With less than two months to the end of the year, President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) has sent a supplementary appropriation bill for the 2015 fiscal year to the Senate for approval. A letter conveying the president’s request, which was read Wednesday, during plenary, by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, requested the Senate’s approval to borrow the sum of N2.10 trillion to finance the budget. According to President Buhari, the N882 billion loan earlier proposed by the immediate past Goodluck Jonathan government to finance the budget had to be raised to N2.10 trillion, due to emerging realities in the country. The…
Author: Wale Adebayo
The Court of Appeal, Makurdi Division, on Wednesday dismissed the appeal filed by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State during the last elections, Terhemen Tarzoor, challenging the judgment of the Justice Elizabeth Karatu led governorship Elections Petition Tribunal in Makurdi. The Tribunal had about two months ago dismissed Tarzoor’s petition for lack of merit. At its ruling Wednesday, the five man panel of emninent jurists led by Justice Mohammed Garuba, upheld the decision of the trial court, insisting that the appellant failed to prove before Tribunal that Samuel Ortom was not properly nominated by his…
Mr Abdullahi Muhammadu, Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), has ordered the deployment of 5,000 personnel and sniffer dogs for the Kogi governorship election. This is contained in a statement by the NSCDC spokesman, Mr Emmanuel Okeh, and made available to newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday. The statement said this was in line with the NSCDC mandate of providing security before, during and after elections. It said the NSCDC also had the mandate to monitor activities of political parties as well as political actors through surveillance and intelligence gathering. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the…
As the fuel scarcity continues to persist with no solution in sight, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to take urgent steps to put an end to what it called the “mass suffering” of Nigerians. The NLC said no group of cartel, no matter how powerful, should be allowed to box government into a corner, to do its bidding. In a press statement entitled: “Fuel Scarcity: Mr. President, Please Stop Mass Suffering of Nigerians”, the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said a situation where a few individuals hoarding petroleum products with a view to arm-twisting government…
The immediate past National Publicity Secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has asked a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja to stop the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spokesperson, Chief Olisa Metuh, from further making “libelous” statements against him. The former APC spokesperson, who made the plea through his counsel, Wahab Shittu, prayed Justice Toyin Ipaye to grant his prayer as a matter of urgency. Mohammed, who is now the Minister of Information, had on October 12, 2015 filed a N500 million suit against Metuh before the court, alleging that the PDP spokesperson defamed him in a statement…
As controversy rages over the management of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Alhaji Ahmed Idris, has denied having any knowledge of the contract signed between the Federal Government and SystemSpecs, the owners of the Remita e-payment solution that has been deployed to process transactions of the TSA. He also denied knowledge of the one per cent commission that was agreed in the contract to pay the software developers for their platform. Alhjai Idris, who made this known on Tuesday while speaking to some reporters in his office in Abuja, said Remita is unknown…
The immediate past Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, has been ordered to present himself before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions unfailingly next Tuesday, November 24. The order is sequel to the ex-EFCC boss’ absence at the committee’s sitting probing allegations that Lamorde diverted the sum of N1 trillion, being proceeds of assets and looted funds recovered from corrupt public officials. Mr. Festus Keyamo, who stood in for Lamorde yesterday at the Senate committee’s hearing, pleaded that his client would not be available until December 15 as he was abroad…
As more politicians move in their numbers to join the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), the party’s national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has denied allegations that the APC plans on establishing a one-party state. Chief Oyegun made the clarification yesterday at the APC national secretariat in Abuja when some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Anambra State, including the party’s candidate in the last governorship election, Mr Tony Nwoye, expressed readiness to defect to the governing party. The APC chair attributed the cause of challenges facing the country to bad governance, saying the manifestation of the so-called Biafra,…
Power supplied to electricity distribution companies (DisCos) from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) last Sunday dropped to 3,682 megawatts (Mw), this is according to power statistics posted on the website of the Federal Ministry of Power on Tuesday. The power statistics showed that the TCN shed 372Mw from the 4,054.07Mw of November 11. During the period under review, the electricity generation companies (GenCos) also generated 3,754.96Mw but the TCN recorded 72.64Mw spinning reserve. The statistics also showed that power generation in the period under review dropped by 383.4Mw from the 4,138.36Mw generated on November 11. However, the electricity market…
The Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu yesterday, revealed how he escaped an assassination attempt on his life by a hair’s breath. In a statement by his media aide, Uche Anichukwu, the deputy president of the Senate said the assassination attempt occurred at about 10:00am between Apo Flyover and Dantata Construction Company’s yard, close to the Old Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Headquarters junction while en route the National Assembly. He said the suspected assassins carried out the attack in an unmarked, tinted, brand new, white-coloured Mercedez Benz AMG E63 and were driven by a man who appeared to…
President Muhammdu Buhari (PMB), Tuesday night, ordered the arrest of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (Rtd), for allegedly siphoning billions of dollars earmarked for arms purchases. According to Buhari, the actions of the erstwhile NSA brought the nation to international ridicule as the failure to procure the arms incapacitated the military in the face of the insurgency orchestrated by the Boko Haram sect. The president also ordered the arrest of several others who were found culpable in the saga. The order came following the release of the interim report by the presidential committee investigating arms procurement,…
Women from across Edo State under the aegis of Concerned Edo Women on Tuesday took to the streets of Benin to protest against the recent outburst by the Edo state governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on the Esama of Benin kingdom and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain, Chief Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion. The women who were half-unclad, with red attires on the covered parts of their bodies, expressed their displeasure and sadness over what they described as ‘disrespectful utterances by the governor on the Benin chief and father of the erstwhile governor of the state. They alleged that the insults meted on…
No fewer than than 30 people were killed on Tuesday when a bomb blast hit packed crowds in Yola, northeast Nigeria, just days after President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) visited and declared that Boko Haram were close to defeat. The explosion happened at about 8:20 pm in the Jambutu area of the Adamawa state capital. “So far, we’ve recorded about 32 dead and about 80 injured,” said Sa’ad Bello, the Yola coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). The Red Cross and the Police said 31 people died and 72 were injured. Red Cross official Aliyu Maikano and residents said…
With barely four days left to the Kogi governorship election, members of Senator Smart Adeyemi’s political organisation and notable Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftains in Okunland have defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Leading the defectors in an elaborate ceremony held on Monday in Iyara, headquarters of Ijumu Local Government Area, was Fehinti Dada, director-general of the organisation and former chairman of the council. Receiving the defectors, the APC standard bearer, Abubakar Audu, commended their courage, saying the wind of change spreading across the country had finally come to Kogi. He urged them to bring their wealth of experience…
The ethnic nationalities of the South- South geo-political zone, yesterday, denounced demands for Biafra by Igbo in the South-East zone and called for an immediate cessation of pro-Biafra protests on their soil. In a 10-point communique issued at Uyo at the end of a meeting held under the auspices of the Conference of Ethnic Nationalities of the South-South at Uyo, Akwa Ibom state, chaired by HRM, Obong (Dr) EU Ekidem, Ntisong Ibibio III, the Ntisong of Ibibio land, they dissociated the South-South zone from the “so-called Biafra.” Representatives of Ibibio, Efik, Anang, Ijaw, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Ikwerre, Oro, Isoko and several…
President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) said that Nigeria could not afford to continue importing rice and other food items which it has the capacity to produce in commercial quantities. He stressed that the diversification of the economy was a necessity. Speaking, Tuesday, in Birnin Kebbi, while launching the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme and the commencement of the dry season farming in the state, Buhari stated that the dwindling oil prices in the international market has made it compulsory for his government to diversify the economy and intensify effort at reinvigorating agriculture. “The importance of agriculture in the…
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, on Tuesday highlighted steps that should be taken by the Federal Government to tackle the scourge of terrorism in the country. The Sultan explained that part of the steps include rebuilding the socio-economic life of citizens, particularly those living in Northeast, where the Boko Haram terrorism thrives. Abubakar said this in his address after he was installed as the Chancellor of the University of Ibadan during the institution’s 67th Foundation Day in Ibadan, Oyo State on Tuesday. Reeling out staggering statistics on the deplorable state of socio-economic life in the North as a…
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Tuesday said that President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) had shown that Nigeria had the capacity to join the “big league” of nations. He stated this in Abuja during an interaction with the directors and heads of units in the ministry. According to Mr. Mohammed, President Buhari had leveraged his legendary personality, discipline, transparency, integrity, belief in the Rule of Law, and patriotism to put the country on the global map. “Since assuming office, President Buhari, the driver of change, has shown and demonstrated that Nigeria can join the big league”, he…
The Jigawa Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, on Tuesday said it had raided “depots” used by illegal petrol hawkers in Dutse, the capital of Jigawa State. NSCDC said in a statement in Dutse by its commandant, Muhammad Gidado, that the raid was carried out by the command’s Special Task Force on Illegal Fuel Hawking, on November 13. He explained the raid was carried out after the office received intelligence reports on activities of the hawkers. According to him, the raid was part of the command’s resolve to clamp down on illegal petrol sellers in Dutse.…
The Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) Leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, yesterday, stressed the need for members of the group to remain steadfast and focused in the revolutionary struggle. Uwazuruike pointed out that the non-violent approach adopted by MASSOB in its agitation for Biafra had started to give the ‘so-called’ pan northern socio-cultural group, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Nigerian military sleepless nights. The MASSOB leader insisted that there was no going back in his group’s demand for Biafra, now or never, saying he was not in the struggle for himself but for his own…