PLAN
Niger debunks plan to recruit youths to fight bandits
Niger state government has debunked reports making round in the state that the government is planning to engage youths to fight against banditry in the state. Newsmen learnt that a social media post has been making rounds across the state on Saturday morning that the state government has concluded plans to recruit about 4,000 youths across the 25 local government areas of the state to fight the security challenge in the state. The Commissioner for Local Government, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mallam Abdulmalik Sarkin Daji stated this in a statement made available to newsmen in Minna on Saturday. He said that although the state is faced with serious security challenges, the government has no immediate plan to engage the youths in the fight against armed bandits. According...
Official: Gombe records 200 rape, 37 sodomy cases in 2020
Gombe State Commissioner for internal security and Ethical Orientation, Dauda Zambuk, on Saturday said the state recorded 200 rape, 37 sodomy and 10 kidnap cases in 2020 with five recorded in January of the new year 2021 alone. Addressing a group of journalists in his office in Gombe Zambuk said 61 persons were also arrested for an act of gross indecency while three children were reported abandoned. “In all the total number of 314 suspects were arrested and all were charged to court,” he said. The commissioner said the state government after the investigation was a shock to find out that all kidnappings were perpetrated by criminals from the neighbouring Adamawa and Taraba States. According to Zambuk, 40 rape cases were lodged in Gombe alone while 39 attempted rape were reported in the ent...
Thousands of US-bound Honduran migrants cross border into Guatemala
<img width="696" height="391" class="entry-thumb" src="https://www.today.ng/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/16201205-696×391.jpg" srcset="https://www.today.ng/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/16201205-696×391.jpg 696w, https://www.today.ng/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/16201205-300×169.jpg 300w, https://www.today.ng/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/16201205.jpg 699w" sizes="(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px" alt="Thousands of Honduran migrants push through the police fence as they attempt to cross the border at El Florido in Guatemala forming the first migrant caravan of the year on it’s way to the United States on January 15, 2021. – Some 3,000 people left Honduras on foot January 15 in the latest migrant caravan hoping to find ...
Abuja chamber welcomes FCT tax harmonisation
Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has welcomed the plan by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Muhammad Bello to harmonise tax policies within the territory in order end multiple taxations on by businesses in the territory. The President of ACCI, Alhaji Abubakar, in a statement yesterday, commended the minister for acknowledging the challenges faced by businesses within the territory due to series of levies, charges and taxes from Federal, FCTA and Area Councils. “Multiple taxations within the FCT and the larger national economy has imposed crippling consequences on businesses. “The fallout has been many failed businesses, the rising level of inflation, the non-thriving of existing ones and the lack of capacity to engage many unemployed youths. “We want ...
Joe Biden receives second dose of coronavirus vaccine on camera
Joe Biden on Monday received the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on camera, as part of an effort by the President-elect’s incoming administration to reassure the country of the safety of the vaccines. Biden was administered the shot in his left arm by Ric Cuming, chief nurse executive at ChristianaCare’s Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, according to Biden’s transition team. The President-elect said he would be announcing his plan to “get the entire Covid operation up and running,” including the necessary costs, on Thursday. Biden said he had a meeting with members of his team later Monday afternoon. Biden said he was “not afraid of taking the oath outside,” and that his team has been getting briefed, when asked if he had any fears about taking the oath of office...
Minister: Tests on NYSC members confirm coronavirus is everywhere in Nigeria
The Federal Government says it has further confirmed from results of tests conducted on prospective National Youth Service Corps members confirmed that no part of the country was free of COVID-19. The Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora, made the disclosure on Monday in Abuja at a briefing by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19. “We safely and comfortably drew this conclusion because corps members are mobilised from all the states of the country for each of the orientation camps,”the Minister said while warning that increasing cases of COVID-19 are imposing enormous burden on the nation’s health facilities. He said that the 18,699 active COVID-19 cases were stretching health facilities. “With the increased number of confirmed cases, the number of active cases ha...
Republican senator: Donald Trump must ‘go away as soon as possible’
A second Republican senator in the United States has called on Donald Trump to step down after some of the president’s supporters overran the Capitol building in Washington, DC this week in a deadly riot. In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press news programme on Sunday, Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey said Trump should resign for the good of the country. “I think the best way for our country is for the president to resign and go away as soon as possible,” he said. Toomey said president’s resignation is the “best path forward, the best way to get this person in the rear-view mirror for us”, but added that he did not believe Trump would step down before his term ends on January 20. He also said the president’s role encouraging the riot was an “impeachable offence”. Momentum has been buildi...
Nigerian government lists conditions for states to access coronavirus vaccines
The Federal Government has listed conditions for states to meet before the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine being expected wt the end of January would be released to them. The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), during a webinar tagged “Sensitisation Meeting with Media Gatekeepers on COVID-19 Vaccine Introduction”, at the weekend, said no vaccine will be release to states until facilities such as cold chains are in place. According to Director, Logistics and Health Commodities, NHPCDA, Kubura Daradara, the vaccine must be administered within five days of receipt for it to remain potent, and only the states that show commitment would receive the doses when available. She added that the 100,000 doses would be administered to 50,000 people, because each person has to take a secon...
Igbo group writes Nigerian government to request extradition of Nnamdi Kanu for ‘treasonable felony
YouTube An Igbo professional group, Coalition of South East Professionals’ Network in Nigeria and Diaspora (CSEPNND), has written an open letter to the Federal Government of Nigeria, urging it to immediately write the Government of the United Kingdom and Israel, requesting for extradition of leader of Indigenous People of Biafra,Mazi Nnamdi Kanu,to face the law over his involvement in alleged treasonable felony. The group whose request was contained in the open letter dated January 8th, 2021, and addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, explained that its action was predicated on Kanu’s ceaseless treasonable activities in the country. Noting that Kanu possessed citizenship of the two foreign nations, the coalition, according to the letter signed by its National President, Prof. Madumere Ch...
Nigerian government begs residents not to reject coronavirus vaccines
Federal authorities have appealed to Nigerians not to be hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it gets to Nigeria. Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, and head of Nigeria’s primary healthcare agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, made the appeal at the PTF briefing on Thursday in Abuja. Nigeria intends to get 42 million COVID-19 vaccines to cover one fifth of its population through the global COVAX scheme, the PTF had earlier announced. The initial vaccines would come as part of Nigeria’s plan to inoculate 40 percent of the population in 2021 and another 30 per cent in 2022, with 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arriving by the end of January 2021. The COVAX scheme was set up to provide vaccines to poorer countries including Nigeria whose 200 million people and poor ...
Russian coronavirus vaccine trials begin in UAE as cases rise
Abu Dhabi has started Phase III clinical trials of Russia’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine, known as Sputnik V, amid a surge in infections in the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi’s media office said on Thursday. The human trial, announced in October before the recent rise in cases, is initially seeking up to 500 volunteers to be vaccinated at a hospital in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. Two doses of the vaccine will be given, 20 days apart, to volunteers, the statement said. Participants will have to be 18 years or older, have not previously been infected with COVID-19 or participated in other COVID-19 vaccine trials, it said. The UAE is also conducting Phase III trials of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm). The UAE has approved the vaccine and it is a...
Marcus Rashford tames Wolves to send Manchester United into second
Marcus Rashford’s deflected strike deep into stoppage time moved Manchester United to within two points of Liverpool at the top of the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Wolves on Tuesday. United laboured for long spells against a youthful Wolves side, but got a huge slice of fortune in the 93rd minute when Rashford’s shot hit Romain Saiss to leave Rui Patricio helpless. Victory takes Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men up to second and continues an excellent run of 23 points from the last possible 27 to mount an unlikely title challenge after a slow start to the season. Despite enjoying one more day’s rest amid the packed festive schedule than their opponents, Solskjaer made six changes from the side that drew 2-2 at Leicester on Boxing Day. Edinson Cavani made just his second Premier League start...
