By Tunde Omolehin 31-year-old Umar Muhammed, a Nigerien businessman could not believe that an outbreak of novel coronavirus in a far-away Asian- nation will bother any African country when considering the thousands of miles interval between the two continents. But soon Nigeria recorded her first covid-19 case in February 2020, a widespread virus that emanated from Wudi, China, panic ensued among citizens and the government. It took no longer time for the Nigerian authorities to enforce a strict border closure, and imposed a lockdown order nationwide as part of proactive measures to curtail the virus spreading bound. Umar recounts how…
Author: Editor
A professor of Food Science and Technology, with the Federal University of Technology Akure, FUTA, Olufunmilayo Omoba has said that a dietary shift from junk to eating natural foods, particularly of plant origin, that would result in the availability of high fibres, vitamins and minerals, phytochemicals and other nutrients is needed to reduce the incidence hypertension, chronic kidney diseases, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and to enhance the quality of life has been recommended as a way to healthy living. She made this recommendation while delivering the 132nd Inaugural Lecture of FUTA titled, “Healthy Eating and Human Disease: Dietary…
Gunmen have abducted Niger state commissioner of information and strategy, Idris Mohammed. A source told ASHENEWS on Monday morning that the heavily armed gunmen kidnapped Mohammed at his residence on Sunday night. “They invaded his residence at Babban Tunga in Tafa local government area. “The were about 20 and stormed his residence at about 11: 00pm while it was raining heavily. “They went to the house, shooting sporadically and abducted him before his second wife,” the source said. Efforts to confirm the incident with the spokesperson of the state command, SP Wasiu Abiodun proved abortive because his phone could not…
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami has debunked reports that he disobeyed the directives of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on All Progressives Congress (APC) state congresses. Osinbajo had carried out the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari and convened a meeting of senior lawyers in the party on July 30, to resolve the crisis that followed Supreme Court ruling on the Ondo state governorship election. While the AGF was alleged to have flawed the vice president’s directive against the congresses, he has denied the report, holding however that the exercise was purely party affairs. Malami,…
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced a trading surplus of ₦43.57 billion in April 2021 representing a 23.64% increase over the ₦35.24 billion surplus it recorded in the previous month of March 2021. This is contained in the April 2021 edition of the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR), according to a press release by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Corporation, Dr. Kennie Obateru. Trading surplus or trading deficit is derived after deduction of the expenditure profile from the revenue for the period under review. According to the report, the NNPC Group…
By Abujah Racheal The Nigeria Centre For Disease Control (NCDC) has reported 473 additional infection cases in the country, naming Lagos, Akwa-Ibom and Rivers States as drivers of the country’s COVID-19 surge as at Saturday. The NCDC made this known via its verified website on Sunday morning. The new infections indicate an increase from the 565 cases announced a day earlier. It observed that the country has entered a new phase of the pandemic, with a more complicated mix of cases than it has seen before. But what hasn’t changed is that vaccines still provide the best protection against the…
It is by now no longer news that Ibrahim El-Zakzaky has been discharged and acquitted by Honourable Justice Gideon Kurada, whose judgment totally vindicated the Shiite leader and gave hope to many Nigerians that despite the best negative efforts of the demonic duo of Muhammad Buhari and Nasir El-Rufai, justice can still be found in Nigeria. El-Zakzaky was arrested and detained for six years. Members of his congregation were killed in their thousands. Buhari killed 6 of his children. The remainder of his congregation were hounded. Yet, they never abandoned him. I want to study El-Zakzaky’s life. His ability to…
This year’s Eid-el-Kabir came at a time Nigerians, especially those living in the North, were at their wits’ end over incessant kidnappings. Less than ten-year-old Islamiya pupils from Tegina in Niger State are still with their bandit abductors, College of Forestry Students from Kaduna, too. These are more known because they are students. Hundreds are in the hands of kidnappers all over the North minus a few states. It is amid this national malaise that Muslims celebrated Sallah. Kidnappers negotiate openly with relations, and friends of victims, collecting ransoms before their release. Sometimes, couriers of ransom get detained and fresh…
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) started its week with the declaration of its readiness to introduce regulations and criteria to guide its partners about divestments in the nation’s oil and gas industry. NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari disclosed this at the opening ceremony of the 2021 edition of the Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition (NAICE) organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in Lagos. He spoke on the theme “The Future of Energy: A Trilogy of Climate Change, Public Health & Global Oil Market,” He affirmed that the Corporation had worked out rules to guide partners…
Ikeja Electric (IE) Plc has installed about 105,000 prepaid meters for customers under its network through the federal government’s National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP). Mr Felix Ofulue, Head, Corporate Communications, IE, confirmed the development to newsmen on Sunday in Ikeja. Ofulue said that the figure indicated that the company provided meter for over 99 per cent of its 106,701 customers scheduled for metering under the phase zero of the NMMP. He said: “We have so far metered 105,000 customers under the NMMP and we are appealing to others yet to get their meters to be patient. “The process of installing…