PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu is expected to meet with the leadership of Nigeria’s power-generating companies as part of an emergency effort to address the N4tn debt threatening to cripple the country’s electricity supply chain. The move follows a high-level meeting on Tuesday between the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, and chairmen of Gencos in Abuja, amid mounting fears of a possible collapse of the national grid due to liquidity constraints in the sector, according to a statement from the power ministry on Sunday. The government pledged immediate action to reduce the N4tn debt owed to power generation companies. This newspaper earlier…
Author: Farouk Abbas
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THE Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has criticised a group of women who walked out during an empowerment event organised by First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu in Port Harcourt, calling the act “disturbing and embarrassing.” The protest happened on Friday at the EUI Event Centre and was reportedly led by women loyal to the suspended Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara. Some of the protesters, said to include sacked local government vice chairpersons, left the venue while chanting pro-Fubara slogans. They demanded that Governor Fubara’s wife, Valerie, address them instead of the wife of the state’s administrator,…
THE Nigerian Army revealed on Saturday that its troops engaged in a fierce gunfight with Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters in Buni Gari, Yobe State. Disclosing this via its verified Facebook page, the Nigerian Army confirmed that Troops of Operation HADIN KAI were in a fierce battle against the terrorist group, which left three soldiers dead. Incoming reports revealed that the insurgents were spotted looting food supplies and livestock from the community. According to reports, the confrontation comes amid a recent surge in terrorist activities in the North-East region, which also follows a deadly attack by ISWAP insurgents…
THE Nigeria Police Force, through its Intelligence Response Team (IRT), have rescued two kidnapped Ghanaian nationals and apprehended a key kidnapping syndicate operating across international borders. The police on Friday said this followed a report filed with the National Central Bureau (NCB) Abuja on April 27, 2025, regarding the kidnap of one Anastasia Arthur aka Baidoo, a 48-year-old Ghanaian national. A statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, explained that initial investigations revealed that Baidoo’s abduction stemmed from a sophisticated Facebook love scam. Adejobi said advanced technical analysis provided a lead to a key location connected to the…
THE Federal Government has summoned Vice Chancellors of some schools and the Managing Director of Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFund) over alleged diversion of funds meant for the student loan scheme. A recent report claimed that about 51 schools had made illegal deductions from student loans under NELFund, prompting the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to launch a comprehensive investigation into the alleged discrepancies. Worried about the allegations, the Federal Ministry of Education said it “is convening an urgent meeting on May 6, 2025, with the Vice Chancellors of the affected universities and the Managing Director…
A UNITED States-based activist, Dr. Sandra Duru, has submitted evidences of phone conversations between her and suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to relevant authorities in the US and other parts of the world for forensic analysis. The activist, who made this known during a Facebook live session on Thursday night, while showing some of the evidences, said the conversations revealed the lies behind the sexual harassment allegation levelled against Senate President Godswill Akpabio by the embattled Senator. She exposed call logs and conversations to debunk Natasha’s claim that she had never spoken to her before. Duru, popularly called Prof. Mgbeke, added…
GOVERNOR Abba Kabiru Yusuf has approved the sun of ₦15,667,634,645.10 for the settlement of outstanding severance allowance and gratuity of All Progressives Congress (APC) councillors. The affected Councillors who served under the immediate past Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje for eight have cause to rejoice with the generosity of Governor Yusuf. The rare magnanimity of Governor Yusuf to offset the huge debt that Ganduje failed to settle even with political affinity, underscores the culture of politics without bitterness being ensued by the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) administration in Kano. This is not isolated from the over all people centered philosophy…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu will on Friday, May 2, embark on a two-day official visit to Katsina State, where he is expected to assess the security situation in the state, commission key infrastructure projects, and attend a social function hosted by the state’s governor. The visit was confirmed in a statement issued Thursday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who disclosed that the President will depart Abuja for Katsina on Friday. “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will depart Abuja for Katsina State on Friday for a two-day official visit,” Onanuga said in the statement. During…
INTERNATIONAL police organisation INTERPOL has traced several stolen vehicles from Canada to Nigeria, following a large-scale cross-border operation targeting vehicle trafficking in West Africa. The operation, codenamed Safe Wheels, was carried out between 17 and 30 March 2025 across 12 West African countries, including Nigeria. Coordinated by INTERPOL, it involved thousands of vehicle checks at land and sea borders, resulting in the detection of approximately 150 stolen vehicles and the seizure of more than 75. A statement released from INTERPOL’s headquarters in Lyon, France, said the majority of the stolen vehicles flagged during the two-week exercise had been trafficked from…
THE Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has dismissed allegations that President Bola Tinubu is using the Commission to target members of opposition parties. Speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday monitored by News Point Nigeria, Olukoyede described the claims as a ploy to distract the President from “the good work he is doing.” According to him, the President’s primary concern is how the heads of key ministries and government agencies are delivering on their mandates. “I think Nigerians should appreciate the kind of president we have at this time, and…
RENOWNED lawyer and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has written a second letter to the suspended senator representing Kogi Central in the National Assembly, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, demanding a retraction of what he described as her “clearly false and unsubstantiated” sexual harassment allegations against Senate President Godswill Akpabio. He said the latest letter became necessary, owing to the fact that the embattled Senator had failed to clarify the significant contradictions in her allegations against Akpabio, as demanded in his first letter, dated April 14, 2025. Agbakoba, who is also the Senate President’s lawyer, made…
THE Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has appointed 168 political aides, saying that the move was to “strengthen” the government machinery. The Governor’s Media Adviser, Mukhtar Gidado, in a statement Tuesday morning, said that the appointments are spread across principal special assistants, senior special assistants, special assistants, and personal assistants. Five of the appointees are principal special assistants on political and community relations, one principal special assistant on pension matters, 60 are special assistants on political and community relations, one senior special assistant on labour matters, 38 special assistants on political and community relations, and 63 personal assistants (PA) on…
THE Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Apo, Abuja, on Monday dismissed an application filed by the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, seeking to reclaim a vast estate in the city comprising 753 duplexes and apartments which has already been forfeited to the government. Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie ordered the final forfeiture of the estate located at Plot 109, Cadastral Zone CO9, Lokogoma District, Abuja, and measuring 150,462.84 square metres. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had previously secured an interim and subsequently a final forfeiture order of the property in favour of the…
A REPORT published by BudgIT, a civil society organisation, has ranked Oyo, Bayelsa and Nasarawa as the least performing states regarding fiscal transparency in the fourth quarter of 2024. The three states scored 69, 73 and 75, respectively. Ekiti, Kaduna, Adamawa, Benue, Ebonyi, and Edo were dubbed progressive performers with 100, 100, 98, 97, 97, 97, respectively. No state scored below 40 per cent. BudgIT noted that this spells progress for fiscal transparency among Nigeian states. To arrive at this conclusion, BudgIt scrutinised the approved budgets, the accountant-general’s report or financial statement, the e-procurement portal, the websites with fiscal repository,…
THE suspended Chairman of the Senate Committee on Diaspora and NGOs, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (PDP, Kogi Central), has issued a sarcastic and satirical apology to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, reigniting discussions about gender dynamics and power struggles within Nigeria’s legislative chambers. In a letter dripping with biting irony, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan offered what could be described as a profuse “apology” for the “grievous crime” of maintaining dignity and self-respect in the Senate President’s presence. Mockingly, she referenced expectations of compliance, writing: “How remiss of me not to understand that my refusal to indulge your… ‘requests’ was not merely a personal choice…
DELTA State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori was absent when the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) met in Abuja on Saturday night. The meeting was to welcome new entrants into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), but Oborevwori, who recently teamed up with the party, did not attend. Oborevwori, who swept to victory in 2023 under the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), however, dumped the party earlier in the week, citing several factors. The governor, his predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa, and the entire PDP in the South-South state said they are collapsing their structure into the leading APC, which they argue serves as…
THE Managing Director of Laralek Ultimate Construction Company, Olalekan Adebiyi, has debunked media reports of alleged wide roof leakage at the White House segment of the National Assembly during storming downpour. An online platform in the early hours of Saturday reported that the violently storming rain that fell on Friday, made mince meat of renovation work carried out by one of the subsidiaries of Laralek Ultimate Construction Company (Visible Construction Company) on the roof and other areas of the National Assembly Complex from 2022 to 2024. The online medium in the report alleged that some staff of the National Assembly…
THE gale of defection hitting the opposition parties may not be ending soon, as more governors are putting finishing touches to joining the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). In a shocking move, Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori became the latest high-profile politician to team up with the APC after he led his cabinet to dump the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), adding another layer of intrigue ahead of the 2027 general election. But Oborevwori’s defection to the APC won’t be the last as more governors are set to move to the APC, according to Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa.…
THE Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday, gave the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) the go-ahead to arrest and detain six promoters of Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX) over alleged investment fraud to the tune of over one billion dollars. Justice Emeka Nwite, who gave the order after the EFCC’s lawyer, Fadila Yusuf, moved an ex-parte motion to the effect, said the detention would be pending the conclusion of investigation of the alleged offences and possible prosecution. “I have listened to the submission of the learner counsel for the applicant (EFCC). “I have also gone through the affidavit evidence…
THE Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has assured Nigerians that the former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, will be investigated as demanded. A deputy director of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Winifred Adekunle, gave the assurance on behalf of the AGF on Wednesday at the ministry’s premises in her address to a group of lawyers who marched to the ministry to submit a petition calling for Kyari’s immediate investigation and arrest. ’The AGF has assured that there will be an open investigation into the NNPCL’s…