Author: straightnewsng.com

The Akwa Ibom North West Petition Tribunal in Uyo has fixed June 10 to commence trial on petitions filed by Senator Godswill Akpabio seeking to invalidate Engr. Christopher Ekpenyong as legitimate winner of the February 23 senatorial elections. The tribunal concluded its pre-hearing session last Friday. The session, which afforded the tribunal opportunity to meet the parties with a view of setting up modalities to be adopted in the actual hearing of substantive issues in dispute. Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Robert Egwono Emukpoeruo SAN, submitted to the tribunal Schedules of Electoral Forms and INEC Adhoc Staff.…

By Gab Efo Since the beginning of the fourth Republic on May 29, 1999, the politics of Zamfara State, Nigeria’s North West, has largely been dominated by Alhaji Ahmad Rufai Sani, the Yariman Bakura. A former staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria who was elected as the first civilian executive Governor of the state under the platform of the defunct All Peoples Party, APP, from 1999 to 2007. He served two terms and at the end of his second term nominated and sponsored his deputy, Alhaji Maimuda Shinning to succeed him under the slogan “Dan giwa, giwa ne” meaning…

Akwa Ibom State has grabbed the fifth position among the front runners in the highly indebted states in Nigeria for the external debt stock in 2018 with N215.099 billion, according to latest report by Economic Confidential. The report further shows that Lagos ranked first has N513,514,416,769.20 as external debt and N 530,243,773,934.40 as domestic debt, bringing the total debt to N1,043,758,190,703.60. According to Economic Confidential researchers on the Annual High Indebted States (AHIS) on External and Domestic Debts as of 2018, “the amount owed by Lagos State represents about twenty (20) percent of the total debts owed by the 36…

Ahead of the inauguration of the 9th National Assembly and election of presiding officers, the Senate Caucus of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Sunday, denied insinuations that the Deputy Senate President position was being offered members of the party in the Senate. According to PDP senators, no meeting was held to cede the Deputy Senate President’s position to the party. Speaking with Vanguard Sunday, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South), spokesperson of the Senate Caucus of PDP, said the caucus was together and would work in unison. Abaribe said nothing was wrong with the PDP senators supporting some of the aspirants to the…

Catholic bishops Sunday in Lagos were all unanimous in their call on the Federal Government for an urgent intervention to resolve the mounting insecurity in the country. The Catholic bishops, including the current president of Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, CBCN, Most Rev. Augustine Akubeze and two former presidents, Anthony Cardinal Okogie and Coadjutor Archbishop of Abuja, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, decried the seeming inability of the Federal Government to arrest the insecurity in the country for the peace, unity and development of the nation. The bishops who were in Lagos for the 60th birthday Thanksgiving service of the Catholic…

The nation’s power losses have risen to N135 billion in the first quarter of 2019, indicating an increase of 17 per cent against N112.3 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2018. The compilation of data obtained by Vanguard from Power Advisory Team, office of Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, showed that insufficient gas supply, distribution infrastructure and transmission facilities were the major constraints responsible for the loses. A breakdown showed that in the first quarter of 2019, the sector lost N41.4 billion, N44.4 billion and N49.4 billion in January, February and March respectively, against N40.4, N35.5, and N36.4 billion…

Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, has admitted that the fear of Islamisation of the country is real as the constitution laid foundation for it, calling for an urgent review of the country’s constitution. The constitution, according to CAN, gives certain privileges to the Islamic religion, ahead of others. The group said fundamental errors in the constitution were uncalled for and must be corrected in the spirit of equity and fairness, insisting equal treatment of all Nigerians. It cautioned groups within Christendom to desist from misinforming the people ahead of its Presidential election and advised them to resort to CAN constitution…

Andy Ruiz Jr sprung one of the biggest shocks in heavyweight championship history on Saturday night when he spoiled Anthony Joshua’s US debut with a seventh-round technical knockout at Madison Square Garden. The unheralded 29-year-old from southern California, a replacement opponent dialled in on five weeks’ notice who went off as a 11-1 underdog, came off the floor in the third round to drop Joshua twice before the end of the frame, then sent the undefeated champion crashing to the canvas for a third and fourth time in the seventh round before referee Mike Griffin put a stop to the…

Contract, awarded by Nigeria and Ghana to a Chinese construction conglomerate for the building of rail lines at $2 billion, shows the former with what looks like ‘inflated’ kilometres while the latter has less kilometres for the same job has raised serious concerns in different quarters, findings by Straightnews have shown. Findings show that in 2016, Nigeria and CCECC, a subsidiary of China Railways Construction Corporation (CRCC), signed a $2 billion agreement to build a 156-kilometre railway line between Lagos and Ibadan, whose ground breaking ceremony finally took place in March 2017. Pundits reason that Nigeria and Ghana have the…

Mohamed Salah scored one of the fastest ever goals in a Champions League final and Divock Origi struck late as Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 in Madrid on Saturday and won the trophy for the sixth time. Less than two minutes had been played when Salah smashed in his spot-kick after Moussa Sissoko had been penalised for handball in the area. A disappointing final never truly got going after that, but Liverpool will not care, as they saw Alisson Becker make several confident saves in the latter stages before substitute Origi drilled in the killer second in the 87th minute.…