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The Court of Appeal in Abuja has reversed the October 2 judgment of the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sacking Governor Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

A three-member panel of the court held that the tribunal was wrong to have declined to determine the legal issues identified in the objection raised by the APC and Sule, challenging its jurisdiction to hear the petition by the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, David Ombugadu and the competence of the petition.

The court held that the petitioners at the tribunal – PDP and Ombugadu – failed to prove their allegations of over-voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

The court, having delivered judgment on the main appeal, is giving its decisions on the remaining three cross-appeals.

Details shortly…

The Senate has vowed to sack and jail the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari and other top executive officers of petroleum subsidiaries.

The upper legislative chamber specifically threatened to sack the executive officers whose agencies were involved in the Turn Around Maitenance (TAM) projects of refineries in the country.

The senate, on Wednesday, noted that from 2010 till date, over N12 trillion has been spent on TAM.

The Senate also said that it has records of over $592 million, €4.8 million and £3.4 million spent between 2010 till date on TAM, yet none of the refineries is working.

Chairman of the Senate ad-hoc committee investigating the various TAM projects of refineries, Senator Isah Jibrin, made the threats following the failure of Kyari and other chief executive officers of its subsidiaries to attend an interactive session by the panel.

Some of the agencies invited whose chief executive officers failed to turn up at the session but sent representatives include the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL); Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA); Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and others.

Senator Jibrin noted that so much has been heard on the TAM of refineries and so much have been spent on operational materials on the refineries that are not working.

He said that the Senate wanted to find solutions to all the leakages, as there are a lot of them.

“We will ask for refund and dismissal of all the chief executives involved in the Turn Around Maintenance,” he declared.

Jibrin said that for weeks, they have been asking for documents, which have not been given by the oil companies, a development that created suspicion.

“We sent them invitation more than two weeks ago requesting for documents and the documents have not been released after two weeks. So, we want the chief executives to be present,” he continued.

“More worrisome is between 2010 and 2020, the sum of N4.8 trillion was said to have been spent as operational expenses.

“How do you incur operational expenses that have to do with purchase of raw materials and similar expenses on factories that are moribund? How do we come about operational expenses? We need to know.

“These are issues that Nigerians want to know; they want solutions to all these leakages. We know they are leakages. Whether you accept it or not they are leakages and they are all forms of compromise within your various establishments.

“We know and we will not hesitate to escalate it to the highest possible level, including possibility of refund and outright dismissal of some of the heads of some of these agencies and possibly go to jail,” the senator added.

Senator Yahaya Abdullahi said that NNPCL and management of other agencies, who came to represent their bosses, should be sent back to tell their chief executives that they should appear in person rather than send representatives.

Senator Sumaila Kawu said that they know the modus operandi of the civil service, adding, “We are not in the Senate for personal functions. We are representing the entire legislators. You in the civil service, we know how you are operating.

“We are in a very serious business. At the end, you will be at the receiving end. Nigerians are not satisfied with what you are doing and you will be at the receiving end.

“We are independent. We can go to any length to defend our people. It is the constitution that established you. So, we must agree how to operate.

“We will suspend this interaction until when you are ready. We have 100 ways through which we can achieve our legislative work. We just wanted to give you fair hearing and you must respect the constitution,” he added.

Reports of scarcity have emerged across the country despite recent assurances by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that there is enough naira in circulation.

A survey on Wednesday confirmed scarcity in some parts of Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Kwara, Gombe, Edo, Sokoto, and Ekiti states.

Many bank customers and Point of Sales (POS) operators lamented that it is becoming a challenge to access cash for their economic activities.

This is coming weeks after the CBN affirmed that it has enough currency notes in the market and hence no need for panic withdrawals by members of the public.

In a circular titled ‘All Banknotes Issued by the CBN Remain Legal Tender,’ signed by Director, Corporate Communications, Isa AbdulMumin, the bank stated that it was aware of reported scarcity of cash across some major cities. It noted that there have also been concerns among some members of the public over the legality of old naira notes.

The bank said, “For the avoidance of doubt, while reiterating that there are sufficient banknotes across the country for all normal economic activity, we wish to state unambiguously that every banknote issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) remains legal tender and should not be rejected by anyone, as stipulated in Section 20(5) of the CBN Act, 2007.”

It cautioned members of the public to avoid panic withdrawals and stressed that it has enough currency notes to facilitate normal economic activities.

The concern from members of the public over the legality of old naira notes is connected to issues surrounding the naira redesign policy of the apex bank.

However, cash scarcity, a major downside of the CBN’s naira redesign policy, has begun to resurface. Visits to some banks on Wednesday revealed scanty banking halls and ATM galleries.

A customer, who gave his name as Ganiyu Tunde, at the Union Bank branch along Oshodi Expressway in Lagos claimed that banks were only dispensing N5,000 via ATMs to non-customers.

Bank customers of Union Bank were, however, able to get up to N20,000 at the ATM and inside the bank.

The rows of ATMs at an Access Bank branch nearby were empty because there was no cash in them as of the time of filing this report.

A banker who spoke on the condition of anonymity blamed the cash scarcity on weak supply from the CBN.

“It is the CBN that is responsible for this cash scarcity. We are not getting enough from them. They are just causing unnecessary suffering for the masses,” the source told Punch.

A respondent in the Federal Capital Territory, Festus Okoromadu, was concerned that he could not withdraw at the First Bank branches in his area.

“What I was told was that the bank’s network was temporarily unavailable, which made the transaction impossible. This has been the case at some of the banks in the FCT in recent times, withdrawing money is becoming more challenging,” he said.

In Kano, some commercial banks were not honouring withdrawal requests from customers, and ATM galleries.

It was further gathered that the few banks that were paying customers did not give beyond certain amounts.

A customer who simply gave his name as Hayatudeen said, “Many banks lack money to give to customers and when you inquire, they will not give you any satisfactory explanation as to why.”

He noted that the story is the same with POS operators because they are also complaining of scarcity.

He added, “Even though most of the POS operators are getting their money from traders and other business operators, they still complain of the scarcity.”

He further alleged that many POS operators have increased their charges by about 50 per cent.

In Kwara, banks are rationing cash to their customers as some commercial banks are not allowing customers to withdraw more than N20,000 daily from their accounts.

Some of the bankers noted that customers are no longer bringing in a lot of cash to save in their accounts leading to the shortage of cash.

One banker said, “Banks do not have enough cash to pay out to customers because people are not bringing money to the bank.

“We only ration the available money among the customers. Anyone that comes to withdraw is paid N20,000 but few highly placed customers are given N50,000 when they come to withdraw.”

In Ekiti State, an official at the Union Bank branch, Okesa Ado Ekiti, revealed that the branch was unable to meet the specific withdrawal demand of its customers because “there is no sufficient cash for now. We give what we can afford to ensure it goes around.”

A bank customer of one of the First Bank branches in the capital city, who only identified herself as Tope, lamented, “I do not know exactly what the problem is, but no customer was able to get more than N10,000 – N20,000 in the bank hall. I learnt it was the same story at their ATMs in the bank.”

At the ATM points of Wema Bank, Okesa area, bank customers with Wema Bank ATM cards could withdraw N20,000. Customers with ATM cards from other banks could only withdraw N10,000.

In Sokoto State, a resident, Kabiru Nura, said: “Even though the issue is becoming more relaxed the scarcity is still very much with us. The funniest part is at ATMs, you hardly get cash at ATMs these days. The last time this happened was during the naira redesign policy, and this should really be a thing of the past now.”

PoS operators in Gombe State are worried about the resurging naira scarcity in the state.

Adamu Salisu, who operates a stand in the Bagadaza area of the state, said, “All of a sudden, we cannot get free access to lump sum of cash. I and some of my colleagues now rely on traders in the market who get some cash from transactions to remain in business.”

Also speaking, Sandra James, a resident in the state, continued, “Many people prefer to do transfer through phone as just a few have access to funds. It is sad.”

Another PoS operator, Mohammed Rafi, added, “We are going through so much stress to get money to give customers, but customers are complaining because we have increased our charges as we had previously done during the early part of the year.”

In Edo, POS operators, store owners, and bank customers lamented their inability to get cash.

A POS operator, who only gave her name as Faith, declared that cash is scarce in Benin as banks now ration the amount that can be withdrawn at the ATMs.

She said, “I noticed that the scarcity of cash began late last week. You can only get N20,000 from your bank’s ATM and those who come with other banks’ ATM cards may get N10,000. They also refuse to pay across the counter while you can get N10,000 if you are lucky.

According to the President of the Bank Customers Association of Nigeria, Dr Uju Ogunbunka, members have reported any such issues with cash withdrawals.

He said, “This news surfaced a few weeks ago, and some of the banks I visited gave out cash to their customers. If there is a limitation at all, then it means something is driving it. But I see no reason because there is no issue regarding whether it’s new notes or old notes; that problem has already been resolved. But if anything is driving this report, I think we need to find out.

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has dissolved the party’s executive at all levels in Rivers State.

The APC national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, disclosed this while briefing journalists after the meeting of the NWC at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.

He announced the NWC’s decision to appoint a seven-member caretaker committee to steer the party’s affairs in the state for the next six months.

The caretaker committee comprised Chief Tony C. Okocha – chairman; Chief Eric Nwibani – secretary; Hon. Chibuike Ikenga; Prince Stephen Abolo; Hon. Silvester Vidin; Senibo Karibi Dan-Jumbo and Miss Darling Amadi as members.

Reading out the party’s decision signed by the national chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and deputy national secretary, Barr. Festus Fuanter, the party’s spokesperson said, the caretaker committee is mandated to conduct a comprehensive and fresh electronic party registration of all members in the state.

Morka said the caretaker committee will be inaugurated on Friday, November 24, 2023 at the party’s national secretariat, Abuja.

“The Caretaker Committee subject to the directives of the NWC was entrusted with preparing for the conduct of congresses to facilitate the emergence of new Executive Committees for the Party at various levels, extending from the ward to the state,” he stated.

Despites no legislation to guide its practice in Nigeria, surrogacy, which is a reproductive process that has brought joy and fulfilment to many couples struggling with fertility issues, soars in Nigeria, Leading Reporters has learnt.

For instance, a recent study titled: “In-vitro Fertilization, Gamete Donation and Surrogacy: Perceptions of Women Attending an Infertility Clinic in Ibadan, Nigeria”, carried out on 307 Nigerians, revealed that 58.3 per cent of Nigerians were aware of In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and 59.3 per cent of them affirmed that they would accept it as treatment; 35.2 per cent would accept donor eggs and 24.7 per cent would accept donor sperms—a smaller proportion anticipated acceptability by their husbands. 

Also, findings of the study revealed that 35 percent of respondents were aware of surrogacy and 37.8 per cent would accept it as treatment, but with a stranger as a surrogate.

Mrs Ada Eze, 46, is one of the women who not only claimed she would go for surrogacy, but actually did it.

According to her, she got married nine years ago, and her plan was to get pregnant immediately, as the advice from her doctor still rings in her head.

“My doctor told me that at aged 35 to 40, it is difficult to get pregnant, due to the fact that age factor is a key indicator for fertility. For instance, he told me that for healthy couples in their 20s and early 30s, around one in four women will get pregnant in any single menstrual cycle. By age 40, around one in 10 will get pregnant per menstrual cycle.

“I knew what I needed to do when I got married at the age of 37. However, for the past eight years, my husband and I kept trying every month, including IVF, all to no avail. At aged 45, we decided to go for surrogacy. Today, I am carrying my bundle of joy” Mrs Eze told news corespondants

Despite the fact that there is no law on surrogacy practice in Nigeria, it has assisted a lot of infertile women to carry their bundle of joy, fertility expert and managing director, Nordica Fertility Centre, Dr. Abayomi Ajayi, 

When faced with infertility, couples are introduced to many treatment modalities, terminologies and abbreviations, especially when Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) is required; One of these modalities/terminologies is Surrogacy, which is a form of third party reproduction, Ajayi disclosed.

The managing director defined surrogacy as an arrangement, often supported by a legal agreement, whereby a woman (the surrogate mother) agrees to become pregnant and give birth to a child for another person(s) (commissioning couple) who is or will become the parent(s) of the child.

There are two types of surrogacy, which are the traditional and gestational/IVF surrogacy, Ajayi averred, adding that, “The traditional surrogacy is a process where the surrogate mother is artificially inseminated by the intended father or an anonymous donor and carries the baby to term. The child is therefore genetically linked to both the surrogate and the owner of the sperm sample.

“On the other hand, gestational/IVF Surrogacy: An egg is removed from the intended mother or an anonymous donor and fertilized with the sperm of the intended father or anonymous donor via IVF. The embryo is transferred to the surrogate who carries the baby to term. The child is therefore genetically related to the owner of the eggs who could be either the intended mother or a donor and the owner of the sperm but not the surrogate.”

The managing director said a woman with no womb; a woman with any kind of uterine disease or anomaly; a woman who may not have a diagnosed uterine issue but who has failed to become pregnant after several embryo transfers; a woman who has history of miscarriages or pre-term birth thought to be due to factors other than egg/sperm quality or genetics (i.e. uterine or cervix issues); basically, anyone who does not have a womb or who has one that does not appear to work correctly is a good candidate for surrogacy.

“If you are doing gestational surrogacy, you will need to do IVF, as the sperm and egg would need to be extracted. Next is to choose surrogate. This is where the major problem lies, as some couple would choose their close relative as surrogate. My advice for couple who want to go for surrogacy is for them to choose someone who is not close to them, and get a good and versatile lawyer who can draft agreement, to prevent future crises. 

“After choosing your surrogate, the fertility clinic jumps in by screening the surrogate to ascertain her mental and health status. After that process, the embryo is then transferred into her womb and we wait for two weeks, to know if she is pregnant or not.

Though surrogacy is common in Nigeria, the constitution of Nigeria prohibits its practice, as Section 30 of the Child Rights Act (2003) prohibits the buying, selling, hiring or dealing in children. 

Also, the Trafficking In Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act also condemns all forms of human trafficking, hence the reason why police raids of baby factories are common in recent time.

Some of police raids on baby factories  include a mission in February that rescued 24 babies and four expectant mothers described as “frail and malnourished” in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt and a mission in September that rescued 19 women and girls that had been kidnapped. 

While Ajayi strongly condemned baby factory, he however posited that surrogacy should be  encourage in Nigeria, as it is an option of ART, that can help a lot of couples who are battling with fertility issues.

“We need to make people understand what surrogacy really is. That will help them to desist from patronizing baby factory. Surrogacy and baby factory can be likened to a situation where someone goes to the bank and collect his money, through the normal process and another person goes to the bank at night and break the bank to collect his money.

“Though, it is his money, but he didn’t follow the normal procedure. That is the same with baby factory, as it is not legally recognized, while surrogacy is recognized in Nigeria, but we need legislation to guide its practice,” Ajayi stated.

He disclosed that Lagos state is trying to come up with legislation on surrogacy. “We eagerly look forward to it. The state did an open session, to get input from practitioners. So we look forward to it, because a lot of people are abusing the process. The legislation should cover areas not only from the practitioners, but also from surrogates and intended couples,” he advised.

In the same vein, the former president, Fertility Awareness Advocacy Initiative (FAAI), Mr Omos Evborokhai,  strongly frowns at baby factories, just as the law also frowns at it, while urging fertility challenged couples to go through the medical route, which is safer. 

“If you want to adopt, please adopt legally, but if you want to go all out, then seek medical intervention which is safer, instead of going through the back door to buy babies. You are only deceiving yourself and the law will catch up with you. If you have headache, you go to the pharmacist; if your car has problem, you take it to the mechanic; if you are battling with infertility, then seek the attention of a medical expert, rather than keeping innocent girls, holding them hostage, until they conceived and give birth, which is a criminal act,” Evborokhai advised.

The Federal Government says it is dedicated to extending irrigation projects and reactivating dormant initiatives to improve food security in the country.

Prof. Joseph Utsev, Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, stated this during a familiarisation tour to the Anambra-Imo River Basin Development Authority facilities in Agbala, near Owerri, on Wednesday.

Utsev stated that his ministry was looking into new ways and techniques of revitalizing the Lower Anambra Irrigation Project (LAIP), the largest rice irrigation project in the South-East.

He stated that LAIP has enormous potential in the zone for food security, wealth growth, poverty reduction, and employment creation.

“In order to revitalize the River Basin Development Authorities, the Federal Government has approved the partial commercialization of the 12 River Basin Development Authorities towards making them sustainable and commercially viable,” he said.

The minister urged respectable investors to increase their investments in the water industry, stating that President Bola Tinubu’s administration was resolved to cultivate 500,000 hectares of irrigable land.

He also stated that the ministry was carrying out water management and irrigation projects in order to ensure steady and enhanced food production to feed the nation.

Anambra State government will borrow N120 billion from financial institutions to fund the 2024 budget, according to the estimate the governor, Prof Charles Soludo, presented…

Anambra State government will borrow N120 billion from financial institutions to fund the 2024 budget, according to the estimate the governor, Prof Charles Soludo, presented to the state’s assembly. 

Soludo had on Tuesday presented a budget of N410 billion to the Anambra State House of Assembly for consideration and approval. 

According to the governor, the budget deficit would be funded by borrowing from financial institutions.

“Our internally generated revenue (IGR) remains a fundamental challenge. In the 2023 budget, we expected a monthly revenue of N4 billion. 

“So far, we are averaging N2 billion, and we are still projecting N4.2 billion per month in 2024. This is a wake-up call to all residents of Anambra, and all Ndi Anambra wherever they may live. We can’t build the envisioned livable and prosperous homeland with our saliva” he said. 

The governor said in the proposed 2024 budget, recurrent expenditure is 23% while capital expenditure is 77%. 

Dana Air has denied the claims of an explosion of the engine of its Abuja-bound aircraft shortly after take-off.

Dana Air in a statement on Wednesday denied any form of engine explosion but admitted that the aircraft developed fault before take-off.

An X user had raised the alarm that the engine of an aircraft belonging to Dana which was scheduled to take-off from Lagos to Abuja exploded shortly before take-off time.

But in its reply, Dana said “Our attention has been drawn to an online post suggesting that one of our engines exploded shortly before take-off.

“Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have given such a baseless and unfounded post from the X handle the attention it is seeking, but for the benefit of enlightenment and our valued guests who have shown better understanding.”

The airline explained that the aircraft “had some operational challenges and non- scheduled maintenance of our aircraft which led to the disruption of our schedule.”

According to Dana passengers on the affected flights were provided options and issues resolved.

“We are still wondering where this Twitter user got his fake news from. At Dana Air, the safety of our staff and customers remains a top priority and we urge the public and discerning minds to disregard this fake news which is obviously attention-seeking and malicious.”

Between September to date, three airlines have skidded off the runway.

On November 14, 2023, the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau confirmed an incident involving a Bombardier CRJ-900LR aircraft with Nationality and Registration Marks, 5N-BXR belonging to Valuejet Airlines.

Few days before the Valuejet incident, Aero Contractors aircraft was involved in similar incident at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja.