Transition committee advises Buhari to remove fuel subsidy

The transition committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari shortly after he was declared the winner of the March 28 presidential election advised him to end the fuel subsidy programme and privatise the nation’s four refineries.

Senior sources in the All Progressives Congress, told Reuters of the recommendation on Sunday.

Nigeria, which is Africa’s top oil producer and biggest economy, heavily subsidises petrol and kerosene consumption and relies on imports for the bulk of its domestic demand due to an underperforming refining system.

The subsidy regime, which was revealed to have handed out more than N1tn in fraudulent claims to oil marketers in 2012, is proving to be increasingly costly.

Buhari is said to be considering the recommendations made in the strategy report produced by the 19-member committee led by Ahmed Joda.

“The removal of the fuel subsidy is one of the recommendations of the transition committee,” said a senior APC source, who did not want to be named.

“The committee also suggested to Mr. President that the four refineries be privatised so that the government stops wasting money on annual turnaround maintenance,” he said.

A second APC source also told Reuters that these recommendations were contained in the report given to Buhari earlier this month.

However, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, told our correspondent in a telephone interview that it was premature to comment on the proposal by the committee since its report had not been officially released and discussed by the government.

Buhari’s predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, cut subsidies by 90 per cent in the 2015 budget because government revenues had been hit by the slump in oil prices.

Nigeria attempted to end subsidies three years ago, doubling the price of a litre of petrol overnight, in efforts to cut government spending.

The move angered citizens who saw cheap pump prices as the only benefit they derive from living in an oil-rich country, and led to eight days of nationwide strikes. The government later reinstated part of the subsidy to end the strikes.

The prospect of the subsidy removal contributed to fuel shortages in the final days of Jonathan’s administration as importers went on strike claiming that they were owed arrears of subsidy claims by the government.

Last week, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said its four oil refineries would resume production in July.

The ailing refinery system generally runs well below capacity, sometimes at just 20 per cent, due to neglect and pipeline sabotage.

Jonathan’s last-minute appointments tear civil service apart

THE crisis in the federal civil service appeared to have worsened with career civil servants protesting against the absorption of 530 aides and cronies of former President Goodluck Jonathan into the civil service in the last days of the past administration.

The new recruits into the service were also said to have been installed in high positions, from assistant directors upward.

Already, six deputy directors in the federal civil service are in court to protest against the manner the last promotion examination to directors’ level was handled by the Federal Civil Service Commission.

The FCSC released the list of newly-promoted directors in October 2014.

The six aggrieved deputy directors – Dr. John Magbadelo, Mrs. Ada Ihechukwu Madubuike, Mrs. Ganiat Ayodele, Mr. Olusegun Oginni, Mrs. Janet Ayorinde and Mr. Otajele Musa – filed an action at the National Industrial Court on March 26, 2015 to question the exercise.

Most senior civil servants are said to be unhappy with the FCSC, a situation which is said to have been made worse by the Jonathan recruits into the service.

Sources told our source in Abuja on Sunday that between the time Jonathan lost the presidential election of April 11 and the May 29 handover date, 530 persons from different backgrounds had their appointments into the civil service regularised.

A director in one of the sensitive ministries told our correspondent that the FCSC, through ‘‘crafty schemes’’, brought into the civil service “numerous aides of the former President Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo and ministers.

The director, who asked not to be named, said, “These new recruits are placed on very high grades as assistant directors, deputy directors, and directors.

It was gathered from a reliable source that their appointments were made through a “regularisation window’’, which the FCSC backdated to December, 2014.

“Through regularisation, fresh graduate appointees were placed on Grade Level 12 instead of Grade Level 08, while some others were upgraded to very high levels in defiance of extant rules. We now have letters of regularisation flying around the ministries.

“No fewer than 530 people are being regularised into the service from different backgrounds, including unscheduled private enterprises. These atrocities are responsible for the depletion of vacancies, which ought to be utilised for the promotion of deserving serving officers in the federal civil service.”

Another aggrieved director in one of the parastatals under the Presidency said that the FCSC had, in the last six years, been under serious pressure by ranking politicians, who insisted on giving jobs in the civil service as rewards to their cronies.

The director cited the case of one political appointee, who was allegedly moved from Grade Level 09 to Grade level 16, and subsequently moved three months after to the post of director on Salary Grade Level 17.

He said this was just one of the many recent irregularities perpetrated by the FCSC, “while the chairman of the FCSC, Deaconess Joan Ayo, keeps saying that lack of vacancy was responsible for the non-promotion of most deputy directors who passed last year’s promotion examination.”

“Just anybody with the right connection or big purse can be promoted or transferred to the post of a director in the civil service today. These transfers are being done in violation of the extant public service rules, which the FCSC published and circulated to all government offices,” the official alleged.

Many of the directors, who spoke to our correspondent on the alleged rot in the civil service, called for the review of both the promotion exercise and “illegal” recruitment into the high cadre in the government offices.

But the FCSC has denied the allegation, saying it never recruited illegally into the civil service.

The Assistant Director of Press, FCSC, Dr. Joel Oruche, said the allegations of illegal recruitment for political reasons were all lies.

Oruche said, “At no time did the commission employ aides of former President, Vice President, ministers or any key political figure in the Jonathan’s government, either as a parting gift or in compliance with a directive from the above-mentioned political figures.

“The FCSC, in the discharge of its mandate, has put in place, internal checks and balances in the process of appointments and promotion. This guarantees transparent process that checkmates activities and antics of fraudsters, who are in the business of issuing fake appointment letters.

“For the avoidance of doubts, FCSC begins appointments only when the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation has forwarded vacancies to it. These declared vacancies are shared among the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. Appointments into the vacant positions are processed by honourable commissioners representing respective states.

“After processing the appointments by commissioners, all appointment letters are checked and signed by the director in charge of recruitment and appointment while the Office of the Permanent Secretary puts the commission’s seal on the letters.”

However, the Secretary-General of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Mr. Alade Lawal, confirmed that there had been rampant cases of illegal recruitment into the civil service.

Lawal said the FCSC had bastardised the recruitment process into the service on the spurious ground that it was acting on directive from the Presidency to grant waiver to some states.

He said, “But the commission cannot hide under a Presidential waiver to recruit incompetent and unqualified persons into the federal public service and impose them as seniors on those with higher qualifications, experience and competence. We have never had it so bad.

“One of the negative results of this ill-advised policy is that directors, who have served the country meritoriously for decades, cannot rise to the peak of their careers as all manner of persons are recruited into the service to take over top positions, including that of permanent secretaries and general managers.”

The ASCSN secretary lamented that graduates with eight years post-qualification experience were being drafted into the public service on grade level 16 or 17 because they have connections with top politicians.

“These illegal recruits are then made permanent secretaries after about two or three years. This is very unfortunate as it demoralises dedicated officers who no longer see any future in the service. The ASCSN has engaged the FCSC on the vexed issue and all indications point to the fact that the recruitments were deliberately made,” Lawal stated.

He also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take urgent steps to ensure that the FCSC abide by the public service rules, establishments circulars, scheme of service, and its guidelines on appointment, promotion and discipline in respect of recruitment into the public service.

“If urgent step is not taken to reverse this trend of illegal recruitment into the public service, the system may collapse and the government will not be able to effect the type of change it wants in the polity since the public service is the engine room that oils the wheels of government.”

Senate: Saraki, Lawan groups’ rift deepens

The crisis within the ruling All Progressives Congress took a new turn on Sunday with the Senator Ahmad Lawan group in the Senate accusing the Bukola Saraki group of plotting to make President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration fail.

“The election of a Peoples Democratic Party senator as deputy senate president is evidently a grand conspiracy to sabotage the Buhari government,” spokesperson for the pro – Lawan group, Senator Kabiru Marafa, said in an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja.

Marafa argued that the inauguration of the 8th Senate and subsequent election of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, with 57 senators in attendance was an indication that the perpetrators of the act actively involved the management of the federal parliament.

While the APC had endorsed Lawan as its candidate for the senate presidency, Saraki defied the party and manoeuvred his way to clinch the post.

The senate president had teamed up with senators of his former party, the PDP, to assume power in an alliance that saw Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP becoming the deputy senate president.

Ekweremadu had defeated Ali Ndume of the APC by 54 votes to 22 votes.

Lawan loyalists in the Senate, under the Senate Unity Forum, said on Sunday that the election of Ekweremadu was a grand conspiracy to sabotage Buhari’s administration through the legislature. The Saraki supporters style themselves Like Minds Senators.

Both Lawan and Saraki groups had on Friday disagreed on how the principal officers of the Senate should be chosen.

While the Lawan group aligned with the position of the APC leaders that the party should choose the officers, the Saraki group insisted that the Senate officers should be picked at zonal levels.

The spokesman for the Lawan group also demanded the prosecution of the National Assembly Management for allegedly contributing to the plot.

Marafa said, “We are convinced that there is a general conspiracy in this country to sabotage the APC government, particularly the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. For God sake, why should Senator Bukola Saraki be declared as senate president with 57 votes while 51 other senators were disenfranchised.

“The management of the National Assembly knew that 109 Senators were being expected on the day of inauguration. Why did they not wait for the others to arrive before rushing to conduct election?”

Marafa argued that no opposition senator made any attempt to seek election into the majority position when the PDP had the majority in the senate in 2011, asking, “Why should somebody do it now? Is it because Muhammadu Buhari from the North is the President?”

He added, “People are asking why we did not go to court to challenge Ekweremadu’s election. Why should we bother ourselves to go to court when there is already a grand conspiracy to frustrate all our moves?

“The conspirators had hijacked the media and are using them to complicate issues even in the court of public opinion. Why should we go to court?

“The Senate standing rule that was reviewed overnight is another pointer to the fact that the inauguration of the Senate on June 9 and the election of Saraki/Ekweremadu was part of the planned conspiracy.

“That is a criminal conspiracy. Our standing rules were changed. Who changed them? Why were they changed? For what purpose and who ordered the change? Who brought ballot boxes inside the chamber on June 9?

“Those who brought in the ballot boxes were obviously privy to the grand conspiracy. The rule of division was adopted in 2011 when David Mark contested election. People’s names were being called and each person would stand up and say who they want to vote for.

“But on June 9, boxes were brought into the chamber. Who brought them? Who changed our rule? President Buhari should prosecute the perpetrators of the criminal act because that was corruption”

However, a member of the Like Minds Senators, Rafiu Ibrahim,on Sunday denied allegations of conspiracy against the government of President Buhari with the election of Ekweremadu.

He said, “We (Pro- Saraki group) campaigned across the party lines because some APC senators already had their candidate.

“However, when members of the Senate Unity Forum were not around in the chamber to vote, the PDP seized the opportunity to contest and Ekweremadu, being a two-term senate president, used his goodwill among the senators to score 54 votes across the APC and the PDP.

“There was no case of conspiracy; there was no form of pact. In fact members of the Senate Unity Forum should be held responsible for the emergence of Ekweremadu as deputy senate president.

“If they had not absconded on the day of inauguration, an APC senator would have emerged just like what happened in the House of Representatives.

“It is not correct to say that the election of Ekweremadu was part of a design to make President Buhari’s administration to fail. Rather, the Saraki leadership in the Senate would ensure the success of President Buhari’s programmes and policies and he had started work on it already.”

Meanwhile, there were insinuations on Sunday that Buhari was angry with Saraki over Ekweremadu’s emergence as his deputy.

“Buhari has not spoken with Saraki since the incident happened on June 9 and he had rebuffed all attempts to contact him. Don’t forget that the senate president also had issues with the Vice – President, Yemi Osinbajo, for using a derogatory language on him”

But Ibrahim denied the insinuations, which he described it as a rumour.

He said, “It is not correct to say that the President was avoiding Saraki. The senate president flew to Ilorin on Friday with the presidential jet. If Buhari is angry with him, will he release the jet in the Presidential fleet?

“There is no crisis between the President and the senate president. As a matter of fact, Senator Saraki has since settled down and has started working.”

In the House of Representatives, there were indications that the former Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, will keep the same post in the House.

The APC is insisting that Gbajabiamila, the party’s choice for the House speakership but who lost to Yakubu Dogara, should be made the Majority Leader, our source learnt in Abuja.

The House will resume sitting on Tuesday (tomorrow) after members took a two-week recess after inauguration on June 9.

The party also reportedly gave the South-South the position of Deputy House Leader.

Findings indicated that the national leadership of the party took the decisions at its meeting held in Abuja last week.

Checks by our correspondents revealed that a move by the APC to anoint Gbajabiamila as the Majority Leader of the House a few days after he lost the speakership contest was opposed by North-West lawmakers.

The zone had already positioned a lawmaker from Kano State, Mr. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, for the position.

“Besides the opposition from the North-West members, there was also the feeling within the Dogara camp that having Gbajabiamia as the Majority Leader could place the speaker under much pressure.

“But, we have gone beyond that stage now. The party has taken a decision that Gbajabiamila should be the majority leader. It has also been decided that Mr. Pally Iriase should be the deputy House leader,” a National Assembly official told one of our correspondents on Sunday.

Iriase, an APC lawmaker from Edo State, had also made a bid for the speakership, but later dropped out of the race to support Gbajabiamila.

A second source claimed that it was Ado-Doguwa and not Iriase that the party agreed to be Gbajabiamila’s deputy.

“That is exactly what the party is proposing (Gbajabiamila/Ado-Doguwa); all things being equal.

“I guess by Thursday, Friday this week, everything would have been spelt out,” the second source stated.

However, the National Working Committee of the APC has been scheduled to meet in Abuja on Monday (today) to, among others, deliberate on peace proposals aimed at bringing an end to the crisis rocking the party.

Finally, Buhari relocates to Aso Rock

Three weeks after his May 29 inauguration, President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday evening relocated to the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He joined his wife, Aisha, who had moved in on Thursday.

Before he finally moved in, the President had in the afternoon of Sunday visited the Presidential Villa where he stayed for about 30 minutes.

Those who thought that he had finally relocated to the seat of power were however shocked when Buhari left the premises after spending a few minutes.

He later returned finally in the evening.

It will be recalled that since their inauguration, Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo have yet to relocate to the Presidential Villa.

They have been operating from their private residences and the Defence House, Maitama, which is the official residence of the President-elect.

Surprisingly, however, the President’s wife on Thursday relocated to the Presidential Villa at a time when her husband was out of Abuja.

Buhari was at that time on private trips to Kaduna and Daura, his hometown in Katsina State.

Multiple Presidency sources had said that the President would join his wife inside the Presidential Villa upon his return to Abuja after the trip.

However, when Buhari returned to the Federal Capital Territory on Saturday, he retired to his private residence in Aso Drive, from where he had been operating.

But on Sunday afternoon, the President reportedly visited the Presidential Villa, apparently to spend a few minutes with his wife as he prepared to join her.

“The President was here this afternoon (Sunday). He arrived at about 2pm and spent about 30minutes before he left. He later returned in the evening. At last, the President has moved in,” a Presidency official said.

It was not clear at press time whether Osinbajo had also moved in.

With his relocation, Buhari is expected to operate from the President’s office for the first time on Monday (today).

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, had at a time told our correspondent that ongoing renovation work was hindering Buhari from moving in.

“As far as the President is concerned, the place (his official residence) is not ready yet. Workers are cleaning and refurbishing the place. Once the exercise is completed, the President will move in,” he had said.

He later released photographs of workers of the construction giant, Julius Berger Plc, who were painting the outer walls of the President’s office as proofs of renovation work.

Shehu had also last week Tuesday issued a statement to debunk speculations that Buhari had refused to move into the Presidential Villa since his inauguration because of purported advice from some Senegalese spiritualists.

He explained that “Buhari is a Muslim who believes his fate belongs to God.”

He added that “no true believer combines faith in God with reliance on the power of ordinary mortals, who can neither protect themselves, nor protect others from the hands of fate.”

He said the purported “spiritual cleansing of the Aso Rock Villa by Senegalese marabouts before President Buhari moves into the Villa” was the figment of the imagination of rumour mongers.

Shehu added that it was ridiculous to attribute Buhari’s delay in moving into the Villa to any advice from fictitious marabouts, insisting that renovation work was largely responsible for the delay.

FG may sell MDA helicopters, jets

Indications have emerged that the Federal Government may soon embark on the sale of aircraft owned by its ministries, departments and agencies.

The affected aircraft Sunday Punch learnt are those no longer in use by the MDAs due to old age or lack of fund and maintenance.

A national newspaper (not The PUNCH) had reported on Friday that President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered the sale of nine aircraft in the Presidential Air Fleet but this was denied by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu.

However, findings by our correspondent on Saturday showed that the President had received a report, detailing the total number of aircraft in the PAF, and the number and types of aircraft owned by ministries, departments and agencies.

As of press time on Saturday, it was not clear if President Buhari had agreed with the report or given approval for the sale of some aircraft in the PAF and those owned by the MDAs.

Sources in the Presidency, who are aware of the content of the report, however told our correspondent that the report listed a total of 13 aircraft under the PAF.

These include the nine aircraft that are being used by the President and four others that are categorised under the Executive Airlift.

The Executive Airlift craft are used for carrying top government officials like the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Heads of State of other countries and other top government officials who may be on special national assignments.

The source listed the nine aircraft that are being used by the President as Boeing Business Jet 737 (Air Force 001, Gulfstream 550 (bought in 2011), two Falcon 7X planes (bought in 2012), Hawker Sidlley 4000 (bought in 2011), Gulfstream V, two Augusta 139helicopter, and one Augusta 101 helicopter.

The four aircraft used for Executive Airlift are Falcon 900, Dornier 229 King D200, and Cessna Citation jet.

It was learnt from Presidency sources that the report also listed over 25 aircraft as belonging to MDAs out of which a significant number must be sold.

These include Nigeria Customs Service, which has four aircraft namely two Bell helicopters, one Dornier 228 and one Cessna Citationprivate jet; the Nigerian Police Force, which has 10 helicopters and one Cessna Sovereignprivate jet; and the Nigeria Immigration Service, which has six aircraft that are being used for border patrol.

Others are the National Emergency Management Agency, which has four helicopters and one Cessna Encor private jet; the Ministry of Aviation, which has a Hawker Siddley calibration jet that is not being used; and the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria which has six German-made helicopters that are no longer serviceable.

The source said, “The report before the President recommended that all these aircraft numbering over 25 should be drastically reduced by selling most of them. Most of them are avenues for corruption, wastage and leakages in the system.

“Some of the MDAs are not running all the aircraft and there are budgetary provisions that are being made for their maintenance and running on yearly basis. There are no pilots flying some of the helicopters. Since most of them are not being maintained and run, the report said they should be sold and the money put in the treasury. Only a few of the aircraft will be retained. Apart from the helicopters that are used for operations, some of the MDAs have ultra-modern and expensive private jets. The report is querying what they are using them for.”

As for the 13 aircraft in the PAF, it is still unclear if any or some of them will be sold.

But aviation experts believe the size of the PAF, which is one of the largest in Africa and the second largest airline.

The General Secretary, Aviation Round Table, an industry pressure group, Group Captain John Ojikutu, said, he was not expecting anything less from the President because the actions were long overdue.

According to him, the Buhari administration needs to do more.

He said, “I don’t expect anything less from President Muhammadu Buhari if it is true. We know very well that we have been very wasteful as a country. We have also been wasteful in the way individuals and MDAs acquire private aircraft that they don’t use.

“In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister David Cameron charters aircraft from the British Airways, while the Pope travels by Alitalia Air. We have lots of recklessness in this part of the world. It is only in Africa you see these things. There are lots of things we need to attend to.”

A former Assistant General Secretary, Airline Operators of Nigeria, Mr. Muhammed Tukur, also said the aircraft could be sold to both airline operators and private individuals who could use them for commercial purposes.

He argued that this could generate more revenue and create jobs.

We have recovered from our electoral defeat — PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party has said it had recovered from the unprecedented electoral defeat it suffered during the 2015 general elections.

The party said it had begun moves to recapture power from the All Progressives Congress in 2019.

The PDP said one of the moves, aiming at wining the elections in the future, was the election of the Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko as the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum.

The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Olisa Metuh, in Abuja on Saturday said Mimiko, as a seasoned administrator and a highly organised person, was equipped for his new role as the chairman of the forum.

Metuh hailed the process that led to Mimiko’s emergence, saying the development reflects the unity and sense of purpose within its fold, especially at this rebuilding time.

He also commended the governors for their continued commitment towards the party “as it reengineers and repositions to regain power in 2019.”

Metuh added that the recent political events in the country had continued to vindicate the PDP as “the only true national platform committed to the national interest, where all citizens as equal partners are free to hold opinion and aspire to any position, no matter how high, without regard to creed, class or ethnic considerations and in which no individual or group of individuals can claim ownership or attempt to appropriate control.”

Stating that the PDP “has since overcome the setback of the last general elections,” the spokesperson for the opposition party said as a party founded on the principles of freedom, equality, justice and national unity, the PDP’s spirit “is still alive and stronger, now more than ever before, in the minds of most Nigerians and families in all the nooks and crannies of the country.”

He, therefore, charged its members in all the wards, local government and states of the federation to close ranks, double their efforts and continue to work with their leaders at all levels to ensure that the PDP comes out stronger to regain power at the center and in its traditional states come 2019.

I was Amaechi’s engine room — Wike

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has said that he is responsible for the emergence of his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi, as governor.

This is as he also described himself as the engine room of the former governor.

Wike said this on Saturday while speaking with journalists at the Government House, Port Harcourt, Rivers State

The governor explained that he was teaching those in Amaechi’s camp the way to play the game of politics, because “there is no polling booth in the state that I do not know or do not know anybody.”

For those who have been criticizing his emergence as governor, he said, “the fact is that I was prepared for that election.

“I was a council chairman. There is nowhere in this state that I do not know. There is no ward I do not know one person.

“As I sit down here, I can mention one, person from each ward. I know the politicians in this state. I know who has strength and who does not have strength.”

Wike also said during the course of the campaigns he was strong and healthy. “I never emaciated one day, the truth of the matter is that if you do the election 100 times in this state, I will win,” he said.

Wike also dismissed claims that he received the sum of N108 billion from former president Goodluck Jonathan as a refund for the rehabilitation of federal roads by the past administration of Rotimi Amaechi.

Wike described the allegation as a frivolous one that should be disregarded by well-meaning Nigerians and the people of the state, maintaining that he met an empty treasury in the state.

There have been speculations in some quarters that the governor received the said amount from the former President as reimbursement for the federal roads repaired by the former administration.

Wike explained that it was not possible for such a huge amount of money to be released to him without anybody being able to trace it.

He said, “It is not possible for me to receive N108 billion. Did Jonathan pay the money into my account or gave me cash?

“Was I paid the money before or after I was sworn-in as governor? Did Jonathan have the power to sign for such money after President Mohammadu Buhari was sworn-in?

“Is it possible that nobody can trace the money (N108 billion) if it was given to me? It is unfortunate how people have trivialised governance. So such stories should be discountenanced,” Wike added.

He explained that despite meeting an empty treasury when he assumed duty as governor, the state Ministry of Works was indebted to the tune of N200 billion under the past administration.

On recently recovered government property, the governor insisted that the vehicle seized from the former Commissioner for Information’s residence belonged to the state government.

“The bulletproof Lexus 570 is the property of the state government and it is worth between N60 million to N70 million. I personally impounded three Rivers State Government vehicles in Abuja from the Liaison Officer,” Wike said.

Describing the scholarship programme of the past administration as a scam, the governor explained that Rivers students, who were beneficiaries of the scheme, were suffering abroad.

He decried a situation where the former administration used consultants to execute jobs that would have been done by the State Scholarship Board.

Pipeline contract: FG must pay ex-militants, says Asari-Dokubo

Former Niger Delta militant leader, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, has called on the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to pay contractors of the oil pipeline surveillance project in the country.

Asari-Dokubo, who is one of the former Niger Delta agitators awarded pipeline surveillance contract by the Federal Government, toldSUNDAY PUNCH that the three-month deal elapsed on June 15.

He said that the ex-minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, did not sign for the payment of the pipeline surveillance contract before she left office.

The pipeline protection project, which cut across Lagos, Ogun, Bayelsa, Ondo, Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta States, was executed from March 15, 2015 to June 15.

Asari-Dokubo urged President Buhari to pay the contractors their money if he was truly committed to the rule of law.

“Diezani (Allison-Madueke) did not sign payment for the contract before she left. All across the six states (Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa) where the contract was awarded none of us were paid; none of the companies were paid. The Federal Government should do what is needful by paying the money they owe. The same mandate that was given to Buhari to become President was the same mandate that was given to us in a legal and binding contract.

“If Buhari is law-abiding and if his government respects the rule of law, the contractual obligations will be followed. The contract was awarded to corporate entities by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. We did not go in as individuals and the corporate entities are regarded as individuals under the law. No contract was awarded to any specific individual,” he said.

The former militant added that he and other contractors would follow due process to get their money from the Federal Government.

He appealed to the President not to set a bad precedent where government will fail to pay contractors who had executed their contracts.

“The same way they give contract to people to lift oil; the same way they give Julius Berger contracts to build roads; the same way they give people contracts to build houses; that is the same way pipeline surveillance contracts were given to us. But they (FG) are not paying for the work done. It is against the law of the land. Paying us our contract money is the right thing he (Buhari) ought to do and for any reasonable human being,” Asari-Dokubo said.

APC crisis: Obasanjo’s peace mission hits brick wall

Efforts by the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, to nip in the bud the crisis set off by the recent election of the principal officers of the National Assembly may have hit a brick wall.

The crisis of confidence which has pitted party leaders of the All Progressives Congress against the new principal officers of the National Assembly may take a turn for the worse this week.

Contrary to the belief in several quarters, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is widely believed to have accepted the election of the principal officers as a fait accompli, is said to be unhappy with the leadership of the National Assembly.

Sources close to the two camps told our correspondents that President Buhari and senior party officials were still peeved that Saraki and other party members defied the party and formed an alliance with the former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party.

The APC senators loyal to Saraki had on June 9 boycotted a peace meeting convened by Buhari and the leadership of the party. The meeting, which was attended by senators loyal to Senator Ahmad Lawan, the APC’s official candidate for the position of the Senate President, was going on when Saraki, with the support of his loyalists in the APC and all the PDP senators, emerged as the senate president unopposed.

Since then, the party has been in crisis, even though the APC had said it would work with Saraki.

During the week, Saraki, paid a well publicised visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. His aim, reports say, was to seek the former president’s intervention in the crisis. Saraki wanted Obasanjo to pacify the APC leaders on his behalf. But Sunday PUNCH gathered that the former president’s intervention has failed to yield the results desired by Saraki and his camp.

It was gathered that shortly after Saraki’s visit to the former president, Obasanjo made a telephone call to Buhari advising him to make up with Saraki. The former president had reportedly told the president to work with Saraki and let the party deal with all the disciplinary issues that the former governor of Kwara State had been accused of. However, the President was said to have been non-committal.

Sources privy to these happenings told our correspondents that the telephone call initiated by Obasanjo was not the first time the former president would intervene in the matter. Sunday PUNCH reliably gathered that Obasanjo had met with Buhari in South Africa, last Sunday, and sought his help in resolving the crisis in the ruling party. Sources said that the former president, who was in Zambia for the 22nd annual general meeting of the African Export-Import Bank, had travelled from there to South Africa to meet with President Buhari.

Speaking over the weekend, some senior party leaders expressed doubts about the viability of Obasanjo’s intervention. They toldSUNDAY PUNCH in different interviews that Saraki is an ally of former vice-president Atiku Abubakar whom Obasanjo is not very fond of.

One of them said, “It is not a secret that Atiku is solidly behind Saraki. How the senate president thinks Obasanjo will back any move by Atiku is what we don’t understand. Atiku was the first person that Saraki visited when he emerged as senate president. The ex-president will definitely not turn Saraki back but deep in his heart, he knows which camp he belongs to.”

But a source in the corridors of power told our correspondent on the condition of anonymity that the President’s response to pleas for his intervention had remained the same.

Sources said while Buhari was careful not to make his disappointment with Saraki public, he was very angry that the senate president led a rebellion against his party and also teamed up with the PDP to undermine it. One other reason the crisis has remained intractable, the source added, was the emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate President.

“The President believes that Saraki earned the support of the PDP because of the deputy senate presidency he conceded to the opposition party. It is a treacherous thing to do to one’s party,” the source said.

Buhari had reportedly shunned all moves by Saraki to meet him before the senate president’s visit to Obasanjo.

However, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said Buhari was not avoiding Saraki. Rather, he said, it was the Senate President who is yet to visit the presidency. When asked specifically when Saraki would be meeting with the President, Shehu said it was left for the President of the Senate to decide.

“There is no truth in the claims that the President does not want to meet with any of the National Assembly leaders. He has said that he respects institutions and that strong men build institutions,” Garba said.

Our correspondents report that Saraki may be reluctant to make an approach because he doesn’t want to be rebuffed. A prominent member of the Like Minds Senators, a group sympathetic to the senate president, confirmed that Saraki had not fixed an appointment with Buhari after meeting Obasanjo.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said, “After the meeting with Obasanjo, there has been no specific move on the part of the senate president to meet with Mr. President. They will meet at the appropriate time.”

A senior APC official, who confided inSUNDAY PUNCH, said, “From all indications, all sides in the crisis are maintaining their hard-line positions on the crisis. It seems Saraki is not ready for reconciliation. His group is insisting on its position. The Lawan group has given its conditions for peace and the President believes that there must be party discipline.”

Meanwhile, in a clear sign that the president may not have a problem with the leadership of the House, Buhari will be granting audience to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, this week.

The meeting, one of our correspondents learnt, is at the instance of Dogara.

Shehu, confirmed Buhari’s meeting with Dogara. He however declined to give details of the specific day on which the meeting would hold.

“I have just gone through the President’s activities for the week and I saw that Dogara is scheduled to meet with him (the President) during the week,” Shehu said.

On his part, the spokesperson for the pro- Saraki group, Senator Dino Melaye, said the senate president had appeared before the party’s reconciliation committee.

He said, “The party set up a reconciliation committee with the APC General Secretary as Chairman and Saraki had appeared before the committee.”