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The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mahmoud Yakubu, has revealed that there are only 120 days to the commencement of the 2023 General Elections. Mr Yakubu made the revelation on Thursday during a quarterly consultative meeting with the media at the commission headquarters in Abuja. Ruling out the possibility of using an incident form during the 2023 elections, Mr Yakubu insisted that the voters would only be accredited through the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS. The INEC boss noted that the deployment of technology has significantly improved the credibility of the election and electoral process. He, therefore,…

Naira fell significantly against the U.S. dollar at the parallel market on Thursday, a day after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it will withdraw higher notes to check fraud, inflation and insecurity. Black market exchange rates across states showed the naira exchanged hands with the greenback at N775.00 and above for a dollar, and sold at N781.00 in Abuja. This implies a 2.64 per cent devaluation from N760.00 it traded in the previous session on Wednesday. Likewise, currency dealers at the Uyo Udi street market said the hard currency was exchanged at N766.00 and sold at N775.00 to…

Ben Ayade, Governor of Cross River State on Thursday presented a budget of 330 billion appropriation bill of 2023 to the State House of Assembly, christened budget of Quantum infinitum. According to Ayade 130 billion naira would be for recurrent expenditure while 200 billion naira would be for Capital expenditure. Governor Ayade who walked into the floor of the Assembly at exactly 1:10 pm presented a budget size of N330billion, saying the 2023 budget is a citizen’s budget focused mainly in the people. According to him the budget which will focus on deeper agro-industrialization will also see to the finalisation…

The management of the popular Jabi Lake Mall in Abuja, FCT, has shut down its operations amidst security threats in the Federal Capital Territory. This was disclosed on Thursday in a post on the mall’s social media page @jabilakemallnigeria. The management said it was reviewing the security situation with appropriate authorities and that it would be reopened soon. The announcement is coming against the backdrop of security reports by the United States and other western countries that there is a high risk of terror attacks in Abuja FCT. The warnings said attack would be aimed at government buildings and other…

A lottery company, Green Lotto, has explained its decision not to pay one Sunday Nwachukwu his winning claim of N72.7 million after playing one of its games. The lottery firm said the decision was hinged on the fact that the claimant allegedly engaged in irregularities, hence he does not deserve the money in question, adding that the matter was already before a court of law, hence it will not join issues with Nwachukwu. It would be recalled that Green Lotto was dragged before the Lagos State High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square over its refusal to pay Nwachukwu…

The Labour Party on Wednesday, released an updated list of 1,453 members, as its final Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) list for the 2023 general election. The party had earlier released a 1,234 member campaign council list which was later retracted to accommodate more people. Julius Abure, Labour Party national chairman at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday said the first list was retracted in order to capture all interest which have been covered in the new list. Mr Abure said that the Director-General of the Presidential Campaign Council remained Dr Doyin Okupe while retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed…

A group, the Concerned Northern Forum, has kicked against the proposed redesign of the Naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria effective from December 15, 2022. The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, had in Abuja on Wednesday, announced that the bank would release redesigned Naira notes by December 15, 2022. However, according to the group, redesigning of the said Naira notes will only cost the nation huge sums of money at the expense of tax payers. The group, while reacting to CBN’s statement through its spokesman, Abdulsalam Kazeem, in Kaduna on Wednesday, expressed concern that…

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released a pruned list of total registrations recorded during the recently concluded Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), with Bayelsa and Ebonyi having the highest figure of invalid registrants. The CVR held from June 28 to July 31 to enable previously unregistered eligible persons to register for Permanent Voter Cards to be able to vote in the 2023 General Election. A breakdown of the CVR showed that while Bayelsa recorded a total of 444,652 completed registrations, only 137,139 were valid while 307,513 were invalid, representing 69.2% of invalid registrations. Ebonyi trailed Bayelsa as the state…

The Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele has warned that the apex bank would stop the usage of old Naira notes from 31st January, 2023. This is coming at a time when the apex bank noted conspicuously, the challenges bedeviling the country’s currency. In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, Emefiele stated that the ‘currency management has faced several daunting challenges that have continued to grow in scale and sophistication with attendant and unintended consequences for the integrity of both the CBN and the country’. Listing the challenges Emefiele said: ‘Significant hoarding of banknotes by members of the public, with statistics showing…

The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced its decision to redesign the Naira. The Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who announced this at a press briefing in Abuja, said the exercise would affect the the highest denominations: 200, 500, 1000 notes. He said that the action was taken in order to take control of the currency in circulation. According to him, the bulk of the nation’s currency notes were outside bank vaults and that the CBN would not allow the situation to continue. Details later.