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Nigerian government seizes bank’s assets over Shell’s N183 billion debt
File Photo Nigerian government have moved to sequester the assets of the country’s premier lender First Bank of Nigeria Limited in an effort to recover the damages oil major Royal Dutch Shell owed the Ejama Ebubu community of Rivers State in a legal contest spanning many decades, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Police operatives and court officials arrived the bank’s main branch in Port Harcourt on Tuesday to execute an order to seize the lender’s asset, FirstBank said in a statement. The bank said the incident leading to the confiscation of its properties was “unjustified, illegal and a reckless misuse of the machinery of justice.” Lagos-headquartered FirstBank resolved to guarantee the damages awarded against Shell by a Rivers State high court judge a decade ago. According to the estimation...
Taraba: Striking resident doctors demand beyond hazard allowance
iStock As resident doctors strike in Taraba state enters week three, the state government, Tuesday said the demands of the aggrieved doctors were beyond the payment of COVID-19 hazard and inducement allowance. The state commissioner for health, Dr Innocent Vakkai speaking at a press parley, also disclosed that a committee has been constituted to compile the total cost of the COVID-19 hazard allowances due for health workers. He listed the demands of the striking doctors to include, “increase in doctors wages, training, and retraining of doctors on residency programs, improved working conditions and for the state to commence training of horsemanship officers. On the payment of the COVID-19 hazard allowance to health workers, Vakkai said the compilation of the total cost has reached the last...
FRSC impounds 35 vehicles for not having speed limit devices
The Lagos State Sector Commander of the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr Olusegun Ogungbemide, said that 35 commercial motorists had their vehicles impounded on Monday in Lagos for not installing speed limit devices in them. Ogungbemide made the disclosure in an interview with newsmen after the corps sensitized motorists plying the Lagos-Ibadan expressway on the need to install “speed governors” in their vehicles. He said the operation was in line with the directive of the Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, who had noticed an increase in the number of fatalities during the festive period. “We are not going to release those vehicles even after the payment of fines by their owners until they install speed limit devices in them,” he said. Ogungbemide urged motorists to be more careful on ...
Coronavirus: School reopening, worship centres, others caused second wave – Prof. Abayomi
The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has attributed the reasons for the second wave of COVID-19 to the opening up of the economy, the re-opening of schools, large religious congregations, and social gatherings among others. A statement from the Lagos State Ministry of Health quoted the commissioner as saying this while giving an update on the State Government’s response against the second wave of COVID-19 at a press briefing held in Ikeja on Monday. The statement titled, ‘COVID-19: Lagos admonishes residents’, was signed by the LSMOH Director of Public Affairs, Tunbosun Ogunbanwo. “Abayomi attributed the reason for the second wave of COVID19 to include, opening up of the economy; general laxity, false sense of security and non-adherence to safety guidelines by citiz...
Nigeria fines UK, South African airlines for breach of coronavirus protocol
The Nigerian government has rolled out punitive measures against foreign airline operators flying into Nigeria, particularly those from the United Kingdom and South Africa whose passengers allegedly violated the reviewed travel protocols announced by Nigeria’s regulatory body for aviation NCAA. The agency, in a circular issued on December 26 by its director-general Musa Nuhu, disclosed that airlines from the affected countries shall be fined $3,500 for each passenger that flouts the guidelines, which were reviewed to prevent an outbreak of the new variant of the coronavirus recently reported in the UK and South Africa. The circular stated that repeated non-compliance by any carrier would result in the suspension of the airline’s permit to fly into Nigeria, as defaulting passengers are boun...
Lai Mohammed: My only regret as minister
Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said his only regret as a minister is that some Nigerians have failed to appreciate that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is doing so much with little resources. Mr Mohammed stated this at a Special Forum of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja. He said with dwindling resources, no government in the history of Nigeria has implemented programmes alleviating poverty among women and vulnerable groups as well as created jobs for the youth as the Buhari administration had done. The minister said his regret was that some Nigerians have failed to appreciate the efforts of the government but keep celebrating negative developments. “My regret in this government is that Nigerians have failed to appreciate that the ...
NHIS recovers N2 billion debts from HMO’s
File Photo The National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, on Tuesday says it has recovered the sum of N2 billion debts from Health Maintenance Organizations, HMOs, and unpaid bills to Health care facilities. NHIS General Manager, Enforcement Department, Pharmacist Mohammad Ghali, disclosed this during a stakeholders sensitization workshop held in Kano to strengthen effective operations of the scheme. Ghali said it received complaints from the health care providers over HMO’s non-payment of services rendered to enrollees and to that effect, the scheme came up with a principle of reconciliation between the HMO’s and healthcare facilities leading to the recovery of the monies, N2 billion, which was later paid to the healthcare facilities. According to him, “over some period, what the NHIS witnes...
Edo Head of Service regains freedom from kidnappers
Mr Anthony Okungbowa, Edo state Head of Service (HoS), who was abducted on Saturday evening along Oza Road, in Orhionmwon Local Government Area of the state, has regained his freedom. The HoS was released by his abductors on Monday night according to a family source, who pleaded anonymity. The source said that Okungbowa was set free after payment of an undisclosed amount as ransom demanded by his kidnappers and that the HoS was hale and hearty since his release. The family source disclosed that the ransom was paid through a collaboration between the family and the State government. “We just want to thank God that our brother has been set free and in good health condition,” said the source. The source, however, lamented that the Police orderly attached to the HoS, who was shot during the pr...
Nigerian polytechnic workers to begin strike January 4
The Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANU) is beginning a warning strike on January 4 next year, the President of the association, Adebanjo Ogunsipe, says. In a press statement on Thursday, Mr Ogunsipe said the strike will last 14 days. He said the declaration was owing to the nonchalant attitude of the federal government towards issues bordering on education. Mr Ogunsipe said the polytechnics and tertiary education system generally have a myriad of problems militating against their development. “You may recall that for the past three years, the union has consistently presented these issues in our various communique at the end of our NEC/GEC meetings which comes up at least four times every year for the avoidance of doubt,” he said. Mr Ogunsipe said the association’s dema...
Ondo tertiary institutions to shut down as unions declare strike
Non-academic staff of Ondo State-owned tertiary institutions have declared a 14-day warning strike over six months unpaid salaries. The strike will commence on Monday. The workers are embarking on the strike under the Joint Action Committee (JAC). They said the state government had refused to honour the union’s demands. They are aggrieved over the delay in the release of monthly subvention to the institutions which has caused a delay in payment of salary. According to JAC’s notice signed by Aguda Temitope Secretary of Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU); J.O. Fagbemi of National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), and A.O. Ogungbeni, all of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko (AAUA), and addressed to the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the university, the strike is due to failure of ...
Nigerian governors to meet with President Buhari to address security challenges
Governors of the thirty six states under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF have resolved to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari to address the security challenges with continued cases of armed banditry, terrorism and kidnapping across the country. The governors are meeting with President Buhari especially to discuss last week’s gruesome beheading of about 43 Farmers in Zarbamari near Maiduguri, Borno State by Boko Haram Insurgents while they were working in their farmland without any form of resistance. The decision was part of the resolutions reached at the end of the 22nd NGF teleconference meeting. In a Communique signed by the NGF Chairman and Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said, ” Members of the forum resolved to meet with Mr. President as soon as possible to ad...
Gunmen kidnap Edo councillor
Unknown gunmen in the early hours of Wednesday abducted Israel Inyanabor, a councillor representing Ewohimi Ward One in Esan South-East Local Government Area of Edo State. Inyanabor’s kidnap happened along Ewatto-Ubiaja-Okhuesan Road near Ena River in Esan South-East LGA of the state. The kidnap of the councillor has reportedly created tension in the community following an earlier abduction of a teacher and his wife, simply identified as Mr and Mrs Aluola, by suspected bandits along the same Ewatto-Ubiaja-Okhuesan Road on Monday. It was learnt that the abductors of the couple are asking for N15 million as ransom from the family before they would be released. A resident of Ewohimi, Festus Ehigiator, disclosed that the scene of the latest kidnap incident was the same spot where the teacher a...
