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Reject Treasury Looters, Osinbajo Tells Church
Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo says people who loot the public treasury or their organizations are doing so out of greed, and not because of any political objective of keeping a war chest for the future.
Osinbajo made this remark, yesterday, at the celebration of Fathers’ Day at Aso Villa Chapel, during which he also challenged the church to teach the lessons of honesty and integrity.
“Many would say the reason why they steal is because they want to have an arsenal for future political exploits. It is a lie. It is greed. In any case, even if you want to do that, you have no right to do it,” he said.
His message from the pulpit certainly strikes a chord against the backdrop of the avalanche of corruption cases the Buhari administration has been pursuing.
The campaign had suffered some setbacks of late, with controversial verdicts by the court that tend to let go the accused.
Osinbajo, a professor of law and also a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God felt the church has a role to play.
“If the church says we will not accept you here or that we will expose you if you are stealing the resources of the country or stealing the resources of a private company or other establishment where you work, we would not have the type of problem that we have in this country.
“In Genesis 18:19. God was speaking about Abraham. And God said he had known him or called him in order that he may command his children and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord with righteousness and justice that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He had spoken to him.
“In other words, God was saying that He called Abraham, in particular, because he realizes that Abraham will command his household, will command his children to do righteousness and justice and to fear God. And if you back this up with Genesis 12:2, God has spoken concerning Abraham, that He will make Abraham a great nation. Genesis 12:3 says, God said, I will make you a great nation.
“In other words, the role of the father is supposed to be that of building nations, building generations. And Abraham is the example God set for us; of a man who God wanted to be the exemplar of the type of conduct that God expects of fatherhood; a man who will teach his children and children thereafter the way of righteousness and justice and the way of fear of God.
“When I listened to His Eminence, the Prelate of the Methodist Church a few minutes ago, talking about the importance of the type of training that he received as a child in his family. I’m sure many of us here are reminded of that type of training. A type of training where you are taught and reminded about integrity, primarily as the first order of business; that you must be a person of integrity.
“You must be truthful, you must be trustworthy, you must be honest, you must be forthright. That is the foundation. And in the days he referred to, Catechism was an important part of our lives. Even just knowing the 10 Commandments was enough to teach you about righteousness, teach you about the way of truth and I think that is very important, especially for us today as Christians.
“Christian fatherhood in particular is a position that God has placed us as exemplar to our nation. The Christian father is the one referred to in Genesis 18:19; the one who will teach the way of righteousness and justice to his children and would teach the fear of the Lord. And I just want to say to all of our leaders (and I was speaking with few of our Christian leaders just last week, both of the PFN and CAN just last week on various occasions) that it is the role of the church to build this nation. And the church has that role because God has said concerning us that we are the light of the world and we are the salt of the earth. That role is a very, very difficult role.
“We are not to teach the world how to be like the world but to teach the world how to be like the one who saved the world, how to be like Jesus. It is not easy.
“Every time that we come to church, we are told about giving. But we need to talk more about honesty. We need to talk far more about honesty. In the same way we talk about giving, we need to talk more about honesty because just like His Eminence said, Nigeria’s great problem is not the absence of prosperity. It is as he so eloquently put it, that we have enough for our needs but we don’t have enough for our greed.
“The greed of many is what has landed this country where it is today. It is the greed of so many; many who have been placed in position of authority. It is their greed that has landed us where we are, where it is difficult to do the sorts of things His Eminence saw in Washington and so many other places. You cannot steal half of the resources of the country and expect to build the sort of things you see in other places.
“And if the church says you are not allowed to steal and we will ostracize you in our midst if you did. If what a man has does not measure up to what he has, if we found that a man has more money than he should have, if a man is earning a salary of a civil servant or a public servant and he has houses everywhere, we have to hold him to account. But he must be held to account in the church.
‘He must be told first in the church we will not allow you here. If the church says we will not accept you here or that we will expose you if you are stealing the resources of the country or stealing the resources of a private company or other establishment where you work, then we would not have the type of problem that we have in this country. If only the church does so. Just the church.
“Just as Christian fathers today, it is our duty as God spoke concerning Abraham in Genesis 18:19, it is our duty to build up a generation of righteous men and women, a nation of just men and women who fear God and puts God above everything else. And I believe that the Almighty God will help us. I just pray that the Father of fathers, the One who has called us, one who has saved us will bless each and every father here today in the mighty name of Jesus. The Almighty God who is the great Father of all fathers will ensure that we get everything we need to make our families, to make communities truly great and to make our nation great.”
The Federal Government has agreed to offer additional N20.5 billion for the completion of the Bonny-Bodo road project in December.
The government, however, said if the construction company, Julius Berger, was not ready to accept the offer, the contract will be terminated.
Minister of Works, David Umahi, said this during a meeting with the Managing Director of Julius Berger, Lars Ritcher and members of Bodo-Bonny Road Peace Committee, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The reports that Julius Berger had requested asking for a N28 billion variation on the 82 per cent completed project.
The company hinged its request on the rise in exchange rate, construction materials, and diesel among others.
Umahi, however, said the government was willing to provide N20 billion out of the N28 billion that Julius Berger requested for.
According to him, the Bonny-Bodo road contract which was initially awarded at the cost of N120 billion in 2015, was later varied at N199 billion with a completion dateline of December 2023, which has since elapsed.
The Tide’s source recalls that in 2017, an agreement between the Federal Government, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) and Julus Berger on modalities for funding the project cost of N199.923 billion, without any further increase.
“If you do not accept the Federal Government’s offer by Friday and resume work on the site, the previously expired 14-day ultimatum for termination of project will be enforced.
“I want to let you know that we are the client. No contractor will dictate for this ministry, and there is no job that is compulsory that a particular contractor must do.
“We give you an offer. If you do not like the offer, you walk away. You don’t force us or we don’t force you.
“Agreement of contractual relationship is a mutual understanding,’’ the minister said.
Umahi said that had Julius Berger adhered to the project timetable, the project would have been completed on schedule before the impact of foreign exchange.
“Our position is very simple, we reject the conditions of Julius Berger totally and we ask Berger to please go back to the site to complete the project based on our offer.
“Our offer is unconditional and we say, accept or reject, so you cannot subject our offer to your conditions ,’’ he added
Umahi said the company should be humble in its dealings and exhibit solidarity during challenges.
Earlier, Richter had explained that the company suspended work on the site to seek some clarifications from the ministry.
According to him, the company asked for the augmemtation of N28 bilion because as at the time the contract was awarded the exchange rate was N305 to a dollar and diesel was N350 eor litre.
“We will still require some outstanding materials; that means that the initial agreement can’t fly because the variation of project is not sufficient and the exchange rate is also not in our favour to compensate the additional costs.
“That is why we decided to go back to our original proposal of the augmentation. Augmentation is a very normal process for all contracts,” the managing director said.
Chief Abel Attoni, Palace Secretary, Bonny Kingdom, expressed gratitude to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the decision to complete the Bodo-Bonny road project.
Attonu urged the parties to be patriotic and make the necessary sacrifice for the actualisation of the project.
The Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, yesterday, set aside the warrant of arrest against Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Rivers State, and five others.
Justice Emeka Nwite stated this while delivering his ruling in an application seeking to vacate the warrant of arrest which he issued on January 31, 2024.
The Judge said he was misled by the police in ordering the arrest of Ehie in connection with the burning of the Rivers State House of Assembly on October 30, 2023.
The Police, had told the court that Ehie and five others masterminded the bombing of the Rivers State House of Assembly amid a plot to impeach Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
The five others are Jinjiri Bala, Happy Benedict, Progress Joseph, Adokiye Oyagiri, and Chibuike Peter, alias Rambo.
Justice Emeka Nwite while setting aside the warrant said it has now become a mere academic exercise.
The judge further granted same to the 2nd to 5th Defendant/Applicant in same suit.
Femi Falana, SAN, and Oluwole Aladedoye, SAN, who appeared for the defendants in separate suits, held that the court lacked the jurisdiction to have granted the order.
While Falana filed a motion seeking an order to set aside the January 31 order by Justice Nwite, Aladedoye applied for a stay of execution of the arrest order.
In a motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/112/2024 dated February 2 and filed on February 7 by Falana, Ehie sought two orders, including “an order setting aside the order made on January 31 for want of jurisdiction.
“An order of this honourable court staying the execution of the order made on the 31st January 2024, pending the hearing and determination of this application.”
Giving six grounds of argument, Falana argued that the complainant had not filed any criminal charge or motion before the court.
The senior lawyer argued that the court lacked the territorial jurisdiction to entertain the ex-parte application as the alleged offences of conspiracy, attempted murder, murder and arson took place in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
“He submitted that the court lacked the vires to grant an application to arrest and declare his clients wanted in respect of the alleged offences.
“The complainant/respondent (IG) did not adduce evidence of terrorism in the affidavit in support of the application.
“The complainant/respondent did not cite any section of the Terrorism Prevention Act, 2013 (as amended) alleged to have been contravened by the applicants,” he argued.
Aladedoye in a motion on notice dated and filed February 9, on behalf of the five defendants, sought two orders, including
“an order staying execution or further execution of the order(s) of this honourable court made on the 31st of January, 2024, pending the hearing and determination of the appeal filed by the applicants.
“An order of injunction restraining the complainant from carrying out or further carrying out the orders of this honourable court made on the 31st January 2024, pending the hearing and determination of the appeal filed by the applicant in this case.”
Giving a three-ground argument, Aladedoye said that a notice of appeal had already been filed against Justice Nwite’s orders.
According to the senior lawyer, the notice of appeal contains grounds that challenge the jurisdiction of the honourable court.
The Inspector-General had, in a charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/25/2024, arraigned the defendants on a seven-count criminal charge bordering on terrorism and murder.
The authorities of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUOE), Rumuolumeni, in Rivers State, have stated that 13 students will be graduating with first class while 182 graduands will bag Ph.D during the 42nd convocation ceremony of the university billed to hold today and tomorrow.
The Acting Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Okechuku Onuchuku, disclosed this during pre-convocation press briefing held in his office, yesterday, to unveil the programme for the convocation ceremony.
Onuchuku said that the 13 students were among the 4,653 graduands expected to graduate for the 2022/2023 academic session with first degree, while 897 students will be graduating with postgraduate degrees.
The Acting Vice Chancellor while giving the breakdown stated that 13 students made first class, 890 students bagged second class upper while 2,739 students had second class lower for first degree.
He further stated that 182 graduands bagged PhD, 667 got master’s degree and 48 got postgraduate diploma, adding that the convocation ceremony will hold today and tomorrow for first degree graduands and postgraduate graduands respectively.
He said that a total of 47 programmes out of the 54 programmes being undertaken at the first degree levels had been given full accreditation by the National University Commission (NUC) as well as all the programmes at the postgraduate school.
“We have ensured that our programmes both at the first degree and post graduates are in line with the NUC stipulated guidelines and speculations. We have also ensured that we are in line with both our academic and administrative policies,” he said.
Prof. Okechukwu urged the graduating students of the institution to always remember to use thier positions to help their alma mater as well as project the institution in a good image in the larger society.
“Try to ensure you finish any project you want to do, evaluate it first and avoid unfinished or abandoned projects. We will be graduating first degree graduands on Friday while Saturday will be for postgraduates, “he added.
Prof. Onuchukwu also said his administration had achieved a lot since he assumed office as Acting Vice Chancellor, stressing that his administration had improved on the welfare of the staff and the students.
“There are a lot of projects completed in the school; we have also given scholarship to some students and also encouraged departments to do same. We also impacted positively on our host communities”, he said.
Akujobi Amadi
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