The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, who disclosed this on Friday, February 10, in Lagos, after his tour of selected petroleum dispensing outlets, said an inter-ministerial intervention initiated by the Federal Government was set up to ensure proper management of petrol distribution across the country.
”The situation is pleasant because I observed availability of products in the state. I visited many stations in Ikeja and the Mainland and from every indications there are products everywhere and I want to assure you that the queues will disappear in a matter of days,” Sylva said.
He said the situation in Lagos has been achieved in 15 states across the country, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that queues must be cleared immediately.
Commenting on the arbitrary hike of fuel pump price by some marketers, Sylva said he has directed the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to increase its regulatory activities to ensure marketers abide by the current price regime.
According to the minister, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCLtd.) retail outlets are selling at N184 per liter and over 900 outlets operated by the company sell the product at the price.
All marketers, he said, are expected to dispense the product at the price.
Noting that the fuel crisis has lasted longer than expected, he said, “Government did not see it coming. Sabotage played key role in the sector as those who did not mean well for the country took advantage of the upcoming elections to create panic by engaging in market disruptions.”
He said the inter-ministerial body inaugurated by the President is working in synergy to address all challenges and block all potholes.
Besides, according to him, owners of Petroleum Products Tank Farms in Ijegun-Egba, Satellite Town, Lagos, say the ongoing massive loading of petrol from depots to different parts of the country will ease scarcity.
The chairman of Tank Farm Owners Association, Debo Olujumi, gave the assurance on February 9 in Lagos while receiving direct petrol allocation from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
Olujimi said Nigerians should be aware that petrol had become fully available and sold at government regulated ex-depot price of N172 per litre at all satellite depots.
The Ijegun-Egba depot has about five depots, namely: Emadeb Energy Services, A.A. Rano Energy, Menj Oil, Ocean Pride and Rainoil.
According to him, in February, NNPCLtd. allocated over 150 million litres of petrol to satellite depots.
“We are assuring Nigerians that the product will be sold at regulated price and we have commenced massive loading to all states of the federation to ease scarcity.
“We want Nigerians to trust us, and we assure that the product will be distributed effectively as directed by government to ease scarcity and eradicate panic buying.
“Going forward, the product will be sold at the regulated pump price in all Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN and Major Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN filling stations across the country.
“We have also directed that all depots within the satellite Ijegun depot that sell above the regulated ex-depot price would be sanctioned,” he said.
THE member representing Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Wole Oke, has claimed that suspected political thugs attacked his supporters in the Government Reserve Area of Osogbo, Osun State.
In a statement he personally signed on Friday, February 10, Oke stated that the attack occurred shortly after some northerners living within his constituency visited him and pledged their support for his re-election.
IN 2003, the Federal Government secured the procurement of about eight fire-fighting trucks through the now-defunct National Sports Commission (NSC).
The procurement was part of safety recommendations made by the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa (SCSA) required for Nigeria to organise the 2003 edition of the All Africa Games (COJA), held at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). As of the period, Amos Adamu was the Commission’s Director General, while Olusegun Obasanjo was the country’s President.
Most of the selected sporting activities were held at the Abuja Stadium, later renamed the Moshood Abiola Stadium.
Meanwhile, the fire equipment would come in handy should any fire disaster outbreak break out during the international games organised for the 53 African countries.
The abandoned Fire Trucks at the MKO Abiola Stadium. Photo Credit: Google Earth.
With the backing of the Presidential Task Force on Stadium Project, the trucks arrived from China, but that was about six months after the game had ended. They were commissioned in 2004.
But independent findings by The ICIR revealed the supplied equipment includes five Simon ALP 340 aerial platform fire trucks and three SG-170 (water and foam tank) vehicles. The ICIR can also confirm that since day one, it was delivered and parked at the stadium facility; the fire trucks had not moved an inch.
The abandoned fire trucks at Package B of the Abuja National Stadium. Photo Source: Google Earth.
According to a contractor, the trucks are worth over N8 billion based on 2023’s monetary value of the equipment. Regardless, they have been left for rots for almost 20 years at the Package B Section of the Abuja Stadium and not put to use.
Adamu agreed the trucks were commissioned, but the Federal Fire Service (FFS) has repeatedly distanced itself from the abandoned fire trucks.
“What I know is that the fire engines arrived in Nigeria six months after the 9th All Africa Games. They were commissioned by the then Sports Minister, Col. Musa Mohammed (rtd), in 2004. But authorities of the Federal Fire Service said they have no knowledge of the fire-fighting trucks at the stadium,” he stated.
But on August 8, 2022, The ICIR visited the Stadium to get first-hand information on the equipment status.
The trucks were parked adjacent to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) parking lots with their tires deflated. The paint had already begun to peel off while the metal frames were smeared with rust.
One of the neglected fire trucks with deflated tyre Source: Olugbenga Adanikin, The ICIR.
The rear tyres of the trucks also deflated. Source Photo Credit: Olugbenga Adanikin, The ICIR.
The abandoned fire trucks
Rots all over the abandoned fire trucks in the stadium. Source: The ICIR.
A set of abandoned fire trucks rot away at MKO Abuja Stadium. Photo Credit: Olugbenga Adanikin, The ICIR.
Peeled section of the fire truck. Source: Olugbenga Adanikin, The ICIR.
It was an eyesore. And no one seems to have taken full responsibility for the machines. The scrapped NSC and the Federal Ministry of Sports and Youth Development have been silent over the neglect.
Neglected fire trucks outlived multiple administrations
The mystery behind the abandoned equipment has outlasted at least two Ministers of Sport and Youth Development – Musa Mohammed, a retired Colonel and Solomon Dalung.
The incumbent sports minister, Sunday Dare, has also failed to retrieve the multi-billion-naira equipment from their sorry states.
“When I assumed office in 2015, my first visit and comment were on the abandoned fire-fighting trucks,” Dalung said in a report by the Nation.
“I asked questions, but nobody came forward with information on how they were acquired.”
“I did my investigation, but no document or record was found. I also went through the Tenders Board of the then National Sports Commission, but there was no record or trace of such equipment until I left office.”
He said he had “honestly wanted to auction” the trucks, but there were no documents to validate their procurements.
However, he estimated each piece of equipment cost between N220 to N250 million.
That implies the eight trucks would amount to about N2 billion as of 2015. This would be a conservative figure. The value, as of date, would be much higher due to the exchange rate. In August, The ICIR mailed the Chinese firm – XCMG that assembled the truck, but there was no response as of when filing this report.
A search through machineryline, a local firm that sells fire trucks (Foreign used) and other heavy-duty machines, shows a relatively lower sum.
For instance, a foreign-used MAN Fire Ladder Truck, registered as a 2002 product, sells for about N14.69 million.
MAN (Used) Fire Ladders Trucks: Source MachinerylineNG.
Though the trucks under review might cost higher based on the nation’s currency value and specification, the above truck is merely to give an estimated value. It is difficult to establish the exact value of the trucks under rots..
Regardless, Dalung could not do much, thus, left the equipment until the incumbent minister took over.
“It’s sad, and it pained me to see such investment rotting away due to negligence,” Dalung lamented.
Infographic on the estimated value of the eight abandoned fire trucks in Abuja Stadium (Package B Complex). Infographics by Olugbenga Adanikin, ICIR.
By the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term in office in 2019, Dalung left office.
However, the equipment’s state has continued to be a concern among stakeholders and relevant public members.
It, again, tilted the mind to the government’s habitual trend of project neglect.
“If that happens to be their personal vehicle, would they have left it that way unused,” a source at the Stadium angrily queried.
New findings
In the course of filing this report, indications showed that the contractor that supplied the trucks was yet to be balanced on the payment for the service rendered.
The Contractor’s Address. Source: OSINT.
The ICIR can confirm that this significantly contributed to the abandonment, based on information gathered from sources at the ministry of youth and sport.
HTM International Nigeria Limited, a private unlimited company, was registered on October 8, 1987. Based on OSINT findings, it is based in Oyo State. It has five directors with RC number: 100471.
It majors in fire equipment installation, protection and detection, and fire equipment maintenance.
The ICIR can also confirm the sports ministry is not its only client. It has rendered services to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); the State House, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
On Wednesday, September 21, 2022, this reporter attempted to reach out to HTM International Nigeria Limited, to get the contractor to speak, but it was not successful.
Another effort was made a month after, but it was a similar experience.
By November 7, The ICIR tried once again, but it was not successful.
Over 500 fire incidents in FCT in 2021, several others in 2022
Undoubtedly, different states across the country have experienced fire disasters at one point or another. It is more pronounced during the dry season or the harmattan. The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is not an exception. And reports have shown that fire disasters have become reoccurring, especially in the harmattan.
Sadly, firefighting trucks are either unavailable as of the outbreak or poorly equipped to kill the inferno during an outbreak.
In 2021, for instance, the federal capital territory witnessed over 500 fire incidents. Towards the end of the same year, 2021, another fire incident led to the death of six persons and 11 others injured.
Besides, within the first quarter of 2022, the territory witnessed another. Notable public institutions in the country, such as the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Defence Headquarters, the Institute of Human Virology, and the Federal Ministry of Finance, also experienced fire disasters at one point or the other.
These implied that even if the fire trucks were no longer useful at the stadium, they could have been fixed and converted for other users to swiftly respond to fire incidents in the territory.
Minister, Perm Sect aware of project’s neglect – Ministry official
On Tuesday, September 20, The ICIR moved to visit the defunct National Sports Commission (NCS), currently collapsed into the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.
The visit was to establish reasons the multi-billion naira fire truck was left unused for about two decades.
But a source within the ministry at the Office of the Head of Service Building advised that the Director in charge of General Services would be in the best position to speak to the rot.
The ICIR approached the director, identified as Hajia Halima, but she questioned why the journalist would have the effrontery to gain access to the Stadium and take pictures of the neglected equipment without permission.
She would later question the reporter’s identity even after a formal introduction with requisite identifications.
In the long run, she advised the reporter to visit the ministry’s permanent secretary’s office. Being a civil servant, she said she had no permission to speak on the matter until the PS gave a directive.
Seated at her office was an official identified as Engr. Yabo. He had visited to meet with the general service director. The staff appeared privy to the issue; hence, he jumped into the conversation to query why the reporter would have to delve into the matter.
“As I am speaking to you, the minister, the permanent secretary and the FCTA are aware of the situation, and they are about taking action on those facilities,” he said while validating The ICIR’s earlier findings on the fire trucks and the decades-long neglect on the equipment.
“Do you know the contractor has not been fully paid,” he added?
“Those trucks are not in good shape; they are not in use. So if you say those trucks should be moved, the contractor has to be paid.” He revealed while querying the reporter. The ICIR, then proceeded to the Perm Sec’s office, Ismaila Abubakar.
At the Perm Sec’s Office, the reporter met with Secretary. He advised the reporter to wait as the Perm Sec was in a meeting.
About 30 minutes after, he told the reporter to meet with the ministry’s Director of Facility, Ifedayo Okedairo, back at the Stadium. This was the same stadium The ICIR had visited before approaching the ministry at the head of the civil service building.
Facilities and Stadia Management Department of the Ministry of Youth and Sport. Source: Olugbenga Adanikin, The ICIR.
But it was a different twist at the director’s office. He distanced himself, saying he was not in the best position to speak on the matter because he was newly posted to the department.
His deputy, Alanamu, to whom this reporter was referred, refused to speak. He asked The ICIR to make an official request.
Freedom of Information (FOI) was written to demand the project’s contract information and the reason for the neglect, but as of the time of filing this report, no feedback has been provided by the ministry.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Sports Minister, Media, Kola Daniel, appeared unaware of the neglected projects when he was contacted on January 13. However, he asked The ICIR to call back later, so he could “make an investigation” into the matter.
Repeated calls to him on the evening of January 13, this year failed. He ended the calls.
Experts reaction
The Chief Executive Officer, Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), Jubril Shittu. Source: PPDC.
The Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), a civil society organisation with a thematic focus on monitoring public procurement, attributed part of the problems to ‘loopholes in the procurement process’ with references to similar challenges in the health and education sectors.
The Chief Executive Officer of the group, Jubril Shittu, also identified issues of contract splitting, delayed releases of approved budgets and inflation as notable causes of project abandonment.
Just as in the case of the delivered but neglected fire trucks, he complemented his argument with the PPDC’s findings of similar completed projects but remained under lock.
“The first is the budgeting practice of having whole projects broken down over multiple years or longer periods rather than including the entire project cost as a lump sum. This is a major source of unfinished and inflated projects, as unrealistic expectations are set right from the start of the project.
“The next is the delayed release or disbursement of funds late after they have been approved. By the time the funds are released, there might be inflation and a hike in the exchange rate, further hampering the project’s progress. We have also observed that some projects are completed but under lock and key because they are awaiting commissioning.”
The Executive Director, Dataphyte, Joshua Olufemi. Source: Sigma Awards.
In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of Dataphyte, Joshua Olufemi, was particularly concerned about citizens’ engagement and why the public should be aware of awarded contracts meant to improve their lots.
He raised the need for the public to ask critical questions once they sight an abandoned project at the local, state or federal level. Though Olufemi identified the paucity of funds as a possible issue, he disclosed the Federal Government might decide to prioritise one project over the other.
Regardless, he questioned the poor oversight functions of the lawmakers on the awarded but abandoned contracts.
“…the oversight body, the legislative arm of government, is either lack of capacity, lack of will or even understanding their role in budget monitoring to when the project has been implemented or when it’s not,” he stressed.
He, however, called for a database to house all abandoned projects across the country. This, he noted, could be developed by civil society organisations. The directory, he emphasised, should reflect which project was ongoing, which has been completed, and how much of the budget circle would be required to ensure the project is completed, among others.
“So, we still need some grassroots data collection or aggregation. For instance, what are those projects in your area that have been abandoned?
“These trucks have been here for 20 years, and I don’t know if the citizens have ever called on any government,” he queried. “But I think it also goes down to the most important thing we need to begin to think of as a country.”
The Head of Communications, Kwara Football Academy, Ibrahim Jatto, in his remarks, described the problem of rots in stadia as something not peculiar to the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja but other stadiums in Abeokuta, the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium in Ibadan, and other parts of the country including the stadium at the National Stadium, Surulere.
“I will advise you to expand the report. You will even see beyond abandoned fire trucks. You will see how national monuments are being neglected. You wonder if the FG was doing that deliberately or share negligence…,” he queried, stressing how it was important to draw the public attention to the menace.
Jatto recalled one of the strategies Dare, the sports minister, utilised to address the situation by involving the private sector. This includes Aliko Dangote and others who adopted stadiums across the country. But, he described the approach as unsustainable because the private sector is profit-oriented.
Regardless, he advised the FG to show more interest in maintaining government facilities in the stadium. He said beyond boosting the sports sector, it would create job opportunities, and the country could look up to hosting international tournaments.
“When people come into our country, they buy our foods, sleep in hotels, visit tourist centres and bring in foreign currencies. In a way, it contributes to our economy…so the government needs to show more commitment to maintaining our facilities.”
Jatto also asked the right authority to sanction those culpable for the fire truck’s neglect.
“We need re-orientation on the maintenance of sports infrastructure.”
THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has listed money bouquets as a form of naira abuse.
The apex bank made this known via a flier that listed all forms of abuse of the naira on its Twitter handle on Friday, February 10.
Other forms of naira abuse as listed by the CBN are spraying, selling, squeezing and defacing.
The ICIR gathered that anyone convicted for tampering with a coin or note issued by the Bank is liable to N50,000 fine or imprisonment for a term not less than six months.
This is as according to Section 21 (1) of the CBN Act that reads “A person who tampers with a coin or note issued by the Bank is guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for a term not less than six months or to a fine not less than N50,000 or to both such fine and imprisonment.”
The CBN further urged citizens to report any form of naira abuse to the bank.
“It is your civic duty to protect the naira. Report naira abuse today,” the CBN stated.
Recall that the Operatives of the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), have commenced investigating an actress and cosmetologist Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, for allegedly tampering with the redesigned naira notes.
The actress was on Wednesday, February 1, arrested in Lagos by operatives of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), for offering new naira notes for sale on social media.
However, on Friday, February 3, the EFCC claimed that Omoseyin, was arrested after a video which showed her spraying and stepping on the newly redesigned naira notes at a party surfaced online.
SIX people were reportedly killed and many others injured in an attack by suspected herdsmen on the Nagi community in Mbachohon Council Ward, Gwer West Local Government Area of Benue State.
It was gathered that the suspected armed Fulani herders attempted to storm Naka, the headquarters of the council but the attack was repelled by military personnel deployed in the area.
According to a source in the area, the herdsmen had made attempts to enter Naka town on Thursday afternoon, with the intention of killing many people. However, the military was alerted and chased the attackers away, but they retreated and killed six people, including a young boy, in Nagi village.
The attackers also injured several people and burnt down many houses, food barns and huts in the village, leading to the desertion of many villages on the Naka-Agagbe road.
The Chairman of Gwer West Local Government Area, Andrew Ayande, who confirmed the attack, said that armed Fulani herdsmen from Nasarawa State made attempts to attack the town.
Ayande confirmed that security agents went after the attackers and chased them to the Nagi community, where they fled and shot and killed anyone they met on the way.
He noted that the attackers entered the village and burned down several houses, including the traditional ruler’s house, and injured some people.
According to him, on Friday morning, two more corpses of young boys were found on the Naka-Agagbe road.
He explained that security agencies are still combing the communities to rescue survivors, recover corpses and ensure that the armed Fulani herders are no longer in the area.
The Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, Paul Hemba, also confirmed the attack. He said that it was carried out by herdsmen and was an unprovoked attack on the community.
He added that the damage would have been more severe if not for the timely intervention of the military who chased the attackers away before they could cause more damage. The military has sent in reinforcements and the situation in the area has been stabilized, he added.
Efforts to reach the Police Public Relations Officer, Catherine Anene, were unsuccessful.
The recent attack in Nagi community comes just 10 days after the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Gwer West Local Government Area, Mamud Abubakar, was killed in an ambush.
The attacks in Benue have left many people living in fear and several communities are deserted.
The victim was said to have gone to his cocoa farm to harvest when he called his wife to collect N700,000 from a Point of Sale (POS) machine and bring it to the farm.
His kidnappers later called the victim’s wife and directed her to send the money to an account number sent to her by them.
Akinnbinu, the victim’s wife, out of fear, invited the Amotekun Corps and other villagers to go along with her, but on arriving at the scene, the kidnappers were not there, and neither was the victim.
The farmer’s lifeless body was found four days later inside the farm, with a chemical spray suspected to be acid.
The State Police Public Relations Officer, Funmilayo Odunlami, who confirmed the incident, stated that the Command has commenced investigations into the matter.
THE Ogun State police command has explained how the three men who killed an Ogun State-based staff member of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kehinde Fatinoye, slaughtered him on January 1 because he refused to oblige his driver’s requests for salary increase and loan to purchase a motorcycle.
The driver, Lekan Adekanbi, alias Koroba, is one of the suspected killers, who also allegedly killed Fatinoye’s wife, Bukola, and the couple’s only son, Oreoluwa.
The Command paraded Adekanbi, and the other two suspects – Ahmed Odetola (alias Akamo) and Waheed Adeniyi (alias Koffi) – on Friday, February 10 at the police headquarters at Eleweran, Abeokuta.
The Command had been able to arrest Adekanbi on the day of the murder, but he escaped from custody the following day after feigning illness in the cell and the police took him to a hospital. He jumped over the hospital fence into thin air.
In the wee hours of the New Year Day the suspects perpetrated their act. They had waited for their victims in the couple’s Ibara GRA residence in Abeokuta, since Adekanbi had easy access to it, to arrive from the 2022/2023 cross-over and then pounced on them. After killing them, they set the building on fire.
The couple credit: National Insight News
A statement the Command’s spokesman, Superintendent Abimbola Oyeyemi, issued on Friday, February 10, narrated that following Adekanbi’s escape, the State anti-kidnapping unit joined forces with the homicide unit investigating the case to track him, and successfully traced him to his brother’s house in Iseyin, Oyo State. But he had fled before the police arrived there.
Oyeyemi stated, “The teams further intensified their efforts, which yielded positive results when Lekan Adekanbi was apprehended in his hideout somewhere in Abeokuta on the 21st of January 2023.”
Adeniyi and Odetola were apprehended at Ogere in Ogun State on February 9.
During the interrogation, the suspect, who had been the couple’s driver since 2018, confessed to being the mastermind of the killings.
“He stated that he invited the other two suspects, Ahmed Odetola and Waheed Adeniyi to join him to rob the couple. He confessed further that he took the step because the couple refused to increase his salary, and that he approached them for loan to buy a motorcycle, but they didn’t oblige him,” the PPRO said.
He added that when the couple were at the suspects’ mercy, they forced Fatinoye to transfer money to Odetola’s Kuda Bank account, but the transfer failed. Adekanbi then provided his own Access Bank account into which they forced the banker to transfer N1.021 million at gunpoint.
The statement added, “Since Lekan realized that his identity has been known through his bank account, he decided with others to terminate the life of the couple, consequent upon which Waheed Adeniyi took a knife from their kitchen and slaughtered the husband Kehinde Fatinoye, while Lekan Adekanbi used sledge hammer he purposely brought for the operation to hit the wife Bukola Fatinoye on the head and she died on the spot.”
As the suspects were killing the couple, the victims’ only son, Oreoluwa, and an adopted one, Felix Olorunyomi, walked in. The suspects abducted them, tied in ropes, and drove them to a bridge in the Adigbe area of Abeokuta where they threw them into a river.
While Olorunyomi was able to loosen the rope and swim out, Oreoluwa died there and his body was fished out the following day.
THE National Union of Road Transport workers (NURTW) has appointed coordinators to arrange transportation of polling materials and personnel for the forthcoming general elections in Lagos, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states where its activities were banned.
The NURTW’s General Secretary Kabiru Ado Yau, in a letter to INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed that the union has appointed Rafiu Olohunwa, Oluwatoyin Olaoye, Rauf Fakorede and Abideen Olajide as coordinators for Lagos, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states, respectively.
According to the transport union’s secretary, the coordinators are to organise drivers for the exercise.
Kabiru also listed names and contact details of all its officials who would facilitate the successful deployment of vehicles and monitor the prompt delivery of election materials and personnel in all states across the country.
The letter reads: “I am pleased to inform your good self that the Union’s leadership has appointed coordinators to be responsible for monitoring and supervision of the activities of our members to be engaged by the commission for its electoral activities at state and local government levels.
“To achieve effective and efficient delivery of logistics, those engaged are to facilitate the successful deployment of vehicles as well as to monitor and assist the state councils they are assigned to.
“They are also required to lead a delegation of state officials to supervise the signing of any contractual agreement with INEC in respect of the 2023 general elections.”
INEC National Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, had on January 31, signed an MoU with the leadership of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employees Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) on the transportation of election officials and ballot papers to polling units on the election day.
Yakubu, during the meeting with the transport unions, said they must subscribe to the oath of neutrality while discharging the assignment.
AHEAD of the 2023 general elections, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has urged political parties and candidates to accept results of the polls “in good faith”.
In a press statement issued on Friday, February 10, CAN President Daniel Okoh said accepting the results would be in the best interest of Nigerians and the unity of the country.
“We must see the elections as a time of peaceful transition of leadership and not war. Consequently, there’s need for all and sundry to put away religious and ethnic bigotry and allow the will of God to prevail,” Okoh said.
Okoh also charged the security agencies to be neutral in discharge of duties during the polls.
“CAN calls on the authorities to beef up security, especially in communities vulnerable to attacks and ensure that no citizen is disenfranchised owing to precarious security situation in parts of the country.”
The apex Christian body in the country also called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct free, fair and credible elections, noting that the Commission has no reason to fail.
“Four years is enough time to have perfected the process and eliminated the glitches that featured in past polls,” the CAN President added.
MEMBERS of the National Council of State met today with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, and expressed support for the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The members, however, faulted gaps in policy implementation, which has led to acute agonies in accessing cash by the people at commercial banks and automated teller machines (ATM).
The Council has asked the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, to make new naira notes available to the public, or allow the new and old bank notes to circulate concurrently to ease the tension caused by the scarcity of cash.
Addressing State House correspondents after the meeting, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, flanked by governors Darius Ishaku of Taraba State and Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, stressed the need for aggressive action by the CBN to ensure adequate supply of the naira to enable proper implementation of the policy.
Governor Ishaku said the meeting proffered a number of suggestions to the President, particularly on the currency swap challenge which dominated discussions, following a briefing from Emefiele, and expressed the hope that Buhari would make a decision soon.
On the 2023 elections, Malami expressed the Council’s satisfaction with the level of preparation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other institutions.
Those who attended the Council meeting, chaired by Buhari, included former heads of state Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalami Abubakar, as well as ex-president Goodluck Jonathan
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo participated in it virtually.
Also present were Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate president Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila.
Some state governors were also in attendance
The Minister of the FCT, Mohammed Bello; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; and Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami also attended the meeting.
The INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu was also physically in attendance and briefed the Council on preparations ahead of the 2023 polls.
All service chiefs and heads of security agencies were also present.
