Insecurity
Official: Police free eight kidnap victims, arrest four suspects in Zamfara
The police in Zamfara have arrested four suspects over alleged killing of a Fulani herdsman. At a press conference in Gusau on Sunday, the Commissioner of Police, Abutu Yaro, said the police command also recovered 200 rustled cows following its steadfastness in crime fighting. He said some weapons were recovered and the command secured the release of no fewer than eight persons abducted three weeks ago. “We recovered no fewer than 200 stolen cows, five AK 47 rifles, three vehicles and a large number of ammunitions,” he said. According to the commissioner, the peace process being led by the state government has yielded huge results, including the unconditional surrendering of three 3 AK-47 rifles and 47 rounds of live ammunitions. “As a result of the ongoing peace engagement in Shinkafi Loc...
Niger debunks plan to recruit youths to fight bandits
Niger state government has debunked reports making round in the state that the government is planning to engage youths to fight against banditry in the state. Newsmen learnt that a social media post has been making rounds across the state on Saturday morning that the state government has concluded plans to recruit about 4,000 youths across the 25 local government areas of the state to fight the security challenge in the state. The Commissioner for Local Government, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mallam Abdulmalik Sarkin Daji stated this in a statement made available to newsmen in Minna on Saturday. He said that although the state is faced with serious security challenges, the government has no immediate plan to engage the youths in the fight against armed bandits. According...
PDP: Presidency’s ‘wait on God’ remark on insecurity admission of President Buhari’s failure
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has observed that the dismissive statement by the Presidency that Nigerians should ‘wait on God’ for solutions to the insecurity in the country is a direct admission of failure by President Muhammadu Buhari. Making this assertion in a statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan, National Publicity Secretary, in Abuja on Saturday, the party noted that the remark has “shown clearly that the Buhari administration is completely helpless and has come to its wits end in governance; a development, which validates the position of majority of Nigerians that President Buhari is grossly incompetent and should step aside.” The PDP maintained that the presidency’s statement further goes to confirm that the Buhari’s administration has “outlived its usefulness, if it had any,...
Benue governor: Quit notice to Bishop Kukah a recipe for disintegration
Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has warned that the quit notice by a muslim group demanding the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Mathew Kukah to tender an unreserved apology over his Christmas Day message or leave Sokoto State, is capable of causing the disintegration of the country. The Governor however enjoined all Nigerians, irrespective of religious and political inclinations, to uphold unity, peace and dialogue as panacea for the myriad of problems confronting the country. Reacting to the statement, the Governor who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary Terver Akase said the group’s statement was a contradiction of provisions of the Constitution which gives Nigerians the right to live freely in any part of the country. Ortom added that the statement of the group directing...
Bishop Kukah: Wounds of the civil war have not been healed
Catholic News Agency The Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, Thursday, said that the wounds of the civil war have not been healed. Kukah disclosed this at a zoom meeting organized by Dele Momodu of the Ovation Magazine and Mazi Ezeoke. Speaking on the theme: The Second never again conference: 51 years after Nigerian-Biafran Civil war, the outspoken Bishop, advised Nigerians to compile a history of the country, noting that knowing the history will calm/qualm the taste for violence. Kukah who has been on the media for criticizing the current administration and proffering solutions to the problems of the country noted that Nigerians and of course their leaders are not happy with the current situation of the country. He highlighted, poor economic policies, insecurity and poor educa...
Uganda election: Will Bobi Wine derail Yoweri Museveni’s sixth term bid?
As millions of Ugandans prepare to pick the country’s president this week, the stakes could not be higher. The run-up to Thursday’s vote has been marred by restrictions on campaigning, arrests of opposition figures and deadly violence. At least 54 people were killed in November as security forces put down protests by opposition supporters. Longtime President Yoweri Museveni, 76, is facing a strong challenge from popular musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine in his bid to secure a sixth, five-year term in office. Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, was just four years old when Museveni, a former rebel leader, came to power in 1986. In 2005, Uganda’s ruling-party-dominated parliament removed presidential term limits. And in 2017, lawmakers scrapped the age limit of 75 fo...
2021: Banks to walk a tightrope amid low revenue environment
Nigeria’s deposit money banks (DMBs) must brace up for the challenge of 2021 that might tax their resolve to remain in business. Reason: the industry is faced with a tougher operating environment that could threaten the operators’ ability to meet their stakeholders’ needs and expectations yet perform meaningful corporate social responsibility roles. Their valuable customers such as high net-worth individuals, corporate bodies and other institutions are equally challenged. In his book, Business Stripped Bare, celebrated iconic entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson, says, “without trustworthy banks, there can be no business, no employment, no money. According to Branson, “People have got to be able to go to bed at night secure in the knowledge that the money they depo...
NANS: Nigerian government’s 2021 budget for education worst in 10 years
The President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Com. Sunday Asefon, has frowned at the 2021 budgetary provision for education under President Muhammadu Buhari, describing it as the worst in the last ten years in the country. Disturbed by the neglect of the education sector, which was apportioned with a paltry of 5.6 percent in the 2021 budget and the high level of insecurity in the country, NANS has planned to organise a Security and Education Summit to partner stakeholders on how to arrest the drift in the two critical sectors Asefon said this in Ado-Ekiti, on Thursday, during a courtesy visit to the office of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Correspondents’ Chapel, Ekiti chapter. He said: “I condemn totally, the federal government’s 2021 budgetary provision to edu...
OPC slams President Buhari over increase in electricity tariff
File Photo The Oodua Peoples Congress has accused President Buhari of being insensitive to the plights of Nigerians, saying the sudden increase in the electricity tarrif is brutish and inhuman, describing it as an attempt to fuel national crisis. The group also restated its support and commitment to true federalism on the basis of regionalism, adding that Nigeria cannot make any meaningful progress with the 1999 Constitution, which it described as a democratic albatross. At a marathon meeting of the leadership and National Coordinating Council of the group in Lagos, the OPC, led by its National Coordinator and Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Abiodun Ige Adams, in a statement signed by the National General Secretary and Publicity Secretary, Babajide Tanimoowo and Yinka Oguntimehin,...
World Bank predicts 4% global economic growth, 1.1% for Nigeria in 2021
ABS-CBN The World Bank says global economy is expected to grow by 4 per cent in 2021, assuming an initial COVID-19 vaccine rollout becomes widespread throughout the year. It said this in a statement issued in Washington D.C. on Tuesday at the presentation of the January 2021 Global Economic Prospects. It added that the said recovery would likely be subdued unless policy makers moved decisively to tame the pandemic and implement investment-enhancing reforms. The bank also said that growth in Sub-Saharan Africa was forecast to rebound moderately to 2.7 per cent in 2021, while Nigeria’s growth was expected to resume at 1.1 per cent. For the region, it said that while the recovery in private consumption and investment was forecast to be slower than previously envisioned, export growth was expe...
TUC: Electricity tariff hike another betrayal of trust
File Photo The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, has expressed disappointment over the latest hike in electricity tariff, describing is as a betrayal of trust. TUC, in a statement by its President and Secretary-General, Quadri Olaleye, and Musa-Lawal Ozigi, respectively, said: “We are disappointed by the recent hike in electricity tariff, while negotiations were ongoing with the Organised Labour on the last hike because of the untold hardship it has brought on the workers and Nigerians as a whole. “Sometimes we wonder why this government espouses unfriendly policies that are capable of crippling the economy. “There are many companies that have either closed shops or relocated to neighbouring countries because they cannot afford to pay the last tariff hike, yet this government has done ...
CBN: Naira to fall further in January
Barely five days to the end of the year 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria has disclosed that a survey carried out by its Statistics Department revealed that the naira is expected to depreciate further in January 2021. The report, titled, ‘December 2020 Business Expectations Survey Report’ added that there might also be a steady rise in interest rate from December till the next six months. The naira witnessed a sharp fall in recent weeks, reaching its lowest on November 30, 2020, when it exchanged for N500/$1. Since then, the dollar has been hovering between N460 and N470. As of Friday, however, one dollar exchanged for 465 in the parallel market. Also, the Nigerian economy had on November 21 slid into its second recession in five years when the economy shrank again in the third quarter. Th...
