Daily Watch – Nigeria rising to Indian oil demand, New crime proceeds agency imminent

The Federal Executive Council has approved a bill that seeks to, among other things, create an agency that will be saddled with the responsibility of managing proceeds of crime in Nigeria. With the approval of the bill titled the ‘Proceeds of Crime Recovery and Management Agency Bill,’ the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami said that the bill will be sent to the National Assembly for the purpose of passing it into law. Malami said the current situation where the proceeds of crime are currently in the hands of multiple government agencies was unsustainable. He said once the bill is passed into law and the agency created, it will be the only agency that will be managing criminal proceeds in Nigeria. Malami said the yet-to-be-created agency would be in a position to provide information to the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on how such proceeds will feed into the budget purposes as well as guarantee transparency.

India’s oil imports from Africa jumped to their highest in 10 months in August as refiners switched out more expensive crude from the Middle East, Reuters reported citing shipping data provided by trade sources. The world’s third biggest oil importer shipped in about 3.95 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in August, the highest volume since April, with African nations accounting for about 17.5%, or an eleven month high of 688,000 bpd, the data showed. “Spot prices of west African oil versus Brent were down in the most part of July compared with June. That along with lower freight offered an opportunity to buy Nigerian oil,” said Ehsan Ul Haq, analyst with Refinitiv. He said in order to raise revenue, Nigeria was supplying more oil in July than it pledged under a production cut agreement between OPEC and its allies, while Angola was scouting for a new market after the Chinese cut purchases. “And the new home was India.” An internal OPEC report showed Iraq and Nigeria were the least compliant over the May-July period. Higher intake of Nigerian and Venezuelan oil lifted the share of OPEC’s oil in India’s overall August imports to 77.6%, the highest since January, from 67.2% last month, the data showed. During the month Iraq remained the top oil supplier to India followed by Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Nigeria, which was the 8th largest supplier to India in July, rose to No. 4, pushing the U.S. to fifth position.

The Nigeria Labour Congress has issued a two-week ultimatum to the Federal Government to reverse the hikes in electricity tariff and the fuel pump price or face civil unrest nationwide. The Congress handed down the warning at its Central Working Committee meeting which ended some minutes ago. In a communiqué read by the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, the union said the ultimatum takes immediate effect, warning that it would mobilise its members nationwide for protest after 28 September.

At least five persons were injured and a vehicle set on fire when the supporters of the candidates of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party clashed on Wednesday in Ondo. The incident occurred at Oba Akoko in Akoko South West Local Government Area of the state, when the convoy of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu met with the convoy of PDP candidate, Eyitayo Jegede, in the town. The campaign organisations of the two candidates have pointed accusing fingers at each other.