THE Federal Government has inaugurated a 15-man Inter-Ministerial Committee to organise the celebration of Nigeria’s 63rd Independence Day anniversary. Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, who inaugurated the committee on Thursday in Abuja, also rolled out activities lined up for the 63rd Independence anniversary celebration. Akume who is the chairman of the committee said the proposed activities for the celebration would be subject to finalization by the committee. He said it was constituted to plan, organise and execute all approved activities befitting Nigeria’s 63rd Independence anniversary celebration on October 1, 2023. According to him, on October…
Author: Binta Kabir
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PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Mr. Aliyu Tijjani Ahmed as the new Federal Commissioner / Chief Executive Officer of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons. A statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Ajuri Ngelale in Abuja on Thursday said Mr. Aliyu Tijani Ahmed is a recipient of Bachelors and Masters degrees in Sociology and has previously served the Nasarawa State Government as the Secretary to the State Government (SSG); Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs; and as the Commissioner of Education. According to the…
IN a remarkable achievement, the Honorable Minister of Women Affairs, Barrister Uju Kennedy has awarded a national medal for recognition to the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) for its exceptional contribution to the development and launching of the Women’s Economic Empowerment policy and its other support for the Federal Ministry of Women’s Affairs. This recognition. According to the Minister, at a ceremony in Calabar, Cross River state, signifies the organization’s unwavering commitment to advancing gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in Nigeria. The Minister added that the tireless efforts of the dRPC-PAWED project have significantly impacted women’s economic empowerment…
THE Department of State Services (DSS) has stated that they can neither confirm or dent the arrest of Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in charge of Financial System Stability, Aisha Ahmad. News Point Nigeria had exclusively reported the arrest of Ahmad by the DSS earlier on Sunday. A source in the Secret Police had told News Point Nigeria that, the CBN Deputy Governor was being interrogated on how $300 million to complete the acquisition of Union Bank was raised by Titan Bank. According to the source, the department has also confiscated Ahmad’s electronic gadgets and carted…
FOLLOWING a shooting incident involving alleged operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) at Garki Market on Thursday, an Abuja-based tailor, Mubarak Usman, has shed light on the circumstances that led to him getting shot. In an interview with Channels Television monitored by News Point Nigeria, Usman says a woman, who had come to him in need of his services, reported him to a DSS operative on August 23. According to him, the woman visited his shop to ask about the six pieces of fabric she had handed him along with a sample belonging to her mother-in-law. Usman says…
THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says Nigeria has lost $100bn to the decade-long conflict in the country’s North-East region. In a report released by the child rights agency sighted by News Point Nigeria, Thursday, it said Nigeria lost the money between 2008 and 2021. “The direct effects of conflict, in terms of death and injury, loss of livelihoods, displacement, and damage to infrastructure, are transformed into long-term economic impacts. This is because these impacts reduce the rate of economic growth for the country affected by conflict relative to what it might have been, had conflict not occurred,” the UN…
THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Wednesday, announced an end to its two-day warning strike, asking its members all over the country to resume work. In a statement, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, commended Nigerian workers for participating in the strike, saying a significant stride was achieved. Labour had embarked on a two-day nationwide strike on Tuesday and Wednesday, over unfulfilled agreements by the Federal Government on petrol subsidy removal. The decision by the Labour grounded economic and commercial activities in several states of the Federation. “We are pleased to report that, thanks to your resolute commitment, we have made significant…
THE Kogi East Senatorial Election Tribunal on Tuesday sacked Senator Jibrin Isah, the Senate Committee Chairman on Customs Excise and Tarriffs on the ground that elections were cancelled in some 94 polling units. The tribunal also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a supplementary election in the affected 94 polling units. The tribunal chairman, Justice K.A. Orjiako, who delivered the judgment on the petition brought before it by Dr Victor Adoji, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), agreed with the prayers of Adoji. Adoji, had through his Counsel, Mr Johnson Usman (SAN), challenged the return of…
A DISTURBED Emmanuel Etteh, the father of a corps member kidnapped in Zamfara State, has pleaded with security agencies and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) leadership to save their children. His daughter was one of eight graduates abducted while en route from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State to their NYSC orientation camp in Sokoto on August 19, when suspected gunmen kidnapped them. Three other passengers on the Akwa Ibom Transport Company (AKTC) bus they were travelling in escaped. In a telephone conversation with News Point Nigeria on Monday, Etteh described the over two-week-long ordeal as devastating, given the lack of…
THE Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, says no fewer than 8.3 million Nigerians are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. Edu said the figure is part of the total 16 million Nigerians affected by various humanitarian crises, with the three states worse hit. The minister said this in a statement by her Special Adviser on Media and Publicity Mr Rasheed Zubair made available to News Point Nigeria, on Sunday in Abuja. She said aside from the North-East, Benue in the North/Central had been tagged the capital of humanitarian crises in…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has recalled Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Ishola. Ishola was appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2021. However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Yusuf Maltama Tuggar, in a letter dated August 31, 2023 sighted by News Point Nigeria, stated that the decision signalled the end of Ishola’s tenure as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the United Kingdom. “By this communication, you are now expected to commence the process of winding down your affairs, and take formal leave of your host government within sixty…
THE three tiers of government, federal, states and Local Government Areas, shared a total of N4.37tn from the Federation Account as statutory revenue allocations between January and June 2023, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative said on Thursday. It disclosed this in its latest report on the Federation Account revenue allocations for the first half of the year. The Executive Secretary, NEITI, Ogbonnanya Orji, who announced the release of the report at the NEITI House, Abuja, said total distributable FAAC allocations to the three tiers of government in the first and second quarters of 2023 stood at over N2.32tn and…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu on Thursday suggested that nine months is enough for the Niger military junta to return the country to civilian rule after seizing power from President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26. Tinubu said this when he received the Nigeria Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, led by the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, at the State House. According to the Nigerian leader, who is also the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), if Nigeria could successfully return to democracy in 1999 through a nine-month programme by General Abdulsalami Abubakar, there was…
FOLLOWING the opening of Cameroon’s Lagdo Dam, the Federal Government has said that intense flooding will be experienced in some states in the next seven days. The Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, gave this prediction on Monday when she hosted the Minister of Water Resources, Minister of Environment, as well as other stakeholders on ways to mitigate the impact of the flooding in Nigeria. The minister assured Nigerians that shelters will be provided to residents in flood-prone states. News Point Nigeria had reported that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was alerted over impending flooding along…
THERE are conflicting statements on the National Youth Service (NYSC) status of the Minister of Art, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa. While a statement purportedly released by the Minister on Sunday quoted her as not breaching Nigerian law by being appointed as minister while still undergoing the compulsory NYSC, another statement from her office said the minister is yet to comment on the matter. “I deeply value and appreciate the support, solidarity, and understanding of Nigerians in these times. For clarity, I wish to state that I have not issued any statement on the current issue,” the statement signed…
FIRST Lady Oluremi Tinubu has awarded scholarships to 46 Nigerian students in tertiary institutions across the country as the first set of beneficiaries of her Renewed Hope Initiative. The Special Adviser to the First Lady on Media, Busola Kukoyi, in a statement on Saturday, said the beneficiaries were drawn from the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. Kukoyi added that other beneficiaries were nominated by various women societies, including the National Council for Women Societies, and the Defence Staff and Police Officers Wives Association (DEPOWA). The beneficiaries were unveiled at the launch of the National Scholarship Programme for…
THE Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) says it is monitoring the new subvariants of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, named EG.5 and BA.2.86. In a statement on Saturday, the health agency said its COVID-19 Technical Working Group has been monitoring emerging variants from local to global level. “Our influenza sentinel surveillance sites continue to provide information on COVID-19 prevalence in patients with influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory illness,” the statement partly read. “We have not observed any increase in trend of COVID-19 in this patient group. We continue to carry out genomics surveillance even…
THE Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, says he did not buy a N300m Armoured Lexus car on assumption of office. Wike, who spoke on Wednesday after his tour of the Abuja Light Rail, denied social media reports and challenged reporters to touch his car to confirm whether it was a bulletproof car or not. The ex-governor of Rivers State said he has not had a meeting with officials of the FCT Administration let alone approve a car for himself. He said, “We are now going to the office to have a direct report from each of…
THE Kaduna State Government has unveiled a comprehensive palliative support programme designed to help cushion the negative impact of the removal of petrol subsidies on residents of the state. Governor Uba Sani made the disclosure on Tuesday during a joint media briefing, where the initiative was unveiled with the state Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Suleiman, and other members of the palliative committee comprising representatives of organised labour and civil society organisations. According to Sani, 210,000 indigent households, totalling 1,050,000 vulnerable persons will benefit from the N2 billion palliative fund so far released by the Federal Government…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu inaugurated his 45-member cabinet on Monday after they were screened by the Senate. Among the ministers-designate is the 69-year-old Professor, Tahir Mamman, who was sworn in as the Minister of Education by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola. In this report, this newspaper ticks 10 things to know about Tahir: 1. Dr Tahir Mamman was born on July 7, 1954. 2. He graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Laws degree. 3. He bagged his MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Warwick, England. 4. He is a father of…