Crime Facts

10 killed, seven injured as building collapses in Ibadan

  10 persons were killed while seven others were injured in a building collapse in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Thursday morning. A statement from the Oyo State Fire Services Agency disclosed that the incident happened at 2 am at Jegeda Oluloyo area in Ibadan in Ona Ara Local Government Area of the state. The statement added that while 10 persons were recovered from the debris, seven persons were rescued alive, adding that rescue efforts are reported to be ongoing as of the time of filing this report. The statement read, “The Oyo State Fire Services Agency received a distressed call at around 2 am this morning at Jegede Olunloyo area, Ibadan, of which 10 persons have been recovered from the debris of the collapsed building, while seven persons were rescued alive. Rescue operation is still going on.” When PUNCH Online contacted the General Manager of the state Fire Services, Yemi Akinyinka, he said, “We received a distress call from the people in the neighbourhood at 2 am. “When we got there, ten people died outrightly. Three people had been recovered before we got to the place, and our men recovered four. They are still working.”

BREAKING: Police arrest IMSU student for faking her kidnap, death

  The Orji Police Divisional Headquarters have arrested a 17 year-old student of the Imo State University (IMSU), Owerri, Jesse Chidebere for faking her own abduction and death. This hoax caused significant distress to her family and the university community. On October 26, 2024, at approximately 10:00 PM, police received a distress call from concerned citizens reporting Chidebere missing. A message sent from her WhatsApp account claimed she had been abducted and killed, urging her family to go to the Orji Police Station for confirmation. In response, police operatives launched a search and discovered the following morning, October 27, 2024, that Chidebere was alive and had fabricated the story as a prank on social media. An investigation is ongoing to ascertain her motives for such mischief and would certainly face prosecution. Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Imo State Command, CP Aboki Danjuma has expressed concern over such irresponsible behavior, which wastes valuable resources and causes public panic. He urges parents to caution their children against engaging in dangerous pranks and spreading misinformation. The Command remains committed to combating misinformation and ensuring a safe environment for all and sundry in the State.

Women Affairs Minister, Kennedy-Ohanenye breaks silence after Tinubu fired her

Former Minister of Women Affairs, Barr. Uju Kennedy Ohanenye, has expressed her gratitude to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, First Lady Remi Tinubu, and Nigerians for the opportunity to serve the country following her removal from the cabinet. Kennedy-Ohanenye was among several ministers relieved of their duties on Wednesday, including Prof. Tahir Mamman (Education), Mohammed Gwarzo (State for Housing), Jamila Ibrahim (Youth Development), Lola Ade-John (Tourism), and suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Betta Edu, who was replaced. In a statement released on Thursday, Kennedy-Ohanenye said: “I write to express my sincere gratitude to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the opportunity to serve as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It has been an honor and a privilege to contribute to the development of our nation. “I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Senator Oluremi Tinubu, the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, for her invaluable guidance and support during my tenure as Minister of Women Affairs. Her kindness and encouragement were instrumental to my success. “To the people of Nigeria, I am deeply grateful for your unwavering support. Your trust and confidence in me have been a constant source of inspiration. “I remain committed to serving my country and will continue to do my utmost to contribute to its progress and prosperity.”

DAILIES TOP STORIES: Private sector, opposition split as Tinubu reshuffles cabinet

Thursday 24 October 2024 12 states delay N30,000 minimum wage for teachers – Report FEC approves $618m loan for fighter jets, ammunition Canadian lady jailed 11 years for importing 35.20kg cannabis Labour applauds Kebbi, A’Ibom for N75,000, N80,000 minimum wage NELFUND disburses over N10bn student loan Binance prosecution continues as court frees executive on health grounds Tinubu Sacks Five Ministers, Redeploys 10, Makes Seven Fresh Nominations Benue Gov Suspends Attorney General For Challenging EFCC’s Legality Putin Faces Calls For Peace At BRICS Summit Reps To Investigate Frequent National Grid Collapse Senate Calls For National Summit Over Out-Of-School Children Court To Hear Alleged Misappropriation Case Against Ganduje Nov 20 Police Dismantle Nigerian Prostitution Ring In Cyprus FCCPC Blames Grain Hoarders For Rising Food Inflation, Seeks Stakeholders’ Support SERAP Threatens Lawsuit Against Wike Over Ultimatum To FCT Beggars Saudi Arabia Executes Seven People In One Day NNPC to soon clear $6bn petrol supply debt, says Wale Edun Obasanjo, Danjuma decry dwindling quality of leadership in Nigeria Diaspora Nigerians to get BVN – Cardoso Mixed reactions as FG scraps Niger Delta Ministry Libya vs Nigeria: CAF President condemns Super Eagles inhuman treatment Nigeria’s external reserve hits $40.2bn FG Threatens To Revoke Another Julius Berger Contract Naira Showing Signs Of Stability – IMF UNIZIK governing council appoints new registrar Visit a newspaper stand this morning, buy and read a copy for yourself…

Court reminds Imo journalist-activist in prison, adjourns to November 12

An Owerri magistrate court in Imo state has remanded Chinonso Ubah, a journalist-activist in prison following his arrest by the police. According to TheCable, the police arraigned the journalist before the magistrate court on Wednesday. Operatives of the Imo police command arrested Ubah on October 21 over alleged misinformation, cyberstalking, defamation, incitement, following petition by a concerned citizen. Mr Uba was also accused of cyberstalking and inciting the public to burn the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) study centre in Mbano. His case has been adjourned to November 12 at magistrate court 5 in Owerri, the state capital.

NBS: 58% of Nigerian households are connected to national grid

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says 58 percent of households in Nigeria are connected to the national grid. In its ‘Nigeria Residential Energy Demand Side Survey (NREDSS) 2024,’ on Wednesday, unveiled in Abuja, NBS said nine states; Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Ekiti, Oyo, Enugu, Kwara, Plateau, Kano, and Sokoto, were selected across the six geo-political zones of the country for the survey. According to the bureau, households from each state were interviewed, making a total of 8,100 households across urban and rural areas. The average monthly expenditure of households on electricity, according to NBS, was estimated at N4,155.8 during the survey period. In 2024, the national grid has collapsed eight times, with the first recorded on February 4. The national grid collapsed again on March 28, April 15, July 6, and August 5. Nigerians experienced another system failure at the grid on October 14, October 15, and October 19. 67.8 PERCENT OF HOUSEHOLDS USE FUELWOOD’ The bureau said 67.8 percent of Nigerian households use fuelwood as a source of energy for domestic, agricultural, commercial, cultural, or religious purposes. NBS added that about 41 percent of the households purchase the fuelwood, while 39 percent collect it themselves. “While 18.9 per cent of households used other means such as barter, gift, and borrowing,” the bureau said. “More than half of the fuelwood are cut or collected by households, 55.3 percent were branches, stems, and trees.” Furthermore, NBS said one in every five households, an average of 22 percent, used charcoal, with 21.6 percent purchasing the product. The bureau added that 19.4 percent, about one in five households, use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas.

FULL LIST: Wike, Matawalle, Oyetola, 28 Others Who Survived Cabinet Shake-Up

President Bola Tinubu wielded his big stick on Wednesday, and like a surgeon in a theatre, he used his surgical knife, yanked off five ministers, redeployed 10 and appointed seven fresh nominees as ministers to replace the sacked ones as well as two others — Betta Edu who was initially suspended, and Simon Lalong who left his cabinet to join the Senate. Tinubu, ex-Lagos governor, appointed 48 ministers in August 2023, three months after his inauguration. The Senate immediately screened and confirmed the ministers. One of the ministers, Betta Edu, was suspended in January while ex-Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, resigned and moved to the upper legislative chamber. There have been growing calls for the President to reshuffle his cabinet as many Nigerians are not impressed by the performance of some of the ministers, especially in the face of unprecedented inflation, excruciating economic situation and rising insecurity. Despite the shake-up on Wednesday, 31 ministers were not affected; they were not sacked or redeployed. They are: 1 MINISTER OF POWER – ADEBAYO ADELABU2 MINISTER OF DEFENCE – MOHAMMED BADARU3 MINISTER OF STATE, DEFENCE – BELLO MATAWALLE4 MINISTER OF HOUSING & URBAN DEVELOPMENT – AHMED M. DANGIWA5 MINISTER OF BUDGET & ECONOMIC PLANNING – ATIKU BAGUDU6 MINISTER OF WATER RESOURCES & SANITATION – JOSEPH UTSEV7 MINISTER OF POLICE AFFAIRS – IBRAHIM GEIDAM8 MINISTER OF STEEL DEVELOPMENT – SHUAIBU A. AUDU9 MINISTER OF STATE, ENVIRONMENT – IZIAQ ADEKUNLE SALAKO10 MINISTER OF FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY (FCT) – NYESOM WIKE11 MINISTER OF TRANSPORTATION – SA’IDU ALKALI12 MINISTER OF STATE (GAS) PETROLEUM RESOURCES – EKPERIPE EKPO13 MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT – BALARABE ABBAS LAWAL14 MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY – ABUBAKAR KYARI15 MINISTER OF STATE, AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY – ALIYU SABI ABDULLAHI16 MINISTER OF INTERIOR – OLUBUNMI TUNJI-OJO17 MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS – YUSUF M. TUGGAR18 COORDINATING MINISTER OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL WELFARE – ALI PATE19 MINISTER OF AVIATION AND AEROSPACE DEVELOPMENT – FESTUS KEYAMO20 MINISTER OF WORKS – DAVID UMAHI21 MINISTER OF STATE (OIL) PETROLEUM RESOURCES – HEINEKEN LOKPOBIRI22 MINISTER OF INNOVATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY – UCHE NNAJI23 MINISTER OF SOLID MINERALS DEVELOPMENT – DELE ALAKE24 MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND NATIONAL ORIENTATION – MUHAMMED IDRIS25 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE FEDERATION AND MINISTER OF JUSTICE – LATEEF FAGBEMI26 MINISTER OF NIGER DELTA AFFAIRS – ABUBAKAR MOMOH27 MINISTER OF STATE, LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT– NKIRUKA ONYEJEOCHA28 MINISTER OF SPECIAL DUTIES AND INTER-GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS – ZEPHANIAH JISALO29 MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, INNOVATION AND DIGITAL ECONOMY – BOSUN TIJANI30 MINISTER OF FINANCE AND COORDINATING MINISTER OF THE ECONOMY – WALE EDUN31 MINISTER OF MARINE AND BLUE ECONOMY – ADEGBOYEGA OYETOLA

12 states delay N30,000 minimum wage for teachers – Report

Twelve states of the federation are yet to implement the 2019 minimum wage of N30,000 for teachers. Data from the National Union of Teachers showed that though some states implemented the 2019 minimum wage, it was not fully implemented for teachers at primary school levels. The affected states where the wage was not yet implemented for teachers generally are Abia, Adamawa, Benue, Cross River, Gombe, Imo, Kogi, Niger, Sokoto, Taraba, Bauchi and Zamfara. The data, however, showed that in the states of Anambra, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Enugu, Jigawa, Kaduna, Nasarawa and Yobe, the minimum wage was not implemented for teachers in primary schools. In May 2024, the Nigeria Labour Congress in Zamfara State accused the state government of paying teachers the sum of N8,000 monthly. The Abia State government was also accused of failure to implement the minimum wage, not just for teachers but also for other workers in the state. Commenting on the development, the NUT President, Titus Amba, said, “It would be recalled that the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari used the 2020 World Teachers’ Day to acknowledge the low status of teachers and announce the approval of some welfare packages for teachers to revitalise and reposition the education sector for greater service delivery in the country. ”These incentives included: payment of Special Salary Scale for teachers in Basic and Secondary Schools; reintroduction of bursary award to education students in universities and colleges of education; special teachers pension scheme to enable the teaching profession retain its experienced talents as well as to extend teachers’ retirement age and the development of a career path policy for teaching profession in Nigeria.” Other incentives are “Building of low-cost houses for teachers in rural areas; provision of loan facilities for agriculture, housing, cars, motorcycles, and others to support teachers earnings; free tuition and automatic admission for biological children of teachers, among others. “It is worrisome, however, to observe that four years after, most of the approvals have remained unimplemented. “We at this moment call on both the federal and state governments to ensure full implementation of the approved incentives to boost the morale of teachers in the discharge of their professional duties.”

FEC approves $618m loan for fighter jets, ammunition

The Federal Executive Council has approved a loan of about $618m from a group of financiers for the procurement of six fighter aircraft and ammunition for the Nigerian Air Force. This was disclosed by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, in Abuja, on Wednesday, following the conclusion of the FEC meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu, reports Voice of Nigeria. Also on Wednesday, the FEC approved N740bn for the Berger stretch of the Abuja-Kano route, among other high-profile road projects. Idris, who stood in for the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, said, “From the Honorable Minister of Finance, who is away on official duty in the United States, I’m going to let you know what those FEC approvals are. “The first one is that there have been approvals for some contracts, about seven of them for the Nigerian Customs Service. “The next one is that there’s an approval for an agreement for the elimination of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and prevention of tax evasion and avoidance between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. “The third one is an approval to obtain a credit facility of 443,330,781.49 euros and another $141m from a group of financiers for the procurement of six units of M346 fighter aircraft and ammunition for the Nigerian Air Force. “And the last one from the Federal Ministry of Finance is the approval for signing of an agreement for the elimination of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and the prevention of tax evasion and avoidance between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Botswana.” Earlier in October, the Air Force said it was acquiring 24 M-346 combat jets and 10 AW109 Trekker helicopters as part of a fleet renewal strategy. The first three M-346 jets are expected to be delivered by early 2025, with subsequent deliveries running until mid-2026. At the press briefing, it was also revealed that the FEC had approved the establishment of the Creative Economy Fund to ensure the deepening of the sector. Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, told State House correspondents that the council approved the establishment of the fund. “FEC gave approval for the creation of a Creative Economy Development Fund. “This is a special purpose vehicle that will allow members within the creative economy to have access to funding and use their IP as collateral in terms of monetisation. “We identified very early on that the very basic structures in order for us to really tap into the potential of the creative economy were missing. “So, we got to work in putting up those structures. IP policy is one of those very basic structures that was missing. We are working together with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and with the Ministry of Justice to ensure that we deliver IP policy, hopefully within the maximum, at the very last phase, within the next two weeks. “This is a special purpose vehicle that will give them funding that will be able to allow us to leverage funding that we’re getting. We already have a commitment, for example, from Afreximbank that has committed to giving us $200m and a number of other sources. “So, this is a special purpose vehicle that will allow us to give this funding to members within the community. And hopefully, we’ll be able to tap into the potential and reach our targets of economic expansion, creative expansion, cultural expansion and of course job creation, specifically for a younger demographic,” the minister added. N740bn for Abuja – Kano road The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, clarified the government’s approach to managing the extensive backlog of infrastructure projects. He announced that the Shagamu-Benin road was undergoing major rehabilitation, while procurement processes were being finalised for its full reconstruction using reinforced concrete pavement. Also, the Abuja-Kano road, previously slated for a tax credit arrangement, will now be procured without such a provision, with the 162-kilometre Berger section already approved for N740bn. Umahi highlighted several other projects, including the commencement of construction on the Sokoto-Badagry road, with the Sokoto section to be flagged off imminently. Furthermore, he said works would resume on the Oyo-Ogbomoso road, a project which has been at a standstill for 18 years. He also said the Makurdi-Katsina-Ala road would undergo significant repairs. Umahi said FEC also addressed the inherited debt profile of N1.6tn tied to 2,604 projects, with a total contract value of N13tn. He said the Ministry of Works had initiated a phased approach to project completion based on available funding, to manage the backlog. Biu-Kangiwa-Kamba-Kaya Niger Republic road in Kebbi State, the Yola-Hong-Mubi road in Adamawa State and the Kachako-Dambazua road in Kano State. The council further approved advanced payment mechanisms to address inflation and rising costs driven by fluctuating exchange rates and petroleum prices. Umahi explained, “And finally, we presented a memo to FEC that where there is proof of funds, there are available funds, the Procurement Act allows MDAs to pay a maximum of 30 per cent advance payments. “Let me emphasise that this advanced payment, when you read the law, it says ‘may pay.’ And so when people are giving contracts and they don’t mobilise, and they said, I’ve not paid mobilisation, it is not legally binding, because the word says may pay. And so some people turn it shall pay. So no, it may pay. “So where we have funds, and they will have a valuable fund beyond this 30 per cent so what we are, you know, we requested from FEC is approved, that we first pay 30 per cent which is the Procurement Act, and not more, and then when the contractor has started work, and to the satisfaction of the Ministry of Works, we should be allowed to pay additional funds.” He continued, “Yes, the law allows us to pay in terms

Scam Alert: We’re not recruiting, AMCON tells jobseekers

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) says the public should disregard reports that it is recruiting. In a statement on Wednesday, Jude Nwauzor, AMCON head of corporate communications, said reports concerning the recruitment are false. The attention of the has been drawn to some inaccurate and fake stories that are spreading on some online publications, particularly Nairaland Forum regarding the purported AMCON 2024/2025 recruitment exercise,” Nwauzor said. “The general public is hereby informed that these stories are brazen falsehoods meant to mislead innocent job seekers as well as the general public as AMCON is not currently recruiting.” He said the corporation has also not engaged any firm or agency to recruit on its behalf, advising them not to fall prey to fraudsters. “The public should therefore please disregard these misrepresentations and not fall into the hands of online fraudsters who claim to work for or represent AMCON as the Corporation is NOT recruiting at the moment,” Nwauzor said. As a law-abiding recovery agency of the federal government, Nwauzor said AMCON at all times is always guided by the law and would continue to act in accordance with it.