 On breakfast this morning, a new piece of infrastructure in Nigeria's oil industry has been described as the end of oil theft in the country. How true is this? And Nigeria's Inspector General Police has summoned police chiefs across the country over national security threats. Also, the Senate yesterday met with the nation's security chiefs, led by the chief of defense staff. Over the security situation in the country, we'll discuss the state of the nation's security today on the breakfast. Izzyklinga took joining us later to provide in-depth analysis of the nation's other day's new super headlines. You're welcome to the breakfast right here on Plus TV Africa. My name is Kofi Bertels. What's a beautiful Thursday morning? We're reaching you live from our studios in Victoria Island, Lagos. Let's get into the thick of things. As usual, we start off with a look at the top training stories in Nigeria and around the world and interesting ones making the rounds. And of course, a lot of conversation being generated on the social space. I'll just flip through my screen here and we can see there's a lot of conversation going on regarding these stories. But let's start this morning by looking at the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, LIRS, which revealed that it's set to launch a whistleblower initiative on the 5th of August. That's tomorrow, all right, just in under 24 hours' time, over 24 hours' time. You can see on your screen there the head of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service. So this initiative is set to be a statewide project introduced to provide a platform for employees, stakeholders and general public to report any observation of observed violation, misconduct or an ethical behavior across the state in a statement by the head of corporate communications. That's what he said. The launch of this whistleblower initiative by the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service will take place somewhere in Ikeja. Let's not get that information out yet because I don't want to advertise the location. But anyway, the statement quoted a public notice signed by the LIRS Executive Chairman, Ayodele Subair wherein he said that the whistleblower initiative is a public policy of the state government to encourage reporting of illegal actions or financial crimes through the appropriate channel with a view to correcting the violations or non-compliance. So it's simply for people to report. We've had a whistleblower initiative of the federal government in the past and this one, it seems like it's a state initiative not far from what the federal government has but they are deploying technology to help. So you can go to the website and say, oh, this person stole this money, that money, et cetera, et cetera. I think it's an interesting one coming from the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service. So this is what the statements the LIRS boss said in the statement. He says the objective of the whistleblower initiative is to guarantee rather transparency, accountability and confidentiality to all taxpayers and stakeholders in general. The policy he said is designed to protect whistleblowers from victimization and to encourage them to freely report without fear. All right, I think it's just a straightforward story. There's nothing much to say here. Let's see how it plays out when it's launched. And of course, let's see what this will yield. All right, you can see here saying it should help fight fraud, waste of abuse. So I do remember that, and if you recollect, the federal government when it launched his own whistleblower initiative had some sort of incentive for those who would be reporting those involved in theft, financial crimes, let's call it that, to the government. You remember the popular Iqoi building? Money. I don't know. Where is that money? You remember that money? Where is the money? I'm asking one of my colleagues here in the studio. That money was found in one of the buildings in Iqoi, and they kept asking the owner of the money to call somebody blue, the whistle, you know, millions of, billions of Nair, US dollars, you know, crisp green notes. And till date, the owner hasn't come out to claim that money. And then an agency of the federal government in DSS said it's their money. And they're using it for investigation, you know? Now cruise the deal for this country, my brother and my sister. So hopefully we might see something like that in legal state, you know? But, you know, those in government, as usual, Nigerians would point at the authorities. Those politicians, who are your bosses? Are you waiting for us to tell you what they've done? Are you waiting for us to say, oh, don't you know? I mean, there are long-standing allegations and rumors, let's call it that, of the happenings in terms of the revenue generation in legal state. And some people who are commenting on this have said, you know what? If this is LIRS, they should tell us how revenue or where the money generated from A, B, C, D, E activity that goes through company A, how that money is shared. Maybe that's where the whistleblowers should start from. All right, let's go, let's leave that, let's leave that, let's leave that at that, that, okay? And you can make of that what you will. Let's go on to another top trending story. If you want to call it that, former president Lucia Gorbas and Jay yesterday has been speaking. You know, there was the era of the former president, Lucia Gorbas, Matthew Arremu, Oki Kiola, or Basangio. He had his time where he wrote a lot of letters. You remember, when Jonathan was president, he used to write so many letters. These days he's not writing as much as he's making statements. I think he's had a change of style. But he seems to find his voice a lot more when it's inching towards election or in the period leading to general elections. And he's found his voice again in recent time. This time, yesterday, he had his views on the cost of diesel in the country. The cost of diesel, believe it or not. And Lucia Gorbas and Jay, his excellency, lamented the high cost of diesel. He wasn't too happy and he lamented the high cost of diesel, saying that it's affecting his business. Kind of like how Tony Lumilu had to come out and rant on Twitter how the economy was not going well and the cost of fuel and diesel was also affecting businesses in the country. They say the rich also cry. You're asking what business is Obasangio talking about? Well, if you don't know, Obasangio is a farmer. He's a fish farmer. He has a lot of farms. I've heard of Obasangio farms. Let's not go into the details of how it started. But Obasangio, who is a fish farmer, said he has been sweating because of the high cost of diesel. This is a former president of Nigeria. He's a rich man. He's a rich man. He says he's sweating because of the cost of diesel. Then how will those who are not as wealthy as he is cope? He spoke yesterday in Nabilkota, Oregon State, during the Southwest Fish Farmers Congress held at the Luisegou Obasangio Presidential Library. This is what he said. He noted that the rising cost of diesel, as well as a constant increase in the price of fish, fish feed would eventually run Nigerian fish farmers out of business, except they come together to agree on sustainable prices or prices that could be adopted to keep them in business. It's not just the issue of the cost of diesel. It's also complaining of the cost of fish feed. This issue of feed is a big problem because sometimes the things are imported, I guess, because when the dollar goes up, you have these things also going up. Those who are raising chickens, the poultry farmers in the country, have for some years, now a few years now complained about the increasing cost of chicken feed. It's interesting to see the former president also inform us that the fish farmers are also having a tough time purchasing feed for their fish, the schools of fish. How are we going to cope? If the fish farmers are finding it difficult to... The fish feed issue is a problem. I spoke to a fish farmer who is a member of the House of Representatives, so it is another rich man who was complaining about how much it costs him... This was last year, complaining about how much it costs him to buy feed for the fish. These fish, they eat like, I don't know what to call it, like Rotoila. You have to feed them a number of times in a day from what I observed. And you have to run the generating sets to pump the water out of the tanks and to pump water in. So these are the challenges. It's been a while since I heard from the minister of agriculture. I do not know if they are still there. If I were to ask you what's the name of the minister of agriculture, would you be able to tell me immediately? I remember when Akumia Adishina, who is now the president of the African Development Bank, the AFDB, was in the federal government, the cabinet, and he was minister. If I asked you who occupied the role, he held you easily and quickly. So the man who wears the bow tie, Akumia Adishina, well, these days, we do not hear too much. I mean, of course, we heard of rice, rice pyramids, we heard of rice. But that rice matter, let's not go there. Let's not go there at all, because if we go there, we won't finish this program today. But I don't hear from the minister. Do you know who the minister of agriculture is in this country? Any minister whose name you can't remember if you watch the news always, then it means there's a problem. If I ask you for the name, chances I have asked you for the name of the minister of finance, you would tell me Zainab, all right? You would tell me Zainab, amen. But if I asked you for the name of the minister of justice, you would tell me the name of the minister of justice. Minister of agriculture, I don't know if you can tell me. This is not a scientific way of really determining if they are doing their job or not. But it's just a psychological thing, all right? Anyway, so O'Barson Joe said that with the current price of diesel at 800 Naira per liter, production of a kilogram, 1 kg of fish is 1,400 Naira. He says in order to make very marginal profit, the farmers can't sell for less than 1,500 Naira. He says anything less than 1,500 is outright loss for them. Imagine the farmers now making only 100 Naira, which does not amount to a... Can you even buy a giga bread with 100 Naira? He says you can't. Would they want to make just 100 Naira from 1 kg of fish? I don't know. So these are the issues. What's the government doing to cushion the shock of the price of the diesel or cost of diesel on the agricultural sector on those who are running poultry farms and those who are running fish farms? Just as we're talking about government intervention to help the aviation industry, just as we're talking about government intervention to make sure that road transportation is smooth. Is it in infrastructure? Is it in ensuring security and safety on the roads? All these things are important for government to look at. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that much is happening. Well, we pray for the best. We hope that something will be done in the not-to-decent future to help fish farmers, the likes of Uluseko Basinger, who is the former president of Nigeria. All right, let's go on to some other stories. This time the gentleman who was arrested when he went to defend his client in court and detained and sentenced to one month in prison by the judge in that matter at this time, the chief justice or the chief judge of Aquabomb State, the chief justice of Aquabomb State, Milord Derebo Justice, Ikaito Boat, happened to be, or happened to be sitting on a matter that involved the governor of Aquabomb State who appointed him. I'm not saying that is, that's not to say that is a conflict of interest, but I'm, in Ibef Young is the name of the lawyer. He's a human rights lawyer, a prominent one, young man here in Lagos. He went into Aquabomb State to defend Liu Ekpe Young. Liu Ekpe Young was taken to court by the governor of Aquabomb State over some remarks or some things he said about the governor. And of course, it's a huge amount of money he's meant to pay as damages if he's found guilty. It's not been too smooth between the judge and the Ibef Young. From the first day of this case when the judge told him that he's not on channel TV so he should keep quiet. Now that is in Aquabomb Broadcasting Corporation so he should mind how he talks and that he is not the one to tell her how to do her job. She has a lot of experience in the bar, in the bench rather as a judge. The second time they had a hearing, the man went to court on this case. This same judge threatened to throw him in jail for one month and then the next time the last time they went she fulfilled her promise by throwing him to jail not just that ejected the reporter of premium times. I think one of few news reporters or few media organizations nationally followed who've been covering this story and given us a truth as far as this is concerned she ejected the premium times reporter from the court before she gave the lawyer his sentence and the the policeman detained you know detained this premium times reporter for some hours he was released later that day. Now after perfecting the ejection of this reporter from the court she proceeded to order that the policeman derobed this lawyer, remove his wig and gown and arrest him, sentence him to one month in prison for what we're not told. I mean since the reporter was not there even the full details of or details of what this judge said in the matter. One of the things that the lawyer had raised, the points he raised was that there was an application before this recent trial date there was an application for the the chief judge of Aquabomb State and the trial judge my Lord the Honourable Justice Iqaito but to recuse herself from this case and she had not responded to that application but she resumed to judge on the matter in court by giving an indication that she refused to recuse herself on this case. Now when applications for recusal are made these applications go to the desk of Gesu the chief judge of the state. The chief judge of the state even for in terms of an assignment of case files of cases to different judges of the Aquabomb State High Court it is this same woman the chief judge of Aquabomb State from what I gather is the practice in the judiciary and so it means that she assigned the case to herself excuse me the case that involves the governor who appointed her just as to put it simply of course is a long procedure between the state High Court assembly the state judicial service the National Judicial Service Commission and the state governor but just to put it simply the man who appointed her so she assigned this case to herself and then when an application for recusal was made because the defendant questioned the integrity of the judge in this matter she refused to to back down did not reply them but returned to court invariably saying that she's not backing down so that's that and the judge the lawyer raised some concerns about this in court he also raised concerns about the presence of armed policemen in the court room you know and said he wasn't comfortable with them I'm sure we'll be fearing that the judge is about to carry out her earlier threat to arrest him and throw him in jail for for one month then I think these things maybe annoyed the judge further or I don't know but I think she had already made up her mind to arrest him because she had said it before now so in the world through social media that he had been sentenced to one month in prison we don't know what his crime was because there was no reporter that I've seen was was in court to cover this why was the premium times reporter ejected from the court and arrested and detained just before Iniba Efeon was sentenced to one month in prison I mean the man identified himself as a reporter who had his right to be in court since it was public to attend but the judge said no the judge said no the journalist should go out and he was arrested and detained for hours before being released why? just before you sentenced an individual the journalist who's been writing on this story since it began what did he do he you know because we're not we're not told that he did anything you know was he was he a strange facing court and arrested by himself so why was he arrested was he detained okay if you eject someone from court you let them go why was he detained till for hours till the sentence was carried out and everything why? it's the questions that need to be answered because for me apart from the fact that Iniba was sentenced to prison for one month you know without explanation that we know the fact that one of the times was ejected from the court and arrested and detained for hours before being let go is something that we need to know why we need to get some information as to why anyway the Nigeriba Association is threatened finally to petition the NJC that's the National Judicial Council I'm sure the NJC must be tired of you know issues and cases involving the integrity and the performance and conduct of judges I'm sure they must be tired by now because I personally as a journalist have lost count but the Nigeriba Association has finally woken up to its responsibility by threatening to petition the National Judicial Council to sanction the Chief Judge of Aquabomb State over her sentencing of this human rights lawyer Iniba F. Young to one month's imprisonment we hear that the judge refused to release the gentleman the gentleman lawyer so that's that but what the NBA is saying is that they conduct an investigation of the matter and they think they are citing you know denial of fair hearing about a judge in sending Mr. F. Young to prison that's what they're saying we'll keep monitoring this story we'll keep following it and we'll see where it leads us to by what the NBA is saying maybe they're trying to insinuate that there's some sort of judicial high-handedness in this case is that what the NBA is saying we don't know we don't know but this is what they said quote this on its face runs file of any known practice and procedure in such cases and it's also unconstitutional that's what we have in the country today alright my name is Kofi Patel we'll be right back here with more on the breakfast that the NBA took joins us and we'll talk about some of its issues with him please stay with us