The committee set up to probe the finances of Kaduna under the administration of Nasir el-Rufai, the immediate former governor of the state, has commenced an investigation.

The committee, which is made up of 13 members, was set up by the Kaduna assembly in April.

The panel is tasked with looking at loans, grants, and project implementation from 2015 to 2023, the period when el-Rufai was governor of the state.

Suraj Bamalli, the media aide to Yusuf Liman, speaker of the Kaduna assembly, announced the development in a statement on Tuesday.

“The adhoc committee set up to conduct a comprehensive fact-finding into financial dealings, the status of executed contracts, loans, grants, and project implementation from 2015-2023 has commenced its clarification session,” the statement reads.

“The committee has engaged in detailed discussions with several key present and past government officials, including former Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce, Honorable Manzo Maigari; Former KADPPA Boss and Commissioner of Budget and Planning, Honorable Thomas Gyang, Commissioner and Administrator of Zaria Metropolitan Authority, Hajia Balaraba Aliyu, amongst others.

“The Kaduna State House of Assembly appreciates the cooperation and contributions of all individuals involved in this process and assures the public of their dedication to upholding the highest standards of governance during this process.”

On March 30, Uba Sani, governor of Kaduna, said his administration inherited a debt of $587 million, N85 billion, and 115 contractual liabilities from el-Rufai’s administration.

The Kaduna governor said the huge debt burden is eating deep into the state’s share of the monthly federation allocation.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) caretaker committee in Rivers has requested that the governor, Siminalayi Fubara, be removed from office by the state parliament.

After President Bola Tinubu voiced his opinion regarding a dispute between the governor and Nyesom Wike, the minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), the house of assembly dropped their notice to impeach Fubara in December.

The two men have been at odds over who controls Rivers’ political system.

Addressing a press conference in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, Tony Okocha, chair of the APC in the state, accused the governor of “insulting” Tinubu.

“It’ll be foolhardy for us to sit down and see someone way less than Mr President insult him under our very nose,” he said.

“It is also an absurdity to see the governor espouse impunity and intimidation on people who are members of our political party, and we stand akimbo doing nothing.

“As representatives of Mr President we won’t sit here and see the governor insult the President. We won’t sit here to see the governor declare on his own as if he’s a court to declare Assembly members’ seats vacant.

“To that extent, in consultation with my party, we are directing APC members who are in the Assembly to immediately commence the impeachment of Governor Sim Fubara.

“And if they don’t do that, there’s what they call party discipline, and we shall invoke that section of the constitution and deal decisively with them.”

On Monday, Fubara expressed dismay over the attitude of the assembly members to his administration, adding that the lawmakers only exist because of him.

The governor added that he accepted the peace deal offered by Tinubu because it was a political solution to the rift.

In December, 27 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislators in the Rivers assembly defected to the APC.  The seats of 25 of the lawmakers were subsequently declared vacant.

The Central Bank of Nigeria identified transactions that were excluded from the cybersecurity charge on Monday, following the announcement of the levy’s implementation.

Prior to this, the bank ordered all banks to impose a cybersecurity tax of 0.5 percent on all domestic electronic transactions beginning two weeks from May 6.

“The levy shall be applied at the point of electronic transfer origination, then deducted and remitted by the financial institution. The deducted amount shall be reflected in the customer’s account with the narration, ‘Cybersecurity Levy’,” it said.

The directive and the exemption list were contained in a circular signed by the Director, Payments System Management Department, Chibuzo Efobi; and the Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Haruna Mustafa.

Below is the list of the exempted banking transactions:

1. Loan disbursements and repayments.
2. Salary payments.
3. Intra-account transfers within the same bank or between different banks for the same customer.
4. Intra-bank transfers between customers of the same bank.
5. Other Financial Institutions instructions to their correspondent banks.
6. Interbank placements.
7. Banks’ transfers to CBN and vice-versa.
8. Inter-branch transfers within a bank.
9. Cheque clearing and settlements.
10. Letters of Credits.
11. Banks’ recapitalisation-related funding, only bulk funds movement from collection accounts.
12. Savings and deposits, including transactions involving long-term investments such as Treasury Bills, Bonds, and Commercial Papers.
13. Government Social Welfare Programmes transactions e.g. Pension payments.
14. Non-profit and charitable transactions, including donations to registered non-profit organisations or charities.
15. Educational institutions’ transactions, including tuition payments and other transactions involving schools, universities, or other educational institutions.
16. Transactions involving bank’s internal accounts such as suspense accounts, clearing accounts, profit and loss accounts, inter-branch accounts, reserve accounts, nostro and vostro accounts, and escrow accounts.