IT was past noon – lunch time – but there was only one customer at the bukka. Loretta Eze, the proprietor, surveyed the busy street as she stood by the entrance of her restaurant located by the corner of a street in the Wuse 2 area of Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory. A number of girls in yellow shirts, who worked as attendants in the restaurant, were hanging around waiting for the solitary customer to finish his meal.

“It was not always like this,” Loretta told The ICIR‘s correspondent, who visited the restaurant while investigating the impact of rising prices of foodstuffs on the preparation and consumption of food, especially jollof rice.

“Food items are very expensive these days and the situation is very hard for those of us that are into catering and food business. Things are hard and as a result, we are not getting as many customers as in the past when things were cheaper,” Loretta added.

Higher cost of foodstuffs has forced restaurants, including roadside bukkas and ‘Mama put‘ joints, to increase the prices of different dishes on their menu and Loretta observed that the development had, in turn, forced some customers to stay away because they could not afford meals as in the past.

Loretta’s observations and concerns mirrored the findings in the SBM Jollof Index report for the first quarter of 2021.

The SBM Jollof Index, developed by SBM Intel, an Africa-focused research firm, simplified the appreciation of food inflationary trends using a common delicacy that most Nigerian households enjoy – jollof rice.

Across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, SBM collects data on the most common ingredients that go into cooking jollof rice in 13 markets on a monthly basis except for December, due to the seasonal spikes caused by Yuletide celebrations. From the prices collated, the cost of making a pot of jollof rice for a family of five or six is averaged and used as a proxy for measuring food inflation across the country.

The commodities that make up the Jollof Index include rice, curry, thyme, seasoning, groundnut oil, chicken/turkey (poultry), beef, pepper, tomatoes, salt and onions.

The SBM Index is published three times a year – at the end of the first three quarters. Data from October and November are reflected in the Quarter 1 Jollof Index of the following year.

Cost of making pot of jollof rice rose between March 2020 and March 2021
According to the latest SBM Jollof Index report, the average cost of making a pot of jollof rice rose by 7.8 per cent between March 2020 and March 2021.

The sharp spike in the cost of preparing the delicacy was attributed to a number of events which impacted on food prices. The negative impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown from March to May 2020, the border closure and foreign exchange restrictions in August 2020 were worsened by a sharp hike in energy tariffs by September of that year.

The situation was further compounded by the the #EndSARS protests, as well as the food blockade imposed by northern traders on the southern part of the country, which disrupted agricultural supply chain and the movement of people and goods.

The reopening of land borders in December 2020 did not result in a significant drop in the cost of food items – the price of a bag of rice only dropped slightly by a margin of N1000 to N3000 depending on the market but that did not translate into a drop in the cost of making a pot of jollof rice for the majority of Nigerians who buy from retailers.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/rising-cost-of-preparing-jollof-rice-signals-nigerias-worsening-food-security/

JUSTICE of the Court of Appeal Kalu Anyah travelled from Arochukwu to Owerri for a book launch and decided to spend the night in a nearby hotel.

Anyah drove into Imo Concorde Hotel, where security men on duty issued him with a plastic disc labelled 102 at the entrance. He then parked his car in a space provided by the hotel.

Despite the signpost that read, 'owners park at their own risk,' Anyah locked his car and put the keys into his pockets. He then proceeded to retire for the night into the room allocated to him.

The following morning, Anyah checked out of his hotel room at about 7.00 AM, walked down to the parking lot to get his car, but his car was gone.

 He reported to the hotel management and an investigation was ordered into the theft, but it yielded no result.

The lawsuit that ensued afterwards would be known across Nigeria as Anyah v. Imo Concorde Hotels Limited & Ors. Anyah filed an action against the hotel, claiming compensation for the value of his stolen car and other expenses he had incurred as a result.

The hotel management, however, argued in court that the parking facility was merely a service rendered to customers and did not imply a guarantee of safety for their cars, especially with the presence of a notice that cars were being parked at owners’ risk.

Anyah’s case is similar to several arguments that have ensued among individuals, hotels and some corporate entities, especially in places like the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for several years. When cars are parked within the premises of an organisation, are they still at owners' risk?

A report has estimated that about 2,544 vehicles have been stolen across the country between 2013 and 2015, and the steady rise in vehicle theft in Abuja has resulted in extra measures by car park authorities to exonerate themselves of liability that may arise from vehicle damage or theft within their premises.

One of such measures is the inscription of a notice often displayed at public car parks, that cars are parked at owners’ risk.

Whether or not the caveat absolves an institution of liability arising from cars stolen or damaged within their premises, the issue has remained a topic for debate by car owners, most of whom are unsure of its legality.

As the arguments continue to unfold, The ICIR examines the position of the law on the caveat of cars being parked at owners’ risk.

A legal practitioner Franklin Okeke, in an article, said parties to a contract were free under the law to exclude obligations arising from their transactions through the use of an exclusion or limitation clause.

“Exclusion and limitation clauses are binding on parties as there is a general presumption of intention on contractual terms,” it read.

Thus, the caveat “cars are parked at owners’ risk” is a clause that excludes the obligation that ordinarily should be binding on authorities at public car parks.

In a phone conversation with The ICIR, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Olusina Sofola explained that while the law might generally hold an occupier liable for damage done to a licensee’s property, putting up a notice that could be spotted easily by a reasonable person upon entry might exonerate the occupier from liability.

“If you are there to conduct business or something, it is left for you to decide not to conduct that business again and go somewhere else. They have informed you in advance that they will not cover any loss or damage,” he said.

Another legal practitioner Chukwubuikem  Azoro told The ICIR that while the presence of a car park or security men within a premises would not imply a duty of care, it posed a duty on occupiers to make, at least, minimal efforts as could be expected from a reasonable person to ensure the safety of a licensee’s car.

“If after they have done their best, a third party tampers with the car, can one still hold them liable? They are not bailees of the car in the first place. And if, for any reason, they have put up the caveat, ‘cars parked at owners’ risk,’ then it is conclusive of the matter,” he said.

Several car parks demand the payment of a certain sum before entry into the premises can be granted to car owners. Receipts are issued upon payment, and this is the practice across major markets in Abuja.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/park-at-your-own-risk-who-is-liable-for-a-stolen-car/

OVER a week ago, Nigeria’s apex bank announced the sack of the Board of First Bank of Nigeria (FBN), citing the previous board’s decision to implement ‘changes’ without alerting regulatory authorities, poor corporate governance and insider dealings.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said its decision to wield the stick on First Bank and its holding company, FBN Holdings Plc, was in the interests of its minority shareholders and depositors.

“The sacking of the board was done in order to preserve the stability of the bank, so as to protect minority shareholders and depositors,” according to a media briefing by CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele.

Prior to CBN’s sack of the board, it had directed First Bank to recover the loan it had granted to Honeywell Nigeria Plc, a company owned by the former chairman of FBN Holdings Plc, Oba Otudeko, or face appropriate regulatory measures for insider borrowing.

According to a report, the loan was to the tune of N75 billion but the annual or interim reports of Honeywell Nigeria Plc did not reveal the total amount the company owed the bank.

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It stated that Honeywell’s current portion of its loan to First Bank is N13.5 billion, including the overdraft facility of N2.9 billion. However, CBN alleged that First Bank gave special treatment to Honeywell Flour Mills by restructuring its loan facility.

First Bank, Nigeria’s oldest lender, has over 31 million customers, with deposits of N4.2 trillion and also accounts for a 22 per cent share of the country’s instant payments processing capacity.

Otudeko used his FBN shares as collateral

Since 2016, First Bank non-performing loans, when compared with its Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR), was beyond acceptable standards, according to the CBN.

CAR is the measure of the capital that banks have to protect customers’ deposits. When it is less than non-performing loans, it means that the bank’s liabilities are greater than its assets.

According to data from Nairalytics, FBN Holdings had recorded a total loan impairment of over N565 billion between 2016 and 2020, while N376.4 billion, accounting for more than half the total loans impaired, was provided for in 2016 and 2017.

In its statement, the CBN stated that First Bank might have collapsed were it not for its regulatory forbearance, a financial term for softening some of the strict rules that banks must comply with if they were to avoid being taken over by the CBN.

First Bank’s bad loan ratio improved to 7.7 per cent in 2020, compared to 20 per cent in 2018, following the restructuring and write-offs of corporate debts.

READ ALSO: https://www.icirnigeria.org/explainer-why-cbn-ousted-board-of-first-bank/

FORMER Minister of Education Obiageli Ezekwesili has asked the Inspector General of Police Usman Baba to investigate and prosecute a social media influencer Japhet Omojuwa over allegations of forgery and misrepresentation.

This was contained in a petition seen by The ICIR titled, “Petition Against Mr Japheth Omojuwa for Forgery, Fraudulent Misrepresentation and Fraudulent Use of the Name, Identity and Particulars of Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili as a Director of Alpha Reach Limited RC No: 1066507” and dated April 14, 2021. It was submitted and acknowledged by the Force Headquarters in Abuja on Friday.

In the petition signed by Marshal Abubakar of the Falana and Falana Chambers on behalf of Ezekwesili, Omojuwa was accused of listing the name of the former minister as a director of a company, Alpha Reach Limited, without her consent in 2012.

The petition claimed that Ezekwesili was not aware that her name was listed until March 30, 2021, when she was contacted by someone from Buzzfeed informing her that she was listed as one of the directors of Alpha Reach Limited alongside Nasir El-Rufai and Japhet Omojuwa.

Ezekwesili noted that she contacted Omojuwa to confirm whether he forged her signature and other incorporation documents, but he informed her that the Alpha Reach Company Limited was his company and she was not involved in it.

Ezekwesili also claimed that her name was later delisted in 2017 as a director and replaced with the name of one Indimi Ahmed Mohammed in 2017.

READ ALSO: Image laundering: How Nigerian Twitter influencers, PR firm got involved with suspected money launderer Alex Saab – Report
Noting that she had never at a time signed documents as a director of the company, the petition further read that throughout the time Ezekwesili was ‘fraudulently’ made a director of the said company, no notice of meeting, annual returns, accounts and board resolution was ever issued to her.

The petition read that the alleged actions of Omojuwa amounted to “forgery, fraudulent misrepresentation, and egregious breach of extant provisions of the Penal Code Law, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 and the Companies and Allied Matters Act, deserving of investigation and prosecution.”

READ ALSO: https://www.icirnigeria.org/ezekwesili-petitions-igp-demands-prosecution-of-omojuwa-over-alleged-forgery/

Former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chidi Odinkalu and former Senator representing Kaduna Central Shehu Sani have said that nobody in the country, including Fulanis, have monopoly of grievances.

Speaking at a webinar organised by The ICIR on Thursday themed, ‘Nigeria’s Insecurity: Addressing the Challenges of Banditry and Kidnapping,’ the civil society leaders said there was no justification for carrying arms against the state and its people.

“Nobody has monopoly of grievances. Several other Nigerians could possibly argue that Fulanis have dominated the country. This is an uncomfortable conversation, but I do think Nigerians must have the conversation about grievance and domination and hegemony,” Odinkalu said.

“If everyone who has a grievance resorts to shooting, there is not just going to be enough people to be destroyed in the country,” he stated.

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He noted that there were between 379 to 383 ethnic groups in the country, with everyone having its sense of grievances. “The Fulanis have no monopoly of grievance or capacity to shoot their ways into grievance or out of it. I think that needs to be made very clear,” he stated.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/fulanis-do-not-have-monopoly-of-grievances-odinkalu-sani/

ANALYSIS of top management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries shows an uneven geographical spread of senior appointments and reflects a less gender-friendly national corporation.

Group Managing Director (GMD) of the NNPC Mele Kyari, while announcing the reshuffling of the senior leadership of the NNPC in July 2020, said the appointments and redeployment of some top officers were in line with the corporation’s vision of Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE).

However, a scrutiny of the top cadre staff at the NNPC by The ICIR reveals a geographical imbalance within the ranks of the corporation.

Hence the North-East, North-West and North-Central occupy 60 per cent of all the appointments. Women, on the other hand, constitute only 25 per cent of NNPC’s top management.

Out of 40 senior management positions within the NNPC ranging from chief operating officers and managing directors of its subsidiaries to general managers’ roles in the corporation, 24 are occupied by Nigerians from the North while 16 are headed by those from the South.

On the website of the NNPC, the internal executive board of the NNPC consists of the GMD of the corporation Kyari who hails from the North-East, alongside eight other board members.

The total representation comprises two from North-East, two from North-West, one from North-Central, one from South-South and one from the South-West.

The list is as follows: Chief Operating Officer (COO) in charge of refineries Mustapha Yinusa Yakubu (North-Central); Chief Financial Officer in charge of Accounts and Finance Umar Isa Ajiya (North-West); COO, Gas and Power Yusuf Usman (North East); while COO overseeing ventures and investments is Adeyemi Adetunji (South-West).

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/north-occupies-60-of-nnpcs-top-management-positions/

IN September 2015, Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel announced the reactivation of Peacock Paints Limited, a public limited company in Akwa Ibom with N526 million. Few years after its reactivation, investigations indicate the company is caught up in a web of corruption allegedly carried out by the management in connivance with the Board of Directors.

This, coupled with the misappropriation of the intervention funds by the state officials and controversy over the firm’s ownership, has thrown the company into disarray and caused untold hardship to staff who are owed 15 months salary, even under the biting economy occasioned by COVID-19.

Intervention gone wrong!

Since Udom’s intervention, the company’s fortunes have continued to nosedive. Checks into Peacock Paints Limited’s financial records show an imbalance in the company’s expenditure and sales records. For instance, the sales and expenditure profile of the company in 2019 shows that N48.36 million was made from sales of Peacock Paints products while N64.31 million stood as expenditure for that year. A year earlier, the loss stood at N65.30 million.

Findings indicate that the bulk of the expenditure came through questionable administrative expenses. Staff of the company revealed that Peacock Paints only showed gleams of hope when the state governor saw to its reactivation. They noted that the company began retrogressing till its present state of comatose when the governor appointed new board members and management.

“This place is down and we need assistance. We are not in real production. Government did put in funds in the past. But the money was not put to right use. The fund is no longer there and the place is not functioning as it should. The reason for the collapse stems from the fact that the intervention fund was misappropriated,” says Christian Sampson, chairman of Senior Staff Union and head of depot staff of Peacock Paints Limited.

Our investigations showed that the company’s Colour Centre, a place originally designed to have colour catalogue for customers at 93 Tunde Ogbeha street, Ewet Housing Estate and a depot at Oron Road, Uyo, have ceased operations as products are no longer supplied to the branches.

Even then, there has been controversy surrounding the company’s ownership and the legality of government intervention. The company had been virtually bankrupt due to N30 million debt owed First Bank of Nigeria Limited (First Bank). The debt with interest accumulated to N150 million. The bank sued the company and got a judgment to claim ownership of the company’s properties. Thereafter, the state government, which owns a 15 percent stake renegotiated the debt burden to N102 million, paid it off and claimed total ownership in September 2015.

Despite this, the state government has failed to undertake due diligence in taking over the company. The 100 per cent ownership claim is not reflected in important government documents five years after pumped funds to resuscitate the company. For instance, the audited financial statements and annual report of the Accountant General of the State for 2019 shows that the state still holds 15 per cent stake in the company. This is the same stake the state held before the purported take over while other shareholders had 85 per cent stake.

Also, it was discovered, Peacock Paints Limited’s name as incorporated by shareholders is still being used in business dealings. While the state government is making efforts to change the name of the company, some shareholders are still laying claim to its ownership.

Misappropriation of reactivation funds

While a cloak of uncertainty hangs over the ownership of Peacock Paints, investigations revealed that the Ministry of Trade and Investment, which was in charge of the N526 million reactivation funds for the company, misappropriated the funds.

A senior civil servant in the ministry who cannot be named for security reasons, said that after N102 million debt owed First Bank was settled, the remaining N424.069 million was given to the ministry for the reactivation project. The source also disclosed that the handover notes by the then Commissioner for Trade and Investment, Emmanuel Enoidem, noted that out of the N424.069 million released to the ministry for the project, N339.385 million was the actual funds committed for the reactivation while N84.684 million was expended on transactions not related to Peacock Paints Limited.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-corruption-questionable-contracts-led-to-the-collapse-of-akwa-ibom-state-owned-company/

THE Nigerian government is unable to make a resolute decision on fuel subsidy removal, compounding the country’s economic woes and putting the future of over 200 people in jeopardy.

Each month, more than N120 billion is pumped into an unsustainable subsidy regime amidst dwindling revenues facing Africa’s most populous nation. The Nigerian government printed N60 billion to augment March allocation to states – reflecting the precarious finances of the country.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)’s Group Managing Director Mele Kyari had, in the first quarter of 2020, declared a ‘no subsidy’ payment regime in the petroleum downstream sector. However, the corporation has continued to pay for subsidies, despising the country’s precarious economic situation.

Eating the future

In Africa’s largest economy with highest number of poor people in the world, N120 billion would pay the minimum wages of N30,000 for at least four million citizens. It could build up to 2,400 houses for thousands of homeless Nigerians. But absence of these in a subsidy regime has meant more socio-economic unrests in the country.

Energy experts are unhappy that Nigeria’s dwindling revenue is further plundered by an opaque subsidy regime.

“We may be eating up the future with the way we are going. For some us ,we cannot say this enough. This is not the way to go. Most often, I wonder what the Nigerian Labour Congress wants to achieve in the way and manner they tread with the government on the subsidy issue. We cannot keep making economic decision political all the time You can see the way we’re struggling to pull this through.” the Chairman of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria Adetunji Oyebanji told the ICIR.

Global rise in oil price at slightly above $60 per barrel could have ushered Nigeria into a golden era. It should ordinarily have increased foreign exchange inflows into the country in dire need of it. However, the Federal Government has pledged to continue with the subsidy regime in the next six months, amounting to N720 billion, putting the country’s fiscal status in further peril.

“What we are gaining from the rising oil price, we are loosing through unsustainable subsidy payment,” an oil sector governance expert Henry Ademola Adigun told the ICIR.

The number of PMS trucks shipped per day is estimated at 80.23million litres, as confirmed by the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), spiralling the subsidy cost. Energy experts allege that some of Nigeria’s petroleum products find their way to neighbouring West African countries which benefit largely from a corrupt subsidy regime.

Analysts put the blame on the doorstep of the NNPC, which is the sole PMS importer, wondering why it cannot superintend the industry as expected.

“NNPC cannot play the role of an importer and a regulator at the same time. This is why we are seriously advocating for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill. It may not be a perfect document, but it would definitely deal with a lot of issues that have been impeding the growth of the petroleum sector.” Adigun stated.

Experts say for Nigeria to address concerns of sole importation by the NNPC, there is a need to have a market driven exchange rate, since the government has been the sole importer of PMS and most of its detailed import statistics shrouded in secrecy.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/nigerian-governments-indecision-on-fuel-subsidy-compounds-economic-woes/

Image laundering: How Nigerian Twitter influencers, PR firm got involved with suspected money launderer Alex Saab – Report

A report by Buzzfeed and the Digital Africa Research Lab (DigiAfricaLab) has exposed how some Nigerian Twitter influencers, including a public relations firm owned by popular social media influencer Japhet Omojuwa and other organisations ran a campaign in support of Alex Saab, an alleged money launderer for the Nicolas Maduro-led Venezuelan government, who is currently fighting extradition to the United States from Cape Verde.

A #FreeAlexSaab hashtag began amongst Nigerians on Twitter in mid-January.

According to the report, the hashtag became a rallying cry that seeks to allegedly influence the ongoing court proceedings against Saab in Nigeria and Cape Verde, the African island nation where Saab is currently under house arrest.

Some of the accounts which participated in the campaign were recently suspended by Twitter, but some of the accounts have been restored as of the time of filing this report.

Buzzfeed News said more than 1500 accounts were suspended in response to the investigation it was conducting with Digital Africa Research Lab that was manipulating the #FreeAlexSaab hashtag.

Saab is a Colombian businessman arrested by the Cape Verdean government based on an international arrest warrant purportedly issued by Interpol at the United States’ request.

He was in 2019 charged with money laundering by a United States court. He is alleged to have helped Nicolás Maduro evade sanctions via fuel and gold trading.

Saab was arrested on June 12, 2020 when his plane stopped to refuel at Amilcar Cabral International Airport on the Island of Sal by the Cape Verdean government enroute Iran from Venezuela.


Venezuelan authorities have continued to call for Saab’s unconditional release, adding that he had diplomatic immunity when he was arrested.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court had, in a ruling it gave on the 20th of December, 2020, ordered the Republic of Cape Verde to place Saab under permanent home detention in good conditions, including access to medical treatment and visits.

According to the report, the campaign involved Alpha Reach, Omojuwa’s PR firm, and a UK-based nonprofit called Digital Good Governance for Africa.

DIGA is a UK nonprofit led by Naji Makarem, an international development professor at University College London, and Christian Elemele, a Nigerian expat and social entrepreneur who previously studied at UCL. Founded in 2019, it is currently working on a project to bring digital voting to Nigeria for the country’s 2023 elections.

Christian Elemele’s profile on the restornaija campaign website states that he is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Digital Good Governance for Africa (DIGA), an economic development professional providing consultancy and advisory services in private emerging markets through critical data, insight and analysis to global and specialist markets to top Investment funds in the DACH region consisting of Germany, Austria and Switzerland at Euromoney Institutional Investor.

Effort to contact Makarem to get his reaction to the report proved abortive as two messages sent to his email were not responded to.

Effort to also contact Elemele proved as The ICIR could not find an email address linked to him and a Twitter account associated with Elemele shows “this account does not exist”.

BuzzFeed News said after it reached out, Elemele’s photo was removed from the @wakandanomics account and it appeared to have been deactivated.

A check on the account on Way Back Machine (archive.com) showed that the account may have been recently deactivated recently as Way Back Machine captured the account on the 7th of April, 2021.

Nigerian Twitter influencers
Tonto Dikeh (@Tontolet), Pamilerin Adegoke (@UnclePamilerin), Queen Mother (@rutie_xx), Sola (@Advsola), Karen King (@theKarenKing), Gbemi Dennis (@GbemiDennis) are some of the handles listed by BuzzFeed News to have participated in the campaign.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/image-laundering-how-nigerian-twitter-influencers-pr-firm-got-involved-with-suspected-money-launderer-alex-saab-report/

THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has gambled $1.5 billion on the financially battered Port Harcourt Refinery Company (PHRC), signing a contract with an Italian firm Maire Tecnimont S.p.A for the rehabilitation of the inefficient company.

Rather than privatise the refinery, the NNPC has chosen to pump an equivalent to 4.5 percent of Nigeria’s 2021 budget into the refurbishment of a refinery that comprehensively lost N152.89 billion between 2017 and 2019.

The corporation and its appointees have mismanaged the refinery over the years, but are still bent on continuing managing it against common economics sense.

Related Story: Operations of Warri refinery question NNPC’s financial prudence
The ICIR analysis of PHRC’s 2017-2019 financial statements has shown that the refinery is in the red and needs something different from $1.5 billion to operate as an efficient business.

Directors, workers smile to the bank amid losses

In 2019, for example, the refinery did not record any revenue. Yet, it reported N25.19 billion in expenses. Six directors collected N59.65 million in fees, meaning that each of them received an average payment of N9.94 million a month in 2019 from a company that recorded no revenue. According to the NNPC, names of the six directors as of 2019 were: Group Managing Director of NNPC Malam Mele Kyari; Managing Director of PHRC Engr Abba Bukar (who retired in March 2020); Executive Director of Services Babatunde S. Sofowore; Executive Director of Operations Ganiyu Abiodun Owolabi; another Executive Director of Operations Engr Abel N. Imonighavwe; and Executive Director of Finance and Accounts Mrs Aramide M. Ekundayo.

A new Managing Director Engr Ahmed Dikko was appointed in March 2020, alongside a new Executive Director of Operations Mr Muazu M. Awaisu, and Executive Director of Finance and Accounts Mr Reginald M. Udeh. They were not among the directors in 2019.

To further buttress the level of financial recklessness in Port Harcourt refinery, the total number of staff as of 2019 was 675. Their salaries, wages , allowances, redundancy and pension costs amounted to N22.195 billion. What that means is that, on the average, each staff member received N32.88 million in 2019 from a company that made no revenue. This amounted, on the average, to N2.74 million each month.


Total salaries and pays received by staff of Port Harcourt refinery between 2017 and 2019 amounted at N80.57 billion. But revenues received by the company within the period were estimated at N6.27 billion – implying that the NNPC sought N74.3 billion from outside the refinery to pay staff salaries.

“In 2019, PH Refinery contributed zero revenue, but incurred costs of N47bn; almost N4bn a month! Instead of ending this nightmare through a #BPE core investor sale, #NNPC wants to enmesh Nigeria into a deeper financial mess by throwing $1.5bn (incl. debt) at a problem it created?” Founder of Stanbic IBTC Atedo Peterside said on his Twitter handle on March 28.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/nnpc-gambles-1-5bn-on-financially-battered-port-harcourt-refinery/

A 22-year-old security guard Clement Sargwak, who was assaulted by Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) Danladi Umar, is in hospital receiving medical attention for injuries sustained in the incident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIvZqDgPSF0

A viral video clip of the assault, which occurred at Banex Plaza in Wuse 2, Abuja, on March 29, elicited outrage from many Nigerians with calls from several quarters for Umar to be removed from his position. As Chairman of the CCT, Umar presides over the trial of public officers accused of misconduct.

Sargwak, a personnel of Jul Reliable Security Guards, a private outfit which provides security services at Banex Plaza, was allegedly physically manhandled by Umar when he accosted the judge for parking his vehicle in an inappropriate manner in the plaza’s parking lot.

Sargwark’s supervisor Dennis Omala informed The ICIR on April 6 that the security guard was diagnosed with internal injuries. The guard also sustained open wounds on his lips, where Umar kicked him with his shoes, the supervisor said.

Omala, however, did not disclose the identity of the hospital where Sargwak was receiving treatment. He also told The ICIR correspondent, who wanted to speak with the guard, that Sargwak, who was traumatised by the incident, was incommunicado at the moment for ‘security reasons.’

He said the management of the security outfit took the guard to hospital for proper medical attention.

“The boy is still in the hospital, and we can’t allow him to talk now. He is receiving treatment. We are still taking care of him because, due to the injuries he sustained, if we had told him to stay at home we may lose him, and we don’t want to take chances. He is improving now but he was in a very bad shape before. Apart from the lips that were torn, he was diagnosed with an internal injury because the judge also hit him on the chest,” Omala told The ICIR.

The supervisor suggested that Sargwak could have died if he had not received treatment for the injuries.


“Besides, if he had died, the story will be that a judge has killed somebody and it will be a different case. The story will be that the judge hit him and he died. So we had to take him to the hospital to ensure that he was healed first because life is more important.”

*CCT chairman has not reached out to security guard or the company since incident

Omala further disclosed that Umar had not tried to reach out to the security guard or the management of the security outfit since the incident occurred.

“The unfortunate thing is Danladi Umar has not reached out to him (security guard) or shown any interest on how to resolve the problem. I expected that he would try to reach out to us through our lawyer or the management, or even through me, being the supervisor,” Omala said.

Security outfit makes demands, says CCT chairman should settle guard’s medical bills
In calling on the judge to ‘reach out,’ Jul Reliable Security Guards is demanding that the judge should settle Sargwark’s medical bills.

Speaking with The ICIR, Omala added, “Let him reach out – he should call the boy or the company. Let us find a way to resolve this issue. Let him offset the boy’s hospital bills because at the moment the company is bearing the cost alone. Let him start from there. Since the incident happened, the judge has not reached out to the boy or to the company and we are patiently waiting for him to reach out to us so that we find a way to resolve this issue. Let him call and we will tell him what to do. The issue of the medical bills is not the most important matter. He should reach out to us first.”

CCT chairman, in interview with PR Nigeria, claims he was attacked and injured by Biafran mob singing secessionist slogans
In an interview with PRNigeria, Umar had justified his claims that he was assaulted by alleged ‘Biafran boys’ at Banex Plaza on the day of the incident.

“When I was accosted by the plaza guard in a very rude manner on arriving there, I had maintained my accustomed decorum before I was drawn into an unnecessary altercation and subsequently assaulted, with this degenerating into an attack and injury by a mob that was chanting secessionist and sectional slogans,” the judge told PRNigeria, adding that, contrary to insinuations, he had no bodyguard or police escort when he visited the plaza.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/security-guard-assaulted-by-cct-chairman-hospitalised-with-internal-injuries-supervisor/

THE Nigerian government has not contacted its striking doctors since they proceeded on indefinite strike on April 1, leadership of the medical practitioners told The ICIR on Tuesday, April 6.

Consequently, doctors say the strike will continue as long as government fails to take them and the health sector seriously.

The strike affects at least 74 public hospitals across the nation, including those owned by federal and state governments, crippling services.

Doctors in the country, under the aegis of National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), agreed to down tools over unmet demands by the government, including payment of salaries for house officers who have been owed for three months and resident doctors who are owed between three and six months.

NARD’s decision to embark on strike was contained in a communique issued after its Extra-ordinary National Executive Council Meeting in Abuja on March 28.

Speaking with our reporter on Tuesday April 6, NARD President Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi said the federal government had not contacted NARD since its members proceeded on strike and had not scheduled a meeting.

At meetings with doctors in the past, the government had been represented by Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige; ministers and other top functionaries of Federal Ministry of Health; Budget Office of the Federation, Head of Civil Service of the Federation, among others.

“The government promised to send NARD leadership an invite. As at today, it has not sent us any invite. We have not seen any invite from the Ministry of Labour (whose responsibility is it to bring aggrieved employees of government for a dialogue),” Okhuaihesuyi said.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/doctors-vow-to-continue-strike-as-fg-fails-to-convene-meeting/

MEMBERS of the National Association of Seadogs (NAS) a.k.a. Pyrates Confraternity, on Tuesday, stormed the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) office in Abuja to demand the removal of the CCT Chairman, Mr. Danladi Umar over the physical assault of a security guard, Mr. Clement Sagwak.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kdG-L1GWgI

The members of the association carried placards with inscriptions such as: ‘We demand Equity and Justice, sack CCT Chairman Now’, ‘ Say No to Elite Oppression’, ‘Say No to Judicial Tyrants, CCT Chairman Must Go’, ‘ Arrest and Prosecute CCT Chairman’.

The ICIR had earlier reported how the CCT chairman assaulted a security guard, Mr Clement Sagwak, over a parking lot at Bannex Plaza, Wuse 2, on Monday, March 29.

Umar was seen in a widely-circulated video, slapping a private guard repeatedly in the company of his police escorts and driver before sympathisers at the market began to shout at him and forced him out of the plaza.

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Speaking at the protest, Joachim Okudo, leader of Abuja ccvChapter of the Pyrates Confraternity said Umar has desecrated the exalted office he occupies and must resign for sanity to reign.

“We have come here today as an organisation that has fought for the human rights over the years to demand the removal of the CCT boss over human right abuse he perpetuated a week ago.”

Also speaking, Anderson Kolawole, president Zuma Deck of the Pyrates Confraternity said what is honourable for the CCT chairman to do is to voluntarily resign over the offence he had committed, adding that he is no longer fit to occupy the position.

“If the CCT chairman refuses to resign, we call on the National Assembly to remove him from the office because he is no longer fit to remain there.”

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/association-of-seadogs-protests-against-cct-chairman-demands-his-removal/

FOR OVER 26 years, the family of Ayamolowo has been pursuing justice over an alleged killing of Prince Adekeye Nelson Ayamolowo by officers of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

The family had in several years petitioned the Nigeria Police Force, but all their efforts were futile because there was no positive response from the security agency before the family turned to the EndSars panel for justice.

Narrating the bitter experience the family had with the police to The ICIR, a son to the late victim, Okikiola Ayamolowo, said his father had an encounter with an officer of the Nigerian Police Force at Ijebu-Ode area of Ogun state while on his way from a visit to his mum.

Okikiola also explained that the police officer reportedly shot his father in the head, which eventually led to his death.

“While my dad, Prince Adekeye Nelson Ayamolowo was on his way back from his hometown where he had gone to visit his mum, he encountered the NPF around Ijebu Ode area, for reasons only known to the wicked and corrupt police officer, he shot my dad in the head and my dad died on the spot.

“The police officer in question ran back to the police station, abandoned his rifle and later went to the police barracks and absconded with his family, while he left another family in tears and despair.”

Okikiola, who said he was barely five years of age when the incident happened, said the family has been struggling to get justice for his deceased father for the past 26 years.

“We have been chasing and crying for justice over 26 years without any closure. Our pursuit for justice is why I and my family have approached the Ogun state judicial panel in the hopes that we may get justice and closure.

“I was barely 5 years old when the incident happened, older members of my family had reached out to the Nigeria police force at the time of the incident but the NPF was not forthcoming as you would expect a reputable organisation to,” he said.

Speaking on what the family lost financially, Okikiola said, “the financial loss is unquantifiable, starting with the destiny of a young man being cut short. He had a successful and thriving business at the time. Who knows if he would have grown to be in the financial class of Dangote and the likes today.”

He added that the untimely death of his father turned his mother, a poor widow to someone shouldering the responsibilities of four children.

“The wicked actions of the police officer also forced my mother to become a single mother to care for four children on her own. Toiling day and night to pay school fees, provide food and maintain a household.”

The story of Ayamolowo is not isolated; it reflect the experience many Nigerians go through in the hands of the security operatives. Many have been illegally arrested, detained and some even killed without getting justice.

One of such cases is that of Olaoluwa Bolarinwa. Narrating his experience, Bayo Adeshina said his brother, Bolarinwa alongside his nephew Oreoluwa Abiona, were arrested by policemen on 29th March 2020, but while Oreoluwa was released after paying the sum of N10,000, Olaoluwa was reportedly shuffled among various stations and eventually announced dead.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/endsars-hope-rises-for-victims-of-police-brutality-in-ogun/

INFORMATION minister Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday, summoned the head of press at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) Ibraheem Al-Hassan after he committed grammatical blunders in a statement released to journalists on Tuesday.

Al-Hassan had written and issued the statement by himself on Tuesday, 30 March 2021, to debunk reports that his boss and chairman of the CCT Justice Danladi Umar assaulted a security guard at Banex Plaza, Wuse 2, Abuja.

However, Al-Hassan’s statement contained linguistic, structural, ethical and other blunders not expected of a professional of his calibre.

The statement has since gone viral on social media as Nigerians derided both the writer and the CCT.

Al-Hassan used ‘video cliff’ in his statement, rather than ‘video clip.’ Also, he preferred using ‘packing lot’ to the correct version, ‘parking lot.’ He also used the phrase ‘had went’ instead of ‘had gone.’

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“The boy was rode in his approached and threaten,” one of his sentences read. This should have read: “the boy was rude in his approach and threatened.”

He committed a grammatical gaffe mixed with ethnic slur against the people of the South-East Nigeria by categorising people he did not know their ethnicity as ‘Biafrans.’

In Al-Hassan’s words, the chairman was “overwhelmed by the mobs, consisting of BIAFRAN boys throwing matches and shape object to his car.” He should have said that his boss was “overwhelmed by the mob, consisting of BIAFRAN boys throwing matches and sharp objects at this car.”

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/lai-mohammed-summons-cct-pro-after-press-statement-blunders/

BARRING a change in the current frosty relationship between Nigerian doctors and the federal government, medical practitioners under the aegis of National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) will proceed on strike on April, 1, 2021, to protest failure of federal government to pay house officers working in federal tertiary institutions across the nation.

Notice of the impending strike was contained in a communique issued at the end of extraordinary national executive council (NEC) meeting of NARD on Saturday, March 28, 2021.

The NEC observed that its earlier ultimatum given to the federal government during a January meeting would expire by midnight on the 31st of March, 2021, “with no significant achievement.”

It said though it supported the central placement of house officers by the federal government, failure of the government to pay house officers for three months had made them pass through pains.

The ICIR had on March 14 reported how rift between the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) and chief medical directors of public tertiary hospitals in the country denied house officers undergoing housemanship programme in the hospitals of their three months’ salaries.

Okorie Venatus, the doctor who collapsed after reportedly working for 72 hours at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital early this month, is among the doctors who are being owned by the government. He told The ICIR that he had not been paid a dime as emolument since January 1, 2021 by the government.

Further findings by our reporter revealed that only 19 out of 42 tertiary hospitals have paid house officers working for them, despite directive by a committee set up by the Speaker of the House of Representative Femi Gbajabiamila that all the doctors be paid without delay – at a meeting that took place at the House of Representatives between March 10 and March 12, 2021.

House officers are graduates of medical schools who are employed to be further trained for a period of one year. The process, known as housemanship, enables the interns to acquire more practical knowledge by working in hospitals and getting paid. The housemanship programme is required to enable the doctors to participate in the compulsory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme. Experience garnered during the housemanship helps the practitioners to excel in places of their primary assignment.


Speaking with The ICIR on failure of the government to pay the doctors after the directive of the Gbajabiamila’s committee, chairman of House Committee on Health Care Service Yusuf Sununu, said he had not got an update from government and the doctors on what had transpired so far.

He said he would reach out to the leadership of NARD and MDCN. “I don’t have report on current situation. Our agreement is that NARD and MDCN should update us. If I haven’t seen update, I can’t comment.

“I’ve been trying my best. When I came, I met a lot of problems. Even the arrears, we fought it out. This one, we had a meeting and we agreed that they would update us. I’ve not heard from them,” the lawmaker added.

He noted that if the update showed that the issue had not been resolved, the parties would be summoned and the agreement would be reviewed.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/nigerian-doctors-begin-strike-april-1-over-delayed-salaries-others/

THE federal government owes the doctor who collapsed after working for 72 hours at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) three months’ salary arrears, The ICIR has found.

Venatus Okorie is a houseman or house officer, meaning a doctor who is training while working in a hospital, according to Encyclopedia. His January to March salaries have been withheld due to the feud between Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) and chief medical directors (CMDs) of tertiary health institutions in Nigeria.

In an interview with The ICIR, Okorie said he had not been paid a dime as emolument since January 1, 2021 by the government.

He told The ICIR that he spent two weeks at the hospital after collapsing in February, 2021. His relations bore the cost of his drugs while the hospital footed his medical bill during the treatment.

Asked why he had continued to work despite his experience over the past weeks, Okorie said he had no choice.

“Do I have a choice? I have to keep working because I don’t have another work. Time is going. I cannot waste time anymore,” he said.

Okorie works for a minimum of 14 hours daily because the UPTH is understaffed. He is not entitled to any off-day throughout the one year period that his programme will run.

“Doctors don’t have number of working hours. We keep doing it as the work keeps coming. As you can see me now, I am in the hospital working,” he told our reporter.


Housemanship enables the interns to acquire more practical knowledge by working in hospitals and getting paid. The housemanship programme is required to enable the doctors to participate in the compulsory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme. Experience garnered during the housemanship helps the practitioners to excel in places of their primary assignment.

Other doctors tell their stories

Apart from Okorie, Michael Brens is also having his housemanship at the UPTH. Unlike Okorie, he has been paid the three months’ arrears by the government, but still faces problems.

“It’s hectic. Going to work without being paid is something else. It’s strenuous,” he said while speaking with The ICIR in a telephone interview.

He said if the house officers refused to work because they were not paid, they would get punished.

Leadership of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) came to assist house officers at the hospital by giving them N30,000 each when things were very hard for them. According to Brens, house officers were supposed to work for 12 hours per day for the whole year of their housemanship, but they often worked for more hours.

“We come to work by 8 ‘0 clock in the morning. We are supposed to close to 8 ‘0 clock in the evening, but because of shortage of manpower, we end up leaving by 10 ‘o clock or 11pm. That should be more than 13 or 14 hours. House officers don’t do off, we work for the whole day,” the doctor revealed.

Meanwhile, a resident doctor at the UPTH Onyiye Elekwa claimed she was owed six months’ salaries.

“I have not been paid. None of the resident doctors in any centre has been paid this year, but house officers in some centres have been paid.

“I have worked for 10 months and I have earned for only four months. Initially, we were supposed to be earning via the GIFMIS platform, but when we came in, the hospital was having some issues. They did not pay us for the first three months,” she said.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/exclusive-collapsed-doctor-okorie-owed-three-months-salary-arrears/

IF private individuals had owned Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited, it would have been under lock and key by now. The reasons are simple: The refinery is unprofitable, inefficient and in huge debt. The continued operation of the distressed company also exposes the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)’s financial recklessness, The ICIR analysis of its 2017-2019 financial statements has shown.

Imagine a company generating revenue of N4.429 billion in three years, but incurring expenses of N144. 140 billion within the same period. Who bears the N139.711 billion deficit burden? This is the story of Warri refinery, which has a workforce of 515 staff that have been unable to justify their take-home pays – while the NNPC watches on.

Between 2017 and 2019, the refinery incurred N178.315 billion cumulative loss, which rises to N188.436 billion if ‘comprehensive loss’ is factored in. Comprehensive income/loss is “net income and unrealized income, such as unrealized gains or losses on hedge/derivative financial instruments and foreign currency transaction gains or losses.”

In the traditional calculation of debt ratio, total liabilities (debt) is divided by total assets. According to Investopedia, debt ratio is expected to be less than one for any firm to considered sustainable.

A ratio less than one means that a significant portion of a company’s assets is funded by equity or investors’ money. But when it is above one, then a significant proportion of company’s assets is funded by debt and the firm could be at a risk of default.

In the case of Warri refinery, the debt ratios were 25.1 in 2018 and 6.12 in 2019, a red flag to lenders who wanted their money back, said Innocent Unah, an investment banker and accountant. In 2017, its debt ratio was 7.6 – similar to previous years.

In simple accounting, when liability stands above assets, it is a sign that a company like Warri Refinery is headed for bankruptcy.

The NNPC has been borrowing to fund activities at Warri refinery, even when its operations do not show any capacity to pay back.


In 2019, liabilities (tax, debt, lease) of the refinery stood at N485.96 billion whereas total assets amounted to only N79.43 billion.

In 2018, liabilities were estimated at N383 billion while the company had assets of N19.36 billion.

With total assets valued at N43.92 billion in 2017, liabilities were valued at N333.43 billion.

“When you have a company like this, shut it down or hand it over to people who can manage it. Why should you keep this company on when all it does is to eat into your savings,” said Attah Anzaku, business expert and chief executive of an international commodity trading firm, AgroEknor Financial analysts say there are many ways of calculating firm efficiency, including return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE).

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Warri refinery has a negative net income due to its humongous losses. Its ROA from 2017 to 2019 were -1.94, -2.33 and -0.62 respectively.

A negative ROA means that the company cannot generate money from its assets, implying that it is not a good investment, says Easy Portfolio, an online investment website.

On the other hand, ROE for 2017-2019 were all in negative, standing at -0.298, -0.124 and -0.123 respectively.

This means the refinery is neither profitable nor efficient.

It is conventional wisdom that when a business’s return on equity is negative, shareholders are losing, rather than gaining value, said Matt Petryni a business and investment analyst of Pocketsense fame.

“This is usually a terrible sign, for investors and managers try to avoid a negative return as aggressively as possible. Most investors avoid placing their money in a company that fails to deliver positive returns consistently. Still, investors may overlook a negative return for a single tough year if they believe the company is well-positioned for long-term growth,” Petryni said.

From the ICIR’s computations, Warri Refinery failed in all financial metrics, returning negative outcomes even in cash flows.

Its net cash flows at the end of 2018 and 2019 were N160.9 million and N5.90 billion respectively. The figure stood at N264.2 million in 2017.

This means that Warri refinery does not even have enough cash to run its operations.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/operations-of-warri-refinery-questions-nnpcs-financial-prudence/

NIGERIA recorded its first COVID-19 case on February 27, 2020, when an Italian citizen working in the country returned from Milan, Italy, to Lagos on the 25th of February 2020. He was later confirmed positive for COVID-19 by the virology laboratory of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.

On March 23, 2020, exactly 25 days after the first COVID-19 case in Nigeria, the country recorded its first COVID-19 death. According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), which made the announcement, the country’s 1st COVID-19 death was a 67-year-old male, who returned home following medical treatment in the UK.

The NCDC also added that the man had underlying medical conditions―multiple myeloma and diabetes and was undergoing chemotherapy. He was later recognised as former managing director of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) Suleiman Achimugu,

Nigeria COVID-19 data stands at 161,868 total cases, 2030 deaths

When Nigeria recorded its first COVID-19 death last year, the country’s total COVID-19 case was just 41. The pandemic had just been recorded in five out of the 36 states of the federation, with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) also making the list.

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As of then, Lagos State had the highest COVID-19 cases with 48, followed by FCT with 7 cases. Ogun had 2 cases while Edo, Ekiti and Oyo State had 1 case each.

Meanwhile, one year after, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread to all the 36 states of the federation, although the death rate and infection rate differ by states.

As at Tuesday, March 23, total COVID-19 cases in the country stood at 161,868 while COVID-19 death was 2030, equating to 1.25 percent mortality rate.

It is also important to note that 1.727 million COVID-19 test samples have been carried out in the country so far, with 161,868 (equating 9.4 percent) returning positive.

No fewer than 148,125 people, who had tested positive for COVID-19, have been discharged so far, making the country‘s active COVID-19 cases stand at 11,713.

Lagos, FCT, Plateau, Kaduna and Rivers have the highest COVID-19 cases

Out of the total 161,868 COVID-19 cases in Nigeria as at Tuesday, fives states have been recognised as the states where the pandemic is prevalent.

Lagos State is the hotspot of COVID-19 in Nigeria with 57,337 cases, followed by Abuja that has 19,584 cases; Plateau with 9,015 cases; Kaduna, 8,869 cases; and Rivers with 6,867.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/1-year-after-first-covid-19-death-in-nigeria-mortality-rate-stands-at-1-25/

Before the crisis Shasha market had in the past, experienced ethnic-related feuds, often between Hausa and Yoruba communities, but none was as devastating as last one, says Rasheed Popoola, the Babaloja of Shasha (the market leader).

“Whenever there is a clash, we always try to ensure that it doesn’t escalate but sadly, no one could control it this time.”

According to him, the February 11 clash between the hitherto friendly Hausa and Yoruba communities was sparked by an altercation between a pregnant Yoruba woman and a Hausa cart pusher in the market. The disagreement led to the death of one Sakirudeen Adeola, a cobbler, popularly known as Korex, said to have been hit by the cart pusher.

“Following his death, myself, some friends and the police went to the Hausas to appeal to them. The conversation was ongoing when we noticed a group of angry men approaching us with stones,” Popoola narrates the incident leading to the crisis.

Sighting the angry mob, ‘Babaloja’ and the police fled. “The market place became violent almost immediately,” he adds.

Korex’s untimely death was a trigger for the long-held hostility between the two communities, said Akinade Ajani, the Yoruba traditional head (Ba’ale) of Shasha.

The ICIR gathered that the tension is connected to the leadership tussle between the people of the two tribes.

“It started a long time ago, shortly after the Hausas settled in the area in 1979. This violent outburst is the result of a pending conflict,” says the traditional ruler.

“Though all we cared about was to peacefully coexist and enjoy the proceeds from the market together, but the Hausas have been persistent about their ownership of the major goods sold in the market and thereby want to be the one taking the position of the chairman of Shasha Market Traders Association.”

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-shasha-market-traders-lost-millions-in-oyo-ethnic-clash/

The Hausa-Yoruba clash that occurred a few weeks ago leading to the burning down of Shasha market in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, did not only claim lives but also left many traders, who lost goods worth hundreds of millions of naira in the two-day ethnic crisis, in tears. The ICIR’s NIYI OYEDEJI reports.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ghbqnWXMD0

ABAYOMI MUTAHIRU, a popular onion dealer, lost investments of over N20 million to the two – day February mayhem at Shasha market in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital. Just before the carnage, Mutahiru, 52, took delivery of 213 bags of onions as he had done over the past years. But this time around, doom lurked in the air, and he had no inkling.

“The clash occurred the day after I re-stocked my shop. The wood and onions scattered around all over the floor are mine,” a distraught Mutahiru says, pointing to a litter of burnt onions and wood that were left of his investments.

“I lost 213 bags of onions to this incident. They burnt some, stole some, the remnant is what is lying here.”

Before his shop was razed down, a wooden box containing N230, 000 was looted by the mob.

“My children can no longer go to school, my wife now has to stay back home. We have lost everything.”

Age-long hostility fuels crisis

Before the crisis Shasha market had in the past, experienced ethnic-related feuds, often between Hausa and Yoruba communities, but none was as devastating as last one, says Rasheed Popoola, the Babaloja of Shasha (the market leader).

“Whenever there is a clash, we always try to ensure that it doesn’t escalate but sadly, no one could control it this time.”

According to him, the February 11 clash between the hitherto friendly Hausa and Yoruba communities was sparked by an altercation between a pregnant Yoruba woman and a Hausa cart pusher in the market. The disagreement led to the death of one Sakirudeen Adeola, a cobbler, popularly known as Korex, said to have been hit by the cart pusher.

“Following his death, myself, some friends and the police went to the Hausas to appeal to them. The conversation was ongoing when we noticed a group of angry men approaching us with stones,” Popoola narrates the incident leading to the crisis.

Sighting the angry mob, ‘Babaloja’ and the police fled. “The market place became violent almost immediately,” he adds.

Korex’s untimely death was a trigger for the long-held hostility between the two communities, said Akinade Ajani, the Yoruba traditional head (Ba’ale) of Shasha.

The ICIR gathered that the tension is connected to the leadership tussle between the people of the two tribes.

“It started a long time ago, shortly after the Hausas settled in the area in 1979. This violent outburst is the result of a pending conflict,” says the traditional ruler.

“Though all we cared about was to peacefully coexist and enjoy the proceeds from the market together, but the Hausas have been persistent about their ownership of the major goods sold in the market and thereby want to be the one taking the position of the chairman of Shasha Market Traders Association.”

The ICIR learnt there has been a tradition of appointing a Hausa man as the chairman and a Yoruba man as the vice-chairman since the establishment of the market but trouble started last year when Ba’ale decided to appoint a Yoruba man as the chairman of the association.

Ajani notes that despite efforts by him and Haruna Maiyesin, the Seriki Hausa in Shasha, to mediate in the appointment tussle and midwife a chairman accepted by all, there are eight individuals in the market who would never accept a Yoruba chairmanship of the market.

In his words, “they are the ones causing a crisis in the market.”

The Ba’ale says he doesn’t know their names but alleges that the eight people are Yoruba and Hausa.

“I believe the government needs to fish them out for peace to reign,” he says.

The Seriki Hausa on his part did not want to speak on the market leadership tussle but alleges that those who triggered the crisis were not residents of the community.

“Anybody creating a problem should be tackled by the government. Those that burnt and killed people are not from here,” Maiyesin insists.

“Both the Hausas and Yorubas who caused the mayhem are not faces we know. On Saturday and Sunday, I had over 5,000 people, including Yoruba and Hausas, in my palace who ran for their lives.”

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Most of the Hausa traders affected by the crisis had to move down to Sabo area, another Hausa community in Ibadan, to seek refuge after losing their goods and properties.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-shasha-market-traders-lost-millions-in-oyo-ethnic-clash/

A Nigerian YouTuber Victor Emmanuel has continued his protest against anti-gay law in Nigeria. He is protesting alone at the National Assembly (NASS), embarking on a hunger strike which has now entered the third day.

Emmanuel, who runs the YouTube channel ‘For gays Sake!,’ began the protest and hunger strike on Saturday, March 20, at NASS over what he termed the continued criminalisation of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and queers (LGBTQs) in Nigeria.

He said he would not end the protest until the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act (SSMPA) passed in 2014 by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan was repealed.

The YouTuber, in a video shared on his official Twitter handle, said he would not leave until his body either gave up or the law be repealed.

Announcing the protest at NASS in a video that has now garnered more hundred thousand views, Emmanuel said, “I am at the National Assembly and I’m here to demand LGBTQ+ freedom and liberation!”

He also compared the punishment meted out for being gay to the same punishment meted out to rapists.

In an earlier tweet, he had said the Nigerian government should repeal the SSMPA- a law he said criminalised the lives and existence of LGBTQ+ Nigerian citizens.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/anti-gay-nigerian-protesters-hunger-strike-enters-second-day/

IN the South-Eastern part of Nigeria, several groups are seeking the actualisation of a nation called Biafra. The frontrunner of these groups is the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), led by Nnamdi Kanu.

IPOB has emerged as a powerful force, founding an online radio and winning the hearts of many Igbo-speaking people in Nigeria and abroad. However, there are cracks in IPOB’s wall as a splinter group has emerged.

The splinter group, called Biafra Customary Government, is led by Asari Dokuba, an activist for the Niger Delta and Uche Mefor, a former deputy leader of IPOB. But why did IPOB split?

SB Morgan, an organisation focused on geopolitical research and strategic communications consulting firm focused around Africa, explains the reasons in a report titled ‘Discord at Sunrise: What does Split in IPOB mean?’

DSS, Police, Army silent on reported deaths from IPOB clash with security operatives
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During the inauguration of Dokubo, Ralph Uwazuruike, founder of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), another prominent group agitating for a Biafran state, was present at the venue. However, as expected, Kanu was absent, the report says.

Before the resignation of Mefor from IPOB, a faction in the United Kingdom had demanded a financial account of the funds raised for the organisation, an action that did not go well with Kanu, SB Morgan notes.

In response to the demand, Kanu abolished the position of deputy leader being held by Mefor and subsequently scrapped the UK IPOB faction, which was loyal to the latter.

Apart from the conflict that arose from lack of financial accountability, Mefor and his loyalists were reported to be against the ‘violent approach’ of the Kanu- led IPOB, which had led to a various crisis between the Nigerian military and Eastern Security Network (a subsection of IPOB in Eastern Nigeria), the report further says.

At least two violent disputes have occurred between the Nigerian military and the ESN in 2021 that left people dead in Orlu Local Government Area of Imo State.

While the military claimed four soldiers were killed, the ESN said that several of its members were killed, leading to the closure of some schools and markets in Imo State.

Can Mefor-Dokubo synergy work?

Having crippled an organised loyalty to Mefor, Kanu sought the support of Dokubo, who is from the South-South region of the country, where some have reportedly distanced themselves from collaborating with the Igbo who they say are in the majority.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/why-ipob-split-into-kanu-dokubo-factions/

’The frantic strides weren’t enough to save this victim. Soon a bullet hit Joseph right inside the car and then another when he attempted to crawl to safety. He died on the spot…’’

On Thursday, April 9, 2020, ten days after Nigeria entered a partial lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officers of the Nigeria police, army, correctional service and others had extra-judicially killed 13 while enforcing the curfew – the virus had only claimed six lives then. By May 4, when the government eased the lockdown, about 20 persons had been killed in similar circumstances. For three months, investigative journalist, Kemi BUSARI, followed the trails of these arbitrary killings which have left many families devastated, with no hope of justice.

Before she met her untimely death in April 2020, Lovender Elekwachi had served the Nigeria Police for 13 years.

Her journey to the force started on July 1, 2007, when she was recruited. She had risen to the rank of a sergeant and was due for a promotion in 2020 but a fellow officer terminated her life.

Lovender was on duty as a traffic warden at the Eneka Roundabout in Port-Harcourt, South-south Nigeria when she was shot dead by a fellow officer identified as Bitrus Osaiah, also a sergeant.

The 35-year-old mother of one was on duty around 2 p.m. when members of the Rivers State Taskforce on Road Decongestion, Illegal Street Trading and Motor Parks arrived to disperse traders around the roundabout.

Sergeant guns down sergeant

The date was April 23, 2020. Then, the Rivers State Government had just announced a closure of all markets in the state and later a total lockdown.


Soon, the enforcement led to harassment of some traders much to the dissatisfaction of Lovender. Many witnesses who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said Lovender left her post and attempted to pacify police officers, who accompanied the task force members, to stop carting away the traders’ goods. This move was rebuffed irritably by Osaiah. He reportedly opened fire. Moments later, Lovender dropped dead.

She died about ten metres away from a shop belonging to Udoka Luke, a generator repairer. Luke had abandoned his work to watch the whole episode unfold that afternoon.

“That day, there was task force packing people’s load over here,” he said. “Everybody was on the run, all the people that sell at the roadside, all of them ran away. Later, those boys that stand (sic) at the side of the road, those agberos (illegal traffic managers), were the ones that start(ed) using coke bottles to throw at the police and the task force.

“As the packing (of goods by Task Force officials) was going on, the policewoman (Lovender) was sitting somewhere there (around the roundabout), she now stands (stood) up to come and help because sometimes, if the task force people come, the police here use to come and defend the owners, they will now leave the goods for them. Immediately she stands (stood) up to go and defend that one that particular day, I saw her, she fell immediately. I was even the one that later rushed and saw that the woman was already dead.”

Horrid images gathered in the during this investigation can be viewed in a separate folder here. These are graphic pictures. Beware!

Luke, corroborated by other witnesses, said the police officers had shot twice towards the irate agberos (touts, mostly disguised as traffic assistants).

Once Osaiah and his colleagues saw that Lovender was dead, they zoomed off. The traders were quick to alert Lovender’s colleagues at the Eneka Police Station some 500 metres away. The officers chased and soon caught up with the fleeing assailant.

While the task force raid was ongoing, some traders who sell goods at the roadside were arrested and held behind Hilux vans. Joseph Francis, who repairs phones and sells accessories, was one of those arrested.

Francis said the fruit seller, whom the team was harassing at one moment of their operation, was a friend to Lovender and her attempt to rescue this friend led to her death.

Female sellers approached at the junction were not willing to talk for fear of being subjects of attack. One of them who spoke on condition of anonymity said they live in fear of harassment by the task force but that they (task force) had not shown up at the junction since the incident.

Breadwinner gone

Lovender’s parent, Matthew Elekwachi and Mary Elekwachi couldn’t hide their emotions when PREMIUM TIMES visited the family home.

Both parents were in their Izu residence in Etche Local Government when the call announcing the death came in. Rattled, Mr Elekwachi dashed to the roundabout where he met the lifeless body of his daughter.

Mr Matthew, a chief, was proud of her daughter’s last act – compassion towards the traders – at the same time, he is sad the family support is gone.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/blood-on-uniforms-4-policewoman-killed-by-policeman-in-rivers-man-gunned-down-by-soldier-in-delta/

PROLONGED conflicts between crop farmers and herders in Nigeria have metamorphosed into a chain of crises that are currently threatening the continued co-existence of over 200 ethnic nationalities making up the country. The ICIR’s Senior Investigative Reporter, in this piece, writes on how three countries in Africa manage their cattle and relationship between herders and crop farmers in their territories, including experts’ advice from the countries on how Nigeria can overcome its current travails.

An unprecedented increase in farmers’ population, driven by a corresponding transformation in farming methods and changing climate, has mainly been responsible for a geometric rise in feuds between crop farmers and herders in Nigeria since the beginning of the century.

The conflicts have led to hundreds of deaths, rustling, and displacements of farmers and herders alike. Innocent people in communities have been at the receiving end of the crisis. The clashes have resulted in ethnic profiling, distrust and division, and they have been compounded by banditry, kidnapping, abduction, terrorism, some of which are offshoots of herders-crop farmers’ conflicts.

These crises recently climaxed into the blockade of food and cattle to the southern part of the country by merchants from the country’s north.

Cattle rearing in Nigeria is done mainly in open fields, farmlands, residential areas, as pastoralists move their livestock wherever they could find grass and water. The practice often results in cattle straying into people’s farms and eating up crops or destroying farms.

What appears as the most ambitious effort by the federal government to address the crisis was the inauguration of National Livestock Transformation Plan in September 2019.

It was designed to make cattle farmers embrace ranching, defined as raising herds of animals on large hectares of land. The government said 100 billion naira would be committed to the initiative, which would run between 2019 and 2028.

With the plan, the federal government would provide 80 percent of the fund, while state governments would make land and remaining 20 percent of the fund available, including other logistics needed for its successful implementation.

he initiative followed similar policies that had been introduced by African countries such as the Ethiopian Livestock Master Plan, Tanzanian Livestock Master Plan and Rwanda Livestock Master Plan.

The programme was inaugurated by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Gongoshi Grazing Reserve in Mayo-Belwa Local Government Area of Adamawa. It started as a pilot project in seven states namely, Adamawa, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, Taraba and Zamfara. Stakeholders in the plan included pastoralists, farmers, private investors and government.

Despite the efforts, crises between crop farmers and herders have worsened in the country.

Read Also: Food ban will worsen Nigeria’s socio-economic problems, Arewa tells northern farmers
A similar programme known as RUGA had been designed by the federal government, but it faced stiff opposition from some sections of the country which perceived it as a means of grabbling land for herders at every cost.

The plan suggested that state government and communities allocate a section of their land for pastoralists, so they could rear their animals on the land and live on it. The thinking of the scheme was to keep herders away from people’s farms and other assets that could be destroyed by cattle.

The ICIR reports that though the Fulanis, a major tribe in northern part of Nigeria, are famous for cattle rearing in the country. However, people from other parts of the nation also own significant portions of cattle in the nation.

In Zambia, cattle farmers plant their own crops

Zambia has a unique approach to cattle management. Nkandu Luo, a professor and minister of livestock in Zambia, advised Nigeria to create a ministry of livestock (and fisheries) to end crop farmers and pastoralists’ feuds in the country.

Luo said in a telephone interview with The ICIR that her country had not been experiencing any conflict between crop farmers and herders because apart from her ministry’s constant engagement with the two groups, modern methods of animal farming had been introduced to the farmers.

The minister also said that government always urged crop farmers to have their own cattle, and cattle farmers to plant their own crops.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/zambia-gambia-south-africa-offer-nigeria-refresher-courses-on-cattle-management/

Fani-Kayode, Bello, Melaye and other conspiracy theorists spreading misinformation about COVID-19

SINCE the outbreak of COVID-19, also known as coronavirus, in Wuhan, China, in January 2020, there have been bogus and unproven claims by conspiracy theorists appearing on multiple platforms across the internet.

The spread of misinformation about the virus seems to be very well coordinated, with some focusing on videos and audios that are shared online and others spreading their misinformation through posts on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

The claims being shared about coronavirus and its vaccines have highlighted the importance of identifying false information about the coronavirus and those who are spreading it.

COVID-19 in Nigeria

On the 27th of February 2020, the Federal Ministry of Health, in a statement, confirmed a COVID-19 case in Lagos State, Nigeria.

It was the first case to be reported in Nigeria since the outbreak in China earlier in January.

Since the first reported case, Nigeria has now confirmed 158,042 cases of coronavirus, with 137,025 discharged patients and 1,754 deaths.

Data obtained from The ICIR COVID-19 Dashboard, which tracks cases of the virus, shows that 116.810 million cases have been reported so far, with 2.594 million deaths across the world since the outbreak started.


Africa has only reported 3.977 million cases and 105,456 deaths.

While Europe has total cases of 34.923 million with 832,251 deaths, Northern America reported 33.978 million cases with 774,292 deaths. South America has 18.434 million cases and 477,985 deaths while Asia has so far reported 25. 443 million cases and 403,255 deaths.

The ICIR takes a look at controversial statements made by some conspiracy theorists concerning the outbreak COVID-19 and vaccines produced to tackle it.

The ICIR and its fact-checking arm, FactCheckHub, have also, on numerous occasions, found some of these claims false and misleading using in-house investigative skills and modern-day tools.

Dino Melaye

Dino Melaye is a Nigerian politician, a former Senator and a member of the 8th Nigerian National Assembly representing Kogi West Senatorial district. He is from Ayetoro Gbede in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

On the 16th of December, Melaye, in a viral video that has been shared many times on social media platforms, advised Nigerians and Africans not to accept the use of any COVID-19 vaccines.

“For 100 years now, we could not find a vaccine for cancer. For over 40 years, we are yet to find a vaccine for HIV/AIDS, for over another 100 years research is still going on to find a vaccine for diabetes. How is it possible on earth is it possible that in one year, you find a vaccine for COVID-19?”

“I am calling on African leaders not to allow Africans to be used as guinea pigs by developed nations for their satanic reasons,” he said in the video.

“We say no to the application of any vaccine in Africa. We call on the minister of health of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to immediately discontinue the interaction with those who want to give us vaccine.”

Despite approved vaccines going through guidelines and approval processes by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Melaye had, on numerous occasions on the social media, expressed doubts about the vaccines.

The 47-year-old former Senator said it was impossible to have secured a vaccine for the novel virus given that other diseases like cancer, diabetes and HIV/AIDS still had no vaccines.

He also claimed, without providing evidence, that some people who took that vaccine died within three days.

Countries such as the U.S., Brazil, Russia and the UK have begun administering the vaccines without reporting health incidents.

Melaye had earlier, in a video shared by Instablog, said the vaccines “were killers and the federal government will be held accountable if any vaccine is applied on Nigerians and has negative effects.”

He also stated in April 2020 that 5G technology was evil, a killer that was being used to mobilise flu that had come in the form of coronavirus and would be deployed to kill the human body’s immune system and those with underlying health conditions. These have been found to be untrue.

Pastor Chris Oyakhilome

Also, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, founder of Christ Embassy, also known as LoveWorld Incorporated or Believers’ Loveworld, has also been at the forefront of releasing bogus statements relating to COVID-19 and vaccines.

In April 2020, he had claimed that 5G technology was dangerous to human cells and linked it with the coronavirus outbreak. This has been fact-checked by The ICIR and found to be false.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/fani-kayode-yahaya-bello-melaye-and-other-conspiracy-theorists-spreading-misinformation-about-covid-19-vaccine/

BLOOD ON UNIFORMS (1): Inside horrific extra-judicial killings by police officers enforcing COVID-19 lockdown in Kaduna

…by the time the dust settled, about 11 were writhing in fresh blood. Of these, one died instantly, three survived for a few hours but died eventually. Six were critically injured with gunshot wounds, among them a 9-year-old boy.

ON Thursday, April 9, 2020, ten days after Nigeria entered a partial lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officers of the Nigeria police, army, correctional service and others had extra-judicially killed 13 while enforcing the curfew – the virus had only claimed six lives by then. By May 4, when the government eased the lockdown, about 20 persons had been killed in similar circumstances. For three months, investigative journalist, Kemi Busari, followed the trails of these arbitrary killings which have left many families devastated, with no hope of justice.

The journey between Layin Tanki, where Sani Umar lives and his father’s residence at Sabon Garin Nasarawa, both at Trikania, Kaduna takes only six minutes. Being the breadwinner of his extended family, Umar frequently visits his father and others. His intention, on April 4, 2020, was to do the routine.

He was about three minutes into the journey, by a google map estimation, before he was caught in a binge of gunfire unleashed by police officers at Bakin Dogo junction, the intersection of Gwagwada Road and Hakimi Road, just close to the railway line. Multiple slugs penetrated his cranial bones, smashing and exposing the internal organs and dismembering the skull.

Umar did not complete the journey on the familiar road, instead, remains of his shattered skull, packed in a black plastic bag, were sent to his father – then tears followed.

Amid the bedlam that engulfed Trikania that high noon, another body fell at Wakili Road. That was Aliyu Abubakar, a teenager. The bullet entered through his chest, tearing first his pectoralis muscle before rupturing the upper right pairs of his vertebrosternal ribs and ultimately his lungs. The 18-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Then 31-year-old Musa Aliyu was shot at close range, about 10 metres to the front door of his family house at Dokaje Street. The bullet entered through his vertebrochondral ribs leaving him with no chance at surviving. He died in pains some two hours after.

One street away, a fourth body fell to the hail of bullets. Yusuf Mukhtar was shot multiple times right at the door of his house at Hakimi Road. He didn’t survive the bullet that entered first through his chest, rupturing some life-holding organs, and then at his hand, tearing the hand from other parts of the body.

A fifth person, which PREMIUM TIMES could not trace despite some efforts, was shot dead in the gunfire that lasted about one hour, bringing the fatalities to five. Residents say the fifth victim, a male, does not reside in the area.

Apart from the five dead, six others; Ibrahim Abdullahi, Isah Saleh, Mujahid Saminu, Isah Ibrahim (Al-Amin), Abdul Abass and Mohammed Mohammed suffered various degrees of gun-shot injuries during the unexpected onslaught carried out by police officers on April 4, 2020, at Sabon Garin Nasarawa Trikania area of Kaduna State.

Connecting the dots

Five dead, six injured and a permanent scar left in the hearts of loved ones but what led to this offensive?

The popular Monday Market holds on the fringes of Kakuri in Kaduna South Local Government Area of the state. Due to proximity, residents of Trikania in Chikun Local Government, also join in the trading every Monday. The two communities, existing in different local governments, are only separated by a railway track.

March 31, 2020, was another market day but owing to a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed by the state government to curb the spread of COVID-19 which by then the state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, had tested positive for, residents could not trade as usual at the market.

Although the government only announced a temporary relaxation from 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 1st to Thursday, April 2nd, residents of Sabon Trikania still felt the need to stock up groceries two days after, April 4. A make-shift market was established at Bakin Dogo junction.

Buying and selling started early and on a peaceful note. Residents say, members of Sabon Garin Nasarawa local community security, officially named the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), were on hand, as early as 8 a.m., to ensure compliance with COVID-19 protocols.

Some hours into trading, members of Makera CJTF, from Kaduna South jurisdiction, came to the market to disperse the buyers and sellers. They were resisted by the youth in the community.

Usman Muhammed, the General Commander, Sabon Garin Nasarawa CJTF considers the move by the Makera CJTF as surprising as the unwritten rule is that ‘when we (CJTF of one area) want to go (to) another area, we’ll let the JTF in that area know.’ But the Makera CJTF didn’t inform of their operation that day, he added.

The General Commander of Makera CJTF, Muhammed Halliru, wouldn’t comment but directed PREMIUM TIMES enquiries to the chairman of the outfit.

The chairman, Alhassan Dahiru, said he was not aware of the killings when, in January 2021, he was asked questions about the role his men played.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/blood-on-uniforms-1-inside-horrific-extra-judicial-killings-by-police-officers-enforcing-covid-19-lockdown-in-kaduna/

MUHAMMED Shehu, spokesperson for Zamfara State Police Command, on Sunday, denied the purported release of 317 abducted schoolgirls seized by their captors on Friday.

Shehu told The ICIR in a phone interview that the authorities were still on a search and rescue exercise.

“Honestly I’m not aware of that story,” he said.

“I don’t know where they got the story from but if there is anything like that, both the government and police will speak about it.”

The reporter further identified two major national dailies with correspondents in Gusau, the state capital, who reported the information. However, he insisted there was no such development.

“If there is any development, both the government and police will speak about it,” he noted adding that, “there is ongoing effort to secure their release. We are still on it.”

The state government, through Suleiman Anka, commissioner of information and culture, also debunked the girls’ freedom from their captors.

According to Anka, the state was still making efforts to ensure the safe rescue of the girls.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/police-zamfara-govt-deny-release-of-abducted-schoolgirls/

WATCH OUT ��

BLOOD ON UNIFORMS: For months, Kemi Busari, an investigative journalist journeyed to various parts of #Nigeria to investigate cases of extra-judicial killings by security officers during #COVID19 lockdown.

https://web.facebook.com/297904423657616/videos/827373764803439

Policemen, soldiers and even correctional servicemen left a trail of blood while enforcing the curfew during the period.
This is what he discovered...

#THEICIR #Justice4lockdownvictims

https://www.icirnigeria.org/

THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor has disclosed that weekly remittances into Nigeria have increased from 5 million dollars to 30 million dollars due to the bank’s new foreign exchange (FX) policy that allow recipients to withdraw proceeds in foreign currency. The movement from 5 million dollars to 30 million dollars represents 500 percent increase.

Emefiele said on Friday at Vanguard/CBN/Bankers’ Committee Summit in Abuja that the new measure had increased the volume of transactions while reducing FX diversion by international money transfer operators (IMTOs) who had profited from dollar arbitrage arrangements.

CBN had, in November 2020, announced that it would allow diaspora remittances to be withdrawn in cash in a move to spur liquidity in the FX market and close the gap between the official FX rate and parallel/ black market rates. The bank had, before then, foreclosed the possibility of withdrawing foreign remittances in dollars due to FX scarcity in the economy. But the move proved very costly for the economy as it led to acute dollar shortages, which hurt manufacturers and key economic players, plunging the economy into a deep slump.

However, the apex bank reversed the policy gear three months ago by allowing recipients to withdraw dollar remittances in cash.

Why remittances went north

Emefiele said in Lagos that the change of policy had led to increased remittances into the economy. The implication of this is that the former CBN policy drove Nigerians into diverting foreign remittances to informal channels; this, in simple terms, implies that people were diverting their remittances or receiving them via informal routes due to the former policy that barred them from getting dollars in cash. The former CBN’s policy made receiving FX in cash difficult. Still, it encouraged FX’s receipt in naira rather than dollars, pushing diaspora senders and receivers into routing their remittances via other means.

Many say the CBN’s former policy was inimical to the economy as it shortchanged several Nigerians and hurt their capacity to do business.

“I did a business with someone in the United States. The transaction was in dollars, but I could not withdraw in dollars. That shortchanged me in the end,” Eniola Akinsanya, a hairstylist in Lagos, told The ICIR.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/explainer-why-weekly-dollar-inflows-into-nigeria-rose-by-500-percent/

BRENT, Nigeria’s crude oil equivalent, crossed the 60 dollar per barrel mark in February for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus last year. This means more revenue for the nation’s economy but also a possible hike in petrol pump price in the country.

Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum resources, at the official inauguration of the Nigerian Upstream Cost Optimisation Programme (NUCOP) in Abuja recently, said Nigerians should prepare for an increase in the pump price of petrol despite the new fortunes of crude oil in the global oil market.

“Since we are optimising everything, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, needs to also think about the optimisation of product cost because as we all know, oil prices are at 60 dollars per barrel.

“As desirable as this is, it has serious consequences as well on product prices. Today the NNPC is taking a big hit from this as we all know that there is no provision in the budget for subsidy payments,” he said.

In March 2020, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, announced the removal of subsidy on petrol, stating that the prevailing market dynamics would regulate the pump price of petrol.

Data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) show that the country’s external reserves gained 700 million dollars from the rebound in global oil prices as the reserves increased from 35.37 billion dollars on December 31, 2020, to 36.43 billion dollars in February.

This means that Nigeria could generate more revenue than its intended target of 2 trillion naira, as the current Brent crude price of 63.5 dollars per barrel (as of 10.01 on February 19) has overshot the 40 dollars per barrel benchmark of the 2021 budget.

However, the minister’s comments raised concerns on why Nigerians should bear the pains of an expected hike in the petrol pump price despite the steady recovery of international crude oil prices.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/why-nigerians-should-anticipate-increase-in-petrols-pump-price-despite-assurances-from-nnpc/