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Tuesday, 07 February 2023 06:03

Kaduna, Kogi, Zamfara drag FG to Supreme Court over naira redesign policy

Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states have instituted a suit against the federal government seeking a restraining order to stop the full implementation of the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). In a motion ex-parte filed before the supreme court, the three states are praying the court to grant an interim injunction stopping the CBN from ending the timeframe within which the old N200, N500, and N1000 notes will cease to be legal tender. The plaintiffs said since the announcement of the policy, there has been an acute shortage in the supply of the new naira notes…

Tuesday, 07 February 2023 06:02

Court restrains CBN from extending deadline on old naira notes

A federal capital territory (FCT) high court has compelled the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to go ahead with full implementation of the naira redesign. Delivering a ruling on Monday in the suit marked FCT/HC/CV/2234/2023, the court restrained the CBN from extending the deadline on the use of old naira notes. The CBN, President Muhammadu Buhari, and several banks were included as defendants in the suit. Eleojo Enenche, presiding judge of the FCT high court, ordered the CBN not to extend the deadline pending the determination of the suit. “An order of interim injunction is hereby made restraining the defendants…

Tuesday, 07 February 2023 06:01

Protesters support CBN’s Naira policy, obstruct traffic in Abuja

Protesters on Monday obstructed traffic in support of the new monetary policy initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), stating that the initiative would strengthen the naira. The protesters under the guise of Pro-Nigeria Group, stormed the headquarters of the CBN with placards having inscriptions such as: ‘Na who wan buy votes be criminal, support the CBN;’ ‘Mr. President, expose their corruption’; ‘We believe in Nigeria’; and ‘Good Nigerians support the new CBN naira policy.’ Addressing newsmen, its Convener, Isaac Balami, in Abuja, claimed that politicians were behind agitations for the extension of the deadline for citizens to deposit…

Tuesday, 07 February 2023 05:53

Rescue operations continue in Turkey, Syria after quake killed 4,000

Rescuers in Turkey and war-ravaged Syria searched through the frigid night into Tuesday, hoping to pull more survivors from the rubble after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed more than 4,000 people and toppled thousands of buildings across a wide region. Authorities feared the death toll from Monday’s pre-dawn earthquake and aftershocks would keep climbing as rescuers looked for survivors among tangles of metal and concrete spread across the region beset by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis. Survivors cried out for help from within mountains of debris as first responders contended with rain and snow. Seismic activity continued to…

Tuesday, 07 February 2023 05:49

What to know after Day 348 of Russia-Ukraine war

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Zelenskiy vows changes will bolster Ukraine amid defence minister uncertainty President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said personnel changes on the border and front line will bolster Ukraine's military efforts amid uncertainty over the future of his defence minister, just as Russia advances for the first time in six months in the east. In his Monday evening address, Zelenskiy said he wanted to combine military and managerial experience in local and central government but did not directly address confusion about whether his defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, would be replaced. On Sunday, David Arakhamia, head of Zelenskiy's parliamentary bloc, said Reznikov would…

Monday, 06 February 2023 06:00

S&P downgraded Nigeria’s credit rating to B- for these reasons

Standard and Poor’s (S&P), an international rating agency, has revised its outlook on Nigeria from stable to negative. The agency, however, affirmed the nation’s B-/B long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings. S&P said the new outlook reflected “increasing risks to Nigeria’s debt servicing capacity over the next one-to-two years due to intensifying fiscal and external pressures”. It further attributed the pressures to low oil production volumes, which have recently been rising. S&P said oil production, including condensates, averaged about 1.37 million barrels per day (mpdp) last year — a figure below the budgeted 1.6 mbpd and…

Monday, 06 February 2023 05:58

Massive earthquake traversing Turkey, Syria kills 200 people

A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday, toppling buildings and triggering a frantic search for survivors in the rubble in cities and towns across the area. At least 207 were killed and hundreds injured, and the toll was expected to rise. On both sides of the border, residents were jolted out of sleep by the tremors several hours before dawn and rushed outside in a cold, rainy and snowy winter night. Dozens of buildings collapsed in cities across the border region. Rescue workers and residents frantically searched for survivors under the rubble of crushed…

Monday, 06 February 2023 05:57

Former Israeli PM: Putin promised not to kill Zelenskyy

A former Israeli prime minister who served briefly as a mediator at the start of Russia’s war with Ukraine says he drew a promise from the Russian president not to kill his Ukrainian counterpart. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett emerged as an unlikely intermediary in the war’s first weeks, becoming one of the few Western leaders to meet President Vladimir Putin during the war in a snap trip to Moscow last March. While Bennett’s mediation efforts appear to have done little to end the bloodshed that continues until today, his remarks, in an interview posted online late Saturday, shed light…

Monday, 06 February 2023 05:56

What to know after Day 347 of Russia-Ukraine war

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE West ‘blocked’ Russia-Ukraine peace process – former Israeli PM Peace might’ve been agreed between Russia and Ukraine shortly after the start of the conflict, but Kiev’s Western backers blocked the negotiations between the two neighbors, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who mediated those contacts, has said. Bennet, who gave an almost five-hour-long video interview to Israel’s Channel 12 on Saturday, claimed that his efforts as a middleman came close to succeeding as both Moscow and Kiev appeared to be ready to make concessions and agree to a truce. It didn’t happen because “I think there was a…

Sunday, 05 February 2023 06:09

Passengers traveling to US, Europe, others from Nigeria fly first to Ghana, Togo, Benin to get cheap tickets. Here’s why

International air passengers are ignoring Nigerian airports for those in neighbouring countries to connect flights to foreign destinations due to exorbitant airfares charged by foreign airlines operating in the country. National President, National Association of Nigeria Travel Agents, Susan Akporiaye, said Nigerians were travelling across borders in droves to connect cheaper flights to various international destinations. Blaming the development on the unjustifiable profiteering by foreign carriers, the NANTA boss disclosed that members of the body lost between $450m and $500m in revenue in one year as a result of the drop in ticket sales. Airfares have risen by almost 400…

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Sunday, 05 February 2023 06:06

Soldiers kill one, injure another as protests against fuel, Naira notes scarcity intensify in Oyo

Soldiers have reportedly shot a motorcyclist amidst the protest against fuel and naira notes scarcity at the Apata area in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. The protests which happened across the major cities of the state grounded activities and had youths carrying placards expressing their grievances on the situation since Friday. According to an eyewitness, the shooting incident happened in the early hours of Saturday after men of the Nigerian Army were deployed on the street to douse the tension in the state. “We saw soldiers’ vehicles pass through Brent, and all we heard were gunshots. “Everyone ran for their…

Sunday, 05 February 2023 06:05

US fighter jets shoot down Chinese balloon, drawing a threat from China

The U.S. military on Saturday shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast after it traversed sensitive military sites across North America. China insisted the flyover was an accident involving a civilian aircraft and threatened repercussions. President Joe Biden issued the order but had wanted the balloon downed even earlier, on Wednesday. He was advised that the best time for the operation would be when it was over water, U.S. officials said. Military officials determined that bringing it down over land from an altitude of 60,000 feet would pose an undue risk to people on the ground.…

Sunday, 05 February 2023 06:04

What to know after Day 346 of Russia-Ukraine war

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE Ukraine ‘will burn’ if it strikes Crimea, ex-Russian president warns Washington’s decision to supply Ukraine with longer-range missiles and allow Kiev to use them at will can only lead to further escalation, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday. He added that the US appears to not want the Ukraine conflict to end. In an interview with Russian journalist Nadana Fridrikhson, Medvedev denied that Ukrainian strikes against the Crimean peninsula would force Moscow to sit down at the negotiating table. “The result would be exactly the contrary. There would be no talks in such a case. There…

Saturday, 04 February 2023 06:12

Protests in southern states as Naira, fuel scarcity bites harder

Frustration. Indignation. Tears. These words succinctly describe the mood of Nigerians who have been trying to get cash from banks as well as petrol in the past days. In October 2022, Godwin Emefiele, governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), announced plan to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes, and asked Nigerians to deposit their old notes before January 31, 2023 when they would cease to be legal tender. Although the deadline was extended to February 10, many Nigerians have found it difficult to obtain the new naira notes. Before the cash shortage, Nigerians have been dealing with months-long…

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