Author: Lawal AbdulSalam Olawale

INEC Fixes Re-Run, Bye-Elections For February 2024

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has approved a timetable for conducting bye-elections resulting from the resignation or demise of members of the National and State Houses of Assembly.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has approved a timetable for conducting bye-elections resulting from the resignation or demise of members of the National and State Houses of Assembly.

The electoral empire in a statement on Friday said both categories of elections are scheduled to take place simultaneously in all affected constituencies on Saturday, February 3, 2024.

The vacancies were declared by the Presiding Officers, the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Speakers of State Houses of Assembly, according to INEC.

It stated that the vacancies occurred across two Senatorial Districts, four Federal Constituencies, and three State Constituencies spanning nine States of the Federation.

Furthermore, the Commission is conducting re-run elections stemming from the 2023 General Election, as directed by various Election Petition Appeal Tribunals. Currently, 35 Constituencies are affected by these Court-ordered elections. While three cover entire constituencies, others involve only a few Polling Units,” the statement said.

It added that “the Timetable for the elections, along with detailed delimitation data (i.e. registration areas, polling unit names, the number of registered voters and PVCs collected), has been uploaded to our website and social media platforms as a guide to political parties and candidates, and for public information.

The Commission urged parties and candidates to strictly adhere to the specified timelines for the seamless conduct of these elections.

December 23, 2023
CBN lifts ban on cryptocurrency transactions

The Central Bank of Nigeria has changed its stance on crypto assets in the country and asked banks to disregard its earlier ban on crypto transactions.

This is according to a circular dated December 22, 2023, with reference number FPR/DIR/PUB/CIR/002/003, and signed by the apex bank’s Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Haruna Mustafa.

The circular is titled ‘Circular to all Banks and other Financial Institutions Guidelines on Operations of Bank Accounts for Virtual Assets Service Providers (VASPS).’

The apex bank stated that current trends globally have shown the need for crypto regulation.

It said, “The CBN, in February 2021 issued a circular restricting banks and other financial institutions from operating accounts for cryptocurrency service providers in view of the money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) risks and vulnerabilities inherent in their operations as well as the absence of regulations and consumer protection measures.

“However, current trends globally have shown that there is a need to regulate the activities of virtual assets service providers (VASPs) which include cryptocurrencies and crypto assets. Following this development, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 2018 also updated its Recommendation 15 to require VASPS to be regulated to prevent misuse of virtual assets for ML/TF/PF.

“Furthermore, Section 30 of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 recognises VASPs as part of the definition of a financial institution.

In addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission in May 2022 issued Rules on Issuance, Offering and Custody of Digital Assets and VASPs to provide a regulatory framework for their operations in Nigeria.

“In view of the foregoing, the CBN hereby issues this guideline to provide guidance to financial institutions under its regulatory purview in respect of their banking relationship with VASPs in Nigeria. “

The apex bank noted that this new guideline supersedes its old ones referenced FPR/DIR/GEN/CIR/06/010 of January 12, 2017, and BSD/DIR/PUB/LAB/014/001 of February 5, 2021 on the subject.

It also affirmed that banks and other financial institutions are still prohibited from holding, trading and/or transacting in virtual currencies on their own account.

It added all banks and other financial institutions are required to immediately comply with its new guideline.

In its circular with reference number BSD/DIR/PUB/LAB/014/001, dated February 5, 2021, the apex bank reminded banks that dealing in crypto currencies or facilitating payments for cryptocurrency exchanges was prohibited.

At the time, it asked banks to identify persons or entities transacting in or operating crypto currency exchanges within their systems and ensure that their accounts were closed.

December 23, 2023
FG declares holidays to mark Christmas, New Year celebrations

The Federal Government has declared holidays to mark the Christmas, New Year celebrations.

The Federal Government declared Monday, and Tuesday, December, 25 and 26 2023, and Monday, January 1, 2024, as public holidays to mark Christmas and New Year’s Day celebrations, respectively.

The Hon. Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo made the declaration on behalf of the Federal Government on Friday.

The Minister also felicitated with Christians and all Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora on this occasion.

Dr Tunji-Ojo enjoined Christians to emulate the life of Jesus Christ in his practice and teachings of humility, service, compassion, and patience.

He stressed that peace and security are critical prerequisites for economic development and prosperity.

The minister assured that the Federal Government under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will continue to put in place effective measures for the security of lives and property.

He urged Nigerians to be security conscious, and report any suspicious persons or activities to the nearest security agencies.

Tunji-Ojo noted that the Yuletide season calls for discipline to protect the lives and property of everyone in their respective communities and the nation as a whole.

The Minister urged all citizens to remain focused that, the year 2024 will be a better year with the Renewed Hope agenda of the President.

December 22, 2023
Nigeria Army gets 112 new generals

The Nigerian Army Council has promoted a total of 47 Brigadier Generals to Major Generals.

Also, 75 Colonels were elevated to the rank of Brigadier General.

Their promotion is coming after the retirement of 113 generals on Wednesday.

However, a statement on Friday by the Director, Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, said the council approved the promotions of the senior officers on Thursday.

He noted that the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, urged them to redouble their efforts to justify their elevation and the confidence reposed in them.

According to him, those promoted to the rank of Major General include, Brig Gen WB Etuk, Commandant Nigerian Army College of Logistics and Management; Brig Gen JE Osifo, Commandant Nigerian Army School of Finance and Administration; Brigadier General WM Dangana Commander Sector 3 Joint Task Force North East Operation HADIN KAI; Brig Gen TB Ugiagbe Acting Chief of Military Intelligence, Brig Gen ASM Wase Deputy Director General Land Forces Stimulation Centre Nigeria Operations; Brig Gen MA Abdullahi Commandant Depot Nigerian Army; Brig Gen BI Alaya Commander Command Engineering Depot, Brig Gen AO Oyelade Director Personnel Planning Army Headquarters Department of personnel Management; Brig Gen OO Arogundade Commandant Nigerian Army School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Brig Gen EI Okoro Commander 13 Brigade; Brig Gen CR Nnebeife Executive Director Nigerian Army Farms and Ranches Limited and Brig Gen FU Mijinyawa Director Plans Army Headquarters Department of Policy and Plans

Others are Brig Gen MT Abdullahi Commander 50 Space Command; Brig Gen M Adamu Commander 32 Brigade; Brig Gen ND Shagaya Commandant Nigerian Army School of Supply and Transport; Brig Gen ME Onoja Office of the CDS and Brig Gen MO Erebulu Acting Director Psychological Warfare Defence Headquarters.

elevated to the rank of Major General are Brig Gen BA Ilori Commander of Army Headquarters Garrison Ordnance Services, Brig Gen MO Ihanuwaze Director Budget Army Headquarters, Brig Gen O Nwachukwu Director Army Public Relations, Brig Gen EE Ekpenyong of the Nigerian Army Resource Centre, Brig Gen SI Musa Director Legal Service (Army), Brig Gen M Galadima Commander Command Finance Office and Brig Gen AP Ahmadu Commander 1 Division Ordnance Service.

Officers promoted from the rank of Colonel to Brigadier General are Col Nwakonobi Chief of Staff Headquarters 3 Brigade, Col MC Akin Ojo Commander of 41 Engineer Brigade, Col BM Madaki Deputy Director Army Headquarters Operations Monitoring Team, Col MO Edide Directing Staff Army War College Nigeria, Col KE Inyang Commander 76 ST Brigade, Col OO Nafiu Chief of Staff Office of the Chief of Army Staff, Col PA Zipele Commander Signal Operations Command, Col OA Onasanya Acting Command Guards Brigade, Col MI Amatso Deputy Director Department of Civil Military Affairs, Col CM Akaliro Deputy Director Army Headquarters Department of Army Transformation and Innovation, Col NE Okoloagu Directing Staff Army War College Nigeria, Col AS Bugaje Acting Director Special Forces Infantry Corps Centre, Col AM Kitchner Commander 6 Division Finance and Account, Col SJ Dogo Deputy Chief of Staff Operations Headquarters 82 Division and Col JN Garba Commander 32 Brigade Garrison.

Others elevated to the rank of Brigadier General are Col PT Gbor Commander 81 Military Intelligence Brigade. Col SO Okoigi Acting Corps Commander Nigerian Army Medical Corps, Col AF Maimagani Acting Director Chaplaincy (Roman Catholic), Col PO Alimekhena Headquarters 81 Division, Col BI George Acting Director Directorate of Dental Services Headquarters Nigerian Army Medical Corps, Col IB Gambari Headquarters 63 Brigade and Col AY Emekoma Participant Senior Executive Course 45 National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studie

December 22, 2023
Abia Uncovers ‘Japa’ Doctors Still Receiving Salaries

Governor Alex Otti disclosed this in Umuahia, the state capital at the first Abia State Council on Health at the International Conference Centre on Thursday.

Speaking on the theme, “Providing an Accessible, Affordable and Quality Healthcare System for the New Abia,” Otti said such doctors are still collecting salaries from the state despite leaving Abia’s employment and now working abroad.

“Furthermore, our ongoing digitalization of the Abia State civil service has uncovered some staff that have left their duty post for greener pastures, yet still receive remuneration from the State government,” he said.

While the criminality involved in this is going to be addressed by the relevant agencies of government, the important thing here is that we do not have the number of hands that were hitter to report. We are working hard to fill these gaps.”

The governor added that his administration would recruit more health workers to strengthen the health sector.

Otti said his government was strengthening primary health care and ensuring that health facilities were manned by personnel across the state.

Also speaking, the Minister of Health, represented by the Permanent Secretary of Abia State Ministry of Health, Dr Ifenyinwa Uma-Kalu, stressed the need for state governments to support the federal government by providing the necessary infrastructure in the health care system.

The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Ngozi Okoronkwo while giving her address described the first State Council on Health as a demonstration of the commitment of Governor Alex Otti’s administration to prioritizing developmental initiatives that are capable of unlocking the potential of Abia’s strategic human capital to fast -track the attainment of socio-economic development of the present administration.

Okoronkwo said that the focus of the administration is to bestow on Abians a health system that meets the needs of the people irrespective of socio-economic status, adding that it would in turn put Abia on the path of attaining Universal Health Coverage for all.

December 22, 2023
Fuel subsidy: Bisi Akande blames Buhari for economic hardship in Nigeria

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and elder statesman, Chief Bisi Akande, has blamed former President Muhammadu Buhari for the suffering Nigerians are currently experiencing as the result of removal of fuel subsidy

Akande, a former Governor of Osun State, said that Buhari should have removed fuel subsidy from 2015 when he was first elected President, insisting that by now Nigerians would have overcome the challenges associated with subsidy removal.

The former Interim National Chairman of the APC also said that from the beginning he was not in tune with the economic policies of the Buhari administration

And I kept saying it but as part of the administration, I couldn’t go to the press to say it. It would have been senseless because Buhari never closed the door of his house to me. I can meet and talk to him whenever I want,” he said on Channels TV.

“And I was saying that I wasn’t comfortable with economic management. Let’s use, for example, the removal of fuel subsidy, between the time Buhari was elected as President and the time he was inaugurated, we had several sessions of discussion to see if the subsidy should be removed and he was convinced.

“And I thought that as soon as he got to power he would removed the subsidy but I didn’t know what happened. And after his inauguration he started being careful, slowing down until the first four years.

So, at the beginning of the term, he came out, he wanted to remove the subsidy and the country reacted and he had to back out. So from the beginning I wasn’t comfortable. Subsidy ought to have been removed at that time and by now Nigerians should have been used to it.”

DAILY POST reported that President Bola Tinubu said the 2023 budget did not provide for fuel subsidy payments during his inaugural address at the Eagles Square.

December 22, 2023
Two dead as two-storey building collapses in Lagos

Emergency responders have recovered the bodies of two middle aged persons, a man and a woman, from the rubbles of a two-storey building that collapsed on Friday morning in Ebute Meta, Lagos.

Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, Lagos Territorial Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), confirmed the development to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Farinloye said that a two-storey building with a pent house collapsed at about 0930 hours along Herbert Macaulay way, Ebute Metta.

He said that the Lagos Building Control Agency (LASBCA) had issued evacuation notice several times and all the original occupants had parked out.

“It was alleged that the property had been sold out about four months ago.

“Three of the occupants jumped to safety with the assistance of the residents,” Farinloye said.

He added that search and rescue operations was ongoing.

December 22, 2023
Supreme Court affirms Mbah as Enugu State Governor

The Supreme Court, on Friday, upheld the election of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State.

The apex court, in a unanimous decision by a five-man panel of Justices, dismissed an appeal that the Labour Party, LP, and its candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, filed to challenge the outcome of the governorship election that held in the state on March 18

.

According to the apex court, it found no reason to dislodge the concurrent verdicts of the Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal in Lagos, which dismissed all the allegations the appellants raised against the election victory of governor Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

resolved all the issues that were raised in the appeal, against the LP and Edeoga.

It will be recalled that the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal had on November 10, upheld governor Mbah’s election, after it dismissed three issues that the LP and its candidate, Edeoga, raised against him.

In a unanimous judgement, a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Tani Yusuf-Hassan, held that Edeoga and his party failed to establish their allegation that governor Mbah was not qualified to contest the gubernatorial poll.

The court noted that though the appellants alleged that there was widespread over-voting within Mbah’s strongholds, they, however, failed to tender the voters register that was used for the election, to prove the allegation.

It was the position of the appellate court that the LP and its candidate failed to adduce sufficient reasons to warrant the setting aside of the earlier verdict of the Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which dismissed their case.

It accordingly dismissed the appeal as lacking in merit and affirmed Mbah as the valid winner of the governorship election.

Dissatisfied with the judgement of the appellate court, Edeoga took the matter before the Supreme Court, where he also lost on Friday.

Mr Edeoga of the LP came second with 157,552 votes, while Frank Nweke of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, polled 17, 983 votes to place third.

Not satisfied with the results as announced by INEC, Edeoga and his party filed a petition to challenge Mbah’s victory.

The petitioners insisted that they polled the highest number of valid votes at the election and therefore ought to have been declared winner instead of Mbah of the PDP.

Among other things, the LP and its candidate alleged that Mbah was ineligible to contest the election, alleging that he submitted forged National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Certificate to the INEC, in aid of his qualification.

Meanwhile, in its verdict on September 9, the Justice K.M. Akano-led tribunal dismissed the allegation, stressing that the PDP candidate met the minimum requirements for the election, which it said included the possessing of a school certificate or its equivalent.

More so, the tribunal held that the issue of forgery, being a criminal allegation, ought to be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

The tribunal further rejected the testimony of some of the witnesses that testified in the matter, stressing that their evidence were inadmissible since their statement on oath were not filed alongside the petition.

December 22, 2023
[VIDEO] Fake Products: Some Nigerians Bent On Making Quick Money – DG NAFDAC

The Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Moji Adeyeye, has lamented the alarming rate at which some Nigerians are willing to go to make quick money at the detriment of the health of its citizens.

Her claim is coming off a bust on fake wine factories in Abia State by the agency a few days ago

The raid also led to the shutting down of the markets

It is sad that some people are bent on making quick money at the detriment of our citizens,” Mrs Adeyeye said on Wednesday during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily when quizzed on the efforts the regulatory body was taking to combat the menace of fake products in the country.

“NAFDAC works that is why we are digging up all the dirt and trying to get rid of them.”

“We do market surveillance routinely, meaning we go to the market and make sure the products that are registered are the products on the shelf .”

December 20, 2023