President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Bayo Onanuga as special adviser on information & strategy, and Delu Yakubu as senior special assistant on humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation.

Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, issued a statement on the appointments on Friday.

Ngelale said the appointments were part of efforts to “prioritize effective and efficient working synergy between the Presidency and Federal Ministries”.

“Tinubu has approved the appointments of professionals who have prior working experience within the architecture of the Federal Ministries they will be coordinating with, in addition to duties that will be carried out at the President’s discretion.”

 

The Cable

Palestinians scrambled to flee northern Gaza after Israel’s military urged about 1 million people to leave for the territory’s south ahead of an expected ground invasion following the surprise attack a week ago by the ruling Hamas militant group — despite warnings from the U.N. that evacuating nearly half of Gaza’s population would be calamitous.

Families in cars, trucks and donkey carts packed with their possessions crowded a main road southward from Gaza City as Israeli airstrikes hammered the territory Friday. Hamas’ media office said warplanes struck cars fleeing south, killing more than 70 people.

The Israeli military said its troops conducted temporary raids into Gaza to battle militants and hunted for traces of some 150 people abducted in Hamas’s assault on Israel nearly a week ago.

In urging the evacuation, Israel’s military said it planned to target underground Hamas hideouts around Gaza City. But Palestinians and some Egyptian officials fear that Israel ultimately hopes to push Gaza’s people out through the southern border with Egypt.

The U.N. called on Israel to reverse the unprecedented directive. But Israel’s military said it planned to target underground Hamas hideouts around Gaza City.

Hamas told people to ignore the evacuation order. Families in Gaza faced what they saw as a no-win decision to leave or stay, with no safe ground anywhere. Israeli strikes have leveled large swaths of neighborhoods, and Gaza has been sealed off from food, water and medical supplies — all under a virtual total power blackout.

“Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only concern now is just if you’ll make it, if you’re going to live,” said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, as she broke into heaving sobs.

In the week-old war, the Gaza Health Ministry said Friday that roughly 1,900 people have been killed in the territory. The Hamas assault last Saturday killed more than 1,300 Israelis, most of whom were civilians, and roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were killed during the fighting, the Israeli government said.

ISRAELI TROOPS MAKE FORAY INTO GAZA

Israel’s raid Friday was the first word of troops entering Gaza since Israel’s round-the-clock bombardment in retaliation for Hamas’ massacre of hundreds of civilians in southern Israel.

A military spokesman said Israeli ground troops left after conducting the raids. The troop movements did not appear to be the beginning of an expected ground invasion.

The evacuation order was taken as a further signal of an expected Israeli ground offensive, although no such decision has been announced.

Israel has been massing troops along the Gaza border, although no decision on a ground offensive has been announced.

An assault into densely populated and impoverished Gaza would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.

“We will destroy Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Friday night in a speech.

Hamas said Israel’s airstrikes killed 13 hostages. It said the dead included foreigners but did not give their nationalities. Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari denied the claim.

In Israel, the public is overwhelmingly in favor of a military offensive, and Israeli TV stations have set up special broadcasts with slogans like “together we will win” and “strong together.” Their reports focus heavily on the aftermath of the Hamas attack and stories of heroism and national unity, and they make scant mention of the unfolding crisis in Gaza.

In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported 16 Palestinians were killed Friday, bringing the total of Palestinians killed there to 51. The U.N. says attacks by Israeli settlers have surged there since the Hamas assault.

ISRAEL URGES MASS EVACUATION OF GAZA CIVILIANS

The U.N. said the Israeli military’s call for civilians to move south affects 1.1 million people. If carried out, that would mean the territory’s entire population would have to cram into the southern half of the 40-kilometer (25-mile) strip.

An Israeli spokesperson, Jonathan Conricus, said the military would take “extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians” and that residents would be allowed to return when the war is over.

Israel has long accused Hamas of using Palestinians as human shields. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel wanted to separate Hamas militants from the civilian population.

“So those who want to save their life, please go south,” he said at a news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said it would be impossible to stage such an evacuation without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”

PALESTINIANS IN GAZA GRAPPLE WITH WHERE TO GO

Hamas’ media office said airstrikes hit cars in three locations as they headed south from Gaza City, killing 70 people. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes.

Two witnesses reported a strike on fleeing cars near the town of Deir el-Balah, south of the evacuation zone and in the area Israel told people to flee to. Fayza Hamoudi said she and her family were driving from their home in the north when the strike hit some distance ahead on the road and two vehicles burst into flames. A witness from another car on the road gave a similar account.

“Why should we trust that they’re trying to keep us safe?” Hamoudi said, her voice choking. “They are sick.”

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the strike.

Many feared they would not be able to return or would be gradually displaced to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

More than half of the Palestinians in Gaza are descendants of refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, when hundreds of thousands fled or were expelled from what is now Israel. For many, the evacuation order dredged up fears of a second expulsion. Already, at least 423,000 people — nearly 1 in 5 Gazans — have been forced from their homes by Israeli airstrikes, the U.N. said Thursday.

“Where is the sense of security in Gaza? Is this what Hamas is offering us?” said one resident, Tarek Mraish, standing by an avenue as vehicles flowed by.

The U.N. estimated that tens of thousands had fled homes in the north by Friday night.

HOSPITALS STRUGGLE WITH PATIENTS

Gaza’s Health Ministry said it was impossible to safely transport the many wounded from hospitals, which are already struggling with high numbers of dead and injured. “We cannot evacuate hospitals and leave the wounded and sick to die,” spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said.

Farsakh, of the Palestinian Red Crescent, said some medics refused to abandon patients and instead called colleagues to say goodbye.

“We have wounded, we have elderly, we have children who are in hospitals,” she said.

Al Awda Hospital struggled to evacuate dozens of patients and staff after the military contacted it and told it to do so by Friday night, said the aid group Doctors Without Borders, which supports the facility. The military extended the deadline to Saturday morning, it said.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said it would not evacuate its schools, where hundreds of thousands have taken shelter. But it relocated its headquarters to southern Gaza, according to spokesperson Juliette Touma.

“The scale and speed of the unfolding humanitarian crisis is bone-chilling. Gaza is fast becoming a hellhole and is on the brink of collapse,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general.

 

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces pound Avdiivka for fourth straight day

Russian forces pounded the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka for the fourth day in a row on Friday, with both Moscow and Washington deeming the intensified fighting a new offensive in Russia's 19-month-old invasion of its neighbour.

In attacks elsewhere in Ukraine, a Russian missile strike killed one person in the city of Pokrovsk, also in the east, while a drone attack in the south killed a women and seriously injured her husband.

In Avdiivka, known for its large coking plant in Ukraine's Donbas industrial heartland, officials said the Russian assaults had left the already-gutted city in flames.

"The fighting has been going on for four consecutive days," Vitaliy Barabash, head of the city's military administration, told Ukrainian national television.

"They have substantial reserves of personnel and equipment. Avdiivka is completely ablaze. They shoot, using everything they have. The hospital is again under fire, as are administrative buildings and our volunteer centre."

Russia has focused its campaign along the 1,000-km (600-mile) front on the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

A Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in June has made some progress in both the east, near Bakhmut, and in the south, where Kyiv hopes to sever a land bridge joining Russian positions in the south and east.

But the gains have not yet matched rapid gains made by advances last year in the northeast and south.

Russia's representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, said the intensified battles in the east signified a new stage in its campaign.

"Russian troops have, for several days now, switched over to active combat action practically throughout the entire front line," Nebenzia told a session of the U.N. Security Council.

"The so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive can therefore be considered finished."

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In Washington, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the Russian action amounted to a "new offensive", showing that Russia was in no way ready to give up its campaign.

But the United States, he said, was confident that the Ukrainian military would beat back Russian forces.

Military analyst Serhiy Zgurets, writing on the Espreso TV website, said Avdiivka had withstood Russian attacks in 2014, when Russian-financed separatists had seized large chunks of Ukrainian territory. The area had since been fortified.

"All Russian attacks have resulted in significant losses for them," he wrote.

In Pokrovsk, northwest of Avdiivka, one person died and 24 were injured in the morning missile attack, while in Beryslav, in the southern region of Kherson, a drone attack killed a 34-year-old woman and seriously injured her 36-year-old husband.

Russian forces abandoned the western bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region late last year, but continue to shell towns there from positions on the eastern bank.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Top Zelensky aide blames West for Ukraine's frontline failures

Ukraine’s Western backers are responsible for the slowdown in Kiev’s counteroffensive, a senior adviser to President Vladimir Zelensky, Mikhail Podoliak, has suggested, lamenting that weapons deliveries are taking too long. Earlier this week, Kirill Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, acknowledged that Kiev’s military had fallen behind schedule in its attempt to drive Russian forces away.

In an interview with Ukraine’s Channel 24 on Thursday, Podoliak was asked whether he concurred with Budunov’s assessment. The official replied that Kiev’s counteroffensive is “six to nine months behind schedule.” He explained that “intensive” negotiations on arms deliveries, which began last fall, proved to be a long-drawn-out process, “with the partners afraid to acknowledge then that everything Ukraine needs should be provided as soon as possible.”

According to the Ukrainian presidential adviser, some in the West have adopted a wait-and-see approach, apparently not entirely sure whether Ukraine could withstand Russia’s push, adding that these supposed doubts are “holding back both the provision of aid and the quantity of aid.”

He revealed that President Zelensky’s regular visits to Western capitals aim to keep the conflict on the agenda. His aide pointed out that the Ukrainian head of state is also proving “very effective” in demanding compliance with existing defense agreements.

In an interview with the Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper published on Thursday, intelligence chief Budanov said that Ukrainian forces were not merely behind schedule but had completely “fallen out of it.” He cited several things that did not go as “smoothly” as Kiev had hoped.

The official also expressed concern that the recent military conflict between Israel and HAMAS could potentially hamper the continued supply of arms to Ukraine should the hostilities in the Middle East become protracted.

Earlier, President Zelensky admitted there were problems with Ukraine’s counteroffensive, launched in early June. Last month, he said that the operation had slowed down due to Russian air superiority and blamed Kiev’s Western backers for failing to supply Ukraine’s forces with the necessary weapons.

Western military officials have also stated that Russian defenses have proven more resilient than expected.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week that the Ukrainian military had lost as many as 90,000 troops, nearly 1,900 armored vehicles, and some 557 tanks since the start of its counteroffensive.

 

Reuters/RT

As if buying a home isn't hard enough, there can be a pretty steep learning curve once you start actually living in it. Recently, u/Cheirogaleidae asked people on Reddit to share ways people have damaged their homes through sheer ignorance, and the replies are pretty wild. Here's what they had to say:

1. "Not paying attention to wooden things that need periodic painting. Porch posts, door trim, fences, etc. If you don't keep up with it, it rots. Then you have to replace porch posts, door trim, fences, etc. I had no idea until things rotted."

"My wood deck rotted when I didn't keep up with paint/stain. Once I rebuilt it, I painted the banisters and railings and stained/sealed the floor boards. Repeat every three years or so.

Unprotected wood rots. Even pressure treated."

—u/meowmobile999

2. "Flushing 'flushable' wipes."

—u/sousvideandsmoke

3. "I was a new homeowner at 26. I grilled too close to the plastic siding of my house and warped it."

—u/iamtheemoose

"I’ve seen people catch their house on fire doing this because they don’t ever clean their gas grill and they are too close to their wood siding. Don’t put your grill against the house, ever."

—u/thebimpo

"My friends lit their roof on fire doing this exact thing."

—u/echo_birch

4. "Brick is meant to breathe. Painting it can trap moisture inside your walls."

—u/jo-z

"Stopping up the weep holes is also bad. I had to explain that those openings in our walls were put there deliberately; no, we will not be mortaring them."

—u/pocapractica

5. "Husband’s coworker hired someone to remove a tree from his backyard. They quoted him $600 to do it. Dude was not insured or licensed. Near as we can tell, it was just a dude who owned a chainsaw."

"The tree fell on the house, damaged part of the roof, siding, and took out the electricity. His insurance wouldn’t cover it because the dude who did it was just a dude. Took four days to get the electricity fixed. The dude who took down the tree 'felt really bad' about the damage he caused, so is going to fix it all himself.

Husband’s coworker had owned the house less than a month."

—u/jezebelleacid

6. "Forgot to take a hose off of the spigot before the first freeze of winter."

—u/sudifirjfhfjvicodke

"Oh yeah. My husband did that and we got a surprise waterfall in our basement the next year when he turned the hose on."

—u/criticismturbulent54

7. "Furnace filters. Replace them more often than you think you need. Don’t run ultra high MERV ratings. You need airflow over your indoor coil for the system to work well."

—u/69stangrestomod

"Just bought a house that had renters for over three years. They had not changed the furnace filter since moving in. It was BAD. The worst I've seen, and I'm not sure how the AC or furnace were still operational. I immediately called in a duct cleaner, who sucked out a very large carton of dirt and hair and bugs and drywall dust, and told me this was worse than the average house he sees. He even opened the furnace and air handler in my crawl space and cleaned it out with a shop vac.

I've now got a Merv 8 carbon filter in there, and peace of mind that most of the funk the gross renters oozed into the ducts is gone. The house smells better now."

—u/loanslinger

8. "I was this dummy. My toilet started running. Intermittently at first but then more frequently. I kept putting it off. Then I had three major surgeries back to back and put off looking at the bills until they were due at the end of the month. My water bill was somewhere around $550 dollars. It is normally $50!"

"Then, because I'd put off looking at it until the end of the month and the water bill invoices for the month before that, I hadn't caught it in time. So when the next month's bill arrived it was $650ish!

It was just one piece inside the tank that needed to be swapped out. A $10 part that literally took four minutes. It cost me over $1k just because I kept putting off looking at a toilet that had started running."

—u/mountainhighonlife

9. "Putting egg shells down your drain/garbage disposal. Tons of people do it. It can create a cement and clog your drain."

"A plumber told my wife that decades ago so we never did it. I figured there's no harm in not doing it so better safe than sorry. Then some friends of ours had plumbing problems. Lucky for them, the point of compaction was above an unfinished room so it was easy to get to. He cut out a section of PVC pipe and it was like a chunk of cement inside. All caused from egg shells."

—u/captainawesome06

10. "Previous homeowners bricked over the only (tiny) access point to the crawlspace. It's been super fun trying to fix copper plumbing lines they ran under the house, up an exterior wall to the second floor laundry. Every winter they freeze a few times. There's supposedly a heating line on them but I expect it's no longer working."

"I'm using next weekend to pull out the floor in the back stairwell to create a new access point so I can get under and see what's happening. I dread going into the crawlspace. I've been here for seven years and I have no idea what to expect."

—u/invisiblesoulmate

11. "Not paying attention to termites invading his garage. The framing was so chewed up that the only thing keeping it standing was the outside stucco. And he won't take advice on it."

—u/greginvalley

12. "Forgetting to clean the condensation line on my HVAC. During a hot streak in the summer, the condensation line got clogged. Water slowly leaked out of the HVAC (it was in a utility closet so I have no idea how long it was leaking). The water leaked under the drywall to the adjacent room and ruined all of the flooring."

—u/randmness
13. "I only learned recently about the filter in the dishwasher and I’m so grossed out."

—u/freshouttapatience

"I was probably the first person to clean that and my in-wall AC filter in my old apartment. The AC had to be replaced because of so much mold. The dishwasher was gross but after that and a proper dishwasher cleaner cycle, it was glorious to use again!"

—u/newsghost

"I swear to god I learn about a new filter or drain in my home every week and want to cry."

—u/mrsharris2019

14. "I once left a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner on the laminate countertop. It leaked and permanently etched the countertop."

—u/esqueezeme-

"I did something similar. We have hard water and it was leaving residue on our marble vanity top. I soaked some paper towels in vinegar and left it around the edges of the sink where the discoloration was. That stripped the sealant or whatever off and now it's etched or whatever I did to it. Sigh."

—u/amidormi

15. "A customer replaced the ballcock in his second floor toilet and then went out of town. A neighbor called the police the next day when water started coming out the front door. Always call a licensed plumber."

—u/five-and-dimer
16. "Ignoring very basic maintenance like clearing debris causing water to pool on roofs. And ignoring caulking around windows. My aunt and uncle had a beautiful Spanish mission style house from the 1920s. And it was in really good condition when they bought it. Roughly 20-25 years later, the only thing in halfway decent condition were the wood floors."

"Roof was shot and actively leaking in multiple rooms. Causing plaster ceilings to just fall. Exterior walls were destroyed. Framing was completely destroyed, and again plaster just falling off he walls.

The house stood in great condition for over 70 years. And through minor neglect, fell apart in the last 20."

—u/sparky_zell

17. "The first 10 years we owned our house, we rarely (maybe never, I can't recall) got our gutters cleaned. We didn't see the value in it. Eventually, we had to replace an entire bay window and the surrounding wall. I think it cost $10-15k twenty years ago."

"The clogged gutter above the bay window structure didn't direct rainwater to the downspout, and it just poured down over the front. It poured on to the roof of the bay, got behind it, we were clueless (both worked long hours), and eventually we learned the structure rotted."

—u/ilikeplantsnow

18. "Friend decided to finish his basement. Built his stud wall on the ground and tipped it up to place, then discovered it was an inch or two taller then it should have been."

"Instead of taking it down and cutting it to size, he managed to force it into place by essentially jacking up a section of his first floor. Upstairs, tile grout began to crack and come up, doors didn’t shut or latch properly, and you could see new gaps between the baseboards and flooring."

—u/mr_midwestern
19. "Probably the biggest one I see a lot as an insurance agent is people not trimming trees over their roof. Usually the company has something to say about it, and it's not just because you want to avoid having a giant limb fall onto your roof during a storm, but also because the falling leaves or pine needles will make short work of your roof by encouraging moss, rot, and whatever else to propagate."

"I've told clients if they won't trim the trees, they'll want to get up there once or twice a year with a roof rake or broom, so it's easier to just take down the limbs and be safe."

—u/kevymetal87
20. "Oh pick me! I had a wash sink next to my washing machine. Had NO idea that the washing machine actually drained into the sink. Left a pile of rags in the sink and flooded the whole basement. I would like to say this was isolated, but I went on to do it two more times. The shop vac was my friend."

—u/[deleted]
21. "Moved to Texas around a year ago. Learned the hard way that during the dry, hot months you are supposed to water your foundation to help the clay-like soil settle in and around it. Wtf, I have to water my house?"

—u/hotsaltynutz
22. "Our sump pump was working when we moved in, but about nine months later we had a week of heavy spring rains. I realized I hadn't heard the sump pump making noise for awhile so I went into the garage to check the three foot crawlspace we never use which runs the length of our entire house."

"I kid you not — we had a two foot deep swimming pool under our home. We spent $7k on getting the water pumped out, mold mitigation, getting a vapor barrier installed, and replacing the sump pump with one that has an alarm. The old sump pump was the cheapest one our plumber had ever seen. Would've been nice if our home inspector had bothered to mention it."

—u/vlascia
23. "Our newly purchased (one year) home nearly killed me this year. A pocket of leaked natural gas had floated into and sat in our nearby bedroom from the kitchen after I made a whole bunch of stuff for dinner with the gas oven and stove."

"Check for gas leaks regularly!!! The detectors are less than $20 on Amazon."

—u/acrobaticrutabagas

24. And finally, "My daughter looked at a house for sale where the owners poured unused tile grout down the tub drain. Totally clogged. Did NOT buy that one."

—u/key-helicopter-12

Buzzfeed

The Omnivision OVM6948 CameraCubeChip® holds the record for the world’s smallest commercially available camera. It measures 0.65 mm x 0.65 mm, with a z‑height of just 1.158 mm.

Developed by Omnivision, a global technology company specializing in innovative advanced digital imaging, analog, and touch & display solutions for multiple applications across several industries, the CameraCubeChip® is based on the tiny OVM6948 sensor, which claimed the Guinness Record for the world’s smallest commercially available image sensor. It can be mounted on various medical instruments, including disposable guidewires, endoscopes, and catheters with diameters as small as 1.0 mm. Its impressively small size makes it perfect for use within the body’s narrowest blood vessels for neuro, ophthalmic, ENT, cardiac, spinal, urology, gynecology, and arthroscopy procedures.

Despite its tiny body, the OVM6948 CameraCubeChip® offers a high 200 x 200, or 40 KPixel backside-illuminated resolution, producing high-quality images of some of the most sensitive areas in the human body. It is also the world’s only chip-on-tip camera with backside illumination which delivers better low-light performance to help reduce LED heat.

According to the Omnivision website, due to the sensor’s low power consumption, less heat is generated at the distal tip of the endoscope, improving patient comfort and thus permitting longer-duration procedures.

The world’s smallest camera has a wide 120-degree field of view and an extended focus range of 3 mm to 30 mm. It can shoot video at up to 30 frames per second, and its analog output can transmit over 4 meters with minimal noise.

 

Oddity Central

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it will boost liquidity in the foreign exchange (FX) market by intervening “from time to time”.

The apex bank, in a statement issued on Thursday, said that as market liquidity improves, the interventions will “gradually decrease”.

CBN also announced lifting of the ban on 43 items previously restricted from accessing forex.

The decision comes amid high levels of volatility experienced in the FX market following the unification of all trading windows into the investors’ and exporters’ (I&E) window — the official FX market.

On Wednesday, the naira fell to a new all-time low, trading at N1,045 to the dollar in the street markets. The depreciation was sustained at the official market at N776.

In the statement, signed by Isa AbdulMumin, CBN’s director of corporate communications, the regulator pledged to continue to promote orderliness and professional conduct by all participants in the foreign exchange market to ensure market forces determine exchange rates on a willing buyer, willing seller principle.

“The CBN reiterates that the prevailing Foreign Exchange (FX) rates should be referenced from platforms such as the CBN website, FMDQ, and other recognised or appointed trading systems to promote price discovery, transparency, and credibility in the FX rates,” the statement reads.

“As part of its responsibility to ensure price stability, the CBN will boost liquidity in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market by interventions from time to time.

“As market liquidity improves, these CBN interventions will gradually decrease.

“Importers of all the 43 items previously restricted by the 2015 Circular referenced TED/FEM/FPC/GEN/01/010 and its addendums are now allowed to purchase foreign exchange in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market.

“The CBN is committed to accelerating efforts to clear the FX backlog with existing participants and will continue dialogue with stakeholders to address the issue.”

The apex bank said it has set the attainment of a single FX market as one of its goals.

The bank added that consultation is ongoing with market participants to achieve the goal.

Meanwhile, in 2015, the CBN restricted 43 items from accessing FX from I&E window.

Some of the affected items include rice, cement, margarine, palm kernel, palm oil products, vegetable oils, meat and processed meat products, vegetables and processed vegetable products, poultry, tomatoes/tomato paste, soap, cosmetics, toothpicks, and head pans.

The lifting of the ban means that importers of these items can now freely purchase forex from the official window at ‘cheaper rates’.

 

The Cable

President Bola Tinubu has appointed Ola Olukoyede as the executive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Olukoyode’s appointment, pending confirmation by the senate, was announced on Thursday in a statement by Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to the president on media and publicity.

Olukoyede is not new to the agency. He served as the commission’s secretary between 2018 and 2023.

He also served as chief of staff to Ibrahim Magu, ex-EFCC chair, between 2016 and 2018.

LAWYER AND PASTOR

Olukoyede was born on October 14, 1969 in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti state. He attended Lagos State University, University of Lagos, Institute of Arbitration ICC – Paris, France, and the University of Harvard (Kennedy School of Executive Education). He is a lawyer with over 22 years of experience as a regulatory compliance consultant and specialist in fraud management and corporate intelligence.

In 2008, he established Global Compliance GRC, governance, risk and legal consulting outfit, where he managed as an attorney for investigation and civil litigations of fraud and corruption in international aid projects.

He worked at Ecodev Investment, a finance and investment company, for about five years before moving to Legal Research and Corporate Development Projects (LRCDP Consulting).

In 2008, he established his law firm, Ola Olukoyede & Co, from where he joined the EFCC.

He was a member of the Fraud Advisory Panel, in the United Kingdom, and also a member of the federal government technical committee on the repositioning of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).

The 54-year-old is a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

FIRST SOUTHERNER TO HEAD EFCC

All EFCC chairpersons before Olukoyode — Nuhu Ribadu, Farida Waziri, Ibrahim Lamorde, Ibrahim Magu and Abdulrasheed Bawa — were northern Muslims, which makes him the first southerner and Christian, a pastor at that, to lead the agency.

Even Magu, Abdulkarim Chukkol, and Mohammed Umar, who served in acting capacities, were northerners and Muslims.

‘SUSPENSION’ AND QUALIFICATION SAGA

In July 2021, Olukoyode was said to have been suspended alongside 21 directors of the commission during Magu’s probe.

When news that he was set to be appointed EFCC chairman began making the rounds, there were claims that he was not qualified to head the agency over his suspension and working experience with the commission.

Section 2(3) of the EFCC Act demands that the chairman of the commission “must be a serving or retired member of any government security or law enforcement agency not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police or equivalent; possess not less than 15 years experience.”

On Wednesday, Tony Idoko, his lawyer, said Olukoyode was suspended as part of administrative protocol and not because of any wrongdoing.

Idoko also said that Olukoyede’s credentials surpass the “15 years cognate experience” needed to qualify for the commission’s chairmanship position.

In the statement announcing the appointment, Ngelale also said Olukoyede has “extensive experience in the operations of the EFCC, having previously served as chief of staff to the executive chairman (2016-2018) and secretary to the commission (2018-2023)”.

“As such, he fulfills the statutory requirement for appointment as chairman of the EFCC,” the statement reads.

 

The Cable

President Bola Tinubu has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, challenging his election during the February 25 election for abuse of court process.

In his reply, Tinubu’s lawyers led by Wole Olanipekun asked the apex court to dismiss Atiku’s appeal for lacking in merit and bona fide, adding that he had only sought reliefs targeted at the president without canvassing issues that would benefit them in their final written address.

“The logical conclusion from this approbative and reprobative posture of the appellants is that deep down in their hearts, they are convinced that the respondent won the election, but have decided to embark on this voyage of abuse of court process,” he said.

“Everything put together or summarised, this appeal is a further demonstration of the abusive nature to which the appellants have subjected court processes. The Supreme Court is urged to dismiss it.”

Atiku had in his appeal asked the apex court to overturn the judgment of the Presidential Election Petitions Court for being perverse in its conclusion that he failed to prove the allegations of irregularities, malpractices, non-compliance with the electoral laws and guidelines.

Besides, Atiku had filed fresh evidence alleging forgery of the academic diploma of Tinubu from the Chicago State University to assert that he was not qualified to contest the election under Section 137 of the Nigerian Constitution.

 

Daily Trust

Officials from the London Academy Business School and the University of Sunderland are currently seeking approval from the National Universities Commission to run degree programmes in Nigeria.

A delegation from the University of Sunderland, led by Derek Watson, confirmed this after a meeting with the acting Executive Secretary of the NUC, Chris Maiyaki, in Abuja, according to a statement released on Thursday.

According to the statement, Watson, an associate professor from the Faculty of Business Law and Tourism, was quoted to have said, “The meeting with the Executive Secretary was very productive, the University of Sunderland has over 30 years of experience.

“We were the first UK university to market. What we have agreed on today is the criticality of following the compliance procedures. In addition to that, we would source credible academics to deliver our programmes from LABS who are qualified teachers and also practising consultants. The student will get the same experience as those students studying in England.”

President/Director of Studies, London Academy Business School, Larry Jones-Esan, explained that the visit to NUC was to get the nod to run programmes in Nigeria.

He said, “The meeting with the NUC today is for us to get the recognition that we are allowed to run the Sunderland courses in Nigeria; so, we do not need the NUC accreditation, what we need is recognition, that is very important because if we run any courses in Nigeria without them recognising it, that degree is useless and they cannot do NYSC, so we do not want that to be the case.

“So, what we have done is that we bring those people in and come in myself as the CEO of the London Academy Business School, make sure that we have them aware of what we are doing.”

Jones-Esan described the partnership between the two institutions as important, having seen an opportunity in Nigeria.

“If two million people apply for university admissions every year in Nigeria and only 700,000 are getting a place, that is a problem and that is a challenge and they want to solve that problem and we think we have come at the right time,” he said.

 

Punch

Israel’s military directed the evacuation of northern Gaza, a region that is home to 1.1 million people, within 24 hours Friday, a U.N. spokesman said, as Israel presses its war to eradicate the Hamas militant group after its deadly attack.

The order could signal an impending ground offensive, though the Israeli military has not yet confirmed such an appeal. On Thursday it said that while it was preparing, no decision has been made.

The order, delivered to the U.N., comes as Israel presses an offensive against Hamas militants. U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric called the order “impossible” without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”

A UN official says that the United Nation is trying to get clarity from Israeli officials at the senior most political level.

“It’s completely unprecedent,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Panicked rumors of an evacuation had begun to spread in north Gaza, home to almost half the population of the territory, in the early morning Friday.

A ground offensive in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas and where the population is densely packed into a sliver of land only 40 kilometers (25 miles) long, would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.

Hamas’ assault Saturday and smaller attacks since have killed more than 1,300 people in Israel, including 247 soldiers — a toll unseen in Israel for decades — and the ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed more than 1,530 people in Gaza, according to authorities on both sides. Israel says roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were killed inside Israel, and that hundreds of the dead in Gaza are Hamas members. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.

As Israel pounds Gaza from the air, Hamas militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel. Amid concerns that the fighting could spread in the region, Syrian state media reported that Israeli airstrikes on Thursday put two Syrian international airports out of service.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “crush” Hamas after the militants stormed into the country’s south on Saturday and massacred hundreds of people, including killings of children in their homes and young people at a music festival.

Amid grief and demands for vengeance among the Israeli public, the government is under intense pressure to topple Hamas rather than continuing to try to bottle it up in Gaza.

The number of people forced from their homes by Israel’s airstrikes soared 25% in a day, reaching 423,000 out of a population of 2.3 million, the U.N. said Thursday. Most crowded into U.N.-run schools.

Earlier, the Israeli military pulverized the Gaza Strip with airstrikes, prepared for a possible ground invasion and said its complete siege of the territory — which has left Palestinians desperate for food, fuel and medicine — would remain in place until Hamas militants free some 150 hostages taken during their grisly weekend incursion.

A visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with shipments of U.S. weapons, offered a powerful green light to Israel to drive ahead with its retaliation in Gaza after Hamas’ deadly attack on civilians and soldiers, even as international aid groups warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis. Israel has halted deliveries of basic necessities and electricity to Gaza’s 2.3 million people and prevented entry of supplies from Egypt.

“Not a single electricity switch will be flipped on, not a single faucet will be turned on and not a single fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said on social media.

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters Thursday that forces “are preparing for a ground maneuver” should political leaders order one.

 

AP