Author: straightnewsng.com

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Sunday, said 15 consortia, made up of 35 foreign and indigenous companies, have emerged winners of its 2019/2020 Direct Sale Direct Purchase, DSDP, arrangement. In a statement in Abuja, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, said the contract with the consortia/companies was expected to last for one year, effective October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020. Ughamadu declared that this was in line with the avowed commitment of the NNPC to transparency and accountability in all its activities as committed by the new Group Managing Director of…

The welfare of the 43 ministerial nominees, who will be sworn in on Wednesday will cost Nigeria at least N2.53 billion in the next four years, investigation has shown. This means each minister will get at least N58.766 million in four years. The figure will be much higher, if estacode and allowances for foreign and local duty trips were added. Ministers currently are entitled to estacode allowance of $900 per night and duty tour allowance of N35,000 per night. And this excludes a refundable vehicle loan of N8.106 million. Each of the ministers is entitled to a furniture allowance of…

The late President Umaru Yar’Adua spent several months on the sick bed before his death on May 5, 2010. During this period, Process & Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID), a tiny natural gas company, hoodwinked the federal government into allegedly signing a Gas Supply and Processing Agreement (GSPA) which may cost the country a whopping $9 billion following last week’s British Commercial Court ruling, THISDAY findings have shown. Based on the judgment, the UK firm might walk away with 20 per cent of Nigeria’s external reserves, which stood at $44.425 billion as of last Thursday, and 2.5 per cent of Nigeria’s…

By Akanimo Sampson Since the middle of 2018, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) has continued to ramp up attacks on the military, while the Abubakar Shekau group tends to be hitting softer civilian targets. Formerly known as Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah, ISWAP split from the Boko Haram faction headed by long-time leader Shekau in 2016. Quoting three military and government sources, Reuters, reported that a suicide bomber killed five people, including a Chadian soldier, when she blew herself up on the shores of Lake Chad on August 14. The sources, according to Reuters, said the attack happened…

By Akanimo Sampson Former Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan says Africa needs huge investments to create jobs and employ its teeming youthful population, in a frantic bid to steer them away from crimes, conflicts and illegal migration. Jonathan was speaking at the weekend in Seoul, capital of South Korea at the International Leadership Peace Conference with many world leaders including government officials, former presidents, lawmakers and entrepreneurs in attendance. According to the former Nigerian leader, “When people say that Africa lags behind other continent in terms of strategic and sustainable development, it is because the continent is yet to find answers…

As Ati Annang Foundation, a foremost socio-cultural organization in Akwa Ibom State, marked its silver Jubilee, Governor Udom Emmanuel has implored the organization to join in tackling the scourge of drug abuse and secret cultism among youths in the state. Owing to the damaging influence of cultism, Akwa Ibom government proscribed 32 secret cults last year in the state, though nobody has been convicted since then. Emmanuel, who handed down the advice as the special guest of honour at Ati Annang Secretariat, Cardinal Ekanem Avenue, Ikot Ekpene, on Saturday, decried the rate of cultism right from the primary school level…

By Akanimo Sampson Leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, is back from an aborted medical treatment in India with his wife and in the custody of the Department State Services (DSS), Nigeria’s secret police. El-Zakzaky, the founder of the IMN, a Shia group, appears to be a major headache for the Buhari administration. He had been imprisoned following a clash between security services and Shi’ites procession in 2015, which led to the deaths of hundreds of his followers and some members of his family. A raid on his home then led to his arrest. During the raid,…

By Akanimo Sampson The United Nations AIDS agency is currently under the watch of an African. The Executive Director of Oxfam International, Winnie Byanyima, of Uganda will be leading the UN AIDS. Byanyima succeeds Michel Sidibe who stepped down in May after he was accused of creating “a patriarchal culture tolerating harassment and abuse of authority.” UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, however, appointed the new HIV/AIDS chief on Wednesday after the previous incumbent left accused of serious mismanagement. An Independent Expert Panel (IEP) report commissioned by UNAids’ governing body said the agency’s culture under Sidibe also failed “to uphold the United…

Voting has begun to select the final winners for the 11th edition of Akwa Ibom Icons Awards (AKIA 2019) tagged Dakkada Plus. The voting which commenced on August 15 and will end on August 20, 2019 will see 55 nominees emerging from 11 different categories. A press release issued by Prince Ene Baba Owoh, Jr, the executive secretary of AKIA, said voting which took place from July 24 – 31, 2019 recorded 278 nominees, drawn into the respective categories with a cumulative votes of 198,730 representing 197,234 at home and 1,496 from the Diaspora as shown on the table below:…

By Akanimo Sampson Worried by the current situation in Kashmir, China at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on Friday expressed “grave concerns,” saying that the situation in the state is serious and dangerous. The Chinese diplomat at UNSC said that such unilateral practices (as were carried out by the Indian government) were “invalid.” The Chinese envoy’s statement came after the UNSC held a closed-door meeting on the Kashmir situation after Pakistan approached it against New Delhi’s August 5 decision. India had on August 5 scrapped the provisions under Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.…