Friday 12 March 2021

Corps member, student allegedly divert N9m fees from university website

 


The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday, arraigned a corps member, Nazim Usman Gomna, and a 400 level student of Al-Hikmah University, Idris Shuaibu Suleiman, over alleged theft.

The defendants were arraigned on a three count charge of conspiracy and theft before Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin.

Nasim and Idris allegedly hacked the website of the Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, and diverted students’ school fees to the tune N9.1million.

Nazim graduated as a Computer Scientist from the university and is serving at the Jigawa State House of Assembly.

He allegedly connived with Idris to hack the university’s website using the latter’s account details to collect tuition fees illegally from students.

The crime perpetrated between March, 2020 and May, 2020, is contrary to Section 96 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 97 and 287 of the same Penal Code.

The defendants pleaded not guilty to the three counts.

EFCC, Sesan Ola, asked the court for a date to commence trial and an order to remand the defendants in prison custody.

Defence counsels, A. T. Kamaldeen and Ismail Mustapha urged the court to admit their clients to bail pending trial and determination of the case.

Justice Oyinloye admitted the defendants to bail in the sum of N3.5million each with one surety in like sum.

The surety must be resident within the jurisdiction of this court and must provide telephone contacts, residential address, recent passport photographs.

The judge also ordered the defendants to submit their travel documents to the court.

In another development, the EFCC secured the conviction of Mohammed Abdulwahab, who pleaded guilty to a 3-count charge of romance scam preferred against him.

Mohammed, who claimed to be Jessica Carmen, in December 2020, in Ilorin, used jessicacarmen440@gmail.com to induce one Mert Usul to make payment to a car pick-up company while he had no intention to purchase any car.

The offence was contrary to Section 95 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 324 of the same Penal Code.

Justice Oyinloye said from the evidence before the court, the defendant engaged in online romance scam.

The judge sentenced Mohammed to six months imprisonment on each of the counts with an option of fine of N50,000.

He ordered that the phone and laptop used to perpetrate the crime be forfeited to the Federal Government.

- DAILY POST

GENERAL THIEVES !!! Monguno: Money for arms missing under Buhari’s service chiefs

 


Babagana Monguno, national security adviser (NSA), says funds for arms purchase were missing under former service chiefs.

In January, President Muhammadu Buhari replaced Gabriel Olonisakin, Tukur Buratai, Ibok Ekwe Ibas, Sadique Abubakar respectively as chiefs of defence, army, navy and air force.

Lucky Irabor took over as chief of defence staff; Ibrahim Attahiru, chief of army staff; Awwal Gambo, chief of naval staff; and Isiaka Amao, chief of air staff.

In a BBC interview on Friday, Monguno said the new service chiefs did not meet the money approved for arms purchase when they assumed office.

“We don’t know where the money went to. The president has given out some money for equipment but they are yet to arrive,” he said.

“The president has done his best by ensuring that he released exorbitant funds for the procurement of weapons which are yet to be procured, they are not there. Now the president has employed new hands that might come with new ideas. I am not saying that those that have retired have stolen the funds, no. But the funds might have been used in other ways unknown to anybody at present.

“Mr President is going to investigate those funds. As we are talking with you at present, the state governors, the Governors Forum have started raising questions in that direction. $1 billion has been released, that and that has been released, and nothing seem to be changing. So I assure you that the president will not take this lightly.

“The funds are nowhere to be found and the weapons have not been seen and the newly appointed service chiefs have declared that they have not seen the weapons. Maybe they are on the high seas, on their way coming from wherever they were purchased, from the US or Europe, but for now there is nothing on ground. I have not seen anything the service chiefs have also not seen anything.”

Monguno added that the matter is being investigated.

In 2018, Buhari approved the release of $1 billion for the procurement of security equipment to fight Boko Haram insurgents.

There have, however, been complaints about lack of equipment and ammunition for the military that has been fighting the insurgency in the past 10 years.

- THECABLE

Kidnapping lucrative business, students goldmine – Shehu Sani

 


Shehu Sani, a former Kaduna Central Senator, has described kidnapping as a thriving business.

Sani said kidnapping is now a lucrative business with students as its “stocks and goldmine.”

In a tweet, the former lawmaker warned against underestimating the issue of kidnapping in the country.

According to Sani: “When they said that the Jangebe Kidnappings would be the last, it’s clear that they really underestimated the enormity and gravity of the problem.

“Kidnapping is now a thriving lucrative business and students are now their stocks and Goldmine.”

His remark is coming at a time some unknown gunmen had abducted students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Mando, Kaduna State.

Confirming the incident to journalists, the state’s Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Jalige had said the exact number of students abducted is currently uncertain

Meanwhile, bandits had abducted students of Government Girls Science Secondary School, GGSS, in Jangebe, Talata Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

The bandits, however, released the girls following the assistance of some repentant bandits and security agents.

- DAILY POST

Fani-Kayode has mental health challenges: Ex -wife Precious Chikwedu speaks out [Full statement]

 


Precious Chikwedu, former wife of Femi Fani-Kayode has broken her silence over her affair with the former aviation minister.

In a tell-all statement, the former beauty queen detailed her relationship since she met Fani-Kayode, how he often turned her into a punching bag, even while pregnant.

She revealed an instance when Fani-Kayode hit her mother in the head, while trying to shield her from further beating.

She denied Fani-Kayode’s accusations that she was a gold digger or an adulteress.

Chikwedu also accused him of lying to her that he had divorced his wife Regina, before she agreed to marry him.

“I want to state clearly that my marriage to FFK was based on false pretence as he lied that he had divorced his last wife, Regina.

“I found his marriage certificate in 2016 during the EFCC raid at our then home.

“When I confronted him about this, he said that he is about starting Regina’s divorce process and added that he had not seen her in the last ten years”.

The most troubling part of her statement was that Fani-Kayode has mental challenges, who was abusive of her.

According to her, in his unstable mental state, he often called the triplets in her womb, cockroaches, as he punched her freely, in the stomach:

“While I was pregnant with the first child and later the triplets, FFK was habitually beating and mostly punching my stomach.

“Anytime he was angry and moody, describing my unborn babies as cockroaches or “a thing” that he will knock off my belly.

“In one of these attacks and kicking on my tummy, my late mom and my sister visited, and they threw themselves in between us to stop him from further attacks.

“In his anger, he hit my mum in the head. After that, FFK ended up accusing my sister of assault and got her detained at a police station for coming in-between his punches and me”.

Read the full statement:

OFFICIAL STATEMENT ADDRESSING ALLEGATIONS SURROUNDING MY JUST ENDED MARRIAGE TO FEMI FANI-KAYODE (FFK).

My name is Precious Chikwedu, a graduate of the University of Calabar, Miss Untied Nation 2014, and a Nollywood actress since 2007. Naturally, I maintain a calm disposition when in crisis, being goal-oriented and not a talker of any sort. But I am now forced to respond to these allegations for my children, well-being, and career path.

As a student, I lived a moderately comfortable school life with self-sustaining businesses. Upon graduation, I got a job in a construction company. I bought my first car as an undergraduate and have chains of businesses before meeting FFK. I was also into modelling and had several endorsements as an International beauty queen, in addition to my job; these are verifiable facts.

My Financial Status Before Marriage

I am from a middle-class home where my Dad provides for all my needs. Moreover, I have always been industrious and a provider rather than a collector. Before I met FFK, I worked in a quarry/construction company in Calabar and lived an extremely comfortable life. I could afford cars within my means, caring for my parents and siblings. I built my parents a house in Nanka, my hometown, in 2012 before heading over to Kingston to win the Miss United Nations title in 2014

The Gold-Digger

I am tagged a gold-digger due to misconception, ignorance and some people relying on deliberately planted falsehood. It is unfortunate that when I met Femi in 2014, he already had his bank accounts frozen by the EFCC, and they remain frozen to date. He opened another bank account when he joined the Goodluck Jonathan campaign team in 2015. The present government initiated an investigation based on the campaign funds source. And his campaign account was frozen again. Common sense can show that he may have been financially constrained while I was with him.

My relationship with Femi at the time we met was more of me caring and having a deep concern for him while he was UNDER EFCC PROSECUTION. However, it later transited into a supposed romantic relationship that became oppressive, obsessive and abusive. Femi turned into a control freak that tried to control even the very breath that I took.

Femi posed as a lonely and abandoned man who gave his all to his loved ones but was left alone in his moment of need (EFCC trial). He spoke bitterly of a Regina, who he said fled to her country, abandoning him when President Yar’Adua’s government ordered the EFCC to investigate him for money laundering. The court also mentioned her name.

Marriage Under False Pretence

I want to state clearly that my marriage to FFK was based on false pretence as he lied that he had divorced his last wife, Regina. I found his marriage certificate in 2016 during the EFCC raid at our then home. When I confronted him about this, he said that he is about starting Regina’s divorce process and added that he had not seen her in the last ten years. He further explained that he never fancied her and that their relationship was that of a mother and son kind. At the time I left, he was technically married to her former wife.

On Regina’s claim that she gave her consent for me to be married to FFK, this is a ridiculous and blatant lie. How could she have permitted a relationship she only found out about through social media? This event happened precisely on FFK’s birthday when he deliberately leaked my pregnancy photos after another argument between us and I had to leave the house. He did that to show the world that I was pregnant with his baby. Suffice it to say that we had agreed to keep the pregnancy private before then.

FFK’s Aggressive Behaviour

While I was pregnant with the first child and later the triplets, FFK was habitually beating and mostly punching my stomach. Anytime he was angry and moody, describing my unborn babies as cockroaches or “a thing” that he will knock off my belly. In one of these attacks and kicking on my tummy, my late mom and my sister visited, and they threw themselves in between us to stop him from further attacks. In his anger, he hit my mum in the head. After that, FFK ended up accusing my sister of assault and got her detained at a police station for coming in-between his punches and me.

Whenever I resist his humiliation and beating, he will deploy his bodyguards to wrestle me down. In most cases, he called CSP Aisha Yusufu, the then Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Asokoro Police Station. Who usually would come with her team to harass, handcuff, arrest or lock me behind the counter for hours until Femi was satisfied that I have been punished enough. My siblings were locked up countless times as well. He would always boast of his connections to the government and the system, saying nothing any member can do.

During one of his domestic abuse with the DPAisha and her team from Asokoro police station, FFK instructed that they handcuff and strip me Naked. It was done in the presence of his domestic staff, bodyguards and attached VIP police officers. They injected me with a strange substance, and I lost consciousness. I woke up in a facility, which they later told me is a hospital, not knowing the number of hours or days I stayed there. My triplets were six months old at that time.

As I say this, I am very afraid for my life. He keeps threatening me at every turn. I have since petitioned the Police but nothing has been done yet but I’m only trusting God.


The Breakdown of the Marriage

The intervention of family members and FFK’S social circle was one hold back factor that kept me in the relationship much longer. Notwithstanding how dangerous, especially from Femi’s Mental Health challenges. I wanted to leave the marriage a long-time ago but could not due to the fear factor of FFK. He often lectured me on the crime of passion and how I will not live to tell the story or being looked at by another man. The fear of Femi losing it and hurting my children in retaliation for my leaving did not help matters. Moreover, the death of both my parents within a short space of time made me more vulnerable.

The verbal and physical abuse increased upon my refusal to have another set of children he had instructed and further used his doctor. I planned to travel overseas for delivery during my pregnancy, a decision that made Femi uncomfortable. The doctor told lies that I have certain conditions like placenta previa in my early first trimester and made it unsafe to travel. Other events happened where bullet shells were planted in my shop, my siblings accused and locked up by SARS, and my passport seized by Femi also hindered me from travelling. I concluded that something was not adding up and decided to go for a second medical opinion. I had no medical condition and was misdiagnosed. FFK planned all these incidents to stop me from travelling overseas.

I had a myomectomy on 31st July 2020; FFK disapproved of the doctor; after my surgery at the Hospital, he instructed the domestic staff not to give me food or drinks. Upon discharge, I arrived home to his usual stage-managed drama. I had no strength to deal with that at that point, so I picked my handbag and left with nothing to allow him to calm down, considering his mental health challenges.

He shortly sent messages through friends to tell me never to put a foot in his property, or he would get me locked up for good. It was how he ended the marriage; I left with only the clothes I wore from the Hospital. He never allowed me to park my properties or take my children.


FFK Media Story About My Parents

FFK claims presented on social media that he took care of my parents for years, got my siblings jobs and a residential apartment. The truth is that FFK asked for my mother to be brought to Abuja to stop me from my frequent travels to the East. He could not get me to pay less attention to her as my mom and I was inseparable. My mother was already down with cancer a year before I met FFK. I had provided for her needs to help tackle it but based on her religious convictions, and my mom refused to get rid of her lumps. By the time she got to Abuja, her cancer had spread.

Not denying that FFK made contributions to her chemotherapy and some hospital bills, but I funded most of the money from my savings. Furthermore, FFK was locked up in detention then. On burying my mom, FFK made his contribution, which Rev Okey Onyemachi received, my mother’s brother. It was mostly money to tend to his high-profile guests and give them a comfortable sitting area. My family catered for the rest of the burial expenses.

My Dad was in Abuja for treatment in late November 2019 and passed on on 7th January 2020. The apartment FFK claimed to have rented on social media was the house I rented in December 2019 before my Dad’s birthday. It was because FFK refused to bring my Dad down to Abuja to care for him. He claimed that my father’s people are responsible for the lack of financial flow, according to his prophets.

Sadly, my Dad only spent a week in the house I rented for him before he got critically ill on the night of his birthday. After that night, my Dad was rushed to a hospital, where he eventually passed on.

To date, none of my siblings got even a single referral from FFK for anything, let alone a job. As an in-law, FFK contributed 1.5 million Naira to my Dad’s burial and later said that the money was part of my dowry. He grudgingly did it to allow (traditionally) him to mourn my Dad as an in-law. He had earlier refused to do the rights after our introduction in 2015, after my first son’s birth.

Allegations of Cheating

My years with FFK were completely shrouded; I walked around with at least four police officers and three bodyguards. Friends avoided me even in church as I had a heavy security presence even during offerings and thanksgiving. He perceived every schoolmate, ex, cousin, or male voice as a potential lover over the phone.

I have never had an extramarital affair as dubiously alleged. On the contrary, FFK brought strange women into our matrimonial home at the slightest opportunity.

Claims of Cruelty to My Kids

It is laughable to read the claims of cruelty from someone who has never raised any of his kids physically since I have known him. How can I be cruel to children that I took lots of pains to bear, to make an ungrateful man who complained about having no sons happy? Both births were IVF conceived, and I took needles for months before and after. I take my kids to school, church, playgrounds and shopping and every other thing that could make them happy as kids. I practically shared my days in his house on my social media pages out of boredom. People who followed loved my boys’ love, as these memories still linger on my social media walls today. I love my kids, and they mean everything to me.

I run an NGO that deals with education for the less privileged. I started with primary and secondary school projects as miss United Nations. My love for children has been traceable from time. My accuser is the one who deceived innocent children with a scholarship scheme that turned out to be a fraud. He offered scholarships to three hundred students for top schools in the Benin Republic through my foundation in May 2020.

He did not send One kobo to any student or school. To uphold his honour, I went through the detailed vetting of another scholarship scheme in a better school. FFK abandoned these children and plan after making an empty promise and putting them through complete admission procedures. Suffice it to say that the school and I still bear the responsibility of seeing these kids through.

I tried unsuccessfully to see my kids even at natural grounds, but Femi made it impossible. I refused to go back to the house to see them as every corner of the house, Toilets, Bathroom, Kitchen, Sitting room, Bedroom, the Gate, front of the House reminds me of Femi beatings, stripping me naked in presence of his workers, instructing his Body guards to beat me or using the Police to wrestle me down before putting handcuffs.

These were the demons I have been battling including ignoring his lies and fabrications.

An Indictment on his not so Intelligent Person

Honestly, I have just bared my life of over 20years to the world, but then again, what can I say? I take complete blame for my wrong judgment on the choice of FFK based on empathy and naivety. However, I cannot help but wonder if all these frivolous claims of my indecent lifestyle as portrayed by FFK is not an indictment of his insecure mind.

You cannot have a harlot for a wife and showcase her to the world almost every day with the best captions and poetry to go with it if she is not a fantastic soul. Except for cause, he hides the demonic atrocities he committed while trying to appear as an excellent husband. The FFK I lived with will have the said videos shared if any infidelity claims are distantly valid for ALMOST SEVEN YEARS OF MARRIAGE!

After two heartbreaks, I made one wrong decision, believing that an older man will love and make me happy. All I did was love FFK, fight for him and gave him sons he never had. I did everything for him – I was his barber, editor, nurse (before and after he had his presumed COVID 19), chef, image-maker, and stylist without limit. Physical and verbal abuse was what I got for all these sacrifices. Lies, all sorts of inhumane treatment, and now attempting to keep my tender age children away from their mother.

Precious Chikwendu

Abuja, Nigeria. 11/03/2021

How Jammeh, Gambia’s former president, ‘ordered killing of nine Nigerians’

 


Ex-President Yahya Jammeh, who ruled the Gambia from 1996-2017, has been accused of ordering the killing of 59 West African migrants, including nine Nigerians.

According to a statement by Human Rights Watch, testimony before Gambia’s The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) implicated the former president in the killings.

Jammeh, who has lived in exile in Equatorial Guinea since his departure from the Gambia in January 2017, has been accused of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture, and arbitrary detention.

TRRC was set up by President Adama Barrow, his successor, to investigate the allegations against him.

The group said from February 24 to March 11, 2021, witnesses told the TRRC that migrants bound for Europe from Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo, including their Gambian contact, were held by Jammeh’s top lieutenants in the security services before being murdered by the “Junglers,” a notorious paramilitary unit that took orders directly from the ex-president.

It said witnesses, including the country’s former chief of defence staff and former senior officers of its National Intelligence Agency (NIA) testified that Ousman Sonko, the then former police chief, informed Jammeh during a national ceremony on July 22, 2005 that a large group of migrants had been apprehended on a beach near Barra, across the river from Banjul, the capital.

“One of those men was Paul Enagameh of Nigeria, whose brother, Kehinde Enagameh, was among those killed, according to a Nigerian investigation carried out in 2008,” it said.

After allegedly speaking with Jammeh, Sonko was said to have instructed officers to ferry the migrants, who were suspected of being mercenaries, to the naval headquarters in Banjul.

All the Gambian security chiefs were said to have then converged on the naval headquarters, as did several Junglers, who beat and kicked the migrants and “treated them like animals”.

“Several officers said that it was already clear that the men and two women were migrants and not mercenaries, as they carried no weapons or anything suspicious. The migrants were then allegedly distributed to various detention centers around Banjul,” the rights group added.

“The exposed bodies of the first group of eight migrants were found the next morning, July 23, 2005, near Ghana Town, a settlement of Ghanaian descendants in Brufut, just outside Banjul.

“Amady Jallow, the then-crime management coordinator, testified that the bodies showed signs of bad beatings, their skulls broken in, blood and brains oozing out”.

Jallow reportedly said he was informed years later by another police officer that an additional nine Nigerians had been buried in a mass grave near the place he saw the exposed bodies.

‘ORDER TO EXECUTE WAS FROM JAMMEH’

According to the statement, the TRRC said in July 2019, three former Junglers, all serving members of the Gambian National Army, testified that they and 12 others carried out those killings on Jammeh’s orders.

They also listed a series of assassinations they carried out on Jammeh’s orders and said they “never operated on anything that is their own orders or will, all the orders come from the top (Jammeh)”.

Although the exact number of migrants killed is still unclear, Gibril Secka, director of operations at the NIA, presented a list of 51 migrants the police counted at one station to including nationals of Ghana (39); Sierra Leone (3); Côte d’Ivoire (2); Senegal (2); Togo (2); Liberia (1); Nigeria (1 – John Amase), and Congo (1).

The number omits some migrants who have previously been identified, as well as eight other Nigerians arrested and killed.

JAMMEH’S GOVERNMENT TRIED TO COVER UP CRIMES

The commission alleged that Jammeh tried to cover up his crimes.

“Former chief of defense Staff Assan Sarr said that when a UN/ECOWAS investigation team came in 2008, he was told by then-police chief Ensa Bajie in the presence of the then-crime management coordinator, Yankuba Sonko, not to ‘jeopardize or tarnish the image of this country … and in the event they call us, we should be mindful of what we say or do’,” it said.

A police officer from Barra, Babucarr Bah, reportedly said Sonko told him: “Make sure you don’t say anything to the investigators”, and that on Sonko’s instructions, “we took them to bars, gave them alcohol and women.”

Bah also said around December 2005, Sonko told him to falsify the July 22, 2005 diary entry from the Barra police station where the migrants were initially arrested and that the diary entries were then completely rewritten.

But Sonko was said to have denied the allegation.

The commission is expected to deliver its report in July.

- THECABLE



New fuel pump price is wickedness, economic terrorism – Ex-NUJ Chairman, activists, other Nigerians

 


With the increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from N172 to N212.61 per litre by the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) on Thursday night, Nigerians have criticized the decision and tagged it as both anti-people and the one that will cause lots of hardship to the citizens and increase the crime rate in the country.

On the 1st of March, 2021, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had assured the nation that there would not be hike in pump price of petroleum products and that Nigerians had hope of buying PMS at less than N100 per litre.

For Ismahil Tiamiyu, the CEO of Insightlinks Media, “the price hike is the highest level of wickedness from the man Nigerians voted. The effect can be better imagined when we look at the fact that the economy of this country rests solely on this product.

“No one can do without transportation. Goods and food products move from one region of this country to another via transportation. Nigerians deserve better from this government.

“The Federal Government should come out plain. Today, the downstream sector of the petroleum industry is deregulated, tomorrow NNPC announces increment in fuel pump price. What exactly is the state of things? It seems this government is confused.”

Bishop Seun Adeoye, a former Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Chairman in Osun State said he was not surprised at the announcement.

In his words, “I can promise you that in the next few months, we are going to be paying more than N220. And maybe before the end of the tenure of this administration, we will be paying N500 per litre.

“Before the election that brought in President Muhammadu Buhari for his second term in office, I issued a statement warning that Buhari’s second term will bring double portion of hardship compared to his first term.

“Nigerians should remember that when the pump price was increased to N145, I staged a one-man protest and I wrote in the placard I displayed that, ‘This is chain and not change’. We were then told that there will be no more hike in fuel price. What do we see today?

He maintained that the present crop of leaders have no passion for the masses, adding that even though president Buhari has said it often times that he felt the citizens’ pains but with this development, it is safe to conclude that he was only deceiving and making jest of Nigerians.

He noted that with the increment in fuel pump price, Nigerians should expect the sore effect of this on goods and services.

“What do we have? More suffering and pains and more sudden death. Anyway, we will keep on asking God to change the hearts of our leaders for good.”

Comrade Waheed Saka, the convener of Dialogue 360 stated that the increment is pure political incitement of the citizens against the elites.

He wondered how an administration which just got out of recession through Economic Sustainable Plan (ESP) will immediately give the same citizens ‘Economic Hardship Plan’ (EHP) that the fuel pump price increase represented?

“Go to the market, there is no percentage calculation for increase in goods and consumables any more. It is simply off the average citizen’s reach. This new increase is a total assault on the well-being of our people. It is simply unacceptable. It is government wickedness at best and economic terrorism of the same citizens they are elected to protect. It must not only be challenged, it must also be rejected by all people of good conscience. This is sad.

“The minimum wage of N30,000 which is yet to be paid by many states is now with maximum trouble occasioned with the increase in the pump price of fuel. The citizens of this country deserve better and it is so unfortunate, it is getting worse every day.”

Mr. Sunday Michael Ogwu, a journalist stated that there has not been an official announcement on the price increase yet, noting that at best it was just speculations.

According to him, he had bought a litre of PMS for N165 per litre in Abuja yesterday and also bought at N170 in Owerri this morning.

“Of course, some marketers would have adjusted their pumps in lieu of a possible announcement,” he added.

Mr. Arowoogu stated that he was short of words as to what to say as the citizens have once again found themselves in a mess.

He added that there was nothing anybody could do or say than to accept their fate.

Geff Ekene Aniagu disclosed that it will lead many into crimes, banditry and kidnapping, adding that there will be increase in mental health problems in the country and many who will find it difficult to cope may go into depression and suicide.

A civil servant who preferred anonymity states that the increase in fuel pump price at this time is a ratification of hardship, groans, pains and tears.

He explained that many will be in financial trouble in a short time because the costs of food stuffs will increase.

DAILY POST recalls that on March 1, the NNPC said in a statement by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Kennie Obateru, that contrary to speculations of imminent increase in the price of petrol in the country, there would be no increment in the ex-depot price of petrol in March.

“The Corporation was not contemplating any raise in the price of petrol in March in order not to jeopardize ongoing engagements with organized labour and other stakeholders on an acceptable framework that will not expose the ordinary Nigerian to any hardship.”

In 2015 when President Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated, the pump price of PMS was N87 per litre but since then, the price has since been increased to N145, N147, decreased to N125 and increased back again to N163, N172 and now with the current increase; N212.61 while the minimum wage for the nation’s workforce is still stagnant at N30,000.

- DAILY POST

Lagos Judicial panel awards petitioner N7.5 million for police brutality

 


The Lagos State judicial panel hearing cases of police brutality and SARS-related abuses has awarded a petitioner, Marc Chidibere Nwadi the sum on N7.5 million.

Chidiebere Nwadi first appeared before the panel on Saturday, November 28 before the panel where he testified that he hated the Nigerian police since 1999.

The 39-old who appeared without legal counsel narrated how the Nigerian police killed his dream of becoming a journalist.

- PM NEWS