Curator

http://ift.tt/2rdtKLH Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Acting President, Laolu Akande The Presidency, yesterday, threw more light on how it spent the sum of N7.092b in the first year of implementation of the Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme, under its Social Investment Package (SIP). Senior Special Assistant to the Acting President, Laolu Akande disclosed that almost half of the entire amount- N3.4b went to Kaduna State as reimbursement for the amount it claimed it spent to kick-start the programme in the state, before the full implementation by the Federal Government. The breakdown also indicated that the cost of a plate of food, as approved by the Federal Government is N70, hence the government spent the sum of N1.750b on the 25 million plates of food served during the period under review, while the balance of less than N2b was spent on training, soft interest free loans, as well as other ancillary costs. Akande said: “We have also...

http://ift.tt/2qOiUzW He said Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, should be allowed to function as the president, so as to be able to deploy instruments of Federal Government to tackle the herdsmen menace. • Praises Benue Anti-Grazing Law Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has urged the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government to check the menace of Fulani herdsmen in the country, especially in Benue State. Fayose, in a release issued on Saturday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, noted: “What is going on in Benue State is more like an organised pogrom and those responsible for the killings must be arrested and prosecuted.” He said Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, should be allowed to function as the president, so as to be able to deploy instruments of Federal Government to tackle the herdsmen menace. While lamenting that “it appears Prof Osinbajo does not have the full powers of a president,” the Eki...

http://ift.tt/2plRtwx The suspect, who hails from Kwara State, was apprehended during the outward screening of passengers on a Qatar airline flight to Saudi Arabia after testing positive to drug ingestion. Detectives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos, have intercepted a 54-year old single mother of four children on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia with substances that tested positive for cocaine. The suspect, who hails from Kwara State, was apprehended during the outward screening of passengers on a Qatar airline flight to Saudi Arabia after testing positive to drug ingestion. Preliminary investigation revealed that she ingested 32 wraps of substances weighing 330 grammes. Investigation revealed that the suspect, who hawks tea and bread to earn a living in Lagos, collected N300, 000 to smuggle drugs to Saudi, under the pretext of going on pilgrimage. She was also going to Saudi as a private pilgrim and not in...

http://ift.tt/2sr9w2B The DSS had arrested the businessman over allegations of “economic sabotage” and diversion of petroleum products to the tune of N11b. Worried by the continuous detention of their managing director, Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah, members of staff of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Ltd. have called on the Federal Government to intervene and effect his release from custody to save their jobs. Ubah has been in custody of Department of State Service since May 5, following a remand order secured by the agency against him. The DSS had arrested the businessman over allegations of “economic sabotage” and diversion of petroleum products to the tune of N11b. His effort to secure freedom from the Federal High Court, Lagos was unsuccessful, due to last week’s order by High Court in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, which extended his detention for another 14 days after an earlier order granted the security agency elapsed. It was the same day that a Federal High Court in Lago...

http://ift.tt/2rdtKLH Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Acting President, Laolu Akande The Presidency, yesterday, threw more light on how it spent the sum of N7.092b in the first year of implementation of the Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme, under its Social Investment Package (SIP). Senior Special Assistant to the Acting President, Laolu Akande disclosed that almost half of the entire amount- N3.4b went to Kaduna State as reimbursement for the amount it claimed it spent to kick-start the programme in the state, before the full implementation by the Federal Government. The breakdown also indicated that the cost of a plate of food, as approved by the Federal Government is N70, hence the government spent the sum of N1.750b on the 25 million plates of food served during the period under review, while the balance of less than N2b was spent on training, soft interest free loans, as well as other ancillary costs. Akande said: “We have also...

http://ift.tt/2qOiUzW He said Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, should be allowed to function as the president, so as to be able to deploy instruments of Federal Government to tackle the herdsmen menace. • Praises Benue Anti-Grazing Law Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has urged the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government to check the menace of Fulani herdsmen in the country, especially in Benue State. Fayose, in a release issued on Saturday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, noted: “What is going on in Benue State is more like an organised pogrom and those responsible for the killings must be arrested and prosecuted.” He said Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, should be allowed to function as the president, so as to be able to deploy instruments of Federal Government to tackle the herdsmen menace. While lamenting that “it appears Prof Osinbajo does not have the full powers of a president,” the Eki...

http://ift.tt/2plRtwx The suspect, who hails from Kwara State, was apprehended during the outward screening of passengers on a Qatar airline flight to Saudi Arabia after testing positive to drug ingestion. Detectives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos, have intercepted a 54-year old single mother of four children on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia with substances that tested positive for cocaine. The suspect, who hails from Kwara State, was apprehended during the outward screening of passengers on a Qatar airline flight to Saudi Arabia after testing positive to drug ingestion. Preliminary investigation revealed that she ingested 32 wraps of substances weighing 330 grammes. Investigation revealed that the suspect, who hawks tea and bread to earn a living in Lagos, collected N300, 000 to smuggle drugs to Saudi, under the pretext of going on pilgrimage. She was also going to Saudi as a private pilgrim and not in...

http://ift.tt/2sr9w2B The DSS had arrested the businessman over allegations of “economic sabotage” and diversion of petroleum products to the tune of N11b. Worried by the continuous detention of their managing director, Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah, members of staff of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Ltd. have called on the Federal Government to intervene and effect his release from custody to save their jobs. Ubah has been in custody of Department of State Service since May 5, following a remand order secured by the agency against him. The DSS had arrested the businessman over allegations of “economic sabotage” and diversion of petroleum products to the tune of N11b. His effort to secure freedom from the Federal High Court, Lagos was unsuccessful, due to last week’s order by High Court in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, which extended his detention for another 14 days after an earlier order granted the security agency elapsed. It was the same day that a Federal High Court in Lago...

http://ift.tt/2qqjQJg Governor Ortom, who spoke with journalists after the meeting, which lasted for over one hour, said he was at the Presidential Villa to brief the acting president on the prevailing security situation in Benue State. • Lawmakers seek IGP’s, NEMA’s support for Delta victims • Government promises to bring down local rice price Acting President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday met with the Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, over the menace of herdsmen attacks in the state. Governor Ortom, who spoke with journalists after the meeting, which lasted for over one hour, said he was at the Presidential Villa to brief the acting president on the prevailing security situation in Benue State. He said concerted efforts by his government had brought the crisis between herdsmen and farmers in the state to a level where, according to him, both parties in the dispute are beginning to understand each other. ...

http://ift.tt/2pV4pVT Recovered from the creek were a pump-action double-barrel gun, two locally-made guns, a jack knife and different caliber of ammunition.  • Police uncover kidnappers’ den in FESTAC creek Suspected assassins have murdered a family of six in a pre-dawn attack in their home at the Atiba area of Odogbolu in Ogun State. It was not clear as at yesterday the motive behind the murder of a man, his wife and four children, which have thrown the entire community into shock and confusion. The man, identified as Sheik Yusuf Abdulsalam Tanimola, was in his 30s while two of his murdered children were two-year-old twins. Residents of Atiba and sympathizers who thronged the victims’ residence were shocked to see the victims’ nude bodies in the pool of their blood. The police spokesman, Mr. Abimbola Oyeyemi, told The Guardian that he was yet to get details of the victims’ names but added that “they were killed overnight.” Oyeyemi added that the Divisional Police Off...

http://ift.tt/2prOIFN The Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, submitted that the flagrant disrespect for existing laws guiding expenditure by the agencies was weakening the fight against corruption. •Oil agency refutes claim, apex bank inaccessible •‘Budgeting responsible for economic woes’ Thirty-eight statutory agencies of the Federal Government are yet to submit their budget proposals for the 2017 fiscal year. These agencies, which include the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), have continued to make huge extra-budgetary expenditure in breach of the Fiscal Responsibility (FRA) Act 2007. This was disclosed by the Senate yesterday during a legislative session. Section 21 of the law makes it mandatory for all departments and agencies of the government to submit their expenditure plans to the National Assembly for approval. The worry of the Senate is that with five months already into the fi...

http://ift.tt/2pR4BXR This file screengrab taken on May 6, 2017 from a Boko Haram video released by the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram shows the leader of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau flanked by two fighters at an unidentified location. PHOTO: THE GUARDIAN / BOKO HARAM / YOUTUBE Members of a faction of Boko Haram are regrouping, re-arming and returning to the Sambisa Forest area, a report by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has warned. The commission has also expressed worry about the increase in the number of children used as suicide bombers from nine in 2016 to 27 in the first quarter of the year. The regrouping and returning of insurgents to the Sambisa forest may rubbish the successes recorded so far by the Federal Government in the anti-terrorism fight and worsen the security situation in the affected parts of the country. UNHCR, in the statement made available to The Guardian through the UN Offi...

http://ift.tt/2qqlf2D President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nwodo in a statement said there was no justification in excluding the region from the plan. • Adeosun defends Buhari’s $5.8b loan request The $5.851 billion China Exim Bank loan request submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Senate may be stalled, as senators from the South East protest alleged exclusion of their geopolitical zone from the rail modernisation project nationwide. Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia South) in a motion titled, “Outright Omission of Eastern Corridor Rail Line in the request for approval of Federal Government 2016-2015 External Borrowing (Rolling Plan),” said the exclusion is “inexplicable.” Also, the Apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has protested the exclusion of the zone from the multi-billion naira railway projects, describing it as an injustice. President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nwodo in a statement said there was no justi...

http://ift.tt/2qy0iDw Stakeholders in the real sector had noted that food and other commodity prices would remain high till the second half of 2016 if the Central Bank of Nigeria sustains its intervention in the real sector. While latest indicators have shown that the nation’s inflation rate is easing, there are divided sentiments on the reality of the claims as food and other household items remain steadily high, despite various interventions by the government. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the latest inflation rate, for the third consecutive month marginally declined by 0.02 per cent to 17.24 per cent, from the 17.26 per cent recorded earlier in March. Stakeholders in the real sector had noted that food and other commodity prices would remain high till the second half of 2016 if the Central Bank of Nigeria sustains its intervention in the real sector. Though the planting season is still in play, there are fears that the Ramadan fast may also spike ...