Good morning Nigeria. Welcome to the Editor roundup of top newspaper headlines in Nigeria for today, Friday, 19th July 2024.
1. After almost six months of negotiations, the Federal Government, Labour and the Organised Private Sector (OPS) on Thursday settled for N70,000 as the new national minimum wage. The new pay, which will go into effect after passage by the National Assembly and assent by the President, will replace the subsisting N30,000 minimum wage, which came into effect in 2019.
2. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday resumed dollar sales to Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators with a planned disbursement of $20,000 to each licensee. The forex injection, it said, is expected to curb forex distortions, boost liquidity in the market and stabilise the naira.
3. The Senate on Thursday began moves for the establishment of a national electoral commission for the conduct of local government polls. At the plenary, a bill seeking to establish the agency scaled the first reading in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly.
4. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has set 140 as the minimum admissible score for 2024 admissions into universities across the country. The registrar of the Board, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed this after the deliberations by stakeholders at the 2024 Policy Meeting on Admissions to Tertiary Institutions.
5. Comrade Philip Shaibu, impeached but reinstated deputy governor of Edo State, came under gun attack in Benin City, capital of Edo State, on Thursday. Shaibu, whose impeachment was voided by a Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, returned to Edo from Abuja when his convoy was attacked.
6. The federal government says corruption in the health sector and Nigeria at large is a “very deep issue”, noting that efforts were ongoing to get rid of the menace. It said the way grants and other resources raised to cater for the needy such as children and women were being diverted was alarming, calling on the anti-graft agencies to step in.
7. The Delta State Police Command says it has rescued 25 victims of human trafficking in the Ughelli area of the state. The command’s spokesperson, SP Bright Edafe, stated this on Thursday in Asaba, the state capital.
8. Tragedy hit the University of Ilorin as some yet-to-be-identified students and a shuttle driver got involved in a fatal auto crash at the school’s main gate, which led to the death of a student. It was gathered on Thursday that it was a lone accident and the victims were passengers of the campus shuttle.
9. The Edo State Police Command on Wednesday arrested a pastor simply called “Sharp Sharp” and two others for allegedly brutalising a 90-year-old woman, Adishetu Atairu, Chief Imam of the community, and six others in Ofukpo-Ekperi, Estako Central Local Government of the state. The treatment meted out to the people over alleged witchcraft was captured in viral videos.
10. On Thursday, the House of Representatives pledged support for the federal government with N648 million for six months by cutting down their salaries by 50%. According to Vanguard, the move is aimed at supporting food sufficiency in the country and also addressing the soaring prices of foodstuffs.
