Nigerian Newspapers: 10 things you need to know Thursday morning

Good morning! Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers:

1. Independent oil marketers on Wednesday adjusted the pump price of petrol in the Federal Capital Territory to reflect the price at which they bought the product from Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company. Checks revealed that many filling stations have adjusted their pump price of petrol to an average of N1,200 per liter.

2. Thirteen repentant Boko Haram ex-fighters have escaped with rifles and motorcycles they got from the Borno State government, which co-opted them to join military operatives in the fight against the insurgents in the state. They are among thousands of former Boko Haram fighters and their families who surrendered to the government.

3. The Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu has upheld the ruling of the House of Representatives tribunal sacking the member representing Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency, Hon. Simon Atigwe. The Appeal Court which delivered the judgement in Enugu on Wednesday, held that Hon. Atigwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was not duly elected by the valid votes cast in the rerun election.

4. The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Organised Private Sector have called for the immediate reversal of the hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. The NLC, in a statement signed by its president, Joe Ajaero, described the decision of the NNPCL as an aberration.

5. The Federal Government, under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, has secured loans worth $6.45bn from the World Bank in just 16 months. The amount increased to the new figure following the recent approval of three new loans totalling $1.57bn from the World Bank for various projects in Nigeria and is expected to increase further in the coming months.

6. The Senate, on Wednesday, expressed alignment with the Supreme Court judgment of July 11, 2024, which granted financial autonomy to the 774 Local Government Areas across the country. It faulted moves by some governors to enact laws to mandate the local government councils in their states to remit allocations into a joint account.

7. Soldiers attached to the Ojo Cantonment Barracks led by a yet-to-be-identified colleague, who was accosted for driving against the traffic around Volks Bus Stop, along the Ojo Iyana Iba Road area of Lagos State have stabbed a policeman, Saka Ganiyu, to death. It was gathered that the soldier, who was not wearing his uniform, while driving an unregistered T4 Volkswagen commercial bus against the traffic, was stopped by policemen on enforcement duty at Volks Bus Stop.

8. An Ekiti State High Court, Ado Ekiti Division, on Wednesday, sentenced three persons to death by hanging for armed robbery. They are Alexander Solomon (29), Desmond Peter (29) and Eric Tile (30). The court, however, discharged and acquitted the fourth defendant, Promise Shie (27), as none of the four counts could be established against him.

9. Former chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Senator Mohammed Ndume, yesterday, insisted that the Nigerian military is ill-equipped and lacks the wherewithal to end Boko Haram or banditry. This came as he dismissed reports circulating on social media that his convoy was ambushed by suspected Boko Haram terrorists.

10. The Naira yesterday depreciated to N1,625.13 per dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market, NAFEM. Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative exchange rate for NAFEM rose to N1,625.13 per dollar from N1,561.76 per dollar on Tuesday, indicating N63.37 depreciation for the naira.