Speaker
Bayelsa bans open grazing, vows to arrest armed herders
Bayelsa State Government has enacted a law prohibiting open grazing of livestock in the state. The law, Livestock Breeding, Rearing and Marketing Regulation Law 2021, was signed into law by Governor Douye Diri on Monday at the Executive Chamber of Government House, Yenagoa. Governor Diri said the essence of the law is to ensure harmonious living between cattle dealers and other inhabitants of the state and to forestall the violent clashes being experienced in other parts of the country. His words: “Bayelsa State welcomes all and sundry to eke out a living legitimately. The people of Bayelsa want to have a mutual and harmonious relationship with non-natives and natives. The essence of the law is to avert and forestall any clash between herdsmen, farmers, natives and non-natives as experienc...
Ekiti governor urges Nigerians to disregard unfounded theories about coronavirus vaccines
Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has urged Nigerians to disregard any unfounded theories about the efficacy and effects of the COVID-19 vaccines on them saying it is unnecessary introducing sentiments to the health and well-being of the people for whatever reasons. The governor who received the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine alongside his deputy, Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi, and some frontline health workers on Wednesday emphasised that all hands must be on deck to ensure all indigenes know that the vaccine is safe. He spoke while flagging off the vaccination exercise in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital. Fayemi who stated that his administration had put in place measures to ensure that residents have equitable access to the vaccine said, “The availability of COVID-19 vaccines and its glob...
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...
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...
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...
Labour issues strike notice in Ekiti over sack of 21 workers
Industrial crisis is looming in Ekiti over sack of 21 workers of the State House of Assembly recruited under the tenure of former Governor Ayodele Fayose. The workers were sacked in January 2020 over claims that their recruitment by the Fayose administration did not follow due process and was therefore illegal, according to News Agency of Nigeria. But the labour unions disagreed with the sack of the workers and had asked the leadership of the Ekiti State House Assembly to recall the 21 sacked workers, a request that has not been acceded to . On Wednesday, the unions gave notice to Speaker, Funminiyi Afuye, indicating their readiness to embark on statewide strike in seven days if the workers were not recalled. In the notice, the labour unions asked the Speaker to cause the immediate reinsta...
Anambra Assembly expresses worry over spike in criminal activities
The Anambra House of Assembly has expressed worry over the increasing rate of crimes in the state and called for urgent measures to address the menace. Mr Noble Igwe, representing Ogbaru 1 Constituency, while speaking on a matter of urgent public importance, on Tuesday, lamented that the rate of crime had triggered fear among the residents. Igwe said there were recent reports of residents who had been victims of a wide range of violent crimes, including armed robbery, assault, burglary, carjacking, kidnapping and extortion. “Aware that security of lives and property is the primary function of the state government as enshrined in the constitution, there is the need to intensify efforts at taming the resurgence of crimes in some parts of the state, especially on theOnitsha-Owerri Road where ...
Ex-President Obasanjo: I knew Umaru Yar’Adua was ill
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed he knew the late President Musa Yar’Adua was ill before he supported him to emerge the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2007. He however said he got medical advice that Yar’Adua, who had a kidney transplant, was fit to act as President. Yar’Adua, who later won the 2007 presidential election, died in office in May 2010. Obasanjo, who spoke on Sunday in a virtual interview with academic and historian, Toyin Falola, denied allegation he deliberately put up weak candidates for selfish interests. He said: “Let me tell you the story of Umaru Yar’adua. I knew he was ill and before I put him forward, I asked for his medical report which he sent to me and I sent it to one of the best doctors of our time and a good friend of mine who ...
Senate: National Assembly panels will probe ‘missing N4.4 billion’
The Senate said the National Assembly Committees on Public Account would probe the allegation of misappropriation of N4.4bn by the federal parliament, as contained in an audit report. The Deputy Director of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, Kolawole Oluwadare, had in a statement alleged that an audit report revealed that the fund budgeted for the National Assembly, was misappropriated. SERAP has therefore given Messrs Ahmad Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila, President of the Senate and Speaker, House of Representatives, respectively, 14 days ultimatum to address and implement the recommendations contained in the audit reports. But the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Ajibola Basiru, in his reaction said the alleged infractions occurred during the 8th Na...
Niger governor: Incompetent leaders took over from military in 1999
Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger state has attributed the failures recorded in governance since the coming of democracy in 1999 to incompetent leaders who took over leadership of the country from military. The Governor spoke just as former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, blamed the nation’s educational system for the failure being recorded in leadership in the country, saying the system was not designed to produce leaders. Both men spoke at a youth summit organized by a member of the House of Representatives and Chairman Board of Trustees of Lead Generation Initiative (LGI), Shina Peller, in Abuja. The Niger governor said the that when the military decided to hand over power to civilians, a lot of competent people never believed in the process and therefore stood ba...
Donald Trump impeachment to be sent to Senate Monday – top lawmakers
Donald Trump will go on trial in the US Senate soon after an impeachment case against the former president is transmitted by the House of Representatives on Monday, top lawmakers announced. The House impeached the Republican leader for a historic second time on January 13, just one week before he left office, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi has yet to send the article of impeachment to the Senate. The step is necessary in order to launch the trial process. “I have spoken to Speaker Pelosi who informed me that the article will be delivered to the Senate on Monday,” Chuck Schumer, the new Democratic Senate majority leader, said in a floor speech Friday. “A trial will be held in the United States Senate and there will be a vote whether to convict the president,” Schumer told his colleagues. Trump wa...
