Curator

http://ift.tt/2qGH7n3 He will succeed Fiji's former ambassador to the United Nations, Peter Thomson, in September and chair the assembly's 72nd session that month. The post lasts a year.<br /> The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday picked Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak to be its next president. He will succeed Fiji’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Peter Thomson, in September and chair the assembly’s 72nd session that month. The post lasts a year. The sole candidate for the position, Lajcak was elected by an overwhelming majority. He will be the first Slovak in the job. Under the current rotation system, regional groups in the assembly put forward consensus candidates for president. Addressing the assembly, the 52-year-old career diplomat set out a series of priorities, including “preventive diplomacy,” responding to the global migrant crisis, defending human rights and reducing inequality. “We can do more to bring the UN closer t...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Former president Goodluck Jonathan has reacted to a statement credited to Kaduna State governor Malam Nasir El-Rufai where he said ‘”What President Goodluck Jonathan did was to take N2bn each from the Ecological Fund and gave to some PDP states. Any PDP state that was not his friend, like Kano and Kwara, didn’t get.” A statement released by Ikechukwu Eze, Media Adviser to Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, titled “ON EL-RUFAI’S LIES AGAINST JONATHAN ON THE SHARING OF THE ECOLOGICAL FUND” reads: “That Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State has an incurable knack for lying has been proven by his own boss, Former President Olusegun Obasanjo who described El-Rufai in his book-My Watch Volume 2 as follows: “Nasir’s penchant for reputation savaging is almost pathological. Why does he do it? He is brilliant and smart. I grant him that also. Very early in my interaction with him, I appreciated his talent and brilliance. At the same time, I recognised his weaknesse...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State on Friday said that his administration  attracted investment  worth $65 million to the state within four years. He made the disclosure on Friday while unveiling the Transformation Industrial Park Project on  the Ibadan-Lagos Expressway. The governor unveiled the industrial park and flagged off the Phase 1 of the Polaris Pacesetter Free Trade Zone as part of activities marking his administration’s sixth year anniversary. The industrial park has 162 plots of land, with  the Free Trade Zone  located on 4,000 hectares of land. “From the National Bureau of Statistics figures on Foreign Direct Investment inflow into Nigeria over the period between 2011 and 2015,  Oyo State attracted a total of $64.8 million investment. “This places the state second only to Lagos State in the South West,’’ the governor  said. Ajimobi said  his administration also  attracted 34 new companies, while two othe...

http://ift.tt/2pLztez Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided at the plenary, said the senate ought to be commended for blowing whistle into the fraud in the Customs Service. The Senate on Thursday expanded its panel currently investigating alleged N30 trillion revenue leakage in the Nigeria Customs Service following revelation of more leakages. This followed a “Point of Order’’ raised by the Chairman, Committee on Customs Excise and Tariff, Sen. Hope Uzodinma, at plenary. The chamber also mandated the Committee on Marine Transport to collaborate with the committee on Customs, in the probe in view of more revelations emanating from the exercise. Uzodinma, who was made chairman of the joint committee, cited Order 42 and Order 52, and said that the committee discovered more startling discoveries beyond the N30 trillion currently being investigated. According to him, the committee requires more hands in the investigation as it discovered that beyond forei...

http://ift.tt/2qwfAZv PDP National Secretariat, Abuja The Supreme Court on Thursday fixed May 25 to hear application for the withdrawal of appeal filed against the National Chairman of the PDP, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff. Sen. Ahmed Makarfi, Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of PDP, had approached the apex court to challenge the affirmation of Sheriff as National Chairman of the party. Justice Dattijo Mohammed fixed the date after counsel to parties regularised their various court processes. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the two factions have laid claims to the national leadership of the party. The tussle later took parties to the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division where Sheriff was affirmed as the authentic national chairman of the party. Dissatisfied with the appellate court’s decision, Makarfi-led faction approached the apex court seeking the upturning of the decision of the lower court. However, Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), counsel to the f...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Gov. Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa on Tuesday hailed the Federal Government’s decision to set up modular refineries in each oil-producing state. Dickson disclosed this at the Subsea Nations and Africa Oil and Gas Investment Forum, a side event at the ongoing annual Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston-Texas, U.S. According to him, it is brilliant idea that will not only create more jobs but increase the economic fortunes of Nigeria and Bayelsa will lead the way to invest in refineries in its three senatorial zones. The governor assured that the modular refineries, when fully on stream, would also curb the illegal refining of petroleum products that pervaded the region for years and reduce casualties associated with such risk. He said that because of the laudable initiative, his government had fully embraced it by setting up a company, Bayelsa Petrochemical and Refinery Company Limited, to partner with willing investors to ensure that the refineries are...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, has described security votes as the biggest source of waste in the country and asked that governors be made to account for them. Obi, who also described security votes as unconstitutional, spoke at The Platform, a programme organised by Covenant Christian Centre, Lagos. //storify.com/Adekunle2/security-vote-is-our-biggest-source-of-waste-obi/embed?border=false //storify.com/Adekunle2/security-vote-is-our-biggest-source-of-waste-obi.js?border=false [ View the story “Security vote is our biggest source of WASTE – Obi ” on Storify ] The former governor said: “Let me tell Nigerians; there is nothing in our constitution called security votes. Anybody who tells you that is lying. It is a terminology that was formulated over the years from one thing or the other. What we have is contingency fund. “I can say today that it is being abused, it has become our biggest source of waste. Security vote is not supposed to be mo...