The South African Police on Thursday, arrested five persons in connection with the collapse of VBS Mutual Bank, the country’s biggest banking scandal in recent years. The Police said the suspects were arrested in an early-dawn raid at various places in Gauteng and Limpopo Provinces as they “continue to rid the country of corruption and corrupt activities’’. Those arrested will be answering to a combined 188 counts of charges, which include theft, fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) said in a press release. “Now that the attendance of a suspected organised criminal group…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporations, NNPC, says it has not increased the Ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol. The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Corporation, Dr Kennie Obateru, disclosed this while addressing newsmen in Abuja on Friday. Ex-deport price is the price at which oil marketers buy products at the depots, the price is what determines the price at which petrol stations will sell to motorists. He spoke while reacting to new PMS Pricing template released by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) that indicted N212.61k Pumb price for the…
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Global Affairs, Canada will support and fund free Vesicovaginal Fistula, VVF, repairs in Goronyo, Sokoto state and Gamawa, Bauchi state. Mr Musa Isa, Director of Fistula Foundation Nigeria, FFN, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Friday. He said that the exercise, which is to be done in collaboration with the foundation, is scheduled to hold from March 22 to March 26. Isa said that the programme would be conducted at the Gamawa General Hospital, Bauchi state and Goronyo General Hospital in Sokoto state on the same date. He advised all…
The Supreme Court on Friday, upheld the charge of criminal breach of trust against former Plateau governor, Joshua Dariye. Dariye, who has been in jail for the offence, filed the suit praying the Supreme Court to upturn the November 16, 2018 judgment of the Court of Appeal, Abuja. The appellate court had convicted him and sentenced him to 10 years for diverting public funds estimated at N1.162 billion while he was the governor of Plateau. The apex court however, dismissed Dariye’s prayer to upturn the appeal court judgement.
The Centre for Information Technology and Development, CITAD, has called on the federal government to mainstream innovation into schools curriculum to foster better learning outcomes. This call is contained in a communique issued at a one-day webminar on digital transformation of educational sector in Nigeria held on Wednesday. The Centre also called on mobile network providers to support accessibility in schools by keying to universal service provision principles in addition to their statutory commitment to the Universal Service Provision fund (USPF). The communique signed by the Communications and Campaigns Officer, Ali Sabo and made available to ASHENEWS on on Thursday,…
The Executive Vice Chairman, (EVC), of the Nigerian Communication’s Commission (NCC), Professor Danbatta, has disclosed that Nigerian banks owe Telecommunications providers fourth two billion naria over the use of the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD). Professor Danbatta disclosed this in Lagos when delivery his lecture at the 5th Annual Bullion Lecture, organised by the Centre for Financial Journalism with the theme, “Driving Pervasive Broadband Penetration to Deepen Digital Financial Inclusion for Nigeria’s Socio-economic Transformation”. Danbatta said that the USSD platform used by banks is an investment and that someone must pay for the services and that at the moment Banks…
The numbers tell us that the Nigerian State is being overwhelmed by gun wielding terrorists, bandits and militants. On Wednesday, Kaduna State presented its 2020 security report. The numbers are frightening – 937 people were killed, 1,972 people kidnapped for ransom and 7195 cattle were rustled just last year. The most affected area in the State is Birnin Gwari, the Emir of which described graphically the “normal” reality they live in – 200 to 300 heavily armed men will surround a village; kill, abduct, steal, burn their food stores regularly. Rape and sexual violence have also reached industrial levels. The…
Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Sidie Tunis says payment of outstanding community levies for the development of ECOWAS institutions will be the focus at the Extraordinary Session on March 23, in Freetown, Sierra-Leone. Tunis disclosed this at an interactive session with newmen on Thursday in Abuja in commemoration of the first anniversary of the fifth legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament. The Community Level Assessment Report by the ECOWAS Commission, Member States owed about 797 million dollars as outstanding community levy in the last 16 years. To address this, Tunis said that strategies on ensuring outstanding and subsequent payments would be…
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has called for collective engagement, commitment and synergy among stakeholders to end the scourge of school invasions by criminal elements in the country. The President of the association, Mr Sunday Asefon, made the call in Abuja on Thursday at the national inauguration of the newly elected officials of the association. Asefon said the nation had witnessed the unfortunate bullying, kidnapping, sometimes killing of school kids both males and females within the learning premises. “This time calls for collective engagement, efforts, commitment and synergy to end this scourge of school invasions. “This ridiculous trend…
The National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria has called on the Federal government to urgently address the nation’s security challenges. The traditional rulers, who made the appeal at the end of a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja on Thursday, expressed concern over cases of kidnappings and banditry in some parts of the country. The Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, who spoke on behalf of the traditional rulers, said their meeting with the president harped on the need for the government to urgently curb he menace. He said: “We gathered ourselves and feel that…