Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe

Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno has made a ‘minor’ cabinet reshuffle, redeploying three commissioners. This is contained in a statement by the secretary to the state government, Danjuma Ali on Tuesday in Maiduguri. Ali said the Commissioner for Animal Resources and Fisheries Development, Juliana Bitrus moves to the Ministry of Health and Human Services. The Commissioner for Environment, Lawan Walama moves to the Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries Development. He also said that the Commissioner for Justice, Mr Kaka-Shehu Lawan is to oversee the Ministry of Environment. In another development, Zulum has approved the reconstitution of the board of the…

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Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has started its investigation whether AstraZeneca’s takeover of Alexion Pharmaceuticals can reduce competition for products and services in the United Kingdom or any other markets. The British competition regulator invites comments on the transaction from any interested party to assist the CMA with the assessment. The comments should be reached by June 3. In December 2020, British drug manufacturer AstraZeneca agreed to buy Alexion Pharmaceuticals for 175 dollars per share in cash and stock, valuing the Boston-based company at $39 billion. Dpa

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President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned extraordinary summit of Heads of State and Government of Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. Other sub-regional leaders participating in the summit include the Presidents of Niger Republic, Mohamed Bazoum and Central African Republic, Prof. Faustin Touadera Others are Lt. Gen. Mahamat Idriss Deby, President of the Transitional Military Council of the Republic of Chad, while Cameroon’s President Paul Bryan, was represented at the meeting. Other participants at the summit include representatives of Mohamed Al-Menfi, Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya, and the Sudanese President The leaders would be…

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Gunmen on early hours of Tuesday attacked Iwollo Police Division in Ezeagu local government area of Enugu state and razed down the station. The Commissioner of Police in Enugu State, Mr Mohammed Aliyu, confirmed the attack. Aliyu, who could not give details of the incident, said he was already on ground to ascertain the level of destruction and casualties. “More information will be pushed out to the public as soon as we conclude our preliminary investigation,’’ he said. However, an eyewitness, who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the hoodlums attacked the division in their large numbers in the…

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Military officers in Mali detained the president, prime minister and defence minister of the interim government on Monday, deepening political chaos just months after a military coup ousted the previous president, multiple sources told Reuters. President Bah Ndaw, Prime Minister Moctar Ouane and defence minister, Souleymane Doucoure, were all taken to a military base in Kati outside the capital Bamako, hours after two members of the military lost their positions in a government reshuffle, the diplomatic and government sources said. Their detention followed the military ouster in August of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. The development could exacerbate instability in the…

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The Presidency has explained why the declaration of Southern Governors’ Forum on open grazing in their states is legality wrong. Garba Shehu, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, in a statement on Monday in Abuja, observed that the governors’ anti-open grazing stance contradicted the constitutional right of all Nigerians to enjoy freedom of movements irrespective of the state of their birth or residence. He said banning of open grazing by the governors was unnecessary in view of the fact that the president had since approved a number of specific measures to bring a permanent end to the…

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Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General, says COVID-19 vaccines are administered in only 10 countries, describing the ongoing vaccine crisis as a scandalous inequity that is perpetuating the pandemic. Ghebreyesus, in his address to 74th World Health Assembly, said there was no diplomatic way to describe vaccine inequality. “There is no diplomatic way to say it: a small group of countries that make and buy the majority of the world’s vaccines control the fate of the rest of the world.” According to him, COVAX has shipped roughly 72 million doses to some 125 developing nations but those…

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President Muhammadu Buhari has received the Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Dr Kayode Fayemi, who was in the Presidential Villa, to console him on the death of Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, Chief of Army Staff, and 10 military officers. Fayemi, who is also the governor of Ekiti, was accompanied by the National Caretaker Committee Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mai Mala Buni, and Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger. Speaking at the event, the president expressed sadness over the loss of officers at a time the country was battling with security challenges, saying that last Friday fatal air crash had increased…

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Fifty per cent of non-sensitive materials for Nov. 6 Anambra governorship election has been lost, following attacks on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office by hoodlums. INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye disclosed this in a statement in Abuja on Monday. Okoye said three offices of the commission were attacked in Anambra, Imo and Enugu State. He said the Anambra INEC Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC), Dr Nkwachukwu Orji, his Imo counterpart, Prof. Francis Ezeonu and that of Enugu state, Mr Emeka Ononamadu reported that the attacks took place at various times on Sunday…

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A bill to repeal the Public Officer Holder (Payment of Pension Law 2007) has scaled second reading at the Lagos State House of Assembly. The bill scaled the second reading by the Clerk of the House, Mr Lekan Onafeko, at plenary on Monday. The Pension Law 2007, introduced 14 years ago, makes provision for the payment of juicy pension and other entitlements to former elected governors and their deputies in the state. Onafeko said that the bill is titled ‘A Bill to Repeal the Law to Provide for the Payment of Pensions and other Fringe benefits to Public Office Holders…

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