Author: straightnewsng.com

The 92-year-old Central School, Ikot Akpa Nkuk in Ukanafun local government area of Akwa Ibom State is not used to forceful closure except when the school joins state or nationwide strikes or is on holidays. But for the first time in its long existence, the school was closed during the third term of 2016/2017 school year and still remains closed owing to the lingering insecurity that embroiled the area including some communities in Etim Ekpo. Unlike the Central School, other public primary schools mostly in Wards 2 and 3 outside the security prescient of the headquarters were closed right from…

Immediate past National Secretary, Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Ben Obi, has dismissed as unnecessary the brewing tussle for the vice presidential slot of the party, saying the position had been zoned to the South-East. The zoning of VP slot to the South-East, according to Obi, is one of the recommendations of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu’s committee, which had been adopted by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party. After losing the 2015 presidential election to the All Progressives Congress, APC, the first time an incumbent party was losing a presidential election in…

Aggrieved aspirants in the recently concluded primary election of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, have engaged in a last minute rush to beat Tuesday’s deadline for the submission of petitions to the party appeal committee. There had been complaints from nearly all the states on the conduct of the exercise, with many stakeholders saying no election took place in their constituencies. Our online newspapers gathered that the aspirants from more than30 states, including Kogi, Edo, Lagos, Delta, Zamfara and others, were said to have filed their petitions, urging the NWC to reverse the declaration of certain contestants as duly…

President Muhammadu Buhari has written the Senate, seeking approval of the lawmakers to raise $2.78 billion from the International Capital Market as part of funding of the 2018 budget. In a letter dated July 23, and read Tuesday by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Buhari said the sum as approved in the 2018 Appropriation Act, would be used to finance deficits and key infrastructure projects in the 2018 budget. The loan, according to President, will be raised from Eurobonds and other securities in the international capital market. He also asked the lawmakers to approve an external capital sourcing of…

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has warned political parties and their presidential candidates for the 2019 elections against publicly campaigning before November 18. Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, issued the warning on Monday while speaking at a workshop for election professionals from the Commonwealth Africa region. Yakubu said the approved time for campaign, according to the timeline given by INEC and the provisions of the Electoral Act, begins 90 days before the polling day. This, he says, also applies to candidates vying for elective positions in the National Assembly, adding that the campaign for governorship and State House of Assembly…

The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court Tuesday fixed October 23 to hear a suit seeking to invoke an order of mandamus to compel the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to investigate the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole, for allegedly diverting public funds to his personal use. Justice Anwuli Chikere directed that relevant processes in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/628/2018, which was lodged before the court by Edo State based cleric, Bishop Osadolor Ochei, should be served on both EFCC and Oshiomhole, within the next five days. The court made the order after it…

The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, has petitioned the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, adducing reason Justice Binta Nyako should be disqualified from handling 12 consolidated suits that are raising legal issues over his continued stay in office. Magu, in the petition he wrote through his lawyer, Mr. Wahab Shittu, requested that all cases involving the EFCC, which are currently pending before Justice Nyako, should be transferred to another Judge of the high court. He said the application was necessary “to avoid bias and conflict of interest”, saying the EFCC…

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has launched a fierce attack on the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, describing his performance at weekend’s presidential primaries of Peoples Democratic Party PDP as a befitting end to his ambition. The party in a statement by Yekini Nabena, its acting National Publicity Secretary, said with a miserly 317 votes compared to two other leading contenders, PDP delegates had shown that they were now fed up with Saraki’s style of politics. But Saraki in a swift reaction asked the APC and its spokesman to be more concerned with the crisis within the party than pry into…

Oil dropped to about $83 a barrel, Monday, pressured by expectations that some Iranian oil exports will keep flowing after the U.S. reimposed sanctions, easing a strain on supplies. Two companies in India, a big buyer of Iranian oil, have ordered barrels in November, India’s oil minister said Monday. The Trump administration is considering waivers on sanctions, a U.S. government official said on Friday. “One way or another, it looks as though India is going to take some Iranian crude,” said Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix, adding that the development was helping oil to “retrace some of the price surge we…

Negotiations by the Tripartite Committee on a new National Minimum Wage have run into a stalemate, following the federal government’s stance that it cannot afford more than N25,000 per month. But Organised Labour and Organised Private Sector, OPS, have agreed on a N30,000 minimum wage per month. This is even as Ayuba Wabba, President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, told newsmen in Abuja yesterday that the Tripartite Committee has completed its assignment for onward submission to President Muhammadu Buhari. When the tripartite committee resumed sitting last Thursday, the Federal Government shocked other social partners with its presentation of N21,700. Recall…