Author: Khadijah Olowode

The Senate on Tuesday, 25 July, 2023, urged the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the 11 Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) to halt their proposed tariff increase and “allow Nigerians to breathe.” The Senate also urged DisCos to henceforth allow Nigerian communities to recover their cost of buying electricity transformer before asking them to pay bills. It also called a halt to estimated billing by urgently supplying all electricity consumers with prepaid meters at affordable rates across the country. This and other resolutions of the Red Chambers followed its consideration of a motion titled: “Need to halt proposed increase in…

Former captain of the Nigerian Rugby National Team, Azeez Ladipo has been appointed to the Nigeria Olympic Committee Athletes Commission. A statement from Dr Robinson Okosun, Chairman Media Committee, Nigeria Rugby Football Federation on Wednesday, 25 July, 2023, said the appointment was approved by the NOC leadership. Robinson also quoted the NOC President, Engr Habu Ahmed Gumel, in a congratulatory message ”Your appointment is in recognition of your wealth of experience and outstanding contribution to Nigerian Sports as well as the Olympic Movement”. Engr Gumel further stated that ”It is therefore hoped that you would bring to bear your expertise…

By Kehinde Bamigbetan Professional maturity is expected to come with experience on the job. After over three decades of reporting, writing and editing scripts, it is a pity that malicious propaganda has sent Steve Osuji down the hill to a catastrophic abyss. His petty and pitiable piece of malignant disinformation published in the papers and circulated on social media yesterday rankles. Remote from the precincts of policy generation and formulation, far from the intellectual discourses and technical sessions on how best to give succour to the Nigerian people as fast as feasible at a time of great expectations of social…

By Abimbola Ogunnaike Super Eagles dazzling winger Samuel Chukwueze’s much-anticipated move to Milan is nearly done, as the Italian giants have successfully concluded negotiations with Villarreal and the Nigeria international has landed in Italy for his medicals on Wednesday, 25 July, 2023. Sky Sport Italia reports that the deal is all but finalised, with only minor administrative formalities remaining to be resolved within the next few hours. Milan are set to confirm the signing of Chukwueze soon and he will become the seventh player that Milan have signed this summer. He will be the fifth of those seven that the…

By Abimbola Ogunnaike President Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday, 25 July, 2023 received in audience the immediate past National Chairman and Secretary of the governing All Progressives Congress,(APC) Senators Abdullahi Adamu and Iyiola Omisore, respectively, at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja. Today’s meeting comes one week after Adamu and Omisore reportedly resigned their positions just days to the scheduled National Caucus and National Executive Council meetings earlier slated for Monday, 18 July and Tuesday, 19 July, 2023, respectively. At the time, Tinubu was away in Kenya for the Fifth Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union and have not met…

By Abimbola Ogunnaike Three suspects in connection to the gang rape of a 15-year-old minor are now cooling off at the Adamawa state police command cell in Mayo Belwa Local government Area of the state. The suspects identified as Hassan Nasir, 25years, a resident of Sabon Pegi Ngurore, Yola South Local Government Area, Uzairu Dan Fulani, 25years, a resident of Gasabga ward Mayo belwa, Yola South local government Area and Yahaya Edward, 26, a resident of Sabon Pegi, Ngurore, Yola South Local government Area. According to the police, the suspects lured the girl who boarded a tricycle from Mayo Belwa to…

By Abimbola Ogunnaike Some aggrieved Muslim youths took to the streets of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, to demonstrate their displeasure with popular singer, Davido who posted a video clip offensive to Islam on his Twitter page. Recall that Davido came under heavy criticisms after sharing a clip of the music video of his signee, Logos Olori’s new single ‘Jaye Lo’ which captured people praying and dancing in front of a mosque. Many prominent Nigerian Muslims including former aide to ex-president Muhammadu Buhari, Bashir Ahmad, Senator Shehu Sani, actor, Ali Nuhu, asked Davido to take down the video and apologise…

By Abimbola Ogunnaike The unthinkable happened to the family of a 30-year-old County Chief Officer, Rahab Karisa in Mnarani, Kilifi county in Kenya as she was allegedly stabbed to death by her house help after a disagreement over money spends on house expenditure. Karisa, who until her death, was the Chief Officer for Fisheries and Blue Economy, was found dead in her room on Thursday, 20 July, 2023, after reportedly quarreling with the house help. An autopsy conducted on Friday, 21 July, 2023 at the Kilifi county hospital, indicated that Karisa sustained a deep cut that pierced through the artery…

By Abimbola Ogunnaike Protest rocked the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree Chapter, on Tuesday, 25 July, 2023 over the suspension of the institution’s Rector, Dr Tajudeen Odetayo. The protesters, chanting solidarity songs, barricaded the main campus entrance in Iree which left the students writing examination stranded. The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, had suspended Odetayo as the rector of polytechnic over corruption allegations and announced Alabi Adeyemi as the acting rector of the institution. However, the Academy Staff Union of Polytechnic in the institution described the suspension as an aberration which was against the constitution of the institution. The Chairman of the union,…

By Abimbola Ogunnaike Rights groups on Tuesday, 26 July, 2023 disclosed that Singapore is set to hang two drug convicts this week, including the first woman to be sent to the gallows in nearly 20 years for drug related offence. Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday, 25 July, 2023 urged Singapore to halt the impending executions. “It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty’s death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement. “There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that…

By Abimbola Ogunnaike Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has been granted a N20 million bail. The bail condition includes producing a suretee with landed property within the jurisdiction of the court in Ikoyi, Lagos, depositing his passport and also producing a civil servant not below level 16 to perfect bail. Emefiele was docked and charged before Justice Nicholas Oweibo sitting at the Federal High Court, Lagos, on Tuesday, 25 July, 2023. The prosecution accused Emefiele of illegally having a single-barrel shotgun (JOJEFF MAGNUM 8371). The Department of State Services (DSS) brought him to Court…

By Abimbola Ogunnnaike The Nigeria Police Force(NPF) in collaboration with local vigilantes has killed two kidnap suspects terrorizing Kogi State, thegazellenews.com reports. Police Public Relations Officer, SP William Ovye Aya disclosed this in a statement issued on the evening of Monday, 24 July, 2023. Aya said the gallant officers who also rescued one kidnap victim, recovered one AK rifle with 14 rounds of live ammunition. According to Aya, the recent achievement of the command to weed Kogi State of criminal activities was in compliance with the directives of the Commissioner of Police, in Kogi State, Onuoha Bethrand to sustain the tempo on…

By Abimbola Ogunnaike The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the petition filed by the Lagos State Governorship Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, against Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his Deputy, Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, as “wishy-washy”. In its 36-page final written address to the Lagos Governorship Election Tribunal, the APC in its response to the petition of Rhodes-Vivour also submitted that no evidence had been put before the three-man panel to sway its mind that the votes cast for Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his Deputy were not lawful or that the election was not conducted in substantial…

By Abimbola Ogunnaike The Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has suspended the Rector of the Osun State Polytechnic, Dr Tajudeen Odetayo, over corruption allegations levelled against him. According to a Tuesday, 11 July, 2023 memo by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Muritala Jimoh, addressed to the Acting Registrar of the polytechnic, Odetayo is facing an investigation over “allegations of financial recklessness, corruption and misappropriation of funds and abuse of office”. The Governor also approved the appointment of Mr Alabi Kehinde Adeyemi as the acting Rector with immediate effect, “pending the time the allegations against him are properly investigated…

Ogun State government on Monday, 24 July, 2023, announced a series of palliatives for civil servants, pensioners and the people of the state to cushion the effect of subsidy removal on fuel. Top on the list of palliatives is the approval of N10,000 for civil servants and pensioners every month, according to a statement by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr Tokunbo Talabi. The government also approved hazard allowance for health and medical personnel, while food palliative was also approved for the most vulnerable citizens. The statement reads: “In line with the current realities in the country and…

As more witnesses from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appeared before the governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, cases of omission of necessary information and similarities in witnesses’ statements have characterized the proceedings. After being cross-examined by counsel to Governor Dapo Abiodun, Prof. Taiwo Osipitan, SAN, a witness, Balogun Ewaoluwa, a part three student of the University of Ibadan, from Remo North said that all that she wrote in her statement were dictated to her by a person she could not remember. It was again discovered after thorough scrutiny that her unit was deliberately omitted…

The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has sympathised with the people of Ikire in Irewole Local Government Council Area of the state over the various forms of losses they suffered when flood ravaged the community last Saturday and its environs on Sunday. It would be recalled that incessant rainfall caused the flooding of the ancient town during the weekend where items and property worth several millions of naira were destroyed just as motorists could not pass through the town for several hours. So many vehicles in some of the mechanic workshops and inside some of the…

By Abimbola Ogunnaike The commercial town of Ore, Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State was on the evening of Sunday, 23 July, 2023 thrown into mourning mood as a tanker explosion claimed 15 lives including a pregnant woman and three children in the community. It was gathered that residents of the area had besieged the scene of a crash to scoop petrol from a truck when the incident occurred. Eyewitnesses recounted that the fuel, which had spilled onto the road, was ignited by a spark emanating from a mobile phone held by one of the individuals involved in the…

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), a Knowledge Institution and leading advocate for fiscal transparency and accountability, has expressed apprehension over recent developments regarding the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) and the establishment of the Infrastructure Support Fund (ISF) for the 36 states of the Federation. In a press statement on Friday, CSJ said it takes note of FAAC’s recent resolution to save a portion of the June 2023 distributable revenue, noting that: “While it is commendable to consider saving for the future, we are keen to understand the policy or legal framework guiding this decision.” It asked: “Is this…

Following their stellar performance in the 2022 Cambridge IGCSE and Cambridge AS Level Examinations, Mmesomachukwu Okonkwo of Chrisland High School VGC and Oluwabukolami Adeyemi of Chrisland Pre Degree College Lagos, recently received the British Council Outstanding Cambridge Learner’s Awards. Having gained the highest mark in English as second Language (Speaking Endorsement) in IGSCE, Mmesomachukwu Okonkwo got the Top in the World award, while Oluwabukolami Adeyemi who gained the highest mark in the world in the Cambridge International AS Level Law got the Top in the World award as well as the High Achievement Award for Cambridge AS Level Psychology. The…