The ICPC says it is set to begin Phase 6 tracking of the constituency and executive projects valued at N500 billion, which started in 2019 in 25 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) spokesperson, Mrs Azuka Ogugua, said in a statement in Abuja on Friday that the exercise would have teams tracking 1,932 projects.

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She explained that the focal states for the exercise included Nasarawa, Benue, Kogi, Niger, Kwara, Plateau, Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Taraba, Gombe and Yobe.

Others, according to her, are Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Lagos, Ondo States as well as the FCT.

“The objectives of the exercise include improved service delivery to the people by investigating fraudulent procurement practices in the award of public contracts, full execution of all publicly funded projects.

“Execution to specification of all projects funded by the government, ensuring compliance with all regulatory requirements and ensuring that government gets value for monies spent on projects,” she said.

According to her, the commission will also be focusing on special intervention agencies and capital funds projects handling, and execution of North-East Development Commission, Presidential Amnesty Programme and Niger Delta Development Commission.

“Also, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Ecological Fund Office, National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), and Hydro-Electric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC), amongst others, said the spokesperson.

“As usual, the exercise will be carried out by ICPC in collaboration with relevant stakeholders such as the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), the media and civil society organisations,” she said

Ogugua noted that the 6th phase, which would commence on Oct. 16 in the six geo-political zones of the country, was coming on the heels of the massive success of the 5th phase, which took place in November 2022. (NAN)

Oil marketers will soon resume importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol into Nigeria as the Federal government moves to end the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL)’s monopoly of importation.

This sequel to a meeting the marketers: Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) and Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) had with top officials of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Products Regulatory Agency, (NMDPRA) early this week.

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The Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, last week, lamented the inability of oil marketers to import fuel due to their inability to access foreign exchange, leading to the company becoming the sole importer of petrol once again.

With current exchange rate at over N1,000 per dollar, rise in crude oil price in the international market, currently hovering around $92 per barrel, the landing cost of a litre as at last week had risen to about N720 per litre.

However, it was gathered that the federal government is working on a number of short term measures to enable the oil marketers’ access to foreign exchange at a rate that will not cause serious dislocation in the price of fuel.

“For strategic reasons, the details of these short term measures will be kept off the public space for now. But rest assured that the government is not comfortable with a situation where NNPC will be the sole importer of the product as this will defeat the essence of the deregulation policy of the government,” a source of the meeting disclosed.

It was also learnt that the Federal Government, as a long term measure, is working on some fiscal and monetary re-engineering that will help to firm up the Naira, going forward.

“Of course, it is obvious that the speculative exchange rate of N1000 to a dollar cannot be the actual value of the Naira. A multi-pronged approach is being adopted which will help to firm up the Naira and which, ultimately will enable the marketers to access the dollar at a rate that will not only be sustainable, but will also be profitable for them to import fuel to ensure seamless supply and distribution throughout the country. NNPCL cannot be the sole importer of fuel in a deregulated market,” the source added.

Oil marketers have consistently called on the government to establish a level playing field by giving oil marketers access to foreign exchange at the official CBN window to ensure smooth transactions and create opportunities

DAPPMAN Chairman, Dame Winifred Akpani, had lamented, saying that without a level playing field, especially the one that guarantees access to dollars for all marketers at official rate, marketers’ ability to import petroleum products would be continually and severely hampered as significant portion of their operations and critical operational and capital expenses were denominated in US dollars, urging the government to consider the request a most urgent one.

“This is a passionate appeal to the government as we can confidently state that accessing foreign exchange rate through the CBN window will significantly enhance capacity and facilitate seamless supply of PMS and ultimately birth the regime of sustainability in terms of storage, distribution and supply across the nation. Getting access to foreign exchange at official CBN window and paying for levies, fees in our local currency will markedly transform service levels and spur product availability to a new height across the nation,” she said

The governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, has flagged off the reconstruction of the long-abandoned Port Harcourt Road in Aba, the commercial nerve center of the state.

He expressed his unwavering commitment to bringing the road back to its former glory and enhancing its economic viability.

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At the 6.8-kilometer road’s flag-off ceremony at number 1 Port Harcourt Road in Aba, Otti said the reconstruction was not just a political show for short-term gain but rather a comprehensive effort to restore the road’s resilience and economic significance.

The governor was joined by his wife, Mrs. Preciliar Otti, and the Deputy Governor, Ikechukwu Emetu, among other top government officials in the flag off of one of the most deplorable federal roads in the state awarded to Julius Berger.

Symbolically flagging off the project, Otti mounted one of the bulldozers and started the engine while addressing the jubilant crowd who came out in their numbers to herald the flag-off exercise.

He noted that the event aims to take another strategic step toward achieving one of his major campaign promises, namely to permanently break the jinx of Port Harcourt Road and resurrect the long-abandoned commercial activity along that corridor.

President Bola Tinubu has dissolved the former governing board and management team of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA).

Chief Ajuri Ngelale, presidential spokesman, announced this in a statement on Friday.

He said a new team has been appointed for a renewable term of four (4) years, in accordance with Section 2(3) of the FERMA Amendment Act, 2007:

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“President Tinubu expects thke new appointees to achieve integrous and competent service delivery, given the central role that the institution will play in the sustainable health of growth-enabling infrastructure nationwide,

” the statement read.

Below are the names of the new board management team and members:

Chairman of FERMA Board — Engr. Imam Ibrahim Kashim Imam
Managing Director of FERMA — Engr. Chukwuemeka Agbasi
Member (NARTO) — Yusuf Lawal Othman
Member (FMW) — Engr. Ibi Terna Manasseh
Member (FRSC) — ACM Shehu Mohammed
Member (Finance) — Babatunde Daramola-Oniru
Member (South-South) — Hon. Preye Oseke
Member (South-West) — Hon. Oye Ojobe
Member (South-East) — Dr. Kenneth Ugbala
Member (North-Central) — Sen. Timothy Adudu
Member (North-East) — Engr. Abubakar Bappa
Member (North-West) — Aminu AdamuAdvertorial

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Friday said 11 vehicles and 12 electric poles were destroyed in the Thursday night petrol tanker explosion in the Ijora Badia area of Lagos.

The vechicles comprised two buses, three cars and four trucks. NEMA, however, said no life was lost in the explosion.

Fire broke out when a container fell off a truck and crashed on a 33,000 -litre petrol tanker.

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NEMA Territorial Coordinator in the South West, Ibrahim Farinloye, who gave an update on the fire incident said the PMS tanker crashed along Moshood Abiola Way, Opposite Fashola Estate, Ijora.

Farinloye said the fire consumed two buses, two cars, a trailer loaded with sardines and detergent, one SUV, three flat body trailers, two 20-foot containers and two PMS tankers.

“It was related that one of the tankers crashed on the trailer with detergent and sardine. All occupants and drivers of all vehicles jumped into safety before the product caught fire. Twelve high tension electric poles were destroyed in the incident,” he added.

The Director, Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, Adeyeye Margaret, also confirmed Farinloye’s account, adding that firefighters from the service put out the fire overnight.

For the first time, the Israeli military announced that ground troops have been operating inside the Gaza Strip.

In a statement on Friday, the army said troops had entered Gaza to battle militants, destroy weapons and search for evidence about the missing hostages held by Hamas.

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The announcement did not appear to be the beginning of an expected ground invasion of Gaza. Israel has been massing troops along the Gaza border since last Saturday’s deadly incursion by Hamas militants.

As part of efforts to regulating the use of social media so as to curtail the spread of fake information, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) says it is engaging an internet giants, Google and TikTok in this regard.

Speaking on Friday, Mrs. Francisca Aiyetan, Director, Broadcast Monitoring of the NBC, said without regulation, young people could be misguided.

“Every country is making efforts to regulate social media, and Nigeria also is making efforts because we know that there are a lot of things to harness from it. But if not regulated, it can also be a platform that will misguide our young people.”

“The level we are now is discussing with stakeholders so to agree that, yes, we need to regulate social media and at that level, there should be legislation; there should be strengthening of the law to factor in all the things that are new on the broadcasting and content sharing space.

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“And then, when you have the power and the enablement by law to do such things, then we can now look at, do we have the way to do it technology wise? Nevertheless, presently what we do is that we engage the platform owners as a regulator, we engage Google or YouTube, TikTok, so we know the faces behind these platforms.

“What we do is that, we escalate whatever we think is threatening, is injurious to our people, we escalate to them that we don’t think it’s right, take it down, and so far so good we’ve been working well. Other countries are doing the same, other countries are doing more,” she said.

The issue of regulating social media has generated interests across platforms since Director-General of the NBC, Balarabe Ilelah, announced that the regulation bill had been sent to the National Assembly.

Ilelah disclosed this when he hosted Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja earlier in the week.

Describing the ills of social media as a “monster”, Ilelah said the bill is seeking to repeal and reenact the NBC Act, CAP L11 laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

The NBC boss lamented that the current law does not give NBC the right to control social media.

While speaking on Daily Trust X spaces on Thursday evening, Nigerians expressed divergent views on the issue.

President Bola Tinubu, on Friday, announced the removal of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of agencies under the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.

The president appointed new heads to the agencies.

The appointments were made known in a statement issued by the president’s Special Adviser on Media & Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, in Abuja.

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According to the statement, the appointed chief executives and agencies are Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) — Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, SAN; Industrial Training Fund (ITF) — Afiz Ogun Oluwatoyin; National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) — Kamar Bakrin; Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA) — Olufemi Ogunyemi; Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) — Nonye Ayeni; Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) — Aisha Rimi; Oil & Gas Free Zone Authority (OGFZA) — Bamanga Usman Jada and Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) — Charles Odii.

Others are Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) — Ifeanyi Chukwunonso Okeke; Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) — Rabiu Olowo; Nigeria Commodities Exchange (NCE) — Anthony Atuche, CFA; Lagos International Trade Fair Complex (LITFCMB) — Veronica Safiya Ndanusa; Tafawa Balewa Square Management Board (TBSMB) — Lucia Shittu and National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) — Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin.

“In view of the Renewed Hope Agenda of his administration, President Bola Tinubu expects all new appointees in this critical sector to optimally deliver in accordance with new key performance indicating benchmarks as established by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.

“By this directive of the President, all of the above listed appointments take immediate effect,” the statement added.