RayTec Trust Nigeria

The Presidency has said that under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, looters with multiple accounts can no longer hide their loots undetected. In a fact sheet released on Buhari’s first year in office, the Presidency said the enforcement of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) “has ensured that ghost workers are being identified and dealt with, just as looters with multiple accounts no longer have a place to hide their loots.” The statement said right from the moment Buhari won the presidential election in 2015, his posture as a no nonsense and incorruptible leader sent a signal to looters of public funds, “with many of them returning funds that had been stolen under the previous administration.” It added that to create a frame work for prosecuting the war against corruption and institutionalize probity, President Buhari set up an Advisory Committee on War Against Corruption. The Presidency said the anti-corruption battle was gaining ground with several high profile cases alr...

President Muhammadu Buhari says the economic measures his administration must take may lead to hardships. The president stated this Sunday morning in his Democracy Day nationwide broadcast. He said his government had resolved to keep the Naira steady as devaluation had done dreadful harm to the Nigerian economy in the past. He said he supported the monetary authority’s decision to ensure alignment between monetary policy and fiscal policy, saying that government would keep a close look on how the recent measures affect the Naira and the economy. "But we cannot get away from the fact that a strong currency is predicated on a strong economy. And a strong economy pre-supposes an industrial productive base and a steady export market. The measures we must take may lead to hardships," he said. Buhari, who acknowledged that the problems Nigerians had faced in the last one year had been many and varied, stressed that the real challenge for his government had been reconstructing the s...

Majority leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Friday explained that he was compelled to change his opposition to fuel subsidy removal having seen facts and figures that subsidy on petroleum is no longer sustainable. He said if subsidy was not removed, Nigeria might experience recession within the next two months. Speaking at a town hall meeting with his constituents in Lagos, Gbajabiamila who represents Surulere 1 Federal Constituency however urged Nigerians not to lose hope in the All Progressives Congress (APC) led government, saying things would soon get better. He said Nigeria found itself in the current situation because of the level of loot and theft perpetrated by past government of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Gbajabiamila also pointed out that the strike embarked upon by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to call for the reversal of fuel price hike did not succeed because there was no need for it in the first place, saying Labour was duly informe...

Oil price went up by more than one percent yesterday, nearing $50 a barrel, but Nigeria will receive less from the 2016 boom due to the lower production in recent times. Reuters said the price of Brent crude Wednesday was up 76 cents, or 1.6 percent, at $49.39 a barrel in late afternoon trading on expectations the U.S. government will report a large crude stockpiles drawdown for last week. The attack on the crude oil pipelines by the new militants group called Niger Delta Avengers led Nigeria’s crude oil production declined to 1.4 million barrels from an average of 2.2 million barrels per day last year. The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, said, last week, while appearing before a special session of the House of Representatives convened over the recent hike in petrol price that the decline translated to a loss of about 800,000 barrels of crude oil daily. On Tuesday, Eni, parent company of Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), declared force majeure on oil export...

A member of the National Caucus of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Sam Nkire, said that his party sees the organised labour as partners in progress for the development of Nigeria’s economy. Chief Nkire, who reacted yesterday to the threat of strike issued by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), in particular, appealed to the labour unions to shelve their planned strike due to increase in petrol price. The APC chieftain, who said everyone was feeling the pinch of the fuel price increase, described the measure as “a bitter pill we must all swallow for things to get better.” He appealed to Nigerians to give President Muhammadu Buhari a chance to govern, and stop constituting themselves as clog in the wheel of progress.

President Muhammadu Buhari and Rivers State Governor are currently meeting behind closed doors at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja. The governor arrived the president's office at about 2.00pm. Details later....

The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, who was one of the strong opponents of the fuel subsidy removal in the past, has given reasons why he along with some others are in support of it now. Gbajabiamila, in an open letter to Nigerians, said based on the facts and figures presented to them by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachukwu, at the meeting where the decision was taken on Wednesday, if the subsidy was not removed, Nigeria would be in an “economic cul-de-sac” and that many states would practically stop functioning. The House Leader, who in 2010 wrote an open letter to the then acting President Goodluck Jonathan, “vehemently opposed any attempt to remove subsidy,” said this time around, he was “confronted with a gloomy picture.” He said during the 2012 subsidy debate, he had “argued vociferously and with a strong conviction, that the idea of palliatives was irrelevant as the palliative measures proposed by the government then such as in...

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) earlier today searched the residence of the former Education Minister, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau. Shekarau has been in the custody of the commission in Kano since Thursday. A source close to the commission hinted Daily Trustthat EFCC operatives stormed the former minister's residence along Mundubawa road in Kano metropolis at exactly8amfor the search. The operatives, accompanied by Shekarau searched the house for several hours before they left the house with him at1:15pm. However, a source close to the former governor, confirmed that the operatives did not find anything incriminating against Shekarau. Asked why the former governor was still in the custody of the commission, the source said the EFCC said have not receive directives from the above the release him despite the fact that he had met all the laid down conditions. "They demanded two federal directors and we have presented them to the commission, yet ...

The Federal Government has increased the price of petroleum from N86.50 to a maximum of N145 per litre. The 80% increase was announced to State House reporters yesterday by the minister of State for Petroleum Ibe Kachikwu. The minister said the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) had been mandated to ensure strict regulatory compliance including dealing decisively with anyone involved in hoarding petrol. Kachikwu said the decision to increase the fuel price was arrived at a meeting of various stakeholders presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House, Abuja, yesterday. He said the meeting was attended by the leadership of the two chambers of the National Assembly, the Nigeria Governors Forum, and the labour unions including the NLC, TUC, NUPENG and PENGASSAN. The minister said: “The meeting reviewed: 1. The current fuel scarcity and supply difficulties in the country. 2. The exorbitant prices bei...

Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed yesterday said it is in the interest of Nigeria that President Muhammadu Buhari attends meetings that require his presence outside Nigeria, saying that so far, only the president exudes the kind of personae that attracts the confidence of world powers. Mohammed, who was a guest at a radio and television live programme in Kaduna hosted by Liberty Radio and Television, said sending representatives to such meetings as some people have suggested would not be as effective as having the president attending them in person. He said it would be unfair to attribute the president’s readiness to honour such invitations to a desire for pleasure, saying that at the president’s age, such things do not matter to him. “Many world leaders are saying now that Nigeria has a leader with integrity, they have the confidence to discuss with us even on the issue of the looted funds, so sending a representative cannot achieve that much,” he stated. Mohammed explained...

The Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC) has invited former Kano State governor Malam Ibrahim Shekarau for questioning over N950 million campaign funds. Shekarau, EFCC sources said, was expected to be at the commission by 10am today. “Shekarau was invited and is expected to come to the commission’s office in Kano today (Tuesday), he had accepted that in his acknowledgement,” the sources said. Shekarau,  a former minister of education under the Jonathan administration,  was invited in connection with the N23bn campaign funds scandal, said the source. EFCC sources alleged  that the money was part of $115 million (N23 bn) given by former Minister of Petroleum Resources Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and shared among top PDP politicians in furtherance of the re-election campaign of ex- president Goodluck Jonathan. One of the sources said the former Nigerian foreign affairs minister Alhaji Aminu Bashir Wali, had in his statement indicted Shekarau regarding the N950m he allegedly   collecte...

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday signed the 2016 Appropriation Bill into law, noting that the Act provides for aggregate expenditures of N6.06trillion. He said details of the approved budget and the strategic implementation plan would be provided by the minister of budget and national planning. Also noteworthy, is Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, saying at a State House briefing shortly after the budget was signed, that full implementation may not be achieved because the federal government was starting late. The president said through the 2016 budget, titled ‘Budget of Change,’ the government seeks to fulfill its own side of the social contract. He said the document was intended to signpost a renewal of his government’s commitment to restoring the budget as a serious article of faith with Nigerians. Buhari said his administration was committed to ensuring that henceforth the appropriation bill was presented to the National Assembly in ti...

President Muhammadu Buhari will Tuesday travel to London for the international anti-corruption summit, his spokesman, Femi Adesina, disclosed in a statement on Saturday. Buhari's delegation to the summit will include Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation Abubakar Malami and Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu. Adesina said as an internationally recognised leader in the global fight against corruption, Buhari would play a prominent part in the summit to be hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron with many other heads of state and government in attendance. He said ahead of the summit's opening, Buhari would deliver a keynote address titled: "Why We Must Tackle Corruption Together" at a pre-summit conference of development partners, the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, Transparency International and other civil society groups next Wednesday. According to him, Buhari is one of the w...