Good morning! Here are 10 things you need to know this morning.
1. Nigeria is said to be losing about 1.5 billion dollars a month to piracy, armed robbery at sea, smuggling, and fuel supply fraud.
Amb. Michele Sison, U.S. Deputy Representative to the UN, who made this known on Monday in New York, said illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing also generated a sizeable income loss in the hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
2. A federal high court siting in Kogi State has sentenced a former member of the state House of Assembly and former Caretaker Chairman, Ogori/Magongo Local Government Area, Gabriel Daudu to 154 years imprisonment for a N1.4 billion fraud.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, who presided over the case found him guilty of 77 counts and sentenced him to 154 years imprisonment.
3. There was palpable tension in Ukpabi, Nimbo in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, following the invasion of the town by Fulani herdsmen.
Report had it that the herdsmen, who were armed with dangerous weapons, invaded the town in their numbers, Monday morning, shooting any person in sight, which resulted to death of many residents of the area.
4. Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, has begged Ngerians not to lose patience over the lingering fuel scarcity across the country.
Speaking in Lagos at a town hall meeting, Kachikwu lamented that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) cannot track fuel trucks as there were cases of diversion to other countries, saying that most of those trucks were diverted from Lagos to the hinterland of Chad and Cameroon.
5. Super Eagles of Nigeria and Watford striker, Odion Ighalo has lost his father, Paul Ighalo.
The late Paul Ighalo died in the early hours of Monday after complaining of feeling weak.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Football Federation has consoled the player over the unfortunate incident.
6. The Deputy Governor of Edo State, Pius Odubu, has debunked the reports that he sponsored native doctors to kill his boss, Governor Adams Oshiomhole.
While describing the allegation as handiwork of mischief makers and blackmailers, Odudu said they were bent on destroying his cordial relationship with the governor.
7. The Federal Government will require at least N2trillion to complete no new fewer than 226 ongoing road projects across the country.
The Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola made the disclosure in Lagos while speaking at a Town Hall meeting organized to brief the public on the activities of the government in the last 11 months.
Fashola noted that the total amount allocated to all the sectors under his ministry in the 2016 budget was less than N500billion, stressing that the government did not have enough resources to complete all the projects at the moment.
8. Senate President, Bukola Saraki, will today lead other senators to a very important meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
The meeting is aimed at finding a lasting solution to the 2016 Appropriation Bill logjam.
9. Former Military head of state, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida has denined the report that he has passed on.
IBB, as he is fondly called, while addressing newsmen at his Hilltop Mansion in Minna, Niger State, said he was still alive. He, however, warned rumour peddlers to desist from feeding the general public with untrue information.
10. Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has stated that the lingering Boko Haram war is the result of level of corruption during the era of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaking in Lagos at a town hall meeting, Lai said it was corruption that ensured that while oil was selling for over $100 per barrel, the country had nothing to show for the windfall.
