The call by some Northern elites for the sack of service chiefs owing to the worsening security situation in the country and the reelection of the governor of Edo State for another term are the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Guardian reports that the Northern elites, yesterday, threw their weight behind the call on President Muhammadu Buhari by North-East elders to sack the service chiefs owing to the worsening security situation in the country, especially in the Northeast region.
Among those that supported the firing of the security top brass was a delegate to the 2014 National Conference, Tony Nyiam; human rights activist and former liaison officer to the late President Shehu Shagari, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai; President, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Alhaji Yerima Shetima; and another northern activist, Dr. Tanko Yusuf.
The report added that the North East elders, under the aegis of Coalition of North East Elders for Peace and Development, (CNEEPD) had, during the weekend, expressed worries over growing insecurity, saying excuses being tendered by service chiefs were no longer acceptable to them.
The elders, who made their position known in a statement, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to, as a matter of urgency, listen to Nigerians by implementing a recent resolution by the National Assembly asking him to rejig the country’s security design with a view to improving security, which they described as “so bad”.
The newspaper says that by the turn of event, in a somewhat interesting twist in the nation’s political history, or perhaps by a stroke of fate, Governor Godwin Obaseki became the first governor to have won governorship election on the platform of the two major parties, PDP and APC, while Ize-Iyamu, on the other hand, lost election bids on the two parties’ platforms.
Obaseki garnered a total of 307, 955 votes in the Saturday, September 19 poll, to put the Edo State Government House beyond his APC challenger.
| Obaseki has since received the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s final result sheet.
The result was presented to him by the PDP agent and Member representing Oredo Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, at his residence in GRA, Benin City. The Punch reports that Nigeria’s country’s foreign reserves rose by $140.9m from $35.67bn as of September 1 to $35.81bn as of September 17, the latest figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have shown. The reserves rose by $65m from $35.59bn as of August 20 to $35.66bn as of August 27. It had earlier lost $278.91m from $35.87bn on July 29 to $35.59bn on August 19 after which it returned to a growth path. The CBN disclosed in its economic monthly report for May that the performance of the external sector continued to be undermined by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent partial lockdown of economies globally. It stated, “Thus, aggregate foreign exchange inflow, capital importation and external reserves of the Nigerian economy declined by 43.2 per cent, 21 per cent and 0.7 per cent to $5.52bn, $0.25bn and 36.19bn in May 2020, below their respective levels in the preceding month. The newspaper says that the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, said the Federal Government removed subsidy on petrol because of fraud. Kyari said some cabals which he failed to identify perpetrated the fraud in the oil industry. The Sun reports that the Federal Government has said that it has so far spent about $5.8 billion on the 40-year-old Mambilla Hydroelectric Power project. The Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station, is a 3,050 MW hydroelectric power project under development in Nigeria. When completed, it is expected to be the largest power-generating installation in the country, and one of the largest hydroelectric power stations in Africa. Billed to commence operation in 2030, Mambilla will be Nigeria’s biggest power plant, producing approximately 4.7 billion KWh of electricity a year. “The project is estimated to cost $5.8 billion and will generate up to 50,000 local jobs during the construction phase” a document obtained by Daily Sun shows. Earlier, the Chairman, House Committee on Power, Magaji Da’u Aliyu, said the 40-year-old Mambilla Hydro Power, which has gulped billions of naira only existed on papers. ThisDay says that in order to ensure that the country’s forex resources are prudently managed and used for the importation of priority goods, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has further beamed its searchlight on more bank customers and unauthorised FX dealers. CBN, he added, is also investigating the avenues through which the companies source forex that they eventually sell to counterparties, who buy and repatriate the funds otherwise known as free funds. Whereas CBN recognises that certain little payments of sums below $10,000 could be made for travels, school/boarding fees, subscription, fees, hospital bills among others with little or no documentation, the source said some unscrupulous companies had hidden under this guise to illegally transfer/repatriate huge sums of forex out of the country without following laid down rules and regulations of CBN.
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GIK/APA