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To help the nation heal, Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah has pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to free Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the imprisoned leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra.

At the conclusion of his first security council meeting with the heads of all the security agencies at the Government House in Enugu, Mbah made the appeal while outlining the decisions made.

He said, “I call on our newly sworn-in president, President Bola Tinubu, to consciously work towards the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. We believe that his release will expedite the healing process Nigeria needs at this time.

“It will also be a pointer to his administration’s extension of brotherly hands of fellowship to Ndigbo,” he said.

The governor stated that beginning on Monday, June 6, 2023, there would be no more limitations of this nature, noting that such decrees were limiting innovation, entrepreneurship, and productivity in the state.

On the other hand, Mbah stated that his government was prepared “to engage in dialogue with people, who have genuine grievances towards bringing lasting peace and security to Enugu State.”

The governor reminded the citizens of Enugu that he had started off strong on the day of his inauguration by signing three executive orders for the state’s good governance, including Executive Order 002 for the removal of “Unauthorized Street Barriers Across the State Within 100 Days.” The deputy governor, Mr. Ifeanyi Ossai, was also present at the meeting.

He said, “There is no time to waste. The clock has started ticking on the mandate you gave me and the deliverables I promised,” he reiterated.

“A time comes in the lives of a people when they must decide whether they genuinely want to move forward or remain stuck with the conditions of their underdevelopment.

“The creativity and sense of industry of Ndi Igbo are remarkable. Our DNA is wired with commercial and entrepreneurial prowess.

“If this is what we are known by, then it becomes inconsistent with reality that the spirit of entrepreneurship, commerce and creativity are killed every Monday in our land. Our restless spirit of industry abhors laxity and indolence.

“The idea behind sitting at home on Monday, the first working and business day of the week, is abominable and antithetical to greatness and the spirit of the industry we profess to have inherited from our forebears. This cannot be us. Tufiakwa (God forbid). It does colossal damage to us,” he further added.

Mbah reminded the populace that the thriving economy of the state was directly related to the lofty promises he had made to them.

“For us to transit from a public service economy to a private sector-driven one, we must free our markets from the shackles of restriction to commerce. If indeed we aspire and anticipate an influx of private sector practitioners and investors in Enugu State, we must know that this will not happen where the perception of us is that of unproductive people.

“Therefore, those that strike on Mondays, putting restrictions in the way of our Igbo spirit of creativity, cannot be our true representatives. In fact, they kill our spirit.

“We know that our land is a fertile ground for commerce. However, businesses, entrepreneurship and commerce require a vibrant workforce and big markets where they can flourish and make money.

“To this end, therefore, from Monday, June 6, 2023, there will be no observance of any sit-at-home in all nooks and crannies of Enugu State.

“Government will enforce this with all the powers at its disposal.

“My charge to all of you – market men and women, the corporate world, industries, schools, civil servants, and all strata of workers in Enugu State  – is for us to take back our sense of industry, pride of place and re-enact our glorious past.

“By heeding this call, you would have set us on the path of actualising our mandate,” he stated.

Brazil’s Supreme Court has sentenced former president, Fernando Collor de Mello to eight years and 10 months in prison for corruption on Wednesday, part of the fallout from the country’s sweeping Car Wash graft investigation.

The high court had convicted Collor of taking 20 million reais ($4 million) in bribes as a senator from 2010 to 2014 in exchange for arranging contracts for a construction company with a subsidiary of state-run oil company Petrobras.

Collor, 73, who led Brazil from 1990 to 1992, was already a tarnished figure in Brazilian politics: the country’s first democratically elected president after the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, he resigned from that office to avoid impeachment, also over corruption allegations.

Earlier this month, Supreme Court’s justices had found him guilty of corruption and money laundering in the Petrobas case in an eight-to-two ruling.

The lead judge on the case, Edson Fachin, had recommended a sentence of 33 years.

The facts in the trial are “extremely serious” and “portray the nefarious misuse of public functions for personal and patrimonial promotion,” Fachin said on Wednesday.

In his vote, Fachin said “the then-senator used his political-partisan influence to promote appointments to the board of directors” of Petrobas subsidiary Distribuidora “and create facilities for the establishment of contracts,” according to the court’s official website. The money laundering was carried out through more than 40 deposits in accounts in Collor’s name, and in 65 accounts of companies owned by him.
His defense denies the accusations.

Collor’s political star shone bright during his triumph in the 1989 elections at just 40 years old, against Brazil’s current president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

With a nonconformist, jovial image, Collor was elected as a social and political reformer who promised to crack down on absenteeism by high-salaried public officials.

A former national karate champion, he capitalized on his image as a successful athlete.

But within two years in power, thousands were taking to the streets to demand his departure, and Congress opened impeachment proceedings following allegations of corruption.

The Car Wash investigation had also led to a bribery conviction against Lula, preventing him from standing in the 2018 election and sending him to jail for a year and a half.

But Lula’s conviction was later thrown out, paving the way for the leftist leader to run in and win last year’s presidential contest.

The taskforce behind the wide-ranging investigation, which looked into cases of bribery between Petrobras and Brazil’s political elite, was started in 2014, and officially disbanded in 2021.

At the State House in Abuja, the President, Bola Tinubu, is currently meeting with the Service Chiefs under the direction of the Chief of Defense Staff, General Lucky Irabor.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Farouk Yahaya; the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo; the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Amao; and the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, met with Tinubu as soon as he arrived at the Villa on Thursday at 10:53 a.m.

The President’s first official meeting with the security chiefs since taking office on Monday will take place on Thursday.

The meeting may include briefings from each security official to keep the President informed about the state of the country’s security, even though the agenda is not yet available.

Security would be the administration’s top concern, Tinubu declared to Nigerians in his inaugural speech on Monday.

“Security shall be the top priority of our administration because prosperity and justice cannot triumph in an atmosphere of insecurity and violence,” he declared.

“To effectively tackle this menace, we shall reform both our security DOCTRINE and its ARCHITECTURE.

“We shall invest more in our security personnel, and this means more than an increase in number. We shall provide, better training, equipment, pay and firepower.”

The suit Peter Obi and the Labour Party filed to challenge the election of President Bola Tinubu has been dropped by the Presidential Election suit Court.

This most recent development is the result of an incorrect scheduling of documents submitted to the court as evidence of the claims of irregularities during the presidential election on February 25.

The court identified a few discrepancies in the documents from the 23 Local Government Areas in Benue State during its sessions on Thursday.

While efforts to reach a compromise fell short, Chief Emeka Okpoko, SAN, the attorney for Obi and the Labour Party, was dismissed for using documents that had not been filed to conduct the proceedings on the grounds that they were unlawful.

After that, the court ceased hearing the petition and instructed the legal team to go file the schedule of papers again in accordance with the pre-hearing report’s guidelines.

The Party’s leaders were there in the courtroom to observe the proceedings, together with Peter Obi and Datti Baba Ahmed, the LP’s vice presidential candidate.

While Obi’s legal team compared their records, the five Justices considering the petition under the leadership of Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani had likewise retreated to their chambers.

In the murder trial of Timothy Adegoke, a former master’s student at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, who passed away between November 5 and 7, 2021, at Hilton Honours Hotel, Ile-Ife, the well-known hotel owner Dr. Ramon Adedoyin has been found guilty.

Adegoke was killed while a guest at the hotel run by Adedoyin, according to the circumstantial evidence available to the court, according to Osun Chief Judge Adepele Ojo, who rendered her ruling on the case.

She claimed that since the weight of proof had been placed on him by the circumstantial evidence, Adedoyin’s decision to stay out of the witness box had not helped him.

In addition, Justice Ojo dismissed the alibi offered on behalf of Adedoyin by his attorney, who claimed that the hotel owner was in Abuja for several days around the time the late Adegoke died. Justice Ojo claimed that Adedoyin’s decision not to enter the witness box meant that he agreed to the murder charge brought against him by the prosecution.

Petrol stations in Lagos started witnessing queues a few hours after President Bola Tinubu announced that “fuel subsidy is gone”.

According to reports, NNPC stations in Ikeja, Alausa were crowded by motorists who rushed to buy the product.

Many private stations were not selling as of the time of filing this report.

Also in Abuja, queues are springing up across the capital city.

In his inauguration speech, Tinubu said subsidy was benefitting the rich at the expense of the poor.

“We commend the decision of the outgoing administration in phasing out the petrol subsidy regime which has increasingly favoured the rich more than the poor. The subsidy can no longer justify its ever-increasing costs in the wake of drying resources. We shall instead re-channel the funds into better investment in public infrastructure, education, health care, and jobs that will materially improve the lives of millions,” he said.

He said he would also review complaints on multiple taxations so as to boost the economy and attract investors.

President Bola Tinubu’s decision to eliminate the gasoline subsidy has the support of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

Mele Kayri, group CEO of NNPC Limited, stated in Abuja that the company’s cash flow has been severely impacted by payments for gasoline subsidies.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari forced NNPC Limited to pay the subsidy payments; the business recorded the expense as a fuel under-recovery on its accounts.

However, the corporation subtracts the expense from the proceeds from the sales of Federation Crude Oil that is owed to the Federation Accounts.

Speaking to journalists, Kayri NNPC Limited said “welcomes the decision of Mr. President to announce that the subsidy on PMS (premium motor spirit) is over. This has been a major challenge for NNPC continued operations. We have been funding the subsidy from the cash flow of NNPC since the government is unable to defray the cost of the subsidy that is due to the corporation.

“We believe that this will free up resources for the NNPC to do the great work that this company is doing for our country and it allows us to continue to operate as a commercial entity”.

He reassured customers that there is adequate gasoline in the supply system and urged them not to panic buy because of the anticipated change in pump location.

There are reports that the Department of State Security Service, or DSS, has blocked EFCC employees from entering their office in Ikoyi, Lagos, which is where the EFCC fights corruption.

An unnamed insider told Premium Times that DSS had positioned an armored vehicle in front of the facility and had blocked the entire structure. According to the source, “They even stationed an armored tank just to scare us away.”

According to accounts, both entities have been at odds with one another on who is the rightful owner of the structure.

At the time of writing, SSS agents were preventing all of the EFCC employees at the office in Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, from entering the structure.

Reports that members of the Department of State Services’ staff refused to let members of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission into its Lagos headquarters have been rejected.

The DSS was conducting an operation in “its own facility,” according to the service’s spokesperson, Peter Afunanya.

He said this in a WhatsApp conversation on Tuesday.

He said, “It is not correct that the DSS barricaded EFCC from entering its office. No. It is not true. The Service is only occupying its own facility where it is carrying out its official and statutory responsibility.

“

By the way, there is no controversy over No 15A Awolowo Road as being insinuated by the Media. Did the EFCC tell you it is contesting the ownership of the building? I will be surprised if it is contesting the ownership. Awolowo Road was NSO headquarters. SSS/DSS started from there. It is a common knowledge. It is a historical fact. Check it out.”

He, however, debunked claims that there is a rivalry between his agency and the EFCC.

Afunaya said, “There is no rivalry between the Service and the EFCC over and about anything. Please do not create any imaginary ones. They are great partners working for the good of the nation. Dismiss any falsehood of a fight.”

On Tuesday, the Osun State Government threatened to close down any gas outlets that were stockpiling fuel.

This was said in a statement that Olawale Rasheed, the governor of the state’s press office, signed.

Report says that during his inaugural address at Eagle Square on Monday, shortly following his inauguration, President Bola Tinubu eliminated the fuel subsidy.

“Any fuel station found guilty of hoarding fuel to create artificial scarcity shall be sealed off and operators prosecuted for the crime of economic sabotage,” Adeleke said.

It continued by saying that Tinubu’s decision to end fuel subsidies had put the state’s residents through unnecessarily difficult times.

“This deliberate action is not only inhumane but unpatriotic and will not be allowed by the government. To this end, the Special Monitoring Team on fuel scarcity set up by His Excellency, Governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke headed by the Chief of Staff, Hon Kazeem Akinleye is still effective and shall not condone any form of economic sabotage.

“As from today, May 30, 2023, the Committee shall begin special monitoring of all the filling stations across the state in collaboration with law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders,” it added.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, however, has backed Tinubu’s decision to end the fuel subsidy.

Mele Kyari, the company’s CEO, revealed that a sizable amount of the company’s profits were going into the product subsidy.

He informed Nigerians, nevertheless, that they didn’t need to buy in a frenzy because the corporation had enough merchandise to last the nation for the following 30 days.