The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has launched formal investigation, following the circulation of a video on social media, showing a female traveler destroying a Nigerian Standard Passport at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

The individual involved has been identified as Mrs. Favour Igiebor, holding passport number A11990869.

In a statement, Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Kenneth Udo says the Comptroller General of Immigration has directed that Mrs. Favour Igiebor be invited for further investigation.

If the allegations are substantiated, the statement notes, that her action would constitute a breach of Section 10(b) of the Immigration Act 2015 (as amended), with corresponding penalties outlined under Section 10(h) of the same Act.

Udo reiterates that the Nigeria Immigration Service remains steadfast in its commitment to upholding the provisions of the Immigration Act in the interest of national security, and to preserve the dignity and integrity of the nation’s legal instruments.

•Marketers blame policy inconsistency for shortages ...Motorists sleep at filling stations
Fuel scarcity: NSCDC to shut down defaulting stations in Ekiti Monday

The lingering fuel shortages across the country appear to have defied all solutions as filling stations across the country continue to battle acute shortages.

The horror has shot up petrol prices to an all-time high of N990/litre in Abuja and as high as N1,200/litre in far-flung cities up north.

The frustrating development has forced motorists to sleep in filling stations, especially those belonging to NNPC Ltd to get petrol.

The situation has been exasperated by the silence of various government agencies responsible for smooth supply and sale of petroleum products.

In Lagos, most of the filling stations, especially those operated by independent marketers are out of stock with major marketers and NNPC battling to salvage the situation with minimal supplies.

At the weekend most filling stations were shut with only a few majors selling, thereby compounding the traffic situation across the metropolis.

In Ikeja, Abule-Egba, Ojota, Ikorodu, Isolo and Surulere, Ikoyi mand Victoria Island, the situation is the same.

In Abuja, motorists complained that a liter of petrol had hit about N990 with Point of Sale (PoS) operators making brisk business by making a premium from withdrawals to buy the fuel.

Commenting on the development, National Operations Controller, IPMAN, Mr. Zarama Mustapha, said policy inconsistency remained the major reason for the frequent fuel shortages.

Mustapha, said when the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) became a law, industry observers believed that would bring about a permanent solution to the challenges in the sector.

Regetably, he said the PIA Has not addressed the problems in the downstream sector as the country continues to battle with fuel shortages.

The major problem about the unabated fuel scarcity is mainly about foreign exchange which is very unstable and makes it less lucrative for any marketer to import.

‘‘When the President announced an end to subsidies, marketers were happy, believing they could return to imports of products. At that time, the exchange rate was N720 per litre. Along the line, the Government floated the naira, and the exchange rate hit N1550.

Today, the landing cost of petrol is N1,200 while product at NNPC retail outlets is sold for N568, that means there is a subsidy of N632 being absorbed by the government.

“Now, we have a situation whereby people are calling for a return of subsidy, which will take fuel cost back to N200 per litre. If that happens, where will the government get the resources to absorb N1,000 per liter subsidy,’’?

The IPMAN boss said even though government is denying paying subsidy, the facts on the table lay bare to the fact that Government is still paying subsidy on petrol

He added that all the policy flip-flops through policy summersaults creates an uncertain business environment, leading to fuel shortages

He noted that the Federal Government last week said it was spending $600 million monthly on fuel imports.

‘‘How NNPC manages to sustain supply in the last 9 months or more is still a miracle because there is no budget for subsidy in 2024.

“You plan something and you expect things to go smoothly as planned with a good intention on the part of the Government but suddenly there are disruptions in the economy, an example is the FX crisis.

“The ultimate solution is for the refineries to function optimally but I don’t know what the contractors are doing because the timelines keep changing. NNPC has committed about $1.5 billion to revamp the old Port Harcourt refinery. Do we now terminate the contract,’’?

Some of the marketers at the Apapa depot who declined to be named said there has been a drastic drop in the level of vessels calling at the seaports.

The drop according to them was responsible for the shortfall in the supply of fuel as products had to be rationed.

The row over Air Peace’s flight operations from the United Kingdom has taken another turn with Festus Keyamo, the Nigerian minister of aviation and aerospace development, writing to his British counterpart to lodge a formal complaint, TheCable understands.

In a letter dated August 1, 2024 and addressed to Louise Haigh, the UK secretary of state for transport, Keyamo warned that if Air Peace is not allocated a space at the London Heathrow, Nigeria will be forced to “reciprocate” by denying British Airways and Virgin Atlantic slots at the Lagos and Abuja airports.

Although Heathrow is the UK’s primary airport, Air Peace, the Nigerian carrier, currently operates from the Gatwick Airport, the secondary airport.

All efforts by Air Peace to get a slot at Heathrow, which is closer to the heart of London, have been unsuccessful.

In the letter seen by TheCable, Keyamo expressed “the displeasure” of the Nigerian government over the “consistent denial of slot” by the UK slot office to Air Peace on the Nigeria-London route to fly into Heathrow, its first choice, since it began operations in the UK in March 2024.

“The Airline had made consistent efforts in the past to fly into Heathrow Airport from Lagos, but was denied, and only granted approval to fly into Gatwick Airport from Lagos,” he wrote.

“Following the approval granted the Airline by the Nigerian Government to fly the Abuja-London route, the Airline approached the Slot Office for slot allocation at the London Heathrow Airport, for flight operations planned to commence in November 2024, during the IATA Winter Season. It is highly disheartening that up till this moment, the Airline has not received any favourable response from the Slot Office.”

He reminded the UK that both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are operating into Nigeria’s primary airports in Lagos and Abuja “without encumbrances placed in their ways”.

British Airways, in particular, has been flying into Lagos since 1936.

“Therefore, it is necessary for Nigerian designated carriers to enjoy similar reciprocity that British carriers are enjoying. It is highly unfair on the side of the British authorities and a discredit to the Nigerian authorities and the Nigerian nation as a whole, for slot allocation to Nigerian carriers to be an issue at all times. We feel totally betrayed by the British authorities for not reciprocating the good gesture of the Nigerian State and its people,” Keyamo wrote.

“The slot allocation issue should not be used as an alibi to deny the existence of a Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, which hallmark is based on the principle of reciprocity. Whatever concessionary arrangements you have with your airports with third parties, the concessionaire(s) should legally inherit your existing obligations (especially those under Bi-Lateral Services Agreements) in respect of the use of those airports.

“Arising from the foregoing, I wish to emphatically state that if Air Peace is not allocated a slot at the London Heathrow Airport, it might be difficult for British flag carriers to access Nigeria’s tier one airports from the next Winter Season, unless when a frank discussion is opened with us to break the debacle associated with the slot allocation at Heathrow to the Airline and other Nigerian designated airlines.

“While expecting your timely intervention over this pressing issue dear to the hearts of Nigerians, please, accept the consideration of my warm regards.”

TheCable confirmed that the letter has been received by the UK high commission in Abuja.

Keyamo was unavailable for comments when he was contacted by TheCable.

Rena Wakama, the first Nigerian female basketball coach, has been named the ‘best coach’ at this year’s Olympics after guiding D’Tigress to historical achievements in Paris.

The 32-year-old was recognised by FIBA and the Olympic organisers for leading D’Tigress to the tournament quarter-finals for the first time in its history.

Nigeria won her first basketball match in the Olympics under the former college basketball player’s tutelage.

D’Tigress opened their Olympics campaign by defeating third-ranked Australia in a major upset. The North Carolina-born coach also led her team to a shock win over fifth-ranked Canada in the final group game to seal a maiden appearance in the knockout stage.

It was the first time an African country would make the last eight of the Olympic basketball tournament — male or female.

Nigeria eventually succumbed to the United States in the quarter-finals.

In a blog post on Sunday, FIBA praised Wakama’s D’Tigress for putting up the “most impactful performance by an African team in history” at the Olympic basketball competitions.

It also described the leadership of Wakama as one of the “main drivers of Nigeria’s unprecedented success” at the tournament.

“Nigeria made everyone sit up and take notice by beating Australia on opening day and that was the first time they had won a Group phase game,” the post reads.

“A few days later and Nigeria stunned Canada to become the first African team to take two wins at the Games, once again their tenacious defense providing the platform for success.

“Even more impressive, this secured them a ticket to the knockout phase and they became the first African team in history, men or women, to play in the Olympic Quarter-Finals.

“Their campaign eventually came to a close when they were beaten by USA, but even then they showed their fighting spirit and qualities until the very end.”

FIBA also described Wakama as “one of the youngest coaches in Olympic history who delivered a new high tide mark for Nigeria and African basketball”.

Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, US, she was appointed coach of the Nigerian women’s basketball team in June 2023.

In August 2023, the Wakama-led ladies defeated Senegal 84-74 in the final of the women’s Afrobasket championship.

The victory placed Nigeria as the second African country to win the women’s Afrobasket title four times in a row.

The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, CPPE, has lamented the growing incidents of regulatory irritations and distractions inflicted on Nigerian manufacturers.

Muda Yusuf, the director of CPPE, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.

The economic think tank group said there are multiple regulatory fees, levies, duplications, overlapping responsibilities, and regulatory repression in Nigeria. 

Yusuf appealed to Nigerian regulatory agencies to exercise more discretion in carrying out their responsibilities.

He said: “The CPPE appeals to the regulatory agencies to exercise more discretion in the exercise of their powers and support the aspiration of the present administration to create an enabling environment for investment to boost domestic production, reduce import dependence, conserve foreign exchange and elevate investors’ confidence.

“This does not detract from the primary responsibilities of the agencies to protect consumers, ensure competition, promote standards and quality and protect the environment.

“But they do not have to suffocate investors to achieve this objective. Public pronouncements by some of the agencies had the unintended consequences of demarketing local brands, an action which is detrimental to the country’s aspiration to boost domestic production, grow investment, expand exports, earn foreign exchange and create jobs.

“The regulatory agencies should appreciate the context in which businesses in Nigeria are operating. The headwinds are profound and multifaceted, which is why many large companies declared huge losses in their latest financial results. Many have shut down; some have scaled down their operations, while several others have left the country.”

This comes amid the feud between Dangote Refinery and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission over crude supply.

DAILY POST recalls that the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority made the controversial statement that Dangote Refinery’s petroleum products are inferior to imported ones.

Former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said Nigeria would rise again if the church started to preach the values of hard work.

Osinbajo lamented that the Nigerian church had shifted its focus from preaching hard work to prosperity.

He spoke while delivering a lecture at the 68th Anniversary and 58th Annual Convention of The Gospel Faith Mission International, GOFAMINT, at the weekend. 

According to Osinbajo: “For too long, our churches have been caught up in the pursuit of personal prosperity and material wealth, neglecting the true calling of the gospel to promote peace, unity, and the holistic development of our society.

“If we truly want to see Nigeria rise again and fulfil its immense potential, the church must return to its roots, preaching the values of hard work, compassion, and service to the community.

“It is only through this shift in focus that we can inspire our people to become agents of positive change, rather than mere consumers of the prosperity gospel.”

The 2023 presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, has called on the federal government to investigate what he termed the ‘rascalities of leaders’ that always rob Nigeria golden opportunities to make a positive change.

Obi was reacting to the poor outing of Nigerian team in the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024. He complained against the attitude of Nigerian sporting authorities, noting that their gross misconducts should be checked.

According to him: “Now that the Paris Olympics 2024 has officially ended and our dear Team Nigeria, despite the huge financial investment made into the project, is returning without a single medal, let me unreservedly register my displeasure with the performance of our team and their handlers.

The rascality and recklessness that has continued to characterise leadership in our nation in nearly every department. The general impression that has come to stick is the one that portrays our country as a joke, even on the international stage.

How can one explain that a country like Jamaica spent less than 5% of what we spent on our contingents for the Paris Olympics 2024 and won as many as 6 medals. Yet with  our huge financial investments and large contingent, we could not win even a single medal?

At least nine African countries won gold but the giant with over 200m people came home without even a bronze! We invested about N12 billion in this year’ s Olympics, which is almost twice the amount budgeted for the entire Ministry of Science and Technology for this year.

This is over N136 million (about $85,000) spent on each of the 88 Nigerian contingents to the Olympics, and no single medal was won while Jamaica, a nation which spent far less than we did, a total of about $2300 on each contingent, won 6 medals; 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze at the Olympics. We must now interrogate the relationship between this huge investment and our dismal outcome. Sad stories like this are our lot only because we have refused to embrace competence and capacity over routine and favouritism in Nigeria.

Let us consider the case of Favour Ofili, a Nigerian professional sprinter who trained for years for the 2024 Olympics, only for her name to be recklessly and wrongly removed from the list of athletes for the 100m race at the Olympics by Nigerian sporting authorities.

What explanation can anyone give about Annette Echikunwoke, a former Nigerian hammer thrower, who was frustrated by the same rascality of some Nigerian leaders, making her switch her allegiance to the United States, where she eventually won a medal in the just completed Olympics?

These same professional athletes were denied the opportunity to represent our nation in Tokyo 2020, for similar reasons of administrative recklessness. I have it on good authority that some injured athletes, not physically fit to represent the country and not competing in the ongoing Olympics, were there in Paris receiving estacodes from our national resources. Some of the sports officials and others who have no reason to be at the Olympics were there too, living large and feeding fat on the estacodes while our nation was crashing out on every sporting event. One of our athletes, Ese Ukpeseraye, had to borrow a bicycle to compete at her sporting event!

How can one sensibly explain such recklessness and infamy?

What a country! What a shame! When do we stop these rascalities that always rob our nation of golden opportunities to make a positive change? I call on the government to investigate these gross misconducts and make sure that those responsible do not have the opportunity to do so again. We must build a nation of discipline and commitment to duty, where competence and capacity reign. That is the New Nigeria we preach, and it is Possible”.

…Gives FG 48-hour ultimatum to release protesters

AS the nationwide protests ended on Saturday across the country, one of the leaders and lawyers to the protesters, Mr. Deji Adeyanju, yesterday, disclosed that 26 protesters and journalists have so far been released from among over hundreds arrested and detained by security agents across the country.

Adeyanju made the disclosure in an interview with Vanguard, adding that they were still making efforts to secure the release of the rest protesters from custody.

He said: “We have been able to release 26 protesters including six journalists from the Nigeria Police Force and Department of State Service, DSS, in Abuja.

“Majority of the protesters released from the cells of the Police and DSS were males, we only got two females arrested and released but other persons were males and were released and all of these were released unconditionally.”

On the number of those still behind bars, he said: “We have about 16 more protesters we know of. These are protesters in Abuja but there are 100s detained in Kano. In Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Jigawa. Others we have so many comrades detained but we cannot ascertain the number.”

He added that the six journalists that were arrested have also been released.

“We have released a lot of journalists that were arrested as well, and they were six in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, and Kaduna.

“All the journalists that we know of have been released. The last one was released four days ago, he was a support staff of a journalist.”

On the protesters still detained across the country, he said: “We are optimistic that the security agencies should be reasonable and release everybody because they have no right to detain anybody over protest.”

Gives FG 48-hour ultimatum to release protesters

Meanwhile, he said they were going to issue a 48-hour ultimatum to release all protesters and if refused, they were going to sue them.

“We are going to sue them for the breach of the rights of these protesters. We are giving them a 48-hour ultimatum, if they do not, we are going to sue them.”

Further, he said: “The President as a perpetual protester himself, I do not know why all of a sudden he has become an oppressor and fast becoming a tyrant that does not have regard for the fundamental rights of protesters in a democracy. It is really ironic and sad, and he stands completely condemned.

“On the release of protesters still in detention, the President should mandate and direct that security agencies to release all protesters in custody unconditionally, and it is an irredeemable minimum the President should do almost immediately.”

Meanwhile, he encouraged Nigerians “to hold their leaders accountable at all levels because when citizens fail in their responsibility as citizens, then leaders will have a field day to violate and abuse their rights.

“So citizens must rise up and hold their leaders accountable at all levels irrespective of local, state and federal government.”

A federal lawmaker from Kano State, Rep. Alhassan Doguwa, has vowed to deliver the state to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 general elections.

Doguwa said this in Abuja on Sunday, while responding to a claim by another lawmaker, Rep. Abdulmumini Jibrin, that he posed a threat to the electoral fortunes of the APC in Kano State.

Jibrin had also said that Doguwa was a political liability to his party.

Doguwa said that he would ensure success for the APC in the 2027 general elections, adding that he should be allowed to serve as the Directors-General (D-G) of the party’s 2027 campaigns in the state.

“I want to use this opportunity to respectfully request the leadership of our party to allow me to coordinate and serve as a D-G of the Kano State Campaign Project in 2027.

“I am not a political liability in Kano; I am an asset, a source of pride for the APC both in the state and the country, ” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Doguwa is the only member of the House of Representatives elected under the platform of the ruling APC in Kano South Senatorial District.

He represents Tudun-Wada/Doguwa Federal Constituency, and he is the Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream),

He has been embroiled in a verbal attack with Jibrin, another lawmaker from Kano State who represents Kiru/Bebeji federal constituency on the platform of the New Nigerian People Party (NNPP).

Jibrin had earlier accused Doguwa of being an obstacle to peace in Kano State.