Buhari approves 65 licences for private refineries

 

President Muhammadu Buhari has granted licences to 65 Nigerian companies to construct modular refineries.
The companies were selected from about 285 applications that were screened for the purpose.

How Banks, Govt Officials Aided Marketers for missing Subsidy Billion

    Impunity twerked Unclad at the market square. It is still not done twerking.Thousands of forged documents , outlandish fairy tales, pervasive conscience searing mendacity .

The whole of an annual capital budget plundered by a few. Noises were made, scapegoats whipped out and paraded in courts, backdoor negotiations were held at night. Many made away with their loot ,smiling and twerking or rather gyrating.

Benue Senate Court Battle: Senator David Mark’s Witnesses Disappear

  Former Senate President David Mark reps Benue South Senatorial district at the Senate 

 Three of the eight witnesses called by David Mark in defence of the petition against him by Daniel Onjeh of the APC at the National Assembly Elections Tribunal, did not testify as they were not seen when called.

Pirates Attack Boat, Abduct 2 Monarchs, 1 Security Escort In Bayelsa

Yenagoa, Aug. 27, 2015 (NAN) Unidentified gunmen suspected to be sea pirates on Wednesday, attacked two passenger boats and kidnapped three persons along the Ogbia to Brass waterways in Bayelsa.
Asinim Butswat, Police Spokesman for Bayelsa Command, confirmed the development on Thursday but said that details were still sketchy,
“I am waiting for details.”, Butwat said.

ABUJA—The verbal war  between the former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe and Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, Wednesday, worsened with the ex-minister calling Oshiomhole a ‘garage boy,’ vowing to expose his dubious deeds against Nigerians.
Orubebe, who reacted to Oshiomhole’s response to his (Orubebe’s) earlier remarks on him, said that Oshiomhole’s attempt to link his critical advice to President Muhammadu Buhari to be wary of popular ‘Villa sycophants’ to his fears of a possible probe in connection with the East- West Road project shows he was indeed a garage boy who lacks focus.
Orubebe who described the governor’s insinuation as laughable, maintained that the Edo governor had failed to address the issue of sycophancy which he accused him of.
He said that Oshiomhole was suffering from chronic diarrhoea of the mouth, which explains why he has lately been misleading Nigerians, adding that his illiteracy was beyond human comprehension.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/08/you-are-a-garage-boy-orubebe-attacks-oshiomhole-again/#sthash.dqprIw1g.dpuf

Agip, Arco gas contract crisis deepens over $77m price variation

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited (NAOCL), Mr. Insula Massimo.

THE last may not have been heard about the controversies surrounding the multi-billion dollar contract for the maintenance of Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC’s OBOB/Kwale/Ebocha gas plant.
Indeed, Agip and the indigenous oil service company, Arco Petrochemical Engineering Company Plc, among others, have continued to lock horns on the need to follow due process in the approval of the contract, while the cost of the project remains a bone of contention.

Dozens found dead on refugee boats off Libya

Rescuers have saved about 3,000 refugees but found more than 50 dead on boats near the coast of Libya, according to the Italian coastguard.
At least 55 bodies were discovered on Wednesday on three overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean Sea, the coastguard said.

Again, Okagbare fails on the big stage

False dawn… Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteguonor (right) beat Australia’s Melissa Breen and other challengers in the heat of the 100m women race before yesterday’s final in which she placed last. PHOTO: AFP.

• African champion comes last in women 100m
As it has always been the case in major championships where much is expected of the Nigerian champion, Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteguonor once again failed to rise to the occasion at the on-going IAAF Athletics World Championship at the Bird Nest Stadium, Beijing, China.

Arik crew member arrested in UK over banned substance

An Arik Air cabin crew member as on Monday night arrested at Heathrow Airport London by the UK Border Force in connection with alleged possession of items suspected to be banned substances.
PM News could not officially ascertain the nature of the ban substance or the name of the crew member but unconfirmed source said the crew member was caught with cocaine.

Ikorodu Robbery Suspects Want N5m From Police For 'Damages'

In a rather unfortunate twist of fate, the four suspects alleged to have carried out bank robbery operations in Ikorodu, Lagos state, are demanding N5million from the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase.

The suspects, who were paraded at the Lagos state police command, Ikeja on July 6, in connection with the much-publicised robbery incident in Ikorodu, were said to have dragged Arase before a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, with the allegation that their confessional statements given out to journalists, were extracted from them behind their lawyer.

Dasuki charged with illegal arms possession

•‘Ex-NSA held firearms without licence’
The immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki, was on Monday charged to court by the Department of State Services (DSS).
A statement yesterday by the Acting spokesman of the DSS, Tony Opuiyo, said Dasuki was charged to court based on evidence relating to possession of firearms without licence.
According to the statement, the offence is punishable under Section 27(i) (a) (i) of the Firearms Act Cap F28LFN 2004.

Why Nigeria issued wanted Lebanese terrorist, Al-Assir, visa — Official

Ahmad Al-Assir

Radical Lebanese Islamic cleric, Ahmad Al-Assir, who was arrested last week as he attempted traveling to Nigeria, got an entry visa into Nigeria because the country’s embassies do not capture applicants’ biometric data, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has told PREMIUM TIMES.
Biometrics cover a variety of unique identifiable attributes of people including fingerprint, iris print, hand, face, voice, gait or signatures, and are used for identification and authentication.
The foreign affairs official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said with the surge of security breaches and religious fundamentalism, biometric capturing has become a norm yet, Nigeria, currently battling Boko Haram insurgency, has failed to utilise the technology.

UN sponsors 500 Boko Haram victims to acquire vocational skills

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

The United Nations said on Monday in Abuja that it has sponsored 500 victims of Boko Haram violence from three North East states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe to acquire vocational skills.
Mr Matthew Alao, UN Conflict Prevention and Peace Building Analyst, told NAN that the programme was under the UNDP Livelihood Support Scheme for the zone.

Buhari should send all corrupt persons to jail – Sultan of Sokoto

Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar has advised President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria to prosecute all those found guilty of corruption.He said this at National Security Conference on: Community Partnership Approach to Internal Security and Crime Management organised by Police and Sun newspapers, in Abuja.

Buhari Forced Governors To Cut Use Of Private Jets

Since the inauguration of Muhammadu Buhari as president in May 2015, the jet charter business has been seriously hit in Nigeria

Nigerian governors who preferred expensive local and foreign trips on luxury private jets may finally be cutting their coat according to their cloth.

Immigration boss in trouble over visa to ISIS chief

Chieftain of the Islamic State IS, Ahmed Al Assir

Following reports that a chieftain of the Islamic State IS, Ahmed Al Assir, was granted a Nigerian visa in Lebanon, the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, David Parradang, may have fallen into troubled waters.
Al Assir was arrested by Lebanese authorities on Saturday as he attempted to fly out of the country on a forged passport.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that Al Assir was caught at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport while trying to board a flight to Egypt using a fake Palestinian passport.
Lebanon’s general security directorate said Al Assir was planning on flying to Nigeria via Cairo.
A photo posted by the National News Agency after the arrest revealed that Al Assir had recently adopted a new look, shaving his long, unkempt beard and trading his usual religious robes and headwear for a more inconspicuous jacket and sweater.

North-South Korea Tension A 'Dangerous Game

 

This isn't the first time the North has threatened war against the South, but the US, Japan and the UN are all concerned.

The exchange of fire across the border is more unusual, but it is not unprecedented.
Last October, North Korean troops fired towards areas where propaganda leaflets on balloons had been launched.
South Korea returned fire, but no casualties were reported on either side.
On 4 August, two South Korean soldiers were badly injured by landmines on what they said was a regular patrol route in the DMZ - Demilitarized Zone, the 4km-wide buffer zone between the two Koreas. The South blamed the North for planting the mines. The North denied it, and demanded video evidence.

Youths threaten to shut down NDDC over N1.05b contract

Hundreds of aggrieved youths from coastal communities in the nine states of the Niger Delta region on Friday threatened to shut down the Port Harcourt office of the Niger Delta Development Commission. The angry youths said they would shut down the office to protest the commission’s refusal to release the balance payment of N1.05billion contract for clearing of water hyacinth along the creeks and waterways in the region.
The youths said they completed the job of clearing hyacinth along the coastline and creeks but wondered why NDDC officials continued to withhold their payment.

WAEC provided data on Chibok girls

The Head of the Nigeria National office of the West African Examination Council (WAEC), Mr. Charles Eguridu, on Friday revealed that council gave the Federal Government data of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls.
Over 200 students of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, were abducted by Boko Haram insurgents on April 14 last year.

Speaking with the Education Correspondent Association of Nigeria (ECAN) in Abuja on recent development in the Council, Eguridu said security agencies and the Ministry of Education could not provide for the government the data on the abducted girls.

The Supreme Court of Senegal on Thursday rejected an appeal filed by the lawyer representing Karim Wade, son of former Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade.
The verdict means he will serve out his six-year prison sentence on corruption charges also dashing the opposition’s hopes that Wade could be able to run in the presidential election in 2017.
Wade in March was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of 138 million CFA francs (24 million dollars).

Idris Wada

Following its dissatisfaction with the level of implementation of the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) by majority of the electricity distribution companies (Discos) in Nigeria, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) yesterday said it would commence enforcement action against eight Discos for non-compliance with terms in the CAPMI initiative.

NERC in a statement from its head of public affairs, Dr. Usman Arabi, said it had issued to the Discos a seven-day ultimatum to show cause why punitive actions should not be taken and sanction meted on them for non-compliance with the CAPMI.

We’re ready for war – North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his frontline troops to be ready for war, against a backdrop of rising military tensions between his country and South Korea.

The announcement follows an exchange of artillery shells across the two countries’ heavily fortified border.

Carter begins radiation treatments for tumours

Former US President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday said that recent liver surgery had shown he has cancer. Photo credit nypost

US ex-president Jimmy Carter said on Thursday that he is beginning treatments for cancer immediately.
The 90-year-old, who was president from 1977 to 1981, said that doctors had found a tumour on his liver that proved to be melanoma, which is typically a skin cancer.

I left N10bn for my successor —Amaechi

 

 PORT HARCOURT—Former Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi has said he left a balance of between eight to ten billion naira for his successor, Governor Nyesom Wike.

In a statement from his from his media office yesterday, the former governor denied that he handed over an empty treasury to his successor.