Minister
UN secretary-general calls for release of civilian leaders in Mali
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for civilian leaders in Mali to be released, after military officers upset with a government reshuffle detained the president and prime minister at an army camp. “I am deeply concerned by news of detention of civilian leaders of the Malian transition,” Guterres said on Twitter. He continued: “I call for calm & their unconditional release.” President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane lead an interim government, installed under the threat of regional sanctions following a putsch in August, and the detentions on Monday raised fears of a second coup. Two senior officials, who declined to be named, told AFP that soldiers had taken Ndaw and Ouane to the Kati military camp on the outskirts of Bamako. Their detentions fo...
Minister: Nigerian government to scale up domestic gas expansion, monetisation drive
Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, has stated that the federal government will continue to ramp up its current domestic gas expansion drive as well as its monetisation programme to increase the country’s supply of the much needed foreign exchange earnings. Speaking when he appeared virtually at the formal opening of the new headquarters of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the minister stressed that the company was expected to play a major role in achieving the objective. Sylva noted that the country’s gas reserves must be fully explored for the full benefit of Nigerians, noting that has remains a major game-changer for Nigeria, especially with the renewed attention to the commodity as a lower carbon energy source. “In ...
Military arrest Mali’s president, premier, defence minister
Military officers in Mali arrested the president, prime minister and defence minister of the country’s interim government on Monday after a cabinet reshuffle, multiple diplomatic and government sources told Reuters. President Bah Ndaw, Prime Minister Moctar Ouane and defence minister Souleymane Doucoure were all taken to a military base in Kati outside the capital Bamako, the sources said. The arrests bring further uncertainty to the West African country after a military coup in August overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Ndaw and Ouane had been tasked with overseeing an 18-month transition back to civilian rule after the takeover, but many inside government and the opposition worried about the military’s hold over key positions. The arrests occurred after the announcement of a chan...
Ekiti governor endorses outcome of Southwest APC leaders’ meeting
Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, wholeheartedly supports the stance of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Southwest leaders at their meeting that took place in Lagos on Sunday, May 23rd, 2021 despite his absence at the meeting. Dr. Fayemi’s absence at the meeting was a result of a mix up in the invitation sent out for the meeting. For clarity, the invitation for the meeting which was said to have been sent via Whatsapp by Mr. Tunde Rahman, an aide to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, never got to Governor Fayemi. The absence of an invitation for the Southwest APC leaders meeting prevented the Governor from attending the meeting, as he was not aware. Governor Fayemi however sent an apology to the meeting through former Ekiti State Governor and Minister of Industries, Trade and Investments, Otun...
Minister charges diplomats to change the narratives about Nigeria
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, yesterday, charged officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to change the narratives about the country. Onyeama stated this during the opening of a three-day induction programme for over 350 officers posted to Nigerian missions abroad in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Onyeama told the officers that it had been a rocky and bumpy road to get to the point in which they were set to depart the country, adding that he was however glad that the day had arrived. “I am here to rejoice and to express my love for you all and to say that we have to keep hope alive, we have to maintain solidarity. We are in this thing together and by God’s grace, we will all be an asset for our country, Nigeria. That is what it is really all about, about Nigeria,...
Belarus’s forced landing of Lithuania-bound Ryanair plane sparks outrage
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania to land on Sunday in Minsk, where a Belarusian opposition activist on board was detained, prompting international condemnation. EU member Lithuania urged the European Union and NATO to respond, Germany called for an immediate explanation and Poland’s prime minister called it a “reprehensible act of state terrorism”. The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Belarus’s action was “utterly unacceptable”. The aircraft, flying from Athens to Vilnius, had almost reached Lithuania when it changed direction and was escorted to Minsk, the Belarusian capital, after reports that it had explosives on board, according to an online flight tracker and BelTA state news agency. Belarusian law e...
SERAP urges President Buhari to tell Nigerians spending plan for James Ibori loot, others
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to “urgently direct Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning to disclose spending details of the $700 million looted funds reportedly recovered by the Federal Government in the past four years, including the list and location of projects completed with the money, as well as details of the contractors that executed the projects.” SERAP also urged him to “direct Mrs Ahmed to disclose how the government plans to spend the returned £4.2m Ibori loot, including details of planned capital expenditure, and whether there is any plan to ensure that the money and any future returned Ibori loot would be spent to achieve justice and effective remedies for victims of corruption in...
Rivers governor accuses predecessor of embezzling proceeds from aircraft, power projects
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has accused the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, of embezzlement of proceeds from the sales of the state aircraft and power stations. The governor offered to resign from office if Amaechi could mention any federal project he has attracted to Rivers State as a minister since 2015. Governor Wike made the remarks at the formal defection of two former chairmen of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Dr Davies Ikanya and Igo Aguma, as well as other chieftains of the opposition to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Port Harcourt on Saturday. The governor explained that Amaechi, the former governor, had claimed he sold a Dash 8 aircraft purchased by the administration of former Governor Dr Peter Odili to the Government of Cross River ...
Rivers government seeks relocation of NIMASA cabotage department
The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has appealed to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to return its Cabotage Services Department to Port Harcourt. Wike made the appeal when the Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, visited him in Port Harcourt, recently. Wike said operations of the Cabotage Services Department of NIMASA used to be in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, but it was relocated to Lagos. The governor said in spite of his administration’s procurement of gunboats for security agencies, especially the Police and Navy to assist in the fight against piracy and ensure safety on the waterways for NIMASA’s businesses to thrive, the state did not get anything in return. He commended Jamoh for the initiative aimed at harnessing ocean resources as an ...
Senator calls for removal of AGF over remarks on herdsmen
Senator representing Osun Central Senatorial District, Dr. Ajibola Basiru, has called for the immediate removal from office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Alhaji Abubakar Malami, SAN, over his argument, equating open grazing with Southerners’ selling spare parts in the North. Dr. Basiru, who spoke in his personal capacity as a patriot and Senator said that, “anyone who cannot rise above primordial sentiments and pursuit of parochial ethnic agenda need not occupy position of trust especially at this time of sectional agitations. It was not dignifying of the status of the nation’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice to make such remarks. The Senator said that equating the activities of nomadic herdsmen, destroying people’s means of livelihood with others, legitimately carryi...
Hamas official predicts ceasefire soon in Israel-Gaza conflict
A senior Hamas official predicted a ceasefire within days in the Israel-Gaza conflict, after U.S. President Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek a “de-escalation” in the fighting. Rocket fire into Israel died down overnight, a lull that stretched into Thursday morning. Israel was launching new air strikes in Gaza after daybreak, but, Israeli media said, at a slower pace than in past days. An Egyptian security source said the sides had agreed in principle to a ceasefire after help from mediators but details were still being negotiated in secret. “I think that the ongoing efforts regarding the ceasefire will succeed,” the Hamas political official, Moussa Abu Marzouk, told Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV. “I expect a ceasefire to be reached within a day or two, and the c...
Nigerian government determined to eradicate poverty, unemployment – minister
The federal government has reiterated its determination to eradicate poverty as well as tackling unemployment in the country to the barest minimum, saying its many programmes designed to tackle the issues have had tremendous success. The government said the alarming rate of out-of-school children witnessed some years ago had considerably reduced due mainly to some of its initiatives, among which it said, was the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme. The government’s position came as it inaugurated an expanded committee on National Home Grown School Feeding Programme with a task on members to make meaningful contributions to stamp the problems out of the country. Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, speaking at the event i...
