NEWS
ECOWAS Open to Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso’s Return – Tinubu
President Bola Tinubu says ECOWAS will continue to persuade the military leaders of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso to return their nations to the fold.
President Tinubu, who is the Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, reaffirmed this position at a meeting with ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff on Friday in Abuja.
“It is in our hearts to make sure that security is enhanced and that constitutional government is defended and promoted in our region.
“It has been a challenging tenure for me since three members indicated their exit. We will work hard to persuade them to return, whichever way.
“No one man is smarter than the group of heads that is here.
We will do everything to offer a hand of friendship to them and give them reasons to come back to us,” the President said.The ECOWAS Chairman commended the defence chiefs for their commitment to regional stability and protection of constitutional governance.
“The solution to terrorism and other challenges lies in our hands. We have to do it together.
“The ECOWAS standby force must be ready. We will continue to invest in this, as well as in the economic prosperity and opportunities across our region,” President Tinubu said.
Gen. Christopher Musa, Chairman ECOWAS Chief of Defence Staff, told the President that the defence chiefs had agreed that challenges in the region, such as insurgency and unconstitutional changes in government, must be addressed collectively.
According to him, discussions at the meeting also focused on enhancing the capacity of ECOWAS military component, including the proposed standby force.
He announced that a decision had been made to deploy 1,200 troops to Sierra Leone, with countries making pledges to support this effort.
“We are aware that the ECOWAS Ministers of Finance will meet to discuss the issue of funding, which is another very critical aspect. We also looked at the issue of logistics,” he said.
Musa highlighted the balance between military efforts and the political components of good governance, peace and security as essential for achieving long-term stability.
He pledged the commitment of the defence chiefs to work in unison to ensure the security and safety of the West African sub-region. (NAN)
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit Zone C, says it intercepted contrabands with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N510.92 million between July 15th and September 15th, 2024.The zone covers the six states in the South-South geopolitical zone and the five states in the Southeast geopolitical zone.
This is contained in a statement signed by Jerry Attah, Public Relations Officer, NCS, Zone C, and made available to journalists on Wednesday. According to the statement, Comptroller Michael Ugbagu, NCS, Zone C, gave the statistics while showcasing the seized contraband to relevant regulatory agencies at the Government Warehouse in Edo.Ugbagu said that the zone also recovered the sum of N25.57 million from demand notices raised based on some infractions noticed, making a cumulative sum of N536.49 million recorded within the months under review.“The DPV was derived from our seized goods, which include 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without an NAFDAC number.“1,015 sacks of dry donkey meat and skin, 75 jumbo bales of second-hand clothing, 463 cartons of foreign spaghetti, 269 pieces of used pneumatic tires, and 56 cartons of smuggled foreign tomato paste.“More worrisome is the interception of 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without NAFDAC registration numbers.”He noted that the cough syrup with codeine and tramadol without NAFDAC registration numbers, if not intercepted, could have had adverse effects on youths.He added that the items were mostly intercepted along the Ewu-Okada/Benin expressways based on credible intelligence. (NAN)
The Forum of Stakeholders of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has decried the deplorable condition of some federal roads in Nigeria. Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, the North-Central Chairman of the forum, said this in an interaction with newsmen on Wednesday in Jos. Zazzaga described some of the federal roads as ”death traps”, particularly those within the north-central region.
He said that some of the deplorable roads in the region include Jos-Akwanga, Makurdi-Oturkpo-Otukpa, Makurdi-Ankpa, and Jos-Saminaka. Other roads that needed urgent attention, he said, included Suleja-Minna, Ejule-Otukpa, Ganawuri-Manchok, Lokoja-Abuja, Lapai-Agaie-Bida, Birnin-Gwari-Bokani-Mokwa, Minna-Zungeru-Tegina-Kontagora. ”Currently, the north-central region has the most deplorable roads and highways in the country. ”These deplorable roads have brought severe hardship on the people and lost lives and property through preventable road traffic crashes. ”We call on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and ensure the rehabilitation of these roads because good roads are vital enablers of development,” he said. The chairman also called on governors of states within the region to reconstruct the dilapidated roads and seek refunds from the federal government. ”Though these are largely federal roads, they are located within states, and the beneficiaries are the people of these states. ”So we call on state governments to reconstruct these roads and seek refunds from the federal government,” he added. (NAN
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened 160 pips to 7.087 against the dollar on Wednesday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreigners exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
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