The candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the September 21 governorship election in Edo State, Monday Okpebholo, has been summoned by a Magistrate’s Court in Abuja for allegedly making a false statement on his date of birth.

A document sighted by Saturday PUNCH showed that Okpebholo was asked to appear before the court at 12 noon on Friday, September 20 by Magistrate Abubakar Mukhtar.

He is accused of claiming conflicting dates of birth in his nomination forms submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission to contest the election.

Whereas your attendance is required to answer to a charge of making a false statement on oath, you are summoned to appear in person before the Magistrate Court at Wuse Zone 2 on the 20th of September, 2024, at 12 noon,” the summons read.

The case, with suit no CR/W22/816/2024, was instituted by an indigene of Edo State, Honesty Aginbatse, who alleged that Okpebholo claimed he was born on 29/08/1970 in the form submitted to INEC, while another document submitted by him states 29/08/1972 as his date of birth.

Aginbatse said, “The defendant, on 24/03/2024, submitted a list of his personal particulars dated 05/03/2024 to INEC wherein he made a statement in item number 4 in Part B, stating that he was born on 29/08/1970. A certified true copy (C.T.C) of the list of personal particulars submitted to INEC by the defendant is attached to this complaint and marked as Exhibit B.”

In the same Exhibit B, the defendant made a declaration on oath dated 05/03/2024, supported by a verifying affidavit, wherein he attached several documents, including a Statutory Declaration of Age deposed to on 04/06/2022 by one Okpebholo Ojeifo Joseph; marked as Exhibit C in this complaint, and a West African Senior School Certificate with Candidate and Certificate numbers 4320545182 and NGWASSCS11023655 respectively, marked as Exhibit D in this complaint. The said Exhibit D contains a statement indicating that the defendant was born on 29/08/1972, which is false in all its material particulars.”

This is particularly so, as the statutory declaration of age mentioned in paragraph 7 above as Exhibit C, which in law stands in the stead of the defendant’s Birth Certificate, definitively affirmed that the defendant was born on 29/08/1970.”

25m litres to be delivered daily via NNPC Trading Ltd…

Dangote Refinery is set to commence the distribution of its refined petrol to retail outlets across Nigeria starting this Sunday, BusinessDay’s findings have revealed.

Sources said the pump price of petrol will remain unchanged, despite the introduction of its product into the market. The initial daily allocation is expected to be 25 million litres, delivered through the NNPC Trading Limited at a cost of N765.99 to marketers.

NNPC Trading Limited will continue to import a shortfall of 15 million litres to meet Nigeria’s daily demand for petrol estimated at 40-50 million litres a day,” a source said.

He added, “Each marketer will take a maximum of 50 trucks daily; They will buy at a price of N765.99 through the NNPC Trading Limited, including their costs movement and sell at the current pump price of N855 to N897 depending on the location per litre”.

To ensure a smooth transition, marketers have been instructed to start sending their trucks to the refinery today to facilitate the lifting process.

He added, “Next month Dangote refinery will move to a daily allocation of 30 million litres from then marketers will be picking by vessels”.

Findings showed there will be a joint statement by both NNPC and Dangote refinery teams who are currently meeting in Abuja.

The move is expected to significantly boost the country’s fuel supply and alleviate the challenges faced by consumers.

Dangote Refinery, located in Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos, is a major milestone in Nigeria’s industrialization efforts. Its operationalisation is expected to reduce the country’s dependence on imported petroleum products and contribute to economic growth.

European refineries

Dangote’s production is expected to impact billions of dollars of trade in fuel markets regionally and beyond as Nigeria remains a global demand sink for the fuel, receiving almost 250,000 barrels a day in shipments last year, mostly from Europe, according to data from analytics firm Vortexa Ltd.

For decades, European refiners have enjoyed a lucrative market in Nigeria as an unreliable power supply from the national grid forces companies across Africa’s fourth-biggest economy to rely heavily on imported refined products with a net value of $17 billion annually.

Traders and shipping data seen by BusinessDay showed Nigeria’s new Dangote refinery is ramping up gasoil exports to West Africa, capturing market share from European refiners.

“As much as ‪300-400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of refining capacity in Europe is at risk of closure because of rising global gasoline production,” Andon Pavlov, an analyst at Kpler, a global trade intelligence platform, said in a note.

The federal government has declared Monday, September 16 as a public holiday to mark the celebration of the Eid-ul-Mawlid, the birth of the Prophet Muhammad,

This was disclosed in a statement today by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Dr. Magdalene Ajani.

“The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who made the declaration on behalf of the Federal Government, congratulated Muslim Ummah both at home and in the Diaspora on this occasion,” the statement read.

The minister called on the Muslim Ummah and, by extension, Nigerians, to imbibe the spirit of patience, sacrifice, and resilience.

“While congratulating the Muslim Ummah on the occasion, the Minister implored them to use the opportunity of the period to pray for enduring peace and a more prosperous egalitarian nation,” the st

atement read.