The order by the Nigerian Senate to the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment and the Acting Managing Director of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) to immediately return N14.3 billion (about $46.88 million) to the government dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Guardian reported that the Senate has ordered the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, and the Acting Managing Director of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Terhemba Nongo, to immediately return N14.3 billion of the agency’s 2017 budget votes to the treasury.
The report added that a letter by the chairman of its Committee on Trade and Investment, Mohammed Nakudu Sabo threatened a “serious legislative action” in the event of non-compliance.
Sabo told journalists yesterday in Abuja that the fund was “hurriedly transferred from NEPZA account into that of a private company called Nigerian Special Economic Zone Company between the eighth and 10th of this month despite earlier warnings.
ThisDay newspaper said that the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has approved a $70 million loan for a road project in Ebonyi State in south-eastern Nigeria.
The report quoted a statement by the bank’s officials as saying that the Bank will provide US$40 million, while its co-financier, the Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF), will contribute US$30 million, while the Islamic Development Bank is also providing Nigeria a loan of US$80 million and the Ebonyi State Government will provide US$17.60 million, for a total project cost of US$167.60 million.
The statement said the Bank Group’s funding would cover the rehabilitation and asphalting of a 51 km stretch between Nwezenvi and N’Doko, and part of the corridor between N’Doko and Ezzamgbo spanning 38.91 km. It is expected to be completed in five years.
The Nation newspaper reports that four persons were feared killed after a train crushed a tricycle in Lagos in the early hours of Tuesday.
The report explained that the incident occurred around 6:45am when the tricycle carrying passengers had attempted to cross the railway and it got trapped and was eventually crushed by the locomotive train at Nationat Iju Ishaga, a Lagos suburb.
The Punch reported that exports of Nigerian crude oil have suffered a significant disruption as two international oil companies operating in the country declared force majeure on two crude grades.
Force majeure is a legal clause that allows companies to cancel or delay deliveries due to unforeseen circumstances.
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, in a statement on Monday, said it declared force majeure on Bonny Light effective 12 noon (Nigerian time) on April 25, 2019, following the shutdown of the Nembe Creek Trunk Line on April 21, 2019, and declaration of force majeure by the operator of the NCTL, Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company Limited.
Amenam, operated by oil major Total, is also under force majeure, according to reports by Reuters, which quoted trading sources as saying on Monday.
Both grades of crude are light and sweet, typically suitable for petrol production.
The Vanguard said that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised an alarm over alleged replacements of servers in all states of the federation by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in what it referred as a desperate bid to obliterate the actual results transmitted from the polling centres across the nation in the February 23 Presidential election.
Describing the development as “completely reprehensible,” the party maintained that the move has exposed the culpability of the electoral umpire in the manipulation and rigging of the 2019 Presidential election.
In a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party accused the commission of doing the bidding of the ruling party “after they realized that the servers have information of Atiku Abubakar’s victory at the election.”
GIK/APA