10 things you need to know today 02/12/2023

1. The Central Bank of Nigeria on Friday directed commercial banks to bar customers without Bank Verification Numbers and National Identity Numbers from having access to their accounts from March 2024 by putting a “post no debit” restriction on such accounts.

2. Indications emerged on Friday that the National Assembly would pass the 2024 Appropriation Bill of N27.5tn on Tuesday, December 19. The Senate and the House of Representatives had earlier on the same day passed the ‘Renewed Hope’ budget for second reading.

3. The Nigerian Immigration Service on Friday said that barring unforeseen technical issues, Nigerians would get their passports three weeks after the day of submission of the application. The Comptroller General, Mrs Caroline Adepoju, disclosed this on Friday while speaking to newsmen at the unveiling of the Igbogbo Passport Front Office in the Igbogbo-Baiyeku Local Council Development Area of Ikorodu, Lagos State.

4. The Minister of Labour and Employment for State, Nkiru Onyejeocha, on Friday, ordered the shutdown of the Metal Manufacturing Company, in Sagamu Local Government for exposing its workers to health hazards. It was gathered that the company situated at Gbara, near Sotubo, also manufactures batteries but has refused to provide protective gear for its workers despite several warnings.

5. The Nigerian Navy said its personnel have impounded and destroyed a boat conveying drums of illegally refined Automated Gas Oil in the seaward of the Bonny Island channel in Rivers State. A top official of the Navy in Bonny, disclosed this to journalists on Friday, saying the boat was arrested off the Bonny River.

6. Gunmen on Thursday night kidnapped a Catholic Priest, Rev Fr Kingsley Ichie of St Michael’s Catholic Church in the Umuekebi community in the Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State. The priest and a man identified as Uchenna Newman, who drove the priest in a Volvo jeep were kidnapped at Orie Ama junction at about 8pm.

7. The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, declared in Abuja on Friday that the ruling All Progressives Congress has come to stay in the South-South. He expressed confidence that with its current performance, the party will do better in the region during future elections.

8. Nigeria and Germany yesterday signed an accelerated performance agreement aimed at expediting the implementation of the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) to improve electricity supply in Nigeria. The signing ceremony, which was presided over by President Bola Tinubu and the German Chancellor, Mr Olaf Scholz, took place on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations Climate Conference (COP28) in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

9. The lawmaker representing Borno South, Senator Ali Ndume, says ex-President Muhammadu Buhari was not in charge during his reign as he did not endeavour to supervise the assignments he gave. Ndume who spoke on Friday on Channels TV, said some kleptocrats were in the immediate past administration.

10. The Senate on Friday urged the federal government to withhold statutory allocation from local government councils without democratically elected chairmen. This followed a motion by Senator Abba Moro (Benue South) titled “Urgent Need to halt the erosion of democracy: the dissolution of elected councils in Benue State” during plenary.