Communities
AGF: Ohanaeze legal monitoring group on Nnamdi Kanu not necessary
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has said the legal team formed by the umbrella group for Igbo people, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, to monitor proceedings of the trial of leader of the prescribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, was not necessary. He, however, welcomed the Ohanaeze team, saying it was in line with the doctrine of the right of fair hearing rooted in Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution. Recall that the separatist leader was arrested in June 2021 outside the country. Kanu is facing charges bordering on treasonable felony instituted against him at the court in response to years of campaign for the independent Republic of Biafra through IPOB. He had been granted bail in April 2017 but jumped bail. After his re-arrest in June 202...
President Buhari orders military to crush bandits in ‘language they understand’
President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday ordered the military to crush bandits operating in Zamfara and Kaduna in the language they understand. The president condemned repeated bandit killings in Zamfara and Kaduna States, urging the nation’s military to respond to the worrying situation in a language that the bandits understood. Buhari, in a statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu noted that the military and other security agencies were now working on new methods and policies that are yielding good results in many of the troubled parts of the country. He called for a crushing response to the killing of innocent citizens in the rural communities. Buhari also averred that the nation, its military and the entire population needed to summon the courage required to defeat the bandits and ...
Nigerians urged to reject PIB for failing to address key issues
Socially relevant and need-meeting organisations in partnership with civil society movements have called on Nigerians to massively reject the long-expected PIB as it has failed to address fundamental issues. Rather the organisations said that the outcome of PIB was mischievous and would compound the problems of the communities, just as it would create another avenue to make the rich even richer while the suffering communities continue to languish in difficulty and poverty. The coalition group said the PIB “failed to properly address the lingering issues of the oil and gas host communities” submitting that the recent position on critical issues is a far cry from the yearnings of oil and gas host communities. “The current version of the Petroleum Industry Bill failed to address community, ec...
UNICEF to supply AU states 220 million coronavirus vaccines
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has signed an agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV to supply up to 220 million doses of the J&J single-dose vaccine to all 55 member-states of the African Union (AU) by the end of 2022. Some 35 million doses are to be delivered by the end of this year, UNICEF stated in a statement issued on Thursday in New York. The agreement, between UNICEF and Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, will help implement the Advance Purchase Commitment (APC) signed between the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) and Janssen last March. That agreement secured an option to order another 180 million doses, bringing the maximum access up to a total of 400 million doses by the end of 2022. The AU established AVAT in November 2020 to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to the African continen...
School feeding programme: Nigerian government to enroll 67,307 pupils in Ebonyi – NOA
The National Orientation Agency (NOA) says Federal Government will enrol 67,307 primary school pupils into the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme in Ebonyi. The Director of NOA in the state, Dr Desmond Onwo, said this on Wednesday during his visit to the Traditional Rulers Council in Abakaliki. Onwo said the programme would capture 561 public primary schools in the 13 local government areas of the state. He urged the traditional rulers to key into the programme and support NOA’s campaign to ensure that the people participated actively. “The programme is going to commence across communities in the state with an enumeration in order to identify the children. “It is going to cover from primary one to three in public primary schools. “This is not for all states in the country but Ebon...
NLC urges National Assembly to transform NNPC to public liability company
The Nigeria Labour Congress has cautioned the National Assembly to handle with utmost care what it described as the very sensitive issue of the unbundling of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation. It urged the lawmakers to transform the NNPC to a public liability company as part of the reforms of the oil and gas sector captured in the Petroleum Industry Bill. The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said this on Tuesday, in a statement lauding the passage of the PIB titled, ‘Congress commends the national assembly for passing the petroleum industry bill – demands that the NNPC be transformed into a public liability company.’ It stated, “We know that the process of making the PIB a law has not been completely consummated as the passed bill would still need to be harmonized by a conference of th...
PIB: Ijaw leaders reject ‘disgusting, provocative’ bill
The leadership of the Ijaw nation has rejected the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) just passed into law by the National Assembly describing it as disgusting and provocative. The leaders also called on the Minister of State for Petroluem Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, to use this opportunity to write his name in gold, and on the side of prosperity by standing firm with the Ijaw people against their oppressors. President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), the umbrella body of the Ijaw people, Prof Benjamin Okaba in a packed press conference, he addressed at the Ijaw House, headquarters of INC in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, declared that the Ijaw nation rejects in its entirety the 3% and 5% provisions as compensation, the redefinition of host communities and other provisions including the alloca...
Kano DisCo: Our meters not for sale
The Kano Electricity Distribution Company has warned that meter deployment and installation by its field officials remain free and not for sale. A statement signed by KEDCO Head of Communications, Ibrahim Shawai, on Monday, in Kano, said the clarification had become necessary in view of the recent claims by some online platforms that customers in Kano franchise were made to pay ‘indirectly’ for meters. “This is totally out of place as we have never collected money for meter or installations. “It is as a result of our support for the Federal Government Mass Metering programme where thousands of meters have been installed at different households under our franchise. “Anyone disguising as KEDCO staff or conniving with any of our staff to extort customers, such persons would not be spared but ...
NNPC, Shell donate 10 solar power water projects to communities in Borno
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) have donated 10 solar powered boreholes and 16 VIP latrines to some communities in seven LGAs in Borno. Speaking at the formal handover ceremony of the projects in Maiduguri on Wednesday, Borno Deputy Governor, Alhaji Umar Kadafur, lauded NNPC/SNEPCO for the intervention. He said it would impact positively on the lives of the benefitting communities. Kadafur, whose speech was read by Alhaji Mohammed Wanori, the Commissioner for Inter-Governmental Affairs, said the intervention was in line with the administration’s policy of restoration of livelihood in communities worst affected by decade-long insurgency. “This administration places a high premium on the adage which says ‘water ...
Presidency: Niger Delta Avengers’ threat unnecessary
File Photo The Presidency on Sunday reacted to the threat by the Niger Delta Avengers to bomb oil installations if some demands were not met by federal government, saying the recent threat of force by the Avengers is unnecessary. It, however, said it was curious that the threat was coming barely 48 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari met with the leadership of the Niger Delta and Ijaw National Congress (INC), at the State House, Abuja and the germane issues, especially call for restructuring of the federation, and the inauguration of a Board for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), had been thrashed out. A release on Sunday by the Media Adviser to the President, Femi Adesina, stressed that the media was Sunday awash with threats and demands by a group, Niger Delta Avengers, to...
Petrol smuggling: Nigerian government using device to track trucks, smugglers
The Federal Government says it has facilitated the use of a tracking device to track every truck loading petroleum product from any of its depots as part of efforts to nip smuggling in the bud and arrest culprits. Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, said this at a forum organised by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to gauge the achievements recorded in the oil and gas sector in the last two years. Sylva noted that a lot had been achieved in the industry but that the activities of smugglers had continued to overshadow the successes especially as it concerned fuel subsidy and the quantity of petroleum products consumed in the country. “This is one big question that we try to answer ourselves because when we look at the number of load-outs from our depots every day...
Amnesty: Nigerian government highly sensitive to criticism
The country director of Amnesty International (AI) Nigeria, Osai Ojigho, says the federal government is “highly sensitive to criticism” and only focuses on appearances. Ojigho stated this on Thursday while addressing the topic “Is Freedom of Speech in Danger in Nigeria?” during a virtual conversation, tagged ‘Thursday Talks’. The virtual conversation, which is a monthly programme focused on engaging thought leaders, was moderated by Adeboye Adegoke, senior programme manager at Paradigm Initiative. The AI country director described the government’s ban on Twitter and its proposed amendment to the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) code as attempts to gag criticism. “What we are seeing is a government that is highly sensitive to criticism and, as such, seeks to work more on the public re...
