The General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye turned 73 yesterday.
In celebration, the man of God was joined by his wife and kids to cut his special birthday cake which was made for the occassion.
Happy Belated Birthday to Daddy G.O!
As fuel scarcity bites harder nationwide, fresh facts emerged, yesterday, indicating that a combination of policies from Nigeria’s Central Bank and the high level of indebtedness of product marketers to some banks led to the low supply of Premium Motor Spirit PMS (petrol).
Because of the high level of indebtedness of marketers to banks, most of the banks have refused to issue Letters of Credit to them. A competent source at the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, disclosed that “the National Consumption level is predicated at 40 million litres daily and this is shared at ratio 50:50 between NNPC and other petroleum products marketers.
“Against the foregoing, available record shows that at the moment, NNPC is meeting its allocated ratio while other marketers have blatantly refused to contribute a drop of their own quota”.
The Federal Government, in a bid to arrest the situation is now seeking ways and means to pay off about N100 billion accruing from foreign exchange differentials and bank interest charges from fuel imports.
The move followed refusal by banks to extend any further credit to oil marketers until a substantial part of the N264 billion, including the foreign exchange differentials and interest charges have been paid.
The N264 billion is the total invoice so far submitted to government by oil marketers for subsidy reimbursement as at January end. The amount is largely sourced from the banks, a development that worried the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, which directed banks to rein in their exposures to the energy sector — oil, gas, and power to avoid another round of distress in the system.
The figure is still rising as government is also meant to reimburse them about N6.5 billion more, representing the N10/litre shortfall suffered by the marketers from existing stock on account of reduction in the pump price for PMS from N97 to N87/litre on January 19.
Stock level so far in all the depots exclusively obtained by Vanguard from Calabar, Warri, Lagos and Port Harcourt zones excluding Ejigbo, was put in excess of 6.49billion litres, and will rise more once all the figures have been collated.
The stock mostly belongs to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, NNPC/PPMC — 123,777,613.50 litres; Independents – 459,264,602.50; and Majors – 66,211,473.00.
Against this backdrop, Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, met with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and bank chiefs last week in Lagos, to plead with them to continue to support the oil marketers to enable them bring in more products, since the nation’s refineries cannot rise to the challenge of meeting domestic demand.
However, a party to the meeting confided in Vanguard that “the body language of the banks did not show that they wanted to do anything until government acted.”
Accordingly, government is being forced to pay off N100 billion out of the N264 billion owed marketers as quickly as possible to enable them bring in more products, which it promised to offset up till the end of March.
Lagos gets 58 million litres
While waiting for government to begin to offset the outstanding debts, the NNPC has released about 58 million litres to Lagos, to be distributed through the six major marketers, NIPCO and Aiteo.
Confirming the development, Executive Secretary, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, told Vanguard on telephone that government had agreed to pay the N100 billion imeediately.
He also urged banks, “to open letters of credit, LCs, to marketers, while the CBN should also approve our Forms M with dispatch.”
He pleaded with the NNPC to continue to supply the marketers with petrol, pending when they are able to bring in their vessels.
Source: VANGUARD
Boko Haram insurgency continue to release new videos despite being faced with heavy bombardment by the Nigerian Military. The insurgents released a new video yesterday via twitter but it has been taken down which shows the beheading of two men who were accused of being spies for the Nigerian police.
The two men, identified as Dawoud Muhammad & Muhammad Awlu, were led by Boko Haram militants to a forest where they were made to kneel and confess their 'crimes' to the camera.
In his confession, Muhammad (right) said he was a farmer from Baga and that he'd been approached by a police officer who offered him money in exchange for infiltrating Boko Haram.
'We went to see a man from Mijka and a police officer that was with him. The officer gave me 5,000 Naira' Muhammad tells the camera.
The two men were beheaded afterwards and their head placed on their chest.
As the Presidential and general elections have been slated for March 28 and April 11 respectively, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, PDPPCO Monday urged the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC to pray for the fortune of its Presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, rtd, because he was in trouble and surrounded by those he termed, snakes and vampires.
In a statement Monday by the Director, Media and Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani- Kayode said that the national leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his aides were not God, just as he asked them to pray for late Funsho Williams’ soul.
According to Fani- Kayode, if Nigerians do not have short memories, the former Lagos State Governor ought to be in jail, against the backdrop that he belongs there.
He said, “Whether the APC wishes me well or not, I shall live long and prosper. What they think about me is neither here nor there and I lose no sleep over it. It is only what God thinks about me that matters and they are not God. They do not like me and I do not like them and that is fine by me. We do not need to like each other and all we need to do is to meet in the field.
“I do not need their good wishes and neither do I crave their goodwill. Rather than continuously talking about me and making infantile and primitive statements, they should spend their time praying for the soul of the late and great PDP leader, Chief Funso Williams, who would have been governor of Lagos state, who was mysteriously murdered a few years ago by a group of evil, power-hungry and callous men, and who was a formidable political adversary of Tinubu. We pray every day that God should avenge Funso Williams and bring those that killed him to justice.
“We suggest that the APC purge themselves of their obvious obsession with me and instead pray for the fortunes of their candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari because he is in trouble and he is surrounded by snakes and vampires. They should pray that God will keep General Buhari safe from the enemy within. The problem with the Tinubu wing of the APC is that they are so used to dishing out rubbish about other people that it has affected their minds and their ability to say anything reasonable or rational.
“The truth is that their leader, Tinubu belongs in a sanatorium for the mentally unbalanced and a maximum security prison for the power obsessed rather than in any political party. As for the quisling and minion called Lai Mohammed I refuse to respond to him unless and until he starts talking sense, cures himself of his chronic bad breath and desists from wearing pampers.
“The only people that are caving in under pressure here are the APC, their presidential candidate, General Buhari and their de facto leader Tinubu. The closer we get to March 28, the more they panic and the more falsehood and rubbish that they spew out. As I have said before, they have become prisoners of their own delusions and fantasies and victims of their own hallucinations. Tinubu, their de facto leader, should tell Nigerians why they should take him seriously after he was arrested on no less than two occasions by the American authorities for money laundering.
“On the first occasion, the arrest was in Chicago and, on the second occasion, he was arrested in Seattle, Washington whilst he was Governor of Lagos state.
On both occasions he begged the authorities like a baby and was eventually forced to settle out of court with the American Justice Department by forfeiting a percentage of the money after a successful plea bargain. If not for that settlement and plea bargain, Tinubu would have been in an American jail by now. This is the man whose minions and acolytes like Lai Mohammed are now pontificating about national issues and throwing stones.
“The APC falsely accuse others of wrongdoing whilst there is ample evidence to show that their de facto leader Tinubu was once involved in laundering drug-related money in the United States of America. What an irony that a man with such a filthy past has now managed to gain total control of Nigeria’s main opposition party.
“Tinubu should count himself lucky that Nigerians have short memories and that he is not in jail because that is where he deserves to be. He should also prepare himself for the greatest humiliation and defeat of his political career because after March 28, his ambition of becoming de facto president of Nigeria will crumble before his very eyes and would have gone with the wind.”
Culled from Vanguard!
It was reported to us that a residential building around Ereko in Lagos island got burnt down yesterday evening 2nd March,2015. The fire brigades came and did their work. Although many properties has been lost but fortunately we have no death record.
