 A very good morning to you, you're welcome to the breakfast on PLOS TV Africa. My name is Brunette Paulson. It's Monday, the 5th of February 2024 and I'm sure you've had a great weekend, I want to believe, and you've pumped up for the week that is to come. Anyways, we're going to be having some hot topics, looking at what the national ladies are saying this morning, as well as some trending stories making headlines across Nigeria. But first, let's look at our quotes of the day to set the tone this morning. The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change and the realist adjusts the sales. And this is coming from William Arthur Wood, he's an American, well he's late now but he's an American motivational writer. And he says, the pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change and the realist just adjusts the sales. And that is our quote of the day, it's mindset Monday. So this is to change your mindset. Are you a pessimist? Are you an optimist? Or are you a realist? Stop complaining about the wind if you're a pessimist. Start to be optimistic about life. Think about how you can expect it to change because as we all know, time, the wind blows. So if you feel like the wind is not blowing in your direction right now, just be hopeful that it is going to blow into your direction really soon. And so you can be an optimist but you can also be a realist and try to adjust it wherever you think you need adjustment in your life. It could be self-development. You start to take those chances. You start to make those necessary adjustments to your life and take the opportunities as they come. And that is it for our quote of the day. We're going to move over to some top trending stories that have been making headlines in the country. And the first one says, EFCC recovers over 30 billion Naira from Humanitarian Ministry Looted Funds. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has recovered over 30 billion Naira from the World 37, 17855,753.44 Naira allegedly laundered in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs under the former minister, Sadia Omar Farouq. The commission had also reportedly uncovered over 500 million Naira from the scam associated with Omar Farouq's successor, Beta Edu, who was recently suspended by President Ballatino Boone. In December, 37,170,855,773.44 had been transferred from government coffers and sent to 38 different bank accounts domiciled in five legacy commercial banks belonging to or connected with a contractor, James Okwete. It was gathered on Friday that 30 billion Naira was recovered by the EFCC following the placement of a lien on the bank accounts of Omar Farouq and Okwete, who are still being grilled by the Antigraph's agency's investigators. The commission is also still grilling Edu in connection with an alleged 17 billion Naira fraud while the suspended coordinator of the National Social Investment Program, Halima Sheikou, is also still being questioned over an alleged 44 billion Naira fraud. In another development, the EFCC said it recovered a total of 756,658,370.5 between October 2023 and January 19, 2024. Details of the recovery were outlined in an EFCC document titled, Operations and Recoveries, which is exclusively obtained by our correspondent. The document revealed that in the period on the review, the EFCC recovered over 60 million, 969,047,634.25, about 10 million dollars, 150,000 pounds and 4,119.90 euros, also making it about over 70 billion. It added that the EFCC received a total of 3,325 petitions, excepted 2,657 of the petitions and secured the conviction of 747 percent for financial crimes ranging from the money laundering to internet fraud in the same period. A breakdown of the data shows that the EFCC headquarters alone recovered over 49,607,391,330.44 million Naira, 3,900,390,200.75 million dollars and 2,000 pounds, as well as 110 pounds. Within the same period, the agency secured the conviction of 747 percent for offenses ranging from money laundering to cyber crimes. However, the chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, at a dialogue in Abuja on Wednesday revealed that most of the 747 convictions also involve persons who were prosecuted for cyber crime offenses. Meanwhile, the commission said that it has deepened its probe into money laundering cases involving some high-profile public officials, especially former governors and ministers indicted for fraud. The total amount involved in the money laundering cases rose to around 130.1 billion Nairas of January 31, 2024. Details of the development were contained in an EFCC document titled 100 Days in Office, detailing ongoing probes, discoveries, and recoveries made by the commission under Ola Olukoyede. Now, I know this is a lot of numbers to wrap our head around, but why are we still talking about money laundering in this DNA, especially with the deepening economy that we have? We're seeing women, such as Sadia, such as Betayedu, commit all of these things, and it shouldn't be so. It shouldn't be in any way, because, I mean, if I think about the likes of Desyani, there's just that thing, and because I am a woman, so there's that thing that women go in there and we make a mess of these things, we make a mess of the opportunity. We've always said that we want women to sit at the table. Now, we're being seated at the table and we're making a mess of it. Please, we should just try as much as possible when you get into office. Make sure that you are doing the job that you're called for, you're not stealing, you're not laundering money, you're not doing anything that is illegal. And aside from being illegal, you should do your job. I mean, we're seeing women who have gone into offices, who have held positions, and they permit me to use the word killing it. They're doing their job in the best way that they can. We have likes of, obviously, we have likes of, even Chimamanda Aditya, we have likes of Leis Dora Kunili, we have likes of Stella Amadevo. You know, I can go on and on for the women that are, you know, really, really doing their jobs, honing their skills, and making Nigeria proud. And I think if we're saying that we want women seated on the table, we should go there and do what we're supposed to do and just make sure that, you know, everyone is proud of us and we have women the opportunity to take it, to ride in with it, and they're making us proud. All right, that's it for that story. Let's move over to another one. Driver killed as abducted Akiti Popio's teachers regain freedom. The Popio's and teachers of the Apostolic Faith Montessori School in Emore Akiti kidnapped on January 29th have regained their freedom. The school children were released earlier on Sunday. However, the driver who was also among the abductors was killed and burnt by the assailants. A senior police officer also confirmed the release of the victims and while the abductors had demanded 10 million dollars each before releasing 10 victims, he was silent on whether any ransom was paid. When asked about the driver, the officer said his charge remains were covered in the bush. The Akiti state government has also confirmed the release of the victims. The special advisor on media took the governor or line car or your body said the Popio's and their teachers were released on February 4 and brought to the Emore palace around 4 a.m. Describing their releases as timely, the Akiti state governor Beodun Oyebanji thanks president Balotinibu for his support that led to the rescue of the victims. The governor also restated the determination of his administration to stamp out crime and criminality from the state by making the environment unbearable for criminals operating under whatever guise. He stated that the killers of the two Akiti traditional rulers will be fished out and made to face the maximum weight of the law, urging people of the states to remain vigilant and report any suspicious movement in their communities to the authorities. Regarding the ceramic work, we're happy and we're glad that the Popio's students, the school children have been released however our house goes to the driver who was killed. It's quite sad and it's funny how this comes up almost every single time in our news, week in, week out we're talking about kidnapping we're talking about killings. This is quite sad and we just hope that things start to look better for in terms of security, especially because security is a huge part of our lives. It's only when you're secure that you know you can live a good fulfilled life and so we're just hoping that the necessary authorities starts to ramp up all the things that they need to be able to secure the lives and properties of Nigerians. Our heart goes to the families of the driver that was killed and we're also happy that these school children have been released and we're hoping that this incident will be a success. We're looking for a place where Nigeria will be safe for every single one of us. So our final top training story INEC suspends electoral officer in plateau over missing ballot papers. The independent and national electoral commission INEC has suspended the electoral officer for just not local government area Mr Fred Ogboji over missing ballot papers in Saturday's rerun election. This is contained in a statement Mr Issa Idako, the state head of department of electoral operations on behalf of the resident electoral commissioner REC on Sunday in JOS. He directed the electoral officer to step aside and give room for proper investigation. The news agency of Nigerian and reports that INEC on Saturday rescheduled election in 16 polling units of just not BASAR federal constituency following the discovery that some ballot papers were missing. Dr Oliver Agundo, the state INEC REC said in a statement that the election had been rescheduled for Sunday February 4 and Agundo said that voting would come in at 9.30 am and end at 3.30 pm. The REC stated that the commission had discovered at the eve of the rerun that the ballot papers for 16 polling units in just not BASAR federal constituency had gone missing. It said that the matter had been referred to the security agencies for investigation. And yes, that's the way to go. I love the fact that they are suspending. So if we hear things like this we need to swing into action. We need to investigate, suspend who needs to be suspended and just investigate more on the matters because we cannot be saying we are in a country that we do free and fair election and sometimes there are cases like this where ballot papers are missing. We are hearing cases where people are being bullied. We are hearing cases where thugs come in and at the end of the day you cannot even vote in a secured environment or you are not even sure if your vote is going to count and your vote should count. So I am happy to hear things like this. We are happy here to just get the wind of such things that whenever you break the law because missing ballot papers, if you are the electoral officer and the ballot papers are missing, that should raise an eyebrow. So if they are missing then we are asking you the questions and if you cannot provide the questions well, you have to be suspended till we investigate. Well, you provide the answers or we investigate more into the matter. And so yes, we are hoping that this is a new nightmare that we have been looking at. We have been looking for where our vote counts and we can have a free election. Alright, that is it for our top trending stories this morning. We will take a short break when we look at the weather and when we return we will look at what the national dailies are saying this morning. Stay with us.