PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu on Friday approved the appointment of Khalil Suleiman Halilu as the new Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI). According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on media and publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, by this appointment, Khalil Suleiman Halilu will serve for an initial term of five years in accordance with the relevant sections of the NASENI Act, 2014. “Halilu, 32, is expected to bring his significant experience as an innovator and technology expert to bear in this important new national assignment. ”The tenure…
Author: Abdullahi Maitama Sani
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THE Department Of State Service (DSS) has arrested the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in charge of economic policy, Kingsley Obiora this newspaper gathered. Obiora has now spent four nights in custody under questioning by the security service, which has been looking into allegations of financial mismanagement under Godwin Emefiele, the ousted governor. Emefiele, who was first appointed as CBN governor in June 2014, has been in DSS custody since June 10, 2023, a day after he was removed from office by President Bola Tinubu. While two federal judges have ordered Emefiele’s release, the DSS has continued to…
FROM October 1, 2023, all international airlines operating from the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos are expected to move from the old international terminal building, which will be shut down for repairs, to the new terminal building. The Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, said this on Thursday during a tour of aviation facilities at the Lagos airport. Keyamo also promised reforms in the aviation sector. According to him, all arrangements under his predecessor, Hadi Sirika, including the planned Nigeria Air, have been put on hold, to enable proper audit of contracts. The minister, who also took a bus ride…
PERHAPS stung by the ongoing military coup d’états’ in parts of West and Central Africa, President Paul Kagame has announced major changes in the security forces. The changes made by Kagame on Wednesday, August 30 affected high-ranking military personnel. Kagame retired hundreds of soldiers in a move that followed the promotions of several young soldiers in the country’s security apparatus and the appointments of new generals to head army divisions stationed in different parts of the country. A statement by the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) showed Kagame had “approved the retirement of a dozen generals, 83 senior officers and six…
THE House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the utilization of Ecological Funds and other intervention funds of the Great Green Wall Project on Wednesday queried claims by the National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW) that it spent N81bn to plant 21 million trees in the 11 frontline northern states. The states are Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno. NAGWW Director-General, Yusuf Maina Bukar, told the committee that the agency also spent N697.71m on renovation of office accommodation and N11.28bn on capital projects. He said the main funding of the agency was from 15…
THE National Legal Adviser of the New Nigeria Peoples, Robert Hon, on Wednesday restated that the party’s Board of Trustees lacks the constitutional mandate to suspend the Presidential candidate of the party, Rabiu Kwankwaso. He explained that the only competent body to suspend Kwankwaso is the National Executive Committee, which must comply, with due process. To this extent, he described the purported suspension of Kwankwaso, as a figment of the imagination, of a non-existent BoT, who have since been dissolved. “Kwankwaso has been and is still a Bona fide card-carrying member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party. Any faction, claiming…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has expressed his deep concern over the political situation in Gabon and the socio-political stability in that country. Tinubu’s reaction came hours after a group of Gabonese military officers appeared on television Wednesday announcing they were “putting an end to the current regime” and cancelling an election that, according to official results, President Ali Bongo Ondimba won. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, while speaking with journalists, also expressed the Tinubu’s belief that the rule of law and a faithful recourse to constitutional resolution of electoral disputes must not be allowed…
THE military has announced a coup in Gabon, deposing President Ali Bongo, who was declared winner of Saturday’s election. Bongo, who came to power after the death of his father in 2009, won a third term in an election which opposition argued was heavily disputed. The BBC quoted soldiers to have appeared on Gabonese national television in Gabon to say they had taken power. The coupists also announced the annulment of Saturday’s election. The development comes amid the move to resolve the removal of a democratically elected president in Niger Republic. Both the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)…
THE All Progressives Congress (APC) made a U-turn on Tuesday and disowned campaign council lists it earlier released ahead of the November 11, 2023 governorship polls in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states. “The lists are not official documents of the party,” said APC spokesman, Felix Morka, in a statement late Tuesday. The APC had earlier on Tuesday released campaign council lists ahead of the off-season governorship polls in the three states. The lists was signed by National Organising Secretary of the party, Sulaimon Argungu. The campaign council for Bayelsa prominently featured ex-Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, as a member.…
OFFICIAL of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) have demolished a market called “Kasuwar Dare”. The market located at Hassan Musa Katsina Street, near Kpaduma II in Asokoro Extension, Abuja, was said to have harboured suspected hoodlums and drug dealers. In a chat with journalists, the Director, Department of Development Control, Mr Mukhtar Galadima, said the market was becoming a threat to the residents of the area and passerby. He said the area was turned into a haven for criminal activities despite relentless efforts by the FCT Administration to sanitise the area. According to him, the miscreants operating in the…
THE Board of Trustees (BoT) of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has suspended its candidate in the February 25 presidential election, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, for alleged anti-party activities. The BoT also suspended the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party. It also appointed new national officers headed by Dr Agbo Major as acting National Chairman and Mr Ogini Olaposi as acting National Secretary alongside 18 others. News Point Nigeria gathered that the suspension is for a period of six months. This newspaper reports that the suspensions were put to a voice vote by members of the party at…
THE Federal Government has announced N825.819 billion naira as compensation for indigenes of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja to pave the way for the construction of the 4.2km second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, made the announcement on Tuesday after a negotiation meeting with the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, officials of both ministries, and representatives of their agencies as well as stakeholders from Jiwa, the affected community in Abuja. The N825.8bn, according to the minister, is to incentivise the residents to vacate the community and seek their cooperation towards the completion of…
THE administration of President Bola Tinubu has revealed its eight-point agenda aimed at “moving the Nigerian economy forward,” including fighting corruption, protecting the rule of law, and providing security for Nigerians and businesses. The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, listed the items on Monday during an interaction with journalists at the State House, Abuja, following the inaugural Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. Recounting the events of the meeting, Edun stated that Tinubu and the recently inaugurated ministers examined the President’s “eight priority areas for moving the Nigerian economy forward and for delivering to Nigerians”.…
THE Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas has stated that over 60,000 Nigerians have been killed as a result of the incessant clashes between herders and farmers. He also lamented that, farmers and herders clashes which were hitherto seen as a regional or a confined conflict have taken a new dimension as it has expanded and grown into a wider conflict beyond the borders of many West African countries. Abbas stated this in an opening address at the stakeholders interactive session held by the House Ad-hoc Committee on the ‘Recurring Annual Clashes Between Farmers And Herders In Yamaltu/Deba…
AS part of a broader effort to reduce the cost of governance in Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu has directed the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs to freeze the processing of visas for all government officials seeking to travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly without proof of direct participation in UNGA’s official schedule of activities, a statement by the Presidency said on Monday. “To prevent any sharp practice in this regard, the US Mission in Nigeria is accordingly guided on official visa processing while Nigeria’s Permanent Mission in New York is further directed to prevent and stop…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu spent the months since his victory at the February 25 election setting clear goals for each sector in the country and will not tolerate failure from either of his recently inaugurated ministers, presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale said Monday. “The President has set the benchmarks,” the Senior Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity noted on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily monitored by News Point Nigeria. “The question now is about enforcements and the President has shown, as he did during his time in Lagos State as governor, that he is not someone that is afraid to fire…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu is currently presiding over the first Federal Executive Council meeting of his administration at the Council Chambers of the State House in Abuja. The new cabinet members were inaugurated last Monday after their confirmation by the Senate. The cabinet is made of 45 ministers who scaled through the screening while three other nominees were denied clearance. Also attending are Vice President Kashim Shettima; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume; the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan; and the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila. President Tinubu had…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has said the country could not continue to service its debt with 90 percent of its revenue. He noted that the country was headed for economic disaster should that continue. Tinubu spoke during the Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association on Sunday in Abuja. He said his administration must make difficult changes to better the lots of the country. Tinubu said, “Can we continue to service external debts with 90% of our revenue? It is a path to destruction. It is not sustainable. We must make the very difficult changes that are necessary for our country…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu and his United States (US) counterpart, Mr Joe Biden will meet to discuss military intervention in Niger Republic among the options available to the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) to restore democratic rule in that country. This came to light yesterday after the US Special President Envoy and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ambassador Molly Phee, visited Tinubu in Abuja and extended Biden’s “exclusive invitation” to meet the Nigerian President on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City to advance discussions further (on the Niger crisis) in…
MAJOR General Bernard Onyeuko (rtd.), a former Director of the Defence Media Operations and Director of Procurement at the Defence Headquarters, has been confirmed dead. The cause of his death is still unknown as of press time but reports say the military General died Saturday, August 26 after a brief undisclosed illness. According to a source who spoke to News Point Nigeria on condition of anonymity, Onyeuko complained that he was not feeling comfortable on Saturday morning and was rushed to a private hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The retired army general was the Director of Procurement at…