The Senate on Wednesday sworn in Amos Yohanna as the new Senator representing Adamawa North Senatorial District.

The swearing-in was performed by the Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, who presided over the plenary.

Yohanna, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party replaces Abbo, who was sacked by the Appeal Court last week Monday.

The Court of Appeal, Abuja had sacked Abbo, a member of the All Progressives Congress.

Delivering judgment on Monday, the three-member panel presided over by Justice C.E. Nwosu-Iheme, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to issue a Certificate of Return to Yohanna as the duly elected lawmaker representing the area in the National Assembly.

The appellate vacated the tribunal judgment which had earlier affirmed Abbo of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the senatorial election.

INEC had declared Abbo the winner of the February 25, 2023, parliamentary election.

But aggrieved by the electoral body’s decision, the PDP, Yohanna, went to the tribunal to challenge the outcome of the election.

In its ruling, the tribunal dismissed Yohanna’s petition for lacking in merit.

Not comfortable with the judgment of the tribunal, the PDP candidate, through his counsel Johnson Usman, SAN, approached the Appeal Court.

The Court of Appeal, after hearing arguments from parties, agreed with Usman that based on Section 137 of the Electoral Act, 2022, the results tendered clearly showed that there was no compliance with the Electoral Act.

The court, thereafter, deducted the invalid votes from both parties and found that Yohanna and the PDP won the election by a majority of lawful votes.

In the wake of the judgment, Senator Abbo described it as a coup on democracy but told his supporters to be calm.

Details later…

Following a consultation with the Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, the Northern Consensus Movement has withdrawn a 14-day ultimatum it earlier issued to Igbo residents in the North to quit.

NCM, which is an amalgamation of community-based socio-cultural and economically-inclined northern organisations, issued the ulimatum after Otti converted Lokpanta Cattle Market to a daily and non-residential one.

The governor’s decision was viewed as a quit notice to northerners.

The NCM, however, rescinded its order after a meeting the governor had with the leadership of the Umuchieze Cattle Market.

The group’s President,  Awwal  Aliyu, who led the leadership of the Umuchieze cattle dealers to the meeting at the governor’s residence on Tuesday, announced the decision to withdraw the quit notice.

Aliyu said at the meeting with the governor, they realised that there was no tribal sentiment attached to the state government’s decision.

He declared that Otti means well and is interested in the security and safety of the traders at the cattle market contrary to earlier allegation that he had asked northern residents in the state to leave. 

“I’m using this medium to say that we have cancelled that 14-day ultimatum that was given to easterners,” he declared.

He commended the governor for agreeing to assist the vulnerable members of the northern community in renting accommodation outside the market as well as holding periodic meetings with them on issues concerning their wellbeing.

Aliyu advised  northerners  in the state to be law-abiding, respect constituted authorities, and be good ambassadors of the Northern people, wherever they find themselves.

The governor, while receiving his guests, restated that his interest in making the Umuchieze Cattle Market a daily one is to end the killings, kidnappings and other criminal activities going on in the market.

The governor emphasised that he is a detribalized Nigerian, noting that he does not know about segregation and can never be associated with tribalism.

He stated that the government’s earlier directive was misunderstood and pointed out that the aim of making the market a daily one was to secure the place in the overall interest of traders and residents alike.

Otti said that the meeting convened at his instance was to explain the true position of the government, adding that without security, there would be no development.

“Anytime we allow religion and ethnicity to play a role in what we are doing, we are missing the point. What I have come to do in governance is to give service to the people. We want everyone living in Abia State to live in peace and harmony,” he said.

The Ogun State Police Command has arrested a suspect identified as Ridwan Akintoye, who was believed to specialise in stealing mobile phones of patients on admission at the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta.

Our correspondent further learnt that visitors who had come to see their loved ones in the sick bay were not left out of Akintoye’s theft as reports of multiple phone robberies dominated the medical centre.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the suspect was said to have frequented the hospital from Lagos under the guise of voluntary blood donation while targeting unsuspecting patients and their loved ones.

An eyewitness who did want to be mentioned in the media revealed that the increasing cases of phone theft forced the management of the medical centre to place undercover surveillance on the premises.

The eyewitness told our correspondent that the surveillance was meant to monitor the activities of the visitors on and around the premises.

Meanwhile, unaware that there was undercover surveillance in the area, the 24-year-old was said to have been exposed while stealing the mobile phones of some unsuspecting victims.

Our correspondent further learnt that Akintoye fled the scene after suspecting that he had been exposed.

Speaking, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola, who confirmed the incident to our correspondent on Monday, said the suspect had confessed to having been coming from Lagos State to commit robbery in the facility.

Odutola said, “The phones he stole included the Infinix Hot 9 and Android TCL belonging to Hameed Aderibigbe and Folarin Israel. We arrested him when he was fleeing the premises.”

The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has formally launched the GAC Car Assembly Plant in Lagos.

The Governor disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.

According to him, the partnership between Lagos State and CIG Motors, represented a pivotal step towards greater industrialisation, more jobs, and technical training for the people of the state.

He said, “This partnership, born in the challenging days of the pandemic, has flourished, not only giving birth to the GAC Motor Nigeria CKD factory but also aiding the growth and expansion of our LAGRIDE project. These initiatives signify our commitment to progress, innovation, and the betterment of Lagos State.

“The opening of this vehicle assembly plant is a glowing emblem of our state’s openness to investments that foster job creation, skill development, wealth creation, and entrepreneurial opportunities.

“The ripple effect of this investment extends far beyond the automotive sector. It has ushered in a new dawn of employment, providing our industrious youths with well-deserved jobs, thereby significantly reducing unemployment in Lagos.”

The Federation Account Allocation Committee says it shared N903.48bn among the three tiers of government for September 2023.

FAAC disclosed this in a communiqué issued at the end of its latest meeting, according to different statements by the Director, Press and Public Relations, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Bawa Mowa, and the Director (Press and Public Relations) of the Ministry of Finance, Stephen Kilebi, on Tuesday.

The total figure shared for September showed a decrease of N196.62bn compared to the N1.1tn shared in August 2023, and this was the first time it decreased since May revenue.

The meeting was chaired by the Minister of Finance and Co-Ordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun.

The statement from the ministry read in part, “From the stated amount inclusive of Gross Statutory Revenue, Value Added Tax, Electronic Money Transfer Levy and Exchange Difference, the Federal Government received N320.54bn, the states received N287.07bn, the Local Government Councils got N210.9bn, while the oil producing states received N84.97bn as derivation, (13 per cent of mineral revenue).”

The statement from the OAGF read, “A communique issued by the FAAC at its October, 2023 meeting indicated that the N903.48bn total distributable revenue comprised distributable statutory revenue of N423.01bn, distributable Value Added Tax revenue of N 282.67bn, Electronic Money Transfer Levy revenue of N10.99bn and Exchange Difference revenue of N 186.81bn.”

It was also disclosed that there was a total revenue of N1.59tn available in September 2023.

However, about N54.43bn was given to the cost of collection, N347.86bn was allocated to Transfers and Refunds, while the sum of N289bn was transferred to Non-Oil Revenue (Savings) for the month of September 2023.

The statement further read, “Gross statutory revenue of N 1014.95bn was received for the month of September 2023. This was higher than the N891.934bn received in the month of August 2023 by N123.019bn.”

A Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, on Tuesday, said the recent outburst of an Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, on the appointment of some Christians into strategic positions by President Bola Tinubu was aimed at re-securing his negotiation contract with bandits under the current administration.

The PUNCH reports that Gumi, during one of his sermons a few days ago, attacked Tinubu for appointing Southern Christians into key positions, vowing to ensure that he (Tinubu) does not secure a second term in office.

The cleric also accused the President of allegedly using the North to get to the Presidency only to pursue an agenda aimed at dealing with and decimating the political influence of the region.

Adeyemo, in a personally signed statement forwarded to The PUNCH in Ibadan, Oyo State, however, warned Gumi to desist from “fanning the ember of disunity” in Nigeria with his inflammatory statements, which he claimed are capable of causing disaffection among the citizenry.

Igboho said, “We know Gumi’s pedigree and his antics. Before the advent of Tinubu, individuals like him should have been explaining their roles to the security agencies on the festering insurgency in the northern parts of the country.

“While we will continue to advocate for an egalitarian society, we cannot fold our arms and allow Gumi to heat up the polity through his careless, destructive and inciting statements via his preachings. Nigeria’s security as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution must not be abused by anybody no matter how highly or lowly placed.

“We are not advocates for the Federal Government, but we remain part of critical stakeholders in Nigeria’s project, hence the need to drum sanity and decorum into the ears of anybody with traces of tendencies for religious fanaticism.

“For peace to reign supreme, it is incumbent on all and sundry to desist from any act that triggers mutual suspicion, distrust and needless crisis among Nigerians.”

He said Tinubu’s choice of his ministers and their activities should not be used as a decoy by anybody to seek reckoning or discreet threat to get the job of negotiating with bandits and terrorists like Gumi did under the immediate past administration of President, Muhammadu Buhari.

The United States has suspended most assistance to the government of Gabon.

In a statement on Tuesday, the spokesperson for the US Department of State, Matthew Miller, said the suspension was in line with section 7008 of the Department of State’s annual appropriations act.

“The United States has concluded that a military coup d’état has taken place in Gabon. Pursuant to section 7008 of the Department of State’s annual appropriations act, the United States is suspending most U.S. assistance to the Government of Gabon.

“This foreign assistance has been temporarily paused by the United States since September 26.

“We underscore that our humanitarian, health, and education assistance will continue to benefit the people of Gabon,” Miller said.

On 30 August 2023, a coup d’état occurred in Gabon shortly after the announcement that incumbent president Ali Bongo had won the general election held on 26 August.

The coup brought an end to the 56-year-long rule of the Bongo family over Gabon. The US had paused its assistance to Gabon.

He, however, assured that the people of Gabon would continue to benefit from its life-saving humanitarian assistance.

He said, “The United States reaffirms our commitment to support Gabon in conducting a timely and durable transition to democratic civilian governance and advancing shared security interests in the Gulf of Guinea.

“We will resume our assistance alongside concrete actions by the transitional government toward establishing democratic rule. We will continue to work closely with the Gabonese people and regional partners.”

The country added, “The United States stands with the Gabonese people in their aspirations for democracy, prosperity, and stability.”

The Deputy Spokesman for the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Dr Yemi Cardoso, to avoid the mistakes of his predecessor, Godwin Emefiele.

The lawmaker gave the advice when elder statesman and former Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, paid him a courtesy visit to his office, according to a statement on Tuesday.

Agbese lamented that Cardoso and his team are allegedly making the same mistakes Emefiele made that crippled the economy and left the nation on the brink of collapse.

The naira, on Monday, exchanged for around 1,200 per dollar in the official market. The currency was pushed to its latest record after the apex bank lifted the restriction on the 43 items prohibited from accessing foreign exchange from the official foreign exchange windows.

Reacting to the development, the lawmaker said the recent spike in the exchange rate of the dollar showed the new CBN leadership may be toeing Emefiele’s path.

He described the lifting of the restrictions as ‘putting the cart before the horse’.

“The recent spike in the exchange rate of the dollar is a clear indication that the new CBN leadership has gotten things wrong from the start.

“The freefall of the naira in the unofficial market has been exacerbated by the removal of currency restrictions on the official market. These restrictions had previously propped up the naira’s value.

“The lifting of the ban on the importation of some items at a time when our import is already high and local companies struggling to survive has shown that we are far from the end of the troubles at the moment.

“One would expect the CBN to increase the number of the items so that local production for domestic consumption will be increased and impact positively on the economy. You can see how the dollar rate is rising. What it means is that all those who used to go to the parallel market for dollars are now going to the government to demand it.

“The CBN wanted to close the gap between the official and the black market to discourage round-tripping, but do they have the capacity to fund the dollar demand? They don’t have it. So, it is a cheap and lazy way of managing the monetary policy of the country so that people will say the government is working.

“But the truth of the matter is that the business proposition is not valid, the CBN did not interact with the stakeholders. This policy will make Nigeria lose all the gains that we may have made as a result of the ban.

“Lifting this ban without a response from fiscal policy, not by increasing tariff on these items, but by deploying non-tariff measures such as levies, may expose the local manufacturers of these products to undue competition from foreign producers whose governments provide various production subsidies.”

Agbese, therefore, advised Cardoso and his team to get their acts together.

The Federal Government has lamented that massive investments in the nation’s basic education sector have not translated into desired results.

The Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, said this on Tuesday while declaring open the 25th quarterly meeting of Universal Basic Education Commission Management with the Executive Chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Boards in Abuja.

“The investment so far in education is extremely commendable but the output is not commensurate, not matching the input, therefore we need to do something about that.

“It is really disheartening that despite the Federal Government’s huge investment, interventions and technical support, the basic education sub-sector is still bedevilled by these unpleasant occurrences: learners sitting on bare floors, high rate of drop-outs, increased number of out-of-school children, poor infrastructure, dilapidated classroom buildings, inadequate learning facilities, unqualified teachers, inadequate monitoring, inequitable access and low learning outcomes which have resulted to the falling standard of education in our country.

“We cannot continue to sit on the fence and allow our educational system to continue to deteriorate; we must take the bull by the horns and delete the name of Nigeria among the ‘Learning Poverty’ countries,” the minister said.

Speaking further on the event, which had its theme as ‘Redefining National and State Priorities for Effective Basic Education Delivery,” the minister called for new strategies and collaborative efforts between the federal and state governments to address the identified problems.

“The SUBEB chairmen must also ensure that every child in their respective state benefits from the free, universal and compulsory basic education, regardless of sex, ethnic or religious backgrounds, language or status as this will reduce the out-of-school children syndrome,” he said.

On his part, the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, called for new approaches to holistically address problems of the basic education sector.

“There are emerging trends that demand new approaches in tackling them; these therefore call for new strategies. This is what informed the choice of the theme of this meeting,” Bobboyi said.