March 11 Polls: INEC to seek court permission to reconfigure BVAS
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it will on Monday approach the Appeal Court for an order to allow it to reconfigure its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the March 11 state elections.
- March 11 Polls: INEC to seek court permission to reconfigure BVAS
- Labour Party adopts PDP’s Gov. Makinde as Oyo State’s guber candidate
- CBN disburses N114bn under 100-for-100 policy
- Belarus jails Nobel winner Bialiatski for 10 years; EU, US protest
- Ex-JPMorgan bankers start emerging market infrastructure investment firm
A credible source in the commission hinted the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday that the order was significant following an order restraining it from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies of them issued.
The source, who requested not to be quoted, said that INEC would require sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS needed to conduct the election that would take place in all the 36 states of the federation, except the FCT.
“The commission’s Legal Department is actually preparing an application to be filled in the court on Monday to seek an order for it to reconfigure its BVAS for Saturday Governorship and State Houses of Assembly election,” the source said. (NAN)
Read also: Ordeals in INEC;s BVAS, IReV unite Atiku, Obi
Labour Party adopts PDP’s Gov. Makinde as Oyo State’s guber candidate
Sadiq Atayese, the chairman of the Labour Party in Oyo State, said that the party has adopted Governor Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the party’s candidate for the March 11 governorship election.
Atayese made this known at a news conference on Sunday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, saying that the party state’s working committee believes in the candidature of Gov. Makinde and sees him as a man of character, competence, and capacity.
He said, however, that the electorate should vote for LP candidates at the state assembly elections.
“Going by the results of the Feb. 25 presidential election and political realities in our state, it is obvious that no individual party can win the coming gubernatorial election single-handedly.
“The main priority should be to ensure that citizens win through the election of a candidate that best serves their collective interests.
“Against this backdrop, the right thing now is for parties and their candidates to form alliances with candidates of like ideology,’’ he said.
CBN disburses N114bn under 100-for-100 policy
Godwin Emefiele, the Central Bank Governor, disclosed that the apex bank has disbursed N114.17 billion to beneficiaries under its 100-for-100 Policy on Production and Productivity since it kicked off the intervention programme.
In a communiqué issued by the governor after the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting, he said that the funds were spent on 71 projects across the manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, and services sectors.
“Furthermore, under the 100 for 100 policy on production and productivity, the bank has disbursed the sum of N20.78 billion to nine projects in healthcare, manufacturing, and services. This brings the cumulative disbursements under the facility to N114.17 billion to 71 projects across healthcare, manufacturing, services, and agriculture,” he said.
Belarus jails Nobel winner Bialiatski for 10 years; EU, US protest
Ales Bialiatski, Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday by a court in his home country, Belarus. The court found him guilty of financing protests in a trial condemned by the United States and the European Union as a “sham” and just advancing the pro-Russia narrative.
Scenes captured from the cramped Minsk court showed Bialiatski, 60, who co-founded the Viasna (Spring) human rights group, looking dull, and defeated as his hands cuffed behind his back, as he and his co-defendants watched proceedings from a courtroom cage.
Bialiatski, who was arrested in 2021, alongside three co-defendants were charged with financing protests and smuggling money. The Belarusian state news agency Belta confirmed the court had handed down long jail sentences to all the men, including a decade in prison for Bialiatski. He denied the charges against him, saying they were politically motivated.
Ex-JPMorgan bankers start emerging market infrastructure investment firm
On Monday, two former JP Morgan credit bankers launched a new impact investment advisory firm focused on emerging market infrastructure, with a minority stake held by British insurer Legal & General’s alternative investments arm.
The firm, ImpactA Global, aims to help address the World Bank’s estimated need for $1 trillion in annual investment in emerging market infrastructure to meet development goals.
It will target new projects through a debt fund, initially involving renewable energy, mobility, health, and sanitation in Latin America, Africa, and South Asia.
“The idea to set this up came out of our frustration of seeing so many good projects fail to reach close because the (necessary piece) of capital is missing,” said Isabella da Costa Mendes, ImpactA’s co-chief executive officer, in an interview. (Reuters)
