President Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, approved the appointment of C as the executive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). This was disclosed by Tinubu’s spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale on Thursday. According to Ngelale, Olukoyede’s appointment is for a renewable term of four years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation. Here are five (5) quick facts about the newly appointed EFCC chairman: 1. Ola Olukoyede was born in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti, on October 14, 1969. 2. He had his university education at Lagos State University; University of Lagos; Institute of Arbitration ICC – Paris, France and University of Harvard (Kennedy School of Executive Education). 3. Prior to his recent appointment, Olukoyede was EFCC Secretary and also served as Chief of Staff to former EFCC Chair, Ibrahim Magu during Muhammadu Buhari-led administration. 4. The erudite lawyer is a member of the Fraud Advisory Panel (UK) and also a member, Federal Government Technical Committee on the Repositioning of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit. 5. He also specialises in Anti-Corruption Research and Analysis, Corporate and Business Intelligence Gathering and Process and a Pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

  Abayomi Arabambi, the National Publicity Secretary of the Lamidi Apapa-led faction of the Labour Party (LP), has alleged a discrepancy in the certificates of the presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi. Arabambi made this allegation while speaking in an interview on AIT on Thursday. The factional Labour Party’s National Publicity Secretary’s comment comes after Obi’s press conference on the controversy over Bola Tinubu’s Chicago State University certificate. The factional LP’s spokesperson said he was among the people who screened Obi before the party’s presidential primary. According to Arabambi, the name on Obi’s academic certificate from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) contradicts the name on his National Youth Service Corps certificate. Arabambi said, “I was part of the people who did the screening for him. In the form EC9 we gave him, he wrote that he attended the University of Nigeria Nsukka and that he finished his youth service but unfortunately, in the final submission of the form, he only submitted his school certificate. “So something is fishy, and I want to say the name the school sent for mobilization was not what was written on his NYSC certificate, and he knows that. “For us, we don’t know the true identity of Peter Obi even in the Labour Party because everything was shrouded in secrecy at that time between him and Abure in Asaba. “You know we were rushing because we had just a day to do our presidential primary, and that was why he was able to get away with it, but we have it on record that Obi’s name on his NYSC certificate and the one on his University of Nigeria, Nsukka certificate are different,” he said.

  The duo suspects of Adama Joseph and Oreoluwa Davies, arrested by the Nigeria Police for killing a club owner in Kwara State, Adeniyi Ojo, have narrated how they killed the socialite. The ladies paraded by the police in Abuja on Wednesday evening confessed to the crime, attributing the causes of their action to the late socialite’s covetousness, stinginess, and lack of care. The PUNCH reports that the Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, while parading the suspects said, “On October 6, 2023, police operatives apprehended the two suspects, Adama and Oreoluwa, who are both students of Kwara State Polytechnic for their involvement in the robbery and murder of Mr Adeniyi Ojo, the son of Chief Emmanuel Ojo, a prominent figure in Ilorin, Kwara State. “Through meticulous investigative work, our officers were able to track and apprehend these suspects in Mowe Ibafo, Ogun State. In a tragic incident, the duo tied the deceased under the guise of having a sex romp and demanded money from him. But when he was not forthcoming, they resorted to drugging and suffocating him, leading to his untimely demise,” the Force PRO stated. Speaking during the interrogation, Adama said the victim had been demanding a sexual relationship with her for some time, but she had refused because she was working under him at some point, and when she quit the job, he failed to meet her financial needs whenever she requested. Oreoluwa also agreed with Adama’s narration of the event. We had finished our ND programme at Kwara Polytechnic before the incident happened. We didn’t plan to kill him. On that particular day, we intended to steal from him, so we told him that we wanted to do BDSM, and he agreed to have a threesome with me and my friend (Oreoluwa). “After Oreoluwa tied his hands and legs, I tried to gag his mouth, but he refused, and I stopped. So, when we couldn’t find any money in his pocket, my friend took his phone and showed it to his face to open it with a facial lock, but he started shouting, loosened one of the ropes on his hands, and started hitting my friend. We put Refnol (Rohypnol) in his mouth. “So, in a bid to stop him from making noise, my friend put a pillow over his face, and when he went silent, we told him that we were leaving because we thought he was pretending, but he didn’t respond, so we left. I touched him with a dead knife used for cutting the cake, but he didn’t bleed as I never meant to stab him or hurt him; we only wanted to take his money. We didn’t know he died until when the police arrested us in Ogun State. We only took his phone, the knife, and the ropes with us.” Meanwhile, BDSM is an abbreviation for bondage, discipline (or domination), sadism (or submission), and masochism, which refers to a range of sexual preferences that generally relate to the enjoyment of physical control, psychological control, and/or pain. A threesome, on the other hand, is a form of group sex that may occur in private situations, such as spontaneous sexual activities among three friends or in the context of casual sex or a hook-up. Alternatively, it may occur in specific contexts or environments that allow for sex, such as swingers’ events, orgies or sex parties.

  Hamas has said the terror launched against Israel that killed about 1,200 Israelis and other nationals at the weekend was planned for two years. A top Hamas official, Ali Baraka made this known during an interview with an Arab news channel on Sunday. Baraka also disclosed that fewer than five Hamas leaders knew the details of the attack launched on Saturday Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to wipe Hamas fighters out of the earth over the attack, which was described as the deadliest since the Holocaust. He has ordered the bombardment of Gaza since the attack, which has killed hundreds of Palestinians. Speaking on the attack, Baraka said, “The thing any Palestinian desires most is to be martyred for the sake of Allah, defending his land.” Baraka said that for the last few years, Hamas projected a ‘rational’ image to the outside world by claiming to focus on governing in Gaza as opposed to planning terror attacks, Daily Mail said. That image, however, was part of the organization’s plan to covertly plan the massive attack on Israel that has launched the region back into war. “It (Hamas) did not go into any war. It did not join the Islamic Jihad in its recent battle,” said Baraka. “Of course. We made them think that Hamas was busy with governing Gaza, and that it wanted to focus on the 2.5 million Palestinians (in Gaza), and has abandoned the resistance altogether. “All while under the table, Hamas was preparing for this big attack. We have been preparing for this attack for two years,” he said.

  Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says the financial regulator will pull back from direct development finance interventions. Cardoso, in a statement on Thursday, said the CBN needs to return to its core functions of monetary policies and advisory roles to support economic growth. According to the head of the apex bank, under previous leadership, the CBN had included fiscal intervention in its functions. This, Cardoso said, blurred the lines between monetary and fiscal environments. “In refocusing the CBN to its core mandate, there is a need to pull the CBN back from direct development finance interventions into more limited advisory roles that support economic growth,” he said. Cardoso said the CBN’s advisory roles could include acting as a catalyst to promote specialised institutions and financial products that support emerging sectors of the economy. He said new regulatory frameworks will be facilitated to unlock dormant capital in land and property holdings, as well as increase access to consumer credit and expand financial inclusion to the masses. Part of the activities of the CBN, according to Cardoso, will include increasing private sector investment in housing, textiles and clothing, food supply chain, healthcare, and educational supplies by de-risking instrumentation. “These verticals have huge demand patterns, with the potential for high local inputs and value retention, and can be the basis for rapid industrialisation,” he said. Cardoso said CBN will use its convening power to foster partnerships between key multilateral and international stakeholders in government and private sector initiatives. ‘CBN’S PROBLEMS ARE LARGE AND COMPLEX’ The CBN governor said the problems confronting the central bank are large and complex and can not be solved by the new management overnight. “It must be emphasised that CBN does not have a magic wand that can be waved at the current economic challenges,” he said. The CBN governor added that “with focused leadership and sustained reforms, it is expected that over time, the country will see gains open economic spaces, attract new investments, create employment, and give our hardworking and talented compatriots opportunity for a more prosperous future”. Highlighting some of the challenges faced by the apex bank, he listed failure in corporate governance, diminished institutional autonomy and the need to refocus CBN back to core functions. Cardoso also said the CBN is facing the problem of discontinuing unorthodox monetary policies and foreign currency management. He said the CBN is looking into the backlog of forex demand, examining creative financing options for clearing the short to medium-term backlog and ensuring inflation and price stability.   Cardoso said the financial regulator is considering control options to enforce statutory limits in the use of ways and means for financing public sector deficit.

  The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has in strong terms condemned the ongoing Israeli military aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip for the sixth day in a row, killing more than 1,200 martyrs. The OIC says Israel’s brutal actions on civilian populations have been inflicting injuries to thousands of unsuspecting Palestinians, including women and children, and destroying residential buildings, civilian facilities, infrastructure, hospitals, schools, places of worship, and United Nations facilities. In a statement seen by Daily Trust, Thursday morning, the organization labeled Israel attacks as inhumane. “Add to this the inhumane water and power outages and continued daily deliberate killings in West Bank cities in conjunction with the repeated attacks on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. “The OIC considers this brutal aggression against the Palestinian people a blatant international and humanitarian law violation and a war crime. “The OIC holds Israel, the occupying power, fully responsible for the repercussions of the continuation of this sinful aggression,” the statement added. It also called on the international community to intervene urgently to force Israel, to stop its ongoing attacks against the Palestinian people immediately, and to ensure the opening of humanitarian corridors to facilitate the entry of medicines and food supplies and basic needs to the Gaza Strip.

  Gunmen have abducted three Catholic nuns and a seminarian in Nigeria’s South-east. The hoodlums abducted the victims on 5 October while they were heading to Imo State for a burial. Gloria Nnamchi, the vicar-general of the Missionary Daughters of Mater Ecclesiae in Nigeria confirmed the incident in a short note, according to a post on the official Facebook page of the Catholic Broadcast Commission of Nigeria. Ms Nnamchi, a Catholic nun, said the hoodlums also abducted the driver of the car. The vicar-general gave the names of the three abducted nuns as Rosemary Ejiowokeoghere, Maria Okoye and Josephine Chinyekwuo. The name of the abducted seminarian is Peter Eyakeno, while the driver is Emmanuel Awoke. She said the victims were serving at the Catholic Diocese of Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, another state in the South-east. The abductors have contacted the missionary organisation, and have asked for a ransom, she said. She appealed to Catholic faithful to pray for the “safe release” of the victims. A Catholic priest in Abakaliki, who asked not to be named, told PREMIUM TIMES, Thursday morning that the diocese had been troubled by the incident. “The ransom I was told they are demanding is heavy,” the cleric said, without mentioning the amount. The police spokesperson in Imo State, Henry Okoye, did not respond to calls and a text message seeking his comments. Not the first time Communities in Nigeria’s South-east have witnessed increased cases of abduction lately. Catholic clerics have become targets of such attacks in recent times Earlier this month, gunmen abducted a Catholic priest and three others in Anambra State. The victims were later rescued by the police in the state. Another Catholic priest, Stanislaus Mbamara, was abducted in June while he was returning from Awka, the state capital, to Nnewi. He was released about two days later after a ransom was reportedly paid to his abductors. Last month, gunmen abducted Marcellinus Okide, another Catholic priest alongside six others in Enugu State. Mr Okide was released four days later, but the fate of the six others abducted with him remains unknown. Gunmen, in May, abducted Jude Maduka, another Catholic priest, while he was inspecting his adoration site in Ogii, a community in Okigwe Local Government Area of Imo State. He was released by his abductors, two days after. In August 2022, four reverend sisters of the Catholic Church were kidnapped along Okigwe- Umulolo Road in Okigwe Local Government Area of Abia State. They were released, days later. Within the same period, gunmen abducted a catholic priest and a seminarian along Okigwe-Umunneochi Road, the boundary between Imo and Abia States. The victims were released two days later after reportedly paying a ransom to their abductors. Culled from Premium Times

  Operatives of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Pathfinder have destroyed an illegal refining site in the creeks of Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State. Conducting journalists around the site on Wednesday, the Commander of the NNS Pathfinder, Commodore Desmond Igbo, estimated the capacity of the refinery at over a million litres. The Commander explained the extent of the operation which he said steals crude from the wellhead to the illegal reservoir. “This is NNPC OML-18 being managed by NNPC and Sahara. You can see how these criminals went over there and rigged a hose, that hose is almost 18 inches from the oil well head. They rigged it from there,” Igbo stated. “You can see the crude flowing down to where they have their reservoir and constructed illegal refinery where they cook it. This is economic sabotage to the Nigerian economy.” He stated that the Nigerian Navy is canvassing the support of local communities in fighting the menace, adding that no arrests have been made so far. Lamenting the involvement of youths in the illegal oil bunkering, Igbo urged the paramount chiefs and leaders in the area to call their youths to order. “When we come with our gunboats, they ran away. But we are still going to trace them and trace those who are sponsoring them. “They cannot just come here without having big people behind them. We will put down our intelligence and make sure we trace their sponsors,” he added. The tanks were destroyed with the help of a swamp buggy, while the illegal hose is clamped by the technicians. The fight against crude oil theft in the Niger Delta is an ongoing battle between security agencies and economic saboteurs.

  The senator representing Anambra South zone, Ifeanyi Ubah has officially defected to the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, dumping the Young Peoples Party. Ubah’s defection was announced on the floor of the Senate on Thursday. Pundits say that his defection to the APC is about Anambra governorship election coming up in 2025. more details later