Nigeria
Zamfara sacks Zakkat board secretary, two others
The Zamfara State Government has sacked the Executive Secretary and two other directors of the state’s Zakkat and Endowment Board, with immediate effect. The decision came following an emergency meeting held by the Chairman and board members of the board on Friday. While addressing journalists in Gusau, the board chairman, Prof Kabiru Jabaka said that the board members had raised an alarm that some retired workers were sabotaging the efforts of distribution of Zakkat and Endowment to less privileged persons in the state. Jabaka explained that 13 out of 15 board members had passed a vote of no confidence on the Executive Secretary, Mallam Bashir Surajo, and two of his Directors, Mallam Ibrahim Tudu and Mallam Dalhatu Jauri. According to the chairman of the board, the tenure of the Executive...
Ekiti governor considers establishment of coronavirus test laboratory
Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has hinted of a plan to establish COVID-19 Laboratory to facilitate massive testing of residents. The governor also disclosed that blood samples of illegal immigrants to the state are been taking for test . Speaking through the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mojisola Yaya-Kolade, the governor said this facility is to be provided by Governor Kayode Fayemi , in partnership with well-meaning Ekiti indigenes and other private sponsors . Yaya-Kolade spoke in Ado Ekiti, on Friday, during a Covid 19 update press conference held by the task force in charge of the pandemic. She said: “The Federal government promised to provide a facility but it has not been forthcoming. The Governor, Dr Fayemi now used his own initiative to reach out to well meaning Ekiti Indigenes ...
FRSC tasks Ogun residents to adhere to government’s coronavirus measures
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Ogun, on Friday, reiterated the need for residents to adhere strictly to stay-at-home order towards curbing further spread of the novel coronavirus disease. The Sector Commander of the Corps, Mr. Clement Oladele, gave the advice in an interview in Ota, Ogun. Oladele urged strict adherence to government order so that the lockdown directive of staying at home would be successful. “FRSC wants to implore people to persevere so that we can collectively defect the virus. “I commend people of the state for their high compliance with the use of face masks. “There is still need for more enlightenment, especially for few people, who are not using their own face mask, to comply,’’ NAN quotes him as saying. Oladele also urged the people to embrace the good hygie...
PTF: NAFDAC screening local cures for coronavirus
The Federal Government said yesterday it has evaluated claims by local researchers that they have manufactured curative drugs for COVID-19. It explained that having met preliminary requirements, the drugs had been forwarded to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, for listing. National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force for COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu, had restated the federal government’s position on Wednesday that no cure had been found for the disease. The government also expressed worries over the continued repatriation of Almajiriai by states, saying the development could fuel a spike in infections. On compliance with general safety protocols put in place against the virus, the federal government asked security agencies not to cut corners, addi...
Enugu lifts ban on religious gatherings
The Christian Council of Nigeria (CCN), Enugu State chapter, has said that normal services will resume in churches in the state on May 10. The council said that this was part of the agreements reached with the state government on Thursday. A statement issued in Enugu by Most. Rev. Christopher Ede, the state Chairman of CCN, said that church worship services would resume in all churches across the state on that day. Ede, who is the Archbishop of Enugu Methodist Church Nigeria, said that each denomination must observe all the safety protocols on public gatherings, as recommended by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and other government guidelines. Newsmen report that the state government had, on March 31, suspended all religious and social gatherings, after announcing a partial l...
Boss Mustapha: We are all combatants in battle against coronavirus
The Chairman Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, has said every Nigerian is a combatant in the fight against Coronavirus pandemic, noting that whatever you do to yourself is capable of affecting others. Mustapha said this at the PTF on COVID-19 daily briefing on Thursday in Abuja. According to him, “the only way to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic is when various institutions in the country work together based on understanding”. He urged those in leadership to also take responsibility by engaging their communities in ways to forestall the spread of the COVID-19. “The media must not relent in its crusade to curtail the spread of COVID-19”. He also commended the security agencies for arresting and prosecuting viola...
Abia government intercepts trucks bringing 26 people
Abia State Government says it intercepted 26 people hidden in two trucks coming into the state. The Commissioner for Homeland Security, Dan Okoli, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Aba on Thursday. He said the 26 persons were concealed in two trucks that belonged to a Nigerian multi-industry company. Okoli said the interception took place at Ariam Community, a boundary town between Akwa-Ibom and Abia, in Ikwuano Local Government Area of the state. He said the 26 people were later moved into another vehicle and sent back to where they were coming from. He debunked stories making the rounds that Abia boundaries were porous and that people were freely coming in and going out. Okoli said that it took the painstaking surveillance by security personnel to intercept the 26 persons. H...
Nigeria drags Kase Lawal to court over $35 million debt
Nigeria has sued an oil exploration production company, ALLIED ENERGY PLC, owned by Texas-based billionaire Kase Luqmon Lawal to demand $35.7 million debt. The suit was filed at a Federal high Court in Lagos by the oil minister, which is President Muhammadu Buhari. The amount in question was for royalty on oil and gas production, concession rental and gas flaring penalty. In a statement of claim, assistant director, planning Division of the Department of petroleum resources Efe Bassey, alleged that Allied Energy PLC in receivership, in the course of it’s mainstream business, applied for and was granted an oil mining lease number 120(OML120) and oil mining lease number 121(OML121) for the exploration and production of petroleum oil and gas assets. Upon the grant of the aforesaid OMLS by min...
Cross River orders five truckloads of almajiris back to destination
Cross River State government on Thursday ordered five truckloads of almajiris including other passengers from the northern part of Nigeria back to its destination. Newsmen learnt that a border patrol team, comprising of Peace Corp members, civilian Vigilantes, Border COVID-19 Taskforce had intercepted the trucks yesterday night at the Gakem border town in Bekwara LGA of the state near Benue State. A source who pleaded anonymity told Vanguard that the team was led by a Commissioner who said it was the result of intensive search and blockade of interstate vehicular travels, which his team was poised to enforce. “After a thorough check on the five trucks we discovered that most of the passengers, aside goods, were almajiris who did not meet COVID19 protocols, we had to force them to return,” ...
PDP rejects N108 ex-depot fuel price, insist on N70 pump price
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has rejected the new ex-depot price of N108 per litre of the Premium Motor Spirit insisting on a new pricing template that must accommodate a pump price of between N60 to N70 per litre to reflect the crash in the price of crude oil and petroleum products in the international market. The party described the N108 ex-depot price as fraudulent and a far cry from the appropriate pump price template that should not exceed N70 given the prevailing situation in the international oil market. In a statement issued by the national publicity secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP maintained that the N108 ex-depot price with a projected additional N9 per litre Expected Open Market “completely unacceptable to Nigerians.” The statement read: “The federal gov...
Court restrains Nigerian government from extraditing Senator Kashamu
Associated Press Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, restrained the Federal Government from extraditing Buruji Kashamu, a Nigerian senator, to the U.S. to answer drug charges. Delivering judgement, Justice Abang, held that neither the federal government nor any of its agents could validly initiate extradition proceedings against Kashamu in view of subsisting judgements and orders in favour of the plaintiff, which had remained unchallenged. Abang particularly noted that the judgement delivered by the Federal High Court, Lagos on January 6, 2014 (in suit No:49/2010) and another judgement of July 1, 2016 given by the Federal High Court, Abuja (in suit No: 479/2015), which prohibited Kashamu’s extradition on account of the U.S. drug allegation, were still subsisti...
Ohanaeze writes President Buhari over erosion menace in Alex Ekwueme’s home
Ohaneze Ndigbo, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency order the Federal Ministry of Environment to attend to the continued erosion menace ravaging the country home of former Vice President of Nigeria, late Dr Alex Ekwueme in Oko, and other neighbouring communities of Nanka and Agulu in Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State. The Igbo Social-Cultural organisation, Ohaneze Ndigbo, made the appeal for the Federal Ministry of Environment to attend to the situation before it will get out of hand, considering the huge contributions the late Icon has made to keep Nigeria as one. The Ohaneze issue the appeal on Thursday, in a letter titled “Save Us From The Ravaging Gully Erosion in Ekwueme’s home” directed to President Buhari. The social body expressed ...
