Intelligence
Report highlights impact of coronavirus on graduates
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted 47 per cent of graduates and their activities (including job search), a report has stated. Also 17 per cent of graduates lost their jobs due to the pandemic, a research by the Knowledge Exchange Centre (KEC) and BudgIT revealed. The Executive Secretary, KEC, Aghogho Akporido, disclosed this during the virtual graduation ceremony of 43 students in its Graduate Advancement Programme (GAP) network, recently. He said the programme was extended to three months as opposed to the previous six weeks. He also said during the selection process, training session, career counselling and mentoring session and even in some cases, the internship was done virtually (online). Akporido said for the first time there were participants from eight states and volunte...
Nigerian government to implement NIPSS recommendations on population growth
President Muhammadu Buhari has assured that his administration will look into the 12-point recommendations by graduates of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) on Population Growth and Human Capital Development in Nigeria, with view of implementing them. The President gave the assurance at the graduation ceremony of the Senior Executive Course 42, held Saturday at the Institute in Jos. The President, represented by Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, charged the graduates to live up to expectations of leading Nigeria out of its problems. “The times levy a demand on institutions such as this one and on its graduates for innovation and creative intelligence in addressing our national challenges. “It is my conviction that the elites both individually and collectively ...
President Buhari sends 1000 more troops to Cross River
State House/Facebook President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered extra 1000 soldiers to be drafted to Calabar and other parts of Cross River State to contain rising insecurity and alleged second phase of ENDSARS protest. Governor Ben Ayade confirmed this in a statement where he commended the president for rising proactively to the predicament of the state. Apart from the EndSARS protest which was hijacked by hoodlums who unleashed massive destruction of property in the state, kidnapping, cultism, gangsterism and armed robbery have reigned in Calabar The commissioner of police in the state, Abdulkadir Jimoh early Monday morning disclosed that they have picked up ‘actionable intelligence’ about impending public disobedience and mayhem in Calabar and environs and warned that they will ‘ethically s...
Boko Haram leader justifies rice farmers’ killing
Agence France-Presse A factional leader of the Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, has confirmed that his group was responsible for the killing of rice farmers in Kwashebe, Zabarmari, in the Jere Local Government Area of Borno State. He also threatened to deal with those giving information on his group to the military. Shekau, in a three-minute video released on Tuesday, said his group “killed 78 farmers” because they arrested and handed one of his brothers to the Nigerian Army. He warned that those arresting his members and giving out intelligence on the group’s activities to the military would “face the same fate if they did not desist from doing so.” “The third message is on those who notoriously nab our brethren and hand them to the military or give them a clue on us. You should know that, un...
VP Osinbajo: We’ll do all it takes to secure Nigeria
The Muhammadu Buhari administration will not relent but will do all it takes, including putting new ideas on the table in order to secure the country, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has said. The Vice President is on one-day official visit to Nasarawa State today and was accosted by reporters on his arrival in Lafia after he was received by Governor Abdullahi A. Sule. Below is the verbatim report of the Vice President’s response to the media: As the President said, these group of people have acted insanely in such a dastardly manner, killing innocent people, people who had gone to their farms to work. I spoke to the Governor, Governor Babagana Zulum and the former Governor, Senator Kashim Shettima to express my condolence, but more importantly, to try and think through ways of dealing with...
Joe Biden picks diverse team of top economic advisers
President-elect Joe Biden named former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as his Treasury secretary nominee on Monday, and named three women to other top economic posts, setting the stage for a more diverse White House. While Biden’s transition to the presidency on Jan. 20 appeared to be hitting its stride, he himself was hobbling after fracturing his foot while playing with his dog on Saturday and will wear a protective boot for several weeks, his doctors said. The incoming administration has been hampered for weeks by Republican President Donald Trump, who has refused to concede to Biden, a Democrat. Trump has said without providing evidence that the Nov. 3 vote was fraudulent, claims that state and federal election officials have dismissed. Biden named leading members of an economic tea...
Northeast elders asks President Buhari to sack service chiefs
The Coalition of North East Elders for Peace and Development, Monday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sack his service chiefs, accusing the military of deploying massive strength during the #EndSARS protests in parts of the country, thereby leaving the zone at the mercy of Boko Haram, an Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists. According to the elders, scores of civilians were killed as a result of the strategic and operational blunders, which they argued, was avoidable, had greater tact been adopted. In a statement signed by the chairman, Engr. Zana Goni, the North East elders said pro-active intelligence would have revealed this lapse to the military high command, had the service chiefs not been lethargic in their responsibilities. Consequently, the elders, for the um...
President Buhari condemns attack on Governor Zulum’s convoy
President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the ambush on entourage of Gov. Babagana Zulum of Borno, which led to the death of security men and some operatives of Civilian-JTF. The President made the condemnation in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja on Saturday. He described the attack, on Maiduguri-Baga route, as an orchestrated sabotage against long planned return of displaced persons to their local communities. Buhari noted, with deep sympathy, the loss of lives of security men on the convoy, ahead of the return of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), commiserating with their families and loved ones. The president advised the government of Borno, working with security and intelligence agencies, to remain firm in their determinat...
NAF jet bombards bandits meeting venue in Kaduna
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has said the Air Component of Operation THUNDER STRIKE has killed scores of bandits in Kwaimbana Forest area of Kaduna State. The bandits were said to have been killed while having a meeting in the area. Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche, who made this known in a statement said “Several armed bandits have been neutralized and their meeting venue significantly damaged in air strikes executed by the Air Component of Operation THUNDER STRIKE in Kwaimbana Forest area of Kaduna State. The air raid was conducted yesterday, 17 September 2020, after series of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions led to the identification of the hideout along with a building in the centre of the area which was being used by the a...
MURIC urges Nigerian government to deploy security task force in Southern Kaduna
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), an NGO, has called for the deployment of joint security task force to stop the incessant killings in Southern Kaduna. The Director of the group, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, gave the advice on Monday in a statement. Akintola said, the measures will go along way in curtailing the ethno-religious killings and other forms of criminality been perpetuated in the area. The group however condemned the recent killings of some youths in Zangon Kataf, which according to him violated the peace agreement initiated by the Agwa Atyap, Sir Dominic Yahaya between the Atyap and Hausa/Fulani. “MURIC strongly condemns these killings and attacks on law-abiding Muslims. We call for stronger presence of security agents. ”It is high time soldiers are drafted to Southern Kaduna to enfo...
Military airstrike hits ISWAP location, eliminates scores of terrorists in Borno
The Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole has destroyed compounds, housing Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists at Kaza on the Gulumba Gana – Kumshe axis of Borno. The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. John Enenche, who disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, said that scores of terrorists were killed in the attack. Enenche said the air raid was in continuation of the sustained offensive against insurgents in the North East. He said that the air strike was executed on Tuesday, following credible intelligence and confirmatory Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions indicating a resurgence of terrorists’ activities in the settlement. According to him, the identified locations within the settlement were therefore attacked ...
U.S. warns Pacific islands about Chinese bid for undersea cable project
The United States has warned Pacific island nations about security threats posed by a Chinese company’s cut-price bid to build an undersea internet cable, two sources told Reuters, part of an international development project in the region. Huawei Marine, which was recently divested from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and is now majority-owned by another Chinese firm, submitted bids along with French-headquartered Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), part of Finland’s Nokia, and Japan’s NEC, for the $72.6 million project backed by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), the sources with direct knowledge of the project details said. The project is designed to improve communications to the island nations of Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and Kiribati. Washington sent a diploma...