Seven suspects have been arrested in Yobe in connection with a case of burglary and theft, says state police spokesman Dungus Abdulkarim.

Mr Abdulkarim said in a statement on Friday in Damaturu that the suspects specialised in house breaking.

According to him, they were arrested from different parts of the state following complaints from communities on incessant burglary, theft and other related crimes.

All the suspects have confessed to the crime and led the police to recover some stolen properties from different locations.

Mr Abdukarim added that a number of people who bought the stolen properties have been arrested.

Listed among the items recovered include foodstuffs, television sets, power generators, wrappers, blankets, mobile phones, receivers, gas cooker, carpets among others.

“The command advises the general public to be conscious of buying items from suspicious sources,” the police spokesman said

Mr Abdukarim said all the suspects would be charged to court after the completion of investigation.

He assured that the Police would not relent in the effort to flush out criminals from the state and sought citizens’ support.

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, says he will lead Nigeria out of darkness if elected in 2023.

He was reacting to the industrial action embarked upon by electricity workers on Wednesday, which led to the shut down of major power stations.

Power supply was however restored after the workers agreed to suspend the strike for two weeks, yielding to the federal government’s pleas.

In a series of tweets, the former Vice President said his solution to Nigeria’s electricity crisis is most proactive.

He claimed that his policy was aimed at attracting optimal investments in the power sector.

Abubakar said he would remove electricity production from the exclusive list and give it to states.

“Having keenly observed developments in the power sector within the last 24 hours, I am again convinced that my solution to the electricity crisis, as encapsulated in my policy document, ‘my covenant with Nigerians’, remains the most proactive plan to lead Nigeria out of darkness.

“In this regard, my approach is to first remove the entire electricity value chain from the exclusive list and give states the power to generate, transmit and distribute electricity for themselves.

“An industrial dispute with the FG in Abuja should not affect an industry in Lagos or a factory in Aba or in Kano or even an average Nigerian who just wants to get home, watch the news and sleep under a ceiling fan,” he wrote.

The Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said the federal government is spending N18.397bn daily on fuel subsidy and putting the country in dire financial stress.

Nigeria must at a point take the painful decision of jettisoning the fuel subsidy.

She disclosed this on Thursday while answering questions from members of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc committee investigating the petroleum products subsidy regime in the country.

She said, “For 2023, the projection is that the average daily truck out will be N64.96 million litres per day; that is about 65 million per day, using an average rate at the open market rate of N448.20k and then a regulator pump price of N165 per litre. This gives us an average under-recovery i.e. the difference between N165 and N448 of N283.2k.

“So, just multiply the amount of litre per day, the open market exchange rate of naira to the dollar and then, the gap between the pump price and open market price, the total amount of subsidy per day is N18.397bn.

“So, if you are projecting for the full year, from January to December, it will be N6.715tn. If you are projecting for half a year, it will be 50 per cent of that, 3.375tn.”

She said that the ministry had consulted with the leadership of the National Assembly and had submitted the draft Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (M-TEF) for 2023 to 2025, took some inputs and went to the National Economic Council (NEC) and the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

Ahmed added that the FEC had approved the M-TEF and the president had conveyed the M-TEF to the National Assembly.

At the hearing, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami, explained that its role was purely the collection of revenue for the government and not keeping records of how the monies were expended.

However, the chairman of the ad-hoc committee, Ibrahim Almustapha Aliyu, and members questioned the rationale behind the subsidy regime as well as payments and funds withdrawal from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) and Excess Crude Account to fund subsidy.