Gabon’s new strongman General Brice Oligui Nguema will be sworn in as “transitional president” on Monday at the constitutional court, coup leaders said.

Oligui will “phase in transitional institutions”, Ulrich Manfoumbi Manfoumbi, spokesman for the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI) said on state TV on Thursday, a day after rebel officers overthrew President Ali Bongo Ondimba.

No details were given on the duration of the transitional institutions.

All general secretaries, ministerial offices, director generals and officials of state services have been instructed “to ensure in the immediate future the effective resumption of work and continuity of the functioning of all public services”, the spokesman said.

Keyamo halts Nigeria Air project, reverses concession of airports
Niger Junta orders eviction of French ambassador
Gabon will also respect all its commitments at home and abroad, the army chiefs pledged.

Oligui “would like to reassure all donors, development partners as well as state creditors that all provisions will be taken to guarantee respect for our country’s commitments both externally and internally,” the spokesman added.

The military regime in Nige has ordered the police to forcefully evict French ambassador, Ambassador, Sylvain Itte, from the country.

The soldiers who ousted Niger’s president Mohamed Bazoum last month had given Ambassador Sylvain Itte 48 hours to leave the country.

The deadline expired on August 28 without France recalling Itte.

French government had said it did not recognise the coup rulers as the country’s legitimate leaders.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said the ambassador would stay in the country despite the junta’s pressure.

The latest communique sent by Niger’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Itte “no longer enjoys the privileges and immunities attached to his status as a member of the diplomatic staff of the embassy.”

The document also said the diplomatic cards and visas of the ambassador’s families have been canceled.

Since ousting Niger’s democratically elected Bazoum, the junta has leveraged anti-French sentiment among the population to shore up its support.

The regional bloc, ECOWAS deployed a “standby” force and ordered it to transition Niger back to constitutional rule. The force has not yet entered Niger, and the bloc says the door remains open to dialogue but it won’t wait forever.

The junta has appointed a new government and said it would return Niger to the system of government prescribed by the constitution within three years, a timeline that ECOWAS has rejected.

The African Union’s Peace and Security Council said it was holding a meeting Thursday on the situation in Gabon, following the military coup there this week.

“Now, AU Peace & Security Council meets to consider the situation in Gabon,” the AU body said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

It said the meeting was being chaired by AU Commissioner for Political Affairs Bankole Adeoye of Nigeria and the current holder of the council’s rotating chair, Burundi’s Willy Nyamitwe.

It gave no further information.

On Wednesday, the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said he “strongly condemns” what he described as an attempted coup in the oil-rich central African state.

Rebel army officers announced Wednesday that they had seized power following disputed elections, in which President Ali Bongo Ondimba had been declared victor.

Faki had also called on the Gabonese army and security forces “to guarantee the physical integrity” of Bongo, who the coup leaders said had been placed under house arrest.

The House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the utilization of Ecological Funds and other intervention funds of the Great Green Wall Project on Wednesday queried claims by the National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW) that it spent N81bn to plant 21 million trees in the frontline states in the north.

The states are Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno.

NAGWW Director-General, Yusuf Maina Bukar, told the committee that the agency also spent N697.71m on renovation of office accommodation and N11.28bn on capital projects.

He said the main funding of the agency was from 15 per cent of the Ecological Funds and the federal allocation as well as other sources for its operations.

The committee also quizzed the Central Bank of Nigeria over seven accounts domiciled in the apex bank.

A six-page document dated 22nd August, 2023 submitted by the CBN showed that N9,465,960,382.57 was domiciled in the agency’s account from 2015 to date.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, represented by Deputy Director, Irene Nwangwu, said the NAGWW had received a total of N19,377,726,506.95 from the Derivation & Ecology Accounts from February 2019 to date.

In addition, the agency also received the N11.023bn as capital expenditure through the oAGF.

Nwangwu said former President Muhammadu Buhari approved the release of N2.309bn to the agency as 2020 statutory 5% Ecological Fund.

The chairman of the committee, Isma’ila Haruna Dabo and members complained that the NAGGW spent monies without commensurate results.

The committee also said the agency deviated from its core mandate.

He said, “Projects such as the Great Green Wall under investigation here were designed primarily to address some of these issues.

The persistence of these challenges despite funds put into the programme from both the federal government and international partners has necessitated this investigation.

“In recent years, we have witnessed a significant upsurge in natural environmental challenges such as land degradation, deforestation, desertification and drought, which most times are explained away with the context of climate change”.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has urged African leaders to focus on the cause of the recent spike in military coups across the continent.

Atiku stated this while reacting to the Gabon coup on his official X handle on Thursday.

Expressing his worries over the trend of military takeovers in Africa, he noted that the Gabon coup is the eighth in Africa since 2020.

“The coup in Gabon stands condemned. Democracy and democratic governance have come to stay as a preferred form of government.

“The latest coup brings the number of military takeovers in Central and West Africa to 8 since 2020. This is worrisome. We may have to focus on dealing with the disease and not the symptoms that birth coups,” he tweeted.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has said if the flag bearer of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, was a better candidate, Nigerians would have voted him in the February 25, 2023 poll.

Wike spoke on Wednesday while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.

The ex-governor of Rivers State said he supported the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the expense of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the standard bearer of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the keenly contested poll.

When asked whether Obi would have handled the major issues confronting the Nigerian economy better than Tinubu if he had been elected, Wike said he doesn’t discuss presidential candidates any longer.

“I don’t want to discuss social media issue,” the FCT minister said. “I don’t discuss about presidential candidate any longer; I discuss about the economy, the President, what he has to offer.”

“If he (Obi) would have been better, Nigerians would have voted for him.”

Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, came third in the election won by APC’s Tinubu. The LP candidate and his PDP counterpart are in court to challenge the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declaring Tinubu as winner of the poll.

Also speaking during the interview on Wednesday, the FCT minister dared the leadership of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to suspend or discipline him.

He said he has not seen the party chieftain who will suspend or expel him from the party.

“Who will discipline me? I should be the one calling for the discipline of these people who violated the party’s constitution, in the way that the party supported rotation.

“Who will suspend me? I want to dare anybody,” Wike said.

The ex-governor said he informed PDP leadership before he took the ministerial offer of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Wike said he remained a PDP chieftain despite working for the APC government. “I want to support Asiwaju (Tinubu) to finish well,” he said.

The PDP powerbroker and member of the G5 group within the main opposition party said he owed no one an apology for supporting power shift to southern Nigeria.

Wike said, “We are just waiting for the presidential panel to finish, you will know who actually are those who are working well for the party.

“How can anybody talk about expelling me? A state that brought a governor? A state that brought three senators? A state that produced 32 House of Assembly members? A state that produced 11 out of 13 House of Representatives.

“The person that would suspend me is the one that couldn’t produce a governor, is the one that couldn’t produce three senators?

“I have not seen that person, with all due respect. Nobody will do it. So, the issue of they will do it does not arise.”

The Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma has commenced the distribution of 65,000 bags of rice as palliatives to the people of Imo to cushion the impact of fuel subsidy removal.

The governor flagged-off the distribution in Owerri defying the heavy down poor occasioned by the weather.

Recall that the Federal Government had released N5bn each for states across the federation to help in cushioning the effects of fuel subsidy removal.

The governor said while the subsidy removal is causing temporary hardship, it still remains the best decision by the present government to save the nation’s economy.

He also revealed that the federal government will deliver to the state CNG and electric buses to help reduce transportation cost across the state.

He said: “You recall the incident of the policy of the removal of petroleum subsidy and the temporary hardship that followed. That policy is one of the most cogent policy that this government has taken to be able save our economy from collapse.

“Today, I am flagging-off the distribution under phase One, 65,000 thousands bags of rice to all the citizens and indigents of Imo state.

“I want you to join me in thanking the president of the federal republic of Nigeria President Ahmed Bola Tinubu.

“He is a great thinker, he is an economist, he knows how to create wealth and he is bent at rebuilding the economy.

“There will be some initial challenges but on the over all, he has rolled out some policies that will recover our economy, reduce the foreign exchange rate in Nigeria and also create prosperity for our people.”

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has nullified the decision of the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Asaba which dismissed a petition filed by the 2023 governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Ken Pela, against the election of the state governor, Sheriff Oborevwori.

The appellate court held that the Tribunal’s dismissal of the case before the main hearing was null and void.

The appellate court’s decision paves the way for a full hearing of the petition by the Tribunal, according to Pela’s legal team.

Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the People’s Democratic party’s candidate, Oborevwori, as the winner of the Guber poll with 360,234 votes while Ovie Omo-Agege of the All Progressives Party came second with 240,229 votes and Pela garnered 48,027 votes.

Disagreeing with the declaration by INEC, Pela had approached the Tribunal challenging the election of the incumbent governor.

The grounds of his petitions bordered on non-qualification, accusing the governor of certificate forgery as well as alleged non-compliance to the Electoral Act by INEC in view of the alleged blank polling unit results uploaded to and downloaded from the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IRev).

Those joined as respondents in the petition marked EPT/DL/GOV/01/23, were INEC, Governor Oborevwori, his Deputy, Monday Onyeme and the People’s Democratic party.

But at the pre-hearing stage, the lead counsel to Oborevwori and Onyeme, Damian Dodo SAN, had urged the Tribunal to dismiss the LP’s petition for being abandoned by petitioners.

He had argued that the petitioner’s failure to apply for a pre-hearing notice within time meant his petition was incompetent and ought to be thrown out.

The media unit of the Delta State Government claimed in a statement on July 6 that the chairperson of the tribunal’s panel, C.H Ahuchaogu, said “the petition was incompetent and a flagrant violation of paragraph 18 subsection one of the fourth schedule to the Electoral Act 2022.

“There is merit in the application seeking to dismiss this petition and accordingly, (the) petition, EPT/DL/GOV/01/2023, is hereby dismissed.”

But Pela instituted an appeal (CA/AS/EP/GOV/DL/04/23) before the Court of Appeal saying the Tribunal erred in law by dismissing his petition without hearing and determining it.

On Thursday, the Appellate court agreed with the petitioner’s submission, saying that the decision of the Tribunal dismissing his petition is null and void.

Reacting after the court rose, Adams.M told THE WHISTLER that the petition of his client at the Tribunal was still on course as he will continue with his case.

“I thank God for today. We are heading back to the Tribunal. We are continuing from where we stopped,” he said.

On how the LP can prove its case knowing that the 180 days timeline would elapse in about two weeks time, the legal team said they would strategize to beat the deadline.

“Within the next few days, they should set up a panel for the Tribunal.

“By the special grace of God, we have the strategies that we will try to adopt to speed up the process so that we are within time. I think he has a very strong case at the Tribunal but it is left for the judges to decide,” Pela’s legal team said.

…..Grows Profit By 12.1% To N101.1bn

The Chairman of BUA Cement Plc, Abdul Samad Rabiu has promised to support the efforts of the Federal Government to drive down the price of cement in Nigeria.

Rabiu said this during an interview with journalists held at the sidelines of the company’s seventh Annual General Meeting held on Thursday in Abuja.

The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi had last week said that he will dialogue with cement manufacturers for them to reduce the prices of their products.

The Minister who spoke while featuring on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme had said contractors have complained over the high cost of cement in the country and made claims that importing the product would be cheaper.

“I’m going to be running figures with them (cement manufacturers) to check the cost of cement if we import it and the cost they are giving us here,” he said.

But speaking on the development, the BUA Cement Chairman said the company is currently increasing its production capacity, noting that once that is achieved by the end of this year, it will boost availability of the product and drive down prices.

The price of cement hovers between N4,500 and N4,800 depending on the location.

Rabiu said, “I understand that the minister is quite concerned, that the price of cement is high at almost N5,000 per tonne. I appreciate where the government is coming from and the frustration from all the issues in the country.

“The price of cement at N5,000 is not high. If we look at the rate of the US dollar today, to import cement will be at N5,000. The cement cost, insurance and freight to any port in Nigeria will be in the region of about $100 a tonne. So, at $100 per tonne, if you take N800 to $1 then it will be N4,000 per bag. Then the port cost, and transportation from the port.

“It’s not that the government wants to import cement, but they are frustrated that the price of cement is high. What we told our shareholders is that we will engage with the government to support the government.

“Even though we know that the price of cement is high, it will not be cheaper if imported. We have two lines coming up by the end of the year, the Obu Line 3 and the Sokoto Line 5 that will give us a combined capacity of six million tonnes.

“By the time we have those two lines active with the current one, we will have about 17 million tonnes per annum. We are going to reduce the prices of cement once these two lines are up and running. This is the promise we are making to Nigerians.”

At the AGM, the shareholders approved the proposal of the board of directors to pay the sum of N2.80 per share in 2022 compared to the N2.60 per share paid in the previous year of 2021

Speaking on the financial performance, the BUA Cement Chairman told the shareholders that despite the challenging operating environment, the Company demonstrated strength and sustained capacity, which resulted in the excellent financial performance.

According to him, revenue rose by 40.3 per cent to N361.9bn in 2022 as against N257.3bn recorded in 2021, He said this outperformed its peers in cement volume growth during the period under review.

In terms of profitability, the BUA Cement Chairman explained further that profit after tax rose by 12.1 per cent to N101.1bn, in comparison to N90.1bn recorded in 2021.

On the outlook for the company, Rabiu expressed optimism that domestic demand for cement will continue to rise given the increased consciousness on the part of the governments at all level to improve existing economic and infrastructures, continued private-public partnerships, increasing interests in the Federal Government’s Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme and the drive for Foreign Direct Investments.

He said, “As a company, we remain focused on our strategies primarily market consolidation as there is no market across the country where our presence is non-existent.

“We eagerly and excitedly await the completion of the Lines 3 and 5 at Obu and Sokoto during the first quarter of 2024. This would enable us provide more quantities of cement to the domestic market and particularly increase our market share across the African continent.”

Many of the shareholders who spoke at the AGM commended the board and management of the company for the improvement in financial performance.

They urged the board and management of BUA Cement not to relent in their quest to grow the company.