Author: News Room

Medical experts have warned that the latest cholera outbreak may spread to many communities and states in the country during the Eid-el-Kabir celebration if necessary measures were not quickly taken to limit the spread of the acute diarrhoeal infection. The experts, who spoke in separate interviews with this newspaper, said the increase in travel over the holiday season might result in a rise in cholera cases. This comes as the Lagos State Government confirmed 15 deaths from the infection. Cholera is a food and water-borne disease caused by the ingestion of the bacteria— Vibrio cholerae— in contaminated water and food.…

KABIRU Abu Bilal is not your regular Nigerian university professor – he has a second job working as a welder in the northern city of Zaria. Welding is widely seen as a menial job across Nigeria and he has shocked many – especially his colleagues – by opening up his own welding workshop. “I am not ashamed that I work as a welder despite being a professor,” he tells the BBC. “I make more money from welding.” The 50-year-old teaches and supervises research students at the faculty of engineering at Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria’s largest and one of its most…

SOME Lagos state residents have expressed mixed feelings as the cloud showered down the first rain in 2024. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday gathered that some parts of Surulere, Anthony and Ojuelegba experienced showers of rainfall for about 20 minutes in the morning. Yinka Olufemi, a resident of Surulere, told NAN that she was taking her bath at about 10am when she heard the sound of rainfall. Olufemi said that she had to peep through the window to see the showers of rainfall. “First, I was excited to see the rain falling at this time…

IN continuation with onslaught against terrorists through series of clearance operations, the combined troops of the Joint Task Force North-West Operation Hadarin Daji (OPHD) have rescued 52 kidnapped victims in an operation in the Isa Local Government Area (LGA) of Sokoto State. The spokesperson for Operation Hadarin Daji, Captain Yahaya Ibrahim, in a statement issued on Saturday in Gusau, said the feat was recorded on Friday, December 22, 2023. He said troops cleared and destroyed terrorist enclaves at Saruwa, Kubuta, Gundumi villages and Bunwanga Gundumi forest in the Isa LGA of the state. During the operation, the troops of the…

KIDNAPPING for ransom, child abduction, and human trafficking have sadly become increasingly common in Nigeria. Reports indicate that hundreds of children have either been killed or are still in captivity of their kidnappers. On November 20, five children were kidnapped by a next-door neighbor in the Shendam community of the Shendam Local Government Area of Plateau State. House Rent, popularly known as Dogon Gida, located at Anguwan Kabari of Shendam Local Government Area of Plateau State, accommodates almost 20 tenants of people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. Tenants and residents of Shendam town were thrown into confusion on November…

A 500-LEVEL student of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Mansur Garba and some yet-to-be-identified people were abducted on Wednesday by gunmen suspected to be bandits in Zamfara. This newspaper gathered that the abduction happened on the highway leading to Gusau, Zamfara State capital when the bandits stopped a car carrying no fewer than six passengers, including Mansur Garba. The vehicle was going from Sokoto to Gusau. The gunmen kidnapped the passengers and took them to an unknown location. A friend of Mansur who confirmed this to this newspaper on Friday morning revealed that his family announced the message about Mansur’s abduction…

DANGOTE Refinery has made a further move towards the commencement of production of refined petroleum products with the receipt of an additional one million barrels of bonny light crude supplied by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL). The fresh one million barrels of crude from the Shell terminal via the MT Otis owned by Trafigural is the second consignment to be delivered to the Dangote facility out of the six million barrels of crude being expected by the world’s largest single-train refinery. About a week ago Dangote Refinery received one million barrels of Agbami crude grade from Shell International…

THE National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has described the victory of the Chairman Northern Hosue of Representatives Caucus Alhassan Ado Doguwa at the Appeal Court as an affirmation of the people’s mandate. Ganduje in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Edwin Olofu, said the judgement confirmed that the good people of Tudun Wada/Doguwa federal constituency overwhelming voted for him in the last election. The APC National Chairman described Doguwa as an astute and grassroots politician who has paid his due over the years. Gandjue described Doguwa as an asset to his…

IN line with the resolution of the All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC), recently held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) plans to launch Nigerian Editors Trust Fund, which is designed to address the professional/welfare needs of media houses and editors in Nigeria. At the ANEC in Akwa Ibom State, publishers, media executives and editors harped on the urgent need by the Guild to initiate strategic move that will focus on the professional/welfare needs of media houses and editors in Nigeria – as part of several efforts to help them to continue to discharge their constitutional…

THE Former Governor of Kano State, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, said the Federal and State Governments must address poverty, inequality, and joblessness for Nigeria’s economic development. Senator Shekarau who noted that socio-economic conditions determine the well-being of citizens, said it tells exactly how citizens fare in terms of income, safety and security jobs, access to health care facilities, access to education, and electricity among others. Shekarau spoke on Saturday at the 5th Annual Conference of the International Islamic University Malaysia Association, Nigeria Chapter tagged: Nigeria’s Social Economic Conditions: Realities and Remedies”. At the virtual programme were also the Emir of Keffi…

THE presidential candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) in the 2023 election Rabiu Kwankwaso has lent his voice to the call for a thorough and transparent investigation into the accidental military airstrike in Kaduna State. Scores were injured and 85 people died during the airstrike in the Tudun Biri village of Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Weeks after the incident, Kwankwaso visited victims of the incident at the Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital in the Kaduna State capital, saying a probe would help to identify and punish those responsible for the accidental airstrike. “I was in Kaduna,…

DANGOTE Cement Plc, Ibese Plant, has marked its 2023 Host Community Day in a grand style with the unveiling of four multi-million Naira empowerment schemes targeted at youths, women, farmers and students in the company’s host communities. At the well attended event witnessed by leading traditional rulers, women and youth leaders from the host communities, 103 indigent and brilliant secondary and tertiary institution students across the 17 host communities were given scholarship awards and another set of 30 youths trained on shoe and bag-making were presented to the delight of the royal fathers. In the same vein, the management of…

THE Supreme Court has upheld the Federal Government’s appeal challenging the verdict of the Appeal Court which dismissed the charges against Nnamdi Kanu. In upholding the government’s appeal, the Supreme Court held that Kanu must face trial at the Federal High Court. The Supreme Court in the judgement delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, but prepared by Justice Garba Lawal, held that the Court of Appeal was wrong to rule that Kanu could not be tried again based on the illegality perpetrated against him by the Federal Government, following the invasion of his home. Also, the Court held that although the…

THE Nigeria Labour Congress, on Thursday, warned the Federal Government against heeding the advice of the World Bank to increase the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit popularly called petrol to N750/litre. The NLC’s Head of Information, Benson Upah, in an interview with this newspaper, said any further increase in the price of petrol would lead to anarchy in the country. He, therefore called on the government to reject the proposal of the World Bank that petrol should sell at about N750/litre, as against the current rate of between N620 and N650/litre in most locations across the country. This came…

PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu on Thursday said the efforts of his administration to transform Nigeria’s economy are yielding results with the support of the National Assembly led by Senate President Godswill Akpabio and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas. Speaking at a colloquium to mark the 61st birthday of the Senate President in Abuja, President Tinubu said the challenges facing the country will be jointly assessed by the executive and legislature with a view to evolving implementable solutions for the good of Nigerians. “Having Senate President Akpabio, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Right…

THE Kano state government, on Thursday, agreed to pay the sum of N3 billion compensation to the Incorporated Trustees of Masallacin Eid Shop Owners and Traders Association for the unlawful demolition of their property. The agreement was reached through an application on terms of settlement dated December 12 and filed December 13 by counsel to parties before Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that following the demolition of the shops on Gov. Abba Yusuf’s order, 56 applicants, on behalf of the association, had filed the suit marked: FHC/KN/CS/208/2023 in…

FOR her extraordinary leadership and commitment to the public service of Lagos State through the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), culminating in the delivery of the Lagos blue rail line (under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu), 40 years after its conception, Engr. Mrs Abimbola Akinajo is Public Service Person of the Year 2023. Since Lagos State governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu appointed her as the first female managing director/CEO of Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) in 2019, she has never kept anyone in doubt that her rich experience in civil and rail infrastructure delivery would break the jinx that hitherto retarded the…

CHAIRMAN of ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Bola Tinubu, on Sunday, implored West African leaders to prioritize good governance and collective prosperity as an essential tool to prevent authoritarian takeovers of power and unconstitutional changes of government in the region. Addressing the high-powered regional gathering at the 64th ordinary session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, the President identified good governance as a key catalyst to secure popular support through the socio-economic transformation and development of West Africa. “The delivery of good governance is not just a fundamental commitment; it is also…

THE World Bank will allocate $5 billion to deliver “reliable, affordable, renewable electricity” to 100 million Africans by the end of the decade, the president of the development lender announced Wednesday. The World Bank estimates that around 600 million people in Africa do not currently have access to reliable electricity, a key factor hampering job creation and economic development on the continent. To meet its new objective to alleviate poverty on a “livable planet,” Ajay Banga said the World Bank must find ways to connect more people to a greener energy grid. Electricity “should be for everyone,” he told a…

FIVE civilians have been killed in Ethiopia’s Amhara region after a drone strike hit an ambulance, witnesses told the BBC. Three other people, including a head of a local hospital, were injured in the incident that happened in Wogel Tena town in north-eastern Amhara. The attack occurred last week but was only confirmed on Wednesday due to communications restrictions imposed by the local authorities. The driver of the ambulance, a pharmacist and nearby construction workers were among those killed, witnesses said. The federal forces are said to be using drones to target local militias as the violence that broke out…