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Nigeria's Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Dingyadi has revealed that the Federal Government of Nigeria will not shut the door against repentant bandits. The minister stated this when he appeared on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, on Tuesday night. He said the window is still open for bandits to surrender and be reintegrated into the larger society. He added that repentant bandits are Nigerian citizens and the Federal Government has a responsibility to reintegrate them “peacefully and honourably into the society”. The minister said, “When you talk of amnesty, it is a relative term and what the Federal Government…

Rivers Govt Files Appeal At Supreme Court Over VAT Ruling The Rivers State has approached the Supreme Court to challenge the ruling of the Court of Appeal in the Value Added Tax (VAT) dispute between the state and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Emmanuel Ukala, alongside three other senior lawyers filed a notice of appeal at the apex court, documents obtained by Channels Television on Tuesday revealed. The Attorney-General of Rivers State is the appellant while the FIRS and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) are joined as respondents. The state government, in the…

Enugu Governor Ugwuanyi signs anti-open grazing bill into law Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has signed the anti-open grazing bill into law, at the Government House, Enugu. The bill which is for a law to prohibit open grazing, regulate cattle ranching, and for connected purposes was recently passed by the Enugu State House of Assembly. Recall that the Leader of the House, Rt. Hon. Ikechukwu Ezeugwu, had explained after the passage of the bill, that it would be cited as the “Prohibition of Open Grazing and Cattle Ranching Law of Enugu State” after the governor’s assent. Gov. Ugwuanyi’s assent…

Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu says the detained members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and associates of Sunday Igboho deserve to be granted amnesty. The former Abia governor said they should be given the same treatment as repentant Boko Haram insurgents and bandits. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Kalu said granting them amnesty will improve unity in the country. “I pleaded with most of our elders in the north and in the south-west; we cannot continue to fight at all times,” he said. “I am still pleading with them and the federal government…

President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking the approval of the national assembly to borrow fresh sums of $4,054,476,863 and €710 million in an addendum to the 2018-2020 borrowing plan. The president also asked the national assembly to approve grant components of $125 million. The request was in a letter read by Senate President Ahmad Lawan on the floor of the upper legislative chamber on Tuesday. In July, the national assembly approved the sums of $8.3 billion and €490 million loans contained in the initial 2018-2020 borrowing plan. But in the letter, Buhari explained that owing to “emerging needs”, there is a…

The United Arab Emirates on Monday designated six Nigerians as financiers of Boko Haram and other criminal activities. The decision was made when the Emirate federal cabinet met in the capital Abu Dhabi on Monday, according to state-run WAM news agency. Abdurrahaman Ado Musa, Salihu Yusuf Adamu, Bashir Ali Yusuf, Muhammed Ibrahim Isa, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan and Surajo Abubakar Muhammad were the six Nigerians placed on the Middle-East giant’s watch list. According to Peoples’ Gazette, the decision came about a year after the Nigerians were indicted for sponsoring Boko Haram. A Nigerian government official said to be involved in sponsoring…

Professor Hafsat Ganduje, the wife of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano, shunned an invitation extended to her by the anti-graft agency, EFCC, to report for questioning, last week, over a bribery and land fraud case reported by her son, Abdualzeez. Mrs Ganduje was invited to report last Thursday to the Abuja headquarters of the EFCC. Abdulazeez had dragged his mum, Hafsat Ganduje, to the EFCC, sources familiar with the matter said, suggesting a pattern of corruptly using family access to power for private enrichment. Mr Ganduje, the governor, had previously been involved in a corruption-related scandal. He has struggled to…

A top intelligence official of the Department of State Service (DSS) was on Sunday night killed by a Flash flood in Trademore on the Umaru Musa Yar’adua Expressway, popularly known as Airport Road, Abuja. According to the reports, the flood also killed three others persons, swept 26 cars and aw well affecting 166 houses within the neighbourhood. The DSS top executive was said to have gone out to get drugs from a pharmacy while it was raining. Residents in the area tried unsuccessfully to dissuade the DSS operator from driving through the flooded area, but their warning came too late.…

Bandits have set the home of the Speaker of Zamfara State House of Assembly, Nasiru Muazu Magarya, and other residents ablaze in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State. Chairman of the Committee on Security and Prosecution of Bandits in Zamfara State, Abdullahi Shinkafi, confirmed the incident on Monday. He said the bandits invaded the community and set ablaze some houses including that of the speaker. According to him, this was coming as a result of the ongoing onslaught by the military in Zurmi Local Government Area of the state. The Chairman of the committee, who visited the affected community…

A prominent chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo South Senatorial district, Pa Owere Dickson Imasogie has been abducted by some unidentified gunmen suspected to be kidnappers. He was said to have been abducted alongside his driver and another person, whose identity had not been ascertained, at the Benin-Agbor highway in the early hours of Monday, September 13. THE WHISPERER gathered that Pa Imasogie was on his way to one of his farms when the gunmen struck. A group known as “Edo State Decide Movement” confirmed the abduction in a statement and urged Governor Godwin Obaseki to, as…