Daily Watch – Owo terror suspects nabbed, Senate opens ₦1.7tn FG agencies probe
10th August 2022
Ondo Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, on Tuesday, said five suspected terrorists who attacked St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo on 5 June 2022, have been arrested. Akeredolu confirmed the arrest shortly after the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, announced the arrest of two of the masterminds of the attack in Abuja. Akeredolu was speaking while receiving the chairman of the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ondo State, Prince Leke Adegbite, and his executive members. The governor also disclosed that the person who allegedly housed the suspected terrorists before carrying out the attack had been arrested. He said, ”Now that the military has announced it, I can tell you that five of them have been arrested now. They are still on the trail of the rest. The home where they lodged in Owo and the person who lodged them before the attack, has also been arrested. “We did not spare a moment. I am happy that the Chief of Defence Staff has announced it. “We have known for a while but we needed not to come out with it because more works are still ongoing. I can confirm that this arrest has been made. And they are still on the trail of some of them.” The governor also confirmed that some Ebira indigenes are now involved in some acts of kidnapping recently in the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied reports making the rounds that it has accepted the nominations of former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio and Senate President, Ahmed Lawan as senatorial candidates for Akwa Ibom North-West and Yobe North Senatorial Districts respectively. Reacting, INEC in a statement on Tuesday by National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, denied the reports, stressing that it did not recognise any of the two as senatorial candidates. The statement reads in part, “For the record, the commission has not recognised any of the two personalities as a senatorial candidate. “We call for responsible reportage as against the unwarranted attack on the commission and its officials over a matter that can be easily fact-checked.”
The Senate, through its Standing Committee on Public Accounts, has begun a probe of over ₦1.7 trillion in service-wide votes allocated to federal agencies from the 2017 to 2021 budgets. The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Matthew Urhogbide, who made this known during the meeting of the committee, said beneficiary government agencies needed to explain how they utilised the fund. He added that service-wide votes (SWV) were a disbursement for the shortfall in capital and overheads. The Chairman also ordered the Acting Accountant General of the Federation, Okolieaboh Sylva, who appeared before the committee to submit details of the SWV disbursements “as quickly as possible.”
A Guinean political coalition has called for renewed demonstrations against the ruling junta, ending a truce for lack of response to its demands for “credible dialogue” on the transition to civilian rule. The National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), a coalition of parties, unions and civil society organisations, initiated the 28 and 29 July demonstrations which were banned by the authorities. Five people were killed, to denounce the junta’s “unilateral management of the transition. In addition to the opening of a “credible dialogue” with political actors and civil society and the setting of a reasonable and consensual deadline for the duration of the transition, the FNDC is demanding that the junta unconditionally release all of its activists arrested during the latest demonstrations. Two leaders of the collective, Oumar Sylla alias Foniké Mangué and Ibrahima Diallo, as well as Saïkou Yaya Barry, executive secretary of the Union of Republican Forces (UFR), were still being held on Monday in the civil prison of Conakry after being charged with “participation in a prohibited gathering, looting, destruction of public and private property, assault and battery.