Saturday
Boko Haram: 601 ex-insurgents finish de-radicalisation programme in Gombe
The Nigerian Army on Saturday released 601 ex-Boko Haram members after undergoing six months de-radicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration (DRR) programme in Gombe State. The graduation ceremony of the ex-insurgents took place on Saturday at Malam Sidi community in Kwami Local Government Area of the state. Speaking during the event, Bamidele Shafa, the Coordinator of Operation Safe Corridor (OSC), said the ex-insurgents were ready to be re-integrated into the society. Shafa, a major-general, said the graduating batch four clients were admitted in December 2019 and within the six months undertook a comprehensive medical test to ascertain their health status that enabled their proper care. According to him, out of the 606 clients received into the camp; 601 were graduating, three died,...
President Buhari urges Nigerians abroad to support economic recovery
President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday appealed to Nigerians in the diaspora to actively participate in the country’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery efforts. According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President made the call in a video message to commemorate this year’s Diaspora Day which is being observed on July 25 of every year. The statement was titled “COVID-19: President Buhari urges Nigerians in Diaspora to play active role in economic recovery as remittances inflow hit $25bn”. Adesina said the President appealed to his compatriots, whose home remittances exceeded $25bn annually in three years, not to abandon their fatherland in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The statement quoted Buhari as saying, ”Over the past three years, Nigeri...
Resident doctors threaten fresh strike August 17
The National Association of Resident Doctors has given the Federal Government three weeks to address its demands or its members would resume their suspended strike on Monday, August 17, 2020. While demanding the payment of COVID-19 hazard allowance to members which, it said, was long overdue, NARD called on government and the National Assembly to probe the non-enrolment of healthcare workers for the Group Life Insurance and non-payment of death-in-service benefit to the next-of-kin of its fallen heroes, despite claims of payment to insurance companies. The President of NARD, Dr Aliyu Sokomba, made this known in Abuja on Saturday while reading to journalists a communique issued after its virtual National Executive Council meeting and scientific conference held at the Gombe International Hot...
PDP: We will not accept rigging in Edo election
Ahead of the Edo State governorship election slated for 19th of September 2020, the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have vowed to resist any attempt by opposition, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to rig the election. PDP made the vow during the flag-off of the incumbent governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki governorship re-election campaign in Benin Saturday. Among those who spoke on the issue were the National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus. Mr Nyesom Wike (Rivers State governor) who is also the chairman of the PDP National Council, and Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State. National chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, while stressing the need for a free and fair election come September in Edo State, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to provid...
Gunmen kill 20 farmers in Sudan
File Photo Gunmen killed at least 20 people, including children, who were visiting their farms in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region for the first time in years, a tribal chief said Saturday. “Two months ago the government organised a meeting between the original landowners and those who took their fields” during the long-running war in Darfur, Ibrahim Ahmad, told AFP by telephone. “An agreement was reached whereby the landowners would return to their fields — but armed men came on Friday and opened fire, killing 20 people, including two women and children.” The killings took place in Aboudos, some 90 kilometres south of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur province, the tribal chief said. Around 20 people were wounded in the attack, he said. The death toll “could well increase, because some of ...
Nigerian government partially shuts Third Mainland Bridge after stakeholders meeting
Getty Images The Federal Government, on Saturday, partially closed the Third Mainland Bridge, Nigeria’s busiest bridge, for rehabilitation works after site inspections for traffic architecture assessments. The work began at midnight on July 24 as workmen use crash barriers to barricade the outbound mainland traffic on Adeniji Adele junction. They went on to line more barriers and signage on various other sections blocking off a section of the Oworonshoki bound carriageway. Supervising the closure, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Mr. Olukayode Popoola, said that the traffic management and diversion architecture had been perfected at an earlier stakeholder meeting on Friday. Popoola explained that vehicles outbound the Lagos Island, at peak periods in the morning, would use alterna...
Speaker Gbajabiamila: House of Reps to provide funds for fight against gender-based violence
Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila says the house will provide funds for the fight against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in the 2021 budget to be presented to the National Assembly in September. Gbajabiamila said this in response to a request by Ulla Mueller, the Country Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja. Mueller led a delegation of United Nations (UN) and European Union (EU) Spotlight Initiative on a courtesy call to the speaker, a statement issued by Mr Lanre Lasisi, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity said. Gbajabiamila said that apart from budget funds, the house would also provide all necessary support and partner with relevant stakeholders for the fight against GBV to succeed. According to the speaker...
How Amotekun will tackle crime in Ekiti – commandant
The Corps Commandant of Amotekun in Ekiti, retired Brig.-General Joe Komolafe, says ancient and modern security techniques would be deployed to tackle crime in the state. Newsmen report that Amotekun is the security outfit initiated by the six states in the South West Zone to tackle crime in the region. Komolafe spoke at Efon Alaaye during a sensitisation tour to the three council areas of Ekiti West, Efon Alaaye and Ijero. He said the neglect of culture was responsible for the rising crime wave and urged traditional rulers to deploy their traditional powers to secure lives and properties. Describing Amotekun as a force of liberation, Komolafe said the security outfit would protect the people of the zone from criminals. He also said that the first phase in the recruitment exercise was aime...
Leeds beat Derby 3-1, Barnsley score late to keep survival bid alive
Champions Leeds United mounted a second half comeback to win 3-1 at Derby County while Barnsley’s hopes of staying up in the second-tier Championship were given a huge boost when they beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 with a stoppage time goal on Sunday. Leeds, who sealed promotion on Friday and won the title on Saturday after West Bromwich Albion and Brentford failed to close the gap, extended their lead to eight points with one more round of fixtures left. Derby, who gave Leeds a guard of honour, took the lead when Chris Martin pounced on a pass inside the box and curled his shot past the keeper. The visitors struck back two minutes later when Pablo Hernandez fired home from the edge of the box. Tyler Roberts then threaded a weighted pass through the Derby defence to find Jamie Shackleton and t...
Adams Oshiomhole: I’m back to reclaim Edo for APC
Immediate past National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has stated he returned to Edo to reclaim the state for APC. He declared that if Edo residents say yes and God say yes, no man born of a woman could say no. He was apparently referring to the September 19 governorship election mainly between APC’s Governorship Candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and Governor Godwin Obaseki of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Oshiomhole, an ex-governor of Edo, who backed Obaseki against Ize-Iyamu in 2016, spoke on Saturday night in his Iyamho hometown near Auchi in Etsako West Local Government Area. He was addressing teeming supporters, who welcomed him from Abuja in his residence. The enthusiastic crowd waited for Oshiomhole for many hours at the main gate of ...
Eseme Eyiboh: NDDC suffering from faulty leadership recruitment process
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Akwa Ibom State and the Chairman, Cross River Basin Development Authority, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh has said the root cause of underperformance and corruption in the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC and other public institutions was faulty leadership recruitment. Eyiboh who spoke on Saturday in an interview in Uyo against the backdrop of the ongoing investigation into financial recklessness in NDDC said recruiting wrong people to man right places and sometimes right people into wrong places had been responsible for weak institutions in the country. He said to make headway, institutions must be strengthened by recruiting the right leaders into the right positions. He, however, regretted that 20 years after its establishment, NDDC was yet to ac...
Arson suspected in major fire at French cathedral in Nantes
French prosecutors have launched an arson investigation following a major fire at a 15th-century Gothic cathedral in the western city of Nantes on Saturday. The blaze spewed smoke from the front windows of the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, but the damage was mostly limited to the large pipe organ inside. The organ was “completely destroyed”, said the head of the local fire department, Laurent Ferlay. The public prosecutor’s office is now investigating whether arson was the cause and experts from Paris are expected to provide support. The fire broke out in three places, which is probably not a coincidence, Nantes prosecutor, Pierre Sennes, told local radio station France Bleu Loire Ocean. However, no signs of a break-in have been found so far, Sennes said, according to news agenc...
