Only in our type of federal system of Government that Constitution recognizes Local Government as the third tier of Government.
This is against the principle of federalism as borrowed from America model.
We should stop confusing ourselves thereby compounding our very bad situation. Why is it difficult for us to accept that our present ‘unitary ‘ federalism is not working and merely feeding bottle arrangement to share oil revenue . Are we thinking of our children generation or do we think they will live in foreign land forever?
President Tinubu should know better ! Senate should pay more attention in devolution of power to the federating Units . Federal Government is overloaded with enormous resources and power that everybody wants federal appointments and jobs ,alas for consumption. Businesses are over-taxed in order to fund our unsustainable Federal ‘ unitary’ system of Government, perhaps feed the unquenchable appetite for consumption of our federal public servants.
The present picnic will surely end someday. Power is transient !
This position does not support the irresponsibility of some Governors who have refused to respect the existing 1999 constitution. They should conduct Local Government election and insist that a new constitution be birthed for a productive and competitive system of Government. Ndubuisi,GGM
Yet-to-be-identified gunmen have kidnapped an Anambra-based priest of the Catholic community, Rev. Fr. Basil Chukwuemeka Gbuzuo.
Rev. Fr. Gbuzuo, a catholic priest of the Onitsha Archdiocese and the Spiritual Director of Mountain of Solution Catholic Adoration Ministry (MOSCAM) was reportedly kidnapped on Wednesday, May 15 2024.
This is coming barely one month after he was listed in a viral PUBLICATION as one of top ten richest Catholic priests in Nigeria.
According to a statement issued on Thursday by the Chancellor of the Catholic Archdiocese of Onitsha, Rev. Fr. Prudentius E. Aroh, the popular Catholic cleric was kidnapped at about 8.am on Wednesday, along the Eke Nkpor—Obosi Bypass.
While noting that Fr. Gbuzuo is a Priest-in-Residence at the Holy Trinity Catholic Parish, Ogidi, the Chancellor also revealed that the abductors have not established any contact with anybody regarding the priest.
“His Grace, Most Rev. Valerian M. Okeke, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Onitsha, invites all Christ’s faithful and all men and women of goodwill to earnestly pray for the quick and safe release of the priest as we intensify our efforts to ensure his freedom.
“We commend our brother, Fr. Basil, to the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Priests, for his speedy release from the hands of his kidnappers,” he said.
Meanwhile, the operatives of the Anambra State Police Command have launched a manhunt for the abductors of the kidnapped priest ana to secure his safe release.
The Spokesperson of the State Police Command, SP Ikenga Tochukwu, disclosed this in a chat with this reporter, Izunna Okafor, during which he also revealed that the new Commissioner of Police in the State, CP Nnaghe Obono Itam, had addressed and allayed the fears of the Catholic priests regarding the incident, assuring of his safe rescue.
“The Command is already working with some eyewitnesses to the incident in the ongoing operation
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of “Police, CP Nnaghe Obono Itam while addressing the Catholic priests allayed their fears and assured them that the Command would do everything to rescue unhurt the priest, and arrest the abductors.
“Further development shall be communicated, please,” SP Ikenga said.
Popular street singer Habeeb Okikiola, best known as Portable, has been arrested by the police for allegedly refusing to pay the balance of a G-Wagon vehicle he purchased from a car dealer.
The singer was arrested on Tuesday in the Abule Egba area of Lagos, police spokesman in the state, Benjamin Hundeyin, told Channels Television.
“Portable was arrested in the Abule Egba area of Lagos on Tuesday,” Hundeyin said.
The ‘Zazoo Zeh’ crooner was reported to have bought the vehicle worth ₦27 million but paid only ₦13 million.
In a viral video, Portable was seen to have scaled a gate after policemen approached him with an arrest warrant to follow them. Another viral video, however, showed him being dragged, handcuffed and wheelbarrowed by about four policemen into a waiting vehicle.
In the ensuing melee, the voice of a lady, who identified herself as the car dealer, was heard in the background, spewing expletives and telling how Portable threatened her when she demanded that he discharge the debt.
Police spokesman (Hundeyin) said the police expect the lawyers of the singer to show up on Wednesday morning. He said the singer might be taken to court, depending on the discussions with his lawyers.
This is not the singer’s first ordeal with the police. In April 2023, the ‘Zazoo Zeh’ crooner was arrested by the police in Ogun State and arraigned on five counts bordering on alleged assault and stealing at the Ifo Magistrate Court, in the Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State. He was remanded at the Ilaro Correctional Centre thereafter but released after meeting his bail conditions.
A fresh wave of resignations has hit the Rivers State Government headed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara as five more commissioners, who are loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, have resigned from the governor’s cabinet.
Those who resigned are Chinedu Mmom (from the Ministry of Education), Gift Worlu (from the Ministry of Housing) and Jacobson Nbina (from the Ministry of Transport).
Inime Aguma resigned as the Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation saying “there is no room for progressional development in the work place”.
Austin Ben-Chioma also resigned as the Commissioner for Environment “due to the political crisis befalling our dear Rivers State and other personal reasons”.
Mmom and Worlu cited a toxic working environment as the main reason for their exit while Nbina cited “unresolved political crisis” in the state as his reason for exit.
The five persons were among the commissioners who first resigned from the governor’s cabinet last December in the wake of the political crisis in the state but were readmitted into Fubara’s cabinet following President Bola Tinubu’s intervention.
Earlier, three commissioners, Zacchaeus Adangor, Emeka Woke and Alabo George-Kelly also resigned from the Ministries of Justice, Special Projects and Works respectively. Governor Fubara recently announced a plan by his administration to set up a panel of inquiry to probe the governance of the state under the Wike administration.
The governor accused his opponents of deliberately sabotaging his administration while he was hoping that the issue in the state would be resolved amicably.
The move was the latest twist in the political crisis rocking the oil-rich state. The development has seen a deepening of the feud between Fubara and the state House of Assembly.
Last week, lawmakers loyal to the governor elected a new speaker. Fubara had also issued an executive order relocating the sitting venue of the Rivers State House of Assembly to the Government House, citing safety concerns.
The feud is due to the fallout between Fubara and his predecessor and current Minister of the FCT Nyesom Wike. President Tinubu had waded into the crisis last year but the imbroglio appears to be far from over.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday, May 15, said that it was not against the implementation of three Cybercrime Acts passed by the National Assembly, but seeming distortion as contained in the circular issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the implementation.
The House said the Cybercrime Act as passed by the National Assembly places the burden of paying the cybercrime levy on five companies operating in, and benefiting from cyberspace and, not the Nigerian people. The House asked the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Office of National Security Adviser to cause further enlightenment on the Cyber Crimes Act and implementation of the 0.5% (0.005) levy.
This followed a motion of urgent public importance by the Minority Leader of the House, Kingsley Chinda who expressed concern about the narrative in the public space that the House was against the implementation of the law it passed.
He said: “On 9th May 2024, the House considered a joint motion on the implementation of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition and Prevention) Act, 2015 as amended in 2024 and resolved to direct the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to withdraw the ambiguous circular of 6th May 2024 and in its place issue an unambiguous and unequivocal circular in line with the letters and spirit of the law and directed the House Committees on Banking Regulations and Ancillary Institutions to guide the CBN properly.
The media space was awash with the wrong impression that the House of Representatives was against a Law passed by her, which impression painted the House in bad light.
“The world is a global village and with the internet-of-things, crime is moving from meat space (real or physical world) to cyberspace without the physical limitations of boundaries.
“Cybercrime is more devastating and can cripple a nation easier than the conventional crime in the physical space with a humongous cost expanded on security and the very likely limitations of funding cyberspace security by the government.
“Some establishments carry out their businesses within the cyberspace and make profits therefrom.
“The Cybercrimes Act imposes a levy of 0.05% (0.005) on some establishments enumerated in the second schedule to the Act that occupy the cyberspace; do business there in and make profit therefrom.
“The letter and spirit of the law as crafted by the Parliament are not only commendable but in tune with contemporary trends and supportive of the global fight against cybercrime.
“The levy does not apply to ordinary Nigerians but only to the establishments listed in the second schedule to the Act, including GSM Service providers and all telecommunication companies; Internet Service Providers; Banks and other Financial Institutions; Insurance Companies; and Nigerian Stock Exchange”.
Fresh resignations have hit the Rivers State Executive Council following the decisions of three loyalists of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, to leave the administration of Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
The commissioners of Housing, Dr. Gift Worlu; Environment, Austin Ben Chioma and Education, Prof. Chinedu Mmom, resigned from their appointments on Wednesday, May 15 2024.
Although each provided different reasons, the development followed the unresolved crisis between the governor and his benefactor, Wike.
Three persons, including two women and a young boy, have reportedly been killed in a clash between local scavengers, otherwise referred to as baban bola, and residents of the Byazhin community, in Kubwa, Bwari Area Council of the FCT.
An eyewitness, who identified herself as Jessica Adam, told our correspondent that a baban bola attempted to steal a woman’s pot of soup, but was overpowered and beaten up after the woman alerted neighbors and passers-by.
The embittered baban bola then went away and mobilized hoodlums who returned at about 8pm wielding weapons including machetes, clubs, and stones and began attacking residents at random, eventually killing the woman whose pot of soup was earlier stolen.
In the attack, two others, a woman and a young boy, reported to be passers-by who unfortunately ran into the middle of the crisis, were also killed, they were, however, yet to be identified.
When I Heard It, I Nearly Collapsed – Father Of Toheeb, Victim Of Lagos Fuel Station Shooting.
“They killed two people yesterday. The community has been in chaos since yesterday. The crisis continued till this morning when they killed somebody again. So far, three persons have been killed and many injured. The Police intervened and restored normalcy, but no arrest was made. The Police have intensified their patrol in the Byazhin area of Kubwa to prevent them from regrouping,” Ms Adams narrated.
A resident in the community, confirmed the death of the three persons but said he had no clue as to what may have started the clash.
“Yes, the riot started yesterday. And by this morning, we learnt that three persons have been killed. It happened in Byazhin around that Millionaire’s Quarters, behind that Living Faith Church. That place is usually dangerous, because it is quite lonely, and you cannot pass through there alone, especially in the evening,” he said.
As of the time of filing this report, PUNCH Online gathered that schools and shops in the area have been closed down, as parents scampered to pick up kids from their classrooms, and shops refused to open as of Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, efforts to reach the Police Public Relations Officer of the FCT Police Command, SP Josephine Adeh, proved abortive, as her number was repeatedly unreachable .
A 48-year-old Nigerian man, Olubunmi Abodunde, who murdered his wife, Taiwo, with a skateboard and blamed his loss of control on medication has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the United Kingdom.
The incident occurred in their New market home, resulting in Taiwo’s death from catastrophic brain injuries in November 2023. He, however, admitted to killing Taiwo, who suffered “catastrophic brain injuries”, the BBC reports.
The Ipswich Crown Court noted the intensity of the attack that led to her death at their Exiting Road residence. Abodunde faces a minimum of 17 years in prison before being considered for parole. The court learned that the day before Taiwo’s death, there was a domestic incident resulting in Abodunde’s arrest.
He was under bail conditions prohibiting contact with his spouse. The next morning, despite these conditions, Abodunde went to the family home to retrieve a mobile phone. Taiwo, a mother of three, was returning home from her overnight shift as a health care assistant.
Prosecutor Stephen Spence KC told the court that Abodunde was aware of his wife’s shift pattern and CCTV showed she had arrived back at about 09:12.
The court was informed that two officers had attended the property at about 09:20 to speak with Mrs Abodunde about the previous day’s domestic incident.
Spence stated, “Only the defendant now knows what happened. The officers repeatedly knocked on the door and notified them of their presence but got no response or heard any calls for help.”
However, between 40 and 50 “thuds” were heard and it was believed to be Abodunde attacking his wife. Officers were given clearance by senior police officials to enter the property at 09:45, the court was told.
Spe4nce added, “When they entered the front door, they immediately found the lifeless body of Mrs Abodunde with her skull smashed in.”
Meanwhile, a postmortem examination revealed that Taiwo had suffered “catastrophic brain injuries”.
She also had injuries that were consistent with her body being “stamped on” as well as being hit with a skateboard. This was found at the property covered in blood and fragments of skull. The court was told the victim had also been strangled. Meanwhile, the defendant could be heard sobbing from the dock as Spence addressed the court. Police forced their way into the home after hearing bangs.
“It seems to me that he was waiting for confrontation. There is no debate that there was not going to be confrontation in my view,” he stated.
Akudolu said Abodunde “was a very well-respected man” both here in the UK and in Nigeria where the couple had previously moved from. He had been a local councilor in Nigeria and had a local street in the country named after him. The court heard the couple had a “history of frequent disputes over bills and money” with some “low-level violence” involved.
Akudolu told the court that “not a day will go by that [Abodunde] does not regret the misery” that he has caused. In his ruling, Judge Levett described Taiwo’s killing as “ruthless, violent, savage and heartless”.
Levett said Abodunde had lied to officers telling them his wife had attempted to attack him with a knife the day before he murdered her, adding that Abodunde also claimed she had tried to beat him, but no evidence was found to substantiate this, the court was told.
Uche Anichukwu, the Senior Special Assistant to the Enugu State Governor on External Affairs may have leveraged the contacts he garnered in the Nigerian media industry during his days as a media aide to imprisoned Senator Ike Ekweremadu to limit the publication of the scandal that arose from the state government’s N100 billion partnership with a shadowy company, Pragmatic Farms Limited, but I doubt if the stains would go away simply because Nigeria’s national newspapers conspiratorially refused to give the story the story its deserved headline treatment.
I am aware that the Labour Party, which issued a statement on the scandalous development, distributed same to all the major newspapers and online publications, but none, except This Day considered it worthy of publication. But thanks to a highly democratized media industry, the news received wide publicity and people like us were able to read the salacious details of how the administration in Enugu signed a partnership worth N100 billion with a company that was, as documents from the Corporate Affairs Commission established, registered just four days before the agreement was signed.
It was a piece of news the government in Enugu wanted to make huge capital from. For one, the agreement, on the surface, was a headline-maker. As the country grapples with meltdowns across several sectors of the economy, any news of a government creatively exploring ways of making money draws the attention of everybody. Again, the project on which this agreement was signed was in the area of agriculture, which has been identified as a potential growth area for the national economy. Thirdly, it was meant to evoke compelling nostalgic emotions of the glorious era of the late M.I. Okpara era as the Premier of Eastern Nigeria and the strides they made in agriculture and industry: if Governor Mbah succeeded in connecting his government’s mission with that of the late M.I. Okpara, the people would transfer or at least connect the undying fire of love they still habour for the administration that managed Eastern Nigeria nearly 60 years ago to the current regime.
The question hanging in the air is how Diamond Stripes Limited has been able to operate power plans in Nigeria since 2013 without abiding by the global best practice of having a website.
But it did not work. Unlike in the days of slow information travel, people now have access to tools that can unravel any untruth in government communication and pump them through the bloodstream of the internet in seconds.
This was exactly what happened on May 11, 2024, when news from Enugu indicated that a N100 billion agreement had been signed between the government and Pragmatic Farms Limited towards resuscitating the government-owned United Palm Products Limited. Before the ink dried on the government press statement proclaiming this deal, internet-savvy citizens of the state had begun querying the propriety of the deal. They soon uncovered the data of Pragmatic Farms from the Corporate Affairs Commission, revealing that it was registered four days before the inking of the agreement.
Perhaps anticipating the difficult question of how a government would sign an agreement with such a young company, the media crew of the government cleverly inserted the name of Diamond Stripes Limited, a company said to be in the power industry, as the parent company of Pragmatic Farms.
But this attempt raised even more questions when it was discovered that Diamond Stripes Limited, according to information on its website (https://diamondstripes.com), was in the business of power generation and a few other businesses with no clear footprints. Diamond Stripes claims it is the concessionaire of the Onitsha River Port and has also been concessioned eight Silo complexes in Nigeria (Akure, Bauchi, Ekiti, Ikenne, Jos, Kano, Ogoja, Sokoto).
The concession conundrum
Rattled by the press statement issued by the Labour Party, Uche Anichukwu released an explainer in which he stated that the transaction with Pragmatic Farms would not cost the Enugu State Government any money and that the incorporation of the company four days before the signing of the agreement was to create a special purpose vehicle (SPV) “as the platform to transact the deal.”
Anichukwu, in the explainer, said: “As demanded by the Enugu State Government, Pragmatic Palms Ltd. provided a guarantor, which is Diamond Stripes Ltd, a reputable and huge company that has done investments worth over $20bn spanning power and renewable energy sector, port sector, and agricultural sector since 2013. Diamond Stripes Ltd. is the sole investor in Onitsha River Port and has invested heavily in the agricultural sector where it is the largest owner of silo complexes in Nigeria. It was involved in the acquisition of 600MW Shiroro Hydroelectric Power plant in 2013, concessions of 30MW Gurara Hydroelectric Power Plant in 2019, and establishment of 300MW Shiroro solar power project in 2021.”
It is the reputation of Diamond Stripes as advertised by Anichukwu that raises bigger questions about this deal. Information and communication technology experts have gone to work on this company and have discovered that its domain name was registered as recently as January 26, 2024 at exactly 4.34 PM.
For a company that has been concessioned two vital Federal Government assets in the critical power sector, this raised credibility concerns. It is impossible for the Federal Government of Nigeria to have given such prized assets to a company that had no web presence if we realise that the Shiroro and Gurara power plants in this claim have been concessioned in 2014 and 2020 respectively.
Further searches have also revealed that both dams are the properties of a company known as North South Power Limited and nowhere in the digital space was Diamond Stripes listed as the owner of the assets or consultants to the projects.
What Diamond Stripes did, if digital footprints and the history of its domain can be relied on, was to copy items and photos on the website of North South Power and place them on its site. For instance, the same photo of a dam used by North South Power to illustrate its ownership of the Shiroro Hydroelectric Power Station was replicated on the Diamond Stripes website. The two companies also listed the 600MW Shiroro Hydroelectric Power plant, the 30MW Gurara Hydroelectric Power Plant, and the 300MW Shiroro solar power project.
The question hanging in the air is how Diamond Stripes Limited has been able to operate power plans in Nigeria since 2013 without abiding by the global best practice of having a website.
In addition to the information provided for me by IT experts, I have pored through the internet for any information connecting Diamond Stripes to the Shiroro and Gurara Power plants and came back empty. But there are tonnes of publications about the concessioning of the assets to Noth South Power.
On June 3, 2014, for instance, the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA) published a story detailing how the then Vice President Namadi Sambo, commended the transfer of Shiroro Power Plant to North South Power. Similarly, on May 13, 2020, a news publication in PUNCH newspaper detailed the signing of the concessioning agreement between the federal government and North South Power Limited. There are scores of other search results, but nowhere was Diamond Stripes Limited mentioned as the concessionaires, partners, or even consultants to the assets.
This is the question that the CEO of Diamond Stripes, Prof George Nwangwu should answer. At what point did his company become the concessionaires of these assets? Uche Anichukwu, and perhaps his principal should ask this question of this man who, according to information on the digital ecosystem says he is a professor of Law at Nile University.
In a clever effort to burnish his image, Anichukwu, in the explainer under reference created an impressive profile of the prof and ascribed to him some impressive, perhaps contrived Midas features, the type that was used to sell Governor Mbah during the campaigns.
He wrote: “The MD of Pragmatic Palms Ltd., who is also the MD/CEO of Diamond Stripes, George Nwangwu, is a professor of Project Financing Law, who has led transaction teams that have participated in the consummation of over 100 privatisation or Public Private Partnership (PPP) transactions worth over $20 billion across Africa. Prof. Nwangwu was the Head of Infrastructure Finance at the Ministry of Finance under the leadership of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, during which he led the team that delivered the Second Niger Bridge.”
This sounds quite great, except that nowhere on the world wide web was his association with Prof Okonjo Iweala mentioned. Is there any reason for not pushing this otherwise very significant aspect of his career? On the internet, we have unearthed swathes of information on this professor. As an academic, he is recognized for his publications on public-private partnerships. He is also listed as the Director General of a certain Global Centre of Law, Business and Economy. In the Nigerian Business Law Journal, he is recognized as a leading authority on private sector-led investments in infrastructure. In one of his LinkedIn accounts, he refers to himself as the Managing Director of Universal Elysium Consortium Limited, operator of the Onitsha river port.
Curiously, the domain name of Universal Elysium Consortium Limited indicated it had expired at the time of the search, but it is this company that was said to be the manager of the Onitsha River port, the same that was as property of Diamond Stripes Limited.
The question is, did Diamond Stripes Limited acquire the assets of Universal Elysium Consortium? At what time did this happen? If Prof Nwangwu is such a big businessman, in addition to being a Law scholar, why is it impossible to find anywhere on the Internet where he was even remotely mentioned alongside Diamond Stripes, a business that is supposed to be behind cumulative 930-megawatt power plants?
I am hoping Uche Anichukwu would use his good office to write yet another explainer to enable us fully understand this business. Even if it would not cost Enugu State taxpayers any “dime” as he said in his earlier statement, he should be concerned about the irreparable reputational damage this transaction bodes for the state and its people. It is the sort of damage billions of dollars won’t fix, that is if this government gives a hoot about good reputation.
What is the Dollar to Naira Exchange rate at the black market also known as the parallel market (Aboki fx)?
See the black market Dollar to Naira exchange rate for 15th May, below. You can swap your dollar for Naira at these rates.
How much is a dollar to naira today in the black market?
Dollar to naira exchange rate today black market (Aboki dollar rate):
The exchange rate for a dollar to naira at Lagos Parallel Market (Black Market) players buy a dollar for N1520 and sell at N1530 on Tuesday 14th May 2024, according to sources at Bureau De Change (BDC).
Please note that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) does not recognize the parallel market (black market), as it has directed individuals who want to engage in Forex to approach their respective banks.
Dollar to Naira Black Market Rate Today
Dollar to Naira (USD to NGN)
Black Market Exchange Rate Today
Buying Rate
N1520
Selling Rate
N1530
Dollar to Naira CBN Rate Today
Dollar to Naira (USD to NGN)
CBN Rate Today
Buying Rate
N1406
Selling Rate
N1407
Please note that the rates you buy or sell forex may be different from what is captured in this article because prices vary.
The Nigerian currency, the naira, continued its downward trajectory on Monday as it faced further devaluation against the US dollar in the foreign exchange market.
Naija News reports that data sourced from both the parallel market and the FMDQ, disclosed that the naira experienced a significant depreciation.
At the parallel market, a Bureau De Change operator located in Wuse Zone 4, Mistila Dayyabu, told Dailypost that the naira had been traded as high as ₦1,517 per dollar earlier in the day but settled at ₦1,500 per dollar by evening due to speculations about an impending crackdown by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
The dollar was initially sold at ₦1,517 per dollar on Monday morning. However, upon hearing rumours of EFCC operatives’ impending visit, we reduced the rate to ₦1,500 by the evening,” Dayyabu disclosed.
This marked an increase from the ₦1,450 per dollar rate observed over the weekend.
In the official market, according to data from the FMDQ, the naira fell to ₦1478.11 per dollar on Monday, down from ₦1466.31 the previous Friday. This drop represents a decline of ₦11.8.
