24022021 - Banditry designed to 9 destroy Nigeria — GOVS

8 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2021
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VISIT: From left — Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Aliyu Ahmed; Minister of Finance,
Dr Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed; and Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq; during a
courtesy visit by the governor to the minister's office, in Abuja.
We’re ready to end insecurity in Nigeria,
new service chiefs tell Senate
•Reps urge service chiefs to rescue abducted Kagara
students, staff
By Henry Umoru &
Tordue Salem
ABUJA — The new serv
ice chiefs yesterday assured
the Senate and Nigerians
of their readiness to end
insecurity in the country.
Speaking separately in the
Upper Chamber yesterday,
the Chief of Defence Staff and
other service chiefs-designate
all expressed their individual
and collective readiness to
bring the scourge of insecurity
in the form of Boko Haram,
banditry, kidnapping,
among others, to an end. The
Senate Joint Committee of
Defence, Army, Air-force and
Navy, led by Senator Aliyu
Wamakko, APC, Sokoto
North, yesterday screened
the new service chiefs.
Other chairmen of the committees
are Senator Ali
Ndume, APC, Borno South for
Army; Senator George Sekibo,
Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, Rivers East, Chairman,
Navy; and Senator Bala
Ibn Na’allah, APC, Kebbi
Central, Chairman, Airforce.
The new service chiefs were
led to room 211, Senate New
building, venue of the
screening by the Senior Special
Assistant to the President
on National Assembly matters
( Senate) Senator Babajide
Omoworare.
The service chiefs include
Maj. Gen. Lucky Eluonye lrabor,
Chief of Defence Staff
(CDS); Maj. Gen. Ibrahim
Attahiru, Chief of Army Staff
(COAS); Rear Admiral Awwal
Zubairu Gambo, Chief of
Naval Staff (CNS); and Air
Vice Marshal Isiaka O.
Amao,Chief of Air Staff (CAS).
When the nominees appeared
before the Joint Senate
Committee on Defence,
Army, Navy and Air Force yesterday,
they all pledged their
best to ensure that insecurity
became a thing of the past.
Recall that President Muhammadu
Buhari had in a
letter dated January 27, 2021,
forwarded the nominations of
the military chiefs to the Senate
for confirmation.
Also recall that Buhari had
in a letter to the President of
the Senate, Senator Ahmad
Lawan, dated January 27,
2021, said the screening was
being sought in furtherance of
Section 18 (1) of the Armed
Forces Act Cap A.20 Laws of
the Federation of Nigeria.
To begin the screening process,
President of the Senate,
Senator Ahmad Lawan had
last week, referred the names
of the newly appointed Service
Chiefs to its Joint Committee
on Defence, Army, Airforce
and Navy to commence the
screening exercise and report
back to the Senate at Plenary
for other legislative actions.
In his remarks, Major
General Lucky Eluonye lrabor,
Chief of Defence Staff,
CDS, said the mandate of President
Buhari was very clear to
him and his colleagues, stressing
that they would deliver on
the core mandate.
He said: “I have had extensive
experience as a commissioned
officer of the Nigerian
Army. I have had experiences
in both operational and, of
course, instructional and field
experiences and I hope as we
interact together, you will see
more of what we could deliver
in a manner Nigerians will be
happy.” On his part, the
COAS-designate, Major General
Attahiru, assured the panel
that if confirmed for the position,
he will provide the right
leadership for the Nigerian
Army and reposition it.
He said: “My vision is to
reposition it for professionalism,
defeat all adversaries in
joint environment.
“Futhermore, let me assure
you all that I will do all that is
necessary to work assiduously
with other service chiefs to
bring an end to the security
challenges in the country.’’
Also speaking, the Chief of
Naval Staff Designate, Rear
Admiral Auwal Gambo, said
his vision was to leverage on
all factors to re-energise the
Nigerian Navy in fulfillment
of national security objectives.
On his part, the Chief of
Air Staff Designate, AVM Isiaka
Amao, recalled how the
country has spent taxpayers
money to train him right from
1984 to date, promising not
to let the country down in his
new capacity. ‘’Of course, for
my resume, you can see that I
have the experience to hold
this appointment. I want to
promise that I will not let the
Nigerian people down and I
will do my best, with the coordination
of my colleagues, to
ensure that the insecurity in
the country becomes a thing
of the past,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, the House of
Representatives yesterday
urged the new service chiefs
to rescue Government Science
Secondary School, Kagara,
Niger State, students
that were abducted last
Wednesday. The legislators
called for the rescue through
a motion of urgent national
importance, sponsored by
Unyime Idem(Akwa-Ibom/
PDP). Presenting the motion,
Unyime said: “On Wednesday,
February 17, 2021, at
about 2:00am, Government
Science College, Kagara, Niger
State, was attacked by
unknown gunmen reportedly
dressed in military uniforms
and killed one student. abducted
27 students and three
members of the staff alongside
12 of their relatives and
several others running into
nearby bushes for safety.
“At least 30 travelers were
abducted on Sunday, February
14, 2021, by gunmen
who ambushed commuters
along the TeginaZungeru
highway in Rafi Local Government
Area of Niger State.
‘’It was confirmed by the officials
of the drivers’ union in
the area who said the victims
were travelling in a bus of the
Niger State Transport Authority,
NSTA, when they ran into
an ambush by the bandits.
The gunmen also killed three
members of the local vigilante
group which attempted to
foil their operation.
“While the government and
the security agencies were
working in securing the release
of the several abducted
persons, another attack occurred
in Shiroro also in Niger
State, on Thursday, February
18, 2021, where gunmen
attacked and killed one
person, injured two, and a yet
to be ascertained number was
abducted.
Zenith Bank’s PBT rises 5% to N255.9bn
LAGOS — Zenith Bank
Plc has announced an
impressive result for the year
ended December 31, 2020,
with Profit Before Tax (PBT)
rising by five per cent to
N255.9 billion from N243.3
billion in the corresponding
period of 2019.
This is in spite of a challenging
macro-economic environment
exacerbated by the
COVID 19 pandemic.
The increase arose from a
combination of growth in the
top-line and a significant reduction
in interest expense to
N121.1 billion in 2020 from
N148.5 billion in 2019, as
the net interest income increased
toN299.7 billion in
2020 from N267.0 billion in
2019.
According to the bank’s audited
financial results for the
2020 financial year presented
to the Nigeria Stock Exchange
(NSE) on Tuesday, the
Group recorded a growth in
gross earnings of five per cent
to N696.5 billion from
N662.3 billion in the previous
year.
The Group recorded eight
per cent growth in non-interest
income to N251.7 billion
in 2020 from N232.1 billion
in 2019 and a one per cent increase
in interest income to
N420.8 billion in 2020 from
N415.6 billion in 2019 The
Group’s increased retail activities
translated to a corresponding
increase in retail
deposits and loans.
Thus, retail deposits grew by
N612.7 billion from N1.11
trillion to N1.72 trillion Yearon-Year
(YoY), while savings
balances significantly grew by
88 per cent Year on Year, YoY
and closed at N1.16 trillion.
This retail drive, coupled with
the low-interest yield environment,
helped reduce the cost
of funding to 2.1 per cent from
3.0 per cent and also reduced
interest expense. However, the
low-interest environment also
affected the net interest margin,
which declined to 7.9 per
cent from 8.2 per cent due to
the re-pricing of interest-bearing
assets.
Other performance indicators
showed that operating
costs grew by 10 per cent YoY
but are still tracking well below
inflation which at the end
of the year stood at 15.75 per
cent.
The Group also increased
corporate customer deposits,
which alongside the growth in
retail deposits, delivered total
deposit growth of 25 per cent ,
to close at N5.34 trillion, driving
growth in market share.
Total assets also increased
significantly by 34% to N8.48
trillion from N6.35 trillion.
Govs should decide what to
pay workers — Reps
•Want states to run prisons
Cryptocurrency used to fund
#EndSAR protests, ICPC
tells Senate
By Henry Umoru
ABUJA — THE Independent
Corrupt Practices
and Other Related Commission,
ICPC, yesterday told
the Senate that the #End-
SARS protest was largely financed
by cryptocurrency
According to ICPC, there
are strong indications that
cryptocurrency could be used
to fund insurgency.
Speaking yesterday in Abuja
during an interactive session
with Senate Joint Committee
on Banking, ICT, Cybercrime
and Capital Market,
led by Senator Uba Sani, All
Progressives Congress, APC,
Kaduna Central on the decision
of the Central Bank of
Nigeria to ban cryptocurrency
in Nigeria, chairman of
ICPC, Bolaji Owasanoye,
threw his weight behind the
Central Bank.
He said cryptocurrency lent
itself to money laundering
and terrorism financing.
Speaking further, the ICPC
boss noted the anti-graft agency
currently had a number of
cases linked to cryptocurrency
but was unable to track the
suspects. He reminded the
Senate how in 2018, a
number of globally rated financial
institutions had their
financial statements hacked,
with the perpetrators asking
to be paid in cryptocurrencies.
According to him, the CBN
as a regulator, has responsibility
to ensure sound financial
stability. ‘’It will be difficult
to achieve in the case of
cryptocurrencies where the
role of players are unknown,’’
he said. The ICPC boss warned
the lawsmakers to, as a matter
of urgency, take decisive
action against cryptocurrencies,
sharing with them the experience
of the Indian Supreme
Court and how it ruled
and admitted that it “does not
know what it is”.
By Tordue Salem
ABUJA — The House of
Representatives yesterday
passed for second reading
a bill to allow state governors
determine how much
they will pay their workers.
The issue of remuneration
is at the moment on the concurrent
list(duties shared by
federal and states) in the 1999
Constitution, as amended.
Besides, the House also
passed another legislation for
the federal government to
hands off from the administration
of correctional centres
in the country.
The two bills, after a thorough
debate, were referred to
the ad hoc committee of the
House on the review of the
1999 constitution (as amended).
The bill seeking to remove
establishment correctional
centres from the exclusive
list aims to empower
the states to establish and
manage correctional centres
in their various states, so as to
reduce the menace of prisons
congestion.
Chairman of the House
Committee on Media and
Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu
who sponsored the bill, argued
that the growing population
of inmates in correctional
facilities across the nation
and resultant over-stretching
of the facilities had made it
impossible to reform the inmates,
adding that as a result,
most inmates return to the society
unreformed.
He also said that Section
12(8) of the Nigerian Correctional
Act empowers the state
controllers of correctional
service to reject inmates where
it is apparent that the operational
centre is filled to capacity,
noting that inmates will
soon be rejected if the bill was
not passed.
Although the bill was stiffly
opposed by some lawmakers,
it was eventually passed for a
second reading. In the same
vein, the bill seeking transfer
of the subject matter of minimum
wage from the exclusive
list to the concurrent list, sponsored
by Garba Dattj Muhammed
(APC-Kaduna), was
passed after a long debate.
Muhammed while leading
the debate, said the proposed
legislation “would allow individual
states negotiate remuneration
with their staff
according to their workforce
and resources”.
He said: “Virtual and
cryptocurrencies pose serious
legal and law enforcement
risks for Nigeria. The current
National Identification
Number registration and linking
with SIM cards is a pointer
to the fact that insurgents,
terrorists, kidnappers, bandits,
and drug merchants have
used the anonymity of unregistered
SIM cards to commit
crimes with relative ease.
“Cryptocurrencies guarantee
similar anonymity and
can easily be used as leverage
for terrorist financing and
other crimes. With the NIN
registration, cryptocurrencies
may become an alternative
payment platform for kidnappers
and this would be impossible
for law enforcement to
agencies to trace.”
The ICPC boss cited a case
study of a current investigation
by the commission on
money laundering involving
several hundreds of millions
of naira. He said: “The main
suspect used technology in
placing the money in the banking
sector. A sizable amount
was traced to several bank
accounts but before investigators
recovered some of the
money, a large proportion had
been made to disappear using
serpentine ICT-aided
transfer schemes that has so
far eluded investigators.
“This ongoing case is a
glimpse into the world of anonymity
of virtual or digital
transactions. With cryptocurrencies,
the wallet of the user
of cryptocurrency system only
store information, or encrypted
links in the Blockchain
where transaction confirmation
can be found. “There is
no movement of any ‘currency’
in the real sense of the word.
By their very nature, they provide
considerable anonymity
that is almost impossible to
be accessed by unauthorized
persons, including law enforcement
authorities.”