{"id":53745,"date":"2016-10-08T16:51:06","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T15:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=53745"},"modified":"2016-10-08T16:51:06","modified_gmt":"2016-10-08T15:51:06","slug":"babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/","title":{"rendered":"Babachir, Buhari and the N1.3bn Bogus Contract by PINE"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Senate on Tuesday 4<sup>th<\/sup> October 2016 accused the Presidential Initiative on North-East (PINE) of spending <s>N<\/s>1.3bn out of the\u00a0<s>N<\/s>10bn budgeted for the region on bogus contracts. This is a terrifying matter. But it is still an accusation until proven true or otherwise.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The concern of many people is, the Secretary to the government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal is being accused of being complicit. This is a man known by many people as a man of honour. President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s stance on corruption is indisputable; while his government has exhibited genuine and commendable efforts to restore the northeast to its pre-war peaceful status.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">If Babachir is a party to this breach of laid down process and procedure, many people including Buhari will not be happy with him. Besides, he is from the northeast, in fact, his local government area of Hong in Adamawa state is among the most affected areas by Boko Haram senseless war.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Daily Trust of Wednesday Oct 5, 2016 reported that \u201cSenator Baba Kaka Bashir Garbai and 18 others has accused the committee on North-East of spending <s>N<\/s>1.3bn on 21 bogus contracts awarded to families, friends and cronies of the SGF and the committee. The senate committee said the bogus contracts showed that <s>N<\/s>100m was paid on January 1 this year on a public holiday to a company, VFS for conference, <s>N<\/s> 230m was paid to Josman Technologies Limited in two installments for the removal of invasive plant species in Yobe State and <s>N<\/s> 185m was paid to a company known as \u2018Is yours Investment Limited in five installments. The table revealed that the company was paid <s>N<\/s> 50,299,270 twice and <s>N<\/s>37,754,900 for the supply of food and non-food items. Presenting the table to his colleagues, Senator Kaka said the committee paid <s>N<\/s> 117m and <s>N<\/s> 108m to Lintex International and Dantex Nigeria Limited respectively for the provision of temporary shelters while\u00a0<s>N<\/s> 80.7m and <s>N<\/s> 97.6m were paid to JMT Global Technologies Limited and Greenstone General Enterprise Limited respectively.\u00a0 To this end, the Executive Secretary of PINE, Umar \u00a0Gulani has appeared and offered some explanations before the House of Representatives committee investigating the alleged diversion of funds and materials meant for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS).<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Anti corruption war is a major cardinal unique selling point for Buhari.\u00a0\u00a0 So, any accusation of corruption against a member of the inner-circle of his government attracts public attention. However, we must bear in mind that for every corruption accusation against a Buhari lieutenant, two possibilities could be drawn: individuals currently facing corruption charges are working hard to paint every member of the government as also corrupt so as to rubbish the government\u2019s fight against corruption. Secondly, those who are used to government patronage and are no more in the \u2018loop\u2019 are also working hard to see that those getting government contracts are being portrayed as benefiting from cronyisms.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">President Buhari is a man who when he trusts someone, he hardly distrusts such a person based on insubstantial reasons. So some people can easily take advantage of that to commit some shady acts behind the General. \u00a0We must not also forget that public office in Nigeria comes with some privileges, authority and huge funds to spend, so if one does not apply measured restraint and discipline he\/she can easily fall into the trap of corruption without even knowing.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Babachir has been working with Buhari for a long time, most people believe he knows who Buhari is more than many people in the present government and will not go against or tarnish Buhari\u2019s globally commended efforts in the North-East.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">With Babachir\u2019s age, experience and trust bestowed on him by Buhari; it is hardly a possibility that he will condone arbitrary award contract to families, friends and cronies of his and other members of the committee. With the level of discipline being brought into public service, it is almost impossible that the members of the committee will overlook raw abuse of due process. Though, we do not expect the present government to award contracts to it \u2018enemies\u2019. \u00a0The accusation must be seen as untrue except proved otherwise. Nonetheless, Babachir and the committee members must come out clean, because the accusation is heavy with stark similarities with Dasuki\u2019s armsgate. Corruption has been the major factor that has helped in prolonging the insurgency in the northeast.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Jimeta, Adamawa State, <a href=\"mailto:zaymohd@yahoo.com\" target=\"_blank\">zaymohd@yahoo.com<\/a>, 08036070980. He blogs at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zayyaddp.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.zayyaddp.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><i><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Senate on Tuesday 4th October 2016 accused the Presidential Initiative on North-East (PINE) of spending N1.3bn out of the\u00a0N10bn budgeted for the region on bogus contracts. This is a&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Babachir, Buhari and the N1.3bn Bogus Contract by PINE - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Babachir, Buhari and the N1.3bn Bogus Contract by PINE - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Senate on Tuesday 4th October 2016 accused the Presidential Initiative on North-East (PINE) of spending N1.3bn out of the\u00a0N10bn budgeted for the region on bogus contracts. This is a&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-08T15:51:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Capture-Buhari-and-SGF-Babachir-Lawal-617x330.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"617\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"330\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"headline\":\"Babachir, Buhari and the N1.3bn Bogus Contract by PINE\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-08T15:51:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/\"},\"wordCount\":756,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Capture-Buhari-and-SGF-Babachir-Lawal-617x330.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Articles &amp; Opinions\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/\",\"name\":\"Babachir, Buhari and the N1.3bn Bogus Contract by PINE - Pointblank News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Capture-Buhari-and-SGF-Babachir-Lawal-617x330.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-08T15:51:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Capture-Buhari-and-SGF-Babachir-Lawal-617x330.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Capture-Buhari-and-SGF-Babachir-Lawal-617x330.jpg\",\"width\":617,\"height\":330},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Babachir, Buhari and the N1.3bn Bogus Contract by PINE\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\",\"name\":\"Pointblank News\",\"description\":\"Just the news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\",\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Our Reporter\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Babachir, Buhari and the N1.3bn Bogus Contract by PINE - Pointblank News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Babachir, Buhari and the N1.3bn Bogus Contract by PINE - Pointblank News","og_description":"The Senate on Tuesday 4th October 2016 accused the Presidential Initiative on North-East (PINE) of spending N1.3bn out of the\u00a0N10bn budgeted for the region on bogus contracts. This is a&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/","og_site_name":"Pointblank News","article_published_time":"2016-10-08T15:51:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":617,"height":330,"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Capture-Buhari-and-SGF-Babachir-Lawal-617x330.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Our Reporter","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Our Reporter","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/"},"author":{"name":"Our Reporter","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"headline":"Babachir, Buhari and the N1.3bn Bogus Contract by PINE","datePublished":"2016-10-08T15:51:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/"},"wordCount":756,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Capture-Buhari-and-SGF-Babachir-Lawal-617x330.jpg","articleSection":["Articles &amp; Opinions"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/","name":"Babachir, Buhari and the N1.3bn Bogus Contract by PINE - Pointblank News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Capture-Buhari-and-SGF-Babachir-Lawal-617x330.jpg","datePublished":"2016-10-08T15:51:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Capture-Buhari-and-SGF-Babachir-Lawal-617x330.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Capture-Buhari-and-SGF-Babachir-Lawal-617x330.jpg","width":617,"height":330},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/babachir-buhari-n1-3bn-bogus-contract-pine\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Babachir, Buhari and the N1.3bn Bogus Contract by PINE"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/","name":"Pointblank News","description":"Just the news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c","name":"Our Reporter","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Our Reporter"},"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}