Discussion Topic: Significance of the Birth of Jesus Christ in the Fight Against Economic and Financial Crimes
SPEAKERS: Pastor Dele Oyewale Pastor Anjorin F. Abraham Pastor Abiodun Adebanjo
Date: Wednesday, December 21, 2022.
Time: 6 pm.
EFCC Connect is a virtual town hall meeting, an online programme designed to engender close interface and collaboration with the Nigerian public, provide answers and clarification to issues, sensitize and educate them on the war against economic and financial crimes using the social media platforms - Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Meanwhile, EFCC deleted the post after being dragged about it.
Please take note that henceforth, individuals requiring foreign exchange transactions with the bank will be required to present a tax clearance certificate for the three years immediately preceding the current year of assessment.
The transactions covered by this requirement include but not limited to:
• Form A transactions • Outgoing payments from domiciliary accounts • Applications for foreign exchange conversions
A federal high court sitting in Abuja has declined an application by the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest and detain Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), TheCable understands.
In declining the motion ex parte — filed by an applicant in the absence of the respondent — Justice JT Tsoho, the chief judge, said the secret police did not provide any concrete evidence to substantiate its claims that Emefiele was involved in terrorism financing and economic crimes.
Sources at the high court told TheCable that the judge said he should have been taken into confidence if there was any evidence to back the allegations.
“The honourable judge also wondered why the name of the respondent was given simply as ‘Godwin Emefiele’ without a material disclosure that he is the same person as the CBN governor, a highly ranking public official who occupies an extremely sensitive position,” the source told TheCable.
The court said such an application should have been accompanied with the presidential approval because of the grave implications for the Nigerian economy if the CBN governor is arrested and detained.
There are suggestions that the bid to arrest Emefiele might be political given the impact the redesign of the naira and limit on cash withdrawals might have on vote-buying in the 2023 elections.
A number of politicians have complained that the naira redesign is targeted at them but President Muhammadu Buhari has given his full backing to Emefiele over the policy.
On Monday, a group of civil society organisations raised the alarm that there was a plot to frame Emefiele for terrorism and remove him from office.
DON’T BE USED TO UNDERMINE OUR INVESTIGATIONS, DSS WARNS
Meanwhile, DSS has warned Nigerians against being used to “undermine” its investigations.
In a statement issued on Monday, Peter Afunanya, DSS spokesperson, said the service will not be distracted by those seeking to use “propaganda” to undermine its lawful investigations.
Afunanya said one of the duties of the DSS is the “investigation of matters of national security dimension. It has always discharged this responsibility in the overall interest of Nigerian citizens”.
“As such, the Service will continue to disseminate actionable intelligence to the relevant authorities devoid of any sentiment,” the statement reads.
“While professionally discharging its mandate, the DSS pledges to remain focused and unbiased. It will not, by any means, succumb to propaganda, intimidation and the desperation of hirelings to undermine it.
“It will also not give room to the use of falsehood and deceit to misdirect public understanding and perceptions of issues of national importance.
“Given not to join issues, the Service warns those on a wild goose chase to be mindful of their actions. Similarly, it urges members of the public to disregard the vituperations and rantings of misguided elements and not allow themselves to be used as instruments of destabilisation.
“Notably, these elements should remember the famous axiom that ‘you will only deceive some people, some of the time, but not all people, all the time’.
“To put it succinctly, the Service will not be distracted by persons and/or groups from carrying out its duties to the Nation, citizens, and, President and Commander-in-Chief.”
Afunanya asked Nigerians to “avoid being used to thwart or undermine the Service and its lawful investigations as those who wish to act in the breach will be dealt with in accordance with the law”.
The Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has congratulated the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), on the occasion of his 80th birthday.
Soludo, in his birthday message to the president, said attaining the age of 80 was a manifestation of God’s blessings and a milestone achievement worthy of celebration.
He described the president as a sincere patriot who has done his best for the growth and development of the country.
These were contained in a statement made available to journalists by the governor’s Press Secretary, Christian Aburime, on Saturday.
The governor lauded Buhari for his honest and transparent disposition to public office, saying he is a shinning example of one who has risen above the temptation of corruption in discharging his duties
“On behalf of my family and the good people of Anambra State, I congratulate the President on this auspicious occasion of his 80th birthday and I wished him many more glorious years ahead,” the statement added.
NAF SPECIAL FORCES RESCUE 7 KIDNAPPED CHINESE CITIZENS
In what could be described as a daring and clinical military operations, Special Forces (SF) under the 271 Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Detachment, Birnin Gwari, Kaduna State, carried out a rescue operation in the early hours of 17 December 2022 leading to the rescue of 7 Chinese expatriates earlier kidnapped and held hostage by terrorists. The rescued Chinese victims are believed to have been kidnapped in June 2022 by terrorists while working on a mining site in Ajata-Aboki, Gurmana Ward of Shiroro Local Government, Niger State.
The Combat Search and Rescue operation, which consisted of 35 Special Forces was conducted in the cover of night at Kanfani Doka and Gwaska general Areas leading to the terrorists abandoning their enclaves, weapons and kidnapped Chinese victims while fleeing for their lives due to the superior fire power of the special forces.
After the successful operations, the 7 Chinese victims were flown to the 271 NAF Detachment Medical Centre for evaluation were 2 of the victims were stabilized. Subsequently, the 7 victims were flown to the NAF Base Medical Hospital, Kaduna for further medical investigations.
The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao has since congratulated the Commander of the 271 NAF Detachment, Birnin Gwari and his men for their continued determination and commitment, even in the face of danger, as they make inroad into the final fringes of terrorists’ enclaves in Kaduna State and the Northwest in general. According to the CAS, ‘I am very proud of what our Special Forces in Birnin Gwari and elsewhere have continued to achieve and I remain confident that we will soon free all areas of terrorists and their activities.’ Air Marshal Amao also enjoined Nigerians to continue to support the Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security agencies by providing useful information that will lead to the arrest of criminal elements and those supporting them.
Edward Gabkwet Air Commodore Director of Public Relations & Information Nigerian Air Force
Far From Home is a Nigerian Netflix series created by Chinaza Onuzo and Dami Elebe.
Premise Through a scholarship to a top school, Ishaya ends up in the luxurious world of the happy few in Nigeria, but a secret threatens not only to put an end to this.
List of Episodes Coming soon
Release Date December 16, 2022
Name: Far From Home
Description: Through a scholarship to a top school, Ishaya ends up in the luxurious world of the happy few in Nigeria, but a secret threatens not only to put an end to this.
Seasons: 1
Country: Nigeria
Director(s): Chinaza Onuzo, Dami Elebe
Writer(s): Dami Elebe, Chinaza Onuzo
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Actor(s):Cast - Funke Akindele, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Mike Afolarin, Elma Mbadiwe, Adesua Etomi, Bolanle Ninalowo, Bimbo Akintola
The central bank appears to have instructed commercial banks to take down serial numbers of new naira notes whenever it is withdrawn.
Operations staff of some of Nigeria’s commercial banks informed Nairametrics that they were instructed to write down all the serial numbers of the new naira notes whenever customers make withdrawals. The staff requested anonymity as they feared being punished.
Banks started giving out the new naira notes on the 15th of December as promised by the central bank. Nairametrics investigation reveals the notes available for most banks are the N1000 notes as most of the lower denominations are yet to be released.
When asked why they take down serial numbers, some of the bank staff suggest it is similar to how serial numbers of dollar bites are being taken down by banks.
However, rather than take them down manually like they currently do with the new naira notes, they do so using cash counting machines.
According to a banker, the existing cash counting machines do not have the same features for naira withdrawals. Nairametrics cannot confirm if this is the case for all banks.
SBM'S PROJECTIONS OF STATE WINNERS IN THE 2023 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
The 2023 elections are set to be the tightest in Nigeria's history. SBM is predicting a run-off for the first time in Nigeria's history, with the caveat that "a week is a long time in politics". This map projects who, in our opinion, will take each state when the elections are held at the end of February.
Aviation minister, Hadi Abubakar Sirika, announces:
Glad to announce that Government has abolished Permission to travel QR code. Use of face mask is now discretionary and travel PCR tests are suspended. Aviation will boom once again.
Some of the children the army targeted, however, were infants and toddlers – too young to load a gun. Soldiers killed them just as their mothers thought they had landed in safe hands.
Yagana Bukar said she was hiding in a stand of gum trees, with seven other women and nine children, after escaping from insurgents about four years ago. When soldiers approached the group, she at first feared they were Boko Haram.
But they reassured her, she said: They were from the Nigerian Army and had come to reunite the group with the families from whom they’d been kidnapped. Bukar had been held by the insurgents for over a year and was anxious to go back to Baga, her hometown on the shores of Lake Chad. She climbed into the soldiers’ trucks with the other women and children.
After driving some distance, the troops stopped. A soldier asked Bukar to hand him Sani, one of her 4-month-old twins, saying he wanted to check whether the boy was healthy, she said. With one hand, she said, the soldier then blocked the infant’s mouth and nose. The baby’s legs began to kick.
A second soldier took her other twin, Musa, asking to play with him. He turned his back to Bukar, and she couldn't see what he was doing.
Both babies were returned to her limp.
Snatching teens
In some remote communities where territory remained hotly contested, the army’s approach to killing children was brazen and routine: It launched raids door-to-door or in markets to nab children and teens for suspected complicity with insurgents.
In Kukawa, where the waterhole massacre took place, the army regularly rounded up children to search them for weapons, interrogate them, or even kill them to ensure they wouldn’t pose a future threat, said 12 civilians and four soldiers and guards.
Before the war, Kukawa, a poky frontier town about 40 km (25 miles) southwest of Lake Chad, was a poor but stable place to live. Men farmed or sold firewood and clothes, while women traded spices, groundnut cakes and oil in the market.
Since then, the town, crossable by foot in an hour or less, has become a fierce battleground and one of the most chaotic places in the northeast. More than 500 people were killed in 60 violent events recorded in the broader Kukawa area between 2019 and 2021, according to data collected by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit organisation that tracks political violence.
A soldier who was involved in the July 2020 waterhole massacre in Kukawa told Reuters that it was one example among more than two dozen he had witnessed in the area in recent years in which children were rounded up and killed. Reuters reconstructed the massacre and the events that led up to it based on five separate accounts – by the soldier and four civilians.
The soldier and two fathers said a group of insurgents had been to the town in the days before the killings. Insurgents often came to buy goods at the local markets and preach their extreme interpretation of Islam, according to several Kukawa residents. The visits riled the army, which frequently responded with crackdowns on the residents, especially on men and boys seen as possible combatants or collaborators.
The day of the massacre, the soldier said, his commander ordered troops to round up “Boko Haram children” from the town.
In the afternoon, one father said he was at the central market selling medicines when he learned that dozens of soldiers and local militia members were seizing and beating children, including his 15-year-old son. He said he was unable to get close to where his son was – he was blocked by soldiers – and could only watch from afar as a group of boys was whipped with crops and interrogated by soldiers. He was able to see, however, that 10 or more children and teenagers were packed into a pickup and driven west, out of Kukawa, down the road to the waterhole.
Another father who was meeting with friends east of the market said his daughter ran to him that afternoon, crying, saying that soldiers were gathering up children, including his 13-year-old son. The soldiers were beating some and forcing others to do frog-jumps, the daughter told him. The father arrived at the market after the soldiers had left. He and the other father joined residents in an unsuccessful search for the boys that lasted hours, until nightfall.
‘I didn’t see a single child survive’
Military round-ups of children plagued other towns, as well. They often followed visits by insurgents to the area or gunfights with the army, or were driven simply by the suspicion that young people were supporting the enemy.
In mid-2018, a few dozen kilometres southwest of Kukawa, the Nigerian Army stormed the town of Gasarwa after insurgents had passed through. Soldiers gathered children from the community and surrounding villages, two witnesses said.
“They kept rounding up more and more of them,” said one of the witnesses, a soldier who told Reuters he participated in the shooting. “We opened fire.”
He said the operation lasted from morning until almost midnight. “I didn’t see a single child survive that day.”
At least 40 children were killed during the operation, and likely far more, according to an armed guard who drove a vehicle in the convoy.
“They killed a lot,” said the guard, referring to the troops. He said he was among the first armed forces to leave Gasarwa, as children were still dying in the town. “One of them was screaming,” he recalled.
Residents described scenes of mayhem, as people fled amid the crack of bullets, blast of explosives and searing heat and smoke of burning buildings.
“They killed so many children,” said Falta, a woman in her mid-50s. Running through the bush near Gasarwa, Falta said, she caught sight of Nigerian troops standing by a pile of corpses “one on top of another; we can’t even imagine how they put those bodies together that way.”
She showed a reporter scars on her legs, from injuries she said she suffered while repeatedly diving into bushes to hide from the soldiers.
Falmata, a grandmother in her 50s, said her three grandchildren were among those to perish in the attack.
She watched the soldiers shoot one, a 16-year-old, in the street, along with his 18-year-old brother. The youngest, 9, was in the family home when soldiers burned it down, she said.
She held small photos of each grandchild in her hands for a reporter to see. The 16-year-old was in high school, she said, and had hoped to be a doctor or lawyer. The youngest loved to recite verses from the Koran.
Her eldest grandson, Falmata said, had hoped to join the civilian militia.
Buried secrets
In many cases, the army has taken steps to keep the killing of children and other civilians out of the public eye, according to multiple military sources. Soldiers pressured bereaved parents to remain silent, the army restricted access to the warzone, and commanders ordered troops to keep killings secret.
Five soldiers and two guards told Reuters they had taken part in operations in recent years in which they had buried children’s bodies in mass graves in remote places. In some cases, the army or CJTF members used shovels or excavators to bury piles of children’s corpses, said civilians, soldiers and a local militia member.
Mass burials were partly done to hide the bodies from any local “noisemakers” who might call attention to the deaths, one soldier said.
Four mothers who said their children were killed or missing told Reuters the military warned them not to talk about what happened.
Because of pressure to keep quiet and fear of retaliation from the army, some parents said they had not reported missing children or been able to find out whether they might still be alive.
Late in 2019, the year before the waterhole massacre, the army rounded up eight boys in Kukawa between the ages of 6 and 15 during a search for children with suicide vests, according to two fathers interviewed by Reuters.
Three years later, the eight boys are still unaccounted for. The father of a missing 14-year-old, who described his son as a studious boy who wanted to be a pilot, said other parents opposed him when he suggested reporting their sons’ disappearance to authorities. The parents warned that “anything could happen” to them if they did, he said.
SMOTHERED, POISONED AND SHOT Nigerian Army massacred children in its war against Islamist insurgents, witnesses say
More than 40 soldiers and civilians told Reuters they witnessed the Nigerian military kill children or saw children's corpses after a military operation. Estimates totaled in the thousands. Reuters investigated six incidents in which at least 60 died. One mother described the deaths of her twin babies: “The soldiers said they killed those children because they are children of Boko Haram.”
FIRST he heard voices, then the sputter of gunfire.
Kaka crept behind an acacia tree and froze in terror. The teen was returning home after gathering firewood late one July afternoon in 2020. Peering ahead, he saw a group of men at a waterhole, most in Nigerian Army camouflage.
They stood over a line of children face down in the dirt, wailing for their mothers, Kaka recalled. Nearby, several adults lay prone – including mothers with infants tied to their backs. He heard some voices cry out to God.
Two or three men already lay dead; the soldiers shot three more. They killed the women next, and then the children, cutting short their cries with a hail of bullets, Kaka said. The troops dragged the bodies into a pre-dug grave, shoveled sandy earth over them and drove off.
Panic-stricken, Kaka tore off toward Kukawa, the nearby town in Nigeria’s northeast where he lived. The young man, now in his early 20s, was one of five people who recounted to Reuters details of the army-led roundup and mass shooting of at least 10 children and several adults at the waterhole that day.
The massacre, previously unreported, is just one instance in which the Nigerian Army and allied security forces have slaughtered children during their gruelling 13-year war against Islamist extremists in the country’s northeast, a Reuters investigation found. Soldiers and armed guards employed by the government told Reuters army commanders repeatedly ordered them to “delete” children, because the children were assumed to be collaborating with militants in Boko Haram or its Islamic State offshoot, or to have inherited the tainted blood of insurgent fathers.
Intentional killings of children have occurred with a blurring frequency across the region during the war, according to witnesses interviewed by Reuters. More than 40 sources said they saw the Nigerian military target and kill children or saw the dead bodies of children after a military operation. These sources included both parents and other civilian witnesses, as well as soldiers who said they participated in dozens of military operations in which children were slaughtered.
Together, their estimates added up to thousands of children killed.
Reuters was unable to independently verify each of those estimates. But reporters investigated six specific incidents and found, based on eyewitness accounts, that a total of at least 60 children were killed in those episodes, the most recent in February 2021. Each of those incidents, including the waterhole massacre, was confirmed by at least two sources who saw the killings or the aftermath.
“I don’t see them as children, I see them as Boko Haram … If I get my hands on them, I won’t shoot them, I will slit their throat.” A soldier who told Reuters his best friend was shot dead by insurgents.
Most of the children in the six army-led actions were shot, some in the back as they were fleeing. But soldiers used a range of methods to kill. Witnesses detailed specific instances in which Nigerian soldiers poisoned and suffocated children, too.
Yagana Bukar, in her mid-20s, said that after she and a group of other women and children escaped from Boko Haram fighters, two soldiers took her 4-month-old twin boys from her and smothered them before her.
“The soldiers said they killed those children because they are children of Boko Haram – they are not human beings,” said Bukar, whose account was corroborated by a fellow former captive. “They threatened me that if I wasn’t careful and didn’t keep quiet, they would kill me as well.”
Some parents told Reuters they had been left in agony because their children were taken by the military and never returned. They could not be sure, they said, whether their long-missing kids were dead or alive.
“Please, do what you can do,” one father begged a reporter, explaining that his 14-year-old son was among eight boys taken by soldiers in another incident in Kukawa, in 2019, and never seen again. “So the story can go viral, so that if my son is alive, he can come back to me.”
This report is based on interviews with 44 civilian witnesses with knowledge of killings and disappearances of children. Reuters also interviewed 15 security force members - soldiers, local militia members and armed guards - who said they took part in or observed targeted killings of children.
All but a few sources, like Yagana Bukar, who now lives outside the country, spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, saying they feared retaliation from Nigerian authorities. Some agreed to be identified by a single given name or a family nickname.
Nigerian military leaders told Reuters the army has never targeted children for killing. They said that the reporting in this article is an insult to Nigerians and part of a foreign effort to undermine the country’s fight against the insurgents.
“It has never happened, it is not happening, it will not happen,” said Major General Christopher Musa, who heads the counterinsurgency campaign in the northeast, of such killings. “It is not in our character. We are highly professional. We are human beings, and these are Nigerians that you have been talking about.”
General Lucky Irabor, Nigeria’s chief of defence staff, did not respond to requests for comment. On Dec. 2, after Reuters shared detailed findings and questions with his office, the military's director of defence information released a statement to reporters. Major General Jimmy Akpor called the Reuters accounts of child killings in this report “concocted allegations,” according to the statement. Nigerian military personnel, he said, are “raised, bred and further trained to protect lives, even at their own risk, especially when it concerns the lives of children, women and the elderly.”
In the northeast, children often have been swept up in wartime violence and suffered disproportionately from the fallout, including displacement, unlawful detention, malnutrition and disease, according to the United Nations and other humanitarian groups.
Amnesty International reported in 2015 that the Nigerian military and allied forces had summarily killed more than 1,200 men and boys captured in the conflict. The Nigerian government ultimately dropped an investigation into Amnesty’s accusations of extrajudicial killings and other war crimes, finding insufficient evidence to support any abuses by its officers.
The International Criminal Court prosecutor concluded in 2020 that grounds existed to open an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity by both Nigerian security forces and insurgents, but the court has not opened one.
The ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor declined to comment on Reuters’ findings.
The Reuters investigation found that Nigerian soldiers took aim at children of all ages in battlezones around the northeast because the army presumed the children were, or would become, terrorists. Soldiers selected babies and toddlers for killing after rescuing them and their mothers from Islamist militants; rounded youths up for interrogation and killing in raids of homes and marketplaces; or slaughtered children along with adult civilians in counterterrorism operations that were intended to leave no survivors. When commanders ordered towns to be cleared of presumed insurgents, soldiers said they understood, and sometimes were explicitly told, that children’s lives were not to be spared.
Soldiers often cited as a reason for killing children the belief that if their fathers were insurgents, then they would grow up to be the same. The killing was also a way for some officers to avenge heavy losses in fighting with Islamist insurgents, or for soldiers to vent their anger over the deaths of their comrades.
“I don’t see them as children, I see them as Boko Haram,” said one soldier, who told Reuters his best friend was shot dead by insurgents. The soldier said he had killed children himself. “If I get my hands on them, I won’t shoot them, I will slit their throat … I enjoy it.”
Other soldiers said they had adopted a kill-or-be-killed attitude toward children because insurgents used them as fighters, informants and suicide bombers. The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF has alleged that “non-state armed groups” in Nigeria have recruited thousands of children, some as “human bombs.” It said Boko Haram had claimed responsibility for some of those attacks, in which children were made to carry explosives.
The targeted killings of children were often kept under the radar and covered up by the military, Reuters found. The killings frequently took place in and around small, remote villages, where there is little communication with other towns. Witnesses and relatives were scared into silence, and bodies were buried or burned, according to multiple sources, including soldiers and residents.
Many witnesses, traumatised and unused to Gregorian calendars, had difficulty pinpointing times and dates. In those cases, reporters used growing seasons or religious holidays as reference points. Unable to visit reported massacre sites, Reuters used satellite imagery, when available, to corroborate sources’ descriptions.
Intentionally killing civilians in an armed conflict is a war crime. If the killing is done in the context of widespread or systematic attacks on civilians, it is a crime against humanity, two international law experts told Reuters. Children do not have separate protections under the law, but their young age and vulnerability may be factored into sentencing, said Melanie O’Brien, an associate professor of international law at the University of Western Australia.
Nigeria, as a party to the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, falls within the jurisdiction of the ICC. The preference is for domestic courts to hold participants accountable under the law, but the ICC can also step in if a country is unwilling or unable to do so, said Kip Hale, a U.S. attorney specialising in international criminal justice.
The ICC declined to comment on Reuters’ findings.
The killing of noncombatant children may also violate the Nigerian military’s code of conduct. The most recent version publicly available, issued in 1967, prohibits killing children and states they “must not be attacked unless they are engaged in open hostility against Federal Government Forces. They should be given all protection and care.”
In his statement, Akpor said Nigerian military training institutions “focus extensively” on laws of armed combat and international humanitarian law. Musa said protection of noncombatants is a priority. “At times we even refuse to attack a location because we've noticed that there are children and there are women,” Musa said. “So because we cannot safeguard them, we refuse to strike … We have lost a number of battles because we didn't want collateral damage.”
Reuters reported on Dec. 7 that the army also has run an abortion programme in the northeast that terminated the pregnancies of thousands of women and girls, many of whom had been captured and raped by insurgents. The Reuters investigation, based on military documents, civilian hospital records and dozens of witness accounts, found that the abortions were routinely done without consent, sometimes violently. Forced abortions, too, may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, said O’Brien, Hale and two other legal experts.
On Dec. 9, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Nigerian authorities to investigate the findings in the Reuters abortion report.
Nigerian military leaders told Reuters the abortion programme did not exist. Irabor, the defence chief, said on Dec. 8 the military would not investigate the report, saying it is untrue.
The child killings appear to lack the detailed organisation and elaborate infrastructure of the abortion programme. But as described by the sources, the killings and the abortions complement one another – aiming not just to wipe out extremists but to end the perceived insurgent bloodline.
‘Operation No Living Things’
Boko Haram began as an Islamist fundamentalist movement in Nigeria’s northeast, transforming into an armed insurgency in 2009. As the coalition of security forces conducting the counterinsurgency lost ground, then-President Goodluck Jonathan in 2013 put the Nigerian Army in charge, and it established a new unit, 7 Division, to lead the troubled war effort. The division has remained the core counterinsurgency force under current President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired general.
The army began working with the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), a loose alliance of local militias whose stated mission is to support the counterinsurgency. CJTF members provide the army with intelligence on suspected insurgents, serve as interpreters and help soldiers navigate sometimes unfamiliar terrain. Though militia members officially report to their own leaders, army officers call the shots when the CJTF and soldiers deploy side-by-side in the field, Musa and three militia members said.
Bello Danbatta, a spokesman for the CJTF, told Reuters that the military and CJTF forces did not target civilians. “They are not fighting the women,” he said in an interview. “They are not fighting the children."
By late 2014, the militants had pushed government forces out of many major towns across the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe. As of 2016, the Nigerian military had taken back control of many of these towns, but fighting continued in the countryside.
That same year, Boko Haram split into two main factions. The splinter group, Islamic State West Africa Province, has become the region’s dominant insurgent force. Still, many Nigerian soldiers and civilians, including those in this story, refer to both groups as Boko Haram.
Children became pawns for both sides. The U.N. Office of the Secretary-General has in the past accused both the CJTF and militant groups of recruiting children into the war effort, a violation of international law. However, it commended the CJTF and the Nigerian government in a report in August for their efforts since 2017 to protect children from recruitment.
Meanwhile, the conflict has dragged on. Nigerian President Buhari and other leaders have repeatedly declared victory, even as the insurgents’ inroads in remote areas have undermined their claims. The failure to rout the enemy has drawn public criticism and put pressure on the national government ahead of elections set for February.
Tukur Buratai, a decorated general who presided over the army as its chief for nearly six years until January 2021, publicly blamed the drawn-out nature of the conflict on insurgents’ sustained indoctrination of locals. Buratai didn’t respond to a request for comment.
On the ground, soldiers and other counterinsurgency fighters told Reuters, the military has adopted an uncompromising approach toward communities it sees as infiltrated by militants.
During combat operations, soldiers told Reuters, it was common to take aim at anyone they came across in areas the army did not fully control. They were generally considered a member or supporter of the militants and therefore a legitimate target, troops said.
Army officers often branded particularly ruthless offensives “Operation No Living Things,” said four soldiers.
Musa said the army’s standard procedure is to separate out innocent women and children, and turn them over to state authorities for protection. Thousands of children have been taken to camps where they are cared for, he said.
“If we had wanted this war to end in good time, that will have been the solution: Kill everybody,” he said. “But because we take time to select and ensure that it’s only the combatants that we're after, that’s why you see that it’s been prolonged.”
A decade of war has taken a heavy toll on men of fighting age in the region. And in contested areas, males who have survived often flee at signs of trouble, some soldiers and residents said. Among the remaining civilians, children fall under greatest suspicion, they said, because they are seen as easily schooled in extremist ways.
“Boko Haram is taking them and putting something in their heart,” said the soldier who participated in the waterhole massacre. “Child fighters, they have no fear, they don’t realise the value of their own life.”
Many of the troops interviewed for this story said they were acting on orders from their commanders when they attacked children, and some expressed remorse.
Often uneducated with few job prospects, many soldiers joined the army in hopes of improving their lot, only to face paltry pay, a shortage of equipment as basic as bullets and boots, and a seemingly unending conflict. Stuck in the region for years, often without rotation, some described falling into a traumatised mindset that left them willing and even eager to kill children, especially as more and more of their comrades were wounded or died in combat.
Cultural differences deepened troops’ alienation. Though many share the region’s main faith of Islam, most hail from elsewhere in Nigeria and don’t speak the local languages. And in a war in which insurgents have forced minors to fight, soldiers said they couldn't even trust in the innocence of children.
In the first attack he witnessed on an army location, the soldier who told Reuters he wanted to avenge his friend’s death said he saw 8- or 9-year-olds carrying guns and loading ammunition into magazines. “I saw it with my own eyes,” he said. “There was one, the gun was too heavy for him, they tied it around him with a string, and he went with it.”
Customs Officer Who Exposed “Booming Petrol Smuggling Business” To Niger Republic, Cameroon, Chad", Others Still Detained One Month After Arrest
Owombo Segun John, a Customs officer arrested and detained for exposing how refined petroleum products, particularly Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, are trafficked into Cameroon, Chad, Niger Republic, and other African countries, has yet to be released by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).
This was confirmed to SaharaReporters on Monday morning by his brother, who explained that Owombo said he was only granted freedom to move within the premises of the Nigerian Customs Service in Abuja.
Owombo earlier released a video in which he narrated how he arrested so many smugglers on Wednesday, November 2, at Malabo Checkpoint on Belel Road, Adamawa state.
He however said senior officials of the NCS called and directed him to release the suspects.
His brother, however, explained that Owombo is still in detention. He said Owombo informed him that he was not allowed to leave the premises and that all of his gadgets had been seized, and that he could only communicate with him through a small phone obtained from one of his friends.
In November, SaharaReporters reported how Owombo was transported to Abuja from Adamawa State to meet with the Comptroller General of Customs while in detention.
This was disclosed by his brother who also stated that Owombo informed him that his life was under threat.
He also described the claims by some people that his brother, Owombo is suffering from a mental disorder as untrue.
He said, “My brother is a very brilliant man. Someone that was posted to Adamawa and has been working there since, how can you now say he is insane? That is a lie. They are just trying to cover up."
“The claim that he was found naked is also not true. He told me that immediately after he released the video, he was attacked by some customs officers and tanker drivers. He even told me that if he is allowed, he has some evidence to back up his claim,” he added.
When asked why Owombo was calling on Bola Tinubu, the ruling APC presidential candidate, in his video, he said Owombo did that due to inexperience.
“I also found that not good. He should have followed a proper channel to report what he found and not necessarily call out anybody’s name,” he said.
A popular comedian, Julius Agwu, has confirmed that his marriage to Ibiere (nee Maclayton) has ended. He claimed his wife stated that she was tired of being married to him.
Earlier in the year, there had been reports that their marriage had hit the rocks. Sunday Scoop reached out to the comedian then, but he declined to make any comments.
However, in a recent interview with a media personality, Ifedayo Olarinde, aka Freeze, Agwu said, “My wife said she was not marrying me again. She said she was tired of the marriage. That’s why I thank God that I’m alive. I have a saying that ‘Satan works in mysterious ways, and God works in miraculous ways’.”
Asked about his children, the comedian said, “My kids are in the United States of America. They are fine.”
Reliving his experience when battling with brain tumours, he said, “There were no rumours about my health. It’s true. I wanted to cool down for a while. I had a surgery in 2015 to remove some tumours from my brain. I came back to Nigeria and did a thanksgiving service. After that, I travelled to London, United Kingdom, in 2016 for a show. But, just two days to my show in London, I was rushed to the hospital. I was in coma for three months; and I can only thank God that I am alive.”
However, in the comments that trailed the interview, some social media users asked the comedian what he did to his ex-wife that made her no longer interested in the union that lasted about 14 years.
This was even as some commended him for having the courage to speak about it.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo SAN today delivers a high level keynote address at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City, USA. 9th Dec, 2022. Photos by Tolani Alli.
Emefiele: N1Trillion in Notes Received by CBN, Banks
CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele has revealed that roughly N1trillion in soon-to-be-replaced notes has been received through the banking system to be swapped for new notes which become effective Jan 31, 2023
The Governor of the Central Bank made this revelation in Daura, Katsina State, while briefing journalists after he met with President Buhari.
Cashless Policy Can’t Be Reversed, Says Emefiele
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has ruled the possibility of reversing the ongoing implementation of cashless policy.
The House of Representatives at Thursday plenary asked the CBN Governor to suspend implementation of the policy pending the outcome of the expected engagement on the compliance with the relevant sections of the CBN act and the 1999 constitution on the monetary policies of the apex bank.
He was asked to appear Thursday next week to explain to the House on the impact and significance of the new policy.
On Wednesday, the Senate raised concerns about the latest CBN policy on cash withdrawals and fixed Tuesday to debate the new policy.
But speaking with State House reporters after briefing President Muhammadu Buhari on happenings in the CBN and the Nigerian economy in Daura, Katsina State, on Thursday, Emefiele said a lot of electronic channels had been put in place in 10 years since the cashless policy was launched in 2012.
He said the cashless policy was stepped down on a number of occasions to fully prepare for the implementation of the policy and deepen payment system infrastructure in Nigeria.
He said the visit was to assure the President that all plans on the currency and cashless policy were “going on well.”.
On the redesign of currency notes, the CBN governor said the banks had started dispensing the new cash which reached their various offices on Wednesday to their customers.
“I can only just assure you that it will go round, let us just be calm, luckily the old currency continued to be legal tender till January 31, 2023. So, I want to crack a joke, both the painted (new notes) and unpainted (old notes) will operate concurrently as a legal tender. But by January 31, the unpainted one will not be useful to you again, so please take it to your bank as quickly as possible,” he added.
Emefiele said about N1 trillion of the old notes had been returned to the banking system.
On what the CBN would do about the policy after the Senate kicked against the withdrawal limit, he said: “The Senate of the Federal Republic is National Assembly, they are legislative arm of the government and from time to time we brief them about what is happening and about our policies and I am aware that they have asked for some briefings and we will brief them.”
“Having 1.4 million of them is as good as having 1.4 million banking points where people can conduct services. And we think, Nigeria is a big country, the biggest economy in Africa that we need to leapfrog into the cashless economy. We cannot continue to allow a situation where over 85 per cent of the cash that is in circulation is outside the bank. More and more countries that are embracing digitization have gone into cashless.
We’ll review the policy from time to time
“And I said it at different fora, that this is not targeted at anybody, it is just meant for the good and development of the Nigerian economy and we can only continue to appeal to Nigerians to please see this policy the way we have presented it. We will be reviewing from time to time how this is working because I cannot say that we are going to be rigid. But it is not to say that we will reverse, it is not to say that we will change the timing, but whether it is about tricking some amount to be a little bit higher or a little bit lower, and all the rest of them.
“We will do so because we are humans, we want to make sure that we are make life good for our people. We do not want to make life difficult for them. So, there is no need for anybody to worry, the central bank is monitoring what is happening and I can assure everyone that we are up and alive to our responsibilities and we will do what is right for Nigeria and Nigerians.”
Under the new withdrawal policy, the CBN restricted the maximum cash withdrawal over the counter (OTC) by individuals and corporate organisations per week to N100,000 and N500,000 respectively.
The CBN stated, however, that withdrawals above the thresholds would attract processing fees of 5 per cent and 10 per cent respectively for individuals and corporate entities going forward.
The new withdrawal regime further pegged the maximum cash withdrawal per week via Automated teller Machine (ATM) at N100,000 subject to a maximum of N20,000 cash withdrawal per day.
NNPC: How We Raised Crude Oil Production from 900,000bpd to 1.6mbpd
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited yesterday reaffirmed that with the return of Forcados and partial restoration of the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP), Nigeria’s oil production had hit 1.6 million barrels per day (mbpd).
NNPC explained how the national oil company was able to ramp up crude oil production, which had fallen significantly, with the collaboration of the security agencies, regulators, oil producing communities, and other stakeholders.
Speaking on Arise News Channel, THISDAY’s broadcast arm, Chief Upstream Investment Officer of the NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS), Bala Wunti, also clarified the much-reported 700,000 barrels per day losses incurred by the national oil firm.
Wunti explained that based on all the calculations, Nigeria was losing, on the average, over 700,000 barrels per day. He explained that in hydrocarbons accounting, the figure included engineering losses, oil theft, as well as what would have been produced due to shutdowns, which he described as opportunity losses.
Before the recent recovery, he stated that Nigeria was losing about 21 million barrels per month and up to $1.9 billion every 30 days.
“If you take an average oil price of $90, that will translate to somewhere in the neighbourhood of $1.9 billion losses that we suffered,” he said.
Wunti stated that at least 68 vessels had been impounded since the renewed fight against crude oil theft, saying some of the culprits are being prosecuted by the appropriate authorities.
He said the collaboration between the security agencies, local community contractors, and NNPC led to the return of Forcados, while Brass and Bonny, which were shut down due to force majeure, were expected to begin operation soon.
He pointed out that while the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) was yet to fully return, it had now been partially restored, leading to the increase in reported production figures.
“Forcados is back, Bonny will soon be back,” he assured.
Before now, Wunti stated that the industry was using technology sub-optimally, which made it very difficult to have an end-to-end visibility of NNPC’s infrastructure.
Wunti stated that there was currently about 350,000 bpd to 400,000 bpd augmentation to the volume being produced hitherto, adding that Nigeria drills about 1.6 million bpd currently.
According to him, NNPC now has the capability to see its assets fully from end-to-end, and about 70 per cent of identified illegal refineries have been deactivated.
“It is just mind-boggling what we have discovered and we could see the level of sophistication where illegal connections were put on our trunk lines,” he stated, describing it as a very complex situation.
He stated that there were several layers of security protecting the country’s oil infrastructure, explaining that every level is now monitored by other levels to check underhand dealings.
The reduction in production had cut the contribution of foreign exchange earnings from crude oil export from 90 per cent, when production was high, to 78.5 per cent as of the third quarter of 2022, THISDAY learnt.
As crude theft increased, the federal government and some private security groups, including Tantita Securities Service, owned by Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL), and Maton Engineering Limited, were contracted by the government.
Wunti stated, “The new security architecture relies on technology. What it does is to bring together the security and intelligence agencies on one table, the regulators on the other, and then bring in the community into the other angle and without the community, we can’t achieve that.
“Today, we are able to detect and we able to respond. The success that we recorded is essential because of this improved security situation. We are now almost at an average of 350,000 to 400,000 bpd increase. At a certain level we recorded up to 450,000 bpd increase.
“That is why you can see we are now from 1.1 million bpd daily to about 1.59 million bpd as at this morning (yesterday). So, these are some of the things that we are able to record based on the new security architecture.”
He assured that the collective resolve of private and government securities would lead to further improvement in crude oil production, which would, in turn, reflect in foreign exchange earnings by the country.
According to him currently, about 638 illegal refineries, out of 763, have been destroyed, even as the security architecture is being institutionalised.
Wunti said, “We have incapacitated almost about 70 per cent of what we have identified and we will keep identifying some of them. It is mind-boggling what we discovered even as operators and every one of us saw the kind of sophistication, where illegal connections are put on every major trunk line, including direct export lines on Forcados.
“It couldn’t have been possible without the collective resolve of the private security guards anchored by the communities. We have short to medium and long term visibility. I can tell you we have succeeded to an extent to stop this menace.
“The question now is how to stop its growth. That is why we introduced checking the checker. What that means is that we have four layers of visibility.”
Wunti also said persons arrested in connection with the criminal oil theft and bunkering activities were currently being prosecuted. He said in due course, their identities would be disclosed to the surprise of Nigerians.
Celine Dion has been diagnosed with a neurological disorder that ultimately leaves sufferers as human statues as it progressively locks the body into rigid positions, leaving people unable to walk or talk. This is so sad
Celine Dion diagnosed with 'Stiff Person Syndrome', an incurable and extremely rare neurological disease
The singer revealed the news via her Instagram page
Celine Dion took to Instagram on Thursday to reveal the shocking and devasting news that she's been diagnosed with an incredibly rare and life-changing disease known as Stiff Person Syndrome.
As the name suggests, the disease causes the body's muscles to seize up which over time it became progressively worse, eventually leaving those suffering with the disease looking like statues, often unable to move their body at all.
Unfortunately, there is currently no cure for the disease, but there are a few ways of slowing it down and minimizing the symptoms.
Dion bravely revealed the news via her Instagram in a post that was captioned: "I've been dealing with problems with my health for a long time, and it's been really difficult for me to face these challenges and to talk about everything that I've been going through...It hurts me to tell you that I won't be ready to restart my tour in Europe in February."
"I've been dealing with problems with my health for a long time, and it's been really difficult for me to face these challenges and to talk about everything that I've been going through."
She's been forced to cancel her European tour following the diagnosis.
The singer revealed that the spasms are already affecting her day-to-day life. "Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I'm used to", she said.
Dion assured that she's working closely with her team of doctors and that she is receiving plenty of support from her close family.
This is the latest tragedy the Candian singer has had to deal with after having to deal with the death of her husband back in 2016.
CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA Banking Supervision Department Central Business District
December 6, 2022 BSD/DIR/PUB/LAB/015/069
Letter to All Deposit Money Banks (DMBS) and Other Financial Institutions (Payment Service Banks (PSBs), Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) and Microfinance Banks (MFBs)
Further to the launch of the redesigned Naira notes by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 and in line with the Cash-less policy of the CBN, all deposit money banks (DMBs) and other financial institutions (0F1s) are hereby directed to note and comply with the following:
1. The maximum cash withdrawal over the counter (OTC) by individuals and corporate organizations per week shall henceforth be N100.000 and N500,000 respectively.
Withdrawals above these limits shall attract processing fees of 5% and 10%, respectively.
2 Third party cheques above N50,000 shall not be eligible for payment over the counter, while extant limits of 110,000.000 on clearing cheques still subsist.
3. The maximum cash withdrawal per week via Automated Teller Machine (ATM) shall be N100.000 subject to a maximum of N20,000 cash withdrawal per day.
4 Only denominations of N200 and below shall be loaded into the ATMs.
5 The maximum cash withdrawal via point of sale (PoS) terminal shall be N20.000 daily.
6. In compelling circumstances, not exceeding once a month, where cash withdrawals above the prescribed limits is required for legitimate purposes, such cash withdrawals shall not exceed 15,000,000.00 and 110,000.000.00 for individuals and corporate organisations. respectively, and shall be subject to the referenced processing fees in (1) above, in addition to enhanced due diligence and further information requirements.
a. Valid means of identification of the payee (National ID, International Passport, Driver's License).
b. Bank Verification Number (BVN) of the payee.
c. Notarized customer declaration of the purpose for the cash withdrawal.
d. Senior management approval for the withdrawal by the Managing Director of the drawee, where applicable.
e. Approval in writing by the MD/CEO of the bark authorising the withdrawal.
Please further note the following: i. Monthly returns on cash withdrawal transactions above the specified limits should be rendered to the Banking Supervision Department. Compliance with extant AML/CFT regulations relating to KYC, ongoing customer due diligence and suspicious transaction reporting etc. is required in all circumstances. Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS. eNaira, etc.) to conduct their banking transactions. Finally, please note that aiding and abetting the circumvention of this policy will attract severe sanctions.
The above regulatory directives take effect nationwide from January 9, 2023.
The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) said the reason it decided to increase train rates is because of increased energy bills, especially diesel which is needed to operate the trains.
This was disclosed by Mr Fidet Okhiria, NRC’s Managing Director, during an interview on Saturday in Abuja.
His explanation is coming ahead of the scheduled service resumption on the Abuja-Kaduna rail system which was paused after terrorists attacked it in March.
More on the fare hike: The NRC boss noted the price increase would be implemented with great consideration to the interest of Nigerians and other commuters at heart as the service cannot be halted because of high diesel cost. He said:
“It is better to have it operating than not operating. It is the service we are providing but in order to provide it, everybody has to make some sacrifices.
“The major cost should be the cost of diesel. Because we require diesel to operate the trains. The cost of diesel has gone up by more than three times and it is costing us to mount human and material security that it requires to keep the trains operating.
“We need to service the infrastructure we put in place for the additional security we secured and the additional personnel that will be going up and down to assist; they need some incentives. So I think that Nigerians should bear with us. We are still working on the best way out.”
In case you missed it: The Nigerian Government earlier stated that as part of measures to ensure the security of commuters, Nigerians won’t be able to use the Abuja–Kaduna Train service without their National Identification Number.
Join us live at 7pm for the third installment of the Presidential Town Hall series, as the Presidential candidates discuss their plans for Education, Healthcare, Poverty and Human Capital. Stream live.
The Nigerian Navy has accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited of not revealing the true cause(s) of crude oil theft in the country, but reeling out exaggerated figures to save its face.
This disclosure was made to the Senate Committee on Economic and Financial Crimes by the Navy Chief of Training and Operations, Rear Admiral Solomon Agada, during an interactive briefing of the relevant agencies implementing the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022 at the National Assembly. Our correspondent exclusively observed the proceedings.
Agada revealed that at several interactions with the NNPC, the Navy had explained the causes of fuel scarcity to the company that there was no way anyone would steal 100,000 barrels of oil in a day, but the NNPC had deliberately continued to mislead Nigerians.
He made the disclosure when the Chairman of the committee, Senator Suleiman Kwari, questioned him on why the country continued to experience cases of oil theft if the waterways were secured as Agada posited.
Kwari queried, “The oil theft issue has been a very worrisome one to every Nigerian and more importantly, it has negatively impacted our economy. How come the Navy hasn’t been able to solve the issue of oil theft and if the Navy is claiming that the waterways are secured, why are there still cases of oil theft?”
Agada explained in his responses, “The challenge is that because of the criminal activity inshore by the illegal refiners in tapping into the export lines, those export lines have not been in operation since early this year.
“The major terminals have not been able to process fuel for export since around February/March and instead of the NNPC telling the Federal Government that this product is not brought out to be able to process as export, they say the oil was stolen.”
He explained that the argument of the Navy had been that the NNPC should tell people the difference between the oil that they have shut in and not brought out, and what is being stolen.
He added, “The stolen produce that we have been dealing with among illegal refineries is nothing compared to what the NNPC is declaring as being stolen.
“If you’re talking about stealing 100,000 barrels a day, you need about five-tonne batches 20 times a day from the creek to the high sea, which is very unrealistic. I told them at the NNPC that if that were to be the case, even a blind man would observe that something was happening in Nigeria’s waters and we are there on patrol and not seeing this.
“The only reasonable explanation why the fuels are not coming out is because the Shell platform on Bonny Island is not exporting and the Chevron terminal in Escravos is also not exporting. All these things are very clear, but because it is easier to say these things are stolen, then they just come up with that.
“Let’s get someone who can do proper analysis of these figures and we’ll find out that these claims are just bogus; there is nothing substantive about them. We have communicated appropriately with the NNPC; even at our last interface with them, they agreed with us; but when they come to the public, they say oil theft, hiding the fact from the public.”
Senator Yusuf Yusuf noted that at an oversight function, the NNPC said crude pipelines were being tapped from the pressure pipe under sea and crude oil was usually transferred from there into vessels, and this had been happening for nine years.
“Is the Navy aware or not of the taping going on under the sea?” Yusuf asked.
Agada responded, “On the tapping of the vessel, I also visited that location with the Chief of Defence Staff and there is a directive by the President from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to set up a committee on that particular incident.
“We are not indicting the NNPCL; we are just saying that let matters be presented correctly so that people can make informed decisions. The Navy has no hand in any stealing of oil in this country. I have no ship or vessel, nor do I know anyone who has; you can investigate me.”
The Navy boss further explained that the increase in diesel price was because of the operation in stopping illegal bunkering on the waters.
He said, “People who have been doing this illegal business will confirm to you that since we started this special task force operation in April, their business has gone sour.
“This is also responsible for the increase in diesel price in the country. Since we stopped the illegal diesel from coming to the market, the price has gone up, because once there is high demand and the supply is low, the price will go up.
“People who ought to import will cut corners and buy the illegal products, but now that they can’t import and the illegal ones are not coming, this has reduced the quantity in the country. But somehow, nobody is coming to share this information with the people.”
He added that the Federal Government had invested in infrastructure through the Maritime Domain Awareness Infrastructure, which had assisted the Navy in detecting and arresting illegal refiners and vessels that were usually handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for prosecution.
Agada stated, “And right from Abuja here, we have the capacity to see the entire Nigeria Exclusive Economic Zone. We have 24 hours watch on the exclusive economic zone. Any vessel that enters Nigerian waters that is not permitted to be is immediately arrested because we see their movement.
“Any vessel in the international waters is expected to have their automatic identification system on and that shows that you’re transparently operating; so, any vessel that switches off its identification system automatically becomes a vessel for the Nigeria Navy and we will immediately arrest them and thereafter investigate.
“So, as of today, there is no tanker that can enter Nigerian waters to carry anything without being noticed. All these things that happened now have sent a very strong signal to the international communities that Nigeria is now a place where illegal activities can’t take place anymore.”
Earlier in his speech, the chairman of the committee noted that the session was an oversight function of the Senate to oversee the agencies and check on their revenue generation.
Kwari said, “As part of our oversight duties, it has become imperative to ascertain your organisations’ level of compliance with the specific provisions of this Act with due respect to the actual laid down procedures on how you are to handle and dispose of forfeited assets.
“A cursory look at the submissions so far indicated a wide gap between the reserved prices and competitive bid offers if the items were exposed to the general public through licensed auctioneers. This disposal process is meant to generate revenue for the government and should be seen as such.”
The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Garba-Deen Mohammad, could not be reached for comments.
BEWARE OF THE NATIONAL STARTUP INVESTMENT FUND PROGRAMME
The attention of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has been drawn to an Investment Fund Programme carted "National Startup Investment Fund Program", accessible via (https://nationalstartupinvestmentfund.com), being purported to be from the Federal Government and requesting for individuals and startups in Nigeria to apply.
NITDA is hereby notifying the general public that the Federal Government has nothing to do with this programme as being purported by the site.
Additionally, NITDA advises the general public to avoid and desist from divulging personal information on this website and urges unsuspecting Nigerians to only visit official websites of Government Agencies to confirm the authenticity of any grant schemes or investment fund programmes.
Signed Mrs. Hadiza Umar, MNIPR, M.ARPA, MCIPR Head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations Corporate Headquarters, Garki, Abuja.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has been appointed as Africa’s Ambassador for ‘Agricultural Technology’ by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation.
The AATF Executive Director, Dr Canisius Kanangire, said that the appointment was informed by Jonathan’s track record of championing agricultural transformation on the continent.
This was contained in a statement by the AATF’s Communication Officer, Alex Abutu, released to journalists in Kaduna State on Friday.
The statement noted that Jonathan, who served as the President of Nigeria from 2010 to 2015, had been at the forefront of agricultural improvement on the continent.
According to the statement, while accepting the appointment, Jonathan said that as a former Head of State, his interest in serving the continent was driven by his interest in driving food security and transformation for a better quality of life in Africa.
Kanangire said, “Dr Jonathan was able to demonstrate in Nigeria that agriculture should be treated as a business and supported by relevant policies for the improvement of the livelihoods of our growing farming population.
“Dr Jonathan is a Pan Africanist who had stood for the eradication of rural poverty and the peaceful coexistence of the continent, hence his involvement in peaceful conflict resolution on the continent.
“Dr. Jonathan will advocate for the advancement of Africa’s agricultural goals and economic growth through the application of innovative technologies and enhanced investment in agriculture.
“AATF is honoured to have the former president as our Ambassador, whose role will accelerate ongoing efforts to improve our agricultural terrain.”
AATF was founded in 2003 to address Africa’s food security prospects through agricultural technology.
The organization believes that the agricultural sector is a key foundational pillar as Africa consolidates its economic growth and carves out its new position as a major global economic powerhouse and the next growth market in the world.
Politics › EFCC Connect: Significance Of Birth Of Jesus Christ In The Fight Against Crimes by nlfpmod(mod): 9:25am On Dec 21, 2022
