Former Israel PM Ariel Sharon dies at 85

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has died aged 85 after spending eight years in a coma following a stroke, reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. He was a giant of Israel’s military and political scene, but courted controversy throughout his long career. The head of the Sheba Medical Centre near Tel Aviv said Mr. Sharon had died on Saturday afternoon of heart failure. PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he was a great warrior but a senior Palestinian said his path was war and aggression. “His memory will live forever in the nation’s heart,” the Israeli leader’s spokesman said on Twitter. But leading Palestinian political figure Mustafa Barghouti said while no-one should gloat at his death, Mr. Sharon had taken “a path of war and aggression” and had left “no good memories with Palestinians.” Ariel Sharon’s life was intimately entwined with the life of the country he loved. He fought in Israel’s war of independence in 1948, and from that point until he slipped into a coma in 2006 it seemed there was hardly a moment of national drama in which he did not play a role, our correspondent says. The 85-year-old became PM in 2001 and in 2005 completed a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, barely a year before he suffered a massive stroke. His health had declined for the past week and a half, Sheba Medical Centre Director Professor Shlomo Noy told reporters. “Over the past week he struggled with surprising strength and determination against the deterioration in his condition. Today he departed peacefully with his loving family at his side.” One of his two sons, Gilad Sharon, said outside the hospital: “He has gone. He went when he decided to go.” He had been in a persistent vegetative state since a stroke in 2006 and Professor Noy said he had suffered “ups and downs” throughout that period. Ariel Sharon died during the Jewish Sabbath and the BBC said a ministerial committee would meet in the coming hours to decide what steps to take in the coming hours. It is believed Mr. Sharon’s body may lie in state at Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, before a big state funeral is held. He will finally be buried at his ranch in the Negev desert. As prime minister, Mr. Sharon presided over some of the most turbulent times in Israeli-Palestinian history, a Palestinian uprising that erupted in 2000 and a subsequent tough Israeli military response

Obasanjo attacking me over his loss of relevance -Kashamu

Chairman of the Organisation and Mobilisation Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South West, Mr. Buruji Kashamu, on Saturday explained why he had allegedly become the target of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s alleged “wicked campaign of calumny and blackmail.” Kashamu, who was reacting to Obasanjo’s latest letter to National Chairman, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, in which the ex-President resigned his membership of the PDP, attributed the former president’s alleged onslaught against him to his “perceived loss of political relevance in Ogun State and the South West.” Obasanjo, had, in his recent letters to President Goodluck Jonathan and Tukur, kicked against Kashamu’s continued control of the PDP machinery in his home state of Ogun and the South-West. The former president had also described the PDP chief as a wanted criminal, who should not be seen around Jonathan or made the leader of the party in the South West. But Kashamu in his reaction entitled, ‘Re: Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s Letter to Tukur’, stated that he was not responsible for whatever political woes that had befallen the former president. He added that Obasanjo was only smarting from his alleged loss of political relevance in the South West. Part of Kashamu’s reply read,”My attention has been drawn to yet another letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the National Chairman of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, frowning on my allegedly being made the leader of the party in the South West. “He called me ‘a wanted habitual criminal…for whom extradition has been requested by the US Government…’ “Ordinarily, I would not have responded to his latest cocktail of lies having sufficiently addressed the same issue in my response to his letter to the President only a few weeks ago. However, since he has shown that he is too embittered to be assuaged by that response, I am constrained to do another. “First, it is now clear to all and sundry that why I have become the target of Obasanjo’s wicked campaign of calumny and blackmail is his perceived loss of political relevance in Ogun State and the South West. In his 18-page satanic letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, I was the other person – indeed the only one (after the President) – that he singled out for his venomous attack. But if the truth be told, I am not the architect of whatever political woes that he is suffering today. “Like David, I am just a tool in the hands of the almighty Allah Subhana wa tala. I am too small to confront a Goliath like him but for the almighty Allah who is the supporter of the suppressed and oppressed. “In his usual hypocritical manner, he talked about not being able to work with me because of his principles and decency. But the questions Nigerians should ask him are: where were these principles when he used me to fight Gbenga Daniel? Where was his self-righteousness when I took the party structure from Daniel and handed it to Obasanjo? “Where was his decency when he brought Gen. Adetunji Olurin to me and asked that I should roll my structure behind his the governorship ambition? Where was his morality when he introduced me to South West PDP leaders like Engr. Segun Oni, Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade (rtd) and a host of others? Where was his discipline when he hosted me severally in his Hilltop mansion, taking me into his bedroom and innermost recesses? Where was his decency when he accepted donations from me to his church and other concerns?  Where was his gumption when he mounted the rostrum to sing my praises, praying for me as he did in May 2010 during a reception for the former Minister of Commerce and Industry, Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye? I can go on and on! “Let me state from the outset that contrary to Obasanjo’s claim, I am not the leader of the party in the South West. I am just one of the party’s foot soldiers in the zone.

NNPC Admits Spending $10.8b Missing" Money

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday explained how it incurred the $10.8 billion expenditure that is undergoing reconciliation by various agencies of the Federal Government at the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) According to the corporation, “the sum in question has been expenditure incurred as art of statutory responsibilities which the NNPC as the National Oil Company executes on behalf of the Federal Government and by extension the entire people of Nigeria.” While insisting that the fund is not missing, the Group Managing Director (GMD), Engr. Andrew Yakubu, who was represented by the Group Executive Director, Finance and Accounts Directorate, Mr. Bernard Otti, at a press conference in Abuja, added that $8.49 billion subsidy claim for 2012 was part of the $10.8 billion. The GMD recalled that for many years, the NNPC has been the main supplier of the subsidised Premium Motor Spirit (PMS). Yakubu claimed that the Federal Government had not made payment to the corporation in the name of subsidy during the period under review. He noted that “pipeline management and repair cost is $1.22 billion while product/crude oil losses is $0.72 billion and cost of holding the strategic reserve stock is $.7 billion.” These, he said, are being subject to the normal continuing inter-agencies reconciliation exercise. Yakubu submitted that “as long as it is a transaction, it is always work in progress.” Speaking, the NNPC Director of Transformation and Coordination of Data and Corporate Planning, Dr. Tim Okon, noted that the pipelines are constantly being hacked into and there is no budget from which the corporation can recover the cost. According to him, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) offers a mechanism for which under the subsidy regime there is a certain claim to make from importation or distribution of petroleum products. “However, that template does not have any recovery mechanism for pipelines. Everyone needs to be aware that pipelines are constantly being vandalised in Nigeria, and there is a constant cost of keeping those pipelines running are the cost we are reflecting here,” said Okon. He however stated that the NNPC Act allows the corporation to defray the cost, adding that Nigeria buy 445 million barrel of oil per day in order to import products to the citizenry. The GMD stated that petroleum products are subject to theft as there has always been a loss of 30% of crude before arrival at Port Harcourt Refineries. His words: The other point to be made is that the products themselves are subject to theft. Again, if you look at the PortHarcourt Refineries, in many cases, by the time you send crude through that pipeline system, when it arrives at the refineries, about 30 per cent of it is already lost “NNPC has to accounted for that 30 per cent that is lost. It is criminal and that cost is reflected here in the 0.72 billion.”

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Obasanjo new letter

Senate Disassociates Self From Sen Enag's Statement On Defection Of Senators

The leadership of the Senate yesterday told the Chairman of its Committee on Rules and Business, Chief Ita Enang, that he went beyond his brief in threatening the 22 PDP Senators said to be on their way to the All Progressives Congress (APC) with sack from the chamber.

Several other Senators said Enang got it all wrong on the matter.

Senator Enang had, at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, vowed that the 22 Senators would automatically lose their seats and be escorted out of the chamber once they formally announce their defection.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Chief Enyinnaya Abaribe, dismissed Enang’s statement as strictly his “personal opinion”.

Abaribe said while Enang is entitled to his opinion,it should not be mistaken as the Senate’s.

The statement, he added ,also has nothing to do with the President of the Senate who had, in an earlier statement,said that the leadership of the PDP would work to keep the PDP intact and prevent further crisis in within its fold.

Abaribe said that the chamber is still on recess and that only after deliberations upon its resumption on January 14 “ would any statement on urgent matters of state be issued.”

He added:”It is, therefore, preposterous to attribute the personal opinion of a Senator to represent the resolution of the Senate and its highly respected leadership as exemplified by Senate President Mark.

“Senate position as statutory is always relayed by its spokesman in which case it becomes safe to say that Senate has spoken.”

The Senate,he pointed out, is at peace and there is nothing to suggest that its members are working at cross purposes .

“It is one whole family of patriotic Nigerians who first and foremost defers to issues that are of national interest.

“The Senate, as currently constituted, is peopled by very distinguished Nigerians who see the institution for what it is; a hallowed chamber whose decisions and resolutions are shaped by honour and love for country”, he said.

In his reaction, the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Education,Chief Olusola Adeyeye, described Enang’s postulations as a “blackmail.”

Adeyeye said Enang spoke without the mandate of the Senate and, therefore, was speaking for himself and that nobody can “detract or subtract from the constitutional rights of Nigerians to freedom of association.”

Adeyeye said:”Senator Ita Enang would do well not to arrogate powers which he does not have to himself.

“On this matter, Senator Ita Enang is speaking for himself. He does not even have the mandate to speak for the entire Senate on this matter. We want to make it clear that Senators would make their opinions known when they resume from the Yuletide break next week.

“The National Assembly should be the foundation of freedom in this country. It is supposed to guarantee the freedom of Nigerians, subject, of course, to the rights of the constituents of lawmaker, if he’s not following the dictates of his people.

“We warn those attempting to blackmail lawmakers that that tactic will backfire. Legislators should be free to stand by their conscience without any threat of blackmail. The laws of the land are clear on movement from one party to another and nobody should assume a position of authority he does not hold.”

Adeyeye further wondered why Enang, who has been in the National Assembly since 1999 ,has never voiced any opinion when members defected from other parties to the PDP.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes, Senator Victor Lar, also faulted Enang, saying the declaration of any lawmaker’s seat vacant can only be ordered by a court of law.

He said:”This is a time when healing of those aggrieved within the PDP is required.”

Senator Enang had argued that electoral positions are contested on party basis and not on individual basis.

Enang had said: “The party is sovereign and if one is not granted the ticket by his party, the political ambition of the person suffers a setback.

“Therefore, when legislators are elected into the National Assembly, they are voted in on the basis of the political party to which they belong and not on individual grounds.”

Five governors and 37 members of the House of Representatives and 27 members of the Sokoto House of Assembly and other PDP leaders across the country have already dumped the party for the APC.

Obj Writes PDP,Withdraws From All Its Activities (See Copy of Letter)

President Olusegun Obasanjo has fired another letter, this time, to the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, in which he gave a notice of his withdrawal from the activities of the party. Obasanjo also sent a copy of the letter to President Goodluck Jonathan as National Leader of the party. The former president, in the letter, said he was withdrawing from all activities of the party because the PDP had been negating the principles of morality, decency and discipline in its decisions, especially as they affect the South West where he comes from. The letter, dated January 7, 2014, according to a source at the national secretariat of the party, was received in the office of Tukur on Wednesday, 8 January, 2014. It is believed that President Jonathan also got his own copy on Thursday. Obasanjo accused the party leadership of imposing someone (names witheld), who he described as a criminal wanted abroad, on the party as its South West zonal leader and proceeded to add that he was forwarding with the letter, “recent documents” on the alleged activities of the person. Efforts to get copies of the “recent documents” by Saturday Tribune from both the PDP national secretariat as well as from Obasanjo’s side were, however, not successful but a source at PDP’s national secretariat confirmed that the letter came with attachments. He did not give further details. The three paragraph letter reads: “While I believe that a good and truly national political party must be a microcosm of the nation in its membership, made up of all sorts of characters from near-saints to near-satan, I also believe that on no account should a known habitual criminal that is wanted abroad to face criminal charges levelled against him be extolled as a political leader in a respectable and wholesome nation-building political party.“(...Names witheld) has been so extolled in PDP in South-West geo-political zone which I personally find unsavoury. Politics played by any national political party must have morality, decency, discipline, principles and leadership examples as cardinal practices of the party. I have attached here recent documents that clearly indicate that your extolled PDP Zonal Leader in the South-West zone of Nigeria and an indigene of Ogun State is, to say the least, not a credit to the party as a member, let alone being a zonal leader. “Since I stick in my practice of party politics to the hallowed and cherished principles enunciated above, I take this opportunity to let you know that while I continue to remain a card-carrying member of PDP, I cannot and I will not subscribe to a wanted habitual criminal being installed as my zonal leader in the party; a criminal for whom extradition has been requested by the US government. In the meantime, I will consider withdrawing my activity with PDP at local, state, zonal and national levels until the anomalous and shameful situation is corrected.” A meeting of South West leaders of the party, it was gathered, will hold in Ibadan, Oyo State, today and may also come up with far-reaching decisions on the future of the party in the zone.