News headlines for the 5th of March 2021.

Buhari, Osinbajo for vaccination Saturday, exercise begins today

• The President, Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo will on Saturday be vaccinated against the deadly coronavirus.
• The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr  Faisal Shuaib, who disclosed this during the second edition of State House weekly briefing held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja,   said Nigeria would begin to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to its citizens on Friday after a launch that would take place at the National Hospital, Abuja.
• Dr Betta Edu, in a message on Thursday evening, disclosed that the Federal Government would on Monday in Abuja  distribute the vaccine to states. Edu stated that the NPHCDA was still awaiting a complete list of health workers from states, adding that the vaccine could not be shared without a database of health workers.

Senate queries 55 vehicles allegedly missing from federal ministry

• The Senate Public Accounts Committee, on Thursday, queried the Ministry of Environment over 55 vehicles allegedly missing from its coffers.
• The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Mathew Urhoghide, relied on the 2018 Auditor General’s report to take the decision.
• The AuGF report read in part, “Audit observed that 55 vehicles were not presented for physical inspection; all efforts to inspect and confirm their existence proved abortive and the exact location of these vehicles could not be ascertained.
• The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Abel Olumuyiwa, however, failed to defend the allegation.
• Also, his efforts to present some vehicles as part of the alleged missing vehicles were rejected because the vehicles had no chassis number.

EFCC re-looted 222 assets recovered from Maina

• A witness, Ngozika Ihuoma, on Thursday, told a Federal High Court in Abuja, that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, under its former acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, mismanaged 222 assets worth N1.63tn.
• The money was recovered by the defunct Pension Reform Taskforce Team.
• Ihuoma appeared as the first defence witness in the ongoing trial of the erstwhile Chairman of the disbanded PRTT, Abdulrasheed Maina.
• He told the court that Magu admitted before the Justice Ayo Salami Judicial Commission of Inquiry that he shared most of the properties based on a presidential directive.
• He said his firm, Crincad & Cari Nigeria Limited, was contracted by the PRTT for consultancy service.
• He told the court that one of the choice properties the PRTT recovered and handed over to the EFCC was grossly undervalued from N6bn in 2011 and sold to a renowned lawyer in 2015 for N1bn.

Five arrested with fake COVID-19 certificate in Lagos airport

• The Nigeria Police, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos Command has arrested and paraded five COVID-19 certificate suspects at the airport, while two others are still at large.
• The suspects, Achibong Idonrenyin, Moses Samuel, Popoola Adewala, Wale Aderele and Abdulmalik Ibrahim, the police said deal in selling fake COVID-19 negative certificates to unsuspecting travellers within the international wing of the airport.
• The suspects at large are Shehu Imam and Adeola Dalington who work with Sky Blue Services Limited, a cleaning service at the airport.
• Briefing journalists on Thursday,  the Commissioner, Airports Command, Mr Bature Umar, said the incident occurred on February 19 at the airport where a British Airways passenger, Michael Osagbogun, was defrauded of the sum of N50,000 for COVID-19 test.
• According to the commissioner, one of the suspects had approached Osagbogun promising to produce a Covid-19 test negative certificate for him.
• Umar explained that one of the suspects took the victim to DAT Cybercafe at No. 4, Oriyomi Street, Ikeja where a fake COVID-19 negative certificate was eventually procured for him.

Petrol queues reduced as more stations resume operations

• The queues for petrol in Abuja and neighboring Nasarawa and Niger reduced on Thursday as more retail outlets dispensed the product to motorists.
• Petrol queues had dragged on in Abuja and environs since last week, a development that resulted in over 100 per cent hike in transport fares.
• Oil marketers had attributed the scarcity of petrol in the affected areas to the alleged moves by government to hike the price of the commodity.
• They had also stated that the recent e-payment policy of the Pipelines Product Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, was disrupting the smooth flow of products’ purchase.
• These concerns, according to oil marketers, had caused the scarcity witnessed in Abuja and some northern states.