Author: straightnewsng.com

The population of Nigeria is pegged at an estimation of 198 million, according to the National Population Commission, NPC. NPC Chairman, Eze Duruiheoma, stated this in New York, while delivering Nigeria’s statement on sustainable cities, human mobility and international migration at the 51st session of commission on population and development. Nigeria currently ranks as the seventth most populous nation in the world. As of 2016, the World Bank said Nigeria had an estimated 186 million people. Duruiheoma said urban population was growing at an average annual rate of about 6.5 percent, adding that teenagers, women of child-bearing age and the working…

House of Representatives Committee on Customs Monday deferred the consideration of the 2018 budget of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, to April 17, 2018, following discovery of irregularities in its document. Though a dealdline had been given to all standing committees to submit all budgetary proposals of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, of government for 2018 nex week, in readiness for their final consideration and passage into law by the House later this month, chairman of the House Committee, James Faleke, said that of the Customs may not be feasible. Announcing the postponement at the defence, Faleke attributed conflicting figures…

The Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Engr Mustapha Maihaja, said Wednesday that N1.5 billion suspicious contracts were awarded in the agency before his assumption of duty. Maihaja said he inherited some rot in the agency and was doing his best to correct it. On the N1.6 billion contracts for the supply of materials to flood victims in 16 states in the last one year, he said the supplies were done were in compliance with the Public Procurement Act. The House of Representatives has asked the suspended personnel of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, as well as…

The Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has vowed to quit his job if people in positions of authority try to influence him to do their bidding in the organisation. This came as the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, led by the chairman, Prof. Itse Sagay, visited the tertiary institutions’ examination regulatory body in respect of the recent N36 million snake swallowing scandal that rocked JAMB. Oloyede said his fear when he assumed the headship of JAMB was that politicians would not allow him do his work accordingly, a development, he said, would have made…

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said Monday that there was a plot by the federal government to foist a one-party system on Nigerians. To achieve this, the party said government has hatched a plot to humiliate and intimidate its members, including Ike Ekweremadu, the Deputy President of the Senate, and some governors elected on its platform. The party stated this through Kola Ologbondiyan, its National Publicity Secretary, addressed a press conference at the Wadata Plaza, Abuja. The publicity scribe said the All Progressives Congress, APC-led government was leading the onslaught against some highly-placed PDP members, using state power to achieve…

Bayern Munich fought back with a deflected own goal and a late header from Thiago to claim a 2-1 win at Sevilla in an exciting Champions League quarter-final, first leg clash on Tuesday. Pablo Sarabia had put Sevilla ahead in the 32nd minute when he got the better of Juan Bernat to control Sergio Escudero’s cross and fire home at the back post. However, five minutes later Bayern levelled when Sevilla’s Jesus Navas agonisingly deflected Franck Ribery’s cross past home goalkeeper David Soria at the near post. With Sevilla tiring, five-time European champions Bayern took advantage and Thiago headed the…

Algeria suffered its deadliest ever air catastrophe Wednesday when a military plane crashed after takeoff, killing 257 people on board, mostly army personnel and their family members. An AFP photographer at the scene saw the charred wreckage of the plane after it caught fire in a field near the Boufarik airbase, 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Algiers. Hundreds of ambulances and dozens of fire trucks with sirens wailing rushed to the scene of the crash, in an uninhabited area where one person was injured on the ground by debris. Firefighters extinguished the blaze and security forces set up a…

The atmosphere at Skye Bank Plc, 56 Nwaniba Road, Uyo, in Akwa Ibom State was somber. In particular, some staffers of marketing department of the bank wore long faces. Others looked speechless and morose. The trending story hitting the department still sounds like cock-and-bull. “I do not believe Ubong is dead. He has gone to work. He will surely return someday,” one of the colleagues of Ubong Ekpe who died Sunday evening at Ibeno Beach, Iwuokpom in Ibeno local government area of the state, noted. Another colleague who for officialdom did not mention his name said “I am lost of…

Nigerians have continued to react to President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration to seek another term in the office in 2019 general elections. The president gave the indication during a closed-door meeting of the National Executive Council, NEC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, held at the party’s headquarters in Abuja. Buhari said he was responding to the clamour by Nigerians to re-contest in 2019, adding that he wanted to give NEC the honour of notifying them first. Shehu Sani, Senator representing Kaduna central district in the National Assembly has reacted to President Muhammadu Buhari’s intention to seek a second term. Sani,…

It was a pathetic scene as a seven-year-old pupil drowned in a drainage channel over the weekend along two lanes at Akwa Efak by Nsikak Eduok Avenue in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital. It was learnt that the downpour, which occurred on Saturday evening and lasted many hours, submerged homes and destroyed properties worth thousands of naira. The boy, Jeremiah Alphonsus accompanied by a guardian was struggling to pick his pair of slippers that slipped into the drain, but he fell into the drain and was swept off by the flood water. Governor Udom Emmanuel, who visited the bereaved family…