FIFA suspends World Cup bid evaluation officials

The FIFA official who picked the sites for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup games is suspended from all football-related activities for seven years. The world football governing body said on Monday that this followed a FIFA Ethics Committee internal hearing.
“The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, has decided to ban Harold Mayne-Nicholls.
“He is banned from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international levels for a period of seven years,’’ it said in a statement.
Mayne-Nicholls is the former chairman of the Bid Evaluation Group for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups and a former president of the Chilean Football Association.
FIFA did not release any details of the decision, quoting a confidentiality clause in its Code of Ethics.
The football body is facing corruption probes by investigators in the U.S. and Switzerland, where the organisation is based.
On Thursday, the U.S. filed formal requests to extradite seven FIFA officials detained on U.S. bribery charges in Switzerland.
The group of mostly Latin American officials were arrested in Zurich in May on suspicion that they took over 100 million dollars of bribes.
It added that the bribes were in return for the award of media, marketing and sponsoring rights for football tournaments in the U.S. and Latin America.
Swiss prosecutors were also investigating accusations of foul play in the selection of Russia and Qatar as the venues for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Jonathan and Okonjo-Iweala mismanaged ECA funds- FRC Boss.

Raymond Omachi, the acting chairman of Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) has stated that the past administration led by Goodluck Jonathan and its Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala mismanaged funds in the Excess Crude Account (ECA).

Although Omachi did not mention names, he frowned at the practice of the federal government to pay subsidy from the ECA or to share to states from the ECA when available funds are not adequate to meet revenue projections.
He said that the ECA was established in 2004 to protect planned budget against shortfalls due to volatile crude oil prices, but that was not how the funds from the account were spent today.
“If the ECA had been properly managed, in accordance with the FRC act, the country will not have been embroiled in the liquidity crisis being presently experienced,” he said on Sunday in Abuja during an interactive session with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Omachi said that the FRC Act stated that savings from the ECA should not be accessed until oil price falls below the predetermined level for a period of three consecutive months.
He said that the sum accessed should be limited to the amount that would bring the revenue of government to the level contained in its budget estimates.
Omachi, supported by the commission’s management team, said also that the other acceptable withdrawal from the ECA was to fund capital projects.
He said that over the years, the commission had noticed withdrawal that was contrary to this and had raised alarm severally at the way the ECA was being brazenly depleted.
“In essence, the non-compliance with the relevant sections of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, is the cause of the financial management problem being experienced by the country in the light of the sliding oil price.
“If the account had been intact, the effect of declining oil price will have been accommodated with the ECA buffer to finance the budget,” he said.
Hajiya Maryam Mohammed, the Commission’s Head, Planning, Research and Statistics, said there was need for synergy between the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget Office, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and FRC.
Mohammed said that this would enable efficient monitoring and control of all revenue generation and expenditure in the country.
She said that it was lack of synergy that has created loopholes where revenue generating agencies practice creative accounting in order to short-change the government.
Speaking, the Head, Monitoring and Evaluation, FRC, Mr Ola Tijanni, said the recommendation of the Orunsaya report and the White Paper approval to scrap FRC was hampering the work of the commission.
“The FRC has been monitoring schedule corporations in the area of preparation of MTEF, rendition of audited accounts and payment of 80 per cent of their operating surplus to the government consolidated revenue fund.
“In 2013, due to acceptance of government to scrap the FRC, remittances of operating surplus rather than increase, dropped drastically as most agencies are no longer disposed to cooperating with the FRC.
“In light of the foregoing, we make bold to suggest that rather than being scrapped, the FRC should be strengthened and empowered to diligently enforce the provision of the FRC Act,” he said.
It would be recalled that Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna state also stated that the ECA was created by the government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for the ‘rainy days’.
Sahara reporters.

Nigerian Military Releases 182 Boko Haram Prisoners In Maiduguri

Army Spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel SK Usman, told SaharaReporters that the “joint intelligence community investigated and authorized” the release of these prisoners. He added that the release was part of Nigeria’s National Army Day, which was held on July 6th to commemorate the first shots of Nigeria’s Civil War at Garaken, Cross Rivers State.

SaharaReporters has confirmed that the Nigerian Army has released 182 prisoners from Maimalari Barracks in Maiduguri, Borno State. These prisoners were detained because of their suspected ties to Boko Haram and were reportedly released to the Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima.

SaharaReporters confirmed that 40 boys, 24 women, and 18 children were among those released today. About 100 adult men were also released.
Army Spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel SK Usman, told SaharaReporters that the “joint intelligence community investigated and authorized” the release of these prisoners. He added that the release was part of Nigeria’s National Army Day, which was held on July 6th to commemorate the first shots of Nigeria’s Civil War at Garaken, Cross Rivers State.
In addition to the prisoner release, Lt. Colonel Usman said that the Army was celebrating the opening of a new military center, providing two days of free medical treatment for Borno State residents, and awarding Purple Heart medals to soldiers injured during the Boko Haram fight. All these events were tied to Nigeria’s National Army Day.
Lt. Colonel Usman told SaharaReporters that he was not in a position to discuss high-level policy decisions, including Amnesty Programs or whether negotiations with Boko Haram were underway.
Last week President Buhari announced that his administration would be willing to negotiate with Boko Haram but “not from a position of weakness.” It has also been reported by SaharaReporters that Boko Haram has publicly stated that it would not engage in talks with the Nigerian government while some of its members were detained.

BOKO HARAM AND NIGERIAN MILITARY IN DEEP BATTLE

Sources near Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, have told SaharaReporters that members of the Nigerian armed forces have been involved in firefights with Boko Haram terrorists today.

Multiple sources have told our SaharaReporters correspondent that Boko Haram has lost numerous fighters during the latest battles, though no reliable figure of the death toll have been provided.
SaharaReporters has also learned that some Nigerian soldiers have lost their lives during the fight, but the number of soldier deaths is also unknown and could not be verified by any official military source.
Terrorist attacks from Boko Haram have intensified this week in Borno State. It was learned that no less than 140 people were massacred yesterday in a remote village about 150 kilometers away from Maiduguri.
Sahara reporters

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