The report that the Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, popularly called HAWKS have agreed to collaborate in tackling the menace of drug trafficking between the two countries is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Guardian reports that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, popularly called HAWKS have agreed to collaborate in tackling the menace of drug trafficking between the two countries.
This was the highpoint of discussions at a virtual meeting on Monday, April 11, 2022 between the Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Marwa (Retd) and the National Head of South Africa’s DPCI, Lt. Gen. SG Lebeya along with members of their teams.
Marwa in his presentation called for an operational Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will allow both agencies share intelligence real time, engage in joint operations, especially in the areas of controlled delivery; joint training and personnel exchange programmes among others.
He said: “Drugs destroy our youths both in Nigeria and South Africa. These drugs are peddled by syndicates across our two countries, this is why we need to partner and collaborate to dismantle their evil web and stop their criminal trade.”
In his remarks, Lt. Gen. Lebeya agreed on all the areas of collaboration identified by Gen. Marwa. According to him, “I’m in agreement with you on the areas you have mentioned. It’s important we collaborate on intelligence sharing in real time. Exchange programme for our personnel is also another effective way of sharing knowledge.”
Other areas the meeting agreed would be worked on by the technical teams set up at the close of the discussions, include confiscation of proceeds of crime and prosecution of suspects among others.
The newspaper says that former workers of liquidated Nigeria Airways have petitioned the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to stop the process of granting an air operating licence to the proposed national carrier, Nigeria Air Limited until the ghost of the erstwhile airline is laid to rest and all ex-staffers fully compensated.
The group, in response to the public notice inviting possible objections to granting approval to Nigeria Air, said it is unfair to build a new airline on the injustice of the former.
The Nigerian Government in the race to float a new national carrier this quarter recently applied for Air Operator Certificate (AOC) and Air Transport Licence (ATL) to operate scheduled, non-scheduled passenger and cargo services.
As part of the procedure for ATL, the NCAA has mandated a public notice inviting any person or organisation with an objection to make such a request known within 28 days.
One of the ex-staffers, Adams Adeyemi, told reporters that they had lost confidence in the leadership of the Nigeria Airways Pensioners (NAP) to protect their interest and mount pressure on the Federal Government to pay the last tranche of severance benefits.
The group explained that the Federal Government paid N45 billion to former workers of the carrier, leaving a balance of N33 billion, which had been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Punch reports that elder statesmen in Nigeria on Monday said except measures were taken to curtail the trend, widespread insecurity could scuttle the 2023 general election.
The elder statesmen, including the President of Christian Association of Nigeria, Samson Ayokunle; and the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, raised the concerns during a security dialogue retreat jointly organised by the Global Peace Foundation and Vision Africa in Abuja.
They raised the alarm that there might be no election in 2023, if the current spate of insecurity in the country was not checked.
Those at the retreat included the Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Okey Emuchay; National Secretary of the Ijaw National Congress, Ebipamowei Wodu; representative of Northern Elders Forum, Prof. Yusuf Usman; Aare Ona-Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Chief Gani Adams, represented by Ogbeni Lanre Banjo; and the Convener of Niger-Delta Self-Determination Movement, Ankio Briggs, who participated virtually, amongst others.Ayokunle said, “Care must be taken to ensure that the 2023 election does not become a sham. If insecurity is not taken care of by the government, there will be no 2023 general elections.
“Going by the present state of affairs in the country, are we sure the bandits and terrorists will not overrun the country before 2023? “These criminals are moving from one level of sophistication and recklessness to another. Nigerians want a better society, and if we do not deal with this insecurity, I don’t think there will be any election in 2023.
“Why has the government not deemed it fit to expose those financing terrorism and insecurity in Nigeria? For whose benefit are you hiding their identity? Nigerians want to know those who have put us in this mess as well as those who are aiding and abetting them.:
The newspaper says that the Nigerian Government has disclosed that over 5,000 debtors currently owe its agencies about N4.67tn.
The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, who made the disclosure on Monday, said the government had in the past 18 months recovered N53.8bn out of the N5.2tn owed 10 ministries, departments and agencies.
The minister made the disclosure during the launch of the Project Lighthouse Debt Analytics and Reporting platform in Abuja.
She credited the project lighthouse and the collaborative efforts of the Office of the Account General for the discovery and recovery of the outstanding debts
Ahmed noted that in a bid to optimise revenue, the ministry had in 2017 introduced the ‘Project Lighthouse’ to mine data from multiple sources to support the implementation of the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme.
According to her, the project seeks to, among other things, address issues surrounding the tracking and implementation of government policies, initiatives, programmes and mandates.
The Nation reports that the Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) has frowned at the worsening insecurity in the country exacerbated by the attack on a Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) train enroute Abuja-Kaduna with an estimated 398 passengers.
In a statement, LCCI President, Dr. Michael Olawale-Cole, said it is rather frightening to the well-being of Nigerians. He said the Chamber was worried as a result of its impact on businesses and the economy.
He said: “The business community is concerned because of the apparent threat to our forthcoming general elections in 2023 and, by extension, a threat to our democracy. In the absence of peace and security, it would be challenging to hold credible, free, and fair elections that would reflect the choices of the electorates about whom their leaders should be.”
He regretted that the 2021 Global Peace Index published by the Institute for Peace and Economics ranked Nigeria 146th out of 163 countries, only better than countries like Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and Russia, which are known to have been conflict areas for a long time.
Olawale-Cole lamented that the security challenges were continuing to spiral into anarchy. He said: “The Global Conflict Tracker hosted by the United States Council on Foreign Relations recorded that attacks by bandits across the North-West have claimed at least 5,000 lives since 2018.
GIK/APA