Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has denounced the recent approval of N170 billion loan request by Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State, stating that the suspiciously swift passage of this request through the state House of Assembly has raised serious concerns, depicting a clear violation of the rights of citizens to transparent governance and fiscal responsibility. The group, through its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, expressed concern over the unanimous endorsement of Mbah’s substantial loan request by the state Assembly. HRIWA said: “This request encompasses a staggering N100 billion in bank guarantees, N10 billion in term loans, N10 billion in overdraft facilities, and N50 billion in credit facilities. These colossal figures demand rigorous scrutiny, and the absence of transparency surrounding this decision is deeply unsettling. “It is apparent that the people of Enugu State have been left in the dark concerning specifics of this loan, and how it will serve the state’s betterment. The dearth of transparency surrounding this decision raises critical questions about who truly stands to benefit from these funds”. The rights group, therefore, called on Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), residents of Enugu State and opposition political leaders, including senators and House of Representatives members, to unite and establish a coalition dedicated to safeguarding the proper utilisation of this substantial sum. HOWEVER, a frontline socio-political pressure group, Save Enugu Group (SEG), has carpeted the state chapter of the Labour Party (LP) and the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) over their criticisms of Mba’s N170 billion loan request. In a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Pascal Okolo, the group noted that “so long as a loan is not for consumption, there is nothing wrong with it. ” Tackling LP in the state, the group noted that the party shot itself in the foot when it claimed that the purpose of the loan was not stated but tailored towards self enrichment and satisfaction of personal greed. “On its part, HURIWA is merely seeking attention because its grouse was hinged on the speedy approval of the loan, assuming that “the people of Enugu State have been left in the dark concerning the specifics of this loan and how it will serve the state’s betterment.”

  The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, Wednesday, declared that governors do not have the constitutional powers to ban mining activities. Alake made the statement during a pre-event press conference in Abuja ahead of the 8th edition of the annual Nigerian Mining Week 2023 slated for October 16-18,2023 in Abuja.   He pointed out that the governors know that mining remains exclusively for the federal government in the Constitution, hence it is not under the purview of a State Governor as far as the enactment laws, and regulations of operations of solid minerals are concerned. Therefore, the Minister cautioned State Governors to desist from taking laws into their hands to regulate the sector and said it is illegal to do so, which also they are not constitutionally empowered to regulate oil and gas activities. He said: “The state’s ban on mining activities across the court is a point that is really sore. And it’s a constitutional matter. I want to use this opportunity to get to the entire Nigerian public that no state and I repeat, no state has the authority to interfere in mining operations, no state has the authority and it is not it’s a no-brainer. It’s a constitutional matter. “Mining belongs exclusively in the purview of the federal government, according to the Constitution. It is in the exclusive legislative list. It is not in the residual. “It is not in the concurrent it’s in the exclusive legislative list. Every item on the exclusive, legislative list belongs to the federal government. “There is no doubt about that. All items on the residual list belong to the states and all items in a concurrent section belong to both, but mining like oil and solid Minerals belongs in the exclusive legislative, therefore, it is the federal government that has the authority. “Legal authorities as supported by the Constitution make laws regulations and operationalization of the Solid Minerals resources of Nigeria. “Now, because of the peculiar nature of solid minerals, because of the involvement of the local communities or the host communities, there is an engagement even in the regulatory framework of mining operations. “There is an engagement close with the host communities and the federal government through the Ministry of Solid has been engaging with host communities in fact, in the licensing operations or processes or procedures, there is a provision for the engagement with the host communities. Now these host communities also belong in the various states.” However, he pointed out clearly that, “Mind you we are not against any state that wants to engage a mining operations as long as it follows due process. “If any state wants to engage in mining, it can form its own Special Purpose Vehicle, SPV, apply for a mining licence from the office of the Minister for solid minerals go through the due process and be so licensed if it meets all the criteria. Such a state is like any company or like any individual, institution, or corporate body. “But for a State to wake up and say it is regulating mining activities is like a state waking up to ban oil exploration it is downright illegal. “However, because we don’t want to engage in confrontations and distractions leading to all kinds of infractions, we are engaging the states. The State’s Executives, I have been in touch with the chairman of the governors forum and I am going to address the National Economic Council (NEC) of which state governors are members to educate the states. I have also engaged quite a number of Governors individually, some have come to visit me here. “I have been able to tell them, this is the situation. I have also discovered that some are not actually very vast in the Constitutional imperatives and dynamics of this sector. And so there’s a need for adequate education and enlightenment. “However, there is no amount of education and enlightenment that we engage in that would be outside the purview of the law, of the Constitution and the Constitution is very clear. Mining activities, Solid Minerals, liquid minerals all minerals belong in the purview of the federal government.” Meanwhile, the Minister said in case of infringement by miners, the expected action is to officially make a report to the Mines Officers in that particular State or the Ministry of Solid Minerals. Earlier, the President, Miners Association of Nigeria, MAN, ‘Dele Ayanleke, said the Mining Week coincides with President Bola Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope’ Agenda as offers numerous opportunities for the sector. Ayanleke also said the Mining Week opens new vista of hope for Nigerian youth. “Among many other compelling factors is also the fact that Nigeria has suddenly become a beautiful bride of the world with the discovery, in abundance and fine grades, the critical minerals needed for global energy transition in addition to the global dwindling fortunes of oil as a source of energy and revenue earner. “Therefore, juxtaposing these and many other hidden factors together, this coming event offers an array of opportunities to every stakeholders’ group in the Nigeria Project. Prior among these is an opportunity for our regulatory agencies to generate ideas to formulate policies and programs for the sustainable management of our resources in a way that will restore the hope of Nigerians in the ability of Nigeria to work for her citizens, through the enriching contents of the various dialogue sessions to be powered by professionals and successful investors drawn from among both local and foreign actors. “Similarly, the various technical workshop sessions will open a new vista of hope to our teeming youth population in the ability of their fatherland to provide legitimate means of livelihood and wealth creation for them, thereby delivering them from The Japa Syndrome and the unholy spirits of cybercrime and banditry, respectively constituting brain drain and menace to our national life. “To our colleagues in the operative wing of the sector, this event will open our horizons to the latest technologies and business linkages with

  A Rivers’ woman identified as Hope Nwala is on the run after allegedly bathed her husband, Ekelediri Nwankwo Nwala with a hot groundnut oil over a minor disagreement. The incident happened at Okehi community in Etche Local government Area of Rivers State. According to reports, Mrs Hope Nwala poured the hot groundnut oil on her husband while he was asleep.   It was gathered that the couple had been having some domestic squabbles before the tragic incident. The victim, Mr. Nwankwo who is still battling for life said he told his wife’s younger sister to leave their house for dressing indecently, which his wife refused. He added that while he went to sleep his wife attacked him and bathed him with hot oil. “I had told my wife’s younger sister to leave my house because of the way she has started dressing, and the way she occupies my matrimonial bed even when I am around, no young guy will tolerate such behaviour, but my wife has refused the younger sister to leave the house. “I also saw my wife alone with one tall black guy in the shop I rented for her, not that he is in for business, he followed my wife and sister here and there, with all these, I gave that her younger sister two thousand naira transport to go home so that I can actually understand what is going on in my house, but my wife got upset, while I went to bed to sleep, she used boiled groundnut oil on me, then start hitting me with harmer,” he said. Although the State Police Command is yet to comment on the matter at press time, but we gathered, the incident has been reported to the Okehi Divisional Police Headquarters in Etche.

  Over 100 bandits have been reportedly killed by the airstrikes of the Air Component of Operation Hadarin Daji (OPHD) in the Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State. Channels Television reliably gathered that the bandits in large numbers on Tuesday were moving from a forest in Zamfara State to Kebbi State with the intention of attacking villages within the area A top military source also confirmed to Channels Television that the bandits got information about the troops’ presence along the route which forced them to withdraw back to the Dansadau axis of Maru Local Government Area of the state. The Nigerian Air Force airstrikes, however, engaged and targeted the terrorist group, neutralised on Tuesday and burnt over 100 of them with their motorcycles while several others sustained various degrees of injuries. The mass burial of the slain terrorists was reportedly conducted in the Sangeko forest in Niger State and Babban Doka in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State. When contacted, the spokesperson of the Operation Hadarin Daji, Captain Yahaya Ibrahim confirmed the airstrikes to Channels Television, adding that the number of casualties is yet to be ascertained. Reacting, the Director of Public Relations and Information (DOPRI), Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, confirmed the airstrikes in Zamfara State. He however could not confirm the number of casualties. Yes, indeed, air strikes were conducted on a number of mobile terrorists but I can’t confirm numbers to you,” he said in a text to Channels Television on Wednesday night. Zamfara is one of the state worst hit by bandits activities in the north. Others include Niger, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina.

  The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday commended the Nigerian government for removing the fuel subsidy but noted that efforts must be made to protect poor citizens from the high cost of living crisis. Specifically, the Washington-based lender said the Federal Government must complement the fuel subsidy removal with a set of policies that could help lower inflation and protect the most vulnerable citizens. Assistant Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF, Era Dabla-Norris, said this on Tuesday at the ongoing World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Marrakesh, Morocco. She spoke shortly after a press briefing on a session titled, ‘Fiscal Monitor.’ She said, “The first is to protect the most vulnerable from the (high) cost of living, and there’s a number of targeted programmes that can be ramped up and the poor, the really vulnerable populations, are protected. “A set of other policies, macroeconomic policies are needed to durably bring inflation down. In the case of Nigeria, the revenue-to-GDP ratio is quite low relative to other emerging markets and developing countries. So efforts will need to be made to increase revenue collection in an efficient manner. Our research shows that countries like Nigeria have large untapped tax potential.” The IMF official said subsidy removal was an important policy that would yield growth in the future. She however added that this must be complemented with smart policies. The IMF assistant director said the country’s budget must include policies on education, health, and other sectors aimed at protecting the poor. He stated, “I think that fuel subsidy reform was an important reform Nigeria undertook, the cost to the budget of having these broad base removal of fuel subsidies is quite significant. By reducing fuel subsidies, the government has freed up space for other types of spending. The important thing is to be able to protect the most vulnerable group from higher energy prices.” She added, “So, from that perspective, this policy creates space, a portion of the revenues. It can be unpopular, it can be a challenging policy, and I think it was the right one, it was the right decision to make at that time. Now the key is to be able to target better because most of these policies (fuel subsidies) don’t benefit low-income groups. Across the world, we’ve seen that fuel subsidies tend to benefit middle or higher-income groups. So the key thing is to prioritise this towards the most vulnerable.” The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, had on Monday said the Federal Government was planning major tax reforms that would be announced soon. He spoke about plans to collect tax revenue more efficiently, while also noting that the government had no intention to borrow more funds. However, the IMF director, Dabla-Norris said some of the policies listed by the Fund could not be achieved on a short-term basis. She said, “This is not something that can be done magically overnight, but definitely over the medium term. Expanding tax bases, reducing exemptions in value-added tax, reducing tax expenditures, rationalising other types of taxes, and strengthening the quality of your tax institutions, are all steps that can be taken to effectively mobilise revenues in a progressive manner, and then channel that for priority spending, having appropriate monetary policies in place; doing away with any kind of central bank financing of the budget and ensuring that policies are working in the same direction to bring inflation down. That is really the issue.” On the high debt burden Nigeria is battling with, the IMF official advised Nigeria to ramp up revenue collection. She said, “The most important thing would be durable revenue collections because revenue collections are very low in Nigeria relative to other peer countries. And this is widely recognised by the government. So that’s one thing. The second important component would be to rationalise expenditures, to see what are the priority spending, can spending be cut or reprioritized, this would be another very important thing to do. And finally, invigorating growth; Nigeria has tremendous growth potential. It is one of the largest economies in Africa. It has tremendous potential for growth. So the kind of structural reforms that are needed, governance, business climate reforms that are needed to catalyze private investment and to durably grow, that would be another important way of bringing debt down.” Meanwhile, the IMF has dismissed the possibility of total debt cancellation for Nigeria, Ghana, and other African economies. The IMF African Department Director, Abebe Selassie, who said 50 percent of total debts in Sub-Saharan African countries are domestic, declared it would be difficult to cancel their debts. The Debt Management Office data showed that Nigeria has a total debt stock of $113.4b as of June 30, 2023. The director, however, said that debt cancellation, If any, would have to be done on a country-by-country basis. He spoke on the theme: “In Pursuit of Stronger Growth and Resilience”, According to Selassie, there is a rise in private investment, and consumption is expected to lift growth in many parts of the region by 2024. He said growth in the region, was greatly subdued adding that inflation is gradually dropping. He also noted that the IMF has loaned about $80bn to Sub-Saharan African economies for emergency funding and Special Drawing Rights allocations since March 2020. Meanwhile, speaking at the opening press conference, World Bank Group President, Ajay Banga, said interest rates would stay higher for longer, likely complicating investments across the world. The Central Bank of Nigeria and other central banks across the world have been raising interest rates to tackle elevated inflation. According to him, reigning on inflation has caused many central banks to keep monetary policy rates higher than anticipated. World Bank’s Chief Economist, Indermit Gill, said countries like the US and India are bright spots in the slowing global economy. He said, “The big problem is that growth is slowing down to a much lower level than we had seen during the crisis. Even countries that are not in debt

  The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has recovered a combined sum of N27,184,357,524.52 and $19,084,419.33 from three different money laundering cases, as further efforts are being made by the anti-graft agency to recover more illicit funds. The anti-graft agency said it would soon make public, details of its ongoing probe of some former governors, ex-ministers, and several government officials across the federation, following the receipt of several petitions. The PUNCH reports that the anti-graft agency is also carrying out ongoing investigations into some monumental procurement fraud involving some officials of the Federal Ministry of Power and the Ministry of Agriculture. The spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, made the developments known on Wednesday while speaking on behalf of the EFCC acting Chairman, Abdukarim Chukkol, during a media interaction with select journalists in Lagos. Oyewale said the anti-graft agency had seized several houses in the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos and Cross River states which are proceeds of funds meant for the Mambilla and Zungeru Power projects that were diverted through sundry Bureau de Change operators. In three different cases, the commission has recovered N27,184,357,524.52 and $19,084,419.33. While ongoing recovery is being made, the commission’s works are progressing in line with our mandate as prevention initiatives, risk assessments and recovery efforts are being intensified. “Petitions were received in respect of several public officials, some of them former governors, some former ministers, and some ministry officials, and investigations are ongoing on those petitions; however, details of their involvements and our investigations will soon be made public. Also, investigations are ongoing in respect of monumental fraud involving some officials of the Federal Ministry of Power and Agriculture; procurement fraud actually. Funds meant for the Mambilla and Zungeru Power projects are diverted through sundry Bureau de Change operators. For now, several houses purchased with the funds are being recovered. The houses are in Abuja, Lagos and Cross River States,” Oyewale said. The PUNCH reports that the EFCC in September quizzed a former Minster of Power, Olu Agunloye, over an alleged $6bn Build, Operate and Transfer contract. Earlier in May, a former Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, was arrested and detained by the EFCC in connection with an alleged N22bn fraud.

  Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, vowed to keep fighting Hamas, saying that every member of the Palestinian militant group was “a dead man”. In his statement, Netanyahu expressed Israel’s intention to “destroy” Hamas following its surprise attack on Saturday. “Hamas is the Daesh (Islamic State group) and we will crush them and destroy them as the world has destroyed Daesh. “We will wipe Hamas off the face of the earth,” he said in a brief televised statement, the first delivered jointly with his war cabinet. Earlier, Netanyahu temporarily settled his political differences and set up an emergency government including centrist former defence minister Benny Gantz for the duration of the crisis. AFP

  Thursday 12 October 2023 Lower inflation, protect poor citizens, IMF tells Nigeria Certificate forgery: Atiku, Obi protest as BBC fact-checkers clear Tinubu Rising costs pose threat to manufacturers, says MAN We will wipe Hamas off the face of the earth, says Israel PM Nigerian oil firms acquire 26 divested licenses in 10 years CAN Condemns Israel-Hamas War, Calls For Prayers And Peace NAF Airstrikes Kill Bandits In Zamfara Rhodes-Vivour Files 21 Grounds Of Appeal, Challenges Tribunal Verdict On Sanwo-Olu Tinubu Replaces NCC’s Danbatta, Appoints New Bosses For NIPOST, Three Others Diphtheria: Kaduna Records 156 Cases, 20 Deaths Court Convicts Two Vandals For Murder Of Seven DSS Officials Court Convicts Two Vandals For Murder Of Seven DSS Officials No Soldier Is Complete Without Killing Boko Haram Terrorists – CDS Education Key To Overcoming Challenges – Tinubu’s Wife Shettima, Ganduje, 14 Govs Present As APC Flags Off Imo Campaign Zamfara Offers Support For 66 Students Evacuated From Sudan 100 of us raided, kidnapped FGC Yauri students — Bandit Woman begs for mercy after beating 5-yr-old step-daughter to death ‘No Desks, No Teachers’, FCT School Principal Raises Alarm Abdulkadir Danbuga, house of reps member, is dead FX, arbitrary rules leave telecoms to big four, cripple 568 firms No Borno community under control of terrorists, says Zulum HURIWA condemns approval of Mbah’s N170 billion loan request Niger military rulers order United Nations official out within 72 hours Weah in early lead as Liberians await polls results Lagos govt to increase Blue Line trips to 54 from Monday UN abandons us under Biya’s genocidal war, says Ambazonian leader Int’l girl-child day: We are aware of challenges girls face-Minister Visit a newspaper stand this morning, buy and read a copy for yourself…