Author: straightnewsng.com

Following assent of the constitutional amendment bill by President Muhammadu Buhari into law, Nigerian states are allowed to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity in areas covered by the national grid. This is one of the 19 bills Buhari assented into law on Friday, 16 of which altered some provisions of the 1999 Constitution – Fifth Alteration Bills 2023. Recall that on March 1, 2022,  the National Assembly  passed the bill to allow states generate, transmit and distribute electricity in areas covered by the national grid. Also read:  Nigerians Bemoan Over FG’s New Electricity Tariff Hike The “Bill for an Act…

Results of the concluded Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections are being collated awaiting final announcement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom State. Amidst apathy and poor turnout by voters, the exercise was peaceful and orderly in most parts, but violent and tumultuous in some areas of  the state. Straightnews publisher who led the news crew from Uyo, Abak, Oruk Anam, Ukanafun and other local government areas in the state saw remarkable changes by INEC in the early but timely arrival of officials and election materials at different polling units. The team observed a drastic…

The International Criminal Court said Friday it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine. The court said in a statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.” It also issued a warrant Friday for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar…

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom State has delisted 100 ad hoc staffers in the state for their alleged involvement in the election malpractices. The Akwa Ibom Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Cyril Omorogbe, said the affected ad hoc staffers were found culpable of electoral malpractices during the Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state. The Presidential/National Assembly elections were conducted on February 25, though some political parties complain that the commission failed to transmit the results through Irev to INEC’s server. Speaking with News Agency of Nigeria in Uyo on Thursday, Omoregbe said “We blacklisted them;…

Suspected abductors who whisked away Young Progressives Party Deputy Governorship candidate  in Cross River State, Prince Agbor and two others into hideout are demanding N50 million ransom for their freedom. Agbor was kidnapped alongside an Assistant Superintendent of Nigeria Immigration Service,  Godwin Imojara and one Egbung Sandra, in a Toyota Corolla vehicle on Thursday afternoon, March 16, 2023, while he was travelling on the Ikom-Calabar highway to Ogoja where he was posted for Saturday’s governorship election. Between October 2022 and now, more than 60 motorists and travellers on the axis, were reportedly abducted, including former minister Usani Usani, who escaped…

Lagos State Governor, Bababjide Sanwo-Olu, has directed the State Ministry of Education to investigate complaint of a parent whose child was sent out of school for using the poster of one of the contestants in the last election to wrap his books. A Junior Secondary School, JSS, student of Odomola Secondary School, Miss Marvellous Barinaadaa, and her parents got more than they expected, Wednesday, when the girl was sent home by the school principal for allegedly wrapping her books with the poster of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi. The Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folasade Adefisayo, who…

Women in Rivers State have urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to caution its officials to upload results from polling units during Saturday’s March 18 governorship and state Assembly polls in the state. Hundreds of the women on Wednesday stormed the INEC headquarters in Rivers State, and protested the attitude of its officials in the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections. The women, from the 23 local government areas of the state dressed in black attire, said they would not tolerate a repeat of what transpired on February 25, when elections results were not uploaded from polling units and…

In another round of mass layoffs, Facebook-parent Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it would cut off 10,000 jobs. Four months, the company let go 11,000 employees, the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs. “We expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a message to staff. Also read:  Meta to lay off 11,000 employees The layoffs are part of a wider restructuring at Meta that will see the company flatten its organizational…

Russian fighter jet collided Tuesday with a US intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drone operating within international airspace over the Black Sea, causing the drone to crash, the US military says. A US military official told VOA the unmanned U.S. MQ-9 has not yet been recovered. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the United States is summoning the Russian ambassador over the incident. Also read:  Ukraine tension: U.S. and Russia agree to security talks on Jan. 10 “We are engaging directly with the Russians, again at senior levels, to convey our strong objections to this unsafe, unprofessional intercept, which caused the…

The Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has deployed initiatives to assist marginal field awardees progress in field development. This is in recognition of the funding challenges facing some of the awardees of the 2020 Marginal Field Bid Round licences. Consequently, NUPRC is planning a production-based lending engagement that will help them source needed capital to commence full field development towards hitting first oil. The engagement which is planned to commence soon will be between the Commission, Petroleum Production Licence (PPL) Awardees, Exploration and Production (E&P) service providers and Nigerian Banks. It is to provide platforms for strategic partnership/alliance between the…