The report by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) that it had rescued 350 Nigerians trafficked to Libya, as well as arrested six traffickers, from January till date is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Guardian reports that the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) on Tuesday said it had rescued 350 Nigerians trafficked to Libya, as well as arrested six traffickers, from January till date.
Mr Aganran Alao, the Zonal Commander, NAPTIP, Lagos, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He spoke on the sidelines of a town hall meeting with the theme: “Promoting local opportunities as an alternative to irregular migration” organised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
“The agency is committed to ensuring that human trafficking is reduced to the barest minimum and we would ensure that it happens.
“From January to till date, we have rescued 350 Nigerians from Libya`, who were victims of trafficking, and we have arrested six persons in connection to this.
“The public must always ensure that traffickers don’t prey on their desperation, as this is one of the major ways that traffickers lure people into the system,” he said.
The newspaper says that the Federal government and the Nigeria—Arabian Gulf Chamber of Commerce have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate investment promotion, strengthen business relationships between Nigeria and Gulf countries especially at the upcoming Expo 2020 in Dubai.
Speaking at a brief ceremony yesterday in Abuja, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Richard Adeniyi Adebayo, said the partnership will further enhance dissemination of vital market information to boost business opportunities and funding of the upcoming Expo 2020 Dubai beginning from October, 2021.
Represented by the Director, Legal in the Ministry, Danjuma Muhammed Alhassan, the Minister stressed that the agreement would formalise a collaborative business relationship between the Ministry and NAGCC, emphasizing that the chamber is self-funded and a bilateral trade association dedicated to the development of business relationships.
”Cultural and socio-economic forum between Nigeria and all the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCCC), is aimed at the promotion and facilitation of economic relationship between Nigeria and Arabian Gulf countries, especially in the area of trade information, finance and technical support” Adebayo added.
The Punch reports that the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, has assured Nigerians that the corporation is working with relevant agencies to ensure that the price of gas is affordable by increasing the volume supplied to the domestic market.
Kyari gave the assurance while answering questions from journalists during his courtesy visit to the Department of Petroleum Resources headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said, “Today, this country is undersupplied with gas; we can tell you that we are having difficulty filling our network across the country with gas. So that means that once supply is weak, it will affect pricing.
“Today, the supply mechanism of LPG is very weak. So, we are collaborating extensively to ensure that we are able to extract LPG from our gas resources so that it can be made available to the market.
“To make price more affordable, we are working towards providing more volume of gas into the domestic market. By doing this, we make it very close to home and extend the networks, once supply is high, it will definitely bring down the prices.” In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of DPR, Sarki Auwalu, disclosed plans to increase gas production to 230 trillion cubic feet by 2030.
ThisDay says that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) is close to ramping up Nigeria’s 36.9 billion barrels crude oil reserves by 14 billion barrels and the country’s gas reserves by an additional 68 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF), Director of the organisation, Mr Sarki Auwalu, stated yesterday.
Speaking when he received the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari and top management team of the corporation in his office, Auwalu disclosed that the possibility of getting 14 billion barrels out of the 18 billion barrels in the works remains very high.
Auwalu disclosed that in addition to the recent increase of Nigeria’s gas reserves to 206 TCF, the DPR’s field analysis has shown that the possibility of proving the new oil and gas finds was becoming higher and gradually moving from P3 to P2.
In oil industry reserve classification, Proven (P1) reserve is an estimate of recoverable volume with a probability of recovery greater than 90 per cent under present technical and economic conditions, while Probable (P2) reserve is an estimate of recoverable volume with chances of recovery equal to or above 50 per cent and less than 90 per cent.
The Sun says that Nigeria is set to begin export of heavy duty metal products and other automotive spare parts as Zeetin Engineering, a Nigerian firm pioneering the manufacture of electric cars and other vehicle spare parts has signed an export Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Turkish-American company, JMT Limited.
The agreement signed in Abuja between the two firms recently will enable JMT to export Zeetin products to African and international markets.
Zeetin, a Nigerian precision engineering company, is into manufacturing of heavy-duty metal products, car engines and spare-parts used in the aviation, construction, railway, marine, oil and gas, automotive, and agriculture industries while JMT is an international machine-making company and supplier of machines and other products across the world.
Speaking on the significance of the MoU, the Managing Director of Zeetin, Azibaola Robert, described the partnership as significant, adding “it is indeed a breakthrough for us as a country because this is the first time a Nigerian engineering and manufacturing company will start exporting heavy-duty metal products, spares to the international market.
“In addition, this collaborative effort between us and JMT will catalyse Nigeria to a net technology exporting country and also save the country valuable foreign exchange.
GIK/APA