A dozen Gabonese soldiers appeared on television Wednesday announcing they were putting an end to the current regime and the cancellation of an election that, according to official results, President Ali Bongo Ondimba won.
During the announcement, AFP journalists heard gunfire ring
out in the Gabonese capital, Libreville.
While announcing the cancellation of the results one of the
soldiers said all the institutions of the republic had been dissolved.
Among the soldiers were members of the Republican Guard as
well as soldiers of the regular army and police officers.
AFP journalists heard gunfire in several districts of
Libreville during the statement.
The announcement came shortly after the national election
authority said Bongo, who has been in power for 14 years, had won a third term
in Saturday’s election with 64.27 percent of the vote.
Crude oil theft may have cost the country a whopping N1.9tn
revenue loss in July, according to analysis.
The estimation was arrived at following a pronouncement by
the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, last week when he led a
presidential delegation to inspect oil and gas facilities at Owaza in Abia and
Rivers State.
Ribadu said Nigeria was losing 400,000 barrels of crude oil
daily due to activities of oil thieves and pipeline vandals. He added that the
country had the capacity to produce 2 million barrels of crude oil per day.
Checks by data provided in the August report of the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries showed that the country’s
July crude oil production, as provided by direct sources such as the Nigerian
National Petroleum Company Limited and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum
Regulatory Commission, was one million barrels per day.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory
Administration, Nyesom Wike, said his administration had yet to decide on how
to expend the N5bn palliative fund expected from the Federal Government.
This was as he stated that his administration might consider
transportation and food support while noting that efforts were ongoing to bring
back urban mass transportation to the FCT to reduce residents’ suffering in
terms of transportation.
Wike revealed the development to pressmen in Abuja on Monday
night, after a closed-door meeting with contractors handling several projects
in the FCT.
It was reported that the Federal Government had on August 17
announced a N5billion palliative for each state of the federation, including
the FCT, to cushion the impact of the removal of the petrol subsidy.
As flooding hits some frontlines states following the
opening of the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon by the authorities, about 3.04 million Nigerian
farmers may struggle to repay over N700bn Anchor Borrowers’ Programme loan of
the Central Bank of Nigeria, according to findings.
The opening of the dam is expected to affect 13 frontline
states, according to the National Emergency Management Agency.
Already, water levels have risen some states including Benue
and Anambra, while Niger is already experiencing flooding.
Findings showed that farmers in the states are at risk of
flooding based on the analysis done.
Some of the farmers, who spoke said the development might
make it difficult for them to repay their Anchor Borrowers’ loan.
