Daily Watch – FG commits to petrol subsidy payments through H1 2022, 6 killed in Katsina night attack

At least six people have reportedly been killed while several others were abducted after bandits on Sunday evening raided Unguwar Samanja village in Faskari local government area of Katsina State. Katsina is the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari and has suffered many attacks in the past. Residents of neighbouring Daudawa told Premium Times that the bandits arrived at the village at 5:49 pm when residents were preparing for the dawn prayer. Faskari local government area has suffered many attacks from bandits. It is one of the 13 local government areas in Katsina State where telecom services have been cut. A civil society organisation in Daudawa had cried out that despite the security measures taken by the state government, Faskari has remained under attack. Nasir Hassan, a resident of Daudawa, said the attackers rode into the village on motorcycles minutes before the dawn prayer and started shooting sporadically. “From what I gathered, five people were confirmed dead after the attack and they have been buried today (Monday) morning,” he said. Mr Hassan, who is a student of a tertiary institution in Zamfara, said the attackers also abducted several people but he had not ascertained their number. “They also burnt down houses and shops before leaving the village. I was told that they did not loot the shops, they only burnt them,” he said. However, another resident of Daudawa, Auwal Liman, said the number of those killed had risen to six, including another person killed in the outskirts of the village, who was reportedly from Unguwar Labbo community.

Finance, budget and national planning minister Zainab Ahmed says the FG will cater for subsidy on petrol in the first six months of 2022. She said this on Monday at a panel session during the 27th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES#27) in Abuja. Ahmed said that complete deregulation of the downstream oil and gas sector will start by July 2022. In seven months, petrol subsidy payments gulped N714 billion, shrinking monthly revenue accrued to the federation account. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which is currently the sole importer of petrol, has been deducting subsidy payments from oil and gas proceeds due to the three tiers of government since there is no provision for it in the 2021 budget. “In our 2022 budget, we only factored in subsidy for the first half of the year; the second half of the year, we are looking at complete deregulation of the sector, saving foreign exchange and potentially earning more from the oil and gas industry,” she said. Also speaking at the session, Doyin Salami, chairman of the economic advisory council (EAC), said he had argued for a long time that the subsidy needed to go. He said that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) made the payment of the subsidy of petrol illegal. “With the PIA essentially it makes illegal petrol subsidy and yes, there is a period where NNPC and the new regulatory agencies must calibrate themselves, but at the end of this period – and I think it is about six months, which explains why the minister has said for the first half of the year, there is a provision,” he said.

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has vacated the interim order freezing the accounts of Rise Vest Technologies Ltd, a fintech company. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had on August 17, 2021 secured, through an ex parte motion, an order freezing the accounts of some fintech companies for 180 days over alleged forex infractions. The affected companies are Rise Vest Technologies Limited, Bamboo Systems Technology Limited, Bamboo Systems Technology Limited OPNS, Chaka Technologies Limited, CTL/Business Expenses, and Trove Technologies Limited. Rise Vest Technologies Ltd, in a motion filed through its counsel, Seni Adio, had submitted that there was no evidence that it engaged in unlawful conduct, adding that the CBN did not meet its burden of proof in support of its allegations. Responding, Mathew Onoja, CBN’s counsel, argued that the ex-parte order of the court was proper, lawful, and valid. He contended that the order was in accordance with the provisions of Section 97 (1) of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2021, which empowered the plaintiff/respondent (CBN) to invoke the jurisdiction of the court via an ex parte application. Ruling on the application on Monday, Taiwo O. Taiwo held that the CBN could not rely on a circular to freeze the bank account of a company. The judge noted that the CBN failed to provide any law showing that it is illegal to deal in cryptocurrency in Nigeria, adding that the CBN circular, referenced as BSD/DIR/PUB/LAB/014/001 of February 5, 2021, is not a law. The judge, among others, held that although the CBN has the power to investigate any infraction, the infraction must relate to BOFIA or any other enactment administered by the regulator. “I have perused the counter affidavit of the respondent and I see that the reason for freezing the account of the applicant is based on the alleged infraction of the circular of the CBN. The law is trite that any conduct that must be sanctioned must be expressly stated in a written law,” he said. “Being unknown to law, circulars cannot create an offence because it was not shown to have been issued under an order, Act, Law or Statute. The judge ordered the banks – Zenith Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank – to immediately grant the firm unfettered access to its accounts.

The African Union (AU) intends to buy up to 110 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna Inc in an arrangement brokered in part by the White House, which will defer delivery of some doses intended for the United States to facilitate the deal, Reuters reports. The AU’s doses will be delivered over the coming months, with 15 million arriving before the end of 2021, 35 million in the first quarter of next year and up to 60 million in the second quarter. “This is important as it allows us to increase the number of vaccines available immediately,” AU coronavirus envoy Strive Masiyiwa said in an email. “We urge other vaccine producing countries to follow the lead of the (U.S. government) and give us similar access to buy this and other vaccines.” The Moderna purchase is the second time that the AU has agreed with a pharmaceutical company to buy COVID-19 vaccines. It reached a deal in March with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) for up to 400 million doses. With the exception of the J&J deal, the AU had not had access to vaccine purchases, Masiyiwa told a virtual news conference. He added that the deal announced Tuesday was unique and a breakthrough that came after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta asked U.S. President Joe Biden to “stand aside for the next quarter so that we could access vaccines and purchase ourselves.” The AU is paying the same price per dose as COVAX, a global scheme meant to ensure fair vaccine access, Masiyiwa said. In May, Moderna said it would sell COVAX vaccines at its “lowest tiered price” without disclosing further details. The new shipments are well below what Africa needs to inoculate its 1.3 billion people, who have had far less access to the vaccines than more prosperous regions. The Biden administration is deferring delivery of 33 million doses it had bought from Moderna to give the AU its “spot in line” to make a purchase, according to Natalie Quillian, the White House’s deputy coordinator for COVID-19 response. Only 8.4% of Africa’s population has received at least one dose, compared to the global average of 48.7%, according to the World Health Organization.