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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2012
NEWS We attacked Sambo’s house, says Boko Haram Continued from Page 1
•Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi speaking at the Nigeria Business and Investment Summit, titled: “New World Nigeria - The World’s Most Vibrant Market,” organised by the Bank of Industry at the Dorchester Hotel, London, United Kingdom...yesterday. Listening are Managing Partner/CEO, Nubuke Investment (UK) Mr Tutu Agyare (left) and Chairman, Etisalat, Hakeen Bello- Osagie
I complained about the crashed Dana plane, says Sanusi
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HE headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was yesterday enveloped in gloom as families, friends and colleagues of the eight CBN officials who died in the Dana airplane crash of June 3 gathered for a memorial service in their honour. Emotions ran high when CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi told the gathering that he boarded the same plane a few days before the crash and, along with other passengers, complained about the poor state of the aircraft. Some family members of the deceased and CBN officials could not hold back tears. They wept profusely. Sanusi, whose cousin died in the crash, described the day of the crash as “a very sad day”. According to him, “every Nigerian was touched in a much more profound way. I have a memory of that evening that
From Nduka Chiejina, Abuja and Adebisi Onanuga
will live forever because I lost a cousin on that flight.” Though nothing was done after he raised the alarm on the state of the aircraft, he resigned to fate by saying that “things like this remind us of how transient life is because any of us in this room could have died from such circumstance”. “I was on that plane a few days earlier and I remember that I complained about the condition of that plane. I was not the only one that complained; other people who flew the plane also said the aircraft wasn’t good.” Sanusi said air disasters should serve as “a great lesson to us and should make us understand that every time we spend with our wife, husband, daughters and sons could be our last with them.” While he thanked God for
the lives of the departed CBN colleagues and close family members of employees who also died in the crash, Sanusi prayed that “those assigned with great responsibilities should be able to live up to their expectations.” The eight officials on board the ill-fated Dana Boeing MD83 flight on their way to Lagos to attend a course for bank examiners at the CBN Training School, were Mr. Amiaka Rapheal (Senior Manager); Mrs. Antoniah Attuh (Senior Manager); Mr. Bamaiyi Adamu (Assistant Manager); Mrs. Falmata Mohammed (Assistant Director); Mr. Ibrahim Yusuf (Principal Manager); Mr. Kim Norris (Special Adviser to the Governor on Banking Supervision); Mr. Istifanus Mutihir (Deputy Director); and Mr. Samuel Mbong (Senior Manager). Apart from them, four oth-
er CBN workers also lost their loved ones to the crash. During the coroner’s inquest into the crash in Lagos, Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe, was yesterday told of the last 15 minutes of the ill- fated plane before it crashed at Iju-Ishaga, Lagos. A witness, Mr. Rafiq Olubukola Arogunjo, an Air Traffic Controller with the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) related to the coroner details of his discussions with the pilot of the ill-fated airline before the crash. Arogunjo said he received a distress call from the pilot at(14.42 UTC- universal time coordinate)3.42p.m. local time and that three minutes after, the aircraft went off the radar. He said when he got the distress call, the plane was at 11 NM (nautical miles) to touch Continued on Page 57
State, Maiduguri, Borno State and Damaturu in Yobe State. The group warned Christians and informants to the security agencies, saying the sect would attack any government functionaries, security agents, Christians and anyone who pretends to be a Muslim. “We want to stress that in our struggle, we only kill government functionaries, security agents, Christians and anyone who pretends to be a Muslim but engage in assisting security agents to arrest us,” a statement by the group said. A statement sent to reporters in Maiduguri yesterday evening believed to be authored by the sect spokesman, Abu Qaqa, also claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks in Sokoto, Zaria and Damaturu. The statement reads: “All praises go to Almighty Allah. This is a very important message from the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad. We wish to extend our profound gratitude to Almighty Allah for giving us the opportunity to fulfill the promise we made on launching spontaneous attacks in Sokoto. “We have reasons for all our activities and we only kill those who wronged us. We attacked Sokoto because many of our brethren have been incarcerated there. We are gladdened by the successes we recorded at the office of the AIG in Marina and the police divisional office at Unguwan Rogo as well as the police station at Arkila. “We wish to reiterate that our crusade is not for personal gain; it is meant to ensure the establishment of an Islamic state by liberating all Muslims from the excesses of the infidels. We strongly believe that Almighty Allah will reward us with his famous paradise in the
hereafter as he rightly said in chapter 9 verse 111 of the Holy Qur’an “We wish to strongly warn people to desist from collaborating with security agents. The fact is that we are the warriors of the Almighty and even the security forces are finding it difficult to contain our activities. We want to stress that in our struggle, we only kill government functionaries, security agents, Christians and anyone who pretends to be a Muslim but engage in assisting security agents to arrest us “We are also aware of the activities of some women who have been recruited to spy on us. This is a final warning to all of them. Whenever we catch any woman spying on us, we would slaughter her like a ram. “We are responsible for the attacks in Bauchi and at the residence of Namadi Sambo in Zaria as well as the one in Damaturu where we bombed a patrol vehicle. “We equally dealt a big blow on JTF operatives in Maiduguri who, out of frustration went back and killed innocent and defenseless citizens. “It is erroneous to say that we are killing Muslims. We don’t kill innocent Muslims. The fact is the bottom line of our struggle is to set the Muslims free from enslavement. We only kill the unbelievers. Security agencies yesterday began a probe into the motive for Monday’s attack on the family home of Vice President Sambo in Zaria. Monday’s attack on the house - the second such atContinued on Page 57
Budget: Senate joins Reps in battle against Jonathan Continued from Page 1
over the minister’s absence at the meeting. For the Deputy Senate President, nothing could have been more important to the Minister than coming to explain to Nigerians how far the budget has fared. Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, he said, should have appreciated the fact that she was invited not for a family affair but for a serious business. He noted that the minister had failed twice to honour Senate’s invitation on budget implementation. Ekweremadu mandated the joint Committee on Appropriation and Finance to ensure that Mrs. OkonjoIweala appeared before it tomorrow even if it meant summoning her. Some Senators shouted that a warrant of arrest should be issued immediately against the Minister. He said: “We are here to have a public hearing on the performance of the 2012 budget. “This is supposed to include the degree of releases to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and the degree of utilisation by MDAs. “It is not a family meeting; it is a very serious business.
“We had expected the Coordinating Minister and Minister of Finance to be here today because she is central to all that we are going to discuss today. “As our Chairman on Appropriation mentioned; this matter was supposed to have been discussed last week Thursday. The minister was absent and we learnt she went to Asaba to declare open the SURE- programme. “We consider our meeting with her on the issue that has to do with budget implementation to be more important than any other assignment. “Today, we have also been told she has gone to London to represent the President at an investment forum of which we know there are other ministers and government officials that could have gone and done that to enable her to be here with us this afternoon. “So it is regrettable that she is not here. “I recall that when the 2012 budget was presented to us as a draft Bill, we in the National Assembly decided that we are going to do everything possible to send it back to the Executive the way it came so that there will be no argument of whether it will be implemented or not. “Over the years, we’ve had
this issue of non-implementation of the budget and the reason they usually give revolves around the area of National Assembly input. “So, we decided we are going to make minimal input if anything at all. On the basis of this, we returned the budget basically the way it came. “Even when we criticised some areas of which some adjustments needed to be made, we had to bend over at the risk of being accused of tampering with the budget. “We had to do that to ensure that they received the budget the way and manner they wanted so that implementation will be easier. Unfortunately, the level of implementation has been anything less than commendable and that is why we are worried. “As we read from the papers what they have not implemented is what they considered the tinkering by the National Assembly. What we had wanted to do today is to hear from the Executive what those tinkering are. Let the people of Nigeria hear exactly what the National Assembly did to the budget that made it impossible for it to be implemented. “It is not enough for the Executive or the Ministry of Finance to accuse the National
Assembly of tampering the budget that made it impossible to be implemented and then the National Assembly is saying, no we did not do anything. “We decided on a situation where the press will be the arbiter and then they will listen to us and listen to the Executive to know if we did anything. “If there are such areas the Nigerian public will hear. And if they ask for response from the National Assembly our appropriate committees will also respond. “Now the stage is set but the Minister is not here and we are worried about it. It is absolutely impossible for us to continue this dialogue in the absence of the Minister. “I have discussed with my colleagues and what we are going to do is to allow our committee on Appropriation to look for an appropriate date, possibly by Thursday, and ensure that the Minister comes, even if it means summoning her to ensure that she appears before the committee to tell Nigerians the degree of releases and, of course, for the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to tell Nigerians the degree of utilisation. “It is not just enough that releases were made but we want
to see the releases and then utilisation. We want to see a situation where those releases and utilization are impacting on the lives of Nigerians. We want to see roads being worked on; we want to see the water projects going on. We want to see electricity projects going on. “We appropriated about N900billion for the security situation in the country. We want to see whether these monies have been released and we want to see the desired impact of the utilisation in Kano , in Sokoto, in Kaduna , in Yobe and all the northern parts of Nigeria . “That is exactly what we thought this public hearing will afford us all today. But now we are disappointed that it is not going to take place. “I have the mandate of my colleagues to adjourn this public hearing to enable the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister to show up. “And as I said, the chairman of the committee should take necessary steps, including, if possible, summoning the minister to show up before the Senate Committee on Appropriation and other relevant committees by Thursday this week.” A document obtained by our correspondent on the 2012 Capital budget performance as at 20th July, 2012 showed that out of N1,519,986,106,691.00, 2012 Capital Allocation, total releas-
•Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala
es is N401,648,460,791; Amount cash backed is N324,556,851,948; Utilisation is N184,848,092,533. According to the document, “The performance of 56.95 per cent as indicated by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation is the percentage of amount utilised (N184bn) of the amount cash backed(N324bn) as at 20th July, 2012 not of the entire capital budget. “The actual utilization of N184 billion against the total capital budget of N1.5 trillion is 12.16 per cent.” At the aborted meeting were Secretary to the Government of the Federation Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, Minister of State for Finance Yerima Ngama and Minister of Transport Senator Idris Umar.
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