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Forty-Seven out of the 48 Yoruba Nation agitators arrested by the police during the July 3 rally in Ojota, Lagos, have regained their freedom from custody.
  
The Guardian learned yesterday they were released on Tuesday after meeting bail conditions.

The state’s Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Sam Egube, who spoke at the event, which commenced with the Ikeja division of the state, said the government needed the input of the citizens for the preparation of the 2022 budget to ensure inclusiveness, transparency and accelerated development in all parts of the state.

The five-day consultative forum, organised by the state Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, attracted audience from traditional and community leaders, religious leaders, professionals, trade groups, NGOs, youth organisations, People Living With Disability (PLWD), and the organised private sector.

In his remarks, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Budget, Bayo Sodade, said the administration of Governor Sanwo-Olu had always prioritised inclusive governance for proper decision making to enhance economic deliverables and performance.

In another development, ahead of the planned national congresses of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) scheduled to start on Saturday, the acclaimed factional Chairman of Lagos State Chapter, Mr. Fouad Oki, has called the attention of the Chairman, Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Governor Mai Mala-Buni, to the shenanigans in Lagos, where he alleged that the caretaker committee in the state was carrying out its assignment in flagrant disregard to the law and extant regulations.

He accused the state’s caretaker committee of not acting in compliance with the laws of the parry by its continued act of impunity and refusal to recognise the diversity and tendencies in the state.

In another allegation, Oki accused the Chairman, Lagos Caretaker Committee, Mr. Tunde Balogun, of having doctored the list of members of the Local Ward Congress Committee (LWCC) ahead of the congress.

He, therefore, warned the national body that should it acquiesce to the charade by Balogun having doctored the caretaker committee, “the conduct of congresses in Lagos would be another exercise in futility.”

Oki also kicked against consensus arrangement in Lagos, saying: “As things are, there cannot be the conduct of any consensus process in Lagos forward congresses, hence our resolve to inform you that in Lagos State, without prejudice, the overwhelming majority of our members have opted for an elective congress on Saturday or any date that the congress is organised. Our resolve is hinged on Article 20 (a)(iv)(a)(d).”

He also urged the national secretariat to investigate the travesty of justice being perpetuated against members of the faction in the state. Oki, therefore, prated the party to ensure that the Ward Congress Committee (WCC) operate out of the privately-owned property currently used as the State Secretariat on Acme Road, Agidingbi, Ikeja and use a neutral location, to ensure the committee acknowledges that there are tendencies/factions in Lagos and therefore provide a level playing ground by requesting from the various tendencies to nominate at least one person into the 245 Local Ward Congress Committee (LWCC) and to ensure that collection and submission of nomination forms should be done outside of the current secretariat.

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has unraveled facts on how the Office of Accountant General of the Federation illegally diverted N665.8 billion from the Solid Mineral Development Funds and Stabilisation Funds to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Ministry of Power, Army, and others.

Investigations by the Senator Matthew Urhoghide-led committee showed that the Federal Government paid the entitlements of former President, Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo, about N1.5 billion, from the fund on June 11, 2015.

It is also discovered that the electoral body collected about N20 billion from the Development of Natural Resources Fund, apart from N17.9 billion collected from the Brown Rice Levy, Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) Pool Levy, and Rice Levy.

Also, N30 billion was released for INEC for the conduct of the 2015 general elections. (N10 billion was released on July 3, 2014, while N20 billion was released on January 12, 2015.)

Other beneficiaries of the funds (Solid Mineral Development Funds) illegally diverted are Ministry of Foreign Affairs, N3.6 billion; N50 billion was diverted to fund deficits in 2004; Ministry of Works, N2 billion; Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, N13 billion; Ministry of Sports, N500 million; Monetisation arrears due to

Power Holding Company of Nigeria staff, N57.5 billion; and N70 billion to accelerate capital budget in 2010.

Others are loans to facilitate the funding of capital budget in 2010, N80 billion; loans to facilitate 2013 capital budget for Q4, N80.7 billion; loans to Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, N6 billion in 2014.

In addition, N15 billion was released to Lucius Nwosu as judgment debt; N14 billion was released to the Ministry of Power for the Mambila Hydropower Transmission Projects, among others.

From the stabilisation fund, N847 million was given to Ghana and Sao Tome Principe. INEC also collected N87 billion to commence the conduct of fresh voter registration.

It paid back N21 billion but is yet to balance N66.7 billion.

He disclosed this, yesterday, in Abuja during the presentation of the National Orientation Agency’s (NOA) five-year strategic plan (2021 to 2026) and review by select stakeholders from Ministries, Departments and Agencies, civil society and development partners.

The Vice President, who was represented by the Senior Special Assistant on Policy Research, Office of the Vice President, Chris Ngwodo, noted that the way to address the challenge is to rekindle the heart of youths, especially in Nigeria.

He said: “We are in the time of our history when the NOA by virtue of its mandate must come to the fore. There is a struggle for the heart and soul of this country and a struggle to change the destiny of our society as already observed.

“We are facing different challenges: the challenge of expanding the cycles of inclusion; challenge of deepening democracy; challenge of forging social cognition; and the challenge of expanding opportunity for a young population. These challenges all border on issues of state legitimacy and the renewal of the social contract.”

In his address, the Director-General of NOA, Dr Garba Abari, noted that the five-year strategic plan would guide the agency’s activities for the next five years.

He said: “The government of Nigeria has continued to strive to put in place sound policies and programmes to enable the country attain the much needed national development. These policies largely have been direct re-election of available human and material resources, cultural realities and political persuasions and also policies and programmes that are deeply rooted in deep democratic norms of accountability, transparency, and fiscal discipline.

“This is because most policies and programmes in the past have been choked by the impact of corruption. The entrenchment of development is essential and inevitable, even in the face of implementation challenges of rural development policies, which the present administration has tried to tackle via direct funding of local governments and more effective monitoring of how local government funds are expended.”

He added: “It must, however, be noted that no matter how well-intentioned government policies, programmes and activities are, unless there is a clear understanding of how to appropriate and benefit from these policies, programmes and activities by the target public, such policies and programmes would not be seen to be meeting the development needs of the public, and as such may become ineffective and impotent.”

The draft copy of the strategic plan was presented to select stakeholders from government, civil society and development partners for review and input.

Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, disclosed this, yesterday, at a three-day workshop for directors of research and development (R&D) of federal universities at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Training Institute, Abuja.

“With your support, I made a case to the board of trustees to increase the NRF research grants from the initial seed money of N3 billion, which was exhausted and N1 billion was added between 2016 and 2019.

“But when I came, I argued that the seed money was not enough and that it should be yearly funding. And that was why I made a case for N5 billion in 2019 and raised it to N7.5 billion in 2020.

“However, the President approved another N7.5 billion this year but, added N1 billion, because we intend to do serious research around medicine even in respect of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he stated.

He said TETFund intends to set aside some money for the Nigerian Medical Research Institute (NMIR) to resuscitate their vaccine production.

He added that he had scheduled a meeting with the Director-General of NMIR, Prof. Babatunde Salako, and other professors of medicine from some universities across the country to achieve specific research objectives.

Bogoro, however, decried the failure of research institutes to establish a good relationship with universities for the purpose of promoting research and development, insisting that universities were also guilty of disregarding them.

He stressed the need for collaboration between the universities and research institutes to understand what the institutes had been doing and offer assistance where necessary.

While urging participants to take the initiative of looking at why kidnapping has become so lucrative, he lamented that young engineers and technology experts were rather deploying their expertise to aid abductions in the country.

He charged professors not to only parade themselves with titles, but also to engage in problem-solving research that would change things for the better in the country.

Earlier, TETFund’s Director of Research and Development, Dr. Salisu Bakare, noted that universities were naturally problem-solvers, adding that when universities fail to solve societal problems, the question remained whether they were achieving their mandates.

Bakare restated the call for Nigeria to transit to a knowledge economy, stressing that the R&D centre of excellence in TETFund was established for this purpose, as research and development was the future of Nigeria.

He added that in a bid to achieve the mandate, TETFund had established centres of excellence in several universities, increased the national research fund, and constituted a committee currently working on a draft bill for the establishment of the National Research and Development Foundation.

He urged participating institutions not to be left behind in efforts to retrain them and instill a culture of research with a view to boosting national development.

• HURIWA asks court to gag govt officials
• Counsel warns against trial of Kanu, Igboho, Sowore

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has threatened a “weekly total lockdown” in the South East from August 9, 2021, should the Federal Government fail to release its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, unconditionally before August 8.

IPOB’s Head of Directorate of State, Chika Edozien, in a statement made available to The Guardian in Enugu yesterday, also warned all those who allegedly contributed to the arrest of Kanu to continue praying that nothing untoward happens to him.

The group opposed the October adjourned date for the continuation of Kanu’s trial, stressing that it would not allow him to remain in custody until that date.

It stated that the lockdown would take place “every Monday until Kanu is released,” stressing that the measure was one way to ensure the unconditional release of Kanu, hale and hearty.

The statement reads in part: “The Directorate of State of IPOB is very much aware of the strategy of the government of Nigeria to subject Kanu to media trial and to convict him in the public before giving that public conviction an official stamp of the judicial system.”

HOWEVER, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently caution his aides and officials to avoid social upheavals over the re-arrest of the IPOB leader.

According to HURIWA’s convener, Emmanuel Onwubiko, right-thinking members of the global community see Kanu as a prisoner of conscience.

The prominent civil rights advocacy group believes that the court can renew the bail granted Kanu, since bail is at the discretion of the presiding judge and, constitutionally, accused persons are deemed innocent in the eyes of the law.

It warned the security forces not to put Kanu’s life in danger in the same way Moshood Abiola was allegedly poisoned to death.

ALSO, Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, has said that as Nigeria seemingly subjects Kanu, Sunday Igboho and Omoyele Sowore to trumped-up treason trials, caution and keen reference to history should be the watchword.

In a memo sent to The Guardian yesterday, the lawyer posited: “When alpha patriots get so upset with the system and begin to seek solutions in revolution or separation, they should rather be talked with and not necessarily subjecting them immediately to treason trials.”

He recalled that since 1960, democratic Nigeria has had many treason trials, and that only that of the late Obafemi Awolowo netted a conviction or came close.

According to the lawyer, even when Awolowo’s trial resulted in conviction, it immediately brought many issues that still remotely dog Nigeria till date.