Agricultural Minister Says Price Of Rice May Rise To N40,000 Per Bag

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has indicated that without a commensurable production capacity, the price of rice may rise to N40,000 per bag by December if Nigerians fail to engage in rice farming.

Mr. Lokpobiri said that Nigeria spends about $22 billion a year on importing food, and this number could swell if the price of rice increases. In order to reverse this trend, Nigeria needs to produce goods domestically rather than relying on imports, the senator emphasized.

‎The junior minister, who made this known on Saturday at a town hall meeting with stakeholders in Bayelsa State in Yenagoa, said there was a projection that by 2050, Nigeria's population would be 450 million. Such rapid population growth would exacerbate food insecurity, he said.

“The price of rice was N12,000 some months ago, but it is now about N26,000 and if we don't start producing by December, it could be N40,000,” Mr. Lokpobiri explained.

“Rice matures in three months. So this is a wake up call for Bayelsa people to take the four farms we have seriously. The average land you see in Bayelsa can grow rice, so the colonial masters were not wrong in their assessment when they said the Niger Delta could feed not only Nigeria but also the entire West Africa sub-region.

“Unfortunately, agriculture today is not a priority of the Niger Delta as far as the State governments are concerned because of oil,” he said.

He said the States in the Niger Delta have yet to give priority to agriculture the way the North-West States such as Kebbi, Jigawa, Kano as well as other States like Lagos, Ebonyi, Anambra, prioritize it.

Mr. Lokpobiri used Anambra State as an example of a State taking advantage of its agriculture. He explained that Anambra State’s vegetable exports have placed the State in a better economic situation than other States, despite not having any oil wealth.

The junior minister, who decried the destruction of the region's resources by militants, said agriculture was also one sure way of discouraging militancy.

“The only way we can take our people out of militancy is actually through agriculture, and this is also an opportunity to tell our people that the most important resources to any man is land and water resources.

"By the time you are blowing up pipelines, you are actually damaging the water resources. Today, people say it will take 20 years to clean up Ogoni and we are blowing up our pipelines. We are the people suffering from our own decisions, from our own wrong action. So, the time has come for change. Blowing up pipelines is not a way of drawing attention to constructive engagement,” Mr. Lokpobiri explained.

He said that there is no sector in the Nigerian economy that is as profitable as agriculture, adding that in Kebbi State, under the CBN anchored grower scheme, rice farmers were given a N7.5b loan and within three months, they made N69b and paid back their loans effortlessly.

Mr. Lokpobiri urged Bayelsans to key into agriculture to enable them to benefit from the various incentives from the Ministry of Agriculture.

The President of the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide, Udengs Eradiri, said agriculture remained the sure way of addressing the security and economic challenges confronting Nigeria.

Mr. Eradiri said for the government to be able to woo people into agriculture, the farmers should be given adequate incentives, insisting that real farmers, not portfolio farmers, should be empowered with processing and storage facilities to give value to their produce.

He said agriculture is a potent tool to solve the Niger Delta crisis if the stakeholders and the government could come together and put proper mechanisms in place.

“Give the fishermen, for instance, the right incentive. We have a big problem in the Niger Delta. Agriculture is the sure way to solve the Niger Delta crisis. It is multidimensional. If the Ministry of Agriculture, with all the stakeholders, put their machinery together properly, we can use it to solve the Niger Delta crisis,” Mr. Eradiri said.

“The government should look at the project and give the financial support necessary so that the agricultural sector will have a lot of fertilizer from the oil and gas. And this will create a lot of jobs and these crises will be minimized.”

One obstacle confronting farmers in Nigeria is access to agricultural capital, according to Jonathan Omu, Chief Executive Officer of Achievers Farms Limited.

He said the promises by banks such as the Bank of the Industry and the Bank of Agriculture were not novel, saying that farmers in Bayelsa State had been receiving such promises without any action.

Mr. Omu added that even when the banks were giving out loans, they usually gave loans that were grossly inadequate, saying it was high time they started taking to court banks that refused to give loans to farmers.

The price of rice could rise to N40,000 per bag by December

Nigeria's Arik Air Announces Resumption Of Flight Operations After Admitting Loss Of Insurance

Arik Air has announced that it has resumed flight operations beginning from Wednesday at 11: 00 am. In a statement, the airline urged the public to disregard reports suggesting that the airline is unable to meet its financial obligations to aviation fuel marketers and a withdrawal of insurance services to Arik Air by its insurers.

“While the current scarcity of aviation fuel (JET A1) has impacted on the operations of airlines in the country, Arik Air is in good standing with its fuel suppliers and have been meeting its obligations to them and to our insurers.

“With the regularization of the required documents relating to the renewal of the insurance, Arik Air will be resuming its normal flying schedule from 1100 hours on Wednesday, September 14, 2016,” the statement said.

The airline said it regrets the inconvenience caused to its customers by the abrupt disruption of its service and reassures customers of expedient rebooking of their flights.




Despite the bluster in its statement, Saharareporters confirmed that Arik Air lost its insurance cover because of its ability to pay its insurers in Europe, the airline is also owing fuel suppliers to its fleet.

Arik airliner

Forget about Biafra - President Buhari tells agitators

President Buhari yesterday asked agitators of Biafra to forget the plan. Speaking with some NYSC members, particularly those from the south East, who paid him a visit at his home in Daura, Katsina state yesterday, President Buhari said

“Tell your colleagues who want Biafra to forget about it. As a military commander, I walked from Degem, a border town between the north and the east, to the border between Cameroons and Nigeria.
I walked on my foot for most of the 30 months that we fought the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, in which at least 2 million Nigerians were killed. We were made by our leaders to go and fight Biafra not because of money or oil, because oil was not critical factor then, but because of one Nigeria. So if leaderships at various levels failed, it was not the fault of the rest of Nigerians who have no quarrel with one another. So please tell your colleagues that we must be together to build this country. It is big enough for us and potentially big enough in terms of resources. Those who work hard will earn a respectable living. I have seen this country, I fought for this country and I will continue to work for the unity of this country,’’he said.

“I never rejected any apartment” - Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr

There were reports making the rounds yesterday that Super Eagles' technical adviser, Gernot Rohr, rejected a three-bedroom apartment that was offered to him in Jabi, Abuja, by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). Rohr reportedly said it was too big for him and insisted on a smaller apartment.

However, according to thenff.com, the Franco-German coach has reacted to the news, 'expressing displeasure at the way people are using his openness and easy accessibility to quote him out of context and attempt to derail him from the core assignment he has at hand.'

“I never rejected any apartment. I might have spoken to a few people who I believed to be genuinely interested in me, saying that the apartment was very big and I joked that I might get lost inside it when I start to live there, but I never rejected it. When the Federation engaged me, and told me I had to live in Nigeria, I agreed to it because I believed that my base has to be in the country where I work. I did the same in Niger, Burkina Faso and Gabon, and I do not see it any differently in Nigeria. ” Rohr said.

“The Federation moved to rent an apartment for me, and this is a good gesture that shows their commitment. If I have issues with it, it should be done directly through the Federation and not on the pages of the media.”

Former First Lady Patience Jonathan claims $15m Frozen in her bank accounts are for medical bills, personal expenses

Former first lady, Patience Jonathan, has written a letter to the EFCC explaining how $15 million entered her account. In a letter with reference number GA/Abibo/00226/2016, written by her lawyers, Granville Abibo (SAN) and Co, and addressed to the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, the former first lady said the $15 million which has been seized by the antigraft agency, was for her medical bills and other personal expenses, according to Sahara Reporters...

"It is noteworthy to emphasise that the said accounts, which were in US dollar denomination, were card-based accounts and our client is the sole signatory to these accounts. However, our client has been operating the said accounts using the cards for her medical bill payments and purchases for her private purposes without any let or hindrance. Our client was therefore surprised when the said cards stop functioning on July 7, 2016, or thereabout. Our client immediately, thereupon, contacted Skye Bank Plc through our solicitors. It was only then that the bank officials informed our client that the said accounts were placed on a ‘No Debit Order’ following investigations and instruction from your commission and this is without notice to our client by either the bank or the commission. It is in the light of the foregoing that we urge you to use your good offices to vacate the ‘No Debit/Freezing Order’ placed on the said accounts.”

Patience in the letter stated that the operatives of the antigraft agency have refused to acknowledge her explanation

“Despite the foregoing, our client, who is a law-abiding citizen, has watched with surprise how efforts are being made surreptitiously to indirectly harass or harangue her and short-change her of her personal funds in breach of her fundamental human rights. We urge you sir, to kindly intervene to stop the untoward and wrongful actions of your officials to embarrass, inconvenience and short-change our client.”the letter said

Patience Jonathan during her husband's time in office had seven surgeries within a month for an undisclosed ailment in Germany. During a thanksgiving service in February 2013, she revealed that she lost consciousness for ‎a week during one of her surgeries.

Confidential medical files of Serena Williams, Simone Biles, other female US Olympians leaked by Russian hackers

 

Confidential medical data of gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles, seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams and basketball player Elena Delle Donne was hacked from a World Anti-Doping Agency database and posted online on Tuesday. 
  
The Russian cyber espionage group called Fancy Bear published records of "Therapeutic Use Exemptions" (TUEs), which allow athletes to use otherwise-banned substances if they have a verified medical reason to do so, the Independent reports.



Williams, who revealed in 2011 she had been diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome, an energy-sapping disease, issued a statement via her agent in which she said she was granted TUEs "when serious medical conditions have occurred," and those exemptions were "reviewed by an anonymous, independent group of doctors, and approved for legitimate medical reasons." 

  "I was disappointed to learn today that my private, medical data has been compromised by hackers and published without my permission," Williams said. "I have followed the rules established under the Tennis Anti-Doping Program in applying for, and being granted, 'therapeutic use exemption.'"

  Women's basketball gold medalist Elena Delle Donne, who had thumb surgery on Tuesday and posted a post-op pic on Twitter, along with a statement saying she takes prescribed medication approved by WADA.

  
In a statement, USA Gymnastics said Biles — who won five medals, four gold, in Rio last month — was approved for an exemption and had not broken any rules. She wrote on Twitter that she's taken medication to treat ADHD since she was a child. 

  "Please know I believe in clean sport, have always followed the rules, and will continue to do so as fair play is critical to sport and is very important to me," Biles posted.

Fancy Bear claimed the "therapeutic use of exemptions" constituted evidence of doping US Olympians. 

"After detailed studying of the hacked Wada databases we figured out that dozens of American athletes had tested positive" a statement from the group reads. "The RIO Olympic medallists regularly used illicit strong drugs justified by certificates of approval for therapeutic use. In other words, they just got their licenses for doping."

WADA previously warned of cyber attacks after investigators it had appointed published reports into Russian state-sponsored doping. 
  
World Anti-Doping Agency director general Olivier Niggli said in a statement that it was "unthinkable for hackers to illegally obtain confidential medical information in an attempt to smear athletes to make it look as if they have done something wrong.
In fact, in each of the situations, the athlete has done everything right in adhering to the global rules for obtaining permission to use a needed medication."

He added: 

"These criminal acts are greatly compromising the effort by the global anti-doping community to re-establish trust in Russia,"

WADA said "extended its investigation with the relevant law enforcement authorities." 
  
Last month, hackers obtained a database password for Russian runner Yuliya Stepanova, a whistleblower and key witness for the WADA investigations. She and her husband, a former official with the Russian national anti-doping agency, are now living at an undisclosed location in North America. 
  
A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected WADA's statement blaming Russian hackers as unfounded. 

  "There can be no talk about any official or government involvement, any involvement of Russian agencies in those actions. It's absolutely out of the question," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies. "Such unfounded accusations don't befit any organization, if they aren't backed by substance."

 The International Olympic Committee said it "strongly condemns such methods which clearly aim at tarnishing the reputation of clean athletes." 

  "The IOC can confirm however that the athletes mentioned did not violate any anti-doping rules during the Olympic Games Rio 2016," the Olympic body said.

The top American anti-doping official said it was "unthinkable" to try to smear athletes who followed the rules and did nothing wrong. 

  "The cyberbullying of innocent athletes being engaged in by these hackers is cowardly and despicable," said Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

The agency said it believed the hack was carried out using spear-phishing emails to gather passwords for the WADA Anti-Doping and Management System(ADAMS) database.

Source: The Independent/Associated Press

$150,000 Fraud: Nigerian Man arrested in Ghana for allegedly forging a Chief of Staff’s signature

The police in Osu, a district in central Accra, Ghana have arrested a 38-year-old Nigerian, Dennis Ndukwu, for alleging forging signatures of Ghana's Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, Finance Minister, Seth Terkper and other top government staffs, to defraud a foreign investor to the tune of 150,000 dollars.
According to Local media outlets, Dennis and his gang's fraudulent operations were uncovered in June this year after they tired to withdraw a huge amount of money from the investor's account. The police said Dennis and his gang, through internet hacking, got to know about challenges being faced by the victim, a Vietnamese investor who had invested over 8.5 million dollars in Ghana.  Dennis allegedly introduced himself to the investor, Le Van Khiem, as the secretary to the chief of staff, Julius Debrah, and revealed that he can use the high office to assist him.

Various documents purportedly signed by the chief of staff and the finance minister Seth Terkper were produced and this convinced the victim to give his personal items including his visa card and code to Dennis and his gang to enable them withdraw $100,000 from his account to aid the process.

The unusual withdrawal attracted his bankers’ suspicion to raise query on the account and block it. However, they were still able to get the victim to part with several thousands of dollars. It was during the withdrawal of the last portion of the money transfer that Dennis was arrested.

He has now confessed to the crime and mentioned one Robert Amuzu as an accomplice.