The Federal Government has disbanded the Secretariat of the Advertising Standard Panel due to its endorsement of billboards accused of attempting to manipulate the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal with the slogan: ‘All Eyes on The Judiciary.’ The Director-General of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, conveyed the dissolution of the Panel through a statement issued on Tuesday. The ASP, a Statutory Panel within the Council, is tasked with ensuring that advertisements adhere to the prevailing laws of the Federation and the Code of Ethics for advertising professionals. Pointing out the reasons for which the advertisement should not have been approved, the Director-General of ARCON stated in the release: “The attention of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria has been drawn to the “All Eyes on the Judiciary” advertisements exposed on some billboards across the country. The concepts exposed were not approved by the Advertising Standərds Panel, hence, the Council has directed that all the materials being exposed be brought down immediately and the violators sanctioned. “The Advertising Standards Panel of the Council also erred in the approval of one of the concepts as the advertisement failed to vet guidelines on the following grounds: “The cause forming the central theme of the campaign in the advertisement is a matter pending before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. Hence, it’s jus pendis. A matter being jus pendis and awaiting judicial pronouncement is, by virtue of the Nigerian legal system, precluded from being a subject of public statement, debate, discussion, advertisement, etc. “The advertisement is controversial and capable of instigating public unrest and breach of public peace. “The advertisement is considered blackmail against the Nigerian Judiciary, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, and particularly the Honourable Justices of the Tribunal who are expected to discharge their judicial functions Fadolapo further stated that the Council has temporarily suspended its Director and Deputy Director responsible for Regulations, pending an investigation into the matter. While acknowledging that some advertisements did not receive ASP’s approval, Fadolapo acknowledged an error in the approval process for one of the concepts. The advertisement failed to meet vetting guidelines. The ARCON DG said the Council would set up a committee to investigate the circumstances leading to the “erroneous approval” of one of the concepts of the advert and the breach of the vetting guidelines. “Consequently, the Director and Deputy Director, Regulations have also been suspended. The suspension is to enable an unprejudiced investigation of the issue. The Advertising Standards Panel Secretariat failing to diligently exercise its function as the gatekeeper of advertising, advertisement, and marketing communications is hereby dissolved,” he said.without fear or favour over a matter that is currently jus pendis.” Fadolapo further stated that the Council has temporarily suspended its Director and Deputy Director responsible for Regulations, pending an investigation into the matter. While acknowledging that some advertisements did not receive ASP’s approval, Fadolapo acknowledged an error in the approval process for one of the concepts. The advertisement failed to meet vetting guidelines. The ARCON DG said the Council would set up a committee to investigate the circumstances leading to the “erroneous approval” of one of the concepts of the advert and the breach of the vetting guidelines. “Consequently, the Director and Deputy Director, Regulations have also been suspended. The suspension is to enable an unprejudiced investigation of the issue. The Advertising Standards Panel Secretariat failing to diligently exercise its function as the gatekeeper of advertising, advertisement, and marketing communications is hereby dissolved,” he said.

  The Federal Government has applied to withdraw the illegal possession of firearms charge it filed against suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, at the Federal High Court in Lagos. The judge had on July 25, admitted Emefiele to a N20million bail on a two-count charge of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition and ordered his remand at the Ikoyi Correctional Centre, pending the fulfilment of his bail conditions. But the Department of State Services (DSS) rearrested him after a clash with prison officials. On Tuesday, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mohammed Bakodo Abubakar, told Justice Nicholas Oweibo that the fresh application followed the result of further investigations. He made his application orally. But defence counsel, Joseph Daudu (SAN), opposed him, arguing that because the government was in disobedience of the court’s order granting Emefiele bail, its application could not be taken. Speaking with journalists after the day’s proceedings, Abubakar said the fresh charges were filed at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court. One of the counts accuses Emefiele of “conferring unlawful advantages”. On June 9, Tinubu had suspended Emefiele and ordered investigation into some allegations leveled against him. Tinubu later appointed a Special Investigator to probe CBN. Amid this probe, the apex bank released its audited financial statement, which showed that it is owing JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs a combined sum of $7.5 billion as of the financial year ended December 2022.

  A newly-wed couple has been killed and another injured when suspected grazing herders attacked BECO Comprehensive Secondary School in Kwi, Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State. The incident happened on Monday with the couple, who married in March, said to be teachers in the school while the injured is the vice principal who survived with gunshot wounds. While narrating the incident to Channels Television, the school principal Dandoro Gyang explained that the staff of the school was holding a meeting within the premises when some of the suspected herders invaded the institution with their cattle and started shooting. He said the shooting made everyone scamper to safety. In the ensuing pandemonium, one of the teachers died on the spot, another in a hospital while Vice Principal Dalyop Emmanuel Ibrahim survived with gunshot injuries. The survivor after receiving first aid attention in Kwi was taken to Plateau Specialist Hospital where he was referred to the Jos University Teaching Hospital for lack of space. Following the latest attack on the school, the President of Berom Youth Moulders Solomon Dalyop is calling on the government to ban open grazing in the state. According to him, this is because it has become a ploy to unleash havoc on lives and properties in the state

  The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited says it has no plan to raise the pump price per litre of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol. In a terse statement on Monday night, the company urged Nigerians to disregard speculations of a fresh hike in price of the premium product. The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, had on Monday, warned the NNPC Limited against fresh petrol price hike. However, NNPC Limited Spokesman, Muhammad Garbadeen, in a statement, said the company has no intention to increase petrol price for the third consecutive time since the removal of petrol subsidy on May 29, 2023. “Dear esteemed customers, we at NNPC Retail value your patronage, and we do not have the intention to increase our PMS pump prices as widely speculated. Please buy the best quality products at the most affordable prices at our NNPC Retail Stations nationwide,” Garbadeen said. There seemed to be no respite for Nigerians after President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of petrol subsidy in his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023. With the announcement, the pump price of a litre of petrol rose from N184 to N500. About two months later, the price jumped from N500 to over N617 on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, eliciting anger and criticisms from economically stranded citizens. The Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, had blamed the second petrol price hike on market forces. Transportation cost has since galloped, and its attendant economic implications felt on food prices, with the Organised Labour protesting the “anti-people policies” of the Tinubu administration on August 2, 2023. The unprecedented increase in the price of petrol from N184 per litre to over N600 occurred amid the unification of the foreign exchange rates by the Tinubu administration as well as rising inflation rates.

  Military chiefs from the West African bloc ECOWAS will meet in Ghana this week to discuss possible intervention in Niger, military and political sources in the region said Tuesday. The meeting on Thursday and Friday — originally scheduled for last weekend but then postponed — came after ECOWAS leaders last week approved deployment of a “standby force to restore constitutional order” in Niger, whose president was toppled on July 26. Their summit, held in the Nigerian capital Abuja last Thursday, also reaffirmed the bloc’s preference for a diplomatic outcome. President Mohamed Bazoum’s election in 2021 was a landmark in Niger’s history, ushering in the country’s first peaceful transfer of power since independence from France in 1960. His ousting unleashed a shock wave around West Africa, where Mali and Burkina Faso — likewise battered by a jihadist insurgency — have also suffered military takeovers. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave Niger’s military rulers a one-week ultimatum on July 30 to restore Bazoum or face the potential use of force, but the deadline expired without action. Analysts say military intervention would be operationally risky and politically hazardous, given divisions within ECOWAS ranks and domestic criticism Niger’s military regime has sent mixed signals since the crisis erupted. At the weekend, the coup leaders said they were open to a diplomatic push after their chief, General Abdourahamane Tiani, met with Nigerian religious mediators. Those talks came after the ECOWAS military meeting in Ghana was postponed for “technical reasons”. But on Sunday night, Niger’s rulers declared they had gathered sufficient evidence to prosecute Bazoum for “high treason and undermining internal and external security”. The legal threat was angrily condemned by ECOWAS, which lashed it as a contradiction of the regime’s “reported willingness” to explore peaceful means. Washington said it was “incredibly dismayed”. The row overshadowed talks under African Union (AU) auspices that began on Monday in Addis Ababa, bringing together representatives from the regime and ECOWAS. Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a “peaceful political and diplomatic” resolution to the crisis in a phone call with Mali’s junta leader, Assimi Goita, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. Mali has cemented an alliance with Moscow since its coup in 2020, acquiring Russian planes and helicopters and bringing in paramilitaries that the West says are Wagner mercenaries. – Poor and unstable – A landlocked nation in the heart of the arid Sahel, Niger is one of the world’s poorest and most turbulent countries. Bazoum, 63, survived two attempted coups before being ousted, in the fifth putsch in the country’s history. His ousting deals a huge blow to French and US strategy in the Sahel. France refocused its anti-jihadist operations on Niger after withdrawing from Mali and Burkina Faso last year following a bust-up with their juntas. International concern is mounting for the state of Bazoum, his wife and son, who have been held at the president’s official residence since the coup.

  Armed bandits early hours of Tuesday invaded Jan-Bako town under the Maradun Local Government Area of Zamfara State and kidnaped an unspecified number of people. A resident of the town, Ahmad Janbako said the assailants attacked the community late in the night when residents were already asleep. He said the bandits attacked the community silently from every entry point without firing a gunshot, looting shops and carting away food items and other necessities. According to him, an unspecified number of residents, mostly women, and children, were forcefully taken away by the bandits. “Last night, the community of Janbako town woke up in a terrible incident where armed bandits attacked the town from every corner and started looting the shops of traders and taking away food and other necessities,” Ahmad told Channels Television. He added: “Many people were forcefully taken. They are mostly women and children. We are yet to complete the assessment of the number of people abducted at this moment. We are still searching the bushes to know if we can find any of our people.” Ahmad lamented that for a very long time, the community has not witnessed any attack from bandits operating around the local government area. “This is the first time we are having security problems that the bandits succeeded in entering our town,” he said. “That was why they entered silently because they are aware that if the residents know about their movements, they will not go just like that. “We are praying to Almighty Allah to bring back our brothers and sisters who have been kidnapped.” When asked about the response of the security agencies, he said “We don’t have any military outpost close to this place. Before they could arrive, it was around 4 am when the bandits had left.” Police authorities in the state are yet to comment on the latest attack

  Amid shortage of foreign exchange, Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 24.08% in July 2023, the highest in years. The July 2023 rate showed an increase of 1.29% points when compared to the previous month’s which was 22.79%, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released on Tuesday. The CPI measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services. On July 25, 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which measures interest rate, from 18.5 percent to 18.75%. The interest rate increase occurred amid soaring food prices and rising cost of transportation occasioned by the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as petrol with the price per litre jumping from N184 to about N600, more than 200% hike. The apex bank said “hiking the interest rate has made a lot of difference in moderating the rate of inflation”. To address the forex shortage in the country with a dollar exchanging at over N900 to the naira, Acting CBN Governor, Folashodun Shonubi, on Monday, said the apex bank would take certain steps in the next few days to improve the liquidity in the market.

  Tuesday 15 August 2023 Naira slump: CBN clamps down on speculators, restricts diaspora remittances Forex: CBN moves to stop naira free fall Ex-deputy governors visit Ganduje, decry exclusion from APC NEC meeting Diesel price hits N950/litre, manufacturers fear shutdowns, job losses Avoid delayed justice, CJN tells magistrates Appeal Court Affirms Abure As Labour Party National Chairman ECOWAS Not Doing France’s Bidding, Doesn’t Want Coups To Spread – Prof Akinyemi House Probe: JAMB Registrar Gives Reasons For Employing 300 Without Advertising 21 Troops Killed In Bandits Attack On Niger Community Nigerian Brothers Extradited To US Over ‘Sextortion’ Of Young Men, Teenagers ECOWAS Angered By Threat To Prosecute Ousted Niger President Bazoum NAF Helicopter Crashes In Niger State NBTE Launches One-Year Online Programmes For HND Conversion To BSc Customs Intercept 1,245 Live Ammunition Concealed In Rice Niger coupists to prosecute ousted President for ‘high treason’ Delta, Ondo, Sokoto, 16 others to experience flooding in Aug —NEMA 15 LASTMA officials wounded in clash with soldiers as others vacate duty posts Herdsmen kill 2 teachers, injure 2 others in Plateau school Price hike looms as rice millers cease operations in Kano over paddy scarcity Lagos hospital performs ‘first’ minimally invasive heart surgery in Nigeria Withdraw suit against Obaseki… seek political solution, Edo PDP tells Shaibu Nigeria accumulated N44 trillion deficit in 24 years 26 Nigeria troops killed in ambush, rescue helicopter crashes: military sources Visit a newspaper stand this morning, buy and read a copy for yourself…

  The Northern Chamber of Commerce Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (NACCIMA) says rice millers are shutting down operations in the commercial city of Kano due to the scarcity of paddy. Dalhatu Abubakar, the chamber’s chairman, told journalists on Monday, that the paddy scarcity would cause an increase in the price of finished rice. He said unless necessary action is taken to avert food insecurity in the coming weeks, the scarcity would persist as the major raw material for production is finished. Also the chair of Al-Hamsad Integrated Rice Mill, Abubakar said several millers have cut down production from 24 to 12 hours, while laying off factory workers.   He called for the intervention of the federal and state governments in the area of mechanisation to assist farmers with the needed input that would enable all-year-round production. “Today hundreds of millers, both the integrated and small scale, are in a serious dilemma and finding it extremely difficult to break even. It is difficult to sustain production now because of the scarcity of paddy,” Abubakar said. “As I speak, I know many millers that have completely closed their factories.   “Those that are yet to close, because they still have limited paddy in their reserve, cannot operate 24 hours. Like me, I have reduced my production to 12 hours because I don’t have paddy. By implication, several workers will be rendered jobless. “Where ever you see paddy now, you buy it at an exorbitant price and you will still be compelled to face the high cost of fuel, pay tax, and electricity bill. How many factories would survive this hard economy? The only hard way now is, the cost of finished rice, which Nigerians will soon face.” Abubakar added that a larger percentage of integrated rice millers in Kano are presently sourcing paddy at an exorbitant price running to N400,000 per tonne.

  Bandits have, again, hit the Niger State community during which no fewer than 50 of them (bandits) were gunned down. Also,13 military personnel were killed and some local vigilante injured.   The bandits were said to have been terrorising Kundu village near Zungeru in Wushishi Local Government Area of the state in the past few days, leading to troops deploying to chase them out of the council. The bandits were said to have settled in the area with their cows and other domestic animals rustled from villagers within and outside the communities in the area. It was gathered that some senior military officers also lost their lives to the bandits. The killing of the military men, it was gathered, occurred on Sunday. It was learned that 13 of the casualties were recorded Sunday night while eight others were killed by the bandits, yesterday. The bandits, it was gathered, had laid ambush for the military men, who were on a rescue mission to the area. A distress call had gone to the security on the invasion of the bandits in the area in their attempt to escape with their cows to other neighbouring states. In a swift reaction, the security men blocked the criminals route at Kundu as they were trying to escape but the bandits, who had been informed ahead laid ambush and opened fire on them. No fewer than five vigilante members from the area also suffered injuries from the firework of the bandits. An eye witness from the area, who confirmed the incident to our correspondent said the corpses of the military men had been deposited at the Zungeru Federal Medical Centre. He said: “The incident is horrible and devastating. We have been able to count at least 21 military personnel corpses deposited at the Zungeru hospital while the injured vigilante members are also receiving treatment temporarily in the same hospital. “One of the recuperating vigilante, Sani Adamu, told us that they had an exchange of gunshots with the bandits but they overpowered us because of their sophisticated firearms. “Many of the bandits were also gunned down and their corpses are still littering the area of the battle.” Both the military and Police could not be reached in Minna to comment on the incident. NAF helicopter crashes Meanwhile, Nigerian Air Force has said its MI-171 helicopter on a casualty evacuation mission crashed, yesterday, about 1p.m., near Chukuba Village in Niger State. Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet in a statement said the aircraft had departed Zungeru Primary School enroute Kaduna but was later discovered to have crashed near Chukuba village in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State. He said: “Efforts are currently ongoing to rescue the crew and passengers on board the helicopter.” He said preliminary investigations had commenced to determine the probable cause of the crash.