Author: straightnewsng.com

By Akanimo Sampson Brazil’s refugee agency, CONARE, has granted asylum to 21,432 Venezuelans, Human Rights Watch, a global rights group reports. Until then, CONARE had granted asylum to a total of just 263. There are currently 224,000 Venezuelans living in Brazil. In June, CONARE concluded that “serious and widespread violations of human rights” exist in Venezuela, paving the way for the mass recognition of refugee status under the 1984 Cartagena Declaration, which provides guidance to Latin American governments on the scope of refugee protection. CONARE based its June finding on a 25-page technical report on the situation in Venezuela that cited Human Rights Watch’s work thirty times.…

A Big Brother Naija star has slammed an N20 million lawsuit on a popular Instagram blogger, days after she called out the former BB Naija housemate and accused her of sending assassins to kill her. Recall that Blessing Okoro, the Instagram blogger, had called out the reality show star, Tacha for alleged ingratitude, and alleged that Tacha has no father as she claims, but only an orphan. Reacting to Blessing Okoro’s rant, Tacha demanded Okoro to offer her an apology within 48 hours, otherwise, the blogger would face legal consequences for failure to comply with the demands. Reacting to the…

By Akanimo Sampson In spite of ending 2018 with 91 million of its citizens living in extreme poverty, Nigeria burnt an alarming $9.01 billion, which translates to N3.24 trillion from January to September on personal foreign travels, better known as Personal Travel Allowances (PTA). This fact emerged from a data published by the country’s apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It was, however, first revealed in June the previous year that Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch had overtaken India as the country with the highest number of people living in extreme poverty across the world, with an estimated 86.9 million people measured…

At least, nine Christians in Kenya were murdered by Islamic extremists for refusing to recite the Islamic Shadada, a Muslim creed, according to International Christian Concern (ICC), a human rights organization based in Washington, D.C. The ICC further reported that similar crimes have occurred in Northern Kenya for many years, usually carried out by members of the radical Islamic group al-Shabaab. “On December 6, 2019, 11 non-local Christian passengers were attacked while travelling to Mandera from Nairobi and killed at Kotulo in northeastern Kenya,” said the ICC. “They were reportedly separated from their Muslim counterparts and killed for failing to…

The crowning of Miss World 2019 has closed out this year’s historic pageant circuit, marking the first time the titles for all five top beauty contests were won by black women. On Saturday, Jamaica’s Toni-Ann Singh was named Miss World, joining a 2019 cohort of advocates for prison reform, women’s rights and music education who used their platform to address conventional beauty standards: Miss Universe 2019 Zozibini Tunzi, Miss America Nia Franklin, Miss USA Cheslie Kryst and Miss Teen USA 2019 Kaliegh Garris. “To that little girl in St. Thomas, Jamaica and all the girls around the world — please…

The Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Justice Ishaq Bello, has warned security operatives against detaining suspects beyond the statutory 48 hours prescribed by the law. Bello, who gave the warning at a special event organised in Abuja to celebrate his appointment as Life Bencher of the Nigerian Law School, reiterated that security agencies must seek and obtain a court order if they desired to detain an alleged criminal beyond the statutory period. He lamented the congestion of detention centres nationwide due to the deluge of suspects held illegally by security agencies. As a way of addressing the…

The federal government said it has so far disbursed N153 billion to states in the last four years of implementation of the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC. The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who stated this Monday at the launch of 2018 National Personnel Audit, NPA, conducted by the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, on public and private basic education schools in Nigeria in Abuja Monday, said from 2015 when the current government came into date, over N173 billion had been released to UBEC as matching grant. Adamu noted that of this figure, N153 billion was disbursed to state…

By Akanimo Sampson European Union (EU) Ambassador, Carl Hartzell, has affirmed that the visa-free travel available to citizens of Georgia has demonstrated its worth by bringing the EU and Georgia closer together. The general feeling, he noted, is that Georgia has demonstrated a laudable commitment to cooperating with the authorities of EU member states in decreasing the pressure of irregular migration. Yet, more efforts are needed, participants at the event agreed. Participants at an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) conference, however, learned last week that with its third anniversary approaching, an EU-Georgia visa liberalisation agreement has let half a million…

As part of its troubleshooting efforts, the National Working Committee, NWC, of ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has lifted its suspension on Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, former Governors Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State and Rochas Okorocha of Imo State. Director-General, Voice of Nigeria VON, Mr. Osita Okechukwu and former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani, also had their suspension lifted. The decision was a fallout of the NWC meeting of the party held at its national secretariat Monday in Abuja. In a statement issued after the meeting and signed by the National Publicity Secretary of…

Tramadol worth more than N1,702,692,250,000 was destroyed by National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, in 2019. Announcing the alarming street value of the drug, the agency said it would begin to test for imported Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, APIs, before they are used to manufacture drugs in Nigeria. It equally rolled out plans to achieve 60 percent local production of pharmaceutical products by 2024. Making these revelations during Pharma Stakeholder Engagement with the Director-General in Lagos, the Director-General of the Agency, Prof Christianah Adeyeye, told the audience that NAFDAC, in collaboration with the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS,…