President Bola Tinubu has appointed Hadiza Bala Usman, former managing director of the Nigeria Port Authority as the special adviser on policy coordination.

President Tinubu also appointed Hannatu Musa Musawa and Abdullahi Abubakar Gumel, as special adviser, culture and entertainment economy and senior special assistant, national assembly matters (Senate) respectively.

Meanwhile, President Tinubu has sacked the Chief of Defence Staff, all the nation’s Service Chiefs, the Inspector General of Police, IGP Usman Baba Alkali, as well as the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali.

Secretary of the Government of the Federation SGF, Senator George Akume, disclosed this in a statement issued Monday in Abuja.

Akume stated, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, has approved the immediate retirement of all Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police, Advisers, and Comptroller-General of Customs from Service as well as their replacements with immediate effect.”

Tinubu consequently appointed Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as National Security Adviser; Maj. Gen. C.G Musa, Chief of Defence Staff; Maj. Gen. T. A Lagbaja, Chief of Army Staff; Rear Admirral E. A Ogalla, Chief of Naval Staff; AVM H.B Abubakar, Chief of Air Staff, DIG Kayode Egbetokun, Acting Inspector-General of Police and Maj. Gen. EPA Undiandeye as Chief of Defence Intelligence.

President Tinubu also approved the following appointments: Col. Adebisi Onasanya, Commander, Brigade of Guards; Lt. Col. Moshood Abiodun Yusuf, 7 Guards Battalion, Asokoro, Abuja; Lt. Col. Auwalu Baba Inuwa 177, Guards Battalion, Keffi, Nasarawa State; Lt. Col. Mohammed J. Abdulkarim, 102 Guards Battalion, Suleja, Niger state; and, Lt. Col. Olumide A. Akingbesote, 176 Guards Battalion, Gwagwalada, Abuja.

Similarly, the President has approved the appointments of other Military Officers in the Presidential Villa as follows: Maj. Isa Farouk Audu (N/14695), Commanding Officer, State House Artillery; Capt. Kazeem Olalekan Sunmonu (N/16183), Second-in-Command, State House Artillery; Maj. Kamaru Koyejo Hamzat (N/14656), Commanding Officer, State House Military Intelligence; Maj. TS Adeola (N/12860) Commanding Officer, State House Armament; and, Lt. A. Aminu (N/18578), Second-in- Command, State House Armament.

Details later…

[Vanguard]

On Monday, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, fielded three ad-hoc presiding officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission for cross-examination in its bid to prove that INEC did not comply with electoral guidelines during the February 25 presidential election.

INEC had failed to upload results in real-time on election day.

With the three subpoenaed witnesses that appeared before the Presidential Election Petitions Court sitting in Abuja today, the petitioners have presented 25 witnesses to testify against the election of President Bola Tinubu.

At the resumption of proceedings, PDP counsel, Eyitayo Jegede SAN, introduced Janet T. Turaki, a presiding officer at a polling unit in Gombe State to give evidence and be cross-examined.

Under cross-examination by INEC’s lawyer, A.B. Mahmoud SAN, the witness said although she studied Forestry and Agriculture in school, she was familiar with the use of computer.

On what she observed at her polling unit, she said accreditation of voters was successful but she could not complete the process of uploading of the scanned copy of the polling unit result for the presidential election.

The witness said she entered polling unit scores on the INEC Forms EC8As and party agents signed on it.

“The presidential result couldn’t upload but that of the Senate and House of Assembly uploaded,” the witness said.

When asked by Mahmoud whether INEC trained presiding officers to do offline transfer of Form EC8A, the witness replied “We were trained that when we find ourselves where there is no network, we do offline transmission, but it could not upload,”

But INEC lawyer maintained that she cannot tell if the offline transmission was eventually successful, to which she said, “I don’t know, actually.”

Tinubu’s lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun SAN, told the witness that she was trained by INEC to hand over the hard copy of Form EC8A (polling unit result sheet) to her superior at the Ward level, even if she could not upload electronically using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS machine.

“We were issued a complaint form and I mentioned the failure to upload results on it,” she said, noting that the conduct of the election at her polling unit was 100 percent successful apart from the failure to upload presidential election results electronically.

During questioning by APC’s lawyer, Charles Uwesoye SAN, she maintained that at her polling unit, only the upload of presidential election results was unsuccessful.

The next witness presented by the PDP was Christopher Bulus, an INEC ad-hoc presiding officer in Bauchi state.

He was asked if he was aware of offline transmission and whether he explored it on election day.

He said when he tried the offline transmission on BVAS, it did not work.

He said he was not satisfied with the electoral process because uploading the Presidential election results at the polling unit was part of the procedure they were taught by INEC.

Tinubu’s lawyer, Olanipekun asked the witness if he thinks his inability to upload scanned copy of presidential results could have affected what he recorded on the Form EC8A.

“I cannot actually say, because as a presider officer, I was asked to submit the result sheet at the Ward collation centre. I don’t know,” the witness told the court.

The witness repeated the same answer during cross-examination by the APC legal team.

After him came Victoria Sani, a presiding officer in Niger state.

She, like others, explained to the court that she accredited voters using the BVAS machine, entered the scores of all political parties on Form EC8A but could not use it to transmit presidential election result, after parties had signed on it.

On the offline method of transmission, she agreed with INEC’s lawyer, Abdullahi Aliyu SAN, that when scanned result are uploaded offline, it may transmit to IREV portal later particularly when there is network.

Under cross examination, by Olanipekun SAN, she said one party agent complained at the polling unit regarding failure to transmit presidential election results election.

“I suggest to you, that till now, no political party or candidate has complained to you that what you recorded on Form EC8A has been altered or tampered with?

“One of them, complained,” the witness replied.

The witnesses were subsequently discharged and the PEPC adjourned to Tuesday for continuation of hearing.

The administration of former Governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Ganduje had spent over N20 billion on 111, 687 indigent students for overseas postgraduate foreign scholarship in 14 countries, five private universities, the Nigerian Law School and other internal universities from June 2015 to March 2023.

This is in response to a recent statement by the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) led government in Kano claiming that the Ganduje regime had abandoned the scholarship programs introduced by former governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

Former commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs under the Ganduje administration, Malam Muhammad Garba stated this in a statement against the background of a false claim by the NNPP that Ganduje had not paid foreign scholarship in his eight years two-term administration in the state.

He said the amount covered tuition fees, upkeep, accommodation, and air ticket, among others, was earmarked for students of postgraduate foreign scholarship in India, Malaysia, Egypt, Cyprus, China, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, Togo, Ireland, Gambia, Ukraine as well as internal universities.

Malam Garba said available records indicate that in addition to the above, the former administration also sponsored 50 lecturers from its two universities and other tertiary institutions for their doctorate degrees in French prestigious universities under a programme jointly carried out between the French and Kano state governments.

The commissioner pointed out that over N600 million was also spent on the joint tuition-free postgraduate scholarship between the state government and the French Embassy in Nigeria.

He said it was unfortunate that the present government in the state was laying claims to the success of the foreign and local scholarship, while it left a burden of about $28 million and over N6 billion respectively, which the Ganduje administration had settled more than 80 per cent of it.

Malam Garba stated further that the postgraduate students were sent in three batches to top-ranking universities in France and some European countries, mostly to study science-related courses.

The commissioner further stated that the Ganduje administration re-introduced the payment of scholarship allowances to indigenous students attending Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions, which was completely abandoned by the Kwankwaso administration between 2011 and 2015.

He added under the scheme, the sum of N865.4 million was disbursed as scholarship allowances and provision of logistics for the payment exercise to indigenous students in the five Emirates across the 44 local governments of the state.

Garba said the former administration also reviewed upward by 50 per cent scholarship allowances to the students of the state.

Nigerian business tycoon, Aliko Dangote and Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates have congratulated President Bola Tinubu on the removal of fuel subsidy and other recent strides achieved by the new administration.

Dangote made this known in a chat with State House correspondents after the duo met with the President in his office on Monday.

According to businessman, the expectation is that the removal of fuel subsidy will open up better financial capabilities for the country to invest in other areas such as education as well as advance development among the citizenry.

The business tycoon further stated that the courtesy visit was congratulatory and an opportunity to brief the President on the activities of the Bill Gates and Aliko Dangote Foundations, as they seek more commitments from the President, particularly towards advancing the nation’s health sector.

He also noted that “Nigerians have been getting a lot and should expect more. All is great, things are going well”.

On his part, the President pledged to prioritise the health and safety of Nigerians, underscoring that the health of citizens, particularly the workforce is critical for any country to develop.

The President said his administration would do all that is required to make their work in Nigeria and Africa successful, particularly in the area of eradicating polio, measles, malaria and other diseases from the continent.

According to the President, Gates “has all it takes to help developing nations more”.

Following his inauguration, Tinubu has continued to host prominent guests in Aso Rock.

He had earlier today met with Chairman of Bhanti Artel Worldwide, Sunil Mittal; who came in company of Chief Executive Officer Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya, and other members of the company’s board.

Tinubu also held a meeting with the United States Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Energy Resources, Geoffrey Praytt, as well as the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has asked President Bola Tinubu to change the newly assented Students Loans Act to grant for indigent students.

“This would have been better if we are giving it to those set of students who are very poor, it should be called a grant, not a loan,” ASUU National President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme today.

“It should be called a grant since it is coming from the Federation Account and not that (after) these people have access it and when they are graduating, they have heavy loads behind them and within two years, if they don’t pay, they go to jail. That’s why we’re talking about collective bargaining, you have views from all the sides.”

On Monday, Tinubu signed into law the Students Loans Bill in fulfilment of a promise he made during his campaign. The bill was sponsored by the Speaker of the 9th House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, who is now the President’s Chief of Staff. Now an Act, the law provides for interest-free loans to poor Nigerian students.

However, the ASUU President said the loan is impracticable. He said the loan is “not sustainable”.

Osodeke said, “The idea of student loan came in 1972 and it was in a bank established. People who took loans never paid, you can go and investigate. In 1994, 1993, the military enacted Decree 50 also set up a Students’ Loan Board. The National Assembly domesticated it in 2004 and within a year, it went off. The money disappeared. We want to see how this one will be different.”

According to him, there are more than one million students in Nigerian public universities and the loan cannot adequately cater for students’ tuition.

The ASUU President said the conditions for the loan are “not practicable”, adding that more than 90% of students won’t meet the “stringent requirements” to access and repay the loan.

“We, as a union also did research of countries all over the world, of people who have benefited from this loan, they were committing suicide. Recently, (President Joe) Biden is trying to pay back the bank loans of some who borrowed in the US,” he said.

“It is better to look for alternative means of funding education than to encumbering students whose parents earn N30,000 a month with a loan.”

The Lagos State chapter of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has called for full compensation of owners of the 17 distressed structures demolished by the state government at Alaba International Market, located in Ojo LGA of the state.

This is as the sociocultural group also punctured claims by some traders in the market that the buildings were demolished because Igbos did not vote for the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in the 2023 governorship election.

According to Ohanaeze, the demolition of the buildings had no political undertone, adding that vacation notices were given beforehand to the occupants.

However, speaking with THE WHISTLER on Monday, the President of Ohanaeze in the state, Chief Ogbonna Aguene, argued that there have not been any incident of building collapse at Alaba International Market, stressing that for that reason, the owners should be compensated.

“Those are very common people. Some of them did it ignorantly, but ignorance is not an excuse to the law. But there’re somethings you can consider people (based on the fact that Nigeria is still a third world country), so mistake can be allowed,” Aguene said.

“My appeal is that Lagos state should consider those that were affected that have CofO,” noting that owners of the buildings should be paid “full compensation.”

“They’ve added a lot to the development of Lagos State,” the president who explained that the state government is receptive to Ndigbo said.

THE WHISTLER recalls that the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) had on Sunday, demolished the 17 distressed structures.

On Friday, LASBCA had given final warnings and vacation notices to the occupants of the affected buildings.

According to LASBCA, vacation notices were first issued in 2016, noting that others were issued in 2020, 2022 and 2023.

“These buildings marked within this ALABA International Market would have been included in the list of 349 distressed buildings earlier published in different national newspapers this year but because the occupants were always harassing our officers, it was impossible to capture the details of the structures and include them in the publication,” the General Manager of LASBCA, Arc. Gbolahan Oki, had said on Friday.

“What we have done now is a joint exercise carried out by both the Lagos Task Force officers and the demolition gang of Lagos State Building Control Agency. The buildings would be demolished”, he noted.

Acknowledging the impact the demolition of the distressed buildings, which were used for commercial purpose would have on commercial activities within the market, Oki had said the buildings had to go to avoid putting the lives of innocent persons at risk.

“We know that this area is a commercial centre and one of the busiest markets in Lagos State but despite this, we cannot fold our arms and allow irregularities to continue to thrive in the market where the lives of innocent persons would be put at risk because of the failure of a few set of individuals who have refused to do the needful,” he had said.

The demolition at Alaba International Market came just over a week that LASBCA removed 15 illegal attachments at Divine Homes Estate, located in Thomas Estate, Ajah, in Eti-Osa LGA of the state.

Three ad hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) who were Presiding Officers for the Feb. 25 general election have told the Presidential Election Petition Court ( PEPC) that only the results of the presidential election refused to upload to IREV.

The three presiding officers were subpoenaed by Alhaji Abubakar Atiku and the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP).

Led in evidence by the petitioner’s counsel, Mr Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, the witnesses told the court that they were able to use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine to transmit results for the senatorial and house of Representatives elections successfully.

They, however, told the court in their separate testimonies that they were unable to use the BVAS to transmit the presidential election results thereby making them unsatisfied with the entire election process.

The three witnesses, Janet Turaki, Christopher Ardo and Victoria Sani told the court that they were presiding officers in Yobe, Bauchi and Katsina states respectfully.

The witnesses all agreed that other aspects of the election went well until it was time to upload the presidential results then the BVAS machines refused to work.

Turaki, under cross examination by counsel to INEC, Mr Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN told the court that the accreditation of voters was successful and voting went on smoothly at her polling unit.

She said it was after she attempted to upload the presidential election result after capturing it with the BVAS machine that the network went awry.

The witness said that having failed to successfully upload the presidential election results, she handed over everything to her ward collation agent and filled the complaint form that INEC had provided for such purposes.

She said that she and other party agents present signed the result on the form EC8A before she took it to the ward.
For his part, Ardo told the court under cross examination by counsel to President Bola Tinubu, Mr Wole Olanipekin, SAN, that he felt unfulfilled in his assignment with INEC on the election day.

He said this was due to his inability to transmit the presidential election result as required by law.
In her own testimony, Sani under cross-examination by counsel to the All Progressives Congress,(APC), Mr Charles Edosanwan, SAN, told the court that she believed that she performed her duties as a presiding officer to the best of her ability.

The five-member panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani adjourned proceedings until Tuesday for the continuation of the hearing in the petition.

The News Agency of Nigeria NAN reports that Atiku and the PDP are before the court challenging the outcome of the Feb. 25 presidential election.

One of the grounds of their petition is that INEC failed to transmit election results to its (INEC Result Viewing Portal, (IREV) in real-time as the Chairman, Mr Yakubu Mahmood had said it would before the election.

…Don’t worry, EFCC won’t come after you – Wike

SENATE President, Godswill Akpabio has clarified that his N200Million goodwill to support Chief Nyesom Wike’s successful gubernatorial race in 2015 was from his personal savings and not from the treasury of Akwa Ibom state government.

Wike, immediate past Rivers state governor at Sunday’s thanksgiving in Port Harcourt to show gratitude to God for His grace to surmount critical challenges he faced over his eight years at the helms in Rivers, had revealed that the Senate President, then governor of Akwa Ibom, supported his 2015 governorship bid to that tune.

Wike narrated that, He (Akpabio) came out to support him. He was abused, that how can he put his hand in the politics of Rivers. He told them (accusers) he has seen that the only person who could win that election (Rivers guber) was me.

“He did not just come out. He gave me N200Million for that election. That is why I said one good turn deserves another. And I also supported him. Thank God he succeeded (as Senate President).”

Responding to the revelations, Senate President Akpabio explained, “That money came from my savings in the telecoms industry where I was a managing director. The money was not from the Government of Akwa Ibom state. I should make that clarification. I paid tax on that money. If you check you will know.”

Akpabio added that Wike may have forgotten or not have been aware that his mentor and predecessor, Dr Peter Odili, was first to accord him such valued financial support when he (Akpabio) was running for governor (in 2007).

He reminded Dr. Odili, “I was sitting in Akwa Ibom when you phoned me and said how can you be running for governorship and you don’t come to see me? You said come immediately. That day I came and met somebody I don’t want to mention his name now because we are no longer political friends.

“Then you pushed something into the boot of my car. And I wondered how can somebody be so kind? Because you believe in one Nigeria. You are one President Nigeria never had.”

Preempting the Senate President’s response, Wike in making his revelation had urged the former Akwa Ibom governor not to worry, said: “Just relax, EFCC will not come after you. They cannot come after you.”

The National Industrial Court on Monday declared that the order restraining the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) from embarking on their planned industrial action subsists.

Justice Olufunke Anuwe stated that the order as granted on June 5 subsists pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

The court in addition ordered that parties maintain status quo and adjourned the matter until July 20, for hearing.

Earlier, when the case was called, the Federal Government’s counsel, Mr Ochum Emmanuel informed the court that the matter was slated for Monday for the claimant to take its motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction to restrain the defendants from embarking on strike.

He added that he was ready to proceed with his application as the defendants had been served.

Mr Marshall Abubakar, the defendants’ counsel on his part however replied that they had filed an application praying the court to set aside its order granted on June 5, restraining his clients from embarking on strike.

Abubakar further submitted that the claimant was served the application on June 8, only for them to turn around and serve on them a counter-affidavit on Monday in court.

He added that the claimant filed the counter-affidavit on June 16 and instructed the bailiff not to serve them until on Monday in court.

The court enquired if defence was properly before the court, Abubakar responded that he was not certain, but that he will find out and do the needful.

He also prayed for a short adjournment in order to look at the counter-affidavit and respond.

Emmanuel in response opposed Abubakar’s application for adjournment and urged the court to allow him take his motion on notice which was slated for hearing.

The counsel also reiterated that the federal government will never a file process and instruct any bailiff not to serve the other party.

He argued that it was probably due to the fact that he filed the processes late on June 16 that made the bailiff to serve defence counsel in court on Monday.

Emmanuel in his submission equally averred that the defendants were not properly before the court as they had not filed their memorandum of appearance, but only came to urge the court to vacate the order it granted on June 5.

He stated that the defendants being not properly before the court cannot seek for an adjournment.

In addition, he submitted that if the court should deem it fit to grant Abubakar’s application for an adjournment, the court should equally declare that the order restraining the defendants from embarking on strike granted on June 5 subsist.

In his reply, Abubakar submitted that Emmanuel’s application was not necessary as the court had earlier stated that parties should maintain status quo pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

He also informed the court that parties were meeting later on Monday to try and resolve the issue.

The court in its ruling granted the application for adjournment, directed the defendants to enter their memorandum of appearance and instructed parties to maintain status quo.

From facts, he defendants had planned to embark on nationwide strike on June 7 to protest the fuel subsidy removal that brought about the new pump price for the Premium Motor Spirit.

The federal government had therefore instituted the suit to stop the defendants, stating that the proposed strike may gravely affect the larger society and the well-being of the nation at large.

The claimant in addition stated that the strike is capable of disrupting economic activities,that will affect especially the health and the educational sector.

(NAN)

Chairman of Bharti Airtel Worldwide Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, on Monday met with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Speaking to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Mittal said that the decision by Tinubu’s government to float the naira will now unleash foreign investments in the country.

The Airtel boss, who was accompanied by Dr Segun Ogunsanya, Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, lauded the president, particularly for making foreign exchange easier to access.

He noted with regret that the lack of easy access to foreign exchange had prevented the company from importing critical equipment needed for its operation in the country.

According to him, the worldwide market has applauded naira devaluation and investors are now ready to come into the country.

While noting that Airtel had made just under $4 billion investment since coming into Nigeria, he affirmed that the company would roll out its 5G services and as well revealed that it would be making an additional investment of $700 million in the next two years.

Mittal stated: “We’re already investing about $400 million a year, which has been going on for the last many years. That will of course continue. That is business as usual.

“On top of that, to roll out the 5G and more fibre into the ground and data centres will require more $700 million to get to that outcome.

“So, while there is no exact number, I can give you, all I can tell you is $400 million is what we generally invest every year.

“With 5G, the investment is only going to go up for the next two or three years, before it comes back to the same $350, $450 million a year.

“We have invested just under $4 billion since the time we have come into Nigeria.”

He said that Nigeria is very key in Africa, stressing that if there is any country to be an economic power house, it’s Nigeria.

He said without Nigeria, African strategy will not work.

Mittal said he requested the meeting with the President in order to talk about Airtel and India and that he was touched by the speed and clarity of mind the President has exhibited within a short time.

“We have given a standing ovation to the floating of the dollar,” he said, adding that he saw a President that was deeply committed to removing poverty in the country.