News Headlines for the 20th of April 2021.

JUSUN disagrees as NGF fixes May date for financial autonomy implementation 

• The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Kayode Fayemi, on Monday said the state governors and other stakeholders had reached an agreement on the implementation of financial autonomy for state legislature and judiciary.
• Although he did not disclose the details of the agreement reached, he assured the nation that the implementation would start in May.
• Fayemi, who is also the governor of Ekiti State, disclosed this in an interview with State House correspondents after a meeting of the technical committee on the matter chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
• However, the National Treasurer of JUSUN, Jimoh Musa said the union had not met with the governors.

Stakeholders seek N2m fine for illegal firearms bearers

• Stakeholders at a public hearing organised by the Senate on Monday, proposed N2m fine on anybody caught with illegal firearms in Nigeria.
• The public hearing was organised by the Senate Joint Committee on Judiciary , Human Rights and Legal Matters , Navy and Marine Transport.
• They considered the amendments being proposed to the Firearms Act 2004 (Amendment) Bill 2021, sponsored by Senator Uba Sani, an All Progressives Congress member, representing Kaduna Central.
• The major objective of the amendment bill is to impose stiffer penalties for offences under the Act.
• One of such penalties is in Section 27 (sub-section1c), which proposed an increment of fine from N1,000 to N1m.
• However, the representative of the Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshall Oladayo Amao, objected the N1m proposed fine and proposed an increment  to N2m.
• The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa indicated that 350 million out of 500 million Illegal weapons circulating in West Africa, representing 70 per cent,  are domiciled in Nigeria.

Police minister presents new IGP to Buhari

• The Minister of Police Affairs, Maigari Dingyadi, on Monday formally presented the acting Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to the President, Muhammadu Buhari
• Recall that Baba was named acting IGP to replace Mohammed Adamu while the President was in London for routine medical checkup.
• Dingyadi told State House correspondents that he was at the Presidential Villa to present the acting IGP to the President.
• The minister said the government would ensure provision of adequate equipment and personnel as well as ensure proper training and welfare of the personnel.
• Baba, on his part, said he promised the President at the meeting to do his best to change the negative narrative about security in the country.
• He said the police under his watch would need improvement in terms of logistics, manpower and equipment.

 Two cops, seven others killed as gunmen attack Anambra, Abia police stations

• No fewer than nine persons were killed in Anambra State in different circumstances on Monday.
• While two policemen and three others were killed during an attack on the Anambra Zonal Police Headquarters in Ukpo, Dunukfia Local Government Area of the state, four others were killed in cult-related violence.
• The attack on the police headquarters happened around 4am.
• A source said, that Some hoodlums invaded the zonal headquarters at Ukpo in the early hours of Monday, and in the process, the hoodlums killed two of our men, while our men gunned down three of their men, but they quickly carried their fallen men and zoomed off.
• The Police Public Relations Officer, Zone 13, Nkeiru Nwode, confirmed the incident in a statement. She said, “Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force attached to the Zone 13 Headquarters, Ukpo, Anambra State, successfully repelled an attack on the zonal headquarters by criminal elements.

• Nwode added, “One L7A2 General-Purpose Machine Gun, 92 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition, one locally-made smoke pistol and an axe were recovered by the police. Regrettably, two police operatives sustained gunshot injuries and are presently receiving treatment.

• Similarly, four persons were killed by gunmen in Awka, the state capital.
• The Police Public Relations Officer for the command, Ikenga Tochukwu, while confirming the incident, said it was a cult clash.
• He said five suspects had already been apprehended by the command, while the matter was under investigation
• Tochukwu stated that those behind the dastardly act would not go unpunished, adding that the command would not fold its arms and allow miscreants to take over the state.
• While one of the victims was shot and killed at the Unizik junction, the others were gunned down at different points in Ifite, Awka South Local Government Area of the state.

FG admits revenues crashing, says Nigeria faces hard times

• The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, on Monday admitted that Nigeria’s economy was facing a difficult time, saying states must improve their internally generated revenues.
• Ahmed, who stated this in an interview on a daily breakfast show on the Nigerian Television Authority, Good Morning Nigeria, stated that the money shared at the March  Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting was short of N50bn.
• The minister was speaking on a controversy generated by a claim by the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, that the Central Bank of Nigeria printed N60bn in March to augment the money shared at March FAAC.
• But the minister and the CBN Governor last week dismissed Obaseki’s claim.
• In the interview on the NTA on Monday, the finance minister stated the country’s economy was stabilising from the recession, which the country exited a few months ago.
• She, however, added, “These are very difficult challenging times because revenues are low and the demand for expenditures are very high understandably because we have to keep intervening to make sure the pandemic is contained as well as the economic impact it has caused.