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The ninth  Speaker of  Abia House of Assembly, Chief Kennedy Njoku, has resigned his appointment, less than 24 hours after he was elected.
Njoku was elected at about 4.10 p.m.  on Thursday  following the impeachment of   Chief Martins Azubuike over alleged  gross financial misconduct and autocratic leadership style.
Njoku, who  announced his resignation at the resumption of plenary at about  2.50 p.m.  on Friday, thanked  members for the confidence they reposed in him by electing him as Speaker.
He, however,  promised to continue to provide effective representation to his Osisioma-Ngwa State Constituency.
The Deputy Speaker, Dr  Cosmos Ndukwe, who presided over the session, described   Njoku’s resignation as “shocking.”
The Clerk of the House, Mr John-Pedro Irokansi, immediately called for an election to be conducted to fill the vacuum created by Njoku’s resignation.
The member representing Umuahia East Constituency, Mr Chukwudi Apugo, nominated Mr Chikwendu Kalu, representing Isialangwa South Constituency, and was seconded by Mr Ifeanyi Uchendu, representing Ohafia South Constituency.
Kalu was elected by consensus and was affirmed with a voice vote by the 24 members of the assembly.
With his election, Kalu, an Aba-based legal practitioner, emerged  the tenth  Speaker of the sixth  Abia Assembly.
NAN

Amnesty International, AI,  has condemned the execution of three death row prisoners by the Edo State government on December 23, 2016.

From Basil Obasi, Abuja

Further to its resolve towards rooting out corruption in the country, the President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government has devoted a total of N31.1billion to anti-corruption agencies and anti-graft crusade in the 2017 budget.
The amount represents a whopping 15 percent increase in the allocation to curb the social vice when compared with the N27.7 billion voted for anti-corruption expenditure in the 2016  .
Reviewing the budget document obtained  from the National Assembly, almost all the ministries, departments and agencies of government voted some funds towards the fight against corruption in the 2017 budget.
The core agencies saddled with the responsibility of fighting the menace of corruption include Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC); the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
Others are the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (NEITI), Public Complaints Commission, Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Bureau of Public Procurement  (BPP) and the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
Among these agencies, the EFCC would receive what appears a lion’s share of N17.2 billion, which represents 55 per cent of the N31.1 billion cumulative allocation to anti-graft agencies. The EFCC voted N7.127 billion for personnel cost, N3 billion for overhead and N7.074 billion for capital expenditure.
Also, the review showed the ICPC got about N5.93 billion; N2.73 billion was allocated to the CCB, while CCT got N1.09 billion.
The analysis also showed the 2017 budget for the Bureau of Public Procurement increased by 5 percent from N1.42 billion in 2016 to a total of N1.49 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.
The NEITI budget decreased from N1.4 billion in 2016 to N1.2 billion in the 2017 budget.
The sum total of the budget for core anti-graft agencies amounts to N30.1 billion while the remaining N0.99 billion represents funds earmarked for anti-corruption initiatives across other ministries, departments and agencies of government in the 2017 budget.
For instance, the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing devoted about N18.2 million to support the President’s war against the bad eggs, while the Niger Delta Ministry proposed to spend N22 million to fight the scourge.
 

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru, has reiterated that the Corporation will generate huge gas revenue for Nigeria.

In a statement  in Abuja on Thursday by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, Baru said monetisation of natural gas was a cardinal mandate of the corporation.
Baru expressed NNPC’s commitment to carry on with its twin gas projects, Brass LNG and OK LNG when he received the management of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). He said the two projects were high priority gas ventures which would boost the nation’s revenue.
Recently at the annual gas conference, NNPC had promised to increase Nigeria’s revenue from the nation’s abundant gas reserves.
“We are still committed, as NNPC, to monetising our natural gas. We have the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) which is at the moment monetising about four billion standard cubic feet of gas on a daily basis (4 billion scf/d).
“We also have plans for Olokola LNG as well as Brass LNG. We have a little challenge with market windows for these projects which we are reviewing on a monthly basis.
”Once the appropriate market window opens up, we will quickly get more shareholders to join us for the projects,” Baru explained.
He said a meeting of Brass LNG stakeholders had been scheduled for early next year to chart the way forward for the project.
Baru further disclosed that apart from the LNG projects, NNPC was also working on gas monetisation through aggressive enhancement of domestic gas supply for power generation and industrial use.
On the alleged scarcity of Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK), which is purportedly responsible for the hardship being experienced in the aviation sector, Baru assured that NNPC had taken steps to ensure adequate supply of the product with the importation of over 45 million litres.
He added that the challenge had more to do with the inability of airlines to pay for the product upon the introduction of a cash-and-carry policy by marketers on account of the huge amount they were being owed by the airlines.
He also lauded the management of NTA for its factual reportage of the Corporation’s activities.
Earlier, the Director-General of NTA, Malam Yakubu Mohammed, said that the visit was a continuation of the Authority’s resolve to liaise constantly with other government agencies.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, has said that importation of rice and wheat gulped over N1 trillion in foreign exchange annually.
Emefiele said this on Thursday in Jibia, Katsina State, at the launch of CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme and 2016/2017 Dry Season Farming.
‘’Nigeria’s import bill is exceptionally high; top four import commodities which include rice and wheat, consume over N1 trillion in foreign exchange annually,’’ he said.
According to him, relying heavily on food importation fuels domestic inflation and depletes the country’s foreign reserves.
The governor, represented by the Director, Development Finance, Mr Olaitan Mudassir, said food importation had negative effects on local production industries and created unemployment in the country.
“Indeed, dependence, especially on commodities that have advantage, is not acceptable and sustainable either fiscally, economically or politically.
“Increasing rice production is a necessity as rice importation proffers no future for any nation in the long term.
“Nigeria cannot afford to continually depend on imported rice,” he said.
He said the Federal Government banned food importation to boost farming and diversify the nation’s economy.
Meanwhile The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Thursday said laboratory result of the suspected fake rice showed that the product was not plastic but rice contaminated with micro organisms.
The Acting Director General, NAFDAC, Yetunde Oni, said this at a news conference in conjuction with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Abuja.
Oni said the seized rice was unsatisfactory and therefore unwholesome for human consumption, stressing that the consignment would be destroyed upon handover by the NCS.
She explained that the product branded ”Best Tomato”, was in 25kg bag, without NAFDAC number, batch number,  date markings and details of the manufacturer.
She said that `floating’ was negative, sedimentation was positive, cooking was normal, odour was normal, colour was off-white and E-coli was within specification.
She said lead and cadmium were not detected, pre-ashing was normal, ash, moisture and mould were within specification but coli form was above maximum limits.
Oni called on the public to report suspicious cases about all NAFDAC regulated products to any of the offices across the nation for prompt regulatory action.
She also said that the following numbers could be contacted for enquiries: 08013630600, 09094262773 and 08033112282.
The Comptroller-General, NCS, Col. Hameed Ali, said irrespective of the outcome of the laboratory analysis, customs would remain vigilant and alive to its responsibilities.
Ali, who was represented by the Deputy Comptroller-General, Tariff and Trade, Umar Iya, said NCS was guided by intelligence reports.
”Intelligence reports indicate that several metric tonnes of expired and dangerous rice are still lying in wait in warehouses in neighbouring countries and the target of the products is the Nigerian market”, he said.
Ali said that the NCS would intensify patrols to ensure that such economic saboteurs do not succeed.
He urged warehouse owners and transporters across the country not to accept such smuggled products in their facilities or vehicles respectively.
He warned that both the smuggled products and means of conveyance were liable to seizure. (NAN)

By Chinwendu Obienyi with Agency report
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has sold about $1 billion on the forward market to clear a backlog of dollar obligations in selected sectors.
Outstanding dollar demand was about $4 billion before June when the 16-month-old peg was removed and efforts to cut dollar demand have been largely unsuccessful due to low oil prices resulting to crude sales accounting for about 90 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings.
Traders, yesterday, revealed that the central bank told banks to prioritise airlines, manufacturing firms, petroleum products importers and agriculture sectors, the sectors worst hit by the dollar shortage, in the auction.
“The central bank sold $1 billion at last week’s special forex auction and directed banks to issue fresh letters of credit to reflect the amount sold in favour of the affected sectors,” a senior currency trader told a foreign news outlet.
Traders also said the central bank sold 30-day and 60-day forwards at the auction.
On December 19, the central bank instructed commercial lenders to submit their backlog of dollar demand from fuel importers, airlines, raw materials and machinery for manufacturing firms and agricultural chemicals for the special forex intervention.
The dollar shortage in the OPEC member, whose crude sales make up two thirds of government revenue, has caused many companies to halt operations and lay off workers, compounding the economic crisis and even leading to some foreign airlines closing shop or reducing their operations over the inability to repatriate the proceeds of their earnings due to dollar shortage.
Earlier on Thursday, the naira was trading at about N305.25 to the dollar on the interbank market and was quoted at N490 a dollar on the unofficial market.

Nine-time Olympics champion, Usain Bolt was voted the AIPS Best Male Athlete of 2016 for a record sixth time and the award for Best Female Athlete went to US gymnast and four-time champion from Rio 2016 Simone Biles.
This is the result of the most international poll yet by the International Sports Press Association (AIPS), where a panel of 382 journalists from 110 countries voted for the Champions of 2016.
Earlier yesterday, it was announced that Premier League Champions Leicester City F.C. was voted the Best Team, while the award for the Best Press Facility went to Euro 2016.
Proving to be the star of yet another Olympics year, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt completed a “triple triple” at Rio 2016, winning the Olympic titles in each of the 100m, 200m and 4x100m, after similar clean sweeps in London and Beijing.
Bolt is the first man to hold both the 100m and 200m records, and will be looking for his 12th IAAF World Championship title at London 2017, after which the Jamaican superstar is set to retire.
Bolt garnered top place with a landslide of 1149 votes, ahead of US swimmer and 23-time OlympicsGold medalist Michael Phelps, while Portugal and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, winner of the 2016 Golden Ball, is in third place with 387 votes.
The Olympic Games were the main stage for the Female Athletes of the year as well, as Simone Biles, the 19-year-old superstar from Rio 2016 stole the show, by winning a record-tying four individual Olympic gold medals and bronze with the dominant U.S. women’s team.
Biles, already regarded as one of the greatest Olympics gymnasts of all time, wowed the crowds in Rio with performances of dazzling complexity and focus and was pronounced as the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year earlier this week.
The race for the AIPS Best Female Athlete of 2016 was one of the closest yet, with just over 50 votes separating first place Simone Biles (524) from three-time Olympic champion swimmer Katinka Hosszú from Hungary, in second place with 472 votes. Third place went to US tennis star Serena Williams (361) after yet another dominant year in which she won her 22nd Grand Slam title at Wimbledon.

by joe apu

Former Super Egales coach, Samason Siaisa  has rubbished the claims by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), that there was an agreement between the players and the Glass House to peg the team’s home winning bonus at N1million.
According to African Football.com, a statement from the NFF spokesman Ademola Olajire, and Eagles team administrator, Dayo Enebi, had claimed that the  officials as well as captain and vice-captain were at a meeting in March in Kaduna where it was agreed the players will be paid a million Naira each for a home win.
But Siasia has now rubbished such a claim.
“I don’t know anything about one million (Naira),” Siasia opened up when contacted on Thursday.
“The agreement was that they will pay the equivalent of dollars at the bank rate, official rate. I don’t know about anything else.”
He was further questioned – The agreement they had with you was they will pay with current bank rate and there was no time that the players will be paid a million Naira each for a home win?
“No, no, no,” he replied.
Several other officials equally denied any agreement that the players be paid a million Naira each for a Super Eagles home win.
They were to be paid $5,000 for a home win at the official Naira rate the time the match was played.
Further investigations revealed that at the time of the AFCON double-header qualifiers against Egypt, the official bank rate to the USD was around 200 Naira and that explained why they were paid 500,000 Naira each for the home draw with Egypt ($2500 x 200).
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Youth and Sports through Christian Ohaa, its permanent secretary said on Thursday that the allegations will be investigated.
“Based on the amount released to the NFF, nobody should shortchange the players again and I can tell you that we will look into it, I just got the report now and we will look into it,” Ohaa said.
AfricanFootball.com had reported on Wednesday, allegations by some Super Eagles players of being shortchanged on their win bonus for the 2018 World Cup qualifier against Algeria by the NFF.
Although, the NFF denied the allegations via a statement released also on Wednesday, claiming they had an agreement with the players to be paid a flat sum of a million Naira for home wins.