FOUR SARS OFFICIALS ARRESTED FOR ATTEMPTED ROBBERY AT GUN POINT

Report reaching our news desk reveals that four police officers from the Anti Robbery Squad, SARS attached to Area K Badagry have been arrested and taken to X-Squad Ikeja for using guns to force a helpless man, Apagbo John to the bank to withdraw N140,000 in the night in exchange of his life.

The officers were identified as two Inspectors, Pativon Patrick and Owolabi Oke and two other Sergeants namely Momoh Jimoh and Akinmade Kehinde.

The incident happened at about 10pm at the ATM of Agbara branch of UBA along Badagry Expressway, Lagos.

P.M.EXPRESS gathered that the dastardly act was leaked to the Area Commander, Hope Okafor who promptly intervened, ordered for their arrest and detention and they were subsequently transferred to the X-Squad for necessary action.

The suspects were currently detained at the State Police Command, Ikeja where they will likely face room trial.

It was gathered that the victim, John suffered his fate when he was driving home late in the evening with his parents vehicle and there was traffic along the expressway.

The accused police officers stopped him beside the road, labeled him a suspect and threatened to kill him that night as a robber.

It was gathered that he pleaded with them not to kill him but asked them to take everything he had on him including the vehicle to spare his life.

They then allegedly forced him to their office at Area K Command, where they told him that he can only be alive if he will bring certain amount of money.

John told the officers that he was with his ATM card and had about N140,000 in the account.

It was learnt that they marched him to Agbara that night with their guns where he withdrew the money and gave them.

After they collected the money, they insisted it was not enough and detained him at Area K Command.

Meanwhile, the money he withdrew at the bank belonged to his father who received alerts on the withdrawals.

However, the evil plot was exposed when his parents started making inquiry on what was happening to him and John was traced to the Command.

It was then the information got to the Area Commander, Okafor who was still in the office and she quickly stepped in, ordered the arrest of the officers, collected the money back and returned to the victim.

When our correspondent visited X-Squad at the Ikeja Command, the suspects were still detained there where they were making useful statements.

The incident was well known in the area and has attracted public condemnation.

The residents commended the Area Commander for her resilience in the fight to reduce corruption among the officers, which they said were unprecedented in the area.

The Area Commander could not be reach for comment.

MULTI-BILLIONAIRE KIDNAPPER, EVANS, PLEADS GUILTY IN COURT..

The multi-Billionaire kidnapper and kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, aka Evans, pleaded guilty, to the two counts of conspiracy and kidnap, in court on Wednesday.
Evans, who was arraigned before a Lagos High Court, presided over by Justice Akeem Oshodi of Court 18, to face series of charges levelled against him by the Nigeria Police.

Also arraigned alongside Evans are five (5) suspected members of his kidnap gang which includes: Uche Amadi, Ogechi Uchechukwu, Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu, Chilaka Ifeanyi and Victor Chukwunonso Abuba. They all appeared before the court along under heavy security.

The counsel to Evans, Kayode Ogungbeje, who has been representing him in his N300 million fundamental rights suit against the police was also in court.
Earlier, his counsel, Katie Ogungbeje, had claimed they have been denied access to him and that he may plead guilty under duress.

However, the Head of prosecution legal team, David Igbodo, said more charges would follow between now and October 19 of the adjourned date.

A total of six suspects were brought before the court on Wednesday, including a female and five males.

Three of the suspects pleaded guilty to their charges while three pleaded not guilty.

CBN TO APPROVED CRYPTOCURRENCY & BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

Sequel to the setting up of an industry committee to look into (and articulate) a road map for Blockchain & Cryptocurrency regulation, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reiterated that it will not hinder the use of digital currencies in Nigeria.  

The apex bank, in a recent brief with industry experts, stated that an agreement has been reached to formally adopt its use in Nigeria.  

A call to the Fintech Association of Nigeria confirms this and it is expected that a regulatory framework for same will be made available soonest. 

Technology disruptions will continue to drive engagements in the financial sector and this feat by the Central Bank will go a long way in enhancing Fintech initiatives in the industry.

FG MAY ADOPT SELECTIVE MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE –OSINBAJO

The Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, says the Federal Government may consider increasing workers’ remuneration package, especially bonuses of certain government agencies, instead of increasing wages across board. 

According to a transcript made available to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, the Vice-President spoke during a session titled, ‘Conversation with the Vice-President’ at the 2017 Nigerian Bar Association National Conference held in Lagos on Monday. 

Osinbajo said though the issue of better pay for workers was a good suggestion, the government was “in a bind of sorts.” He went on to say that at the moment, the government was spending 70 per cent of its revenues on remuneration and overheads, leaving less than 30 per cent for capital expenditure. That it is correct that the country needed a more efficient civil service that would be paid more, there was also the need to increase revenues.

Furthermore, Osinbajo said “Sometimes, it is a chicken and egg situation because in order to increase revenues, we need to increase remuneration. “I think that what we are probably going to end up doing is what we have done with some of the parastatals; in other words, identifying certain government services that must be remunerated differently in order to increase efficiency. "One of the revenue generating agencies, for instance, is the Federal Inland Revenue Service"... “Improving remuneration, especially bonuses, would do a lot of good. That we saw happen in Lagos with the Lagos Inland Revenue Service, where because there were bonuses, there was improvement in revenue and reform. People were able to do better, even in our judicial system. Because we paid better; we remunerated better, people were able to improve.”

The Vice-President said the commitment of the present administration was to leave Nigeria with all the resources that could be brought to the table. He said it was also the desire of the administration to leave the country with transparency and efficiency in all aspects. Meanwhile, Osinbajo has called on the management of ECOWAS Investment Bank to increase agricultural funding in order to reduce the level of poverty and unemployment in the sub region. He said this on Tuesday in Abuja at the 15th Annual General Meeting of the board of governors of the bank. 

Report also has it that the VP said the need to boost funding to the agricultural sector became imperative as it held the key to unlocking the growth and prosperity of the continent. He said the current situation where economies of various countries were facing falling government revenues on the account of commodity price slumps, declining economic growth and the challenge of creating jobs necessitated the need for the bank to step up its intervention in member countries.

The VP said the economic challenges had put greater pressure on governments of the member states to urgently diversify their economies. He said, “The population of the sub region is a youthful one, 70 per cent of our population is under 35 (years) with all the implications for providing education and livelihood. “So, the challenges of today call for greater creativity, and foresight in supporting and making investments in our member countries. “So one of the crucial issues today, which would decisively impact the future is how the bank can make a difference in the lives of our young people.” Osinbajo acknowledged the support of the bank, but noted that there was a need to galvanise more resources to enable it to effectively achieve its mandate.

However, the President of the Bank, Bashir Ifo, in his speech at the event, said during the 2016 financial year, 11 projects amounting to $121.5m were appraised.  

"I WHOLEHEARTEDLY SUPPORT ASU STRIKE": SENATOR SHEHU SANI

A senator of the federal republic of Nigeria representing Kaduna Central District and  human rights activist senator Shehu Sani lent his wholehearted support to the recent strike action declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASU, in Nigeria. 

 Senator Shehu Sani took to his social media handles (Facebook and tweeter) to make known his wholehearted support to the strike.

As expected, reactions from Nigerians greeted his comment on social media.

 The activist senator received a lot of tongue lashing from Nigerians as they accused him of being part of the problem but only pretending. The reactions of Nigerians to Senator Shehu's social media posts where somuch to showing the bottled anger of Nigerians against their political class and leadership as a whole..

FG GIVES STATES AUTONOMY TO PRODUCE POWER

THE Federal Government has given State governments autonomy to produce own power so as to ensure improved power supply in the country.

It said this is because nothing in the Electricity Power Sector Reforms Act EPSRA deter States from doing such.

Speaking at the 18th monthly power sector operators meeting on Monday at the Kumbotso transmission station, Kano State, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola said interested States must obtain the necessary permit and licenses from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) depending on the areas it wants to invest in.

His words; “Let me also make this point clear today, I have heard statements made that State governments should be allowed to produce their own power.

“The truth is that there is nothing in the Electricity Power Sector Reforms Act that stops any state from doing so, so the only thing they must do is to get NERC’s permit and licenses depending on whatever categorisation of investment they want to do whether it is distribution or generation.

“So, let me be clear about that, I will support any state that wants to get involved in generating and also distributing power under its own arrangement.”

The Minister also disclosed that unlike in 2015, there has been improvements in power generation in the country.

He said this is as a result of government’s efforts in the areas of repairs of pipelines and gas supply.

According to him, the continuous attack on pipelines in 2015 had led to poor generation adding that this reduced in 2017.

“We have made some progress with generation previously, unlike in 2015, damage to gas pipelines and assets has reduced in 2017, this is as a result of government’s efforts and significant progress is now being made with the repairs and supply of gas.

“From a generation of about 2690MWs in May, 2016 we have grown to 6863MWs in generation and transmission has increased from 5000MWs to 6700MWs.”

He quickly pointed out that: “Although this does not mean that we have enough gas for all our power plants, we are atleast getting closer to where we were in February 2016 when we first crossed the 5000MWs line which was mainly fired then by gas plants before the attacks on the pipelines started.”

In his explanations, he said as at 3rd of August, 2017 the total available power which can be put on the grid was 6863MWs while the transmission capacity has risen to 6700MWs.

However, he lamented the inability of distribution companies to take-on power describing this as ‘load rejection’.

“Unfortunately, we can’t put all of that power on the grid because the DisCos cannot take the power and this is what we call load rejection.”

He blamed this on old assets inherited, bad debts that has continued to hamper DisCos’ access to credit, insufficient investment by DisCos among others.

“We have a new problem and that is inability of DisCos to take power and sell power, but there many reasons for this, old assets inherited, insufficient investments by them, and other factors.

To this end, he stressed the need for joint efforts of all stakeholders in the sector to improve power supply saying:” We need every part of the value chain from gas to generation from transmission to distribution to operate efficiently.”

In another development, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) also launched the mini-grid regulations designed to serve unserved and underserved communities in terms of availability of power.

Presenting the regulations at the event, the NERC’s Vice Chairman, Sanusi Garba said this will cover customers in communities who are not captured in the 5-year development plan of the distribution companies (DisCos).

He said: “The NERC took the initiative of developing a regulation to remove some of the impediments that have sold private investments in rural electrification and the regulations provide for cost reflective tarrifs for investors and on the existing tariff methodology.

“The regulation also provides for strategies for investors in mini-grids. It is expected that investors in mini-grid will comply with our technical standards. The communities that are expected to benefit are those who are not captured in the 5 year development plan of the DisCos.”

Source: http://tribuneonlineng.com/fg-gives-states-autonomy-produce-power/

MIDDLE BELT YOUTHS GIVE HERDSMEN QUIT NOTICE TO VACATE REGION BEFORE OCTOBER 1, 2017.

Reports reaching our news desk have it that a coalition of Middle Belt Youths under the aegis of Middle Belt Renaissance Forum, has asked all herdsmen currently operating in the middle belt region, to vacate the region before October 1 this year.

The said Middle Belt Renaissance Forum, which met in Abuja over the weekend, threatened total war at the expiration of the ultimatum.

The meeting which was attended by representatives of youth groups from all the states making up the middle belt region discussed extensively pressing issues confronting the area.

A communiqué by its convener, Comrade Jones Simon Alfa, urged governors from the region to be alive to to the responsibilities of governance and desist from harassing media practitioners.Source: http://www.benuereporters.com