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House minority caucus flays $1.5 billion approval for rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery
The Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives Tuesday described the approval of $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery as a huge scam and a ploy by unscrupulous elements to siphon public funds. The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had recently at its virtual meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari approved $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the refinery. But, the caucus in a statement by its Leader, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, while rejecting the amount, said the figure is outrageous and heavily inflated, demanding an immediate review of the cost. The lawmakers noted that while they are in support of any genuine effort to bridge energy deficit in Nigeria, such should not be used as a ploy by corrupt individuals to fleece the nation. The caucus called...
OPEC: Gas is vital to Nigeria’s future
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) says gas remains vital to Nigeria’s future in the global oil and gas sector. The OPEC Secretary General, Mohammad Barkindo, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja, at the pre-summit conference on “Decade of Gas”. He said that the move of the country to develop its huge gas deposit was a step in the right direction. “Gas is vital to Nigeria’s future, as is oil, and both will be fuels of choice globally for the foreseeable future and instrumental in facilitating the energy transition,” he said. The secretary-general said that the ‘Decade of Gas’ from 2021 to 2030 was likely to place Nigeria at the forefront of the vital global industry. Barkindo commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s effort as Head of Nigeria’s Delegation to OPEC, in the or...
2023: Northwest speakers declare support for Asiwaju Tinubu
Serving Speakers and their predecessors from the Northwest zone of Nigeria have declared their support for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the successor to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023. Their declarations and promises are coming some weeks after a similar endorsement of Tinubu was carried out by their colleagues in the southwestern zone of Nigeria. At a meeting held in Kano for the states in the northwestern zone on Friday, the senior lawmakers declared that Tinubu remains the right person for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at this time. Some of them argued that with the challenges currently being faced by the country, Nigeria deserves a leader who is detribalised and has shown over time that he has the capacity to lead the country. Praising Asiwaju Tinub...
Speaker Gbajabiamila: Nigerians deserve a Police Force they can trust
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, has said a trusted Police Force working within the limits of the law is what Nigerians deserve. He assured Nigerians that the 9th House under his leadership would bequeath such a Police Force to them, and is working assiduously to achieve the goal. Gbajabiamila, who spoke at the National Assembly on Thursday during the opening of a public hearing on two bills by the House Committee on Police Affairs, said the House would meet these expectations as one of the key items on its Legislative Agenda. The bills are: “A Bill for an Act to Repeal the Police Service Commission Act and Enact the Police Service Commission Bill, 2020, to strengthen the Commission to be more Functional in its Operations and for Related Matters,” and: “...
Ebonyi governor: South East benefited more from APC government than PDP’s 16 years
Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State and Chairman of South East Governors’ Forum weekend, said the South East benefitted more from the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress, APC, federal government than from Peoples Democratic Party’s sixteen years of governance. Speaking to newsmen in Lagos through his Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, Barr. Orji Uchenna Orji, Umahi said the Igbo have had a fair-play under Buhari’s administration in terms of economic and infrastructure development. According to him, the N10Billion Airport rehabilitation, the 2nd Niger Bridge, the Enugu-Port-Harcourt Expressway and other infrastructures are pointers to the benefits the South East States are getting from the Buhari administration. “These are indications that this administration is helping t...
#EndSARS: Lagos assembly committee commends council chairmen’s resilience
Member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr AdbulSobur Olawale, has commended the Executive Chairman of Ajeromi Local Government, LG, Mr. Fatai Ayoola, management and staff members for the resilience to rebuild the Secretariat that was destroyed during the aftermath of the ENDSARS protest. Olawale, who is also the Chairman of, House Committee on Local Government and Community Relations, disclosed that the Secretariat was among those government facilities that were destroyed by hoodlums during the aftermath of the ENDSARS protest. In the same view, the lawmaker applauded Council Chairman of Ifelodun Local Council Development Area, LCDA, Mr Shaibu Ajidagba for building the legislative chamber during his tenure in office. Speaking with journalists, after the oversight function to both Aje...
Justice Onnoghen: Why I was sacked as CJN
The Leader Former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, on Friday, stressed that Nigeria as a nation may not record any meaningful achievement in life until they are able to free the nation’s judiciary from the stronghold of politicians. Onnoghen who spoke publicly for the first time since his removal from office two years ago, attributed his sack to political manuevre. The former CJN, who was speaking at the unveiling of a book titled ‘Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2009, Practice, Procedure, Forms and Precedents’, by a legal luminary, Chief Ogwu James Onoja (SAN), attributed his sack to political intrigues. Onnoghen revealed that prior to his removal, he was accused by the executive of having met with former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in Dubai, United A...
2,700 Akwa Ibom women benefit from federal government’s special grant
The minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, has advised Nigerian women not to regard the N20, 000 special grant given to the rural woman by the federal government as the fabled national cake. She has rather charged the beneficiaries to judiciously use the grant to improve their living standard by utilizing it as seed capital do boost their trades and businesses for greater income. Speaking through Bashir Nura Alkali, the permanent secretary of the ministry, at the flag off of the Grant for Rural Women Project and the symbolic disbursement of the grant to 2700 women of Akwa Ibom state, in Uyo, on Thursday, Farouq explained that the Grant for Rural Women Programme was introduced in 2020 to sustain the social inclusion agenda of Presid...
Appeal Court strikes out Facebook’s appeal against trademark judgment
The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, Tuesday, dismissed Facebook’s appeal challenging the judgment of a Federal High Court, Lagos, which awarded N10 million against it (Facebook) in favour of a Nigerian firm, Double Paws Enterprise, as damages for unlawfully interfering with the use of the firm’s trademark. The appellate court justices that decided the matter were Justices Haruna Tsammani, Oluwayemisi Williams-Dawodu, and Abdullahi Bayero. Justice Bayero read the lead judgment. Facebook had appealed the lower court judgment through its counsel, Jackson Etti. However, counsel to the respondent, Double Paws Enterprise, was Mr Gideon Okebu. Facebook challenged the competence of the appeal and urged the Appeal Court to dismiss the same for being fundamentally flawed. Justice Bayero in the lea...
NLC: Nigeria’s insecurity, poverty getting out of control
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Wednesday held their National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, at the Nigerian Airforce Conference Centre, Abuja, where they lamented the precarious state of insecurity and economic woes in the country. According to President of the NLC Ayuba Wabba, hardly does any day passes by without one negative report of citizens either kidnapped or abducted for payment of ransome. Lamenting the situation, Wabba said our beloved country has never been emmeshed in the grips of insecurity turbulence and crisis as we witness today. He said in the past two years or so, we have witnessed an intense resurgence of terrorism, armed banditry, kidnap-for-ransom, militancy and resource conflicts all over the country. According to him, there is also the challenge of criminals ...
WTO: We need to build capacity for international competitiveness – LCCI
Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has posited that for Nigeria to take advantage of opportunities offered by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) under the leadership of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, it was important to build capacity for international competitiveness of our products and services. The Chamber also emphasised the need to address trade facilitation issues, especially around port processes, ports infrastructures, international trade documentation, foreign exchange policies, trade policies and industrial policies. The Director General of the chamber, Muda Yusuf, made the disclosure following the appointment of Okonjo-Iweala as the DG of the WTO, saying her emergence comes at a time when the global trading system is faced with n...
Chelsea owner takes legal action over ‘Putin’s People’ book
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has launched legal action for defamation over the book Putin’s People. The Blues owner’s case relates to “a number of false and defamatory claims made about our client in the book published by HarperCollins.” The book was written by author Caterine Belton and contains a number of claims about Abramovich and others close to Russia president Vladimir Putin. Abramovich’s statement, published on Chelsea’s club website, says: “Today my legal representatives have issued legal proceedings in England in relation to a book that was published in the UK. The book contains a number of false and defamatory statements about me, including about my purchase, and the activities, of Chelsea Football Club. “Today’s action was not taken lightly. It has never been my ambition to ...