THIS DAY NEWS PAPER
Obama to Propose $300bn Jobs Package
Barrack Obama
Reuters
President Barack Obama, facing waning confidence among Americans in his economic stewardship, plans some $300 billion (187 billion pounds) in tax cuts and government spending as part of a job-creating package, U.S. media reported on Tuesday.
The price tag of the proposed package, to be announced by Obama in a nationally televised speech to Congress on Thursday, would be offset by other cuts that the president would outline, CNN reported, citing Democratic sources.
Bloomberg News said the plan would inject more than $300 billion into the economy next year through tax cuts, spending on infrastructure, and aid to state and local governments.
According to Reuters report, Obama would offset those short-term costs by calling on Congress to raise tax revenues in a deficit-cutting proposal he will lay out next week, the news agency reported, without citing sources.
The White House declined to comment on the reports.
Obama's aides have refused to go public with the estimated cost of Obama's package or provide many specifics in advance, except to say that the proposals will have a "quick and positive" impact on boosting jobs at a time of stubbornly high U.S. unemployment.
"We need to do things that will have a direct impact in the short-term to grow the economy and create jobs, and the president will put forward proposals that will do just that," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Republicans criticized Obama for not including them in discussions on the package before his big speech and indicated any jobs bills could face tough passage through Congress, where they control the House of Representatives.
"I have no doubt the president will propose many things on Thursday that, when looked at individually, sound pretty good, or that he'll call them all bipartisan. I'm equally certain that, taken as whole, they'll represent more of the same failed approach," said the top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell.
Republican House leaders separately wrote to Obama urging him to repeal "excessive, job-destroying regulations" and laying out possible areas of common ground, including reforms to the unemployment system and free-trade agreements.
Confidence in Obama's management of the economy has been hit by months of bad economic news, and several polls on Tuesday showed fresh declines in his job approval ratings.
Obama hopes to start reversing this trend with his address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday, in which he will try to convince voters that he has a better economic recovery plan than his Republican opponents.
Bloomberg News said nearly half the stimulus in Obama's plan would come from tax cuts, including an extension of a payroll tax cut paid by workers and a new decrease in the amount paid by employers. Vice President Joe Biden told reporters last month a payroll tax cut for employers was being considered.
Direct aid to local governments will focus on stopping layoffs of teachers and first responders, Bloomberg said.
Obama fought Republicans for much of the summer to lift the U.S. debt ceiling in a bitter debate that saw rating agency Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. AAA credit rating, and he must now get lawmakers to back additional spending that many oppose.
However, the president is seeking congressional support at a time when his own prospects of re-election have worsened.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed Obama's job approval rating at a low of 44 percent, while an ABC News/ Washington Post poll found that six in 10 Americans now rate the president's job on the economy and jobs negatively.
A third survey by Politico and George Washington University found that 72 percent of voters believe the country is either strongly or somewhat headed in the wrong direction, a jump of 12 percent since last May.
Obama must get unemployment down from levels currently above 9 percent to improve his chances of winning a second White House term in the November 2012 election.
The president has already touched on a various steps Congress could take to lift growth and hiring, including infrastructure spending, business tax breaks, and extending the payroll tax cut and aid for the long-term unemployed.
EFCC Picks Lagos Assembly Accountants
EFCC LOGO
By Collins Edomaruse
Operatives of the Econo-mic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday whisked away two accountants in the Lagos State House of Assembly for questioning at the Awolowo Road offices of the commission.
THISDAY checks revealed that the commission, apart from grilling the two accountants, also carried out further ransacking of the accounts department of the assembly and carted away files, vouchers and cash books during the operation that lasted for five hours - 9am to 2pm.
It was also revealed that the agency may invite principal officers of the assembly as it continues its investigation on the allegation of financial mismanagement levelled against the speaker of the assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji.
The commission had on Monday carried out the first raid of the assembly and carted away what it called valuable documents from the office of the speaker and the assembly’s accounts department.
The raid, which was carried out by the team of the commission’s officials THISDAY gathered, was necessitated by new developments that countered the speaker’s claims on the mode of disbursement of the assembly’s funds.
THISDAY checks at the EFCC revealed that Ikuforiji had claimed in his statement of defence last weekend that the assembly receives N500 million monthly as running cost.
The speaker, according to the investigation, also told the commission that of the amount, he disburses N5 million monthly to each of the 40 members of the assembly.
A member of staff of the assembly, who identified himself as Olatunde, had told the newspaper on Monday that the agency’s action smacked of professional inefficiency because it ought not to have taken the steps without having to first investigate the allegation and uphold that which is truth.
“You know, being a civil servant, I am not even meant to talk to you but you can call me Olatunde. The allegation against the speaker, honestly calls for concern because when politics assumes a level as bitter as this, the players should be wary of their actions and utterances.
“It is true that the assembly collects N500 million monthly, but do I need to tell you that it is not a sum meant for the speaker alone? So, why would anyone sit back and accuse one man of having embezzled the money meant for an entire institution, the 40 members especially? That’s crude and unfair.
“Apart from the office of the speaker, the 39 other members of the assembly are shared their legitimate part of the money for the running of their offices. The over 600 staff of the assembly are maintained from the same running cost. Both the local and international trainings of members and staff are funded from this money,” he had said.
How Saboteurs Feed Fat on Kaduna Refinery
Kaduna Refinery
•Hijack feedstock, Refine in Neighbouring Countries for Nigerian market
By Ejiofor Alike
The main feedstock meant for the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KPRC) Ltd are being bought for export by a cartel operating at the refinery, following the inability of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to fix the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU), which accounts for 80 per cent of the refinery output, investigation has shown.
The feedstock, which comprises light and heavy oil, as well as long residue, are the three by-products from crude oil that the refinery’s FCCU draws from to produce marketable petroleum products.
Although, the NNPC, THISDAY learnt, has been spending huge sums of money in the last 10 months to fix the facility, insiders said: “The fact that the FCCU’s feedstock is being diverted by a cartel means that the corporation has not been able to repair the facility and so, the fund may have gone down the drain.”
Further checks revealed that following the inability of the company to get the FCCU up and running, the feedstock is now being shipped by the cartel to other refineries in neighbouring countries.
It was gathered that the feedstock, which are sold at “ridiculous” prices to the cartel, are refined into marketable petroleum products in other countries and imported to Nigeria at prevailing international market prices.
When contacted, NNPC’s spokesman, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, said the refinery was performing at a capacity of between 60 and 70 per cent, noting that the FCCU had been “coming up and going down”.
He however said the facts on the issues of light and heavy oil, as well as the long residue, were not available to him.
NNPC’s Group Executive Director (GED) in charge of Refining and Petrochemicals, Mr. Philip Chukwu, referred THISDAY to the Managing Director of the KRPC, Mr. Bola Ayodele, whom he said “is on ground” to comment on the issues. But efforts to reach the managing director before going to the press failed.
Jonathan Fires Adviser on Counterterrorism
President Goodluck Jonathan
•Gen. Bello Takes Over •Immigration Deports Somalis
From Ahamefula Ogbu in Abuja and Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano
President Goodluck Jonathan has quietly fired his Coordinator on Counterterrorism, Ambassador Zakari Ibrahim, following the spate of bombings in the country.
In what an insider called “one of the first steps in a major overhaul of the security architecture”, the president has appointed the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 82 Division of Nigerian Army, Maj. Gen. Sarkin Yakin Bello, as his new adviser to counter the rising wave of bombings in the country.
In another counterterrorism measure, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has launched an operation against illegal aliens in the country, leading to the deportation of nationals of six countries, including Somalia, for “security reasons”.
Maj. Gen. Bello was the Commander of the Joint Task Force (Operation Restore Hope) in the Niger Delta in the heyday of militancy.
Before then, Bello, who was promoted to the two-star rank in December 2008 by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, was the Commander of Operation Flush Out III in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
In Kano, the state command of Immigration Service at the weekend deported illegal immigrants from Somalia, Chad, Mali, Sudan, Niger and Senegal.
It is strongly believed in security circle that many of the “suicide bombers” trained by Boko Haram are not Nigerians, and the country’s porous borders as well as the cultural affinity between cross-border towns may have blurred the true identities of the extremists.
A senior Immigration officer at the Kano Command told reporters over the weekend that the deportation was in the national interest and would continue for now.
He confirmed that “hundreds” of foreigners had been sent back to their countries as they had no valid papers to remain in the country.
“They are usually engaged in menial and undignifying jobs in the state, and as such could be ready tools in the hands of mischief makers,” he said.
He also revealed that the service had adopted a “quiet, tactical approach” in purging the country of illegal immigrants so as to deport as many as possible.
THISDAY learnt that all the state commands had been instructed not to make their mode of operation public so as not to jeopardise efforts aimed at ridding the country of illegal immigrants.
The deportees are to be handed over to their home governments, the official said.
Boko Haram, which has claimed responsibility for the recent spate of bombings including the attack on the United Nations House which claimed 23 lives, said in June that it had trained suicide bombers in Somalia, a country where extremist group al-Shabaab, linked to Al-Qaeda, is in control. Revelations in the last one week have also shown that many of the Boko Haram members had been trained in Algeria and Afghanistan.
Jos: Eight Family Members Killed in Fresh Attack
Fresh Attack In Jos, Plateau State
•Islamic Cleric Shot in Borno
From Seriki Adinoyi in Jos and Michael Olugbode in Maiduguri
The reign of terror and wanton killings continued in Plateau State yesterday with the murder of eight members of the same family in a fresh attack at Tatu village in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of the state.
The killings were carried out with the father and his three sons slain in a room, while his wife and their three daughters were killed in another room. The victims had their heads shattered with gunshots
This came as a local Islamic scholar, Mallam Dala, was also yesterday morning shot dead by two unidentified gunmen at Zannari in the outskirt of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, raising fears that the Boko Haram group may have indeed, resumed their mayhem in the city following the conclusion of Ramadan.
And worried by the fear of counter attacks, several Christian groups yesterday witnessed scant worshippers as most Christians stayed away from churches.
About two weeks ago, a family of seven and three others were also slaughtered in an overnight raid by insurgents around the Heipang and Foron villages in Barakinn Ladi Local Government areas of Plateau State.
There have been rising waves of renewed violence and bloodletting resulting in heavy casualties in Jos lately, raising the fear that the new rounds of killings may degenerate into another orgy of violence.
Condemning the attack and describing it as unfortunate and barbaric, the state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr. Yiljap Abraham, who led journalists to the scene of the violence, lamented that in spite of the state government’s effort to curtail the gale of attacks in the state, the perpetrators had refused to stop.
He called on the youths of the area to form vigilante groups to protect themselves and their parents.
Also condemning the attack were the Chairman of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Hon. Emmanuel Lomang, and the member representing Barkin Ladi constituency in the state House of Assembly, Hon Gyang Fulani.
They described the attack as heinous and called on the security forces to investigate it.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Ulama/Elders Council of the state have also condemned last Monday’s attack on Muslims during their Eid-el-Fitr prayers. They also lamented the escalation of fresh hostilities in the state, noting that the trend was disturbing.
In a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, jointly signed by the Chief Imam of Jos, Sheikh Balarabe Dawud, Sheikh Muhammed Yahaya Jingir and Sheikh Alhassan Saeed, the Muslim elders said: “We are disturbed by the continued silence of both the Plateau State and Federal Government over this ugly development.”
The elders said that rather than arresting the perpetrators, “about 30 Muslims are presently under arrest and in detention at the state CID after they have been picked up randomly at various points on Tuesday and Wednesday of the attack”.
They said information available to them revealed that “both sporadic and organised attacks on Muslims, mostly innocent travellers are still going on in some parts of Jos”, adding that “some key routes into Jos are now death traps to Muslims from the North-west and North-east”.
The Islamic leaders noted that many Muslims died in the attack, including women and children, while scores of others were badly injured, and over 200 vehicles belonging to Muslim worshipers were burnt.
“We view this as the height of intolerance and taking the persecution of Muslims in Jos to a new but dangerous level,” they said.
In the Maiduguri killing, although Boko Haram remains the prime suspect, the state Police Commissioner, Mr. Simeon Midenda, said the killing might have been done by any other criminal as the deceased was just an uncelebrated individual and not a likely target of Boko Haram.
The police boss, who spoke to journalists on phone, said the slain man was not an Islamic scholar but just an ordinary man in the community who might have issues to settle with his killers.
He said investigation had already commenced to unravel the perpetrators of the dastardly act and that the deceased had been identified as Dala.
An eyewitness told journalists that the gunmen came in a Peugeot 504 salon car which they parked at a nearby bush in the area and from there walked to the house of the deceased.
He said on sighting the late Dala, they shot him several times and ensured that he was dead before fleeing the area.
The witness also said that an attempt was earlier made on the life of the scholar who owns a local Islamic school attended by Alimajiri students in the area two weeks ago.
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Nigeria Vs Argentina: Messi gets free role
Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella said ahead of today’s International friendly with Nigeria that his team bears no grudge against the Eagles for the 4-1 humbling last June in Abuja.
Enyimba, Sunshine, Kaduna Utd fly out
Eagles get princely welcome
Nigerian Boxers punch into reckoning
Why I dropped Enyeama – Siasia
Hanover’s second goalkeeper hit by depression
Argentina not thinking of revenge against Nigeria
Eagles for light training in Bangladesh
Eagles revive Nations Cup hope
Siasia thumbs up for Yobo
Samson Siasia has given the credit for Sunday’s 2- 0victory at Madagascar to his players.
The Super Eagles overcame atrocious playing conditions to triumph in the last 20 minutes with goals from skipper Joseph Yobo and a sensational effort from Obinna Nsofor sealing a much-needed win.
The Super Eagles overcame atrocious playing conditions to triumph in the last 20 minutes with goals from skipper Joseph Yobo and a sensational effort from Obinna Nsofor sealing a much-needed win.
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