NIGERIA IS ON AUTO-PILOT, says Dr Frederick Fasehun, OPC President/Founder

Dr. Frederick Fasehun, the Founder and President of the Oodua People's Congress spoke with selected members of the media at his Century Hotel, Okota, Lagos at the weekend. Topics he ventured into ranged from the governance of the country at the Federal level to the recent controversial pipeline security contract given to his New Age Global Security & Surveillance Company, the OPC factionalisation and the federal legislators demand for wardrobe allowances.

Level of governance

In my own view, President Muhammed Buhari has constituted the only government in town, the legislature is not on, they are on holiday. They didn’t start schooling and they went on holiday. 

For almost two months now, we have had a government that has not been governing except the auto pilot. 

Ours is a presidential system and there is what is called division of labour. The presidency can’t perform the functions of legislature according to the constitution. 

What the Senate is doing can’t be performed by the House of Representatives. As a result of all these, we have been disobeying our constitution at every level. 

What we have now is Buhari doing everything; no Federal Executive Council. Of course, Buhari wants to run his government, he goes on without the ministers because the National Assembly is not on seat.

There is so much impunity, dishonesty and others and we continue as if nothing is going on.

They promised us change, but nothing has changed; electricity, road, water, and security are not better and security I seven worse. It’s as if government is not serious in confronting insecurity in the country.

Corruption in the system

Any government that wants to tackle corruption must execute certain programmes and unemployment is one of such programmes. 

Every nation has its own levels of corruption and types of corruption, but in our own country, every level of corruption is available; bribery, kidnapping, stealing, armed robbery and others. 

It is the responsibility of the government to reduce corruption to the barest minimum, but government in our own part does not seem to be tackling corruption. 

No country can wipe away corruption in its entirety. We have legislators that have turned themselves to pugilists and wanted to go with the mace of the House of Reps, which is a sign of authority. Yet, the government is not sanctioning them or doing anything about it.

The change mantra

We expected true change, but unfortunately, the change that Nigerians were expecting has not manifested. The current government has spent two months in power and we’ve not noticed any change except change in personnel.

We were not expecting this level of change in personnel. You require personnel to execute your programmes. Government is continuum. 

There is no way you can wipe off the influence of a past government from that of a successor government and we were talking about corruption, and our legislators have turned the legislature into a boxing ring and asking for several allowances; furniture, wardrobe, car and newspapers allowances.

The legislators that are demanding for wardrobe allowances have not been naked. 

The government should not approve of such allowances. Rather than approving their wardrobe allowances, the government should send fashion designers to them and sew T-SHIRT for those who don’t have the babanrigas. Must we cloth them? N600,000 for wardrobe allowances each. That is corruption!

Part-time legislature

I agree with those calling for this. How many days do they spend there? They spend maximum three days per week and they are gone. What they are doing is part time job and they should be given part time pay.

Corruption in the system

Any government that wants to tackle corruption must execute certain programmes and unemployment is one of such programmes. 

Every nation has its own levels of corruption and types of corruption, but in our own country, every level of corruption is available; bribery, kidnapping, stealing, armed robbery and others. 

It is the responsibility of the government to reduce corruption to the barest minimum, but government in our own part does not seem to be tackling corruption. 

No country can wipe away corruption in its entirety. We have legislators that have turned themselves to pugilists and wanted to go with the mace of the House of Reps, which is a sign of authority. Yet, the government is not sanctioning them or doing anything about it.

Non-payment of contract sum by NNPC

When oil pipelines were being vandalised and disrupted, we felt concerned that the economic lifeline of the country was being threatened and we applied with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), to provide security along the oil pipelines that was in 2011. 

There was no response from the authority until about a year ago when they summoned me for a meeting and I had a meeting with the authorities of the NNPC in Abuja and they were highly impressed with the outcome of the meeting, but for six months or thereabout, there was no response from them again.

So, when they eventually responded, they said there was no way the government would do business with an unregistered organisation, which is the O’odua Peoles Congress, OPC, and advised us to register the organisation, which we said no because there is no way you will register an organisation like OPC with the government, they would not accept your application and once your application is turned down at the CAC, that’s the end of your organisation. So, I didn’t do that.

So, I requested for the application of the contract with another company that I have, which is already registered and they said there was no problem. 

So, on the 15th of March this year, that contract was awarded to that company, New Age, Global and Business Nigeria Limited. 

We needed to put many hands on deck to execute the contract and I turned towards the OPC members to come and be the foot soldiers. In all, 4, 020 OPC members were put in the pipelines after signing a contract with the NNPC.

The contract was signed and printed by the NNPC, given to us to read through and signed, which we did. Then immediately, on the 16th of March, we started deploying our youths to the pipelines. 

The contract signed was for three months and exactly three months, they said they won’t renew the contract, but when we signed the contract, I expected them to mobilise us with vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles, touch lights, generators and these things in hundreds because of the number of people we were putting on the pipelines from Mosimi in Ogun State to Oyo state and for three months. We did that work with utmost integrity and righteousness and as a matter of fact, people were commending us that since we took over, there was peaceful interval.

It was on the 15th June that the contract came to an end, I expected them to pay us as it was in the contract, but up till now, they have refused to pay us as agreed in the contract despite all our efforts to make this a reality, they have turned deaf ears to everything we did. 

After the contract, the young men thought I have collected the money, which I’m yet to do.     

While the contract was on, there was a change of government, but I personally believe that government is continuum and any contract signed on behalf of the government should be honoured by the successor government, which has not been so.

We are anxious that the government may be playing pranks with us because while the contract was on, the government ought to have mobilised us and give us some money to start with, but they never did and we never complained.

Do they expect 4,020 youths to spend three months in the jungle without payment? We don’t want to go legal yet and I thought these 4,020 youths were part of those government was complaining that there was unemployment in the society. 

If you now engage that high numbers, must you not pay them after three months? 

If you don’t want to pay them, it is shear cruelty. It shows that the cry of the government to provide employment is an insincere cry and those youths have now been returned to the unemployment market.

The contract was used to placate you and others

OPC is not a political platform. We saw that the country needed our service, which we responded to. I am the National Chairman of the UPN, and not PDP person. I didn’t take the politicians to handle the contract, but OPC.

When I applied for the contract some few years ago (2011), there was an outcry by a political platform that I have been given a contract to the tune of N2.8bn and that I have been paid, but this is the contract now and it has been executed and yet, not one kobo has been paid. It shows that the outcry was a lie.

The contract detail/sum

Each worker was to be paid N1,500 daily and that was the figure suggested by the NNPC and we were very anxious to engage people and let them feed their families despite the fact Okada and Keke Marwa riders make more than that daily.

The total money of N1,500 daily should be divided into 4,020 workers daily and this was for three months. Each person was to get N45,000 monthly, which means at the end of the three months period, they were to get N135,000 each.

If after sometimes,  the government refuses to listen to us, the only arbiter available to us is the court, because we have held our peace for over a month and they have not said one thing for or against our payment. 

I’m not preparing to cause crisis in the country and if we go to court, we would be able to ask for other things, which include damages and special damages.

Approach with anybody in government

I’ve not met anybody in government for the payment, we didn’t sign it with the Federal Government, but NNPC. So, that’s why I’m going to the NNPC for payment.

How much was saved the nation

NNPC was losing about N7 billion daily from pipeline vandalism and all they owe us is about N1.9bn for the 4, 020 workers for three months.

 

What they owe us for three months is less than what they were losing daily. So we have contributed our quota to the economic upliftment of Nigeria. 

The amount we are talking about is just for the areas that we secured and about 20,000 youths were put on the pipelines all together for the New Age contract, the Gani Adams faction, Shoot at Sight and Tompolo. 

In all, there were about five groups and I’m only talking of a group that was responsible for the surveillance and security of the pipelines from Mosimi in Sagamu to Ibadan in Oyo State that falls within my purview.

Are the pipelines save now?

While we were there, it was very safe. You have police, soldiers, etc manning the place before we came and yet, NNPC felt it was going to die with the high volumes of vandalism daily and when we came onboard, the NNPC confirmed that we helped them to reduce vandalism to the barest minimum as all other strategies had failed in the past. 

Security and Boko-Haram, spread to the south west

Boko-Haram could have come to the south west for about four years now, but they didn’t attempt it. 

It wasn’t their wish not to attempt it, but they knew that there was an outfit that can confront them adequately.

They have been to other places even outside the north, but we keep telling our people that they should not panic, give us information and once such information is given, we act on them. 

Strangers are regularly being monitored especially those from the South Western parts of Africa. They threatened to blow up the 3rd mainland bridge, but by the grace of God, they couldn’t carry out their threats.

Factions in OPC

The disparity in OPC is blown out of proportion in the media. Gani Adams and I still meet regularly and even after this cancellation of the contract, we have met about twice to discuss the issue and the method to be adopted to pursue the case. 

I said earlier that, I applied for the NNPC contract and when it was awarded, NNPC felt they wanted to divide it and I conceded. The contract we are talking about was executed between my group and that of Gani Adams.

NEW GROUP EMERGES TO SOLVE CRISIS ON LEADERSHIP OF CCC

Posted by Lateef Lawal

A new outfit aimed at solving the crisis that had bedevilled the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC) over the choice of Pastor/Leader of the fold has emerged.

Called Celestial Church of Christ Global Unification & Reforms Group (CCCGURG) being led by Wolida Johnson Shodipe.

According to Shodipe, who is the chairman of the group, efforts were being intensified to bring about the much desired unification of all the 'warring' factions through pleadings and persuasions with all those that were proclaimed 'Pastor' by the various factions, to sheathe their swords and allow peaceful settlement of the impasse.

The group in a press statement noted that it had earlier set out the necessary steps that could be taken to restore the Church back to its period of grace.

The Group further approached the High Court in Lagos that the tendency for the self appointed or arrangee Pastors would no doubt continue within the church, unless and until the judgement of Supreme Court in an earlier case is legally enforced against the 'Pastors' in order to ensure that there is compliance with the judgement by all and sundry within the church-this case is still pending in the High Court of Lagos State.

Relying on the above case still pending in court, Wolide Shodipe said it was important to note that any purported attempt to register any of the self-appointed and or arrangee pastors as a trustee of the Church with any government authority under whatever guise or pursuit of any purported amendment of the Church's Constitution ' is void, null and of no legal effect and as such effort would be akin to clapping with one hand'.

He added' Further still, an Ilaro High Court on 26th March, 2015, handed down a judgement in Suit No.HCL/07/2006 also relying on the Supreme Court judgement and held that " no one amongst those parading themselves as 'pastors' has been validly appointed as Head of the Celestial Church of Christ, thus their appointments were accordingly declared null and void".

He said this meant that no one could be appointed as Pastor or Head of CCC at the moment until the church re-write her Constitution and such constitution was validly made by all stakeholders, approved by the General Assembly of CCC members worldwide and registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.

Wolida Shodipe observed that:"It is on the premise of the above that our Group finds it disgusting to hear that someone called Senior Evangelist Olatoso Oshoffa could come up to proclaim himself as the 'Leader of the Church and the leader of the the Unification Group'.

He asserted:" We therefore want to make it abundantly clear that Senior Evangelist Olatoso is not part of our Group-CCC Unification & Reforms Group; and that our Group is neither a party to, or having any involvement

in or in agreement with Olatoso's self declaration as either the 'Leader' of the Church or the 'Leader' of our Group.

NEW CONSTITUTION FOR CELESTIAL CHURCH OF CHRIST SOON

DISOWNS EVANGELIST TOSHO OSHOFFA AS LEADER !

By Lateef Lawal 
The crisis of leadership rocking the Celestial Church Christ [CCC] worldwide will soon be resolved, the Board of Trustees and Pastor-in-Council has assured its teeming members.

To this end. a committee set up to review the constitution of the church will soon submit its draft for the consideration of all stakeholders of the church and after the approval, it will thereafter be duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission [CAC] in Abuja.

This assurance was given by Superior Evangelist Samson Banjo in a press release issued today on behalf of the Board of Trustees, who noted that the Board and Pastor-in-Council are making appropriate arrangements for the smooth, proper and peaceful running of the affairs of the church at all its Parishes worldwide.

Setting up of a committee to draft a new constitution for the church, he explained was in deference to a Court decision which advised on the need for the Church to rewrite its constitution as a way of finding lasting solution to its problems, especially the Pastorship of the church.
Superior Evangelist Banjo noted that until the emergence and approval of a new constitution as ordered by the court, " Any assertion,representation, claims and pretentious by any person or persons including the ill-advised and baseless self declaration of Senior Evangelist Tosho Oshoffa to the pastoral seat or leadership of the Church is fake, ingenuity and a figment of imagination and an exercise in futility which carries a grave risk of contempt of court".

The church had sometime ago instituted a court action against one Godwin Bolanle Shonekan to prevent him from parading himself as the pastor of the church.

On March 26, this year, the trial judge, Hon. Justice A.O.Asenuga, ruled that the self proclamation of Mr Shonekan as Pastor was illegal, unconstitutional null and void. He further ruled that the appointment of a Pastor in the church needed re-articulation in a  news constitution.

The trial Judge therefore set aside all claims to the position of the Pastor of the Church and the Board of Trustees as one of the defendants has already appealed against the ruling.

The summary of this decision  is that subject to the outcome of the appeals, the Church does not have a lawful and duly accredited Pastor for the time being.

BUHARI SACKS SERVICE CHIEFS; APPOINTS NEW ONES

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has sacked his army, navy, air force and defence chiefs, a widely anticipated move as the former general has made crushing Boko Haram his top priority.

"The President has relieved the service chiefs, including the heads of the army, air force and navy of their appointments," Femi Adesina told AFP news agency on Monday.

The outgoing officials are: Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh; the Chief of Army Staff, Major General Kenneth Minimah; the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Usman Jibrin and the Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshall Adesola Amosu, the spokesman said.

Buhari has appointed new defence chiefs after sacking the heads of the army, navy and air force.

The sackings were expected as the president has repeatedly criticised the military's inability to defeat Islamist group Boko Haram.

The Islamists have recently launched a series of deadly guerrilla attacks, killing more than 250 people.

Boko Haram is thought to be responsible for more than 10,000 deaths since 2009.

Both the new head of the army, Maj Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai, and the National Security Adviser, Maj Gen Babagana Monguno, are from Borno State which is at the heart of the conflict.

Since his inauguration in May, Buhari has moved Nigeria's defence command centre to Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram, and is setting up the headquarters for a multi-national joint taskforce in Chad's capital N'Djamena.

In June, Amnesty International accused Nigeria's military of systemic human rights abuses and the deaths of 8,000 prisoners and called for an investigation into many top military officials including the army and air force chiefs.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan was heavily criticised for his inability to deal with the six-year Boko Haram violence in the northeast of Africa's biggest oil producer which has killed thousands and displaced 1.5 mn people.

Army morale hit an all time low under Jonathan and it was not until the start of 2015 that the group's fighters were finally pushed out of most areas with the help of foreign mercenaries, troops from neighbouring countries and new equipment.

At least a dozen civilians and a Chadian soldier were killed in two suicide attacks by suspected Boko Haram fighters in the northern Cameroon town of Fotokol late on Sunday, a senior Cameroonian military officer said.

The first explosion went off inside a bar near a Cameroon special forces (BIR) camp just after sundown, the officer said, asking not to be named.

"The second explosion followed as soldiers approached the bar," he said.

A Nigeria Without Chiefs Make Top Paying Bonds Less Attractive

By Paul Wallace

Nigeria has attractive bond yields and a fast growing economy with a young population. For investors, it’s missing a key ingredient: a functioning government.

More than a month since taking charge of Africa’s largest economy, President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to choose ministers; an announcement the 72-year-old former military ruler said he may postpone until September. That’s left the continent’s biggest oil producer and most populous nation without a finance chief to steer a Treasury he said is “virtually empty” amid calls for a currency devaluation.

Investors actions in the capital markets are an answer to that political void. An index of naira bonds declined 2.6 percent in dollar terms over the past month. That compares with average losses of 0.2 percent across 31 emerging markets. And while Nigerian rates of 14.9 percent are the highest among those nations, foreigners are staying clear until they know Buhari’s plans for the exchange rate and budget, according to Barclays Plc and Rand Merchant Bank.

“You can’t ignore the yields on offer in Nigeria, except for when there’s a lack of clarity on policy,” Ridle Markus, an analyst at Barclays, said by phone from Johannesburg on July 2. “It creates further uncertainty as to what the cabinet will look like, what decisions the finance minister will take.”

Oil Damage

Nigerian stocks dropped 8.9 percent since Buhari’s April 2 win over Goodluck Jonathan in a March presidential election, the third-worst performers globally among 93 primary indexes tracked by Bloomberg. He was sworn in on May 29 following a campaign in which he promised to crush Boko Haram’sinsurgency in the north east and clamp down on corruption.

The new government suffered the deadliest week since taking office last week after attacks in the Borno state claimed at least 150 lives.

So far he has articulated few ideas on how to revive an economy ravaged by an almost 45 percent drop in Brent crude prices over the past year, Angus Downie, head of economic research at Ecobank Transnational Inc., said by phone from London on July 2. Nigeria’s government relies on oil for roughly two-thirds of its revenue.

Growth will decelerate to 4.8 percent in 2015, about half the average of the past decade, according to the International Monetary Fund. That’s still faster than the global average of 3.5 percent and 4.3 percent for developing nations.

Some Nominations

The naira fell 21 percent between the end of June 2014 and Feb. 12, when it dropped to a record low of 206.32 against the dollar. That prompted the central bank to extend foreign-exchange trading curbs to prop up the currency. While those have steadied the naira at an average of 199.03 since March, they have left it overvalued, according to investors, including Investec Asset Management and BlackRock Inc.

Still, Nigeria’s population, where 44 percent of its 177 million are under the age of 15, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, augurs well for long-term growth. In the euro region, less than 16 percent of people are under 15, while in the U.S. the figure is 20 percent.

A delay in naming a finance minister means it may take longer for investors to find out whether currency restrictions will be removed, according to Joseph Rohm, a money manager at Investec Asset Management, which oversees about $110 billion.

Currency Devaluation

“We need a devaluation and strong appointees in the government for the market to go up,” Rohm said by phone from Cape Town last month.

Bonds and equities surged after Jonathan conceded defeat to Buhari, easing investors’ concerns about a disputed result in a country that had never seen a peaceful change of power from one party to another. Yet, as well as plans for the currency, investors now want to know whether the government will remove gasoline subsidies and how it will diversify the economy from oil.

“We’re still sitting in the dark,” Zoran Milojevic, a trader at New York-based brokerage Auerbach Grayson & Co., said by phone. “The only positive thing is that Nigeria didn’t spiral into a civil war. That’s not enough to push the market.”

Average bond yields have climbed almost 100 basis points from 13.91 percent since May 14.

There probably won’t be a rally until Buhari outlines how he will improve Nigeria’s economy, says Ronak Gopaldas, an analyst at Rand Merchant Bank, a unit of FirstRand Ltd., Africa’s biggest bank by market value.

“People thought by now they’d have some kind of clarity,” Johannesburg-based Gopaldas said by phone on July 1. “They’re looking for a decisive message about what Buhari’s going to do to arrest the economic decline. It’s something that needs to be done sooner rather than later.”

source: Bloomberg Business

Nigeria total debt at 12.1 trln naira by end March: DMO

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's total debt rose to 12.1 trillion naira ($60.8 billion) as of March 2015, up from 11.2 trillion naira at the end of December 2014, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said.

The DMO said on its website that foreign debt stood at $9.46 billion at the end of March, equivalent to about 15 percent of total debt and down from $9.71 billion at the end of 2014.

Nigeria said in 2013 it wanted to increase the amount it borrowed overseas to 40 percent of all debt over a three-to-five year period to tap into loose monetary policy in advanced economies.

But as oil prices plunged last year, government revenues slumped, leaving Abuja struggling to pay bills including state salaries. The currency has also come under intense pressure.

Nigeria's states are now in debt to the tune of 658 billion naira, the governor of Zamfara state said last week.

Investors are worried domestic debt has risen sharply since the end of March, and concerns about government finances, as well as the slide in the naira, are hitting markets.

The yield on the 5-year bond, the most liquid issue, rose to 14.95 percent on Tuesday, up from 14.71 percent a week ago.

Nigeria's former finance minister said at the start of May that the government had already used half the borrowing allowance it had budgeted for as lower oil prices reduced revenues.

Abuja's funding problems and the naira's weakness on the black market are fuelling market concerns that more domestic bonds may have to be sold, raising the cost of borrowing.

Nigeria rebased its gross domestic product statistics last April, almost doubling the size of its economy to more than $500 billion, Africa's biggest. However tax collection as a percentage of revenue is a paltry 6 percent.

($1 = 198.8500 naira)

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.

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