Author: straightnewsng.com

By: Akanimo Sampson Rivers State wing of the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari’s party, is coming alive again after it suffered a major political setback in the 2019 elections. The inner-circle actors of the opposition party in Rivers State that is dominated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have started to regroup to enable them to plan better for the 2023 elections. The upbeat in APC is coming as some of its front chieftains and loyalists of Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi, are currently grabbing juicy federal appointments slated for the big oil and gas state. Elated party insider…

A man who raped a two-year and 9-month-old baby to death is still in shock as the court handed him death by hanging. A Kaduna State High Court at Dogarawa Sabon Gari Zaria which convicted one Usman Shehu Bashir of Dogarawa area handed him the judgment on Wednesday. Delivering judgment, Justice Kabir Dabo said the death sentence was under section 221 of the penal code, Kaduna state law 1999 as amended. “The convict has confessionally confirmed the occurrence of the offence, as well, his written statements also confirmed. By these two confessional statements, the Court passed the judgment,” the judge…

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees Tuesday that he was sticking with his decision not to take down incendiary posts in which President Donald Trump appeared to call for violence against protesters. In a staff-wide call that Facebook employees described as both tense and awkward, Zuckerberg sought to explain to frustrated employees why the company was standing by its decision and why he did not think the president’s posts ran afoul of the social media giant’s policies. While Facebook has had to deal with a variety of issues in recent years, from misinformation to privacy concerns, few topics have ignited…

Pope Francis has drawn the world attention to racism and exclusion in any form as ‘twin sin,’ harping on the essence for people to desist from them. Francis, in the world in his Twitter handle, said he views with “great concern” the social unrest sweeping the United States, calling racism intolerable and the recent violence “self-destructive and self-defeating.” “My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form,” he tweeted at the Vatican in Rome on Wednesday. The leader of the Catholic Church said he would pray for George Floyd and all those…

Amidst growing rape cases, Dr. Ahmad Lawani, the Senate President, has harped on the need for the introduction of stiffer penalties in Nigeria’s criminal and penal code that would serve as a deterrent to perpetrators of the act. Senator Lawan in his Twitter handle on Tuesday wrote “With the rising cases of rape across the country, what we need to do is to put in place stiffer penalties in Nigeria’s criminal and penal code that will serve as a deterrent to perpetrators involved in the act.” This came in the wake of rape and murder of Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a…

The Senate, Tuesday, approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s $5.513 billion external loan request to finance the revised 2020 budget. Though the Senate stood down a component of loan which the federal government said will help in the execution of its priority projects and for projects to support State Governments in stimulating their economy which has been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic on grounds of lacking requisite details, the loan request was however approved after presentation and consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts. Lenders for the federal government’s priority projects as approved by the…

A prominent Akwa Ibom pharmacist and politician is among the 38 persons confirmed on Tuesday by the Nigerian Senate as commissioners of the Federal Character Commission (FCC). She is Obonganwan Dorah Ebong, a graduate of The Ohio State University, is the Managing Director of Topcare Nigeria Limited, Uyo in Akwa Ibom State. A woman leader, Ebong is a staunch member of All Progressives Congress, APC. President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed the 38 persons to the board of the Commission on April 28, and forwarded the list to the Senate President Ahmad Lawan for confirmation. Those confirmed include Muheeba Dankaka, chairperson;…

By: Akanimo Sampson The Chief Executive Officer of Biovac Institute, Morena Makhoana, says Africa’s public health security requires ramped-up local production. Biovac Institute which is based in Cape Town, South Africa, is the only African vaccine manufacturer of the 40 in 14 countries that are part of The Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network. Biovac currently delivers over 25 million doses of vaccines each year for illnesses such as measles, polio and tuberculosis. According to the Biovac chief executive, if the continent fails to act quickly, its 1.2 billion people will remain vulnerable to shocks in global supply chains and foreign…

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, Monday, confirmed 416 new COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths in Nigeria. This is the second-highest daily figure recorded by the centre after it announced 553 confirmed cases on Saturday May 30, since the outbreak of the pandemic in Nigeria. No new state has reported a case in the last 24 hours. Till date, 10,578 cases have been confirmed, 3,122 cases have been discharged and 299 deaths have been recorded in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory. The new cases are reported from 20 states – Lagos (192), Edo (41), Rivers (33), Kaduna…

A Lagos High Court in Igbosere Monday sentenced an ex-ExxonMobil engineer  to 15 years imprisonment for raping a14-year-old niece of his tenant. James Onuoha was sentenced without an option of fine after he was found guilty of the offence of rape. At the last adjourned date on January 14, 2020, the court presided over by Justice Adedayo Akintoye had adjourned the case until March 25, for judgment, after the parties adopted their final written addresses. But the judgment could not be delivered due to the COVID- 19 pandemic which led to lockdown in March. At the resumed hearing of the…