Operation Amotekun: Presidency, Govs’ Meeting Called Off, South-West Holds Rallies [PUNCH]
A scheduled meeting between the Presidency and the South-West governors on the Western Nigeria Security Network, Operation Amotekun, was called off on Tuesday.
It is now rescheduled for Thursday (tomorrow).
While the South-West governors could not meet the Presidency on Tuesday, various groups in the zone held rallies in state capitals in support of Amotekun. In Lagos, the police barricaded the venue of a pro-Amotekun rally.
The South-West had launched the operation on January 9 in Ibadan to help address rising security challenges, particularly kidnapping and banditry, in Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Lagos, Ekiti and Ondo states.
The South-West governors, who made 120 patrol vehicles available to the security outfit, had said it would complement the police and the military in terms of intelligence gathering.
But on Tuesday last week, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, said Operation Amotekun was “illegal.”
Billionaire’s Dismembered Body Found In Lagos Bush [PUNCH]
The dismembered body of a business mogul, Ignatius Adunukwe (identified as Odunukwe on the social media), has been recovered from a bush in the Ajah area of Lagos State.
PUNCH Metro gathered that Adunukwe (name provided by the police) was about to sell a landed property to some supposed buyers when he was allegedly kidnapped by the potential buyers.
It was learnt that the supposed buyers and Adunukwe had agreed on a date and location to meet to perfect the transaction, but the suspects took advantage of the situation to whisk the Enugu State indigene away.
The suspects were said to have coerced the billionaire into signing the agreement for the transaction, after which he was reportedly strangled and injected with a lethal substance in a hotel room in Ajah.
Adunukwe’s corpse was dismembered and the parts were reportedly packed into a bag and dumped in a bush in a bid to conceal the crime.
Subsidy May Rise As Fuel Marketers Demand Higher Margins [PUNCH]
The Federal Government may have to spend more on petrol subsidy as oil marketers in the country have called on the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency to increase margins on the product now to prevent the collapse of the nation’s fuel distribution system.
According to the petrol pricing template of the PPPRA, margins for retailers and dealers are N6 and N2.36 per litre while transporters’ allowance is N3.36 per litre.
Top officials of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria told our correspondent in separate interviews that a review of the margins was overdue.
The Chief Executive Officer and Executive Secretary, MOMAN, Mr Clement Isong, said the current margins were limiting marketers’ ability to invest in new trucks and the upgrade of filling stations.
He said, “We need the PPPRA to look at our margins now. It is taking too long and our members are declaring losses. It can’t last longer than this. It has been too long.
Govs’ve No Power To Sack LG Chairmen –FG [SUN]
- Oyo PDP, APC in verbal war over order to reinstate sacked council chairmen
The Federal Government has described the operation of caretaker committees at the local government level as illegal and unconstitutional.
The directive issued by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), called on the affected state governments to revert and go back to democratically elected representatives.
In a letter dated January 14, 2020, addressed to the Oyo State Attorney General, Professor Oyewo Oyelewo, Malami described the caretaker committees as illegal and unconstitutional.
In the letter with reference number HAGF/Oyo/2020/Vol.l/l, the AGF further stated that the committees amounted to a breach of the provisions of Section 7(1) of the 1999 constitution.
The Special Adviser to the AGF on Media and Public Relations, Dr. Umar Gwandu, who confirmed the development said the minister had written similar letters to all the 36 state of the federation.
18 High-Profile Looters To Be Repatriated Soon -Magu [SUN]
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is set to repatriate 18 high-profile looters hiding in some countries outside Nigeria.
Acting EFCC chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, disclosed this yesterday in Ilorin, Kwara State, during a chat with newsmen. Magu was in Ilorin to assess facilities at the Ilorin zonal office of the commission.
The EFCC chairman assured Nigerians that his agency would pursue the anti-graft war with renewed vigour this year.
He added that no ongoing corruption case across the country would be abandoned midway, and suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations in such cases were completed.
He also stated that the Ilorin zonal office of the EFCC was not established to witch hunt the immediate past Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.
FG Has Not Done Enough To Protect Christians, CAN Alleges [SUN]
- ‘Boko Haram snubbed N50m ransom to kill Adamawa CAN leader’ •Act cruel, inhuman, provocative –Buhari •Archbishop Kaigama, Onaiyekan react
Paulinus Aidoghie, Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Fred Ezeh, Abuja, Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri and Billy Graham Abel, Yola
The execution of Rev. Lawan Andimi, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Michika Local Government Area, Adamawa State, by Boko Haram terrorists in cold blood, has sparked outrage across the country.
Andimi, who hailed from Kwada village, Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State, and worked as a pastor in Michika, was abducted early January when Boko Haram attacked Michika.
Days after his abduction, he appeared in a video clip where he asked Ahmadu Fintiri, Governor of Adamawa State, to rescue him.
But the news of his death broke, yesterday. Reports indicated that Boko Haram turned down an offer of N50 million from negotiators before beheading him.
Chairman of the state chapter of CAN, Bishop Dami Mamza, said the insurgents demanded €2 million (about N800 million) for his freedom.
“We couldn’t afford that kind of money here. But that was not what led to his execution. I think they already had intentions to execute him. That was the plan, and nothing would have stopped that,” he said.
“They established contact with the church, and there was a conversation. And then they stopped and went ahead to kill him.
“They called his wife last week, informing her that they would be beheading him on Saturday but somehow they waited till Monday.
“Also, yesterday, Pastor Dennis Bagauri of the Lutheran Church was killed in Jereng, Mayo-Belwa, Adamawa State.
“It is now clear that Christians are not protected by the government; we don’t feel like we have a government.”
Lassa Fever Kills 16 In Ondo [SUN]
About 16 people have been reportedly killed in a fresh outbreak of Lassa fever in Ondo State, the state government has confirmed.
It confirmed that about 84 cases have also been recorded since the beginning of the year.
Governor Rotimi Akuredolu and the heads of relevant agencies met, yesterday to review the situation which blew open at the weekend, as medical personnel struggled to grapple with the challenge.
Officials said medical facilities at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, and other facilities in Akure, the state capital, were already overstretched.
So far, three local government areas have been affected. They include Akoko South West, Akure South, Ondo West, and Owo local governments.
The state epidemiologist, Steven Fagbemi, gave the detailed breakdown of the situation after the meeting with the governor.
The meeting also involved local government chairmen from Ondo North and Central senatorial districts at the governors office in Akure.
Fagbemi said the fatalities were due to the fact that the cases had reached advanced stages before they were brought to the hospitals.
Pro-Amotekun Rallies Shake South West States [SUN]
- Police, others abort action in Lagos
Moshood Adebayo, Lukman Olabiyi, Laide Raheem, Abeokuta, Clement Adeyi, Osogbo, Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure, Kehinde Adewole, Ado Ekiti and Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Entire South West region was agog yesterday as hundreds of people trooped out for the Yoruba World Congress Solidarity Walk in support of Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) otherwise known as Amotekun.
Apart from Lagos, where security agencies sealed up the Gani Fawehinmi Park venue and drove away marchers, the programme recorded a huge success across the other five states in the region.
Diezani, Kuku, Olojeme Top EFCC’s Watchlist [NATION]
- Anti-graft rallies for Feb. 14
A former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke tops the list of 18 high-profile suspects on the watch-list of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for extradition.
According to a document obtained by The Nation, some of the suspects have been located in foreign jurisdictions while a few others have gone underground.
Others on the EFCC radar are a former Special Adviser to the President and Coordinator of Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku; a one-time Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dauzia Loya Etete (aka Dan Etete) Munamuna Seidougha and Amaran Joseph in respect of $1.09b Malabu Oil Block Settlement Agreement; and a former Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, Mr. Haruna Momoh, who is being probed for crude oil swap contracts and N1.6 billion infractions uncovered by a forensic audit of the PPMC.
Also on the watch-list are the Chairman of Rockson Engineering Company Limited, Mr. Joseph Arumemi Ikhide, whose company got about $2billion of the vote for the stalled $16 billion power projects; a businessman, Mr. Kola Aluko, who was an ally of ex-Minister Diezani and whose N6.42 billion assets were forfeited on the order of a Federal High Court, Ikoyi on October 22, 2019; and Adam Quinn, a British over the $9.6 billion judgment against Nigeria by Process and Industrial Development (P&ID).
Amotekun: ‘No Going Back’ Rallies Rock Southwest States [NATION]
The battle to lift the hammer on the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) Operation Amotekun was taken to the streets on Tuesday.
Pressed to protect their people from unusual forms of criminality that crept into the region last year, the governors of the six Southwest states of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti on January 9 launched the joint security outfit with the overwhelming support of all class of people – traditional rulers, hunters, the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), the intellectuals – among others.
But the Federal Government on January 14 declared the outfit illegal through Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami.
To press home the support for the initiative, protesters were organised by non-government organisations and groups in all the six capitals of Ikeja, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Osogbo, Akure and Ado-Ekiti.
EFCC Set To Repatriate 18 High-profile Looters [LEADERSHIP]
In its renewed offensive against corruption, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is set to repatriate 18 suspects, it described as “high-profile looters” from various parts of the world.
The disclosure came yesterday from the acting EFCC chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu, who was in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, to assess facilities at the zonal office of the commission.
However, Magu did not give the identities of the suspects and the countries they fled to.
Magu assured Nigerians that the anti-graft agency would pursue the anti-corruption war with a renewed vigour this year.
No Substitution Of Candidates In Saturday’s Rerun Polls, INEC Insists [LEADERSHIP]
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has maintained that there would be no substitution of candidates by political parties in the rerun elections holding on Saturday, January 25, 2020.
INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, restated this yesterday in Abuja when he swore in two national commissioners, Dr Alalibo Sinikiem Johnson from Bayelsa State and Umar Mukhtar Gajiram from Borno State, who were posted to Cross River and Taraba States, respectively.
Yakubu said that the only constituencies where the substitution of candidates are allowed are Gamawa Federal Constituency in Bauchi State and Agwara State Constituency in Niger State where elections will be held without the candidates and parties that were declared winners during the general elections.
He assured Nigerians that the commission was ready for the re-run elections as all the sensitive and non-sensitive materials had been deployed in the states.
Nigeria To Save N900bn Annually From Petrol To Gas Switch [LEADERSHIP]
Moves by the federal government to make fuel cheaper by providing alternative to petrol known as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) would save the country N900 billion annually, LEADERSHIP findings have shown.
The minister of state for petroleum resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, recently disclosed that the proposed CNG would cost between N95 and N97 per kilogramme as against the present pump price of N145 per liter of petrol.
CNG is adjudged a better alternative to petrol and diesel because it is colourless, odourless, non-toxic, but inflammable and lighter than air.
Sylva said that the federal government was undergoing a pilot project with CNG in Benin City, Edo State where over 10,000 vehicles were running on it.
He asserted that “Nigeria will never experience fuel scarcity again with CNG.”