Folarin Kehinde

Workers across 36 state houses of assembly and the National Assembly have threatened to embark on strike from Wednesday pending when their demands on autonomy of the legislative arm of the government would be granted.

Leading reporters gathered that the workers, under the auspices of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), are demanding that state governors commence immediate implementation of financial autonomy for state assemblies in line with the 1999 Constitution.

Acting Secretary General, Agugbue Ugochi Happiness, told journalists that they had issued a 21-day-ultimatum and the governors ignored the ultimatum till it expired on October 18, adding that the union further extended the ultimatum by one week.

President Bola Tinubu’s government has approved the application for a $3.45 billion loan to finance five items.

This decision was reached during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Monday, October 23.

They include projects in the power sector, renewable energy, states’ resource mobilisation programme, adolescent girls’ initiative for learning and empowerment and a women’s empowerment project.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, told journalists that Tinubu’s government would proceed to receive the $3.5 billion “zero-interest” loan payable within 40 years with a 10-year moratorium, meaning payments would begin from 2033.

“Today at the Federal Executive Council, I presented five memos which were gracefully approved by the Council. They had to do with concessional and, in many cases, zero-interest financing by the World Bank and the International Development Association, which is the very concessional financing arm,” Edun said.

“The projects that were approved for funding were in the power sector and then the renewable energy sector. There was funding for states for resource mobilisation programmes to help them with the internally-generated revenue efforts.

“There was a project for adolescent girls’ initiative for learning and empowerment. And then finally the fifth financing that was approved was for Women project.”

Edun explained that the girls’ programme worth $700 million would support young girls within secondary school age to equip them with marketable skills in addition to their academic achievements.

Putting a figure to the project, Edun said, “$700m is the size of the current project. So those were five loans totalling $3.45bn. And as you know, the tenure is all around 40 years, with a moratorium period of around 10 years and interest very low, or in the cases of either loans, zero interest. However, some fees would be incurred.”

Explaining further, the Minister of Education, Dr Tahir Mamman, said the girls’ programme, which initially began in seven states, was expanded across 11.

Mamman said, “Initially, from seven participating states, we will now have about 11 additional states participating in this project, which will lead to the empowerment of girls between 10 to 20 right across the participating states.

“This is a very major escalation of this programme that is meant to empower our girls, our teachers and the provision for additional schools in the country.”

He added that the programmes were in line with the Tinubu administration’s agenda to reduce, “if not eliminated altogether,” the number of out-of-school girls and children in general.

As part of efforts to improve revenue generation in the FCT, the minister, Nyesom Wike, has ordered strict implementation of the Personal Income Tax and the FCT Internal Revenue Service Act 2015.

To this end, all ministries, departments and Agencies, commercial banks and FCT Secretariats, Departments and Agencies (SDAs) have been enjoined to ensure strict compliance with the laws, particularly Section 85 of the Personal Income Tax Act (PITA) and Section 31 of the FCT Internal Revenue Service Act 2015.

Both sections provide for demand and verification of Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) by the MDAs, commercial banks and FCT SDAs before any transaction is allowed.

Mandate Secretary for Economic Planning, Revenue Generation and Public Private Secretariat, Hon Chinedum Elechi, disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja on Monday.

“Penalties ranging from N1,000,000 fine to three years jail as provided in the acts await defaulters as the new revenue generation exercise takes off,” Elechi said.

Nigeria has won its case against the Process and Industrial Developments Company, P&ID.

In the case marked CL-2019-000752, the Federal Government sought to overturn an arbitration award in favour of P&ID which has now accrued interest worth $11 billion.

The company had claimed it entered into an agreement with Nigeria to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State, but the deal collapsed because the Nigerian government did not fulfil its end of the bargain.

A London High Court has now delivered judgement in Nigeria’s favour.

Details later

President Bola Tinubu has filed a motion at the US District Court of Columbia to stop the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from releasing files or his records while in America.

Leading reporters recalls that the FBI had said it would release about 2,500 files containing Tinubu’s records during his stay in the US.

According to documents released on Monday by investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, Tinubu prayed the court not to release any of his files.

The Federal High Court has okayed two separate suits seeking to sack the newly appointed Economic and Financial Crimes Commission chairman, EFCC, Olanipekun Olukoyede.

Legal practitioners Stanley Okawara and Maxwell Opara brought both suits before the court.

Vanguard reports that whereas the first suit, marked FHC/KN/CS/280/202, was lodged before the Division of the court in Kano State, the second suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1410/2023, is pending before the Abuja Division.

Already, Justice Abdullahi Liman of the Kano court has fixed the 30th day of October to hear a motion on notice seeking to restrain the EFCC chairman, whose appointment was confirmed by the Senate on the 12th day of October, from exercising the powers and functions of the office or drawing salaries and emoluments as an occupant of the office, pending the hearing and determination of the suit.

Though the plaintiff had, through his lawyer, Jideobi Johnmary filed an ex-parte application for the court to issue an order of interim injunction against Olukoyede, Justice Liman ordered him to go and put all the defendants on notice.

President Bola Tinubu, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and the EFCC are cited as defendants in the matter.

The court directed the plaintiff to join the EFCC chairman, Olukoyede and Secretary of the Commission, Muhammad Hammajoda, as 4th and 5th defendants, respectively.

Justice Liman further permitted the plaintiff to serve a copy of the court process on President Tinubu by serving same on the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN.

Besides, the court okayed substituted service of the suit on the Senate President through the clerk of the Senate.

It equally abridged the time within which all the defendants should enter appearance and file their respective processes to 15 days.

Specifically, the plaintiff is, among other things, praying the court to determine “whether having regard to the combined provisions of Section 1(1), 1 (2) and (3), 4 and 15(5) of the Amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 2 (1) (a) of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act 2004, the 1st defendant (Tinubu) is possessed of the constitutional powers to appoint anyone who is not a serving or retired member of any government security or law enforcement agency not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police or equivalent to the position of the chairman of the 3rd defendant?

Whether having regard to the combined provisions of Section 1(1), 1 (2), and (3), 4 and 15(5) of the Amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 2 (1) (a) of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act 2004, the 2nd defendant (Akpabio) is possessed of the constitutional powers to receive and consider for screening and ratification by the Nigerian Senate anyone who is not a serving or retired member of any government security or law enforcement agency not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police or equivalent to the position of the Chairman of the 3rd Defendant?”.

Protesters have taken to the streets of Abuja as the Supreme Court commenced hearing the appeals filed against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 presidential election.

The protesters, standing by the road, carried different placards demonstrating both support and opposition to Tinubu’s victory.

The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) has withdrawn its appeal against Tinubu’s election victory. The judgments on the appeals of both the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and that of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, have been reserved.

Officials from the Lagos Waste Management Authority, in conjunction with the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences Unit, executed the closure of Alaba International Market, located in Ojo, during the early hours of Monday, October 23.

The closure was confirmed by the Environment and Water Resources Commissioner, Tokunbo Wahab, in a statement released on Monday.

According to Wahab, the market was sealed for multiple violations, including:

Poor Waste Disposal: Alaba International Market was found to be engaging in substandard waste disposal practices, which posed a significant environmental hazard.
Failure to Pay Waste Bills: The market reportedly failed to fulfil its obligations by not paying its waste bills, which are essential for proper waste management and sanitation services.

Gross Environmental Sanitation Offences: The market was also charged with gross environmental sanitation offences, indicating a significant breach of established sanitation regulations.
He said the closure is a stern reminder of the government’s commitment to maintaining environmental cleanliness and holding businesses accountable for their environmental responsibilities.

There was mild drama at the Supreme Court on Monday, October 23, following a receipt of two conflicting letters on President Bola Tinubu’s Chicago State University certificate by the judges.

Justice John Okoro, chairman of the 7-member panel hearing the application of Atiku Abubakar, Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), filed against the victory of President Tinubu, had raised the concern as hearing commenced.

“But in this case, there are two conflicting letters from the CSU – one authenticating the president’s certificate and another discrediting it. Which do we rely on?,” he asked.

This is was followed by noise in the courtroom.

Details later….