Author: straightnewsng.com

The National Examination Council, NECO, plans to remit N1.2 billion to the Treasury Single Account, TSA, at the end of its examinations season this year. This is against N320 million and N350 million remitted by the agency to the TSA in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Prof. Charles Uwakwe, Registrar/Chief Executive of NECO, who stated this during an interactive session with newsmen, Monday, in Abuja, said improved amount will gladden the stakeholders, lamenting that some state governments were indebted to the body to the tune of N3.2 billion. Uwakwe stated, “Talking about remittance to the Federation Account in 2016, we remitted…

A 45-year-old paraded by Ogun State Police Command for allegedly conspiring with robbery suspects to dupe passengers in Abeokuta admitted complicit in the illicit act of duping people because she had once been a victim. Ashile Basirat, a mother of five said her children had advised her to stop the illicit business, but her venture into petty trading did not yield the desired profit. Explaining how her gang operated before they were apprehended, Basirat claimed that her gang members acted as passengers in a taxi, pretending to be waiting for more passengers. She said when the victim is found, they…

Imo State in the country registered the highest number of candidates of 92,890 candidates out of the 1.6 million candidates that are participating in this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination beginning Friday. Oyo and Osun states trailed behind with 86,695  and 86,044 registered candidates respectively just as Sokoto, Zamfara and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, have low registration with13,456, 10,077 and 6,418 candidates in that order. Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB Registrar, who released the candidates’ registration table at a press conference in Abuja, Wednesday, said the board recorded a decrease of 55,642 applications, representing 3.2 percent in the sale of 2018…

Nigerians are said to have imported sugar worth N22.8 billion in three years, a situation described as hermorrhage on the country’s foreign exchange earnings. Abiodun Olasupo (APC, Oyo), Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee investigating the low concessionary tariff given by the Ministry of Trade and Investment for sugar importation into the country from 2013 to 2016 as contained in the backward integration policy reeled out this fact. Olasupo, speaking Wednesday when Dr Abdullateef Busari, Executive Secretary of National Sugar Development Council, NSDC, said, “Within three years from 2009 to 2011, Nigeria expended a whopping sum of N228.8 billion on sugar…

Anambra State government has sacked all political appointees and heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, who are not civil servants. A letter reference ANS/SSG/HANDOVER/201 signed by Professor Solo Chukwudebelu, the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, entitled: “Submission of handover notes by political appointees and non-civil servant heads of MDAs in the state”, gave the affected persons up to March 16, 2018 to complete the exercise. Obiano, who was re-elected for the second tenure on November 18, 2017 has already set up a committee headed by Chief Ifeanyi for the inauguration of his second tenure commencing on March 18, 2018. The letter…

Strong indications emerged Monday that Senate may anytime from now override veto on the Peace Corp Bill President Muhammadu Buhari refused to give his assent. The bill was sent to the president for assent after it was passed by the National Assembly in July 2017, but Buhari had on February 27, this year declined to give assent to it, giving financial scarcity and conflict with functions of police as reasons for his refusal. Raising a point of Order Monday, Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West), explained that he had been under pressure from his constituents lately over the necessity of…

The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, Wednesday, convicted and sentenced Mr. Charles Okah, the alleged mastermind of the 2010 Independence Day bomb blast that left 12 persons dead at the Eagle Square in Abuja, to life imprisonment. The elder Okah had been sentenced for a similar crime in South Africa, where he was based. The court, in a judgment that lasted over five hours, equally found Okah’s alleged accomplice, Mr. Obi Nwabueze, guilty and also handed him a life sentence. Trial judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, held that the oral and documentary evidence the Federal Government tendered before the court,…

Nigeria has lost the United States of America, USA, as a significant crude export market,  Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources has revealed. Until early 2000s, US was Nigeria’s top crude importer, buying around 700,000 b/d of the commodity from Africa’s biggest producer and climbed as high as 1.31 million b/d in February 2006, according to the US Energy Information Administration. This volume has, however, been dropping since then, reaching zero import level by June 2015 following a surge in production of shale oil. “That’s gone,” Kachikwu said at CERAWeek in Houston, USA. CERAWeek conference continues outreach…

“God is seriously angry with the incessant killings of innocent Nigerians and visitors by Boko Haram sect, Fulani herdsmen and other killers in the country,” a clergyman in Anambra State stated, appealing to Nigerians to intercede for God not to vent anger on the land. Bishop Abraham Chris Udeh, General Overseer of Mount Zion Faith Global Liberation Ministries Inc (aka By Fire By Fire), Nnewi in Anambra State, stated this at a special church service to pray down Heavens for God to intervene in the current enormous bloodshed experienced across Nigeria on a daily basis. Udeh noted that out of fear…

A Nigerian man living in Italy since the 1970s has been elected the country’s first black Senator. He is Toni Iwobi born in Gusau in Northern Nigeria. He is the chief immigration spokesman for the far-right League party in Italy, a party which has been accused of stirring up xenophobia. The 62-year-old travelled to Italy on a student visa 40 years ago. He married an Italian and started his own Information Technology, IT, company in Italy. Following the election, Iwobi said on Facebook on Tuesday, March 6: “It is with great excitement that I can tell you I have been…