NNPC Station to be Demolished to Make Way for Abuja Rail

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) petrol station in the Central Business District will soon be demolished to make way for the Abuja rail mass transit project.

A senior official in the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) revealed to journalists that the NNPC Mega Station is currently situated in the area earmarked for Abuja railway’s main station, and the gas station was originally erected on a temporary basis.

“Corridors have been left for 30, 40 years. So people come and erect structures, promising to remove them when government needs them,” he said.

The railway, when completed, will run from Idu and its main station will be situated at the NNPC station’s site, where the rail will now go on to Kubwa.

There are currently two rail development projects in the capital, one runs from Idu through Kubwa to Kaduna and is managed by the government, and the other links Idu to the Central Business District and Kubwa and will be managed by the FCTA. 

The Abuja rail contract was awarded in 2007 by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, but work didn’t begin until 2009 due to delays in releasing the funds.

In 2011, China Civil Engineering Construction Company agreed to complete the job on loan after the government was unable to finance the project alone.

The Abuja rail network comprises of six lots covering a distance of 300km, with lots one and three currently under construction. The FCTA’s secretary of transport, Mr Jonathan Ivoke pledged that lots one and three will be completed in 2015.

The rail network is designed to run on diesel and electricity, with 39 sets of DMU locomotives and 6,300 capacity passenger cars. The 2030 forecast is for 437,200 passengers per day. When fully operational, the rail network will provide employment for 20,000 people in FCT.

FCTA Loses N10bn to Land Racketeers Annually

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed, has revealed that the administration loses at least N10 billion every year to the activities of land racketeers in the territory.

The minister made the disclosure yesterday during the commissioning of the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS) new systems infrastructure. He said the activities of fraudsters had led to cases of double allocation, land racketeering, and forgery. He however assured that the new system would block all leakages in the system.

Earlier in her remark, the Executive Director of AGIS, Hajia Jamilah Tangaza, said the development of the new AGIS systems infrastructure was borne out of the need to avert the possibility of a complete systems shutdown, catastrophic loss of data occasioned by failed computer servers and the prevalence of sharp and fraudulent incidents, along with its potential consequences to AGIS’ operation and revenue generating capacity.

Abuja Pastor Escapes Drive-by Shooting by Suspected Boko Haram Insurgents

Pastor Francis Irabor, the founder Great Calling Ministry escaped unharmed following a murder attempt by a group of armed men, suspected to be Boko Haram insurgents, on his way home from church last Sunday in Abuja.

The Pastor said that he had been on his way home after Sunday service when a group of men in a black Camry with its number plate hidden opened fire on his car.

He had earlier spotted the Camry parked close to the church, and as he was driving home in the company of his armed mobile police guards, the armed men shot at him, shattering the windscreen of his SUV.

When the suspected militants saw his police guards, they drove off and managed to escape.

Pastor Irabor had earlier received threatening text messages from suspected terrorists, but he had ignored them and “fully putting his trust in God.”

Kutugi Appointed Chairman of National Conference

President Goodluck Jonathan has appointed the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Idris Kutigi, as the chairman of the National Conference.

This was made known in a statement yesterday by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim. The statement further revealed that Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi will serve as vice chairman while Mrs. Valerie Azinge will serve as secretary.

The appointees are to resume at Abuja on Wednesday, 5^th March and will be received on arrival by the SGF. The conference is expected to commence on the 10^th of March.

PDP Will Start Campaigning in Six Months- Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would kick off campaigns for the 2015 elections in the six months.

The president made this know while on a visit to the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Sulu Gambari, as part of his one-day visit to the state. The president said with the new timetable made public for the 2015 elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), he and other national officers of the PDP would return to Ilorin in six months to campaign for the party.

“So we are here to ginger our members,” he said “also to use that opportunity to tell others that they need to join PDP.  

 

Earlier in his address, the Emir thanked the president for paying homage to him, adding that the emirate was a home for all.

SSS Parades Seven Boko Haram Suspects in Abuja

The Department of State Security Services (SSS) paraded seven suspected Boko Haram insurgents linked to the assassination of Kaduna Islamic cleric Auwal Albani at its headquarters in Abuja yesterday.

SSS spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar stated that one of the seven was a commander of the sect, and all were arrested in connection with the murder of the cleric, who was killed along with his wife and son last month because of his pro-western ways and anti-Boko Haram preaching.

Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, had released a video saying the group was responsible for the murder.

The suspects were identified as Yabuk Abdullahi, 42, the Kaduna/Niger state sub-regional commander of the sect who allegedly masterminded the murder; Yasir Salihu, 35; Ibrahim Shuaibu, 22; Bilyaminu Usman, 22; Sahabi Ismail, 27; Umar Ismail, 35 and Musa Abubakar, 54.

Ms. Ogar stated that "the hatred [of cleric Albani] culminated in a meeting by members of the sect under the leadership of Yakub Abdullahi at Hayin Danmani in Rigasa area of Kaduna. This is where Abdullahi declared that the Shura Council - the highest decision making body of Boko Haram - ordered the killing of Albani."

Ms. Ogar said after an attempted attack on the cleric on 24 January, he was placed under surveillance but tracked down on February 1 by members of Boko Haram at Markaz Salafiya Centre, where they waited for him to finish preaching before following him then killing him along with his wife and son.

Two AK 47 rifles that were brought from Katsina were used in the assassination, with Usman firing 30 rounds at the victims.

Tourism Minister Urges Nigerians to Limit Wildlife Consumption

The Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, has called on Nigerians to refrain from eating the wild animals native to Nigeria in order to encourage wildlife tourism in the country.

The minister was speaking at the Presidential Summit on Tourism held recently in Abuja designed to promote the sector as an avenue for employment creation and contributor to the Nigerian economy.

"Today, if you want to see mountain gorillas in Rwanda, you will pay $750 (about N120,000) online and have to wait for six months to be given a date and the queue is usually very long. But we have mountain gorillas in Afi Mountain, not far away from the Obudu Ranch, and our own mountain gorilla species are more pristine than the ones in Rwanda and Congo.

"But unless there is a policy and we are able to inform our people, we will continue to find people who will be consuming the wildlife which is going into extinction. Our people must control their palate for wildlife so that the animal species don't run out of stock," said the minister.

The minister noted that such practice is against some international conventions that Nigeria is a global signatory to. He referenced the Rwandan government which has developed a policy through which people are enlightened and informed with proof that protecting those mountain gorillas will generate finance and foreign exchange to the country.