Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday said that a total of 119,663 pieces of counterfeit notes with a nominal value of N98.82 million was recorded in 2018. The bank said this in the Currency Operations 2018 Annual Report, posted on its website. CBN said the figure indicated a decline of 1.30 per cent in volume terms and an increase of 5.77 per cent in value terms, when compared with 118,126 pieces with a nominal value of N93.43 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2017. The regulator said the ratio of counterfeit notes to volume of banknotes in circulation…

Police in northern Nigeria rescued nearly 70 men and boys from a second purported Islamic school where they were shackled and subjected to “inhuman and degrading treatments.” The raid in Daura, Katsina state, northwestern home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, came less than a month after about 300 men and boys were freed from another supposed Islamic school in neighbouring Kaduna state where they were allegedly tortured and sexually abused. “In the course of investigation, sixty-seven persons from the ages of 7 to 40 years were found shackled with chains,” Katsina police spokesman Sanusi Buba said in a statement. “Victims…