www.peoplesdaily-online.com
Vol. 8 No. 45
. . . putting the people first
Friday, May 25, 2012
Yakowa stops N58bn Kaduna millenium city project From Agaju Madugba, Kaduna
S
trong indications emerged yesterday that the gargantuan millennium city project of the Kaduna state government has run into a serious funding hitch. Former Governor of the state who is now the VicePresident, Alhaji Mohammed Namadi Sambo, had conceived the project to decongest Kaduna metropolis and had contemplated it as “one of the best cities in the world” when completed. But briefing the press in Kaduna, Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Country Planning, Alhaji Sani Aminu Mohammed, said the project had been put on hold to allow a committee set up by Yakowa complete its work, of reviewing the cost of the project originally set at N58 billion. On assumption of office last year, Yakowa, according to the Commissioner, paid a working visit to the project site and was taken aback when he was told about the cost. He added: “The first question Yakowa asked when he saw the proposed N58 billion budget was where government will get the money from, and even if a loan is secured, at what interest and for what duration? “The governor set up a committee to review the concept of the new city with a view to reducing the budget and as the committee was working it identified two errors in the Contd on Page 2
Rajab 4, 1433 AH
N150
Malabu oil block deal:
How Jonathan’s aides shared N176bn largesse By Aminu Imam
P
resident Goodluck Jonathan’s associates, including ministers, have been named in a $1.1 billion (N176 bn) laundering scandal involving oil multinationals over the control of a deepwater oil block
that could contain up to 1 billion barrels of oil. Document s pertaining to the clandestine deal, obtained by Peoples Daily, revealed that the N176 billion secretly paid to a company run by a former oil minister, Dan Etete, by the Federal Government, on the
orders of President Goodluck Jonathan, was actually a slush fund, with a huge chunk of it ending up in bank accounts of cronies and business associates of government officials and, at least one individual with links to Jonathan. Dan Etete, it is recalled, was
convicted of money laundering in France in 2007. The current Justice Minister and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Adoke and the Minister of State for Finance, Alhaji Yerima Ngama, named in that deal too, allegedly played a Contd on Page 2
L-R: Shehu of Borno, Alhaji El-Kanemi Umar Garbai, President-General, Jama'atu Nasril Islam and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Saad Abubakar, Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, and Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji Shehu Idris, during the JNI Central Council meeting, yesterday, in Kaduna. Photo:NAN
Draft of oil bill ready next week >> PAGE 4
Don’t tamper with CBN autonomy, IMF warns >> PAGE 5
Sultan laments bloodshed in North, calls for prompt action >> PAGE 7
>> PAGE 17