Author: straightnewsng.com

With less than 24 hours to its national elective convention, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said it has uncovered a plot by the federal government and ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to disrupt the exercise. Spokesman of the party, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, who disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja Thursday, said: “There are plots by the ruling party to disrupt our national convention. ”We are aware of the machinations of the ruling party who are afraid of the election to halt the efforts of the opposition to elect a candidate to go into a contest with President Muhammadu…

Africa loses about $80 billion to illicit financial outflows annually, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, said. This is even as President Muhammadu Buhari said his administration was committed to fight corruption frontally since it was one of the cardinal points that made people vote for him. Mbeki, currently chairman of African Union High Level Panel on Illicit Flows from Africa, told Buhari on Thursday, said corruption was an African challenge that must be responded. Mbeki, who was at the State House, Presidential Villa, Abuja to brief President Buhari on critical updates on illicit flows on the continent, stated “Development…

Insurgency challenge and high birth rate in the North East are said to be increasing the number of out-of school children in Nigeria, the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, has said. The commission said a recent Demography Health Survey, DHS, undertaken by the Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, UNICEF, showed that the number of out-of-school children rose from 10.5 million to 13.2 million within three years. Executive Secretary of UBEC, Hamid Bobboyi, who said this at a pre-conference briefing on Northern Nigeria Traditional Rulers Conference on out-of-school children Thursday, said government…

The anti-smuggling unit of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, the Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A, has recovered about N220 billion being debt notes issued to importers and their agents who under-declared their consignments. It further impounded 22 exotic vehicles and other contraband items with Duty Paid Value, DPV, of N2.017 billion in one month. Stating this in Lagos, Aliyu Mohammed, Customs Area Controller, CAC, said apart from the 22 exotic vehicles which include nine bullet proof cars, other seized items were11, 303 bags of rice (19 trailer loads), 2,410 frozen poultry products and 853 Jerry can of vegetable oil.…

The National Judicial Council, NJC, Thursday, recommended the dismissal of  two judges for their alleged involvement in corrupt charges. At the end of its 87th Meeting on Wednesday, the council found merit in two different petitions that were lodged against Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court in Lagos and Justice James T. Agbadu-Fishim of the National Industrial Court, NIC, from the Bench by the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu. The NJC, in a statement that was signed by its Director of Information, Mr. Soji Oye, said it has equally constituted…

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Thursday said its earnings from crude oil and gas export appreciated by 35.78 per cent to $416.07 million in June 2018. In a statement on its Financial and Operations Report for June 2018, the NNPC stated that crude oil export sales contributed $274.95 million which translates to 66.08 per cent of the dollar transactions compared with $244.72 million contribution in the previous month. The NNPC, however, noted that export gas sales for the month stood at $141.12 million, while a total of 211.51billion cubic feet, BCF, of natural gas was produced in the month under…

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has said investments into the telecoms sector now grow at about $5 billion every quarter. Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta, who stated this at the ongoing 2018 NCC Day, at Abuja International trade Fair in Abuja Wednesday, said the sector’s contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, rose to 10.5 percent as at June 2018, from the initial 9.1 percent in 2016 and that at the end of August this year there were over 160.8 million active voice subscribers with over 104 million being used to access Internet services. Dambatta, who…

The recent reduction in the level of the nation’s foreign reserves has nothing to do with on-going political activities, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has said. Director of Corporate Communications, CBN, Isaac Okorafor, who stated this Wednesday, attributed the reduction to what he described as “global squeeze on emerging markets, which was consequent upon increasing interest rates in the United States of America”. Okorafor, who spoke at the on-going 2018 Abuja International Trade Fair, said at the current level of $44 billion, the foreign reserve was capable of financing between 14 and 17 months imports, far above internationally acceptable…

The World Bank has cut its forecast for growth of sub-Saharan Africa in 2018 to 2.7 per cent, down from an earlier one of 3.1 per cent, partly due to less favourable external environment for the region. The lender said in its October 2018 issue of Africa’s Pulse, the bi-annual analysis of the state of African economies, said its 2018 projection represented a slight increase from 2.3 per cent in 2017. “The slower pace of the recovery in sub-Saharan Africa (0.4 percentage points lower than the April forecast) is explained by the sluggish expansion in the region’s three largest economies,…

Eight months after the abduction of Leah Sharibu, President Muhammadu Buhari, Wednesday, assured Leah’s mother that his administration was making frantic efforts to bring her daughter back from the den of her captors. This is even at the faction of Boko Haram resurgents who captured Leah, Dapchi Secondary school girl threatened to kill her this October if Federal Government does not negotiate for her release. Speaking on phone with Mrs. Rebecca Sharibu, mother of Leah, Buhari assured her that his administration will do everything within its powers to bring her daughter back home. During the conversation Buhari was quoted to…