Senators Opeyemi Bamidele and David Umahi have been elected as the Senate Majority Leader and Deputy Majority Leader, respectively, in the 10th Nigerian Senate.

The announcement was made on Monday by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, at the resumption of plenary and their adoption by senators of the ruling party.

Opeyemi is the Senator representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District of Ekiti State while Umahi represents Ebonyi South Senatorial District.

The Senate President also announced the APC Senator’s adoption of Mohammed Ali Ndume as
Senate Majority Whip and Lola Ashiru as Deputy Majority Whip.

More details to follow…

The Abia State governor, Dr. Alex Otti, on Monday launched a new digital tax system that would help the state eliminate fraud and intermediaries in revenue generation.

The new system, which integrates free medical insurance scheme for all commercial vehicle drivers and riders of Keke and Okada, will see the state also maximise its revenue potential, according to the state’s Chief Executive Officer.

Speaking at the launch, Dr. Otti, who was flanked by some senior members of his cabinet, including the Chief of Staff, Dr. Caleb Ajagba; the Special Adviser on Internally-Generated Revenue, Mr. Chimereze Isaac Okigbo; and Special Adviser on Policies and Interventions, Rev Father Christian Anokwuru, said that the introduction of the new digital system will not only strengthen the state’s tax collection but would also promote economic growth and entrepreneurship in the state.

“By simplifying tax compliance procedures, we have removed barriers for businesses, encourage formalisation, and stimulate investment. This initiative empowers entrepreneurs, enabling them to focus on their ventures’ growth and expansion, ultimately leading to job creation and economic prosperity for our state.

“By eliminating fraud, intermediaries, and introducing the digital platform to block leakages, we will unlock the true potential of our tax system to maximise revenue for development projects.

“The digitalised tax regime ensures that every business, large or small, contributes its fair share towards the growth of our state. With the expected increased revenue, the government can invest in infrastructure development, education, healthcare, and other essential sectors that will uplift the lives of all Ndi Abia,” Governor Otti affirmed.

He declared that the free medical insurance scheme component of the new digital tax payment system is a fulfilment of his campaign promise to create an affordable health care delivery “for our people across all sectors and segments” of the society.

The new digital tax system essentially aims at sanitising revenue generation in the transport sector and the markets. While the Permit to Operate Tickets targets those in the transport business, the Innovative Traders Tax Payment aptly targets traders in the market areas.

“Unlike in the past where revenue agents abused these daily tickets with all manner of collectibles, now, we are promoting Transparency and Ease of Compliance in our commitment to making tax compliance simpler and more accessible. The digitalised tax regime introduces enumeration and easy paying platforms which includes the use of USSD and wallet services.

“The Permit to operate Tickets for Transporters has been designed in bouquets which gives the commercial transport operators options to choose among the daily, weekly and monthly scheme. This has eliminated all forms of middle men that have been meddling on our revenue collection space. We are also optimistic that this model will eventually eliminate and reduce the risk of extortion, promote transparency, increase tax compliance, strengthen ease of doing business in Abia state and empower these businesses to operate within a legally defined framework and environment,” the governor said.

In the same vein, he said the new framework for Innovative Traders Tax Payment “is the first of its kind in our state”. According to him, it was carefully designed within the ambit of the principle of convenience and fairness.

“This model gives the traders in all our major markets the benefit of prorating their annual Market levy in a Monthly, Quarterly, Bi-Annually or Annually. A thorough consideration was made to accommodate this model so as to cushion the effect of economic hardship and business cycle volatility. This was our promise to Ndi Abia during our campaign and we are keeping to that,” he explained.

A lawyer, Johnmary Maduakolam, has threatened to sue the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, and the management of the Board should they fail to tender an apology to Anambra pupil, Mmesoma Ejikeme, who was accused by JAMB of manually inflating her 2023 UTME result.

The lawyer in a letter addressed to Oloyede noted that Mmesoma was incapable of forging her own results. He also accused JAMB of failing to protect the identity of the girl.

He said, “I am Chief Johnmary Akachukwu Maduakolam, a legal practitioner and the President of Johnmary Akachukwu Maduakolam Initiative for Education which is a pet project with a special interest in education and holistic development of the young person.

I am shocked to read from the media a circular issued by one Mr Fabian Benjamin on behalf of JAMB, accusing one Ms. Mmesoma Ejikeme, a minor and a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School Nnewi, Anambra State of faking JAMB scores to curry favour from unsuspecting philanthropists. By that publication, JAMB, under your watch, defamed the poor girl, exposed her to public opprobrium, and most especially failed to discharge its duty to the girl child under the Child’s Right Act.”

JAMB in a statement on Sunday evening noted that Ejikeme manually inflated her UTME result from 249 to 362 and used her manually increased score to attract a N3m scholarship from Innoson Motors and was set to be awarded by the Anambra state government before she was exposed.

“The most pathetic of them all is the case of Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 UTME and was awarded a N3m scholarship by Chief (Dr.) Innocent Chukwuma. She was even set to be honoured by the Anambra State Government when one of its top officials put a call through to JAMB to confirm her claim only for the Board to reveal that Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma had actually scored 249 and not 362 she claimed. She had manipulated her UTME result to deceive the public to fraudulently obtain a scholarship and other recognitions,” JAMB said.

Maduakolam in the letter said, “Paradoxically, information available in the media strongly suggests that JAMB, and not the poor girl, is culpable of dishing out fake results but even if the girl forged her results, the law affords her some protection as a child in the circumstance.

“Sequel to the above, I hereby request your good self, on her behalf, to retract forthwith the malicious publication made against the child, tender an unreserved apology to her and take steps to ensure that the trauma your conduct caused is cushioned immediately.

“Kindly note if you fail, neglect or refuse to harken to my demands for the welfare of the child, I shall drag you to a court and you shall bear its cost.”

The Zone 2 Command of the Nigeria Police has arrested two men, who allegedly specialise in hacking into bank customers’ accounts.

The Zonal Public Relations Officer, SP Hauwa Idris-Adamu, confirmed the arrest in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos.

Idris-Adamu said that the arrest followed a petition received from a bank by the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) in charge of the Zone comprising Lagos and Ogun, Mr Mohammed Ali.

“On the 8th of May 2023, a petition was submitted by United Bank for Africa (UBA) to the AIG that there are some syndicates that specialise on internet fraud of various banks in Nigeria, most especially United Bank for Africa (UBA).

“They hack into customers accounts and move their money.

“Based on the petition, the AIG raised a team of detectives from the Zonal Monitoring Unit, which swung into action with the aid of modern technology.

“The two suspects were tracked down at their hideout at Ijebu Ode, Ogun State,” she said.

According to the official, the suspects confessed to the crime.

“They confessed that they had many syndicates all over Nigeria and that they used software to hack into customers’ accounts and move their money undetected from any bank.

“The modus operandi of these fraudsters is to have a customer’s BVN-linked phone number for easy transfer of money.

“Consequently, over 1,000 customers’ accounts have been hacked and the customers defrauded across the country,” she said.

She said that further investigation into the incident revealed that members of the syndicates were from different parts of the country.

She said that efforts were being intensified to arrest all those connected with the crime.

According to her, investigation is ongoing while the suspects will be arraigned on completion of investigation. (NAN)

NNPC Limited has disclosed it plans to invest into a Maiduguri based start-up company that is into renewables and electric vehicles.

The company explained that the move would boost its footprint in the renewable energy space and help Nigeria in reducing its carbon emissions.

The Managing Director of NNPC New Energy Limited, Kanachukwu Odoe who disclosed this in an interview contained in the NNPC Quarterly Magazine, said the company plans to install charging point facilities in all its retail outlets across the country.

Odoe noted that although renewables are not yet a big deal in the country, it will be the energy of the future.

He said: “On Electric Vehicles, there are two things we are looking at.

There is a start-up from Maiduguri that is into renewables and Electric Vehicles. It’s a Nigerian start-up. We are currently discussing with them to expand their capacity to meet local demand in Nigeria.

“It’s something l believe we should invest in not just because it’s our own, but also because they are doing something that hasn’t been done before, at least, in this part of the world. So, when we invest in the company, we can have a foothold in the electric vehicles market.

“The next part will be how to provide access to charging ports for the electric vehicles We have NNPC Retail stations scattered around Nigeria, we are currently having a discussion on how to install charging points in the stations to serve electric vehicles”, he added.

He observed that “on capacity expansion with respect to renewable energy, you know that there is a gap in the power sector with regards to electricity supply, particularly in the rural areas. We must be able to meet that demand by developing capacity to provide power to those in the rural areas with renewable energy sources like solar”.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) has slammed a three-year ban against Mmesoma Ejikeme, the examination candidate who allegedly falsely inflated her exam scores.

It insisted that the result being paraded by the student is fake and that its system cannot be compromised.

The board made this known in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin on Tuesday.

Ejikeme shared a video to social media on Monday, stating that the result in question is not forged and that she rightfully obtained the score of 362 as she has always been a brilliant student.

The JAMB spokesman however, said the video was stage-managed and that Ejikeme revealed the rightful owner of the result when she said that the QR code on the result slip showed the actual owner of the said result.

“To witness the unassailable position of the Board regarding this obvious falsehood, the general public is, therefore, urged to endeavour to scan the QR code on the result slip to see its actual owner before it was mutilated”, the board stated.

“It is to be noted that the QR code encapsulates the UTME result of each candidate, hence, what is on the result sheet is nothing other than the interpretation of the information on this QR code.

“Similarly, the public is also invited to ponder on the fact that out of all the candidates that sat the 2023 UTME, only Ms. Ejikeme Mmesoma parades the obsolete ‘Notification of Result.’

“The board remains unperturbed by this unfortunate development as this is not the first time such fraudulent claims have been made. As such, Nigerians are urged to recall numerous occasions where the Board was sued for billions of naira only for the lawyers to later apologise profusely for their clients’ misadventure,” the statement read.

The board then said that it has barred her from sitting the examination for the next three years, in line with its established procedures, and has withdrawn her 2023 UTME result.

JAMB stated that the case has been handed over to security agencies for proper investigation, adding that “the truth would manifest and the Board vindicated.”

Osun State Police Command on Monday threatened to sanction any of its officers attached to public officeholders caught carrying out domestic duties for their principals.

The Command spokesperson, Yemisi Opalola, who disclosed this in a statement released in Osogbo, stated that whosoever found with the act would be punished accordingly, adding that the era of police orderlies carrying handbags, umbrellas and opening of gates, amongst other menial duties for their principals had gone.

The statement reads: “The command is miffed with consternation the way and manner government officials and personalities use police orderlies attached to them for domestic duties, such as carrying handbags, umbrellas and opening of gates, amongst other menial duties.”

“The command, therefore, warns police officers attached to these officials to stop carrying out or serving purposes other than protecting their principals from security threats. ”

“Such behaviour is highly unethical, unprofessional and would attract appropriate sanctions against erring police personnel.”

“Government officials are therefore enjoined to employ the services of domestic staff and personal assistants to carry out such services”

“Police officers attached to government officials are to protect their lives and property and not to serve as their domestic workers,” she added.

There has been so much talk of late about the Ministerial appointments that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is about to make. Given the fast-paced style of governance that he has adopted so far, it is expected that he would not waste time in coming up with a list of cabinet Ministers. The 1999 Constitution vests the President with Executive powers under Section 5(1)(a) and in other parts of that basic document to hire and also fire, if need be, persons who would assist him in the discharge of his functions as President, Commander in Chief. The Nigerian President is in fact in a position to dispense as many as 5, 000 patronages, the powers vested in his office and person are that enormous, and expansive. But of all appointments, the composition of the Federal Executive Council of the Federation is critical as seen in Sections 144(5) and 147 of the 1999 Constitution. In Section 147 (3), the Constitution says expressly that Ministerial appointments “shall be in conformity with the provisions of section 14(3) of this Constitution: Provided that in giving effect to the provisions aforesaid the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each state, who shall be an indigene of such state”.

Thus, every state is entitled to have at least one Minister in the Federal cabinet and this probably explains why there has been so much hustling and jostling by a band of aspirational office seekers, sycophants and rent-seeking characters who have been pushing and shoving to get a Ministerial appointment. It is so bad that some emergency civil society groups, obviously sponsored, have been quite vocal in making specific recommendations. Some outrightly shameless ones have gone on media platforms to recommend themselves to the President openly. I have also seen a statement by persons purporting to be defending the interest of the indigenous people of the Federal Capital Territory insisting that an indigene of the FCT must be made a Minister quoting Section 299 of the Constitution. Individuals and media platforms have also announced their own choices, including partisan lobby for some former Governors who probably need a Ministerial appointment at the centre to remain relevant, not to mention the large crowd of party stalwarts, henchmen, and supporters who believe that they or their children or associates must be compensated with Federal appointments.

Every Nigerian politician seeking an elective position invariably chalks up IOUs, for which other persons expect to be compensated with appointments, contracts or access. It is the reason why government appointments are more or less, “job for the boys”. In the last dispensation, one Governor appointed over 400 aides. A certain Special Adviser was put in charge of groundnut oil! In the present administration, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas has already announced the appointment of 33 Legislative aides. Is Dr. Abbas such an “invalid” that he needs up to 33 aides? President Tinubu certainly has many IOUs to settle, but he must not do that with appointments into the Federal cabinet. Every person that he seeks to appoint must be competent, capable and fit for purpose. He may strike a balance between technocrats and politicians, but even in doing so, nobody should show up on that list simply because they know the right people or out of a sense of entitlement. Tinubu’s Ministers must not be persons who are ready to genuflect to get a title simply because they are out of job. Nigeria is in need of renaissance, a complete overhaul. We cannot achieve that objective with a cabinet of average persons. It is still too early to forget what Nigeria went through in the past eight years under President Buhari. Most of the Ministers who served under him were great unknowns. They stayed in office for eight years, sleep-walked through office, and on top of that they were decorated with national honours! The few ones who made an effort got noticed of course simply because it is always easy to stand out in an ocean of mediocrity. No other Federal cabinet was that lacklustre since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999.

Tinubu cannot afford to go in that direction. He must give direction from the front, not from the rear. The quality of his appointees would enable us to know the actual quality of his own mind. Usually, it is part of the process that Governors and party leaders in the various states would nominate persons to the President to appoint as Ministers. Tinubu must be suspicious of such recommendations. What we have seen is that state party chieftains and Governors usually send to Abuja, persons who they do not believe would have the capacity to challenge their authority back home. It is easier for an average character to make it to the nomination list than a person of great ability and substance. This is why the President must screen his own nominees thoroughly before submitting their names for consideration. Nobody should be made a Minister who does not have demonstrable ability. The Federal cabinet cannot be a forum for the gathering of the tribes, or party agents, boys and girls who would be too willing to do the President’s bidding. They must be men and women who can tell the President what is right, not yes-men, not one of those clowns in the corridors of power who will kneel down at every opportunity for the President or crawl on all fours before him, as was once reported.

President Tinubu must send the right signal by departing from the old mode of nominating persons for Ministerial appointments. When he sends the names of his nominees to the Senate for screening in line with Section 147(6), he should attach the exact portfolios for which a particular nominee is being considered. Till date, the screening of Ministerial nominees has been a complete charade. Questions that are posed to the persons being screened may have no bearing whatsoever with the portfolio that would be assigned to them eventually. This creates room for a resort to inane and jejune questions such as who is the Governor of your state? as if the nominee is expected not to know the name of his state Governor. Or something like sing the national anthem, or recite the national pledge. This must stop, otherwise these Nigerian Senators would start asking such questions as what is your favourite food? Or have you renewed your birth certificate? Yes. Now that the Federal Government wants Nigerians to renew the proof of ownership of their vehicles every year, we may soon get to a ridiculous point where both birth and marriage certificates may have to be renewed annually so government can gain more revenue! For Ministerial appointments, nominees must be engaged in specific areas, to determine their knowledge level and expertise, and their policy plans with well-thought-out timelines, and key performance indicators. Nobody should insult our intelligence with the kind of hollow ritual that Ministerial screenings have become.

The Senate must not abdicate responsibility. It took the Israelites 40 years to get to the promised land. Nigeria cannot continue to beat about the bush. The Senate must not clear anybody for clearing sake. It must look out for nation-builders, and change-agents who can add value to the growth and development process. The screening must be thorough and meaningful. The Senate must not rely on the wisdom of its own members alone, it must seek the services of subject-area experts who can help prepare relevant questions. In the past, some Ministerial nominees who had served in the National Assembly or as state Governors were asked to simply bow and go. This must not be the case this time around. We don’t want Ministerial nominees bowing like ostriches. The whole idea of our recommendation is to allow all Nigerians to watch the process on live TV, and express opinions. Whoever is not good enough should be rejected by the Senate.

As he prepares to announce his list of Ministers, President Tinubu should pay attention not just to Federal Character, in selecting the best and the brightest, he must ensure inclusion, equity, and gender justice. He must look beyond party affiliations and select only those who can serve with distinction, across party lines, locally and from among the rich human resource that Nigeria has in the diaspora. He must include young persons, and also persons living with disability who are often discriminated against most unfairly in this country. The size of the cabinet is another issue. The Constitution already prescribes that all the 36 states must be represented, and if you add the FCT as is being canvassed, that gives us a total of 37 Ministers. But is it compulsory that a Minister must head a Ministry? Is it possible to tweak the designations in such a way that some Ministers can be Minister in charge of Departments and Agencies and still be Cabinet members? It is something that can be given some thought. The objective is to have a compact, effective team, and reduce the cost of governance. The Tinubu administration in this regard would have to visit the Oronsaye Report. Nigeria’s Federal Government is over-bloated. It needs to be trimmed down to cut away fat, wastages and leakages, and thereby reduce cost. Tinubu has shown so far that he can summon the courage to take hard decisions. This is one more hard decision that he needs to take for the people’s benefit. At the sub-national level, state houses of assembly must discourage Governors seeking to appoint hundreds of aides.

Not everyone can be appointed a Minister. Those who would eventually make the final list must see the opportunity to serve their country at the Ministerial level as a major recognition and must then devote themselves strictly to serving Nigeria. They must not end up as Ministers looking out only for narrow, ethnic and geographical interest. The other day, I was shocked to listen to an elder statesman berating the Minister from his home state for failing to divert Federal Government projects to his state. It is not for nothing that the cabinet is tagged “Executive Council of the Federation” and nowhere in the Oaths of Office/Allegiance is it stated that a government official shall use his or her office to pursue parochial interests. When the government is formed, the Ministers should be able to have access to the President, not just at Council meetings but whenever they need to engage with him. It is strange to hear that in more recent years, some Ministers did not have access to the President. Some of them probably never met him one-on-one. Nigeria cannot afford to have Ministers who would go to Abuja to sleep on the job, and warm the chair. It would be Tinubu’s responsibility to keep everyone on their toes and set specific, measurable targets for performance.

The times have indeed changed indicating how policy shifts can affect the people’s mood and habits and the environment in which we live. Following the removal of fuel subsidy and the harmonization of the foreign exchange regime, Nigerians have been compelled to make radical changes in how they live. Has anyone noticed the sharp reduction in the number of vehicles on Lagos roads and the disappearance of traffic gridlock in some parts of the city? With fuel now selling between N488 -N570 per litre across the country, it takes some people on the average up to N40, 000 or more to fill their vehicle’s fuel tanks. Within the same period that the cost of fuel has increased, electricity has also become very expensive, even if the electricity companies are still threatening to hike their tariffs. Inflation is as high as 22.41%, and would most certainly continue to rise.

Vehicle owners have learnt to choose their travels within the city carefully, gone are those days when it was fashionable to drive here and there. We are all going through a season of serious adjustment. In many homes, light is switched on only when it is needed to check the meter from going haywire. And yet in this same country, once upon a time, you could switch on all the lights in your apartment, and even leave those lights on when not at home. Nobody can afford to do that anymore. The street as they say in popular lingo is not smiling. Salaries have not been increased, the price of everything including tomato and onions has gone up, a loaf of bread, which used to be a common man’s favourite is now an expensive item on the family menu. Last week was the annual Eid-el-adha, the festival of sacrifice. Very few families could afford to buy and slaughter rams. A moderate-size ram was about N175, 000- that used to be the price of a very big cow. To buy a cow now, these days, you’d need close to N500, 000.

In those days, around the Eid-el-Kabir festival, it was possible to see young children going to the field with the rams that their parents had bought for the occasion. There was something called ram fight: an exciting game whereby rams are set against each other to head butt one another. The rams had names and there was a prize for the champion ram. It wasn’t all fun, some rams that went up against a tough challenger could simply slump and die. I didn’t see any young men fighting with rams in open fields this year. No parent would even have allowed anybody to gamble with a ram of N175, 000. It was generally a very moderate celebration around town except in Ijebu Ode where the usual post-Ileya Ojude Oba was held as is the tradition, three days after the festival. The Ojude Oba lived up to its reputation as a cavalcade of colour, music, dance, and memorable advertisement of the richness of Yoruba culture and artistry. I noticed though that many of the persons that I know who used to stay behind in Ijebu-Ode for days after the festival, quickly rushed back to Lagos.

One of them confessed that the times have truly changed. His landlord had just served notice that the rent in the building where he lives would go up by 200% by January 2024, due to the rising cost of building materials, and the depreciation of the Naira. He rushed back to Lagos to engage the landlord wondering how the landlord of a house built more than two decades ago can possibly complain about the high cost of building materials. The man told my friend that we are now in the era of market forces, and that rent is also subject to the forces of demand and supply. We have been on that matter since last week!

APC tenders  evidence, as INEC closed case

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) on Monday admitted as exhibit the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the final report of the European Union Election Observer Mission, which faulted the conduct and outcome of the February 25, 2023, presidential election.

The report, tendered by the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his party were admitted as exhibited by the court, despite the objection by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who are listed as respondents along with INEC in the petition challenging Tinubu’s election.

The European Union election observer mission had, in the report, claimed that there was no credibility and transparency in the way and manner the February 25, 2023, presidential election was conducted.

The report tendered through INEC’s sole witness and Director of Information Technology (IT) of the Commission, Dr Lawrence Bayode, said only 31 per cent of the presidential election result was uploaded into INEC’s results viewing portal.

In his evidence in-chief, Dr Bayode admitted that INEC has no electronic collation system and agreed that there was no electronic collation of the presidential election results.

The INEC’s witness admitted that the Presidential election results were collated manually by the electoral body’s presiding officers.

Under cross-examination by Atiku Abubakar’s lead Counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), the witness admitted that not all the presidential election results were uploaded into the INEC’s results viewing centre as of March 1, 2023, when INEC chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood declared and returned Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.

Under cross-examination by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), lead Counsel to President Tinubu, the witness told the court that form EC8A formed the basis of the election results and that data and network service were required for the upload of the images of the results captured by the Biomodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machine into INEC’s results viewing portal.

He further testified that images captured on BVAS, whether transmitted electronically or manually, will not affect the integrity of the election, especially when results entered into form EC8As are announced to the hearing and knowledge of party agents.

Also under cross-examination by the lead counsel to the APC, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), the witness admitted that the technical glitches experienced during the presidential election did not affect the actual scores of candidates at the election, as the results remain intact.

Fagbemi asked the witness if he was aware that, three days before the presidential election, INEC came out to say that electronic transmission of results would not be visible, the witness answered in the affirmative and his (Witness) attention was drawn to Thursday, February 23, 2023 edition of the Nigerian Tribune which carried INEC’s announcement of its inability to collate the election results electronically.

Through its counsel, the APC tendered the Tribune newspaper publication as evidence in defence of the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.

With one witness and four documents tendered, INEC closed its defence in the petition filed by the former vice president and his party against the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.

Meanwhile, Tinubu will open his case on Tuesday, June 4, to defend his victory in the February 25 presidential election.