The Nigerian Bar Association’s condemnation of the clampdown on EndSARS promoters by the federal government and the embargo placed on the bank accounts of some leading supporters of the #EndSARS protests was ordered by the Department of State Services are some of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.ThisDay reports that the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Olumide Akpata and an advocacy group, Access to Justice, have condemned the clampdown on EndSARS promoters by the federal government.

Akpata expressed displeasure at the federal government’s action against the leaders of the #EndSARS protesters.

The NBA president, in a post on his Facebook page, said the actions of the government were contrary to its earlier disposition.

Akpata wrote: “With all that’s going on in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests, lawyers are definitely not smiling! @djswitch has gone into hiding after receiving threatening phone calls, Moe Odele’s passport was seized and she has been prevented from travelling outside the country and Rinu Oduala and many others have had their accounts frozen by the CBN…this was not the deal.”

Access to Justice has also condemned the freezing of the bank accounts of 20 of the protest leaders by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The Vanguard says that fresh facts have emerged that the accounts of some leading supporters of the #EndSARS protests was the result of an instruction from the Department of State Services, DSS.

THEWILL gathered authoritatively that it was the DSS which ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to freeze the bank accounts of 19 persons and a firm found to be backing the protests.

The security service was also said to have directed the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, to stop several promoters of the protests from leaving or entering the country based on intelligence information that they were being used with or without their knowledge by both international and local conspirators to forcefully remove President Muhammadu Buhari from office.

Multiple sources familiar with the development said the DSS Director-General, Yusuf Magaji, who had been covertly monitoring the #EndSARS protests, advised the Presidency to immediately accede to the demands of the protesters because it got real-time intelligence that some unidentified persons had infiltrated them and wanted to use the protests to instigate the removal of the President from office.

The Guardian reports that Yoruba leaders, yesterday, told President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently make practical moves to return the country to true federalism to avert resurgence of the mayhem that characterised the recent #EndSARS protests and save the nation from disintegration.
At a meeting held in Lagos at the instance of President Buhari over the protests that started in Lagos and spread to other parts of the country, the Yoruba leaders also suggested ways the country can overcome some of the current challenges threatening its corporate existence.
The federal delegation comprised of the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari (leader); Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu; Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the Director General, Department of State Services (DSS), Alhaji Yusuf Magaji Bichi.
In the 13-points communiqué signed by Akeredolu and Ooni of Ife after the deliberations, the stakeholders stressed the need to adjust and overhaul the security architecture of the country to adequately address the threats and realities of insecurity. “There should be more police presence in communities in the Southwest states,” the leaders demanded.

The Punch says that the Kano Gezawa First Commodity and Exchange Market, established by the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmad Idiris, is to commence full operation with stock broker activities in the first quarter of 2021.
Speaking while receiving the Kano Concerned Citizens Initiatives headed by a former presidential candidate of the defunct National Republican Covention, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, the AGF said the market had already secured a licence for a Gallery for Stock Brokers and Operators.
He explained that the market was connected with Wi-Fi and was adequately integrating Information Technology in its operations, while Nigeria Customs Service, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, the Nigeria Import and Export Commission have monitoring desks in the market.
He said the market is to enjoy the status of a full Inland Dry Port vital organisations having offices there. Idris said over 2,500 persons would be employed as workers at the market, adding that already, over 500 persons including women and youths worked there.
The Sun reports that as normalcy gradually returned after the orgy of violence that trailed the EndSARS protests in parts of the country, residents and governments of the five South East States are still counting their losses.
The business community in the zone is still groaning over difficulties in accessing banking services in Aba, Enugu, Abakaliki and Nnewi as commercial bank branches attacked by the hoodlums are yet to reopen, while others offer only skeletal services.
Banks’ buildings and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) had attracted special attention of the miscreants who in turn looted and vandalised them.
This was as traditional rulers of Aba na Ohazu and the indigenous people of Aba South Local Government Area of Abia State, who recently toured some of the sites destroyed by hoodlums in Aba with other stakeholders, including women and youth leaders lamented the wanton destruction in the area.
The group put the property destroyed at the Aba Town Hall Complex which served as secretariat of Aba South Local Government Council at over N1billion. Similarly, the Abia State Fire Service in Aba said that its equipment worth N400million was destroyed by the hoodlums.

The Nation reports that Japaul Gold and Ventures has signed an agreement with Xiang Hui International Mining Company Nigeria to drill, mine and process gold in the country.
At the signing ceremony in Lagos, Group Chairman, Japaul Gold and Ventures Plc, Mr. Jegede Paul said the deal involves the Chinese company officials working on its sites in Benue, Taraba, Osun and Niger states.
He said his company had been drilling and exploiting gold and other mineral resources with the supervision of a Canadian company.
According to him, having met all regulatory requirements by the government, the company will start operations immediately.
He explained that the company has 12 sites across the country, adding that while drilling could take more than a year, mining takes over after that.