• IPOB Ranks as the 10th Deadliest Group Worldwide
• Amaechi to Rivers People: You’re our Problem, Not Wike
• Inflation Hits Record High of 21.91% Amid Naira Crisis
• Sanwo-Olu Compensates Akere Traders with N100m After Lagos Market Fire
• Four Suspected Terrorists in Ogun Arraigned by DSS

Across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, these are the five top Nigerian news stories you shouldn’t miss:

IPOB Ranks as the 10th Deadliest Group Worldwide

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatist group that was declared a terrorist organization by the federal government in 2017, has been ranked as the 10th deadliest terror group globally according to the 2023 Global Terrorism Index (GTI).

The GTI, which is published by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), an independent and Non-Profit Think Tank, revealed that IPOB has been responsible for 40 attacks and 57 deaths in 2022, making it the group’s deadliest year so far.

Notably, IPOB militants have been responsible for the killings of an Army couple who were beheaded, multiple northerners in the South East, and several security operatives.

The GTI report highlights IPOB as a very dangerous group, with a ranking only surpassed by those of other well-known groups such as the Islamic State with 1,045 deaths and 410 attacks, Al-Shabaab with 784 deaths and 315 attacks, and Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISK) with 498 deaths and 141 attacks.

Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and Boko Haram also ranked high on the list with 279 deaths and 77 attacks, 233 deaths and 30 attacks, 219 deaths and 65 attacks, and 204 deaths and 64 attacks, respectively.

The report further revealed that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) recorded 137 deaths and 90 attacks, while Islamic State – Sinai Province had 71 deaths and 27 attacks.

Amaechi to Rivers People: You’re our Problem Not Wike

Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has urged the people of Rivers State to vote in the upcoming governorship election.

During his campaign visit to the Mile 3 Market in Port Harcourt and electoral wards in Etche and Ikwerre Local Government Areas, Amaechi emphasized that the state’s people are the problem, rather than Governor Nyesom Wike.

He urged voters to use their votes to end the Wike-led government’s misrule, stating that it is the only way forward.

Amaechi, who is supporting the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tonye Cole, made this statement on Wednesday in preparation for the upcoming election on Saturday.

Amaechi said, “Wike is tribalistic. Wike doesn’t even support the Ikwerre people, Wike supports only himself and his pocket, and his garrulous mouth. We’ll win. You need to come out and vote and make us win.

“People are tired of Wike and his stealing…If he has shame, he wouldn’t have gone on national television and say when Atiku was demonstrating at the INEC office, he was drinking 40 years old whiskey. Is he well?

He added, “Wike isn’t our problem, you’re the problem. If he comes here now [with money], you start dancing. If Wike gives you ten million naira and when you give him power, he steals one billion naira. Wike has abandoned everything, schools, health centres. In Rivers State, Wike is the contractor and all the money is in his pocket.”

Inflation Hits Record High of 21.91% Amid Naira Crisis

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate has reached a height not seen in past decades, despite contracting aggregate demand, falling purchasing power, and other indicators that highlight reduced consumption and sluggish business activities.

February’s consumer price index (CPI) posted a month-on-month (m/m) change of 1.71 per cent, a slower climb when compared with the 1.87 per cent recorded in January. The slowdown in the m/m change suggests that the intensity is weakening. Economists often use month-on-month changes in price to assess the current momentum of inflation. Unlike year-on-year (y/y) change, the m/m rate isolates the trend from remote base effects.

On a y/y basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.21 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in February 2022, which was 15.70 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) latest report released yesterday. This shows that the headline inflation rate y/y increased in February 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year.

The rise in the cost of food was responsible for the rise in the rate, according to NBS. “The contributions of items on a class basis to the increase in the headline index are presented, thus: Bread and cereal (21.67 per cent), actual and imputed rent (7.74 per cent), potatoes, yam and other tubers (6.06 per cent), vegetable (5.44 per cent) and meat (4.78 per cent),” NBS said. “The highest increases were recorded in prices of gas, passenger transport by air, liquid fuel, fuels and lubricants for personal transport equipment, vehicles spare parts, solid fuel, etc.”

Food inflation, on y/y analysis, was highest in Kwara (29.51 per cent), Imo (27.47 per cent) and Lagos (27.42 per cent), whereas Sokoto (18.54 per cent), Jigawa (19.67 per cent) and Yobe (21.89 per cent) recorded the slowest rise. But on m/m basis, Yobe with (3.15 per cent change, Edo (3.03 per cent), and Ogun (2.9 per cent) recorded the steepest movement. The report did not give reasons for the trend.

The core inflation (other items less volatile farm produce) also slowed from 19.16 per cent to 18.84 per cent y/y growth last month, underpinning the weakening aggregate demand.

The latest Food Security Update of the World Bank released on Monday identified Borno and Yobe states as areas where food insecurity could deteriorate to a crisis condition in the next three months as the region moves deeper into the dry season. The two states, according to the World Bank, could join western and southern Katsina, northern and southern Sokoto, northern and central Zamfara, among other areas in the North, said to have been in “food crisis conditions.”

The CPI reading came on the heels of escalating cash scarcity, which economists said has kneecapped economic activities, weakened consumption, and threatened cash-dependent segments of the economy such as internal trade and informal sectors.

The old N500 and N1,000 notes are back to Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) across major cities, while banks have continued to ration payment with third-party banks’ ATMs paying as little as N1,000 per withdrawal.

Sanwo-Olu Compensates Akere Traders with N100m After Lagos Market Fire

On March 15th, 2023, the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, announced that N100 million would be donated to the traders of the Akere Motor Parts and Allied Dealers Association (AMPADA) in Ajegunle, Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Council.

The traders suffered losses due to a fire that broke out in the market last week Thursday. The Governor made the donation during the foundation-laying ceremony for the reconstruction of the market.

During the event, Sanwo-Olu stressed the importance of unity among residents, saying that there is no room for politics to divide them. The compensation for the traders is aimed at cushioning the loss they suffered as a result of the fire.

The Governor also disclosed that the new market would be a storey building instead of the bungalow that it was before.

He said:  “A week or less ago we promised to come back here to give immediate support to the people who were affected by the unfortunate incident. This isn’t politics. It’s just a coincidence that it is a political season.

“I’m happy to be here to lay the foundation for the new market building. Now it’s a storey building, and the small compensation that will alleviate the suffering and loss of our traders here. It’s for us to make a clear stand that we are not about the ethnic or religious division, we are a government that is people- centred and working to make things better for them, no matter what party or where they come from.

“As long as they are law-abiding, keep to laws guiding the environment, and respect the heritage of where they do business, they will always be accommodated.

“This will also send a clear message to people who want to divide us that we won’t let a little number disunite a large number of people, we won’t give them a space in Lagos and in our government.”

Four Suspected Terrorists in Ogun Arraigned by DSS

The Department of State Services has charged four suspected terrorists before a Chief Magistrate’s Court in Isabo, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The suspects (Aliu Abubakar, Abubakar Usman, Abubakar Amadu, and Adamu Aliu) were arrested on December 9, 2022.

The suspects were arraigned on Wednesday for terrorism and kidnapping charges in a suit number MISC/15/2023 between the state vs Aliu Abubakar and three others.

The prosecution counsel, Emmanuel Zamba, told the court that the DSS had filed a motion ex parte dated March 15 in respect of the suit.

He explained that the motion filed, which contains a five-paragraph affidavit, sought an order of the court to remand the suspects at the prison custody in the state, saying

Zamba said the offences allegedly committed were contrary to sections 2 and 3 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.

He stated, “We are praying for an order of this honourable court to detain the defendants in the custody of the Nigeria correctional service for 30 days pending the determination of the suit.”

The Chief Magistrate, M O Osinbajoin, his ruling granted the prayer of the DSS as pleaded by the prosecution counsel.

She, however, adjourned the matter till April 17 for further reports from the DSS.