President
South-South Governors support audit of NDDC
The South-South Governors Forum on Thursday declared wholehearted support for a forensic audit of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari. It deplored, with great concern, the crisis rocking the commission and said that it was convinced and expecting that the audit would serve to put the NDDC on a sound corporate governance footing and reposition it to better deliver on its mandate. In a statement by Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Delta, Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa, the governors also gave full backing to the ongoing investigation of the commission by the Senate. According to it, we believe the Senate is operating within its oversight functions through the ad hoc committee set up for that purpose. “It behoves us to respect the Senate oversight ...
President Buhari reads riot act to ministers, MDAs over discord with National Assembly
President Muhammadu Buhari has read the riot act to ministers, ministries, departments and agencies, warning that any disrespect to the National Assembly will not be tolerated. According to a statement by Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, Buhari issued the warning after meeting Senate President Senator Ahmed Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila at the State House, Abuja. Garba said the meeting, which lasted for almost an hour, was characterized by an engaging discussion on a range of key issues of National importance particularly the role of the Legislature as a critical component in supporting their common goal and commitment towards improving the lives of the people of Nigeria. The statement read in part: “In the course of their...
Twitter says passwords spared in yesterday’s attack
Twitter says it has “no evidence” user passwords were accessed as part of yesterday’s massive attack targeting the company’s internal tools, but it is still working to restore access to locked accounts. The updates were shared as part of a series of tweets posted Thursday afternoon. Yesterday, attackers hijacked the accounts of some of the most-followed people on Twitter, including President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Kanye West, to post bitcoin scams. The company made the decision to lock many accounts last night as a precaution to reduce further damage from the attacks, and it provided more detail about why accounts were locked in this afternoon’s tweets. “Out of an abundance of caution, and as part of our incident response yesterday to protect peo...
Amaju Pinnick: NFF not ready to make Tammy Abraham mistake with Ovie Ejaria, others
NFF President Amaju Pinick has stated that the football federation is doing everything possible to avoid the mistake they made with Chelsea forward Tammy Abraham as they try to lure more players of Nigerian descent into the Super Eagles. The former Delta State FA chief made a bold statement in 2017 that the Chelsea player would choose Nigeria due to his close ties with his father. However, just hours after Pinnick’s announcement, Abraham himself put out a statement saying he will consider a future with England instead. In an interview on Thursday, the NFF President speaks highly of Ovie Ejaria but revealed that the federation is trying to do the right things and not make a repeat of the Tammy Abraham mistake. “Remember when I made public of Tammy’s allegiance and the player through his age...
Kanye West ‘drops out’ of 2020 presidential race
Kanye West has reportedly dropped out of the 2020 presidential race less than two weeks after announcing his bid for the White House. On Tuesday, Steve Kramer, a member of West’s campaign team, told Intelligencer that after amassing a 180-strong campaign team in Florida, the rapper would allegedly no longer be contesting the election. “He’s out,” Kramer said, telling the publication that he was in the process of getting “all our stuff cancelled”. He later added: “I have nothing good or bad to say about Kanye. Any candidate running for president for the first time goes through these hiccups.” According to the report, West had attempted to get his name on the ballot as a third-party candidate, but needed to collect 132,781 signatures by Wednesday (15 July) to be eligible to run in Florida. K...
IGP asks Ibrahim Magu’s lawyer to request for bail from presidential panel
The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, has asked Tosin Ojaomo, the counsel for the embattled former acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, to direct the request for his client’s bail to the Presidential panel investigating his activities in office. Adamu said the police were not investigating Magu and is accordingly, not being detained by the force but by the panel headed by a former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami. Adamu said this in a letter dated July 14, 2020, in response to the bail application filed by Ojaomo for the release of his client who had been in police custody since July 6. The letter with reference CB:7000/IGP.SEC/ABJ/VOL.489/171 titled, ‘RE: Application for bail,’ was signed by the Principa...
Pep Guardiola: Manchester City deserve an apology
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said his team deserved an apology, after their two-year UEFA ban from European football was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) — a verdict he called “a good day for football”. Guardiola said the club’s reputation had been damaged by the furore around allegations that they broke Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules and fired back at comments from rival managers Jose Mourinho and Juergen Klopp. Mourinho had described the CAS decision to fine City 10 million euros ($11.39 million) for non-cooperation with the investigation as “disgraceful”. “Maybe. The thing about the money, maybe. But Jose and all the managers should know that we were damaged. We should be apologised (to). Because, like I said many times, if we did something wrong, we will...
Labour hails Nigerian government for remitting N7.45 billion workers’ retirement benefits
The Nigeria Labour Congress has commended the Federal Government for remitting N7.45 billion accrued rights and benefits into the retirement savings accounts of federal retirees covering April and May 2019. The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, described the development as a responsible move by the government “considering the adversity imposed on our retirees and pensioners by the novel coronavirus pandemic.” Wabba in a letter addressed to the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, dated July 14 titled, ‘Remittance of accrued benefits of federal civil servants to the retirees’ retirement saving accounts,’ urged the government to also consider the payment of retirees from June 2019 and July 2020. It read, “We write to commend the Federal Government for its recent decision to release the total sum of ...
Victor Osimhen ready to join Napoli
Nigeria forward Victor Osimhen is ready to join Serie A club Napoli. The 21-year-old visited Napoli’s training facilities, plus head coach Gennaro Gatusso and president Aurelio De Laurentiis two weeks ago. Osimhen was however not too keen on linking up with the Partenopei due to racism issue in Italy. The former VFL Wolfsburg striker spoke with Senegal forward Kalidou Koulibaly who reassured him there is no racism issue in Italy. According to multiple reports, Napoli director Cristiano Guintoli met Lille president Gerard Lopez and Osimhen’s intermediaries for more face-to-face negotiations on Monday. He hopes to sweep aside the remaining doubts and convince Osimhen that this is the best step in his career. The cost of the transfer will be in the region of €50m plus Adam Ounas, which will b...
Lionel Messi future is here, in football and after football – Barca chief
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu is adamant Lionel Messi will not be leaving. Messi is now inside the final year of his current deal and can sign a pre-contract with a rival from January 1. But Bartomeu insists Messi and the club are in negotiations about a new agreement. He told TV3: “With Messi, we are talking, we have talked and we will talk. “He is the best player in the history of football, he still has years ahead of him and he is in great shape. “I have no doubt that he will continue at Barça, his future is here, in football and after football.” 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 giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make m...
I slapped Senator Akpabio because he harassed me sexually – Ex-NDDC boss
The suspended Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Interim Management Committee, Joi Nunieh, has revealed that she once slapped the Minister of Niger Delta, Godswil Akpabio, for sexually harassing her. She made this known while fielding questions on Arise News on Monday but said what Akpabio attempted to do could not be regarded as ‘attempted rape’. Justifying why she slapped the minister, the former NDDC MD said Akpabio was always scheduling a meeting with her either at his guest house in Apo or in the hotel. She said when he (Akpabio) could not succeed to sleep with her, the Minister then came up with accusation of insubordination to suspend her from office. Ms Nunieh says: “When Akpabio saw that I cannot bring out the money, he now tried Plan B, a case of i...
Presidency: Why 2020 budget was increased despite drop in revenue
File Photo The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives), Umar El-Yakub, has said the decision of the Presidency to increase the 2020 Budget despite drop in revenue was meant to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation’s economy. President Muhammadu Buhari had on Friday signed the Appropriation (Repeal and Amendment) Act, 2020 into law. The revised budget provides for aggregate expenditure of N10.81trn, which is an increase of N216bn over the level of expenditure initially proposed in the 2020 Appropriation Act. El-Yakub, in an interview with State House correspondents, attributed the increase to the government’s decision to prioritise infrastructure projects that would reflate the economy. He said, “One needs to und...
