Author: straightnewsng.com

Against denials by the Federal Government that it was paying subsidy, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, confirmed deduction of N139.333 billion as subsidy for Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol, from its domestic crude oil and gas sales proceeds from January to March 2018, cutting down on its remittances to the Federation Account. Contained in the NNPC’s report of March 2017 Monthly Financial and Operations Report, the amount deducted by the NNPC for subsidy is far higher than the capital allocation to some key ministries and parastatals in the 2018 budget. Specifically, the amount the NNPC deducted…

In a landmark ruling, a Federal High Court in Abuja has directed the immediate release of two properties located in the United Kingdom, belonging to billionaire businessman and CEO of the Aiteo Group, Benedict Peters, that had been the subject of an Interim Forfeiture Order obtained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, without notice to him. By this decision, the court has upheld his case that the properties wholly belonged to him; were unconnected to the former Petroleum Minister, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke, and were unjustifiably included in a list of properties the anti-graft agency tried to seize. In…

The House of Representatives on its resumption for plenary Tuesday, started the process of a bill which seeks to use the $322 million Abacha loot to fund the Ajaokuta Steel company and Railway Line. This is barely six days after the House passed a resolution urging President Muhammadu Buhari to halt ongoing plans to distribute the $322 million to 302,000 poor households in 19 states without database. The bill for an “Act to allocate the returned looted Nigerian government fund of $322 million from Switzerland for funding of Ajaokuta Steel Company and Railway line(s) projects in Nigeria and for other related matters,” was promoted by…

Christian Association of Nigerian, CAN, challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to unearth the sources of arms and ammunition of the rampaging herdsmen. CAN said the present administration will earn the respect of Nigerians only if it performed its duties by taking full control ‎of the protracted security challenges in the country. National President of CAN, Rev. Samson Ayokunle, who stated this in Ilorin, Kwara State, Tuesday, after delivering a State-of-the-Nation address at the 2018 Special Prayer Rally organised by Church Leaders and Ministers Fellowship of Nigeria in conjunction with the state’s chapter of CAN, said it was time the federal government…

President Muhammadu Buhari said, Tuesday, the opposition was blackmailing him with herdsmen and farmers clashes and asked Ekiti people to be wary of the blackmail against his person. Buhari spoke on a day Yakubu Gowon, a former Head of State, said it was unfair to blame President Buhari for the incessant killings in the conflict between farmers and herders in some parts of Nigeria. “They are blackmailing me, saying I have not done anything about the Farmers/Fulani herdsmen clashes because I am a Fulani man. “But this is a cheap blackmail. We are doing everything to curtail the situation, and…

Efforts by All Progressives Congress, APC, governors to reconcile Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State and President Muhammadu Buhari have failed, preparing ground for the governor to defect to another political party. The governor’s imminent exit got further traction at the weekend when he dissolved the state cabinet and sacked associates of his one-time political godfather, Senator George Akume. After dissolution of the cabinet, the governor, however, retained four commissioners who were not linked to Akume, a former governor of the state who wields immense political influence in the state. Ortom’s possible exit from the APC has been mostly fuelled…

Global System for Communication, GSM giant, MTN, Monday, criticised Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, for picketing its corporate head office in Lagos and other operational offices across the country over alleged refusal to allow its employees join union freely, among others. While denying preventing its employees to freely unionise, MTN accused NLC leaders of violence and attacking some of its employees at its Ikoyi office. MTN in a statement by its Corporate Relations Executive, Tobechukwu Okigbo said, “We do not prevent our employees from associating amongst themselves as they deem fit and owe our employees the obligation to ensure they are…

The Federal Government, Monday, expressed concerns over the debt of N500 billion electricity Distribution Companies, DISCOs’ is owing the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company, NBET. Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, minister of Works, Power and Housing, while addressing newsmen on development in the power sector that DISCOs’ debt profile to NBET was on the increase in spite of reports of crazy estimated billing of customers. Fashola said, “As things stand, my office still receives daily reports by text, e-mails and letters of exorbitant bills by DISCOs to consumers without meters, but the remittance by DISCOs to NBET is not increasing. “NBET also…

France reached the World Cup final for a third time as a header from Samuel Umtiti gave the 1998 champions a 1-0 victory against a vibrant Belgium team on Tuesday. The tournament favourites must wait 24 hours to discover whether they will play England or Croatia in Sunday’s final in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium but they will approach the game full of confidence. Belgium started the stronger of the two teams in Saint Petersburg but Umtiti’s header from a corner in the 51st minute was the crucial breakthrough as the defender stole the limelight from jet-heeled Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann.…

The Akwa Ibom state government has launched a blistering media campaign against a PREMIUM TIMES journalist, Cletus Ukpong, whose investigative reports exposed the rot in public schools in the oil-rich state. The six-part investigative series, which have prompted debates on the state government priorities and spending, detailed the harrowing experience pupils, students, and teachers go through in the state’s broken education system – where some poor kids have to sit on bare floor in roofless classrooms to learn, and poorly paid teachers, who sometimes go for months without salary, go as far as collecting money from students to allow them…