FGN To Pay N88bn compensation to victims of Biafra war after long Years

ABUJA— Determined to quell rising agitation by secessionist groups, the Federal Government, yesterday, agreed to release N88 billion for the compensation of victims of the Nigeria/Biafra civil war, as well as for completion of demining and destruction of abandoned explosives within the South-East, South-South and North Central regions of the country. Federal Government, in terms of agreement it endorsed before the ECOWAS Court in Abuja yesterday, said while it would pay N50 billion compensation to “true victims” of the civil war that occured between 1967 and 1970, a total sum of N38 billion will be paid to contractors for total and complete demining and destruction of abandoned bombs and landmines within the regions. The decision followed a suit marked ECW/CCJ/APP/06/12, which was filed before the ECOWAS Court on May 2, 2012, by one Vincent Agu and 19 others against FG and five others. Federal Government opted for an out-of-court settlement of the matter after four years negotiation period. According to the agreement document which the ECOWAS court adopted as its consent judgment, two firms, RSB Holdings Nigeria Limited and Deminers Concept Nigeria Limited, were said to have been contracted in 2009 to carry out demining exercise in the war affected areas. Federal Government told the court that after an exercise that was conducted by medical experts that were employed by the two contractors to screen and identify true victims of the war, “All the parties to this suit acknowledge that 685 persons were selected and classified as survivors while 493 of them were confirmed as victims of either landmines or other dangerous military ordinance including locally fabricated weapons, hence entitled to compensation including their families and communities. “Whereas the parties also acknowledged that a total of over 17, 000 bombs were recovered and destroyed by the 4th and 5th Respondents (the contractors), while a total of 1, 317 are still in the stockpile located at the Mine Action Center, Owerri, Imo State, a large quantity of live bombs still litter the Applicant’s communities.” States listed to benefit from the deal are Anambra, Rivers, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Ebonyi, Cross River, Abia, Enugu and Benue. The plaintiffs had in the suit they filed for themselves and as representatives of victims of the Nigerian civil war, including all the 493 victims pre-enumerated by the Ministry of Defence, demanded N100m as compensatory and general damages. According to the terms of agreement sighted by Vanguard, while the N50bn compensation would be paid into United Bank for Africa, UBA, account No. 1018230076 which was nominated by counsel to the victims, Chief Noel Agwuocha Chukwukadibia & Co, the other N38bn woud be paid into Deminers Concept Nig. Ltd UBA account No. 1016296801, belonging to the contractors. Federal Government however maintained that the Terms of Settlement shall operate as full and final settlement of all claims arising from alleged violation of rights of victims of the Biafran war “in any other suits, action or matter however so called that may arise from this subject matter.” The Government said it agreed to release the funds, being conscious of unexploded bombs and other remnants of war that littered some parts of the South-East, South-South and North Central regions and the inherent dangers posed thereof. It said that it reviewed and took “full cognizance of the dire situation and unmitigated threat posed to the Applicants and their communities by aging bombs and other post war lethal materials left under the elements in public places like schools, churches, courts, farmlands and market places”, adding that it was agreed that the contractors, “having satisfactorily performed the 1st phase of the project be mobilised back to site to complete the final phase of the ongoing demining process.” Part of the 11 po

MAINA ON FIRE: Treating To Expose CABALS In Buhari Government

• Declares he was invited by government to serve • ‘PDP can’t attack Buhari over ex-pension boss’ The former Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, threatened yesterday to open a can of worms and implicate what he called a cabal in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. Disclosing Maina’s position in a statement, his family said that he was invited to join the Buhari government. “It is on record that Abdulrasheed Maina ‘s reform put a stop to fraudulent withdrawal of huge sums from both the Nigerian Pension Board and the Nigerian Police Pension Board. Perhaps it is his noble effort that made him enviable to the present administration when they came into power to convince him to come back and assist in its change agenda,” the family said. Maina was sacked in 2013 for his involvement in a N100 billion pension scam. He later turned down summonses from authorities before fleeing the country. But Maina reappeared in the country as a deputy director in the Ministry of Interior. Following public outcry, Buhari recently ordered Maina’s sacking and probe into how he returned into the country and was posted to the ministry. But yesterday, the family of Maina came to his defence, saying he was in possession of facts capable of exposing the cabal after him. In a statement by a member of the family, Aliyu Maina, he stated that Maina was not a fraudster, but a messiah who brought remarkable reforms into the Nigerian pension scheme, as the reform under him averted fraudulent withdrawal and syphoning of pension funds. The statement reads: “You must have noticed the recent attempt by some cabal to ridicule and tarnish the image of the Maina family in both social, electronic and print media . where our brother, father and uncle have been blackmailed as a fraudster. The cabal has gone to the extent of marking our house in red paints with an inscription of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). “The entire family of Abdullahi Maina hereby categorically states that our son is not in any way a fraudster, rather he is a messiah whose effort saw the disappearance of pensioners roaming the streets of F.C.T and other state capitals. “We are aware that all this act of calumny is not targeted against Abdulrasheed Maina but the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Office of the Attorney General.” The family said it had contacted its solicitors and instructed them to act. “We equally know that Abdulrasheed Maina is in possession of so many facts that is against the cabal and interesting to the Nigeria populace, which he will disclose soonest. One must ask whether it is an offence for somebody to serve his father’s land faithfully,” the statement concluded. Meanwhile, the Presidency has insisted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has no moral rectitude to level any accusation against the current government in respect of Maina. In a statement yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu described Maina as one of the monsters created by the former PDP government, and which are still rearing their ugly heads long after the party was soundly defeated in the 2015 elections. “Over and over again, the President Buhari government has pointed out that the administration’s greatest problem is the mess left behind by the previous government. Maina is just one more example,” he said. Referring to records from the investigations that led to the disgrace of the former pension boss and his being declared wanted by the EFCC, Shehu noted that Maina was not the only top member of the former government involved in the multi-billion naira pensions scandal, but a man warmly ensconced in the bosom of power. “Top officials in the PDP government, from sectorial heads to those charged with responsibility for law and order, received some of these billions of naira from Maina. We have all the transaction records and these are matter.

Full Details List Of 2017 FIFA Award Winners

The 2017 Best FIFA Football Awards have been unvieled on Monday in London. As widely anticipated cristiano Ronaldo won Lionel Mercy and Neymar to win the Best FIFA Men Player award. A total of Nine awards were presented at the ceremony in various football categories. See below the full list of winners at the 2017 FIFA Best FIFA award. The Best FIFA Men’s Player Cristiano Ronaldo The Best FIFA Women’s Player Lieke Martens The Best FIFA Men’s Coach Zinedine Zidane The Best FIFA Women’s Coach Sarina Wiegman The Best FIFA Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon The FIFA Puskás Award Olivier Giroud The FIFA Fan Award Celtic The FIFA Fair Play Award Francis Kone The Best FIFPro XI: Buffon (Juventus), Dani Alves (PSG), Leonardo Bonucci (AC Milan), Sergio Ramos, Marcelo (Real Madrid), Luka Modric, Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Andreas Iniesta (Barcelona), Neymar (PSG), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid).

NYSC Releases mobilization time-table for 2017 Batch B prospective corp members.

The management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has released the mobilization time-table for 2017 Batch B prospective corp members. The corps says online registration by foreign and locally trained Nigerian graduates will begin on October 23 and end on November 12 while prospective corps members are to start printing call up letters from November 13 to 17 2017. The 2017 Batch B timetable on the NYSC official website is as follows: 1. Briefing/Sensitization of Final year students/prospective corps Members from 12th Oct to 10th Nov 2017 2. Display of list of all approved programmes for institutions on NYSC portal for cross checking and feedback from 12th to 15th Oct. 2017 3. Collation of Prospective Corps Members’ Data by Corps Producing Institutions CPIs from 12th to 15th Oct. 2017 4. Uploading of Senate/Academic Board Approved Results for Full/Part-Time Graduates and Revalidation Lists by CPIs from 16th to 21st Oct. 2017 5. Submission of Senate/Academic Board Approved Results for Full/Part-Time Graduates and Revalidation Lists by CPIs from 20th to 23rd Oct. 2017 6. On-line Registration by Foreign and locally Trained Nigerian Graduates from 24th October to 12th November 2017 7. Entertainment of complaints from Prospective Corps Members by the state Deployment and Relocation officers and NYSC Help Lines/Desks officers from 23rd October to 12th November 2017 8. Forwarding of Complaints to Mobilisation Dept by State Deployment and Relocation officers from 23rd October to 12th November 2017 9. Deployment and Printing of Call-up Letters by ICT Department from 13th to 17th Nov, 2017 10. Notification/On-line Printing of Call-up Letters/Delivery of Call-up letters to Institutions (stream I) from 17th to 20th Nov, 2017 11. Online Printing of Deployment Disposition by Corps Producing Institutions (CPIs) from 18th to 21st Nov, 2017 12. 2017 Batch ‘B’ Orientation Course

PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI SIGNED BILL ESTABLISHING FUPRE INTO LAW

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, signed into law the Bill establishing the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, FUPRE, Effurun, Delta State. President Buhari, in a brief ceremony at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, pledged his continued support for the socio-economic development of the Niger Delta region. The President according the statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu said: “This administration is fully committed to supporting the Niger Delta in its endeavours to achieve socio-economic development.” He appealed to all communities in the region to strive for peace through dialogue in resolving all conflicts not only among them, but also with business entities and the authorities. With the signing of the bill into law, the path has been cleared for the establishment of the specialised university in the Niger Delta, charged with training and research in petroleum technologies. Recall that the Federal Government in 2006 under the leadership of former President Olusegun Obasanjo approved the upgrading of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) Effurun into a degree awarding institution. With the approval, it became the first Nigeria Petroleum Engineering University with the former PTI operating as one of its faculties. The Nigerian Senate passed the bill establishing the Petroleum University in 2014.

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