Author: straightnewsng.com

Arrangements have been finalised to establish delivery units in six ministries to tackle the challenges faced by investors in the effective implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP, of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, stated this while briefing State House correspondents after the meeting of the ERGP Central Steering Committee presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Monday. Udoma stated that the Delivery Units would be set up in the agriculture, transportation, industry, trade and investment, mines and steel development and power works and housing ministries. He said,…

The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, said Monday that localised trippings in networks of electricity Distribution Companies, DISCOs, was not its responsibility. TCN, which made this clarification, while specifically reacting to allegation raised by the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC, to the extent that its network experienced over 2,000 tripping between January and July 2018 owing to unstable National Grid. General Manager, Public Affairs, at TCN, Ndidi Mbah, noted that the alleged statement was entirely clearly misleading and should be ignored. Mbah said, “Because in the subsequent part of the same report, BEDC claimed significant improvement in its services which could…

The All Progressives Congress, APC, said Monday that Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, would not pass integrity test to contest the 2019 presidential election because of the litany of corruption allegations against him. The party’s reaction came against the backdrop of reports that the Senate president was nursing presidential ambition in 2019. Saraki had told Bloomberg, an international news organisation, in an interview that he would take a shot at the presidential election next year. But the ruling party in a statement signed by the spokesman, Yekini Nabena, said, “Saraki’s declaration brings to the fore our earlier call to anti-graft…

No fewer than 19 persons were on Sunday killed at Malari village, Borno State by Boko Haram insurgents. An aid worker at a camp for Internally Displaced Persons, IDP, in Monguno, a town in Borno, said hundreds of survivors from villages in the area have fled to the IDP camp. This is even as the Army denied reports that 50 soldiers were lost to Boko Haram insurgents. Abatcha Umar, a witness, who noted that the attack took place in the early hours of Sunday, said he counted 19 bodies, including that of his younger brother. He added that the militants were…

Worried by the precaurious situation, President Muhammadu Buhari, Monday, directed security heads in the country to step up their game to ensure safety in all nooks and crannies. This is even as the Federal Government described the security situation in the North East geopolitical zone of the country as worrisome. Buhari had presided over security meeting held behind closed-doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, which had all security heads in attendance, including the new Acting Director-General of Department of State Services, DSS, Matthew Seiyefa, which was his first meeting with the President. Speaking to State House correspondents after the meeting,…

The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court Monday restrained the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, from conducting further investigations into the finances of Benue State. The court directed the anti-agency to suspend action pending the determination of the suit that was lodged before it by the Benue State Government. Justice Nnamdi Dimgba who sat as a vacation Judge, gave the preservative order on a day EFCC honoured summon the court issued to it on August 9, following allegation that it froze Benue State accounts. Recall that the former vacation Judge, Justice Babatunde Quadri, had after he listened to…

 President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to jail more of those who brought the nation into its present economic situation. Buhari who stated this on Saturday at the Aso Villa in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, said “We are going to jail more of the thieves, you know, that brought the economic problem to the country. I think this is really expected of me and I will do it.” He spoke in an interview shortly after he returned to the country from his 10-day vacation in London. The remarks were part of the Federal Government’s anti-corruption drive and in line with…

‘’I have not taken my bath, shaven nor trimmed my hair since I was taken and this is the only clothes that I put since I was captured,’’ says a freed official of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC abducted more than two months ago in Akwa Ibom community. Otobong Sylvester Ukpong, the INEC official seized on June 5, 2018 was said to have been blindfolded and taken by two gunmen on motorbikes into an untended bush in Ikot Akpan Eyara in Ukanafun local government area. Narrating his ordeals in the hands of his abductors, Ukpong kidnapped while he was going…

Racket-smashing Novak Djokovic closed in on the one title that has eluded him, reaching the final of the Western & Southern Open on Saturday with a three-set victory over Marin Cilic. His 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win moved him one victory away from the only ATP Masters 1000 title he’s never claimed. Djokovic is trying to become the first to win all nine events since the series started in 1990. One big hurdle: a rematch with Roger Federer, who defeated David Goffin in the other semifinal. Federer has won an unprecedented seven Cincinnati titles, beating Djokovic three times in championship matches.…

Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo, Saturday, declared a one-week mourning to pay homage to former UN Secretary-General and Nobel laureate, Kofi Annan. In a statement, Akuffo-Addo described Annan as a “consummate” diplomat, and noted that Ghana was “deeply saddened” by news of his death in Switzerland on Saturday after a short illness. Born in Kumasi, the capital city of Ghana’s Ashanti region, Annan became the first black head of the United Nations. “I have directed that, in his honour, Ghana’s national flag will fly at half-mast across the country and in all of Ghana’s diplomatic missions across the world” for one…