Monday Morning News in Brief!

Good morning Folks! here is the news in brief..(In my reporter's voice) Lol

FG TO CUT OIL SUBSIDY IN HALF NEXT YEAR!.

The Federal Government has said it plans to cut subsidies on petroleum products by half next year after sharp falls in global crude prices, spurred a reversal of its 2015 budget downwards.
President Goodluck Jonathan submitted the revised budget figures to lawmakers last week, proposing to spend 458.68 billion naira ($2.59 bln) on petrol subsidy in 2015, down from 971.14 billion naira presented for 2014.
It also assumed further cuts to petrol subsidies in 2016 to 408.68 billion naira and 371.18 billion naira for 2017.
The Minister of finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has proposed lowering the assumed benchmark oil price for the 2015 budget to $73 per barrel from the $78 proposed in September, after global crude prices collapsed.


JONATHAN'S GOVT HAS PERFORMED MORE THAN ALL NIGERIAN PRESIDENTS SINCE 1960, PRESIDENCY FIRES BACK AT OBASANJO



FOR scoring the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan below average, the Presidency Sunday took a swipe at former President Olusegun Obasanjo, saying his comments at an event, weekend, where he rated Jonathan’s performance “below average” were not only untrue, but also misleading.

In a statement, last night in Abuja by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, the Presidency said former President Obasanjo’s comments do not in any way tally with the facts on ground, boasting that President Jonathan had performed more than Obasanjo and other presidents in Nigeria’s history.

BOKOHARAM AMBUSHED FISHERMEN, SLITS THEIR THROAT, AND DROWNED SOME

Suspected Boko Haram extremists ambushed and slaughtered 48 fish vendors near Nigeria’s border with Chad, the head of their association said, the latest violence to hit the country’s volatile northeast.
“Scores of Boko Haram fighters blocked a route linking Nigeria with Chad near the fishing village of Doron Baga on the shores of Lake Chad on Thursday and killed a group of 48 fish traders? on their way to Chad to buy fish,” Abubakar Gamandi, head of the fish traders association, told AFP.
Gamandi said that after setting up a barricade at Dogon Fili, 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Doron Baga in Borno state, the attackers stopped a convoy of fish vendors around midday, silently slaughtering some and drowning others in the lake.

PLEASE WALK AWAY, NFF TELLS KESHI


Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi has been urged not to try to stay in the job after failing to qualify the team for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
Keshi is currently without a contract with the Nigeria Football Federation.
And a top NFF official told BBC Sport: “Walking away honourably would be the smartest thing for Stephen Keshi.“It’s pointless to hang around when you’ve failed, have been completely rejected by the NFF and are unwanted by disappointed football fans.”

NIGERIA IS ON THE VERGE OF CHAOS-BAMANGA TUKUR


More reactions have continued to trail last Thursday’s invasion of the National Assembly by the police as former Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur; a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Adeniyi Akintola and various groups and professional associations have condemned the invasion and called for caution. 
According to him, Nigeria’s democracy was presently being rocked to its very foundation which would require all hands to be on deck to ensure that it does not collapse. He added that every Nigerian entrusted with sensitive public positions must learn to place National interest above every other consideration in his or her service to Nigeria.


IBADANS MAYHEM:3 KILLED, SEVERAL HOUSES BURNT.


At least three people were killed and 10 houses destroyed by   armed youths who   invaded Born Photo, Isale Osi, Idi Arere and Popoyemoja in Ibadan South-West Local Government Area of Oyo State.

The youth who operated freely for about two hours before policemen arrived at the scenes, also burnt or vandalised about 200 shops,   several vehicles and a tricycle.

Eyewitnesses said the thugs partly burnt   a petrol station at Popoyemoja junction.
Residents linked the violence to last Friday’s attack in which a   policeman was shot dead at a rally by the All Progressives Congress.
One of them said, “Youths hired by politicians   released several shots at Born Photo junction.   This is a fall-out of Friday’s violence at the APC rally.   This may not be over soon because there could be reprisal. Government must intervene quickly.”

JONATHAN IS SUPEEVISING A VERY CORRUPT GOVERNMENT-AMAECHI


Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has said President Goodluck Jonathan “is supervising a highly corrupt government.”

He also claimed that “there is no democracy yet in Nigeria.”
The governor, who spoke in Abuja on Saturday, insisted that he had no personal quarrel with President Jonathan, adding that if governance could be separated from the President, he (Jonathan) “remains a good man.”
He, however, regretted that the President “is supervising a highly corrupt government.”
“We don’t have democracy in Nigeria yet. What we have is diarchy. We don’t have a democracy. Diarchy is dictatorship. The Federal Government has appropriated the police as its personal property. The FG has taken over the police. See the way the police took over the National Assembly. By law, the police have no power to invade the National Assembly and they have no power to stop the Speaker from going in or out of the National Assembly complex. But they don’t obey law.”
He insisted that his party, the All Progressives Congress, would not go to court if the PDP decided to rig the 2015 presidential elections.Instead of going to court, he said the APC would form a parallel government.
He said, “What is the essence of going to court when the Federal Government don’t obey the law. That’s why the APC say we won’t go to the court any longer. If you rig us out, we would rig ourselves in; which means if you think you can rig us out in 2015, we will form our own government. We have met on that and we have agreed on that. We will instal our own government and there would be two governments.

“The only way to avoid a parallel government is to have a free and fair election. You can’t continue to use the police as if it is a private agency or company of the government.”

PDP MOVES TO STOP JONATHAN'S REMOVAL



The Peoples Democratic Party may have started offering ‘re-election tickets’ to its members in the National Assembly as a means of dissuading them from supporting the reported   drive by the All Progressives Congress lawmakers to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan.
In the House of Representatives in particular, the bait was said to have “toned down” the anger of some PDP members, who ordinarily would have backed the bid to remove Jonathan.
An influential National Assembly source said on Sunday that “many of these lawmakers have long fallen apart with their state governors.
“They have been told before now that they should forget any ambition to return in 2015.
“Attempts they made to use the Presidency to intervene in their case also did not turn out in their favour.
“But, with the impeachment move against Jonathan, the party is now assuring some of the members to keep supporting the President as the tickets can still be theirs.”

WHY WE INVADED APC DATA CENTER IN LAGOS-SSS

In a statement on Sunday by its spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, the DSS, popularly called SSS, said it received a petition alleging “unwholesome activities” in the building located at No.10, Bola Ajbola Street, Allen Avenue, Ikeja.
“The petition alleged that those behind the activities were cloning INEC Permanent Voters Card with the intention of hacking into INEC data base, corrupting it and replacing them with their own data.
“Based on this information, the service placed the building under surveillance and having been convinced that some unwholesome activities were going on in the building, it undertook a raid of the premises.
“In the process, some persons were arrested, while a server, three hard drives and 31 Ghana must go bags of hard copy documents were recovered and taken away for further investigation,” Ms. Ogar said.