Author: Chief Editor

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Borno has decried “high abuse of pentazocine injection among youths in the state.” The Commandant of the agency in Borno, Mr Joseph Icha, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri on Friday. NAN reports that pentazocine injection belongs to the group of medicines called narcotic analgesics (pain medicines). It acts on the Central Nervous System (CNS) to relieve moderate to severe pain and may be used before surgery or with a general anesthetic (medicine that puts you to sleep during surgery). Pentazocine is available only…

An elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, has hailed the emergence of Bola Tinubu as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress. In a congratulatory message on Thursday, Yakasai said history will be made if Tinubu emerges as the president of the country. The elder statesman said Tinubu’s emergence as president would signify “the total break away” from military influence in Nigeria’s polity. He said, “The election of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the APC Presidential Bearer is indeed an important political development in our country. This transition will lead us to a full-pledged democracy, a milestone of an acclaimed…

The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, has said the running mate to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, may come from the North-East geopolitical zone. According to Ado-Doguwa, this is based on the current zoning arrangement of the APC. Tinubu, a former Governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the APC, had emerged as the candidate of the ruling party on Wednesday. Despite that governors from the North in APC had reached a consensus that power should shift to the South after the two-term tenure of the President, Major General…

A former Central Bank of Nigeria’s Deputy Governor, Kingsley Moghalu, has lost the 2023 presidential ticket of the African Democratic Congress. This is as the founder of Roots Television, Dumebi Kachikwu, emerged as the 2023 presidential candidate of the ADC in the party’s presidential primary held in Abeokuta. He emerged the winner after defeating the likes of Moghalu, Chukwuka Monye, and eight other aspirants. Kachikwu, who is also the younger brother of Nigeria’s former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, polled 977 votes. Moghalu emerged second with 589 votes while Monye came third with 339 votes. [Punch]

Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Senatorial candidate of Labour Party (LP), Senator Victor Umeh has vowed to work with the presidential candidate of the party, Mr. Peter Obi to build the LP. Umeh said just as he worked with the former Governor of Anambra State to build APGA when many people who reveling around the party today were nowhere near it, both of them and other stakeholders would ensure that the LP becomes a formidable party. The former senator who spoke with THISDAY in an interview said: “This APGA you are seeing today, which…

The Abia State Labour Party (LP) yesterday elected a former bank chief and renowned economist, Mr. Alex Otti, as its governorship candidate for the 2023 general election. Otti, who joined LP last month following his dissatisfaction with the goings-on in his former party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), was returned unopposed at the party’s primaries held in Umuahia to elect governorship and National Assembly candidates. The Returning Officer, Innocent Okeke, who is also the Labour Party’s national vice-chairman, Southeast, said Otti polled a total of 454 affirmative votes to emerge the standard bearer of the workers’ party. With Labour Party’s…

Prince Adewole Adebayo, on Wednesday night, emerged as the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Adebayo, who scored 1526 votes, emerged as the SDP standard-bearer after defeating Khadijah Okunnu-Lamidi who polled 83 votes. According to Chairman, the Electoral Committee, Dr Umar Abdullahi, a total of 1769 delegates from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), were accredited for the election. In his acceptance speech, Adebayo vowed to defeat the candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar. According to him, Nigeria is not a difficult…

Operators in the oil and gas sector as well as other stakeholders are uncomfortable with the continued rise in the amount spent in subsidising Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, as it jumped to N947.51bn between January and April 2022. An analysis of data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited on Wednesday showed a monthly rise in PMS subsidy spendings by the oil firm, though NNPC described it as under-recovery/value shortfall. It was also gathered that the oil firm had informed the Federation Account Allocation Committee that it would deduct an estimated value shortfall of  N874.5bn in the…

The Ondo State Government on Wednesday said the death toll from the Sunday terrorists attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, is now 40. The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Banji Ajaka, disclosed this in a statement issued on Wednesday. Ajaka said as of Tuesday midnight, the state government’s record showed that those affected by the attack are 127 while 40 were confirmed dead. The PUNCH had earlier quoted the Catholic Bishop of Ondo Diocese, Jude Arogundade, as putting the casualty figure at 38. Ajaka, in the statement said, “The situation report as of 12midnight on Tuesday, June 7, 2022…

Niran Adedokun In the few years that I have had the privilege of public commentary, I have consistently tried to make three points about politics. The first is that politicians, all over the world, are driven by interests. Most of the time, these interests are in the following order: self, party and people. In other words, things other than societal development and the emancipation of the people are tertiary in the minds of the average politician. The second point I always tried to make is that most career politicians in Nigeria are the same, regardless of the political platform…