Author: Amina Ibrahim

THE 9th House of Representatives has wound down, with the last plenary of the parliament held on Wednesday adjourned sine die (indefinitely). The House held its valedictory session on Wednesday, which the outgoing Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, presided over. Leaders and members of the House spent about three and a half hours that the session lasted to recall major events recorded in the chamber in the last four years. In attendance were former presiding and principal officers of the House, including Ghali Na’Abba, Patricia Etteh, Babangida Ngoroje, Mulikat Akande-Adeola, among others. Etteh spoke on behalf of the ex-lawmakers, after which Gbajabiamila…

RIDE-HAILING drivers, including that of Uber, Bolt, LagRide and Indriver, on Wednesday, began a nationwide strike. At the direction of the Amalgamated Union of App-based Transport Workers of Nigeria, ride-hailing drivers are following a sit-at-home order until the ride-hailing companies increase their base fares by 200 per cent. According to the National Vice President of AUATWON for Southwest Nigeria, Kolawole Aina, the drivers plan to picket the offices of Uber in Victoria Island and Bolt in Lekki. Despite the strike action, which is supposed to run till Friday, our correspondent who tried to book a ride from Wuse 2 in…

PRESIDENT Bola Ahmed Tinubu is currently holding his maiden meeting with governors across the 36 states of the federation under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) at the State House, Abuja. In attendance at the meeting which started around 12:36pm are the governors of Zamfara, Kano, Taraba, Kogi, Ogun, Nasarawa, Bayelsa, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Lagos, Rivers, Osun, Jigawa, Benue, Taraba, Delta, Enugu, Rivers, Oyo, Plateau, Kebbi, Abia, Imo, Bauchi. The deputy governors of Edo and Niger are representing their states. The governors, who are conspicuously missing before the start of the meeting are governors of Katsina, Kaduna, Gombe, Borno,…

PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has sworn-in Senator George Akume as the new Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) at the council chamber. Senator George Akume in the brief ceremony which had dignitaries, including some serving and former Governors, took his Oath of Allegiance and Oath of Office. The Vice President Kashim Shettima; President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan; Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr FolasadeYemi-Esan and the spouse of the new SGF, Mrs Regina Akume were also among top officials present. This ceremony comes about five days after the president…

THE Interim Managing Director of Nigeria Air, Capt Dapo Olumide, on Tuesday, said the aircraft used to unveil the country’s national career was a legitimate chartered flight from Ethiopian Airlines. He said the aircraft returned to Ethiopian Airlines after the unveiling. Olumide stated this before the Senate Committee on Aviation. The Committee members expressed its misgivings towards the unveiling of the national carrier during a meeting with Olumide; the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Aviation, Emmanuel Meribole; as well as heads of aviation agencies. At the meeting, the Chairman of the Senate Aviation Committee, Senator Biodun Olujimi wondered why…

THE Federal Government says it will consider the list of demands from the Trade Union Congress (TUC) which includes minimum wage. Speaking to State House correspondents after a meeting between the Federal Government and the TUC which lasted for about three hours, the spokesperson for the Federal government, Dele Alake, said that it will also look at the practicability of the demands. Among things the government is considering is tax holidays for workers. Alake said that most fundamentally President Bola Tinubu will constitute a tripartite committee to include states and organised labour and the private sector to study the dynamics…

THE representatives of the Federal Government are meeting with the Trade Union Congress  (TUC)  at the State House over the removal of fuel subsidy. This is a follow-up to Wednesday’s meeting with the organized labour which ended in a deadlock. At that meeting, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) demanded that the Federal Government go back to status-quo by reversing the price of fuel before resuming negotiations with the union. In Sunday’s meeting, the federal government’s team is led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume. Others are the Governor of the Central Bank of…

AS the National Assembly leadership tussle intensifies, the President, Bola Tinubu, will on Monday meet lawmakers-elect of the National Assembly from opposition parties. Opposition Senators-elect and House of Representatives members-elect from the Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, among other opposition parties are expected to meet with President Tinubu at the State House in Abuja between 3pm and 5pm. The President’s notice of invitation to the lawmakers-elect, which was obtained by this newspaper, was signed by the Permanent Secretary, State House, Tijani Umar, on behalf of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.…

FORMER President Muhammadu Buhari’s assets did not increase through out the eight years he spent in office, Garba Shehu, his spokesman, has said. Shehu said this could be seen in the assets declaration form he submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). According to Shehu, the completed declaration showed that Buhari’s movable assets did not increase, at home in Nigeria or outside and he did not add new bank accounts outside the only one he had in Union Bank, Kaduna. “He has taken no loans and has no liability. The number of animals in his farm recorded a little…

PRESIDENT Bola Ahmed Tinubu has sent a message of commiseration to the government and people of the Republic of India over a multiple train crash in the country which killed over 280 passengers. The fatal crash involving two passenger trains and a goods train in the Indian city of Balasore, in the eastern state of Odisha, occurred on Friday. Aside those killed, over 900 others were injured in what was one of the worst rail crashes in recent history. President Tinubu, in a statement Saturday morning, described the train accident as heartrending, while consoling the Indian government and families of…

PRESIDENT Bola Ahmed Tinubu Friday in Abuja said improved livelihood for Nigerians remains a top priority of his administration, with more people-focused economic policies, assuring that the national minimum wage needs a review to reflect realities. The President, who received members of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) led by the Chairman, Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, at the State House, said the national and sub-national governments will work together on the minimum wage, which already requires “soul searching.’’ “We need to do some arithmetic and soul searching on the minimum wage,’’ he said. “We will have to take a look…

OPERATIVES of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday quizzed the immediate past Minister of Women Affairs Mrs. Pauline Tallen. The ex-minister who arrived at the Abuja Zonal Command of the Commission on invitation at 12pm was grilled by investigators of the EFCC up until 8 pm. Though details of the allegations against the ex-minister were sketchy, a source familiar with the case informed that it bordered on corrupt enrichment to the tune of N2 billion Part of the money was allegedly diverted from the African First Lady Peace Mission Project. The spokesman of the Commission, Wilson Uwujaren,…

THE President, Bola Tinubu, is meeting the immediate past governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, former governor of Delta State (1999-2007), James Ibori, and Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State. News Point Nigeria spotted the trio arriving at the presidential villa at around 4:30pm and were ushered into the President’s office. This was as the Chief Executive Officer of Access Holding Plc, Mr Herbert Wigwe, was spotted walking out of the building complex. Though members of the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, Makinde and Wike are considered to be allies of President Tinubu and reportedly played supportive roles to ensure…

THE Nigeria Labour Congess (NLC) has declared a nationwide strike from next Wednesday. This comes amid fuel shortages across the country occasioned by President Bola Tinubu’s inaugural speech in which he declared that “fuel subsidy is gone”. NLC President Joe Ajaero made the announcement after an emergency meeting of the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) in Abuja. He said the government, particularly the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited had up until Wednesday next week to revert to the old price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise referred to as petrol. Ajaero added that failure of the Federal Government to…

PRESIDENT Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Friday in Abuja announced the appointment of Speaker of House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila as Chief of Staff. The president also appointed Sen. Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, a former Deputy Governor of Jigawa State, as Deputy Chief of Staff. In a meeting with the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), the President also named a former Governor of Benue State and immediate past Minister of Special Duties, George Akume, to serve as Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). Those present at the meeting were governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa), Umar Namadi (Jigawa),…

THE Court has admitted evidence presented by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to support its claim challenging the victory of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Lead counsel to Obi on Friday informed the court sitting in Abuja that he had a schedule of more evidence which they desire to render before the court. The counsel continued with evidence (election results) from Rivers and Kogi states, presenting certified true copies of INEC election results from six local government areas (LGAs) in Rivers State as evidence. Again, counsels to the first, second and third…

THE Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, on Thursday, described the removal of subsidy payment on fuel as painful. Kyari who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today monitored by News Point Nigeria, said the Federal Government is aware of the pain Nigerians were passing through and working to alleviate that. “Will it bring pains? Yes. These pains will be alleviated, and I am aware that Mr President is working on this to see how the alleviation of these pains is going on. More than anything, it is going to enable…

THE Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, is optimistic that the fuel queues across the country will be a thing of the past in the next two days. On Monday during his inaugural speech at the Eagle Square in Abuja, President Bola Tinubu said the era of subsidy payment on fuel has ended, a move that led to a hike in price across the nation. Fuel queues have resurfaced across the country as Nigerians forage for the premium product which rose from around N185 per litre to between N400 and N600 per…

TROOPS of the Joint Taskforce Northwest Operation Hadarin Daji, have rescued 10 kidnap victims in Shinkafi Local Government Area of Zamfara State. During the operation operations, troops also killed scores of bandits in the Anka Local Government Area of the north-western state. News Point Nigeria reports that the military exercises were carried out on Tuesday, May 30 and Wednesday, May 31 respectively. A top military source who pleaded anonymity confirmed this to News Point Nigeria on Thursday. He said that troops conducted operations and cleared Alasanawa, Kayawa, Mai-Zuma, Dutsi, Dogon Gandu, Girari, Maiwa, Asarara, Gabawuri, Tungan Danmada, Baje, Ruwaje, Atarawa,…

THE Presidential Election Petitions Court has criticised the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, for exhibiting a lack of preparedness in the petition filed against the victory of President Bola Tinubu. At the resumed hearing on Thursday, one of the senior lawyers in the petitioners’ legal team, Emeka Okpoko, sought to tender electoral documents as exhibits before the court but the documents were said to not have been properly filed and scheduled before the court. Consequently, the court stepped down the hearing for 10 minutes and asked the legal team to re-file the schedule of documents in line…