Author: Olukayode Oke

The National Human Rights Commission will commence an investigation into a report that the Nigerian Army had been running a secret abortion programme since at least 2013 for which about 10,000 pregnancies have been aborted, its Executive Secretary, Tony Ojukwu (SAN) said on Tuesday. Already, the commission said it would on February 7, 2023, inaugurate a Special Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations in the Implementation of Counter Insurgency Operations in the North East. An international news agency, Reuters, had accused the Nigerian Army of running a programme where forceful abortions were carried out on female victims of Boko Haram/Islamic…

The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Tuesday said it was not in the purview of the National Universities Commission and other tertiary institutions regulatory agencies to shut schools to allow students in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to vote during the forthcoming elections. This was according to a member of the National Executive Council of ASUU and chairperson of the union at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Prof Gbolahan Bolarin. He was reacting to calls from individuals and groups, including the House of Representatives that the nation’s higher institutions should be shut during elections so that students…

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday directed the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to enhance border surveillance and control ahead of the forthcoming general election. This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja by Mr Sola Fasure, the Media Adviser to Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola. Aregbesola conveyed the President’s directive while inaugurating Katsina State NIS Command office and Roll-Out of the enhanced e-Passport in the state. “President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that Nigerian borders should be made impenetrable to foreign bodies who might want to come in and manipulate the election process or engage in other nefarious activities. “The order…

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Resident Electoral Commissioner for Osun State, Dr Mutiu Agboke has revealed that it was the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine that exposed that there was over voting in the Osun 2022 gubernatorial election. This is as Agboke also debunked insinuations that the BVAS was used for voting. This latest reaction is coming on the heels of the judgment of the Osun guber election petition tribunal on Friday which established that there was over voting during the Osun 2022 guber poll. While noting that the BVAS machine was only used for voter accreditation, the…

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), on Tuesday, announced it has taken over assets owned by Addax Petroleum. The move followed the termination of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) relationship between both organisations. The NNPCL in a tweet said:“After fulfilling closing obligations, @nnpclimited and Addax Petroleum Development (Nigeria) Ltd today amicably terminated their 24-Year Production Sharing Contract (PSC) relationship.” “GCEO @nnpclimited Mallam @MKKyari and Mr. Yonghong Chen (Outgoing MD Addax) signed the closing documents at the #NNPCTowers on behalf of the two parties, to symbolise the amicable termination of the relationship.”

Bayern Munich forward Sadio Mane trained with the ball for the first time in three months on Wednesday, two weeks ahead of the club’s crucial Paris Saint Germain clash. Mane, 30, took part in the Tuesday morning session, one week after his return to the training pitch. Mane injured a tendon in his leg during his side’s 6-1 win over Werder Bremen in November and required surgery that forced him to miss Senegal’s World Cup campaign in Qatar. Bayern travel to Paris for the first leg of the Champions League last 16 tie on February 14, with the return fixture…

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Tuesday, described former Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of the Concord Group of newspapers, Doyin Abiola, 80, as a media icon who upheld the truth and worked zealously for good governance. Buhari’s congratulatory message is contained in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, titled ‘President Buhari celebrates Dr Doyin Abiola at 80.’ Born on February 1, 1943, Dr Abiola was the Managing Director and Publisher of National Concord Newspaper. A role she assumed in 1986, making her the first Nigerian woman to become the editor-in-chief of…

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, on Monday, headed to Jigawa State in continuation of his campaign ahead of the February 25 presidential election. Obi assured a crowd of supporters in Dutse that he and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed remain committed to delivering a “new Nigeria” if voted into power at the polls. “I assure you that we are committed to a new Nigeria. The Nigeria you see today is Nigeria of insecurity, Nigeria of poverty, Nigeria of no work, Nigeria of no roads, Nigeria of no schools. That is what we want to change.…

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Femi Fani-Kayode, has alleged the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has weaponised the apex bank and that he wants to derail the country’s democracy by provoking an uprising. The former minister of aviation made the statement in a post via his verified Twitter handle on Tuesday. Recall that the CBN had announced January 31 2023, as the deadline for swapping old naira notes with new ones. With a few days to the deadline, Nigerians had lamented their inability to exchange their old notes with the redesigned ones. However,…

Nigeria has again fallen by four places on the latest Corruption Perception Index, CPI, ranking released by Transparency International, TI, on Tuesday. Although in the 2022 ranking, Nigeria scored 24 out of 100 points, it fell from 150th to 154th out of 180 countries assessed in the 2022 ranking. The CPI is TI’s tool for measuring the levels of corruption in the systems of various countries around the world. A country can score maximum points 100 points, and the least is zero. Zero signifies the worst-performing government, and 100 is the best-ranked. The latest ranking may indicate that President Muhammadu…

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says a cashless policy, when effectively operated in Nigeria, can help stem the surge of illicit election financing by making it possible to track funds. Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement on Monday in Abuja, said the vice president received a delegation of the EU Election Observation Mission led by Mr Barry Andrews. The EU Chief Observer is also a member of the European Parliament. “I think that what we should be looking at is to provide more infrastructures. “ The cashless thing has been really advantageous and helps with tracking. “That sort of infrastructure…

The Director General, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Mr. Joseph Ari, yesterday unveiled a blueprint for the National Apprenticeship and Traineeship System (NATS) to institutionalise and boost skills acquisition in the country. This was just as the World Bank Senior Education Specialist, Mr. Tunde Adekola, confirmed that the Bretton Woods institution had released the sum of $200 million to the federal government towards enhancing vocational skills education in Nigeria. Both spoke at the official launch of the framework for NATS in Abuja. Adekola said the World Bank-assisted education project, known as Innovative Development for Effectiveness and Acquisition of Skills in Nigeria,…