Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has explained why three oil blocks were assigned to Nigerian Petroleum Develop-ment Company (NPDC), the oil exploration and production arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Denying reports that the oil mining licences – OMLs 4, 38, and 41 – were improperly and illegally assigned to international oil and gas company, Seven Energy International Limited, through its Nigerian subsidiary Septa Energy Nigeria Limited, without open bidding, she said the facts of the matter have been jumbled up “as no sale of oil blocks took place at all”.

Ahmed Al-Gazali, chairman Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), delivered a stark warning to the federal government and policy makers on the implication of maintaining a bloated federal government with its over 400 parastatals, saying the agencies are problematic and a major source of waste of public funds.

Al-Gazali gave the warning yesterday in Abuja during the Commission’s workshop on introducing performance contract in the Nigerian civil service with a theme: “Repositioning the Nigerian Civil Service for Service Delivery.”

Emerging from a closed-door meeting between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) on the drive to ‘restore sanity’ in the supply and distribution of kerosene nationwide, Austeen Oniwon, the group managing director (GMD) of NNPC, has admitted to a distribution lax.

Oniwon said, “We believe that we had a distribution network problem which we are going to address and a supply problem which we have addressed. We observe that some of the kerosene that we send to the affiliates does not get to consumers as we wanted it to be.”

Some of the students came with mattresses to the gate of the institution to sleep, indicating that they would not open it for any worker or the management until the problem is resolved, threatening to “wage war” if the government does not   intervene.

Officers of the State Security Service (SSS) who came to address the issue were denied access to the school while those who gained access were not given audience because the students referred to them as bankers and not SSS. “If truly they are SSS operatives, let them address us before the media,” the students said.  Also during the protest, the students lamented that the Federal Government had neglected them, adding that if it had intervened from the beginning of the crisis, it wouldn’t have lingered on.

“Is the management bigger than the Federal Government? Is ASUP bigger than the Federal Government? So if the Federal Government believes in the transformation they have been talking about, let them intervene with immediate effect, else, there will be war in Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna State and Nigeria,” they said.  Placards with different inscriptions which include: “When two elephants fight, the grass suffers”, “Enough is enough, we want the school opened”, “President Jonathan should prevail on management and union to make peace for the best interest, else...”, “The idle mind is the devil’s workshop,” were displayed by the students who kept shouting, “We want the school opened, we are tired of staying at home.”

Speaking on behalf of the students, the Vice President, Students Union Government (SUG) of the College of Science and Technology (CST) in the polytechnic, Comrade Ibrahim Omotosho, said the management and ASUP were playing with their future.

According to him, over 45,000 students of the institution have been on strike for about six months now, and many of the students died in the post-election crisis while some could not go for their national youth service due to the strike.

“We have refused to engage in any form of riot or protest since the crisis started in January because we know our school is located in a volatile area, so that some people outside the school will not hijack the situation and take it as an opportunity to cause chaos in the state and that was why we called on the students to maintain absolute decorum but now our silence has been taken for granted,” he stressed.

According to him, they had met with several authorities including Kaduna State SSS, Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, management of the polytechnic and ASUP.

“We told them we are not going back on our action until they resume work”, he said.  He added that they were told that without the white paper, they cannot resume academic activities.

“We don’t know why government is delaying the white paper, we have given them a 48-hour ultimatum after which we will block not only the entrances but all roads that lead to Kaduna Polytechnic because we have exercised enough patience,” he said.

He appealed to President Goodlusck Jonathan to start the transformation he promised from Kaduna Polytechnic by ordering ASUP and the school management to come to a consensus and go back to work with immediate effect.

Addressing the students outside the school gate, the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) Alhaji Masud Adamu Kazaure accompanied by the Director, Academic Planning, Kaduna Polytechnic, Ambassador M.J. Mohammed, commended the students for their patience and urged them to continue to be patient.

He said he had spoken with the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, saying he promised to get across to him before the end of yesterday.

He assured the students that something would be done before the end of yesterday.

A source told our reporter that Senate President David Mark while revealing details of allowances to senators during closed session, said they are to be paid about N11 million for housing, car monetisation and furniture allowance. This is against about N18.5 million which was paid to senators of the Sixth Senate.

Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Hafiz Ringim yesterday solicited for a special security arrangement for Lagos State.

He also handed-over six gunboats to the Police Command to strenghten security in the coastal areas.

Handing over the boats to Governor Babatunde Fashola and Commissioner of Police Yakubu Alkali at the Marine Police Headquarters in Ikoyi, Lagos, Ringim said the gesture was in recognition of the special place of Lagos as the nation’s commercial centre and its huge population.

President Goodluck Jonathan and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon yesterday called for a global action against the spread of HIV/AIDS.

They spoke at the UN headquarters in New York during a Security Council meeting on the scourge.

Jonathan, who pledged Nigeria’s unalloyed support to a multilateral action in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS, warned of the danger of the world failing to take action.

Following moves to ensure that the country becomes a cashless economy from June 2012, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday outlined the measures it has adopted to implement the policy.

The apex bank said it intends to begin the implementation process in Lagos State from December this year, before it spreads to other parts of the country.