Today's Headlines:Obi-Datti campaign council want INEC Chair dismissed, DSS charge Emefiele to court
Obi-Datti campaign council wants INEC Chairman dismissed
For supervising what it described as a terribly-flawed 2023 presidential election, the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council has called for the immediate sack and probe of the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
The Director General of the Obi-Datti PCC, Akin Osuntokun, at a media briefing on Thursday, called for a forensic audit of the humongous funds allotted to INEC to prosecute the election; which turned out shambolic.
According to him, INEC’s excuse of technical glitches having received fat resources for the February 25 elections was totally unacceptable.
Osuntokun said the INEC boss must be made to account for the failure of his commission to carry out credible elections, which has vandalized the nation’s electoral architecture.
DSS charges Emefiele to court
The Department of Security Services (DSS) has charged the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to court Godwin Emefiele to Court.
In a statement, DSS spokesman Peter Afunanya said the decision to charge Emefiele was in compliance with the order of the Federal Capital Territory High Court.
Subsidy: Give non-cash palliatives to Nigerians, economist urges Tinubu
An economist, Prof Uche Uwaleke, has advised President Bola Tinubu to consider non-cash palliatives instead of cash to ameliorate the effects of subsidy removal faced by Nigerians.
Uwaleke, a professor of Finance and Capital market at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, gave the advice in an interview with the Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
His reactions came with respect to the President’s letter to the House of Representatives, which was read by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, during plenary on Tuesday.
The letter was for approval of additional financing for the national social safety net programme scaled up by the National Assembly.
The letter stated that 12 million families would get N8,000 over a period of six months to ameliorate the hardship faced by Nigerians as a result of the fuel subsidy removal.
It said the support would enable poor and vulnerable Nigerians to cope with the cost of meeting basic needs and will have a multiplier effect on about 60 million individuals.
Uwaleke said, “This is rather a sub-optimal option. The government should look in the direction of non-cash palliatives.
“The President is equally seeking approval of $800 million soft loan from the World Bank as part of funds to cushion the impact of the subsidy removal.
I don’t operate Security Vote in Imo – Uzodimma
The Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, has clarified that he does not utilize the controversial ‘Security Vote’, but he is advocating for State Governors to be granted greater flexibility and authority to address security challenges at the subnational level, even though the country is a federation.
He made the disclosure while fielding questions from State House Correspondents after met with President Bola Tinubu, to seek an appointment for Southeast leaders and Ohaneze Ndigbo to meet the President over unrelenting insecurity in the region, which he said has defied combined efforts of the southeast governors.
Uzodimma emphasised that despite not having a security vote at his disposal as the ‘Chief Security Officer’ of Imo State, he employs a combination of kinetic and non-kinetic approaches to effectively tackle security challenges within the bounds of the law.
Uzodimma underscored the importance of granting Governors more autonomy to efficiently fulfill their duties and responsibilities in serving the people.
He said: “On security vote, I’m not against it, but I don’t operate it in Imo state. Again, you should find out from my parliament, I don’t operate it in Imo State but I still think that governors should be given a headroom, governors should be allowed a window to have funds they can use to manage security issues.
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