Author: straightnewsng.com

Bukola Saraki, Senate President, Godwin Obaseki, Governor of Edo State, and other stakeholders have vowed to end irregular migration and human trafficking across the country. They spoke separately Monday in Benin during the Senate Roundtable on Migration and Human Trafficking in Benin City. The stakeholders include Abduraman Dambazzau, the Minister of Interior, the European Union (EU), United Kingdom, International Organization on Migration, the National Agency for the Prohibition on Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and Civil Society Organisations. In his remarks, Governor Obaseki who hailed Saraki and the Senate for the initiative of holding the sensitisation session in the Edo State,…

Col. Joseph Achuzia (rtd), civil war veteran and Biafran warlord, is dead. Achuzia died Monday morning at the Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Asaba, Delta State after a brief illness at the age of  90. One of his sons, Mr. Benedict Onyeka Achuzia, who spoke to newsmen, said 21-gun salute has been shot to traditionally announce the demise of the Ikemba of Asaba to indigenes of the town. He said his father passed on at about 8 a.m, adding that “it was something we never expected but it has happened.  It’s a sad incident. “My father was the best dad ever. I…

The National Executive Committee, NEC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was held Monday with state chairmen of the party canvassing an extension of the tenure of the party executives at all levels. The campaign of the state chairmen came ahead of speculations that the NEC would dissolve the John Odigie-Oyegun led national executive of the party. That move, Vanguard learnt is, however, being strongly opposed by the majority of the governors despite the alleged support of the dissolution by President Muhammadu Buhari and the party’s lead trouble shooter, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Today’s NEC meeting is expected to set…

No fewer than seven persons were Monday killed, while 15 others were injured as Christian and Muslim youths clashed at Kasuwa Magari local government area of Kaduna State over forcible conversion and dating of girls of opposite faith. Several houses were also set ablaze in the bloody clash. There were conflicting reports on what triggered the crisis but one account said some Christian youths in the town went about beating girls for allegedly dating Muslim boys. Another account claimed that some youths in the area went berserk when report filtered into town that there was an attempt to forcibly convert…

Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly Committee on Finance and Appropriation has summoned the Cadiocare Management Team that was in-charge of the Ibom Specialist Hospital, Uyo, to appear before it or risk further legislative or legal actions. The House Committee’s reactions followed alleged vandalisation of the hospital’s equipment worth half a billion naira by the recently disengaged Cadiocare Management team. Speaking with newsmen in Uyo on Monday, Dr. Usoro Akpanusoh, the committee Chairman, said the committee has sent an invitation to the Cadiocare management team to appear with a list of items they took over on resumption, so as to ascertain…

-Akanimo Sampson Prospects for an enduring truce between the Ogoni people and the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas major, Shell, are still not appearing bright. Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) on Monday took on the oil company again, claiming that a toxic dump site belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited has been uncovered in K-Dere community. Speaking in Bori, headquarters of Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, Fegalo Nsuke, MOSOP Publicity Secretary said samples from the site had been tested in a United Kingdom laboratory and the results have confirmed the toxicity…

Nigeria needs people with competence and capacity at all levels of governance, Mr. Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State has opined. Making this submission during a recent media chat in Lagos, Obi said “Yesterday, I analysed all the expenditure in education. Nigeria’s budget for education is 1.7 billion dollars – 0.4 per cent of our GDP. South Africa is spending 10 times that amount. We are among the MINT countries. Mexico is spending 60 billion dollars. Indonesia is spending 28 billion dollars, Turkey is spending 24 billion dollars and we are spending 1.7 billion. How can you compete? We…

The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, has demanded for N32,194,984,518,000 for the payment of 1,100 staff salaries and other emoluments in the 2018 fiscal year. Mr. Modeccai Baba Ladan, a director in the agency in a budget defence/presentation before members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Upstream at the weekend said the agency got approval via the envelope system in the total sum of N34,873,019,019. Ladan said of the sum, N1,331,020,000‎ will be spent on capital projects while overhead will take N1,347,018,501. While justifying the huge personnel cost as compared to other line items in the budget, he…

More than 6,149 patients in Enugu State benefited from free treatment for various diseases. A breakdown showed that 188 patients were trated for eye cataract or general/gynaecological surgeries, while 1,231 others got free reading glasses. Also, 2,973 patients were treated at the Out-Patients Department, OPD, while 467 had free ultrasound scans for fibroid and other diseases. Furthermore, 1,290 patients had consultations for eye-related problems during the programme sponsored by Dr. Pat Asadu, the member representing Nsukka/ Igboeze South Federal Constituency in the National Assembly. Dr. Joseph Haruna Kigbu, Consultant Gynaecologist at the University of Jos led the medical team that…

Forty three persons have died from Lassa fever outbreak in less than two months, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, stated Sunday. Information available on the website of the government agency indicated of the 615 suspected cases reported across 17 states, “193 have been confirmed positive to the Lassa fever virus, 43 deaths were recorded in confirmed cases giving a case fatality rate of 23.9 percent.” It was noted that since the onset of the outbreak, there has been a high case identification rate through the use of standard case definition employed via the integrated disease surveillance and response…