The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) on Monday officially reopened Kamba border which links the country to Republic of Niger along Kebbi corridor.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Government, through a circular by NCS on Friday ordered the reopening of the border posts in Idiroko (Ogun); Jibiya (Katsina State) Kamba (Kebbi) and Ikom (Cross River).
The government had closed major borders as part
of efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 and curtail smuggling in order to
boost local production of rice and other farm produce.
While officially declaring the border open in
Kamba, the Area Controller of the Customs in the state, Mr Joseph Attah,
expressed optimism that the border would open a new chapter for mutual economic
ties between the two countries.
Mass burial today for 110 killed in Ohaji-Egbema illegal refinery fire
The charred remains of over 100 people killed
in a fire at an illegal refinery in Imo state, will be given a mass burial
today.
President Buhari described the accident at the
Abaezi forest in Ohaji-Egbema of Imo state, a “catastrophe.”
The blast late Friday at a site between Rivers
and Imo states was one of the worst in years in an area where oil theft and
illegal refining are legion, inflicting huge losses and environmental damage.
Pipeline fires are commonplace in Nigeria, in
part because of poor maintenance but also because of thieves who vandalise
lines to siphon off oil, refine it at makeshift plants and sell the fuel on the
black market.
109 bodies recovered, others still missing after illegal refinery fire in Imo
No fewer than 109 persons have been burnt to
death after fire gutted an illegal oil refinery site at Abacheke Kpofire in
Egbema community, Ohaji/Egbema LGA of Imo State.
DAILY POST gathered that the incident which
occured on Friday Night claimed scores of lives, while others were seriously
injured.
The Head of Operations of the National
Emergency Management Agency, Mr. Ifeanyi Nnaji, while confirming the incident,
said only 20 persons died during the inferno.
But in an update on Saturday, Nnaji said so far
109 bodies had been recovered while others were still missing.
CAN condemns Taraba explosions, accuses govt of lip service
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in
Taraba State, on Saturday, expressed dismay over the explosion that rocked
Jalingo, the Taraba State capital on Friday.
The CAN chairperson, Isaiah Jirapye, in a
statement, said the explosion in Jalingo came four days after an explosion at
the Iware area of the state.
The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP)
has claimed responsibility for both bombings.
Taraba Blast: Ishaku condemns attack, calls for vigilance
Taraba State Governor, Darius Ishaku, Thursday
condemned in strong terms the recent bomb attack at a local bar in Iware, Ardo
Kola Local Government Area of the state.
He said the loss of lives, injuries and
attendant destruction that was caused by the explosion is wicked and inhumane.
He described the attack as unprovoked
aggression against innocent people.
2023: Mass resignation in Osun as Gov Oyetola issues ultimatum
Barely two days after the Osun State Government
directed that political appointees interested in contesting in the 2023 general
elections should resign their appointments, two cabinet members have resigned.
Findings by DAILY POST revealed that Giwa
Latifat, Commissioner for Human Resources and Capacity Building and Tadese
Raheem, Commissioner for Water Resources and Energy have both tendered their
resignations.
Reason for their resignation was to enable them
to concentrate in their quest to aspire for the Senatorial seat.
2023 Polls: Resign if you have political ambition, Sanwo-Olu tells aides, others
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has
directed all members of the State Executive Council and political appointees
who are delegates to the state House of Assembly, House of Representatives,
Senate, governorship and presidential primaries and those seeking elective
offices to resign.
The directive was contained in a circular by
the state Head of Service, Hakeem Muri-Okunola, dated April 14.
The circular, which was copied to all
stakeholders, was titled: “Resignation of political appointees and all other
public servants who may wish to seek elective offices.”
Niger government feigns ignorance of civilians living in bombed area
The Niger Government Thursday, said it is not
aware that civilians are living in Kurebe Community in Shiroro Local Government
Area, where residents said Nigeria Air Force (NAF) strike killed at least six
children last week Wednesday.
The state’s commissioner for local government, chieftaincy
affairs and internal security, Emmanuel Umar, in a statement, said residents of
the area are taking refuge in other parts of the state after the community was
infiltrated by bandits.
“The state
government says there are no civilians residing in these areas for some time
now due to the infiltrations and activities of the terrorists which forced the
locals to seek shelter as IDPs in other parts of the state.”
Married woman butchered by her suspected ritualist boyfriend in Ondo
A married
woman identified as Funmilola Osundare is currently being treated at the
Federal Medical center in Ondo state after she was butchered by her boyfriend,
a suspected ritualist who is currently on the run.
Vanguard
reports that Funmilola was said to have been invited to the house her boyfriend
rented in ljapo, GRA, Akure three days before the attack. She was reportedly
having a nice time with him when he allegedly attacked her, leaving her with
varying degrees of matchet cuts on her face, shoulders and hands.
Her cries
for help attracted the neighbours who invited operatives of the state security
outfit codenamed Amotekun. The suspect fled while the neighbours rushed the
victim to the Police Clinic for treatment where she was rejected and referred
to the University of Medical Sciences, Teaching Hospital, Akure.
Niger State Govt intercepts, repatriates 21 Almajiris to Katsina
The Niger
State government has intercepted and repatriated 21 Almajiris to Kankara in
Katsina State.
The
children said to be below 17 years were intercepted on their way to Mokwa town
in Niger State by the state child rights protection agency.
The
Director General, Niger State Child Rights Protection Agency, Mariam Haruna
Kolo, who confirmed the development on Thursday, said the Almajiris were
intercepted in Minna while being conveyed in a bus by one Malam Habibi
Abdulrazaka residing in Suleja, Niger State.
Government imposes curfew on Akwa Ibom community over clash between Yorubas and indigenes
The Akwa
Ibom State government has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on Ibeno community
following the violent clash between Yoruba residents and natives of Ibeno
extraction.
At least 10 people have so far been confirmed dead and several others missing, while properties worth several millions of naira were reportedly destroyed in the clash .
A statement signed on behalf of the council chairman by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Mr Melford Asuquo, and made available to newsmen in Uyo, the state capital on Thursday April 21, warned that anyone apprehended during the curfew period would be prosecuted.
PDP ex-governors, aspirants reject consensus candidate
Some former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
governors yesterday denounced the consensus candidacy being promoted by four
presidential aspirants of the party.
They argued that such an idea was capable of
causing disunity that could affect the opposition party’s chances of winning
next year’s elections.
The former governors are Sule Lamido (Jigawa),
Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Boni Haruna (Adamawa) and Ibrahim Idris (Kogi).
They gave the warning after a meeting hosted by
Lamido at his Abuja residence.
Save Nigeria From The Present Crop Of Leadership —Methodist Prelate
THE Prelate, Methodist Church Nigeria, His
Eminence Samuel Kanu, has called on Nigerians to safe the nation from the
present crop of leadership both in private and public sectors.
According to the prelate, many people in
leadership are insincere to the plights of citizens since they are not holding
public trust with the spirit of servant hood as well as not ready to serve,
except to ‘serve selfishly.’
Kanu, whose address was presented by the
Diocese Synod Secretary, Very Reverend Olumide Aluko, noted this during the
60th synod of the Methodist church Nigeria, Ibadan diocese, on Friday, at
Agbeni Ibadan, Oyo State.
Row in PDP over Northern Elders’, Babangida’s endorsement of Saraki, Bala
Different interest groups in the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) have sparked a fresh row in the party over Friday’s
endorsement of former Senate President Bukola Saraki and Bauchi State Governor
Bala Mohammed as North’s consensus candidates in next month’s primaries of the
party by PDP Northern Elders and former military president Ibrahim Babangida.
One of the party’s four presidential candidates
that mooted the idea of consensus, Alhaji Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, yesterday
joined Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal in rejecting the elders’ decision.
Like Tambuwal, he vowed to forge ahead with his
aspiration and test his popularity during the primaries.
2023 presidency: Real reason Ganduje said I’ll be a good loser – Wike
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has
clarified that his Kano State counterpart, Abdullahi Ganduje’s comment that he
(Wike) will be a good loser in the forthcoming presidential election was a mere
joke.
DAILY POST recalls that Ganduje had on Monday,
told Wike that he would not be able to actualise his presidential ambition.
Ganduje who spoke when he received the Rivers
Governor at the Kano State Government House, also said he appreciates good
losers because they have courage.
Strike: ASUU should stop ‘bullying’ Pantami, NITDA DG over UTAS – Ngige
Nigeria’s minister of labour and employment,
Chris Ngige, has accused the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU) of trying to bully the National Information Technology Development
Agency (NITDA) to certify the University Transparency and Accountability
Solution (UTAS) developed by the union as satisfactory, “despite not meeting
the set criteria.”
The minister said the suspension of the ongoing
strike is solely at the discretion of the university lecturers.
ASUU has been on strike since February 14, demanding
among others, the deployment of UTAS to replace the Integrated Personnel
Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement
between the union and the Nigerian government as minimum conditions to achieve
peace.
2023: Osinbajo’s aspiration not about personal ambition, says APC group
An All Progressives Congress group, The
Progressive Project, on Thursday in Abuja said Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s
presidential aspiration wasn’t about personal ambition.
Addressing a press conference at the Federal
Capital Territory, Abuja, the TPP Chairman, Senator Kabiru Gaya, said the
presidential race for Osinbajo was about a positive response to popular calls
from a citizen-driven mobilisation that began without any input from him or his
office.
According to Gaya, the group could crowdfund
the N100m required to purchase copies of the nomination and expression of
interest forms for the VP to support his aspiration.
Stop Demoralising Anti-corruption Agencies, Northern CSOs Tell Buhari
Civil
society organisations (CSOs) under the auspices of Conference of Northern
States Civil Society Networks, has urged
President Muhammudu Buhari to stop demoralising the nation’s anti-corruption
agencies and focus on tackling its pressing economic woos.
The CSOs described the granting of pardon to
former Governors Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame of Plateau and Taraba States by
President Buhari as unfortunate and shocking.
In a statement issued to journalists yesterday
by its Chairman, Ambassador Ibrahim Waiya,
the group admonished Buhari to, as matter of urgency, reverse his
decision on state pardon granted to the corruption convicts in the interest of
Nigerian citizens.
Buhari orders rescue of hostages with kidnappers
Security chiefs got a marching order from the
President yesterday.
They must rescue unhurt all Nigerians held
hostage by terrorists and kidnappers within the shortest possible time.
President Muhammadu Buhari gave the directive
at the National Security Council meeting in Abuja.
Presidency: Explain to Nigerians how Osinbajo, Amaechi, Ngige’ll raise N100m – Ozekhome to Buhari
Mike Ozekhome, the Lead Counsel to Nnamdi Kanu,
leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has accused President
Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress, APC, of monetizing
democracy.
Ozekhome said Buhari must explain to Nigerians
how he expects Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Rotimi Amaechi, Chris Ngige, and
other Presidential aspirants to raise N100m to obtain their nomination forms.
The human rights lawyer said APC was mocking
the country’s democracy by pegging its Presidential nomination forms at N100m.
2023 presidency: Only death can make me step down -Wike
The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has insisted
that he will not step down from the 2023 presidential race.
Wike, who is a presidential aspirant under the
Peoples Democratic Party, said this during an interview with BBC Pigin.
The PUNCH had reported that some chieftains of
the PDP had demanded that the presidential candidate of the party should be
picked through consensus.
But Wike said only death would make him step
down for another PDP candidate in the 2023 presidential election.
2023 Presidency: Political process ongoing, watch out, Jonathan tells protesters
After chanting and screaming his name for
minutes, Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Friday came out to receive protesters
who stormed his Abuja office.
Vanguard had reported how pro-Jonathan
protesters stormed his office, demanding he contest in the forthcoming
presidential election.
A spokesman for the group, Mayor Samuel, who is
also the convener of the Youth Compatriots of Nigeria said, “We were deceived
and brainwashed by those who claimed they could do it in 2015.
“Now, we know better, under Jonathan the
minimum wage could buy one or two bags of rice. What do we have today? We are
begging President Jonathan to forgive us, we have realized our mistakes, we
want him back to complete what he started.
Responding to them, Jonathan asked Nigerian
youths to show greater interest in the nation’s political process.
INEC budgets N239bn on poll materials in 2023 elections
The Independent National Electoral Commission
will spend at least N239.2bn on procuring voting materials and vehicles that
will be used in the 2023 general election.
This is according to the 2023 General Election
Project Plan that was launched by INEC in Abuja on Thursday, April 21.
The Commission stated that N239.2bn, which
constitutes 78.44 per cent of its N305bn budget, would be spent on 10 critical
items which included ballot papers, operational vehicles, ballot boxes,
allowances of ad hoc workers, printing of result sheets, logistics and
procurement of accreditation devices.
AFRICA AND THE HORN OF HUNGER
It has become clear for all to see that
Russia`s costly folly in Ukraine is reverberating far beyond the borders of the
heroic Eastern European country which has taken a courageous last stand against
a shameless dictatorship. Many people around the world who were roasting in the
fire of hunger for long must now lament the coming of the harmattan season
blown their way by the war in Ukraine among other factors. The projections are
as dire as they come.
According to the United Nations, 20 million
people could starve this year after delayed rains worsened already brutal
droughts in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.
The droughts in the Horn of Africa which has
destroyed crops and livestock forcing many people to leave their homes in
search of food and water has left the region on the brink of a humanitarian
catastrophe.
Amidst nature`s fury, the situation of many
people caught in the clutches of hunger is simply heartbreaking. According to
the World Food Programme, if current conditions do not abate, six million
Somalis, or 40 percent of the population, would be facing extreme levels of
food insecurity and there would be a very real risk of famine in the coming months.
Russia Gives Reason For Invasion Of Ukraine
Russia has for the first time given reason for
invading Ukraine.
Russia said that the goal of its invasion war
with Ukraine was to take “full control” over the Southern Region of the country
as well as the Eastern Donbas region.
Maj. Gen.
Rustam Minnekaev, who’s the acting commander of Russia’s Central Military District,
on Friday announced that Russia was fighting to establish a land corridor
through Ukrainian territory connecting Russia to Crimea, the peninsula it
annexed in 2014.
How banks in Nigeria, Ghana deny people with disabilities services
Ibrahim Omotosho, 39, drove into a bank in
Abeokuta, Southwest Nigeria, in July 2020 to pick up his debit card. An
otherwise straightforward transaction, but it would play out as one of his most
frustrating experiences.
It was 15 years after he first opened a bank
account but very little had changed in how financial institutions opened up to
him. The building, like most banks in the country, was designed in a way that
prevented wheelchair users from gaining access. He had to wait to be attended
to at the parking area. After over two hours of sitting tight in the unbearably
hot weather, he did what any digital citizen would: pick up his phone and
tweet.
Then he drove his car behind the bullion van to
cause a scene, drawing the staff’s attention. A senior security officer
promised he would be attended to, but it took another 40 minutes.
The tweet would later go viral, attracting over
11,000 likes and retweets, and Mr Omotosho would receive a call from the bank’s
head office apologising for the treatment and assigning employees to meet his
needs — measures which he considers to fall short of genuine solutions.
Narrating the incident about two years later, Mr Omotosho, a programme analyst, mentions one detail he had left out on Twitter.
“One of the staff they gave to me was like they
were actually doing me a favour,” he said, unable to hold in his laughter at
the thought. “It’s actually embarrassing. He said he was doing me a favour and
I had to be patient, that he had to leave what he was doing inside to come and
attend to me outside under the sun and I still was not appreciative. I was
shocked.”
Nigeria’s banking sector has undergone sweeping
reforms in recent decades with several commercial banks now gaining
international prominence and spreading their reach across Africa. Despite this
growth, however, the industry continues to turn a blind eye to a key section of
the population: People with Disabilities (PwDs).
Disabilities are conditions that affect a
person’s ability to perform certain activities, impairing such things as
vision, hearing, thinking, learning, movement, mental health, communication,
memory, or social interactions.
According to the World Health Organisation, of
the estimated 1 billion people living with a disability globally, 80 per cent
are in developing countries. Nigeria and Ghana respectively have about 29
million and 5 million people with disabilities.
In spite of their huge population, PwDs are often not prioritised during conversations about financial inclusion. They continue to face hurdles that prevent them from making transactions and accessing crucial bank services such as loans or even opening accounts.
Anti-war protesters disrupt Russian pavilion at Bie
The Russian pavilion at Venice’s Biennale art
show got a rush of visitors on Friday.
Unfortunately for the Russians, the visitors
were all there to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Artists, gallery owners, curators and people
displaying pieces at the modern art festival converged on the Russian side for
the demonstration.
Ukrainian actor Aleksey Yudnikov gave a
performance in front of the Russian space for a few minutes before he was taken
away by police.
However, he returned minutes later in a dark
jacket and wearing a mask with a likeness similar to that of Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
South African flood victims struggle with despair
Wielding shovels, mallets and machetes, they
worked for four hours to try to shift the muddy debris, hoping that vehicles
could at last get through.
In vain: A pick-up truck, stuck on the wrong
side of the gigantic mound, was still unable to pass.
Inhabitants of KwaNdengezi, a township west of
Durban, have been almost literally marooned since a record storm pounded South
Africa’s east coast, killing nearly 450 people.
Nigerian man dies after allegedly jumping from 21st floor apartment in Malaysia
A 27-year-old Nigerian man identified as
Victory has died after he allegedly jumped from 21st floor of his condominium
in Malaysia.
It was gathered that the incident happened at
Mutiara ville (21st floor. Block F2) in Cyberjaya on Tuesday afternoon, April
19, 2022.
The reasons for his action are unknown,
however, police are currently investigating the incident. The deceased hailed
from Agbor in Delta State.
LIB
No comments:
Post a Comment