By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Five policemen died on Tuesday in a road accident on their way from Edo to Kano State.

Kano Police Commissioner, Salmam Garba, who confirmed the death of the five officers, said the accident occurred along Kano-Zaria express way.

About eight others injured in the crash are being treated in an hospital, he informed.

“The deceased officers are from Kano state police command. There were drafted to Edo state for election duty, where they carried out their assignment successfully.

“Sadly, they lost their lives at Karfi, when their vehicle had a head-on collision with a reversing trailer,” Garba said.

It was gathered the driver of the trailer is among the eight survivors receiving treatment at an hospital in Kano.

CP Dogo, in a telephone conversation with our correspondent, said the Command was taking measures to ensure that the wounded officers receive adequate treatment and survive.

He described the deaths as shocking and prayed God to give the Command and families of the dead the fortitude to bear the loss.

“It is unfortunate, we lost five of our officers to a fatal accident at Karfi, along Kano-Zaria Road.

“They were returning from Edo state where they were drafted to maintain law and order during the election.

“About eight of them, including the driver of the trailer are in the hospital.

“Their vehicle had a collision with a reversing trailer,” he said.

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that it will sanction banks failing to dispense cash through their automated teller machine (ATMs), as part of efforts to ensure sufficient cash in circulation.

This Nigeria news platform understands that CBN Governor, Yemi Cardoso said this during a press briefing at the end of the 297th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.

The governor emphasized that all deposit money banks must ensure there is always enough cash available for withdrawals.

CBN monitors banks
The CBN governor said that the apex bank has set up a monitoring system to ensure compliance, and any bank not adhering to this directive will face penalties.

Cardoso reiterated that the CBN’s monitoring and spot-checking system would keep track of banks’ compliance, and those failing to meet the requirement would be sanctioned.

He said: “We ourselves, have devised a monitoring system, a spot-checking system, whereby we will go to the banks and just ensure that these things are done in the way and manner in which they are meant to be done.

“And if they are not, again, there will be sanctions but I believe that at the stage we are in now, everybody realises that stakeholders play their part in ensuring that cash gets to the desired places they are intended to be.”

N1.4 trillion to be released in next three months
Cardoso further disclosed that the CBN plans to release an additional N1.4 trillion into circulation over the next three months to improve cash flow within the banking system.

This move, he said, is aimed at ensuring sufficient cash availability in ATMs and across bank branches, addressing the challenges of cash insufficiency that many customers have faced.

He said: “Another N1.4 trillion is likely to be delivered in another three months to aid that whole process of cash within the system and cash velocity.

“So, from our perspective, we are doing everything possible to ensure that there is sufficient cash in the system. There is no excuse for not having sufficient cash in the system.

“Now it goes to the deployment of that cash and quite frankly, we are working very, very closely, we are engaging with all the deposit money banks to ensure that they are putting these things through their ATMs, effectively dispensing cash to those that are in need.

“And whether they are in need or not, that’s the function of the deposit money banks. And at all points in time, there should be sufficient cash in their system that nobody should go there without being able to withdraw.”

Former Governor of Abia State, Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu, has called on President Bola Tinubu to quicken steps in bringing succour to Nigerians amidst the current biting economic hardship.

Kalu, who sits on the Abia-North Senatorial District seat at the Senate, spoke at the National Assembly in Abuja on Tuesday, noting that much as the President was making honest reforms to address the challenges Nigeria currently faced, the hardship in the land was also real.

He noted that the President was “courageous” to have introduced reforms, the types never seen in the last 60 years.

Speaking to journalists, Kalu, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said, “We feel that the reforms going on now have not happened in the last 60 years, no president had the courage to do what President Tinubu is doing now. It is about courage. The man is very courageous.

“Possibly if I’m president, what he is doing now to reform the economy, I won’t do it, I might come slowly.

“Even in my village, everywhere I go, companies, everybody, there is hardship, but I appeal to the federal government, the President, to know how he can bring succour quickly to the people of Nigeria. He has to do something not yesterday, but today.

“He must do something like yesterday because the condition of the Nigerian people is not too good. I believe that no president in the world elected by people would want his people to suffer.”

Specifically on the controversial removal of fuel subsidy, the former said it was an issue could meet with members of his economic team and study it.

“I’m not in the economic team, I have not seen the president or anyone to ask but this is what (return of subsidy) the president has to sit with his economic team to discuss.

“But, the decisions he has taken are what no president in the 60 years of the republic, no president has been able to take, ” he added.

Kalu, who claimed that he had cut down on personal expenses as a result of the hardship, said he also resolved not to fly private jets for now.

He explained, “The hardship is true, people are suffering. We have hundreds of thousands of workers, we have about 10,000 workers in our group that we run.

“We need to pay those salaries. If I fly at any time, buying fuel and maintaining the private plane takes almost $10,000, $20,000.

“I called our senior members in the group and said when I have to make my own sacrifices it is not for the federal government, it is for the good of the company.

“So I said fly no more, fly commercial and save the money for restructuring our workers both in Nigeria and West Africa so that everybody must feed in this time of hardship. “

On the outcome of the just-concluded Edo State governorship election, which was won by the APC’s candidate, Sen. Monday Okpebholo, the lawmaker argued that the best contestant and party won.

He said, “The national chairman, the national secretary, and the members of the NWC, and including the senators, have worked so hard for Edo and I believe that whoever works hard for an election deserves to win.

“The election is about numbers, when you have the numbers on the ground, you win. When you don’t have the numbers, you don’t win. INEC has declared the winner and they (Okpebholo and APC) deserve the win.”

Kalu dismissed rumours that circulated recently that he died, saying that he merely took a private time to study some courses.

“Listen, there was nothing wrong with me. I took permission from the senate president about seven days before the senate closed. I went for a little study in one of the universities that I paid for myself, not that anyone paid for me. I went to do some courses for two months; so I used the holiday period to do courses on democracy and the economy.

“I did not die. I didn’t go for any medical check up, but if people say I have died, we give thanks to God”, he told reporters.