BusinessDay 26 Mar 2018

A6
NEWS
BUSINESS DAY
C002D5556
Danjuma’s call, a weighty evidence
of Buhari, APC’s failure - PDP
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
The People’s Democratic
Party (PDP)
says the call by the
former minister of
defence, Theophilus
Danjuma, that Nigerians
should defend themselves
against killers, is yet another
testimony of the tragic situation
the Buhari Presidency
and the All Progressives Congress
(APC) have dragged the
nation.
The party says the retired
general’s statement justifies
its stand that the Buhari Presidency
and the governing APC
must be held responsible for
our agonising state, adding
that, Nigerians are now daily
paying the supreme price because
of the failures of a grossly
incompetent leadership.
The PDP, in a statement
issued by its national publicity
secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan,
on Sunday, said the pronouncement,
coming from an
army general, a former chief of
army staff and former defence
minister of Danjuma’s status,
was weighty and directly reflected
the ugly situation in the
country under the APC.
It said the fact that citizens
and communities across the
country were now resorting
to self-defence was also
a clear demonstration that
Nigerians, across board, had
completely lost confidence
in President Buhari and the
APC.
“It is instructive to recall
that former presidents Olusegun
Obasanjo and Ibrahim
Babangida, both former
military leaders, army generals
and patriots, had earlier
raised the issue of unabating
bloodletting and pogrom in
our country under the APC
and the Buhari Presidency.
“Painfully, the APC-controlled
Federal Government
has not only failed in finding
solution but is also contending
with allegations of
conspiracy and acts that are
believed to have emboldened
attacks against innocent Nigerians.
“Unfortunately, the Buhari-led
APC Federal Government
remains aloof and
has failed to take decisive
steps that will apprehend
the masterminds of the carnage,”
the statement read.
The main opposition
party said Nigerians are
no longer feeling secured
in their land, pointing out
the country has assumed a
status of killing field where
defenceless citizens are despoiled,
raped and mowed
by insurgents and marauders
in Benue, Taraba, Yobe,
Gombe, Kaduna, Adamawa,
Borno, Plateau, Nasarawa,
Rivers, Enugu, Kogi among
other states.
It expressed worry over
what it called the ‘loud silence’
of the Federal Government
on the alleged
importation of military
equipment by APC interests
in Kogi State.
“Instead, what we are
witnessing are complete
government insensitivity,
allegations of complicity
and compromise of security
around soft targets and dishing
out of false information,
as was the case in Benue,
Yobe, Taraba and other
states where Nigerians have
come under heavy attacks
from marauders.
“More intriguing is that
the Presidency and the APC
Federal Government have
refused to come out clear on
their roles in the alleged compromising
of security in troubled
areas, particularly the
reported withdrawal of troops
from Dapchi prior to the abduction
of the schoolgirls.
“Nigerians are also yet
to see the action taken by
President Buhari against the
Inspector General of Police,
IGP Ibrahim Idris, for flouting
the presidential orders
that he should relocate to
troubled Benue in the heat
of attacks on the state.
Exchange rate strong as CBN boosts
liquidity with $339.89m forex market
HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
Exchange rate remained
strong as
naira traded around
N360 and N362
against the dollar at the investors
and exporters forex window
(I&E) and black market.
The Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) on Friday sustained
its intervention in the forex
market by injecting $339.89
million into the Retail Secondary
Market Intervention
Sales (SMIS).
The CBN spot rate opened
the week at N305.70/$ and remained
unchanged throughout
the week. At the parallel
market, the naira appreciated
N1 at the start of the week to
close at N362.00/$ and traded
at similar level all week.
Disclosing the development
to newsmen in Abuja,
Isaac Okorafor, CBN’s acting
director, corporate communications,
noted that the continued
interventions were in line
with the pledge made by the
governor, Godwin Emefiele,
to sustain market liquidity in
order to boost production and
trade.
The Nigeria Autonomous
Foreign Exchange (NAFEX)
rate opened the week at
(N360.16/$) and traded flat
till mid-week before appreciating
13 kobo on Thursday,
to close at N360.03/$. The
rate depreciated 5 kobo on
Friday and closed the week at
N360.08/$, up 8 kobo weekon-week.
Activity level in the I&E
window weakened as cumulative
weekly turnover
measured on Thursday stood
at $839.3 million, down 40.7
percent ($576.7m) from $1.4
billion recorded the same period
of the prior week.
According to Okorafor, the
feedback from the wholesale
and retail segments of the Nigerian
forex markets showed
that customers were satisfied
with their level of access
to foreign exchange. He also
assured Nigerians that the
recent confirmation of deputy
governors and Monetary
Policy Committee (MPC)
nominees by the Senate
would further spur the bank
towards taking sound decisions
needed for economic
development.
Details obtained from
the bank indicate that the
amount released was for requests
in the agricultural,
airlines, petroleum products
and raw materials and machinery
sectors.
It would be recalled that
on March 19, the bank injected
$210 million into the
Wholesale segment of the forex
market.
Monday 26 March 2018
‘CPC is not usurping
NCAA’s functions on
passengers’ rights’
IFEOMA OKEKE & MICHEAL ANI
Consumer Protection
Council (CPC) has
stated it is not usurping
the functions of
the Nigerian Civil Aviation
Authority (NCAA) with its protection
of air travellers in the
country. This is as the Nigerian
aviation industry is among the
three sectors that received the
highest complaints from the
public in the preceding year in
the council.
Babatunde Irukera, director-general
of CPC, stated this
Friday in Lagos in an interaction
with aviation journalists.
According to Irukera, there
wis no confusion in the laws
setting up the two organisations
- NCAA and CPC, insisting that
his agency is not overlapping
on the activities of the aviation
industry regulatory body, rather
ensuring that the rights of consumers
are always protected.
He explained that the statutory
role of CPC was to protect
the consumers in all sectors of
the economy, including the aviation
industry and wondered
why some sections of players
in the sector expressed worry
in its attempts to protect the flying
public especially when their
rights were trampled upon by
the airlines and other organisations
in the sector.