The report that President Muhammadu Buhari has given approval to the return of open grazing practiced during the First Republic where herdsmen used designated grazing routes to move cattle to several parts of the country is one of the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Friday.
The Guardian reports that President Muhammadu Buhari has given approval to the return of open grazing practiced during the First Republic where herdsmen used designated grazing routes to move cattle to several parts of the country. The President made this known in an exclusive interview with Arise TV aired yesterday.
While fielding questions in the 44-minute long interview, the President said he had asked the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, to begin the process of recovering land from persons who have converted cattle grazing routes for their personal use .
The AGF had kicked against the declaration by 17 Southern Governors to ban open grazing, noting that it is like Northern Governors banning spare parts trading.
Reacting to a question on the decision by the Southern Governors and if he agreed with the AGF’s position, Buhari laughingly responded: “You want me to contradict my Attorney General?
“What I did was ask him to go and dig the gazette of the First Republic when people were obeying laws. There were cattle routes and grazing areas. Cattle routes were for when they (herdsmen) are moving up country, north to south or east to west, they had to go through there.”
The newspaper says that on Monday, the Chairman, Southeast Security Committee inaugurated by the governors of the region early last year, Major General Obi Abel Umahi upped the deplorable security ante in the zone when he resigned his appointment.
Umahi, the elder brother of Ebonyi State governor and chairman of southeast governors’ forum, Dave Umahi, hinged his reasons for resignation on lack of funding to carry out the activities of the committee as well as the emergence of the Ebubeagu regional security outfit, which according to him was the brainchild of his committee.
In a letter addressed to his brother, Dave and President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof George Obiozor, where he communicated his resignation and efforts his committee made since inception, he stated that his committee had never been funded, neither was an office space provided for it to run its affairs, despite carrying out its duties.
He had stated that: “Since this security committee was formed, we deliberated and agreed on ways to raise security consciousness down to the community level in Igbo land, mode of operations, logistics and some types of equipment required, such as drones, vehicles, etc. We also crafted the Concept of South East Security”
He said he chaired a 21-man Committee that comprised Attorneys general from the five Igbo states, other sons and daughters of Igboland set up to draft a legal framework for the Southeast Security outfit, adding that it was the committee’s recommendations that should guide the operation of the yet to be established Ebubeagu Regional security outfit.
ThisDay reports that Igbo women in the South-east region under the auspices of Credible Igbo Women Initiative (CIWI) yesterday urged President Muhammadu Buhari, and other state actors in the region to intervene in the massive bloodletting in their region.
According to them, the call was necessary because of the alarming level of insecurity in the region and the country in general, which has resulted in lives being wasted on a daily basis.
Speaking at a conference held in Lagos yesterday on the theme: ‘Enough of this Killing’, the spokesperson of the group, Onyeka Onwenu, said: “Something dreadful is happening in our states, and we demand the immediate intervention of the president.”
She urged the government to ensure there is peace and stability in the region as enshrined in the constitution.
Owenu said: “Please Mr. President stop the killings in our states, as we can no longer endure burying our children. We want peace and progress in the region.
“The federal government is obliged to protect all the people of Nigeria, including the lgbo, who are currently under heavy armed attack by air and land daily.”
The Punch says that the Director-Information Technology Department, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mrs. Rakiyat Mohammed, has said that the banking regulator will launch a digital currency before the end of 2021.Muhammed disclosed this during a press briefing on the Bankers’ Committee meeting on Thursday.
“As I said before the end of the year, the Central Bank will be making special announcement and possibly launching a pilot scheme in order to be able to be able to provide this kind of currency to its populace,” she said.
She said about 80 per cent of central banks in the world were exploring the possibility of issuing central bank digital currency and Nigeria could not be left behind.
For over two years now, she added, the CBN had been exploring technology and had made tremendous progress. Explaining what the Central Bank digital currency would be, she said there were currently two forms of money in the country. She added, “We have in two forms in Nigeria as of now, there are the notes and there are the coins.
The Sun reports that the Federal Government says it has paid N940. 2 billion to oil marketers, exporters, local contractors including arrears owed state governments.
The N940.2 billion repayment figure is contained in the latest debt stock released by the Debt Management Office (DMO). DMO said the payment to oil marketers which included members of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN),
Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Depots and Petroleum Marketer Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) to offset the promissory notes issued to them by the Federal Government.
Meanwhile, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has said Nigeria’s proven natural gas reserve stood at 206.53 trillion cubic feet (tcf) as at January 1, 2021.
Director, DPR, Mr. Sarki Auwalu, made the announcement Thursday in Abuja at the 2021 Nigeria International Petroleum Summit (NIPS).
According to him, the new figure represents an increase of 3.37tcf, representing 1.66 percent percentage increase over the 203.16tcf recorded in the corresponding date of Jan. 1, 2020.
GIK/APA