Back to Base

I have been away on annual leave and actually thought i will have opportunities to update my blog but i could not. So sorry ikept you guys in suspense.
I will start off from where i stopped. Hope to share some of my experiences with you.

NEWS BITS

ANOTHER JAILBREAK

Following the collapse of walls of Okigwe Prison in Imo State, about 40 prisoners have escaped, while two others were allegedly shot dead by the warders of the prison.

Reports from Owerri, the state capital, indicated that the wall of the prison collapsed on Saturday.

Reports say the two people who were feared dead were shot by the warders while chasing the flee prisoners and those awaiting trials.

According to the report, the Okigwe prison authorities were now hunting the prisoners who had fled since Saturday.

BIGGEST TELECOM MERGER COLLAPSES

The proposed merger between South African telecommunications company, MTN, and Bharti Aitel, India’s largest telecoms company which would have created one of the world’s biggest telecoms network has collapsed following disagreement on sharing structure.

But hours after Bharti withdrew from the deal, another Indian telecoms company, Reliance Communications, has taken over and is now negotiating with MTN for a possible merger.

Reports say a successful merger would have made the two entities one of the sixth-largest mobile phone operators with more than 130 million subscribers.

Bharti was said to have secured funding of more than $60bn (£30.3bn) towards a deal but walked away amid claims that MTN had changed the terms of the deal.

It said MTN's plans would have seen Bharti Airtel become a subsidiary of MTN, a position it was not willing to accept.

PARTIES MERGER
No fewer than 22 political parties have initiated alliance talks with the Action Congress (AC) to strengthen the opposition against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The parties are set to fight what they see as the PDP’s drive towards a one-party state, among others.

But the ruling party is making moves to consolidate its hold on power by starving the other parties of cash. How? One and half years after a Federal High Court in Abuja ordered equal sharing of annual government grants among the 50 political parties, the PDP has approached the court to set aside its judgment.

The court had on December 15, 2006 granted the prayers of the Citizen Popular Party and 44 others, including the AC, that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) dump its sharing ratio of 10 per cent on the basis of equality and 90 per cent in proportion to seats held in the National Assembly. Now the PDP is asking that the old formula be readopted.

Some 22 parties pushing for alliance with the AC have met thrice in Abuja on the matter, but negotiations are yet ongoing.

SIEMENS BRIBERY SCANDAL
Ex-Siemens AG executive Reinhard Siekaczek yesterday told a court in Munich, Germany, that he built a system of slush funds at a unit of the engineering firm through which officials in several countries, including Nigeria, were bribed with company cash.

The court last October fined Siemens 1 million naira, the maximum fine for bribes paid by the communications unit in 77 cases between 2001 and 2004 to government officials in Nigeria, Libya and Russia.

The Nigerian government, last December, cancelled a N128.4 million (about $1.1 million) contract with Siemens for the supply of circuit breakers and other power generation accessories, and suspended dealings with the German telecoms firm pending an investigation into the bribery allegations.

Four former ministers of communications, a senator, some officials in the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and the Nigeria Immigrations Service (NIS) were indicted by the Munich court last year for �10 million bribe in the on-going probe of Siemens.

The former ministers are Tajudeen Olanrewaju (a retired General who served in Sani Abacha's regime), Chief Cornelius Adebayo, Dr. Mohammed Bello and Alhaji Haruna Elewi - all part of erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo's Administration between 1999 and 2007. Prof. Jibril Aminu is the senator named in the bribery scandal.