Author: straightnewsng.com

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, Thursday, described as false and baseless report making the rounds that he misrepresented facts by claiming he graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN with a First Class degree. In a statement in Abuja, Director of Press in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Idang Alibi, said at no time did Kachikwu claimed to have graduated with a First Class from the UNN, clarifying that the minister graduated from the school with a ‘Second Class Honours (Upper Division) degree’ from the Faculty of Law of the institution in 1978, and also…

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Thursday, made a dramatic U-turn on his hitherto hardline statement and position to proclaim Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as Nigeria’s President-to-be in the 2019 general elections. Obasanjo had on August 3 told PREMIUM TIMES the former vice president should not count on him for support in his  bid to actualise his life-long ambition of being elected president of Nigeria. After the former president said he would not support President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term, he appeared to be between the devil and the blue deep sea when Atiku emerged as a presidential…

Despite the peace initiative of the Akwa Ibom State government and surrendering of arms, some aggrieved youths in Ukanafun local government area of the state yet to lay down arms are still holding some communities hostage, investigation by Straightnews has shown. The online newspapers discovered that some of the unrepentant youths are adamant in not wanting to surrender their arms to aid the peace initiative while other villages are said to be no-go areas for motorists due to heightened insecurity. The state government through the state police command had initiated rehabilitation and re-integration programme for the aggrieved youths as a…

More than 18 hours since Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation slammed President Muhammadu Buhari and All Progressives Congress, APC with 14 questions, the parties involved are still taking their time to respond. In a statement by Segun Sowunmi, the spokesman of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation,  on Wednesday, the former Vice President observed “It has come to our attention that the Buhari government and the All Progressives Congress have been very idle of late, which explains their abandonment of the vital duties of running the government in order to focus on hurling insults and false accusations on the Presidential candidate of…

As a bill for an Act to Amend Provisions of Electoral Act 2010 scales through a second reading, the Senate, Wednesday, affirmed that persons who contravene the provision of the Act by spending above the stipulated amount on the election of  the presidential, governorship, Senate and other positions risk payment of 1 per cent of the money or be slammed with 12 months jail term. The Act states that election expenses for presidential election should not exceed N5 billion, following amendment of section 91 of 2010 Electoral Act and Amendment. The Senate also said no governorship candidate should during the…

Governors and ministers on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, Wednesday, insisted the removal of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the National Chairman of the party, before the 2019 general elections. Since the conduct of the APC’s primaries, there had been controversies in many states that have pitched the party’s chairman against some governors. This has resulted in the APC governors protesting to President Muhammadu Buhari and holding series of closed-door meeting for his intervention. This is as the APC governors said they were not jittery over the emergence of Atiku Abubakar, former Vice-President, as the main opposition candidate to challenge…

The Federal Government has filed fresh criminal charges against the Deputy Senate President, Dr. Ike Ekweremadu, and the Senator representing Akwa Ibom North East, Albert Bassey Akpan, following alleged failure to declare their assets. In the two sets of charges it lodged before Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, the federal government alleged that the two lawmakers refused to declare their assets in a manner prescribed by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property. Both Ekweremadu and Akpan were slammed with two-count criminal allegations in separate charges marked FHC/ABJ/CR/62/2018 and FHC/ABJ/CR/88/2018, which were okayed by…

The Federal Government, Wednesday, proposed to pay N24,000 new minimum wage, saying states agreed to pay N20,000, against the N30,000 demanded by Labour. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, who stated this while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said N24,000 was what the Minimum Wage Negotiation Tripartite Committee agreed on. And that government would not go beyond that. The Minister said that in the tripartite committee, the Federal Government according to the International Labour Organisation, ILO, is called the…

The Senate, Wednesday, approved N189,207,544,893 for expenditure on the conduct of the 2019 general elections as proposed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in supplementary budget. The Chairman of Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Danjuma Goje, APC, Gombe Central in Abuja, explained that the committee decided to approve N189 billion elections budget for INEC after an exhaustive debate on report of joint committee on INEC and President Buhari’s latest letter. Goje who spoke at a meeting on the submission of harmonised report of INEC 2019 general election supplementary budget estimates of stated that INEC was allocated N143,512,529,455 as recommended…

The House of Representatives has restated its readiness to resist any further attempt to frustrate the enactment of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill. Delivering a speech to mark the resumption of the House from its annual recess at the National Assembly, Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives said failure to do so would be indicative of a desire not to improve on the successes recorded in the 2015 elections. According to him, the passage of the Bill is also important in order to quell fears that some forces intend to manipulate the forthcoming elections by exploiting identified loopholes…