News
Reps Probe INEC’s Registration Of Underage Voters …Summon Maina, Malami, Oyo-Ita Over Pension Fund
The House of Representatives yesterday resolved to investigate the circumstances surrounding the registration and issuance of Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs to under-aged voters in some parts of the country by the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), describing it as unlawful and illegal which must be checkmated.
Consequently, it resolved at the plenary yesterday to set up an ad-hoc committee to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the matter and report back to the House within five weeks and urged the security agencies to provide maximum security for all INEC officials at their respective places of assignments to guard against any form of intimidation which the commission admitted prompted its officials to register the underaged voters in the first instance.
The resolution followed the adoption of a motion moved to that effect by Honourable. Johnbull Giemlong SheKarau titled , “call to investigate the registration and issuance of Permanent Voters Cards to under Aged Voters by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC”ý with an amendment from the duo of Hon Chukuka Onyema and Uzoma Abonta who sought for the setting up of an Ad-hoc Committee to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the matter.
Moving the motion, Hon. Johnbull Giemlong Shekarau said that” the Houseý Notes that Section 12 (1) of the Electoral Act, 2010 provides that a person shall be qualified to be registered as a voter if such a person has attained the age of eighteen years and the INEC is empowered to register and issue Permanent Voters’ Cards to eligible Nigerians.”
According to the lawmaker, “concerned about reports from the social, print and electronic media which indicated that there were incidences of underaged voters who presented themselves at polling units with Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) to vote in the recently conducted Local Government Elections in Kano State.
He added that the Director of Publicity and Voter Education at INEC, Oluwole Osaze Uzzi while responding to questions on the Africa Independent Television (AIT) on the matter on 15/02/2018, said that the underaged voters were registered because the lives of the registration officers were being threatened.
Hon Sekerau lamented that the incidence caused serious embarrassment to the nation and amounted to a threat to the nation’s growing democracy and a danger to the security of lives of officials posted to handle sensitive national issues such as registration of eligible voters.
He then moved that the House should mandate it’s Committee on Electoral and Political Matters to investigate the incidence and report back within five weeks for further legislative action.however while supporting the motion, the duo of Onyema and Abonta ý sought for an Ad-hoc Committee because of the magnitudes of the incidence and implication to the nation’s future electoral process.
Most of the lawmakers who contributed to the debate including E J Agbonayinma, Mohammed Umar Bago, Uzoma Abonta, Henry Achibong, among others condemned the act and demanded a decisive action from the lawmakers in the over the interest of the Nation.
When the motion was put into voice voting by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara who presided over the plenary, it was unanimously supported.
The House of Representatives yesterday, invited the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami over pension fund administration in the country.
Others also invited are Head of Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
The House also invited former Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Pension, Abdulrasheed Maina former chairman, Presidential Pension Task on Pension Reforms.
Former Head of Service of the Federation, Steve Oransaye and all members of the defunct Presidential Taskforce on Pension is also to appear before the House.
The House Ad-hoc Committee investigating the activities of the Presidential Taskforce on Pension Reforms from 2010, to the time of its dissolution and successor agencies, issued the summon at its public hearing in Abuja.
Also to appear before the committee are the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, Chairman, Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu and the chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).
Speaking at the occasion, Mrs Sharon Ikpeazor, Executive Secretary of Pension Transition Administration Department (PTAD), told the committee that the agency reduced the police pension liabilities from N16.501 billion to N7 billion after reconciliation.
She also said that N90.652 million was being saved monthly from police pension while N1.4 billion liabilities were yet to be offset.
The PTAD boss also said that the agency which inherited 18,370 pensioners from the old pension scheme was able to eliminate 3,324 ghost pensioners as at May 2015.
Ikpeazor further disclosed that PTAD, in collaboration with ICPC, collapsed four pension accounts for ease of management and accountability with N15.025 billion domiciled in Zenith Bank.
She also said that N2.483 billion was domiciled in Union Bank while N720 million domiciled in UBA and N193.629 million domiciled in Access Bank as at Oct. 2013.
She said out of N26 billion Legacy Fund traced to insurance companies since N20.3 billion had so far been recovered.
According to her, N6.7 billion cash recovered has been domiciled with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) while properties worth N13.5 billion are being re-valued by Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
Ikpeazor, therefore, called for the interventions of the House to enable the agency go after the erring insurance companies withholding the Legacy Fund.
She said the agency had made the presentation to the Presidential Committee on Stolen Assets and would not hesitate to engage Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to recover the Legacy Fund.
Nigerians may experience an increase in the prices of premium energy products diesel and petrol as the Dangote Petroleum Refinery temporarily halts the sale of petroleum products in Naira.
“This decision is necessary to avoid a mismatch between our sales proceeds and our crude oil purchase obligations, which are currently denominated in US dollars,” the company said in a statement yesterday.
The $20billion refinery based in Lagos said the sales of its products in Naira have exceeded the value of Naira-denominated crude it has received from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
“As a result, we must temporarily adjust our sales currency to align with our crude procurement currency,” the company explained.
The refinery said it remained committed to serving the Nigerian market and would resume the sale of its product to the local market in Naira as soon as it received crude cargoes from the NNPCL in Naira.
“As soon as we receive an allocation of Naira-denominated crude cargoes from NNPC, we will promptly resume petroleum product sales in Naira,” it said.
The announcement by the refinery comes amid its price war with the NNPCL.
As part of moves to reduce the strain on the US dollars, and guarantee price stability of petroleum products, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in July 2024, directed the NNPCL to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other local refineries in naira and not in United States’ greenback.
In the beginning of March 2025, the NNPCL said its Naira-denominated crude sales agreement with the Dangote Refinery was structured for six months with March 2025 as the expiration date.
The state company, however, said that talks were on to replace the contract, and that over 48 million barrels of crude oil have been made available to Dangote Refinery since October 2024 under the Naira-denominated arrangement.
The NNPCL also said it had made over 84 million barrels of crude oil available to the private refinery since it commenced operations in 2023.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces energy challenges, with all its state-owned refineries non-operational for decades until 2024. The country was heavily reliant on imported refined petroleum products, with the state-run NNPCL being the major importer of the essential commodities.
Fuel queues are commonplace in the country. Prices of petrol more than quadrupled since the removal of subsidy in May 2023 by President Bola Tinubu, from around ¦ 200/litre to about ¦ 1,000/litre, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles, and generating sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.
Last December, the billionaire industrialist commenced operations at the facility situated in Lagos with 350,000 barrels a day. The refinery, which was initially bogged by regulatory battles, hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year. The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country and now petrol.
Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna has overtaken Egypt’s Omar Assar to become Africa’s highest-ranked player in the world, now sitting at 18th in the week 12 ranking released on Tuesday.
Aruna moved up from 19th place in week 11 to 18th in the latest ranking, while Assar dropped from 17th to 19th.
Denmark’s Jonathan Groth took over Assar’s 17th place, moving up from 18th.
Despite finishing as runner-up at the 2025 ITTF Africa Cup, Aruna’s impressive performances at the WTT tournaments this year have boosted his ranking.
Aruna remains the only African male player to have reached the semi-finals of the WTT Contender Doha, repeating his 2023 feat earlier this year in January.
This achievement has propelled him ahead of Assar, who beat him to become the champion of the 2025 ITTF Africa Cup.
Aruna’s next tournament is the WTT Contender Chennai which serves off in India from March 23 to 20.
In the women’s singles, Egypt’s Hana Goda maintained her top spot in Africa, moving up one place to 26th in the week 12 ITTF ranking. Her compatriot, Dina Meshref, remained static at 33rd, holding her position as the second-best-ranked female player in Africa.
China’s Wang Chuqin retained his position as the second-best player globally, behind his compatriot Lin Shidong, who continues to hold the top spot. Japanese superstar Tomokazu Harimoto dethroned China’s Liang Jingkun as the third-best player in the world after his semifinal finish in Chongqing.
In the women’s ranking, the top five remained unchanged, with China’s Sun Yingsha holding onto her top spot after retaining her WTT Champions Chongqing title.
