The House of Representatives has resolved to invite the Ministers of Justice, Foreign Affairs as well as Trade and Investment to brief the House on the implications of the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA). This was sequel to a unanimous adoption of a motion by Rep. Ben Igbakpa (PDP-Delta) at the plenary on Thursday. Igbakpa recalled that on July 7, 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari, on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, signed the agreement establishing AFCFTA at the Africa Union summit in Niger. He said that earlier in March 2019 about 44 member countries of the…
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A Renewable Energy Expert, Mr Yemi Kolawale, has urged the Federal Government to give more priority to growth of renewable energy to curb epileptic power supply in the country. Kolawale, CEO Topian Energy, made the remarks in an interview in Lagos on Thursday. According to him, if the federal government gives extra attention to the growth of renewable energy, it can improve the nation’s energy supplies. “Sustaining investment in the sector could change our energy narratives in no distant future. “Renewable energy sector is one of the best form of power because it is less demanding to maintain,” he said.…
The trial of Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman, Pension Reform Task Team, (PRTT) continued on Thursday, December 3, 2020, with the prosecution witness nine (PW9), Rouqayyah Ibrahim, telling the Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by Justice Okong Abang how Maina acquired properties in Dubai, United Arab Emirate, United States of America, and a $2 million, property in Jabi, Abuja. The witness, who is an EFCC detective revealed that a prosecution witness, Adamu Modibbo, who testified to the EFCC regarding the said Jabi, Abuja property, allegedly died of Covid-19 after his statement to the Commission. She also revealed that about 32 documents,…
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue, has flagged off the N500 million agricultural value-chain development loan scheme for civil servants and political appointees in the state. Performing the ceremony on Thursday in Makurdi, Ortom said Benue as the nation’s food basket must live up to its competitive and comparative advantage. He said the famous groundnuts pyramids of Kano State were largely produced from the Benue valley and sold to multinational companies such as the UAC and John Holt for export before the oil boom of the 1970s and the 1980s. Ortom stated that the need to diversify Nigeria’s economy, away from…
The Federal government has declared January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2030 as “The Decade of Gas Development for Nigeria”. Chief Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, made the declaration on Thursday at the Seventh (Virtual) Joint International Energy Forum and International Gas Union (IEF-IGU) Ministerial Gas Forum in Malaysia. Sylva said Nigeria had made laudable achievements and successes in the gas space within the year under review and undeniably making 2020 “The Year of Gas” count. He however, acknowledged that Nigeria still had more work to do post 2020. According to him, the development of Nigeria’s vast gas…
The Defence Headquarters says the military has killed no fewer than 43 bandits and arrested 10 with their collaborators within one week in the North West and Central part of the country. The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. John Enenche, disclosed this while giving an update on the operations of the armed forces between Nov. 26 and Dec. 2 on Thursday in Abuja. Enenche said that the air component of Operation Hadarin Daji eliminated no fewer than 37 bandits at Dunya and Birnin Kogo forests in Katsina State and destroyed their camps in air raids within the period. He also…
A former two-term Governor of Kano State, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to allow the Service Chiefs retire, as the agitation for their removal, especially by federal lawmakers in the National Assembly (NASS), persists. He said the service chiefs have stayed beyond their 35 years in public service and the mandatory 60 years retirement age, as public servants. Shekarau, one of the Senators presently representing Kano State in the ninth Senate, spoke as a guest of in a morning programme monitored on ChannelsTV. According to him, the issue of the sacking of the service chiefs over…
Amidst renewed calls by North East governors on the Federal government to engage foreign mercenaries in routing Boko Haram terrorists in Sambisa forest and other insurgents’ enclaves, the foreign military contractors earlier engaged by Nigeria have vowed never to return. During the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria had covertly brought in ‘military-technical advisers’ suspected to be mercenaries from South Africa and the former Soviet Union to take on Boko Haram ahead of the national election in 2015. Several regional security, defence and diplomatic sources were aware of the development at the time including a tacit confirmation by President Jonathan…
Niger Republic has extradited the former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Mr Abdulrasheed Maina to Nigeria, reports in Abuja say. Recall that Maina was arrested in Niger’s capital, Niamey, having jumped bail and declared wanted by an Abuja High Court. He was received on Thursday by men of the Nigeria Police Force at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. The aircraft carrying the former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team landed at the airport at 2.15 pm. Speaking with journalists at the airport, the Commissioner of Police in charge of Interpol said Maina was brought back…
Justice A.M. Liman of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos has ordered the final forfeiture of the sum of N235,451,969.89, traced to the account of a convicted fraudster, Okeke Obinwanne, to the Federal government of Nigeria. Justice Liman had, on March 23, 2020, ordered the interim forfeiture of the money domiciled in First City Monument Bank, following an ex parte application dated December 18, 2019 by the Lagos Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. In granting the interim forfeiture order, the Judge had also ordered the Commission to advertise same in any national newspaper…