PLAN
INEC to create 2,673 centres as continuous voter registration resumes
The Independent National Electoral Commission said it plans to create 2,673 registration centres and deploy 5,346 officials for the Continuous Voter Registration scheduled to resume June 28. INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this at the commission’s emergency meeting with security agencies under the auspices of the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security. Yakubu said that INEC was preparing for the resumption of the nationwide CVR to enable Nigerians who have attained the age 18 years and those who did not register previously to do so. He said: “Similarly, registered voters who wish to change their voting locations and those who wish to correct their names and other details on their Permanent Voters Cards can do so. “We plan to create 2,673 registration centre...
Ex-President Obasanjo visits Chicks market in Ibadan, promises improved system
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday assured members of the Day Old Chicks Merchant Association of Nigeria (DOCMAN) of improved system and the backing of the government. Obasanjo gave the assurance during his surprise visit to the market, Obasanjo Day Old Chicks Market, located at Oluyole Estate in Ibadan. The former president, who arrived at the market at about 9.20 a.m, was conducted round the congested market by Deacon Sunday Agusa, the General Manager of Obasanjo Farms, Ibadan. Newsmen report that there was massive turnout of traders at the market to welcome the former president amidst pomp and pageant. Obasanjo said that his attention was drawn to the existence of the market by his staff member and the use of his name to grow the market to an international standard on day-ol...
South Sudan to return 72 000 coronavirus vaccines to Covax
South Sudan will return 72 000 doses of donated Covid-19 vaccines after concluding it cannot administer the jabs before they expire, a health ministry official told AFP on Tuesday. The country received 132 000 doses of the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine in late March from Covax, the global initiative to ensure lower-income countries receive jabs, but so far has administered less than 8 000 shots. The rollout has been hampered by vaccine hesitancy and major logistical hurdles in the vast and underdeveloped country of 12 million, which, apart from the pandemic, faces an emergency food crisis and widespread armed insecurity. “There’s a plan to deliver back 72 000 doses to Covax,” Angelo Goup Thon, the head of Covid-19 operations at the health ministry, told AFP. He said the decision was made late...
Ondo governor: No land in southern Nigeria will be ceded to invaders masquerading as herdsmen
The Ondo State Governor and Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum, Mr Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has declared that “no inch of the space delineated and known, currently, as South West, and indeed the whole South, will be ceded to a band of invaders masquerading as herdsmen under any guise.” Akeredolu made the declaration in a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant Special Duties and Strategies, Dr Doyin Odebowale. The declaration was sequel to a statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, on the position of President Muhammadu Buhari, on the farmer-herder clashes and what was termed as “Deep Rooted Solutions to the herdsmen attacks”. Shehu had in the statement revealed the presidency’s position that ranching and revival...
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 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 ...
WTO chief: Patent waiver not enough to close vaccine gap
World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said that intellectual property waiver alone will not be enough to narrow the huge COVID-19 vaccine supply gap between rich and poor countries. She told the European Parliament that it was clear that discussions around vaccine patents alone would not suffice, saying that global leaders should do more to ensure that there is equitable production and distribution of the jabs. Okonjo-Iweala said developing countries had complained that the licensing process was cumbersome and should be improved upon. She added that while it makes sense to protect research and innovation, it is also important to expand access to the vaccines. According to her, manufacturers should work to expand production, pointing to idle capacity ...
Strike: Kaduna government, NLC reach agreement
The Kaduna State Government and the Nigeria Labour Congress have reached an agreement on the plan by the state government to lay off workers. The NLC has since Monday led workers to protest against the plan by the Kaduna government to lay off the workers. The late Thursday agreement between the two parties was brokered by the federal government in Abuja. Part of the agreement was that the Kaduna government will follow due process and the “principle of redundancy,” as stipulated in Section 20 of the Labour Act, in its Public Service Revitalization and Renewal Programme, which is expected to lead to the retrenchment and sack of workers. The parties also agreed that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) twill no longer continue with its industrial action while no worker shall be victimized by the...
Firm cautions Nigerian government over sale of national assets
Agusto Consulting has cautioned the federal government over its plan to relinquish national assets to private hands, saying, the risk involved is unquantifiable. Agusto Consulting, in a report titled “Rethinking Nigeria’s Models for Infrastructure Development,” noted that, the benefits of relinquishing control to the private sector are glaring, but remain difficult to implement. Noting that the federal government’s handing off certain critical assets of the country that have been dormant over the years will positively impact on the country’s budgetary allocation, but added that this decision has caveats and risks associated with operating models that involve private sector participation regardless of the levels of participation. “First is the high level of corruption in the country and the...
Ex-US envoy: British museum holds over 700 pieces of Benin bronzes
The British Museum, the world’s first national public museum, currently holds 700 pieces of the Benin Bronzes collection, more than any other museum and other institutions globally, a former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. John Campbell has said. Campbell, however, acknowledged that the authorities of the British Museum had agreed “to return the Benin Bronzes collection once the Edo Museum of West African Art, currently under construction in Benin City is completed.” He gave this figure in a blog post titled “Germany to Return Some African Art to Nigeria” published on the website of Council for Foreign Relations (CFR), a US non-profit think-tank specialising in international affairs on Wednesday. More than a century after British soldiers looted a collection of priceless artifacts...
Judge postpones trial for three ex-cops in George Floyd case – reports
A judge postponed the trial of three former Minneapolis policemen accused of taking part in the murder of George Floyd to March 2022 after they said that prosecutors leaked prejudicial information about the case, online court records showed. Tou Thao, 25, J. Alexander Kueng, 27, and Thomas Lane, 28, all fired and arrested days after Floyd was killed on May 25, have been charged with aiding and abetting the second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter of Floyd. Former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin was convicted on April 20 of murdering Floyd, 46, by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes, in a case that marked a milestone in America’s fraught racial history and a rebuke of law enforcement’s treatment of Black Americans. The death, captured on cellphone video, led to pr...
VP Osinbajo: Nigerian government democratising broadband connectivity
It’s the first in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the three such cutting-edge facilities on the continent, with top prime global certifications for smart card manufacturing and it is based in Lagos, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, relished yesterday afternoon while touring SecureID company’s premises, and affirmed Nigeria’s extremely bright economic future, which he said cannot be aborted despite current challenges. According to him, “the economic future of our nation is extremely bright. Yes, we have challenges today and they may look daunting. But let me assure you that these issues will be resolved. The march of this nation to its manifest destiny as Africa’s leading economic power will not be aborted. We are more than able to overcome.” An impressed Prof. Osinbajo said the Buhari Admi...
