Nigeria Today! Mugabe, Aviation Industry Probe, Others In News

PRESIDENT MUGABE NOT DEAD – PRESIDENCY

The Zimbabwe government on Thursday denied reports that veteran President Robert Mugabe, 91, had collapsed and died in Singapore after rumours spread rapidly about his alleged ill health.

Under the headline “President well, fine”, the state-run Herald newspaper said stories about Mugabe’s health emerged each year when he took his annual leave outside the country.

“You cannot doubt that there will be a story on the President’s alleged death every January,” presidential spokesman George Charamba told the paper.

Charamba blamed the ZimEye news website for starting the rumours. “This is the way the website seeks to improve its hits in order to get dirty money… There is a financial incentive to the grim lie,” he added.

The Herald said that Mugabe was in the “Far East” but did not specify which country. The president, who is the world’s oldest national leader, has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.

Despite his age, he continues to give long speeches in public, but speculation over his health mounted last year when he tripped and fell down some steps at a televised ceremony.

He also read a speech to parliament in September apparently unaware that he had delivered the same address a month earlier. WikiLeaks in 2011 released a 2008 US diplomatic cable saying that Mugabe was reported to have prostate cancer and had less than five years to live.

His regime is accused of systematic human rights abuses and overseeing Zimbabwe’s dire economic decline.

The ruling ZANU-PF party has been riven by factionalism for years with Mugabe avoiding naming a successor. Senior Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is seen as one front-runner to be the next president.

SENATE SEEKS PROBE OF $40M LOAN TO AVIATION INDUSTRY

The Senate has mandated its committees on aviation and anti-corruption to commence investigation into alleged disbursement of 40 million dollars ($40m) loan for rehabilitation and development of infrastructure in the aviation industry.

The mandate is part of a 15-point recommendation adopted while considering report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Aviation on the poor state of the aviation industry in Nigeria.

The report was presented by the Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso (APC Kano Central).

The committees were also mandated to probe a N33.55 billion alleged to have been released by the Federal Government in 2011 for the same purpose.

The upper chamber further called on the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) to stop the collection of navigational charges on all training aircraft in the country.

It also recommended that only qualified and properly trained personnel should be employed, in view of the delicate nature of the aviation industry, while capacity building should be given priority.

FG DEPLOYS BVN TO TRACK GHOST WORKERS - ADEOSUN

Federal Government yesterday said it had successfully completed a pilot programme which uses Bank Verification Number, BVN, details to check for ghost workers and identify duplicate and other irregular entries on the payroll.

A statement issued by the Director of Press, Federal Ministry of Finance, Marshall Gundu, indicated that the pilot project was initiated as a solution to the slow pace of progress being encountered in the enrollment of employees on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS)



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