Tuesday, 21 June 2016

HILLARY CLINTON HAS ONE WORD FOR THE SENATE GUN VOTE

Hillary Clinton has one word for the Senate after gun vote

In a sign of unwavering partisan gridlock, the Senate blocked four gun measures Monday — two from each party — in the wake of the Orlando shooting.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Democrats are taking advantage of the Orlando massacre, using it as a political talking point. He called the Republican proposals "real solutions." Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the Republican measures "political stunts." Here's more about the proposals that failed.
But Hillary Clinton had only one word for the Senate: "Enough."
The presumptive Democratic nominee's statement included just that word, followed by a list of the Orlando shooting's 49 victims.

As the hashtag #DisarmHate started trending Tuesday night, Clinton followed up with another tweet: "It’s time to demand more than thoughts and prayers from our elected officials."

EFCC FREEZES FAYOSE'S ACCOUNT, GOVERNOR LAMBASTS FG

EFCC Freezes Fayose’s Account, Governor Lambasts FG

Aisha Buhari accused of laundering $170,000 for jailed US congressman

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has frozen the personal account of the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, and those of his associates.

The governor’s personal account at the Zenith Bank Ekiti branch was allegedly frozen on the order of the anti-graft agency, according to a source in the bank.

Fayose, who had earlier issued a cheque to make a withdrawal but was rejected by the bank, was forced to visit the bank located at Onigari, GRA in Ado Ekiti himself, describing the action as criminal and illegal.

Citing Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution, Fayose said he enjoys immunity as a sitting governor, and asked the federal government to fight corruption within the ambit of the law.

“I got wind of the fact that the EFCC had placed a restriction order on my personal account and that of my associates. I came here today and I have been able to see it. This action shows that this government has no respect for the constitution because I enjoy immunity under Section 308.

“I support government fighting corruption, but it has to be within the ambit of the law. You can investigate me, it is their right, but they have to wait till 2018, because I will be done by then. They should not be in a hurry because I will personally come to them for investigation.

“I have become a figure head in this country that I don’t have anywhere to run to. This rascality of EFCC must stop. If they like, let them investigate the whole world. Is it because they are the sitting government now that nobody can ask them questions? We will take every legal procedure to get things right.

“I am not leaving this bank until they give me a statement of account. They must put it into writing because EFCC has no right under the law to freeze my account.

“They did not communicate with me. They want to destabilise the state and we will use all legal means to make them obey the constitution. They can investigate me, but they can’t coerce me,” he said.

Fayose, who urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to see himself as a saint, alleged that the president’s wife, Aisha, was fingered in a money laundering scandal during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

“Mrs. Buhari was accused of wiring $170,000 to (William) Jefferson’s account and the man has been convicted abroad. So Buhari and APC should not see themselves as saints,” he alleged

Source :This Day

FG, NIGER DELTA MILLITANTS AGREE TO 30-DAYS CEASEFIRE

FG, Niger Delta Militants Agree to 30-day ceasefire

Truce gives Buhari time to come up with plan for region

The federal government and militant groups in the Niger Delta, including the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), which has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on oil and gas installations in recent months, have agreed to a 30-day truce to give President Muhammadu Buhari time to come up with a comprehensive plan for the oil-rich region, investigations by THISDAY have revealed.

The “30 days of quiet” was said to have been agreed upon last week by a federal government team led by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, and representatives of the militant groups, community leaders and the state governments.

Last week, Kachikwu had led a government delegation to different camps in Bayelsa and Delta States, including visiting the temporary site of the Maritime University at Okerenkoko, Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State, in a bid to reach out to representatives of the militant groups to get them to stop its attacks on oil and gas facilities.

The activities of the militants have halved Nigeria’s oil production to some 1.4 million barrels per day, impacted negatively on power supply in the country and the country’s oil earnings.

According to a source who opened up on the 30-day period of truce, Kachikwu was said to have reached out to the militants through back channels and pleaded for some time for the Buhari administration to come up with a comprehensive Niger Delta plan that would address most of their demands.

The militant groups, the source said, accepted Kachikwu’s plea, adding that since the agreement was reached there had been no attacks on oil and gas installations in the oil-rich region.

“You would have noticed that there have been no bombings of oil assets in recent days. This is the fall out of the 30 days of quiet reached with the minister and his team.

“This will give the president time to come up with a comprehensive plan for the Niger Delta,” the source informed THISDAY.

He also revealed that some of the demands made by the militants were for greater control of the hydrocarbon resources in their communities, improved funding for the Amnesty Programme, clean-up of oil producing communities in the Niger Delta that had been devastated by oil exploration activities, and funding for the Maritime University, among others.

He added that the problem with respect to the Maritime University stemmed from the fact that Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, whose ministry superintends the university, did not provide for funding of the institution in the 2016 budget.

The absence of funding for the tertiary institution was compounded by Amaechi’s preference for funding the Maritime Academy of Nigeria in Oron, Akwa Ibom State, and his demand that a probe be carried out into why N13 billion was spent on acquiring the land alone for the university in Okerenkoko, which resulted in an open disagreement with Kachikwu on the issue.

The source said the N13 billion was allegedly paid to ex-Niger Delta militant and fugitive, Mr. Government Ekpemupolo, better known as Tompolo, and has formed part of the basis of his prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Prior to the agreement temporarily ending the attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta, the federal government had ordered the military to withdraw its troops, fighter jets and battleships that had been deployed in the region to flush out the militants.

Source:This Day

NAIRA FALLS TO N281.85 PER DOLLAR AS CBN CLEARS $4.02 BACKLOG

MARKET UPDATE: Naira Falls to N281.85/$ as CBN Clears $4.02 Backlog

June 21, 2016

5029

As the Central Bank of Nigeria lifted the peg on the naira, the local currency depreciated to N281.85 to the dollar on the Nigeria Interbank Foreign Exchange (NIFEX) market on Monday, with the central bank conducting Special Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) to clear the backlog of $4.02 billion pent-up demand for FX.

According to the CBN, it sold $532 million on the spot market and $3.487 billion in the forwards market.

A breakdown of the $3.487 billion forward sales by the central bank showed that $697 billion was for one month (1M), $1.22 billion for two months (2M) and $1.57 billion for three months (3M

Source:This Day

Friday, 17 June 2016

OBANIKORO SLAMS N100M SUIT ON EFCC OVER RIGHTS VIOLATION

Obanikoro Slams N100m Suit On EFCC Over Rights Violations

Former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, friday slammed a N100 million suit on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before the Federal High Court in Lagos over an alleged breached of his fundamental human rights.

This suit came at the heels of the recent raid by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Obanikoro’s Ikoyi, Lagos home.

In a statement by his media aide, Jonathan Eze, the former minister is demanding the sum as general damages for the alleged unlawful and unconstitutional seizure and detention of several items, properties and personal effects belonging to him and family by the EFCC on June 24, 2016.

Other applicants in the suit are: Mrs. Fati Obanikoro, Alhaja Moroophat Obanikoro, Gbolahon Obanikoro and Babajide Obanikoro.

Obanikoro in the fundamental rights enforcement suit, filed on his behalf by his lawyer, Chief Ogwu Onoja (SAN) , is also praying the court to restrain the EFCC whether by its officers, Servants, privies, assigns or agents from arresting, detaining, harassing any of the applicants or any of their relatives pending the hearing and determination of the suit.

The statement reads: “The applicants also want the court to restrain the commission from further entering their premises and an order Directing it to tender an unreserved public apology to them for the unlawful action.

“They are also asking the court to direct the respondent to release all the items, properties and personal effects seized from their premises.

” The applicants further want the court to hold that the action of the EFCC constitute a gross violation of their fundamental rights as guarantee under section 43 of the 1999 Constitution and Article 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

“In a 15 paragraphs affidavit attached to the suit and sworn to by Mrs. Fati Obanikoro, states that on June 14 some officials of the EFCC numbering about 20 stormed their premises situated at 10 Mojisola Onikoyi Street, by Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos and took away several items.

” She also alleged that the respondent thereafter proceeded to also search the personal house of the former Minister at 4 Layi Ajayi-Bembe road, Parkview, Ikoyi, Lagos

“She also claimed that before the alleged invasion of the premises there was no prior notice by way of letter or invitation served on any of the applicants and there was also no order of court mandating them to carry out the action.

” She listed some of the items seized by the Commission to include: building plans, cheque leaflets, company documents, car keys, phones, two company seals and six company stam

“The applicant further averred that the EFCC officials claimed that they are investigating the former Minister and two of his children but some of the properties taken away do not belong to them.

“She also insisted that unless the court issued an order compelling the commission, it will not return the seized properties.”

However, no date has been set for the hearing of the suit.

Source: This Day

LETTERMAN SLAMS TRUMP: 'HE'S DESPICABLE'

Letterman slams Trump: 'He's despicable'

David Letterman is taking on Donald Trump.
The former CBS Late Show host weighs in on the presumptive Republican nominee during his upcoming NBC News interview with Tom Brokaw. In a new clip unveiled below, Brokaw asked Letterman about this year's election landscape. The former talk show host seemed to simultaneously defend Trump's landing of the nomination while also slamming his candidacy. undefined

© Brent N. Clarke/FilmMagic; John Moore/Getty Images undefined
Brokaw: "Listen, you're not on the air during one of the wackiest, potentially dislocating election years of our lifetime. Donald Trump, Hillary, Bernie Sanders. Are there times when you just say, "God, I'd like to be on tonight. I'd like to be talking about this?"
Letterman: "Well, I understand that he's repugnant to people. But, you tell me, the men putting together the Constitution, witnessing this election, wouldn't they have just said, 'That's part of the way we set it up. Good luck'"?
Brokaw: "You're absolutely right. He didn't cheat by getting the nomination."
Letterman: "Right. There's nothing illegal going on. It's just he's despicable ... And in everybody's school, you hear, 'The great thing about America is anybody can grow up to be President.' Oh, jeez. I guess that might be true."
The exchange comes a day after another clip was released where Letterman declared he "couldn't care less" about late-night TV anymore, and suggested a woman should have taken over the Late Show instead of Stephen Colbert.
The Brokaw-Letterman interview will air during On Assignment, a limited series from Dateline NBC that runs on Sunday at 7 p.m. Also in the interview, which took place in Letterman's hometown of Indianapolis over Memorial Day weekend, Letterman shares his memories of Johnny Carson.
Source: Entertainment Weekly

CLINTON'S LEAD OVER TRUMP SLIPS AFTER FLORIDA SHOOTING

Clinton's lead over Trump slips after Florida shooting -Reuters/Ipsos poll

Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton listens to a question during a panel discussion on national security, Wednesday, June 15, 2016, at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) Donald Trump chipped away at Hillary Clinton's lead in the presidential race this week, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday, as the candidates clashed over how to respond to the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

The poll, conducted from Monday to Friday, showed Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, with a 10.7 point lead among likely voters over Trump, her likely Republican rival in the November presidential election. That's down from a lead of 14.3 points for Clinton on Sunday, the day an American-born shooter who declared allegiance to militant group Islamic State killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Trump seized on the attack to sharpen his security proposals, saying he would block immigration to the United States from any country with a "proven history of terrorism" against America and its allies if elected. The pledge fine-tuned an earlier vow, made after the attacks last year in Paris and California, to ban the entry of all Muslims into the United States.

He also called for measures to make it more difficult for suspected terrorists to obtain firearms, veering from the Republican Party's general opposition to gun control.

While Trump's comments on both Muslims and guns dismayed some Republican elites, they may have cheered some voters.

Some 45 percent of Americans said they supported Trump's idea to suspend Muslim immigration, up from 41.9 percent at the start of the month, according to the poll. Meanwhile, about 70 percent of Americans, including a majority of Democrats and Republicans, said they wanted to see at least moderate regulations and restrictions on guns, up from 60 percent in similar polls in 2013 and 2014.

Clinton focused her response to the Orlando attack on the need to boost intelligence gathering and defeat Islamic State and what she called "radical jihadist terrorism," while warning against demonizing Muslim-Americans. She also repeated her calls for tougher gun control measures, including a ban on assault weapons.

As usual after a major attack, "terrorism" jumped to the top concern among all adults in the poll - rising above the economy, health care and other major issues.

The poll's five-day average showed that 45.5 percent of likely American voters supported Clinton, while 34.8 percent supported Trump, and another 19.7 percent did not support either candidate. On Sunday, Clinton's support was at 46.6 percent, versus Trump's 32.3 percent.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English with adults living in the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii. The political horserace poll included 1,133 likely voters and has a credibility interval, a measure of the poll's accuracy, of 3.4 percentage points

Source :Reuters

POLICE CHARGE SUSPECT IN SLAYING OF UK MP JO COX

Police charge suspect in slaying of UK MP Jo Cox

© REUTERS / Dylan Martinez Mourners pause during a minute's silence in memory of murdered Labour Party MP Jo Cox, who was shot dead in Birstall, during a vigil at Parliament Square in London, Britain, June 17, 2016. wo

British police said on Saturday they had charged a man in the slaying of lawmaker Jo Cox, and said the suspect appeared to have acted alone.

West Yorkshire police said on its website that Thomas Mair, 52, had been charged with the murder of the 41-year-old mother of two.

"We have now charged a man with murder, grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon," West Yorkshire Police Detective Superintendent Nick Wallen said in a statement.

Mair was due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Saturday, Wallen said.

Cox, a supporter of Britain staying in the EU, was shot and stabbed on Thursday by a man who witnesses said shouted "Britain first," in her own electoral district near Leeds in the county of West Yorkshire in northern England.

Wallen said Cox "was attacked and sustained serious injuries from both a firearm and a knife and despite assistance from passers-by, the ambulance service and police officers who were quickly on the scene, she sadly died of her injuries."

Wallen said the suspect was quickly apprehended thanks from help to the public.

He said police, working with the North East Counter Terrorism Unit, was pursuing inquiries into media reports of "the suspect being linked to right wing extremism" and "the suspect's link to mental health services."

"Based on information available at this time, this appears to be an isolated, but targeted attack upon Jo - there is also no indication at this stage that anyone else was involved in the attack. However we will be investigating how the suspect came to be in possession of an unlawfully held firearm," Wallen added.

He said, however, that police were working with the Palace of Westminster and the Home Office to review security arrangements for members of parliament

Source:Reuters

Tuesday, 14 June 2016

MICROSOFT TO BUY LINKED IN FOR $26.2 BN

Microsoft to Buy LinkedIn for $26.2bn

Computer software giant, Microsoft Corporation, said on Tuesday it would acquire business-oriented social networking service, LinkedIn Corporation, for $26.2 billion.

It said that the move was to seek new growth opportunities for its business productivity tools.
Microsoft, once the world’s No. 1 software giant for personal computers (PCs), is a multinational technology company, with headquarters in Richmond, Washington.

Under a definitive agreement, Microsoft will buy LinkedIn, based in Mountain View, California, for $196 per share in cash and the transaction is expected to close this year.

Microsoft’s Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said: “The deal is to bring together the world’s leading professional cloud with the world’s leading professional network.”
The deal is the biggest since he assumed the position in early 2014.

Microsoft, which has moved its Office application suite from a set of personal computer productivity tools to a cloud service known as Office 365 and now has 1.2 billion users, finds a connection with LinkedIn.

It runs an online network connecting more than 400 million professionals worldwide.
“We are in pursuit of a common mission centred on empowering people and organisations,” Nadella explained in an email to employees.

“Along with the new growth in our Office 365 commercial and Dynamics businesses, this deal is key to our bold ambition to reinvent productivity and business processes.

“Microsoft Dynamics offers businesses an integrated productivity solution,” Nadella said.
Nadella said that when people found jobs, “build skills, sell, market and get work done, they need a connected professional world which brings together a professional’s information in LinkedIn’s public network”.

On LinkedIn’s growth and strength, Microsoft listed a number of parameters registered in the past year, including 19 per cent growth year-over-year to more than 433 million members worldwide.

It would also have nine per cent growth to more than 105 million unique visiting members per month, 49 per cent growth to 60 per cent mobile usage and 34 per cent growth to more than 45 billion quarterly member-page views.

Also included in the parameter is 101 per cent growth to more than seven million active job listings.

Source :This day

THE WORLD WAITS FOR EMEFIELE'S FLEXIBLE EXCHANGE RATE TODAY

The World Waits for Emefiele’s Flexible Exchange Rate Today

• CBN may adopt single window, devalue naira
• FG to secure N90bn loan for states

Obinna Chima in Lagos and James Emejo in Abuja
Three weeks after he announced the introduction of a flexible exchange rate regime, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, will today finally unveil the much-anticipated guidelines paving the way for the new forex regime, THISDAY exclusively learnt on Tuesday.

This is just as the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, disclosed that the federal government has resolved to facilitate a N90 billion loan for the 36 states of the federation to enable them meet their obligations, but cautioned that it should not be deemed a bailout for the states but a facility with stringent conditions attached to it.

A top CBN official, who confirmed yesterday that Emefiele would brief the press today on the flexible exchange regime however did not provide further details on what the guidelines would entail.

He said the CBN was now adequately prepared and has the firepower to support the new flexible forex regime, adding: “Once it is announced, we expect to see stability in the forex market and some appreciation in the parallel market that will reduce the gap between the official and informal forex market rates.”

Another source with the central bank however revealed that he expects the central bank governor, having held wide consultations with stakeholders in the financial markets on the new structure for the forex market, to announce a single window, not a two-tier forex exchange regime with a special intervention window for critical transactions as announced by the governor after last month’s meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

The source added that he expects Emefiele to also announce a devaluation of the naira to an adjustable rate that will be determined by a two-way quote system.
“The naira will be devalued tomorrow (today) and will be market-driven going forward by a two-way quote system,” the source revealed.

The CBN has been hamstrung by dwindling oil earnings, brought on by low oil prices and the violent activities of militants in the Niger Delta. Both had combined to reduce the country’s monthly oil revenue from an all-time high of $3.2 billion about two years ago to about $500,000 in April.

Experiencing great difficulties funding the nation’s imports as a result of scarce foreign exchange, a situation that put increasing pressure on the naira, the CBN for over a year pegged the naira at N197-N199 to the dollar and imposed currency curbs on certain items.

Its obstinacy was worsened by President Muhammadu Buhari’s ill-advised opposition to the devaluation of the naira.
But as the economy contracted and plunged into a recession, foreign investors fled the economy and inflation spiralled, the central bank was forced to rethink its forex policy in order to open up the forex market while conserving forex reserves.

The dollar currently trades at N365 on the parallel market.
At the last MPC meeting held last month, members agreed to hold all policy rates constant and introduce greater flexibility in managing the forex rate. As a result of this, a lot of investors were cautiously optimistic and indeed excited.

Emefiele had said the central bank resolved to introduce greater flexibility in the foreign exchange market, but would retain a small window for critical transactions for prospective investors.
Since the announcement, the central bank has been consulting with stakeholders in the economy on the new forex policy.

N90bn Loan for States

Meanwhile, the minister of finance yesterday disclosed that the federal government had resolved to facilitate a N90 billon loan for the 36 states of the federation, but cautioned that it was not a bailout but a facility with stringent conditions attached to it.

“It’s actually a loan that is going to be repaid. It’s not a bailout,” she told journalists at a news briefing, shortly after a meeting with state commissioners of finance in Abuja.

The credit facility followed the approval of state governors to implement a comprehensive 22-point Fiscal Sustainability Plan (FSP) to among other things make critical reforms, cut wasteful spending, eliminate ghost workers on the payrolls of their respective states, as well as pay salaries electronically to workers’ individual accounts.
The minister explained that the loan would be raised from the private sector through the issuance of bonds which have been guaranteed by the federal government.

She said: “That is the only way we can get the rates down. The federal government is guaranteeing the bonds and they are being issued in the normal manner that bonds are issued.”

According to her, the sum of N50 billion would be secured in the first three months and shared among the participating states which include all the 36 states, while another N40 billion would be activated for another nine months.

Adeosun said: “The idea is to tide states over for a year so that they can balance their portfolios which on average is about N1.3 billion for the states for the first three months and then N1.1 billion for the next nine months.
“It’s a loan and it’s going to be fully repaid because it’s been secured with future dividends, revenues and any amount that the federal government may owe the states.”

Asked whether allocations from states’ share from the monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) would be affected as a result of the proposed credit arrangement, the minister said: “We are not suspending allocation from the Federation Account as it will still be there.
“For now, we need to support the states and they have agreed to that and the lenders are ready to make an advance to them to help them through the period.”

On the conditions attached to the loan, she said: “When you want to borrow money, the lenders set the conditions and these conditions are very stringent conditions and they are 22 of them and the states have signed up to them.
“The governors unanimously approved the plan, the commissioners approved the plan and it’s going to involve a lot of work in some places.

“They have to clean up their ghost workers, they have to set up efficiency unit, they have to reduce their recurrent expenditure, they have to publish their accounts – there are a lot of tough conditions.

“So the governors and commissioners recognise that these reforms are necessary if they want states to be fiscally sustainable.”
Adeosun further stated that under the new dispensation in fiscal sustainability among the tiers of government, every state must now strive to be economically viable by embarking on public-private sector partnerships to unleash their potentials.

She said: “Every state must be viable. We cannot have a situation where states are so dependent on the Federation Account for their revenues and once Federation Account is down they cannot survive.”

According to her, “We have to make sure that within each state, whatever local advantage they have is exploited.
“So if there is no private sector to collect taxes from, maybe there are agricultural produce which can be developed and the states can use that to generate revenue.

“What we are saying is that every single state is a centre of prosperity, every state should go and look inwards and work to generate its own IGR and have the discipline to ensure that they can pay salaries, clear out wastage, so that as the economy improves, we can actually improve to grow with the future.

“The objective of the fiscal sustainability plan is to achieve it in an 18-month period and that is the condition for the loan and it’s not a bailout.”

Responding on behalf of the state commissioners, the Jigawa State Commissioner for Finance Umaru Namadi expressed gratitude to the federal government, assuring it that the states would abide by the conditions of the loan.

Source : This day