The report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) that terrorists, Islamic fundamentalists and bandits killed 8,279 Nigerians in 2020 is one of the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Guardian reports that the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has said that terrorists, Islamic fundamentalists and bandits killed 8,279 Nigerians in 2020.
In the report, USCIRF, an independent government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyse and report threats to religious freedom globally, stated that the number reflected those killed in northern Nigeria.
The report, which focused on violation of religious freedom by violent Islamic groups in northern Nigeria, revealed that security challenges also slowed down the country’s economic growth and development.
“This is especially while Nigeria battles with the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts that claimed many lives. Borno, which has been the epicenter of Boko Haram terrorism for over a decade, claimed 3,005 persons.“In Kaduna, 1,026 persons were killed, Katsina recorded 876 deaths, while Zamfara and Niger states lost 845 and 236 citizens in 2020,” the report stated.
It also revealed that about 37,500 deaths were recorded since 2011 due to Boko Haram activities and other violent Islamic groups.
“Despite Nigerians’ pleas for the Federal Government to “intervene and stop” the killings, not much has been done on the slaughter of innocent people. As a result of the massive killings, Nigeria’s economy is taking the heat with a 16.5 per cent inflation rate in January 2021,” it added.
The Vanguard says that the Federal Government has expressed its readiness to vaccinate approximately 109 million Nigerians against the Novel Coronavirus disease COVID-19 in the next two years.
While Nigeria’s population stands at over 206 million, the country has just over 60, 000 vaccinators, with the Nigerian Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) promising to boost the capacity of the personnel and also expand the size.
Also, Nigeria said that on Saturday it recorded the second highest number of COVID-19 case fatalities, as 24 patients at its treatment centres succumbed to the virus within 24 hours.
This came as government said it has scaled up surveillance against the Ebola Virus Disease at all its entry points in order to guard against importation and consequently having to deal with two pandemics simultaneously.
Speaking at Monday’s briefing of the Presidential Taskforce PTF on COVID-19, Executive Director of the NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib said the Federal Government would work with the states to vaccinate all eligible population from 18 years and above including pregnant women.
The Punch reports that fuel marketers have started adjusting their petrol pump prices amid the supply shortage facing private depots in Apapa.
Our correspondent observed that some filling stations in Lagos and Ogun states increased the pump price of petrol to N170 per litre on Tuesday from N162 per litre.
Some of the stations were Capital Oil and Gas, Fatgbems and Amo Oil, all along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Another station, Enyo Retail, adjusted its pump price to N165 per litre from N162. The National Operation Controller, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr Mike Osatuyi, told our correspondent that members of his association had to increase the pump price because they bought the product at N160-N161 from depot owners.
The PUNCH reported last Thursday that IPMAN members disrupted loading of petroleum products at private depots in Apapa on Wednesday as well as Ibadan, Ejigbo and Mosimi depots belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
They picketed the facilities to protest their inability to get products due to a new payment method introduced by the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the NNPC.
The newspaper says that the Federal Government has been subsidising electricity supply across the country to the tune of over N50bn monthly, the Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, has said.
He said the subsidy spendings were because the government was worried by the incessant complaints by ordinary Nigerians over the unavoidable and periodic increase in the cost of electricity.
Mamman said the funds were provided to augment the shortfall by the power distribution companies who had failed to defray the cost of bulk electricity supplied to them by the generating companies.
He, however, noted that following a minor increase in the tariff regime, the subsidy had now decreased by half, but still constituted a serious drain on the nation’s economy.
The minister disclosed this while receiving in his office members of the Hausa Guild of Actors and Film Producers, otherwise known as Kannywood.
Mamman, in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday by his aide, Aaron Artimas, expressed concern over the failure by the distribution companies to stabilise their operations and meet their financial obligations to other players in the sector.
The Sun reports that the inflationary pressure which has refused to abate despite border reopening and reduction in levy on imported cars, has, again, hit 16.47 percent in January, 2021 as against the December 2020 record of 15.75 percent.
This, an economy expert and capital market professor, Uche Uwaleke, attributed to the lingering effects of increases in Value Added Tax (VAT), pump price of fuel and electricity tariffs as well as insecurity and transport bottlenecks.
But in a statement, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) explained that the increase is 0.71 percent points higher than the rate recorded in December 2020 (15.75 percent).
“Increases were recorded in all Classifications of Individual Consumption, according to Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index.
The Nation says that the House of Representatives and the Ministry of Finance yesterday disagreed over the procedure for paying N2.8 billion to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2017.
The Ministry appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of the House in the ongoing investigative hearing on audit queries by Auditor-General of Federation on Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Aliyu Ahmed, said the payment was made by the Minister following a memo by OPEC requesting the amount. Ahmed said the cash was released from the office of the Accountant-General as payment of Nigeria’s contribution to the OPEC fund for International Development in 2017.
Members of the Committee disagreed that the minister could release such cash without recourse to the President. Ahmed said payment to international organisations were not guided by the Procurement Act.
He said it was a routine payment and there were hundreds of international organisations, so if they had to resort to the President for every approval, it would be unmanageable and cost more, adding that this had been the practice.
The members opposed this, saying because it had been done over time did not make it right and that such payments must be approved by the President.
GIK/APA