Author: Our Reporter

A 21-storey skyscraper, a 10,000-sitting capacity Cathedral and completion of the second Runway at Ibom International Airport are some of the major highlights of Akwa Ibom State government 2018 budget. Presenting a budgetary outlay of N651.500 billion for 2018 financial year Friday to Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly for approval, Governor Udom Emmanuel stated that the scrapper to be built by Julius Berger Nigeria Plc would be sited at old Uyo main market and the cathedral, the first of its kind would be built in Uyo. Emmanuel said the government would complete the 35 kilometres super highway in Ibaka,…

The Green Chamber of Nigeria’s bicameral Parliament is spoiling for a war with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over another cycle Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) of a seeming conduit pipes, the country’s refineries. The national oil corporation is proposing to blow up some $2.00 billion, around N740 billion on the refineries. The obviously pro-citizens House of Representatives does not appear to be in the mood to sail along with the NNPC on what is fast becoming a TAM bazaar. Management of the NNPC is having an herculean task of convincing the legislators why the huge sum should be approved by…

The late Pilot Adanu Ochai who got posthumous promotion as Air Commodore was one of the 50 senior officers promoted to the next ranks in the Nigerian Air Force (NAF). A press release issued by Bassey Okon, Wing Commander for Director of Public Relations and Information says the Air Council has approved promotion of the officers comprising 22 air commodores and 28 group captains. Those elevated to the rank of Air Vice Marshal include the Director of Public Relations and Information, Headquarters NAF (HQ NAF), Olatokunbo Adesanya; Principal Director, Air Force Research and Development Center, Kaduna, Paul Jemitola; and Senior…

Nigerian politicians who defect with a wave of hand to other political parties are not politicians but opportunists and adventurists, Emmanuel Enoidem, a one-time Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development declared. Enoidem, who was speaking on Planet 101.1 FM, Uyo Tuesday in a programme tagged: Akwa Ibom Mandate, queried “Yes, I asked Senator Ita Enang, now (Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly- Senate) if Peoples Democratic Party had won election in 2015, would you have the opportunity to move to another party? “Those who cross from PDP to APC are opportunists. They are adventurists- those…

Zimbabweans leapt into ecstatic cheers and frenzied dancing accompanied by car horns’ honking as the news on the resignation of Robert Mugabe as Zimbabwe’s president filled the air on Tuesday, after his 37-year reign of autocratic power truncated by military take-over. The bombshell announcement was made by the Speaker at a special joint session of parliament which had convened to impeach the 93-year-old who has dominated every aspect of Zimbabwean public life for decades. “I Robert Gabriel Mugabe in terms of section 96 of the constitution of Zimbabwe hereby formally tender my resignation… with immediate effect,” said the letter which…

The Office of Head of Service of the Federation is said to have allegedly stolen and laundered pensions totalling N14,374,236,846.09 from 2008 to 2013. A breakdown of the stolen pension scheme and the modus operandi showed: Fictitious contracts- N5,761,150,608.44; Ghost Pensioners- N829,902,260.40; Collective Allowances- N1,365,821,942.91; Payments to States Pension Boards & others- N4,192,825,310; National Union of Pensioners- N2,290,593,322 and Association of Federal Civil Service Retirees- N253,390,300. Abubakar Malami, Attorney General of the Federation, who last week appeared before the Senate Committee on Public Service and Establishment, said “The Office of the Head of Service of the Federation as at 2014…

Second Republic vice president, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, died Monday in a London Hospital. The death of the elder statesman’s death was contained in a statement issued by the Ekwueme family of Oko, in Anambra State. The statement, signed by the former vice president’s brother, and the traditional ruler of Oko in Anambra State, Igwe Laz Ekwueme, stated that he passed on around 10 p.m. on Sunday, in a London hospital. The statement read, “Ekwueme family regrets to announce the peaceful passing away of their patriarch, the former Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, GCON. “The sad event…

A 50-year-old man from Ogun State, who specialized in defrauding bank customers through recharge call credit worth N400,000, has been arrested and quizzed by the operatives of Rapid Response Squad of Lagos State Police Command. The suspect, Ebenezer Oyeneye, who is a self-acclaimed patron of a popular Pentecostal church in Otta and a truck driver, resides at 4, Moyinoluwa Avenue, Ijoko Lemode, Ogun State. A woman who preferred anonymity reported to Aguda Divisional headquarters, Surulere that an unknown person had been recharging his phone through call credit from her bank account in a new generation commercial bank since July 2016.…

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporatio (NNPC) and Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) have sealed a $1.7 billion Alternative Financing Agreement on the second and final phases of the project meant to increase crude oil production in the country by about 39,000 barrels per day. The agreement, signed in London at the weekend, is also expected to achieve an incremental peak production of about 283mmscfd of gas. Dr. Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director of NNPC, who signed for the corporation, said the increment to be achieved by the agreement would spread “over the remaining life of the asset, until 2045.” Baru stated that…

Nigeria Police have recorded a major breakthrough by using forensic science to arrest the suspected killer of a 40-yeaar-old staff of Shell Petroleum Development Company, Port Harcourt. Mr. Cletus Onyekwele was recently brutally killed in his office, Port Harcourt. Mr. Zaki Ahmed, Commissioner of Police in Rivers state, who stated this weekend in Port Harcourt, said the Police relied on DNA samples and pieces of evidence to arrest one of the alleged killers, Mr. Kingsley Nwankwor who worked in the same Shell premises with the deceased. Ahmed said the alleged murderer had led the police to arrest his alleged accomplice,…