1. Gunmen on Monday struck at Ohii junction on the Owerri-Orlu Road in Imo State killing no fewer than four persons. Sources said that two of the victims were policemen on duty in the area when the hoodlums attacked. A source from the area told our correspondent that the gunmen in a Corolla SUV opened fire and killed the victims while dispossessing some POS operators around the scene of some cash.

2. Vice President Kashim Shettima, on Monday, implored development partners to provide more support for the President Bola Tinubu administration to deliver on the Renewed Hope Agenda. Shettima made the call when he received the Global Managing Director of the Tony Blair Institute, TBI, Michael McNair, who was on a courtesy visit to the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

3. Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers on Monday evening killed two traditional rulers in Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State. The traditional rulers were the Elesun of Esun Oba Babatunde Ogunsakin and Olumojo of Imojo, Oba Samuel Olatunji.

4. Daniel Bwala, a former spokesperson to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2023 general election, Atiku Abubakar, met with President Bola Tinubu in Paris on Monday. Bwala disclosed this in a post on his official X page.

5. Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and other key stakeholders witnessed the arrival of the CMA CGM SCANDOLA on Monday. This LNG-powered container vessel, boasting 14,812 TEUs, marks a historic moment as the first LNG-powered vessel to navigate to West Africa. It berthed at the Lagos Lekki Deep Sea Port, Nigeria’s most advanced and deepest seaport.

6. Mali and Burkina Faso said Monday they had sent ECOWAS “formal notice” of their withdrawal from the West African bloc, with Niger expected to follow. The military regimes in all three countries had announced plans to withdraw from the West African bloc, accusing it of posing a threat to their sovereignty.

7. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has committed $500 million into the forex market. Hakama Sidi-Ali, Acting Director of the Corporate Communications Department at the CBN, disclosed this in a statement on Monday. Sidi-Ali reiterated the bank’s commitment to “settling all legitimate foreign exchange backlogs within a short time frame.”

8. The $20 billion Dangote Refinery has concluded plans to import crude oil from the United States in the coming months. Already, traders familiar with the matter disclosed that Trafigura Group has sold two million barrels of WTI Midland to the Dangote refinery for delivery by the end of February 2024.

9. A Federal High Court sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, has adjourned the case against a former Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Olakunle Oluomo, and two others till 29th February and 1st of March, 2024. Oluomo, alongside two other principal career officers of the Assembly, Dayo Samuel and Adeyemo Adedeji, were dragged before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over alleged misappropriation of public funds to the tune of N2.5 billion.

10. The naira fell to an all-time low of N1348.63/$ on the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market on Monday. This signifies a 51.21 per cent fall from the N891.90/$ the national currency closed last Friday at the official market, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.