The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Emmanuel Kachikwu, and other stakeholders argued, yesterday, that fuel subsidy was an unsustainable drain on the economy and called for speedy deregulation of the nation’s oil and gas sector.

There were indications that public sector funds component of banks’ deposit base may have started to shrink, raising fears that it will affect the nation’s economy. This is as the overall cash inflow from the system in the month of August, so far, is about N440 billion compared to about N613 billion in the corresponding period of last month.

President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, ordered an inquest into processes leading to the sale of moribund national carrier, Nigerian Telecommunications, NITEL, and its mobile arm, Mobile Telecommunications, M-TEL by the government of his predecessor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

As eminent Nigerians continued to urge the Buhari administration to tread cautiously in the fight against corruption and perceived looters of the commonwealth, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, yesterday, asked President Muhammadu Buhari to jail those found guilty of embezzlement while their property should be confiscated.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday, faulted what it described as a massive campaign to stop the recovery of an estimated N13.972 trillion allegedly squandered by the immediate past administration.

THE ancient town of Ile-Ife, Osun State stood still, yesterday, as dignitaries across the world came in droves for the burial of His Imperial Majesty, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, who joined his ancestors July 28 but who was officially pronounced dead only on Wednesday.

The Senate, yesterday, constituted an ad-hoc Committee to carry out a holistic investigation into the management of funds appropriated to the power sector from the Olusegun Obasanjo civilian administration to date.

A helicopter belonging to Bristow Helicopters with 12 people on board, yesterday, crashed into the Lagoon near the Oworonsoki end of the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos.

The trial of former public officers who looted the national treasury and stashed the funds in foreign banks will commence in few weeks. President Muhammadu Buhari disclosed this, yesterday, when he met members of the National Peace Committee led by former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, asked the Ministry of Finance to explain why the foreign loans obtained for various key rail projects by the Federal Government were diverted elsehow under the watch of former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The presidency affirmed last night that the private visits which former President Goodluck Jonathan made to President Muhammadu Buhari last Thursday followed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday were not aimed at stopping Buhari’s anti-corruption war.

IN pursuit of his anti-graft crusade, President Muhammadu Buhari may have to beam his searchlight on the activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

A total probe of the administration run by immediate past president, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is underway as the National Economic Council, NEC, Ad-hoc Committee on the Management of Excess Crude Account Proceeds and Accruals into the Federation Account, headed by the Governor of Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, is to hire two international forensic audit firms to probe revenue that accrued into the Federation Account and how it was spent under former Dr Goodluck Jonathan as President.

President Muhammadu Buhari and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP senators were last night engaged in a war of words over alleged biases in the administration’s war against corruption. The PDP senators particularly accused the administration of partisanship in the anti-graft war with allegations that security agencies were coercing election officials to rewrite reports in some states to the favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Barely 24 hours after the Federal Government sacked the former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. Joseph Dwaha, and appointed Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as the new Chief Executive of the corporation, a gale of sacks, yesterday, swept through the corporation and its subsidiaries.