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Nigerian Newspaper headlines, from Chukuma Soludo to victims of Ikoyi collapsed building

Published

3 years ago

2021/11/08

Most Nigerian National Newspapers monitored by NewsWireNGR’s daily review for the 8th of November 2021, explained and focused on why the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) suspended the collation of results for the Anambra State governorship election.

While the national dailies, from Punch to Vanguard and Thisday, highlighted on statements by INEC’s Chief Returning Officer for the election, Professor Florence Obi, announcing early hours Monday at the commission’s head office in Awka on the decision by the commission.

Punch Newspaper led with the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Charles Soludo, according to their headline, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is set to win 17 of the 20 local government areas for which results were declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as at the time their story was filed.

Vanguard Newspaper focused on other top contenders in the election, Senator Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Senator Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressive Party (YPP).

It says Anambra: Soludo, Ozigbo, Uba’s fates hang on Ihiala, their headline clearly explained the decision to hold supplementary elections in Ihiala LGA follows the failure of INEC to conduct elections there on Saturday.

According to Professor Obi, this failure was due to security challenges which made it impossible for the electoral body to deploy materials and personnel in the LGA.

“We have collated results for 20 out of the 21 local government areas,” she said. “The outstanding results are for Ihiala Local Government Area where for various reasons, the commission could not deploy materials yesterday (Saturday).

For The Guardina Newspaper, an explainer into the Lekki building collapse, the death toll rose to 44, last night, as rescue and recovery operations at the scene of the Ikoyi collapsed building reached 99 per cent.

The National Emergency Management Agency, NAMA, disclosed this, yesterday.

On the current casualty figure, a source, who spoke to Vanguard, said the bodies were recovered after Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State had left the scene, Saturday, with the record of 42 bodies recovered during the search operations.

For THISDAY Newspaper, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that it recorded a significant reduction in the volume and cost of foreign exchange procurement in 2020, the year of COVID, when the entire world was on lockdown and businesses closed.

The bank said a total of $1.83 billion was procured over the period, representing a decline of $2.12 billion or 53.67 per cent compared to the $3.95 billion procured in 2019.

According to the annual report by the apex bank’s Currency Operations Department (COD) which was posted on its website, the CBN also slashed its expenditure on currency printing from N75.52 billion in 2019 to N58.61 billion in 2020.
The central bank explained that this was used to fund Bureaux De Change (BDC) operations, payment of estacode and Personal Travel Allowances (PTA) to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).