Politics
FG inaugurates Ajaokuta Presidential Project Implementation Team
EKOMIAMIBLOG – The Federal Government has inaugurated the Ajaokuta Presidential Project Inauguration Team, APPIT, to help revamp the company in line with the recent agreement reached with Russia to resuscitate the steel company.
Inaugurating the team yesterday in Abuja, Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Boss Mustapha, who chairs the team, noted that the Ajaokuta Steel plant has languished in economic unproductivity for about four decades and that previous effort at reviving it had proved abortive.
He said this has resulted in avoidable massive foreign exchange losses at intolerable opportunity cost to the country, adding that the pressing need to redress these avoidable challenges had necessitated the current Presidential intervention.
“This is further underscored by difficulties being witnessed with present challenges in the global oil industry,” he added.
According to him, revamping the Ajaokuta Steel Plant, therefore, clearly presents a unique opportunity to make the country West Africa’s largest fully integrated steel producer and most importantly accelerate its industrialization, especially in steel-related industries. He said: “This government places a lot of value on the diversification of the economy, hence Mr. President’s participation at the Russia-Africa Summit last year in Sochi, to discuss the resuscitation of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin.
“Following the bilateral discussions in Sochi, the Ajaokuta Steel project is to be resuscitated on the basis of a Government-to-Government agreement with funding from the Afreximbank and the Russian Export Centre.
‘’However, one of the key issues discussed by the parties was the Technical Audit, Upgrade, Completion and Operation of the Ajaokuta Steel Company.
“Today’s inauguration of the Ajaokuta Presidential Project and Implementation Team, APPIT, is, therefore, meant to kick start the process of re-directing the activities of the Steel Plant with the aim of bringing the Steel Project back to life for the growth and economic development of our dear nation.
“I am happy to note that preliminary works have commenced to determine parameters for effective and coordinated take-off of rehabilitation works on the Steel plant. It is on this note that Mr. President graciously approved the composition of this Implementation Team that is being inaugurated today.”
The team is to engage in all bilateral negotiations as shall be necessary on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria leading to the execution of the Government-to-Government Agreement with the Russian Federation and the Afreximbank.
While it will also provide all relevant technical and other inputs necessary to close the Government-to-Government negotiations, the team is to ensure that the best extreme possible, all relevant raw materials are sourced locally, bearing in mind the local content provisions and the Presidential Executive Order 005. Other tasks set before the team are to scrutinize and assemble Nigerian Content Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC), Special Purpose Vehicle Contractors which will embody the Co-Concessionaire representing Nigeria’s interest in the Build-Operate-Transfer, BOT, Concession;
“Ensure the resuscitation of Ajaokuta Steel Plant (ASP) based on the original design; and ensure timely commissioning of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant (ASP) within a reasonable period to be agreed upon by the parties to the agreement and recommend primary tenure of a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Concession”.
In a significant development, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has officially lifted the visa restrictions that were previously imposed on Nigerian travelers. This announcement came from the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, following a Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu.
“I can tell you that the agreement has been reached and effective from today, Nigerian passport holders intending to travel to the UAE are able to do so,” Idris confirmed.
The lifting of these restrictions marks the end of a prolonged diplomatic dispute between the two nations. The UAE initially imposed the visa ban due to several unresolved issues, including financial disputes. Notably, Dubai’s Emirates airline had suspended flight operations to Nigeria over the Central Bank of Nigeria’s inability to remit an estimated $85 million in revenue to the UAE.
In June, after extensive negotiations, the Nigerian government reassured its citizens that the visa ban would soon be lifted. The government also announced that it had paid 98% of the $850 million owed to the UAE, paving the way for this positive outcome.
Further details on the agreement will be provided later today, as mentioned by Minister Idris. This development is expected to strengthen bilateral relations and promote travel and trade between Nigeria and the UAE.
Stay tuned for more updates as the full details of the agreement are released. For now, Nigerian travelers can start planning their trips to the UAE, free from previous travel restrictions.
The Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, told the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party in Abuja on Tuesday that he was leaving the party.
He said he would join the ruling All Progressives Congress which he claimed would protect the interest of the South-East in the 2023 elections.
Our correspondent gathered that Umahi told the members of the National Working Committee of the PDP that his decision to join the APC was irrevocable.
The members of the PDP NWC, who were led to the meeting by its National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, were said to have tried in vain to convince the governor not to abandon the party.
Apart from Secondus, among those that were at the meeting at the Ebonyi Governor’s Lodge in Abuja were Deputy National Secretary, Agbo Emmanuel; National Organising Secretary, Austin Akobondu; Financial Secretary, Abdullahi Maibasira; National Women Leader, Mariya Waziri and Senator Sulieman Nazif.
The governor was said to be friendly when he received the PDP delegation, but stuck to his decision to leave the PDP when the issue came up.
It was gathered that the PDP delegation impressed it upon the governor that there was no need leaving the PDP for the APC, which they argued had become unpopular.
Sources at the meeting, however, said the governor was not convinced, insisting that the APC was planning to zone the 2023 Presidency to the South-East.
He was said to have promised to stay in the PDP if the party could make a pronouncement that it would zone the Presidency to the same zone.
One of the sources said, “I think his (governor’s) mind was made up. We told him there was no need for him to abandon the party that had made him a deputy governor, state chairman of the party, two-time governor and all that. But he refused.
“He wanted us to unilaterally zone the office of the Presidency to his area. We cannot do that. Parties are not run that way. He told us he was leaving. That is what we got from him.’’
When contacted, Secondus confirmed that the party’s leadership met with Umahi.
He, however, refused to declared the details of the meeting, insisting that the meeting was on ‘‘national issues.’’
An Economic and Financial Crimes Commission investigating officer, Adariko Michael, on Tuesday, alleged that N2.2 billion was spent on prayers in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia to win the war against Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria.
Mr. Michael was giving evidence as the first prosecution witness (PW1) in the trial of Sambo Dasuki, former National Security Adviser (ONSA) to President Goodluck Jonathan, in the alleged two billion dollars arms deal fraud.
Others charged with Mr. Dasuki, a retired colonel, are a former General Manager with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Aminu Baba-kusa, Acacia Holdings Limited, and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited.
The EFCC charged them with 32 counts bordering on misappropriation, criminal breach of trust, dishonest release and receiving various sums of money before Husseini Baba-Yusuf.
Led in evidence by the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, Mr Micheal said N750 million was allegedly transferred from the ONSA special account to Reliance Referral Hospital Limited’s account with First Bank.
He added that N650 million was also transferred to Acacia Holding Limited’s account with EcoBank, while another N600 million and N200 million were transferred to the company’s account with UBA.
“Between September 27, 2013, and April 16, 2015, N50 million was credited to Reliance Referral Hospital’s account.
“Based on responses from the banks involved, as investigating officer, we found out that money was transferred to several individuals and companies.
“When we went through the account statement, we asked the second defendant (Aminu Babakusa) the reason for this.
“He informed us that the money was used to hire clerics to pray for the nation as regards Boko Haram crisis.
“When we asked him to provide the names, contacts and phone numbers of the clerics he hired to pray for the nation, he mentioned only two,” he said.
Mr Dasuki spent four years in detention, following his arrest in 2015 over alleged misappropriation of N2.2 billion meant for arms purchase during his time as National Security Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan
After the Federal Government had consistently failed to honor court orders granting him bail, including an ECOWAS court judgment in 2016, he was finally released on December 24, 2019
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