Curator

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The Police in Borno on Wednesday confirmed the killing of three suspected female suicide bombers after a failed attack near Maiduguri. Mr Victor Isuku, the spokesman for the command made the confirmation in a statement in Maiduguri. “Today at about 17.55hours, three female suicide bombers, suspected to have been conveyed by motorcycle and dropped at a distance to Mamanti village in Molai area, were sighted and intercepted by vigilant security operatives. “In the process, they hurriedly detonated explosives strapped to their bodies, killing themselves only’’, Isuku said. He said that a team from the Police Explosive Ordinance Department was promptly drafted to the scene to sanitise the area and restore normalcy, adding there was no civilian casualty. The police had confirmed the killing of three suspected suicide bombers after a foiled attack at the University of Maiduguri on May 19. On May 20 confirmed the killing of a suspected  suicide bomber after a f...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The Presidency says the Federal Government will begin the non-graduates scheme component of the N-Power programme in July. Mr  Afolabi Imoukhuede, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation (N-Power Scheme), disclosed this at the Newsmen Forum in Abuja. He said N-Power had two broad components, namely: graduate and non-graduate schemes. “We are hopeful that by June/July we should deploy those ones in different batches across the country and FCT. “So it is worthy of note that those who applied for that programme (non-graduates) should just stay rested. “The fact that we have not deployed you doesn’t mean that we have forgotten you. “We have all your details, we have all your contacts and we will deal with them.’’ Imoukhuede explained that the non-graduate component of the programme was designed to empower the beneficiaries with vocational skills. “The non-graduate component is more of skills development and vocation programme. ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J OPEC and non-OPEC ministers would meet on Wednesday for informal consultations in Vienna in a last-ditch bid to agree the duration of oil output cuts. The ministers would also seek to clear a global stocks overhang that has pulled down the price of crude. Top OPEC oil producer, Saudi Arabia, favours extending the output curbs by nine months rather than the initially planned six months, to speed up market rebalancing and prevent crude prices from sliding back below 50 dollars per barrel. OPEC members Iraq and Algeria as well as top non-OPEC producer Russia also supported a nine-month extension but some Gulf OPEC members, including Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have pointed to a need for further analysis. OPEC would meet formally in Vienna on Thursday to consider whether to prolong the deal reached in December in which OPEC and 11 non-members agreeded to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day in the first half of 2017. A ministerial monitoring co...

http://ift.tt/2pYxMeW Our relationship is with the United States of America and it has great leadership today," Khaled al-Falih, minister of energy, industry and mineral resources, told AFP on the sidelines of summits between Trump and Muslim leaders from around the world. The scandals besetting US President Donald Trump at home have no bearing on an increasingly close relationship with Saudi Arabia, a senior Saudi cabinet minister said on Sunday. “Absolutely not. Our relationship is with the United States of America and it has great leadership today,” Khaled al-Falih, minister of energy, industry and mineral resources, told AFP on the sidelines of summits between Trump and Muslim leaders from around the world. “We are very encouraged by the position the Trump administration has taken.” The past week has seen a string of major developments in Trump’s domestic woes, including the announcement that James Comey, the former FBI chief fired by Trump, has agreed to testify p...

http://ift.tt/2pozlPh Mathew Hassan Kukah The Kukah Centre (TKC) on Saturday revealed it plans to introduce skill acquisition centres in the Northern part of the country for Almajiri children to acquire vocations of their choice. Most Rev. Matthew Kukah, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto made this known during a four day workshop tagged ‘’Interfaith Dialogue and Engagement’’ for Christians and Muslims in Minna. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting, which was attended by Christians and Muslims leaders from Niger, Kano, Gombe and Yobe States was to promote peaceful co-existence among Nigerians. Kukah said that most of the social vices in the society would be reduced when these children are empowered and gainfully engaged. “One of the greatest concerns in Nigeria now is to get the Almajiri children off the streets. “The centre will soon sign a Memoranda of Understanding with a foreign partner to make sure that we get the Almajiri children off the ...

http://ift.tt/2p2zJ7Q President Muhammadu Buhari (C) presenting copies of the 2017 budget documents to the National Assembly on Wednesday, December 14, 2016. The controversial report of the 2017 budget may be laid before the Senate in plenary today, it was learnt yesterday. There were fears of shutdown if the budget was not passed today but Senate sources said that the fears were misplaced. According to the sources, President Muhammadu Buhari still has a window of six months to draw from the 2016 budget if the 2017 budget is not passed and assented to before May 5th, 2017. President Buhari assented to the 2017 budget on May 5th, 2016. The implication is that the 2016 budget has a circle of May 5th, 2016 to May 5th, 2017. Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Mohammed Danjuma Goje, had assured that 2017 budget would be passed before the expiration of the 2016 budget. However, Goje told the Senate last week that police operatives who raided his home on April 2...

http://ift.tt/2p8ZbFx PHOTO:AFP Mozambican opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama on Thursday indefinitely extended a truce he first announced unilaterally in December between his rebel Renamo group and the government. “Today I announce an indefinite truce. It is not the end of the war, but it is the beginning of the end,” Dhlakama, whose Renamo party is the main opposition in Mozambique, told a news conference. “This is great news for the people of Mozambique,” he said speaking from his hideout in central Mozambique at a news conference transmitted to reporters assembled at his party headquarters in the capital Maputo. Dhlakama had retreated in October 2015 to the central Gorongosa mountain range with 800 former fighters demanding a greater share of power. He first declared the ceasefire in December, renewed it twice for two months in January and in March to allow for time for peace negotiations with the government. The negotiations had taken longer than expected, he said. I...