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The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has announced the sale of the Falcon 900B aircraft, which is a part of the presidential air fleet.

NAF has also called on interested persons to submit their bids for the purchase of the aircraft.

Details about the sale was contained in a flyer shared on the X page of the NAF on Monday evening.

According to the flier, the aircraft was put up for sale following the approval of the Federal Government.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the sale of Falcon 900B aircraft owned by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF),” the flier read.

“In compliance with provisions of the public procurement Act 2007, the NAF hereby invites all interested parties to submit bids for purchase of the aircraft. The bids can be submitted by email or physically.

“If submitted by email, the bids are to be password protected and sent to dproc(at)airforce.mil.ng while the password is to be sent separately to d proc2(at)airforce.miI.ng.

“For physical submission, the quotations are to be enclosed in an envelope and sealed while the envelope is to bear the name and address of the interested company/entity as well as the description and reference to the request.

“It should also bear the statement, ‘DO NOT OPEN BEFORE 24 DECEMBER 2023’.

“Please note that the bids would be processed immediately after expiration of the deadline for submission.”

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum and Regulatory Commission has said the Federal Government is planning to revoke unused oil exploration leases that companies were granted but have not been able to carry out any exploration activities on them.

The Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Gbenga Komolafe told Reuters on Monday that only companies with viable technical and financial backup would get to keep their leases.

“Based on PIA (Petroleum Industry Act), the commission is focused on delivering value for the nation so only firms that are technically and financially viable will keep their leases,” Komolafe said.

Komolafe said the commission would initiate reviews of these leases and awards of new leases would be “subject to specific terms and conditions.”

According to latest data from the NUPRC, although about 53 exploration leases were issued from 2003 till date; over 60 per cent of the prospecting licenses issued to local and foreign oil firms had expired.

Out of the 53 licences, 33 have since expired and not renewed, including four which are held down by contract disputes. The leases have not been automatically revoked, but the regulator is no longer willing to let the companies hold on to leases indefinitely.

The PIA enacted in 2021 empowered the regulator to review the technical and financial capabilities of companies holding oil exploration leases.

Investments in oil exploration in the country have been few and far between as oil majors exit onshore and shallow water assets due to rising insecurity and sabotage of oil infrastructure and legal disputes with communities in the Niger Delta.

The sector has since been bogged down by low investments in exploration activities, coupled with low crude oil production as a result of theft from pipeline vandalism.

The Nigerian Army on Monday accepted responsibility for a series of bombings that pummelled villages in Kaduna, leaving scores of civilians dead as part of a protracted operation targeting armed bandits along the country’s northwestern flank.

Many residents of Tundun Biri village in the Igabi Local Government Area were killed in the air raids, with several others injured on Sunday night in what an army chief told state officials was an error.

At least 126 civilians were killed in the attack, Peoples Gazette heard from an army colonel involved in the aftermath containment efforts. The Nigerian Army has not officially disclosed fatality figures, and the state government was reluctant to publicly demand accountability or criticise the military for the tragedy.

“The last information we received gave us 126 bodies. Our men are still searching all the locations to possibly recover more,” the army officer said under anonymity to comment on the ongoing investigation over the incident.

State government spokesman Samuel Aruwan said Valentine Okoro, a major-general leading the Nigerian Army 1 Division headquartered in Kaduna, had admitted at a meeting that the drone operators mistook the villagers for bandits, who have been terrorising the region.

Those bombed had gathered for the Maulud celebration at about 9:00 p.m. Sunday, during which the army said terrorists were also suspected to be moving across the borders between Zamfara and Kaduna.

Mr Aruwan said a meeting was presided over by the deputy governor, Hadiza Balarabe, and had heads of security agencies, religious and traditional leaders, and the Nigerian Army in attendance.

Mr Aruwan said Mr Okoro “explained that the Nigerian Army was on a routine mission against terrorists but inadvertently affected members of the community.

“The deputy governor, at the end of the closed-door meeting, conveyed the condolences of the government and people of Kaduna State to the families that lost their loved ones and prayed for the repose of the victims’ souls,” he added.

“As of the time of this update, search-and-rescue efforts are still ongoing, as dozens of injured victims have been evacuated to Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital by the government,” Mr Aruwa stated.

The state commissioner said the heads of security agencies who attended the meeting included the police commissioner, Musa Yusuf Garba, and the State Security Service (SSS) director in the state, Abdul Eneche.

“The chairman of the Kaduna State chapter of Jam’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), Professor Shafi’u Abdullahi, led other religious leaders.

“Also present at the meeting was the District of Rigasa, Alhaji Aminu Idris, in whose domain the incident occurred,“ Mr Aruwan said.

The airstrikes marked the first public knowledge about the army’s use of unmanned bombers outside the Nigerian Air Force, which had long been associated with repeated bombings of civilians, all of which were promptly attributed to operational mistakes. It was not immediately clear how long the Nigerian Army has been using drones without the knowledge of the Nigerian Air Force, which said it did not conduct any operation in the affected area over the past 24 hours.

“The NAF has not carried out any air operations within Kaduna State and environs in the last 24 hours,” Air Force spokesman Edward Gabkwet said in a statement to The Gazette. “Also, note that the NAF is not the only organisation operating combat armed drones in the North-Western region of Nigeria.”

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has disclosed that 422 out of Nigeria’s 1,411 delegation to ongoing, COP28, holding in Dubai were funded by the Federal Government.

The minister disclosed this as outrage continues to trail the large number of delegates attending the conference from Nigeria.

He said his clarification was hinged on the need to provide clarity in line with a standing pledge by the government to conduct itself with transparency and accessibility regarding public information.

The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly referred to as COP28, is the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, being held from November 30 to December 12, 2023 at Expo City, Dubai.

The minister said Nigeria’s representation at the conference was in line with the nation’s status as Africa’s leading sovereign voice and player in climate action.

Contingents at the conference comprised private sector players, such as businesspeople, civil society organisations and delegates from Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta region.

The social media space had went uproar over the significant presence of Nigerian delegates at the ongoing United Nations Climate Conference in Dubai.

Nigerians on social media had slammed Nigeria’s large delegation to COP28, PUNCH Online reports

A statement signed by President Bola Tinubu’s Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, on Sunday, said only a handful of the 1,411 Nigerian delegates who registered to attend the COP28 Climate Summit were sponsored by the federal government.

“It is important to state here that delegates from all countries, whether from government, private sector, media and civil society groups, attend COP summits and conferences as parties and the number of attendees are registered against their countries of origin. This does not mean they are sponsored or funded by the government,”

“It is important to state here that delegates from all countries whether from government, private sector, media and civil society groups attend COP summits and conferences as parties and the number of attendees is registered against their countries of origin.

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“This does not mean that they are sponsored or funded by the government. It must be said also that the fact that people registered to attend a conference does not mean everyone who registered is physically present.

“As the biggest country in Africa, the biggest economy and one with a bigger stake in climate action as a country with a huge extractive economy, it is a no-brainer that delegates from Nigeria will be more than any other country in Africa,” Ajayi said.

Corroborating Ajayi, Idris stated that “the Federal Government-funded delegation is made up of a total of 422 persons.”

The delegation funded by the federal government, according to the minister, are National Council on Climate Change -32 delegates; Federal Ministry of Environment -34; all ministries -167; Presidency -67; Office of the Vice President -9, National Assembly – 40, and federal parastatals/agencies -73

Successes recorded so far

The minister added that Nigeria is currently enjoying its participation in the summit.

According to him, “Nigeria and Germany signed an accelerated performance agreement to expedite the implementation of the Presidential Power Initiative to improve Nigeria’s electricity supply. The agreement was signed by Mr. Kenny Anuwe, the Managing Director and Chief Exective Officer of FGN Power Company, and Ms. Nadja Haakansson, Siemens Energy’s Senior Vice President and Managing Director for Africa, at a ceremony witnessed by President Tinubu and Chancellor Scholz.”

Also, he said President Bola Tinubu hosted a high-level meeting with stakeholders and investors on the Nigeria Carbon Market and the Electric Buses Rollout Programme on the margins of the COP28 climate summit as the nation stands to benefit from the Loss and Damage Fund established during COP-27 in Egypt and formally operationalized at the opening plenary of COP-28 in Dubai.

“The fund will provide substantial non-debt financing to support countries most affected by the impact of climate change. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been pledged as contributions to the fund,” Idris added.

According to him, Tinubu also met the President of the United Arab Emirates to concretise engagements between the two countries.

Following the clarification that the Federal Government only funded 422 delegates to the summit, Idris concluded in the releas that, “President Tinubu and other officials on the Federal Government delegation are in Dubai for serious business, not a jamboree.”

The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr Omar Alieu Touray paid a courtesy visit to General Yakubu Gowon

Nigeria’s former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd), has said he is concerned over the coup in Niger Republic and its impact on neighbouring countries.

Gowon spoke when the President of ECOWAS Commission, Mr Omar Alieu Touray, paid him a courtesy visit at his Abuja residence

Gowon, according to a statement from ECOWAS on Monday, “expressed his concerns over the coup in Niger and its impact on the subregion,” describing it as one of political instability in the region.

The general applauded the Chairman of ECOWAS, Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government “for showing restraint and exploring other diplomatic avenues of restoring constitutional rule to Niger.”

Recall that on 26 July 2023, some soldiers carried out a coup d’état in Niger leading to the removal and detention of President Mohamed Bazoum.

General Gowon however, expressed hope that the political impasse in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger will be resolved, and the countries will be reintegrated fully to ECOWAS.

“He appreciated the visit and recalled the early days of ECOWAS, noting that the regional body has grown in leaps and bounds, progressing beyond the basic protocol at its inception,” the ECOWAS statement partly read.

Touray acknowledged General Gowon’s exemplary leadership and support for ECOWAS and his role in fostering political stability in West Africa.

The ASUU Zonal body revealed that it was compiling records of students who would likely be dropping out of school because of arbitrary fee hikes at the end of the current academic session.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Bauchi State zone, has rejected student loans in favour of grants to fund their education.

The ASUU Zonal body revealed that it was compiling records of students who would likely be dropping out of school because of arbitrary fee hikes at the end of the current academic session.

The zonal coordinator, associate Professor Lazarus Maigoro, who disclosed this during the award of scholarships to 19 indigent undergraduates in the zone at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, Leading Reporters learnt that the aim of collecting the students’ data was to use it engage the government to review its decision on the issue of the loans and replace them with grants.

Maigoro said, “The question is: who will pay the loan? What is the fate of those who cannot access it? The psychological trauma the students will be subjected to due to the loan while still in their studies will affect their performance negatively.

“The thought that they would graduate with a loan of N4million and above without the capacity to pay back is another psychological torture on them.”

Also speaking at the occasion, the ATBU branch Chairman of ASUU, Ibrahim Inuwa, assured that the union would continue to act as a socially responsible organisation by fighting for the collective interest of quality tertiary education.

He revealed that the scholarship award, a yearly event would always seek out brilliant but indigent students for the recognition and award.