News

Former First Lady Patience Jonathan wants women to have more leadership roles

The wife of the former Nigerian President, Patience Jonathan has expressed dissatisfaction over the way women are sidelined in the government.

To this end , she has called for inclusion of more women in decision making process.

ln a statement she released on her Facebook, the former first lady sad her NGOS , Women for change and Development Initiative and Others have been providing counselling to women who are going through problems under the covid-19 forced lockdwn

INEC SAYS POLITICAL PARTIES MUST COMPLY WITH NCDC REGULATIONS ON COVID-19.

The Independent National Electoral Commission has warned political parties participating in the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Edo and Ondo to obey laid down laws and regulations by the Presidential Task force , NCDC and the states on covid-19 during the selection and nomination of candidates.

Inec Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu gave the warning while addressing a virtual meeting of the inter-agency consultative committee on election security.

The Inec chairman said that parties must conclude their primaries in the next 10 days adding that the June 27 2020 date is sacrosanct.

African Union disqualifies Okonjo Iweala ‘s nomination as WTO DG

In a document dated June 15, The African Union said the nomination of Doctor Okonjo-Iweala violated the rules of procedure of the committee on candidatures within the lnternational system of the AU.

The AU says it’s Executive council had endorsed the nominations of Frederick Agah, Abdul hameed Mamdouh and Eloi Laourou before Nigeria decided to replace its nomination

The AU further states that Nigeria’s new nomination of Okonjo-Iweala did nut meet the submission deadline and there are no more vacancies into which Nigeria can make nomination.

Nigeria had nominated Fedrick Agah into the office of the WTO when the Executive council of the AU in July 2019 asked member states to present nominations.

However on June 4 ,2020, Nigeria withdrew the nomination of Fedrick Agah and replaced him with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. ..

.Passenger stopped from flying for refusing to wear a face mask.

A passenger Bradon Straka was asked to get off a flight from New York to Dallas for refusing to wear a mask . as required by the American Airlines policy.

FG, States and LGAs share N547 billion naira

The Federation Accounts Allocation committee FAAC has shared a total of N547 billion to the three tiers of government for the month of May 2020.

The amount included Value Added Tax VAT, Exchange and bank charges recovered.

The allocation is distributed as follows.

Federal government- N219. bn

State government- N152.44bn

Local government- N114.1bn

In a statement issued at a virtual meeting in the federal capital tertiary the allocation committee said oil producing states received 37. 2 bn as 13 percent of oil revenue.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hermandez and wife Ana test positive for corona virus.

The President who addressed Hodurans Tuesday in a Television broadcast said he was receiving treatment and would continue to carry out his Presidential duties.
He said history wife is asymptomatic and self isolating.

Protests Rock Katsina, President Buhari’s Home State for another week.

The protesters in large numbers with some of the placard s captioned Buhari and Masari must go , and katsina is bleeding, said Banditry is taking a toll on Residents of the state.

The Protesters spokesman Jamilu Macaranchi said Residents could no longer sleep with their eyes closed called for urgent measures that would secure lives and property in thé state.

The President’s state is embroiled in a number of challenges that have made it to be in the spotlight for some time.

Yesterday an aide to the president on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu accused some traditional rulers in Katsina as being responsible for the unending violent attacks in the state.

According to him, some of them have been found to have collaborated with bandits to harm their own people for pecuniary gains.

Garba Shehu further revealed that in the height of the Zamfara conflict, katsina airport was used as operational base to launch attacks on bandits in Zamfara but efforts made to successfully strike the bandits were frustrated.

He said whenever an aircraft will take off to Zamfara unscrupulous elements would quickly inform the bandits to escape.

The disclosure made by Garba Shehu has generated mixed feelings from Nigerians.
While some faulted the blame on the traditional rulers by the government, others argue that the truth about the attacks in katsina was shrouded.

Those who argue in this line said if Garba Shehu who is the mouthpiece of Mr President could say that government is aware that traditional rulers are aiding banditry, then why have they not been arrested and prosecuted?

They expressed worry that if lives and property could not be secured in the President’s home state then every state is vulnerable .

Last week protesters in katsina tore billboards bearing the President’s photographs for what they say was the inability of the president to stop incessant killing following the killing of 50 persons in 8 communities in Faskari local government area of the state.

A katsina indigene Ibrahim Salisu said the bandits kill and rape women at will and no one can stop them as they parade sophisticated weapons.

The protests incured the remark of the katsina state police.Katsina State police commissioner, Sanusi Buba who said that the attacks in katsina are not as bad as reported.

He averred that it was difficult to end a crisis which started over three 3 decades within a short time adding the police are doing their best as they have arrested several bandits and are not relenting to catch the king pin of the bandits Adamu Aliero-Yankuzo who is said to be at large.

Consequent upon this, the Police have placed a 5million naira bounty on the head of the kingpin.

The protests organise by civil society groups seeks to draw the attention of the government to the plight of the people and looking at what is going on in the state suggests the hands of the state governor, Aminu Masari are full.
Katsina State borders Niger Republic and it is not clear where the bandits come from or what reasons they have for their devilish actions.

Federal Government To Approve Funding For Bonny High-speed Rail Line– by Boma Nwuke

The Federal Government is set to fund the High Speed Rail Line it approved for Bonny in July.

The High Speed Rail Line on completion in the third quarter of 2022 will link Bonny Island to Port Harcourt.

The Senior Special Adviser to the President on Public Affairs, Anjuri Ngelale who disclosed this in his twitter handle said that approval for funding the Speed Train Line will be taken at the Federal Executive Council Meeting in July 2020

The Rail Line will complement the 38kilometre Bonny-Road being constructed at the cost of 120billion naira.

The Road is a joint venture agreement between the Federal Government and the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas limited. NLNG which has since paid its 60billion counterpart funding..

NLNG is a joint venture Incorporated in 1989,to maximize flared Liquified Natural Gas and Natural Gas Liquids for exports.

Liquified Natural Gas is a by product of Natural Gas produced in the process of Crude oil exploration and production, Natural Gas is an Associated product with crude in the process of Crude oil exploration and production.

The Associated gas comes from crude oil exploration fields offshore and onshore and offshore and then

It is then piped to pipelines where it is processed and transported to Bonny through what is called Gas Transmission System (GTS).

This is a network of pipelines from Obiafu Obrikom to Obite in Onelga through Ahoada,Abua,Delga okrika and into Bonny.

Before NLNG came on board, the gas that came out with the crude was just flared, that is it was released to the air with attendant environmental consequences,

NLNG came along and processed the flared gas through Liquefaction and conveyance in purpose built ships to buyers abroad.

The construction of the High Speed Rail Line will positively impact on NLNG, Shell, Mobil and Agip who have operations in Bonny as well as Rivers and Nigeria as a whole.

It will drastically reduce transportation costs of goods and services.

It will boost commercial activities, create job opportunities for people
and bring about better life.

Although NLNG products are not transported in trains but are conveyed through purpose built ships the reason being that they are compressed to a temperature of minus 160 degrees to enable them fit into the tanks in that state to the receiving terminals abroad, the good news is that the Speed Train Line which is first of its kind will fasten the development of the areas.

Covid 19 cases in Nigeria hits 13464 with 663 new cases recorded under 24hours

The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control has announced a total of six hundred and sixty three covid-19 cases recorded in 25 States and the Federal Capital Territory.

The NCDC said the total number of covid 19 cases now stand at 13464 with 365 deaths while 4206

According to the NCDC the states affected are
Lagos having the highest number of infection at
170
Ogun 108

Bauchi 69

Ebonyi 49

Edo 33

Rivers 30

FCT 26

Jigawa 26

Delta. 20

Anambra. 17

Kano 16

Gombe. 16