By Abimbola Ogunnaike The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase, has confirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari has signed 16 constitutional amendment bills into law. Wase, who confirmed this in a statement issued on Friday,17 March, 2023 commended Buhari, saying that the laws grant more powers to the states. The bills signed into law, according to him, include financial independence for state houses of assemblies and state Judiciary. Others include bills that seek to remove railway, prison, and electricity from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list. Buhari also signed a bill that mandates the president and…
Author: Olamide Obayemi
By Abimbola Ogunnaike The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin on war crime accusations, while the Kremlin rejected the warrant and said the court has no jurisdiction and the decision is “null and void”. The Hague-based court said in a statement on Friday, 17 March, 2023 that the arrest warrant was issued over Putin’s alleged involvement in the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia. “There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears individual criminal responsibility” for the alleged child abductions “for having committed the acts…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike Armed bandits have killed the village head of Gusasai community, Alhaji Abu and abducted his wife, two daughters and a male from his family in Bosso Local Government Area of Niger State. The incident, it was gathered, occurred between 12am-1am on Wednesday in the area. It was learnt the bandits stormed the community in their numbers, shooting sporadically into the air which created panic in the villagers. A member of the community, Malam Abubakar, said the armed bandits stormed the area on Wednesday night and went straight to the deceased’s home and shot him in the presence…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike The Poultry Farmers Association of Nigeria, (PFAN), said its members had lost more than N30 billion eggs as a result of cash scarcity of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s cashless policy. The National President of PFAN, Sunday Onallo-Akpa, made this disclosure in a statement issued on Friday, 17 March, 2023. Onallo Akpa, who decried the economic loss being experienced by egg farmers in the country, also disclosed that members of the group had lost close to 15 million crates of eggs because of unsold and damaged products. PFA president stated the nation is longer benefiting from the economic potentials…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike A soldier and several orders have been killed following an attack by gunmen on communities in Paikoro and Munya Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Niger State. The gunmen, who launched a fresh onslaught on Friday, 17 March 2023, also killed a village head and a medical practitioner, and abducted well over 60 people, including women and children. It was gathered that the attackers numbering about 100, divided into in two separate groups were said to have invaded the two neighbouring communities of Beni in Munya LGA and Adunu in Paikoro LGA in broad daylight on Monday and raided…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike The West Africa Elders Forum (WAEF) has called for peaceful, free and fair polling as Nigerians get ready for Saturday’s governorship and state assembly elections. The Forum also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct the elections in accordance with the nation’s electoral laws and seek to address the challenges identified by various stakeholders after the February 25 presidential elections, as a means of protecting the integrity of the electoral process. In a statement jointly signed by leader of WAEF’s 2023 Election Mission to Nigeria and former President of Ghana John Mahama and convener of…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, Friday, 17 March, 2023 announced that the United States is providing nearly $150 million in additional humanitarian assistance for people in West and Central Africa and the Sahel Region. Blinken disclosed that the USA through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, is providing nearly $114m in additional life-saving humanitarian assistance for populations in West and Central Africa and the Sahel, and nearly $36m through the State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) to support refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons, stateless persons, and people affected by…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike Emirates Airlines Friday, 17 March, 2023, expressed displeasure over the delay in clearing its outstanding funds of $740million now trapped in Nigeria. The Middle East carrier and one of the major foreign airlines operating to Nigeria had in November last year suspended flights to Nigeria indefinitely, citing the inability to repatriate its trapped funds amounting to $85m at the time. The airline had claimed that its share of the $260 million approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is yet to be released. However, on Friday, 17 March 2023, the airline said five months after it suspended flight…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike A man, Ebenezer Adefehinti claiming to be an official of the Department of State Security Service (DSS), has appeared before a Magistrate’s Court in Akure, the Ondo State capital, for an alleged scam. Adefehinti was dragged before the court by the police after he was accused of defrauding some parents in the state, under the pretence of securing jobs in the DSS for their children. The defendant was alleged to have committed the offence in June 2022 at three separate locations at the Ayegun Oka Akoko area of the state. A police prosecutor in the case, Augustine…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike News emanating from Bayelsa State reveals that thugs have hijacked and burnt election materials for three wards in Ogbia Constituency 2 of the during the ongoing state assembly poll in the state. Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deployed to the constituency are already moving back to Yenagoa for safety, as the hoodlums are on the rampage in the area. It was gathered that the supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are scrambling for the Assembly seat in the area, and both parties are also struggling to form…