Author: Gloria Lamar Johnson

THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said that foreign airlines’ blocked funds in Nigeria have risen to over 743.7 million dollars. IATA disclosed this in a letter written to the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika in Abuja and obtained by News Point Nigeria on Wednesday. The letter dated March 14, 2023, and signed by the Area Manager, West, and Central Africa, Dr. Samson Fatokun showed that the airline blocked funds rose from $549 million in December 2022 and $662 million in January to $743.7 million. IATA noted that for over a year, Nigeria has been the country with the…

MRS Beatrice Ekweremadu testified on Tuesday in her and her husband Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s organ harvesting trial at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, also known as Old Bailey, London. The couple is accused of plotting alongside one Dr Obinna Obeta to arrange an illegal kidney transplant for their sick daughter Sonia, 25, who is also named as a defendant. They allegedly conspired to transport a 21-year-old street trader from Lagos to London to harvest his organ. With the trial entering its seventh week, a teary Mrs Ekweremadu took the stand in the former Deputy Senate President’s defence,…

GUNMEN have kidnapped the Accord Party candidate for the Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area Constituency 2 in the Rivers State House of Assembly for the March 18 election, Chukwudi Ogbonna. News Point Nigeria reports that, Mr Ogbonna was reportedly kidnaped while driving in his car at Rumuigbo, near Port Harcourt on Monday night when the gunmen forced him to stop and whisked him away with his car. The candidate’s cousin’s brother, Ifeaka Nwakiri confirmed the incident to our correspondent on Tuesday morning, saying “They took him with his Mercedes car. We have reported the matter at the Kala Police station.” More…

A FORMER prosecutor with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nkereuwen Mark Anana, has dragged the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, before the Federal High Court, Lagos, seeking to know how the 13 percent oil derivation refunds aid received from the Federal Government was utilised. Apart from the governor, the state’s Accountant General and the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) are also listed as first to third defendants. Anana, a citizen of Akwa lbom State, in his 35-paragragh affidavit in support of the motion, stated that sometime in November 2022, at the venue of the inauguration…

THE legal and expert team of the Labour Party is in a meeting with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja. The meeting with INEC officials which is being held at the Commission’s national headquarters is to start the process of inspection of electoral materials used for the February 25 presidential election. The head of the legal team, Dr Livy Uzoukwu, led 60 lawyers and are expected to brief journalist after the meeting.

THE National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says 10.6 million people, representing 10.8 per cent of the population, used cannabis in the past year. A statement from NAFDAC on Sunday said the Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, disclosed this during the launch and dissemination of the 2022 Annual Report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) and Precursors Report 2022. She said the report revealed that cannabis is the most commonly used drug, with the average age of initiation of cannabis use among the general population put at 19 years. She said: ‘’Cannabis use was…

RIVERS State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has described the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, as the hero of the 2023 presidential election, saying the former governor is the reason power has now shifted to the South. Governor Wike stressed that the decision of Mr Peter Obi to contest the presidential election under the platform of the Labour Party, primarily prevented the north from retaining power after the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure. The Rivers State governor made the commendation during interactive meeting with Technical Dealers Association of Nigeria, Computer Dealers Association, Garrison Phone Dealers Association and…

THE Delta State Police command has confirmed the assault on a police officer by officers of the Nigerian Navy in a trending video on the social media. In the one-minute, 30 seconds clip, an assaulted officer was seen moving about restlessly inside the premises of the police station, with angry colleagues appealing to him to stay calm. The incident happened at Enerhen police station, near Warri. The unidentified officer’s face was bloodied and his police uniform was partially torn. A voice could be heard from the background shouting, “Kingsley, relax. Don’t take laws into your hands.” In his response, the…

ABOUT 10 lifeless bodies have been recovered three hours after unknown gunmen attacked Unguwar Wakili in Zango Kataf LGA of Kaduna State. In a statement, the authorities said a 24-hour curfew has been imposed on Ungwan Juju, Mabuhu, Ungwan Wakili and Zangon Urban with immediate effect. “This is to allow men of the Nigerian Army to restore peace on that axis,”Yabo Chris Ephraim,Special Assistant (Media) to the Executive Chairman, Zangon Kataf Local Government Council of Kaduna State has said. The police in Kaduna was yet to react to the incident.

LABOUR Party (LP) has threatened to protest at the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) nationwide over the Commission’s failure to allow it to inspect materials used for the presidential election of February 25th, 2023. The party’s presidential candidate Peter Obi had sought an order from the Court of Appeal to prevent INEC from reconfiguring the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). But the court gave the Commission permission to reconfigure it and asked that Obi be given access to inspect the materials. Days after the ruling, the LP Presidential Campaign Council (LP-PCC) spokesman Dr Yunusa Tanko accused the…

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has charged the recently elected National Assembly members in the state not to pledge loyalty to the Peoples Democratic Party National Working Committee, when inaugurated. Wike said the party’s leadership did not contribute to the success of their elections, therefore, the lawmakers must only be concerned about the unity of the country and the interest of Rivers State. Governor Wike stated this when the House of Representatives members-elect on the platform of the PDP visited him to present their certificates of return. The governor said he is optimistic that the PDP in the state will…

NIGERIA’S crude oil sales rose by 46.41 per cent to push Nigeria’s total export to N26.79tn in 2022. This is as total trade rose by 31.79 per cent from N39.75tn in 2021 to N52.39tn in 2022. In 2022, crude oil sales totalled N21.09tn, a 46.41 per cent increase from N14.41tn in 2021. In 2022, crude oil accounted for 78.74 per cent of total export. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, total exports for 2022 rose by 41.72 per cent from N18.91tn in 2021 to N26.79tn as of 2022. Imports rose by 22.77 per cent from N20.84tn in…

THE Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, on Thursday, took aim at the campaign team of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, over their protest of the outcome of the February 25 poll. Atiku came second in the keenly contested presidential election, polling 6,984,520 votes, while winner Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) got 8,794,726 votes. On Monday, the former Vice President led a “black uniform” protest to the national headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja that also included the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu; and Atiku’s running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa.…

THE Federal High Court in Lagos has adjourned till June 7 for further hearing in the alleged N21bn fraud involving a former Chief of Air Staff, Adesola Amosu, and two others. Amosu is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged conspiracy and conversion of the funds belonging to the Nigerian Air Force to their personal use. Also being prosecuted with him are a former Chief of Account and Budgeting, and Air Commodore Gbadebo Owodunni, a former Director of Finance and Budgeting. On Tuesday, November 13, 2018, the anti-graft agency re-arraigned Amosu and the defendant on…

THE Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday rejected the application by the Independent National Electoral Commission to vary the orders it earlier granted to the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party presidential candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi respectively, to inspect election materials used during the presidential poll. News Point Nigeria reports that, the court issued the restraining order in the ruling it gave on Friday granting permission to Atiku and Obi to inspect the sensitive materials used for the conduct of the February 25 election. Both Atiku and Obi obtained the order to challenge the outcome of the election…

PRESIDENTIAL candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has assembled a legal team to challenge the victory of Bola Tinubu in the February 25 presidential election. The PDP presidential candidate, while inaugurating the legal team at his campaign headquarters in Abuja, charged it to establish the claim of illegality in the February 25 presidential election and reclaim the mandate of the Nigerian people. Atiku told the team that apart from reclaiming the mandate from those who undertook the electoral heist that was not a reflection of the will of Nigerians, the legal team should also use the opportunity…

SOME shops were razed at the Akere Spare Parts Market, Olodi-Apapa in the Ajegunle area of Lagos State following a fire outbreak in early hours of Wednesday. News Point Nigeria reports that, the Lagos State Fire Service, however, said its Ajegunle fire station has subdued the fire. According to the statement signed by the Director of the Service, Margaret Adeseye, the Service was alerted of the fire outbreak at about 03:28 on Wednesday. She said the Ajegunle Fire Station upon arrival discovered that rows of shops that traded in auto spare parts were on fire. This, she said, led the…

THE Independent National Electoral Commission has said that information in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System used for February 25 presidential poll is intact. The electoral commission lead counsel, Tanimu Inuwa, gave the assurance on Tuesday at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, while opposing an application filed by the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on BVAS deployed in the presidential poll. Opposing the application, Inuwa argued it would delay the conduct of governorship and houses of assembly elections scheduled for Saturday. Earlier, Obi, lead counsel, Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, had argued that the essence of the application was to…

FORMER deputy senate president on trial in London for allegedly plotting to harvest a street trader’s kidney for his sick daughter told the court on Tuesday he feared he was being “scammed”. Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, daughter Sonia, 25, and a doctor, Obinna Obeta, 50, are accused of conspiring to exploit the man for his body part. Lawyers for the four previously told the trial at London’s central criminal court, also known as the Old Bailey, the alleged victim was acting “altruistically”. The kidney was allegedly intended for Sonia, who remains on dialysis with a renal condition, in…

THE Supreme Court has affirmed Akanimo Udofia as the authentic governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State, as it dismissed the suit filed by Senator Ita Enang seeking to nullify the primary that produced Udofia. Delivering judgement, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal Abuja, which held that the Federal High Court in Uyo acted without jurisdiction when it nullified the APC’s primary. The appellate court had upheld the primary that produced Udofia as the flag bearer of the party. Enang had prayed the court to declare him as the authentic…