Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday ordered the Speaker of the Ebonyi House of Assembly and other lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to immediately stop holding themselves out as members of the assembly. Justice Ekwo, in a separate judgement, had also sacked Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi and his deputy, Eric Igwe, for defecting from the PDP. The Judge held that the votes that brought them to office belonged to the PDP and that the legislators cannot hold on to the votes having chosen to defect from the party that…
Author: Newsdesk
Sokoto state governor, Aminu Tambuwal has sent a letter of notification to the House of Assembly appointing the deputy clerk to the House, Bello Tambuwal as acting clerk. The appointment followed the retirement of the former clerk, Abdurrazak Shehu from service. Meanwhile, the outgone clerk, during a brief handover ceremony, thanked all members and staff of the house for their support and cooperation throughout his stay in the assembly. “Let me use this opportunity to appreciate all and sundry in the assembly for your unalloyed support and cooperation during my three-year period as Clerk to the House. “I indeed enjoyed…
Airtel Africa Plc on Tuesday confirmed the completion of the early repayment of its $505 million (5.125 per cent) Guaranteed Senior Notes, originally due in March 2023 to investors, using cash balances available at Group level. The telecommunication and mobile money service company disclosed this in a statement titled, “Senior Notes Repayment’ on the Nigerian Exchange Group Website. It said that the company would save $26.5 million in future interest payments as a result of the early repayment. ”Settlement includes all outstanding accrued interest up to the Redemption date of 7 March 2022. “One-off costs of c.$17.6 million for the …
The project Building Economically Sustainable Seed Systems for Cassava, Phase 2 (BASICS-II) organized a day-long National Cassava Business Summit to develop a cassava seed system in Tanzania. The summit was held recently in Dodoma, Tanzania. The meeting aimed to catalyze Public-Private Partnership sector-led investment in the cassava seed value chain, bringing together about 100 participants from government, public and private sectors, NGOs, institutions, entrepreneurs, farmers, and other key cassava stakeholders. In her opening remark, the IITA Eastern Africa Hub Director, Dr. Leena Tripathi noted that cassava is at the heart of IITA’s work. She lauded the government for putting efforts into…
Advancing gender equality in the context of climate change and biodiversity loss is one of the greatest sustainable development challenges of our time, according to experts at a global symposium held in Beijing on Tuesday. The symposium, in the celebration of International Women’s Day 2022 (IWD 2022), was jointly hosted by the Centre for China and Globalisation and UN Women, an organisation delivering programmes and policies to uphold women’s human rights. IWD 2022, under the theme of “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow,’’ recognised the contribution of women around the world. Women are leading the charge on climate change…
Google on Tuesday announced that Google.org, was committing $1 million in charitable funding to support programmes to help women entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Mojolaoluwa Makinde, Head Brand and Reputation, Africa-Google said that the funding was as a part of a series of new initiatives aimed at supporting women-owned businesses. Makinde said this at a virtual event on Tuesday to mark the International Women’s Day tagged ‘Know Her Name’. According to her, research shows that 58 per cent of small and medium-sized business (SMB) entrepreneurs in Africa were women. ‘Know HerName’ is a virtual event organised by Google to project Women entrepreneurs in commemoration of International Women’s Day…
World Footballer of the Year, Robert Lewandowski has ended his cooperation with Huawei, the Chinese technological company confirmed on Tuesday. Huawei gave no reasons why the partnership with Bayern Munich and Poland striker Lewandowski ended. Huawei has dismissed speculation the decision could have to do with Huawei allegedly helping Russia make its networks safe against hackers in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. It described a report to that effect as “untrue and based on inaccurate and false information” in a tweet on Monday. That report is said to refer to a now deleted Chinese report which said Huawei…
The Bauchi state government has pledged to marry off at least 100 repentant commercial sex workers who indicated interest and presented themselves to the state’s Hisbah Department. The Permanent Secretary in charge of the department, Aminu Isah, made this known on Tuesday at the formal inauguration of vocational training for 575 repentant commercial sex workers in Bauchi. He said the government would sponsor the weddings of both Muslim and Christian women among them, and provide them with dependable and reliable sources of livelihood. He added that “we would facilitate the entire process after obtaining their consent and that of their…
Members of Nigeria’s House of Representatives have rescinded their decision on three bills earlier rejected in the process of the 1999 constitution amendment. The bills are on indigeneship, citizenship, and 35% affirmative action for women. The bills will be recommended for consideration and will be part of the second batch of the constitution amendment to be presented in a couple of months. The decision to revisit the bill follows earlier disapproval by women who stormed the National Assembly lamenting rejection of women-related bills. The women, under the aegis of Nigerian Women Groups last week protested against the action of the…
A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Ebonyi state governor, Dave Umahi and his deputy, Eric Igwe to vacate their seats on grounds that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the election on March 2019 and not its candidate. It held that their defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) cannot transfer the mandate of the PDP to the APC. Citing section 221 of the constitution, Justice Inyang Ekwo ordered the PDP to send names of replacements to INEC immediately so that fresh elections can be conducted. Justice Ekwo also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to…