Nigeria’s growth forecast has been reduced from 3.3 percent to 2.9 percent in 2023 and 3.1 in 2024 respectively, with negative effects of high inflation on consumption taking hold. The cut is contained in the World Economic Outlook released at the Annual Meeting of the IMF/World in Marrakesh, Morocco earlier today. The growth forecast for 2023 is revised downward by 0.3 percentage points, reflecting weaker oil and gas production than expected, partially due to maintenance work. The World Bank had cut Nigeria’s 2022 growth forecast to 3.1% from a previous forecast of 3.8% in 2022. In its last Nigeria Development Update (NDU), launched in Abuja, the bank said that the nation had to make hard choices or face a worse economic downturn in the months and years ahead. Since the Swearing of President Bola Tinubu on May 29, he has removed fuel subsidy and floated the exchange rate in line with the age-long recommendation of the IMF and World Bank. A development that has seen the rate tumble to over N1000 to the dollar, and the energy prices increase by four folds from N144 to N620, impacting an already worsening inflation scenario The baseline forecast is for global growth to slow from 3.5 percent in 2022 to 3.0 percent in 2023 and 2.9 percent in 2024, well below the historical (2000–19) average of 3.8 percent. Advanced economies are expected to slow from 2.6 percent in 2022 to 1.5 percent in 2023 and 1.4 percent in 2024 as policy tightening starts to bite. Emerging market and developing economies are projected to have a modest decline in growth from 4.1 percent in 2022 to 4.0 percent in both 2023 and 2024. Global inflation is forecast to decline steadily, from 8.7 percent in 2022 to 6.9 percent in 2023 and 5.8 percent in 2024, due to tighter monetary policy aided by lower international commodity prices.

  Sixty-seven bandits have been killed in a joint operation of the police, army, local hunters and vigilantes in the Lere District of Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State.   Also rescued by security operatives were 29 kidnap victims, Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, said on Monday. The governor who disclosed this during a visit to the security operatives working in the area, commended the gallantry of the combined security team, and assured them of continued moral and financial support in the efforts to secure Bauchi State and its citizens, as he announced a donation of N10million with 30 motorcycles to the hunters and vigilantes, who participated in the rescue operations of the kidnapped victims. He warned traditional rulers, against giving rights of way and accommodation to the bandits in their domains, saying, that the erring traditional rulers, who compromise their duties for inducements, are not only unpatriotic but are even more dangerous than the bandits. The governor also said the Internal Security Ministry unveiled by his administration is working out modalities of engaging a number of youths that will be trained by conventional security operatives as part of efforts to fulfil his oath of office of securing the lives and properties of the people of the state. Also speaking, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Auwal Mohammed, expressed delight over the cooperation from other security agencies in fighting crimes and criminality in the state, reassuring the state government and other stakeholders of the continued maintenance of a peaceful environment.

  Gunmen have abducted four students from Nasarawa State University, Keffi. It was gathered that the students were whisked away on Tuesday when their lodge at Angwan Kare, a settlement of the Keffi Local Government Area was invaded by armed men. The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ramhan Nansel confirmed the abduction to Channels Television in a telephone conversation on Tuesday. He said the State Police Command received a distress call in the early hours of Tuesday that a house at Angwan Kare was attacked by gunmen. “The command is aware of kidnapping at about 12:55 am as a distress was received that a house located at Angwan Kaare, Keffi was invaded by unidentified armed men,” Nansel said. Efforts to trail the perpetrators after combing the area were unsuccessful but a manhunt has been launched to rescue the students, the police spokesman noted. “The police in collaboration with the military, responded accordingly and combed the area, but to no avail. “The Commissioner of Police has ordered a manhunt for the culprits with a view to rescue the victims unhurt,” Nansel said. The victims are all first-year students of the school identified as Rahila Hanya from Science Laboratory Technology; Josephine Gersho, Computer Science; Rosemary Samuel from Business Administration and Goodness Samuel from Geography departments respectively.

  Around 1,500 bodies of Hamas militants have been found in Israel around the Gaza Strip, the army said Tuesday, as it pummelled the Palestinian enclave with air strikes. “Approximately 1,500 bodies of Hamas (fighters) were found in Israel around the Gaza Strip,” military spokesman Richard Hecht told reporters, adding that security forces had “more or less restored control over the border” with Gaza. “Since last night we know that no one came in… but infiltrations can still happen.” The army had “nearly completed” evacuation of all the communities around the border, he added. Hecht said the military had deployed 35 battalions to the border area. “We are building infrastructure for future operations,” he said. Israel is reeling under a deadly attack by Hamas militants who stormed the border fence under a barrage of rocket fire on Saturday morning and killed more than 900 people inside Israel. In response, Israel is carrying out a massive air and artillery bombardment of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip that has so far killed at least 687 people in the coastal enclave. Before dawn on Tuesday, the Israeli military struck what it said were Hamas targets in Gaza, especially in the Rimal neighbourhood and in the southern city of Khan Yunis. AFP

  Israel kept up its deadly bombardment of Hamas-controlled Gaza Tuesday after the Palestinian militant group threatened to execute some of the around 150 hostages it abducted in a weekend assault if air strikes continue without warning. Israel already imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip on Monday, cutting off food, water and electricity supplies, and sparking fears that an already dire humanitarian situation will swiftly deteriorate. Israel has been left reeling by Hamas’s unprecedented ground, air and sea assault, likening it to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The death toll rose to more than 900 in Israel, which has retaliated with a withering barrage of strikes on Gaza, raising the death toll there to 687. The Israeli army said Tuesday it had “more or less restored control” over the Gaza border after Saturday’s mass breach by Palestinian gunmen. It said it had recovered the bodies of around 1,500 Hamas militants inside Israel, confirming the scale of Saturday’s assault. It said it had “nearly completed” the evacuation of Israeli communities around the border. Fireballs repeatedly lit up Gaza City before dawn on Tuesday as explosions sounded and sirens wailed. ADVERTISEMENT Hamas said Monday that Israeli air strikes had killed four of its hostages. It later said it could start killing them itself. “Every targeting of our people without warning will be met with the execution of one of the civilian hostages,” Hamas armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement. In a televised speech late Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared Hamas to the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, and said Israel planned to deploy “unprecedented force”. Hamas terrorists bound, burned and executed children. They are savages. Hamas is ISIS,” Netanyahu said. He also vowed to “strengthen other fronts in the north against Hezbollah”, where militants and Israeli forces exchanged fire for a second day. Hamas launched more rockets as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where missile defence systems fired and air raid sirens blared. Israel said it had called up 300,000 army reservists for its “Swords of Iron” campaign.. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would impose a “complete siege” on the long-blockaded enclave of 2.3 million people: “No electricity, no food, no water, no gas — it’s all closed.” United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply distressed” by the siege announcement, and warned Gaza’s already dire humanitarian situation will now “only deteriorate exponentially”. Palestinians in the coastal territory braced for what many feared would be a massive Israeli ground attack aiming to defeat Hamas and liberate the hostages. Lebanon Border Clash Middle East tensions have spiked as Israel’s arch-enemy Iran praised the Hamas attack, although Tehran denied any direct role in the military operation. Hamas has called on “resistance fighters” in the West Bank and in Arab and Islamic nations to join what it has dubbed “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”. “The military operation is still continuing,” Hossam Badran, a Hamas official, told AFP from Doha, adding that “there is currently no chance for negotiation on the issue of prisoners or anything else”. Israel, which has long prided itself on a high-tech military and intelligence edge, has been shaken to the core by the surprise Hamas strike, and now faces the threat of a multi-front war. On Monday, the Israeli army said its soldiers had “killed a number of armed suspects” who had crossed the border from Lebanon and that Israeli helicopters were striking targets in the area. The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad later claimed responsibility for the thwarted infiltration from Lebanon to Israel. Iran-backed Hezbollah said Israeli strikes on south Lebanon killed three of its members, prompting the movement to retaliate against two Israeli barracks “using guided missiles and mortar shells that hit them directly”. It was the second day of an exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, which on Sunday said its strikes were “in solidarity” with the Hamas attacks. “We are deeply concerned about Hezbollah making the wrong decision and choosing to open a second front to this conflict,” a senior US defence official said. Washington, which moved its biggest aircraft carrier and other warships closer to Israel in a show of support, has said it has no plans to put US boots on the ground but is working with its ally on hostage recovery efforts. Unbearable’ Hamas’s attack penetrated the Gaza border fence — long deemed impregnable and guarded by surveillance cameras, drones, patrols and watchtowers. More than 270 bodies, mostly young people, were strewn across the site of a music festival in a Negev desert kibbutz, while other revellers were feared to be among the captives taken into Gaza. Israeli soldier Ephraim Mordechayev told AFP he witnessed Hamas attackers firing RPG missiles into the crowd. “Imagine yourself using a rocket that is meant to fire on houses or tanks, fired on a group of 20 civilians,” he said. Inside Gaza, air strikes wrought widespread destruction in the Jabalia refugee camp, where charred bodies were pulled from the rubble and relatives wailed in grief. Three Palestinian journalists have been killed in the fighting, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday, with two photographers also reported missing since Saturday. Israel has blockaded Gaza since Hamas took control in 2007, leading to four previous wars with Israel. Israeli strikes have levelled residential tower blocks, a large mosque and the territory’s main bank building. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said it was sheltering more than 137,000 people in schools across Gaza. “The situation is unbearable,” Amal al-Sarsawi, 37, said from a classroom with her terrified pupils. In the West Bank, protesting Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces, leaving 15 Palestinians dead since Saturday. Global Shock Waves The spiralling conflict has been felt globally, with oil prices surging on fears of tightening supplies. US energy firm Chevron said it suspended operations at a natural gas platform off Israel’s coast at the request of authorities. Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown

  The National Examination Council on Tuesday released the 2023 Senior School Certificate Examination internal results. According to the Registrar of the examination body, Prof. Dantani Wushishi, the result summary shows that 61.60% scored five credits, including English and Mathematics. 12,030, representing 0.07 per cent, against 13,594, representing 0.13 per cent in 2022. The number of candidates who registered for the exam was 1,205,888, and the number of candidates who sat for the exams was 1,196,985. 616,398 males and 580,587 females sat for the Examination. Number of candidates with 5 credits and above, including English and Maths 737, 308. The number of candidates with five credits, irrespective of English and Mathematics, is 1,013,611, representing 84.68 per cent. Details later…

  The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said they arrested two suspected internet fraudsters at the residence of musician, John Njeng Njeng popularly known as Skales. The commission made this known in a statement shared on their X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday.     EFCC arrests two suspected internet fraudsters at Skales’ residence The statement said, “Operatives of the Lagos Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, October 10, 2023, arrested two suspected internet fraudsters at House F10, Victoria Crest 4, Lekki, Lagos. The suspects: Udemba Chukwuemeka (a.k.a Jody) and Jamal Jamiu Onasola (a.k.a. Jamal) were arrested at the residence of a musician: John Njeng Njeng (a.k.a Skales). The two suspects, suspected of being involved in a dating scam, described Njeng as their ‘mentor’. While Chukwuemeka has been in Njeng’s residence for two years, Onasola has only stayed there for a few months. “They will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.” Singer John Njeng-Ngeng, popularly known as Skales, on Tuesday cried out over an alleged invasion of his home by EFCC officials. In an exclusive phone call with PUNCH Online, the EFCC spokesman, Dele Oyewale, stated that such claims were unfounded, adding that officials of the anti-graft agency do not operate in such a manner.

  The police on Tuesday arraigned a 43-year-old teacher, David Yusuf, in a Wuse Zone II Magistrates’ Court in Abuja for allegedly flogging a student of the Government Girls College, Kuje, FCT. The defendant, who is said to be a casual staff of the college is charged with two counts of causing grievous harm without provocation and assault. He pleaded not guilty. The police prosecutor, Mr Edwin Inegbenoise, told the court that the case was transferred from the Kuje Divisional Police Headquarters to the Criminal Investigation Department, FCT, for further investigation. Inegbenoise alleged that the nominal complainant, Henry Iortim, of Union Homes Estate, Kuje, reported the case at the police station. The prosecutor said the complainant alleged that his 16-year-old daughter who is a student of the college was assaulted by the defendant on June 2. He added that the defendant during night prep flogged the victim with an iron rod and inflicted injuries on her palm and other parts of her body. He further said that the offences charged with contravened the provision of sections 241 and 326 of the Penal Code. Magistrate Abdulmajid Oniyangi admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N2 million with two sureties in likes sum that must be residing within the jurisdiction of the court. He ordered that the addresses of the sureties should be verified by the court’s registrar before the defendant would be released. He adjourned the case until November 6 for a hearing and presentation of witnesses by the prosecuting counsel. (NAN)