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Senate suspends plenary for late Longjan

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Senate suspends plenary for late Longjan

By Bukola Olasanmi 

The Senate on Tuesday suspended its plenary and all legislative activities in honour of the late Senator Ignatius Longjan.

Longjan, who represented Plateau South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, died at Turkish Hospital, Abuja on Sunday.

The Leader of the Senate, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, shortly after the resumption of the plenary, moved a motion for the suspension of the plenary and the motion was seconded by the Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe.

The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, who presided over the plenary also announced that the red chamber would dedicate tomorrow’s plenary to the late Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu, who died in December last year.

Omo-Agege urged his colleagues to dress either in white or black for the valedictory session in honour of the former representative of the Imo North Senatorial District, which would hold by 10 am.

Details later…

Senate suspends plenary for late Longjan

 

Mali’s president acknowledges contact with armed groups

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Ibrahim Boubacar Keita says ‘time that certain paths be explored’ as security crisis in the Sahel deteriorates. 

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has for the first time acknowledged contacts with armed groups, an option the government has long rejected.

“The number of deaths in the Sahel is becoming exponential and it’s time that certain paths be explored,” he said in an interview with French media due to be broadcast on Monday.

Mali has struggled to contain an armed group revolt that broke out in the country in 2012, claiming thousands of military and civilian lives since.

But dialogue with leaders of armed fighters has long been considered to be off limits for the government in Bamako.

In the interview, Keita appeared to have changed course on past refusals to engage with these groups.

“We are ready to build bridges for dialogue with everyone … at some point, we have to sit around a table and talk,” he said.

Keita said he had sent former President Dioncounda Traore “on a mission”.

“He is my high representative, so his job is to listen to everybody,” the president said.

Traore was primarily tasked with seeing if there were people who “could be sensitive to a discourse of reason”.

However, Keita also said he was “not naive” about the likelihood of success.

“Those who order others to enter a mosque and blow themselves up in the middle of the faithful don’t have much of my esteem,” he said.

A 2017 national conference gathering Keita’s party and opposition parties urged holding direct talks with armed fighters as a way to solve the crisis in Mali.

The government never followed up the recommendations, however.

6 weird facts about Prophet Odumeje

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By Toby Prince

Founder of Holy Ghost Intervention Deliverance Ministry Onitsha, Emeka Odumeje, is rapidly infiltrating the Nigerian social media space with his eccentric style.

Rated the world’s 24th most religious nation and top on the continent, Nigeria flaunts a large pool of preachers and worship centres.

With almost 100 million, the West African country has the sixth-most Christian population behind the United States, Brazil, Russia, Mexico and the Philippines.

It is unrivaled in Africa, with a population that outnumbers Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Liberia combined.

This perhaps explains the alarming surge in persons who claim to be ‘anointed’, planting approximately 200,000 centres.

These days, you can barely thrust a cat without hitting one.

However, nothing close to ‘Odumeje’ has been beheld in time past.

Although with a modest appearance, he is charismatic, controversial and weird.

Here are six things to know about the Anambra-based clergyman.

1. Prophet Odumeje born Chukwuemeka Ohanaemere hails from Orlu in Imo State but resides in Onitsha, Anambra State.

2. He Started Mountain of Holy Ghost Intervention Deliverance Ministry Onitsha, on 10th September 2010 as deliverance ministry in a public yard at No 14 osumu street Odakpu, Onitsha, from where it was moved to Okija hall and subsequently to Arondizuogu hall, all in Odakpu, Anambra State.

3. He is popular with the nickname “Odumeje the lion himself” and “liquid metal”

4. The church has moved to its permanent site at No. 88 Bida road Fegge, Onitsha, having over 20,000 seating capacity.

5. He is happily married with kids, however, he shields his family from the media.

6. He claimed to have resurrected a dead woman in a video which went viral in 2017.

French court fines Equatorial Guinea vice president 30m euros

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Teodorin Obiang, son of Equatorial Guinea’s president and the country’s vice president, has been handed a fine of 30 million euros ($32.9m)  by a Paris court for embezzling public funds.

The court also gave Obiang, the 50-year-old son of Africa’s longest-serving president, a suspended jail term and ordered the confiscation of his assets on Monday.

Obiang, who is fond of fast cars and Michael Jackson memorabilia, had been found guilty by a French court in 2017 of having plundered his country’s state coffers to fund his jet-set lifestyle in Europe.

At the time, he was handed a three-year jail term as well as the 30 million-euro fine – both suspended.

Obiang challenged that penalty only to have the Paris appeals court return a heavier sentence on Monday by removing the suspended provision from the fine.

It confirmed his conviction on a range of laundering charges – relating to the embezzlement of public funds, misuse of corporate assets and breach of trust – and upheld the lower court’s order for the confiscation of his ill-gotten assets.

Obiang was not in court for the ruling, just as he had not attended his initial trial. The case had been brought to the French courts by two anti-corruption NGOs.

Prosecutors estimate he laundered 150 million euros ($163.6m) in misappropriate funds in France.

Obiang owns a six-storey, 107 million-euro ($116.7m) mansion in an upscale part of Paris, complete with a hammam, a disco and gold-plated taps.

When investigators first raided the home, they hired trucks to haul away a fleet of Bugattis, Ferraris, a Rolls-Royce Phantom and other cars as evidence.

The fate of his residence, which was also seized by French authorities, remains unclear after Monday’s ruling. Obiang’s lawyers have lodged an appeal with the International Court of Justice claiming that the property should fall under the protections given to diplomatic buildings.

A hearing is scheduled to take place in The Hague next week.

Obiang has said his money came from legitimate sources. His lawyers accused France during his trial of “meddling in the affairs of a sovereign state”. Relations between the two nations have been strained over the case.

“It is another step in a legal marathon,” William Bourdon, a lawyer for Transparency International, one of the NGOs that initiated the case, said of Monday’s ruling.

“It is a strong and powerful signal to those who believe that a culture of impunity is the indispensable means to organise and maintain a system of predation of public resources in Africa or elsewhere.”

Obiang could still lodge a final challenge to the Cour de Cassation, France’s highest appeals court for criminal cases.

He was agriculture and forestry minister before being promoted by his father, who has ruled the oil-rich country for 40 years, to vice president, putting him in pole position to take over the leadership one day.

Africa’s only Spanish-speaking nation, Equatorial Guinea is the continent’s third-biggest oil producer but more than half of its 1.2 million population live below the poverty line.

It is regularly accused by human rights groups of corruption, repressive laws, extrajudicial killings and torture.

Obiang Nguema overthrew his uncle Francisco Macias Nguema in a bloody coup in August 1979 and became president a few months later.

He has since seen off at least half a dozen assassination or coup attempts. The latest of them, in December 2017, reportedly involved a group of men from Chad, Central African Republic and Sudan.

Yahaya Bello suspends KSU VC, Kogi Poly rector

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Yahaya Bello suspends KSU VC, Kogi Poly rector

Toby Prince with Agency reports

Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has suspended Mohammed Abdulkadir, the vice-chancellor (VC) of the Kogi State University (KSU), Ayangba, over “insubordination.”

Bello also suspended Muhammed Atureta, the rector of the Kogi State Polytechnic (KSP), an institution also situated in Lokoja, for the same offense.

Kingsley Fanwo, the state’s commissioner for information, confirmed this while speaking to journalists on Monday in Lokoja.

He told NAN that the duo were suspended after failing to comply with the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy of the state government.

TSA is a financial guideline that directs all ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) to pay all revenues into a single account maintained by the central bank.

According to Fanwo, Ahmed Attah, the chief medical director of the State Specialist Hospital, was also suspended on Friday after committing the same infraction.

“The governor was irked by their failure to comply with the new financial directive,” the commissioner explained.

Fanwo said Bello had earlier warned, during a meeting with MDA heads, that non-compliance with the directive would not be tolerated.

Dismissing claims that the governor’s action was political rather than administrative, Fanwo said that compliance with the new financial guidelines is in the best interest of the system.

 

Tribunal: Wada wants Yahaya Bello’s reelection nullified, lists 259 witnesses

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Tribunal: Wada wants Yahaya Bello’s reelection nullified, lists 259 witnesses

By Toby Prince

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November 16, 2019 governorship election, in Kogi State, Musa Wada, has listed a total of 259 witnesses to give evidence at the tribunal where he is challenging the outcome of the election.

Wada and his political platform, PDP are contesting the outcome of the election that returned Yahaya Bello of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as the validly elected governor of the state, before the state governorhship election tribunal in Abuja.

But in the petition filed in December 2019, the petitioners attacked the credibility of the polls alleging that it was riddled with irregularities, fraud and other acts that were not in compliance with the Electoral Act.

The petitioners who joined the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Yahaya Bello and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as relevant parties, further alleged that the outcome of the polls did not reflect the actual votes cast at the election.

It is Wada’s prayer that the three-man panel of the tribunal headed by Justice Kashim G. Kaigama,that declared Governor Bello was not duly elected and/or returned by a majority of lawful votes cast during the election.

Besides, the petitioners are also seeking a declaration that neither the second nor the third respondent scored the majority of lawful votes cast at the election to the office of the state governor.

They are therefore, praying the tribunal to issue an order nullifying the Certificate of Return issued to Bello by INEC and in addition, issue an order nullifying the entire governorship election conducted in the state by reason of substantial non-compliance with the provisions of the constitution and extant Electoral Act 2010 (As amended).

At the pre-hearing sitting which held on January 30, the court, after listening to parties adjourned till yesterday for hearing proper on the pre-hearing applications.

When the court resumed, several applications were moved by parties while some were withdrawn without objection by the opposing party.

However, due to the fact that one of the motions was not ripe for hearing, the tribunal had extended the pre-hearing period till Thursday to conclude all pre-hearing applications.

The 14-day period stipulated by law for pre-hearing motions is expected to lapse on Wednesday, having started last January 30. The court, however, invoked the power vested on it by law to extend the period by one day. It also reserved rulings on the applications moved to a date to be communicated to parties.

 

NTA Vs CNN: ‘Perish thoughts of $500m’, PDP tells Lai Mohammed

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NTA Vs CNN: ‘Perish thoughts of $500m’, PDP tells Lai Mohammed

By Toby Prince

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Monday, berated the Minister of Information and Culture, over Federal Government’s request for approval for $500 milion loan for the upgrade of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

The PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, urged the National Assembly to reject the request from President Muhammadu Buhari for approval for a $29.9 billion loan, in which the said $500 million and “other unexplained subheads are embedded.”

The opposition party charged the parliament not to approve the loan request, which it described as an attempt by a cabal in the Presidency to further worsen the economic situation of the country.

“Under the Buhari Presidency, our foreign debt has accumulated to $83 billion dollars with nothing to show other than excruciating unemployment rate, decayed infrastructure, a worsening governance system, escalated insecurity and unprecedented poverty.

“The PDP alerts that the request for the approval of $500 million is aimed at setting the stage for further fleecing of our nation’s economy as the Federal Government under the Buhari administration has shown no commitment towards nation building, transparency and accountability in governance.

“Moreover, the Federal Government has failed to present details of the requested $29.9 billion dollars loan in which the $500 million being requested by the Minister of Information and Culture is embedded; a development that points to nothing but the corruption in the Buhari administration.”

The PDP admonished the Information Minister “to perish the thoughts of $500 million”, but rather use his appearance at the National Assembly to give account of the funds so far released to his ministry.

 

Terrorism: Protesters storm Lagos over involvement of Iran, Amnesty International in plot to cause unrest in Nigeria

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Protesters on Monday, stormed the Freedom Park, Lagos to cry out against the alleged involvement of Iran and the Amnesty International to cause unrest in Nigeria.

The protesters, under the aegis of the Concerned Progressives, claimed the Government of Iran and Amnesty International were sponsoring violent groups and activities aimed at causing political, religious and economic unrest in the country.

Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Mrs Josephine Okpara called on Nigerianz to wake up before it’s too late.

She called on the appropriate agencies of government to deport all Iranians from the country, saying their continued stay in Nigeria is of no benefit to the nation.

Her speech: “Wake Up Lagos, Wake Up Nigeria, Wake Up Before It Is Too Late below,” read below.

We stand on all existing protocol and bring warm greetings from the Concerned Progressives, an organization committed to promoting the ideals of good governance and the unity and progress of Nigeria.

There is indeed fire on the mountain with the recent onslaught on the Nigerian nation by agents of darkness in our midst. These harbingers of death have vowed to see to the disintegration of Nigeria, and this much they have started implementing with the promotion of violent groups and the sponsorship of violence across the country.

As we know, this is not the first time some foreign countries have been conspiring against Nigeria. They have attempted it severally and have failed. But this time around, they have redoubled their efforts to see to the success of this campaign spearheaded wholly by the Government of Iran.

The authorities in Tehran smarting from their failures and revelations of their avid sponsorship of terrorism across the globe are attempting to spread their tentacles to the African continent by all means necessary.

The Iranian Government has vowed to be ruthless with Nigeria and this much their proxy in terrorism, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria has been implementing from time immemorial with their violent protests across the country, the assassination attempt on the Chief of Army Staff, as well as the spread of their extremist ideology in Northern Nigeria.

We wish to inform Nigerians that the Government of Iran has enlisted the support of Amnesty International (AI) the cash and carry human rights organization to lead a deadly propaganda campaign against Nigeria.

We are aware that Amnesty International was paid vast sums of monies for this campaign with the understanding that part of the funds would be channeled to the IMN and other deadly groups they have set up in parts of the country to cause mayhem of unimaginable proportion.

In light of the revealing circumstances, it is evident that Nigeria has to take its destiny into his hands to ensure that all Iranian interests in Nigeria leave the country in the interest of peace and tranquility.

We have tolerated their excesses in times past. However, this time around, we are saying enough is enough for their unwholesome meddling in our affairs as a sovereign nation, and this is the message we are passing in unequivocal terms.

This is indeed a battle for the soul of Nigeria because the drumbeats of war sound from wide and far all at the behest of the Government of Iran and their agents in Nigeria, the IMN, Amnesty International, and other newly established militant groups.

The Government of Iran should know that this time around, Nigerians would not sit and watch. Nigerians would speak out loud in one voice and one accord to see that their evil plots against Nigeria do not succeed.

In the coming days, we shall be raising awareness that would resonate in both national and international communities on how the Iranian Government is plotting for the disintegration of Nigeria by channeling millions of dollars to their proxies in Nigeria.

Our patience has been stretched beyond the limit, and never again shall we allow the proxies of the Government of Iran to destabilize our country. This must indeed stop forthwith as no amount of money in circulation would make their nefarious plot succeed.

We all know that Amnesty International has been acting the script of the Government of Iran through their often false reports on Nigeria. We also know that vast sums of monies indeed exchanged hands. Our consolation is that the Government of Iran would have no option than to demand a refund from Amnesty International because Nigeria would henceforth reject any report from the stable of Amnesty International since it is evident that their continued stay in Nigeria is for the promotion of terrorism and not the protection of Human Rights.

Nigerians would unite against terrorism, and Amnesty International and their paymasters should look elsewhere for the implementation of their ungodly trade because Nigeria is not fit for their purpose.

The IMN leadership should be notified that Nigerians are aware of their establishment of militant groups under different nomenclatures on the instruction of the Government of Iran to wreak havoc on innocent citizens. We are also aware that their ultimate aim is to make these militant groups deadlier than the Boko Haram terrorist group.

Nigerians have indeed woken up from their slumber and is telling the Government of Iran to leave Nigeria in peace, for we are a peaceful and sovereign country dedicated to sustaining the ideals of democracy.

We refuse to be a part of a terrorist country whose only desire is to see people die and perish. That would not be allowed to happen in Nigeria because Nigeria belongs to Nigerian and not Iranians.

We are consequently using this medium to call on all well-meaning Nigerians as well as the international community to prevail on Iran to quietly leave Nigeria with their bags of blood monies to somewhere else. We do not need them and would never need them.

They should take their blood monies to other places to seek war as Nigerians seek peace and tranquility. This is indeed a statement of fact the Government of Iran must respect in their interest.

Our charge to the international community is simple. Iran must leave Nigeria for their continued stay in Nigeria is of no benefit as we know their mission is to spread terrorism and destabilize the country.

Enough is enough, and the time for Iran to leave Nigeria is now. This message should not be ignored because it is indeed the wishes of the over 180 million Nigerians. The international community must be informed that Nigerians have run out of patience, and our demand must be respected.

Buhari is not President of the north, PRONECO Convener, Shango replies Ango Abdullahi

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The National Convener Pro- Nigeria Elders Council (PRONECO), Chief Hon. Simon Shango, has replied Chairman, Northern Elders Forum (NEF) Prof. Ango Abdullahi, describing President Muhammadu Buhari as a democratic leader and not a northern President.

Mr Shango’s reaction trails Prof. Abdullahi’s comments wherein the latter alleged that “poverty, particularly in the North and massive social security have worsened under Buhari’s administration.”

In a statement on behalf of PRONECO on Monday, Chief Shango dismissed Abdullahi’s “provocative and inciting” assertion for lacking basis, especially knowing the president inherited a poverty-stricken nation, suffering economic recess with states owing debts.

However, contrary to the NEF leader’s claim, Mr Shango added that since Buhari took over the helms of affair in 2015, he introduced National Social Investments Programme, drastically improved the security, oil exploration in the Niger Delta is now seamless among others.

Nonetheless, the elderstatesman advised Ango not to attempt to reduce President Buhari who is focused on spreading the gains of democracy across the country to just a regional leader.

Read full statement below:

The Pro- Nigeria Elders Council (PRONECO) is prodded to weigh in reaction to the unwarranted, provocative and inciting public statements credited to the Chairman, Northern Elders Forum (NEF) Prof. Ango Abdullahi. The NEF chair carelessly without recourse to decorum launched scathing verbal attacks on the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari as failing to tackle poverty and insecurity in Nigeria.

In the said statement, widely reported in the media, Prof. Abdullahi intolerably abused his position of trust and neutrality on political matters by his premeditated and personalized tirades on the person and the Government of President Buhari. An elder who condescends that low in inconsistency deserves our empathy and prayers as elders in the land.

The PRONECO has keenly watched the actions and utterances of Prof. Abdullahi over time and has come to the sad conclusion that he lacks the nerve and wisdom to posture as an elder statesman not just of his northern ethnic clan but to at any point speak for anyone in the country. His doublespeak is abhorring and portraits him with image of a juvenile, not of an elder statesman that he should be. Abdullahi regrettably has dubiously deployed his vintage position as NEF Chairman to embark on a doomed mission of vengeance against the President Muhammadu Buhari led-Federal Government of Nigeria.

The PRONECO has observed in him flippancy and loquaciousness on national issues that do not mean well for the unity and peace of Nigeria . We are shocked that a venerated body like NEF has abandoned or loaned its leadership to the hatred of someone like Prof. Abdullahi, who has not only undermined the sensibilities of the diverse persuasions of NEF members, but has also dragged it into partisan politics.

The PRONECO has understandably restrained itself from questioning the sanity and trustworthiness of the perception of Prof. Abdullahi on national issues because it is glaring and pathetic that he has lost bearing a long time ago. He is leading NEF to a consuming ditch since he cannot differentiate between NEF and his personal dispositions.

However, it is imperative to remind Prof. Abdullahi of certain basic and fundamental things, which his outburst have not only belittled his personage, but also denigrated NEF, the body he represents.

Let Prof. Abdullahi know henceforth, NEF is not his personal property or fiefdom. Therefore, his chairmanship of the body does not appropriate to him any power to canvass partisan political positions on behalf of NEF especially when another statesman and patriot in the character of President Buhari is concerned.

His current posturing is sacrilegious and smacks of brazenly playing on the intelligence of its members. His viewpoint on the administration of President Buhari as reflected in the public statement has never been contemplated by NEF and therefore, personal to him and should never be garbed as the official position of NEF.

Furthermore, its quite unfortunate that in spite of Prof. Abdullahi’s vastness in knowledge, exposure and experience, senility has not allowed him to discern that President Buhari is the President of Nigeria and not “President of Northern Nigeria.” He is not to be blamed as senility has done enough overt damage to his senses and it explains his latest disgraceful outing. But he cannot reduce President Buhari to a regional leader.

Specifically, Abdullahi’s claims that poverty has worsened in Nigeria is mendacious and egoistic greasing of his appetite to parrot carelessly on public discourse . President Buhari met a country that was in total shambles in 2015, where poverty reached the zenith with states and federal governments indebted, to months of unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities and huge local contractual debts in trillions of naira.

And with an economy in recession, widespread poverty and hardships in the land, had a monstrous and tormenting face. But as a concerned leader, President Buhari immediately cleared the backlog of owed entitlements at the national level and dispatched series of bailout funds to states for same reasons.

The National Social Investments Programme, with multiple subsets; sustained agricultural loans to farmers and other such initiatives are the few conscious and deliberate steps to ameliorate poverty and hardships in the land as well as empower Nigerians towards self-sustenance.

The security in Nigeria was worse than now. But President Buhari has thrown his hat into the ring to ensure even the recent politically induced attacks and killings in parts of the country are curtailed. Perhaps, Prof. Abdullahi is too engrossed in his vengeance mission against Mr. President and has refused to sight the positively changed silhouette on insecurities in Nigeria.

However, it is laughable not to notice that exploration of crude oil in South-South Nigeria is now uninterrupted and peaceful, unlike before when violent and consistent militancy disrupted the process. Boko Haram which hitherto engulfed the entire North, including Kaduna or Kano states where Prof. Abdullahi resides and Abuja where he occasionally strays has been confined to the fringes of the Lake Chad Basin in Northeast Nigeria. These miracles have been performed by President Buhari.

Prof. Abdullahi is free to seek information from some State Governors in the North Central and they will acquaint him with the decisive actions by the Presidency which have tamed herdsmen/farmers carnages. The communities are enjoying substantial peace at the moment. Despite sporadic violent attacks in recent times, which are being handled, the records cannot be obliterated by Prof. Abdullahi’s wish. The tempo of armed banditry in Northwest states has relaxed incredibly.

An elder statesman does not lie, especially in public. So, it infuriates when Prof. Ango Abdullahi says, “It has become necessary and appropriate, however, to make public, the position of the forum on important matters that affect the manner Nigerians live, and the future we must address.” Which of the issues he canvassed in the public now is a collective decision of NEF and at which meeting?

And canvassing for the change in the leadership of Service and Security Chiefs only confirms his partisan nakedness and repulsive resort to the antics of opposition to harangue President Buhari. But Abdullahi and those who habour such regressively feeble thoughts can never intimidate, harass or stampede Mr. President to change his current Service and Security Chiefs based on their veiled anti-Nigerian campaigns coated as patriotism.

He should expend his remaining energies on something personally worthwhile to him. But in truth, his present actions are unbecoming of a man of his status, grossly partisan and a disservice to the promotion of unity, national cohesion and peace in Nigeria.

When you push vengeance too far, it turns to haunt, ridicule and foul the air around you. Prof. Abdullahi is free to air his personal opinions on the way his country is governed; no one has a problem with it. But it is undisguised criminality to pass such personal, biased, partisan and dishonest views as the decision of NEF. Abdullahi alone cannot symbolize nearly 200 million Nigerians. He is certainly not above the over 15 million Nigerians who have again reposed their leadership trust and confidence in President Buhari as re-confirmed by his 2019 overwhelming reelection victory.

Thank you.

Your investments are safe in Nigeria, Buhari tells foreign investors

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Your investments are safe in Nigeria, Buhari tells foreign investors

President Muhammadu Buhari has reassured international investors that their investments in Nigeria are safe.

Buhari gave the assurance at the ongoing Nigeria International Petroleum Summit (NIPS) in Abuja, on Monday.

The summit which is the 3rd edition has as its theme: “Widening the Integration Circle: Technology, Knowledge, Sustainability Partnership’’.

Represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Mr Boss Mustapha, he said that Nigeria as an oil producing nation remained ready and accessible for legitimate investment from all interested countries, individuals and partners.

“Let me assure foreign delegates that their investments are well secured in Nigeria and a high return on investment is always guaranteed.

“It cannot get better anywhere,” he said

He added that towards achieving the realisation of a safe and secure investment environment, his administration had taken steps to reposition the oil and gas sector.

The steps, he said include improving the business environment and driving investments in the upstream, midstream and downstream, reviewed and gazette policies and regulations to enhance operations in the sector.

Other steps are to enhance accelerated revolution by developing infrastructure for multi domestic utilisation of LPG and CNG, commence the process of commercialising gas flare.

The rest are to increase gas to power and improve Niger Delta security through capacity building and economic empowerment, enforcing transparency and efficiency in the sector by building capacity, enabling the use of IT and automation and entrenching performance management.

The president noted that increasing refineries production capacity, improving stakeholders management, international relations and bi-lateral coordination and Carry out extensive work for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) was also among the steps.

The steps he added would open up the oil and gas sector to competitiveness.

In his remarks, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Chief Timipre Sylva said the Summit was one of those initiatives approved three years ago and had garnered global acceptability within a short period.

He said that the attendance from the African continent and other countries of the world in the first and second editions attested to the fact that the 3rd edition would definitely raise the bar.

According to him, over 45 countries are expected to be represented at the summit.

He thanked the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for its support to the Nigeria’s oil and gas sector and helping it to take its place in the global energy space.

“Since this administration came on board, you have demonstrated through personal example and conduct that whenever there is a will, there will always be a way.

“This is reflected in the enthronement of discipline, transparency and efficiency in the overall management of the oil and gas sector.

“This has also propelled your appointees to toe the line of probity and accountability by ensuring that your agenda, especially for the oil and gas sector is achieved,’’ he said.

He commended all delegates and participants, adding that NIPS remained a Pan African summit that must be sustained.

He noted that NIPS was designed as a meeting point in the oil and gas industry to introduce and harness new technologies and ideas.

This, he said would lead to development of new strategies that would attract and enhance inflow of foreign investments while improving success rates of indigenous business engagements.

“The Ministry of Petroleum Resources under the leadership of Mr President has the mandate to initiate policies for the oil and gas sector and supervise the implementation of approved policies.

“This, the Ministry had relentlessly pursued since this administration came on board.

“It is gratifying to note that the 1st and 2nd Editions of NIPS have already attracted a lot of goodwill to Nigeria as Africa’s foremost investment destination in the energy sector.

“This 3rd Edition of NIPS will live up to expectation as a truly world class event and promises to take Nigeria and Africa as a whole to the next level in oil and gas business,” he said.

He urged participants to come up with ideas that would help drive the sector in Nigeria and Africa at large.

 

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