1. The federal government has declared that it will take the naira off of all peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges. During a virtual conference with blockchain stakeholders on Monday, Emomotimi Agama, the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, made this declaration.

2. The Federal Government is not considering requests from any country to establish a military base in Nigeria, Information and National Orientation Minister, Mohammed Idris said on Tuesday. Idris dismissed as unfounded reports that the government was considering the citing of a military base in the country, saying Nigeria “is not in any such discussion with any foreign country”.

3. All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State has faulted reports by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that the party did not hold a primary election in Ilaje Local Government Area. It described the report as ‘shocking and lacking credibility’.

4. Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has bared his mind on the toxic relationship between him and the House of Assembly, saying the lawmakers led by Martins Amaewhule no longer exist in the eyes of the law. The Governor spoke when he received on a courtesy visit the Bayelsa delegation of political and traditional leaders led by former Governor Henry Seriake Dickson at Government House in Port Harcourt on Monday.

5. The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has directed banks in the country to implement a 0.5 percent cybersecurity levy on electronic transfers. In a circular signed by Chibuzor Efobi, Director of Payments System Management, and Haruna Mustafa, Director of Financial Policy and Regulation, the apex bank disclosed that the implementation of the levy would start in two weeks time.

6. Vice-President Kashim Shettima has taken a detour and returned to Nigeria, thereby aborting his planned trip to the United States of America to attend the 2024 US-Africa Business Summit in Dallas, Texas.

7. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested six senior officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps over alleged N6bn fraud. The senior officers are currently being grilled by EFCC interrogators at the commission’s headquarters, Jabi, Abuja.

8. The Presidency, on Monday, tackled former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his claim of conflict of interest in the award of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway by the Federal Government. Atiku, in a statement on Sunday, claimed that the road project was awarded to Hitech Construction Company because the owner of the firm, Gilbert Chagoury, had business ties with President Bola Tinubu.

9. One middle-aged woman was shot while many others sustained varied degrees of injury in Ughelli on Monday as operatives of the Delta State Police Command resorted to forceful dispersal of a group of protesting women. The women from Oteri-Ughelli in the Ughelli North Local Government Area were protesting alleged incessant harassment and extortion by policemen in the community.

10. Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and its Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, counterpart, have given the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, till May 12 to withdraw the recent hike in electricity tariff or face unprecedented industrial action. The ultimatum was issued in a joint letter to the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, CEO and copied to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, the Ministers of Labour and Power and the electricity distribution companies, DisCos.

The Presidency has replied former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, saying Seyi Tinubu has a right to pursue legitimate business interests in any part of the world.

The Presidency stated this in a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga on Monday.

He stated, “Is it not amusing that the former Vice President, a man who openly said he formed Intels Nigeria with an Italian businessman when he was serving in the Nigeria Customs Service, a clear breach of extant public service regulations, is now the one accusing someone else of conflict of interest?

“When he was Vice President of Nigeria between 1999-2007, he maintained his business links with Intels that won major port concession deals.

“As Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation, he approved sales of over 145 State-owned enterprises to his known friends and associates and openly said during his failed campaign for the presidency last year that he would do the same, if elected.”

He said that contrary to Atiku’s claim that the Chagourys own the CDK, the Chairman of the company and its highest shareholder is respected General TY Danjuma (rtd).

He added that the Chagourys are minority shareholders in the company, adding only one member of the clan is on its five-man board.

“It is important to state clearly that Seyi Tinubu is a 38-year-old adult who has a right to do business and pursue his business interests in Nigeria and anywhere in the world within the limits of the law.

“The fact that his father is now the President of Nigeria does not disqualify Seyi from pursuing legitimate business interests.

“For the records, Seyi joined the Board of Directors of CDK in 2018, more than six years ago.

“He is representing the interest of an investor company, in which he has interest. He is not a board member because his father is a friend of the Chagourys.

“Information about owners and shareholders of CDK is a matter of public record that can be openly accessed from the website of the Corporate Affairs Commission and CDK’s.

“Atiku and his proxy did not need a little-known journal to recycle open-source information to make a fallacious argument.

“The Chairman of CDK and the highest shareholder of the company is respected General TY Danjuma (rtd).

“The Chagourys are minority shareholders in the company, and only one member of the clan is on its five-man board.

“We wonder how Seyi’s membership of the board of CDK conflicts with Hitech Construction Company’s work on Lagos-Calabar Coastal superhighway,” the statement read in part.”

The Federal Government has decided to improve the domestic power supply by cutting the energy sales to cross-border in the Niger Republic, Niger Republic and Togo.

The electricity regulator, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) ordered a department within the Transmission Company of Nigeria, the System Operator (SO), to cap power supply to the three neigbhouring customers to six per cent.

NERC’s order, published on Friday, was dated April 29, 2024, and effective from May 1, 2024, was jointly signed by the commission’s Chairman, Sanusi Garba, and Vice Chairman, Musiliu Oseni.

The order also called on the system operator to place interim caps on capacities supplied to international customers for the next six months, minimising the impact on domestic supply obligations by Gencos.

The document stated that the system operator must develop and present a pro-rata load-shedding scheme to ensure equitable load allocation to all off-takers (Discos, international customers, and eligible customers) during generation drops or grid imbalances.

“The system operator will log and publish hourly readings, enforcing penalties for violations of grid instructions and contracted nominations. Maximum load allocation to international off-takers in each trading hour shall not exceed six per cent of the total available grid generation.”

It partly read, “The commission hereby orders as follows: The system operator shall develop and present to the commission for approval within seven days from the issuance of this order a pro-rata load-shedding scheme that ensures equitable adjustment to load allocation to all off-takers — Discos, international customers, and eligible customers — in the event of a drop in generation and other under-frequency related grid imbalances necessitating critical grid management.

“The system operator shall implement a framework to log and publish hourly readings and enforce necessary sanctions for violation of grid instructions and contracted nominations by off-takers in line with the grid code and market.

“The aggregate capacity that can be nominated by a generating plant to service international off-takers shall not be more than 10 per cent of its available generation capacity unless in exceptional circumstances a derogation is granted by the commission.“The system operator shall henceforth cease to recognise any capacity addition in bilateral transactions between a generator and an off-taker without the express approval of the commission,” it added.

It urged, “The system operator and TCN to immediately initiate and install integrated Internet of Things (IoT) meters at all off-take and delivery points of eligible customers, bilateral supplies, cross-border trades, and outgoing 33kV feeders of the Discos to provide real-time visibility of aggregate offtake by grid customers.

“The installation of and streaming of data from the IOT meters should be completed within three months from the date of this order.”