Author: straightnewsng.com

The management of Kaduna State University, KASU, has suspended one of its lecturers for allegedly soliciting sex for grade from a female student. KASU’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Abdullahi Ashafa, who broke the news on Thursday, explained that the suspension of the lecturer, Mr. Bala Umar, was due to a one-man protest at the institution by a female graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, who accused the lecturer of demanding sex from her in 2013. This is even as management of Kogi State University, Anyigba, Thursday, warned members of the university community against any form of sexual harassment, intimidation and extortion in…

Nigeria’s Super Eagles have dropped by one spot in the FIFA World Ranking for the month of October to now place as world 35th country. In the ranking table from the world football governing body, FIFA on Thursday, Nigeria garnered 1,481 points as against 1482 recorded in September. However, in spite of the drop, Nigeria still occupies the third spot in Africa behind Senegal and Tunisia who are placed 20th and 29th with 1,546 and 1,495 points, respectively. On the global scene, although, 184 recent international matches have left their mark on the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, those at the…

Akanimo Sampson One hundred and fifty-four Somali refugees are to be resettled in Germany. The refugees who have been residing in Jijiga and Dolo Ado refugee camps in southern Ethiopia, included 63 males and 91 females, 47 of whom are minors. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Ethiopia the previous Tuesday organised its first international charter flight to carry them. IOM has supported the German Resettlement Programme in their efforts to resettle 500 refugees living in Ethiopia to Germany since March. These efforts are closely coordinated with the Ethiopian Government’s Agency for Refugees and Returnee Affairs (ARRA), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Federal Government of Germany. An additional 220 refugees will depart for Germany on a second IOM-chartered…

By Akanimo Sampson A new report launched the previous Monday by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) finds that Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) are now affecting around 58 per cent of trade in the region. One reason for the rise of NTMs, according to the Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2019 (APTIR), is their growing popularity as weapons of trade policy in regional and global trade tensions. But, while applied tariffs in the Asia-Pacific region have halved over the past two decades, it appears…

By Akanimo Sampson In countries across Africa, internal displacement remains a significant problem with more than 17.8 million people being displaced by conflict and violence. Women and children constitute the vast majority of those affected. This fact is contained in a joint statement by the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Kampala Convention. Africa on Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the African…

The Senate and House of Representatives, Wednesday, directed the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA, to undertake a holistic assessment of all the roads in the country and report back to the National Assembly. The Joint Committee on FERMA directed the agency to present its findings to both the Senate and House Committees on FERMA, to enable the National Assembly take appropriate action. The chairman, House Committee on FERMA, Olufemi Bamisele, who gave the directive at a joint budget defence session organised with the Senate Committee on FERMA, said this became necessary because of the deplorable state of roads across the country.…

As part of the efforts to curb xenophobic attacks, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman/CEO of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NIDCOM, said Wednesrday that the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria and South Africa will ensure implementation of the Early Warning Signal mechanisms recently signed between both countries in South Africa. Speaking against the backdrop of renewed zenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa, Dabiri-Erewa said the Consul-General was on top of the situation. No fewer than four Nigerians were injured in fresh xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in Mpumalanga Province the Rainbow country on Tuesday. She said: “The Consul-General, Godwin Adama, is currently…

The Federal Government has spent N383.28 billion as under-recovery, also known as subsidy, on Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, from January to July 2019, according to data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC on Wednesday. Under-recovery is a situation where the NNPC incurs the cost of the differential between the official pump price of petrol and the actual cost of the commodity, especially as the official price is at present lower than the actual market price. The difference with this current system of subsidy payment is the fact that since the NNPC is currently the sole importer of PMS,…

Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, Wednesday, warned that without credible elections, the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA’s prediction of Nigeria’s disintegration will come to pass. The USA agency had predicted that Nigeria would disintegrate in 2015 but it did not happen in spite of the heat that hallmarked the 2015 presidential election. Justifying INEC’s use of the military in conducting elections, Jega said: ”The CIA thought that 2015 was the do-or-die period for Nigeria, that there would not be a Nigeria in the way you know after the 2015 general election. I think if…

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, is seeking approval of N1.5 billion from National Assembly for use to audit the oil and gas industry in 2020. Executive Secretary of the agency, Mr Waziri Adio, while defending the agency’s budget before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) Wednesday in Abuja, pledged to release 2017 audit report of the industry next week. Adio said from 1999 to 2016, nine audit reports had been done in the oil and gas sector, while seven audit reports in the solid minerals had been released. The proposed sum, according to the agency,…