Author: Binta Kabir

JUSTICE Emeka Nwite has declined to grant bail to suspended deputy commissioner of police, Abba Kyari, and two other suspended senior police officers. In separate rulings, the court held that the defendants had not brought any evidence in court to warrant the court’s discretion. Justice Nwite said that the court must exercise its discretion judiciously, and in this case, the court cannot grant bail to the defendants. Kyari is facing an eight-count charge bordering on drug trafficking brought against him by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. The NDLEA alleged that Kyari and his men, sometime between January 19 and…

NIGERIA ‘s inflation rate increased to 33.95 per cent in May 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics disclosed in its latest data. This represents an increase of 0.26% points when compared to the April 2024 headline inflation rate, according to the NBS Consumer Price Index report released on Saturday. The data revealed that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 11.54% points higher compared to the rate recorded in May 2023, which was 22.41%. This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in May 2024 when compared to May 2023. On the contrary, on a month-on-month…

THE Nigeria Data Protection Commission has said more than 1000 financial institutions, schools, insurance companies, and consultancy firms are currently undergoing investigations for various degrees of breaches of citizens’ data. This was as the commission’s National Commissioner, Vincent Olatunji, revealed that four major banks and three other institutions have faced sanctions and incurred fines totalling N400m for infractions related to breaches of citizens’ data. Olatunji revealed this on Tuesday during an interactive session with journalists to mark the first anniversary of President Bola Tinubu’s signing into law of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission Act in Abuja. On June 12, 2023,…

THERE is heavy presence of tight security in and around the Federal High Court complex sitting at Court road in Kano as the hearing on emirate tussle begins. This newspaper reports that Policemen and operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) have manned their vehicles in strategic places around the court, restricting movement. Currently, there is a diversion of vehicles passing through Court road leading to Zoo road and Gyadi-Gyadi area. The nationwide strike over minimum wage embarked had affected the sitting of the Federal High Court in Kano on the restraining order on the reinstatement of Malam Muhammadu…

THE Federal Government has warned workers planning to embark the indefinite strike declared by labour unions that they risk six months jail term. Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), gave the warning in a statement on Sunday. Fagbemi said Section 18 of the Trade Disputes Act requires a worker employed in any essential services to give their employer 15 days notice before ceasing their services and any who did not comply would be liable on conviction to a fine or imprisonment for six months. He said the fundamental importance of the 15-day notice is…

A 70-YEAR-OLD grandfather has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) with 57.2kg of cannabis in Nasarawa State. Also arrested were two suspects with 426kg of cannabis in Ekiti State, NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi disclosed this in a statement on Sunday. This is as the anti-narcotics agency seized codeine-based syrup and Loud, a synthetic cannabis strain worth over N2.1 billion at the Port Harcourt seaports and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. “Large consignments of codeine-based syrup and Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis worth over N2.1bn in street value have been intercepted at…

THIRTY-FIVE thousand people have applied for the Federal Government’s student loan scheme one week after the portal went live. This is according to the Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund Akintunde Sawyerr who said about 60,000 persons have registered on the education loan platform. “So far, we’ve had 60,000 plus registrations. In fact, it’s registration; registration is not applications for loans. We’ve had about 50% of that,” he said on Friday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today. “So about 30,00 to 35,000 people have actually applied for loans. So, it’s about 50% of the registrations.” While explaining why…

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…