Five things to know to start your Tuesday

FG signs tripartite agreement to re-concession Lagos trade fair complex

The Federal Government through the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has signed a tripartite agreement to start the process of the re-concession of the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex (LITFC).

This was made known in a statement signed by Amina Tukur, BPE’s Head of Public Communications, in Abuja on Monday.

Tukur said the bureau signed a tripartite agreement with Portman Freight Services Limited and LITFC to lease a portion of the complex to the freight service company.

She said the Director-General of BPE Alex Okoh while signing the agreement said that the event marked the commencement of work on the portion of Parcel A and B that was not designated for concession.

Okoh also said the standardisation of lease agreements would ultimately increase the earnings of the LITFC and the Federal Government in particular.

Read also: Owo attack: Buhari-led government failed Nigerians, says Ondo Bishop

SMEDAN, Bloc partnership providing financial technology benefits to SMEs — Fasanya

Olawale Fasanya, the Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), in a statement on Monday said that SMEDAN partnership with Bloc would provide the needed financial technology to grow businesses in Nigeria.

Fasanya said that the partnership with Bloc would be providing tools and software for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to manage their financial operations more efficiently.

SMEDAN had in November 2022, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bloc, a banking service and FinTech infrastructure company.

Fasanya said that the platform was impacting positively on how SMEs serve their customers with financial technology.

Lagos guber: PDP files case for APC, LP’s disqualification at tribunal

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Lagos State and its Governorship Candidate, Dr Abdul-Azeez Adediran (Jandor) have submitted a petition before the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal of Lagos State.

The party and Adediran are calling for the disqualification of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Labour Party (LP) candidates in the election for non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022.
In the petition marked EPT/LAG/GOV/01/2023 dated April 7, the petitioners challenged the outcome of the March 18 governorship election on grounds of substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Law as well as the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

While INEC is the 1st respondent, Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu; his Deputy Governorship candidate, Dr Obafemi Hamzat; the All Progressive Congress (APC), the Labour Party Governorship Candidate, Mr Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and the Labour Party respectively are the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th respondents.

Besides non-compliance with relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 2022,Adediran and PDP in their petition are claiming that at the time of the governorship election held on March 18, 2023, Sanwo-Olu, Hamzat, and Rhodes-Vivour were not qualified to contest the election.

The petitioners, therefore, prayed that all votes cast for them in the election be declared wasted. (NAN)

FDI investment in telecom sector boosted by 5G – NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said that increased 5G rollout and the expansion of the 4G network enhanced foreign direct investment into the telecommunications sector by 325.12 percent in 2022.

Data obtained from the NBS’ latest report showed that telecoms attracted $456.82 million in 2022, compared to $107.46 million in 2021.

This progress was due primarily to the attractive government policies and certainty in the return on investment despite difficult macroeconomic challenges.

Though telecoms recorded an increase in foreign investments in 2022, the total foreign investments in the country fell by 20.47 percent, or $1.37 billion, from $6.7 billion in 2021 to $5.33 billion in 2022.

Bank worker kills five co-workers in Louisville, Kentucky shooting

A 23-year-old bank employee armed with a rifle shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine other people at his workplace in Louisville on Monday while livestreaming the attack on social media, police said.

The gunman was fatally shot at the scene, Louisville police said. It was unclear whether he was slain by police or took his own life. The incident marked the latest in a long series of mass shootings in the U.S.

Louisville police identified the shooter as Connor Sturgeon, who joined the downtown branch of the Old National Bank as a full-time employee last year.

Police said they responded within minutes to reports of an attacker at about 8:30 a.m. at the bank office near Slugger Field baseball stadium.

Officers fired at the gunman, who was armed with a rifle, police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel told reporters. The attacker broadcast live video of his attack on social media, she said. (Reuters)