Author: Chief Editor

Olusegun Adeniyi The African Initiative for Governance (AIG) Advisory Panel meeting last Friday was expected to last no more than two hours. We were still engaged in a robust conversation ten minutes after exceeding the scheduled time when our chairman, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, offered one of his usual anecdotes. This time from a 1961 military parade, involving the Regimental Sergeant Major and a late-arriving Adjutant. We knew what was to follow, as he asked Mr A.B. Mahmoud, SAN, to give the closing prayer. The Zoom meeting was attended by the AIG promoter, Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede and his wife, Ofovwe…

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) wednesrday rebutted allegation that its acting Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, owned property and evaded service of court summons over a matter long decided by the judiciary. A statement by the commission entitled: “Desperate Blackmailers, Allies of Corrupt Elements in Smear Campaign against EFCC, Magu,” said the allegations were the handiwork of politically-exposed persons based abroad. The commission stated that it was taking steps to institute legal action against media platforms used by the blackmailers against the commission and its chairman. “For his courage, consistency and never-say-die spirit, Magu, would undoubtedly, have a tribe…

Rivers State Governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, has blamed the rising COVID-19 cases in the state on unscreened oil workers. He said 60 per cent of infections recorded in the state came from such employees returning from rigs. Speaking when the management team of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited paid him a courtesy visit at Government House, Port Harcourt, the governor said the development accounted for why he insisted that oil workers coming into the state must be tested to know their coronavirus status. Wike said oil remained the mainstay of the economy and clarified all his actions were not targeted at…

The Federal High Court in Lagos has fixed June 2 to hear an application by a former Abia State governor, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, seeking his release from prison. The motion on notice will be heard by Justice Mohammed Liman. Orji is serving a 12-year jail term at the Correctional Service Centre in Kuje, Abuja for looting N7.65billion belonging to Abia State. The Senate’s Chief Whip has hired a 12-man team of lawyers, including six Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN)s, to prosecute his freedom bid. He filed the motion on May 12 asking the court to nullify his conviction. Justice…

Tottenham have launched an investigation after Ivory Coast defender Serge Aurier appeared to flout social-distancing rules for a third time by getting a haircut during the coronavirus lockdown. Aurier posted an Instagram photo on Tuesday showing off his new haircut and tagged the barber Justin Carr in his post. “Yes Sir @justscuts #LeCoiffeurEstBon?? (the hairdresser is good)” Aurier wrote next to the picture. Hairdressers are closed in Britain in line with the government’s rules on social distancing. They are not expected to open again until at least July 4. “We are investigating the circumstances and will deal with the incident…

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is optimistic about the chances of completing the Premier League season as the champions-elect returned to training in small groups on Wednesday. Klopp’s side were just two wins away from ending a 30-year wait to win the title when the English top-flight was shutdown more than two months ago due to the coronavirus pandemic. Six positive cases of COVID-19 were detected in the Premier League’s first round of 748 tests of players and staff ahead of a return to socially distanced training this week. At the start of the outbreak, Klopp accepted football should be suspended…

*Obasa got N80 million as estacode to attend women leadership programme A pro-democracy group, Concerned Nigerians has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate and prosecute the Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Honourable Mudashiru Obasa over alleges corruption and mismanagement. In the petition, the group through its convener Comrade Deji Adeyanju, said, “we write in line with your mandate to investigate, prosecute and penalise economic and financial crimes calling upon you to begin an investigation of the Speaker of Lagos State House Of Assembly, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa. “In the past weeks, an Online investigative newspaper, Sahara…

President Donald Trump again lashed out at China Wednesday over the coronavirus pandemic, blaming Beijing for “mass Worldwide killing.” The early morning tweet, which also referred to an unidentified “wacko in China,” was the latest heated rhetoric from the White House, where Trump is making attacks on Beijing a centerpiece of his November reelection bid. “It was the ‘incompetence of China’, and nothing else, that did this mass Worldwide killing,” the president tweeted. The virus first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December and spread rapidly around the world, killing more than 323,000 people at the latest count,…

Facing growing political opposition and protests in the street, Spain’s Pedro Sanchez called for unity on Wednesday as his minority government sought parliament’s approval for an extension of the lockdown. Pot-banging demonstrators have hit the streets of several cities to demand Sanchez’s government quits over its handling of the crisis and curbing of basic freedoms. “It’s the Spanish people who have stopped the virus together… nobody has the right to squander what we’ve achieved during these long weeks of confinement,” the prime minister told parliament, which is expected to back extending the state of emergency until June 6. The protests…

The Nigeria Medical Association in Lagos has directed its members to immediately proceed on an indefinite sit-at-home strike starting from 6.00 p.m. on Wednesday. The association gave the directive in a joint statement signed by its Chairman and Secretary, Saliu Oseni and Ramon Moronkola, respectively in Lagos. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that to strengthen compliance of the curfew, the police in Lagos on Tuesday mounted road blocks in different parts of Lagos by 8.00p.m. They also allegedly arrested some people, including essential workers that were presumed to have flouted the curfew directive. The NMA leaders said that…