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Senator Lawan: Electoral Act amendment ready by early 2021
Senate President Ahmed Lawan on Wednesday said an amendment to the nation’s electoral law would be ready by next year. At the public hearing on the repeal of the Electoral Act 2010 and enactment of the 2020 Electoral Act, held in Abuja yesterday, Mr. Lawan said that the Electoral Act Amendment Bill will be passed by the first quarter of 2021. Mr. Lawan added that the passing of this legislation would enable the 2020 Electoral Act to be tested ahead of the elections to check its efficacy. “A free fair and credible election in 2023 is doable; we just have to remain focused,” Mr. Lawan said. “I have participated in several elections since 1999 and none of them has been the same. I have had different experiences. It means we always have some new emerging problems.” The joint hearing was organi...
Canada approves Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine
Canadian health officials have authorised the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, hailing the development as a “critical milestone” and paving the way for the inoculant to be administered across the country. The authorisation on Wednesday comes a day after the United Kingdom became the first country to begin giving the vaccine to the public. Emergency use authorisation (EUA) is also pending in the United States, with officials saying the first doses could be administered as early as next week. The US Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to consider its EUA on Thursday. Bahrain has also authorised the vaccine for public use. “Canadians can feel confident that the review process was rigorous and that we have strong monitoring systems in place,” Health Canada, the department responsible fo...
National Assembly to make smart card reader compulsory in future elections
File Photo The National Assembly plans to make the use of Smart Card Reader compulsory in future elections in Nigeria, a lawmaker has said. The Chairperson of the House Committee on Electoral Matters, Aishatu Dukku, said this at a Joint Public Hearing on “The Bill for an Act to repeal the Electoral Act 2010 (As Amended) and enact the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Act, 2020″, on Wednesday in Abuja. The event was organised by the National Assembly Joint Committee on INEC and Electoral Matters. Ms Dukku said the amendment will affect about 300 clauses in the Act. ” In Section 49 of the Electoral Act 2010 under Use of Ballot Paper, Subsection (1) and (2) are to be amended to read: “A person intending to vote in an election shall present himself with his voter’s card to a pre...
APC chieftain alleges plan to destabilize party using courts in Rivers
Chris Finebone, a chieftain of All Progressives Congress, APC, claims he has uncovered plans by a group working in cohort with the Rivers government to use the state judiciary to destabilize the party. Finebone, a former spokesperson for the party in Rivers made the allegation in a statement on Tuesday. He alleged that Governor Nyesom Wike and the Rivers chapter of PDP hatched the plot to destabilize the APC nationwide by making available Rivers State courts to enemies of the party (within and from outside the State) to file all manner of cases against it with a view to destabilizing the party as politics of 2023 approaches. Finebone further claimed that he learned from sources he did not disclose that the decision to use Rivers Courts was hatched at the highest level of government directl...
NCC to ensure enforcement of copyright laws from 2021 – chief
File Photo The Director General, Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC), Mr John Asien, says the commission would focus more on the enforcement of copyright laws as from 2021. Asien told newsmen on the sidelines of the just concluded 39th International Convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) in Ilorin, that it would no longer be business as usual for pirates, as different strategies would be used, both online and in physical space, to ensure that pirates stopped selling pirated books. ”For us at the commission, we are more than committed, by next year we will be focusing more on enforcement and we are going to do that in all nooks and cranny of Nigeria. ”We are going to use different strategies and working on different platforms, both online and the physical space. This is beca...
India’s Serum Institute seeks approval for COVID-19 vaccine
The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine producer by volume, has sought government approval for emergency-use authorisation of the coronavirus vaccine that it has developed in partnership with the University of Oxford and British drugmaker AstraZeneca. “As promised, before the end of 2020, @SerumInstIndia has applied for emergency use authorisation for the first made-in-India vaccine, COVISHIELD,” the company CEO Adar Poonawalla tweeted on Monday. The experimental vaccine can be stored at two to eight degrees Celsius and can be distributed more easily in India, which has the world’s second-highest number of infections at 9.6 million. The company has applied to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), with Poonawalla saying the vaccine will “save countless lives” witho...
Security expert calls for 10,000 vigilantes to provide protection for Borno communities
Security expert, Dr Ona Ekhomu, has advised the Borno State government to immediately hire 10,000 Borno Youths into a robust vigilance force to defend the state alongside the military, the police, the paramilitary and the Civilian JTF. The absence of a capable guardian is what facilitated the Borno massacre that occurred last Saturday, he added. Dr. Ekhomu, who is President of the Association Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria, said hiring the 10,000-man youth vigilance force will provide protection of the rural populations against incessant terror attacks. He said: “The vigilance initiative will also help Governor Zulum to fulfil his campaign promise to hire Borno youths to secure the State. “The Borno Vigilance Force which should employ able-bodied youths who must receiv...
Lagos by-elections: INEC cautions against vote buying, others
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday cautioned politicians against vote buying, food sharing and other activities capable of buying the conscience of voters at polling units duing Saturday’s Lagos East by-elections. Dr Adekunle Ogunmola, INEC Supervisory National Commissioner in charge of the by-elections, told newsmen in Lagos that the commission would not tolerate any act that would discredit the polls. Answering questions on how the commission intended to tackle vote buying, Ogunmola said that though INEC was not a security agency, it had done quite a lot in ensuring that the menace was reduced. “We are in collaboration with EFCC and ICPC and some other security agencies in ensuring that people that perpetrate such acts were brought to book. “The issue of makin...
Nigerian governors to meet with President Buhari to address security challenges
Governors of the thirty six states under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF have resolved to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari to address the security challenges with continued cases of armed banditry, terrorism and kidnapping across the country. The governors are meeting with President Buhari especially to discuss last week’s gruesome beheading of about 43 Farmers in Zarbamari near Maiduguri, Borno State by Boko Haram Insurgents while they were working in their farmland without any form of resistance. The decision was part of the resolutions reached at the end of the 22nd NGF teleconference meeting. In a Communique signed by the NGF Chairman and Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said, ” Members of the forum resolved to meet with Mr. President as soon as possible to ad...
Interpol raises the alarm over fake coronavirus vaccines
The International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) has alerted Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, and 190 other countries of threat from organised criminal groups during the upcoming COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, including fake vaccines and the theft of supplies. The alert came as the UK yesterday became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for widespread use. The need for a vaccine has become more urgent globally and nationally with Nigeria recording over 67,000 COVID-19 infections and over 1,000 associated fatalities, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has so far identified 49 “candidate vaccines” at the stage of clinical trials in humans. Hopes are high ...
Man paraded naked as punishment for Facebook post
Police have arrested five brothers after a man was paraded naked in the streets allegedly in punishment for a social media post. India Police spokesman, Hirendra Chaudhary, said the 38-year-old victim was kidnapped on Tuesday by the brothers, assaulted and made to walk 45 minutes around the western town of Khambhaliya with no clothes on. “An investigation revealed that the victim… used to do Facebook live videos on regular basis. “On Sunday, in a Facebook Live video (the man) made serious allegations against the five brothers and claimed that they were involved in criminal activities”, Chaudhary said The brothers were charged with illegal confinement, assault, use of criminal force with intent to dishonour person, criminal conspiracy, obscenity, and other offences. Local police said that t...
Cross River by-election: INEC assures transparent, violence free election using technology
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it wil deploy relevant technology to ensure transparent, violence-free and fair election in Saturday’s Cross River North Senatorial and House of Assembly by-elections. Mr Festus Okoye, INECs Commissioner for Information and Voter Education Committee said this on Wednesday in Calabar while speaking on the commission’s preparedness for the polls. He said the successes recorded in Edo and Ondo elections were testimonies to the fact that the commission was improving by every election through the use of modern technology. “We want to surpass our successes in Edo and Ondo. “We are going to conduct a transparent, violence-free and credible election in Cross River North come Saturday. “We are ready for the elections, the Card Readers have b...
