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Missing Nigerian student found dead in UK pond
A Nigerian student at Oxford Brookes University, Richard Okorogheye, has been found dead after two weeks of searching. According to his mum, Evidence Joel, the 19-year-old left home on March 22 and was reported missing two days after. Mrs Joel had repeatedly pleaded for information on her son’s whereabouts. “All he said to me was ‘mummy, I’m going to see my friend’. I trusted him, I had no doubt or no reason to ask him further questions. “It’s my baby, it’s my treasure. He’s my oxygen, he’s my crown. He’s everything to me, he’s the reason I live, the reason I exist. Right now I’m empty, there is nothing to look forward to. He’s taken my breath away from me,” she told Sky News. But on Wednesday, the Metropolitan police, in a statement, confirmed that a corpse found in a pond Monday has been...
AGF: I didn’t file any suit against Atiku Abubakar’s citizenship
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), has said that he never filed any suit challenging the citizenship of former vice president, Atiku Abubakar. The AGF, through his media aide, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, said Malami “has never filed any case before any court challenging the citizenship of the former Vice President.” The AGF was reacting to a report of AGF’s position in a suit filed against Atiku by the Incorporated Trustees of Egalitarian Mission for Africa before the Federal High Court, Abuja. He said: ”The Honorable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN has never filled any case before any court in the country challenging the citizenship of the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. “The matter ...
Djibouti president set to extend 22-year rule
Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh is expected to extend his two-decade rule of the tiny Horn of Africa nation as the country heads to the polls Friday. Guelleh, 73, is facing political newcomer Zakaria Ismail Farah, his only rival after traditional opposition parties decided to boycott the election. A businessman specialised in the importation of cleaning products, Farah, 56, is seen by observers as unlikely to pose a significant challenge to the strongman who has been in power for 22 years. Djibouti is a largely desert country strategically situated on one of the world’s busiest trade routes and at the crossroads between Africa and the Arabian peninsula, a short distance from war-torn Yemen. Under Guelleh, the country has exploited this geographical advantage, investing heavily in ...
Nasarawa first lady restates commitment to fight violence against women
Nasarawa State First Lady, Hajiya Silifat Abdullahi Sule, has reaffirmed her resolve to fight all forms of violence against women. Silifat Sule, stated this while playing host to a delegation from Adogi who were in her office on Tuesday, on a thank you visitfor sponsoring the medical treatment of an infant, Ruqayya, who was raped last year. Recal that on May 27, 2020, a three-month-old baby, Ruqayya from Adogi, Lafia local government area of Nasarawa state was brutally raped by a 27 year old serial rapist, Ahmadu Yaro. Yaro had since been nabbed by Personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Nasarawa state command. Wife of the governor, who was overjoyed seeing Ruqayya looking healthy and playful after several surgical procedures at Jos University Teaching Hospital (J...
Court urged to restrain Nigerian government on £4.2 million James Ibori loot
The Federal Government has been sued over its planned use of the £4.2million linked to former Delta State Governor James Ibori. The President, League of Ndokwa Professionals (LNP), Chief Tony Amechi and Legal Adviser, Evans Ufeli, on behalf of the people of Delta State, are challenging the Federal Government’s plan to deploy the funds to projects outside Delta. The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the Minister for Finance are the defendants. In their originating motion, the plaintiffs seek a declaration that the first and second defendants’ decision to deploy the yet to be repatriated sum of £4.2million belonging to Delta State government (when repatriated) for Federal Government’s projects is unconstitutional and repugnant to natural justic...
Governor Obaseki lauds President Buhari on appointment of Adolphus Aghughu as auditor general
Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, yesterday, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing Mr. Adolphus Aghughu, an indigene of Edo State, as the Auditor General of the Federation. He gave the commendation during a thanksgiving mass to mark the appointment of Aghughu as the Auditor General of the Federation, at St. Anthony Catholic Church, Ewatto in Esan South East Local Government Area of Edo State. “I am going to thank President Buhari for considering merit above everything else. He has certain values that earned him the job; honesty, hard work and diligence. My advice is that he should continue to maintain these values. “I am very proud that we have produced the Auditor General of the Federation. This is the doing of the Lord because he has been applying for this position si...
Feminist group tackles Pete Edochie over ‘misogynistic rants’
The Nigerian Feminist Forum (NFF) has described as unreasonable the comments allegedly made by celebrated thespian, Chief Pete Edochie during an interview he granted to BBC IGBO. In a statement by its Communications Officer, Angela Nkwo, NFF said Edochie in the interview “furthered his misogynistic rants concerning his views on Nigerian women in general.” NFF, therefore, called on Edochie to immediately retract the comments, which it said grossly misrepresented his pedigree as an elder in the Nollywood community. The women group also asked him to issue an apology for the gross misrepresentation and cause for concern he had provided for women to experience, tolerate and accept violence meted out to them by their husbands and partners. The statement read in part: “The Nigerian Feminist Forum...
Yinka Odumakin: Premature departure of a bright star – Senator Tinubu
Like millions of Nigerians, I received with profound shock the news of the death early this morning of Mr. Yinka Odumakin, spokesman of Afenifere, committed fighter for democracy, dedicated civil society activist, courageous and outspoken defender of whatever ideals and principles he believed in and a patriotic citizen in every sense of the word. Ever since his student days, Odumakin had been fearless and unrelenting in speaking up in promoting the cause of justice and what he perceived as the best interest of the citizens of Nigeria. He participated actively at the forefront in the various students and youth struggles against successive military dictatorships in the 1980s and 1990s. In the process, he was arrested, harassed and even detained several times. Yet, he never allowed himself to...
Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan launch new Nile dam talks in DRC
A new round of African Union-mediated talks between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan has begun aimed at resolving a years-long dispute over a massive dam built by Addis Ababa on the Blue Nile, a main tributary of the Nile river. The three-day talks that kicked off on Saturday are taking place in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the current chair of the AU. Foreign and irrigation ministers of the three nations were attending the talks over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), along with AU experts, according to Ethiopia’s Irrigation Minister Seleshi Bekele. A Sudanese diplomat was quoted as saying by The Associated Press news agency that the experts from the three countries and the AU met on Saturday, ahead of ministers who would meet on Sunday and Monday. He s...
CSOs: Bandit attacks a risk to food security in Nigeria
Bandit attacks heighten risks for acute food crisis in Nigeria, stakeholders from the civil society and the media have said. This is even as they vowed to unite against terror rather than do anything that could promote it. “In addition to displacement, insecurity has hampered agricultural activities and heightened the risk of acute food uncertainty in the country”, they said in a communique issued on Thursday after a meeting of civil society groups and media in the nation’s capital. But they insisted that the adoption of new approaches by the government will address the specific political, economic, and social challenges that encourage banditry and terrorism in the country. The communique co-signed by Gbenga Onayiga and Adamu Ladan, the Acting Chairman and the Executive Director of the Vis...
Governor El-Rufai urges federal government to increase frequency of Abuja-Kaduna trains
The governor of Kaduna state, Nasir el-Rufai, has urged the ministry of transportation to increase the frequency of trains plying the Abuja-Kaduna rail line. The governor spoke on Thursday when Gbemisola Saraki, minister of state for transportation, and the management of the National Institute of Transport Technology (NITT) paid him a courtesy visit in Kaduna. He said the increase will help to check overcrowding as the trains are “always fully booked”. “There are areas of constraints with the COVID-19 pandemic, but I think that the way our figures are going down with the rollout of the vaccination, there are going to be far more movements within the country, and particularly on that route,” he said. “So, we would like the ministry to consider increasing the frequencies and completing the p...
Senate faults PTF conversion to PSC, laments doctors strike
The Senate Committee on Health said on Thursday that the Presidency should have consulted the National Assembly before converting the the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to the Presidential Steering Committee. The panel also expressed surprise that the National Association of Resident Doctors embarked on strike despite the fact that their demands had been met by the Federal Government. Chairman of the Senate panel, Yahaya Oloriegbe, stated these during a public hearing on a bill seeking to establish a Federal Medical Centre in Mubi, Adamawa State. Oloriegbe said, “I was listening to the radio yesterday (Wednesday) and I heard that the PTF (on COVID-19) has been converted to a steering committee. “We were not consulted in terms of what will be the operational mechanism and so on. “I am ...