Author: Chief Editor

49 polling units removed from shrines, mosques, palaces, churches Announces dates for Ekiti, Osun guber elections Twenty-five years after the current Polling Units were created in 1996, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has created new 56,872 Polling Units, bringing the number to a total number of 176,846 from the existing 119,974 Polling Units. These will come into effect starting from the Anambra State Governorship election holding on November 6. The last elections to be conducted using the previous number of polling units are the four pending bye-elections in Kaduna, Jigawa and Plateau states. “Two of these elections,” according to…

The Court of Appeal sitting ìn Akure Wednesday declared that the appeal filed by the Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Eyitayo Jegede, against the decision of the Election Petition Tribunal that upheld the election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Mr Oluwatotimi Akeredolu’, in the October 10, 2020 poll, lacked merit. The five- man panel led by Justice Theresa Orji-Abadua gave the judgement after considering the seven grounds of appeal of Jegede. Jegede had approached the appealate court after the tribunal on April 20 dismissed his petition challenging the nomination and election of Akeredolu and Aiyedatiwa…

“After consultation with stakeholders, the Commission has successfully removed 749 Polling Units from inappropriate locations to appropriate public facilities or open spaces in line with our policy to guarantee unencumbered access to Polling Units for all voters,” INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu told a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday. “Of this figure, 232 were removed from private properties, 145 royal palaces, 6 Mosques, 21 Churches and 9 Shrines.” Yakubu said the decision was part of the commission’s effort to ensure “expansion of voter access to Polling Units by converting the Voting Points and Voting Point Settlements to full-fledged Polling Units.…

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reported 17 new coronavirus (COVID-19) infections in the country as of June 15. The NCDC made this known via its verified website on Wednesday morning. It noted that 11 states had zero cases reported, which were; Plateau, Nasarawa, Cross River, Imo, Kano, Bauchi, Kaduna, Sokoto, Oyo, Ondo and Ekiti States. According to NCDC, the 17 new cases were registered in Lagos – 13; Gombe – 1and Rivers – 3. The NCDC noted that the country had so far tested 2,231,409 persons since the first confirmed case relating to the COVID-19 was announced…

President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has often referred to the gazette which published the grazing laws in Nigeria. In his television interview to mark his 6th anniversary in power, he made reference to the so called gazette.  The President was echoing what his Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari said on April 1, 2018 when he was the Chancellor of the Kwara State University in Ilorin. On that day Professor Gambari referred to existing laws on grazing and that the major problem facing us now is the non-implementation of the grazing laws as contained in the gazette. My understanding is that…

• SWAGA insists it is South-West’s turn to produce next president • Says only traitors will compete with ex-governor The Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), yesterday, said it was in support of power shift to the South-West in the 2023 presidential election, adding that if Tinubu gets the ticket of his party, it will support him. Secretary-General of YCE, Dr. Kunle Olajide, stated this in an interview with The Guardian in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. He said: “We are in support of South-West producing the President in 2023. We have very many materials in the region. The Yoruba have…

Cristiano Ronaldo became the all-time top scorer in the history of the European Championship with a late penalty in Portugal’s opening Euro 2020 game against Hungary in Budapest on Tuesday. Ronaldo’s strike, which put the title holders 2-0 up with three minutes left, was his 10th in the European Championship finals, spread across five tournaments going back to 2004. Ronaldo then added another goal in stoppage time, his 11th Euros strike securing a 3-0 win in the Group F match. Ronaldo, at the age of 36, beats the previous mark of nine set by France’s Michel Platini. All of Platini’s…

Nigeria will get 3.92million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX facility between the end of July and early August. Meanwhile, the administration of the second dose of Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in the country will end by 25th June 2021. Speaking at the weekly Covid-19 vaccination briefing on Monday in Abuja, Executive  Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib said the agency officially closed the vaccination for the first dose on 24th May 2021 he said the agency has since been inundated with requests to be vaccinated, adding that in response, NPHCDA has decided to…

The Federal Government says Twitter and its founder, Jack Dorsey, are vicariously liable for the losses the country suffered during the EndSARS protest. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated this on Tuesday when he featured on “Politics Nationwide”, a Radio Nigeria call-in programme monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja. Mohammed alleged that Dorsey raised funds through Bitcoins to sponsor the EndSARS protest while his platform, Twitter, was used to fuel the crisis. He said when he made the allegations earlier, Nigerians did not take him seriously until an online media outfit carried out…

A human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, has sued the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), and the Federal Government for suspending social media platform, Twitter. In the originating motion marked FHC/L/CS/542/2021, Effiong is seeking nine reliefs including an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents from further suspending, deactivating or banning the operation and accessibility of Twitter or any other social media service in Nigeria. Effiong asked the court to declare as illegal the threat of criminal prosecution issued by Malami and Mohammed against Nigerians who ‘violate’ the suspension or ban…