Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State has ordered the immediate closure of two churches, a seminary and a church-owned hospitals and secondary school all in Saminaka, Lere Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
He said the closure was to avoid the eruption of violence among factions of the congregations whose leaderships’ positions he described as, “principally to preserve their personal interests with little concern for the common good, and the peace and security of Kaduna State”.
A statement on behalf of the governor sign by his spokesman, Samuel Aruwan Wednesday in Kaduna named the affected bodies as: Theological Seminary of Northern Nigeria, (TSNN), Shalom Comprehensive College, Assemblies of God Church, AGC, Nmbare all in Saminaka. The rest are: Assemblies of God Church (Jerusalem) and AGC Evangelist Hospital, also in Saminaka:
Reads the statement: “The Kaduna State Security Council at its 15th meeting, held on the 15th September, 2015, deliberated on the leadership crisis in the Assemblies of God Church, AGC, Saminaka District, Lere local government area of the state.
“The council discussed this matter in the context of preventing threats to the peace and stability of the State.
“The Council noted that the leadership crisis has led to disintegration of order in the church, and raised tensions between the followers of the rival camps.
The crisis has also widened to the students of the church-owned school and seminary, who are now split and divided on factional lines.
“The Council reviewed previous efforts made to resolve the crisis. It noted that these were aborted by those involved in the leadership tussle, principally to preserve their personal interests with little concern for the common good, and the peace and security of Kaduna State.
“The Council unanimously agreed that if left unchecked, the growing tension may degenerate into total breakdown of law and order in the said area, with the potential to spread to other parts of the state.
“Therefore, the Council has taken steps to preserve the peace. It has unanimously directed the immediate closure of the following:
“Theological Seminary of Northern Nigeria, (TSNN) Saminaka. Shalom Comprehensive College, Saminaka Assemblies of God Church, Nmbare, Saminaka and Assemblies of God Church (Jerusalem) Saminaka AGC Evangelist Hospital, Saminaka
“As a result of these measures, those who may be affected will be admitted into government schools or hospitals, if they exercise the option.
“The Council also directed that the status quo with regard to farmlands, houses and other assets of the church be upheld pending resolution of the leadership crisis, which is a matter before the Supreme Court.
“Kaduna State Government wishes to reiterate that it will not tolerate the use of religion and ethnicity to cause crisis in the state.
“The government has also announced that it will prosecute anyone, no matter his or her standing, that is implicated in fomenting crisis in whatever form in the State”, the statement concluded.
VANGUARD
The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed banks to ensure to resolve all Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cardholders’ complaints within a maximum of 72 hours from the date of receipt the complaints or face sanctions. This is contained in a new set of rules to guide transactions, going forward. Where records are falsified by any party, the CBN warns that adequate sanctions shall apply.
In an exposure draft on the standards and guidelines on electronic channels operations in Nigeria, signed Dipo Fatokun, its Director Banking and Payments System Department, the CBN also directed banks or independent organizations that deploy ATM for the use of the public to ensure that the ATM vault replenishment must be carried out as often as possible to avoid cash-out.
They are also to ensure that ATMs are not stocked with unfit notes and that cash is available in the machines at all time.
The CBN also warned that the ATM downtime (due to technical fault) must not be more than seventy-two (72) hours consecutively.
It added however, that where this is not practicable, customers shall be duly informed by the deployer.
They are also to ensure that the helpdesk contacts are adequately displayed at the ATM terminals.
It warned that at the minimum, a telephone line should be dedicated for fault reporting and such telephone line shall be functional and manned at all times that the ATM is operational.
Also, all ATM charges must be fully disclosed to customers, the CBN insists in the new rules.
The apex bank said that there must be appropriate monitoring mechanism to determine failure to dispense cash; and that there is online monitoring mechanism to determine ATM vault cash levels.
“Penalties Sanctions, in the form of monetary penalties / or suspension of the acquiring/processing service (s) or both, would be imposed on erring institutions for failure to comply with any of the provisions of the ATM standards and guidelines or any other relevant guidelines issued by the CBN from time to time,” the apex bank warned.
The funding and operation of the ATM deployed by non-bank institutions should be the sole responsibility of the bank or institutions that entered into agreement with them for cash provisioning and in this regard, the Service Level Agreement (SLA) should specify the responsibilities of each of the parties.
The CBN rules noted that Change of PIN must be provided to customers free of charge throughout the entire value chain, while acquirers monitor suspicious transactions and report statistics to CBN based on the agreed format and timeframe.
Back-up power (inverter) is made available at all ATM locations in such a way that the machine would not cease operation while in the middle of a transaction, the CBN said, adding that Waste disposal basket must be provided at all ATM locations.
A register of all their ATMs in Nigeria with location, identification, serial number of the machines, etc must also be maintained, going forward.
For security reasons, every ATM is required to have cameras which would view and record all ATM Security. “However, such cameras should not be able to record the key strokes of customers using the ATM,” the CBN further noted in the statement pasted on its website.
The CBN now requires any institution which operates an ATM to file an updated list of such machines, including the detail location of their addresses with its Banking & Payments System Department for compliance monitoring.
The CBN also disclosed that it will conduct onsite snap checking of ATMs with a view to ensuring compliance with cash and service availability at the ATMs, as it directed acquirers to report volume and value of transactions on monthly basis to its Director, Banking & Payments System Department.
