Bitcoin experienced a substantial increase, climbing around 20% from its recent lows, while other cryptocurrencies mentioned by President Donald Trump in a recent Truth Social post also experienced a sharp rise.

Market action showed Bitcoin rallied as high as $95K on Sunday after the president’s announcement via social media. Bitcoin cooled at $93K at the time of publication.

Trump suggested that his January executive order on digital assets would create a reserve of currencies in the U.S., including Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana, and Cardano.

The president of the world’s most powerful economy revealed the plan in a Sunday post on his social media platform, Truth Social, stating that a presidential working group had been instructed to move forward with the reserve’s establishment

“The initiative aims to support the crypto industry and strengthen America’s position in the global digital asset market,” he said. “After years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration, a US Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry, which is why my Executive Order on Digital Assets directed the Presidential Working Group to move forward on a Crypto Strategic Reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA,” Trump stated. 

This announcement led to a positive change in sentiment for the world’s largest cryptocurrency, which had been losing ground since mid-January due to disappointment over Trump’s inaction in relaxing regulatory policies. Over a fifth of Bitcoin’s value has been taken off the price since it peaked at $109,000 in early January

Trump disclosed plans to create a Crypto strategic reserve in the United States in the last quarter of 2024, indicating his support for the cryptocurrency industry.

He declared, “We’re going to do something great with crypto because we don’t want China or anybody else to embrace it, but others are, and we want to be ahead.” 

Bitcoin dropped more than 17 percent last month, marking its largest monthly percentage decline since June 2022.

Optimism that the crypto-friendly president would support a strategic Bitcoin fund and end the Biden administration’s crackdown on the sector has propelled its rally since Trump’s election in November.

However, investors haven’t heard much specific news about that policy thus far, aside from the rush of tech-friendly officials Trump appointed to office.

Technical analysis  

Recent market activity shows that Bitcoin could extend the rally to retest its next resistance level at $100,000 if it continues to recover.

The daily chart’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) now stands close to neutral, suggesting improved market sentiment.

The RSI needs to move above its neutral level of 50 for the bullish momentum to continue. However, if Bitcoin continues to fall and closes below the $90,000 support level, it may retest its $85,000 daily support.

President Trump’s position on cryptocurrencies has changed over time. He was initially dubious, but in keeping with his pledge to make America a center for cryptocurrency innovation, he has lately taken a more encouraging stance.

This commitment is demonstrated by the issuance of Executive Order 14178, which instructs federal agencies to create frameworks that facilitate the integration and regulation of digital assets.

America’s Crypto Czar confirms Trump’s strategy 

White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks has endorsed President Donald Trump’s declaration of an American strategic reserve for cryptocurrency.

“President Trump has announced a Crypto Strategic Reserve consisting of bitcoin and other top cryptocurrencies,” Sacks wrote in a post on the social media site X.  President Trump is making the U.S the “World’s Crypto Capital.’

Sacks announced plans for a major industry gathering: “On Friday, March 7, President Trump will host the first White House Crypto Summit.. Prominent CEOs, investors, and founders from the cryptocurrency sector will be among the attendees. I hope to see you all there!”

The summit is anticipated to help the administration and important stakeholders communicate, strengthening America’s prominent position in the global crypto industry

[Nairametrics]

As the leadership crisis in the Lagos State House of Assembly deepens, sources within the Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership have hinted at a possible judicial resolution if efforts to reinstate Mudashiru Obasa fail.

Despite intense lobbying from political heavyweights, the majority of lawmakers remain steadfast in their support for Speaker Mojisola Meranda, creating a stalemate between the two factions.

Naija News reports that a highly placed source within the Presidency told Vanguard, “The President is insisting Obasa must return but the Assembly members are also throwing their weight behind Meranda.

“The two camps do not want to shift grounds. As it is, the court will decide who the Speaker is and you know how judicial process works, it will move from the High Court to Appeal Court and from there, to the Supreme Court; the court will decide.”

The legal process, according to insiders, could be drawn out, moving from the High Court to the Court of Appeal, and eventually, to the Supreme Court a situation that could leave the Assembly in limbo for months.

Meanwhile, Obasa has taken the legal route, suing Meranda, the Assembly, and 36 lawmakers in a bid to overturn what he describes as his “unlawful removal.”

The case, currently before Justice Yetunde Rukayat Pinheiro of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, was adjourned last Friday to March 7, when pending applications are expected to be heard.

[NaijaNews]

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked President Bola Tinubu to instruct the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, to halt the increase in Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transaction fees pending the conclusion of the lawsuit on its legality.

SERAP stated that if the CBN implements the ATM fee increase while the suit is still pending before the Federal High Court in Lagos, it would undermine the judicial process and the rule of law.

The civil society organisation, which made the argument in an open letter dated March 1, 2025, signed by its Deputy Director Kolawole Oluwadare, also asserted that the apex bank must suspend the increase and wait for the lawsuit’s outcome.

SERAP further urged the president to seek legal advice from the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN),, regarding the CBN’s legal responsibility to uphold the rule of law by suspending the ATM fee increase while the lawsuit is pending.

This lawsuit followed the CBN’s announcement that ATM withdrawals at bank-owned machines outside their branch premises would now incur a fee of N100 for every N20,000 withdrawn.

Withdrawals made at shopping centres, airports, or standalone cash points would incur a fee of N100 plus a surcharge of up to N500.

In the open letter, SERAP stated that suspending the fee increase would align with the letter and spirit of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended), the president’s oath of office, and repeated promises to uphold the rule of law.

The organisation insisted that the CBN has the responsibility to uphold due process, protect the integrity of the judicial process, and ensure that its operations do not undermine the rule of law or the court.

It also maintained that the CBN must maintain the status quo as of February 26, 2025, when the court documents were duly served, and during the lawsuit filed by SERAP concerning the ATM fee hike before the Federal High Court in Lagos.

SERAP stated, “The CBN is not permitted to act in ways that would disregard the public interest or create a situation of complete helplessness for the Federal High Court.

“Nigerian courts disapprove of acts of self-help and respond swiftly to such conduct to reinforce that they will not be manipulated to hinder one party while allowing the other to benefit extrajudicially.

“Implementing the increase in ATM transaction fees while the upheld court processes and lawsuit are pending would directly threaten the integrity of the country’s judicial system and the rule of law.

“The credibility and relevance of the judicial system are at risk of being compromised, which could encourage other ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) to adopt similarly dismissive attitudes toward pending legal cases.

“The CBN must fulfil its general duty to act in good faith and avoid actions that might undermine the integrity of the judicial process by promptly suspending the increased ATM transaction fees until the lawsuit is heard and resolved.

“We would appreciate urgent action on the recommended measures to uphold the integrity of the judicial process and the rule of law.

“It is in the public’s interest to ensure that the streams of justice remain clear and pure, maintaining the authority and integrity of the court in this matter.

“SERAP filed the lawsuit on February 21, 2025, under number FHC/L/CS/344/2025, against the CBN due to its failure to reverse the unfair and unreasonable increase in ATM transaction fees.

“The court documents were officially served to the CBN in Abuja on February 26, 2025, and the CBN has acknowledged receipt.

“In the lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Lagos, SERAP is asking the court to determine whether the CBN’s decision to increase ATM transaction fees was arbitrary, unfair, unreasonable, and contrary to the provisions of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act of 2018.

“It is crucial to keep the streams of justice clear and pure and to uphold the authority and integrity of the court in this case,” SERAP stated.

[Leadership]

In his column last Saturday, my friend and brother, Farooq Kperogi, reminisced his previous piece on unusual Muslim names in Nigeria which do not “seem to have any links with the rest of the Muslim world.” He listed ‘Badamasi’ as one of them.

Kperogi said some readers of his column traced for him what they thought was the etymology of ‘Badamasi’ to an Arab poet “whose book advanced students in traditional Arabic schools” in Hausaland. He said his readers added that the book, “a Sufi poem, is used as a resource for Arabic vocabulary lessons and that over time, it became popularly known as Badamasi, named after its author.” Kperogi, however, held that he had “not found any scholarly corroboration for the claim that Badamasi is the name of an Arab poet.” Instead, he noted that “there is a late nineteenth-century Ilorin Muslim scholar and poet by the name of Badamasi whose poems are often utilized to enhance Arabic vocabulary and are a staple in the curriculum of traditional Islamic schools. But it’s not clear if he is the original bearer of the name.”

Both Kperogi and his readers may be right. But, even if they are right, the question still remains: How did the author(s) get the name and what does it mean?

A few months before the British invaded and conquered Kano in 1903, a young man wandered into that city with the panache of the literate. He gave his name simply as Abd Allah. As usual in those days, he came with no surname. Historians say he was found to have originated in a place called Ghadames (Ghadamis) in the far north of Africa. He was not alone in Kano; he had uncles who formed the Ghadames community of Arabs. But, because he was well-loved in Kano, he became popular and known as Abd Allah el-Ghadamisi (Abd Allah the Ghadamisi); the toponym, Ghadames (Ghadamis) had provided for him a surname – Ghadamisi, a citizen of Ghadamis.

Because a man’s skill and competence will feed him even in a season of famine, Abd Allah soon found favour before God and man because his primary language was Arabic and he was literate in it. And, because he could read and write Arabic and had quickly amassed enormous competence in Hausa language, C. L. Temple, northern Nigeria’s Lieutenant Governor, employed him as an assistant. He spent some time with Temple, then moved to H. R. Palmer, another top colonial officer who was employed by the authorities to do rural tax assessment. It was Palmer who got Abd Allah to write his memoirs. That book, ‘Your Humble Servant: The Memoirs of Abd Allah Al-Ghadamisi’. There is a 1996 seminal article on it authored by Muhammad Sani Umar and John Hunwick. Because, sometimes an author gets more famous than his work, al-Ghadamisi’s name appears to have overwhelmed the book’s title.

We read former President Ibrahim Babangida in his autobiography (page 2) crediting his father’s name, Badamasi, to the title of a book. He wrote: “As I understand it, my grandfather named my father ‘Badamasi’ after a particular religious book that he consulted regularly. My grandfather was so fond of the book that he decided to name his second child after it, and that was how the name ‘Badamasi’ came into our lineage!” Could he be referring to Abd Allah Al-Ghadamisi’s memoirs?

Sheikh Adam Abdullah el-Ilory (1917-1992) was the founder of the Markaz, Agege, Lagos. He was a highly regarded Islamic scholar and historian, and for that, he got decorated home and abroad. John Hunwick, British academic, author and Africanist, in his ‘The Arabic Literary Tradition of Nigeria’ published in 1997, described Sheikh Adam as “the greatest (Arabic/ Islamic scholar) that Nigeria has produced in the twentieth century.” Adam was educated far and wide and, he, significantly, was at Al-Azhar University, Cairo. He wrote books on Astronomy and Philosophy, on Yoruba origin and history; Islamic history and jurisprudence, Arabic language and its history, etc, etc and delivered hundreds of very seminal lectures.

In one of his lectures that I uploaded on my Facebook wall on 22 March, 2024, Sheikh Adam traced the history of Islam in Hausaland to a group of itinerant clerics and merchants from Ancient Mali. The cleric added that “with the Malians were the Ghadamisi”, the people of Ghadames, a town built on an oasis in northwestern Libya. Geographers locate that place today near the Tunisian and Algerian borders. For centuries, the town was very popular as a centre for Trans Saharan Trade, particularly, the Arab flank of the Slave Trade.

The Sheikh Adam story is better told in his very words but he spoke in Yoruba; I try some translation (and transliteration) here: “The Ghadamisi. They are a tribe, a whole city. Àwon olórúko president wa ní Nigeria nìyen (they are our president’s namesakes). That is where he (Babangida) got his name, Badamasi. Some pronounce that name as Bidimos. They use Badamasi in Hausaland; we use Gbadamosi in Yorubaland. Bidimosi (Badmus, Bidmus) is a recent variant…It is not as popular as Ghadamisi. With the Ghadamisi were the Wangara. The Wangara brought Islam to Hausaland.” The period he spoke of was around the 14th century.

Sheikh Adam linked the Wangara with the Ghadamisi. You would want to ask what brought together those two disparate tribes. The Malian city of Gao was a major hub for trade and cultural exchange in those distant days. History told us that the “westernmost of the three central routes of the trans Saharan trade was the Ghadames Road, which ran from the Niger River at Gao north to Ghat and Ghadames before terminating at Tripoli.” That route provided the common course for the lives of the Wongara and the people of Ghadames in their joint journey of trade and faith to West Africa. It is in The Kano Chronicles that “during the reign of Yaji, the King of Kano from 1349 to 1385, the Wangarawa came from Melle (Mali) bringing the religion of Islam.” The Wangarawa came as clerics, marabouts and scholars.

Kperogi thinks Hausa’s ‘Badamasi’ was “Yorubized to ‘Gbadamosi’ and later anglicized to ‘Badmus’ in Yoruba land.” If he reads me here, and if he agrees with Sheikh Adam that ‘Ghadames/ Ghadamisi’ is the root of ‘Gbadamosi/Badamasi’, I hope he will rethink this conclusion. I say so because between ‘Badamasi’ and ‘Gbadamosi’, the one with the ‘Gb’ sound sounds closer to ‘Ghadamisi’, their root.

There is a royal family in Lagos called Oniru. In the earliest times when there was no Lagos and Eko knew its boundaries, that family owned all lands that house today’s Awolowo Road, the prime area called Falomo, Tafawa Balewa Square, the Independence Building, Island Club, Yoruba Tennis Club, et cetera, et cetera. Add Oyinkan Abayomi to that list, and, in addition to those places, input 18 other villages – all in pricey Lagos Island.

The family that owned all those is the family that produced the new and contentious speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mrs Mojisola Lasbat Meranda. Do not mind her surname; she is an Oniru. Her brother is the reigning Oba of their Iruland. She is a princess but being a princess is not enough for her to join the big league of Lagos. Her election as speaker by almost all her colleagues, means little or nothing. In the pantheon of Lagos politics, there is always one god whose one vote trumps a million ballots. In some places, you do not have to enter the grove before you become an elder; grey hair is enough. Not in Lagos. In Lagos, the godfather is the igbó’rò, the sacred grove that confers age, that vests authority in and breathes life into all figurines.

The search for that breath is what is making Meranda and her backers panting. And, she has just started. Breaking into the power vault of Lagos uninvited is akin to sitting on a million needles. She did that and must, therefore, writhe from the needle effect. Fortunately for her, she is a woman with a lot of fluid in her tear gland, and she has been generous with shedding princely tears since her colleagues invested her with the authority to be speaker of the president’s state. Last week, the sacked speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, borrowed some lines from Black Scorpion’s Third Marine Commando. Obasa landed at the House complex at dawn and sensationally announced his comeback. As cover, he had guns and boots of various shapes and sizes behind him.

I watched the video and saw his enemies under a tent, peeping like fearful, terrorized children of Gaza and the West Bank. It was obvious that the state was behind Obasa. With a wand, the herdsman runs his flock around. Lateef Jakande did what Bola Tinubu does with the politics of Lagos today. From his emergence in 1979 until he went to Abuja in 1994, Jakande was the god and father of Lagos politics. He decided who got what and who should and would not get anything. But because every godfather has an expiry date, hugely popular Jakande took a federal job, went to Abuja and lost his spell.

He returned to Lagos, to a palace without people. Bola Tinubu is in Abuja. The spell in Lagos is unraveling. I hope he knows this and quickly cements his cracked walls. He cannot keep Lagos by overtly having favourites among his disciples. Every parent knows how slippery it could be not to respect the choice of boys who have become men. What do you think are the consequences of a blind king riding a blind horse through the market of the blind? The king will fall; the horse will maim and kill; the market will be over. That is what I fear happening in Lagos.

The casualties will be unimaginable. The possibility of the market being stung by bees is the reason I wonder why the principalities driving this crisis are not seeing what we see. The brake is there, press it! Enemies are saying that Lagos won’t stop the war because it is God at work. A river, no matter the length of its course, must necessarily empty its waters into the ocean. It is the natural course of power.

A village, town, or city’s foundation stone orders its affairs. Ìdálu ni ìsèlú is the Yoruba construction for that English phrase. With one lone, worn-out stick, the Fulani commands his herd. That is Lagos. Lagos has always been godfathers’ playground. It may keep preening itself as the landing bay for civilization in Nigeria but it has a sorry history of being herded by political herdsmen. If everything escapes your memory, I do not think you would forget the 1991 miracle of Otedola. When siblings fight without looking back, outsiders grab and pack their everything and run with it.

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) thought it owned Lagos in 1991 and could do anything there and get away with it. In its fold were two irreconcilable groups, each backing an aspirant for the governorship. There was the Primrose Movement with Chief Dapo Sarumi as its anointed candidate. Mr. Bola Tinubu belonged to that group. Primrose drew its strength from the Patriotic Front (PF) owned and funded by Fulani aristocrat, General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.

The second group’s anointed was Professor Femi Agbalajobi. He is now late. Lagos godfather, Lateef Jakande, was the father and guardian spirit of Agbalajobi’s group. The war between the two ended only with the disqualification of both aspirants by the then all-powerful National Electoral Commission (NEC). Yar’Adua’s group then did a coup. The General used his influence and wealth to foist his protégé, Yomi Edu, on the very popular SDP as its governorship candidate. The result was a defeat that shocked everyone home and abroad. Sir Michael Otedola was the governorship candidate of the rival National Republican Convention (NRC), a very unpopular party in Lagos. NRC had only two seats in the Lagos House of Assembly; the rival SDP had 38.

But SDP lost the governorship to the unpopular NRC. NRC’s Otedola won the election because Lateef Jakande, the reigning godfather of that era, was sufficiently incensed to kill his goose rather than watch an outsider appropriate its golden eggs. But, did that action have consequences? If it did, what were they? In all these, I pity two persons as they hide behind their fingers while their Lagos burn from their match sticks.

They have my pity; they do not have my sympathy. The first is President Bola Tinubu. Elders don’t get angry; they don’t fight all wars. Brigadier General Benjamin Maja Adekunle in his ‘Biafra War Letters’ said his middle name, Maja, which means ‘Don’t fight’, was given to him as a leash for his incessant street brawls. Yoruba bards say a careless, listless owner will have the oil in their lamp dissipated before their very eyes. It is happening in Lagos. The puppies that Eko carefully nursed for a day like this are openly barking resentment at his preference and choice.

That is classic demystification. He should pause, ponder and re-plan. More importantly, the ponderous should repossess himself from hubris; for the king who cannot master himself may find mastering others very impossible. The second person I invest my pity in, with a heavy heart, is Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. The sacrifice he took to the Lagos intersection last night is still there; those who should eat it did not. Check the Ìrókò and its branches. The squirrel that used to dance with its head is no longer rejoicing with its tail.

The omens are not good. The man is fast becoming a bigger Fubara and I ponder his fate as he fords this flood. Neither iyán lébé nor okà lèbè will satisfy those he might have offended. He should just hurry home to his fathers and ask them what the gods want. Unfortunately, he cannot be heard complaining about anything that is not fair in the Lagos arrangement – he is a product of that system. May God help him and help his godfather. ‘Why Empires Fall’ is a book by two western scholars, Peter Heather and John Rapley.

It is in that book that I got a perfect imagery to describe what is unfolding in Lagos: the image of broken pottery. They note, and I agree with them, that once broken, a pot becomes useless but the individual shards endure to cry the story of their collective tragedy. From Ikate to Iru to Marina to Alausa, the spell that binds the Lagoon and the sea; the mainland and the Island is flooded and its potency now watery. The shattered crockery of the Lagos establishment is getting flung hither and thither. Unless sanity is allowed to reign there, there may be more there to break in days ahead.

Nigeria’s office of the Accountant General of the Federation has identified major setbacks to the implementation of the July 11, 2024 Supreme Judgement on local government councils autonomy.

According to the government agency, the two major setbacks are the failure of LGAs to submit account details, adding that identifying the LGAs that are democratically elected is a prerequisite for receiving the direct payment.

This was contained in the Federation Account Allocation Committee Technical Sub-Committee meeting, the minutes obtained at the weekend.

The meeting was chaired by AGF, Oluwatoyin Madein.

Meanwhile, the OAGF and Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice have commenced talks to address the setback, according to sources familiar with the matter.

According to the minutes, of the 774 local government councils, only Delta State, with 25 local government councils, has submitted their account details for direct payment.

“So far, only local governments in Delta State have provided account details.

“However, consultation with the Attorney-General of the Federation on the modalities of the submission of the accounts was still ongoing,” it said.
Addressing the challenge, Madein said a system was set to be implemented, but the initial challenge was in determining which local government councils had constitutionally elected chairmen.

She remarked that this foundational stage remained unclear.

“Additionally, for those with properly elected leadership, the question arose as to what mechanisms would be deployed to ensure they receive direct allocations.

“This was because numerous complexities needed to be addressed,” she said.
Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria had commenced profiling the chairmen and signatories to the bank accounts of the 774 local government areas in the country as part of processes to commence local government autonomy.

The Director of Legal Services at the CBN, Kofo Salam-Alada, in a notice explained that this was necessary to ensure financial accountability.

“This is all about standard procedure in the form of KYC (Know Your Customer). Anyone who will be a signatory to the account must be profiled.

“The process is ongoing, and we are collaborating with the AGF’s office. We have also written to the LGAs,” he said.
However, the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria said it had received no communication from the apex bank concerning the opening of bank accounts.

ALGON Chairman in Abia State and Chairman of the Mayor Isuikwuato LGA, Chinesu Ekeke, said the CBN had yet to invite any LG chairman for signatory verification.

“No, we have not been invited for signatory verification. I am just hearing it. I have not heard it from any other source.

“I have not seen any publication to that effect, even at ALGON headquarters; nobody has informed us,” he stated.
This comes as the National Union of Local Government Employees earlier warned the CBN against aiding state governors in undermining the financial autonomy of local government councils.

DAILY POST recalls that the Supreme Court had, on July 11, 2024, affirmed the financial autonomy of the 774 local government areas in the country and prohibited governors from further control of funds meant for the councils.

The apex court also directed the Accountant-General of the Federation to pay local government allocations directly to their accounts, declaring the non-remittance of funds by the 36 states unconstitutional.

But eight months after the judgement, the financial autonomy has yet to take effect.

[DailyPost]

The House of Representatives will today begin an investigation into outstanding debts by several oil companies to the Federation Account amounting to about N9.4 trillion.

In a statement, House spokesman Akintunde Rotimi said the investigative hearing is in compliance with the committee’s constitutional mandate under sections 85, 88, and 89 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), as well as Order XX – Rule 6 of the House of Representatives Standing Orders (11th edition).

The statement revealed that during the review of the Auditor-General’s Annual Report on the Consolidated Financial Statement for the year ended December 31, 2021, and following further in-depth investigations, it was discovered that as of the last quarter of 2024, several oil companies owed a total of approximately N9.4 trillion to the Federal Government.

It added that the amount covered unpaid royalties, concession rentals, and gas flare penalties, besides obligations arising from production-sharing contracts, repayment agreements, and modified carry arrangements.

He said: “Despite the clear provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act – which require such debts to be settled within 30 days – many of these liabilities have remained unsettled since 2021.

“In light of these findings, the Public Accounts Committee hereby invites the oil companies listed below to submit the previously requested documents and appear before the committee in Meeting Room 446 of the Fourth Floor of the House of Representatives at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja at 10 a.m. prompt.

The companies listed to appear before the committee include: Addax Petroleum Exploration Nigeria Ltd, AITEO Group Chevron Nigeria Limited (OML 90, 95, 49), Chorus Energy, Conoil Plc, Continental Oil & Gas Company Limited, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, Esso E & P. Limited (Usan, Erha), First E & P. Limited, Frontier Oil Limited, General Hydrocarbons Limited, Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited (NAE), Panocean Oil Nigeria Limited (OML 147), Neconde Energy Limited, Total E and P Nigeria (OML 100, 102, 52 & 99), Niger Delta Petroleum, Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) (OML 60, 61 & 63)

The others are: Oando Oil Limited (OML 60, 61 & 62), Heirs Holdings, Platform Petroleum Limited, Shell Petroleum Development Company (OML 27), Universal Energy Limited/Sinpec, Shoreline Natural Resources, Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited, Sahara Field Production Limited, and Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (OML 67 & 70), among others.

The statement said: “This notice supersedes all previous communications regarding the dates for appearance. Every company is required to be represented by its Chief Executive Officer, in person, and any other officer(s) well-versed in the issues under investigation.

“The committee cautions that failure to appear on the designated date may result in further action being taken against the defaulting organisation.”

[TheNation]

A National Youth Service Corps member, Rofiat Lawal, who was abducted along the Benin-Ore Expressway last Tuesday, has disclosed that her abductors threatened to force her into marriage and take her to Sokoto if her family refused to pay a ransom.

This is just as she narrated that one of the abductors, who are Fulani, took her NYSC uniform and wore it.

PUNCH Metro reports that Rofiat was abducted on her way to her place of primary assignment in Oyo State while coming from Edo State.

The abductors initially demanded a ransom of N20m but after several negotiations, they reduced it to N5m.

A friend of Rofiat, identified as Agbakwara, who raised the alarm about her abduction on his Facebook page, had on Saturday narrated how she was eventually freed after her family paid a ransom of N1.1m to an account purportedly belonging to a family of another kidnapped victim.

Narrating her experience in an exclusive interview with our correspondent on Sunday, Rofiat noted that the kidnappers waylaid the vehicle she boarded along the Ore area of the expressway.

She disclosed that out of the 10 passengers in the vehicle, six of them were kidnapped and led into a bush along the expressway.

She added that valuable items such as money and mobile phones were taken from all the victims, including her NYSC uniform, which one of the kidnappers wore.

The corper said they trekked for seven hours on the first day they were abducted before they were allowed to rest.

She said, “On our way coming from Benin to Ore, they stopped our vehicle. I was sitting at the front and what I heard was gunshots. When I raised my head, I saw three people with guns in front of the vehicle and three people at the back. The driver tried to escape but he could not. So, they asked us to lie down and took six of us.

“They led us into the bush, searched us and collected our phones and money. Some of the victims were marketwomen and they collected all their money, which ranged from N600,000 to N1.2m and so on, but I was with N15,000, which they took from me. One of them took my NYSC uniform and wore it.

“After they collected our valuables, we trekked from 3 pm to 10 pm in the bush. During the day, they would ask us to sit somewhere in the forest and at night, they would ask us to start trekking. That was how we spent the four days with them.”

She narrated that other victims, who were mostly elders and traders, were beaten on several occasions during the four days of captivity.

When asked if she was hurt, she narrated that they did not torture her compared to what was done to others, but one of the kidnappers threatened to force her into marriage and take her to Sokoto State.

“One of them said he would marry me and take me to Sokoto if my family refused to pay ransom. I was less harassed, unlike the other victims who were older than me. I was the youngest among those of us who were kidnapped. They did not even know if I was a corps member or not, they were just concerned about the money they wanted to get from us.

“I don’t know the total ransom that the six of us kidnapped paid as ransom. Some paid N2m, N3m and so on, depending on how your family negotiated.”

Asked if they ate during the four days of captivity, she replied that the kidnappers were prepared with garri, which they gave to them on a few occasions.

“They carried a cooler with them which was stored with garri. That was what they gave us on a few occasions.

“They were prepared for the operation and it does not seem like that was their first time doing it.

She urged the NYSC authority to avail her of some period of rest considering the traumatic experience she had within the four days.

“The NYSC authority has reached out to me. The State Coordinator and my Local Government Inspector have called to check up on me. My appeal is that they should give me some days to rest and get medical attention because of the traumatic experience I had gone through for the four days.

“I do not regret participating in the NYSC because what will happen will happen. Others whom we were kidnapped together were not NYSC members,” she concluded.

She thanked her family for raising the ransom and getting her out of captivity.

[Punch]