Pregnant woman dies in Kaduna over naira scarcity – Newstrends
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Pregnant woman dies in Kaduna over naira scarcity

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1 year ago

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A pregnant woman

A heavily pregnant woman in Kasuwan Magani, Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State, lost her life due to the unavailability of the new naira notes in banks.

James Auta, the deceased’s husband, said his wife was rejected by the hospital when he could not make the payment due to failure to access cash in his bank and Point of Sale (POS) channels.

The incident happened early this month after Auta’s wife went into labour but was rejected, simply because her husband couldn’t make a payment due to naira scarcity.

It was gathered that the woman died at home after giving birth but continued to bleed. The incident caused concerns across the state as patients and their family members found it difficult to make payments to access treatments due to the naira shortage.

Daily Trust reports that the extended deadline to phase out the old notes was Friday, 10 February. However, the Supreme Court gave an order restraining the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from enforcing the deadline for the phasing out of the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes, pending the hearing of a lawsuit brought by three northern states challenging the new currency redesign. It adjourned that hearing until 15 February.

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The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, is challenging that interim ruling by the Supreme Court and the central bank has not spoken on how it intends to comply with the ruling, thus leaving Nigerians confused.

President Muhammadu Buhari held an emergency meeting of the National Council of State on Friday to discuss crucial issues affecting the country including the currency crisis. However, Mr Buhari has not taken a decision on the cash crunch.

Parts of Nigeria have descended into chaos as frustrated Nigerians besieged ATM units in a bid to access their own money.

Violent protests have been recorded in parts of the country, including in Ogun, Oyo and Akwa Ibom in the country’s south, and social media is awash with lamentations of suffering Nigerians, who are not able to access their funds for transactions.

Meanwhile, the CBN has said that the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company Plc (NSPMC), has the capacity and enough materials to produce the required indent of the naira notes.

The apex bank also said that it was working to increase the circulation of the new notes across the country

The apex bank’s Director of Corporate Communications, Osita Nwasinobi, in a statement dated Friday but released on Saturday, said such reports about the Mint’s capacity to print the required banknotes that were credited to the governor of the bank, Godwin Emefiele, were not true as he was misquoted.

A medium had quoted Emefiele as admitting that the Mint did not have enough materials to print the new notes and that accounted for the current scarcity.

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“The Mint has run out of papers to print N500 and 1,000 notes. They have placed orders with a German firm and De La Rue of the UK (for papers) but they have been placed on a long waiting list, so their orders cannot be met now.

“The Mint had received CBN’s request to print 70million copies of the new notes, totalling N126billion to be pumped into circulation by today (yesterday), The Mint doesn’t have the capacity,” the CBN governor was quoted as saying.

But, Nwasinobi said at no time did the CBN governor make such a statement during his presentation to the National Council of State at its meeting on Friday.

He said, “For the records, what Mr Emefiele told the meeting was that the NSPMC was working on printing all denominations of the naira to meet the transaction needs of Nigerians.

“While the CBN appreciates the concerns shown by all stakeholders about the distribution of the naira, we are alarmed at the extent to which vested interests are attempting to manipulate facts and pit the public against the bank.”

Nwasinobi also said the CBN remained committed to performing its monetary policy functions as stipulated in the CBN Act, 2007 (as amended).

He added, “We also wish to restate that the NSPMC has the capacity and enough materials to produce the required indent of the naira.

“The bank, therefore, wishes to appeal to the public to disregard the said reports and exercise more restraint, even as we work assiduously to increase the circulation of the new notes in the country.”

On a particular voice note trending on social media alleging that the CBN planned to shut down some banks, particularly in a geopolitical region of the country, the CBN director said there was no such plan and that the claims were illogical and did not comply with the workings of the banking system.

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Cult war rages in Benue community, govt imposes curfew

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39 mins ago

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May 17, 2024

By

Benue State Commissioner of Police Emmanuel Adesina

Cult war rages in Benue community, govt imposes curfew

A dusk-to-dawn curfew has been imposed on Naka town, Gwer-West Headquarters, following an unprecedented rival cult clash that has resulted in the deaths of 2 members.

While justifying his action before announcing the imposition of the curfew on Thursday, May 16, 2024, the chairman of the LGA, Henry Agba, said he was left with no other option but to impose the curfew to thwart further escalation of the bloody war.

“There was a clash between rival cultists in the local government during which two persons from both sides were killed.

“As a result of that, the LGA became tense, so we had to place a night curfew to contain the situation. As of yesterday (Wednesday), movement ceased from 8 pm to 6 am, so at the moment there is a restoration of peace and normalcy,” Agba said.

Confirming the cult clash, an eyewitness who wouldn’t want his name mentioned said the crisis, which started as a minor disagreement between two young men, escalated into a full-blown cult war.

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“In the last three days, the situation became tense, gang members engaged in bloody street fights, killing two persons and injuring several others.”

“They also resorted to moving from house to house in search of members of rival gangs to attack them, despite the intervention of the police in Naka town.

“The development created tension in the town as people, particularly business owners, started feeling very unsafe, and some even locked up their shops for fear of being attacked,” he narrated.

Two rival cult groups, Black Axe and Red, have been engaging themselves in an all-out war for the past four days.

The clash took on a very dangerous dimension on Wednesday as members of the gangs were going about conducting house-to-house searches of rival cult members, resulting in heightened tension and the eventual imposition of a curfew by the council chairman.

Cult war rages in Benue community, govt imposes curfew

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Two Cameroonian, two Nigerians arrested over kidnapping

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1 hour ago

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May 17, 2024

By

Delta Police Command Public Relations Officer, DSP Edafe Bright,

Two Cameroonian, two Nigerians arrested over kidnapping

A stint operation carried out by detectives from Force Headquarters, Abuja, and Operatives of Delta State Police Command has led to the arrest of a Camerounian and two Nigerians over kidnapping.

The three-man gang was known for kidnapping unsuspecting residents in Orerokpe, Sapele and Warri axes of Delta State.

One suspect is Kaduna-based, while the others are from Kogi and Cameroun, respectively.

Intelligence gathered on some kidnapping incidents carried out in the Warri axis pointed accusing fingers at Yakubu Ya’u, 20, a Kaduna resident who often visited Oha and Ughwagba communities in Okpe Local Government Area of the state to kidnap unsuspecting victims for ransom.

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Led by the DPO of Orerokpe Division, DSP Paul Oboware, the detectives trailed the suspect to his hideout in Warri, where he was arrested.

Grilled, the suspect led the police operatives to two other members of the gang, Musa Yakubu, 25, from Kogi State and Abdulahi Mohammed, 38, from Cameroun.

The gang was allegedly responsible for several kidnapping incidents in Orerokpe, Sapele and Warri axes of Delta State.

Some victims of the crime duly identified the suspects who led the detectives to Ughwagba, where two pump action guns, one live cartridge and one knife buried in a bush were recovered by the police.

A statement issued by the command’s Police Public Relations Officer, SP Edafe Bright, said investigation into the matter has commenced with efforts to apprehend other fleeing members of the gang in top gear.

Two Cameroonian, two Nigerians arrested over kidnapping

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Police arrest suspected killers of Major-General, others in Imo

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2 hours ago

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May 17, 2024

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Police arrest suspected killers of Major-General, others in Imo

…Parade 435 suspects, rescue 13 kidnap victims

The Imo state police command has arrested a deadly kidnap syndicate responsible for the abduction and murder of retired Major General Richard Duru, as well as other suspects involved in various criminal activities in the state.

Parading the suspects including 435 others at the command’s headquarters, Owerri on Thursday, May 16, the state commissioner of police, Aboki Danjuma, said the syndicate was busted through intense intelligence gathering and sustained follow-up by the command’s anti-kidnapping unit.

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He said: “The suspects, Chukwunonso Emmanuel, Okoroigwe Goodness, and Innocent Ogu, were arrested in different locations in Imo and Anambra States. They confessed to the crime of kidnapping and murdering Major General Duru, as well as being members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) /Eastern Security Network (ESN).”

Aboki, who was represented by the police spokesman, Henry Okoye, disclosed that the police also recovered 48 different firearms, 552 various calibres of live ammunition, and several stolen vehicles from the suspects.

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