Former Military Administration of Oyo State, Mr. Edore Oyakhire, has condoled with the Oba of Benin, Omo Erediauwa, over the death of his wife, Queen Esther, saying that the deceased was pivotal to the growth of Edo State. . Oyakhire in statement said the late Queen lived, worked and died for Nigeria. . His words, “The sudden death of our Queen, Esther, brought severe pains and great sorrows to us. Sadly, this came at a time when Nigerians, the Edos and more specifically the Binis could hardly afford to dispense with the vital services of their amiable best particularly in…
Author: David F.
Rivers State Government has dismissed allegation that it was broke. State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, said the state had continued to meet its financial obligations despite the shortfall in its allocation from the Federation Account. . Meantime, a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has insisted in a statement, that the state was broke. . State Chairman of the party, Mr Felix Obuah, speaking through his media aide, Mr Jerry Needam, said the state image maker, Mrs. Semenitari was merely putting up brazen denial on the issue. . The party said that the alleged lean…
Ex-Militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemukpolo, also known as Tompolo, has denied reports that he hijacked contracts from the Nigeria Maritime Safety and Administration, NIMASA, to build a maritime university in Okerenkoko, Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State. . In a protest letter to President Goodluck Jonathan on the matter, a group, the Okerenkoko Federated National Development Forum, ONDF, had accused Tompolo of assuming supremacy and sidelining other leaders, over who benefits from contract opportunities coming to the oil bearing Ijaw communities. . In the letter, the group accused Tompolo and his cronies of hijacking the construction of…
Elder statesman and one of the founding fathers of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Abu King Shuluwa has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to declare his intention over the 2015 elections to save the party from further crisis. . Shuluwa observed that the crisis bedevilling the party had direct links with the general perception that Jonathan would run for a second term in office. . He spoke to journalists, weekend, in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, adding that “whether we like it or not, the exit of Alhaji Bamaga Tukur as the Chairman of the PDP will not reduce…
Elder statesman and one of the founding fathers of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Abu King Shuluwa has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to declare his intention over the 2015 elections to save the party from further crisis. . Shuluwa observed that the crisis bedevilling the party had direct links with the general perception that Jonathan would run for a second term in office. . He spoke to journalists, weekend, in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, adding that “whether we like it or not, the exit of Alhaji Bamaga Tukur as the Chairman of the PDP will not reduce…
Oil marketers, yesterday, warned of an impending scarcity of fuel in the country from Friday, as Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, said their stock was fast depleting. . This followed the failure of the Federal Government to settle them their outstanding subsidy claims, totaling about N120 billion for the third and fourth quarters of 2013. . Speaking with newsmen in Lagos, the Executive Secretary of MOMAN, Mr. Obafemi Olawore appealed to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA to release the import allocation for the first quarter of 2014, explaining that its members currently have 45,000 metric tons…
Rivers State governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi and former Minister of External Affairs, Chief Tom Ikimi, have been nominated by the national leadership of All Progressives Congress, APC, to resolve the crisis rocking the party in Bayelsa State. . Also on the peace committee are the South-South members of the interim committee of the party, including the former National Youth Leader of Action Congress of Nigeria, Ebikibina Miriki. . The party has been locked in factional crisis in the state, leading to the setting up of parallel state secretariats in the state by loyalists of the former state governor, Chief Timipre…
As President Goodluck Jonathan prepares for his re- election next year, Kano State Governor, Dr. Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso has warned that Jonathan is not qualified to contest for presidency in 2015. . According to the governor, any attempt by Jonathan to run in the next poll will amount to a third term in office, which is not acceptable to most Nigerians. . Kwankwaso, who spoke to journalists in Abuja, yesterday, advised President Jonathan to take urgent steps to solve the raging insecurity challenges in the North-East and stabilise the Nigerian economy and take a bow from governance in 2015, when…
Share holders of Mass Telecommunication Innovation, MTI, Plc have petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, over the involvement of some of its former directors in the fraudulent appropriation, distribution and utilisation of the company’s funds raised from the capital market. . According to the written petition from the shareholders, “between March and April 2008, after obtaining the consent of the SEC, MTI had a private placement to raise funds for the purpose of implementing its business development and expansion programme, improvement in information technology infrastructure, staff development and working capital as stated in the offer document. . “The sum…
Electricity supply in Nigeria, worsened in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2013, at the peak of the privatisation process, power poll results just released by NOIPolls Limited have shown. . The report said that although power supply to households worsened in Q4, nevertheless, majority of Nigerians (70 percent) were hopeful about the ongoing reform in the power sector. . The report also said that an average of 46 percent of Nigerians received between 1-4 hours of continuous power supply daily, while 17 percent said they have received absolutely “No Light” in their households. . The Poll however, noted that in…
For fears that they might be members of the dreaded Boko Haram, Imo State government, weekend, sent back to Katsina about 84 persons. . The deportees, mainly youths, had been in Imo State for eight days under-going skill acquisition training when the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state raised an alarm that they might be Boko Haram insurgents. . The young Muslims, who had spent about eight days in the state, were quartered in the premises of Imo Newspapers Limited, on Egbu Road, Owerri, which is now renamed “Imo College of Advanced Professional Studies, ICAPS.” . A security man…
The Apex Igbo Socio-cultural Group, the Ohaneze Ndigbo yesterday succeeded in pressurising the former governor of Abia State and former presidential candidate of Progressive peoples Alliance, PPA, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu to shelve his Presidential ambition for 2015 general elections. . Kalu on Monday – after an intense pressure from the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze NdIgbo that lasted for six months – announced his total withdrawal from the 2015 race in his Abuja home, following an extensive meeting with the leadership of Ohaneze Ndigbo led by the president general worldwide, of the association, Gary Nnachi Enwo- Igariwey. . He…
President Goodluck Jonathan is to pay a 1- day visit to Adamawa State today. . As he arrives, Jonathan is expected to commission a number of projects undertaken by the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, under the then Chief of Air Staff, CAS, now Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, Air Marshal Alex Badeh. . Among the projects to be commissioned are the NAF Comprehensive Secondary School located in the state capital and the Terminal Building of the Yola International Airport. . Security has been beefed up in the state which had been under emergency rule since May last year, even as…
After being questioned for close to fifteen hours at Department of State Services, (DSS) Malam Nasir el- Rufai, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, who on Tuesday willing surrendered to the DSS regained his freedom. . El-Rufai, the current Interim Deputy National Secretary of the nation’s leading opposition party, All Progressives Congress, APC, was driven on Tuesday by Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, to the national headquarters of the security outfit at about 9.15a.m. in an ash-coloured Mercedes Sports Utility Vehicle was released at about midnight on Monday to go home. . The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday…
The federal government is to resolve pension terminal benefits issues of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, workers in the next two weeks. . The Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, said in Abuja, weekend, that its officials would commence a tour of designated centres across the country beginning Wednesday, this week to address residual issues related to the settlement of the terminal benefits of the workers. . The bureau said: “This is in line with the Bureau’s determination to ensure that all residual issues related to the settlement of the terminal benefits of staff of the defunct PHCN are…
What could be termed a graveyard peace returned to public health institutions, weekend, following the end of the three-day warning strike called by the Joint Health Sector Unions, JOHESU, on Friday last week. . The union leaders have vowed not to enter into any new agreement with government. . Meanwhile, peace remains elusive at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Idi Araba, Lagos as health workers are still at loggerheads with the institution’s management. . Reacting to the outcome of the strike in a telephone chat with Vanguard yesterday, Chairman, Federal Area Council, Lagos, Mr. Stephen Ibe said the three-…
Employers in the nation’s construction industry are today meeting leaders of the National Union of Civil Engineering, Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers, NUCECFWW, to avoid a shut down of the sector by the workers. . The union, last week issued a seven-day ultimatum to all the construction companies in the country to end alleged protracted negotiation on improved welfare for workers and other working conditions or the entire industry would be shut this week. . The union in a letter to the employers’ body under the umbrella of the Federation of Construction Industry, FOCI, dated January 20, 2014, accused the…
Victims of police demolition exercise in Lagos have dragged the Attorney-General of the Federation, Inspector General of Police, Commissioner of Police, Lagos State and the Ministry of Police Affairs to the Federal High Court in a N100 billion suit over the violation of their fundamental human rights. . Also joined as respondents were: Attorney-General of Lagos State, Lagos State Taskforce on Environment and Special Offences Unit, Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Lagos State Lands Bureau and Area Commander, Area K Police command. . The Nigerian Police Force on December 16, last year demolished 1,500 structures erected…
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, weekend, urged leaders at all levels to seek for knowledge on leadership. . Abubakar said this at the launching of a book entitled, “Leadership in Islam,” written by Alhaji Modibbo Ibrahim. . Abubakar, who was represented by Alhaji Isma’il Abubakar, District head of Gumbi, said, “it is very necessary for the leaders to seek for knowledge for that will give them the right way of leading the society. . “The main frame of any society is the quality of their leaders and it can only be achieved by leaders that have good knowledge…
Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, yesterday, called on the Ogoni people to declare one- day fasting for God to make the Federal Government to release one billion dollars (N170 billion) from the 49.8 billion dollars allegedly missing for the implementation of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Report on Ogoni. . The governor, who spoke in Bori, Khana local government area during the inauguration of the local government executive of Save Rivers Movement, a pro-All Progressive Congress (APC) group, flayed the delay on the part of the Federal Government to release the money for the clean up of oil…