREMENT FROM SERVICE S/NO NAME CURRENT POSITION 1 Mrs Lillian Adegbite GGM, GHR 2 Sola Alabi GGM Greenfield Refineries Proj 3 Suleiman Achimugu  GGM, RED 4 Chuks Onuoha   GGM, ITD 5 Mrs Zainab Abdurrahman GGM, Retail 6 M. A. Agoro STA Downstream GMD 7 George Osahon GGM, NCD 8 M. O. Oti GM, Downstream Invt 9 M. O. Bajomo GGM, Marketing, COMD 10 G. O. Ahrore GM, Retail, C&I 11 C. N. Chukwuka GM, JV NAPIMS 12 A.O. Adeyemo  GM, PSC NAPIMS 13 E. C. Nwabufo Mgr. Gas NAPIMS 14 S. Oyegun   EDO PPMC 15 G. Etare EDF PPMC   According to the President, the ongoing changes are in response to the enormous challenges of survival and growth of the NNPC. The appointments and retirements take immediate effect.

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GECAS Regional Aircraft Group Delivers 1st of 3 New ATR 72-600s to New Customer, Alliance Air

GE Capital Aviation Services Limited (GECAS), the commercial aircraft leasing arm of GE, today announced delivery of a new ATR 72-600 aircraft to its new customer Alliance Air.Two additional aircraft are scheduled for delivery in 2015. All three aircraft are part of GECAS’ existing order book with ATR.

Alliance Air is a subsidiary of Air India and currently operates a fleet of 9 aircraft to more than 25 domestic destinations.

Formed in 2000, GECAS Regional Aircraft Group leases nearly 400 turboprop and regional jet aircraft to airline customers worldwide. Among leading industry lessors, GECAS has the broadest product mix of turboprop and regional aircraft in the world including ATR, Bombardier and Embraer aircraft. 

............Appoints Todd Freeman Regional Manager 

             for Middle East, Africa and Russia/CIS

 Meanwhile, (GECAS), the commercial aircraft leasing arm of GE, today announced the appointment of Todd Freeman as senior vice president and regional manager for the Middle East, Africa and Russia/CIS effective June 1. 

He will be based in Dubai and oversee five regional sales offices that serve more than 50 airline customers and manage over 300 leased aircraft.

Freeman has held numerous sales and marketing management positions in Europe, Asia, and the USA during his 25-year career in the aviation financing industry. Most recently, he managed the regional aircraft portfolio at GECAS and played an important role in GECAS’s entry into turboprop and helicopter leasing and financing. 

Freeman is a board member of the ISTAT Foundation and Airlink, Inc. and previously served on the boards of the Regional Airline Association, the European Regions Airlines Association, and GRA Consulting. He is a commercial and instrument rated pilot and is an active AngelFlight volunteer pilot. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Lehigh University and a master’s degree and MBA from The Wharton School’s Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.

ATTEMPT BY VANDALS TO DRILL NNPC PIPELINE FOILED

.....Drilling Tools, Honda Jeep Seized

An attempt by vandals to drill one of the pipelines in the bush of Mosinmi, Sagamu has been foiled by men of the New Age Global Security and Surveillace outfit.

The vandals numbering over twenty had invaded the pipeline located at Idi-Mango, Redeem area carrying along a heavy duty generator cum pumping machine, digger, wrench, adaptor drilling,sledge hammer, spanner and many others including a black Honda Jeep believed to be owned by the leader of the gang.

However, before they could get to the advanced stage of puncturing the pipeline, men of the New Age Security and Surveillance recently engaged by the NNPC, swooped on the vandals leading to exchange of gunfire. 

In the ensuing battle, the vandals took to their heels abandoning their tools and the Honda Jeep already perforated by bullets due to the exchange of gun shots between the vandals and men of the security outfit.

The security men promptly impounded the Honda Jeep and seized the generator and other accessories brought by the vandals to commit the illegality.

The Commander of Operations of New Age Security outfit, Mr Adeyemi Adetunji confirmed the development and the seizures made. He said that his men would not relent in their bid to curtail the activities of petroleum vandals whose activities have impacted negatively on the economy of the country.

Recently, not less that five tankers and trucks have been accosted on pipeline tracks in Sagamu with many burnt while trying to escape seizure while a suspected vandal, who claimed to be a police inspector was arrested last month by the outfit. The police in Sagamu had since disowned the said inspector.

The abandoned Honda Jeep.

The security men promptly impounded the Honda Jeep and seized the generator and other accessories brought by the vandals to commit the illegality.

The Commander of Operations of New Age Security outfit, Mr Adeyemo Adetunji confirmed the development and the seizures made. He said that his men would not relent in their bid curtail the activities of petroleum vandals whose activities have impacted negatively on the economy of the country.

Recently, not less that five tankers and trucks have been accosted on pipeline tracks in Sagamu with many burnt while trying to escape seizure while a suspected vandal, who claimed to be a police inspector was arrested last month by the outfit. The police in Sagamu had since disowned the said inspector.