A barber, who identified himself as Otighan Sam, has accused a policeman attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Rivers State of breaking into his house on Friday around 12 midnight, destroying his properties, and stealing his N280,000.
The incident happened at No 23 Nnewi Street, Mile 1 Diobu, Port Harcourt, a report by PUNCH said.
Sam said he managed to escape when the policeman first broke into his neighbour’s house demanding to be shown his (Sam’s) apartment as he cocked his gun.
The barber said he saw the SARS officer with two rifles; a pistol and an AK47, adding that he was accompanied by two armed men.
Sam said the policeman was probably after him because he had earlier refused to pay for drinks he (policeman) and some of his friends consumed at a bar.
He said, “A SARS officer armed with a pistol and an AK47, accompanied by two boys with machetes came to my house around 12 midnight, broke into my neighbours’ house and started beating him and asking where my room was.
“Upon seeing what was happening, I managed to run away because the officer was really drunk and was cocking his gun and threatening to shoot if they did not show him my room. When the officer and his boys got to my room, they ransacked the entire house, destroyed my properties, and took away my N280,000.
“The policeman’s name is Usman, my only offence was that I refused to pay for drinks he drank alongside his friends because I did not have money.”
The barber said he had reported the incident to the Mile One Police Division and the indicted cop had been invited for questioning.
When contacted, spokesperson for the police in the state, Nnamdi Omoni, said he was yet to be briefed about the incident.
Popular Broadcaster, Ifedayo Olarinde aka Daddy Freeze, has apologised to the founder of Living Faith Church aka Winners Chapel, David Oyedepo.
Daddy Freeze, while apologising to Oyedepo, said he insulted the cleric two years ago, adding that the video only went viral recently.
The broadcaster, who is the Convener of the Free the Sheeple Movement and Leader of the Free Nation in Christ, said this in a video on Saturday.
Daddy Freeze had come under fire from several reputable clerics, including Senior Pastor, Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Dr. Paul Enenche; the founder of Salvation Ministries, Pastor David Ibiyeomie, and several others for verbally attacking Oyedepo.
He said, “My attention has been drawn to a video I released circa two years, seven months ago while addressing some pertinent issues that arose back then. I apologise for the delivery of my message and for any insult to Bishop David Oyedepo in that video as I didn’t in any way intend to dishonour, disrespect or disregard the person of the bishop.
“The perceived intention to the contrary is regretted. My methods of addressing doctrinal issues have long since devolved to a more scriptural and less confrontational approach. I was, and still, very passionate in my quest to address what I believe are unresolved doctrinal issues, however, from a more amiable perspective.”
Daddy Freeze expressed his “firm” belief that for the Christian faith to thrive, believers must collectively be open to adopting theological frames of reference.
He said this could be achieved in love only.
The broadcaster has been known to propagate controversial Christian doctrines which include the non-payment of tithes.
He has been feuding with several popular and influential clerics and described those who demand tithe as thieves.
Debutants Gabriel and Willian impressed as Arsenal blew away promoted Fulham in the opening game of the Premier League season.
Former Chelsea winger Willian had a hand in all three goals and Gabriel – a £23m signing from Lille – scored in his first game in English football.
Arsenal were highly impressive, while Fulham caused themselves too many problems at the back.
Both sides have played and won at Wembley – twice for the Gunners – in the 48 days since the last Premier League season finished.
Alexandre Lacazette scored the opener from close range after Willian’s effort was saved.
Centre-back Gabriel then scored from Willian’s corner with his shoulder. Willian, who also hit a post from a free-kick, picked out Pierre-Emerick Aubamayeng with a perfect cross-field ball and the captain curled home Arsenal’s third.
Arteta admitted he was surprised at how well Gabriel played on his first game since March when Ligue 1 was curtailed.
“He hadn’t played any football for six months so to come and play a game in the Premier League after training with the team for three or four days is a big task,” he told BBC Sport.
“The boy showed a lot of character and what he can do. He can still improve a lot but he had a really good game.
“Willian knows the league, the country and is very settled here so I knew his performance would settle straight away.”
Fulham created few chances, with last season’s top scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic coming on with only 27 minutes to go and forcing Bernd Leno into a save.
Players from both sides took a knee before kick-off in continued support of the Black Lives Matter movement
Slick Arsenal catch the eye
There were signs of improvement under boss Mikel Arteta last season, with Arsenal showing a new defensive solidity and looking confident going forward.
They won the FA Cup final and Community Shield – against Chelsea and Liverpool respectively – at either end of August.
Despite a pre-season break of less than a month, they are in good shape if this performance is anything to go back.
Arteta said: “On the first day you always have butterflies. It’s been a strange pre-season. Yesterday was the first day we had the full squad together training.”
Arsenal substitutes Dani Ceballos and Eddie Nketiah clashed twice in the pre-match warm-up over a training drill, but there was total harmony among the 11 players who started.
Fulham had little answer to Arteta’s tactics. Ainsley Maitland-Niles was nominally a left wing-back but spent a lot of his game in midfield, with central defender Kieran Tierney playing almost as a left-back.
Mohamed Elneny and Granit Xhaka, whose Arsenal careers looked over last season, had solid performances in midfield.
Leno started in goal, with Emiliano Martinez, who ended last season as number one with Leno injured, set to join Aston Villa for £20m.
For the fourth season in a row it took less than 10 minutes for the opening goal of a Premier League season, with Lacazette becoming the first player to score the first goal in two different seasons. He made no mistake from close range after Marek Rodak parried Willian’s shot.
The dominant Gunners should have been further clear at half-time, with Willian striking the base of a post with a fine free-kick.
The second half followed the same pattern and Arsenal made the game safe.
Gabriel became the third Arsenal defender to score on his Premier League debut as he turned home Willian’s corner. He tried to head the ball but it went in via his shoulder. The new laws this season say if the ball hits the area where a T-shirt sleeve would be, that it is not handball.
Aubameyang scored the pick of the goals with a trademark curling effort from another Willian pass.
Willian is the first player to assist two goals on his Premier League debut for Arsenal since Ray Parlour in August 1992 against Liverpool.
Arsenal could have scored more if they needed, but this will be exactly what Arteta, whose job title changed from head coach to manager this week, wanted to see.
Have Fulham learned from past mistakes?
Fulham were relegated in each of their past two Premier League seasons, in 2013-14 and 2018-19 – conceding the most goals in the league both times.
The last time they were promoted they spent more than £100m and played a new-look team in a miserable season.
But this time boss Scott Parker started with 10 of the 11 players who beat Brentford in the Championship play-off final on 4 August, with no new signings getting on to the pitch.
Mitrovic, who was not fully fit for their Wembley win after scoring 26 goals, was on the bench again.
Fulham will hope not many of their games are as tough as playing in-form Arsenal, but there were signs this could be another leaky season at the back.
The opening goal came from their own mistake. Tim Ream blocked a Xhaka shot and should have cleared it, but he let Willian take the ball and shoot, leading to Lacazette’s goal.
One attempt to play out from the back led to Elneny having a shot blocked and Xhaka shooting over.
There was little to get excited about at the other end, with two shots on target and both from outside the box – Denis Odoi after seven minutes and Mitrovic after 67.
There are decisions, then, for Fulham and Parker on whether to stick with the approach that got them promoted.
“The big lesson today is to understand the fine margins in this division mean you can get punished,” he told BBC Match of the Day.
“When you are a team like us that has come from the Championship you can’t let defeat after defeat really cripple you. We are going to lose more than we win but as a team you have to keep learning and developing.
“It has been a quick turnaround for us. We have brought players in that will improve us and hopefully there will be more. We need to get them up to speed quickly.”
Man of the match – Gabriel
Gabriel, 22, had more touches of the ball (121), attempted more passes (113) and completed more passes (107) than anybody else – on his debut in English football
Match stats – Fulham’s poor derby record continues
Fulham have lost their past 11 top-flight London derbies – including 10 defeats in 2018-19 – the longest run by a club in top-flight history.
Arsenal have won their first game in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2009-10.
Fulham have lost their first game in three consecutive league seasons for the first time since 2006-07 to 2008-09, losing to Arsenal in the second of those games in 2007-08.
Eleven Brazilians have now appeared for Arsenal in the Premier League, with only Chelsea and Manchester City boasting more (12 each).
Arsenal have scored the first goal of a Premier League season four times, with only Liverpool doing so more often (5).
Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette has netted four goals in three Premier League appearances against Fulham, more than against any other side in the competition.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the first player to score on the opening weekend in consecutive Premier League seasons for Arsenal since Robert Pires in 2003-04 and 2004-05.
The Peoples Democratic Party members in the House of Representatives have sued the National Broadcasting Commission and Abubakar Malami, Attorney-General of the Federation, over the recently amended broadcasting code.
Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture; was also named as defendant in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1136/2020, according to PUNCH.
The suit was reportedly filed by one Francis Obalim, who deposed a 15-paragraph affidavit and a written address on behalf of the PDP lawmakers.
The code was launched in Lagos on August 4 despite opposition by stakeholders in the industry.
The PDP also on August 7, 2020, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, faulted the reviewed code especially where violators are liable to a fine of N5m as against the previous fine of N500,000.
Some of the amendments to the code are the restriction of exclusive contents on platforms and broadcast content having 75 per cent input from Nigerians.
In the suit, the opposition lawmakers argued that the amended code was a breach of the constitution because it “unlawfully creates offences of hate speech and fake news and to prescribe penalties for them, whereas the said offences are not prescribed by any written law in force”.
The lawmakers asked the court to determine whether by the provisions of section 36 (12) of the constitution, the amended 6th broadcasting code enacted/issued by the first defendant (Information Minister), which created the purported offences of “hate speech and fake news” and correspondingly purported to have imposed penalties, is not unconstitutional, null and void.
There was jubilation at the command headquarters in Port Harcourt on Saturday as men of the Rivers State Police Command arrested wanted armed robber and kidnapper, popularly known as Bobisky.
Governor Nyesom Wike had earlier placed a N30 million bounty on Bobisky’s head, saying he will reward any member of the public who can provide useful information that will lead to the arrest of the criminal.
Bobisky, whose real name is Honest Digbara, was arrested alive early Saturday at Korokoro in the Tai Local Government Area in a sting operation led by the Divisional Police Officer of Bori, Superintendent Bako Angbashim.
He was said to be attending a funeral when policemen and vigilantes acting on a tip stormed the area but on sighting them, he opened fire leading to a gun battle which, on the spot, claimed the life of his younger brother said to be his driver.
Bobisky, a terror to many residents in the Ogoni area of the state, has been linked to most of the criminal activities recorded in the area.
He was paraded at the headquarters of the command on Mosco Road, Port Harcourt.
He later died on the spot of multiple gunshot injuries and machete wounds sustained during the crossfire.
Addressing journalists, the state Police commissioner, Joseph Mukan, said, “He was arrested through credible information at Korokoro Community in Tai LGA where he was hibernating with his gang of killers.
“On sighting the police, they engaged us and in a return fire, his driver was fatally wounded, while he was arrested alive.”
Mukan warned criminal elements to “repent, relocate or face the full weight of the law”.
There was jubilation at the command headquarters in Port Harcourt on Saturday as men of the Rivers State Police Command arrested the most-wanted armed robber and kidnapper popularly known as Bobisky.
Bobisky, whose real name is Honest Digbara, was arrested early Saturday at Korokoro in the Tai Local Government Area in a sting operation led by the Divisional Police Officer of Bori, Superintendent Bako Angbashim.
He was paraded at the headquarters of the command on Mosco Road, Port Harcourt.
Bobisky, a terror to many residents in the Ogoni area of the state, has been linked to most of the criminal activities recorded in the area.
Governor Nyesom Wike had earlier placed a N30 million bounty on Bobisky’s head, saying he will reward any member of the public who can provide useful information that will lead to the arrest of the criminal.
As an opposition political party the All Progressive Congress had claimed that fuel subsidy was a fraud perpetrated by the Peoples Democratic Party-led administration. Its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), had promised to stop such fraudulent subsidy.
He also promised to make the comatose refineries work and build new ones if elected by Nigerians. Being a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Nigerians believed the APC flag bearer as he spoke so authoritatively while flaunting his record of performance in the management of the petroleum industry in the 1970s.
But as soon as the APC won the 2015 general elections, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was made to change fuel subsidy to “under recovery” of petroleum products. After 5 years in power the APC-led government has neither fixed the ailing refineries nor built new ones. Having run out of ideas like other factions of the ruling class the Buhari administration has decided to impose economic hardship on the Nigerian people through a rash of increases of VAT, stamp duty, bank charges, interest rates, electricity tariff and fuel hike.
UNPROVOKED ATTACK ON ACTIVISTS
For daring to challenge the recycling of neo-liberal policies which have continued to increase poverty, unemployment and insecurity in the land the federal government has declared a war on the Nigerian people in general and activists in particular. Thus, in his closing address at the first ministerial performance review retreat held at Abuja on Tuesday, September 8, 2020, President Buhari said inter alia “I have to charge all of you to defend the government vigorously and not allow irresponsible and politically motivated activists to keep spreading patent falsehoods about this government. Information to the public should be better packaged. Go on the offensive…”Despite the official threat oozing out of the presidential villa we have a decided to join issues with the federal government over its decision to make the masses of our people bear the brunt of the IMF-inspired neoliberal policies which have continued to promote poverty in the midst of plenty of human and natural resources.
Since President Buhari once said that “we have no other country than Nigeria” we are going to stay here and fight the mortgaging of the sovereignty of the nation through questionable local and foreign loans as well as the implementation of the conditionalities attached to the IMF palliative loan of $3.5 billion.
Having handed over the fixing of prices of goods and services to the so called market forces the Federal Government has turned round to blame “irresponsible and politically motivated activists” for pointing out that the duty of fixing the prices of petroleum products has been imposed on the Minister of Petroleum Resources by section 6 of the Petroleum Act. We have been accused of spreading falsehood for citing the case of Bamidele Aturu v Minister of Petroleum Resources (2015) 1NHRLR 73 where the Federal High Court declared the deregulation of petroleum products illegal, null and void pursuant to the combined effect of section 6 of the Petroleum Act and section 4 of the Price Control Act.
Unlike in the past when fuel hike was blamed on the criminal activities of smugglers, privatisation or deregulation the Federal Government has pointed accusing fingers at the coronavirus pandemic. But contrary to such escapist rationalization we insist that the latest fuel hike was instigated by the devaluation of the naira via the dollarisation of the neo colonial economy by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Since the naira is being rendered increasingly worthless because it is said to be over valued by the IMF the Federal Government has openly declared that the prices of PMS will continue to increase.
Having provoked the Nigerian people to anger and fury the Federal Government should be told that no amount of intimation will cow the people to submission.
I salute the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB) for organising public protests against economic policies that are considered inimical to the interests of the Nigerian people. In spite of the official campaign of calumny against activists we have decided to challenge the Federal Government for implementing anti people’s policies and programmes.
FRUSTRATION OF MIGRATION FROM PMS TO CNG
Upon the realization that it could not fund the N450 billion set aside for “under recovery” in the 2020 budget of the Federal Government the Buhari administration opted for compressed natural gas to power vehicles in the country. Thus, in a well attended press conference held in Abuja on January 16, 2020, the Minister of State, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr Timpere Sylva disclosed that the introduction of CNG as an alternative fuel would crash the cost of transportation and play a crucial role in eliminating the huge burden of subsidy payment as CNG would be sold at between N95 and N97 per litre unlike PMS that was then selling at N145 per litre.
While announcing that the Federal Government had put necessary infrastructure in place for the project to commence in September 2020 the minister said that “Already, there is a pilot programme in Benin City, which has worked for a long time. About 4,000 vehicles are already on CNG in Benin. We want to expand that CNG programme across the country and we believe it is going to create a lot of opportunities for Nigerians and also give Nigerians a new lease of live because the commodity would be accessible”.
About a month later, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) started awareness campaign on the usage of CNG as an alternative to PMS which was putting pressure on the Naira on daily basis. The DPR urged Nigerians to embrace CNG as it iscleaner, cheaper and more eco-friendly than PMS. Shortly thereafter, it was disclosed that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources had secured partnership with NIPCO Gas Limited and Green Fuels Limited for immediate conversion of petrol-consuming vehicles to compressed natural gas-fired ones, building CNG retail outlets across the country.
According to Wikipedia, “CNG is used in traditional gasoline/internal combustion engine automobiles that have been modified or in vehicles specifically manufactured for CNG use, either alone (dedicated), with a segregated gasoline system to extend range (dual fuel) or in conjunction with another fuel such as diesel (bi-fuel). Natural gas vehicles are increasingly used in Iran, Pakistan, India and other large cities. Its use is also increasing in South America, Europe and North America because of rising gasoline prices.”
In the past two years Cote d’ivoire has acquired over 700 Crossway Low Entry and 50 Crealis buses powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) which are currently running in Abidjan.
However, in response to high fuel prices and environmental concerns the Olusegun Obasanjo administration had adopted CNG as an alternative to PMS in 2006 when it gave licences to three companies- Nipco Plc, Contact Global and Global Steel for the development of compressed natural gas for vehicles. When a team of Nipco Pls visited him at Abeokuta, Ogun State on June 12 this year, former President Obasanjo recalled that “When I gave the licence in my time, the idea was to use what we had and by now, we could have put half of all the vehicles on gas.”
A former Special Assistant on Petroleum Resources to President Obasanjo, Dr. Muhammed Ibrahim who was on the delegation of Nipco Plc said that he was a member of the team of experts that initiated the full concept of development of gas for vehicles and other applications in the country.
At the material time it was disclosed by the Managing Director of the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC) Engineer Chris Ogiemwonyi that Nigeria could save about N474.5 billion annually if all the gasoline consumption in the country was replaced by CNG. But the programme has been sabotaged for the past 14 years due to official gridlock and unfavorable policies of the Federal Government influenced by the cabal of fuel importers.
Hence, instead of switching to CNG in September as promised by Mr. Sylva on behalf of the Federal Government the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company Limited announced the increase of the pump price of PMS from N145 to N151 per litre. To add insult to injury the federal government has said that henceforththe prices of fuel would be dictated by market forces. Instead of handing over the Nigerian people to market forces, albeit illegally, I call on ASCAB to mount pressure on the Federal Government to implement the policy of switching from PMS to CNG without any further delay.
CONCLUSION
No doubt, Nigeria is the only oil producing country without functional refineries. Even though the four refineries have collapsed the Federal Government has been spending billions of naira on their so called turn around maintenance. Instead of insulting the Nigerian people for protesting against fuel hike the Federal Government ought to apologise for its failure of the federal government to fix the collapsed refineries and build new ones.
Having consulted the labour movement and civil society organizations and other stakeholders in the the country the ASCAB should not hesitate to proclaim the National Day of Action within the next few days.
In exercise of our fundamental rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression we are going to embark on public protests within the COVID-19 regulations. We call on the police and other security agencies not to attack the planned peaceful protests, marches and rallies.
Let me end this address by warning those who want to rule a dead people to be prepared to be hunted by their ghosts!
Is the text of an address by Femi Falana (SAN), co-chair of Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), at the emergency webinar meeting of ASCAB held on Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said that Nigeria was fast drifting into a ‘failed and badly divided state’ under President Muhammadu Buhari.
This, he said, were products of recent “mismanagement of diversity and socio-economic development of our country”.
According to Daily Trust, Obasanjo spoke while delivering a paper titled “Moving Nigeria Away From Tipping Over’ at a consultative dialogue in Abuja.
The dialogue took place between September 9 and 10.
He, however, called for concerted efforts of all stakeholders towards “moving Nigeria from tipping over”.
He said, “Old fault lines that were disappearing have opened up in greater fissures and with drums of hatred, disintegration and separation and accompanying choruses being heard loud and clear almost everywhere.
“I do appreciate that you all feel sad and embarrassed as most of us feel as Nigerians with the situation we find ourselves in. Today, Nigeria is fast drifting to a failed and badly divided state, economically our country is becoming a basket case and poverty capital of the world, and socially, we are firming up as an unwholesome and insecure country.
“And these manifestations are the products of recent mismanagement of diversity and socio-economic development of our country. Old fault lines that were disappearing have opened up in greater fissures and with drums of hatred, disintegration and separation and accompanying choruses being heard loud and clear almost everywhere.
“It would appear that anybody not dancing to the drum beat nor joining in chorus singing would be earmarked as ethnically unpatriotic or enemy of its tribe or geographical area. In short, the country is fast moving to the precipice. But happily, I observed that the five socio-cultural political groups gathered “here have been getting together to find common ground, areas of agreement or accord for moving Nigeria away from tipping over.
“Before continuing, let me say that we must remind those who are beating the drums of disintegration and singing choruses of bitterness, anger and separation that if even Nigeria is broken up, the separated parts will still be neighbours. And they will have to find accommodation as neighbours or they will be ever at war. And those who prevent justice to be done, invite violence to reign.”
Peru’s Congress on Friday voted to open impeachment proceedings against President Martin Vizcarra for “moral incapacity” over accusations he tried to obstruct a corruption probe against government officials.
The motion was approved by 65 votes, with 36 against and 24 abstentions. Fifty-two votes were required to open the proceedings early next week.
To remove the president, who lacks a party, 87 votes are required. After Vizcarra appears in Congress next Friday to defend himself, the plenary will debate and vote.
Six out of nine parties — representing 95 of the 130 seats in Congress — have backed the motion.
“I’m not going to quit. I do not run,” Vizcarra said in a televised address ahead of the vote in which he denied any wrongdoing.
“We are facing a plot against democracy,” he said, adding that he had nothing to hide but that lawmakers should act “with caution, with responsibility, and to take the decision they deem necessary.”
Vizcarra, in power since 2018, came under fire after leaked audio recordings in which he is heard telling aides to hide details of his office’s controversial hiring of a popular singer as a paid cultural advisor.
In the event of impeachment, legislative speaker Manuel Merino will act as interim leader until the current presidential term ends in July 2021.
Vizcarra has won popular support for an anti-corruption crusade that has put him at loggerheads with opponents in Congress, including over a reform banning convicted criminals from standing for election.
The impeachment motion is reminiscent of the one that forced the resignation of his predecessor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in 2018, after he became embroiled in the Odebrecht bribes scandal.
It comes as the country is in the throes of an economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen Peru’s second-quarter GDP slashed by 30 percent.
“The dismissal is very dangerous in these circumstances,” political analyst Fernando Rospigliosi told AFP, warning against a change of government in the middle of a crisis and with only seven months to go until a general election.
Prime Minister Walter Martos on Friday denounced the move against the President.
“What Congress is doing right now is to stage a coup d’etat, because it is making an arbitrary interpretation of the Constitution,” Martos, a retired army general and number two in the government told radio RPP.
The case exploded in May when the press discovered that, at the height of the pandemic, the Ministry of Culture had hired singer Richard Cisneros, a little-known local artist who boasted in the media that he had been an advisor to the government, as a speaker and entertainer.
Parliament opened an investigation into the alleged irregular contracts for which Cisneros received $10,000.
Garba Shehu, the Special Assistant on President Buhari on Media and Publicity, says contrary to public opinion, the prices of foodstuff across the country are coming down.
Garba said this when he appeared on Channels TV on Friday September 11, to discuss the recent directive President Buhari issued to the Central Bank of Nigeria to henceforth stop the release of forex for food and fertilizer importation.
A senior lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Abuja, Dr Ahmed Adamu, faulted the directive of the President. According to him, it was a bad time to issue such a directive given that there is high inflation already in the economy.
“It is also a wrong time because we have not built the right infrastructure and not supplied the right agriculture facilities and we have not built the entire agriculture value chain. We are also facing insecurity and a lot of farmers have been displaced from their farms and they cannot produce much. And now the government is discouraging cheap importation from other countries. It is going to create a lot of food scarcity in the country.
“Now we are seeing a high rise in the prices of food items in the country and this measure is going to increase the prices of food items further at a time when we just came out of COVID-19 lockdown.”Adamu said
While responding to the lecturer’s position, Garba said
“To say the cost of food items is connected to the closure of the borders is absolutely wrong. And to say that the prices of food ain’t coming down, I think the scholar has detached himself from the market because we sat through the meeting of the National Food Security Council and we heard presentations by experts – people who had surveyed the markets.
As of yesterday (Thursday) in the morning of the meeting, go and check the index in markets. For instance in Kano, millets that had gone up to N24,000 has now gone down to N12,000, N13,000. Rice that had been N25,000 is now N20,000. Corn, maize is now N18,000 for the old stock and N14,000, N15,000 for the new stock.
So, to say that there is no change in the prices is to show one is completely detached from what is happening in the country.”
Responding to comments that his position is not the reality of many Nigerians, Garba said
“As the Germans say, if you want to get the best of the weather, open the windows. My suggestions to the journalists who sit and write all of these numbers is, send your correspondents to the streets, go to the markets and find out.
I didn’t say that all of the prices, the changes had crashed completely. They are coming down because the harvested items are coming into the market. Prices are coming down, they will continue to go down as more and more food items are harvested. It’s a seasonal thing and we are going to see through this as well.”
