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President Trump acknowledged the end of his first term as president early Thursday morning saying there would be an “orderly transition of power” on Jan. 20 minutes after Congress formally certified the Electoral College votes in favor of President-elect Joe Biden.

Trump’s statement was shared through the Twitter account of senior aide Dan Scavino. Facebook and Twitter temporarily suspended Trump out of his account after he posted about a pro-Trump mob that overran the Capitol on Wednesday.

“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our… fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”

The message came just before 4 a.m. on Thursday, minutes after lawmakers formally tabulated the Electoral College votes. The certification dragged into the early morning after the process was interrupted just an hour into debate on Wednesday when Trump supporters breached the Capitol.

Earlier in the day, Trump told the crowd of supporters he would “never concede” and had put pressure on Republicans to challenge the election certification.

But the president has faced pressure to both concede and commit to a peaceful transfer of power, including from members of his own party.

On Wednesday, following the violent scenes at the Capitol Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) called on Trump to concede, saying he should “quit misleading” the American people.

“It’s past time for the president to accept the results of the election, quit misleading the American people, and repudiate mob violence,” Cotton said in a statement Wednesday evening, before the election was certified by Congress.

Trump’s multiple attacks on the integrity of the election, which officials have repeatedly denied and which have been rejected in court, were linked on Wednesday to the chaos at the Capitol.

The Hill

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has dismissed fears of mass disconnection of telephone subscribers as a result of the ongoing linkage of SIM Registration Records with the National Identity Number, NIN.

The Commission in a statement by the Director, Public Affairs, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, said there was no need for such fears as the ongoing exercise was part of efforts to enhance “our general safety and to help in such vital exercises like national budgeting, policy planning, social Intervention programmes and many more.”

The commission was reacting to a numerous publications which created fears that the ongoing linkage of SIM Registration Records with NIN would lead to mass disconnection of telephone subscribers.

According to NCC, “The attention of NCC has been drawn to numerous publications in both print and electronic media regarding the unfounded fears of mass disconnection of telephone subscribers as a result of the ongoing linkage of SIM Registration Records with NIN.

“It is therefore, necessary for the commission to issue this clarification in order to allay the fears of subscribers and the general public.

“Most of these publications are based on the erroneous assumption that for every network or SIM connection, there is one unique human subscriber.

“However, with the advent of social media and App-driven digital environment, network subscription went beyond human subscribers to include machines like PoS, Routers, Wi-Fi devices, electricity meters, CCTV, tracking devices etc.

“A recent survey conducted in Nigeria has shown that on average, there are now approximately four to five SIMs to every human subscriber. This explains the basis of allowing the linkage of up to seven SIMs to on unique NIN in the recently launched Federal Government Portal.

“Thus, if there are 43 million Nigerians with NINs, this could account for about 172 million SIMs already linked to NINs.

“It is very important to emphasize that the current exercise of linking NIN to SIM(s) is for the common good of all Nigerians, as it has far reaching benefits.

“Apart from enhancing our general safety, this will help in such vital exercises like national budgeting, policy planning, social intervention programmes and many more.

“The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy has assured that the government will continue to review the exercise in the light of experiences to ensure its smooth implementation.”

It called on all our media partners, publishers and reporters to always endeavour to seek clarification from the Commission before going to the press, especially on sensitive issues.

Vanguard

President Donald Trump has called on his supporters who ‘lay siege’ to the Capitol Building where Congress men were counting the Electoral College ballots on Wednesday.

The President made the call following a clash between his supporters and the police after they were denied access to the building in a bid to allow the lawmakers to carry out their statutory responsibility.

The Arise Foundation for Women, Youth and Family Development, in collaboration with Aderoju Ayoade Adekanmbi Foundation, has empowered over 100 youths with cash gifts and over 100 children with educational materials and uniforms in Lagos and Oyo states.

The intervention, tagged “#EndSARS with cash funds to do business,” had over 100 youths that participated in the 12-day October nationwide protests as beneficiaries.

They were given N10,000 each and over 100 children were given N10,000 to buy educational materials and uniforms for schools.

Speaking at the event, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arise Foundation for Women, Youth and Family Development, Mrs. Joke Akinseye, said empowering the youths accelerates the economic growth and continuous development of a nation.

She noted that what motivated her work in the community was her background, having lived in the UK for over two decades which operate a welfare system.

She said in the UK, the poor in the society are looked after by the government or charity organisations to ensure they live a better life.

She stated that with this background, she believes in assisting the downtrodden to be lifted up.

According to her, “what operates in the UK is exactly what I am practising here in Nigeria. In the UK, no one can say they have no food to eat, or not educated for lack of money.

“If you want to do business, you have assistance, and also in whatever career you choose to go with.”

The Arise Foundation Founder added that many of the youths in Nigeria are unemployed and that this is sad because they are the future of Nigeria.

In the UK, we have youths that cause disruptions or antisocial behaviour because they wanted attention, such youth needed love and caring.

Vanguard

The Federal government will be borrowing from Nigerians unclaimed dividends and bank account balances unattended to for at least six years.

This is according to the provisions in the Finance Act 2020 recently signed into law by President Buhari. The remitted funds will be available as special credit to the federal government through the Unclaimed Funds Trust Fund.

The Finance Act reads in part;

“Any unclaimed dividend of a public limited liability company quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and any unutilised amounts in a dormant bank account maintained in or by a deposit money bank which has remained unclaimed or unutilised for a period of not less than six years from the date of declaring the dividend or domiciling the funds in a bank account shall be transferred immediately to the trust fund”

The act exempts official bank accounts owned by the federal government, state government or local governments or any of their ministries, departments or agencies.

According to the act, the monies transferred to the trust fund will be a “special debt owed by the federal government to shareholders and dormant bank account holders”. It also states that the original owners of the money can claim their money at any time.

The act stipulates that the operation of the trust fund will be supervised by the Debt Management Office (DMO) and governed by a governing council chaired by the finance minister and a co-chairperson from the private sector appointed by the president.

Other members of the governing council shall include the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), managing director of the National Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), a representative of the registrars of companies, two representatives of the shareholders’ association, a representative of the Bankers’ Committee and the director-general of the Debt Management Office as the secretary of the trust fund.

According to financial experts, this move will make needed funds available to the federal government without foreign exchange worries or conditions attached.