Author: Chief Editor

House of Representatives speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila has accepted the controversial petition by “Mutual Union of the Tiv in America” earlier rejected by his deputy Ahmed Idris Wase. A lawmaker representing Benue Gwer east/Gwer west federal constituency, Mark Terseer Gbillah, presented the petition accusing the federal government of not resettling the Tiv people displaced from their ancestral land through various attacks. Wase, while presiding at the time, rejected the petition from the group saying Nigerians in the diaspora do not “really know” the situation in Nigeria and thus they are not eligible to file petitions. As Gbillah read further the deputy…

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted unaccompanied parcels of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and cannabis sativa being shipped to the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Australia, Maldives and New Zealand. Mr Femi Babafemi, NDLEA Director, Media and Advocacy, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the agency intercepted the drugs between Saturday and Monday. Babafemi, however, said that a notorious trafficker, who was behind at least two of the parcels had been arrested after days of surveillance by NDLEA operatives. “Undercover narcotic agents attached to two international courier companies…

The House of Representatives has said that it was abnormal to produce Nigerian passports outside the country in view of its security features. Rep Timehin Adelegbe, Vice Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said this at the public hearing on incessant malpractices associated with diplomatic postings and deliberate draining of resources on Tuesday in Abuja. He said that the security features contained in the Nigerian passport should be guarded, adding that printing of a Nigerian passport by a private firm outside the country was abnormal. He said that most Nigerians were not happy with the process and collection of passports,…

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Dimeji Bankole, and former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, yesterday justified their defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying the move was aimed at joining forces with President Muhammadu Buhari to rebuild Nigeria. The two political gladiators from Ogun State, who spoke with journalists after meeting with President Buhari at the State House in Abuja, said Nigeria was currently going through trying times, and would require the efforts of everyone to pull the country back on track. Bankole, who defected from African Democratic Party (ADP), explained that he joined…

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has called on the National Assembly to suspend a bill before the House of Representatives seeking to institutionalise the use of hijab in schools. CAN said the bill is ill-timed and uncalled for. “The bill titled “Religious Discrimination (Prohibition, Prevention) Bill, 2021” is seeking to provide a mechanism for enforcing certain provisions of the Constitution and other international laws that recognise the right of female to adorn hijab in public and private establishments in Nigeria. CAN, in a statement by its General Secretary, Rev. Joseph Daramola said: “We wonder what the sponsors of the…

The Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has appealed to every state to establish a Diaspora Commission. Dabiri-Erewa’s appeal came on the background of Abia State becoming the first state in the country to set up a Diaspora Commission. A statement on Tuesday by the Head of Media and Public Relations, NIDCOM, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, while congratulating Abia State for the feat, asked other state to emulate the action. The NIDCOM boss said Abians have made history with the passage of the bill by the state House of Assembly.. She expressed her appreciation to the Abia parliamentarians as…

In today’s Nigeria, where the rate of unemployment has reached high heavens, getting a job is an uphill task. Millions of youths are facing daunting challenges in their lives. Unconfirmed reports say each year, about six hundred thousand youths graduate from the country’s tertiary institutions, out of which a meager two hundred thousand manage to get a job, while the remaining four hundred thousand roam about the streets. The 33.3 per cent unemployment figure released the other day by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that there is no respite. According to the NBS, 23.2 million of 69.7 million…

Nigeria has lost an estimated $600 billion to corrupt officials – but we rarely consider where that money has gone. The truth is it often ends up being laundered in the countries that lecture us on corruption. We cannot escape the fact that Nigeria is ranked 149th out of 180 countries for corruption. One study suggested that out of all Nigerian citizens who have had contact with a public official in the past year one in three paid or were asked to pay a bribe, with the average bribe nearly ₦6,000. Another suggested that corruption will be worth 37 per…

When President Muhammadu Buhari conceived the idea of a Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption (PACAC) in 2015, his intention was to have a body to advise his administration on the prosecution of the war against graft and the implementation of required reforms in Nigeria’s criminal justice system. Consequently, the president found Professor Itse Sagay, a seasoned law teacher and an acclaimed civil rights activist as the suitable person to chair the body. Other members of the Committee, which was also expected to develop comprehensive interventions for achieving recommended reforms, were the late Prof. Femi Odekunle, a Professor of Criminology, Ahmadu…

Like the case of Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (now the incumbent Director-General of the World Trade Organizations) who chronicled years of campaign of calumny against her person including attempts on her life and kidnap of her aged mother in a famous memoir, “Fighting Corruption is Dangerous,” promoters of the Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Professionals of Nigeria (CIFPN) Bill and members of the National Assembly can now attest to the danger of fighting corruption in Nigeria. They have recently come under sustained disparaging publications intended to dissuade supporters of…