Wednesday, October 8Nigeria's Authoritative Maritime News Magazine
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Politics

Breaking: Buhari to appoint more ministers

Breaking: Buhari to appoint more ministers

Breaking News, Politics
President Muhammadu Buhari will soon appoint more ministers into his cabinet. He will  also make board appointments, a demand by his party members over the months. President Buhari gave hints of the new appointments in a speech delivered today to the National Executive of the All Progressives Congress at the national secretariat in Abuja. President Buhari at the moment has 36  ministers, with 14 of them being ministers of state. He doubles as the full minister of petroleum. When he appointed them in 2015, he said he was having a trimmed cabinet to avoid waste. Now faced by demands by his party for more inclusiveness and patronage, he said he would be shifting ground soon. The “compressed Federal Executive Council”, he said, “will be expanded to bring in more supporters at Federal Lev...
2019: Nigerians Will Stone Us If We Present Buhari – APC Group

2019: Nigerians Will Stone Us If We Present Buhari – APC Group

Politics
Members of the defunct Congress For Progressive Change (CPC) from the 17 southern states of Nigeria, have said fielding President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 Presidential election will incur the wrath of Nigerians and cost the ruling APC the election. The group which goes under the banner of Southern Mandate of Nigeria (SMN), said Nigerians will stone them at campaign grounds, if Buhari is presented as their presidential candidate. National Coordinator of the group, Comrade Francis Ikonomwan, in a statement made available to journalists in Benin, Edo State, described the call by members of Buhari Support Group on President Mohammadu Buhari to contest the 2019 election, as political sycophancy. He described members of the Buhari Support Group as a “bunch of people who do not mean ...
Jonathan meant well for the democracy of Nigeria…Jega

Jonathan meant well for the democracy of Nigeria…Jega

Law, Politics
Attahiru Jega, former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says that Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan meant well for the democracy of Nigeria. In an interview with Jamie Hitchen, a policy researcher at Africa Research Institute, a not-for-profit group that was founded in 2007, Jega said Jonathan granted all the financial requests of INEC and did not try to personally interfere with the commission’s work. “The administration of Goodluck Jonathan, president from 2010 to 2015, never gave any reason to suspect that there was a deliberate and wilful attempt to emasculate the funding of INEC” he said. For this they should be applauded. No situation arose where we had to go cap-in-hand to the executive looking for funding and I must add that when supplementary ...
2015 Election: Why I conceded defeat – Jonathan

2015 Election: Why I conceded defeat – Jonathan

Law, Politics
Nigeria has to grow the credibility of its democracy to a stage where it would no longer wait for court judgment to conclude elections, former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has said. Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan Jonathan, who made the observation at the 6th edition of African Ambassadors Interactive Forum, AAIF, and dinner, organised by African Third Sector Resource, ATSR, in Abuja, where he was presented with the “African Leadership & Achievement Award,” noted that by conceding defeat before the 2015 election result was declared, he wanted to set a new standard for the nation’s democracy and prove a point that election related litigation should no longer define Nigeria’s democracy. He said: “I always say that I reformed the democratic process as President in order to consolid...
INTELS collected naira bills in dollars— Stakeholders

INTELS collected naira bills in dollars— Stakeholders

Business, Law, Politics, Port News
As Nigerians await patiently for the outcome of the lucrative boat pilotage contract which INTELS monopolized for almost two decades, more facts have emerged on how the Logistics giants fraudulently ripped off Nigerian importers. Chief Reginald Amadi ,the Spokesman for the Edo/ Delta chapter if the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents revealed that was wrong for INTELS to collect dollar payments for local transactions. He said , " I think INTELS got into trouble because they went beyond the brief of the agreement, they took things for granted. I think NPA just found out that INTELS was deviating from its obligations and decided to wield the big stick', he said. Chief Amadi said it was not true that 11,000 jobs would be lost if INTELS lost the contract insisting there were o...
Fed Civil Service Yet to Disengage Maina

Fed Civil Service Yet to Disengage Maina

Breaking News, Law, Politics
Despite an order last week by President Muhammadu Buhari that the embattled former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, be dismissed from service on account of his mysterious return and re-engagement by the Federal Civil Service Commission, indications are rife that he may not have been officially sacked by his employers. Usually dependable sources at the Civil Service Commission told our magazine that the process of his formal disengagement is yet to commence. "  We cannot sack him based on a mere verbal order by Mr President. The Civil Service is an institution guided by rules and regulations, and Maina's case cannot be an exception",  said our source. It was learnt that as at the close of business last Friday, the Commission was yet to ac...
Buhari’s government is 50 percent PDP controlled, says Hameed Ali Customs Boss

Buhari’s government is 50 percent PDP controlled, says Hameed Ali Customs Boss

Breaking News, Politics
Comptroller General of Nigeria Custom Service, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali has said that the Buhari government has not been able to move forward and fulfill its campaign promises because most of those calling the shots in the government are those who never believed in the President’s vision. Ali’s assertion was supported by Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong who said state governors are not happy that they are left out of appointments being made by the government. Speaking at the commissioning of the office complex of the Buhari Support Organisation in (BSO) in Abuja, Col Ali who is also the National Coordinator of the Organisation said that more than fifty percent of positions in the Buhari government were handled over to members of the PDP who fought against the actualisation of a Buhar...
Military Operation in N’Delta: Seven Ships, 37 Gunboats to be Deployed

Military Operation in N’Delta: Seven Ships, 37 Gunboats to be Deployed

Breaking News, Law, Politics
The Nigerian Navy will deploy seven ships and 37 gunboats during a military exercise known as ‘Operation Octopus Grip’ in the Niger Delta creeks and waterways. This was disclosed by the Flag Officer Commanding, Central Naval Command, Rear Admiral Bello Al-Hassan, who said this was a riverine and sea exercise in the Niger Delta. He told newsmen in Yenagoa, that the exercise will begin from October 30 to November 1. Following fears from residents, the Navy assured them not to worry as the command has a task of ensuring security throughout the exercise. AL-Hassan said “so far, the operation has recorded huge success in reducing crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism and other maritime crimes. “Between May and September this year, the command seized and destroyed about 870,000 MT of illegal...
Shippers’ Council Summon Shipping Companies Over New Charges

Shippers’ Council Summon Shipping Companies Over New Charges

Law, Politics
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) Thursday held a meeting with the shipping companies over some shipping charges introduced on 20ft and 40ft containers at the ports. A source who was at the meeting said the Council expressed anger over the new charges and told the shipping companies to suspend the collection. The strong position of the ports economic regulator, it was gathered, was that the charges were introduced without notification to the Council as required by law. The source said the Council insisted that such increase has to be negotiated by all the parties involved and a decision reached before the charges can be effective. Under the new charges by the shipping companies, a 20ft container now attracts a new charge of N40,000 while 40ft container will have to pay N80,000. ...
PANDEF meeting in Port Harcourt aborted by Police

PANDEF meeting in Port Harcourt aborted by Police

Breaking News, Law, Politics
THE General Assembly of Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, billed to hold at the Atlantic Hall of Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt, yesterday, was aborted by heavily armed security operatives. The meeting, among other things, was to review the constitution of the body and elect officers. As early as 9am, security men decked in black attire, apparently from the state Police Command and the Department of State Service, DSS, took over Birabi Street, the road leading to the main gate of Hotel Presidential, turning back vehicles on the street. Three patrol vehicles were used to block the road. When Vanguard correspondent approached some of the stern looking security operatives to be allowed into the hotel premises, they politely told him that they were there to ensure the meeting of PANDEF did ...