Spokesman
PDP accuses President Buhari of violating coronavirus law
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed dismay over President Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged violation of his executive regulation on COVID-19, which prescribes 6-month jail term for defaulters. The party said it’s a huge national embarrassment and gross failure of leadership that President Buhari, who ought to lead by example, is being reported to have publicly violated the COVID-19 regulation, which he signed just about a week ago. In a statement on Sunday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said it’s scandalous that while Nigerians are striving to obey the COVID-19 regulation, which stipulates the compulsory wearing of nose mask and physical distancing in the public, the President and some of his party men flouted the rule during his visit to his Daura countr...
Nigeria correctional chief orders tightening of security at custodial centres
Interim Controller-General, Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), John Mrabure, has charged officers of the service to strengthen security-watch over custodial centres across the country. Mr. Mrabure gave the directive when he paid an unscheduled working visit to Medium Security Custodial Centre Kuje, in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The service spokesman, Francis Enobore, announced this in a statement issued on Saturday in Abuja. Mr. Mrabure noted that safe custody of inmates was a critical mandate of the service which must not be compromised under any circumstance. He, therefore, directed that all staff members must deploy their wealth of knowledge and experience to maintain the sanctity of all custodial centres. He cautioned against a nonchalant attitude to work and advised perso...
NDLEA intercepts 21.9kg of cocaine at Abuja airport
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA) Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja has intercepted 21.9kg of Cocaine. This contained in a statement signed by the NDLEA airport Commander, Mr Kabir Tsakuwa on Monday in Abuja. The statement signed by the agency’s Spokesman, Deputy Commander of Narcotics (DCN) Jonah Achema, the illicit substance concealed in two suite cases was the largest single seizure by the Command. He noted that the two unaccompanied and unclaimed suit cases were discovered after the arrival of Ethiopian Airline, ET 910 in Abuja from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. According to him, during the inward clearance of the flight, the vigilant officers of the Command became suspicious upon noticing that the two brief cases were abandoned on the conveyor belt without any...
Several dead as freight ship sinks off Turkey’s Black Sea coast
A Palau-flagged freight ship has sunk off the coast of Turkey’s Black Sea province of Bartin, killing at least three crew members, according to Bartin Governor Sinan Guner. Guner had said earlier on Sunday that the ship, the Arvin, was a Russian dry freight vessel that sank off the coast of the Inkumu region in poor weather, but later corrected that. “The Arvin ship attempted to take refuge at the Bartin port due to poor weather conditions as it carried cargo from Georgia to Bulgaria,” Guner was quoted as saying by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency. The coastguard said the ship had sunk after taking in water amid poor weather. Six crew members had been rescued and efforts were under way to rescue others, it said in a statement. Anadolu said that all of them were hospitalised and were ...
Cult clash claims four lives in Cross River
Tebogo Letsie/Associated Press A clash between two cult groups has allegedly left four persons dead at Bakassi in Cross River State. Eyewitnesses said the clash started on Thursday with the killing of one person at Ekpri Ikang and has been raging till Saturday night. A resident of the Bakassi who gave her name as Etido said one person was killed on Thursday, one on Friday and two persons on Saturday. “I do not know the specific groups involved in the war but I can tell you that we have been experiencing regular gunshots and people running helter-skelter because of one group chasing members of the other group”. She said the killings on Friday and Saturday seem to be retaliation by members for the killing of their members by warring groups. She said many people in the Bakassi have been stayi...
Gunmen attack Bayelsa community
Unknown gunmen on Friday attacked the Ogila-ama community in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. The armed men, who stormed the coastal community in three speed boats, shot sporadically before setting some buildings on fire. The incident was said to have caused panic and confusion as the residents of Ogila-ama fled into the bush. Reports quoted a native of the community, Bolouikie Ogoro, as saying that he received phone calls from his sister and some others informing him of the armed invasion. According to him, the armed arsonists operated in three speed boats and fired gunshots indiscriminately to ward off any resistance before going for the targeted houses that they razed down. It could not be immediately ascertained if any life was lost even as no group had claimed...
Presidency: Boko Haram weaker now than in 2015
As the country marks the 2021 Armed Forces Remembrance Day, Friday, the Presidency has declared that the activities of Boko Haram insurgents have been weakened compared to what obtained in 2015. This is even as it said that more than 2,403 criminals, including terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and criminals of other sorts, were reportedly eliminated by the Nigerian Armed Forces, in coordinated operations across the country between March 18 and December 30, 2020. The event is billed to hold in the early hours of the day at the National Arcade, opposite Eagles Square, Three Arms Zone, Abuja. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in a statement titled “Security checklist, as Nigeria marks Armed Forces Remembrance Day, by Presidency” flaunted the Buhari admin...
PDP raps President Buhari over performance claims
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday berated President Muhammadu Buhari over his stewardship in the past five years, saying he has failed to justify the confidence reposed in him by Nigerians. This is even as the party noted Mr. President’s “illusory self-assessment” has validated its position that “he has since abandoned governance for the luxury and pleasures of Aso Presidential villa, having lost sync with the reality of the devastation his incompetent administration has brought to our nation in the last five years.” In a statement signed by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP insisted “that every fair criticism of Buhari’s administration only reveals a litany of failures and a reversal of fortune for our country in the last five years,” adding that, “it is unfortunate tha...
Iran’s smog, blackouts made worse by power-sapping crypto mining
Outages have been compounded by cryptocurrency mining, which uses banks of high-powered computers. Cities across Iran have been cloaked in thick layers of toxic smog and darkened by blackouts, as the alleged use of low-quality fuel and power-sucking cryptocurrency mining deepen the country’s hardships. Tehran’s Hamshahri newspaper, the country’s most-read daily, ran the headline, “20 Days Living in Smoke,” on Wednesday over a photo of the capital covered in smog. Power plants have been forced to switch to burning low-grade fuel oils to generate electricity because high levels of domestic consumption have led to natural-gas shortages, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported. Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh denied earlier this week that any of Iran’s power stations are us...
Coronavirus: Concern grows over potential superspreader event during US Capitol riot
Concerns are mounting about the health of lawmakers and other people in the Capitol last week, after the first member to test positive for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) since Wednesday’s chaos, said she believed she was exposed in a crowded hiding place with hundreds of other legislators. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., tested positive on Monday while experiencing mild symptoms, and said in a statement that she believes she caught the virus from her fellow lawmakers while hunkering down as Capitol Police struggled for hours to contain a Trump-inspired mob attack on the Capitol. Lawmakers were trapped in a room near the Capitol with hundreds of others, in some cases for hours, where at least one person who later tested positive for the coronavirus was present. The Office of the Attending P...
NNPC seeks $1 billion funding to revive PHC refinery
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, is currently shopping for $1 billion to revamp Nigeria’s biggest refinery located in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. To realise its plans, the nation’s oil company is already in high-level discussion to raise the money via a prepayment deal with trading firms. If the financing is successful, the long overdue rehabilitation of the refinery should reduce Nigeria’s hefty fuel import bill. It would also mark Nigeria’s second oil-backed financing since the COVID-19 pandemic that has added to the difficulty of finding investors as fuel demand is sapped by lockdowns and renewable energy is gaining ground over fossil fuels. The money would be repaid over seven years through deliveries of Nigerian crude and products from the refinery once the refurbis...
CNPP urges President Buhari to sack minister, spokesperson
The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed and the presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu. CNPP accused the duo of continuously misinforming Nigerians and turning the country into a laughing stock. Secretary-General, CNPP, Willy Ezugwu, made the call in a statement on Sunday in reaction to the duo’s comments on Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index report. Ezugwu described Mohammed and Shehu as major liabilities that have contributed to the poor image of the All Progressives Congress (APC) government. He noted that the Buhari administration would have been perceived in a better light without the two. “To most Nigerians, the Minister of Information represents a face of misinformatio...