Nigeria banking sector may be facing collapse as many citizens, who are still struggling to withdraw money from the system, have vowed not to deposit cash in banks again. Experts fear that such attitude, which stemmed from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) Cashless Policy that caused Nigerians untold nightmares and hardship, could lead to the collapse of the bank sector. Speaking on the situation, a resident of Abuja, Adaeze Okolie, said, “I no longer feel the need to deposit my money with the Bank; I rather keep it. The Naira scarcity period did expose the inefficiency of Nigeria’s banking system. It was appalling, I could not withdraw for months, and online transactions were equally frustrating. Many Nigerians have learnt their lessons”. Also, Usman Abdullahi, a yam seller in Suleiman Market, said: “He would rather keep his money rather than go to the bank to deposit cash or better look for other means”. A PoS operator in Utako Market in Abuja, Augustine Chukwu, said: “I collect cash from market men and women; I rarely visit the banking hall.” Head of Media Relations at Access Bank PLC, Abdul Imoye, confirmed the decline in cash deposits by customers and said the apprehension held by Nigerians for not depositing cash would soon be a thing of the past. According to him, what is happening now is typical of the Nigerian mentality, but business would bounce back in time. “It is due to the ‘Nigerian mentality’; customers had struggled with cash scarcity for months, so people are normally apprehensive. But now there is cash in the banking system; I am sure things will return to normal”, he said. Also, The CEO of SD & D Capital Management, Mr Idakolo Gbolade, said bank customers’ behaviour towards cash deposits is a natural resentment. “The bank customers will naturally shun depositing their funds, and deposit is expected to decline due to the experience of depositors in the past few months. “Bank customers went through hell to make withdrawals from their deposits, so it is natural for resentment regarding depositing their funds back to the banks. “This trend will continue for months before depositors adjust accordingly. “The economy will gradually bounce back with cash infusion into the system,” he stated. Last Month, Nigerian Deposits Insurance Corporation (NDIC), with the primary responsibility to protect Depositors, said that it is committed to ensuring a solid banking system in collaboration with the CBN. Source: Daily Post.
Former American President, Donald Trump will appear before a Manhattan court house today, April 4 to face criminal charges over an alleged hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump is expected to be fingerprinted, learn the exact charges against him and plead not guilty.
The indictment includes multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offence, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The investigation has looked into six-figure payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Both say they had sexual encounters with Trump years before he entered politics.
Trump denies having sexual encounters with either woman and has denied any wrongdoing involving payments.
Trump is expected to arrive at court at around 6.30am New York time (11.30am in the UK).
He is expected to have his mugshot and fingerprints taken at court, but will not be wearing handcuffs.
He is then expected to appear before a judge for his arraignment at around 2.15pm local time (7.15pm in the UK).
The former president and his allies have been on the attack since he was charged on Thursday, labelling the indictment a “politically-motivated witch hunt”.
In a statement last week, Trump said: “This is political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history.
“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘get Trump’, but now they’ve done the unthinkable – indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant election interference.”
Trump arrived in New York yesterday ahead of his scheduled court hearing later today.
He left his home in Mar-a-Lago shortly after midday on Monday for the journey to the airport.
While flying over, he posted on his social media platform Truth Social: “WITCH HUNT, as our once great Country is going to HELL!”
He added a few minutes later: “AMERICA FIRST!”
The former US president is staying at Trump Tower in Manhattan before turning himself in to authorities.
The Health workers in the services of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) have begun to receive the reviewed Health Workers Hazard Allowance in line with the Circular from the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC).
The Secretary, FCT Health and Human Services Secretariat, Dr. Abubakar Tafida made this known today, April 4, in his office in Abuja.
The Secretary said that One Thousand Three Hundred and Seventy Seven (1,377) health workers have so far received the reviewed hazard allowance from March 2023.
Tafida said that the FCT Administration has constantly aligned its priority to the welfare of staff; particularly the well-being of the Health Workers in the Territory; adding that the new allowance is expected to boost the quality of Health Care Services in the FCT.
He said that the implementation was in line with the review of the Hazard Allowance applicable to Specialist Hospitals, Federal Medical Centres as well as Clinics under the supervision of the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.
“Payment of the reviewed Hazard Allowance will encourage Health Workers to among others; maintain a high standard of health care services to residents of the Federal Capital Territory in line with the aspiration of the leadership of this Administration.”
Tafida said that the Hazard Allowance would also serve as a palliative intervention for Health workers, who in the course of performing their duties are exposed to workplace, physical and psychological hazards.
He added that the Administration under the leadership of the Minister of FCT, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello, has helped in forestalling possible industrial crisis, thereby, boosting the quality of healthcare service delivery in the Territory.
The Comptroller-General of Customs Colonel, retired Hameed Ibrahim Ali has approved the appointment of CSC Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada as the Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Customs Service. He will take over from Comptroller Timi Bomodi, who has since been redeployed to Kiri-Kiri Lighter Terminal (KLT) Area Command as the Customs Area Controller. CSC Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education/Geography and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Management from Bayero University Kano. He also holds a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree in Mass-Communication from Crescent University Abeokuta. Maiwada was enlisted into Nigeria Customs Service as Cadet ASC in 2011. He had a stint as the Zonal Public Relations Officer Zone ‘B’ Headquarters Kaduna, Public Relations Officer Ogun Command (now Ogun I & II Area Commands). In 2020, he was deployed to Headquarters and served as the pioneer Liaison Officer of the Nigeria Customs Broadcasting Network and later deputized for the out-gone National Public Relations Officer from January 2022 to February 2023. CSC Abdullahi Maiwada is an Associate Member of the National Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) and holds full membership in the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria (ACSPN). He attended numerous courses relating to Customs Operations, Trade Facilitation, Public Relations, Strategic Communication, and Leadership. He is a recipient of the 2020 World Customs Organisation (WCO) meritorious award.
Police in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital have detained the boyfriend of a 22-year-old undergraduate, Kabirat Sobola, murdered in her room on 4 March, 2023.
The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, said in a statement today, April3: “What happened is that a boy came to report in Ibara Police Station that he can’t find his girlfriend at home for the past two days.
“The DPO in Ibara asked him if he was the girl’s parent and he replied that no, then the DPO asked him how he knew that they can’t find her.
“The DPO said they should detain him till the girl’s parents come to the station because it is the parent that has the right to report their daughter missing.
“They detained him and sent for the parents of the girl. When they arrived, they said they don’t know what happened to the girl and they all left with the boy and went to the residence of the girl. On getting to where the girl lived they got to know that the girl had died inside her room.
“From the investigation conducted, it was discovered that it was the boy that killed the girl, it seems they had fought before so, it seems he went to the girl’s house and killed her and he was arrested by the police and the case was transferred to the Homicide Section.”
The deceased, a National Diploma holder of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, was reportedly murdered in her room in Abeokuta on 4 March, 2023.
President Muhammadu Buhari is celebrating the 81st birthday of Ebenezer Obey, whom he described as multi-talented musician.
In a statement today, April 3, by a Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, the President said that he is celebrating the talented performer for 66 years of impactful global career, with evergreen signature tunes from the 50’s.
President Buhari acknowledged the influence of Obey, known as “Chief Commander”, on the blossoming Nigerian musical industry since he started out at 15 years.
He recalled that the musician brought a fusion of juju and highlife into a musical band, roused International Brothers and in 1964, metamorphosed into “International Reformers” in the 70’s.
The President said that Ebenezer, “the revered mentor and teacher” expanded his reach through sharing knowledge, good works and charity.
According to Buhari, Ebenezer also guided younger musicians to get training and skills at his musical school, as well as counseled many against destructive habits.
“He provides scholarships for the less privileged, with visits to orphanages and other welfare institutions.”
President Buhari advised his family members, friends, professional colleagues and fans to appreciate the life-long dedication, diligence and sacrifices that culminated in the successes.
He also drew attention to the willingness of the legendry musician to always place God at the center.
The minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, less than two months to leave office after eight years, and workers in the Administration have commended each other for the smooth relationship with which they have operated.
While the workers, under the canopy of the Joint Unions Action Committee (JUAC), commended the minister for ensuring prompt promotions of deserving members and payment of monthly salaries I time, the minister praised them for their loyalty and commitment to the work ethics.
The sides spoke yesterday, April 2, at the 2023 1st quarter meeting between the management of the FCTA and the JUAC.
Speaking on behalf of the workers, Chairman of JUAC, Korede Matilukuro commended the Minister for the timeliness and sincerity with which he approached and handled all issue relating to staff welfare and the unions.
Matilukuro acknowledged that the Minister did not joke with staff promotions which were implemented as and when due, prompt payment of all salaries and allowances, including arrears where applicable, consideration of Locum staff for formal recruitment provision of buses for the unions as well as he recent release of grains for junior staff.
The union leader thanked the Minister for the allocation of a recreational and sports garden to the Union and expressed hope that the Minister would find time after retirement from public service to visit with staff at the garden.
This was even as the Minister commended the staff for their dedication and commitment to duty which has improved service delivery in the FCT.
He said that improved staff performance was also acknowledged by SERVICOM with a letter of commendation to the Administration for excellence in service delivery.
He said that plans are on the way for the inauguration of various Boards of the FCTA over the coming week.
A Civil society organization dedicated to combating corruption in Nigeria, under the canopy of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) has kicked against the agitation in whatever form, for Interim Government in Nigeria after the elections that produced various political office holders, including governors, Senators and others.
In a communiqué issued at the end of an organized Anticorruption Stakeholders Summit in Lagos State with the Support of MacArthur Foundation and Open Society Initiative for West Africa, the body expressed opposition to the recent suggestions for an interim government, which it deemed unconstitutional and a grave menace to Nigeria’s democracy.
“The stakeholders acknowledged that a stable democracy is an essential condition for combating corruption effectively, and any measures that destabilize the political structure would considerably hinder the efforts to combat corruption in the country.
The communiqué, signed by the Chairman of HEDA Resource Centre, Olanrewaju Suraju, called upon pro-democracy movements and activists to remain vigilant and prevent any efforts to subvert the democratic process in Nigeria. It stressed the critical importance of adopting peaceful and democratic measures to address the challenges currently confronting the nation.
It “unequivocally denounced the recent demand for the removal of Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). It emphasized the significance of safeguarding the independence of anti-corruption agencies and empowering them to discharge their responsibilities impartially and without any undue interference from the political office holders.
The communique emphasized the critical importance of preserving the autonomy of anti-corruption agencies, safeguarding democracy, and setting an anti-corruption agenda for the incoming government.
It advised all stakeholders to reject any efforts aimed at compromising the autonomy of these agencies, which are pivotal to the anti-corruption crusade in Nigeria.
It espoused the need for an anti-corruption agenda for the incoming government, stressing the need to make it a top priority to combat corruption in all its forms. The statement called for the creation of a robust legal framework that would facilitate the prosecution of corrupt individuals, and the strengthening of anti-corruption institutions to enable them to carry out their mandates effectively.
It challenged the Code of Conduct Bureau on the scrutiny of assets declaration forms of political office holders exiting offices at the end of Buhari’s regime for any breach of Code of Conduct for Public Officers and ensure prosecution before Code of Conduct Tribunal in record time.
Participants hailed the summit as a crucial step towards addressing the issue of corruption in Nigeria and pledged to work together to achieve a corruption-free Nigeria.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in separate Fact-Checks on the trending leaked audio conversation between the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 Presidential election in Nigeria, Peter Obi and the founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, have come with a verdict that the recording was over 90 person true.
“After digital and forensic investigations, the leaked phone conversation did not show any evidence of using deepfake AI technology to manipulate people into believing that Mr Obi declared the election a religious war and begged Mr Oyedepo to help him canvass for votes along religious lines.
“PRNigeria therefore concludes that the leaked phone conversation is to a very large extent, FACTUAL,” the fact-check concluded. The full text of the fact-checks goes thus:
According to a leaked audio released by People’s Gazette, Obi called Bishop David Oyedepo, the founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, on the eve of the February 25 presidential election, urging the man of God to reach out to all Christian groups across the country on his behalf. Describing the election as a religious war, Obi begged Oyedepo to call the Christian groups in Kwara, Kogi and Niger so he could win the election and make Christendom proud. “Daddy, I need you to speak to your people in the South-West and Kwara, the Christians in the South-West and Kwara,” Mr Obi said in the audio. “This is a religious war,” he added. “I believe that, I believe that, I believe that,” Mr Oyedepo replied in a measured and conscious manner that was not incriminating. “Like I keep saying, if this works, you people will never regret the support,” Mr Obi said with candour and excitement adding that Christians in places like Kogi, Kwara and Niger had been difficult to penetrate. “We look forward to God’s intervention,” Mr Oyedepo said, promising to circulate more messages to Christians on Mr Obi’s behalf. While the audio has generated controversy on social media with many Nigerians doubting its authenticity, PR-Nigeria embarked on a robust fact-check to ascertain if any of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools was used to fake the voices of the duo. (The Fact-Check link: https://prnigeria.com/2023/04/02/fact-check-obi-oyedepo-phone/) Using speech recognition freeware, PRNigeria extracted the audio clips and compared both voices against their publicly known voice, and made interesting findings. “While, Artificial Intelligence (AI) software can be used to mimick any voice after a few seconds of listening to it, Peter Obi’s Voice returned 93% accuracy after listening to it while Oyedepo’s voice returned with 84% accuracy level when PRNigeria subjected the audio to the speech recognition test. “Further investigations by PRNigeria show that this can be done using Microsoft’s Vall-E, a text-to-speech AI Model that can recreate and match any sample audio it’s been provided with. It can also change the tonality from happy to sad to angry. “While it may be unfathomable for calls to initiate recording on dial, it is possible for the same calls to be intercepted by hackers or intelligence sources,” the fact-check report said. PRNigeria team also subjected the audio to a deepfake test using Deepware scanner, an AI tool used to detect alterations in audios and videos and found that AI was not used in generating or modifying the voices. To cross examine its findings, PRNigeria sent the audio to three voice recognition experts (working in an intelligence service, forensic agency and private consultant) for authentication and they separately confirmed that the voices were factual. PRNigeria went on further to verify some of the claims made during the conversation. For example, Mr Oyedepo told Obi at exactly 1:16mins into the conversation that he did a review titled “Nigeria Going Forward” and he was coming out with the second one “today…when they wouldn’t have time to do damage control.” A quick online check confirmed this. Similarly, when Bishop Oyedepo asked Mr Peter Obi if he was in Lagos or Abuja, Mr Obi responded, “i am in Onitsha now.” With the dictionary definition of “eve” meaning, “the day or period of time immediately before an event or occasion, PRNigeria confirmed that Obi was indeed in Onitsha on the eve of the elections when the conversation took place and he had tweeted this himself on the 23rd February stating, “I’ve just arrived in Onitsha for several engagements, including my meeting with the United Nations Team visiting Nigeria.- PO.” After digital and forensic investigations, the leaked phone conversation did not show any evidence of using deepfake AI technology to manipulate people into believing that Mr Obi declared the election a religious war and begged Mr Oyedepo to help him canvass for votes along religious lines. “PRNigeria therefore concludes that the leaked phone conversation is to a very large extent, FACTUAL,” the fact-check concluded. Obi had come third in the poll even though he won in Christian dominated areas of southeast, parts of south-south, Abuja, Nasarawa and Plateau states. He and his supporters have however claimed that he won and he is presently in court challenging the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as President-elect.
The Head of Obi-Datti Media Office, Diran Onifade has dismissed the trending leaked audio conversation between Peter Obi and Bishop David Oyedepo on the need to wage religious war in Nigeria, as ‘fake’ news floated by the All Progressives Congress (APC). Onifade, who was reacting to the leaked audio in which Peter Obi appeared to be begging Bishop Oyedepo to help mobilise Christians in the South West and Kwara to vote for him in the presidential election, dubbing it “religious war,” accused the APC of being desperate to retain power hence, employing foul means. “It appears the All Progressives Congress’ desperation to grab and retain power by foul means has refused to go away more than a month after they have grabbed the election as they planned. “While we are toeing the constitutional path to retrieve our mandate, those who have truncated the wishes of the majority of Nigerians have recoursed to mischief and endless subterfuge to continue to hold on to what they know does not belong to them. “From the show of shame in Portharcourt to the drama in the Ibom Air aircraft, both of which they contrived, they have now moved to the circulation of a deep fake audio file aimed at promoting religious tension in the country. “All these are meant to serve no other purpose than egregious mischief aimed at demarketing Peter Obi. If the goal is to create a credibility problem, the ploy has failed woefully. “Peter Obi has long been on record as the only presidential candidate who has urged the Nigerians electorate not to vote for him on the basis of religion or tribe. “We will therefore like to advice our beloved Nigerian people to remain focused on the task to take back the mandate we know was freely given to Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed through legitimate means.”
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