Police tear gas Peterside, Abe, others at INEC headquarters

ABUJA—The crisis trailing the conduct of the 2015 general elections in Rivers State took a dangerous turn yesterday, with security agencies attached to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, tear-gassing the candidates of the All Progressives Party, APC, in the elections who had besieged the commission to register their displeasure over what they termed the refusal of the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in the state, Mrs. Gesila Khan to release the documents used for the polls.

The politicians led by the Rivers State APC governorship candidate, Mr Dakuku Peterside and Senator Magnus Abe got more than they bargained for when the police after failing to stop them from getting close to the main gate of the Commission, quickly locked the gate and immediately threw
the tear-gas which left everybody within the vicinity chocking and coughing, ceaselessly.

Meanwhile, INEC’s Director of Security, Shetima Ngelare explained to the gathering that there was no prior knowledge that the APC candidates from Rivers State were coming to the commission, but he received a petition submitted by the party to the commission’s Chairman.

PROTEST: Rivers State All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside (left) and APC South East Senatorial candidate, Sen. Magnus Abe, gasping for breath after they and other Rivers State APC candidates were tear gassed at the gate of INEC head office, during a protest to the INEC National Chairman in Abuja, yesterday.

Addressing newsmen after the stand-off which lasted over two hours, Peterside said they decided to collectively visit INEC to lay their complaint after the Rivers REC, allegedly refused to give them the documents that were used in the conduct of the elections for them to present at the tribunal.

According to him, the continuous refusal by the electoral body to give them the documents was a calculated attempt to deny them the opportunity of presenting damming evidence to prove that the elections in the state were widely manipulated.

“Before our various petitions were filed, we had through our respective counsels applied to the REC Rivers State for the release of certified true copy of materials used in the conduct of the said elections to enable us prosecute our respective petitions. The law stipulated that we have 180 days within which the petition should be determined but we are being frustrated by the same INEC that caused the whole problem.”

The politicians comprising senatorial candidates, House of Representatives candidates as well as state Assembly candidates arrived the headquarters of INEC at 11.15 a.m., and the security operatives comprising the police and Department of State Services, DSS, stopped them at the barricade just before the main entrance.

Senator Abe told the securitymen that they were at the
commission to register their displeasure to the acting INEC Chairman, Mrs. Amina Zakari over the alleged refusal of the Rivers State REC Khan, to give them documents used in the conduct of the polls won by the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

We must have steady electricity for faster economic development – Buhari

Abuja – President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja pledged that his administration would ensure steady electricity supply for faster socio-economic development.

Buhari stated this after being briefed by the Permanent
Secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, Amb. Godknows Igali.According to the president, his administration will give the fullest possible attention to boosting power supply in Nigeria because it was convinced that steady electricity will launch the country into faster economic growth.

He said that the Federal Government had already identified the critical problems in Nigeria’s power sector and was taking appropriate actions to address them.

The president revealed that his administration had also
prioritised certain measures in its action plan to boost
electricity supply in Nigeria.

“The problems besetting our power sector are not difficult to identify. Therefore, priorities can be easily set in order to tackle them.

“The problems are more with transmission than generation,and we equally need to secure the power infrastructure round the country.

“We will address all these issues,’’ he assured.
Igali had informed the president that power generation in Nigeria, which was 1,750megawatts (MW) in 1999, had now peaked at 4,600MW.

He added that gas was available to take generation to 5,500MW in a short time, but that the country needed to expand its electricity infrastructure to accommodate additional power generation.

EU bans Nigeria from exporting beans, melon seeds, dried fish, meat, others

Senator Joshua Lidani (PDP-Gombe South) has raised alarm over the health implication of the consumption of foods containing a high concentration of pesticide among Nigerians. Lidani raised the alarm in an interview with newsmen on Monday in Abuja, in the wake of the suspension of some agricultural food exports from Nigeria by the European Union (EU).

The food items banned from Europe till June 2016 are beans, sesame seeds, melon seeds, dried fish and meat, peanut chips and palm oil. The European Food Safety Authority had said that the rejected beans were found to contain between 0.03mg per kilogramme to 4.6mg/kg of dichlorvos pesticide, when the acceptable maximum residue limit is 0.01mg/kg.

Lidani therefore, called on regulatory agencies in the country to rise up to the occasion and save Nigerians from the dangers of consuming foods containing unacceptable levels of chemicals.

“The EU ban should not have come as a surprise to us
because they have very rigorous standards of checking food import especially with the shift towards organic foods. “Unfortunately we do not have similar standards in Nigeria especially as it affects the food we consume.

“We do not have standards of determining whether the foods we consume are noxious; whether they have chemicals that are harmful “NAFDAC and Standards Organisation of Nigeria are supposed to regulate but there is a limit to what they can do. “We are yet to realise the enormity of the problem; so unless we look into the effects of these harmful substances, we may end up having a population that is threatened by diseases such as cancer.

“Cancer is a consequence of eating this kind of chemically harmful foods; so we need to do a lot of work.“ Lidani said that legislators would ensure that the laws establishing the regulatory agencies were strengthened to enable them to check such harmful foods. According to him, once the Senate constitutes its committees, the committees will begin to consider bills on food laws for amended in order to ensure
food safety in the country.

“It is up to us the legislator to strengthen their capacity, to look at the laws under which they are operating so they will not focus on just food that are exported but food that are consumed within. “You also have to educate the populace as to the kind of foods that are harmful; what level of pesticides you should apply (to your agric produce) and what effects the chemical fertiliser that (we apply to agric produce) have on the food we eat.“

The EU had warned Nigeria that the banned food items
constituted danger to human health because they “contain a high level of unauthorised pesticide“. It said it had issued 50 notifications on this to Nigerian beans exporters since January 2013. The pesticide contained in the food items is applied when the products are being prepared for export.

Banks reduce withdrawal limits on ATMs

LAGOS — The battle for defence of the Naira value has
widened, affecting existing withdrawal limits on Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) and foreign transactions on all existing Naira debit cards (ATM cards).

In the new arrangement, all ATMs that were hitherto enabled for domestic and foreign transactions have been restructured to limit Naira cash withdrawal at ATMs to N60,000 per day while foreign currency is $300 per day. Hitherto, the domestic withdrawal limit was N150,000 per day.

The new arrangement has separated traditional ATM from MasterCard credit card where the former has now been deactivated and can no longer be used for transactions abroad. Hitherto, a single ATM card serves for transactions for both domestic and abroad.

Also, the restructured cards now have spending limits on POS/eCommerce (online shopping) pegged at $300 (about N60,000) per day. Before this, the limit was N2 million per day.

In the new arrangement, a bank customer with multiple debit cards (ATM cards), only the one linked to the primary transactional account will be enabled for use abroad.

Hitherto, such customers could transact with any of the cards that is funded.
However, banks are putting in place alternatives in these adjustments to address the concern of customers who are now being directed by their banks to reapply for a new card arrangement to suit their purposes.

For instance, Standard Chartered Bank has asked its
customers to request a complementary ATM card for
domestic use only so that the original N150,000 daily cash withdrawal limit can be restored and also reactivate POS/ online purchase limit of N2 million per day.

The bank also required their customers to apply for a foreign currency denominated ATM linked to domiciliary account which would be enabled with no daily or annual international transaction limits.

Earlier, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc had informed its customers of its decision to reduce the daily international spending limit on their Naira MasterCard to $300 with effect from yesterday.

In a communication to the customers, the bank explained: “In view of the increased difficulty in sourcing foreign currency to settle international transactions on Naira MasterCards, we
have reduced the daily international spending limit on your Naira MasterCard to $300.This means that you can only spend up to $300 daily when using your GTBank Naira MasterCard for international payments via POS and online.

“You will, however, continue to have the option of paying for medical bills, school fees, mortgages and credit cards using Form A, as these are eligible transactions for foreign currency. Simply visit any GTBank branch to complete a Form A along with the required documents to make these payments.”

These developments were coming on the heels of Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) statement on Sunday that all legitimate requests for foreign currency for eligible transactions, normally referred to as “invisibles,” such as remittances for school fees, student maintenance allowances, BTA, PTA, medical and other eligible transactions, shall be fully met at the official/interbank exchange rate.

A statement from the CBN added that already all the
legitimate demands for such transactions through recognised channels have so far been fully met by CBN.
The statement stated: “The CBN hereby directs all authorised dealers in foreign exchange in Nigeria to henceforth treat as top priority all legitimate demand for foreign exchange for eligible transactions.

“The CBN once again advises individuals that wish to source foreign currency for such eligible transactions to approach their banks with their legitimate demand as the CBN has made adequate provisions of foreign currency for all such legitimate and eligible purposes.

“Furthermore, holders of Naira denominated debit and credit cards shall continue to have access to the use of their cards at ATMs in any part of the world but subject to the annual limit of $50,000. ATM withdraws shall continue to be a maximum of $300 per day.”

Buhari invites Jonathan to Presidential Villa, both leaders discuss ways to stabilise the new administration

Buhari  seeks information  on alternative sources to buy weapons for the refusal  of United States to immediately sell weapons  to his administration
Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, met with the
immediate past president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, at the weekend in the Presidential Villa.

A source said that the meeting between both leaders held in the night and lasted for about one hour.

It was gathered that Buhari invited Jonathan to give him insight into  the ways to stabilise the new administration, especially in the areas of fight against Boko Haram and the purchase of military hardware from alternative sources.

Villa  sources stated that  Former  President  Goodluck
Jonathan also presented detailed information  on the
additional weapons already paid for by his administration, which will arrive the country shortly.

It was gathered that after the meeting, both men parted chatting and laughing.

May 29, 2015, was the last time former president, Goodluck Jonathan was seen at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

NOUN Law Graduates Drag NUC to Court Over Law School Admission

Students and graduates of the law programme of the
National Open Universities of Nigeria (NOUN) have dragged the National Universities Commission (NUC) and Council of Legal Education before Justice B. O. Quadri a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State for refusing to admit them into the Nigerian Law School on graduation from the university.

Also dragged to the court were the National Open University,and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF). Counsel to the council, Emmanuel.C .Ukala (SAN), had published in some national dailies that the LL.B Degree Programme offered by NOUN is not approved and therefore, graduates of such programme are not qualified for admission into the law school.

In the Suit No.FHC/PH/CS/111/2015 May 12, 2015,
the petitioners are praying the court to ‘declare
that the pronouncement made by the Council of Legal
Education through newspaper publications, saying that the law graduates of National Open University are not qualified for admission into the law school is null and void and of no effect.’ They also prayed the court to ‘declare that the graduates of the school of law of the NOUN are entitled to proceed and be admitted into the Nigerian Law School and that the power of the Council of Legal Education is only limited to providing and regulating academic standards for
the admission of graduates of the NOUN, school of law into the Nigerian Law School.

In the originating summons filed before the court by counsel to the aggrieved graduates, Dr A. Amuda-Kaanike (SAN) the court was urged to determine whether the refusal to admit the students into the law school is not an infringement of the provision of African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights which Nigeria has domesticated and whether the pronouncement is justified on the face of the number of
students that graduated from the school.

CBN orders banks to refund withdrawal charges in 30 states

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has ordered banks in the country to refund charges made on customers for daily cash withdrawal or deposits exceeding set limit in the 30 states that full cashless policy transactions has not taken place. The CBN disclosed that the new policy on cash-based transactions has not officially taken place in all the states of the country.

Briefing newsmen after the 322 Bankers’ Committee Meeting in Lagos weekend, Mr. Kolawole Balogun, who represented the Director Banking Supervision Department of the CBN, Tokunbo Martins said “At the meeting we agreed that banks should refund the charges made on customers for withdrawal and deposits in those states that cashless policy has not
taken place.”

According to him “ The cashless policy has officially taken place in five states and federal capital, Abuja. The states are Lagos, Abia, Anambra, Kano, Ogun and Rivers States, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.  The CBN has not officially announced the take off implementation of full cashless policy in other states other than the already stated states and federal capital territory, Abuja, due to some infrastructure bottlenecks.

We are allowing ample time for the banks to deploy adequate infrastructure needed to support the cashless policy as well as enable additional sensitization of various bank customers on the merits of the policy. There are telecommunication, power and other problems that are yet to be addressed.” The
CBN has introduced a new policy on cash-based transactions which stipulates a ‘cash handling charge’ on daily cash withdrawals or cash deposits that exceed N150,000 for Individuals and N1,000,000 for Corporate bodies.

The new policy on cash-based transactions (withdrawals & deposits) in banks, aims at reducing (not eliminating) the amount of physical cash (coins and notes) circulating in the economy, and encouraging more electronic-based transactions
(payments for goods, services, transfers, etc.).

Tokunbo further noted that the CBN will sanction delinquent debtors whose names were published by banks if they refused to negotiate with their banks on how to pay their debts. “The publication of debtors names is ongoing and banks will be doing this on quarterly basis” he added.

Speaking on domiciliary account, Mr. Segun Agbaje, Chief Executive Officer, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc said “said “The restriction on domiciliary account is just the cash deposit.

Every other things remain the same. Payment of school fees, medical treatment etc can be done through the domiciliary account.

Any person or company that need foreign currency can go through the CBN’s window and get whatever it wants provided it is a genuine who cannot meet the official window requirements that can go to parallel market. The essence is to strengthen naira and make Nigeria less import dependent.”