President Bola Tinubu has declared a state of emergency on food security in Nigeria.

The President also directed that all matters pertaining to food and water affordability be included within the purview of the National Security Council.

Presidential spokesman, Dele Alake, made this known while briefing State House correspondent on Thursday.

The directive was said to be in line with the Tinubu administration’s position on ensuring that the most vulnerable are supported.

Alake said President is not unmindful of the rising cost of food and its effect on the pocket of citizens.

The President also directed the immediate release fertilizers and grains to farmers and households to mitigate the effects of the subsidy removal.

“There must be an urgent synergy between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources to ensure adequate irrigation of farmlands and to guarantee that food is produced all-year round.” the President was quoted as saying.

“We shall create and support a National Commodity Board that will review and continuously assess food prices as well as maintain a strategic food reserve that will be used as a price stabilisation mechanism for critical grains and other food items. Through this board, government will moderate spikes and dips in food prices.

“To achieve this, we have the following stakeholders on board to support the intervention effort of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu: The National Commodity Exchange (NCX), Seed Companies, National Seed Council and Research institutes, NIRSAL Microfinance Bank, Food Processing/ Agric Processing associations, private sector holders & Prime Anchors, small holder farmers, crop associations and Fertilizer producers, blenders and suppliers associations to mention a few.

“We will engage our security architecture to protect the farms and the farmers so that farmers can return to the farmlands without fear of attacks.”

The President said the Central Bank of Nigeria will continue to play a role of funding the agricultural value chain.

He said 500,000 hectares of have already been mapped land to increase availability of arable land for farming.

Tinubu said revenue from food and agricultural exports would be increased.

 

Senate Confirms Appointment Of Service Chiefs.

The Senate on Thursday, confirmed President Bola nomination of Service Chiefs appointed by president Bola Tinubu almost.

The president had sacked the former service Chiefs appointed by immediate-past president, Muhammadu Buhari . The Chief of Defence staff nominee Major General Christopher Musa and the three other officers nominated as Service Chiefs had appeared before the Senate for screening, which was held behind closed doors.

They brief the Senate on their career progression and pledged to meet national expectation of ensuring security and defending the Nations territorial integrity when confirmed.

The service chiefs confirmed are Maj. Gen. C.G Musa (Chief of Defence Staff), Maj. Gen. T. A Lagbaja (Chief of Army Staff), Rear Admiral E. A Ogalla (Chief of Naval Staff), AVM H.B Abubakar (Chief of Air Staff), IGP Kayode Egbetokun (Acting Inspector-General of Police), Maj. Gen. EPA Undiandeye (Chief of Defense Intelligence).

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio had at the commencement of plenary read executive Communication, the first of which sought approval of an 800 million dollars loan facility from the World Bank to fund social safety net programme.

The President also sought Senate approval to amend the 2022 supplementary appropriation act by extracting 500 billion naira out of the 819 billion naira for the provision of palliatives to cushion the effects of subsidy removal.

Tinubu had on 19 June, 2022 sacked the former service chiefs and appointed new ones to replace them.

 

Emefiele Faces Charges Filed By DSS.

Following a ruling from the Abuja High Court on July 13, 2023, the Department of State Services (DSS) confirms that Mr. Godwin Emefiele has been officially charged in accordance with the court’s order.

Recall that the DSS had previously requested a court order in 2022 to detain Mr. Emefiele as part of a criminal investigation. Although he managed to obtain a restraining order from the FCT High Court, the DSS subsequently arrested him in June 2023 based on newly discovered evidence suggesting his involvement in additional criminal activities, one of which serves as the foundation for his current prosecution.

The Service emphasized its commitment to professionalism, justice, and fairness in handling this case and fulfilling its responsibilities within the boundaries of the law.

 

Police nab 1,412 suspects, recover 350 arms, 4,055 ammunition.

The Nigeria Police Force in its ongoing efforts to combat crime and criminality and curb the proliferation of illegal weapons in the country has recorded several notable breakthroughs in the past two months. The Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, revealed this in a statement he issued in Abuja on Thursday.

The statement was issued after the parade of some of the suspects and the recovered arms and ammunition.

He said the efforts to combat crime and criminality by the police in the last two months led to the arrest of 1,412 suspects for various violent crimes, including 548 suspects for armed robbery, 242 for kidnapping, 365 for murder/homicide and 237 suspects for rape/defilement.

He said 350 illicit firearms and 4,055 ammunition of various calibers were equally recovered from across the country within the period under review, while 113 kidnap suspects were rescued unhurt and re-united with their families. Prominent amongst these breakthroughs was the arrest of one Yusuf Ismael Isah, aged 32, a plumber from Okene, Kogi State, by gallant operatives of the Force.

According to investigations, he was part of the seven-man gang that launched a fatal attack on the convoy of Apostle Johnson Suleman, the Founder of Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, Auchi, Edo State on October 21, 2022 along Benin-Auchi Road, wherein six people, including three police officers, were gruesomely murdered.
Adejobi said Intelligence revealed that the seven-man syndicate has been actively involved in kidnapping operations within Edo State and its environs and have carried out about four kidnapping operations between 2021 and 2023 before the gang was eventually busted by the Police.

The FPRO said exhibits recovered from the suspect upon his arrest in Ondo State included five AK47 Rifles, two K2 Assault Rifles, 180 Rounds of Live Ammunition, four suspected locally made Improvised Explosive Devices, one pistol and four rounds of 9mm ammunition.

Similarly, five suspects were apprehended in Abuja for conspiracy and kidnapping.
The suspects: Emu Larry Chidiebere ‘m’ 34; Samuel Balogun ‘m’ 22; Williams Banjo ‘m’ 28; Babatunde Femi ‘m’ 30; and Nneka Opara ‘f’ 32, were arrested for kidnapping a foreign national and obtaining a ransom of $2,000 from his relatives. The suspects held the victim hostage in an apartment from May 30, 2023 to June 2, 2023.

The suspects took pictures of the victim and forwarded the pictures and threat messages to the girlfriend of the victim in Zurich, Switzerland, who eventually sent them the sum of $2000 via Western Union on June 1, 2023. Adejobi said additionally, the police has sustained a continuous assault on the camps of some non-state actors in the South East enforcing an illegal sit-at-home order, particularly in Enugu, Imo and Ebonyi States.

He said in Enugu, four suspects were neutralised following a gun duel with operatives of the Force on July 7, 2023, while one AK47 with 19 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition and two molotov cocktails were recovered.

In Ebonyi State, 17 suspects were arrested following a raid on the hideout of secessionist agitators on July 5 and 6, 2023, while one locally made revolver, two vehicle number plates and three live ammunition were recovered.

Similarly in Imo State, police operatives arrested 26 hoodlums following the murder of a young man in their rampage, and successfully recovered five firearms, 66 live ammunition and several other exhibits.

Adejobi quoted the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun, as reiterating the commitment of the Nigeria Police Force to continually ensure the safety and security of all and sundry, while emphasising that his administration will leave no stone unturned in the effort to suppress and decimate criminality and the heinous activities of non-state actors who cause pain, hardship and sorrow to innocent law abiding members of the Nigerian society.

 

‘We Are Not Fools’ – Peter Obi, Atiku, Labour Party, PDP React As Tinubu Gives Opposition Govs Slot For Boards Appointments.

The Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, have rejected President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s offer to opposition governors, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), LP and others, to nominate individuals for board appointments.

The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara State,  disclosed at a meeting of the forum that Tinubu asked the governors to nominate competent persons to serve in the boards and parastatals of Federal Government agencies which were dissolved last month.
No fewer than 2,000 vacant positions on the boards are expected to be filled by new nominees following Tinubu’s dissolution of the governing boards of over 153 agencies, parastatals, institutions and government-owned companies.

 

Tinubu’s N8,000 monthly palliative avenue to divert public funds— Atiku’s aide.

The Special Assistant on Public Communications to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, Phrank Shaibu, has described President Bola Tinubu’s plan to hand out N8,000 to 12 million households for six months as a brazen attempt to divert public funds.

Shaibu said in a statement on Thursday that Tinubu’s plan to spend $800 milslion on palliatives under an opaque arrangement was reminiscent of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s conditional cash transfer and COVID-19 intervention initiative which saw politicians keeping food items and provisions in their homes while the poor went hungry.

He said Buhari’s interventionist programmes only ended up making Nigerians poorer as shown in reports released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Atiku’s aide stated, “After announcing the removal of petrol subsidy without proper planning, Tinubu has asked for the approval of a $800m loan which he claims will be disbursed to 12 million households for six months at N8,000 for each household per month.

According to statistics, a Nigerian household as of 2019 counted an average of 5.06 members. So, with Tinubu’s uninspiring plan, each individual in a household will get N1,600 per month or N53 per day. What should they do with it?
“Use the money to buy a sachet (pure) water or a cup of boiled groundnut on a daily basis? And this is the man they claim transformed the economy of Lagos State? This must be a joke or a more sinister attempt to divert public funds.
Shaibu argued that Tinubu lacked a clear economic policy apart from taxing Nigerians.

He said having deceptively attained presidential power, Tinubu has been exposed as an economic illiterate.
Atiku’s aide stated, “Tinubu boasted that he would ‘develop Nigeria’s economy’ like that of Lagos but this was all a scam. Statistics show that over 70% of Lagos’ revenue comes from income tax paid by private companies which had been in Lagos for decades due to its status as Nigeria’s former capital.

“Tinubu promised to turn Nigeria’s economy into a $1 trillion economy but it is all a scam and can never be achieved.”
Shaibu said Tinubu ought to have focused on putting money into the agricultural sector and subsidizing production and working at attaining energy security that is the backbone of spurring desired economic growth from SMEs if he was really serious about reviving the economy.

He added, “Agriculture makes up about 30% of Nigeria’s GDP. He should have invested funds in the production aspect of agriculture and other issues affecting crop yields. The rural areas which are mostly agrarian are in the throes of insecurity. On Tinubu’s watch, over 200 people have so far been killed. However, he seems clueless about how to tackle this menace.

“The so-called palliatives that Tinubu seeks to share with the poor are just another avenue to divert public funds. For years, the Nigerian government has rejected calls to publish the list of the beneficiaries of the so-called palliatives but this has never been done because it is all a scam.

“Tinubu should stop trying to deceive Nigerians who are still suffering from the effect of his lacklustre economic policies.”

” There are also concerns that this plan is a reinvention of old tricks through which the APC uses public funds as a subterfuge for vote buying.

“Let no one make any mistakes about it, the planned palliative is Trader Moni 2.0. The scheme is nothing but a means to use public funds to prosecute political campaigns and objectives.

“It is even more telling that the current imposter government is contemplating the initiative when there is a high expectation that the presidential election tribunal is set to give judgement in the controversial election that brought Tinubu into government,” he stated.