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.

170,000 PUs On IReV, BVAS Reconfiguration To Be Completed Tuesday – INEC

 The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday said over 170,000 polling unit results of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections have been uploaded on its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

The Commission also said the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Registration Systems (BVAS) would be completed by Tuesday in preparation for the March 18 governorship and state assembly elections.

“As at the last time, over 170,000 of those results have been uploaded,” INEC National Commissioner, Festus Okoye, stated on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

“As you are aware, we are reconfiguring the BVAS for purposes of the governorship and state assembly elections, and any BVAS that was used for the presidential and National Assembly elections that do not push to the accreditation backend, the data relating to the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections will not be reconfigured.

“In fact, the BVAS will not allow itself to be reconfigured or reset if the entire data is not pushed to the accreditation backend.

“I’m sure that by Tuesday when we hope to complete the resettling of the BVAS for the purposes of the governorship and state assembly elections, the results in all the places where elections were conducted would have been pushed to the accreditation backend.”

‘No Party Allowed To Check BVAS’

Okoye said every Nigerian has the constitutional and legal right to protest. However, he said no political party will be allowed to look into the brain of the BVAS or the biometrics of voters.

He said the court judgement that voters could use their temporary voter cards to vote is not applicable for all Nigerians but for the individuals who went to court.

The INEC commissioner also blamed political parties for making polling units “inaccessible” for voters, leading to low turnout at the last polls.

He said INEC learned some “valuable lessons” in the presidential and National Assembly elections, which would be used in the governorship and state assembly polls.

He said serious efforts are being made to rectify challenges with IReV portal ahead of the March 18 polls, adding that the ICT department of the commission knows what to do if there are issues with the uploading of polling unit results on the IReV portal in March 18 polls.

He said political parties deployed more polling unit agents than the number of officials deployed by the Commission and so they monitored their results per polling units.

The INEC commissioner said, “The Electoral Act 2022 makes it clear that every registered political party in conjunction with their candidates have the right to send agents to every polling units in Nigeria. The PDP as a political party deployed a total of 176,588 polling agents. The Labour Party deployed a total of 134,874 polling agents. The NNPP deployed a total of 176,200 while the APC deployed a total of 176,223.

“The commission deployed to 176,666 polling units. So, the political parties deployed more agents to the polling units than the number of polling units that opened. What that means is that each political party got a copy of Form EC 8 which is the polling unit result sheet which is the result sheet that is uploaded into the IReV portal.”

Legal Battle

The IReV and the BVAS are new technologies introduced by the electoral body for the accreditation and electronic transmission of votes for this year’s polls.

At the presidential and National Assembly polls, opposition parties complained bitterly that INEC officials at the polling units were unable to upload election results electronically to the IReV, as stipulated by Section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022. The parties kicked against the manual collation of results and the announcement of winners in the polls.

The electoral body promised to fix the glitches but opposition parties have gone to court to challenge the victory of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who was declared Nigeria’s President-Elect by the electoral umpire.

Last week, a Court of Appeal in Nigeria’s political capital, Abuja granted approval to INEC to reconfigure the BVAS for the governorship and state assembly elections.

The Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate Peter Obi had sought an order from the court restraining INEC from tampering with the information in the BVAS machines until the due inspection is conducted and certified true copies (CTC) of them issued.

But on Wednesday, a three-member panel of the court of appeal led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh granted INEC’s request to reconfigure the BVAS machines on the ground that the information on them would be uploaded into the back-end server which cannot be tampered with.

The commission subsequently postponed the governorship and state assembly polls by one week from March 11 to March 18 to allow for the reconfiguration of BVAS machines.

Soludo: CBN Has Directed Banks To Accept And Dispense Old Naira Notes

 1- GOVERNOR SOLUDO: SPECIAL PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT

Commercial banks have been directed by the Central Bank to dispense old currency notes and to also receive same as deposits from customers.

2- Tellers at commercial banks are to generate the codes for deposits and there is no limit to the number of times an individual or company can make deposits. 

The Governor of the CBN gave the directive at a Bankers’ Committee meeting held on Sunday, 12th March 2023.

3- The Governor, Emefiele, personally confirmed the above to me during a phone conversation on Sunday night. Residents of Anambra are therefore advised to freely accept and transact their businesses with the old currency notes (N200; N500; and N1,000) as well as the new notes.

4- Residents should report any bank that refuses to accept deposits of the old notes. Anambra State Government will not only report such a bank to the CBN, but will also immediately shut down the defaulting branch. 

Signed 

C. C. Soludo CFR.
Governor

Wike Is A Drowning Man In Need Of Salvation, He's Trying To Divide Nigeria- Reno

 Wike Is A Drowning Man In Need Of Salvation, He Is Trying To Divide Nigeria - Reno Omokri  

Former presidential aide, Reno Omokri has said that Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike wants to restore his 'diminishing' political relevance by trying to make Southerners believe that Northerners hate them, IGBERETV reports.

Reno wrote on his Twitter handle;

"Wike is a drowning man in need of salvation. But rather than seek it from our Lord and Saviour, Wike wants to seek it be trying to convince Southerners that Northerners hate us. But was it Northerners who unleashed violence against Rivers people on Election Day? 

#TableShaker"

Femi Odubiyi, INEC ICT Director With Ties To APC Should Be Sacked – George

 Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has told the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, to remove the commission’s Director of ICT, Mr. Femi Odubiyi, because of his closeness to the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President-elect, Bola Tinubu.

George, the Atona Oodua of Yorubaland, declared that the first thing Yakubu must do is to explain to Nigerians how Odubiyi, a former Commissioner for Science and Technology in Lagos State, found his way into INEC as head of ICT, “a critical department before, during and after elections”.

“Today, millions of Nigerians are disputing the outcome of the February 25 presidential elections and some candidates are already in court. BVAS and IReV are very critical in the legal process that is going on.

“Nigerians are already asking Prof. Mahmood Yakubu: How did this man, former Commissioner in Lagos State, find his way into INEC, not just any Department but a critical one like ICT? That department is very sensitive. Why should a follower of a presidential candidate be deployed to man a sensitive department like ICT in an election year?

“How did he even get his way into INEC? Do we have acolytes of Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and other candidates heading other departments in INEC? Nigerians need to know. Was there no background check by security agents before this man was chosen to head ICT? How do we want the world to look at us when somebody close to a presidential candidate decides what goes on in the ICT department?

“Now that other candidates are in court, is this not the time for this fellow to be redeployed? Who appointed him and when was he appointed? Nigerians need to know,” he said.

According to George, he said it appears Odubiyi is a mole deliberately planted in INEC, to subvert the will of the Nigerian electorate, saying if not, the commission, through Yakubu, must come clean, to explain to Nigerians how a former commissioner in the employment of Lagos State became a director of ICT department in INEC.

“How did he get in there? Was Yakubu sleeping? How come Atiku, Obi, Kwankwaso and others did not put their contacts there? These are posers the INEC Chairman must unravel,” he asked.

He called for a comprehensive investigation, that should involve all government security apparatus “to get to the bottom of this intriguing matter of national interest”, stating that no culpable hand, no matter how highly placed, should be spared of appropriate punishment.

“It is stated clearly in the electoral bill that election results from the polling units must be transmitted into INEC Server, and there must not be any interloper.

“I call on all security apparatus of government to quickly wade into this matter by inviting Odubiyi, to explain whatever role he has played, as well as tell Nigerians how he got into INEC ICT unit, from being a Commissioner in Lagos State. The masquerade must be unveiled. This unholy alliance that has pushed our country towards precipice must be thoroughly checked and nipped in the bud,”

Compensate Me By Supporting Iyan Zazzau To Be Speaker – El-rufai Begs Tinubu

 Ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly in June 2023, Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufa’I of Kaduna State had appealed to the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to support the emergence of Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, the Iyan Zazzau as next Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives.

Hon. Tajuddeen of the All Progressives Congress represents Zaria Federal Constituency and is the House Committee Chairman, Land Transport.

Governor El-Rufai who spoke to party supporters in Zaria,said his wish was to see Hon.Tajuddeen occupying the number one seat in the House of Representatives.

“We thank God that our member of the House of Representatives from Zaria, the Iyan Zazzau has won the election.

Majority among you have been sending messages to us and we’ve been looking at it, and we are following.”

“Finally,I had wanted to travel to Lagos yesterday and see Asiwaju in respect of the Speaker. He said he would be coming to Abuja today.”

But the most important thing I will request from him, if at all I contributed to his success in the election, the only pay back is for the Iyan Zazzau to become Speaker.”

“I thank you immensely for casting your votes for him.vThis is because if you had decided not to vote for him, we wouldn’t have gathered here Alhamdulillahi,”