Thursday 14 March 2024 N35,000 wage award: 30 states default, Labour fumes, pensioners threaten protest FG restores electricity to Niger, lifts sanctions, reopens border 17-year-old accused of N100,000 theft kills self Japa: Doctors fault FG ban on leave of absence FG plans fresh borrowing via Eurobond in June No Dime Will Be Paid As Ransom To Rescue Abducted Children – Tinubu Africa’s Share Of Global Trade Stagnant At 3% Amid Opportunities – Okonjo-Iweala 51 Southern Senators Elect Abiru As Forum Chairman Reps To Summon Dangote, BUA, Others Over Rising Cement Prices Anambra Govt’s Appeal Opposing Obiano’s Trial Irrelevant — EFCC CBN Allocates N100bn, Two Million Bags Of Fertilisers To Ministry Of Agriculture Nigeria’s Crude Oil Production For February Drops By 7.3% – OPEC Bauchi Gov Backs Senator Ningi, Says His Integrity Is Praiseworthy Humanitarian Crisis Grips North-West As 854 Children Die In MSF Facilities N15bn Fraud: Ajetunmobi Writes AGF For Out-Of-Court Settlement Soaring prices of food items killing us —Ekiti, Ondo, Osun market leaders CBN resumes agric funding with N100bn Israel Uses Starvation As ‘War Arm’ – EU Taraba Auto Crash Kill 10 As 15 Passengers Kidnapped Bandits Kill Villager, Kidnap 7 Women In Kaduna Insecurity: Zamfara Gov Bans Unlabelled Bread, Others U.S., others offer to assist in combating kidnapping FEC approves N759b for Obajana – Benin, Isheri-Ogun roads Aig-Imoukhuede appointed Access Holdings Chairman Visit a newspaper stand this morning, buy and read a copy for yourself…

  Access Holdings Plc has announced the return of Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede as its Non-Executive Chairman. He replaces Mr. Abubakar Jimoh who remains on the board as an Independent Non-Executive Director. Dinosaurs Spine at Hang Dong, Ta Xua, Son La seen from above Sunday Ekwochi, Company Secretary of Access Holdings, disclosed this in a notice to the Nigerian Exchange yesterday. “The return is in response to the untimely passing of the immediate past Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings, Dr. Herbert Wigwe, and following extensive consultations with key stakeholders, the Holdco Board unanimously decided to invite Mr. Aig-Imoukhuede to the helm of governance.” “With an illustrious career spanning several decades in the banking and finance sector, Mr. Aig-Imoukhuede has proven to be an exceptional and influential leader, having admirably laid a solid foundation for Access Bank’s success as Group Chief Executive Officer between 2002 and 2013 ably supported by his partner and deputy, the late Dr. Herbert Wigwe, CFR who later succeeded him. “Under his stewardship, Access Bank grew its customer base from ten thousand to over six million with more than 5,000 employees and an asset base of USD $12 billion, achieving numerous milestones and becoming a globally recognized name. “Following his retirement as the Bank’s CEO in December 2013, Mr. Aig-Imoukhuede cofounded the Tengen Family Office Limited which oversees a significant portfolio of investments and businesses in banking, finance, insurance, technology, real estate, and energy,”the notice read. Speaking about his return, Mr. Abubakar Jimoh past Chairman, said: “Mr. Aig-Imoukhuede’s appointment to the Board and subsequent election as Chairman is a landmark development for Access Holdings. All our board members are excited about our future’’.   Responding, Aig-Imoukhuede said: “I am thrilled to be back in active service to the Access Group ecosystem. I am confident that working with our directors, our exceptional team of executives and our best-in-class banking and finance professionals, we will deliver outstanding value to our esteemed stakeholders. I am determined that our shared vision which Dr. Wigwe gave everything for, will be realized.”

  Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, has said they recorded 9000 infractions on oil pipelines in one year. Kyari said this when the House of Representatives Special Committee on Oil Theft went on an oversight function at the headquarters of NNPCL headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday. According to him, from 2022 to date, they had deactivated 6,465 illegal refineries. He said they have also removed 4,876 illegal connections to pipelines out of 5,570 that were discovered. “Some of the scale of the infraction that we see is unbelievable. We are not able to deal with it. When you remove one connection, the next day in the same location, someone will replace it. “It is obvious that crude oil theft is almost an end-to-end issue in Nigeria; it is very obvious that everyone is involved. “In most of these locations, they are less than a hundred meters from the settlement. Some are even less than a hundred meters from the local government headquarters,” he said. He said the key issue has been security and that the NNPCL moved to curtail the menace of pipeline vandals by incorporating all security agencies into a single platform, including private security. According to him, no country surrenders the protection of such critical assets, which are the source of income, to non-state actors. He said: “It is very obvious that despite all the integrity issues with our pipeline and our facilities, we have capacity beyond two million barrels per day without doing anything. “But today, we are struggling to meet the budget estimate of 1.6 million barrels per day. This by no means is related to crude oil theft. The core issue that is affecting the other core issue is crude theft. “No one will produce oil, knowing fully well that he cannot dispose of it, and that’s why no one is putting money into it. “In 2022, it became so obvious that if something dramatic is not done, we are going to run into trouble. On a specific date, our production came down to as low as 1.1 million barrels per day,” he said. The Chairman of the Special Committee, Hon Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, said it was established and common knowledge that operating oil and gas pipelines in Nigeria constituted a herculean challenge. He said it was saddening that these infractions do not stop with the pipelines He said the daily breaches are also recorded at the oil well heads, flow stations, loading, and export terminals, among others. He said the opacity and non-transparency of regulatory activities at the crude oil export terminals were alarming. He said: “We are compiling the facts and figures. Instances, where approvals are hastily granted to vessels involved in crude theft just to cover official complicity, are reported. “Incidences of undeclared liftings are noted, and all these and several other infractions, particularly in our offshore marine environment, contribute to the huge volume of crude oil theft being reported.”

  President Bola Tinubu has said that no ransom will be paid for the rescue of the children abducted from Kuriga in Kaduna State. The President stated this today at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting which held at the Presidential Villa Abuja. Briefing State House Correspondents after the FEC meeting, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammad Idris said President Tinubu also reiterated his directive to the defence to ensure that the children are rescued and brought back safely to their homes. He also said the President made his stance against payment of ransom to kidnappers and that the current administration is determined to tackle kidnapping and other criminal activities in the country. According to him, under the current government, kidnapping, especially mass abduction will not be tolerated

  Tragedy struck in the Gbagada area of Lagos, after a yet-to-be-identified woman was stabbed to death by her househelp , in her apartment on 29, Kiniun-ifa street sawmill. No one could tell when exactly the fleeing househelp identified simply as Peter, allegedly committed the murder. But the lifeless body of the woman, according to information gathered by Vanguard, was discovered on Saturday, March 9, 2024, by her son who came visiting.   When Vanguard arrived at the building yesterday, it was under lock and key. The deceased was said to be the only occupant in the building. There were three shops in front of the building. A resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “The woman’s son, upon arriving at the compound, went straight to his mother’s apartment, only to find her lifeless body on the staircase, with blood all over”. “A long piece of wood suspected to be the murder weapon was also found. By then, the body has started swelling, suggesting that the woman might have been killed days before”. Vanguard also gathered that the fleeing househelp resumed work a week before tragedy occurred. Information at Vanguard’s disposal had it that a relative of the agent that brought the fleeing househelp had been arrested, as the unidentified agent was nowhere to be found. Efforts to speak with the deceased son failed as he was too devastated to speak. Policemen at the Ifako Police division were said to have visited the scene and evacuated the corpse. When Vangurd visited the division, the Divisional Police Officer, DPO Owolabi Sefunmi, referred this reporter to the Lagos State Police Command, to see its spokesman. However, when the Lagos state public relations officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin was contacted, he stated that the househelp had been arrested and transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCIID, Panti.

  The Kano State Hisbah Board has arrested 11 persons for violating the Ramadan fast by eating during the day. The arrests were made during the annual Ramadan enforcement operations, which included searches of eateries and markets. The board’s Public Relations Officer, Lawal Ibrahim, confirmed the arrests in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service on Wednesday.   Lawal said the arrests were made on Tuesday across the city, particularly near markets. He said, “The individuals arrested include 10 men and one woman, who was caught eating from her groundnut-selling stall.” He added that non-Muslims are exempted from such enforcement activities, but if found selling food during fasting hours to Muslims, they could be considered in violation. “We apprehended 11 persons on Tuesday, including a lady selling groundnuts who was seen eating from her wares, after some persons alerted us. The other 10 persons were men and were arrested across the city, especially close to markets where a lot of activities happen. “We don’t arrest non-Muslims because this doesn’t concern them, and the only time they could be guilty of a crime is when we find out they cook food to sell to Muslims who are supposed to be fasting,” he said.