·'NEWS
Nigeria-Equatorial Joint Commission to be revived -Jonathan
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President on Niger R.';n ' elr'~·U''', Amnesty Office, Mr RemJ John lind the jn
A ttomey, Amne.'Jty Mr.'J during the orien tation ceremony for delegates to South Africa on amnesty programme, Ab uja, o n Th ursday. Pholo: M.t: D."I. ItJlb.d~.
36 marketers apprehended for diverting kerosene -DPR Ol u wole
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I,e, Yen agoa
th e lingering scarcity o f ke rosene bites harder in the country. abou t 36 in~ dependent oil marke ters have be!."n app re hended fo r diverting the product lifted at refinery in Port Harcourt, Rivers Stale. The Bayelsa State OpeliltionsDirector ortheDepartmcnt of Petroleum Resouta'S (OPRt Mr Eradiri Duncan. disclosed this. during a c hat with the Nigeri.n Tribune in Yenagoa. on Thursday. He said the product. which was meant to be transported to Baye lsa State. was a llegedly di verted by the marketers, who got caught in the act "Smce thiS scamty be-
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gan, OLir officials have apprehended about 36 Independent o il m a r ke te rs, who loaded their trucks at the Port Harrourt Refinery and the content were to be delivered to cushion the effects of the scarcity in Bayelsa State," he said . On the agony being faced by users of the produCI, as they thronged the only mega sta tion of the Nigeria n National Petrolcum Corpoliloon (NNPC) in Yenagoa and other few petro l stations. the OPR director said "my duties are to ensure that petroleum products loaded from Port Harco urt and meant for Bayelsa are properly monitored from t he point of loading to thIS state.~ Cont inu ing. he s ",d
"the sa le of the products by the NNPC mega s tation. s itu a ted o n Sann i Abacha Expressway. Yenagoa and other petrol s ta tions is not withi n my jurisdiction," adding that the OPR was committed to ensu rin g that kerosene was made available to users in the state. While commenting on the sanction awaiting the marketers lor the a lleged d iversion of the product, MrOuncansaid " they will be banned from fur ther lifting of the. petroleum products. just as other deterring punishmen ts will be meted out to the m." Duncan. who frowned on the s harp practices of some oil marketers for aggra\'ating the lingering
Oceanic Bank set to announce new investors
Court admits Boko Haram suspect's wife, brother to bail Sallu
Gbada.mosi, Bauchi chief magistrate's court in Bauchi, on . . Thursday. gr.mled bail to one S .. ' adatu Abubakar, wife of a Hoko Haram s uspec t. Nas iru Abubakar and t he elder b rother of the s uspect, Haruna Garba, who were dlarged wi th treason before the chief m agistra te, Mohammed Mukhtar Abubakar. Ruling on the application for bail, fi led by the counsel for the accused, Idris Jibo, Ihe pres iding judge said Jibo sought the bail of the aa:used and the validi ty of the chi'l rges against his clients, adding that the chmges on the police First infonnation Report (FlR)wcrelinked totheprin-
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Odidison Omankhanlen.. Lagos HE Grou p Managing Director, Dceank Bank Pic, Mr John Abeh. has said the bank is set to beat the Scpo. te mber recapHalisation deadline set (or bailed out banks by the Centr.'ll Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Septem~
bank was being cautious to ensure the right lnvestor was selected at the end of the day, w hileurgingall s takeho ldersofthebankto be rest assu red that it would meet the deadline. "We h<lvC had discussions with s ix local a nd foreign investors and th ree have been shortlistcd. Out
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Aregbesola, Korean firm sign N60bn MoU on agric firm
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The apex bank had said any of the failed banks th at failed to meet the deadline would fare liquidation by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corpora-
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of these. we will announce o ur new partners in the next three weeks. ~ he said. Meanwhile, the Oceanic Bank boss has stressed the need for compli;mceofficers in banks to be a li ve 10 the ir rcspons i~ b ilities, in line wi th the c urrenl reforms in the oonking SC!Ctor.
shortage of the product, a lso hinted that some unl icensed marketers had been invo lved in using the ir tankers to lift kerosene. contending that DPR often confiscated such trucks and its content. before handing them over 10 the police,
HE Osun State gov~ erno r. Mr Rauf Aregbesola, on Thursday. Signed a memo-
h early last mont . presented a proposal to invest in a.gri culture in the s tate to the tune 0($400 million. with the s ta te pa}'i ng 10 per cent of the amount as
h f tack ling t e monster 0 unemplo y ment in our country. particularl y our state. Even fo r that a lo ne, no e ffort will be spared by us to e nsu re thai th is
\'estor, Synctop Corpor.!tion Limited, fortheestablishment of $40001 (about N60 billion) agricultural comh:ny in the slate. T e MoU, which was signed under the Green Wealth Agri cultural Project was expected to generate 127,000 employI ments and boost tie economy. The investors, led by
d escribed the ag reement with the Ko rean firm as his toric, adding that he was impressed b:;.the de,enm. na ,.Ion 0 f, ' \Rvestors 10 invest in his state. "My joy is predicaled I I f on two c ear p a t o rms. lhe first is the prospect of generati n g 127.000 employments when this pro~ kicks oU. I have 110 doubt that this project
economy of the state. If th ere Is anyt hing this agrarian Siale requires b a dly, ., . " 'b' i' , I IS \e pass l I I Y of us ing this primAry en· gagemenl ofourpcople lo d " nve Its econo-ml ' WI am more t a n expedant in looking at how our co ll abo rati on will bring about this and I be; Heve th"a'1lllis "wil. fwodc; ,_
Adewale Ajay!, Osogbo
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f,.·lanagement Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON). Speaking w ith newsmen in Lagos. on Thursday, Aboh sa disclose id the bank would soon its new partners, adding that si nce the merger talks with Firs t Bank broke down, six investors had entered into non.disclosure agreement w ith the bank.
RES I DENT Prlesident Jo nathan asGood lu ck sured the AU dlilirman of Jonathan has Nigeria's support and assaid tlle Nigt'ria·Equi'ltoriill sislanre 1n tackling comJoint Commission would be mon challenges in Africa, revived, as a \'eritable plat- adding Ihal African ICildfann where political andeco- ers must play active roles nomic issues, as well as to enl rench democracy. other areas of shared inter- good governance a nd ests between the two COl.U\· rapid development aCl'055 the continent. tries cart be articuJ .. ted. Mbasogo extolled relaHe s tated th is on Thursday, during bilateral tions between th e two talks with African Unio n countri es, reca lling ho\\'. (A U) chaiman and presi- Nigeria sluoJ by Equatodent of Equatorial Guinea, rial Guinea during its difNguema Mbasogo, on the find! days. ~We cannot forget the s idelines of the ongoing 17th AU summit in Mala- support and legaty of Nigeria in our diffirult days. bo, Equatorial G uinea. President Jona than When we had mercenary stressed the need for both invasion, Nigeria sent countries to have more r0- Iroops to help us. We canbust diplomatic relations, not forget thai," he said. He briefed President in order to address devel· opment issues that affected Jonathan on lhe mediation efforts of the AU in Ivory their citizens. He partiC\llarly thanked Coast and Ubya and solicPresident Mbasogo for his ited Nigeria's continued asintervention in ensu ring sistance in ensuring peace. the release of some Nigeri- .security and development ans who were implicated across the continent "As AU chairman. I am in the attempt by some oliconfronted wit h the big lAmS of &juitorial Guinea to attack the presidential problems of Africa and I appreciate Nigeria's help to p<1Iare. some time ago. On the continental front, find solutions." he said.
opal suspect. Nasiru, now in pol ice custody in Kadu na State, not his wife and eider brother, who were brought before him. He, therefore, said "after examining the case, this court hereby s trike out charges of treason. inciting dis tu rbance, joining u nlawful assembly, mischief. hurt .. nd
The chief magistrale fwtherholt;.'d that the FIR did not state that the two accused were members of dreaded 80ko H aram sect. adding that the offence committed by a person rou ld notbesaidtobecommilled by anot her person a nd, as such, Nasiru Abubakar's offence, committed in conjunction with others now at large, could not be trans(!!f'T'CCI to his wue and bro:th~'~,~._ _ _ _-,
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