Jonathan sacks NNPC director, appoints five new GEDs

President Goodluck Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday sacked the Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Abiye Membere, and appointed five new ones to fill existing vacancies.

According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the new appointees and their portfolios are Mr. Ian Udoh, Group Executive Director, Refining and Petrochemicals; Dr. Dan Efebo, Group Executive Director, Corporate Services; and Ms. Aisha Abdurrahman, Group Executive Director, Business Development.

Others are Mr. Adebayo Ibirogba, Group Executive Director, Engineering and Technical; and Dr. Joseph Dawha, Acting Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production.

Abati said the appointments took immediate effect.

Among the GEDs, the one in charge of the Exploration and Production is one of the most influential in the hierarchy of the NNPC because the department is responsible for producing the crude oil that is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy.

It was gathered that some of the old GEDs had retired from the corporation without the government filling their positions, while some served in acting capacities.

For instance, the former GED, Refining and Petrochemicals, Mr. Anthony Ogbuigwe, and GED, Business Development, Mr. Aminu Babakusa, were said to have retired from the services of the NNPC.

The former acting GEDs, Corporate Services and Engineering and Technical were replaced with substantive directors.

2015 Igbo Presidency: Orji Uzo Kalu,

 Ohaneze Jokers – Chekwas

Nsukka – Chief Chekwas Okorie has lampooned ex -governor of Abia State, Orji Uzo Kalu over his recent comment that the leadership of Ohaneze Ndigbo, the Igbo apex social cultural group, has pleaded with him not to contest the presidency in 2015 general election.

Okorie, the National Chairman of United Progressive Party, UPP, queried the political value of the former Abia State governor at the just concluded Igbo International Colloquium in Enugu.

Chief Okorie

He noted that there is no country in the world where a cultural group can persuade
anyone from pursuing his political ambition,  added that both Orji Uzo Kalu and Ohaneze should watch their political calculations and know whether they were not embarrassing themselves.

He said ‘I don’t want to join issues with Kalu and Ohaneze on Ndigbo ceding the presidency to Jonathan, I have never seen anywhere in the world where a cultural group will decide whether to go for the highest political office in the country or not. ‘Orji Uzo Kalu should access his political value to Ndigbo for which he will come and tell us that a cultural group said he should not run and therefore that is why he is not running.

Immigration tragedy: Jonathan queries Interior Minister

TRAGEDY: Interior Minister, Abba Moro, with one of the victims of Nigeria Immigration Service aptitude test tragedy, at the National Hospital, Abuja, yesterday.

Following the outrage  that continued to trail the death of 15 job applicants including a pregnant women at the various centres across the country during the recruitment exercise by the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday issued a query to the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro to explain within 24 hours the poor handling of the exercise even as he rejected calls for him to resign over the incident saying “I will not resign”.

One of the survivors of the stampede at the Minna centre, has also recounted her experience just as the Nigerian Labour Congress staged a protest in Kaduna asking the government to probe the incident.

Obiano sworn in as Anambra gov

Vows to tackle power, security challenges

Obi ‘ll soon become FEC member —President

As CJ denies getting court action to stop swearing in

AWKA—Dr. Willie Obiano and Dr. Nkamakonam Okeke were yesterday, sworn in as governor and deputy governor of Anambra State respectively with a pledge to tackle headlong the perennial problems of power failure and insecurity which they identified as the biggest constraints to the full manifestation of the ingenuity for which Anambra people were known.

Chief Judge on court order
This was even as the state Chief Judge, Justice Peter Umeadi, denied ever flouting any court order by swearing them into office.

However, the Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Party Matters, Chief Ben Obihas announced the appointment of former Governor Obi,  as the honourary Adviser on Finance to President Goodluck Jonathan and would soon become a member of the Federal Executive Council, FEC.

Society’s enduring virtues of love, unity and brotherhood were some of the central themes that dominated the inaugural address of the new Governor, Obiano after taking the oath of office, in an elaborate ceremony in Awka, the Anambra State capital.

Tackling challenges
At the colourful ceremony held at Dr. Alex Ekwueme Square, Awka and attended by eminent personalities from Anambra and beyond, Obiano said  that the realisation of his dreams for Anambra State depends on how well these two challenges were tackled.

He said: “The good news is that there is hope for Anambra State.  We shall aggressively address the challenge of power supply with the proposed citing of ultra-modern Independent Power Plants, IPP, in the three industrial hubs in the state, especially, in Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka.  When fully operational, these plants will generate enough electricity to power the entrepreneurial dreams of our people.”

On security

Unemployment: Embrace agriculture, monarch urges youths

Malam Aminu Malami, the District Head of Udubo, Gamawa Local Government Area of Bauchi State, on Monday called on youths to embrace agriculture as a way of tackling unemployment in the country.
Malami, who made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Bauchi, also said that venturing into agriculture would help to tackle food insecurity in the state and the country.
According to him, governments at all levels have prioritised agriculture as one of the key sectors that needs urgent attention and currently receiving serious intervention.
“Both federal and the state governments are currently investing hugely in agriculture with inputs support both for dry season farming and rainy season farming.
“There is therefore the need for our youths to embrace agriculture and tap from its many opportunities because it is the only area they can be gainfully employed.
“Our youths must stop roaming the streets doing nothing, while others travel as far as the southern part of the country in search of jobs that are not available.
“This idleness must stop and agriculture is the way out. It is the only practise that will bring us out of poverty,” he said.

10 burnt to death in Lagos-Ibadan expressway crash

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) on Monday confirmed that 10 persons lost their lives in a motor accident along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The Commander of Olympic Unit of the commission, Mr Tanya Adeoye, who made the confirmation, told newsmen in Ibadan that the dead were burnt beyond recognition.
Adeoye said that four persons survived the crash which involved two trucks and one 18-seater Toyota Hiace commercial bus with registration number BDG 767 XB.
He said that the bus, which was travelling from Ibadan to Lagos was rammed into by a truck while it stopped to allow another truck with registration number SW 175 EPE to pull out of a quarry.
He attributed the accident to speeding and dangerous driving, saying that “the commercial bus immediately went up in flames and the flames later spread to other trucks.’’
He said that the four people who sustained injuries were in the trucks and had been taken to the University College Hospital, Ibadan for treatment.
“The victims who were burnt beyond recognition were deposited at the Adeoye State Hospital mortuary,” Adeoye added.
He disclosed that the commission was making efforts to contact the families of the victims through the driver’s manifest which was not burnt.

Immigration jobs tragedy: President queries minister, NIS boss

Paradang and Moro

President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday queried the Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro; and the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Mr. David Paradang, over the loss of 18 lives during the NIS recruitment on Saturday.

The 18 died during stampedes at the venues of the NIS recruitment in different parts of the country. The deaths have generated national uproar.

 The presidential query for the minister and the NIS CG came as the wife of the Senate President David Mark, Helen, denied reported relationship with the consultants than handled the exercise.

Mark’s wife, in a statement signed by the Special Adviser (Media) to the President of the Senate, Mr. Kola Ologbodiyan,  said she was shocked by media reports (not The PUNCH) of her involvement in the exercise. She said the reports were based on a rumour and “a mere fabrication of the imagination of those behind it.”

“I have no relationships of any sorts and in whatever form with the said consultant,” she said.

Both Moro and Paradang were on Monday summoned to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, to explain the circumstances that led to the incidents, which a presidency source said had portrayed the present administration in a bad light.

On arrival at the Villa, the two officials first met for about three hours with the Chief of Staff to the President, Brig.-Gen. Jones Arogbofa (retd.), in his office.

A source said they used the opportunity of the meeting with Arogbofa to marshal the arguments they would present before the President.