Good morning! Here is today’s summary of Latest Nigerian News from Nigerian Newspapers of Friday 18th August 2023
1. The Federal Government has announced N5 billion palliative to each State of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to cushion the impact of the removal of petrol subsidy. The Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, disclosed this during an interactive session with State House correspondents in Abuja on Thursday after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting.
2. The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has struck out the illegal possession of firearms charges against the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor, Godwin Emefiele by the Federal Government. Justice Nicholas Oweibo gave the order on Thursday, following the application of Mohammed Abubakar, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the Ministry of Justice to withdraw the two-count charge.
3. The planned arraignment of the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, and one other on a 20-count charge stalled at the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, on Thursday. Although Emefiele was present, the arraignment could not be held as the second defendant, Sa’adatu Yaro, was absent.
4. The Defence Headquarters, DHQ, has disclosed that 36 officers were killed in Niger State. It disclosed this while giving a breakdown of casualties in the ambush of troops in Niger State and an evacuation helicopter that crashed on August 14, 2023.
5. Troops of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have declared their readiness to join the standby force to restore civil rule in Niger. Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Gwabin Musa, made this known on Thursday, during a meeting in Accra, Ghana’s capital.
6. In nine years, the management of the University of Calabar has suspended Prof Cyril Ndifon twice over alleged sexual harassment of female students. In a letter dated August 17, 2023, and signed by the institution’s registrar, Gabriel Egbe, Ndifon was suspended for violation of the provisions of the extant laws and policies of the institution.
7. A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adamu Garba, has claimed he has not complained of being ignored for ministerial appointment even though he was attacked and insulted for campaigning for President Bola Tinubu. In a post on his social media platform on Thursday, Garba claimed that the President did an excellent job as he was fair to all parts of the country.
8. The Ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives probing allegations of employment racketeering and gross mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, has threatened to recommend sanctions to the executive arm of government on some erring Ministries, Departments and Agencies MDAs for flouting the constitutional federal character provision in their recruitment and staff placement.
9. National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Yabagi Sani, says that assigning a Minister of State for Petroleum Resources from the oil-rich Niger Delta area is a ‘wrong signal’. Sani, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily breakfast programme on Thursday, stated that limiting the appointment to a particular State would trigger a sense of entitlement amongst the people of the Niger Delta.
10. The Nigerian Navy has impounded a 350,000 litre-capacity vessel carrying what is suspected to be illegally refined diesel. Operatives of the Nigerian Navy Ship Pathfinder who are part of the maritime component of Operation Delta Safe (OPDS) impounded the Motor Vessel Cecilia carrying suspected illegal diesel.
