Claims
Imo teachers protest non-payment of 12 months salaries
Primary and secondary school teachers in Imo State on Thursday staged a peaceful protest over the state government’s failure to pay their salaries for 12 months consecutively. Newsmen reported that the protest, which was held in front of the Government House, Owerri, temporarily halted human and vehicular movement in the area. It was learnt that the action was triggered by Governor Hope Uzodinma’s claim that teachers who had yet to receive their salaries were ‘ghost workers.’ The protesters carried placards with inscriptions, such as “Uzodimma lied to Imo people on teachers’ salary”, “We are not ghost workers, we have our employment letters, please pay us” and “Uzodimma come and see us and prove we are ghost workers.” The teachers, who wore long faces, alleged that they were last paid in F...
National Assembly members agreed not to be hostile to Prudent Buhari’s government – Senate spokesman
The current 9th National Assembly members all agreed that they will not have an acrimonious relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, unlike the 8th Assembly under Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara. Spokesman of the senate, Senator Ajibola Bashiru, who represents Osun Central disclosed this in an interview published in newsmen on Wednesday while responding to claims that the current national assembly is a rubber-stamp that is always quick to do the bidding of the executive. He said “I don’t know the basis for your question, but what I do know is that at the inception, there was an agreement among the lawmakers that we do not want an acrimonious relationship between the Executive and the Legislature”. “All of us witnessed how such a relationship worked against the interest of...
Russia calls U.S. allegations over Putin-directed election meddling ‘baseless’
Russia on Wednesday described U.S. intelligence allegations that President Vladimir Putin had likely directed efforts to try to swing the 2020 U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump as baseless. A 15-page American intelligence report, released on Tuesday, added heft to longstanding allegations that some of Trump’s top lieutenants were playing into Moscow’s hands by amplifying claims made against then-candidate Joe Biden by Russian-linked Ukrainian figures in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election. “The document prepared by the U.S. intelligence community is another set of baseless accusations against our country for interfering in American domestic political processes,” Russia’s embassy in the United States said in a statement on Facebook. “The conclusions of the report on Russia conducting...
ICPC drops forgery charges against ex-presidential aide
File Photo The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has amended the corruption and certificate forgery charges it filed against an ex-presidential aide, Okoi Obono-Obla. The amendment, coming less than two months after Obono-Obla and his co-defendants were arraigned by the commission, reduced the number of counts from 10 to five. The amended charges filed at the High Court of the FCT, in Apo, Abuja, on March 4 and seen by newsmen on Sunday, also revealed that the anti-corruption agency has backtracked on its allegations of certificate forgery sensationally levelled against Obono-Obla in 2019. Obono-Obla, a former special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Prosecutions, was suspended by the President as the chairman of the Special Presidential Inv...
Court refuses to unblock Shell’s bank accounts
Getty Images Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo of the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday declined to vacate an interim injunction directing 20 banks to block Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) and its subsidiaries’ bank accounts. The court also insisted that two of the banks’ secretaries and chief financial officers accused of disobeying the order made on January 25, 2021 must appear before it on March 29, 2021. The affected banks and their officials are: Citi Bank Ltd, its Company Secretary Sola Fagbure and Chief Financial Officer, Sharaf Mohammed; United Bank For Africa (UBA) Plc, its Company Secretary Bill Andrew Odum and Chief Financial Officer, Ebenezer Kolawole. The judge threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against them if they failed to appear before her on the ...
Nigeria threatens to ban flights from UAE, Netherlands
The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has threatened to ban flights from the UAE and The Netherlands as a reciprocal action. The task force said the Ministry of Aviation and its relevant agencies have been mandated to take the necessary reciprocal measures as may be permissible under the laws and other international obligations expected to be discharged against Emirates airlines operating from the UAE and other airlines from The Netherlands. Mr Boss Mustapha, the Chairman of PTF and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, disclosed this at the routine briefing of the committee in Abuja on Monday. Mustapha said: “For over a month, Nigeria has been engaged with the authorities of the UAE and The Netherlands over pre-departure testing requirements passengers should meet before ...
ECOWAS suggests compensation for coronavirus vaccine adverse reactions
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Vaccine Taskforce has recommended compensation for citizens who suffer side effects or injury from the COVID-19 vaccination. Professor Stanley Okolo, the Director-General of the West African Health Organisation (WAHO), disclosed this at the 5th Regional Steering Committee meeting of the Regional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement (REDISSE) project on Saturday in Abuja. Okolo said that the recommendation was one of the resolutions adopted by the taskforce and presented to the ECOWAS Ministerial Coordinating Committee to encourage citizens to receive the vaccine. He explained during the REDISSE virtual meeting that the issue of indemnity was being taken up by the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, the global initiative aimed at equit...
Reps speaker urges Nigerians not to believe conspiracy theories about coronavirus vaccine
The speaker of the house of representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has advised Nigerians not to believe conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccines. Many Nigerians are wary about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine amid unverified claims that it contains microchips. Faisal Shuaib, chief executive officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), had recently dismissed the claims as false. The first shipment of the vaccines– 3.9 million doses– arrived in Nigeria on Tuesday and the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine was administered today. Speaking at the national flag-off ceremony for the COVID-19 vaccination in Abuja, Gbajabiamila urged Nigerians to rally behind the federal government to fight the pandemic. He also cautioned against playing politics with the vaccinati...
Senator Dickson: Why I am staying off Bayelsa government events
File Photo A former Governor of Bayelsa, Seriake Dickson, says he has no rift with his predecessor, Douye Diri, who took over from him on February 14, 2020. Dickson said his noticeable absence from government functions was deliberate and in consonance with his values and principles of non interference. In a statement issued on Thursday, Dickson, who is now a senator representing Bayelsa West Senatorial District of the state, said he remained supportive of Diri’s administration. He said he had no hand in the media attacks against Diri’s administration by some of his former aides. Dickson’s explanation came on the heels of claims by John Idumange, a former general manager of the Bayelsa Broadcasting Corporation, alleging diversion of N3 billion agricultural loan obtained by Dickson’s adminis...
Labour issues strike notice in Ekiti over sack of 21 workers
Industrial crisis is looming in Ekiti over sack of 21 workers of the State House of Assembly recruited under the tenure of former Governor Ayodele Fayose. The workers were sacked in January 2020 over claims that their recruitment by the Fayose administration did not follow due process and was therefore illegal, according to News Agency of Nigeria. But the labour unions disagreed with the sack of the workers and had asked the leadership of the Ekiti State House Assembly to recall the 21 sacked workers, a request that has not been acceded to . On Wednesday, the unions gave notice to Speaker, Funminiyi Afuye, indicating their readiness to embark on statewide strike in seven days if the workers were not recalled. In the notice, the labour unions asked the Speaker to cause the immediate reinsta...
Court dismisses NUT’s suit against Kaduna governor over competency test
Nigeria Union of Teachers The Kaduna Division of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria has dismissed the case between the Nigerian Union of Teachers and Governor Nasir El Rufai for lacking in merit and substance. A statement titled, ‘Teachers sack: Court dismisses NUT’s suit against KDSG,’ issued by the Commissioner of Justice and Attorney General of Kaduna State, Aisha Dikko on Saturday, said that Justice S.O. Edeniyi delivered judgment on the matter on February 2. The statement which said that NUT and Comrade Audu Titus Amba were the claimants, further said that they sought nullification of the termination and compulsory retirement of those who failed the competency test for all primary school teachers. The Attorney General recalled that “in the bid to restore the competency of the te...
Chelsea owner takes legal action over ‘Putin’s People’ book
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has launched legal action for defamation over the book Putin’s People. The Blues owner’s case relates to “a number of false and defamatory claims made about our client in the book published by HarperCollins.” The book was written by author Caterine Belton and contains a number of claims about Abramovich and others close to Russia president Vladimir Putin. Abramovich’s statement, published on Chelsea’s club website, says: “Today my legal representatives have issued legal proceedings in England in relation to a book that was published in the UK. The book contains a number of false and defamatory statements about me, including about my purchase, and the activities, of Chelsea Football Club. “Today’s action was not taken lightly. It has never been my ambition to ...