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http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Ben Agande & Omeiza Ajayi KADUNA—the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, will partner relevant agencies and professional bodies to prevent inciting comments and hate speeches in the build up to 2019 polls. This was part of the decisions reached at  a two-day workshop on INEC Communication Policy held in Kaduna. In a communiqué by an INEC National Commi-ssioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Prince Solomon Soyebi, participants also “emphasised that the delivery of messages should take into account the socio-cultural, religious and linguistic diversity, as well as the population mix and peculiarities of our political environment and electoral system.” Vanguard understand that the idea is to encourage issues-based campaigns and avoid the usual resort to bitter political conversations. The workshop, which was presided over by the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, was attended by all national commissioners, ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Innocent Anaba lagos—A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos yesterday denied a motion by a former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, to suspend his trial over alleged fraud pending the determination of his request for the case to be transferred to Abuja. Trial judge, Justice Rilwan Aikawa however, granted an application by former Minister of State for Finance, Senator Nenadi Usman, for the release of her international passport so she can travel abroad for a medical appointment. Justice Aikawa said, Usman was permitted to travel for three weeks between July and August to the United States but must surrender her passport to the court not later than August 31, 2017. The court also allowed the prosecution to call its first witness, Olusegun Idowu,   who identified himself as a media consultant and said that he got two contracts of N24 million and N6 million from Fani-Kayode through an intermediary, one Olubode Oke. However, at the prosecutio...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, has rated Professor Johnbull, a social satire series sponsored by Globacom, as the “rave of the moment” out of all programmes on its network belt. NTA made the disclosure in the promo of the latest edition of its special publication, TV Guide. Professor Johnbull, which begins its season four soon, airs at 8.30p.m. on Tuesdays on NTA Network, NTA International and StarTimes, while repeat broadcasts are at 8.30p.m. on Fridays on the same television channels. Conceptualised and sponsored by Globacom, the series address social issues across strata in contemporary Nigeria in particular, and the world in general. To deliver the message of the sitcom in an entertaining way, the series is garnished with satire and couched in fluid language interlaced with local patois from the characters. The lead character, The Professor, an erudite scholar, takes delight in employing grandiloquent prose to deliver his homilies. Professor Johnbul...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Rotimi Fasan T HE Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, issued a stay-at-home order on 30th May 2017 to commemorate 50 years since the former Eastern Region under Odumegwu Ojukwu embarked on a secessionist move that culminated with the declaration of Biafra. It was a failed move that ended with a thirty-month Civil War. The sit-at home order of 30th May was a major success, reports say, in Igbo-speaking states of the South-east and some parts of the South-south apparently dominated by the Igbo. While the symbolism and optics of this outcome can be good for the groups, the politics is severely flawed. For the import of this is that the order to stay at home was largely obeyed by the Igbo. But this ought not to have been so, for beyond the angry call for a separate Igbo nation by both IPOB and MASSOB, the propelling reason for the agitations from the South-east is the need to manage ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The Premier of Guateng, South Africa, David Makhura, has identified inter-African co-operation as the major plank for Africa Rising and the economic growth of the continent. Makhura, who delivered a lecture during his visit to the Lagos Business School, LBS, last Friday, said the factors which determined and shaped the Africa Rising narrative were production and manufacturing of goods by African countries; youth empowerment; strong leadership and gover-nance; active participation; and investment by the middle class in their own countries and other African countries cohesively. “There is no African country that can advance and make progress without working with other African countries,” he said. He explained that though economic growth played a key role in determining how far Africa had risen, it was not the only factor that should be considered, noting that “the Africa Rising narrative misses the point because it does not address the issues we, as Africans, are...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Johnbosco Agbakwuru O n the 2017 World No Tobacco Day, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN)  called on the Federal Government to increase taxation on tobacco products. The group also urged  government to remove tobacco companies from the Sustainable Development Agenda of the country. Speaking in Abuja, the Deputy Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, Akinbode Oluwafemi demanded, “Immediate commencement of the implementation of sections of the National  Tobacco Control, NTC Act that do not require regulations such as smoke-free public places, restriction on underage access and ban of sale in single sticks, among others. Flanked by Dr. Olupelumi Adebuyi and Hilda Ochefu, he particularly enjoined the authorities to start by implementing some  sections of the NTC Act that do not require regulations such as smoke-free public places, restriction on underage access and ban of sale in single sticks to smokers. Oluwa...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J A   37-year-old food seller, Dayo Adediran, was, yesterday, brought before an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court for allegedly torturing one Ayoola Usman, a hawker. The accused, residing at Kanu Street in Ntabo Ijoko in Ogun State, however, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault. The prosecutor, Inspector Akeem Raji, told the court that the accused committed the offence on May 12 at Oke-Odo Market in Ikeja, Lagos, beating the hawker to pulp with a plank. The prosecutor said that the accused claimed that she bought eggs from the complainant and was supposed to collect N300 change, which Usman failed to give her because he had no change. Raji alleged that the complainant said he gave the change to the son of the accused the next day, but that Adediran claimed that she did not get it. The prosecutor said the accused, who was angry about not getting her N300 change, took a plank and started beating the complainant with it. Raji said the complainant reported the cas...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Students of Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, in collaboration with Campus Alive Initiative Limited, have constructed a hostel facility in the institution—the first by students and for students. According to the Managing Director of Campus Alive Initiative, Oyinwola Bababtope, “some students en-counter accommodation challenges while on campus and this affects them academically and mentally. “We deemed it fit to help them and this gave birth to Campus Property, which we formed in 2010,” noting that over 80 percent of higher institutions in the country have accommo-dation challenges. Oyinwola, however, called on youths not to relent in their efforts, adding that the Initiative, through public private partnership, is currently making plans to take the hostel-building projects  to universities across the country. The post OAU students build hostel appeared first on Vanguard News . Vía Vanguard News http://ift.tt/2rEP7qW

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J I N January this year, outgoing environment minister, Amina Mohammed, assumed duty as the fifth Deputy Secretary-General, DSG, of the United Nations. The event surprisingly went without fanfare and drums from our usually cacophonous press. Ms. Mohammed may not be a household name, but she’s well-known in civil-society circles, with quite a high reputation among the international development set. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made an inspired choice in appointing Ms. Mohammed to the plum job; knowing that an African Muslim woman with mixed English-Nigerian parentage would present a fresh and reassuring face of the UN to the rest of the world.  She will go down in history as the first Nigerian national to hold the Number two job. A number of Nigerians have held high positions in the United Nations. The late Simeon Adebo, perhaps our greatest civil servant ever, was Executive Director of the UN Institute for Training and Research, UNITAR,  from 1969 ...

http://ift.tt/2pAa1tl By Henry Umoru ABUJA— THE Senate has begun investigation into activities of some banks for allegedly colluding with some International Oil Companies, IOCs, to defraud Nigeria.  This is as over $62,909,716,417  was said to have been taken out of the country between August 2009 and December 2014 in suspicious circumstances.   A document obtained, yesterday, showed that the affected banks were asked by the Senate to submit all copies of certified Nigeria Export Proceed, NXP, issued/or processed by them in respect of all crude oil and gas exported by Nigeria Agip Company Ltd, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Shell Petroleum Development Co. Nig. Ltd and their affiliates between April 1996 and December, 2016. According to the document, the affected banks were also asked to produce all domiciliary accounts opened and /or closed within the period specified for all crude oil and gas exported. Some banks had appeared before the investigative joint committe...