₦airaland Forum

There was panic on Wednesday morning after fire gutted some buildings within the Nigerian Air Force Base along Airport Road in the Federal Capital Territory.

The cause of the fire outbreak that gutted the military base beside the Nigerian Correctional Service National Headquarters is unknown as of press time.

However, our correspondent can confirm the timely intervention of operatives of the Federal Fire Service attempting to put out the fire.

Responding to an inquiry about the incident during a telephone interview with our correspondent, the Head of Operations, FFF FCT, Amiola Adebayo, said firefighters are working hard to completely put out the fire.

Adebayo said, “The fire gutted part of the NAF Base, and our men are here putting out the fire, and we’re working hard to completely quench the fire.

“However, I can’t confirm the cause of the fire outbreak yet, but we’ll put out a statement once our findings are concluded.”

As the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, kick-starts hearing on Monday, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have filed an application for an order to allow live coverage of day-to-day proceedings on the case they brought against the President-elect, Bola Tinubu.

Atiku, who came second in the presidential election that held on February 25, in the motion he filed through his team of lawyers led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, specifically applied for; “An order, directing the Court’s Registry and the parties on modalities for admission of Media Practitioners and their Equipments into the courtroom”.

The PDP candidate and former Vice President contended that the petition he lodged against the President-elect, was “a matter of national concern and public interest”.

He argued that the case involved citizens and electorates in the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, who he said voted and participated in the presidential poll.

More so, he drew attention of the court to the fact that the International Community is equally interested on issues pertaining to Nigeria’s electoral process.

In the motion dated May 5, Atiku and the PDP insisted that their case against Tinubu, being a unique electoral dispute with a peculiar constitutional dimension, they said it was a matter of public interest in which millions of Nigerian citizens and voters are stakeholders, with the constitutional right to be part of the proceedings.

“An integral part of the constitutional duty of the Court to hold proceedings in public is a discretion to allow public access to proceedings either physically or by electronic means.

“With the huge and tremendous technological advances and developments in Nigeria and beyond, including the current trend by this Honourable Court towards embracing electronic procedures, virtual hearing and electronic filing, a departure from the Rules to allow a regulated televising of the proceedings in this matter is in consonance with the maxim that justice must not only be done, but must be seen to be done.

“Televising court proceedings is not alien to this Honourable Court, and will enhance public confidence”, the petitioners added.

Atiku had in his joint petition with the PDP, marked: CA/PEPC/05/2023, applied for the withdrawal of the Certificate of Return that was issued to Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

He maintained that the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the presidential election was “invalid by reason of non- compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022”.

Atiku further argued that Tinubu’s election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices.

“The 2nd Respondent was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the Election.

“The 2nd Respondent was at the time of the Election not qualified to contest the Election”, Atiku added while listing grounds he said the court should consider to nullify Tinubu’s election.

He prayed the court to declare him winner of the presidential election, having secured the second highest number of lawful votes cast at the election.

However, in a reply he filed through his team of lawyers led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, Tinubu, queried the legal competence of petitions seeking to invalidate his election victory.

In a preliminary objection he entered before the court, Tinubu, described Atiku as a consistent serial loser that had since 1993, crisscrossed different political parties, in search of power.

The President-elect said he would during the hearing of the petition, lead evidence before the court to show how Atiku’s emergence as a candidate in the presidential election that held on February 25, led to the “balkanisation” of the opposition PDP.

Insisting that he was validly returned as winner of the presidential election by INEC, Tinubu told the court that unlike Atiku, he has been “a most consistent politician, who has not shifted political tendency and alignment”.

On the claim that he did not secure the statutory vote from the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, Tinubu, argued that it was not a mandatory requirement of the law that he must win the FCT before he would be declared as the President-elect.

He said Atiku’s call for his election to be nullified on the ground that he was mandatorily required to score one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the States and the FCT, “becomes suspect and abusive, when considered vis-à-vis relief 150(d), where the petitioners pray that the 1st petitioner who did not score one-quarter of the votes cast in more than 21 States and the FCT, Abuja, be declared the winner of the election and sworn in as the duly elected President of Nigeria”.

It will be recalled that INEC had on March 1, announced Tinubu as the winner of the presidential poll, ahead of 17 other candidates that contested the election.

It declared that Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku who polled a total of 6,984,520 votes and Obi who came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.

Aside from Atiku and the PDP, the Labour Party, LP, and its own candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, who came third at the election, are equally before the court to nullify Tinubu’s election.

A three-member panel of the PEPC which will conduct its proceedings at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, will on Monday, commence pre-hearing session on all the petitions that were brought before it by aggrieved presidential candidates and their political parties.

The repayments of principal to service the loans from the Central Bank of Nigeria through the Ways and Means Advances will begin in four years, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.

This was according to a disclosure by the Debt Management Office on the Securitization of the N22.7tn Ways and Means Advances.


In a Frequently Asked Questions statement by the DMO, it was disclosed that the loan approved by the National Assembly would be for a tenor of 40 years with an interest rate of nine per cent per annum.

It was also disclosed that there would be a moratorium on payment of principal for about three years.

The DMO noted that “The Securities will be issued to the Central Bank of Nigeria by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

“The Securities will not be issued to the public by the FGN to raise funds.”

The debt office also listed some benefits of securitization, saying that it would lead to debt transparency and reduce the debt service cost.


It said, “It will reduce the Debt Service Cost as the new Interest Rate is 9% p.a. compared to the Monetary Policy Rate plus three per cent which translates to 21.0 per cent p.a. (MPR – 18.0 per cent + 3 per cent) currently being charged on the Ways and Means Advances.

“The large savings arising from the much lower Interest Rate will help reduce the deficit in the Budget and expectedly, the level of New Borrowings.”

On the repayment, it noted that the Federal Government will begin repayment of interest this year while that of principal will begin in four years.

The debt office said, “Provisions for Interest on the securitized Ways and Means Advances (starting from 2023) and principal repayments starting from year four, will be made in the Annual FGN Budgets.”

The DMO also noted that the securitization of the Ways and Means Advances does not involve new money being given to the Federal Government as the CBN had already provided the funds to the government.

It added that based on statutory provisions, the approval of the Senate and the House of Representatives are required for the securitization, noting that the implementation will be upon receipt of the approval of the House of Representatives.

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have approved the request of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) to restructure the N22.7tn Ways and Means Advances.


The PUNCH earlier reported that the Federal Government plans to spend N1.2tn on servicing the loans it got from the CBN through the Ways and Means Advances.

The 2023 fiscal framework document obtained by our correspondent showed that the Federal Government allocated N6.31tn to service its total debts.

A breakdown showed that the Federal Government allocated approximately N3.3tn to service domestic debts, N1.81tn for foreign debts and N1.2tn for ways and means.

The document also showed that this was the first time the Federal Government was making a budgetary allocation for ways and means.

The PUNCH had also reported that the Federal Government paid interests of N4.12tn between 2019 and 2022 on its borrowings from the CBN.

Ways and Means Advances is a loan facility used by the central bank to finance the government in periods of temporary budget shortfalls subject to limits imposed by law.

According to Section 38 of the CBN Act, 2007, the apex bank may grant temporary advances to the Federal Government with regard to temporary deficiency of budget revenue at such rate of interest as the bank may determine.


The Act read in part, “The total amount of such advances outstanding shall not at any time exceed five per cent of the previous year’s actual revenue of the Federal Government.

“All advances shall be repaid as soon as possible and shall, in any event, be repayable by the end of the Federal Government financial year in which they are granted and if such advances remain unpaid at the end of the year, the power of the bank to grant such further advances in any subsequent year shall not be exercisable, unless the outstanding advances have been repaid.”

However, the CBN has said on its website that the Federal Government’s borrowing from it through the Ways and Means Advances could adversely affect the bank’s monetary policy to the detriment of domestic prices and exchange rates.

“The direct consequence of central banks’ financing of deficits are distortions or surges in the monetary base leading to adverse effects on domestic prices and exchange rates i.e. macroeconomic instability because of excess liquidity that has been injected into the economy,” it said.

The World Bank had, in November 2021, warned the Nigerian government against financing deficits by borrowing from the CBN through the Ways and Means Advances, saying this put fiscal pressure on the country’s expenditures.

The World Bank also projected that interest payments on the Federal Government’s borrowing from the CBN would gulp about 62 per cent of government revenue by 2027 despite the restructuring plan.

Nigeria’s president-elect, Bola Tinubu, whose victory in February is being challenged in court, has been keeping part of his wealth in the United Kingdom, where he and his close associates own at least 20 properties that were mostly acquired when Tinubu was the governor of Lagos State.

Following the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu is scheduled to succeed Muhammadu Buhari as president on 29 May 2023. His opponents claim the elections have been fixed.

The 71-year-old is widely seen as Nigeria’s political kingmaker for his role in the elections of several governors in the country’s southwest region, as well as the election of Buhari, who defeated the incumbent in 2015.

The governors he picked tended to be former directors of companies owned by Tinubu or his son.

Bloomberg first reported on Tuesday that Tinubu’s son, Oluwaseyi, is the main shareholder of Aranda Overseas Corporation, an offshore company that bought a controversial US$10.8 million U.K. property in 2017.

At the time it was bought, Nigeria was trying to confiscate the London house that belonged to a Nigerian oil dealer who was facing corruption charges at home and in the United States, according to OCCRP Nigerian partner Premium Times.

However, OCCRP has uncovered more than a dozen other properties with links to Tinubu, mostly acquired while he served as Lagos State’s governor from May 1999 to May 2007. Tinubu’s spokesman did not respond to email and text messages seeking comment.

“If there are reasonable grounds to suspect these assets were bought with criminal funds then they should be investigated,” said Steve Goodrich, head of research and investigations at Transparency International U.K. “Owning a home via an offshore company has seldom made much sense except for securing secrecy,” he added.

Tinubu’s history is not entirely clean. He was forced to forfeit $460,000 to the U.S. government in 1993 as proceeds of narcotics trafficking, according to the ruling of a U.S. District Court in Illinois.

However, about a year later, Abeeb Holdings Limited, an offshore company registered in Gibraltar with Tinubu as the beneficial owner, bought Flat 9 at 96-100 New Cavendish Street in London.

His connection to Abeeb Holdings Limited has been revealed, thanks to the Register of Overseas Entities, a new measure designed by the U.K. to reveal the true owners of offshore firms that hold property in the country.

In 2011, his son’s Aranda Overseas Corporation bought Flat 10A in the same building. The lease agreement was signed by Tinubu’s associate, Oladipo Eludoyin, a director of Aranda Overseas Corporation.

Eludoyin is also the founding director of Aranda Resources Limited, a Nigerian registered company whose shares are owned by Aranda Overseas Corporation.

OCCRP further found that Eludoyin is the beneficial owner of 17 U.K. properties through three offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Eludoyin’s properties were purchased between 2004 and 2007 when Tinubu was governor of Lagos State. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Tinubu was succeeded by Babatunde Fashola, who previously served as his chief of staff. Fashola also had a hand in Aranda Resources Limited. He signed and presented the allotment of shares of Aranda Resources Limited to Nigeria’s corporate registry in December 2001. Fashola’s spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

Following his term as governor, Tinubu remained an influential politician. Local media reported that he picked Babajide Sanwo-Olu and made him governor of Lagos State in 2019, despite entreaties from his party to allow Sanwo-Olu’s predecessor to continue for a second term.

Sanwo-Olu was a director in Aranda Resources Limited until 26 days before his first day in office as governor in May 2019. His spokesperson also did not respond to requests for comment.

Another director of Aranda Resources Limited and Aranda Overseas Corporation, Adegboyega Oyetola, was elected governor of the Nigerian southwestern state of Osun in 2018, and Tinubu was widely credited for his electoral success.

It is not clear when he became the beneficial owner, but when Aranda Overseas Corporation was incorporated in November 1999 in the tax haven British Virgin Islands, the younger Tinubu was 14 and had just been admitted into Milton Abbey School in England for his secondary school education while his father had just spent nearly six months as the governor of Lagos State.

Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Drainages, Joe Igbokwe, has countered the former Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, over his claim that Nigeria is worse off for not having someone like the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo as president.

Recall that Osinbajo had in May 2022, contested against the President-elect, Bola Tinubu; former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and others for the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential ticket.

Lamenting how Nigeria would miss Osinbajo after the May 29 handover, Sanusi, who spoke at the virtual launch of a book: “Osinbajo Strides: Defining Moments of an Innovative Leader,” expressed hope that Osinbajo may still lead the country subsequently.

But Joe Igbokwe, a chieftain of the APC, took to his Facebook page on Wednesday to counter the former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria.

According to Igbokwe, the ruling party would have lost the February 25 presidential election to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, if Osinbajo had clinched the ticket.

He wrote, “Enemies of APC are talking. If Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had not been on the ballot, APC would have lost to Atiku’s PDP by 12 noon on that day”.

The Special Adviser to the President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina said it is not the responsibility of the government to create jobs.

Adesina stated this in an interview on Arise Television on Tuesday.

Speaking on the achievements of the Buhari in the last eight years, Adesida noted that all that the government does is create an enabling environment for creating jobs while the private sector creates jobs.

On President Buhari’s promise to create 3 million jobs annually in 2015, Adesina said, “Did you say 3 million was the promise? I wouldn’t say he put a figure. What I recall was that President Buhari gave the per cent of joblessness in the country.

“I wouldn’t recall that he gave a specific figure for the number of jobs we are creating. For all you know, that may have come from anywhere.

“Regard as it may, it is the job and the duty of the government to create an enabling environment for jobs in the country. It is not the government itself that creates jobs. All it does is to create an enabling environment,” he said.

Adesina, however, noted that Buhari has achieved in all sectors including oil and gas, infrastructure, legislative matters, and security.

He said, “Most of the jobs you need in a country would come from the private sector. As long as you have an enabling environment, it is the private sector that will create the jobs.”

Penguin2:
Reactions has trailed Alhassan Ado Doguwa’s letter to his colleagues at the House of Representatives to officially declaring his interest to contest for the post of Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Recall that Police had charged Ado Doguwa for arson and murder during the just concluded general elections after INEC office in his constituency was set ablaze and killed several people. He was however granted a 500million Naira bail by the court.

Now he is on way to become speaker.

The characters that are rewarded in Nigeria.

Lanrelagboi:
https://twitter.com/Mr_JAGs/status/1652944281194168320?t=0fQrIUTqan2b2iaLgoVnSQ&s=19[/quote]Good news, but make dem maintain drm. Go see BRT for Oshodi, Ikorodu, many of dem don injure, no side mirror, dented, broken lights.

maasoap:
See how you contradicted yourself in one post! You have a disjointed thought process

How Nigerian Embassy Staff In Sudan Extorted $250 From Us For Evacuation –Varsity Students

Two Nigerian students believed to be part of the final set of students stranded in Sudan owing to the ongoing war in the Northeast African country have lamented that they were extorted, in the name of evacuation.

Some embassy staff in Khartoum first asked them to pay $150 ($75 each) for their evacuation, which they requested from their families in Nigeria.

On April 29, the Nigerian government provided additional six buses which were sent to the International University of Africa (IUA) in Sudan, where the Nigerian students studying in Khartoum were asked to assemble for evacuation.

Meanwhile, some of the buses deployed to transport the stranded students to neighbouring Egypt, from where they would be airlifted to Nigeria, were reportedly hijacked by non-documented Nigerians residing in Sudan.

SaharaReporters gathered that undocumented migrants, doing all sorts of menial jobs, stormed the university in large numbers, asking to also be evacuated. They reportedly became aggressive and went inside the buses, insisting that they should be evacuated before the students.

Two affected Nigerian sisters told SaharaReporters that some embassy staff in Khartoum first asked them to pay $150 ($75 each) for their evacuation, which they requested from their families in Nigeria.

They said on April 29, the staff demanded an additional $100 ($50 each) from both of them to facilitate their evacuation.

The students - Dr. Khairat Isa Babayo and Dr Fatima Isa Babayo – both from Bauchi State, told SaharaReporters that the staff collected $125 from each of them.

One of the women is studying medicine while the other is studying dentistry. As of 6 pm (5 pm Nigerian time) Sunday, they said they were still in Khartoum but that the buses that would take them were on the ground.

"The staff collected over $250 from us in the name of evacuation,” one of the sisters said.

"We are still in Khartoum; it's 6:00 pm here already, but there is every tendency that we might not take off today.”

SaharaReporters earlier reported that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffery Onyeama said the Nigerian government would be spending $1.2 million to hire 40 buses to be used to evacuate Nigerians trapped in Sudan.

Onyeama disclosed this while speaking to State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday. Onyeama said the Nigerian government would evacuate citizens within days amid the 72-hour ceasefire agreement between the warring factions in Sudan.

allen113:
I believe he fell sick inside the cell, because I don't see any reason he will be killed just like that for refusing special duty, they could decide to punish him another way not by killing him.
Just my opinion sha.


Or maybe the man declined the SD because wanted to remain with his family only God knows

englishmart:
The Nigerian police force are bunch of criminals masquerading to be chasing and bringing criminals to book. NO crime syndicate can exist without strong complicitness from men of the armed forces

allen113:
I believe he fell sick inside the cell, because I don't see any reason he will be killed just like that for refusing special duty, they could decide to punish him another way not by killing him.
Just my opinion sha.

treesun:
https://punchng.com/police-killed-my-husband-for-rejecting-special-duty-wife-of-kwara-inspector/

TheRareGem1:
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) delivered 180 reforms to facilitate the ease of doing business in the past seven years of its existence.

Osinbajo stated this Friday at an award ceremony organised by the PEBEC to recognise ministries, departments and agencies of government, as well as sub-nationals who have contributed to business facilitation in the country.


In his remarks at the event in Abuja, Osinbajo, who chairs the council said, “The PEBEC, over the years, developed a strategy to identify and implement bold pragmatic reforms by soliciting the support of other arms of government, including the legislature, judiciary and sub-national governments.

“Subsequently, young Nigerians drawn from the private and public sectors have designed and implemented strategies, including the national action plan that helped in implementing priority reforms for each annual reform circle, and has achieved 180 reforms and seven action plans over the years.”

Highlighting the significance of the awards, the special adviser to the president on ease of doing business and secretary to the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, said the PEBEC awards celebrated those that make Nigeria a more accessible place to do business.

https://dailytrust.com/pebec-delivered-180-reforms-in-7yrs-osinbajo/

EcoBrick:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/04/breaking-again-buhari-postpones-2023-census-says-tinubu-to-determine-new-date/




Mynd44
Nlfpmod

TheLawAsItIs:
https://www.thecable.ng/breaking-buhari-approves-indefinite-postponement-of-census