NewsReports

• Shun panic buying• Group hails petrol stability The President, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Abubakar Maigandi, yesterday reiterated that any talk of petrol pump price increase is mere rumour. Maigandi, in a telephone conversation with The Nation yesterday, explained that though private depots in Lagos sell the product at N621 per litre, IPMAN members in the axis have been …

*Says nation’s huge infrastructure gap requires $14.2bn annual investment over 10 years World renowned audit, tax and advisory services firm, KPMG, yesterday, said the exit of major companies that had operated in Nigeria for years was contributing to the waning investors’ confidence in the country. The firm stated this in its “flashnotes” on the recent capital importation report by the …

It said the first phase of the plant had been completed, as the facility would start refining 60,000 barrels of crude oil daily after the Christmas break. The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, had stated that the first phase of the PHRC was completed on December 20, 2023, adding that refined products’ production would commence …

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have besieged the Head office of the Dangote Group of Companies in Lagos State, allegedly searching for documents relating to forex allocations to the company. According to the Punch, the search, which commenced at the company’s head office in Lagos around 3 p.m. on Thursday is still ongoing as of the time …

Controversy yesterday trailed plans by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to relocate former Sierra Leonean President, Ernest Bai Koroma, to Nigeria today. In a statement yesterday, the ECOWAS Commission President, Omar Alieu Touray, indicated that the move to relocate Koroma followed an agreement reached by an ECOWAS Mission to Freetown on December 23. The high-level delegation was led by President …

No fewer than 4,567,689 Nigerians are eligible to vote in the February 3 re-run and by-elections in  27 states.  The Nation findings show that of the figure,  2,189,171 will participate in by-elections in two senatorial districts, four federal constituencies and three state constituencies. Also,  2,220,912 voters will participate in court-ordered re-run elections into the National Assembly. The remaining   157,606 eligible …

•Insists banks remained banned from transacting in crypto, bank accounts barred from cash withdrawals  •Violators risk N2m fine, other punitive measures The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday released new guidelines to regulate the operations of bank accounts for Virtual Assets Service Providers (VASPs), otherwise known as cryptocurrency. The framework provides minimum standards and requirements for banking business relationships and …

Hundreds of pages of unsealed documents from a lawsuit connected to accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein were publicly released on Wednesday. This is the first set of documents to be unsealed under a December 18 court order, with more expected in the coming weeks. The documents in total, including material yet to be unsealed, are expected to include nearly 200 names, …

•NASS passes 816 bills in 25 years, to spend N514bn in 2024•Why we increased, passed budget — Akpabio, Abbas The National Assembly is literally in the eye of the storm over its handling of the 2024 budget, in which collectively, the federal legislature will spend a princely N514 billion this year. In line with the Federal Government’s plan to begin …

Following the suspension of accreditation and evaluation of degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo, the Federal Government has said sanction would be extended to more countries like Uganda, Kenya and Niger Republic. “We are not going to stop at just Benin and Togo,” the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.  “We …