Representatives
Russia hopes for progress as U.S. joins Afghan peace talks in Moscow
Russia said it hoped international talks in Moscow on Thursday would breathe new life into the Afghan peace process, after a high-level U.S. official joined the Russian-hosted talks for the first time. The talks, which also include representatives of Pakistan and China, are designed to give a boost to negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Qatar’s capital Doha, stalled lately by government accusations that the insurgents have done too little to halt violence. “We regret that so far the efforts to launch a political process in Doha have yet to yield a positive result,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in his opening remarks at the talks. “We hope today’s talks will facilitate the creation of conditions to achieve progress in intra-Afghan negotiations.” U.S. envoy Z...
National Assembly members agreed not to be hostile to Prudent Buhari’s government – Senate spokesman
The current 9th National Assembly members all agreed that they will not have an acrimonious relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, unlike the 8th Assembly under Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara. Spokesman of the senate, Senator Ajibola Bashiru, who represents Osun Central disclosed this in an interview published in newsmen on Wednesday while responding to claims that the current national assembly is a rubber-stamp that is always quick to do the bidding of the executive. He said “I don’t know the basis for your question, but what I do know is that at the inception, there was an agreement among the lawmakers that we do not want an acrimonious relationship between the Executive and the Legislature”. “All of us witnessed how such a relationship worked against the interest of...
#EndSARS: Ekiti compensates first batch of police brutality survivors
The Ekiti State government will on Monday present monetary compensation to the first batch of police brutality survivors as recommended by the Judicial Panel of Inquiry into Allegations of Human Rights Violations Against the Defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad and Others. The panel was set up in the state following a directive issued by the Presidency to state governments to review allegations of human rights violations against members of the public by officials of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad. This was after youths took to the street with the #EndSARS campaign to protest against police brutality as allegedly committed by operatives of the defunct SARS. The panel set up in Ekiti is led by Retired Justice Cornelius Akintayo and comprises representatives of youth groups, civil socie...
Reps deputy speaker: Nigerians living abroad can’t submit petitions
The deputy speaker of the house of representatives, Idris Wase, has questioned the eligibility of Nigerians living abroad to submit petitions. Wase, who presided over plenary on Thursday, rejected a petition from “Mutual Union of the Tiv in America,” saying Nigerians in the diaspora do not “really know” the situation in Nigeria and thus are not eligible to file petitions. The petition, presented by Mark Terseer Gbillah, lawmaker representing Benue Gwer east/Gwer west federal constituency, accused the federal government of not resettling the Tiv people displaced from their ancestral land through various attacks. Thousands of Nigerians were reportedly displaced in the north-central region as a result of the farmer-herders crises. “I have a petition from the mutual union of the Tiv in America...
Lagos speaker: I’ll assist LASU to become world class institution
The Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, says he will work toward ensuring that Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, becomes a world class institution through appropriate legislation. Obasa made the promise while receiving the institution’s Alumni Association led by its Vice President, Norrison Quakers, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), on Wednesday in Lagos. He said this is to ensure that the institution catches up with the top tertiary institutions across the world. The speaker said the House had always ensured that requests involving LASU were prioritised in the budget to enable the institution to meet the accreditation requirements of the Nigeria University Commission (NUC). He said that currently, there was hardly any institution in the country that LASU could not...
Controversy surrounds whereabouts of OPC men who arrested Iskilu Wakili
Controversy has surrounded the whereabouts of Oodua Peoples Congress operatives who arrested suspected Fulani warlord, Iskilu Wakili. While there are media reports that the men have been transferred to Abuja, some sources in the OPC said they do not know the whereabouts of the detained operatives. The OPC members were detained on Sunday after arresting suspected Fulani warlord, Iskilu Wakili, who was later handed over to the police. It was gathered that representatives of OPC and the Investigating Police Officer in charge of the case would meet at 1 pm on Tuesday (today). According to a media report, the OPC members involved in the arrest were first transferred from Oyo Police Command to Force CID in Alagbon, Lagos, from where they were taken to Abuja. However, sources in the Lagos State P...
Minister: PIB will address production sharing contracts issues on gas
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, says the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) currently before the National Assembly will resolve the issues under the Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) on gas. Sylva made this known at a National Assembly Public Hearing organised by the Joint Committee on Gas Resources, Petroleum Resources, Upstream and Downstream, on Monday, in Abuja. The hearing was on the topic: “Inclusion of Gas Terms in Production Sharing Contracts by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).” He said that issues on gas terms was not captured under the PSC especially with the commercial aspect. “Issues on gas terms was not captured in the PSC because at the time, the offshore was just a frontier territory, today, it is no longer frontier, it is a...
Governor Ikpeazu: Oil companies have no presence in Abia
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, has expressed concern that despite the long years of oil exploration in the state, there was nothing tangible people of oil-producing communities in the state have to show for it. Ikpeazu, while receiving the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill led by Senator Albert Bassey at Government House, Umuahia, said that Abia oil-producing communities have remained peaceful more than other oil-producing communities in the country, stressing that the peaceful disposition of the communities should serve as a model for the compensation of oil-producing communities. The governor lamented that the oil exploration and production companies who do business in Abia do not pay taxes to the state, but rather reside in neighbouri...
APC boycotts Delta local council elections
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State said it pulled out of the Saturday local council elections in the state. The APC spokesperson in the state, Sylvester Imonina, said this in a statement in Asaba on Saturday. Imonina said the party boycotted the election because the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC) and others “cheated the Delta people again.” “I told the people of Delta some days ago that there were evil machinations to deprive them of their right to choose who to lead them at the local government level. “Yesterday, March, 5, 2021 at DSIEC headquarters in Asaba, Delta APC representatives were not allowed to take statistics of the materials that it intended transporting to the different LGAs in the state. “This is despite the insistence of the party’s rep...
Reps speaker urges Nigerians not to believe conspiracy theories about coronavirus vaccine
The speaker of the house of representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has advised Nigerians not to believe conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccines. Many Nigerians are wary about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine amid unverified claims that it contains microchips. Faisal Shuaib, chief executive officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), had recently dismissed the claims as false. The first shipment of the vaccines– 3.9 million doses– arrived in Nigeria on Tuesday and the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine was administered today. Speaking at the national flag-off ceremony for the COVID-19 vaccination in Abuja, Gbajabiamila urged Nigerians to rally behind the federal government to fight the pandemic. He also cautioned against playing politics with the vaccinati...
Senator Saraki urges President Buhari to include opposition, others in fight against insecurity
A former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, on Tuesday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to include opposition parties and the international community in the fight against insecurity in Nigeria. He spoke with newsmen shortly after he met with a former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, behind closed doors at his penthouse residence located within the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, Ogun State. Saraki, who is the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Reconciliation and Strategy Committee, was joined in the meeting by former Governors, Ibrahim Dankwanbo (Gombe), Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Osun), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Ibrahim Shehu Sema (Katsina) and former Majority Leader, House of Representatives, Mulikat Akande Adeola. Speaking after about two hours c...
Rumble in Edo as governor runs government without cabinet
Precisely 129 days into his second tenure as governor of Edo State after his election on September 20, 2020 and inauguration on November 12, 2020, Godwin Obaseki, has not formed his cabinet. This has generated some flaks from different quarters, including the opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC), constitutional lawyers, political analysts, public commentators, residents among others. While others feel that Obaseki has not committed any crime or breached any law, others believe that he is running a one-man administration and must go ahead to form his cabinet. They argued that going by Section 192 of the 1999 Constitution, the governor is obliged to form a cabinet, saying this is a circumvention, which the state House of Assembly should take action on. Obaseki had said that his ...