Author: Chief Editor

•Sees proposed demonstration as decoy for political action to force ‘Mali situation’ on Nigeria •Security agencies placed on red alert The federal government would treat any fresh demonstration against perceived police brutality or any other issue, particularly if it threatens to disrupt peace and security of any part of the country, as high treason aimed at unconstitutional regime change, highly placed security sources told THISDAY last night. Notice of a fresh protest, of alleged federal government’s harassment of promoters of the #EndSARS protests held in October, scheduled for December 5 has been trending in social media for weeks. This has…

The Senate at the weekend revealed that the total sum of N3 billion would be required to resuscitate the Ajaokuta steel rolling mill which has been under construction since 1980. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals, Mines and Steel Development, Senator Tanko Al-Makura, said the multi-billion dollar project may remain a dream if N3 billion is not provided for the reactivation of the 21 plants next year. This is just as he lamented that workers of the complex working in the Mining Cadastral Office will not be getting their monthly salaries from January 2021 as World Bank…

Nigerians must have breathed a sigh of relief following the report that significant progress has been made at the meeting of the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) held on Friday 20th November, 2020. According to media reports, the Federal Government has acceded to many of the demands from ASUU, notable among them being the possibility of using some other platform and not Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS) for payment of Universities staff salaries and allowances. That it also offered N65billion to settle the payment of earned allowances and revitalisation of the federal universities. It…

The morning after the night when protesters at Lekki toll gate were supposedly massacred by the Nigerian Army, the BBC News hour programme interviewed Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu around 6am on whether he invited the army and who gave orders that unarmed protesters be shot. The governor confirmed that he invited the army but that they were supposed to arrive later than the time they came. Did he order the shooting of protesters? “I am not the C-in-C,” he said, adding that the army does not take orders from him. He was then asked if he knew who the people that…

Representative of Borno South in the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume, has apologised to former President Goodluck Jonathan for “criticising and ganging up” against his adminisration. He stated that the ex-leader had left an enduring legacy in the polity. The lawmaker explained that many people who were skeptical of Jonathan’s vision for the country, now realised how great he is, adding that “Nigerians don’t value what they have until they lose it.” Speaking at the weekend at a book launch titled ‘Everything heals’ and authored by Dr. Susana Adams in Abuja, Ndume noted: “I want to appreciate Mr. President (Goodluck Jonathan).…

IF any institution needs massive moral enhancement at this time, it is the Nigeria police, which is still devastated in all departments, from the aftermath of #EndSARS protest countrywide. Therefore, the promise of support to the police, offered by the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) should be appreciated. Similarly, the recent approval of promotions for thousands of junior police officers is a step in the right direction. But the police need a far deeper re-orientation of their operations and relationship with the public, if the problems that led to the protest are to be prevented from recurring. A coalition formed by…

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has condemned the killing of over 40 rice farmers in Garin Kwashebe, Jere Local Government Area of Borno State on Saturday, by suspected Boko Haram terrorists. The forum, in a statement by its Chairman and the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Kayode Fayemi, in a statement on Sunday in Abuja, described the attack as morally reprehensible. He said that the attack brought back ugly memories of several dastardly attacks on soft targets in the state. Fayemi noted that the farmers were attacked while harvesting their produce totally oblivious of the danger that awaits them in…

Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, yesterday, on grounds of “good behaviour”, admitted Senator Ali Ndume to bail over his suretyship for former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina. Maina, who is standing trial on a 12-count charge of alleged N2 billion money laundering, was assumed to have jumped bail following his failure to appear in court for his trial on four different adjournments. It would be recalled that Justice Abang had admitted Maina to bail in the sum of N500 million and a surety in like sum, who must be a…

Federal Government has said that its negotiations with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has yielded fruitful results. Addressing journalists shortly after their parley held in Abuja yesterday, Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige said that deliberations had been very fruitful and that government had met all the demands of the lecturers. He said that the only thing that remained was for ASUU to take the outcome of the meeting to their members for ratification and to revert to government’ with a resolution to call off the strike latest by Friday next week. Also while corroborating the…

•Says news network exhibiting panic by seeking to clarify its tweet 35 days after Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has excoriated Cable News Network (CNN) for exhibiting panic over its reports on the Lekki Toll Gate incident by seeking to clarify its tweet some 35 days later where it denied it never attributed the death toll of 38 to Amnesty International. In a tacit admission that it misreported the death toll at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos, CNN on Thursday also stated that its October 23 report on the incident did not make it clear that…