Nigerian Newspapers: 10 Things You Should Know Tuesday Morning

Good day! Here is today’s summary from Nigerian newspapers:

1. The Federal Government is not considering requests from any country to establish a military base in Nigeria, Minister of Information and National Guidance, Mohammed Idris, said on Tuesday. Idris dismissed as unfounded reports that the government was considering citing a military base in the country, saying Nigeria is “not in such talks with any foreign country.”

2. The federal government has declared that it will remove the naira from all peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges. During a virtual conference with blockchain stakeholders on Monday, Emomotimi Agama, director general of the Securities and Exchange Commission, made this statement.

3. The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State has criticized reports by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that the party did not hold primary elections in Ilaje Local Government Area. He described the report as “shocking and lacking credibility.”

4. Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara has opened up about the toxic relationship between him and the House of Assembly, saying lawmakers led by Martins Amaewhule no longer exist in the eyes of the law. The Governor spoke when he received a courtesy call on the delegation of Bayelsa political and traditional leaders led by former Governor Henry Seriake Dickson at the Government House in Port Harcourt on Monday.

5. The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has ordered banks in the country to implement a 0.5 percent cybersecurity tax on electronic transfers. In a circular signed by Chibuzor Efobi, Director of Payment System Management, and Haruna Mustafa, Director of Financial Policy and Regulation, the apex bank revealed that the implementation of the tax would begin within two weeks.

6. Vice President Kashim Shettima took a detour and returned to Nigeria, thereby aborting his planned trip to the United States of America to attend the 2024 US-Africa Business Summit in Dallas, Texas.

7. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arrested six senior officials of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps for alleged N6 billion fraud. The senior officers are currently being questioned by EFCC interrogators at the commission’s headquarters, Jabi, Abuja.

8. The Presidency on Monday approached former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his claim of conflict of interest in the award of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway by the Federal Government. Atiku, in a statement on Sunday, claimed that the road project was awarded to Hitech Construction Company because the owner of the company, Gilbert Chagoury, had business links with President Bola Tinubu.

9. A middle-aged woman was shot while many others suffered injuries of varying degrees in Ughelli on Monday when operatives of the Delta State Police Command resorted to forcibly dispersing a group of protesting women. The women of Oteri-Ughelli in Ughelli North Local Government Area were protesting alleged incessant harassment and extortion by police officers in the community.

10. The Nigerian Labor Congress, NLC, and its counterpart the Nigerian Trade Union Congress, TUC, have given the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, until May 12 to withdraw the recent increase in electricity tariffs or face unprecedented industrial action. The ultimatum was issued in a joint letter addressed to the President/CEO, CEO and with a copy to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, the Ministers of Labor and Energy and the electricity distribution companies, DisCos.