Godwin Emefiele, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has denied accusations of corruption and theft in a recent report by the special investigation panel on CBN and other entities, led by Jim Obazee, a private investigator.

The report, which was recently submitted to President Bola Tinubu, comes after nearly six months of a probe on the activities of the CBN under Emefiele.

The document details serious acts of corruption and theft in the CBN, allegedly perpetrated by senior officials of the bank, including Emefiele who regained freedom on Saturday after spending a month in the Kuje correctional facility for procurement fraud.

The report alleged, among other things, that Emefiele approved the naira redesign policy without presidential approval and withdrew $6.23 million from the CBN vault.

Speaking on the allegations in a statement on Sunday, Emefiele refuted the claims, describing the panel’s findings as “false, misleading, and calculated to disparage” his character.

He said the presidential approval for the naira redesign existed and was provided to Obazee during his investigation.

The ex-CBN governor challenged Obazee to publish the alleged forged presidential directive and his statements denying knowledge of it.

“I have gone through the publications, and I say boldly that the contents of the said publications are false, misleading, and calculated to disparage my person, injure my character, and serve the selfish interest of the private investigator,” Emefiele said.

“I have been advised by my lawyers not to say anything in respect of the matters which have been submitted to the court for adjudication. However, I need to address some of the issues raised in the publication which are barefaced lies told by the investigator in order to achieve his satanic agenda.

“First, it was reported that, contrary to the provision of the CBN Act 2007, there was no presidential approval for the Naira redesign.

“I wish to state unequivocally that there was indeed a presidential approval, and the said approval was handed over to the same Obazee during the process of his investigation in the presence of senior CBN officials and his investigative team.

“Moreover, the former President Muhammadu Buhari has stated on a number of occasions that he authorised and approved the Naira redesign.

“I am therefore at a loss as to why Obazee would mislead Nigerians that there was no presidential approval.

“The report also claimed that 6.23 million dollars was withdrawn from the CBN vault based on a false presidential directive bearing the signature of the former president, and that of the former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha.

“About two weeks ago, Obazee in the company of a certain Deputy Commissioner of Police from Force CID came to Kuje to ask me questions in respect of the said document in the presence of my lawyers.

“I stated verbally and in writing that I have no knowledge of such a directive from the former president and the former SGF. In fact, I told them that that was the first time I would be seeing the documents. On this, I challenge Obazee to publish the said documents and also the statements that I made to them.”

‘NO INVOLVEMENT IN OPENING ACCOUNTS’

Reacting to claims of illegally depositing billions of naira in 593 offshore bank accounts, the regulator’s ex-governor said he has “no knowledge” of such accounts.

“The final issue that I would like to respond to is the issue of the 593 accounts which were purportedly opened in different parts of the world. I state categorically that I was not involved in the opening of these accounts and I do not have knowledge of their openings,” he said.

“The fixed deposits in those foreign accounts are definitely outside my knowledge. However, let me state clearly that the relevant departments of the CBN have the authority to carry out such activities in line with their lawful mandate within the CBN.”

Emefiele, therefore, called for a “thorough and transparent investigation of all alleged frauds”.

He also announced his intention to commence legal action to clear his name “from the defamatory statements contained in the report and by extension the publications”.

The Cable

Chairman of Titan Trust Bank, Tunde Lemo, has insisted that the acquisition of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc followed due process and met all regulatory requirements, including that of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Lemo, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, spoke in an interview with Sunday PUNCH following the release of the report of the special investigation into the activities of the CBN and other related entities.

The final report, submitted to President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, accused the immediate past governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, of using ill-gotten wealth to acquire Union Bank and Keystone Bank through proxies.

However, Lemo insisted that the establishment of Titan Trust Bank and subsequent acquisition of Union Bank were transparent and duly verified by the relevant regulatory bodies.

“The core shareholders and the banks will respond appropriately. Due process was followed in the establishment of Titan Trust Bank and every process that led to the acquisition of Union Bank was verified by the CBN, SEC and other regulators. The core shareholders will respond to the specific allegations against them,” he said.

Lemo warned that the publication of unverified information on banks could have adverse effects on the banking industry.

“I sincerely recommend caution in the publication of unverified information about these financial institutions as they are both deposit-taking institutions. The good news is that the banks are healthy and stable,” he added.

The special investigator, Jim Obazee, said, “When we carried out the investigation, we discovered that some persons were used as proxies by Godwin Emefiele to set up Titan Trust Bank and acquire Union Bank therefrom, all from ill-gotten wealth.

“We were able to secure some documents and investigation reports that will lead to the forfeiture of the two banks to the Federal Government. We have completed our investigation on this acquisition and have also held meetings with the relevant parties except for Cornelis Vink, who is currently hospitalised in Switzerland.”

In a separate statement by its Corporate Communications Department, Titan Trust Bank said on December 18, 2021, it signed a Share Sale and Purchase Agreement with Atlas Mara Limited, Union Global Partners Limited, Emeka Emuwa, Standard Chartered Bank, Montane Partners West Africa Limited, TLG Africa Growth Impact Fund, and Sanlam Life Assurance Limited.

The bulk shareholders, according to the statement, together owned 93.41 percent of Union Bank’s issued ordinary share capital.

It said, “The SPA was the product of a long and tortuous due diligence process that involved leading financial and technical advisers. Titan Trust Bank engaged reputable firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited for the financial due diligence; Drey Law Practice for the legal due diligence and Norton Rose Fulbright, UK, as legal advisers; and Citibank London as financial/transaction advisers. The bulk shareholders engaged a prominent UK law firm, White & Case, as their legal advisers on the transaction.

“The acquisition was conducted in the most professional, open, and transparent bidding process. The acquisition was funded by a combination of debt ($300m) and an additional equity injection of about $190m, which was contributed by TTB’s two major shareholders – Magna International DMCC and Luxis International DMCC. The Certificates of Capital Importation for both the debt and the equity financing evidencing the receipt of these funds into Nigeria by legal means have been made available where requested. The $300m acquisition facility is sourced from Afreximbank and is priced on SOFR with a margin of 6.25 percent (all together, almost 12 percent pa) and a moratorium period of 30 months. TTB has paid interest on the loan for three interest periods (18 months so far).

“TTB sought and obtained all necessary regulatory approvals from its primary regulator – the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Nigerian Exchange Limited, and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, among others.

“Following TTB’s acquisition of 93.41 per cent controlling interest in Union Bank on June 1, 2022, a change in control was effected with the dissolution of the former Board and the reconstitution of a new Board with new leadership. TTB proceeded to conduct a Mandatory Takeover Offer, which was legally triggered by the acquisition of 93.41 percent of Union Bank by TTB, bringing the percentage float of Union Bank shares to less than 20 percent. The purpose of the MTO was to give the minority shareholders the opportunity to offer their shares on the same terms as was offered to the bulk shareholders. The MTO was conducted after all due regulatory approvals were obtained.”

 “On allegations relating to the ownership of Titan Trust Bank, the Board and management provided the special investigators with the share ownership structure in TTB, including the holdings of Magna International DMCC and Luxis International DMCC owned by Rahul Savara and Cornelius Vink. These individuals are prominent global entrepreneurs and have thriving businesses in Nigeria and several countries around the world. The shareholding structure is also verifiable at the Corporate Affairs Commission.”

The bank urged its customers, shareholders, and stakeholders to remain calm as it would do everything legal to ensure that the current misunderstanding was clarified.

Punch

Sixteen people were killed in an attack in Nigeria's north-central state of Plateau, where clashes between herders and farmers are common, the AFP News Agency said on Sunday, citing the Nigerian army.

The attack occurred in the village of Mushu, AFP said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

The Nigerian army did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Plateau is one of several ethnically and religiously diverse hinterland states known as Nigeria's Middle Belt, where inter-communal conflict has claimed hundreds of lives in recent years.

In May, fights between farmers and herders in the Plateau state had killed over 100 people.

The violence is often painted as ethno-religious conflict between Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers. But climate change and expanding agriculture are also major factors.

Reuters

At least 68 killed in central Gaza in airstrike, adding to weekend's bloodshed

At least 68 people were killed by an Israeli strike in central Gaza, health officials said Sunday, while the number of Israeli soldiers killed in combat over the weekend rose to 15.

Associated Press journalists at a nearby hospital watched frantic Palestinians carry the dead, including a baby, and wounded following the strike on the Maghazi refugee camp east of Deir al-Balah. One bloodied young girl looked stunned while her body was checked for broken bones.

The 68 fatalities include at least 12 women and seven children, according to early hospital figures.

“We were all targeted,” said Ahmad Turokmani, who lost several family members including his daughter and grandson. “There is no safe place in Gaza anyway.”

Earlier, the Health Ministry in Gaza gave the death toll as 70. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

As Christmas Eve fell, smoke rose over the besieged territory, while in the West Bank Bethlehem was hushed, its holiday celebrations called off. In neighboring Egypt, tentative efforts continued on a deal for another exchange of hostages for Palestinians held by Israel.

The war has devastated parts of Gaza, killed roughly 20,400 Palestinians and displaced almost all of the territory’s 2.3 million people.

The mounting death toll among Israeli troops — 154 since the ground offensive began — could erode public support for the war, which was sparked when Hamas-led militants stormed communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 and taking 240 hostage.

Israelis still largely stand behind the country’s stated goals of crushing Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and releasing the remaining 129 captives. That’s despite rising international pressure against Israel’s offensive, and the soaring death toll and unprecedented suffering among Palestinians.

HAMAS EXACTS A PRICE

“The war exacts a very heavy price from us, but we have no choice but to continue fighting,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

In a nationally televised speech, Israeli President Isaac Herzog appealed for the country to remain united. “This moment is a test. We will not break nor blink,” he said.

There has been widespread anger against his government, which many criticize for failing to protect civilians on Oct. 7 and promoting policies that allowed Hamas to gain strength over the years. Netanyahu has avoided accepting responsibility for the military and policy failures.

“Over time, the public will find it hard to ignore the heavy price paid, as well as the suspicion that the aims that were loudly heralded are still far from being attained, and that Hamas is showing no signs of capitulating in the near future,” wrote Amos Harel, military affairs commentator for the Haaretz newspaper.

The Israeli military said it had completed the dismantling of Hamas’ underground headquarters in northern Gaza, part of an operation to take down the vast tunnel network and kill off top commanders that Israeli leaders have said could take months.

Efforts toward negotiations continued. The head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, arrived in Egypt for talks. The militant group, which also took part in the Oct. 7 attack, said it was prepared to consider releasing hostages only after fighting ends. Hamas’ top leader Ismail Haniyeh traveled to Cairo for talks days earlier.

INSIDE GAZA

Israel’s offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history. More than two-thirds of the 20,000 Palestinians killed have been women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

On Friday, Israeli airstrikes on two homes in Gaza killed 90 Palestinians, including dozens from an extended family, according to rescuers and hospital officials. One of the homes, located in Gaza City, became one of the deadliest airstrikes in the war after 76 people from the al-Mughrabi family were killed, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defense department.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed in an Israeli drone attack while inside al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, a part of Gaza where Israel’s military believes Hamas leaders are hiding.

An Israeli strike overnight hit a house in a refugee camp west of the city of Rafah, on Gaza’s border with Egypt. At least two men were killed, according to Associated Press journalists in the hospital where the bodies were taken.

At least two people were killed and six others wounded when a missile stuck a building in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

And Palestinians reported heavy Israeli bombardment and gunfire in Jabaliya, an area north of Gaza City that Israel had claimed to control. Hamas’ military arm said its fighters shelled Israeli troops in Jabaliya and Jabaliya refugee camp.

Israel faces international criticism for the civilian death toll but it blames Hamas, citing the militants’ use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel has launched thousands of airstrikes since Oct. 7. It says it has killed thousands of Hamas militants, without presenting evidence.

Israel also faces allegations of mistreating Palestinian men and teenage boys detained in homes, shelters, hospitals and elsewhere during the offensive. It has denied abuse allegations and said those without links to militants are quickly released.

Speaking to the AP from a hospital bed in Rafah after his release, Khamis al-Burdainy of Gaza City said Israeli forces detained him after tanks and bulldozers partly destroyed his home. He said men were handcuffed and blindfolded.

“We didn’t sleep. We didn’t get food and water,” he said, crying and covering his face.

Another released detainee, Mohammed Salem, from the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah, said Israeli troops beat them. “We were humiliated,” he said. “A female soldier would come and beat an old man, aged 72 years old.”

INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE

The United Nations Security Council has passed a watered-down resolution calling for the speedy delivery of humanitarian aid for hungry and desperate Palestinians and the release of all the hostages, but not for a cease-fire.

But it was not immediately clear how and when deliveries of food, medical supplies and other aid, far below the daily average of 500 before the war, would accelerate. Trucks enter through two crossings: Rafah, and Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, said 123 aid trucks entered Gaza on Sunday,

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reiterated U.N. calls for a humanitarian cease-fire, adding on social media that “the decimation of the Gaza health system is a tragedy.”

Amid concerns about a wider regional conflict, the U.S. Central Command said a patrol ship in the Red Sea on Saturday shot down four drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, a while two Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles were fired into international shipping lanes.

The Iran-backed Houthis say their attacks are aimed at Israel-linked ships in an effort to stop the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia, Ukraine report six civilians killed in attacks on Kherson, Horlivka

Russian attacks on southern Ukraine's Kherson region killed five civilians on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, while Russian-installed officials in the eastern town of Horlivka said one person was killed in result of Kyiv's shelling.

Russian forces abandoned the city of Kherson, the administrative centre of the Kherson region on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, and the western bank of the River over a year ago but have since subjected many areas there to constant shelling from their positions on the eastern bank.

The deaths in Kherson occurred in an incessant Russian shelling of the city and the region over the preceding 24 hours, Ukrainian officials said.

Regional police said three people died in shelling of an apartment building and a private home in Kherson city. A woman died in a drone attack in a small town south of Kherson and a second woman was killed when a town further north came under heavy fire.

Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, head of the press office of Kherson's regional military administration, told the Ukrainian public broadcaster that gas and water supplies were partially cut off due to the attacks, which also hit a medical facility.

"The windows were broken, the building was damaged," Tolokonnikov said.

Some 600 km (400 miles) northeast of Kherson in the town of Horlivka, in areas of Ukraine's Donetsk region under Russian control, Ukraine's shelling destroyed a shopping centre and several other buildings, a Russian-installed official said.

The attacks killed one woman and wounded six civilians, the Russian-installed mayor of Horlivka, Ivan Prikhodko, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters could not independently verify the Russian and Ukrainian reports.

While Moscow and Kyiv deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched on Ukraine in February 2022, both sides have carried out numerous strikes on each other's infrastructure that is critical to their militaries.

** Russia, Ukraine exchange claims over downed military aircraft

Russian and Ukrainian military officials both reported downing enemy aircraft on Sunday in different areas of the 1,000-km-long (621-mile) front of their 22-month-old war.

Commander of Ukraine's air force, Mykola Oleshchuk, said Ukrainian anti-aircraft units had struck a Russian Su-34 fighter bomber near the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine.

Oleshchuk, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the aircraft had not returned to its base, but gave no further details.

Russia's Defence Ministry said earlier that its air defence systems had shot down four Ukrainian military aircraft over the past 24 hours -- just two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv had downed three Russian aircraft.

In its daily dispatch, the Russian Defence Ministry said its air defence shot down three Su-27 fighter aircraft and one Su-24 tactical bomber in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions of southeastern Ukraine. The dispatch provided no further details.

On Friday, Zelenskiy said the country's forces shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft on the southern front, hailing it as a success in the conflict.

Air Force commander Oleshchuk also said the planes had been downed.

Reuters was not immediately able to corroborate the battlefield reports from either side.

** Ukrainian investigators say they uncover fraud in arms procurement

Ukraine's SBU security service and the Defence Ministry said on Friday they had uncovered a scheme for fraudulent purchase of artillery shells that involved embezzlement of the equivalent of nearly $40 million.

Corruption in Ukraine, more than 30 years after the end of Soviet rule, has become an even more crucial issue as Kyiv proceeds with its application to join the European Union.

Incidents of corruption in the military, including in procurement, have sparked several prominent scandals.

A statement issued by the SBU said the corrupt scheme focused on contracts to procure artillery shells.

A contract to secure the shells at higher than market prices had been abandoned by the defence ministry's recently created procurement agency and a new deal struck eliminating intermediaries and significantly reducing the price.

But a senior ministry official, it said, had extended the previous contract and funds totalling nearly 1.5 billion hryvnias ($40 million) were deposited in accounts belonging to the intermediary firms.

The official, the main suspect in the case, was removed from his duties, legal proceedings have been launched against him and attempts are under way to recover the money.

A Defence Ministry statement said the scheme was uncovered last week and an audit confirmed the illegal activity. Searches were conducted within the ministry and at other premises.

($1 = 37.5200 hryvnias)

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian troops destroy over 10,000 Ukraine’s drones during special op — Defense Ministry

Russian troops have destroyed over 10,000 drones of the Ukrainian army since the beginning of the special military operation, the Defense Ministry said.

"A total of 558 aircraft, 261 helicopters, 10,040 drones, 442 anti-aircraft missile systems, 14,299 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,189 multiple rocket launchers, 7,479 field branch artillery weapons and mortars, as well as 16,660 units of special tactical vehicles have been destroyed since the beginning of the special military operation," the ministry said.

Meanwhile, in the past 24 hours, the Russian army has intercepted three HARM missiles, three HIMARS rockets, a Neptun anti-ship missile, as well as shot down four Ukrainian aircraft and 49 UAVs of the Ukrainian army, the Defense Ministry went on to say. "Air defense systems shot down four Ukrainian aircraft: three Su-27 and one Su-24 planes of the Ukrainian air forces near the settlements of Shirokoye, Odarovka in the Zaporozhye Region and Grigorovka of the Dnepropetrovsk Region. Three HARM anti-radar missiles, three HIMARS rockets and a Neptune anti-ship missile were intercepted," the ministry said.

According to it, 49 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed in the area of the settlements of Staromikhailovka in the Donetsk People's Republic, Zolotaryovka in the Lugansk People's Republic, Vasilyevka, Golaya Prystan in the Kherson Region, as well as Berdyansk, Novogorovka and Mirnoye in the Zaporozhye Region.

Reuters/Tass

Rivers, a state so rich because God blessed it with an abundance of crude oil and gas, is named after the many rivers that border its territory. Forty per cent of Nigeria’s output of crude oil is produced in the state. It also has deposits of silica sand, glass sand and clay.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), ₦1.93 trillion was raked in, in 2022 as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) across the 36 states in Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory. Out of this, Rivers State generated ₦172.89 billion, second only to Lagos, with ₦651.15 billion.

And despite a 12 per cent decline in the overall allocation in the second quarter of this year, Rivers State was third with N69.73 billion. For December 2022, shared in January this year, for instance, the state received ₦13,700,878,221.58 (N13.7billion).

Despite its vast resources and strategic positioning as the nation’s goose that lays the golden eggs, Rivers State, created in 1967 with the splitting of the South Eastern State, had always been a calm state with level-headed people as its governors.

Apart from military administrators and governors, seven democratically elected governors have led the state since 1979. Among them is its first civilian governor, Melford Okilo, who governed for four years and 91 days, from 1 October 1979 to 31 December 1983.

Rufus Ada George was next and was in office for one year and 320 days, i.e. from January 1992 to 17 November, 1993. Peter Odili was governor between 29 May 1999 and 29 May 2007, or eight years, and was the state’s first civilian governor in the current Republic.

The state started its journey to its current ‘ignominious’ status with the ascendancy to governance by Celestine Omehia, who was there for just 150 days, between 29 May 2007 and 26 October of that year.

Omehia, on the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), won the governorship election but Rotimi Amaechi, also of the same party, went to court claiming to be the candidate of the party and so his name ought to have been on the ballot paper.

Amaechi, the speaker of the state House of Assembly, was duly elected at the party’s primaries as its gubernatorial flag bearer. The PDP leadership substituted him “in error” in the state on the orders of the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo. The substitution was done without the due process of informing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

And so the Supreme Court removed Omehia from office in October 2007 after he had been in office for five months. It ruled that he had usurped Amaechi’s ticket for the election, and accordingly handed Amaechi the top job. In any case, the principle is that the party owned the votes and not the candidate, and so even though Amaechi was not on the ballot, he inherited the votes cast for the party as its valid candidate.

From that event when the court gave the Rivers people their governor, a seamless transition vacated the state.

Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, who also served for eight years from 29 May 2015 to 29 May 2023, grabbed the ticket from Amaechi’s hand with the help of the sitting president, Goodluck Ebere Jonathan, and his wife.

But that is not the case with Siminalayi Fubara as he was handpicked and bankrolled to the office of the governor by Wike.

Of course, Wike did not do that out of altruism, but for him to have a firm hold on the government of the rich state.

Now, barely 200-odd days into office, his anointed Fubara wants to be allowed to breathe. Sources have it that almost all appointees of the governor came from his godfather. All major contracts are being approved and dispensed by Wike and any transaction above ₦50 million must have his seal of approval. According to Dele Momodu, a chieftain of the PDP, Wike usually screamed at Fubara in front of subordinates.

Fubara's determination to escape Wike's influence has led to a fierce battle between supporters on both sides, who are fighting to keep their leaders relevant in the political landscape.

This has drawn up issues, many of which are testing the elasticity and resilience of our constitution, even threatening the spirit of that constitution.

Some 27 members of the State Assembly loyal to Wike left the party, on whose platform they were elected, for the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party ruling at the centre. This made Fubara, his loyalists and the PDP, struggling to regain its foothold in the state, declare their seats vacant.

Unfortunately for both gladiators, their party, the PDP, made toothless by no other than Wike with expressed support from his erstwhile minions like Fubara and others, could not help.

Perhaps concerned with the happenings in Rivers, and worried that what seemed like political pugilism for dominance may overflow and spill over to God knows where, President Bola Tinubu called a meeting of the key actors and sought a détente.

Coming out of that gathering, a truce was reached, and an agreement signed, with the 27 members of the state House of Assembly back and calling the shots as bona fide legislators.

But this is where the problem is. Some stakeholders have already started calling on the president to approach the matter differently.

For instance, Robert Clarke, an elder and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has said the president had no constitutional right to intervene in the Rivers State crisis. He suggested that if the situation in Rivers State escalated, the president should not intervene but consider declaring a constitutional crisis, pointing out that the only historical instance where the federal government intervened in a state’s affairs was during the 1st Republic when a state of emergency was declared in the West.

On his part, Ben Murray-Bruce, the commonsense senator, has commended the president and the national security adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu “for bringing peace in Rivers State.”

According to him, their intervention was timely, prudent and statesmanly, adding that it behoves on the disputing parties to abide by the resolution.

Others, however, see it differently.

Six elders from the state have dragged Tinubu to the Federal High Court in Abuja, for allegedly “compelling Governor Siminilaya Fubara into an unconstitutional agreement.”

Led by a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly representing Bonny State Constituency, the other five are Victor Jumbo, Bennett Birabi, Andrew Uchendu, O. P. Fingesi, Ann Kio Briggs and Emmanuel Deinma.

To them, the agreement, which was signed on December 18, was not only “illegal but amounted to an usurpation, a nullification, and undermining of the extant/binding relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.”

They prayed the court to determine whether Tinubu, Fubara, and the Rivers State Assembly had the right to enter into any agreement that had the effect of nullifying or undermining the constitutional/legal potency of Section 109(I)(g) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

Wherever one finds himself on this divide, this Rivers crisis is one that all sensible Nigerians who love our democracy will want to see resolved according to the letters and spirit of the Nigerian Constitution that the president, Fubara and Wike (who at some points) have all sworn to uphold and protect without fear, favour or ill will.

Nigerians, and possibly others, are waiting and watching.

** Hassan Gimba is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Neptune Prime.

In a remote village in Borneo, Fatimah wonders what shoes to wear to her cousin’s wedding. For as long as she can remember, buying footwear meant an hour-long, wooden boat ride to a market. That changed a few years ago, when mobile phones arrived. Now, almost every day, she scrolls through Shopee, a shopping app. It connects her—and the 130m Indonesians who use it every month—with merchants thousands of kilometres away, and causes packages to appear, as if by magic, at her door.

Of course, it is not magic. Behind the luminous icon on Fatimah’s phone is a vast network of makers, packers, truckers and shippers, who don’t know Fatimah or each other but seamlessly collaborate to bring her what she wants. And they do it across the world’s biggest archipelago, a country of 13,000 islands and hundreds of languages, wider than the continental United States and far harder to get around: Indonesia.

E-commerce helps bind together a nation of skyscrapers and jungles, miniskirts and hijabs, software engineers and tribes who still hunt with bows and arrows. So the journey of a pair of shoes from factory to Fatimah reveals a lot about how the planet’s most populous Muslim country is changing. The Economist decided to follow those shoes.

The story starts with a wish. The shoes Fatimah wants are white and camel, open-toe sandals. They sit patiently in her online shopping cart. But at $25, they are more than she can afford. Her husband sells pentol, a meatball made mostly of flour and peanut sauce, at the market. He gives Fatimah $3 a day to run the household. Whatever is left, she saves as pocket money. Ping! The app notifies her that the sandals are on sale for $12. Fatimah grabs the deal.

Her click sets off a process 1,000km away in Bogor, a city outside Jakarta, the capital. The shoes are made by Patris, a family firm that started selling online in 2020, during the covid-19 pandemic. Three years later Ricco Antonius and Maria Putri Anastasia, the married owners, employ 50 staff (up from zero) and shift hundreds, perhaps thousands of pairs a day. Most of their customers are women under 40, like Fatimah.

On a Thursday afternoon your correspondent climbs a flight of stairs to a two-storey warehouse: on the top floor, shelves of shoes are stacked. The bottom floor hums with young women checking, boxing and wrapping footwear.

E-commerce helps bind together a nation of skyscrapers and jungles, miniskirts and hijabs

Initially, Patris didn’t know how to sell online, says Ricco. Now, it is all about live-streaming. Ten young women, working in shifts 24/7, flaunt sandals and slippers, mules and platforms, low and high heels, open-toe and closed-toe pumps, black and brocade shoes with fleecy, pillowy or puffy soles. They sit in brightly lit booths answering customers’ questions, and gently persuading them to tap “buy”. “Everyone has their own style, some of us are enthusiastic and bubbly, others are calm and slow,” says Siti Zahra Amelia, one of the sales staff. Most customers who watch her live-streams are young women. But occasionally, men ask Miss Siti for advice on what to buy their wives.

Fatimah’s order arrives digitally and instantly. Fulfilling it will take rather longer, however. In the past decade, Indonesia’s physical infrastructure has improved hugely. The president, Joko Widodo (known as Jokowi), sees pouring concrete as a path to prosperity. In the past decade the country has built more than 300,000km of roads, over 1,500 ports and 25 new airports, spending almost $180bn on infrastructure. Delivering goods is thus easier than it was, but still mind-bogglingly complex.

E-commerce firms everywhere fret over how to handle the first and last miles of deliveries. In Indonesia, the middle mile is also a challenge, says Handhika Jahja, the head of Shopee Indonesia. Parts of the country still have no proper roads, postcodes or addresses. Local couriers must know how to find the house three doors down from the blue mosque or by turning left at the big tree. They must ride their motorbikes onto sampans, balance on narrow, rickety boardwalks and sometimes wade through swampland on foot. Still, as investment pours into e-commerce in South-East Asia’s biggest market, Indonesia is a testing ground for the rest of the region, says Handhika.

Fatimah’s shoes are first loaded onto a van, which takes them to a hub in Bogor. From there, they go by truck to a multistorey car park the size of a football stadium in Depok, a city south of Jakarta. This hub comes alive at night, from 10pm to 5am. Young men in fluorescent vests toss packages of everything from nappies to noodles into blue crates bound for different corners of the country.

Herman, the truck driver for the next leg of the journey, is impatient. It is 10pm and your correspondent’s questions are delaying the first of three trips he must make during his shift. Jakarta’s traffic is bad, and Herman worries about arriving in Kapuk, a suburb on the outskirts, in time. Eventually he races off into the night. In the early hours of Friday, Fatimah’s shoes arrive at Jakarta’s Halim airport.

Forest fires are burning across Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of Borneo), filling the air with smoke and reducing visibility for pilots. Yudhianto Prihantoro, who has to fly Fatimah’s shoes 900km from Jakarta to Banjarmasin, the capital of South Kalimantan, fears he may not be able to land his cargo plane. Around 85% of Shopee’s packages heading from Java, Indonesia’s main island, to Kalimantan travel by ship, which takes an extra three days, but some go by plane.

Yudhianto, a former air-force pilot, has flown cargo planes to remote airports for years. He has steered around clueless locals who wander across the runway. He has had a pilot’s-eye view of Indonesia’s breakneck development. One airport, at Wamena in West Papua, used to be a ramshackle affair of corrugated iron and wooden poles; now it has high ceilings, bright lights and a slick, steel skeleton, he says. Alas, this hasn’t stopped fighting in the province between the Indonesian military and separatist rebels, who kidnapped a pilot in February and burned his plane.

Yudhianto lands safely in South Kalimantan. It is Friday afternoon. The air is thick with a haze that smells smoky and tastes metallic. In just one month, 33 forest fires have raged across the island, which is about as big as Texas. The hot, dry El Niño weather pattern has made it harder than usual to control fires from traditional slash-and-burn land-clearing for palm oil, pulp and paper plantations. But locals say this year’s haze isn’t as bad as it was in 2015, when they had to turn lights on during the day to see anything.

Despite the slashing and burning, Kalimantan is still mostly covered in thick jungle. So the main highways are rivers, which connect most of its towns and villages. Shopee first built its sorting hub in Banjarmasin (“the city of 1,000 rivers”) in 2021, processing fewer than 10,000 parcels a day. Now it handles 60,000. Labourers roll crates of floorboards, kitchen appliances, clothes and smartphones into vans.

One, with a purple air freshener in the shape of a penguin, is driven by Muhammad Faizal, a 23-year-old Banjarese. His ancestors have plied the rivers of South Kalimantan for centuries. Around the time the Saxons invaded Britain, Banjarese sailed 7,000km across the Indian Ocean to what is now Madagascar.

Faizal isn’t travelling quite as far. Most days, he drives packages from Banjarmasin to Marabahan, 70km to the north. He looks forward to catching up with his friends who work as local couriers. A few speak Bakumpai, a local Dayak language. Not many speak Banjar, Faizal’s mother tongue. Most speak Javanese, as their families were part of a transmigration programme run first by Dutch colonists and then by the Indonesian government, to relocate people from more populous islands, such as Java, to more remote areas like South Kalimantan.

This sparked all kinds of trouble. Between 1996 and 2001 thousands of Dayaks and Muslim migrants from the island of Madura massacred each other. Some beheaded their enemies and even ate their organs. The area is considerably more peaceful today, but remains tense. When Faizal cracks a joke that is received with a blank look, he quickly makes the switch to Indonesian, a language that everyone speaks.

By Saturday morning, on day three of the journey, Fatimah’s shoes rumble across a new bridge on the Alalak river, connecting Banjarmasin to the rest of Kalimantan. Jokowi opened it in 2021. In the province of East Kalimantan next door, he is building Indonesia’s new capital city in the jungle. Shopee constantly has to update its delivery routes to include new roads, bridges and ports.

At night, the roads in these parts are often only lit by fireflies. Superstitious locals find them spooky. Once, Faizal was driving home from a wedding with leftover cakes and sticky rice in his van, through an area believed to be full of spirits. His van broke down. “I had enough petrol, I was in the right gear, my engine was running. But the car refused to start,” he recalls. Mindful of a local tradition, he offered his cakes and sticky rice to the bushes. “Grandfather, have some food and please don’t disturb me,” he whispered. His van started again, he says.

After an hour and a half winding past rice paddies, Fatimah’s sandals reach Marabahan, a sleepy riverside town. Juliansyah, one of Faizal’s friends, loads them, with 27 other parcels, into the saddlebags of his motorcycle. He sets off past single-storey houses spread across the plain. After almost two years in the job, he knows his customers well. Many are young mothers who order nappies, bottles and baby food, and often invite him in for tea. Knowing how to cut short such chats politely is an essential skill.

The brown waters of the Barito River come into view. Juliansyah pulls into a wooden hut that shelters people waiting for the perahu (a small, wooden ferry). A boatman rides the motorbikes on board, one after another, along a narrow wooden walkway, expertly stacking them by the bow. Little mosques with silver turrets dot the river bank, alongside wooden houses on stilts with red and blue roofs.

The ferry rattles off, dodging bigger boats carrying coal and wood, and wobbling in their wake. Reaching the other bank, Juliansyah flicks away the sweat on his forehead, starts up his motorbike and winds down a narrow dirt path lined with drying laundry. He stops, flipping down his kickstand. He is nearly there. He jogs past a shed full of seeds and comes to a house with buckets and brooms stacked on sacks of fertiliser on the porch, and a dozen pairs of sandals out front.

After three, sweaty, sleep-deprived days, the journey is over. Fatimah pushes aside the blue and yellow netting that serves as her door and invites us in. Images of the “nine saints” who brought Islam to Indonesia in the 15th and 16th centuries adorn the walls of her front room. She tears open the purple wrapping paper and holds up her new sandals for inspection. Then she rushes off to fetch the blue and white dress she plans to wear with them to her cousin’s wedding.

She is delighted, and enthuses about the wonders of online shopping. She rushes around the house grabbing everything she has previously bought on Shopee to display for her unannounced guests: lip gloss, moisturiser and her baby’s milk bottle.

In some ways this is a story of globalisation’s triumph. Without the spread of smartphones, e-commerce would barely exist in Indonesia. And Shopee is a truly international firm: it operates in eight countries. Its parent company is headquartered in Singapore and is part-owned by Tencent, a Chinese tech giant.

But the story is more complicated than that (a phrase Indonesia-watchers use a lot). The country simultaneously embraces globalisation and resists it. Jokowi has protectionist instincts and is wary of China. In October, his government banned TikTok Shop, Shopee’s main rival, which is affiliated with TikTok, a Chinese social-media giant. It also banned the sale of imported goods worth less than $100 on all e-commerce platforms, hoping that this would boost local businesses like Patris.

The people in Fatimah’s village are only dimly aware of policy decisions made in the distant capital. But they appreciate the stunning variety of goods that e-commerce makes available in remote places, some of which bring real joy. And they see, in the spread of technology, new opportunities to earn a living.

Near Fatimah’s house lives Rizki Nur Annisa, a young woman who makes fish crackers. For generations her family would dry the fish, turn them into crispy snacks and take them by boat to the local market. When the pandemic hit, they could not leave home. But Rizki knew what to do. She logged on to Shopee and sold the crackers online.

The Economist

Federal Government said it will take possession of two banks that were allegedly bought at a major discount by former Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele, according to a report by a special investigator appointed by President Bola Tinubu.

“We have completed our investigation on this acquisition and we are on the verge of recovering these two banks for the federal government,” the report said.

Emefiele was suspended shortly after Tinubu took office in late May, and was later arrested and detained on charges including fraud. The Nigerian leader subsequently ordered an investigation into the monetary authority’s operations and instructed it to work with security and anti-corruption agencies.

Emefiele met his bail conditions and was released Saturday, Punch Newspapers reported, citing a correctional spokesperson.

The former central banker acquired two banks including Union Bank of Nigeria and Keystone Bank through several proxies from “ill-gotten wealth” and “without evidence of payment,” according to the report by Jim Obazee submitted to the president and seen by Bloomberg.

A preliminary review of the cases showed that Keystone was “acquired for free,” according to the report. “Some persons were used as proxies with the connivance and assistance of Godwin Emefiele and the CBN to acquire” the two banks.

Emefiele has denied wrongdoing. His lawyers declined to comment on the investigation’s findings and a government spokesman did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

Bloomberg

Federal Government has instructed that Nigerians with expired passports who are planning to return to the country to celebrate the yuletide be allowed in without any hindrance.

In a letter dated 22nd December 2023 by the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Wura-Ola Adepoju, to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, through the Office of Assistant Comptroller General, Border Management, the NIS asked that Nigerians “be admitted into the country with their expired Nigerian passports”.

“l am directed to refer to the above subject matter and to inform you that the Federal Government of Nigeria in her efforts to make life easy for Nigerians in the diaspora has approved that all Nigerians returning home can be admitted into the country with their expired Nigerian passports.

“I am further directed to inform airlines coming to Nigeria to allow holders of Nigeria expired passports to board without let.

“In furtherance to the foregoing, all Nigeria Embassies and High Commissions are advised to give this directive the highest publicity it deserves.

“Consequent upon the above, all entry/exit points are by the copy of this letter directed to open a help desk for all Nigerians in this category and direct same to passport offices where their passports will be reissued within a maximum of two (2) weeks,” the letter stated in part.

Meanwhile, the media aide to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alkasim Abdulkadir, could not confirm receipt of the letter, adding that he was not in the office at the moment.

The phone number of the NIS spokesperson, Dotun Aridegbe, did not connect when the Daily Trust correspondent called to confirm the authenticity of the letter.

However, a reliable source at the NIS who wouldn’t want to be named confirmed that the policy was not new as the Federal Government did the same last year.

Daily Trust

Israel strikes 2 homes, killing more than 90 Palestinians. Biden says he didn't request a cease-fire

More than 90 Palestinians, including dozens from an extended family, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two homes in Gaza, rescuers and hospital officials said Saturday, a day after the U.N. chief warned that nowhere is safe in the territory and that Israel’s offensive creates “massive obstacles” to distribution of humanitarian aid.

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, calling it a long and private conversation a day after the Biden administration again shielded Israel in the diplomatic arena. On Friday, the U.N. Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution that calls for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza, but not for a cease-fire.

“I did not ask for a cease-fire,” Biden said of the call. Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister “made clear that Israel would continue the war until achieving all its goals.”

Also Saturday, the Israeli military said troops arrested hundreds of alleged militants in Gaza over the past week and transferred more than 200 to Israel for further interrogation, providing rare details on a controversial policy of mass roundups of Palestinian men. The army said more than 700 people with alleged ties to the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have so far been sent to Israeli lockups.

Israel declared war after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostages. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war to destroy Hamas and more than 53,000 have been wounded, according to health officials in Gaza, a besieged territory ruled by the Islamic militant group for the past 16 years.

The Health Ministry in Gaza on Saturday evening said 201 people had been killed over the past 24 hours.

Airstrikes on Friday flattened two homes, including one in Gaza City, where 76 people from the al-Mughrabi family were killed, making the attack one of the deadliest of the war, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defense department.

Among those killed were Issam al-Mughrabi, a veteran employee of the U.N. Development Program, his wife, and their five children.

“The U.N. and civilians in Gaza are not a target,” said Achim Steiner, the head of the agency. “This war must end.”

And a strike pulverized the home of Mohammed Khalifa, a local TV journalist, killing him and at least 14 others in the urban refugee camp of Nuseirat, according to officials at the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital where the bodies were taken.

Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll, citing the militants’ use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel has launched thousands of airstrikes since Oct. 7, and has largely refrained from commenting on specific attacks.

Israel’s offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history, displacing nearly 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and leveling wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave. More than a half million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving, according to a report this week from the United Nations and other agencies.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, men walking through the rubble tried to shoo away cats feeding on unclaimed bodies. One man covered a body with a blanket. Another wished to call an ambulance but had no phone signal.

The Israeli military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said forces were expanding their offensive in northern and southern Gaza and troops were fighting in “complex areas” in Khan Younis.

The army’s statement on detentions followed earlier Palestinian reports of large-scale roundups of teenage boys and men from homes, shelters and hospitals in northern Gaza where troops have established firmer control. Some of the released detainees have said they were stripped to their underwear, beaten and held for days with minimal water.

Channel 13 in Israel showed new footage of Palestinian men stripped to their underwear and walking in single file, with soldiers nearby. It was not clear when the footage was taken. In response to widespread criticism, the army has said detainees are stripped to check them for weapons. It has denied abuse allegations and said those without links to militants are quickly released.

Hamas called on the International Committee of the Red Cross and other organizations to pressure Israeli authorities to reveal the whereabouts and conditions of people detained.

Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas militants, including about 2,000 in the past three weeks, but has not presented evidence. It says 144 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive.

Following the U.N. resolution, it was not immediately clear how and when aid deliveries would accelerate. Trucks enter through two crossings — Rafah on the border with Egypt and Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel. On Friday, fewer than 100 trucks entered, the U.N. said — far below the daily average of 500 before the war.

Both crossings were closed Saturday by mutual agreement among Israel, Egypt and the U.N., Israeli officials said.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan criticized the Security Council resolution that called for aid into Gaza without suspending hostilities, calling it “weak” and “insufficient.”

Ahead of the council vote, the U.S. negotiated the removal of language that would have given the U.N. authority to inspect aid going into Gaza, something Israel says it must continue to do itself to ensure material does not reach Hamas.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that it’s a mistake to measure the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation by the number of trucks.

“The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza,” he said.

Netanyahu and his government also faced pressure at home, with calls to get the remaining hostages freed. “Bibi, Bibi retire. We don’t want you anymore,” a crowd of thousands chanted in Tel Aviv.

AP