President Tinubu Complains Of Blackout At Plateau Airport During Condolence Visit

Blackout at Plateau airport. Amnesty International berated Mr Tinubu for failing to protect lives.

President Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, lamented the blackout at Plateau airport during a condolence visit to the state over the Palm Sunday attack that left at least 30 people dead.

“Please be seated,” Mr Tinubu said. “You have no light at the airport, and I have to fly back within the next 10 minutes.”

The president, who limited his visit to just the airport, met with the families of Anguwan Rukuba attack victims and other political stakeholders in the state.

“To the victims, there’s nothing I can give you, whether money in billion, but promise you this experience will not repeat itself,” Mr Tinubu said.

Against the backdrop of the attack on Anguwan Rukuba, People Gazette reported that at least 119 people have been k1lled in various coordinated attacks in Plateau State.

Frequent attacks and the surging death toll have sparked reactions and public outrage from within and outside Nigeria, with many berating Mr Tinubu’s government for failing in its core responsibility of protecting life and property.

Citing the Palm Sunday attack and others recorded in Plateau State in recent times, Amnesty International berated Mr Tinubu for “failing to protect lives.”

Electricity

“With the death toll from the Palm Sunday attack in central Nigeria surpassing 30 people, the Nigerian authorities must investigate the inexcusable security lapses that enabled the horrific attack by gunmen on motorbikes on Anguwan Rukuba community of Jos North LGA of Plateau State.

“The area, nature of the attack and timing show how increasingly vulnerable people are to being k1lled anywhere and anytime. More dead bodies are still being found and conveyed to the morgue. Plateau State is increasingly becoming unsafe,” Amnesty International said in a statement on Tuesday.

Restructuring: Femi Falana Advises FG To Give Oil Blocs To States, LGs, Not Individuals

Femi Falana advises FG. Mr Falana alleged that individuals have become dangerously rich, not because they are hardworking.

Legal luminary Femi Falana has urged the federal government to give oil bloc licenses to state governments rather than individuals, so they can better perform their responsibilities, including the payment of salaries to civil servants.

Speaking during the 5th Comrade Yinka Odumakin Memorial Lecture on Thursday in Ikeja, Lagos State, on the topic, “Can Nigeria’s Democracy Work Without Restructuring?”, Mr Falana alleged that individuals have become dangerously rich not because they are hardworking.

Mr Falana said, “You take oil resources from the Niger Delta, and you give licenses of oil blocs. You don’t know they give oil blocs to themselves? The owners of oil blocs are the richest people in Nigeria. There’s a lady in Lagos, they say she’s the richest lady in Africa, why? She has an oil bloc, not that she’s more hardworking than your mother, no.

“There is a general, a pensioner, he’s the richest pensioner in Africa, he has an oil bloc. In fact, in his own case, they don’t invest in oil bloc, they just take it offshore, and sell the licenses to the Chinese or Europeans, then he’ll come home, a multi-billionaire.”

Femi Falana

Alleging that state governments do not want to control their resources but privatise them, Mr Falana recalled that, “when state governments could not pay salaries, I asked the FG, why are you giving oil blocs to individuals? Give them to states and local governments. Today, more and more people are becoming dangerously rich at the expense of all of us.”

According to Mr Falana, those who have oil blocs are now being given licenses to mine solid minerals, adding that many communities are now being degraded by those who are mining mineral resources.

Court: Emefiele Violated CBN Act in Naira Redesign Exercise-Witness

Naira redesign. The Seventh Prosecution Witness, PW7, Chinedu Eneanya, in the trial of the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, told Justice Maryanne Anineh of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Maitama, Abuja, that Emefiele violated the provisions of the CBN Act in the 2022 naira redesign exercise.

Emefiele is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a four-count charge, bordering on the alleged unlawful printing of new naira notes.

Testifying under cross-examination by defence counsel, Olalekan Ojo, SAN, at Wednesday’s proceedings, the witness disclosed that “the investigation conducted by the team showed that the defendant disobeyed the provisions of the CBN Act, 2007. The Central Bank must have board recommendations before the currency is redesigned.”

Further in his testimony, the witness disclosed that Emefiele presented three sample designs of the proposed naira notes in the denominations of N1000, N500 and N200, which were approved by the President.

“The president approved on the 11th page and directed that the design be done locally. However, investigation showed that what was eventually produced was not what was presented to the president,” he said.

The witness also disclosed that the original design of the old naira notes was handled by De La Rue, a UK-based company.

On whether the EFCC invited members of the CBN Board of Directors or its Committee of Governors during the investigation, Eneanya stated that the Commission obtained the statement of the official in charge of the Apex Bank’s Corporate Secretariat.

Earlier in the cross-examination, the witness identified Exhibit N1 to be the statement made by Ahmed Aliyu, Managing Director of the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company Limited, NSPMC

When asked if his investigation uncovered any contradiction in the content of Page six of Exhibit N1, the witness stated that the printing of the naira notes had been carried out locally before the investigation commenced. He also confirmed that the Central Bank of Nigeria paid NSPMC for the production of the currency.

Emefiele

Under re-examination, prosecution counsel, Abbas Mohammed, sought clarification on whether the President’s directive related to the design or production of the currency to which the witness stated that the redesign of the naira notes was carried out and given to President Buhari to approve.

“Investigation shows that the design of the currency was already shown to the president and it was approved,” the witness explained.

Justice Anineh thereafter adjourned the matter till May 11, 2026 for continuation of trial.