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PDP Shops for Damagum’s Replacement

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By Mike Odiakose, Abuja

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum has mandated the Plateau State governor, Caleb Mutfwang to organize leaders of the party in North Central Zone to meet and nominate a substantive National Chairman for the party.

This was one of the key decisions taken by PDP Governors during a virtual meeting on Tuesday before the Ondo State governorship rally to lay to rest the leadership crisis rocking the party.

At an earlier meeting on Monday the Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum was given soft landing to continue as Acting National Chairman on the understanding that he will quit as soon as the National Executive Committee (NEC) agrees on substantive National Chairman.

Other NWC members that were suspended last Friday by the two warring NWC factions of the party were also given leeway to return to office and maintain status quo.

According to a source at the PDP Governors Forum meeting, Damagum was directed to formally call for a NEC meeting on Oct. 24 as earlier agreed by various organs and stakeholders of the party.

It was Damagum’s reluctance to call for a NEC meeting that eventually culminated in the showdown at the NWC meeting last Thursday.

The Plateau State governor, who is the leader of the PDP in the North Central Zone is said to have agreed to lead the search for the new national chairman to complete the tenure of Dr Iyorcha Ayu.

Mutfwang was hitherto among the minority PDP Governors that were in support of Damagum’s continues stay in office as Acting National Chairman.

Others that initially opposed replacement of Damagum are Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State and Agbu Kefas of Taraba State.

The choice of the North Central Zone is expected to be presented to NEC on Oct. 24 by the Plateau State governor on behalf of the zone for ratification.

The Daily Asset reliably gathered that PDP leaders and governors are also considering suggestions to push aside all members of the present NWC once a new National Chairman emerged and inaugurate a National Caretaker Committee.

Those pushing for a National Caretaker Committee argue that the present NWC members, after the recent suspensions and counter-suspensions, cannot work as a united team because of bad blood and mutual suspicion.The pro-National Caretaker Committee leaders further argue that the incoming National Chairman from North Central may be overwhelmed if he inherits an already divided NWC.

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Innovation Key to Commodities Development – SEC

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it was committed to promoting innovation and collaboration to position commodities exchanges as vital drivers of economic growth.

This was contained in a notice by the Director-General of SEC, Dr Emomotimi Agama, said on Sunday in Abuja.

Agama said the commission would innovate in capacity building, infrastructure development and partnership with stakeholders to improve and sustain commodities markets.

“Our role in sustaining commodities exchanges in Nigeria cannot be overlooked because at the heart of these exchanges’ functionality is the SEC whose regulatory oversight plays a pivotal role in ensuring their sustainability and credibility.

”Commodities exchanges in Nigeria facilitate the buying and selling of commodities in a structured and transparent environment.

”They provide farmers, traders, and investors with standardised contracts, enabling market efficiency and mitigating risks,” he said.

Agama said the vision of SEC was to provide an enabling environment, to protect investors, and to create a developmental strategy that would bring the commodities market into an enviable state.

”Nigeria is a commodity space; every state of this country has commodities in commercial quantities, so we are working to build that ecosystem in such a way that we are able to meet all of the blocks within the value chain.

”This will help us to achieve economic development, prosperity and a level playing field for every practitioner in this space,” Agama said. (NAN).

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South Korea Plane  Crash Claims 179 as Air Canada Skids Runway

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By David Torough, Abuja

A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea crashed on arrival yesterday, smashing into a barrier and bursting into flames, killing everyone aboard except for two flight attendants plucked from the wreckage.

According to AFP, a bird strike was cited by authorities as the likely cause of the crash — the worst ever aviation disaster on South Korean soil.

Similarly, a PAL Airlines aircraft, operating as Air Canada flight AC2259, executed an emergency landing at Halifax Airport, Canada, following a landing gear malfunction.

The incident, which occurred around 9:30 PM AT, was reported by CBC News yesterday.

Passengers on the Jeju Air plane were flung out of the plane and it was “almost completely destroyed”, according to fire officials.

Video showed the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 landing on its belly at Muan International Airport, skidding off the runway as smoke streamed out from the engines, before crashing into a wall and exploding in flames.

“Of the 179 dead, 65 have been identified,” the country’s fire agency said, adding that DNA retrieval had begun.

Inside the airport terminal, tearful family members gathered to wait for news.

An official began calling out the names of the 65 victims who had been identified, with each name triggering fresh cries of grief from waiting relatives.

Only two people — both flight attendants — were rescued from the crash, the fire department said.

“Passengers were ejected from the aircraft after it collided with the wall, leaving little chance of survival,” a local fire official told families at a briefing, according to a statement released by the fire brigade.

Both black boxes — the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder — have been found, deputy transport minister Joo Jong-wan said at a briefing.

Under floodlights, rescue workers used a giant yellow crane to lift the burned-out fuselage of the orange-and-white aircraft on the runway at Muan — some 288 kilometres (about 180 miles) southwest of Seoul.

Bits of plane seats and luggage were strewn across the field next to the runway, not far from the charred tail, offering a glimpse into the catastrophic impact of the crash.

 ‘Mayday’

All of the passengers were Korean apart from two Thais, with the youngest a three-year-old boy and the oldest a 78-year-old, authorities said.

“I had a son on board that plane,” an elderly man waiting in the airport lounge, who asked not to be named, said.

“My younger sister went to heaven today,” a 65-year-old woman, who gave only her surname Jo, said.

Boeing said in a statement that it was in touch with Jeju Air and stood “ready to support them”.

 Engulfed in flames

South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok, who only took office Friday, convened an emergency cabinet meeting and then visited the crash site at Muan.

“The entire government is working closely together to manage the aftermath of the accident… making every effort to ensure thorough support for the bereaved families,” he said.

The country declared a seven-day national mourning period effective from Sunday, with memorial altars to be set up nationwide.

It is the first fatal accident in the history of Jeju Air, one of South Korea’s largest low-cost carriers, which was set up in 2005.

On August 12, 2007, a Bombardier Q400 operated by Jeju Air carrying 74 passengers came off the runway due to strong winds at the southern Busan-Gimhae airport, resulting in a dozen injuries.

South Korea’s aviation industry has a solid track record for safety, experts say.

A number of fatal aviation accidents have occurred globally due to bird strikes, which can cause a loss of power if the animals are sucked into the air intakes.

In 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 famously landed in New York’s Hudson River after bird strikes on both of its engines, in an incident widely known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” because there was no loss of life.

The PAL Airlines aircraft

The PAL Airlines aircraft incident, which occurred around 9:30 PM AT, was reported by CBC News yesterday.

During the landing, the plane skidded along the pavement, triggering panic among passengers.

Nikki Valentine, a passenger onboard, recounted the harrowing experience, describing how the aircraft tilted approximately 20 degrees to the left, accompanied by a loud crash-like noise.

“The plane started to sit at about a 20-degree angle to the left and, as that happened, we heard a pretty loud—what almost sounded like a crash sound—as the wing of the plane started to skid along the pavement, along with what I presume was the engine,” Valentine told CBC News.

Viral footage from the incident captured the aircraft’s wings scraping the runway, causing a fire during the landing. Fortunately, no casualties were reported among passengers or crew.

The emergency landing at Halifax Airport ignited discussions on social media, with users drawing comparisons to a deadly incident in South Korea.

A flight from Thailand to Muan International Airport crashed after veering off the runway and bursting into flames, resulting in 120 fatalities.

“Unbelievable. Thankfully it landed with everyone surviving it appears,” one user remarked about the Halifax incident.

Another expressed concerns over the frequency of aviation mishaps, writing, “Two catastrophic landing gear failures in a matter of hours? What’s happening in aviation right now? Mechanical issues or something more sinister? Questions need answers—fast.”

Adding to the series of recent aviation accidents, an Embraer 190 aircraft operated by Azerbaijan Airlines crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan, claiming 38 lives while 29 survived.

Deccan Chronicles reported that the flight from St. John’s, Newfoundland, skidded along the runway at Halifax Airport in Goffs, Nova Scotia.

The airport was temporarily closed on Saturday night, though one runway was reopened shortly after.

According to a passenger interviewed by CBC News, one of the aircraft’s tyres failed to deploy properly during the landing, causing the plane to tilt and skid for a significant distance.

“The plane shook quite a bit and we started seeing fire on the left side of the plane and smoke started coming in the windows,” she described.

Emergency crews responded swiftly, ensuring the safety of all onboard.

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SEC Pledges Transparency, Fairness in Fintech Regulation

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By Tony Obiechina, Abuja

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has assured stakeholders in the fintech space that the commission was committed to ensuring transparency and integrity in the regulation of the space.

The commission said it has provided a level playing field to all applicants.

The Director General of the SEC, Dr.

Emomotimi Agama stated this during a meeting with Regulatory Incubation and Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Program applicants in Abuja yesterday.

The SEC DG stated that the commission understands the anxiety and the need to be regulated but added that the Commission has to be very careful even in its desire to be inclusive.

According to him, “The process of registration is a very technical process because registration is the hallmark of regulation.

“It goes beyond onboarding and registering, it requires monitoring, education, surveillance, and all of these are continuous. This journey is a new one that we have not gone through before. As we continue, we will find challenges which we need to solve because every challenge is solvable.

“I am here to assuage fears being exhibited, we have provided a level playing field but as a government institution we must take things into context while doing this.

“The groups that were admitted into the ARIP and RI are beginning to see that we have started demanding for some information, operational updates and more regulatory requirements in line with the concept of a Regulation Incubation Programme or a Sandbox as some other institutions call it.

“In doing this, we are understudying what they are doing and the risk that they pose to investors and to themselves.

“We have not only done that, we have also issued new regulations to the public, which we call an exposure document.

“If you look at it, it is an upgraded version of our earlier regulations and the regulation making process demands that we get your views as stakeholders before it becomes a regulation.”

Agama stated that the inputs of stakeholders is important as regulators cannot claim to know everything adding that the rules would be amended to include all valid points to make it an all-inclusive document.

He disclosed that the commission has increased the space to include more regulations to accommodate more individuals, more institutions and more functions because accommodation is the stance of the government regarding the space.

“We are trying to ensure that at the end of the day, as a country we will stand out in the regulation of this space. Beyond any doubt, this space is the future and for us as Nigerians we have embraced it.

“With the population we have with over 70 percent interested in this space, we must live up to the billing but we must do it intellectually and that is why we are engaging you,” he added.

The SEC DG emphasized that the commission is not slow in its processes but that it has to be sure everything is in order to enable fairness in any pronouncements made.

He admitted that it is difficult to say all that have applied will be registered because certainly not all will meet the requirements but Agama assured that the commission will keep providing clarity to knotty areas to assist in the process.

 “We are all on this journey together and we all must succeed in the journey. I have always encouraged participants to come together and collaborate so that the result will be what we are all proud of.

“As an ecosystem, we all have a responsibility of building an ecosystem that we all will remain proud of.

“We remain excited about the boundless opportunities that exist. International partners can only come into the local space if we get this right.

“In the coming year, we will move faster in delivery and announcements haven learnt from this process. A new law has been passed and is in the process of obtaining the Presidential assent.

“That law is replete with all of the ingredients legally required to properly regulate this space and give guidance to operators.

“All of these are efforts by the SEC to be as friendly as possible, protect the interest of the ecosystem and the interest of investors.

“As we try to build this system, we are building a new economy that will be beneficial to all and we cannot toil with that opportunity.

“If we miss it, international partners will not come, but if we make it, we will be a darling of the world,” he said.

The SEC Boss assured that every application sent to the SEC has been reviewed or being reviewed to ensure that at the end of the day whatever decision is taken meets international best practice as well as in the interest of Nigeria.

He solicited the co-operation and understanding of all stakeholders in the Commission’s drive to create a formidable ecosystem as well as protect the nation’s sovereignty. 

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