Hardship: NBS report shows three states in Nigeria with highest food prices

 

Kogi, Kwara, and Ondo are the three states in Nigeria with the highest food prices amid worsening hardship.

This is according to the latest National Bureau of Statistics April’s Consumer Price Index and Inflation report.

The report ranked Kogi State with the highest food inflation rate at 48.62 per cent, followed by Kwara (46.73 per cent) and Ondo (45.87 per cent) on a year-on-year basis.

Meanwhile, Adamawa (33.61 per cent), Bauchi (33.85 per cent) and Nasarawa (34.03 per cent), recorded the slowest rise in food inflation.

However, on a Month-to-Month basis, Lagos, Edo, and Yobe are the states in Nigeria with the highest food prices.

Accordingly, Lagos (4.74 per cent), Edo (4.06 per cent), and Yobe (3.99 per cent) recorded the slowest rise in Food inflation.

This development comes as April’s headline and food inflation surged to 33.69 per cent and 40.53 per cent, respectively.

Nigerians in pain, difficult situation — Kukah

 

                                             President Bola Tinubu (right) and Bishop Kukah, during the cleric’s visit, today, Wednesday.

THE Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, said yesterday Nigerians were in pain due to policies introduced by President Bola Tinubu.

Kukah, however, expressed the hope that with time, such policies should be amended to serve the welfare of the people.

Speaking to State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with the President at the presidential Villa, Abuja, he advised the President to open a channel of communication with the people on when his policies would begin to yield results.
Asked to assess Tinubu’s administration as it prepares to celebrate the first year in office, Kukah said: “I ’m sure many people will tell you that one year is not enough to make a judgment. However, from where we all stand, we know that we are all in a very difficult situation.

“Nigerians are in various levels of pain and they are pains that are unintended. But they are the results of certain policy decisions that hopefully, with time, can be amended to serve the welfare of the people.

“Because I know that the essence of government is to guarantee the welfare and security of ordinary citizens, I believe the times we are in now are very difficult times and nobody should be under any illusion. But there are also times for renewal.
“We just need to commit ourselves to the fact that building a good society takes a lot of time. It’s not something that is done in one lifetime. And for me, the most important thing is to continue on the building blocks of the things we think are being done well.

“My argument has always been that the government needs to very quickly improve the quality of communication so that Nigerians can, at least, get a sense of how long is it going to be before food is ready.”

Fielding questions on the political crisis in Rivers State, the cleric, who was reluctant to comment on that, however, said: “We ordinary people cry more than the bereaved. The important thing is politicians will fix their problems.

“Rivers State is a place that is very dear to me because I have been associated with them for a very long period.
“But look, when politicians fight, don’t get carried away because they can fix their quarrel. And I hope and pray that Rivers State will sooner, rather than later, reposition because it is not an insignificant part of Nigeria.”

On his mission to the state house, Kukah said: “I came to see the President with the director of the Kukah Centre. We came to discuss with the President an invitation we had earlier extended, which we renewed, to have a conference in which we would like him to be in attendance, to address the theme of national cohesion. So, that’s really what we came to discuss.”

Our corruption is people-driven, politicians share what they steal with people – Senator Ndume

 

                                                Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume

The Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume, has explained the difference between corruption by politicians and other people.

Ndume said corruption in Nigerian politics is people-driven and should not warrant any serious punishment.

The senator admitted that politicians “steal and share with the people”.

He stated this on Tuesday when he featured on Channels TV Politics Today while speaking on the death penalty as the deterrent for those caught with drugs.

He said when politicians’ corruption is compared to others, it is a “small one’

He stated, “If you compare us, politicians, to all the corruption, it is very small. Our corruption is people-driven. If you steal it, you will go and share it with the people. If you don’t, you are not coming back for four years. There is no reason for stealing.

“I have been to the National Assembly, I can’t say because we are on TV now and not telling the truth. If the death penalty is supposed to be included in corruption, I will support it but you don’t go and kill someone that stole one million or one billion, no. But someone who steals one trillion of government money should be killed.

“The death penalty is the best deterrent for those being caught for drugs. If you do drugs, you are killing people.

“In fact, that means you have destroyed the lives of so many people and killed so many people,” he said.

Recently, the Senate passed a bill, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act (Amendment Bill) 2024 passed by the Senate.

The bill prescribed death penalty for persons found guilty of trading in hard drugs and narcotics.

This has, however, been debated and faulted by many stakeholders on whether or not President Bola Tinubu should accent the bill.

On Saturday, some legal practitioners expressed different opinions on the debate over the bill. Some of them urged President Bola Tinubu not to assent to the bill passed by the Senate while others pressed for it to be signed into law.

Some of the lawyers stressed that the death penalty was not a solution to drug trafficking and other drug-related offences in the country.

Rivers lawmakers who defected to APC have lost their seats – Falana

 

                                                     Femi Falana

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has insisted that members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress have forfeited their positions in the legislative body.

Twenty five lawmakers loyal to the former governor of Rivers State and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, had switched to the APC amid the political deadlock between him and Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Falana asserted that the lawmakers would be ousted from their seats for transitioning to the APC.

Citing the constitution, he said, “Unless you can show and demonstrate that there is division in a political party that sponsored your election, you cannot remain in any legislative arm if you decamp to another party.

“The whole idea is that the constitution set out to ban political prostitution on the part of legislators.”

The human rights lawyer noted that there is a court order restraining the 25 lawmakers from representing themselves as legislators in the state, as well as prohibiting the speaker from identifying himself as the speaker of the house.

“It may be very difficult to persuade the court to allow them to remain in the legislative house unless they are prepared to go back to the people and have their mandate renewed by the people.

“The Supreme Court made this clear in the case of Adetunde and the Labour Party, that you cannot decamp and then remain a member of a legislative house in Nigeria unless you can show that there is a division in your party. It doesn’t mean a division in a local government or a state. It has to be on the national level. That is the position of the court,” he said.

The crisis between Fubara and his godfather, Wike, started last year when the Assembly, predominantly composed of Wike’s loyalists, made attempts to impeach the governor.

Subsequently, 27 lawmakers aligned with Wike defected from the ruling PDP in the state to the APC.

Led by Martin Amaewhule, the lawmakers cited internal division within the PDP as the principal motive for their transition to the APC.

NFF to unveil Finidi George today

 

                                             File: Finidi George (right) and Calvin Bassey at the AFCON.

The Nigeria Football Federation will, today in Abuja, stage an unveiling ceremony to formally present to the public, Mr. Finidi George, as the new substantive Head Coach of the Senior Men National Team, Super Eagles.

The Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh, alongside Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mrs Tinuke Watti, President of NFF Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau and the NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, are among prominent personalities expected at the unveiling.

George passed up an opportunity to coach a second-tier team in Spain to return to Nigeria and lead two-time CAF Champions League winners Enyimba FC.

He won the tough-as-nails Nigeria elite division title with the People’s Elephant in his second season and has left the club in with a chance of retaining the title this season, with six matches to go.

When George formally bowed out of the Aba giants days ago, Enyimba FC remained in third place on the NPFL log, with 53 points from 32 matches.

They were four adrift of table-toppers Enugu Rangers and three off second-placed Remo Stars.

The 52-year-old spent 20 months as assistant to Portuguese José Peseiro from the summer of 2022, during which the Super Eagles qualified for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and came within 28 minutes of a fourth African title in Cote d’Ivoire three months ago.

Finidi George, as a player, won 62 caps for Nigeria at the senior level. He won the Africa Cup of Nations gold, silver and bronze, and played in two FIFA World Cup finals.

He has the immediate task of picking maximum points from 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against South Africa (home) and Benin Republic (away) in a few weeks.

I was offered money to impeach Fubara – Rivers gov’s aide, Ehie

 

                                             Edison Ehie

The Chief of Staff to Rivers State Government, Edison Ehie, has alleged that he was offered money to impeach Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

He, however, did not disclose the identities of those who offered him money.

Addressing a rally in Ahoada East area of the state, the former factional speaker of the State House of Assembly disclosed the purported plot to impeach the governor, eliciting applause from the gathered crowd.

“They invited me, your son, to impeach the governor and I told them clearly, I was not interested.

“They gave me all the money that was hidden before, which I rejected. And because I refused, they conspired and declared me wanted,” Ehie said in a viral video clip from the rally.

Last year, Ehie was declared wanted by the police in connection with the invasion of the State House of Assembly.

In October 2023, an explosion rattled the state assembly building amidst reports of lawmakers attempting to impeach Fubara.

It was alleged that certain individuals with close ties to the governor were implicated in the incident.

The Martin Amaewhule-led lawmakers had reportedly lodged criminal complaints against Ehie with the Rivers State Police Command regarding the invasion and arson of the Rivers State House of Assembly chambers by unidentified hoodlums.

Ehie’s revelation contributes to the protracted crisis in the state, stemming from the conflict between Fubara and his predecessor and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.

Landlady, husband flee after throwing tenant’s corpse into canal

 

                                                       Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola

A landlord, Bola Abiodun, and her husband, identified simply as Sunday, have flown their Temidire community home in the Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State after allegedly disposing of their tenant’s body in a canal.

Our correspondent learnt that the incident, which occurred at about 12:05 pm on May 8, 2024, led the state police command to launch a manhunt for the couple after their disappearance following the alleged crime.

According to a police source in the command, who was privy to the report but did not want to be named because he was not permitted to speak for the command, the tenant, who went by the name Iya Ibukun, had earlier been knocked down by a hit-and-run driver on May 5, 2024.

After suffering various degrees of injury from the accident, our correspondent learnt that the deceased had turned to self-medication out of concern that she would not be able to pay for her medical bills.

After turning to self-medication, the renter, our correspondent learnt, passed away in her apartment a few days later.

The corpse was allegedly taken from the room and disposed of in a nearby canal by the landlady and her husband.

The chairman of the Community Development Association, Mosuru Akindele, was reportedly called by the residents who had suspicions about the alleged occurrence, and the youth leader, Olabode Kazeem, was also contacted following the incident.

“There was an accident; a hit-and-run driver allegedly knocked the tenant down. She didn’t go to the hospital and started treating herself at home. She died a few days after the incident. The landlady and her husband conspired to dump the body in a canal,” the cop told our correspondent.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola, confirmed the incident to our correspondent and said the police were working to recover the body from the canal.

“Our men went to the house and discovered a two-year-old boy in a welfare facility. Meanwhile, our men combed the entire canal in search of the body, but we haven’t found anything,” she said.

It was reported a few years ago that a landlord known as Sunday Omosule was nabbed after he allegedly killed his tenant’s four-year-old son with a pestle.

Omosule, a landlord in Onipanu, Ota, in the Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, was arrested by men of the state Police Command after a distress call was sent out.

The erstwhile spokesperson for the command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said, “The landlord was arrested following a distress call to the police at the Onipanu division.”

During interrogation, Oyeyemi said the victim claimed to be under spiritual attack.