January 2023 – Page 78

Post Date : January 6, 2023

Sex romp: Principal denies cover-up, suspends six students

The management of the Federal Government College, Ijaniki, Lagos State, has denied allegations of covering up some students caught absconding from school to lodge female classmates in a hotel for sex romps. The Principal, Mrs Tofunmi Akamo, who spoke to our correspondent on Wednesday, said the students, numbering six, were picked up from the hotel by the school, adding that the incident happened once. PUNCH Metro had reported that some boarders jumped the school’s fence with their female counterparts and lodged in hotels for sexual pleasure. It was also reported that for more than three sessions, including the just-concluded first term, some of the students left the school unnoticed. But the principal said the incident of students absconding from school to lodge in a hotel happened once. She claimed that the school management noticed the absence of the students during an urgent roll call at the hostel. She said, “Our assignment is to mould them and we don’t expect all of them to behave well all the time. So, when they misbehave, it is our duty to do the necessary correction. “I was called from the school that they did a roll call on Sunday and some students were discovered not to be in the hostel. “So, that Monday morning, they called their parents to confirm if they were at home and the parents said they were not at home. The parents came to the school; we were all searching and investigating what could have happened. “One of the parents of those girls told us that the girls went to the hotel, jumping the fence on Sunday. We went to the hotel to evacuate them. They were five that were evacuated; two boys and three girls. “When they came to the school, we asked them to write reports; it was through the report that we even discovered that there was another girl who left on Monday to come back to school, while others still remained in the hotel. “We made them write their reports and they faced a disciplinary committee, which gave a verdict on what to be done to them according to the guidelines given to us from the ministry. “The children are currently on indefinite suspension; that is the guideline recommended for them. We normally involve their parents and hand such letters and their children to them. The girls and the boys are no longer in the dormitories. That is the only incident that happened and it happened two or three weeks before we vacated this last term.” Akamo described allegations that the students used drugs as unfounded. “Late last session when they were writing an external examination, we discovered that some boys were not in the hostel during roll check and we learnt that they normally went to a nightclub around our school. “My chief security officer went there around 9pm and at that time they had not arrived at the club. So, the owner of the club collected the number of my CSO so that he would inform him. “By 11pm, they called my CSO and by 1am we brought about 10 of them back to school. One of them was my assistant head boy and immediately, we had an assembly; I brought all of them out and de-badged the prefects among them. “I also asked them to leave the dormitories; but they could be coming to sit their external examinations, which they were writing at that time. I told them they could no longer stay in the hostel. “There is no history of anybody getting pregnant as a student. We knew one of the girls had one million naira in her account. I am sure this child has been showing all of these things at home. It cannot be that it was inside the school that she learnt how to go and make money from sex. “The only time we had an issue of a pregnancy in the school was a blind girl. The lady got pregnant during COVID-19 at a place she used to go to play with people. After we did a test and we discovered she was pregnant, we invited the father and she left the school. I told her that she could not stay in the school because we are training young girls and not mothers-to-be. “The claim by the PTA chairman that one of the students impregnated another student is not true. There is nothing like that; I am not aware and if that happens I will know.” The Global President of the Old Students Association of the school, Toun Aderele, said the school management committee, which comprised all stakeholders of the school was saddled with the responsibility of making decisions on such issues. Aderele added that the recommendation of the committee was always sent to the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja for conclusion. She also lamented that some parents had been frustrating the efforts of the school authority in instilling discipline. She said, “There is a lot of resistance from parents. In fact, there are times parents challenge the authorities on why they should bring their children out and why they should take a certain decision. “The old students association is always on the heels of the management to ensure that they live up to expectation. The principal has absolutely no wrong in this matter; she has stood as a principal, mother and taken all the necessary decisions.” The Executive Director, Special Duties, National Association of Nigerian Students, Oladimeji Uthman, said the student body would constitute a committee to look into the matter. Uthman described the act allegedly committed by the students as barbaric and disheartening.

Post Date : January 6, 2023

Oyo PDP campaigns for Atiku, Makinde absent

The Peoples Democratic Party chieftains, including a former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (State), Jumoke Akinjide, and a former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Wole Oyelese, on Wednesday, campaigned for the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. Others who campaigned for the former vice president under the auspices of National Mandate Group, Oyo state chapter, were former Minister of State for FCT, Hon. Olajumoke Akinjide; former Oyo Deputy Governor, Hazeem Gbolarumi, and Director Special Duty, PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Femi Babalola (Jogor), among others. The party stalwarts, youths, women and mobilisers from across the state were seen on major streets in the Ibadan metropolis marching with banners and campaigning for Atiku ahead of the February 25, 2023, presidential election. Meanwhile, the state Governor, Seyi Makinde, and his loyalists were conspicuously absent at the rally held to garner support for the former vice president. The PUCNH had earlier reported that Makinde and his loyalists were also absent at the pre-Atiku Freedom March press conference held at the state Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Iyaganku, Ibadan, on Tuesday. The campaign for Atiku in Oyo was also coming ahead of the visit of the G5 governors to Oyo for Makinde’s reelection campaign inauguration on Thursday (today). The PDP G5 governors include Governors Nyesom Wike, Samuel Ortom, Seyi Makinde, Okezie Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Rivers, Benue, Oyo, Abia and Enugu States respectively. The PUNCH had on Monday reported that moves by the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, to persuade aggrieved the G5 governors to embrace peace may have failed. Wike, Ortom, Makinde, Ikpeazu and Ugwuanyi and some political heavyweights from the South had parted ways with the PDP presidential candidate over his alleged refusal to prevail on the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to resign after Atiku, a northerner, clinched the presidential ticket of the party. But speaking with newsmen during the campaign, Akinjide said Atiku was a pan-Nigerian and one who would lead Nigeria out of her current Socioeconomic and political challenges. “We will campaign for Atiku in Oyo on the basis of merit and on the basis of fidelity to our great party. There’s really no divide in the PDP. It is a fight for space. So, I don’t think the public should worry themselves because the day they makeup, they’d be on television smiling and back-slapping and calling each other brother and you wonder why you wasted so much energy on it. “Let us face what is of concern to 200 million Nigerians which is the five points agenda to recover and restore Nigeria which Atiku is proposing. “Our presidential candidate is promising to unite Nigeria, secure the country, build a prosperous economy, restructure and devolve power to the federating units, and education system that allows our people to compete nationally and globally and these are core issues that are of interest to the Nigerian people.” Speaking on the G5 governors’ visit, Akinjide said, “On Thursday (today), we will be having the Governor’s own rally and inauguration. All of us intend to be there as well, but I want to say something: If some of tomorrow’s visitors come and speak against PDP or Atiku, what are we going to say? No to their antics! We are brave people and we must demonstrate that tomorrow.”

Post Date : January 6, 2023

DAILIES TOP STORIES: 28 govs pile up N5.8tn debts for incoming govts

Friday 6 January 2023 Okorocha debunks dumping APC for PDP Two senior lawyers want EFCC scrapped How Lagos policeman, ‘ministry’ paid N185,000 for newborn, mother demands baby I begged rapist to use condom – Married nurse Osoba rallies support, as Abiodun kick-starts campaign for re-election 2023: Second Niger Bridge enough for South-East to vote Tinubu – Uzodimma Again, INEC announces ICC as Presidential Collation Centre Collection of PVCs at registration areas/wards to begin on Friday – INEC Peter Obi ‘ll get 2% votes in North; lose 2023 election — Fani-Kayode Kano rally further exposes Tinubu’s incapacity, says Atiku FG orders security forces to end oil theft before May 29 Kebbi boat mishap: 14 bodies recovered, 6 still missing ‘We sold her legs for N30,000; heart, N50,000’ – Eight confess to murder in Ogun PDP urges Wike to seek medical attention If 2023 election is about comedy, Tinubu ‘ll win — PDP ‘It’s dangerous to underestimate Russia,’ NATO warns FG to transfer 613 rehabilitated repentant terrorists to states Obasanjo Jealous Of Me, Obi’s Endorsement Won’t Work – Tinubu 2023: Reject Moneybags, Obi Urges Nigerians G5 United, Will Announce Preferred Presidential Candidate, Say Ortom, Wike 15m Nigerians Ready To Vote Me In As President – Accord’s Imumole NFIU officially bans cash withdrawals from ALL government accounts, vows to probe offenders Oshiomhole: How Obasanjo tried to transform Nigeria to one-party state ASUU President: Military Govt More Sympathetic To Plight Of Lecturers Visit a newspaper stand this morning, buy and read a copy for yourself…

Post Date : January 6, 2023

Youth Group Calls For Overhaul Of Anambra Anti-Kidnapping Squad

… Comdem the brutal killing spree of Obosi PG and 9 others in Awka on 2nd and 3rd Jan 2023 respectively. •Says About 91 Kidnappings Took Place From October-December 2022. The Anambra Youth Vanguard has decried the high degree of crime in cities especially the kidnapping and outright killings of innocent people in the State. The youth vanguard in a statement released in Awka, the State capital Wednesday aided in the last three months of 2022, from October to December, more than 91 Kidnappings took place in the State, lamenting that some of them resulted in the outright murder of the victims, while others who were lucky paid their way with a huge amount of money as ransom. Irked by this development, the youth group called for an overhaul of various departments of the State Police Command that have to do with crime esp, especially the Anti-Kidapping Squad. The group in the s tement signed by their chairman, Bar Nnamdi Onaya, lamented that the State has been under siege by criminal elements and it appears that the security operatives are helpless in confronting these criminals. The youth group stated id from the investigation they conducted in the State, the entire Anambra South and Anambra central might have been taken over by criminal elements. It stoutly condemns the brutal murder of Obosi PG and 9 others on the following day Jan 2023 Giving a breakdown of the activities of criminal elements in the Sta, they said in Umeoji, Idemili North alone, there are about four kidnapping gangs, Ideani, three kidnapping gangs, Oba-Mili John in Ojoto, two, Nkpor, Old Road, three, Nnobi-Oraukwu, two, Ez infinite -Uga, three, Oraukwu-Ekwulobia, one, Oraukwu-Uga, two, Obosi, four groups. Nkpor- Ogidi, Building Material Market three, said the area has so many gangs, says the youth, the entire area is a danger zone. The other criminal gangs are operating in other parts of the State, lamenting that security operatives in the State are not doing enough like their counterparts in Imo State, who have had breakthroughs in the fight against kidnapping and other criminal activities in the State. The y called for the immediate removal of t the Commander of, the Anti-Kidapping Squad of the Anambra State Police Command, Patrick Agbazue, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP). The group said Agbazue who has been a former Special Anti-Robbery Squad Commander, before it was changed to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Annex, Awkuzu, has been the Anti-Kidapping Commander for about four years. The group said he should give way for other officers to try their best, lamenting that his Local Government Area, Ihiala, is the worst hit by criminal activities with high scale criminal activities going daily in the local government unchallenged. It unequivocally condemns the recent alleged auctioning of nine (9) cars said to have been recovered by the Ogidi police division without consulting the owners and following due process as the law demands and calls on for the immediate reversal and recovery of the said vehicle with immediate effect and hand same over to the rightful owners inline with the extant laws. They decried that the Police Headquarters in Ihiala Local Government Area was just a few days ago razed down by criminals without adequate response from security operatives. The Anambra Youth Vanguard said the Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Echeng Echeng, should replace him with another capable officer who will reinvigorate the fight against criminals in the State, especially kidnappings, car snatching among other high-profile criminal activities and change from defensive crime-fighting method to an offensive strategy, the group warned

Post Date : January 6, 2023

SouthEast: Group Decries High Insecurity in 2022 Yuletide

….Condemns inspite of killings in Anambra, Imo, Ebonyi etc. The Tik Tag Security Vanguard (TSAV), has lamented that the 2022 Christmas and New Year season was the worst ever celebrated in the South East due to high incidence of insecurity and killings in the zone. The group in a statement yesterday said : ” This 2022 Christmas and New Year season in Igbo land was the worst ever because of insecurity. People refused to come home and those who managed to come lied low for fear of being kidnapped and assassinated”. In the statement signed by the group’s president, Bar Nnamdi Onaya, TSAV said that true to the fear criminals which go under various names : Unknown Gun Men (UGM), Fulani Herdsmen and local armed criminals took over the entire South East during the yuletide. They said Upper Iweka in Onitsha, Anambra State was no go area during the yuletide as criminals had field day robbing and maiming their unsupecting victims. The Tik Tag Security Vanguard said that their investigation showed that the criminals unleashed their attacks on their victims as early as 6pm with security operatives standing by but unable to put them in check especially the killing of Obosi Community leader and 8 other citizens in Awka and environs . “Infact by 6pm it is difficult to see any Police in and around Upper Iweka and even if they are around, they hardly come to the rescue of the victims” lamented the group. In other parts of the State like Anambra Central and South Senatorial zone people were being kidnapped almost on daily basis but unreported. But the crime activities were not only limited to Anambra State, said the group, as the story was not different in other parts of the zone. Kidnappers, Fulani Herdsmen and other criminals had field day unleashing attack on the the people in Ebonyi, Imo, Enugu and Abia States. Unfortunately, said the group,the security operatives’s response to the precarious situation was to erect road blocks which became extortionist points ” But crime has gone beyond road setting up road blocks.Our security operatives need to be more proactive and deploy high level of intelligence. Crime in the zone is not only limited to Indigenous People’s of Biafra (IPOB) and Eastern Security Network (ESN),most of whom have resorted to kidnappings, car snatching as a way of making easy money” said the youth group. They challenged the Governors of the zone to rise up to their responsibilities by thinking outside the box. The youth group suggested the overhaul of security apparatus in the South East especially the Police and the military. as well as improving their logistics and financial support. The Youth Vanguard also called for the streghtening and overhaul of South East vigilantes to provide support for the regular security operatives.

Post Date : January 5, 2023

Withheld dues: NLC says FG rejected ASUU report

The Nigeria Labour Congress duly informed the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, of the decision of the ministry’s Office of the Registrar of Trade Unions to reject the four years audited reports of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, The PUNCH reports. The PUNCH reports that ASUU had accused the Federal Government of withholding the November 2022 check-off dues of the union despite initial deductions from the source. Confirming the development, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Olajide Oshundun, told The PUNCH that the dues were withheld because of the failure of ASUU to submit the reports. ASUU had insisted that the report was presented to the government. To prove its claim, a member of the union’s National Executive Council, on Wednesday made a letter written by NLC available to our correspondent. In the letter dated September 22, 2022, and addressed to Ngige, NLC noted that efforts by ASUU to submit the reports were truncated by the officials in the ministry. The letter which was signed by NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, partly reads, “We understand that ASUU had responded to the directives of the Registrar of Trade Unions to submit its Annual Financial Reports and Audited Accounts within 72 hours. The Annual Financial Reports and Audited Accounts of ASUU as requested were submitted by ASUU to the Office of the Registrar of Trade Unions, Federal Ministry of Labour in less than 24 hours, specifically on September 8, 2022. “We are greatly alarmed that the timely submission of the annual financial reports and audited accounts by ASUU in accordance with the directives of the Registrar of Trade Unions was rejected by the staff members at the Office of the Registrar of Trade Unions. The staff members disclosed that they were under strict instructions not to accept ASUU’s annual financial reports and audited accounts. “Later efforts to send the requested union’s financial documents by courier services were equally rejected by the Office of the Registrar of Trade Unions.” The NLC, in the letter, claimed that the short notice given to ASUU to submit its reports at a time there were threats by the Registrar of Trade Unions to withdraw the union’s certificate of registration and the refusal to accept the same documents upon submission suggested: “a very sinister agenda which is capable of destroying the current general harmony in industrial relations in Nigeria.” When our correspondent reached out to the spokesperson of the ministry, Oshundun, over the content of the letter by the NLC, he said he would investigate and get back to our correspondent. He has not done so as of the time of filing this report.

Post Date : January 5, 2023

Five policemen detained for extorting fees from student

The Oyo State Police Command has confirmed the arrest of five policemen over the extortion of a student, identified simply as Ibrahim, along the RCC, Old Ogbomoso Road, Oyo State. The state Police Public Relations Officer, Adewale Osifeso, who confirmed the development to our correspondent on Wednesday, said investigation was ongoing. He said, “We have arrested and detained five policemen and we are waiting for Ibrahim to come and identify the policemen that allegedly did what he said they did to him out of those detained, and for him to also help us initiate the prosecution procedure against those guys through an orderly room trial. “The money extorted from him has been recovered; we traced the operator and the endpoint of the account where the money was lodged. All that happened today.” PUNCH Metro gathered that the student was on his way to Lagos when the accused policemen accosted him. The student alleged that the policemen, after stopping the vehicle he boarded, told him to disembark from it and allowed other passengers to continue the journey. After disembarking, Ibrahim, in a post shared by an activist, Rinu Oduala, on Twitter, said the policemen took him to a bush where they extorted N90,000 from him. In the post, the student said the money was his school fees, adding that he paid the policemen the money through a Point-of-Sale operator. He also alleged that several attempts to contact the spokesperson for the command, Osifeso, and the Commissioner of Police, Adebowale Williams, proved abortive. The post read, “People help me, I was extorted illegally yesterday on my way coming to Lagos and was calling the police pro and commissioner, all picked and kept saying wrong number. But I called a former pro, he said it is their number and that is how they do. “Please ma, help me, this is my school fees as a sum of 90k out of 93k found in my account. I pray you see this so I can explain how it happened. Was driven to the bush and threatened. Please save me. I pray you see this. “The most painful part (is that) I told them this is my school fees and they extorted N90k out of the N93k in my accounts. Was just driven to the bush, they told the other passenger they are taking me to the office but I will join them at the popular Amala joint in Oyo that they should wait for me. “On our way, they passed different routes and in their car, they kept telling me I should call anyone I know to send me money. I told them no one, it’s kinda hard this time, immediately, one of them collected my phone and told me to open my bank (app) and I did. “And was taken to PoS which I think it’s their PoS cause when I sent the money, they did not receive (an) alert. Once I told him nah awodi police, he said haa, eyini and he gave me the cash immediately. I can send you the driver’s number to confirm these people have no mercy. (I) was pleading, crying in their car. Still, they extorted me. They left 3k for me.”

Post Date : January 5, 2023

DMO: Incoming president to inherit N77trn debt

Patience Oniha, director general, Debt Management Office (DMO), says the incoming administration would inherit about N77 trillion as debt by the time President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure ends in May. Oniha said this while fielding questions from journalists at the public presentation and breakdown of the highlights of the 2023 appropriation act in Abuja on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Buhari signed the N21.83 trillion 2023 budget into law, with a deficit of N11.34 trillion. The deficit represents 5.03 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, had said the federal government would finance the deficit by borrowing. On funding sources for the N11.34 trillion 2023 budget deficit, the minister said 22 percent of projected revenues will come from oil-related sources while 78 percent will be earned from non-oil sources. To fund the deficit, according to Ahmed, N7.04 trillion would be borrowed from domestic sources, N1.76 trillion from foreign sources, N1.77 billion from multilateral and bilateral loan drawdowns, while privatisation proceeds would provide N206.18 billion. Meanwhile, the federal government borrowed N6.3 trillion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the first 10 months of 2022 through ways and means. Ways and Means is a loan facility through which the CBN finances the government’s budget shortfalls. In October, 2022, the federal government said it will repay the N20 trillion debt owed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with securities such as treasury bills and bonds issuance. But speaking at the budget presentation, Oniha explained that the move by the federal government to securitise the loans (ways and means) from the central bank would drive up the debt to about N77 trillion. Although data released by the DMO had put Nigeria’s public debt at N44.06 trillion as at the third quarter 2022, the federal government plans to borrow more to finance both the supplementary and 2023 budgets. “There are a lot of discussions on the ways and means. In addition to the significant cost saving in loan service we would get by securitising it, there is an element of transparency in the sense that it is now reflected in the public debt stock,” she said. “Once it is passed by the national assembly, it means we will be seeing that figure included in the public debt. You will see a significant increase in public debt to N77 trillion. “The other area of the debt stock we are trying to highlight is to say the debt stock is also growing from the issuance of promissory notes, which are not true borrowing as such by the government. “

Post Date : January 5, 2023

Facebook scammers arrested for multiple kidnaps, gang-rape

The Delta State Police Command has smashed a kidnap gang that specialised in luring ladies through Facebook to gang rape and blackmail them. Consequently, three suspected members of the syndicate, including a lady, have been arrested. The syndicate’s modus operandi, as gathered, was to get acquainted with unsuspecting ladies on Facebook. Thereafter, they would invite the gullible victims to a hotel where they were allegedly drugged and gang-raped. Not done, they would hold them hostage and demand ransom from their parents to secure their release. The bubble burst after one of the ladies (names withheld) who was kidnapped on December 11, 2022, and released recognised one of the abductors on Monday. She, subsequently, alerted policemen at Ufuoma Division, where she revealed that she was held hostage at a hotel in the Iwherekpokpor community, Ughelli North Local Government Area, by her abductors. According to her, they took her nude pictures and recorded her on video while inserting a candle into her private part and used the video to blackmail her and her parents to pay a huge ransom. Edafe said: “On receipt of this complaint, the DPO immediately detailed a combined team of Police detectives and Ekiugbo community vigilante who arrested one Cornelius Emene, 32, on January 2, 2023. “During preliminary investigation, he made a useful statement that led to the arrest of two other suspects: Nelson Aghogho (aka Little) and Ufuoma Tunde, a female. “He also gave an account of how they kidnapped another student of the School of Health and Technology, Ofuoma, Ughelli North Local Government Area “The suspects’ phones contained numerous sex video recordings of their previous victims, which were also used to blackmail them and their parents. The three suspects are currently in custody, and the investigation is ongoing.”

Post Date : January 5, 2023

We’ve been borrowing to fund petrol subsidy — Finance Minister

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said yesterday that the Federal Government was borrowing money to fund petrol subsidies, insisting that the subsidy regime had become totally unsustainable. Ahmed, who disclosed this at the public presentation of details of the 2023 budget in Abuja, stated: “Fuel subsidy cost was a very high one; We have been funding it from borrowing.” According to her, petrol subsidy will “remain up to mid-2023 based on the 18-month extension announced early 2022. In this regard, only N3.36 trillion has been provided for the PMS subsidy.” President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had announced plans to end subsidy from July 2022 but changed its position when faced with threats of nationwide protests by labour. Party members and some officials of the administration were said to have convinced President Buhari that the decision will negatively affect his public rating and that of the ruling party and this forced the government to later announce an extension of the subsidy regime to lapse in June this year, one month after leaving office. The minister also said the reconciliation between the ministry and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, is still ongoing to determine crude oil revenues and what should accrue to the federation account. and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, is still ongoing to determine crude oil revenues and what should accrue to the federation account. Also Read Petrol subsidy is anti-poor, it must go – Tinubu Executive to engage NASS on Ways & Means On the controversial securitisation of the N22.7 trillion borrowing from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, by Ways & Means, she said her team would engage the National Assembly (NASS) on the lingering disagreement between the two arms of government on the issues. Debt securitization is the process of packaging debt(s) from a source or number of sources into a single security to be sold to investors. The minister said the decision to securitise the debt was to reduce the burden on the Federal Government, as interest on the Ways & Means could hit N2 trillion this year, from N1.2 trillion, if nothing was done. “If successfully securitized, rather than the current interest rate of MPR+3per cent (19.5%), interest on the Ways & Means, it would reduce to about nine per cent,” she said. On the macro-economy, she said the economy had been fully diversified, with oil revenue projected to contribute only N2.29 trillion (22 per cent of revenue) to the budget in the current fiscal year. She said: “In aggregate, 22% of projected revenues is expected from oil-related sources, while 78% is to be earned from non-oil sources. This shows that we have achieved a fully diversified economy in this country.” Non-oil taxes are estimated at N2.43 trillion; Federal Government independent revenues are projected to be N2.62 trillion; while other revenues total N762 billion. Stamp Duty investigations The Minister disclosed that the Federal Government is awaiting the outcome of investigations into claims that the Central Bank of Nigeria had large Stamp Duty funds in its account. Responding to a question on the allegations of huge Stamp Duty funds at the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mrs. Ahmed said that investigations had been instituted into the matter, without providing details. She said, “There is an investigation that is being carried out by a committee. There are also some investigations that are being carried out by some security agencies. “We are anxiously waiting for the outcomes of these investigations. If funds are realized from these investigations, it will help us fund the deficit in the 2023 budget.” The presidency has however dismissed the allegations of misappropriation of Stamp Duty funds levelled against the apex bank. CBN’s Director of Corporate Communications, Mr. Osita Nwanisobi, had also described the allegation as ridiculous. He said, “We have been hearing these allegations, but they said N89 trillion stamp duty accumulated and the total assets for Nigerian banks are about N63 trillion and someone is claiming that fifty kobo accumulated to N89 trillion. How possible is it? “If there is any committee in charge, that has nothing to do with us (CBN). The committee can do their work but has nothing to do with the CBN. Our most concern is the N89 trillion because the total assets of all the banks in Nigeria are not up to that amount. “CBN is the creation of the law, and that is why we say, CBN is an institution with statutory flavour. Our responsibility is to keep up with the law. The law states that the act on stamp duty must be obeyed, and that is what it does. “We keep a record of all transactions, that is why whenever we hear such allegations, we are shocked.” N 11. 34trn Deficit This year’s deficit has been estimated at N11. 34 trillion which represents 5. 03 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Mrs. Ahmed said that the deficit will be financed mainly by domestic borrowings of N7 04 trillion; foreign sources of N1.76 trillion; N1. 77 billion from multilateral and bilateral loan drawdowns; and privatization proceeds of N206.18 billion. According to her, the deficit level has exceeded the 3 per cent of GDP provided in the Fiscal Responsibility Act and it might be necessary for the law to be amended to accommodate the new realities. She said there is no plan to restructure the nation’s debt, as according to her, the administration has consistently met debt obligations. Rather, she said that the country will continue to spread debt maturities through debt refinancing. The fiscal deficit for 2022 was estimated at N8.17 trillion, inclusive of the Supplementary budget. As at November 30, 2022, the deficit was N6.37 trillion, which the minister said was totally financed by borrowings, mostly from domestic sources.