Pool Photo The ripples over the appointment of a sole administrator for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) reached a boiling point on Monday as hundreds of Ijaw youths blocked the popular East-West road, causing many travellers to be stranded. The youths under the aegis of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) said the protest was for the immediate removal of the Sole Administrator, Mr Effiong Okon Awa, and the inauguration of the substantive board. The protest held travellers stranded for hours and attempts by some armed soldiers backed by an Armoured Personnel Carrier and led by a Major to persuade the protesters to leave the East-West road proved abortive. A plea by a former Secretary to Bayelsa State Government and ex-Nigerian Ambassador to the Scandinavian countries, Dr Godknows Iga...
An Osun State High Court sitting in Ilesa, on Thursday, sentenced a 29-year-old mechanic, Sola Emorua, to death by hanging for armed robbery. The defendant was first arraigned before Justice Isiaka Adeleke on January 29, 2018, on two counts of conspiracy and armed robbery. Justice Adeleke, in his judgment after a trial that lasted almost three years, said the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and subsequently sentenced Emorua to death. The lead prosecution counsel from the Ministry of Justice, Motolani Sokefun, had told the court that the convict and others at large, on May 7, 2015 around 5.30pm in Osu, on the Ilesa-Akure Expressway, while armed with weapons, robbed a tanker loaded with 33,000 litres of kerosene belonging to one Ismaila Azeez. The counsel further expl...
The Enugu State Government has declared its resolve to resist any attempt by land grabbers and fraudsters to short-change the people under any guise. The Commissioner for Lands, Dr Victor Nnam, stated this when he received an award for exceptional service and leadership from the traditional ruler of Amechi Udewo, Igwe Daniel Nnamani, the Ogboo Ogu I of Amechi Udewo, Awkunanaw, Enugu State. The Commissioner said his Ministry was working assiduously to transform land administration in the State, in line with the agenda of the State Governor, Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. He said: ‘I appreciate the entire people of Amechi and Obeagu Awkunanaw. I assure you of my resolve to continue the good fight of faith against land grabbers and fraudsters, as well as the transformation of the land administration...
A new round of British sanctions against Russian individuals over alleged human rights abuses in Chechnya is “unfounded” and Moscow may retaliate, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. “Undoubtedly, this politically-charged demarche will have a negative impact on Russian-British interstate relations,” the ministry said, adding Russia “reserves the right to take appropriate countermeasures.” Britain said on Thursday it was imposing sanctions on 11 individuals, including security figures and officials from Russia, Venezuela, Pakistan and Gambia, in a coordinated move with the United States on human rights violations. Get more stories like this on Twitter You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giv...
President Akufo-Addo says the sustenance of the country’s peace is a shared responsibility for all Ghanaians and has therefore entreated citizens to play their part in keeping the country united even after a fiercely contested election. The President’s comment comes after pockets of violent clashes and vandalism by some elements who feel aggrieved following the declaration of the election results by the chairperson of the Electoral Commission led to a few deaths across the country. Addressing the Muslim community at a thanksgiving service at the Central Mosque in Accra Friday, President Akufo-Addo expressed hope that the Ghanaian people will find a way to come together as one people. “I’m confident that the good sense of the Ghanaian people will make sure that the peace and stability of ou...
The National Universities Commission (NUC) said the visitation panels to 38 federal universities and four Inter-University Centres recently approved by the President Muhammadu Buhari will be gazetted to enable the exercise to be carried out. The NUC Executive Secretary, Abubakar Rasheed, disclosed this in a statement by Ibrahim Yakasai, Director, Corporate Affairs, NUC in Abuja on Tuesday. The statement quoted the executive secretary as saying that the federal ministry of education was working with the justice ministry to ensure that the gazetting is done expeditiously. He said that as soon as the gazetting was done, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, would inaugurate the panels after which they would proceed to their respective universities for the assignment. He explained that all f...
U.S. warns Pacific islands about Chinese bid for undersea cable project
The United States has warned Pacific island nations about security threats posed by a Chinese company’s cut-price bid to build an undersea internet cable, two sources told Reuters, part of an international development project in the region. Huawei Marine, which was recently divested from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and is now majority-owned by another Chinese firm, submitted bids along with French-headquartered Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), part of Finland’s Nokia, and Japan’s NEC, for the $72.6 million project backed by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), the sources with direct knowledge of the project details said. The project is designed to improve communications to the island nations of Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and Kiribati. Washington sent a diploma...