PRESS RELEASE

On November 18, 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari held a meeting in Abuja with Anthony Blinken, the United States Secretary of State. During the meeting, Buhari said that the state governments in the country  would have to take steps on the reports of their panels, before the federal government acts on the recommendations.

In particular, the President said, “We at the federal have to wait for the steps taken by the states, and we have to allow the system to work. We can’t impose ideas on them. Federal government has to wait for the reaction of the states."

But in utter display of executive rascality, Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information has overruled the President by rejecting the report of the Lagos Panel on behalf of the Federal Government. By not waiting "for the reaction of the states" the Minister has overruled the President of the Republic. As if that was not enough the Minister decided to insult the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu by rejecting the report of the Judicial Commission instituted by him under the Tribunal of Enquiry Law of Lagos State. Thus, the Governor who is currently studying the report has been presented with a fait accompli by the Minister.

Mohammed has described the 309-page report of a Judicial tribunal as "fake news". As a lawyer of many years' standing, the Minister ought to have known that it is the height of arrogant contempt to describe the report of a Judicial Commission of Enquiry constituted under the Tribunal of Enquiry Law as "fake".

It is regretable to note that the Minister has failed to realise that Lagos State Government is not an extension of the Federal Government but a sovereign entity under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Since the name of the Federal Government is not clothed with any power under the Tribunal of Enquiry Law, the purported rejection of the report by the Minister ought to be treated with disdain by the Lagos State Government. 

In a press conference held on October 20, 2021, Mohammed had recalled that the National Economic Council had "directed State Governors to immediately forward copies of final reports of the panels to their Attorneys-General for prompt arraignment and prosecution of all indicted persons. Where incidents in the reports relate to matters of discipline, in addition to prosecution, NEC urged the Nigeria Police Force to take disciplinary action on the affected officers in line with the provisions of the Police Act 2020." Has Mohammed overruled the collective  decision of the National Economic Council?

However, it is pertinent to point out that Mohammed's comment on the report lacks originality as it is a mere regurgitation of the jaundiced views of a couple of aggrieved individuals. The two individuals, have tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to discredit the findings and recommendations of the body. In a desperate attempt to mislead the Governor, both aggrieved persons have been campaigning for the total rejection of the report because of the so-called discrepancies and inconsistencies contained in the document. No doubt, these individuals are entitled to express their opinions on the report of the Commission. But the call for the rejection of the report is illegal.

In December 2015, the Nigerian Army massacred hundreds of Shiites in Zaria and hurriedly buried their bodies in a mass grave at Mango in Kaduna State on the orders of the then Chief of Army Staff. Even though Mohammed said that the report of the genocidal attack was a hoax the Justice Garba Judicial Commission of Enquiry instituted by the Kaduna State Government confirmed a casualty figure of 348 Shiites. Six years therafter, the Authorities have ignored the recommendation of the Judicial Commission that the culprits be prosecuted. The Lagos Judicial Commission of Enquiry accepted the evidence of forensic experts to the effect that 99 dead bodies were dumped in the various mortuaries in Lagos State during the protests. Mohammed has described the massacre as "fake news".

Finally, Mohammed's callous comment on the cold murder of unarmed citizens at the Lekki Toll Gate is a sad reminder of his own experience under the same forces of brutalization. On August 8, 2014,

Mohammed, then Publicity Secretary of the APC had left Lagos for Osogbo, Osun State in support of Governor Rauf Aregbesola's re-election bid. Later that night, it was reported that he had been kidnapped by a team of hooded operatives of the State Security Service. I was aroused from my sleep by Govenor Aregbesola who requested me to assist in searching for Mohammed.

However, a couple of hours later, i was relieved when it was reported that he had regained his freedom. But the PDP dismissed the kidnap story as a hoax emanating from the fecund imagination of Mohammed. Having complety crossed to the other side of the political divide, Mohammed conveniently regards news of the tragic massacre of unarmed citizens as fake. 

Mohamned’s steps undermine the  rule of law and social justice in the land. President Buhari should call him to order. 

Signed: Femi Falana

Nigeria aims to launch a new national airline by April and will seek to sell a minority stake to a foreign airline or financial institution, Hadi Sirika, minister of state for aviation, said on Wednesday.

The plan, one of President Muhammadu Buhari's 2015 election campaign promises, has been on and off the table. The government suspended it in 2018, with no reason provided.

Sirika said the government will source a strategic partner via a procurement process to take a 49% stake in the new carrier, called Nigeria Air. The government would not own more than 5%, while local entrepreneurs would hold a 46% stake.

"The best case is that the airline will pick up... April 2022 if all things go equal," he told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Abuja.

The government has said the airline will require initial capital of between $150 million and $300 million.

Nigeria has been seeking to set up a national airline and develop its aviation infrastructure - currently seen as a barrier to economic growth - to create a hub for West Africa.

But decades of neglect and lack of investment have left Nigeria with low-quality infrastructure. The government has said that upgrading it will require private investment.

The West African country's previous national carrier, Nigeria Airways, was founded in 1958 and wholly owned by the government. It ceased to operate in 2003.

British billionaire Richard Branson set up domestic and international carrier Virgin Nigeria in 2000, but pulled out in 2010 in frustration at what he said was interference by politicians and regulators.

The airline he created, which was later rebranded Air Nigeria, closed in 2012 after collapsing under about 35 billion naira ($85.4 million) of debt which left it unable to pay staff, a former finance director of the company told Reuters at the time.

($1 = 409.6300 naira)

Reuters

..weeks after residents cried out to the State government

Five members of a kidnap syndicate, terrorizing Obada Oko area and its environs have been arrested by officers of the Ogun state Police Command.

This was disclosed in a press statement by the Police Public Relations officer of the State, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi which was received by Nigerian Newstrack.

The statement identified the suspects as Aliu Manya, Usman Abubakar, Abayomi Olayiwola, Nasiru Muhammad and Bello Usman.

The PPRO in the statement disclosed that the criminals were arrested, following information received by policemen attached to Obada-Oko divisional headquarters that the men were sighted on two motorcycles inside the  forest around Eleja area of Obada oko at about 8:00 pm.

He said, it was based on the information, that the DPO Obada- Oko division, CSP Tijani Muhammed, quickly mobilized his men in conjunction with other stakeholders including the So Safe corps, hunters and local vigilante, who stormed the forest where the five suspects were apprehended. 

According to DSP Oyeyemi, "some illicit drugs such as packs of tramadol, weeds suspected to be Indian hemp, three cutlasses, SK and two motorcycles with registration number MEK 504 VC and ODE 423 VC as well as a sum of seventy three thousand naira were recovered from the suspects.

"In the process of investigation, a kidnap victim who was earlier abducted and released had come forward to identify the suspects as those that kidnapped him".

"The victim's brother, who paid the ransom requested by the suspects also identified two among those arrested as the people  who received the money from him for the release of his brother".

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of police, CP Lanre Bankole, has ordered the transfer of the suspects to the anti kidnapping unit of the state criminal investigation and intelligence department for discreet investigation.

He also directed that other members of the gang should be quickly apprehended and brought to justice. 

The CP therefore appealed to members of the public to always assist the police by giving them useful information that would help in tracking down the criminals within their areas. 

It would be recalled that the inhabitants of Obada-Oko Area in the last three weeks had cried out to Governor Dapo Abiodun as reported by the Nigerian Newstrack to save them from the menace of the Kidnappers, whose act was fast turning into a daily occurrence.

After spending 43 years behind bars for a crime he said he didn't commit, a Missouri man's conviction has been set aside, according to a news release from Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.

Senior Judge James Welsh filed his ruling Tuesday morning to set aside the conviction of 62-year-old Kevin Strickland, who served 43 years at Western Missouri Correctional Center in Cameron, Missouri, after he was convicted of one count of capital murder and two counts of second-degree murder in a triple homicide. He received a 50-year life sentence without the possibility for parole for a crime he maintained he wasn't involved in.

Strickland, from a wheelchair, spoke shortly after he was released from jail Tuesday afternoon and said he's thankful for his attorneys and everyone who listened to him over the years while he maintained his innocence.

All criminal counts against Strickland were dismissed. His release makes his confinement the longest wrongful imprisonment in Missouri history and one of the longest in the nation, according to The National Registry of Exonerations.

"Still in disbelief," Strickland said. "I didn't think this day would come."

Strickland said he found out the news of his release through a breaking news report that interrupted the soap opera he was watching.

"To say we're extremely pleased and grateful is an understatement," Peters Baker said.

"This brings justice -- finally -- to a man who has tragically suffered so, so greatly as a result of this wrongful conviction."

Strickland testified during a three-day evidentiary hearing earlier this month -- which involved eyewitness testimony given under oath -- Strickland's legal team presented evidence and arguments to exonerate him.

Four people were shot in Kansas City, Missouri, on April 25, 1978, resulting in three deaths, according to CNN affiliate KSHB. The only survivor of the crime, Cynthia Douglas, who died in 2015, testified in 1978 Strickland was at the scene of the triple murder.

Douglas survived the shooting after sustaining a shotgun injury and told police Vincent Bell and Kiln Adkins were two of the perpetrators. But she did not identify Strickland, who she knew, at the scene until a day later, according to KSHB, after it was suggested to her Strickland's hair matched Douglas' description of the shooter. Douglas claimed her initial failure to identify him was due to the use of cognac and marijuana, according to KSHB.

But over the past 30 years she said she made a mistake and falsely identified Strickland. According to KSHB, Douglas made efforts to free Strickland through the Midwest Innocence Project.

The two assailants Douglas identified at the scene both pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and each ended up serving about 10 years in prison for the crimes, according to Strickland's attorney, Robert Hoffman.

"Most of us have heard the famous quotation that 'injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,'" Peters Baker said in an online statement posted in August. "Kevin Strickland stands as our own example of what happens when a system set to be just, just gets it terribly wrong."

Strickland thanked the judge for reviewing all the "non evidence" against him and he appreciated the judge taking his time to listen and understand what really happened in 1978.

Eventually Strickland said he wants to get involved in speaking and possibly influencing legislation, and added he has ideas on how to keep this from happening to someone else.

A GoFundMe account has been set up by the Midwest Innocence Project to help him restart his life. They note the State of Missouri will provide no compensation for the time he spent in prison.

In 2020, there were 129 exonerations nationwide. Defendants exonerated last year lost a total of 1,737 years behind bars, an average of 13.4 years per exoneration, according to a report from The National Registry of Exonerations. And 30% of wrongful convictions in the registry's database can be traced back to mistaken eyewitness identifications.

CNN

Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), has hinted that a litre of fuel may sell between N320 and N340 in 2022.

He said this during the presentation of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update, November 2021 edition titled “Time for Business Unusual” in Abuja on Tuesday.

Kyari said fuel subsidy removal would definitely be achieved in 2022.

He said that the law provides that by the end of February 2022, the nation should be out of the subsidy regime.

“There will be no provision for it legally in our system, but I am also sure you will appreciate that government has a bigger social responsibility to cater for the ordinary and therefore engage in a process that will ensure that we exit in the most subtle and easy manner,” he said.

On the hike in prices of cooking gas, he said that it was a demand and supply issue as there was a global crunch on supply of gas and many countries were now threatened by lack of supply in December.

He added that the product was not under any subsidy regime and therefore irrespective of where it was produced, would follow the global trend.

Kyari, however, assured that the company was working on increasing local production to meet the needs of consumers.

Daily Trust

Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, says Nigeria will remove fuel subsidies by 2022 and replace them with N5000-a-month transportation grant to the poorest Nigerians.

Speaking at the launch of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update (NDU) on Tuesday, the minister said the grant will go to about 30 to 40 million Nigerians who make up the poorest population of the country.

She said the final number of beneficiaries will depend on the resources available after the removal of the fuel subsidy.

“The subsidies regime in the [oil] sector remains unsustainable and economically disingenuous,” she said.

“Ahead of the target date of mid-2022 for the complete elimination of fuel subsidies, we are working with our partners on measures to cushion potential negative impact of the removal of the subsidies on the most vulnerable at the bottom 40% of the population.

“One of such measures would be to institute a monthly transport subsidy in the form of cash transfer of N5,000 to between 30 – 40 million deserving Nigerians.”

The World Bank in the development update had said the poorest 40% in Nigeria consume less than 3% of the total PMS in the country, highlighting that the rich were benefiting more from the subsidies.

“We are very optimistic that the recent developments in the oil sector, such as the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, hopefully, the full reactivation of the 4 public refineries in the country, and the completion and coming on stream of the 3 private refineries under construction in 2022, would significantly boost contribution from the sector to our economic growth efforts,” Ahmed added.

“I agree with the Report that with the expansion of social protection policies during the pandemic, the government has an opportunity to phase out subsidies such as the PMS subsidy while utilizing cash transfers to safeguard the welfare of poor and middle-class households.”

Ahmed said this move is set for June 2022, but the federal government hopes to do this before June — in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

The Cable

Federal government on Tuesday rejected a judicial report that described the killing of peaceful protesters in Lagos in October 2020 as a massacre, saying it was strewn with errors and its conclusions were not backed up by evidence.

The leaked report into the incident seen by Reuters said the Nigerian Army fired live rounds at peaceful, unarmed protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos last year. It said most of the army officers deployed to the Toll Gate were "not fit and proper to serve" and recommended prosecuting certain policemen for their actions.

The military and police have previously denied firing live rounds.

Information Minister Lai Mohammed told reporters in Abuja that the panel had submitted a report laden with allegations, adding the report "is riddled by many errors, discrepancies. Its conclusion is not supported by evidence."

The report identified 48 "casualties", including 11 killed, four missing and presumed dead and multiple people who suffered gunshot wounds. It added that nearly 100 other unidentified corpses in Lagos state could also be linked to the incident.

The judicial panel that investigated the incident, as well as abuses by the now-abolished Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police division, released the reportto the Lagos state government this month, but it was not immediately made public.

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the federal government will wait for pronouncements from state governments which set up the probe panels before deciding what action to take.

The shootings ended weeks of nationwide protests against police brutality and sparked the worst civil unrest in Nigeria since the return to civilian rule in 1999.

In the aftermath, rights groups accused security forces of a cover-up and depicted a pattern of intimidation of those who took part in the protests, including threats, detentions and asset freezes.

Reuters

Central Bank of Nigeria kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 11.5% for a seventh straight time on Tuesday but cited persistent insecurity in large parts of the country as a major downside risk to the recovery of Africa's biggest economy.

Governor Godwin Emefiele said the decision to keep rates steady was unanimously supported by members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

"MPC believes that the existing policy stance has supported growth recovery and should be allowed to continue for a little longer," Emefiele said.

Nigeria's economic rebound, after a Covid-19-induced recession in 2020, was being driven by fiscal and monetary interventions, he said.

Africa's largest economy grew just over 4% in the third quarter, its fourth consecutive quarterly rise.

However, the security situation in Nigeria was hampering business confidence and foreign investor sentiment, Emefiele said.

Nigeria is battling an Islamist insurgency in the northeast and a spate of kidnappings for ransom in the north and northwest.

"The persistency of insecurity ... remains a key downside risk to our recovery. The committee calls on the security agencies in the country to increase their presence in order to boost full confidence and the movement of people, goods and services across the country," Emefiele said.

Nigeria had been grappling with low growth before the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a recession and created large financing gaps including dollar shortages and inflation.

Few expected the CBN to alter interest rates after it cut them a year ago.

Virág Fórizs, emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, said the central bank's "case to tighten monetary policy has weakened with inflation dropping back in recent months, especially as the rebound in economic activity seems to be fading."

On Tuesday, the World Bank called for tighter monetary policy to attract private investment, citing that the naira's black market premium was fueling inflation, in addition to the central bank's financing of the government's deficit.

Reuters

Results of the May/June 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) have been released by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).

The examination which was taken by 1,560,261 candidates nationwide was also conducted in Benin Republic and Cote D’Ivoire.

WAEC Head of National Office (HNO), Patrick Areghan, said 1,274, 784 obtained credits and above in five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.

Areghan disclosed that results of 170,146 candidates are being withheld for examination malpractices.

He said the Minister of Education has approved that 2022 WASSCE will be conducted in May/June.

Sun

Atiku Bagudu, chairman of Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), says President Muhammadu Buhari has endorsed February 2022 for the All Progressives Congress (APC) national convention.

Speaking with journalists on Monday after he and other APC governors held a meeting with Buhari at the presidential villa, Bagudu said February was suggested to the president, because four states have not held congresses.

“I also explained yesterday that the Progressive Governors Forum discussed the issue of national convention of the party and they mandated us to come and discuss with the president as the party’s leader to give the input of the governors so that the party and the president will consider,” the Kebbi governor said.

“Part of the inputs we got yesterday was that we still have four states which are in the process of completing their congresses like Anambra,  understandably because of the recent gubernatorial election; Zamfara and two others, because of logistic challenges and then, Christmas is around the corner and early January, we will be very busy with Ekiti.

“So, the governors, based on all these, suggested that the party and the president should graciously consider February and the president is favourably disposed to the suggestion.”

On his part, Mai Mala Buni, national chairman of the APC caretaker committee, said Nigerians should expect a more united party after the convention is held.

“The Progressive Governors Forum, after their meeting, suggested February to the party and the president has concurred. So, we are going ahead to plan for the convention in February,” Buni said.

“Nigerians should expect more unity and progress as a result of the forthcoming convention.”

Buni denied allegations that he is delaying the convention to extend his tenure as chairman.

“Am I a jobless person who is always trying to extend his tenure? To do what? I have my primary responsibility as a governor to go back to my state and carry out my primary responsibility,” he said.

“What I am here to do is ad hoc and of course to reposition the party and that is exactly what we have been able to achieve.”

The Cable