Author: Chief Editor

Last week, many Nigerians mocked the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), over the pigeons that refused to fly at the Armed Forces Remembrance Day 2021 ceremony in Abuja. When a similar thing happened in 2014 to the then president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, a Roman Catholic priest, Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka, proclaimed that it was a sign that God had abandoned Jonathan. A presidential election was scheduled the next year. Therefore, politics was in the air. In 2019, the pigeons released by Buhari also refused to fly. He was ridiculed over that, too. Traditionally, as a sign of peace and…

The Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma, has warned that failure to wear face mask in compliance with the protocols on COVID-19 would lead to the arrest and prosecution in the state. Uzodimma, who spoke with reporters yesterday after a closed-door session with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, said that the state government has introduced sanctions for those who refused to wear face masks. He added that a Task Force on COVID-19 has been set up in the state while measures are being taken to reduce the spread of the disease and ensure the safety of…

The trial of a former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu (rtd) continued yesterday before Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of a Federal High Court, Ikoyi with a witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) further testifying against Amosu and two others on their complicity in the alleged diversion to personal use of about N21 billion belonging to the Nigeria Air Force. An EFCC statement recalled that Amosu, alongside Air Vice Marshall Jacobs Adigun, a former NAF Chief of Accounts and Budget, and Air Commodore Gbadebo Owodunni, a former NAF Director of Finance and Budget, are standing trial…

The World Bank projection that more Nigerians will cross over to the poverty bracket is actually begging the issue, given the negative performances of virtually all socio-economic indices presently in the country. The potential impact of COVID-19 on poverty in Nigeria is glaring and it is unfornunate that while COVID-19 is spiking, poverty is equally dealing a blow on Nigerians. Clearly, the scenario poses serious challenge to government which nevertheless has a duty to confront poverty, and also to stem criminality and other potential dislocations that may ensue. Recently, the World Bank projected that the number of poor Nigerians will…

During the 2015 face-off between members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria and the Nigerian Army, which resulted in a blood bath that snuffed the life out of several people in what was tagged Zaria Massacre by the media, the distinction between the duties of the Nigerian Police and that of their military counterparts came to question. It was a moot issue whether the police should have been called in to quell a civil insurrection in a way that disproportionate force inherent in an impasse between soldiers and civilians would be averted. The codenaming of operations, issuing various statements and…

•Says extremists pose threat to peaceful co-existence The venerable writer and 1986 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has called on Nigerians to take extreme care before imputing any act or pronouncement as an attack on faith. He was reacting to the criticisms that have followed the Christmas Day speech of the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, including one by a group – Muslim Solidarity Forum – which asked Kukah to apologise or leave Sokoto, a state in the Muslim-dominated North. Soyinka, in a statement issued yesterday and titled, “The Kukah offence and ongoing offensives”, said…

A former presidential candidate, Prof Pat Utomi, has said the incoming administration of US President-elect, Joe Biden, won’t support the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Speaking in an exclusive interview with newsmen on Monday, Utomi said former US President Barack Obama and his then-deputy, Biden, backed a regime change in Nigeria in 2015 but the change has not done the West African country any good. “Obama was an extreme activist in seeking regime change in Nigeria because of the vast corruption and many of us supported the move but we later found out that the corruption did not change; Nigeria…

Leicester have to start planning for life without Jamie Vardy, manager Brendan Rodgers admitted on Monday, but he believes the 34-year-old still has plenty to offer. Vardy has been pivotal to the Foxes’ impressive Premier League campaign thus far, scoring 13 times in 19 games. The former England international will be fit to face Chelsea on Tuesday despite coming off late in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Southampton with a recurring hip problem. “Of course, the backdrop is the club always has to be looking forward and planning forward, not just in Jamie’s position but in every position — it’s something…

The World Health Organization and Beijing could have acted faster when Covid-19 first surfaced in China, a group investigating the global response has concluded. In its second report, the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response said that an evaluation of the “chronology of the early phase of the outbreak suggests that there was potential for early signs to have been acted on more rapidly”. Covid-19 was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, before seeping beyond China’s borders to wreak global havoc, costing more than two million lives and eviscerating economies. In its report, the…

The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Monday, ordered the resumption of trial in the N1.9 billion money laundering charge against former Governor of Niger, Babangida Aliyu. Delivering judgment, Justice Inyang Ekwo, dismissed an administrative directive that okayed the trial of Aliyu, which started in 2017, to start de-novo (fresh). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ex-governor is facing an eight count money laundering charge alongside his former Chief of Staff and governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Umar Nasko, filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Ekwo held that former…