THE number of dormant bank accounts in Nigeria is over 19.69 million, according to the industry customer account database released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System. The data, which tracks monthly account statuses throughout 2024, indicates a steady rise in inactive accounts, coinciding with new regulatory measures by the Central Bank of Nigeria requiring commercial banks to publish details of dormant accounts. The CBN directive, issued to enhance transparency and return unclaimed funds to rightful owners, comes amid concerns that a significant number of accounts have remained idle for extended periods. According to the NIBSS data, dormant accounts remained above…
Author: Sadiq Muhammad
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THE co-founders of the Interfaith Mediation Centre, Reverend Dr. James Movel Wuye and Imam Dr. Muhammad Nurayn Ashafa, have been selected as the winners of the inaugural Commonwealth Peace Prize. Their nomination, which was submitted by the Federal Government, was rewarded for its exceptional contributions to peacebuilding and reconciliation. This was disclosed in a congratulatory message signed by the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, and addressed to the Deputy High Commissioner, High Commission of Nigeria, Sani Suleiman. According to Scotland, the Pan-Commonwealth High-Level Adjudication Panel was impressed by the outstanding work of Wuye and Ashafa, “whose dedication to bridging religious divides,…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu on Wednesday congratulated Group Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP, Azubuike Ishiekwene on his 60th birthday. In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, the president commended Ishiekwene’s incisive commentary and analysis on Nigeria’s politics, the economy, and society. Commending his contributions to developing the Nigerian media landscape, the President trusts that the dawn of a new age will bring more fantastic inspiration and wisdom to Ishiekwene. President Tinubu noted that Azu’s insightful contributions and recent writings on digital media have earned him wide recognition and admiration, even from those who may not readily agree with his views.…
FORMER military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) is set to launch his long-awaited autobiography. Titled, A Journey In Service, it will be released on February 20, 2025, at the event billed for the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja. The development is coming 32 years after IBB left office. The regime of the former Head of State was dogged by the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) policy which sparked a nationwide riot among others economic regulations. There was also the unresolved murder of late veteran journalist, Dele Giwa and the June 12 annulment among other controversial issues. While in…
OVER 450 foreign service officers in 109 Nigerian missions abroad have yet to receive their salaries for the past five to six months. The officials, serving under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are in financial distress and cannot pay rent and children’s school fees or meet other family and social obligations. The acting spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, acknowledged the financial challenges facing the Nigerian missions and assured that the leadership was working to resolve the issue. He stated, “The ministry is aware of the difficulties faced by the missions abroad, and the leadership is working…
A FEDERAL High Court in Abuja on Tuesday, declined the application filed by Kabiru Turaki, former Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs Minister, seeking to stop the police from presenting the DNA test result in the paternity dispute with a lady, Hadiza Baffa. Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling on an ex-parte motion, moved by Turaki’s lawyer, Abdulaziz Ibrahim, SAN, held that he could not grant the relief sought by the former minister without hearing from the respondents. “Upon studying the motion ex-parte and the averments in the affidavit in support, including the affidavit of urgency, I am of the opinion…
NIGERIA’s headline inflation has dropped to 24.48% year on year in January 2025. This is a sharp decline from the 34.80% headline inflation recorded in December 2024. This is according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The Statistician-General of the Federation Adeyemi Adeniran announced this on Tuesday. He said the Consumer Price Index (CPI) – which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and commodities – has declined to 24.48% year on year in January. Adeniran who was speaking during a briefing in Abuja, explained that urban inflation stood at 26.09 per cent while rural inflation came…
BILLIONAIRE Aliko Dangote has described his $23bn Dangote Refinery project as the “biggest risk” of his life, acknowledging the challenges he faced in bringing the venture to fruition. In an exclusive interview with Forbes on Monday, Dangote opened up about the risks involved in such a massive undertaking. “It was the biggest risk of my life. If this didn’t work, I was dead,” he said. Despite the refinery’s groundbreaking capacity of 650,000 barrels per day and its status as Africa’s largest, Dangote revealed that the journey to completion was fraught with uncertainties. Dangote also spoke about the hurdles he faced…
THE Chief of Defence Standards and Evaluations at the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) Major General Adekunle Ariyibi says foreign collaborators are funding Boko Haram and other terrorists. Ariyibi made the comment on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief monitored by News Point Nigeria, saying Boko Haram and Islamic State in West African Province (ISWAP)’s foreign backing is one of the reasons the war against terrorism has lingered in Nigeria. “There’s no doubt about it that this sort of operation cannot be sustainable for the past 15 years without some sort of external collaboration and assistance,” he said on Monday’s edition of the…
SOME Nigerians have demanded an investigation into the allegations by a United States Congressman, Scott Perry, that the United States Agency for International Development funded terrorist organisations, including Boko Haram. Perry, a Republican representing Pennsylvania, claimed during the inaugural hearing of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency on Thursday. The session, titled, ‘The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud,’ focused on alleged misappropriations of taxpayer funds. President Donald Trump had suspended USAID and other aid programmes, accusing them of corruption. The lawmaker alleged that the US aid agency funded terrorist organisations, including Boko…
THE Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has denied claims that it sells substandard petrol with a high burn rate. In a statement on Saturday by its spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, the NNPCL said it was reacting to a viral video claiming that its petrol does not last long in fuel tanks. Our correspondent reports that a video had surfaced online where a content creator claimed he bought a litre of Dangote petrol from MRS filling station in Alapere, Lagos, at N925 and the same litre at NNPC in Ojodu Berger at the rate of N945. According to him, he poured the…
STUDENTS from no fewer than 23 public universities and polytechnics have lamented the delayed disbursement of their approved institutional loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund as deadlines for tuition payment and examinations draw near. President Bola Tinubu signed the Students Loan (Access to Higher Education) (Repeal and Re-enactment) Act into law on April 3, 2024, to provide sustainable higher education funding for Nigerian students. Since the Fund’s commencement, several students across tertiary institutions have benefited. As of February 3, 2025, NELFUND reported receiving 364,042 student loan applications and disbursing N20,074,050,000 for institutional fees, benefiting 192,906 students. Another N12,818,960,000 was…
THE Federal Government on Friday dismissed the claims by Binance’s Head of Financial Crime, Tigran Gambaryan, who spent eight months in a Nigerian detention facility over alleged corruption. Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen, was recently tried in Nigeria for financial crimes. He was released by the Nigerian authorities following intervention by the United States government. In a post on X, he claimed that his unlawful arrest by the Nigerian government made former US President Joe Biden avoid a meeting he planned to have with President Bola Tinubu during the 2024 UN General Assembly (UNGA). He blamed National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu…
THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has called on the National Assembly to enact stricter laws prohibiting the possession of large sums of money within polling areas as part of efforts to curb vote-buying and other electoral malpractices. The commission proposed that individuals should not be allowed to carry more than N50,000 within polling areas. INEC’s Director of Litigation and Prosecution, Tanimu Muhammed SAN, stated this at a consultative meeting with security operatives and the technical committee on electoral law amendments in Abuja on Friday. Muhammed noted the growing concern over vote-buying, which has become a major threat to Nigeria’s…
A YET to be ascertained number of people have been killed while others sustained injuries after a trailer lost control on the popular Muhammadu Buhari bridge in Kano. The ill-fated trailer was said to be heading for the southern part of the country. Commenting on the incidebt, a social media user, Yahya Abubakar Sadiq, wrote, “Right now, at Hotoro NNPC, under the bridge from Mariri to Unguwa Uku, a truck (Tarela) has overturned, carrying both people and goods. At least more than twenty people were involved, some have lost their lives, while others have sustained serious injuries.” According to an…
DANGOTE Peugeot Automobiles Nigeria Limited (DPAN), the official manufacturer and marketer of Peugeot vehicles in Nigeria, has assembled the GT variant of the Peugeot 3008, a globally acclaimed and award-winning SUV. Equipped with a high-performance 1.6-litre turbo engine, the Peugeot 3008 GT expands DPAN’s existing lineup from its state-of-the-art assembly plant in Kaduna. This marks a significant step in Dangote’s commitment to boosting local vehicle production and enhancing Nigeria’s auto industry. Peugeot’s first assembly of the 3008 model in Africa took place in Ghana in 2022. This marked a significant milestone in the brand’s expansion into the continent, specifically the…
JUSTICE Folashade Ogunbanjo of the Federal High Court Abuja has discharged and acquitted a former Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Ishaq Kawu Modibbo and Pinnacle Communications Limited. They were being prosecuted by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences (ICPC) of charges bordering on the ₦2.5 billion released to Pinnacle Communications under the Federal Government Digital Switch Over (DSO) project. Delivering judgement on Thursday, Justice Ogunbanjo held that the ICPC was not able to prove the allegations against the defendants. The judge further discharged the defendants on the grounds that the statements and evidence of the witnesses,…
NATIONAL Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, has slammed the Canadian government over its decision to deny visas to Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, and other top military officers. Ribadu, who spoke on Thursday at the maiden annual lecture of the National Association of the Institute for Security Studies in Abuja, described the visa snub as “disrespectful” and declared that Canada “can go to hell.” His reaction came after Gen Musa narrated how he and some senior military officers were denied entry into Canada for an official engagement. The CDS explained that the delegation had been invited to an…
THE Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), the leading philanthropy empowering young African entrepreneurs, from all 54 African countries, today, signed a USD$6million strategic partnership agreement with the UAE Office of Development Affairs and Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation (an affiliate of Erth Zayed) to provide business training, mentorship, access to networks, and non-refundable $5,000 seed capital, to an additional 1,000 young African entrepreneurs. The agreement signed, at the World Governments Summit, by TEF Founder, Tony O. Elumelu, and the Director General of the Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, His Excellency Mohamed Haji Al Khoori, evidences both organisations’ shared commitment…
THE House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions has summoned the Comptroller General of Nigerian Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, to appear before it Tuesday next week. According to a statement by the Media Head, Public Petitions Committee of the House of Representatives, Chooks Oko made available to News Point Nigeria, Adeniyi is to answer a petition before the Committee over the refusal of some top officials of the service to leave the service after their due retirement dates. Obasi-Pherson Help Foundation had petitioned the 10th House alleging that some Assistant Comptrollers and Comptrollers were due for retirement but have blatantly…