Integrity
Lagos marks 70 houses for demolition, 20 on the Island
The Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) said it is set to demolish 70 distressed buildings in the state. Twenty of the buildings are on Lagos Island. The agency made this known after bulldozing a partially collapsed house at 19 Church Street on the Island. LASBCA spokesman, Mr Gbadeyan Abdulraheem, said the General Manager of the agency Mr Gbolahan Oki, supervised the demolition. Oki said it has became an urgency to immediately remove the dilapidated and distressed building, which were no longer fit for human habitation, to prevent collapse. He said many defective buildings had been marked for removal in a bid to end the era of building collapses. Oki noted that his team had earlier visited the distressed buildings to get an on the spot assessment and asked the residents to reloca...
Anambra election: 22 political parties storm INEC office, want participation
Twenty-two political parties, on Friday, stormed the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in Abuja, to submit names and particulars of candidates for the November 6 Anambra governorship election. The parties, which were part of the 74 political parties deregistered by INEC last year, insisted that they must be on the ballot as they had obtained a declarative judgment by the Appeal Court quashing their deregistration by the INEC. The electoral body, however, rejected their request, insisting that the parties remained deregistered. It would be recalled that the parties had, on March 18 this year, submitted letters of notice for the conduct of the governorship primaries for the Anambra poll. But INEC, then, in a swift reaction, signed by INEC National Commissi...
Brazilian potential presidential candidate announces he is gay
Brazilian governor and potential major party presidential candidate Eduardo Leite, a prominent critic of President Jair Bolsonaro, came out as gay in a TV interview. Leite, governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, would be the first openly gay presidential candidate in Brazil. Anti-gay rhetoric has been a staple of speeches by Bolsonaro, who once declared that if he had a gay son, he would rather the child died in an accident. “I have never spoken about a subject related to my private life,” Leite told Brazilian journalist Pedro Bial in a TV interview on Thursday evening. “But during this moment of low integrity in Brazil, I have nothing to hide, I am gay. I am a governor who is gay, not a gay governor, as former President Obama in the US was a president who was Black, not a Bl...
Anambra election: I’ve not highjacked APC primary – Senator Uba
File Photo A leading contender for the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship ticket, Andy Uba, has distanced himself from alleged attempts to hijack the party’s ongoing primary election. A statement in Awka, Saturday afternoon by Uba’s campaign organisation said the allegation was the last resort of people it called paper tigers. The statement read: ‘We are presently in touch with a number of false allegations where it has been stated that our principal, Senator Andy Uba has highjacked the process meant to democratically select a candidate for the forthcoming polls in November. ‘We wish to state categorically that nothing can be further from the truth as our principal, Senator Andy Uba, remains committed to the tenets of democracy and fairness and will thus not indulge in anything t...
President Buhar: We won’t rest until peace is fully restored in Borno
President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday in Maiduguri, Borno State, assured citizens of the federal government’s presence in fighting terrorism to the end, and ensuring that Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are fully returned to continue normal lives, commending Governor Babagana Zulum for resilience and relentless efforts in rebuilding the state. President Buhari, on an official visit to the state to appraise the security situation and commission some development projects, attributed recent successes recorded by the military against insurgents and terrorists at Dikwa, Damboa and Gwoza to careful planning, infusion of new equipment and other war materials as well as quality military leadership. “I am very happy to be here in Borno State once again. I consider Maiduguri and Borno State to be ...
Morocco says Madrid seeks to ‘Europeanise’ its crisis with Rabat
Morocco’s foreign minister on Wednesday accused Spain of trying to turn a political crisis between the two countries into an EU problem by focusing on migration and ignoring the root causes. The row blew up in April after Spain admitted the leader of the Western Sahara independence movement, Brahim Ghali, for medical treatment without informing Rabat, which regards the disputed territory as its own. Morocco then appeared to relax border controls with Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on May 17, leading to an influx of at least 8,000 migrants. Since then Spain and Morocco have traded accusations of violating good neighbourliness, with Spain saying Morocco used the migrants while Rabat says Spain acted in connivance with “adversaries” of its territorial integrity. “Spain tries to Europe...
Exam malpractices: Lagos fines 27 schools N13.5 million
The Lagos State Government has fined a total of 27 private schools N13.5 million as part of punishments for being involved in examination malpractices during the 2020 Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) which was conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). Each of the affected schools is to pay N500,000. This decision was contained in a statement issued on Monday by the Office of the Education Quality Assurance (OEQA) of the state’s ministry of education. The statement, which was signed by the spokesman for the OEQA, Emmanuel Olaniran, noted that the decision followed a report by the regional examination body which indicted the concerned private secondary schools. According to Mr Olaniran, WAEC officials, who monitored the conduct of the examination across the stat...
Kwara governor: Let’s fight terrorism, poverty, not ourselves
Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara has called on Nigerians to unite in the fight against terrorism, banditry and mass poverty. AbdulRazaq made the appeal at the closing ceremony of 2 Division Inter-Brigade Corporals and Below Competition 2021, at the Sobi Barack Ilorin on Friday. The governor described these challenges as “our common enemies” and urged citizens to stop seeing one another as enemies. According to him, these are elements bent on terrorising the people and tearing the nation apart. He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his patience and support for the security agencies to discharge their duties as well as commitment to national peace and security. “The security agencies, particularly the military will continue to symbolise the unity of the people and the strength of t...
President Buhari seeks international support for peaceful transition in Chad
President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday called on the international community to support a peaceful transition from military to democratic government in Chad. He made this known at a summit put together to discuss recent developments in Chad after the death of President Idris Deby last April. At the summit, Mr Buhari called on: “development partners and countries particularly France, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia; the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union, as well as other friendly and partner nations to support the transition framework put in place by Chad’s Transition Military Council led by General Mahamat Idris Deby.” ‘‘The need to support the Chadian government to effectively carry out its planned 18-month transition is sacrosanc...
South East group warns governors, others angling for vice presidency
As discussions surrounding the 2023 presidential election gathers pace, South East Governors and other politicians from the region have been warned against ‘angling for the position of Vice President’. The Association of South East Past Presidents-General, which gave the warning in Enugu at the weekend, said the zone would not accept any one reducing it to ‘second fiddle political status’ in 2023. At an official public presentation of the former Chief Judge of Anambra State, Justice Peter Umeadi, who is also a Professor of Law, the association said the general consensus by equity, justice and fair play was that the next President of the country should emerge from the South East. The former PGs, who lead the over 2000 Igbo communities in the past, stressed that with such understanding, it w...
House mourns army chief, others
Members of the House of Representatives have expressed sadness over the death of Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru and his entourage in an air crash in Kaduna. Attahiru, along with six senior officers and four crew members were onboard Nigerian Air Force Kingair 350 from Abuja to Kaduna, ahead of today’s passing out parade of soldiers from the Nigerian Army Depot in Zaria, when the crash happened amid torrential rainfall, on Friday evening. The Speaker of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, in a statement issued on Saturday described as shocking and sad the death Attahiru and others involved in the plane crash. Gbajabiamila said the death of the Army Chief was unfortunate coming at a time that the Nigerian military was finding solutions to the security challenges in the country...
Plateau governor mourns ex-CDS Dogonyaro
Gov. Simon Lalong of Plateau, has expressed sadness over the death of the former Chief of Defence Staff, Lt. Gen. (Rtd.) Joshua Dogonyaro, at the age of 80. Lalong in a statement by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Dr. Makut Macham, described his death as a great loss to the nation. He described Dogonyaro as a patriotic and loyal military officer, who served Nigeria with courage, dignity and selflessness, in several commands in his military career, saying he accomplished his assignments with tremendous success. He lauded his outstanding leadership skills in International peace keeping as Field Commander in Liberia, for the Economic Community of West Africa States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), saying Nigeria’s contribution during his tenure remained a reference point in the Nigerian A...
