FG to Carry a Major Overhaul of NNPC Operations Next Week - Kachikwu

            The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has announced a major shake up in NNPC Operations that has never happened in 20 years.

                                                                  

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu

     

The Federal Government has said it is going to carry out a major overhaul the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation next week. The revelation was made today at the Shell Production and Exploration Oloibiri Lecture Series  (Thursday) by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.

               He revealed that the planned overhaul in the national oil firm had never happened at the corporation in the past 20 years and will address governance issues in the oil and gas sector as well as at the NNPC.  Kachikwu said: “We are starting first with simple governance issues, those that are not contentious…, that are very rapid and that deals a lot with the transformation of the national oil company.

              For the national oil company, a lot of work is going on, I am sure some of you have seen the effects but within the next one week, we are going to be announcing some really major overhaul of the system, one that hasn’t been done in over 20 years. The effect of that would be to quite frankly unbundle the huge company into four to five main operational zones; the upstream, downstream, midstream, refining and, of course, every other company that is trending to the venture group.”

Nigeria Judge Sanctioned Heavily After She Handled Pre-election Matter Carelessly

     Federal High Court Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia has been severely penalized for “misconduct and alleged injustice," Premium Times reports. This is happening after she carelessly handled a pre-election case in Ogun state carelessly. The National Judicial Council, under the chairmanship of Justice Mahmud Mohammed, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, has barred her from being elevated to the Court of Appeal, or any higher judicial body till her retirement.She was also placed on the council’s “watch-list” for the next four years.

             The decision was sequel to the petition written against her by Victoria Ayeni alleging misconduct and injustice on the part of Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobia for failing to deliver judgment in Suit No FHC/AB/CS/31/2011, a pre-election matter between Victoria A. A. Ayeni and Olusola Sonuga and two others. The judge was also alleged to have adjourned the pre-election matter repeatedly until the termination of the life span of the Ogun State House of Assembly.

Russia has Agreed to Freeze oil Production Output- President Putin

             Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that the country's domestic oil producers have agreed to keep this year's oil output in line with January levels, the first time he had given his view in public on a production freeze. On the whole, an agreement was reached that we will keep (2016) oil output at the January level," Putin said after chairing a meeting with Russian oil producers in the Kremlin.

            After months of falling world oil prices, a preliminary agreement was reached in Doha in mid-February for Russia and several other major crude producers to freeze production, but until now Putin had not said publicly where he stood on the question of Russia steadying its output. This had left markets uncertain about the extent to which Russia's oil industry - in which the Kremlin wields outsize influence - would throw its weight behind a deal. However uncertainty remains after Putin's public announcement because Iran has not signed up to a production freeze, and a Putin aide said more work was needed to get all the big producers lined up.

Security Alert! Terrorists Planning To Abduct School Children In Bauchi - Police

              The Bauchi State Police Command says intelligence reports at its disposal indicates that some persons plan to abduct under-age children for recruitment for terrorist activities. ASP Abdulrahman Ahmed, spokesman of the command disclosed this in a statement made available on Wednesday in Bauchi. The group has perfected the plan to abduct school children to recruit and indoctrinate them for terrorist activities.
          

 

             The statement said that the group specifically planned to abduct school children in the states.
The State command, therefore urges members of the general public to be security conscious of their physical and social environment, specifically, the public should pay attention to persons and objects particularly at schools, motor parks, shopping mall, markets, filling stations and places of worship.'

Why The Naira is Fluctuating at the Parallel Market - CBN Official

               The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has taken moves to improve the value of the naira at the parallel market, the News Agency of Nigeria reports. The naira in recent times naira changed for N400 to a dollar and had been fluctuating between N300 and N395 ever since. An official of the apex bank, who pleaded anonymity, attributed it to the mop-up operations of the CBN which had reduced excess liquidity of Naira in circulation and made it relatively scarce.

             There was also the decision by CBN to maintain the supply of foreign exchange for school fees and medicals which earlier speculated removal from inter-bank rate eligibility had caused panic.
Another reason is the rising cost and drop in demand for imported goods because a good number of Nigerians are beginning to switch consumption to local goods.These have had a significant fall in dollar demand,’’ the official said