Good morning Nigeria. Welcome to the Editor roundup of top newspaper headlines in Nigeria for today, Monday, 19th February 2024.
1. Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, has raised the alarm that about 200 million firearms are in circulation in Nigeria. Governor Sani disclosed this in a chat on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics. He said the proliferation of firearms was responsible for the rising insecurity in the country, calling for the review of the firearms law in Nigeria.
2. The Presidency says an attempt by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to rubbish the foreign exchange policy has failed, saying the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, is currently implementing policies to stabilise the naira. Atiku had said the Forex policy of the present administration failed because it was hurriedly put together without consulting relevant stakeholders.
3. Traders at the popular Maple village market in Bwari Area Council of the FCT have been given one week notice to vacate a section of the market reserved for parking lots, hospital, fire and police stations. Officers from the FCT Task Force and the Bwari Area Council gave the notice at the weekend when they visited the market.
4. Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Olayemi Cardoso, has described his job as the second most difficult on the globe. This is as he said the Federal Government’s reform and other actions are paying off. Cardoso spoke Sunday in Abuja at the opening of the 2024 First Plenary Assembly of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, CBCN.
5. Nigeria and Brazil – the largest economies in Africa and South America – have agreed to deepen their economic relationship. Both countries expressed their intention at a meeting between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the sideline of the ongoing African Union, AU, summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
6. The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, yesterday, said President Bola Tinubu will not resign under any guise. He said the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governors should perish the thought of resignation by the President. The minister described the governors’ call as a distraction by those who should support the President.
7. Operatives of the Lagos Police Command have arrested four suspected cultists and armed robbers said to have terrorised the Ijora Badia and Abule-Ado areas of the state. The suspects, Mayowa Shitu, 29, Jamie Alarape, 26, Bashiru Munsuru, 29, and Lekon Akintunde, 29, were apprehended on February 16, around 8am by officers attached to the command’s tactical team.
8. The Ebonyi State Ministry of Health has said that lassa fever killed 10 persons in the state between January 4 and February 16. The Disease Surveillance Notification Officer of the ministry, Sampson Orogwu, revealed this in a statement issued in Abakaliki.
9. The Plateau State Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Sylvanus Namang, has been killed in Pankshin Town of Pankshin Local Government Area. Namang, a former director with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, was shot dead around 8 pm on Saturday at a relaxation spot known as Sunny Best Joint.
10. The African Development Bank, AfDB, has expressed concern that rising prices of fuel and other commodities could lead to social unrest in Nigeria. The AfDB issued the warning in its macroeconomic performance and outlook for 2024 in which it projected Africa’s economy to grow higher than the 3.2 per cent recorded in 2023.
