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http://ift.tt/2r9KUNk Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin CDS seeks entitlements for wounded soldiers The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin, has supported the amendment of Armed Forces Act (AFA), saying the review would restore hope and dignity to their personnel. Olonisakin also seeks for statutory entitlements to members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria that were killed or wounded in action as such provision was not available in the extant enactment. Speaking at a one-day stakeholders’ meeting on the review of the Armed Forces Act organised by the Ministry of Defence, the CDS said this exercise would consider possible amendments to Armed Forces Act to improve on alleged human rights violations by the military. The CDS added that another area of concern was the issue of appearance of lawyers in the Armed Forces before civil courts, adding that their lawyers were being restricted to appear only before courts-martial and even where courts-martial decisions go ...

http://ift.tt/2r9KW7U Major roads, including Agbani, Zik Avenue, New Haven, Ogui, Bissalla, Coal camp and Edinburgh were deserted as just a few private and commercial cars plied them. PHOTO: Channels TV • Reps caution against use of force by security agents • Cleric urges dialogue with pro-Biafra agitators The sit-at-home directive issued by agitators in honour of their colleagues killed in the struggle for the realisation of Biafra Republic recorded a huge success in the South East and parts of South South regions yesterday. In Enugu, human, vehicular and economic activities were at a standstill with many residents remaining indoors. The massive compliance with the sit-at-home directive shows the increasing popularity of the quest for Biafra that began 50 years ago. What is needed to stop the agitation is not force that would lead to the loss of more lives and property but the tackling of the injustice and inequality that gave birth to it. Apart from banks and government...

http://ift.tt/2r9BoJS Source: Google • Ambode sees culture, politics as limitation With the drive to make Lagos a ‘Smart’ city now more intense than ever, the state handlers have been urged to push the vision with all enthusiasm and needed policies. According to experts at the International Conference tagged: ‘Towards a Smart City’, as part of the Lagos at 50 celebrations, the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode led regime, which is championing the transformation has been urged to see Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as an integral component of the vision. At the Panel session with a sub-topic: ICT-Making Lagos the Technology Frontier of Africa, moderated by the Founder, MTech, Sheri Williams. The panellists included, the Chief Executive Officer, SystemSpec Limited, John Obaro; Managing Director, Accenture, Niyi Yusuf; Founders of EchoVC Partners and Paga, Eghosa Omoigui and Tayo Oviosu respectively, and canvassed an inclusive development of the state including the hinterla...

http://ift.tt/2pmoRn5 Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose Says his incapacitation is hurting Nigeria Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign from office forthwith to discharge the moral burden, which his perceived incapacitation has placed on him. He said President Buhari has refused to be morally upright and pave way for capable hands to run the affairs of our country, which is daily deteriorating and directionless. Fayose, who spoke at a press conference in Lagos yesterday, said instead of waiting for the ministers and rigours of Section 140 of the Constitution, the President should save Nigerians the anguish, suspense and hardship by resigning on the basis of morality. He noted that virtually all the concerns he raised in 2015 about Buhari are being witnessed on a daily basis in Nigeria, asking rhetorically whether anybody could doubt that President Buhari is severely sick or that the economy is going down. His words: ...

http://ift.tt/2r9TEmp Honorable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu in a handshake with Minister of Energy of Russia, Alexander Novak, at the sideline of the just concluded Organisation Petroleum Exporting meeting in Vienna. Russia’s Energy Minister, Alexander Novak, has unveiled his country’s interest to explore Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, saying that preliminary technical talks will commence as soon as possible between the two countries. He extended an invitation to Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu to visit Russia during the next Gas Exporting Countries Forum Ministerial Meeting, scheduled for October, where further talks on the matter can take place. According to a statement from the Ministry and signed by its Director, Press, Idang Alibi, the minister had approached Novak, to explore areas of mutual interest in their respective petroleum industry. Kachikwu had expressed Nigeria’s interest in havin...

http://ift.tt/2r9Botm Tobacco To prevent millions of people falling ill and dying from tobacco-related disease, several attempts have been made in Nigeria to stop the sales, marketing and consumption of tobacco products. The Lagos State government in 2014 enacted a law banning smoking in public places. The Lagos State House of Assembly on January 21, 2014 passed a bill to prohibit smoking in designated places and vehicles in the state. The law places a fine of N10, 000 or three months imprisonment, or both for first offenders. The law prohibits residents of the state from smoking in public places such as schools, day-care centres, libraries, museums, hospitals, public transportation, restaurants, and public toilets among others. The law also mandates owners of public places to place signs with the inscription; “No Smoking” or symbols as part of enlightenment for smokers and would-be violators of the law. At the national level, the National Tobacco Control Bill, NTCB 2009...

http://ift.tt/2r9TMCp Actors Scott Speedman (L) and Keri Russell attend the star unveiling ceremony for Russell on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, May 30, 2017 in Hollywood, California. Robyn Beck / AFP Actress Keri Russell, best known for her role as a ruthless KGB operative in the long-running series “The Americans,” was honored on Tuesday with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The 41-year-old actress told AFP she was awestruck to receive the 2,613th star on the famous sidewalk alongside other celebrities such as Judy Garland or Marlon Brando. “It’s such an incredible, iconic moment,” she said. A native of California, Russell first garnered attention for her title role in the hit television series “Felicity,” for which she won a Golden Globe Award in 1999. She was again nominated last year — but did not win — for her role in FX’s critically-acclaimed “The Americans,” which is set in the 1980s and follows a husband and wife team of undercover Soviet operatives in the Unit...

http://ift.tt/2qJ1mlG Minister of Women Affairs, Hajia Aisha Alhassan, noted that the girls have spent three years of their lives in captivity as a result of which government is doing everything it can to stabilize them medically and psychologically. Photo Lucy Ladidi Elukpo. • Boko Haram bombed with newly acquired helicopter gunship The Department of State Security (DSS) has handed over the 82 rescued Chibok girls to the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs for onward rehabilitation. At the event in Abuja, Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said that government would do all that is necessary to ensure that the girls are fully rehabilitated. Osinbajo who was represented by Dr. Nicholas Audifferen thanked all the development partners and the government agencies involved in the project. The Director of Medical Services at the DSS, Dr. Anne Okorafor, said that the agency has profiled all the girls medically and had done all the required investigations. She said some of the girls...

http://ift.tt/2rskib9 Chelsea's Italian head coach Antonio Conte kisses the English Premier League trophy, as players celebrate their league title win at the end of the Premier League football match between Chelsea and Sunderland at Stamford Bridge in London on May 21, 2017. Chelsea's extended victory parade reached a climax with the trophy presentation on May 21, 2017 after being crowned Premier League champions with two games to go. Ben STANSALL / AFP Left in the starting blocks by Chelsea’s Antonio Conte this season, the Premier League’s all-star cast of super managers will be desperate to hit the ground running in 2017-18. The 2016-17 title race was billed in some quarters as a shootout between Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United, with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal heading the chasing pack. Instead it was Chelsea who shot to the front, closely pursued by Mauricio Pochettino’s enterprising Tottenham Hotspur, leav...

http://ift.tt/2oxqA7G Justice Walter Onnoghen The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, yesterday declared that the nation’s judiciary is under threat. Justice Onnoghen, who spoke yesterday at a thanksgiving service held at the Methodist Church Nigeria, Abuja Diocese, called on Nigerians to petition any judicial officer involved in corruption or unprofessional conduct in any part of the country, to the National Judicial Council which he heads. While thanking God for seeing him through his delayed emergence as the substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria, he called on Nigerians to pray for the survival of the Judiciary. The CJN in a reaction to a publication in one of the national dailies, where Senator Uche Ekwunife who represented Anambra Central in the Senate, allegedly accused the judiciary of robbing her of her mandate, lamented that Judicial officers in the country today are being castigated and accused of corrupt practices by agents of the federal government...

http://ift.tt/2rGK3C5 Abuja House President Muhammadu Buhari may have been in and out of hospital since arriving London to see his doctors exactly a fortnight ago, if feelers from Abuja House – the official residence of the Nigerian High Commissioner to the Court of St James’s – where he is staying, is anything to go by. But this could not be confirmed as The Guardian has met a wall of silence from sources close to Abuja House, with two of them citing fears of losing their jobs, if they dare say anything. One source kept sealed lips and only took occasional glances at this reporter as he approached him yesterday afternoon. A prominent aide of the president who had in February, walked to this reporter at the entrance of the property and called him “an educated illiterate,” before then saying: “if you want the president dead, you will be disappointed. The president will make a full recovery,” shunned The Guardian when asked for the where about of the president as he was driven out ...

http://ift.tt/2nxTrcB The Senate caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has faulted a statement credited to the Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, that the South East zone was not omitted in the development of some rail lines for which the sum of $5.8 billion loan was taken from China Exim Bank. Spokesman of the Senate PDP caucus, Senator Ehinnanya Abaribe, who had raised a motion on the floor of the Senate last week, about the development, insisted yesterday that Amaechi was trying to divert attention from the issue. Abaribe asked Amaechi to explain why the South-East corridor was scheduled for concessionaires to build while other rail line corridors in other parts of the country would be built with funds borrowed by the Federal Government. Reacting to a press statement issued by the Federal Ministry of Transport that the South East zone was not omitted as alleged by the Senate, as Aba and Onitsha are among towns covered by the coastal railway corridor, Abaribe s...

http://ift.tt/2rGNYP8 The Eyo masquerades at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos. PHOTO: AYODELE ADENIRAN • Two feared dead, several injured at festival Nigerians from all walks of life in their thousands defied the early morning downpour to converge at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Lagos, to celebrate the state’s cultural heritage and welcome the ‘Adamu Orisa’, popularly called Eyo festival on Saturday. It was a huge spectacle of colours, cultural parade, folklores, traditional songs and the endless chant of festival’s standard greetings, ‘Mo yo fun e, mo yo fun ra mi’, meaning ‘I rejoice for you, I rejoice for myself.’ The festival is part of the activities to celebrate Lagos @50 marking 50 years after the state was created from the old Western Region on May 27, 1967 by the then military head of state, Gen. Yakubu Gowon. He appointed Brig.-Gen. Mobolaji Johnson as the first military governor of Lagos. According to age-long legend, the Eyo is used in celebrating the demise ...

http://ift.tt/2q5HkSd Chibok girls / AFP PHOTO / STEFAN HEUNIS The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Minister of Women Affairs have commenced plans to ensure that the abducted Chibok school girls who were released in October 2016 sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) next year to enable them proceed to the university. Already, UNFPA has recruited teachers to fast-track their preparation for the examination. The teachers are being paid by the UN agency. UNFPA Deputy Representative to Nigeria, Eugene Kongnyuy, who disclosed this in an interview with journalists at the weekend in Abuja, stated that some of the girls indicated interest in vocational training. He said such training is being provided so that they can establish businesses or get jobs when they return to their communities. According to him: “The girls were asked questions whether they plan to go back to school or ...

http://ift.tt/2pZ5L2V The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has expressed worry over workers’ high cost of living and the low value of their salaries. The NLC President, Wabba Ayuba, expressed the concern at the weekend in Asaba, in a television programme, “People and Society.” Ayuba said the situation portends a failure of the country’s leadership, saying: “With the high cost of living, inflation and static sundry expenses, the average Nigerian worker is living in constant poverty.” He explained that the situation had created a high cost of education and good healthcare, making the average Nigerian to remain static for years. Ayuba cited Kogi State where workers are being owed 12 months salary, adding that it is criminal for government to owe its workers and expect them to continue to go to work. According to him, the “no work, no pay” policy that government used to apply under such labour disputes might not be relevant in this regard. He condemned the delay in Kogi worke...

http://ift.tt/2nXtSNy House of Representatives Exemption of Customs, others from pensions passes second reading The House of Representatives Committee on Public Procurement yesterday queried the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over the payment of $163.7 million to pre-shipment inspection agents (PIAs) involved in the monitoring of crude oil and gas exports from Nigeria from 2009 to 2014 without the approval of the National Assembly. The committee, led by Mr. Wole Oke, also upbraided the Ministry of Finance for colluding with the CBN in the payment of the aforementioned. The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who testified at the resumed investigative hearing of the committee actually incurred the wrath of the lawmakers after he gave a run down of monies released to the PIAs within the period under the review. Represented by Mr. Gabriel Dauda, the CBN boss informed the lawmakers that as a member of the NESS technical committee, it settled the PIAs’ claims based on the recommendatio...

http://ift.tt/2ojPJPn Both Aliyu and Nasko were alleged to have diverted the money into the account of a private company – D-Sabrin International Limited through the Niger State Commissioner for Environment. Re-arraigns Ajudua The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned former Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, before the Federal High Court, Abuja on eight-count charge bordering on money laundering. Aliyu was docked yesterday alongside his former Chief of Staff and the 2015 governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Umar Nasko, over allegation of conspiracy and diversion of over N1 billion Ecological Fund received from the Federal Government in 2014 on behalf of the state. Both Aliyu and Nasko were alleged to have diverted the money into the account of a private company – D-Sabrin International Limited through the Niger State Commissioner for Environment. However, the defendants have pleaded not guilty to the cha...