Investigation launched into how Manchester bomber Salman Abedi slipped through security services' net

Missed chances to catch Salman Abedi will be investigated, the Home Secretary said as it was claimed that US officials warned MI5 earlier this year that he was planning an attack. 

As the security services face growing questions over failures to stop Abedi killing 22 people in the Manchester Arena, Amber Rudd said it would be examined whether there were "signals" which were not picked up on. 

Despite the terror threat being reduced from critical to severe on Saturday, she confirmed that members of Abedi's terror network could still be at large. Ms Rudd's comments came after claims emerged that the FBI had told MI5 in January of this year that Abedi was part of a North African terror cell based in Manchester who had been looking to launch an attack. 

US Federal agents had been monitoring Abedi since 2016 and passed on information that they had gathered from Libya, where his parents are from, and from intercepting his communications, it was said. 

"Following this US tip-off, Abedi and other members of the gang were scrutinised by MI5. It was thought at the time that Abedi was planning to assassinate a political figure.

"But nothing came of this investigation and, tragically, he slipped down the pecking order of targets," a source told the Mail on sunday

Ms Rudd said: "Of course people will want to look afterwards to see whether there are signals that could have been learnt, how could we do this better. "

When the intelligence services use the term signals it normally refers to communications such as emails, but Ms Rudd refused to comment on what officers knew, saying it was " an ongoing operation". 

On a day when Greater Manchester Police launched further raids across the city, the Home Secretary also revealed members of Abedi's terror network could still be at large. 

She said: "There is - the operation is still at, really at full tilt in a way and so until the operation is complete we can’t be entirely sure that it’s closed."

Ms Rudd said that the Government is constantly reviewing what is needed in the fight against terror and the Conservatives have made a manifesto promise to appoint a Commission for Extremism. She added: "We know we need to do more. We recognise the scale of the threat."

Ms Rudd said that in the crackdown on extremism the controversial temporary exclusions orders had been used for the first time since they were introduced in 2014, meaning British jihadists have been banned from returning to their home country. 

Refusing to be drawn on how many times or where they were travelling from, she said: "It is no longer zero. It is part of the toolkit that a Home Secretary has so that we can keep people safe."

On Sunday afternoon Greater Manchester Police gained entry to a house in Moss Side using a controlled explosion and the street remained cordoned off last night. 

The total number of people in custody over the attack rose to 14 when a 23-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of terror offences in Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex. Two people who were arrested earlier in the week were later released without charge.

Hackers Hide Cyberattacks in Social Media Posts

SAN FRANCISCO — It took only one attempt for Russian hackers to make their way into the computer of a Pentagon official. But the attack didn’t come through an email or a file buried within a seemingly innocuous document.

A link, attached to a Twitter post put out by a robot account, promised a family-friendly vacation package for the summer. It was the kind of thing anyone might click on, according to the official hit by the attack, who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

That is exactly the problem, Pentagon officials and cybersecurity experts said. While corporations and government agencies around the world are training their staff to think twice before opening anything sent by email, hackers have already moved on to a new kind of attack, targeting social media accounts, where people are more likely to be trusting.

Pentagon officials are increasingly worried that state-backed hackers are using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to break into Defense Department computer networks. And the human error that causes people to click on a link sent to them in an email is exponentially greater on social media sites, the officials said, because people are more likely consider themselves among friends.Once one person is compromised, attacks can move quickly through that person’s friend network, leading to what the officials described as a nightmare situation in which entire departments at the Pentagon could be targeted. And while officials know about the problem, training about how to spot an attack that comes through Twitter and Facebook remains limited.

Another official, who spoke to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, described the problem as teaching an entire department to be wary of anything that was sent to it — even if the message appeared to come from family or a friend.

While last year’s hacking of senior Democratic Party officials raised awareness of the damage caused if just a handful of employees click on the wrong emails, few people realize that a message on Twitter or Facebook could give an attacker similar access to their system and that accounts can be spoofed or imitated so it appears that attackers are a trusted friend.

“Spear phishing,” or the act of sending a malicious file or link through a seemingly innocuous message, is hardly new. In November 2015, the State Department revealed that its employees had been spear phished through social media accounts.

But Pentagon officials say the scale of the spear phishing attacks is unlike anything they had ever seen before. A report in Time magazine this month revealed that a Russian-led cyberattack tried to spear phish 10,000 Twitter accounts belonging to Defense Department employees, using personal messages targeted at specific users.

The Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment. In response to a Times reporter, Twitter sent a copy of the company’s anti-spam rules, which said any account that violated its rules would be suspended. A spokesman for Facebook said the company was aware of the problem and was monitoring spear phishing on the platform.

In a recent white paper published by Facebook, the company outlined the common hacking it was seeing. The company said it was using specialized notifications, detection systems and user education to counteract spear fishing.

Cybersecurity companies said spear phishing through social media was one of the fastest-growing methods of attack.“It’s something that you don’t hear as much about, but the problem is pervasive,” said Jay Kaplan, a former Defense Department cybersecurity expert and senior cyberanalyst at the National Security Agency who is now the chief executive of the cybersecurity company Synack. “Social media gives a number of indicators to an attacker, on a state-sponsored level, that you couldn’t get through email.”

Outside of simply using a spear phishing email to gain access to a network, attackers could use an account to gather intelligence. By watching a group of soldiers posting online, attackers could watch location changes to discern troop movements or engage directly in conversations to try to ferret out military decisions.

“Most people don’t think twice when they are posting on social media. They don’t think about people using the information against them maliciously,” Mr. Kaplan said. “They also don’t assume people on their network might be attackers.”

According to a 2016 report by Verizon, roughly 30 percent of spear phishing emails are opened by their targets. But research published by the cybersecurity firm ZeroFOX showed that 66 percent of spear phishing messages sent through social media sites were opened by their intended victims.

In the Defense Department attack, for example, 7,000 employees took the first step toward being compromised by clicking on a link, said Evan Blair, a co-founder of ZeroFOX. “The attacks are so much more successful because they use your personal timeline and the content you engaged with to target the message to you,” Mr. Blair said.

Simply by looking at public posts, attackers can easily see if an account has mentioned a certain band or sports team often, then tailor a message pointing to tickets going on sale for an event. On Facebook, an attacker can see which groups have been joined, or which public pages have been liked.

In an experiment last year, ZeroFOX created an automated program that taught itself to send spear phishing links to Twitter users. Over two hours, the program sent link to 819 people, at a rate of roughly 6.75 messages per minute. Two hundred seventy five users opened the links.

Mr. Blair said that in the case of the Defense Department, the links had carried the malware. Once people clicked on the link, they were infecting their computer networks. In many cases, the attackers targeted members of Defense Department employees’ families, who were less likely to be suspicious.

The Defense Department employee who told The Times that he had been part of the recent breach said he had been targeted through his wife’s Twitter account. She was the one to click on a link to a vacation package, after exchanging messages with friends over what they should do with their children over the summer.

Once the hackers got into her computer, the official said, they got to his computer through a shared home network.

UK should fine social media companies that fail to take down extremist content, says former intelligence chief

Britain should consider fining internet giants that fail to take down extremist content, a former GCHQ deputy director of intelligence and cyber operations has said.

Brian Lord said the current situation was "unsustainable" as the Manchester terror attack cast a fresh light on the challenge intelligence services face in tackling extremism online and through encrypted messaging apps.

Theresa May, the Prime Minister, has put security at the heart of her election campaign with a pledge to put pressure on social media firms such as Facebook and Twitter to target extremist measures online.Mr Lord said: "I think when you have large organisations who provide ostensibly a public service to almost a quarter of the globe, I think those companies have to recognise that comes with a set of social responsibilities and not just an issue of profit.Common ground has to be found between the Government's demands and what is feasible for providers to do, adding: "I don't think the current position is sustainable."Ministers should consider a German-style system, where providers are fined millions of euros for failing to remove fake news from their sites, he said.He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think we should consider it but as with all these issues, social media is here to stay and actually it's just as incumbent on the organisations themselves to adjust their approach to this as well as the threat of fines."I don't think it's either one or the other."In the aftermath of the suicide bomb in Manchester, leaders of the G7 states, the US, UK, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Italy, agreed a package of measures to step up the fight against terror.

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Obasanjo to youths: Don’t wish us dead, you still need our mentoring

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Sunday pleaded with the nation’s youth not to wish elders in the country “dead”, saying they need them as “mentors” and “advisers” in their journey of life.

Obasanjo who stated that his “greatest fear about Nigeria” today remained the “anger and frustration of the youths,” said if not managed, it could lead to “youth explosion.”

He lamented that Nigerian youths are not getting help either from the government or anybody.

The Ebora Owu who spoke during the Youth Governance Dialogue organized by the Youth Development Centre arm of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library(OOPL), Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, said while his generation had “limitless opportunities but no facilities” in their time, the youth of today have facilities but little or no opportunities.He cited the insurgency in the North East, the separatist agitators in the South East and militancy in the Niger Delta region as manifestations of anger and frustrations from disillusioned youths, warning that should youth explosion erupts, there may be no limit to the extent it can spread.

He appealed to them to work hard to help themselves and be ready to pay the price for the right cause they believe, saying in spite of all odds, the youth still remained his greatest hope for Nigeria.

Obasanjo noted that when he left secondary school, he received letters of appointments from five establishments and wondered whether any Nigerian university graduate could have such opportunities today.

“Don’t wish us dead, don’t wish us to disappear because you will need us. You need us mentors and advisers to mentor and prepare you for the future. You need our experience and assistance of some of us to guide you through life.

“You should not lose hope, you should not feel frustrated. Whenever I go, they always ask me what is my fear about Nigeria and Africa. And I said my greatest fear is youth anger, frustrations and youth explosion which have no bound.

“We have the Boko haram in the north, the MASSOB and IPOB in the South East, the militants in the Niger Delta and the Oodua Peoples Congress in the Southwest. All of these are expression of anger and frustrations.“We have what it takes to be great as a nation and we can’t transform this country without the youths. My greatest hope in this country is also the youth. You the youth should work to help yourselves. You must be ready to pay the price for what you stand for,” Obasanjo said.

The lead speaker at the occasion and former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Osita Chidoka while speaking on the theme “Towards a Guiding Political Philosophy for a Democratic Nigeria,” advised that the nation’s leaders should build a society that harness human and material resources effectively, provide equal opportunities and develop capacity for innovation.

Chidoka also proposed a new Charter for the country, saying the Charter should contain reasons for the country’s unity, and which guarantees the basic rights, privileges and obligations of citizens.

“Our national aspirations should inspire the next generation and provide them with the existential meaning of Nigeria. A meaning that transcends geography, natural resources and ethnicity.

“Our political parties can then build their ideologies around the strategies for the achieving our national goals,” he said.

Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal also attended the conference.

DEMOCRACY DAY SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, THE ACTING PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, COMMEMORATING THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE BUHARI ADMINISTRATION, MAY 29, 2017

Dear Nigerians, I bring you good wishes from President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, who as we all know is away from the country on medical vacation.

Today marks the second anniversary of our assumption of office. We must thank the Almighty God not only for preserving our lives to celebrate this second anniversary, but for giving us hope, strength and confidence as we faced the challenges of the past two years.

Our administration outlined three specific areas for our immediate intervention on assumption of office: these were Security, Corruption and the Economy.

In the Northeast of our country, the terrorist group Boko Haram openly challenged the sovereignty and continued existence of the state, killing, maiming,and abducting, causing the displacement of the largest number of our citizens in recent history. Beyond the North East they extended their mindless killings, as far away as Abuja, Kano And Kaduna.

But with new leadership and renewed confidence our gallant military immediately began to put Boko Haram on the back foot. We have restored broken-down relations with our neighbours, Chad, Cameroon and Niger – allies without whom the war against terror would have been extremely difficult to win. We have re-organized and equipped our Armed Forces, and inspired them to heroic feats; we have also revitalized the regional Multinational Joint Task Force, by providing the required funding and leadership.

The positive results are clear for all to see. In the last two years close to one million displaced persons have returned home. 106 of our daughters from Chibok have regained their freedom, after more than two years in captivity, in addition to the thousands of other captives who have since tasted freedom.

Schools, hospitals and businesses are springing back to life across the Northeast, especially in Borno State, the epicentre of the crisis. Farmers are returning to the farms from which they fled in the wake of Boko Haram. Finally, our people are getting a chance to begin the urgent task of rebuilding their lives.

Across the country, in the Niger Delta, and in parts of the North Central region, we are engaging with local communities, to understand their grievances, and to create solutions that respond to these grievances adequately and enduringly.

President Buhari’s New Vision for the Niger Delta is a comprehensive peace, security and development plan that will ensure that the people benefit fully from the wealth of the region, and we have seen to it that it is the product of deep and extensive consultations, and that it has now moved from idea to execution.

Included in that New Vision is the long-overdue environmental clean-up of the Niger Delta beginning with Ogoni-land, which we launched last year.

More recent threats to security such as the herdsmen clashes with farmers in many parts of the country sometimes leading to fatalities and loss of livelihoods and property have also preoccupied our security structures. We are working with State governments, and tasking our security agencies with designing effective strategies and interventions that will bring this menace to an end. We are determined to ensure that anyone who uses violence, or carries arms without legal authority is apprehended and sanctioned.

In the fight against corruption, we have focused on bringing persons accused of corruption to justice. We believe that the looting of public resources that took place in the past few years has to be accounted for. Funds appropriated to build roads, railway lines, and power plants, and to equip the military, that had been stolen or diverted into private pockets, must be retrieved and the culprits brought to justice.

Many have said that the process is slow, and that is true, corruption has fought back with tremendous resources and our system of administration of justice has been quite slow. But the good news for justice is that our law does not recognize a time bar for the prosecution of corruption and other crimes, and we will not relent in our efforts to apprehend and bring corruption suspects to justice. We are also re-equipping our prosecution teams, and part of the expected judicial reforms is to dedicate some specific courts to the trial of corruption cases.

We are also institutionalizing safeguards and deterrents. We have expanded the coverage of the Treasury Single Account (TSA). We have introduced more efficient accounting and budgeting systems across the Federal Government. We have also launched an extremely successful Whistleblower Policy.

The Efficiency Unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance has succeeded in plugging leakages amounting to billions of naira, over the last two years. We have ended expensive and much-abused fertilizer and petrol subsidy regimes.

We have taken very seriously our promise to save and invest for the future, even against the backdrop of our revenue challenges, and we have in the last two years added US$500m to our Sovereign Wealth Fund and US$87m to the Excess Crude Account. This is the very opposite of the situation before now, when rising oil prices failed to translate to rising levels of savings and investment.

Admittedly, the economy has proven to be the biggest challenge of all. Let me first express just how concerned we have been, since this administration took office, about the impact of the economic difficulties on our citizens.

Through no fault of theirs, some companies shut down their operations, others downsized; people lost jobs, had to endure rising food prices. In some States civil servants worked months on end without the guarantee of a salary, even as rents and school fees and other expenses continued to show up like clockwork.

We have been extremely mindful of the many sacrifices that you have had to make over the last few years. And for this reason this administration’s work on the economic front has been targeted at a combination of short-term interventions to cushion the pain, as well as medium to long term efforts aimed at rebuilding an economy that is no longer helplessly dependent on the price of crude oil.

Those short-term interventions include putting together a series of bailout packages for our State Governments, to enable them bridge their salary shortfalls – an issue the President has consistently expressed his concerns about. We also began the hard work of laying out a framework for our Social Intervention Programme, the most ambitious in the history of the country.

One of the first tasks of the Cabinet and the Economic Management Team was to put together a Strategic Implementation Plan for the 2016 budget, targeting initiatives that would create speedy yet lasting impact on the lives of Nigerians.

Indeed, much of 2016 was spent clearing the mess we inherited and putting the building blocks together for the future of our dreams; laying a solid foundation for the kind of future that you deserve as citizens of Nigeria.

In his Budget Presentation Speech to the National Assembly last December, President Buhari outlined our Economic Agenda in detail, and assured that 2017 -would be the year in which you would begin to see tangible benefits of all the planning and preparation work. It is my pleasure to note that in the five months since he delivered that speech, we have seen tremendous progress, as promised.

Take the example of our Social Investment Programme, which kicked off at the end of 2016. Its Home Grown School Feeding component is now feeding more than 1 million primary school children across seven states and would be feeding three million by the end of the year. N-Power, another component has engaged 200,000 unemployed graduates – none of whom needed any ‘connections’ to be selected. Beneficiaries are already telling the stories of how these initiatives have given them a fresh start in their lives.

Micro credit to a million artisans, traders and market men and women has begun. While conditional cash transfers to eventually reach a million of the poorest and most vulnerable households has also begun.

Road and power projects are ongoing in every part of the country. In rail, we are making progress with our plans to attract hundreds of millions of dollars in investment to upgrade the existing 3,500km narrow-gauge network. We have also in 2017 flagged-off construction work on the Lagos-Ibadan leg of our standard-gauge network, and are close to completing the first phase of Abuja’s Mass Transit Rail System.

In that Budget speech in December, the President announced the take-off of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative. Today, five months on, that Initiative – the product of an unprecedented bilateral cooperation with the Government of Morocco – has resulted in the revitalisation of 11 blending plants across the country, the creation of 50,000 direct and indirect jobs so far, and in the production of 300,000 metric tonnes of NPK fertilizer, which is being sold to farmers at prices significantly lower than what they paid last year. By the end of 2017, that Fertilizer Initiative would have led to foreign exchange savings of US$200 million; and subsidy savings of 60 billion naira.

The Initiative is building on the solid gains of the Anchor Borrowers Programme, launched in 2015 to support our rice and wheat farmers, as part of our move towards guaranteeing food security for Nigeria.

All of this is evidence that we are taking very seriously our ambition of agricultural self-sufficiency. I am delighted to note that since 2015 our imports of rice have dropped by 90 percent, while domestic production has almost tripled. Our goal is to produce enough rice to meet local demand by 2019. In April, the President launched our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan which built on the foundations laid by the Strategic implementation Plan of 2016. The plan has set forth a clear vision for the economic development of Nigeria. I will come back to this point presently.

Another highlight of the President’s Budget Speech was our work around the Ease of Doing Business reforms. As promised we have since followed up with implementation and execution. I am pleased to note that we are now seeing verifiable progress across several areas, ranging from new Visa on Arrival scheme, to reforms at our ports and regulatory agencies.

The President also promised that 2017 would see the rollout of Executive Orders to facilitate government approvals, support procurement of locally made goods, and improve fiscal responsibility. We have kept that promise. This month we issued three Executive Orders to make it easier for citizens to get the permits and licenses they require for their businesses, to mandate Government agencies to spend more of their budgets on locally produced goods, and to promote budget transparency and efficiency. The overarching idea is to make Government Agencies and Government budgets work more efficiently for the people.

The impact of our Ease of Doing Business work is gradually being felt by businesses small and large; its successful take-off has allowed us to follow up with the MSME Clinics -our Small Business support programme, which has taken us so far to Aba, Sokoto, Jos, Katsina, and we expect to be in all other states in due course.

Let me note, at this point, that several of our Initiatives are targeted at our young people, who make up most of our population. From N-Power, to the Technology Hubs being developed nationwide, to innovation competitions such as the Aso Villa Demo Day, and our various MSME support schemes, we will do everything to nurture the immense innovative and entrepreneurial potential of our young people. We are a nation of young people, and we will ensure that our policies and programmes reflect this.

One of the highlights of our Power Sector Recovery Programme, which we launched in March, is a N701 billion Naira Payment Assurance Scheme that will resolve the financing bottlenecks that have until now constrained the operations of our gas suppliers and generation companies. Let me assure that you will soon begin to see the positive impact of these steps.

Our Solid Minerals Development Fund has also now taken off, in line with our commitment to developing the sector. Because of our unerring focus on Solid Minerals development over the last two years, the sector has, alongside Agriculture, seen impressive levels of growth – in spite of the recession.
On the whole, just as the President promised in the Budget Speech, these early months of 2017 have seen the flowering of the early fruit of all the hard work of our first eighteen months.

We opened the year with an overwhelmingly successful Eurobond Offer – evidence of continuing investor interest in Nigeria. We have also launched the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020, to build on the gains of last year’s Strategic Implementation Plan. And the implementation of our 2017 Budget, which will soon be signed into law, will bring added impetus to our ongoing economic recovery. In the 2016 Budget we spent 1.2 Trillion Naira on infrastructure projects, another milestone in the history of this country. Our 2017 Budget will double that investment.

That budget also provides for substantial investment to implement the rollout of Industrial Parks and Special Economic Zones (SEZs), as well as our Social Housing Programme. The Industrial Parks and Economic Zones will fulfil our ambition of making Nigeria a manufacturing hub, while the Family Home Fund of our Social Housing Programme will provide inexpensive mortgages for low-income individuals and families across the country.

These plans offer yet more evidence that we are ramping up the pace of work; the work of fulfilling all that we promised. In the next two years we will build on the successes of the last two. We have demonstrated a willingness to learn from our mistakes and to improve on our successes. The critical points that we must address fully in the next two years are: Agriculture and food security, Energy, (power and Petroleum,) Industrialization and Transport infrastructure. Every step of the way we will be working with the private sector, giving them the necessary incentives and creating an environment to invest and do business.

Our vision is for a country that grows what it eats and produces what it consumes. It is for a country that no longer has to import petroleum products, and develops a lucrative petrochemical industry. Very importantly it is for a country whose fortunes are no longer tied to the price of a barrel of crude, but instead to the boundless talent and energy of its people, young and old, male and female as they invest in diverse areas of the economy.

And that vision is also for a country where the wealth of the many will no longer be stolen by or reserved for a few, and where the impunity of corruption – whether in the public or private sectors – will no longer be standard operating practice; a land rid of bandits and terrorists.

As citizens you all deserve a country that works, not merely for the rich or connected, but for everyone. And our promise to you is that we will, with your support and cooperation, take every step needed to create that country of our dreams.

We also know that this journey will of necessity take time. But we will not succumb to the temptation to take short-cuts that ultimately complicate the journey. We did not find ourselves in crises overnight, and we simply do not expect overnight solutions to our challenges.

The most important thing is that we are on the right path, and we will not deviate from it, even in the face of strong temptation to choose temporary gain over long-term benefit. As the President has summed it up: “The old Nigeria is slowly but surely disappearing, and a new era is rising.” ’
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And so we commemorate this second anniversary of our administration with confidence and optimism. I firmly believe that we have put the most difficult phase behind us; and we are witnesses to the ever-increasing intensity of the light at the end of the tunnel. We ask for your continued cooperation and support, to enable us realise all our best intentions and ambitions for Nigeria. On our part We will continue to carry you along on this journey, speak to you, explain the challenges, and share our Vision.

And while we all daily pre-occupy ourselves with pursuing the Nigerian Dream – which is the desire to better our lives and circumstances vigorously and honestly – it is inevitable that grievances and frustrations will arise from time to time.
This is normal. What is not normal, or acceptable, is employing these frustrations as justification for indulging in discrimination or hate speech or hateful conduct of any kind, or for seeking to undermine by violent or other illegal means the very existence of the sovereign entity that has brought us all together as brothers and sisters and citizens.

Nigeria belongs to all of us. No one person or group of persons is more important or more entitled than the other in this space that we all call home. And we have a responsibility to live in peace and harmony with one another, to seek peaceful and constitutional means of expressing our wishes and desires, and to resist all who might seek to sow confusion and hatred for their own selfish interests.

Before I end this speech, let me ask for your continued prayers for the restoration to full health and strength and the safe return of our President.

I congratulate all of you on today’s commemoration of this important day in the democratic calendar our country. Nigeria is on a journey of greatness, and together we shall arrive at the destination of our dreams.

May God bless you all, and bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

SPEECH BY ABIA STATE GOVERNOR, DR. OKEZIE IKPEAZU ON THE OCCASION OF THE 2017 DEMOCRACY DAY/2 YEARS IN OFFICE CELEBRATION,

My Good People of Abia State.

To the glory of God, I address you today on the occasion of the 2nd anniversary of our assumption of office to pilot the affairs of our beloved Abia State. Last year, on this same day, during our first anniversary, I came to you with updates on what we had done and promises of what we will yet do. I am proud to report to you that most of those promises have become tangible realities that we can all see and be proud of.

As you are aware, upon assumption of office, we identified 5 Pillars of Development upon which we purposed to anchor our developmental vision. These pillars are Education, Commerce, Trade, Oil and Gas and Agriculture. The Pillars also had enablers which when taken together, we had no doubt that they had the potentials to accelerate our growth and development as a state and place us on an enviable pedestal.

We have taken considerable steps to deliver on those pillars and enablers and the results are there for all to see. I am grateful to the distinguished Abia leaders who took time yesterday to make inputs into our plans during our interactive session at the International Conference Centre and I assure them that we will take those inputs into cognizance as we move to the next phase of our developmental objectives.

Permit me therefore at this juncture to bring to you, highlights of what we have been able to do within the period under review.

ROADS AND BRIDGES

One of the very first actions I took on the first working day after my swearing-in as Governor was to flag off construction work on roads in Aba and Umuahia. We are mindful of the importance of good roads to the stimulation of economic and social activities and we have not relented since day 1. To date, we have succeeded in completing about 40 roads across the state out of the about 80 roads we embarked upon from inception. Mention must be made of the fact that most of these roads, especially in Aba, are being constructed with rigid pavement technology which guarantees their longevity.

While I will not go into the list of all the roads we have constructed and are constructing as they are contained in the detailed report we have released, permit me to elaborate on some of the roads and their significance.

As you all know, we awarded the contract for the reconstruction of Faulks road late last year to SetracoConstruction Company. A component of the contract was also the solving of the perennial problem of the IfeobaraBasin and Ukwu Mango which hitherto always caused the area to be flooded. Today, to the glory of God, the company has achieved significant milestone in fixing Faulks Road and creatively solving the problem of the Ifeobara Basin.

Equally significant and complementary to the FaulksRoad is the completed work on Dr. Chima Nwafor Road, Umuocham/Umule/Tonimas Triangular Road and our ongoing reconstruction of MCC/Samek Road and Old Express Road. These are critical adjoining roads which are easing movement of goods and services in and out of the Ariaria International Market, our major commercial nerve-centre in Aba. Together with the 35 other roads we have completed in Aba including ongoing work on Aba-Owerri Road, Aba is back in business because the roads we are doing are economic roads. To God be the glory.

Also noteworthy is the fact that we have commenced work on Port-Harcourt Road in Aba which is another key economic road. I assure you that we have engineered a unique funding model for the road and it will be delivered in record time.

In Umuahia, you are all witnesses to the work Arab Contractors are doing on the Aba Road from Stanpol to Isi Court. The quality of the project underpins our determination to ensure that we use the best contractors to deliver the best quality of work in Abia State.

Apart from Lagos and Rivers States, you will be hard-pressed to find another state within our economic bracket where 3 Grade-A Contractors are working simultaneously.We have a contract with Abians to deliver the best and wherever the best are located, we will bring them to work in Abia State.

In Abia North Senatorial District, among all the other roads we are doing including the Abiriba Ring Road, the Abiriba Nkporo Road, the Ohafia Township Roads, the Eluama-Otampka Road, the Eke-Obuzor-Ngodo Road and the Nkpa Road, permit me to single out for special mention, the Bende-ArochukwuRoad. This road was conceptualized to serve as an alternative to the perennially impassable Ohafia-Arochukwu Federal Road. I had the opportunity to inspect it during our Thank-You Tour to Arochukwu last week and I witnessed the laying of the bridge on the road. My promise to Abians today is that by Christmas of 2017, the road will be completed and commissioned so that our brothers from that axis can comfortably travel to their communities.

My dear Abians, we have abolished the Federal Road-State Road dichotomy in Abia State. For as long as a road is within Abia State, irrespective of the owners, so long as it is bad, we will fix it. Where we cannot fix the road for a variety of reasons, we shall provide alternative roads. This resolve is borne out of the knowledge that it is our people that ply these roads and we cannot allow them to suffer.

May I also report that we have started work on building 10 kilometers of roads in every Local Government Area in Abia State. We started from Osisioma in Abia Central Senatorial District and my assurance to you is that within the next one year, every Local Government Area in Abia State will feel the impact of our infrastructural development masterplan. Going forward, we will commence work on our Trans-Abia Highway from Nsuluin Isialangwa North to Ikwuano and from Ikwuano to Bende. This road will run through our Cocoa belt and drive agricultural development.

I wish to report to you that within the last 24 months, we have been able achieve a few 1sts.

a. The previously intractable Oomne Drive has survived 24 months and will never be a nightmare again.

b. The hitherto problematic Ukwu Mango will no longer pose a problem. Same with Aba Road, Umuahia.

c. Okon-Aku Community has been re-connected to the rest of Ohafia through the new Okon-Aku Bridge

d. The new bridge we are constructing on the Bende-ArochukwuRoad will connect several communities in that axis with their kin for the 1st time in many decades.

e. The 1st Ashpalt Road ever by a State Government in Ugwunagbo LGA is under construction

f. The 1st flyover in Abia State is under construction at Osisioma Junction.

In the years ahead, we will yet embark on many landmark pioneer projects for the benefit of the people of Abia state

AGRICULTURE

As I stated earlier on, Agriculture is one of the strong Pillars of Development of this administration.I am glad to announce that great things are happening in the sector. In the last 2 years, we recovered and revamped government owned lands and oil palm estates hitherto underutilized. Most of them like Ndi Oji and AmaekeRubber Estates, Ohambele Palm Estate, Ulonna North and South Farm Settlement and Ukwa Nkporo Estate have been given out to trusted investors to develop and manage. We set a target for ourselves to raise 7.5 million oil palm seedlings by 2019. Last year, we raised 2 million oil palm tenera seedlings at Ayaba Umueze, Osisioma LGA and we are raising another 2.5 million seedlings this year.

One of our landmark achievements in the agricultural sector is the establishment of a pilot Oyster Mushroom project at the Ministry of Agriculture Headquarters in Umuahia. The Farm has the capacity of accommodating 3,500 bags of mushroom substrates yielding almost N50,000 a day to Abia youths from ¼ of a plot of land. In pursuit of the policy of our administration to develop 3 Poultry villages/clusters in the state, the Ministry has commenced work at site in Umunna Nsulu, IsialangwaNorthLGA. The Ministry of Agriculture has also developed a 2,500 capacity Ultra Modern layer farm at its Headquarters premises in Umuahia with a production capacity of between 20,000 to 24,000 crates of egg per cycle of 18 months. The State Government in collaboration with the Federal Government has also set up an Ultra Modern Poultry Processing Plant at UmuosuNsulu in Isiala Ngwa. Suffice it to say that Abia State has regained its place as the pre-eminent agricultural state in Nigeria.

EDUCATION

In the educational sector, we have in the last 2 years, concentrated on training and retraining of our teachers to equip them to be able to impart current knowledge to our pupils and students. We have since inception, partnered with the Precious Kids Education Empowerment Organization of Australia to bring our Primary Schools at par with modern trends. We have partnered with the organization to provide cognitive and IQ Training, computers, generator sets, toys and modern learning tools for the use of our primary school pupils. We also embarked on a School-feeding programme to provide one healthy meal for all our pupils and the programme has since been adopted by the Federal Government. It is my promise to you today that with all the work we are putting in, no Abia pupil will sit on the floor to study again.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Within the period under review, we ramped up our MadeInAba Campaign to great gain. It gives me pleasure to announce to you that our sustained advocacy for the patronage of goods made in Abia State has led to inflow of over N1.5 Billion directly to our SMEs in the last 1 year. The Nigerian Army placed orders for 50,000 Boots to be produced in Aba and since then, we have not looked back. Recently, Ford Foundation unveiled a documentary it sponsored to showcase goods produced in Aba and the campaign is airing on CNN and other International and Local Stations at no cost to the State Government. We have taken the campaign to the next level which is MakeInAba to encourage the establishment of factories and industries in Abia State.

Recently, I was in China on an investment trip and while there, I met with manufacturers of different products from shoes to garments to ceramics to electrical fittings and ICT gadgets.

A week after my return from China, the investors we met while there started coming to Abia State to conclude the discussions and identify land for setting up their factories. In the next couple of weeks, 100 Abia youths will be going to China for 1 year to understudy mechanized shoe production. These crop of young Abians will be the fulcrum upon which we will launch our leap into mechanized production in Abia State.

EASE OF DOING BUSINESS

In our determination to ensure that businesses thrive in Abia State, we have built a One-Stop-Shop in Umuahia for Investment promotion in Abia State. The aim is to ensure that within 2 weeks of coming into Abia State, investors are able to acquire all the documentation they require to commence business. This initiative will accelerate businesses in Abia State and create employment for our teeming youths.

Beloved Abians, time will not permit me to outline all we have done. In line with our policy of open governance and engagement with the people, I have directed my media team to immediately release a detailed version of our activities within the period under review to the general public and we will welcome your feedbacks and inputs.

However, permit me to state that in all, what I will consider to be our greatest achievement is the fact that Abia has regained enormous respect in Nigeria. Nigeria can no longer ignore Abia State and Abians wherever they find themselves can now be proud to identify themselves as Abians.

Recently, the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbanjo signed 3 Executive Orders into Law with one specifically directing the compulsory patronage of local goods by Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies. I am proud to announce to you that Aba and Abia State is a direct beneficiary of that Presidential Order. The Nation has acknowledged our industry and enterprise and we should all be proud.

UNITY OF PURPOSE

As you all are aware, our state witnessed a long period of judicial interventions to determine the rightful occupant of the seat of governance in our dear State. It has pleased God to resolve all the disputes in my favour. Now that the disputes have been conclusively resolved and my mandate, supremely re-affirmed, it is my desire that we all move forward for the work ahead is enormous. I call on all hands to be on deck.

I wish to extend my heartfelt appreciation to Abians from all walks of life for standing strongly behind us throughout our travails. Your unalloyed support gave me the confidence to match resolutely on despite our challenges and I owe you a debt of gratitude.

I have extended invitations to all political leaders in Abia including those that contested the seat of Governorship with me at different courts to come and let us work together. My only desire is to see the development of Abia State and I welcome the input of all Abians.

Ndi Abia ndi nwem, much as I can confidently state that we have done a lot in the last 2 years, I will equally be the first to acknowledge that there is still a lot of work to be done in different areas. I am unhappy with the fact that although we are up to date in the payment of the salaries of civil servants in the state, many teachers and pensioners are still being owed. I wish to reaffirm my commitment to the welfare of workers and further pledge to find a lasting solution to the salary impasse within the next few months.

On a global scale, I want all Abians to be rest assured that every sector will feel the touch of our administration.We promise to use what God has done for us as a springboard to create wealth and better life for Ndi Abia. Unu ebela, Chi anyi din du.

I thank you all for listening. God bless Abia State.

Democracy Day: Ikpeazu extends invitation to Kalu, Otti, Nwosu, Ogah, others

The Governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has directed the Secretary to State Government, Dr Eme Okoro, to invite all Abians devoid of their political affiliation, to the 2017 democracy day celebration at Umuahia on May 29th 2017.Those invited include former Governors; Dr Orji Uzor Kalu and Senator Theodore Orji. Current and former members of the National Assembly and State House of Assembly from the state, Political leaders of all political parties in the state.

Also invited are all former Governorship aspirants in the state including; Dr Alex Otti, Dr Uche Ogah, Barr F N Nwosu and Chief Reagan Ufomba.

Other prominent Abians invited include former Deputy Governors, elder statesmen, serving and former ministers, former and serving commissioners, traditional rulers, members of the clergy and all former political aspirants of Abia origin, as well as stakeholders and captains of industry, and all women and youth groups.

It will be recalled that following his recent victory at the Supreme Court, Governor Ikpeazu called on all Abians to join hands with him to deliver "a state that our children will be proud of".

He also informed the people of the state that his doors are open to all Abians to bring ideas to the table that will ensure faster paced development for the state and called for unity among the people regardless of political tendency.

Enyinnaya Appolos

Chief Press Secretary to the Governor

26/05/2017

How We Are Transforming Abia State – Gov. Ikpeazu

In this interview with select journalists, the Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, speaks on the successes he has attained in office as well as the challenges he faces. He also weighs in on some national issues. CHIBUZO UKAIBE, was there for LEADERSHIP.

The speed at which Aba is going and the level of development is unprecedented. Since Sam Mbakwe left, no other person have done that. Why are you so passionate about Aba?

For us here in Abia, Aba brings memories that touch very soft nerves. From post war, there were issues that immediately after the war; it was difficult to rebuild all kinds of infrastructure and Aba incidentally was one of the few cities that accommodated everybody. Many of us have fond memories of Aba and that includes folks from outside Igbo land. Recently I listened to a radio program where a Yoruba man was making very strong case for Aba. He lived and grew up here just like my childhood friend Musa who was born and raised at Hospital road Aba. Musa does not know any other town than Aba and same applies to his children who are also here with us as Bona Fide Aba people.

Aba is everybody’s city because everything that happens in Aba affects people, not just from the South-east, but across Nigeria. My electioneering campaign focused on what can be done to rebuild Aba as an enabler for rebuilding Abia and even Igbo land. Aba, in terms of Geography, is strategically located at the confluence of South-east and South-south Nigeria, as it shares borders with Imo, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, and others. Therefore, whatever affects them, also affects Aba.

The flux between the cities and the commercial activity, the energy and power that Aba exudes has become a strong anchor or nectar for all kinds of development including with commerce and industry. Aba has at least 15 markets, which are sectionalized according to the needed items. If you want to drive development quickly, you can’t take away Aba, especially in Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.

Aba captured 3 of the 5 pillars of development of this administration, hence, the impossibility to ignore Aba.

The popular saying that if you get Aba right, you get Abia right is apt. More so, and actually the least important, is that I come from that environment, and I know the huge and enormous potentials it brings to bear on the development of not just Abia but of Nigeria. If we are thinking of getting out of recession, Aba must be the focus of Nigeria.

What has been your major challenge as the Governor of Abia state in the last two years?

Lack of belief. Paucity of what I call a prepared human capacity, brought  up and fully enabled for development. By that I mean those ready to catch the vision and run with it. It was a problem getting people to understand that the only way to get a solution to our problems and challenges is to do things differently.

Distractions from those who don’t understand or have proper diagnosis of the people and their real challenges were also challenging. Those folks misinform our people, manipulate and make our people gullible and they sometimes fall easy prey to their antics. Even without evidence of previous capacity to properly diagnose our challenges and proffer right solutions. I look forward to a day when everyone in our state is motivated towards a common agenda, a common good, and a common enterprise because I see government as an enterprise.

My government is not tailored to a particular agenda but holds a global vision and appeal for the survival and prosperity of our people.

 To what extent are you relating with Southeast governors to deal with marginalization of the Southeast?

For me as a person, the leadership of the Ebonyi State Governor, Engr Dave Umahi, as chairman of Southeast Governors Forum is a focused leadership. He is handling genuine issues around the marginalization of our people very well but quietly.

I personally have a strategy to battle the issues of marginalization by making myself indispensable. It is this attitude that we are trying to also transfer to our people. Work very hard, acquire as much good education as possible and innovate extensively to stay on top and make yourself indispensable wherever you find yourself.

 Given the state that the PDP is in now, what is the way forward for you and others in PDP?

The way forward is to try as much as possible to make your house good. If you have a dirty head, you don’t cut it off, you wash it.

Is Sheriff your leader?

The court’s pronouncement is what matters as regards Sheriff but I am waiting for the Supreme Court to speak.

In some states, governments make sure that federal roads leading to their cities are accessible, what are you doing about this, especially with regards to Aba? Secondly, where you distracted by the litigations and how do you feel now that it’s over?

We are doing all but one of the federal roads leading into Aba. We are doing Aba-Owerri Road, we have mobilized Setraco to fix Port Harcourt Road, and the other one is Aba- Ikot Ekpene Road which the federal government is to handle. We might have issues with the quality of the contractor handling it and the pace of work but we will give them the benefit of doubt.

But even if the federal government does not reconstruct  Ikot-Ekpene Road in a timely and qualitative manner, we are already constructing two alternative routes to Akwa Ibom from Aba. Just 7kms to Akwa Ibom because we know the area very well and our new roads are through virgin forests.

Port Harcourt Road is going to be done using concrete pavement. I don’t want people to forget that we pionerred Rigid pavement technology. As far as I know, Abia is also the only state with 3 grade A contractors working on her roads concurrently: Arab contractors, Setraco and the Chinese company handling the Osisioma flyover or interchange.

On distractions, I am somebody who does not want to wallow in self pity and I rather want to be judged as if nothing happened. If the devil wanted to distract me in any way, he failed woefully.

I don’t want the devil to get any glory. It is only to the glory of God. Besides, through it all I didn’t lose the faith of my people. Abians have faith in what we are doing and so I have every cause to glorify God.

How are you coping with recession? Also you are the only Governor in the Southeast in good terms with your predecessor. How are you managing the relationship?

Our response to recession is very simple; promote Made in Aba, local skills and agriculture. One of my greatest achievements is the promotion of Made in Aba across the globe.

As we speak, the Made in Aba logo has been officially launched.  Governments pay to be on CNN, but our case is different because an international organization that saw what we are doing, saw the need to promote it using CNN and others. This means that our artisans and their creativity are being promoted free of charge.

People argue about political correctness, instead of economic advantage. We are more focused on doing things that give economic advantage to our people as against being politically correct.

My predecessor respects me and I also respect him. He doesn’t struggle for space with me. He knows there can only be one governor at a time.

Because of this, I respect him, one as an elder, two as a senator, and three as a former Governor.

It is a relationship that is based on mutual respect and understanding.

You are two years, very soon, you will be talking about second term, what are we going to hold you on, if you get a second term?

Even in the midst of the supposed distraction, couldn’t I have found an easy alibi not to perform if I had wanted? Yet our people can judge us and see that we never stopped working and never gave them excuses because we were at all times focused on the things that are important to our people.

I will continue to do my best because there is need to serve my people with commitment. Things got to a point in the legal battles that I had to pray and ask God to genuinely search the minds of everyone contesting for the Abia Governor’s seat with me and let whoever loves Abia more than me win. God prevailed and used the Supreme Court to reaffirm us.

Igbo youths in particular are disenchanted with the present administration in Nigeria. What message of hope are you bringing to them? Some Fulani herdsmen still operate along the highways in your state, like your Ekiti counterpart, shouldn’t you have enacted a law to deal with it? And how have you been able to integrate non indigenes in Abia as we have noticed that Abia has the least record of conflict with Fulani herdsmen?

First, I recognize that there are more Abians in the North, than Ekiti. Whatever action I take must take cognizance of that fact. Abians also add value to wherever they are by employing youths from that place, building structures and generally living peacefully with others. I make bold to state that 60% of Nigerian youths working directly and indirectly through the private sector in Nigeria are employed through the efforts and contributions of our people. It is therefore natural for me to consider all angles in taking decisions. What if there is a reprisal for whatever action we take here, how will that affect our people living outside our state?

We believe in ensuring the safety of our visitors against all odds. So what we did was to create conflict resolution committees at the local government level, after a critical study of the areas the herders live and visit. We have 2-3 layers of conflict resolution.

But the major problem with the conflicts is the inability or lack of understanding of local sentiments and the idiosyncrasies of the Hausa/Fulani man, which I understand because I lived in the north for 7 years. Our conflict resolution approach is tailored to use this knowledge and solve real and potential conflicts.

On youth agitation, it is very unfortunate that a part of the nation feels the need to agitate for fairness and equity within the federation. Social mobilization is very important and even more important than infrastructure. We have not mobilized Nigerians from the centre socially and that is where our leaders have failed.

Every leader should be a vendor of hope. My strategy in Abia is to focus the minds of our youths on hard work and creativity. We are sending 100 people to China for one year to learn how to make shoes. Not because we are not good, but we need to add some icing on our cake. We are using the China Model of technology transfer and standardization of export products. Criminality in Nigeria is occasioned by too much energy and creativity in the youths not finding positive outlets. Let us get it right at the Centre through fairness and equity as well as providing positive outlets for the massive energy of our youths.

What is your take on the recently signed executive orders by the presidency?

I commend the presidency for that. It is very encouraging to our efforts. It is what we have been expecting them to do. But whatever they say or do, it is not complete, until it affects rice, baked beans, salad cream and other imported products that we are consuming daily in Nigeria.

I am looking forward to a time when they will stop serving imported rice, baked beans etc at the FEC meetings and other events around the villa. Since I became Governor I have been eating local rice and wearing made in Aba clothes to support our people.

 In the past years, we saw how well Abia performed in WAEC especially those in Public schools, what are you doing in the area of education to ensure that Abia remains in the forefront? On attracting investors, what kind of incentives are you giving? Also Abia has allegedly been the bedrock of kidnappers, though it has been controlled recently, but somehow pockets of criminality are raising its heads again, what are you doing to sustain a safe environment where business can thrive?

Our strategy to develop education is through taking cognizance of our foundational issues.

The problem of education, not only in Abia but Nigeria, is the quality and morale of our primary school teachers. Early child education is as important as tertiary education, if not more important.

We are partnering with Australian school teachers to go to our schools and help in developing our learning environment, information Communication Technology, classroom management, first aid and how to manage children. They will train our teachers who in turn will become trainers for others.

We want to ensure that at primary 3, a pupil is able to confidently operate the computer efficiently.

We would model primary schools to achieve this, as well as embark on advanced teachers training which Is critical to educational capacity building.

In the next 12 months, there is going to be a revolution in Abia education sector. Our idea of model schools will spring up across the geopolitical zones of the state and the Australians will return to continue the work they are partnering with us to do.

On incentives for investors, the Abia investment House, which is private sector driven, is for ease of doing business in Abia. It will help investors get all they need to operate in Abia in at most two weeks.

I have the bulk C of O of 9,000 hectares of land, which any interested investor can get in 2 hours, if he’s interested in as much plots of land as possible. We are ready to give the lands to those who show seriousness in investing in Abia.

The present unitary political system in Nigeria is it sustainable?

1. In the first instance, there should not be any “federal roads”, because there are no federal citizens. Let the funds for fixing of so called federal roads be given to state governments with monitoring by the relevant federal agency or ministry. Most of what the federal government is doing should be done by the state governments while the federal government concentrate on generating and monitoring guiding policies

What do you think about the clamour for restructuring of Nigeria?

I would say that question has largely been captured in my interaction with you here and whatever I said is my opinion.

But I believe we should start spending time on the way forward in Nigeria, instead of federal government spending too much time on money appropriation. Recession is a huge opportunity and we are yet to fully tap the opportunities presented to us by this recession. For instance, without  recession we won’t be working so hard on Made in Aba, increased agricultural production with over 40,000 palm seedlings and a mushroom industry that can guarantee a minimum of N70,000 daily to an Abia youth. Nigeria needs to tap into the prevailing recession instead of focusing on huge appropriations and issues around sharing of money. If the federal government is serious with tapping into the opportunities presented by this recession they should look towards Aba and focus on using Aba as the model to bring out the best in Nigerians.