The Naira has failed to appreciate against the US dollar at the foreign exchange market despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s recent additional release of $10,000 to Bureau De change operators.

FMDQ data showed that the Naira recorded another drop to N1308.52 per Dollar on Wednesday compared to N1,300.15 exchanged on Tuesday.

On a day-to-day basis, this represents an N8.37 drop from N1,300.15 per Dollar it traded on Tuesday.

In the parallel market section, the Naira was sold at between N1,250 and N1,300 on Wednesday from N1230 on Tuesday.

The development comes despite the Central Bank of Nigeria releasing 10,000 dollars each to BDC at N1,021 to a dollar with a caveat to sell at most 1.5 per cent above the bought price.

This is the third recent intervention for BDCs amid the bank’s effort to defend the Naira.

However, despite the FX rate record, the official window rate still surpassed the parallel market by N8.52.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the National President of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria, Aminu Gwadabe, blamed peer-to-peer cryptocurrency platforms like Binance for the recent depreciation of the Naira against the Dollar in the foreign exchange market.

In recent days, the Naira has slumped six times against the Dollar in the foreign exchange market.

The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has said he was not obsessed about replacing President Bola Tinubu in 2027.

The former Governor of Anambra State said he is only desperate to see the poor and underprivileged Nigerians being pulled out of their difficult situation daily.

Speaking during a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja, Obi stressed that he would not shy away from discussing pressing issues plaguing the country.

He said, “We live in a system where public officeholders and politicians are only seen during elections. I can tell you that it is an everyday job. I have said several times that I am not desperate to become the President of Nigeria. But I am desperate to see the poor and underprivileged Nigerians being pulled out of their difficult situation daily.

“That is what I am desperate to see. And all of us can do it as well. You can’t even be happy or fulfilled when several million (Nigerians) don’t know where the next meal will come from. When I see children suffering, it increases my pain. This is not about campaign.”

Focus On Existing Roads, Highways

The LP chieftain disclosed that if he were to become President, he would do things differently by focusing on repairing existing roads as against approving contracts for new ones.

Obi stated that some deplorable major highways, such as Lagos-Badagry and Kano-Kaduna, had become death traps and should be the priority of any serious government.

Pa Onakoya, the father of Nigerian chess master, Tunde Onakoya, has said that he never supported his son in playing Chess.

Recalls that on April 17, Onakoya commenced his attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest chess marathon.

In a video making the rounds online, Pa Onakoya described the Chess master as resilient, stating that he never knew that Chess would make him popular.

According to him, when Tunde was a child, he would pack everything away whenever he saw him playing Chess because he wanted him to focus on his academics.

Pa Onakoya further advised Nigerian parents to encourage their children to follow their passion.

He said, “To me, Babatunde Onakoya is an angel because whatever he set his mind on must succeed.

“As a small child, when Tunde was playing Chess, I usually packed everything away from him because I wanted him to focus on school. I didn’t know that it was what would make him popular like this.

“My advice for parents is that they shouldn’t discourage their children from their passions. I wanted Tunde to be a doctor but I didn’t know that Chess would make him popular like this. I thank God.”

 

Onakoya broke the record of Norwegian players Hallvard Haug Flatebø and Sjur Ferkingstad, who played for 56 hours and 9 minutes in 2018.

A Nigerian lady, tired of the United Kingdom (UK), has made the decision to return to her homeland.

In a trending TikTok video, the lady with the handle nikkystar_55 shared her decision to leave the hustle and bustle of the UK behind and return to Nigeria.

In the short clip, she expressed her fatigue with the daily grind and declared her longing for a simpler life back home.

Upon her arrival in Nigeria, the woman wasted no time immersing herself in the local culture.

She treated herself to a traditional delicacy and was captured in the video engaging in farming activities, embracing the agricultural lifestyle of her homeland.

Reflecting on their departure from the UK, the lady mentioned that they had brought along a considerable amount of luggage, indicative of a decisive move to make Nigeria their new home.

In the clip, the lady shared how her husband encountered a colleague who shared similar sentiments about returning to Nigeria, suggesting a growing trend among Nigerian expatriates seeking to reconnect with their roots and embrace the opportunities available in their home country.

Leader of the Ilana Omo Oodua, Professor Banji Akintoye has disagreed with leaders of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, on restructuring saying the Yoruba Nation wants self-determination not restructuring.

He said this when he was featured on Arise television’s ‘The Morning Show’.

The professor of History who repeatedly said the goal to achieve his Yoruba Nation dreams will surely come to pass argued that if restructuring is implemented, the same Fulani herders who have allegedly killed more than 29,000 Yoruba will remain in Nigeria and continue their atrocities.

He wondered why there was so much noise about agitation for Yoruba Nation and people look away from Fulani who threatened to take over the seat of power.

While acknowledging the role of Afenifere in restructuring, he noted that the only solution to the senseless killing, maiming, raping and kidnapping of Yoruba was to get out of the country.

His words: “Our fathers in Afenifere are doing the right thing talking about restructuring so that we can go back and live our own life the way we used to live it prosperously. But we, another group of people larger than they are now saying self-determination is the answer not restructuring why because when you restructure you’re still in Nigeria and those people who are killing, maiming and raping our women and daughters remain in Nigeria.

“The only solution to that is to separate from them; to have our own country where we can make laws and determine who to admit. But if we restructure, they still have the right to come to Nigeria and still perpetrate the evils they do.”

Taking exception to the violence displayed by Onitiri-Abiola’s group, who swooped on the Oyo State Government House, he said: “The ideas of the self-determination movement and Yoruba Agitation led by Modupe Onitiri-Abiola are not the same. We started the movement for the liberation of the Yoruba Nation under the existing law of the international community. People don’t seem to recognize the rights of indigenous people that there is a law that every nation that permits any nation that wants to separate from a nation they belong to now to do so.

“The movement that I lead is intellectually sophisticated. No single member of the movement, even though we are in millions, will do what Mrs Abiola-Onitiri did. She and her people are on their own. They are not part of us and we are not part of them. Our struggle for self-determination has been pursued peacefully. We started in 2019 and this is 2024. That is roughly five years now and no single record of violence. We’ll achieve self-determination peacefully.”

No fewer than 119 inmates of the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Suleja, Niger state, have escaped, following hours of heavy downpour which destroyed parts of the facility on Wednesday night.

Spokesman of the Federal Capital Territory FCT Command of the Nigeria Correctional Service NCoS, Adamu Duza disclosed this in a statement on Thursday morning.

He said, “A heavy downpour that lasted for several hours on the night of Wednesday, 24 April 2024 has wreaked havoc on the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Suleja, Niger state, as well as surrounding buildings, destroying part of the custodial facility, including its perimeter fence, giving way to the escape of a total of 118 inmates of the facility”.

According to him, the Service has immediately activated its recapturing mechanisms, and in conjunction with sister security agencies has so far recaptured 10 fleeing inmates and taken them into custody, while still in a hot chase to recapture the rest.

Duza said the Service is not unmindful of the fact that many of its facilities were built during the colonial era and that they are old and weak, adding that the Service is making frantic efforts to see that all ageing facilities give way to modern ones.

“This is evidenced in the ongoing construction of six number of 3000-capacity ultra-modern custodial centres in all the geo-political zones in Nigeria as well as the ongoing reconstruction and renovation of existing ones.

“The Service wishes to assure the public that it is on top of the situation and that they should go about their businesses without fear or hindrance.

“The public is further enjoined to look out for the fleeing inmates and report any suspicious movement to the nearest security agency”, said Duza.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on Wednesday, released 14 properties initially forfeited to the Federal Government to Enugu State Government, following the request by the Governor Peter Mbah administration.

The properties were handed over to the Governor Mbah, by the Executive Chairman of EFCC, Mr Ola Olukoyede, during a brief ceremony at the agency’s corporate headquarters in Abuja.
This was even as Governor Mbah assured that the recovered assets would be used to the optimum benefit of the people of Enugu State.

Speaking at the event, Olukoyede, who disclosed that the road to the forfeiture dated back to 2007, said the event spoke of the mutually beneficial relationship existing between the federal government and states.

Commending Dr. Mbah “for the great work he is doing in Enugu State”, the EFCC Chairman said the President was very much interested in the state-of-the-art hospital that the Mbah administration proposed to build in Enugu State, saying the structures for medical facilities among the released assets would go a long way in helping to realise the Mbah vision for the benefit of not just Enugu State, but the entire country and beyond.

“What we are witnessing today testifies to a symbiotic relationship that should exist between the federal government and the state governments. The essence of our meeting here today is for us to handover properties that were forfeited to the federal government, which of course belong to Enugu State people, back to the people. It shows that governance can work in Nigeria.

“If you look at the history of this particular matter, it takes us back to 2007 when we started the prosecution. So, we are looking at about 17 years since the matter has been on. Eventually some of the properties were forfeited and since then, the EFCC has been managing those properties even though the titles of quite a number of the properties have been revoked by the Enugu State government,” Olukoyede said.

Earlier in his remarks, Governor Mbah, who noted that the properties were forfeited not to his state but to the federal government, expressed gratitude to President Bola Tinubu for making it possible for the assets to be returned to the government and people of Enugu State.

“The importance and significance of this event can never be lost on us and we do not also take it for granted. Those assets were forfeited to the federal government. And this brings me to another gratitude that I want to convey here today. So, I want to acknowledge and recognise the important role played by the President, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Without the proactiveness and speed at which he acted on our request to cede these assets back to the people and government of Enugu State, we wouldn’t have been here today. Therefore, I want to thank him most sincerely for granting our request for these assets that were forfeited to the federal government to be ceded back to Enugu State.

“I want to assure us that those properties would be used for the benefit of the people of Enugu state. All the assets without any exemption, and they would be deployed to optimum use for the benefit of the people of Enugu state.”

He also lauded Olukoyede’s initiatives at making the EFCC a strong institution and the role of the EFCC in the release of the properties to the state.

“I will not end this remark without acknowledging the work the EFCC chairman and his team are doing in strengthening this very important institution. Thank you very much particularly for the effort that you have put in to make today a reality,” the governor stated.

The properties comprise houses, transmission equipment for radio and television stations, a building for medical operations, among others.

Isaac Kamalu has resigned as River State Commissioner of Finance after he was redeployed to the Employment Generation and Economic Empowerment Ministry by Governor Simi Fubara.

Kamalu, who served as commissioner for Budget and Economics under former Nyesom Wike and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, disclosed this on Tuesday in a letter to Governor Fubura and the Secretary to the Government, Tammy Danagogo.

He accused Fubara of lying about the internally generated revenue of Rivers State.

“In view of the above, I find it difficult to accept the redeployment; I do not accept it. I reject it and convey my immediate resignation as Commissioner and Member of the River State Executive Council with effect from the date of this letter”, the letter reads.

Earlier, DAILY POST reported that Zacchaeus Adangor, Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General of the State, had resigned, citing a similar issue.

The developments come months after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu brokered a peace pact between Fubara and Wike amid an untamed political faceoff between the duo.

Recall that in the build-up to the Fubara and Wike crisis, Kamalu had resigned as commissioner but was reinstated in line with the peace pact.

Following a runway excursion incident suffered by Nigerian carrier, Dana Air, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, yesterday, the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development has ordered the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, to suspend the airline until comprehensive audits on its fleet are conducted.

A letter signed by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr Emmanuel Meribole to the NCAA, on Wednesday, said recent incidents involving Dana Air have raised concerns about the safety and financial viability of the airline’s operations.

Meribole, who stated that the audit must include safety protocols, maintenance procedures and financial health, stressed that the move to suspend the airline was aimed at ensuring the safety and well-being of Nigerians.

The statement reads: “As the supervisor overseeing our nation’s aviation safety and regulatory compliance, it has come to the Honourable Minister’s attention that recent incidents involving Dana Airline have raised serious concerns regarding both the safety and financial viability of their operations.

“In light of these incidents and with the paramount priority being the safety and well-being of our citizens and travelers, the Honourable Minister has directed that you immediately initiate the suspension of Dana Airline’s fleet until a comprehensive audit can be conducted. This audit should encompass all aspects of safety protocols, maintenance procedures, and financial health to ensure full compliance with our aviation regulations.

“The recent incidents have underscored the urgency of this matter, and it is imperative that swift and decisive action be taken to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders involved. I trust in your expertise and diligence in carrying out this audit thoroughly and expeditiously. Please keep me informed of the progress and any significant findings throughout this process.”

Former Anambra Governor and the presidential candidate of the Labour Party at the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has revealed that he is more concerned about the well-being of poor Nigerians than he is interested in politics.

Naija News reports that the former governor, who made this comment while speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, lamented that Nigerians were allowing themselves to be carried away by issues that do not concern people.

Obi said, “What we are doing in this country is not fair to the people of the country because we bother ourselves with elections, transactions, and all sorts of things that do not concern the people; it is about the people. I have never gone where I am drilling boreholes or paying for people to eat and everything and mention the party; I will even tell them I am not here on the campaign; you can vote whoever you want to when the campaign comes. However, I am here to ensure that I support your well-being. And the well-being of the poor people is my concern 24 hours .”