Author: Binta Kabir

THE Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) said it has commenced an investigation into a train derailment that occurred on Sunday at Jere station. The incident involved the passenger train KA2/loco 2702 en route to Idu Station, Abuja from Rigasa Station, Kaduna. In a statement, a spokesperson for the NSIB, Bimbo Oladeji, said preliminary fact-finding undertaken by investigators revealed that the train was travelling at a speed of 90 km/h in the section leading up to Jere station. The train, which departed Rigasa at 8:00am with 685 passengers and crew on board, was said to have approached Jere station at approximately…

IBRAHIM Lamorde, the former chairman of the anti-graft agency, EFCC, is dead. He was 61. Lamorde died in Egypt where he had travelled for medical treatment, a close associate told this newspaper. Born on 20 December 1962, Mr Lamorde joined the Nigerian Police in 1986 and retired as a Deputy Inspector General of Police in 2021. While a police officer, he served as EFCC chairman between 2011 and 2015. According to his profile on the EFCC website, Mr Lamorde was the third Executive Chairman of the Commission. He was appointed in an acting capacity as Chairman of the Commission on…

THE organised labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, has walked out of the ongoing minimum wage negotiations after the government and the Organised Private Sector made what the unionists described as “ridiculous offers” of N48,000 and N54,000, respectively. According to a source who is a leader of the TUC in the meeting, while the government did not provide any data to back up its proposal, unlike Organised Labour, OPS, on the other hand, said none of its members pays less than N78,000. The TUC source said, “Labour presented first and we stood on our N615,000 proposal…

THE United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Mohammed Fall, has said about 5.9 million Nigerian children face severe food and nutrition crisis, the highest globally. The UN resident coordinator disclosed this at the launch of 2024 the Lean Season Food Security and Nutrition Crisis multi-sector plan. According to Fall, the plan seeks to harmonise with existing government investments and actions in the areas of food assistance, health, water and sanitation, with the targets being North-Eastern states such as Borno, Adamawa and Yobe. He noted that 700,000 children under 5 years, are reported to be malnourished in Borno, Adamawa…

THE Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, on May 10, 2024, paid a working visit to Canada where he engaged with various critical stakeholders in furtherance of Nigeria’s commitment to strengthening bilateral relations with Canada. During his meeting with the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, Tuggar noted that Nigeria is Canada’s largest trade partner in Africa and called on both countries to strengthen trade ties, given the ongoing implementation of the AfCFTA. Similarly, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, stated that Canada is committed to supporting socioeconomic development in Nigeria and the wider region…

THE British High Commission in Nigeria has failed to acknowledge the presence of Prince Harry. Harry and his wife, Meghan, arrived in the most populous black nation on earth, on Friday, and there have been different activities to welcome them. The couple was received by military authorities on Friday afternoon in the nation’s seat of power. He, alongside his wife, visited the Defence Headquarters in Abuja as part of their tour of Nigeria. They also proceeded to Kaduna State, where they met with Governor Uba Sani, who gifted the prince a traditional attire. However, as against their tradition of welcoming…

PRINCE Harry and his wife Meghan Markle visited Nigeria on Friday as part of his promotion of the Invictus Games, the sporting event he founded for wounded military veterans. The couple arrived Friday in the Nigerian capital Abuja where they visited a school to open an event on mental health for students there. Greeted by a drum and dance group from the Igbo ethnic group, Prince Harry and Megan toured the Lightway Academy where they were welcomed by pupils. “If you take anything away from today, just know that mental health affects every single person,” he told students, wearing a…

PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Mr Ekperikpe Ekpo, as Co-Chairman of the Governing Council of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB). This is contained in a statement issued by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale. He said the appointment of Mr Ekpo into the Governing Council of NCDMB is in line with President Tinubu’s avowed commitment to establish a more efficient, targeted, and consistent approval process for unique oil and gas projects in the country as well as ensure effective oversight of the…

BELLO Bukar Adamu, a Kano resident, was declared missing after receiving what was supposed to be an urgent call from Sadiq, a young man believed to be his confidant and colleague at Kano State Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO). Two days later, his corpse was found at a backstreet at a location in Kumbotso Local Government Area of the state. Abdullahi Abubakar, Bello’s younger brother, said his late bother was at home around 12pm on Sunday, May 5, 2024, when he received an urgent call from Sadiq. He said that they were aware that Bello had a job deal with some…

THE AD Scientific Index ranking 2024 has ranked the Nile University, Abuja, as the best private university in Northern Nigeria. According to the ranking published on the website of AD Scientific, titled: ‘Nigeria Private Universities Ranking 2024’, the Maryam Abacha American University (MAAUN) emerged second best private university in the North. This is as the American University of Nigeria (AUN) was ranked third in the same category. In the overall ranking, Redeemers University was ranked 1st University in Nigeria, followed by Covenant University Ota and Afe Babalola University, which emerged 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Nile University, founded in 2009, was…

FORMER first Lady and widow of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Hajiya Turai Yar’Adua, on the 13th-year anniversary of his death, said, her late husband never liked politics and never wanted to be president. In a special interview with BBC Hausa, Turai stated that, the late President Yar’Adua was what is known as an accidental politician because he never wanted to join politics and never wanted to be president. “All his life, all he ever wanted was to be a teacher, come home from school, sit with his family and crack jokes till dusk. He wanted no politics or governance…

THE Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service has sealed seven telecommunication masts belonging to MTN and Globacom across the state’s urban areas over outstanding taxes totalling N5.8bn. The Head of Corporate Communications for the Kaduna IRS, Zakari Muhammad, disclosed this development in a statement issued on Thursday. The sealed masts, vital for the operation of mobile phone networks, were targeted due to significant tax liabilities established by the Kaduna State Urban Planning and Development Agency. Part of the statement reads, “Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service, in the exercise of its powers vested in it by Section 104 of the Personal Income…

THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, on Monday, released the results of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, showing that 1,402,490 candidates out of 1,842,464 failed to score 200 out of 400 marks. The number of candidates who failed to score half of the possible marks represents 78 per cent of the candidates whose results were released by JAMB. Giving a breakdown of the results of the 1,842,464 candidates released, the board’s Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, noted that, “8,401 candidates scored 300 and above; 77,070 scored 250 and above; 439,974 scored 200 and above while 1,402,490 scored below 200.” On…

THE Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, has criticised the enrollment of young teenagers in the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), saying the federal government may review age requirements for admission into tertiary institutions in the country. Speaking in Bwari, Abuja shortly after monitoring the conduct of the examination, the minister reiterated that eighteen years remained the benchmark for admission into universities, and advised parents not to push their underage wards to higher education, especially university education. The minister expressed unhappiness with the age of some candidates who applied to write the examination, noting that they fall below the…

THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board on Sunday announced that it has sanctioned some officials over the harassment of a female Hijab-wearing candidate. The female candidate who sat her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination at the Bafuto Institute, Ile-Iwe Bus Stop, Ejigbo, Lagos was said to have been asked to remove her headcover during the accreditation process before being allowed into the examination hall. Addressing the issue in a statement signed by the Head of Public Affairs of the Board, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, the Board noted that it deeply regretted the incident. It said on investigation, it discovered that the incident…

THE Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) on Friday shared a total sum of N1.123 trillion March 2024 Federation Account Revenue to the three tiers of government after its April meeting in Abuja. A statement by the Director of Press and Public Relations at the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation Bawa Mokwa indicated that in March 2024, import duty, value-added tax, (VAT) Gas Royalty, companies’ income tax (CIT), and others increased considerably while excise duty, oil royalty, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) and CET Levies recorded decreases. FAAC in a communique at the end…

TO further strengthen Nigeria’s digital economy in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has announced a collaboration on National Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) to enhance and create synergy between digital identity, payment ecosystem, and secure & seemless data exchange capabilities for Nigeria. During the meeting between the Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, and Director General of NIMC, Engr. Bisoye Coker-Odusote, with some management staff of both organisations, they discussed various initiatives, which include building DPI stacks for a…

PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has ordered the Ministry of Education to include graduates of the National Open University in the National Youth Service Corps scheme. Tinubu also resolved the longstanding admittance of NOUN Law graduates to participate in Law School in the country for equal opportunities. He made the disclosure during his presentation at the 13th convocation ceremony of NOUN on Saturday, at the university’s Convocation Arena, Jabi, Abuja. Before now, NOUN graduates in 2017 were assured by the former vice chancellor of the institution, Abdallah Adamu, that they would soon be able to participate in the National Youth Service Corps…

HEINEKEN Lokpobiri, the Minister for Petroleum Resources (Oil), has said the federal government would not hesitate to take back oil assets, as only five out of 60 licences issued during the 2021 marginal oil field bid round are currently in use. Lokpobiri disclosed this at an event organised by The Petroleum Club in Lagos. According to him, FG is looking to ramp up crude oil production to boost revenue, and would not tolerate dormant oil licences. “I don’t need to know you to renew or sign your licence and I will also not look at your face for me to…

FORMER Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, says he no longer have a smooth relationship with one of his predecessors, Peter Odili, because “there are some political differences”. Wike, who is now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), revealed this during a chat with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday. Wike was the governor of the oil-rich South-South state from May 2015 to May 2023 before he was appointed minister by President Bola Tinubu. At various public functions before now, Wike had described Odili, who was Rivers governor from May 1999 to May 2007, as his political father and leader.…