Federal Government
Man lands in jail for posing as female
Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of the Kwara State High Court has sentenced a 29-year-old man, Usman Muhammed, to jail for posing as a lady and using nude pictures to dupe men. Muhammed was arrested at his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun state, according to an operative of the EFCC. EFCC’s counsel, Adenike Ayoku stated that the defendant is an internet fraudster, who pretended to be female and used female nude photographs to fraudulently obtain money from unsuspecting internet users as evidenced in his Facebook and WhatsApp accounts. He was then prosecuted by the Ilorin zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a one-count charge of impersonation. The charge read, “That you, Usman Muhammed (a.k.a Adepeju Omolara and Guns Omolara Valle), sometime in February 2020 or thereab...
Wale Babalakin resigns as UNILAG’s council chairman
Dr Babawale Babalakin has resigned his position as chairman of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, governing council chairman. Following what looked like an irreconcilable difference between the now-former council chairman and the Academic Staff Union of University, UNILAG chapter, Babalakin has finally tendered his resignation. The Federal Government, in August, wielded the big axe by asking the Wale Babalakin-led Governing Council of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, and the embattled Vice-Chancellor, Prof Toyin Ogundipe, to stay away pending the outcome of a probe into happenings in the school. The government also asked the Senate of the university to appoint an Acting VC for the institution. The Federal Ministry of Education spokesman, Ben Goong, made this known in a press statement on Fri...
Niger insists no going back on roads closure to trucks
Niger State Government says it will not go back on the restriction order placed on heavy trucks plying the state-owned roads which took effect on the 15th September, 2020. This is coming after the State government had assured that its position will be reviewed as event concerning the closure unfolds. The state government maintained that its decision to close down all state government roads was done within the confines of law stressing that adequate consultations and sensitization with relevant stakeholders were made and two weeks notice was also served to general public as well as relevant road transport organizations before the roads were barricaded. As such, the state government will not relent on its oars to ensure that the State owned roads are not accessed by articulated vehicles, the...
Central bank okays N200 billion housing loan for low income earners
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced N200 billion mortgage finance loan to Family Homes Fund (FHF). The fund is for the building of 300,000 homes in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory. It is also expected to help create up to 1.5 million jobs in five years. The CBN framework for the implementation of the Family Homes Financing Scheme released yesterday indicates that the fund would be released to FMF on project basis, subject to the cumulative maximum limit of N200 billion. According to the framework, the three-year term loan will enable FHF finance the construction of social housing units for people on low income at an interest rate not more than five per cent per annum (all inclusive). The apex bank said it introduced the financing initiative to ...
Minister: Nigerian government waiting for NPAN to make submissions on palliatives
The Federal Government yesterday said it was ready to look into the hardships and the challenges the media, especially print, was facing due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated this after presenting a portrait of the Argungu festival to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Briefing State House correspondents, the Minister said he had a virtual meeting with the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria, NPAN, some time ago, adding that he was waiting for the association to make submissions to him on the challenges the print media was facing. He said the Federal Government was willing to assist the media industry within its means to ameliorate the situation. Alhaji Mohammed, who said gov...
Nigerian government begs health workers to suspend nationwide strike
The Federal Government has appealed to the Joint Health Sector Unions to suspend its one-week warning strike nationwide. The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, made the appeal on Monday during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja. “I use this opportunity to appeal to JOHESU to suspend their strike and go into a negotiation. “The position of the Ministry of Health is that strikes by healthcare workers jeopardise the lives of citizens, especially at such times of global health emergencies as now. “Nigeria needs the service of all our health workers to control the spread of COVID-19. Issues around allowances are multi-sectoral and have always been served with negotiations no matter how long it took,” he pleaded. The minister’s plea is coming hours after JOHESU ...
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...
Edo election: Comrade Oshiomhole borrowed recklessly – Governor Obaseki
Governor Godwin Obaseki has accused his predecessor, Adams Oshiomhole, of putting Edo State in debt through reckless borrowing. The governor made the allegation on Sunday, September 13, 2020, during the Edo Governorship debate organized by Channels Television. While answering a question about the debt profile of Edo state, Obaseki said the Oshiomhole-led administration was responsible for the state’s debt burden. He said, “Let me make some points very clear. What happened is that my predecessor in office borrowed recklessly and the Federal Government had to restructure all the debts that we have taken before I came into office. “These included a whole series of bank borrowings, borrowing to pay salaries. So, the Federal Government restructured outstanding obligations to Edo State, to the t...
JOHESU declares nationwide strike
The Joint Health Workers Union, JOHESU, has asked its members to withdraw their services and embark on a nationwide strike starting from midnight on Sunday, September 13, 2020. This decision was reached at the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union’s meeting on Saturday. The Union in a statement on Sunday said, it gave the Federal Government one week to address all lingering issues and nothing concrete had been achieved. The health workers are asking the Federal Government to address the failures and decaying infrastructure in the health sector and pay the shortfall in COVID-19 hazard allowances for their members. The Union is also seeking the adjustment of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure, implementation of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria consent judgment and other...
President Buhari prevented Nigeria from becoming a failed state – minister
The Federal Government has said if not for President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria would have become a failed state in 2015. The government’s response may not be unconnected to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s recent statement that the country was fast drifting to a failed and badly divided state. Obasanjo gave the damning verdict last week at a closed door two-day consultative dialogue convened by him which involved major socio-cultural political organisations such as Afenifere, Northern Elders’ Forum, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Middle Belt Forum and Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF). The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement by the Special Assistant to the President (Media), Office of the Minister of Information and Culture, Segun Adeyemi, said Buhari’s assumption o...
Fuel subsidy removal: Nigerian government to distribute 2, 000 buses to mitigate effects on transportation
The Federal Government has concluded plans to distribute 2, 000 buses to cushion the effects of transportation on Nigerians, especially those living in rural dwellers. Newsmen report that Dr George Akume, Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, made this known on Friday at the interactive he had with stakeholders of cooperative societies in Nigeria at his office in Abuja. Akume explained that the initiative was a collaboration between his ministry, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and other agencies in the government. He said the ministry took the decision to pass through the cooperative bodies to ensure the materialisation of the project, rather than giving out loans to individuals, which might delay quick execution of the project. “Basically we do recog...
Police drag Kogi commissioner to court for ‘rape, battery’
Senior Police sources at the Force Intelligence Bureau, Force headquarters, under which the Police Gender Unit operates, on Tuesday affirmed that the Nigerian Police Force has charged the Kogi State Commissioner for Water Resources, Abdulmumuni Danga, to court for allegedly raping and assaulting a lady, among other charges, over a Facebook post. The lady, one Elizabeth Onyeniyi had petitioned the Police Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB) on her ordeal in the hands of the Kogi Commissioner and other accomplices alleging that she was not only raped, but beaten mercilessly and threatened, prompting the FIB to invite Mr. Danga to appear before the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Gender Unit, for questioning on the 2nd of June 2020, after which the Commissioner was released. It was gathered that di...
