DAILY NEWSPAPERS REVIEW MONDAY 18 JANUARY, 2021

TROOPS BATTLE ISLAMIC STATE TO REGAIN SEIZED MILITARY BASE – THE NATION PG.1&5

TROOPS swiftly regained a military base from combined forces of Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram at the weekend.

The terrorists’ wielding machine-guns mounted on trucks, seized Marte – a town 93 kilometres from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital – and the military base there on Friday night. Borno State is the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency.

N855M FRAUD: EFCC REJECTS ALLEGED PARDON OF INDIAN, BANKERS – THE NATION PG.7    

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has urged the Court of Appeal in Lagos to set aside a purported pardon granted an Indian businessman, Ashok Israni, and two Keystone Bank officials, Anayo Nwosu and Olajide Oshodi. Justice Kudirat Jose of the Lagos State High Court in Igbosere had, last December, jailed Israni, Nwosu and Oshodi for five years on an amended 15-count charge bordering on conspiracy and obtaining by false pretence the sum of N855 million.

EX-AG, EX-CUSTOMS BOSS REFUND N8B INTO GOVT COFFER – THE NATION PG.8

DETAILS have emerged on how two former senior public officers returned about N8billion to the coffers of the Federal Government to avoid being prosecuted. A former Accountant-General of the Federation (AG-F), Jonah Ogunniyi Otunla, and an ex-Comptroller-General of Customs, Abdullahi Inde Dikko, refunded N6.3 billion and N1.9 billion respectively. Otunla was the AG-F between 2011 and 2015 while Dikko was the Customs’ Comptroller General between 2009 and 2015.

ENVOYS’ LIST: BUHARI POSTS EX-MINISTERS TO UK, SPAIN, EMENIKE TO US – PUNCH PG.7

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has approved the deployment of a former Minister of State for Defence, Demola Seriki, to Spain as the Nigerian Ambassador while a former Minister of Mines and Steel, Sarafat Ishola, will serve as the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Ishola, who is from Ogun State, is also an ally of a former Governor of the state, Senator Ibikunle Amosun. Also, the Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, Debo Adesina, will serve as the Ambassador to Togo

INDIAN, BANKERS’ CASE: EFCC TACKLES LAGOS, CHALLENGES PARDON – PUNCH PG.7,THISDAY  PG.45

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has urged the Court of Appeal to set aside the pardon granted to an Indian businessman, Ashok Israni, and two officials of Keystone Bank, Anayo Nwosu and Olajide Oshodi, by the Lagos State Government. The commission, in an application filed by its counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), obtained by journalists on Sunday, insisted that it was in the law that pardon could not be granted to convicts whose rights of appeal had not been exhausted. The EFCC asked the appellate court to declare the purported pardon as illegal because the appellants’ appeals had been filed and entered since February 13, 2020, but could not be heard due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

FALANA-LED COALITION SEEKS RENEWAL OF #ENDSARS PROTESTERS’ PASSPORTS – THISDAY PG.43

The Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB) led by a human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana, has called for the renewal of the passports of the #EndSARS protesters. Falana made this call in a statement he personally signed yesterday.

SERAP URGES N’ASSEMBLY TO STOP BUHARI FROM SELLING GOVT PROPERTY TO FUND 2021 BUDGET – THISDAY PG.43

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, to urgently review the 2021 appropriation legislation to stop the President Muhammadu Buhari from selling public property to fund the 2021 budget. SERAP also urged them to identify areas in the budget to cut such as salaries and allowances for members of the National Assembly and the presidency to address the growing level of deficit and borrowing.

30-YEAR-OLD GAMBIAN LAWYER EMERGES DAILY TRUST AFRICAN OF THE YEAR – DAILY TRUST PG. 1, 4&5

Gambian lawyer, Musa Bakoto Sawo has emerged winner of the 2020 Daily Trust African of the year award. Sawo is a girl Child /women right advocates, change maker and lecturer, who began advovacy at the age of nine