Emefiele Denies Plotting Against Tinubu

 Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has described as “false and malicious” reports that he was plotting against Bola Tinubu, the president-elect.

He was said to be plotting with a “billionaire retired general” from the north and provided funds to Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivor, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Lagos state, to enable him defeat Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the incumbent.

But in a statement issued on Monday, Isa Abdulmumin, CBN’s acting director of corporate communications, said Emefiele “does not take part in politics”.

“The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to a story alleging that the Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele has launched a ‘fresh plot against President-elect’. The aforementioned story went further to allege that the Governor has made certain amount of money available to a political aspirant ahead of March 18, 2023 gubernatorial poll,” Abdulmumin said.

“We wish to inform members of the public that this story is completely false and malicious as the Governor does not know and has never met or even spoke with Mr Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour either in person or through proxy.

“We wish to reiterate that the CBN Governor does not take part in Politics and therefore urge anyone with contrary information to prove the Governor wrong should provide such facts.

“As such the Governor and team at the CBN should be allowed to focus on their assigned job with a view to achieving statutory mandates of the Bank.”

INEC: IREV Won’t Fail During Guber Polls, We’ve Activated Second Option

 The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has rectified the issues with the result viewing portal. The IReV portal was part of the technologies introduced by the commission to improve the transparency of the electoral process.

The commission had previously assured that polling unit results would be uploaded to the portal in real time during the presidential election which held on February 25.The portal was, however, inactive for a long time, even after voting had ended in some polling units and as at the time of this report, not all results have been uploaded.

Speaking on Sunday when he featured on Channels Television’s ‘Sunday Politics’, Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner, acknowledged that there were challenges with the portal on election day.He said necessary adjustments have been made to the portal to ensure optimal function during the governorship and state assembly polls of March 18.

“There is no technology that does not have challenges. Yes, we promised that results will be uploaded in real time to our result viewing portal, but there were challenges. We already explained to Nigerians that these glitches happen, we didn’t anticipate that we’re going to have these challenge,” he said.

Whatever challenges we recorded, we have made very serious efforts to rectify them so that during the governorship and state assembly elections, we won’t record the same issues going forward.

“We have rectified the challenges we experienced during the presidential and national assembly polls.

“No national commissioner of the commission was happy with what happened. This is because this commission has been built around serving the people of this country. We had situations where even corps members were held hostage in polling units.”

Okoye said the electoral body has activated a second option in the event of a challenge with uploading of results.

“So we have made the necessary amendments, we have learned the necessary lessons from this and we have also activated an option B in terms of how we approach the issue of result upload,” he said.

“We are confident that the portal will not fail. If we have any challenge relating to the uploading of polling unit results, the ICT knows what to do so that we don’t have the type of challenge we had during the presidential election.”

Yemi Alade Celebrates Her 34th Birthday Today

 Yemi Eberechi Alade (born 13 March 1989), is a Nigerian Afropop singer, songwriter, actress and activist. She won the Peak Talent Show in 2009 after which she signed to Effyzzie Music Group, and had a hit with her single "Johnny" in 2014. Since then Yemi has gained prominence in the music industry and considered one of the biggest artists in Africa. Following the releases of her albums King of Queens and Mama Africa with huge commercial success recorded for both albums, this made her embark on world tours consecutively.

She won the MTV African Music Awards for Best female in 2015 and 2016 consecutively and was nominated for Artiste of the Year in 2015, making her the first female to win the MAMAs for Best female consecutively twice and nominated for Artiste of the Year. In 2015, Alade was the first African female to be nominated for the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs) and She was nominated for the BET awards for Best International Act: Africa in 2015 and 2016. Yemi is also applauded for her creative and overwhelming stage performances, fashion and music videos, She has won The Headies Award for Best Performer twice, 2018 and 2019. The slot was initiated at The Headies 2018 and she was the first artiste to win the category.

Alade sings in English, Igbo, Pidgin, Yoruba, French, Swahili and Portuguese. Her music has been of influence in many African countries and the world as she is acclaimed "Mama Africa" for her versatility in using different African languages and attires in her songs and music videos. Alade's father was a police commissioner of Yoruba descent, while her mother is of Igbo descent.

On 9 June 2020, Alade was mentioned to be among the forefront artists/musicians from across the world to perform at The Global Goal: Unite for our future sponsored by the Global Citizen aimed to highlight the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic especially in the most remote places in Africa and across the world. On 27 June 2020, Yemi Alade performed in the Global Goal: Unite for Our future alongside Miley Cyrus, Shakira, J Balvin, Jennifer Hudson, Coldplay, Usher, Justin Bieber, Quavo, Christine and the Queens and Chloe X Halle.

Early Life
Alade was raised in a multi-ethnic home from Nigeria, Her father James Alade was a commissioner of police from Ondo State, Nigeria while her mother Helen Uzoma is a native of Abia State, Nigeria. According to Yemi, She taps from the Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities of her parents. Alade attended secondary School at Victory Grammar School, Ikeja, and the University of Lagos, (both in Lagos, Nigeria).

Sanwo-Olu: Old Naira Notes Remain Legal Tender

 The Lagos State Government has noted the hardship sparked by the Naira redesign policy, which has affected business and commercial activities.

There is no reason to reject the old notes, going by the Supreme Court judgement delivered on March 3, 2023.

The apex court declared that “no reasonable notice was given as required by Section 20(3) of the CBN Act,” noting that the public only became aware of the policy through press remarks, which cannot qualify as a notice to the public.

The court maintained that the policy has impeded the functions of State governments, pointing out that the directive that stops the use of the old notes is illegal, unconstitutional, null and void.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has, therefore, called on business owners, especially retailers, to accept the old N500 and N1,000 notes - in line with the Supreme Court judgement that the currency remains legal tender until December 31, 2023. It is illegal to reject the notes.

All agencies of the Lagos State Government are advised not to reject payments made with the old currency by the public.

Gbenga Omotoso
HC, Information & Strategy

Festus Okoye: INEC Will Not Allow Any Political Party Access To its Database

 The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said at the weekend that it will not allow any political party access to its data base containing biometric information of all registered voters.

INEC National Commissioner, Information and Voter Education Barrister Festus Okoye stated this while speaking on Channels TV‘s politics today.

He said all the parties have already been given copies of register of voters as well as their polling units in accordance with the provisions of the law.

Okoye also said that the Commission hopes to conclude reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) by Tuesday for deployment to the polling units.

He however said that any BVAS that fails to provide a backup system for the results of the Presidential and National Assembly election will not be reconfigured for the March 18 Governorship and Assembly elections.

While dismissing a backup plan for the IREV during the governorship election, Okoye said when there are challenges with upholding polling units results during the election, the ICT department is equipped to deal with such challenges.

On the controversy surrounding the posting of the Director ICT days before the election, Okoye said all Administrative Secretaries of the Commission are Directors adding that decision was taken in the best interest of the nation.

He said the decision was taken at a time when the commission was panicky about whether there were going to be new Resident Electoral Commission while preparing for elections.

He said at that stage the Commission needed to post it’s best hands to serve as Administrative Secretaries and manage the elections in the absence of the Resident Electoral Commissioners.

On the judgement directing the Commission to allow two individuals to vote with the Temporary Voters card, he said the commission has already filed an appeal as INEC is the only body allowed by law to determine what can be used for voting.

He said the slip given to the individuals during registration was to let know that they have been registered while the information the provided are being processed.

Armed Robbers Invade Ibadan Community, Operate With POS

 Dare-devil armed robbers, on Saturday morning, invaded Eleshin at Olomo community in Apete, Ido Local Government Area of Oyo State and operated with Point-of-Sale device.

An investigation by our correspondent revealed that the robbers stormed the area around 1am and used the POS device to transfer money from the unsuspecting victims.

The PUNCH Metro further learnt that the ugly incident had thrown the entire community into panic as residents are leaving in palpable fear.

One of the residents, who did not want his name in print, said, “The armed robbers got to the area in the midnight around 1am. They operated freely. They came with POS and transferred some amount of money, which cannot be specified at the moment, from one of their victims’ accounts. They also transferred an undisclosed amount of money from his wife’s account and left.

“They also went away with two phones, iPhone 11 Pro Max and XS Max”, a source added.

The case was said to have been reported at the Apete Divisional Police Command.

As of press time, on Sunday, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Adewale Osifeso, could not be reached for confirmation.

Austin Izagbo Honoured For Returning ₦‎75 Million Overpaid By NIMASA

 The Managing Director of Messrs Caniz Ltd, Dr Austin Izagbo, has been honoured by the Daily Independent Newspapers for returning N75 million overpaid to his company.

Dr Izagbo, a Delta-born politician, commended the newspaper for recognising his integrity.

He said, “I appreciate the award given to me for returning N75 million overpaid by Federal Government Agency, NIMASA for a contract executed by my Company Messrs Caniz Ltd.

“The award is a call for me to do more and also encourage other Nigerians that there is a reward for doing what is right”

He said the award has elicited great commendation from many Nigerians, especially at a time like this in Nigeria where it is common knowledge that Politicians and Corporate chieftains are perceived by the larger society as corrupt and common criminals.