Those who know Mr. Olayemi Cardoso will agree he got his current job as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria on a platter of solid professional background and strong personal attributes. His pedigree is rich as his character is unsullied. Cardoso had a remarkable private sector career where he shone brilliantly in banking, stockbroking and consulting.

Cardoso also came from a very solid family pedigree. Nigeria’s late Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, appointed his late father, Mr. Felix Bankole Cardoso, as the first Accountant-General of the Federation in 1963. The late elder Cardoso served with enviable record till 1971.

Part of the remarkable private sector career of Olayemi Cardoso was his appointment as the Chairman of the Board of Citi Bank in Nigeria.

Cardoso began his public service journey when he became the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning in the cabinet of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Governor of Lagos State as he then was in 1999. In addition to superintending that ministry, Cardoso was charged with several other responsibilities including heading important cabinet committees that birthed landmark agencies in the state. Cardoso was known for enforcing strict budgetary discipline that contributed significantly to the overall success of the Tinubu administration in Lagos. He refused to authorise the release of funds for projects or programmes that had no budgetary head. For all of that and many more, Cardoso was nicknamed the Headmaster.

Armed with a Bachelor of Science degree in Managerial and Administrative Studies and Masters in Public Administration from the prestigious Harvard Kennedy School of Government and parading strong personal attributes, Cardoso is obviously a perfect fit for the CBN top job. He is calm but firm, strict but fair, prudent but practical, straightforward and honest with loads of integrity. These are the unique qualities he carried unto his job at the apex bank and his major selling points when on September 23, 2023 he officially assumed office with the Senate confirmation of his appointment.

However, it does appear Cardoso will need much more than that to succeed in his present assignment. Under him, the CBN seems to be doing the right thing or doing things right: thinking and working on coming up with appropriate monetary policies, moving to rein in the rising foreign exchange rates and particularly achieve an appropriate value for the naira, which Cardoso believes has been undervalued.

But in the wake of the floating of the Naira, some of the variables shaping the value of the national currency, including limited production in the country as a result of insecurity, Nigerians’ high taste for imported products, dwindling exports, poor dollar remittances, humongous school fees of Nigerian students abroad and medical tourism all of which engendered a strong demand for dollar, far outweighing supply, seem to be clearly beyond his control.

Until these situations change for better, no amount of monetary policies by the CBN will work any miracle, hence Cardoso’s predicament. For instance, in his presentation at the sectoral debate organised by the House of Representatives two weeks ago, the CBN governor lamented that the growing number of Nigerian students studying abroad, increasing medical tourism and food imports have led to the depreciation of the Naira against the Dollar. According to him, over the past decade, foreign exchange demand for education and healthcare totalled nearly $40 billion, surpassing the total current foreign exchange reserves of the CBN, while personal travel allowances accounted for a total of $58.7 billion during the same period.

Another critical yet intriguing factor but seemingly odd in Cardoso’s reckoning is the perception in some quarters of some of the decisions of the CBN, which the apex bank considers purely administrative, but which some others give strange connotations.

One of such is the decision to move some departments of the bank; notably banking supervision, other financial institutions supervision, consumer protection department and payment system management department from Abuja to Lagos.

Indeed, until the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, spoke on this issue last week, I had reckoned that the imperative of the planned relocation of some CBN departments and the headquarters of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria from Abuja to Lagos was evident enough. I had reasoned that the Northern politicians including Senator Ali Ndume from Borno State who had moved to bring down the roof over the development were merely playing politics.

The Emir of Kano, a highly revered royal father, raised the ante last Monday while receiving the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, who was in Kano to inaugurate the School of Law Building named after her by Maryam Abacha American University of Nigeria, and had stopped by to pay a courtesy call on the Emir.

Emir Bayero, whose speech was translated from Hausa to English Language by a senior palace counsellor, had told the First Lady to convey his message to President Tinubu. He said among other things: “We are indeed suspicious on why Mr. President single-handedly relocated key departments of CBN, and outright relocation of FAAN to Lagos.

“We are receiving a series of messages from my subjects, and most of them expressed concern over the relocation of CBN and FAAN to Lagos. President Tinubu should come out clean on this matter and talk to Nigerians in the language they would understand. Do more enlightenment on this matter. I, for one, cannot tell the actual intentions of the government. We should be made to actually understand why the relocation of the CBN and FAAN offices back to Lagos.”

Many will wonder why some members of the northern elites are losing their cool, misinterpreting this move and, perhaps inadvertently, heating up the polity on this rather elementary matter. Is their reservation altruistic? Or are they just being sincerely mistaken and reading unnecessary motives into the policy? With the benefit of hindsight, one can say that Cardoso and his team should have understood the political dimensions of the decision better and undertake a more effective public enlightenment on it rather than treat it as a purely administrative matter. Knowing the kind of people and country that we are and the fact that ours is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multicultural society where every action or decision is viewed from ethnic and religious lenses, the CBN ought not to have released the news about the movement of the departments concerned in a routine manner as it did.

It should have released the news with the detailed information and explanation behind the move. The CBN Communication Department should have deployed all in its arsenal to explain the movement to its critical stakeholders and the general public. The apex bank should have seen the movement beyond a mere administrative move, which is within its remit to do. The bank should have situated the movement and anticipated the social and political meanings some may give it. That is how things run in Nigeria.

A deeper and detailed explanation was later provided when Cardozo appeared on the floor of the House of Representatives in Abuja. I was there at the session and witnessed it all. Asked by one of the members of the House from the North, at the session, the rationale behind the movement, the CBN Governor said: “There is nothing political in the movement. We didn’t change any plan. It has always been like that to ease banking supervision. Most of the banks are based in Lagos. So it works well for supervision if our officials are there with them and close to them and close to those the banks interact with. It’s for administrative convenience. It’s also cheaper for the CBN.” He also disclosed that the movement of the departments concerned to Lagos is also important because, according to him, the country is at the point where there is a need for more banking surveillance.

It is important that the CBN governor draws the appropriate lesson from this. He should learn from this experience that though his job of superintending the country’s monetary system is a professional and economic one, yet it has its political aspects. His decisions have consequences not only on the economy but also on the political front. As such, the CBN Governor must always pay attention to the political ramifications of his decisions.

He must be political without being partisan.

Indeed, his situation is also not helped by the fact that he has had very political predecessors-in-office including the high-sounding Professor Chukwuma Soludo, the soft-spoken but loud former Emir of Kano, Khalifa Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, and the immediate-past Governor, Godwin Emefiele (this one even attempted to contest for president while holding the office as CBN governor).

There are a couple of things to say on the hoopla about the staff transfer though.

One, President Tinubu is receiving attacks over the movement. Emir of Kano says he must reverse it, urging the First Lady to deploy the feminine soft power to actualise this. Yet, to all intent and purposes, the President that is being asked to reverse the transfer may not have been apprised of the decision because he does not micromanage those he gives responsibilities to where their unique expertise and experience are called to service. The CBN on its part may not have briefed the President because Cardoso had seen the planned movement as purely administrative.

Secondly and more importantly, those who are responding negatively to the policy are treating Abuja as if it belongs to the North rather than being the symbol of the entire country as the Federal Capital Territory. In that capacity, as the FCT, Abuja belongs to all and belongs to no one. In the same vein, as the economic capital and nerve center of the country, Lagos is a melting pot where representatives of virtually all ethnic and cultural groups in the country reside and earn a living.

There is absolutely nothing that says that the headquarters of all Federal Agencies must be located in the Federal Capital even when economic considerations and efficiency dictate otherwise. Some federal agencies reside neither in Abuja nor Lagos at present and their work go on unimpeded.

In any case, President Tinubu’s pan-Nigerian outlook and credentials are too well known. His ability to build political and personal networks and relationships across the length and breath of the country were partly responsible for his victory in the keenly contested 2023 presidential election. He will be the last person to approve or support any policy designed to be detrimental to any part of the country.

But for CBN Governor Cardoso, all of that represents his baptism of fire and a wake-up call for him to be a little more flexible particularly in matters that have wider political connotations.

– Rahman is a Senior Presidential aide

I don’t even understand it any more.
Nigeria was destined to win the 2013 AFCON. I believed it with all my being.
Then it did not happen!
It is very significant that the federal govt still went out of its way to reward the team as if they won! That, is very significant, because the Eagles were rewarded even for not coming first!
But why?
I was there at the stadium in Ebimpe. We were cruising to success. Then it happened!
Paseiro? Okay, fate has determined his fate. He is leaving with adequate rewards for his effort. But no more! Let him go! He is not good enough for the future. No sentiments, just the bare facts.

Now, I have learnt of 6 Nigerians that died from watching the semifinals and final matches of the AFCON. It is unheard of in my entire relationship with Football. 6 persons and still counting, from the tension of Nigeria not winning? What does this sacrifice of innocent lives mean? We will never know!

In the past 24 hours, I have learnt that a teacher in my own school, a gentleman we all call ‘Ten-Ten’ because of his love for football, died as he was watching the Eagles start to lose to Ivory Coast.
I also lived in the house of Chief Labiyi in Oke Ado in Ibadan. He was the former Principal of Ibadan Grammar School. Wale and Jide were Chief Labiyi’s children. Wale died last week whilst watching the Super Eagles lose to Cote D’Ivoire.
I learnt about these two deaths in the past 24 hrs. This adds to the 4 other Nigerians that were reported to have died whilst watching the disappointment of the Super Eagles’s performances between the semi-final and final matches.

There is something about those matches and the seeming ‘sacrifices’ made by these 6 (and possibly more) Nigerians that loved their country so much, and died under the pressure of wishing for the country’s success.

I am just leaving Ibadan.
I arrived Nigeria and have not gone home in Lagos to see my family members. I drove straight to Ibadan to be a part of the burial ceremony of my friend and colleague, Phillip Kweku Kolawole Boamah, who died some moths ago. Phillip was a Ghanaian football player that played for the national team of Nigeria and was part of winning Nigeria’s first continental club football trophy in 1976.

His death and burial were a solemn reminder of our collective mortality.
I am grateful to the children who organized a very dignified and befitting funeral.

Yet, it was a reunion of some sort.

At the end of the event, a few friends from those years back in the day in Ibadan, came together to share ‘communion’ of lunch and drinks in remembrance of Philip.

In the picture are old Comradès in the business of fun in Ibadan - from left of picture- Tokunboh Adejumo (my in-law), Godwin, Yours truly, Gbola Bakre, and Pius Aludo, leaving qn old ‘joint’ for our reunion!

I am still thinking and working out the connection between that and Nigeria’sloss at AFCON. Was losing a price to pay for what could have been a bigger ‘disaster’? We will never know, will we?

I have received so many condolence messages from friends and persons I do not even know on the death of my boss, brother and friend, Dr. Herbert Wigwe. Indeed, the outpouring of grief across the country has been overwhelmingly comforting. I thank you all.

But this evening, I received a strange call from a friend, who told me that Herbert’s death is a punishment from God because when Access Bank acquired Intercontinental Bank, some people who worked for the acquired bank had developed heart attack and died. I lost my cool and told him that he’s talking nonsense.

Even before Access bought Intercontinental in 2011, there were many mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry arising from the banking consolidation of 2004 and 2005. The bank I worked for then merged with four others and formed a new, bigger bank. Many lost their jobs, but they ended up reentering the industry as the sector expanded, while some others changed careers. Those who attended business school would recall that all M&As will always result in job losses because the synergy created usually lead to some redundancies. This is typically presented in the equation: 1+1 = 3.

Herbert is not the first person to die in an air accident. Remember ADC, Dana and Bellview air crashes? Did the passengers all die because of what they did? In 1995, many school kids coming home for Christmas holidays from Abuja died in Sosoliso air crash in PH. Did those children die because they bought a bank? Did they die because of their sins? What of those air crashes involving Ethiopian airlines, Malaysian airlines and other international airlines?

Is air crash the only way that people die tragically? What of those who die from drowning, fire disaster, electrocution, armed robbery attacks or even kidnapping? Is it also because of whatever they did on earth? What of women who die from childbirth? What of children who die from the six childhood killer diseases?

The person who called me this evening presented a very uninformed and nasty understanding of death, ethereal and esoteric matters. He was very insensitive to the huge loss that has befallen me. I am happy that I gave him a piece of my mind.

The Nigeria Labour Congress said it has put machinery in place for a two-day nationwide protest slated for February 27 and February 28, 2024.

The NLC’s National President, Joe Ajaero, said the protest would begin a week after the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum it issued to the Federal Government which will expire on February 23.

Ajaero, who spoke during a briefing with journalists in Abuja, said the decision followed an emergency National Executive Council meeting on the state of the economy and matters related to insecurity in the country.

On February 8, the NLC and the Trade Union Congress gave a two-week ultimatum to the government to meet demands ranging from wage increments to improved access to public utilities and accused it of failing to uphold pledges to soften the impact of reforms.

Ajaero said the Federal Government should not flout the deadline of the 14-day ultimatum.

The organised labour lamented that millions of Nigerian workers are facing hunger, erosion of purchasing power and insecurity due to reforms that drove up inflation.

This followed President Bola Tinubu’s decision to scrap a popular but costly fuel subsidy last May and his administration’s lifting of restrictions on currency trading, which more than tripled petrol prices.

Details later…

President Bola Tinubu has been appointed the African Union, AU, Champion for Human Resources for Health and Community Health Delivery Partnership against the backdrop of his ambitious, innovative, and people-focused efforts in the sector.

This was disclosed in a statement by Chief Ajuri Ngelale, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity on Friday.

The Commission of the African Union, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention — Africa CDC, in a letter to Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tinubu was appointed on the recommendation of the Committee of Heads of State and Government of Africa CDC, under the leadership of His Excellency, President Azali Assoumani, President of the Union of Comoros and Chairperson of the African Union.

In his new role, the Commission subsequently invited President Tinubu to address the Ministerial Executive Leadership Programme, MELP, under the theme, ‘Impactful leadership in health: a whole government approach’, billed for Saturday, February 17, 2024, at the Africa CDC Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the margins of the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of AU Heads of State and Government.

Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe (15 August 1966 – 9 February 2024)

“I remember a friend of mine in the oil industry, who during a meeting of an economic think tank. He called the then president aside and said, ‘Mr President please stop this subsidy, we are tired of making money…We’re bringing in this fuel at an elevated cost and half of it is exported out of Nigeria by the same people collecting money for it” 

There is an apparent consensus of opinion that Nigeria has not had a good outing under the stewardship of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The main extenuation for this lapse is that he inherited a basket case from his predecessor, Major General Muhammadu Buhari.That may well be the case but this extenuation flies in the face of his own verbalised utmost quest and carnal desire (lifelong ambition) to become the president of Nigeria. I do not exactly recall whether it was 

Usman Dan Fodio who counselled society to be wary of whoever desires the aroma of power the most. Buhari’s obsession with power and what he did with it for eight years proves the point. May Nigeria be spared the repeat of the Buhari cross all over again.

Beware of what you crave, you may just get it. Having now been gratified with the object of his ‘lifelong ambition’, Nigeria lies prostrate before President Tinubu but he has so far failed to master the moment. In fairness to him and unlike his predecessor, he has largely refrained from making a song and dance of the Buhari (dysfunction) extenuation. Save when he characterised the transition from Buhari to his government as ‘moving from darkness to a glorious dawn’. While the characterisation of the former President’s tenure as an era of “darkness” is apt, it would amount to standing reality on its head to cite the incumbent president’s tenure as anything near a glorious dawn.

The potential crowning glory of the Buhari dysfunction and one I regret not supporting was his desire to foist former President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan as the president of Nigeria. And he was thick enough to try it. If he had succeeded, he would have sufficiently radicalised Nigerian politics, and clarified the choice before the country as never before. Already cut too deep, the cleavages would have irretrievably cut deeper. The affront was bound to foster a make or break crisis whose ramifications would force a fundamental constitutional review of the status quo or worse. 

Imagine the spectre of Vice-president Atiku Abubakar as the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate and Ahmed Lawan as that of the APC, and the certainty that the election will be rigged in favour of either presidential candidate. To the contrary, with the election of Tinubu as a sop to the Yoruba, Nigeria has won a battle but lose the war. As we have come to learn, the restructuring din has quietened down to a whimper. A very smart politician, contemporaneously I 

cannot recall him ever owning restructuring as priority- that is if he ever touched the idea at all on his campaign rostrum.

 As programmed, he has deflated the bubbles of the only viable status quo answer to the question of what ails Nigeria. I was surprised at the conniving power politics posture of the Yoruba intelligentsia towards the realpolitik of contemporary Nigeria. The better option of Peter Obi was put down as representative of Igbo triumphalism! It went all the way back to the politics of playing the Yoruba against the Igbo. 

I marvelled at the spectre of respected scholars who taught us on how tribalism is the bane of Nigerian politics becoming the standard bearers of the very ill they professed against. It was the perfect opportunity to breach the to- your- tents-o-Israel barrier that had kept Nigeria down for so long. Love your neighbour as you love yourself, thus sayeth the Lord. And it was reckoned as one of the most important commandments. 

“The two great commandments, as found in Matthew 22:36-40, are to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart” and “love thy neighbour as thyself.” The Lord did not qualify the commandment as applicable only to those you like. It is a challenge to our individual and collective morality and test of commitment to principles, to stand by a principle when it is not convenient to do so. The more cynical of them rationalised their position with the logic that if Nigeria is fated to ruin and damnation, it makes sense to have your son at the commanding heights! 

As you might have rightly guessed, the reference to Rawlings in the caption is a metaphor for a near revolutionary take over of government. To a considerable extent, the inability of Tinubu to stare down the challenges and problems of Nigeria boils down to not wanting to commit class suicide. If he really wants to commit to doing his job well, he has two options.

One is to go for a constitutional review towards the end of securing the restoration of federalism. The other is to lead by the power of example. The latter point is not as trite as it sounds. In the affairs of men, it is inevitable for society to experience crisis and tribulation. So by itself, the bad spell Nigeria is going through is neither new nor unprecedented. What matters most is the demonstration of enlightened self-interest, the capacity of the ruling elite to mobilise the citizenry by the power of personal example and discipline. 

Within the context of Nigeria, It may sound utopian, but think of a shirtless Rawlings driving a bulldozer. If you have your leaders miraculously borrow a leaf from this playbook, the masses will forget they have not eaten a piece of meat for weeks.

I do not need to go into the sordid details but the statement of intent indicated in the budget presented by the president a few months back is a contraindication of leadership by example and a mockery of the Nigerian masses. It is a budget of how not to mobilise the people behind your leadership. It is not a budget of how to exhort your people to think of what they can do for their country and not what their country can do for them. 

As Nigeria’s cup of iniquity overflows with no discernable silver lining in the dark horizon, my mind has been waxing subjective and unorthodox dimensions. In my last outing, I wrote of making atonement for the sin of our forefathers participation and connivance in the slave trade as a spiritual panacea for what increasingly appears to be a digging deeper into the hole of mass immiseration and underdevelopment. I got this inspiration from the most accomplished American president, Abraham Lincoln. He believed that the American civil war over the institution of slavery was punishment and atonement for the role of America in the transatlantic slave trade. 

As I contemplate the ratcheting up of public service corruption in Nigeria today to the level of unimaginable perversion and sickness, my mind wandered to how Shehu Yar’Adua came to terms with the dilemma. I doubt if decent society has any lessons to learn from the peculiarity and oddity but it is story worthy of being told. It is a story of how effective he was in securing his political goals and objectives. It was as cynical as it was effective. If the former number two man in the military government of Obasanjo, was sending a political subordinate on an errand, he would inquire about the cost implication of the task. Having been apprised of the financial implication, say ten million Naira, he would give the money as requested. He would then top up the money with another ten million, so the fellow would have less incentive to fignal with the original ten million. And it worked! 

In theory and practice, I do not know how to substantiate this primitive formula but ranged against what presently obtains, it appears to me a good bargain (if we can get ten billion naira value for a contract awarded for twenty billion). 

It is six months now since Isa Yuguda has made his earth shaking revelation. The response of the President was to cast a vote of confidence in the man at the centre of the worst scandal in Nigeria and reappoint him as the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Neither has he deemed it worthwhile to invite the remorseful friend of Yuguda to come and tell all he knows as a participant-observer who has become tired of making billions at the expense of the Nigerian public 

President Bola Tinubu has approved the immediate upgrade of key health infrastructure and equipment across all six geo-political zones.

In a statement on Friday by his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, the President said the upgrade aligns with his administration’s vision of overhauling the health and social welfare sector for enhanced service delivery to all Nigerians.

The President said the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, in collaboration with the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), will comprehensively upgrade cancer-treatment infrastructure and other critical developments in six tertiary hospitals across several geo-political zones.

He added the ministry and the NSIA will carry out a full renovation and expansion of prior investments to improve broad-based access to high-quality healthcare in all six geo-political zones of the federation.

The President said six teaching hospitals across geo-political zones have been marked for the establishment of oncology and nuclear medicine centres.

The hospitals are University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, University of Nigeria (Nsukka) Teaching Hospital, Federal Teaching Hospital, Katsina, University of Jos Teaching Hospital and Lagos University Teaching Hospital.

The statement reads: “Upgrading health infrastructure and equipment is a top priority of President Tinubu’s Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative. To advance this landmark effort, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in collaboration with the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) will carry out the comprehensive upgradation of cancer-treatment infrastructure and other critical developments in six tertiary hospitals across several geo-political zones, in addition to the full renovation and expansion of prior investments to improve broad-based access to high-quality healthcare in all six geo-political zones of the federation.”

The following teaching hospitals across geo-political zones have been marked for the establishment of oncology and nuclear medicine centres per facility as part of President Tinubu’s bid to ensure that world-class cancer diagnosis and care is accessible across the country.”

The statement added that ten critical healthcare services were also approved for expansion projects across radiology, clinical pathology, medical and radiation oncology, and cardiac catheterization will be carried out in ten hospitals across all geo-political zones.

The ten hospitals are listed below:

– North-West: Reference Hospital, Kaduna — (Radiology, clinical pathology, medical and radiation oncology)

– South-East: Medical Diagnostic Centre Complex, Enugu — (Radiology, clinical pathology, medical & radiation oncology)

– North-West: Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto — (Diagnostic and intervention radiology, clinical pathology, and cardiac catheterization)

– South-West: University College Hospital, Ibadan — (Diagnostic and intervention radiology, clinical pathology, and cardiac catheterization)

– South-South: University of Uyo Teaching Hospital — (Radiology and clinical pathology)

– North-East: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi — (Radiology and clinical pathology)

– South-South: Federal Medical Centre, Asaba — (Radiology and clinical pathology)

– North-Central: Harmony Advanced Diagnostic Centre Complex, Ilorin — (Radiology and clinical pathology)

– North-Central: Jos University Teaching Hospital — (Radiology and clinical pathology)

– North-East: Federal Medical Centre, Nguru — (Radiology and clinical pathology)

It added: “These critical projects are set to be delivered within 12-18 months and will improve screening and diagnostics for communicable and non-communicable diseases; reduce mortality rates and improve outcomes for non-communicable diseases; create considerable employment opportunities for clinical, administrative, and managerial personnel across Nigeria’s six geo-political zones, all while building the capacity of clinical personnel in advanced procedures, diagnostics and treatment modalities, in accordance with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.”

[NaijaNews]

Following the placement of N20 million bounty on two suspected kidnappers terrorising Abuja and it environs by the minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike, the operatives of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) have arrested one of them, Dahiru Adamu, whose real name is Saidu Abdulkadir.

He was arrested when police operatives raided two kidnappers’ camps bordering Nasarawa State and Abuja via Kuje Area Council on February 15, 2024, at about 12am and dislodged the camps.

FCT police spokesperson, SP Josephine Adeh, said Abdulkadir was the gang leader and one of the wanted suspects of the kidnapping syndicate paraded by the FCT Police Command on February 14, 2024.

The police further said the bandits on sighting the police operatives, opened fire and engaged the Police in an intense gun duel and were eventually overpowered by the Police, as one Habu Yakubu and Isufu Abubakar, earlier abducted from Kwaita Village via Pegi district of Kuje Area Council, were rescued unhurt and the suspect arrested.

She further said peliminary investigation revealed that the suspect masterminded the kidnap and killing of one Mr Sunday Yahaya Zakwai, the district head of Ketti Village.

While effort was still ongoing to apprehend the other wanted suspect on the run, the FCT commissioner of Police, CP Ben Igweh, has reassured criminals in FCT that there was no hiding place for them.

He equally urged residents to report suspicious activities through the following emergency lines: 08032003913, 08061581938, 07057337653, and 08028940883; PCB: 09022222352.

[Leadership]