Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014—5
POCKET CARTOON
VISIT—From left: Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State in a chat with PDP National Chairman, Adamu Muazu as the Emir of Dutse, His Highhess Alhaji Nuhu Mohammed Sanusi watches at his palace after the PDP governors' meeting in Jigawa State.
PDP Govs move against 37 defector Reps Continues from page 1 fail to return to PDP. The PDP Governors who met in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital, Tuesday night, under the aegis of PDP Governors Forum, also urged delegates at the on-going National Conference to work towards the unity and interest of Nigeria, just as they hailed President Goodluck Jonathan for convening the conference. A communique signed and read by the Chairman, PDP Governors’ Forum and Governor,
Akwa Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio, said: *The PDP governors commended the judiciary for its judgment and resolved that members who defected to APC should respect the rule of law. *That the APC should not play politics with the judiciary. *That any member who does not return to the party should lose his seat. *The PDP Governors congratulated Senator Iyiola Omisore and Chief Ayo Fayose on their victory during the primaries in their states.
TAKE HEART BY ELLA RANDLE
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OU can’t make positive choices for the rest of your life without an environment that makes those choices easy, natural, and enjoyable. So protect your spirit and self from contamination by limiting your time with negative people and the environments they inhabit — Mack And Angel Hack When other people invite you to act like victims, when they whine and moan about the unfairness of life, for example, and ask you to agree, to offer condolences, and to participate in their grievances, WALK AWAY. When you join in that game of negativity you always lose. Even when you’re alone, create a positive mental space for yourself. Make it a point to give up all the thoughts that make you feel bad, or even just a few of them that have been troubling you, and see how doing that changes your life. You don’t need negative thoughts. They are all lies. They solve nothing. All they have ever given you is a false self that suffers for no reason.
*The PDP Governors promise to work with them assiduously and urge other aspirants to support the two candidates. *That the next PDP Governors meeting will be held in Bauchi on the 8th &9th May, 2014. *The PDP Governors commend President Goodluck Jonathan on the on-going Confab.
*The PDP Governor also advised that the delegates at the Confab should work on the unity and interest of Nigeria.” It will be recalled that a Federal High Court in Abuja had asked the 37 former members of PDP to resign their seats at the House of Representatives for defecting to the opposition APC.
The court also perpetually restrained the legislators from effecting any leadership change in the assembly. The court was delivering judgment in a matter brought by PDP asking that the legislators should not be allowed to take part in the activities of the assembly. The presiding judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola who held that the lawmakers no longer had any business, morally and legally in the assembly, asked them to resign from their seats as members of the House of Representatives, having defected to another political party while their tenure was yet to expire. The judge in his judgment said: “Having perused the arguments of counsel and the constitutional provisions, it is clear and unambiguous that the defendants were sponsored by the PDP and won the election on its platform. It is also the court’s opinion that their tenure has not expired and there is no division in the PDP.”
NNPC shuns Senate probe on leased, chartered aircraft ....Senate demands source of aircraft purchase, kerosene importation BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU
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BUJA—THE Ni gerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Tuesday, stayed away from the meeting convened by the Senate Committee on Petroleum, Downstream, to get details of leased and chartered aircraft as well as details of kerosene importation in the country. A source close to the Committee who had accused the NNPC management of exhibiting arrogance and hiding things from the public told Vanguard that every effort by the Senator Magnus Abe-led Com-
mittee on Petroleum Resources, Downstream, to get details of the NNPC’s use of public funds had been rebuffed by the oil Corporation since October 2013. The Source stated that the latest correspondence between the committee and the NNPC Group Managing Director, Andrew Yakubu, was on April 4 and that at the scheduled meeting neither the management nor their representatives showed up for the meeting. The meeting, the source claimed, was originally planned for 2:45 pm in the Senate, Tuesday, but nobody from the NNPC was in attendance “and there was no
correspondence either.” The source said that with the development, the senate committee was left with no other option than to probe the corporation, adding that details of the committee’s correspondence, which would form the crux of the investigation included detailed record of the volumes and sales of all crude oil and products. Also to be investigated were detailed record of the volumes of crude oil received as part of the crude swap arrangement by local refineries including quantity used locally and quantity swapped; details of kerosene importation and distribution and details of the implementation and dis-
tribution. The committee will also probe details of the number and management of aircraft in the corporation’s fleet; both chartered and purchased; details of funds expended on aircraft purchases, hiring and maintenance in the last two years; contract papers on the lease or purchase of aircraft, issues surrounding the Turn Around Maintenance and or rehabilitation of refineries and supply and distribution of petroleum products and ancillary issues. The April 4, 2014 letter that was sent to the GMD read thus: “I am directed to refer you to the committee’s several letters of invitation to meet with the committee and requests to furnish the committee with information relating to the activities of your corporation since October, 2013. “I am to draw your attention to the fact that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, statutorily empowers the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and by extension, its committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to oversight the activities of the NNPC and its subsidiary refinery companies. “I am to further express the committee’s dissatisfaction with the conduct of the management of the NNPC, especially its seeming disrespect and disregard of the committee’s invitations and requests for information and data relating to the activities of the Corporation and its refinery companies. “Also, in view of the inability and or unpreparedness of your officials to adequately respond to questions at the committee’s meeting of Tuesday and Wednesday, 1st and 2nd April, 2014, the committee resolved to further invite the Group Managing Director (PPMC), the Group Executive Director (R&P), and the Managing Directors of all the nation’s refineries to a meeting on Tuesday, April 8.”