Katsina State Governor, Hon. Aminu Masari, yesterday said the state was under siege by bandits and kidnappers despite the peace accord he signed with them. The governor explained that in the last two weeks, the bandits had killed over 50 persons and rustled unspecified number of animals in some communities bordering the deadly Rugu forest. Masari, who was speaking when he received the Chief of Defence Training and Operations, Defence Headquarters, Maj. Gen. Leo Irabor, who paid him a courtesy call in Katsina, said heinous activities orchestrated by the bandits were becoming worrisome. He said the bandits on Tuesday invaded…
Author: ACNN TV
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would meet today to review the situation in its offices across the country and take a decision on whether or not to review the dates and guidelines for the gubernatorial elections in Edo and Osun states. The commission was also expected to fix dates for the elections to fill vacant senatorial, House of Representatives and state Houses of Assembly seats nationwide. It would also clarify the resumption modules of activities that would be adopted at the meeting in line with the announcement by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19. INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information…
Members of the organised private sector (OPS) and some analysts have hailed the plan by the federal government to further review downward the oil price benchmark in the 2020 budget to $20 per barrel. The analysts said this during separate interviews with news men. The federal government had last month proposed a review of the oil price benchmark from $57 per barrel to $30 per barrel, but the new bill to back the proposal was not sent to the National Assembly. The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, on Tuesday said the latest plan was to…
Aviation industry stakeholders have applauded the plan by the federal government to provide bailout for domestic airlines to assist them to surmount the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The stakeholders and the House Committee on Aviation, however, condemned the decision by the federal government to engage the services of foreign airlines to evacuate Nigerians overseas. Addressing a web conference on Monday, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, had said the federal government was “also looking at how to support the aviation sector.” “Like you know, a lot of planes are parked and this is…
The federal government wednesday lamented, for the second time since Monday’s easing of the lockdown of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Ogun states, the refusal of citizens to comply with its guidelines on steps to curb the spread of COVID-19. Saying Nigerians were yet to come to terms with the deadly nature of the virus, it warned that there were great dangers ahead as the disease might spread exponentially with the attendant potential to overwhelm the public health system. Nigeria recorded 195 new cases wednesday, bringing to 3,145 the total number of confirmed cases in the country. In…
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has faulted those criticising him for describing the recently repatriated Abacha loots as “Abacha assets” Malami, in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja by his Special Assistant on Media, Dr. Umar Gwandu, said his attention had been drawn to the needless media hype relating to purported characterisation of the recovered assets associated with the former Head of State as “Abacha Assets.” He maintained that the choice of words was deliberate. “It is to be noted that by way of antecedence, I have been consistently describing the recovered funds as…
A dramatic deterioration in US-China relations in recent days has convinced current and former government advisers on both sides that bilateral ties have plummeted to their lowest point in decades. Over the past week, the Trump administration has threatened to scrap an initial trade deal and increase tariffs on China, backed tough new export controls for Chinese firms buying American tech products, and continued to push theories claiming the coronavirus originated in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan. The White House is also “turbocharging” an initiative among “friendly nations” to push manufacturing supply chains out of China, according to…
An unidentified patient, who tested positive for coronavirus in Bauchi, has fled from an isolation centre. Bauchi Deputy Governor, Sen. Baba Tela, who is the Chairman of the Taskforce Response Committee on Lassa Fever and Coronavirus, confirmed the development to newsmen at the Government House, Bauchi, the state capital while giving a situation update on Wednesday. He said: ”We had at least a case where a patient ran away though we have security personnel at virtually all isolation centres they are also humans. They have to protect themselves against further exposure to avoid more positive cases in the state”. ”Once…
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would present the government’s plans to ease the UK’s COVID-19 lockdown on Sunday.“We will, of course, be setting out the details about that plan on Sunday,” Johnson said on Wednesday during his first appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions in parliament after undergoing treatment for COVID-19.The prime minister was questioned by Labour Party leader Keir Starmer regarding the decision to publish the plan on Sunday, giving lawmakers little time to debate which measures will be relaxed. “The reason for that is very simple. We have to be sure that the data is going to support…
Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja says that the Catholic Church cannot administer its rites called Sacraments through phone or technology despite the restriction on the religious gathering. The Federal and some state governments across the country had for some weeks now ordered a lockdown on social and religious gatherings as part of measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Kaigama told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday that technology could not substitute for the presence of a priest or a minister of God who should administer the various sacraments on the faithful. A…