Politics
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Abia government intercepts trucks bringing 26 people
Abia State Government says it intercepted 26 people hidden in two trucks coming into the state. The Commissioner for Homeland Security, Dan Okoli, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Aba on Thursday. He said the 26 persons were concealed in two trucks that belonged to a Nigerian multi-industry company. Okoli said the interception took place at Ariam Community, a boundary town between Akwa-Ibom and Abia, in Ikwuano Local Government Area of the state. He said the 26 people were later moved into another vehicle and sent back to where they were coming from. He debunked stories making the rounds that Abia boundaries were porous and that people were freely coming in and going out. Okoli said that it took the painstaking surveillance by security personnel to intercept the 26 persons. H...
Nigeria drags Kase Lawal to court over $35 million debt
Nigeria has sued an oil exploration production company, ALLIED ENERGY PLC, owned by Texas-based billionaire Kase Luqmon Lawal to demand $35.7 million debt. The suit was filed at a Federal high Court in Lagos by the oil minister, which is President Muhammadu Buhari. The amount in question was for royalty on oil and gas production, concession rental and gas flaring penalty. In a statement of claim, assistant director, planning Division of the Department of petroleum resources Efe Bassey, alleged that Allied Energy PLC in receivership, in the course of it’s mainstream business, applied for and was granted an oil mining lease number 120(OML120) and oil mining lease number 121(OML121) for the exploration and production of petroleum oil and gas assets. Upon the grant of the aforesaid OMLS by min...
Yaya Toure backs Didier Drogba’s bid for Ivorian FA presidency
Getty Images Yaya Toure is backing former Ivory Coast team-mate Didier Drogba’s bid to become president of the Ivorian Football Association (FIF). The Chelsea legend announced he would be running for the post in September 2019, though his campaign took a major hit at the end of April. In a recent vote between former Ivory Coast players, 11 of the 14 votes went to current incumbent Sory Diabate. Drogba and current vice president Idriss Diallo won zero votes between them, with three former players withdrawing from the vote. “It’s time for change in our football. It needs modernity,” said Toure. “When I say I support Drogba, it’s also for the good of the country, to have a former player of his kind investing himself in Africa.” Drogba represented his country 105 times and announced his intent...
Edo clears 111 suspected coronavirus cases, 380 contacts
The Edo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Patrick Okundia, has said the state is making steady progress in the management of coronavirus (COVID-19), noting that all active cases of COVID-19 are being managed at different isolations centres across the state and are responding well to treatment. Speaking to journalists in Benin City, Okundia said Edo has discharged ten persons who have tested negative twice to the virus and exited another 491 persons, comprising 111 persons of interest (POIs) and 380 line-listed contacts, who have completed the compulsory 14-day follow up and tested negative. The commissioner noted that from the onset of the outbreak, Edo State has recorded a total of 593 suspected cases of COVID-19 and 65 confirmed cases spread across nine Local Government Areas (LGAs) of t...
Saudi fines large gatherings as coronavirus cases increase
Agence France-Presse Saudi Arabia has imposed fines between 5,000 riyals (1,333 dollars) and 100,000 riyals for large gatherings, in a bid to control the spread of the coronavirus inside the kingdom. In March, the kingdom banned gatherings in public of more than five people as it loosened a nationwide curfew several weeks after it was imposed, allowing some businesses to reopen, including shops, construction companies and factories. However, COVID-19 infections have been steadily increasing, prompting the Interior Ministry to introduce the fines. The oil-rich monarchy reported 1,793 new confirmed cases on Thursday, a new daily record that brings the total number of infections in the kingdom to 33,731, including 219 deaths. The Interior Ministry said gatherings of more than five people insi...
Cross River orders five truckloads of almajiris back to destination
Cross River State government on Thursday ordered five truckloads of almajiris including other passengers from the northern part of Nigeria back to its destination. Newsmen learnt that a border patrol team, comprising of Peace Corp members, civilian Vigilantes, Border COVID-19 Taskforce had intercepted the trucks yesterday night at the Gakem border town in Bekwara LGA of the state near Benue State. A source who pleaded anonymity told Vanguard that the team was led by a Commissioner who said it was the result of intensive search and blockade of interstate vehicular travels, which his team was poised to enforce. “After a thorough check on the five trucks we discovered that most of the passengers, aside goods, were almajiris who did not meet COVID19 protocols, we had to force them to return,” ...
White House staffer tests positive for coronavirus
A member of the U.S. military who works in close proximity to President Donald Trump has tested positive for the new coronavirus. However, “The president and the vice president have since tested negative for the virus and they remain in great health,” Hogan Gidley, a spokesman, said in a statement. Vice President Mike Pence was taking part in the delivery of medical gear to a rehabilitation centre as the news broke. Trump is in Washington with events scheduled for later in the day. Broadcaster CNN said the individual who is ill is a member of the Navy who works as a personal valet to Mr Trump. White House top officials are said to be tested regularly for the virus. Members of the press corps who come into close contact with officials undergo temperature checks before entering the briefing ...
PDP rejects N108 ex-depot fuel price, insist on N70 pump price
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has rejected the new ex-depot price of N108 per litre of the Premium Motor Spirit insisting on a new pricing template that must accommodate a pump price of between N60 to N70 per litre to reflect the crash in the price of crude oil and petroleum products in the international market. The party described the N108 ex-depot price as fraudulent and a far cry from the appropriate pump price template that should not exceed N70 given the prevailing situation in the international oil market. In a statement issued by the national publicity secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP maintained that the N108 ex-depot price with a projected additional N9 per litre Expected Open Market “completely unacceptable to Nigerians.” The statement read: “The federal gov...
Court restrains Nigerian government from extraditing Senator Kashamu
Associated Press Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, restrained the Federal Government from extraditing Buruji Kashamu, a Nigerian senator, to the U.S. to answer drug charges. Delivering judgement, Justice Abang, held that neither the federal government nor any of its agents could validly initiate extradition proceedings against Kashamu in view of subsisting judgements and orders in favour of the plaintiff, which had remained unchallenged. Abang particularly noted that the judgement delivered by the Federal High Court, Lagos on January 6, 2014 (in suit No:49/2010) and another judgement of July 1, 2016 given by the Federal High Court, Abuja (in suit No: 479/2015), which prohibited Kashamu’s extradition on account of the U.S. drug allegation, were still subsisti...
Ohanaeze writes President Buhari over erosion menace in Alex Ekwueme’s home
Ohaneze Ndigbo, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency order the Federal Ministry of Environment to attend to the continued erosion menace ravaging the country home of former Vice President of Nigeria, late Dr Alex Ekwueme in Oko, and other neighbouring communities of Nanka and Agulu in Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State. The Igbo Social-Cultural organisation, Ohaneze Ndigbo, made the appeal for the Federal Ministry of Environment to attend to the situation before it will get out of hand, considering the huge contributions the late Icon has made to keep Nigeria as one. The Ohaneze issue the appeal on Thursday, in a letter titled “Save Us From The Ravaging Gully Erosion in Ekwueme’s home” directed to President Buhari. The social body expressed ...
The Rebel Saint of South Sudan
After 30 years of service in Sudan, often defying her superiors’ orders, a remarkable Indian nun is forced to ask herself whether she’s made any difference at all. Ground Zero in the City of Wau Sister Gracy sits on the edge of her seat as she guides her Landcruiser through the back roads of Wau, South Sudan. She knows every dusty path by heart. At five feet tall, she barely clears the steering wheel. She smiles as she peers over the dash, keeps a rosary hanging from the rearview, and has a habit of grinding the gears when she’s distracted, as she is now. The 60-year-old nun has one hand on the wheel while the other points out the demolished huts that pass by, burned down and bombed out. Furniture, grain sacks, family photos, remnants of looting litter the roads. We keep an eye out for mil...
Activists press Morroco on fate of 39 political prisoners
Associated Press The fate of 39 Saharawi Political Prisoners in Moroccan jail have become the focus of a new regional campaign from African activists who are asking King Mohammed VI of Morocco to release the men for fear of their exposure to the coronavirus disease. The Movement for the Liberation of Western Sahara, (NMLWS) issued a statement on Wednesday in Abuja through its Nigerian coordinator, Oladipo Fasina, a philosophy professor and noted advocate for academic freedom. According to the statement, the Saharawi prisoners, held for seeking independence for Africa’s last colony, “are in grave danger of contracting the coronavirus as a result of their underlying health conditions resulting from extreme torture and hunger strike they have undergone as prisoners.” Mr Fasina said, “this arb...
