Author: straightnewsng.com

Africa is set to be declared polio free as Nigeria marks three years without recording a single case of polio infection, thus moving a step closer towards polio free certification by the World Health Organization, WHO, in early 2020. The last time a case of the wild polio virus was reported in Nigeria was August 21, 2016, in Borno State. Nigeria is the last country in Africa to record wild polio virus infections, and if no more cases are found in the next few months, Africa could be declared polio free. The last reservoir of polio in Nigeria was Borno…

President Muhammadu Buhari in his final argument at the Presidential Elexction Petition Tribunal Wednesday in Abuja, said no law in Nigeria stipulated that he must produce his certificate to prove his eligibility to contest the February 23 elections. His argument came against the backdrop of the claim by Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, that the President was not qualified to contest the election because he didn’t possess the requisite certificate. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, also in its final argument, said the claim that results of the February presidential election were transmitted to…

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Bayelsa state has advocated the adoption of indirect primary as the best option in the party choosing its candidate during the forthcoming governorship election in the state. Chief Richard Kpodoh, populary called Pererich, who is a one-time chairman of the defunct New PDP in the state, said in a statement on Wednesday that if the party could settle for the indirect primary system in Kogi State, it was only wise for the same system to apply in Bayelsa State. This is coming just as Kpodoh has commended President Muhammadu Buhari and…

At last, President Muhammadu Buhari has sworn in and assigned portfolios to the 43 newly inaugurated ministers. The ministers had undergone a two-day retreat which was declared open by the President on Monday, August 19. The president retained himself as petroleum minister while Godswill Akpabio is the Niger Delta Minister. The president also created new ministries such as ministry of police affairs and ministries for humanitarian services. The full list of ministers and their ministries is below: President Muhammadu Buhari – Minister of Petroleum Mohammed Musa Bello – Adamawa State – Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT Godswill Akpabio –…

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, Tuesday, said that the National Assembly would never tolerate a breakdown of law and order in any State Houses of Assembly in Nigeria. The Speaker said it was the responsibility of the apex legislative institution of the country to intervene in states where there was crisis. He said such interventions were seen in the amicable resolution of the challenges recently faced by the state legislatures in Bauchi and Edo states. Gbajabiamila, who spoke through his Deputy, Ahmed Idris Wase, at a round table for Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly…

The Anti-Corruption and Transparency Monitoring Unit, ACTU, in the Presidency Tuesday declared the unit’s willingness to partner with MBA Forex and Capital Investment Limited to improve a culture of accountability and transparency in the country. Chairman of the Unit, Ahmad Sulaiman, stated this in Abuja during a meeting with MBA Forex Chief Executive Officer, Mr Maxwell Odum, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Sulaiman said: “The company’s objective is in sync with the standing order of the ACTU to improve a culture of accountability, responsibility, professionalism and quality of service in line with professed institutional goals and core values. ‘‘We are…

The Nigerian Customs Service is to conduct a joint exercise with sister security services to perfect strategies at enhancing the effective policing and safeguarding of the country’s borders. The joint exercise, under coordination of Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, is to hold simultaneously in four geo-political zones of the country. Comptroller-General of Customs, General Hameed Ali, retired, who disclosed this in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer, Joseph Attah, in Abuja, said: “As part of measures to secure Nigeria’s land and maritime borders, the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, and the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, in collaboration…

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Tuesday, failed to persuade the Supreme Court to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to grant them access to the controversial server they said was used to electronically transmit results of the February 23 presidential election. The apex court, in a unanimous judgment by a five-man panel of Justices led by Justice Datijo Mohammed, declined to set aside a ruling the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal delivered on June 24, which rejected Atiku and PDP’s application to be allowed to inspect INEC’s server. The judgment came barely 24 hours to…

Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Mr. Tunde Fowler, has attributed the shortfalls and variances between budgeted revenue collections and actual collections since the inception of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to recession, fall in oil prices, and the agency’s lack of control over oil revenue. On August 8, the Presidency through the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari, queried Fowler over the variances and directed him to reply by August 19. The query read in part: “We observed significant variances between the budgeted collections and actual collections for the period 2015 to 2018. Accordingly,…

The World Bank has blacklisted six Chinese companies operating in Nigeria for fraud and corruption. The companies are China Railway Construction (International) Nigeria Company Limited, China Railway 18th Bureau Nigeria Engineering Company Limited, CCECC Nigeria Lekki (FTA) Company Limited, CCECC Nigeria Railway Company Limited, CRCC Petroleum & Gas Company Limited, and CCECC Nigeria Company Limited. All the companies are very active in Nigeria, with ongoing or completed contracts for the construction of railways, highways, housing estates, airport terminals, municipal engineering, water resource, and hydro-power engineering projects for federal and state governments. The World Bank on its website, accused the companies…