Good morning! Here is today’s summary of latest Nigerian news from Nigerian Newspapers of Saturday 18th February 2023
1. The Presidency on Friday, said there are no plans by President Muhammadu Buhari to extend his tenure beyond May 29, 2023, or install an interim government. A statement signed by Buhari’s spokesperson, Garba Shehu, noted this on Friday.
2. A former Minister of Finance, Dr Idika Kalu, has faulted the logistics of the Central Bank of Nigeria for the crisis that has characterized the distribution of new N1000, N500 and N200 notes. Speaking during a TV program on Friday, he noted that the new naira scarcity was a result of a huge logistic mistake.
3. The Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, has accepted the Federal High Court judgment disbanding the Ebubeagu security outfit a few days before the 2023 general election in the country. Umahi equally expressed worries over the alleged threats issued by a separatist group led by Simon Ekpa, to disrupt election processes in the southeast geopolitical zone.
4. Anambra State Police Command, yesterday confirmed an attack on the staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and other adhoc staff. Tochukwu Ikenga, the spokesperson for Anambra State Police Command in a press statement said the INEC staff were undergoing training when the gunmen struck.
5. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has denied asking banks to collect old N500 and N1,000 notes from customers. In a statement on Thursday, Osita Nwanisobi, Director of Corporate Communications at the CBN said banks were only directed to reissue and recycle old N200 notes.
6. The presidency yesterday warned the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai and Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, among others, to desist from alleging that President Muhammadu Buhari was working against the All Progressives Congress, APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, insisting that Asiwaju remains Buhari’s candidate.
7. The Department of State Services (DSS) has uncovered a plan by Boko Haram terrorists to attack the Abuja-Kaduna train service in the coming days. The Ministry of Transportation, in a letter to the Ministry of Defence, said it had, on February 1, received a letter from the DSS on the threat by Boko Haram terrorists to attack the Abuja-Kaduna train services.
8. There is tension in some parts of Lagos over the scarcity of naira as a result of the redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The state has been relatively calm in the wake of protests over the naira redesign policy across the nation. But on Friday, a riot broke out in the Mile 12 area of the state. Mile 12 is a popular international foodstuff market along Ikorodu Road.
9. Properties worth millions of naira were on Friday destroyed when fire gutted the Owode Onirin iron market along Ikorodu Road, Lagos. According to a source, the incident occurred in the evening when the fire started in one of the shops in the market.
10. The Zamfara State Police Command has arrested a 20-year-old boy for allegedly conniving with five others to abduct his mother and three others and collecting a ransom of N30 million. The state police spokesperson, SP Mohammed Shehu while addressing journalists on Friday, said the suspect, Thomas Yau, informed the police that N10m was paid by each of the kidnap victims, including his mother, totalling N30m ransom.
