By Abimbola Ogunnaike with agency report South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled Monday, 20 May, 2024 that former President, Jacob Zuma is ineligible to be elected a member of the National Assembly in next week’s general election. The top court threw out Zuma’s complaint against an electoral commission decision that a previous conviction for contempt prevented him from becoming an MP. This decision by the court may deepen political turmoil in the country just over a week before a crucial national election. The latest development could draw the curtain on the political career of the 82-year-old Zuma, a former anti-apartheid hero…
Author: Abimbola Ogunaike
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By Abimbola Ogunnaike President Bola Tinubu has extended his condolences to the government and people of the Islamic Republic of Iran over the death of President Ebrahim Raisi; Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and other officials who died in a helicopter crash. Raisi and nine others on Sunday, 19 May, 2024 lost their lives after a helicopter conveying them crashed due to poor weather in the mountains near the Azerbaijan border, officials and state media confirmed Monday, 20 May, 2024. On the afternoon of Sunday, 19 May, 2024, rescue teams had begun searching for Raisi when the aircraft went missing.…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced on Monday, 20 ,May, 2024 five days of mourning for President Ebrahim Raisi who died alongside 7 others in a helicopter crash on Sunday, 19 May, 2024. “I announce five days of public mourning and offer my condolences to the dear people of Iran,” said Khamenei in an official statement a day after the death of Raisi and other officials in the crash in East Azerbaijan province. Meanwhile, Iran’s powerful allies on Monday, 20 May, 2024 mourned the death of its President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, while regional…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike A former Minister of Labour and Productivity under the Interim National Government of Chief Enerst Sonekan, Prince Ajibola Afonja, is dead. It was gathered that the former Chairman of First Bank and native of Oyo town, Oyo State, died on Sunday night, 19 May, 2024 at the University College Hospital (UCH), in Ibadan, at 82. He was said to have sustained injuries from a lone accident he was involved in at Ilora, a few kilometres from his country home. He was thereafter rushed to UCH in Ibadan where he eventually died. The deceased was at a time…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike Iran’s First Vice President, Mohammad Mokhber, is expected to assume the presidency after Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash as the country gears up for early elections. The Iranian constitution stipulates that the First Vice President takes over “in the event of the president’s death, dismissal, resignation, absence or illness for more than two months”. Raisi, who died on Sunday, 19 May, 2024 along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials, was nearing the end of his first four-year term as president. Mokhber’s interim appointment requires the approval of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike Gunmen killed two soldiers stationed at an outpost in Aba, Abia State just as they also shot dead a commercial tricycle operator. Eyewitnesses, including a tricycle operator named Chima Ibekanma, recounted the panic and chaos that ensued during the attack, saying one soldier died instantly and another succumbed to injuries at the hospital. The incident, it was gathered, disrupted business activities in the area, with luxury bus operators unable to load passengers due to security measures imposed by the military. The incident occurred less than a year after a similar attack on a military outpost in Aba,…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike The Federal High Court in Abuja presided over by Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo, on Monday, 20 May, 2024 thrown out the request by terrorist negotiator, Mohammed Tukur Mamu, for his transfer from the custody of the Department of the State Service (DSS), to Kuje Prison in Abuja. Mamu is standing trial for terrorism offences slammed on him by the Federal Government and had been in DSS custody following the refusal of the court to admit him to bail. Justice Ekwo, while delivering the latest ruling, said the Federal Government had raised the issues of incessant jail breaks…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has asked all banks to stop the implementation of 0.5 per cent cyber-security levy after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive on its suspension. The withdrawal was disclosed in a notice dated Friday, 17 May, 2024, signed by Chibuzo Efobi, CBN’s Director of Payment System Management, and Haruna Mustapha, Director of the Financial Policy and Regulatory Department. Recall that on May 6, the Apex Bank ordered the implementation of a cyber-security levy, which required all banks and financial institutions to charge a 0.5 per cent levy on all electronic transactions. However, the levy was…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike The United kingdom (UK), has stated that only international students coming in for their Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) studies were eligible to bring in dependents to the country. The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, made this disclosure during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, 5 May, 2024 in Abuja, Nigeria’s seat of power. According to Montgomery, the educational system policy changed earlier this year for international students in higher education not to bring dependents into the UK was to curb the increase of foreign students bringing in dependents. The envoy…
By Abimbola Ogunnaike A federal jury in Camden, New Jersey, has convicted a Nigerian couple – Isiaka and Bolaji Bolarinwa aged 67 and 50 years old respectively for forced labour in the United States and other related crimes with possible 20 years imprisonment. The couple, residing in Burlington County, used coercive scheme to force two people in engaging in domestic labour. The jury also found the couple guilty of two counts of forced labour, one count of sheltering a stranger for financial gain and two counts of document servitude. According to a press release by the US Department of Justice,…