Daily Watch – Rep member calls for dom account nationalisation, Gunmen burn DSS base in Nnewi

Gunmen have set ablaze an operational base of the Department of State Services (DSS) in Nnewi, Anambra. The gunmen were said to have invaded the area on Sunday in a sports utility vehicle (SUV). In a video of the incident cited by The Cable, the gunmen could be seen parading the building and later drove away from the scene. When the online news site reached out to Ikenga Tochukwu, Anambra police command spokesperson, he said the only information at his disposal is a case of fire incidents in some parts of Nnewi. Tochukwu said he has received further details about the buildings affected in the fire incident. “At about 2 pm, today, the command received a distress call of a fire incident in Nnewi. The police operatives are currently on the ground there and the areas have been cordoned off,” he said. The site reports that the house of Chu Okongwu, an economist and one-time minister of finance, was also set ablaze in the state. Peter Afunanya, the DSS spokesperson, has not responded to calls and text messages sent to his phone. The fire incidents are among the recent spate of violent attacks — killings and arson — in Anambra and other parts of the southeast. On 28 September, Chike Akunyili, husband to the late Dora Akunyili, ex-minister of information and communication, was shot dead by gunmen at Umuoji, Idemili North LGA. On 30 September, gunmen set the Ajali divisional police headquarters in Orumba North LGA on fire, killing three police officers.

The World Bank said Nigeria received the approval for $400 million of the bank’s financing on Friday to procure and deploy COVID-19 vaccinations. The World Bank board of directors signed off on the financing, provided via the International Development Association, which it said would enable Africa’s most populous nation to purchase COVID-19 vaccines for 40 million people, some 18% of its population, and support vaccine deployment to 110 million people. According to a statement, the international financial institution said the money would ensure that the government can vaccinate 51 percent of its population within two years and “avoid the dreadful consequences of another lockdown that left in its wake an economic toll the country is still grappling with.” The country’s government in September this year said that around 20 percent of workers in Nigeria had lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19. The country has administered some five million vaccine doses to its 200 million citizens and is in the midst of deploying millions more doses of Moderna and AstraZeneca shots received through the COVAX scheme aimed at providing vaccines to developing countries. It also has 1.12 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) vaccine that it purchased through an African Union programme and is also scheduled to receive 7.7 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine via COVAX. Nigeria, as of October 1, had recorded 205,779 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,721 deaths from the virus.

A House of Representatives member, Ibrahim Babajide Obanikoro, has suggested the Central Bank of Nigeria forcibly shut down domiciliary accounts bearing foreign currencies to regulate the continuous fall of the naira. Mr Obanikoro, currently serving the Eti-Osa Federal Constituency of Lagos State, made this suggestion on Tuesday on Twitter. “I am not the CBN Governor but at this moment, I’m of the opinion that CBN should mandate that all dorm accounts be closed for the next 12 months. Let’s see the effect on the naira. After all, you can’t go to any of the Western world and open a foreign currency account,” Mr Obanikoro tweeted. In July, Mr Emefiele halted sales of forex to Bureau De Change (BDCs) operators across the country indefinitely. This move resulted in the unavailability of the dollar and spurred the downward spiral of naira’s value. According to Nairametrics per CBN data, the country has an estimated $16 billion in the domiciliary accounts of commercial and merchant banks with an assumed official exchange rate of ₦410/$ based on NAFEX rate used at the Investor and Exporter window.

A Chadian police spokesman has said that one policeman was reportedly killed and about ten people wounded in the capital N’djamena on Saturday after police used tear gas to disperse a protest against the ruling junta that had strayed from the approved route. Civil society coalition Wakit Tamma had asked supporters to take to the streets to denounce the Transitional Military Council (CMT), which seized power in April after President Idriss Deby was killed while visiting troops fighting an insurgency in the north. The police spokesman Paul Manga said that “There were clashes which resulted in around 10 minor injuries and the death of a police officer following a fall.” Wakit Tamma accused police of using excessive force and said around 20 people were wounded, including some by live rounds. “This brutality by law enforcement officers is all the more unacceptable because the march was peaceful and moreover authorised,” it said in a statement. It estimated around 1,200 people attended the protest, whereas the police said there were around 100. Deby’s death caused chaos in Chad, a key ally of Western powers in the fight against Islamists in Africa. His son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, dissolved parliament after his death and took control as head of the military council. He has promised to hold democratic elections within 18 months. Opposition politicians have denounced the move as a coup. Security forces have repeatedly clashed with protesters calling for a return to civilian rule.