The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says cash deposits into domiciliary accounts will not be restricted, and customers “shall have unfettered and unrestricted access to funds in their accounts”. The bank spoke in a statement issued after a meeting with the bankers’ committee on Sunday. The meeting was meant to provide further guidance to deposit money banks (DMBs) on the recent operational changes to the foreign exchange market and to discuss the implementation and implications of the policy changes for the banking public. More to follow…

  The Chief Executive Officer of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, has declared Nigeris’s subsidiary of the global cryptocurrency exchange platform as a scam. Zhao made this known via his Twitter handle on Sunday, saying, “Binance Nigeria Limited a scam entity.” “Binance has issued cease & desist notice to the scammer entity “Binance Nigeria Limited”. Don’t believe everything you read in the news,” he wrote. Recall that The PUNCH had earlier reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria declared Binance Nigeria is operating illegally in the country as it is not registered or regulated by the SEC. Details later…

  Senate President Godswill Akpabio has urged former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike and his four other friends in the G5 to come up with another aggrieved group within opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to make winning the 2027 presidential election a smooth ride for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Akpabio, a former Akwa Ibom State governor, spoke on Sunday at a thanksgiving reception held at Wike’s private residence on Ada-George Road, in his hometown, Rumueprikom in the Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of the oil-rich South-South state. “I want to thank you for all your efforts to bring justice to Nigeria,” Akpabio told Wike who backed the return of power to Southern Nigeria and supported APC’s candidate, Bola Tinubu against his party’s choice, Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 presidential election. “And I want to thank the G5 Governors,” the Senate President said whilst addressing the G5 or the Integrity Group made up of five major aggrieved politicians within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who kicked against the emergence of Abubakar in the last February 25 poll. “We are very delighted, we are proud to have G5. Please, ensure that in 2027, another G5 emerges so that APC will continue to do well in this country. And if you like, you can add two more, make it G7 and not only G5,” Akpabio added. ‘I Predicted Makinde Will Be A Governor’ Addressing Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, who is also one of the G5 members, Akpabio said, “Your Excellency (Governor) Makinde, you know I predicted that you are going to be a governor when I met you with the late Alaafin, may his soul rest in peace. I just saw the way you were walking and I said, ‘This man walks like a governor.’ I wasn’t surprised when you became a governor.” All members of the G5 including Wike, Makinde and former Governors Samuel Ortom (Benue), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) were seated at the event. Another member of the Integrity Group and former Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose; as well as Acting PDP Chairman, Umar Damagum; former Governors Peter Odili (Rivers), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano) and James Ibori (Delta) were in attendance.   President Bola Tinubu was represented by Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Serving Governors Siminalayi Fubara (Rivers), Caleb Mutfwang (Plateau), joined the long list of Very Important Personalities at the event which was a Mecca of sorts with high-ranking APC stalwarts and members of the 10th National Assembly including Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, ex-Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole; ex-Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi; member representing Borno South Senatorial District, Ali Ndume; amongst others. G5 Romance With APC Many believed the G5 whittled the chances of Abubakar in the last presidential election as the G5 had insisted on Rotational Presidency after the eight-year administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military head of state from Katsina State in North-West Nigeria whose two-term tenure as democratically elected President ended on May 29, 2023. At the PDP primary last year before the 2023 general elections, the G5 couldn’t stop Abubakar, another northerner from Adamawa State from getting the party’s golden ticket. The group thereafter demanded that Iyorchia Ayu (another northerner from Benue State) stepped down for a southern replacement as PDP national chairman but both Atiku and Ayu called the bluff of the G5. For the presidential election, Abubakar lost in all the G5 states and while Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi won in Enugu and Abia, Tinubu raked in Oyo, Benue and Rivers. Tinubu, 70, came out tops in 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states, and secured significant numbers in several other states to claim the highest number of votes — 8,794,726, almost two million votes more than his closest rival, Abubakar. Abubakar, 76, who has now run for president six times, got 6,984,520 votes, while Obi, who, in less than a year, galvanised young voters in a manner some have described as unprecedented finished the race with 6,101,533. On June 8, the G5 visited President Tinubu at Aso Villa in Abuja.

  Suspected bandits have killed a traditional title holder, the Ardo of Birni and Kewaye of Zazzau Emirate, Alhaji Shuaibu Mohammed, and his four children. The incident occurred on Saturday night at about 10pm in Dorayi village of Zaria Local Government Area, Kaduna State. The bandits numbering five also rustled 100 cows belonging to the deceased. The wife of the deceased, Malama Halima Shuaibu, told newsmen after the funeral of the victims that the bandits shot her husband in the head. 3 nabbed for robbing hotel in Calabar Abandoned Newborn Baby Found near uncompleted building in Kaduna “Ardo was brought out of his bedroom and shot twice in his head, and he died instantly. “The bandits went from room to room in the compound and killed my four children who are married with children. “The victims are Adamu Shuaibu, Musa Shuaibu, Abubakar Shuaibu and Ibrahim Haruna. “After attacking the compound, they also went away with over 100 of our cows,” she said. The only survivor of the attack among the Ardo’s children, Abdurrahman Shuaibu, said the bandits shot two other people on their way out of the village. When contacted, the spokesman of the state Police Command, DSP Mohammed Jalige, said he was yet to be briefed on the incident.

  The proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) has lambasted Asari Dokubo, leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Force (NDPSF), for seeking the continuous detention of Nnamdi Kanu. While speaking on Friday after visiting President Bola Tinubu at Aso Rock, Dokubo asked the federal government not to release Kanu, leader of IPOB. Kanu has been in detention on terrorism charges since he was brought back from Kenya on June 19, 2021. In a statement shared with TheCable on Sunday, Emma Powerful, IPOB spokesperson, said those using Kanu’s “illegal detention to look for oil guard contract” in Aso Rock should be guided in their utterances.   Powerful warned that Kanu’s name should not be used to “buy favour” in the corridors of power. “We are cautioning those campaigning for continuous illegal detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to be aware of dangers ahead. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is the only innocent political prisoner in Nigeria because of ethnic profiling and prejudice,” the proscribed separatist group said. “He has not committed any crime known to local and international laws. Nigeria government must release him unconditionally as ordered by the courts or risk paying the price of disobedience to laws.” In October 2022, the court of appeal in Abuja struck out the terrorism charge filed against Kanu. The appellate court held that Kanu’s extradition from Kenya to Nigeria to stand trial was illegal. The federal government later filed an appeal before the supreme court challenging the judgement — and subsequently filed an amended charge before a federal high court. The federal government also filed a stay of execution in the appellate court and it was granted.   The supreme court heard the case in May but adjourned to September 1

  A police officer was on Friday killed as the convey of a former governor of Imo state, Rochas Okorocha, was attacked. The ex governor’s covey was attacked at Ihube community on the Okigwe- Enugu expressway. Confirming the killing of the police officer and the assassination attempt on him, Okorocha said that he was in shock that his covey could be attacked. Okorocha who ruled the state between 2011 and 2019 said that the cop killed was one of the policemen deployed from state Government House to take to the burial ceremony of the mother of the immediate past governor of Imo state Emeka Ihedioha. Okorocha who spoke on Sunday at Amaimo in the Ikeduru Local Government Area of the state, at the birthday anniversary celebration of the Peoples Democratic Party candidate for the November 11 governorship election in Imo state, Samuel Anyanwu, said that the the killing of the cop was on “unfortunate.” The ex Imo governor said that he was retuning from Enugu after attending the burial ceremony of the wife of a former senate president, Ken Nnamani. Okorocha said that the governor of Enugu state, Peter Mbah had released vehicles and security men to take him and his team to Imo state for the burial ceremony of Ihedioha’s mother. He disclosed that it was after he had finished attending the funeral ceremony at Mbaise and the convey had dropped him at his Spilbat mansion in Owerri and was heading back to Enugu that they were attacked. Okorocha said that he was embittered because he met a safe Enugu only to attacked and a security agent killed in his own state. He said ” I am angry. I am very angry. I am angry because I spent two days in Enugu and nothing happened to me but it is in my own state that the convey released to me by the governor of Enugu state ( a very good man) to attend the burial ceremony of Ihedioha’s mother at Mbaise that was attacked and one police man killed. “What is happening in Imo state makes me angry. Many people who are running to govern Imo state are not capable but I have seen one man who the cap fits. When it is time I will speak.” One of the ex governor’s aides who spoke to our correspondent in confidence said that the vehicles in the convey, which comprised of a sports Utility Vehicle, a bus and Hilux were shattered by bullets. He said two other security agents we kidnapped by the attackers and were released same day. Imo police spokesperson, Henry Okoye, is yet to confirm this incident as at press time.

  The former lawmaker representing Bauchi North in the 9th Senate, Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa, has debunked allegations that he interfered with his wife’s job as President of the Court of Appeal. Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa served as President the Court of Appeal from 2014 to 2020. Addressing the 9th Senate led by Ahmad Lawan on Saturday, Bulkachuwa said, “I look at faces in this chamber whom have come to me and sought for my help when my wife was the President of the Court of Appeal.” Senator Bulkachuwa came under criticism when he openly said that used his position to solicit favours on behalf of his friends while she was President of Nigeria’s court of appeal. However, speaking with BBC Hausa, the former senator said the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan did not allow him to finish his thoughts. “Well, I was not even allowed to finish up, I just began by thanking her. She tolerated me, I am in politics while she was in law. “The favours I solicited from her, it was her nature to help people. I didn’t even explain what can of help I was referring to, every employee whether lawyer, engineer or doctor can render assistance in their work. Assistance doesn’t mean that you contravene the law or do something wrong,” he said. According to Bulkachuwa, there is no truth in the allegations levelled against him of interfering with his wife’s job.   He added, “The way we lived, I never suggested to her how to do things, how to go about her cases or how to run her office. we don’t even discuss such things at home.” Meanwhile, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to immediately invite Senator Bulkachuwa for interrogation and proceed to prosecute him accordingly. In a statement on Wednesday, the NBA President Yakubu Maikyau, noted that the viral video clip of the comments made by the senator were clearly admissions that he did attempt to and/or actually perverted the course of justice/interfered with due administration of justice, which makes him liable to be investigated and prosecuted even on his admission. The association also said “that this came with a huge negative impact on the integrity and the independence of the Judiciary can only be an understatement”.

  The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and other 13 former governors in the 10th Senate to “disclose the total amount of life pensions, if any, that have been received from your states as former governors.” In a statement on Sunday, SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, urged the new lawmakers to “promptly clarify if you have collected and/or currently collecting life pensions as former governors from your respective states, to stop collecting any such pensions and return the pensions collected to the treasury.” According to the group, there are 14 former governors in the 10th Senate. “Nigerians expect you to act in the public interest including by ending the collection of any life pensions from your respective states and returning any such pensions that may have been collected to the treasury,” the group said. “Collecting life pensions as former governors while in the Senate would clearly violate constitutional provisions and amount to taking advantage of entrusted public positions.” Oluwadare wants the former governors to emulate former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki who stopped collecting life pension as a former governor of Kwara State and described life pensions by former governors as “immoral”, following a request by SERAP. The group listed former governors that received pensions as Godswill Akpabio (Akwa-Ibom State); Adams Oshiomhole (Edo State); Adamu Aliero (Kebbi State); Dave Umahi (Ebonyi State); Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto State); and Abubakar Sani Bello (Niger State).   Others are: Ibrahim Danwkambo (Gombe State); Danjuma Goje (Gombe State); Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara State); Gbenga Daniel (Ogun State); Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto State); Orji Kalu (Abia State); Ibrahim Gaidam (Yobe State); and Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa State). It also identified states implementing life pensions for former governors to include Akwa-Ibom, Abia, Edo, Jigawa, Niger, Kebbi, Kano, Sokoto, Jigawa, Cross River, Ebonyi, Enugu, Benue, Gombe, Yobe, Taraba, Kaduna, Plateau, Katsina, Rivers, and Delta. Many of these states owe workers’ salaries and remain the poorest in the country.