Africa

Boko Haram: Nigeria to Negotiate for Dapchi Schoolgirls’ Release
Boko Haram, Nigeria, Security, Terrorism

Boko Haram: Nigeria to Negotiate for Dapchi Schoolgirls’ Release

The Nigerian government says it will negotiate for the release of 110 abducted schoolgirls rather than use military force. The students were seized last month from their school in the town of Dapchi by the militant group Boko Haram. However, the Nigerian authorities know that sending troops and aircraft in pursuit of the jihadists holding the abducted school girls is an extremely risky strategy. President Muhammadu Buhari said the government had chosen negotiation over the military option and Nigeria was working with international organisations and negotiators to ensure that the girls were released unharmed by their captors. Negotiations have been partially successful before. Dozens of the Chibok school girls were freed in exchange for the release of Boko Haram prisoners. The g...
Nigeria: Buhari Is Not In Charge of Anything – Secondus
Fulani Herdsmen, Justice, Nigeria, Security

Nigeria: Buhari Is Not In Charge of Anything – Secondus

The Peoples Democratic Party, the Centre for the Defence of Human Rights and the National Conscience Party have berated Buhari over the IG’s refusal to relocate to Benue State. The National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, said Buhari was not in charge of the All Progressives Congress government. Secondus told one of our correspondents that because the President had been far from the people, the cabal in the Presidency had hijacked him. He said, “Buhari is not in charge of anything. He does not have genuine people around him. “How can a President give a directive and it is ignored? Yet he did not know. How would he know when he surrounds himself with sycophants?” Also, the PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, noted that Buhari’...
Nigeria: IGP Disobeyed Buhari’s Order to Stay In benue
Fulani Herdsmen, Nigeria, Security, Terrorism

Nigeria: IGP Disobeyed Buhari’s Order to Stay In benue

Following President Muhammadu Buhari's declaration on Monday that he was not aware that the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, ignored his instruction to relocate to Benue State during the crisis in the state, it is clear that the IGP disobeyed a direct order from his commander in chief. President Buhari made public his ignorance of the action of the IGP at a meeting with stakeholders in Makurdi, during his visit to Benue State. Shortly after 73 persons were killed in January following clashes between farmers and herdsmen, Buhari had asked Idris to relocate to Benue. But during the meeting with stakeholders, Buhari was told that Idris did not spend up to 24 hours in the state. Buhari, who expressed shock, explained that he did the needful by ordering the IG to relocate...
World: Nigerian – Chile Eboe-Osuji Elected President of the ICC
Justice, Nigeria

World: Nigerian – Chile Eboe-Osuji Elected President of the ICC

The judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), sitting in a plenary session on 11 March 2018, elected Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji (Nigeria) as President of the Court for a three-year term with immediate effect. Judge Robert Fremr (Czech Republic) was elected First Vice-President and Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut (France) Second Vice-President. "I am deeply honoured to have been elected by my peers as President of the International Criminal Court. As I take up my duties, I feel encouraged that I am able to rely on the wide experience of the two Vice-Presidents, Judge Robert Fremr and Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, both of whom I have closely worked with previously. I look forward to working together with them as well as with all the judges, all the Officials and the staff of ...
Nigeria: Ogbeh’s Claim on Rice False, Says Thailand Ambassador
Agriculture, Economy, News, Nigeria

Nigeria: Ogbeh’s Claim on Rice False, Says Thailand Ambassador

Ambassador of Thailand to Nigeria, Wattana Kunwongse, has denied the claim by Chief Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture, that rice mills are collapsing in the Asian country. On Friday, Ogbeh had claimed that Thailand said President Muhammadu Buhari’s policy on local rice sufficiency was responsible for the collapse of seven of its mills. He said: “Just like two weeks ago, the ambassador of Thailand came to my office and said to me that we have really dealt with them. “But I asked what did we do wrong and he said unemployment in Thailand was one of the lowest in the world, 1.2 per cent, it has gone up to four percent because seven giant rice mills have shut down because Nigeria’s import has fallen by 95 per cent on rice alone.” TheCable fact-checked the minister’s claims and fou...
Nigeria: The Salary of a Senator is About N750, 000.00 Per Month – Shehu Sani
Nigeria

Nigeria: The Salary of a Senator is About N750, 000.00 Per Month – Shehu Sani

Senator Shehu Sani has come out in a recent interview to state that a Senator's salary in a month is about N750,000.00. It's however not clear if this is the basic salary or inclusive of allowances. A lot of Nigerians have been speaking out on the huge costs of running the senate. Senator explains these expenses in this interview with TheNews Magazine. He explained that every senator gets about 13.5 million monthly for running  the office, N750,000.00 as personal salary and N200 million as constituency fund. Here is his explanation: "What I am saying is that that money (N13.5 million per month) must be receipted for what you do with it. But what you are given to go and spend without any accountability is N750,000.00. “The constituency project itself is given on a zonal basis an...
Nigeria: Joel Obi Returns As Rohr Snubs Martins, Ajiboye
Nigeria, Sports

Nigeria: Joel Obi Returns As Rohr Snubs Martins, Ajiboye

Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr has rewarded Torino midfielder Joel Obi with a recall to the Super Eagles after four years in the international wilderness. The 26-year-old, whose electric start to his career at Inter Milan was ruined by injuries, has continued his blistering form for Torino this season since returning to the field after missing the first half of the 2015–16 season. Rohr proved he has been monitoring Obi’s performance in the Italian Serie A this season as he on Wednesday named him in his 28-man squad for Nigeria’s friendly matches against Poland and Serbia ahead of the Russia 2018 World Cup. The Eagles face Poland in Wroclaw on March 23 before travelling to London to clash against Serbia four days later. Obi, who has scored four Serie A goals in 15 appearances for the...
Nigeria: Ikeja NBA Gives Lagos Seven-day Ultimatum to Reverse Land Use Charge
Economy, Nigeria

Nigeria: Ikeja NBA Gives Lagos Seven-day Ultimatum to Reverse Land Use Charge

The Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, has given the Lagos State Government a seven-day ultimatum to reverse the recent hike in Land Use Charge. The Chairman, NBA Ikeja Branch, Mr. Adesina Ogunlana, said in a statement on Wednesday that the association was set to embark on a mass protest tagged: ‘Hell Tax Must Go’ against the new tax regime. Ogunlana stated that the NBA was strongly opposed to the LUC, which he described as an “excessive and arbitrary tax regime” calculated at turning Lagos State into a “toxic environment and a living hell” for the residents. He said the association would give Governor Akinwunmi Ambode till next Monday to retrace his steps on the LUC, failing which its members would hit the streets on Tuesday. According to him, the protest will be the asso...
Biafra: IPOB Threatens to Disrupt Ohanaeze’s Meetings on Restructuring
Biafra, Nigeria

Biafra: IPOB Threatens to Disrupt Ohanaeze’s Meetings on Restructuring

DESPITE its apology and regrets for disrupting the Eastern Consultative Assembly, ECA, meeting of Igbo leaders in Enugu recently, the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, has threatened to disrupt any meeting of Ohanaeze Ndigbo meant to discuss restructuring of Nigeria, or 2019 election, as it insists that Biafra is non-negotiable. IPOB in a statement yesterday, blasted Ohanaeze Ndigbo for sabotage, warning that any meeting organised by Igbo leaders on restructuring and one Nigeria will be disrupted. This is as another pro-Biafra group, Coalition of Biafra Restoration Citizens, declared that its members would actively participate in 2019 election to elect people, who genuinely have the interest of Ndigbo at heart, irrespective of their political affiliations. The group blamed the marg...
Nigeria: Learn from Ghanaian President, PDP Tells Buhari
Ghana, News, Nigeria

Nigeria: Learn from Ghanaian President, PDP Tells Buhari

The Peoples Democratic Party has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to use the benefit of his state visit to Ghana to draw lessons from his Ghanaian counterpart, President Nana Akufo-Addo on how to run a peaceful, united and economically vibrant nation. The party also criticised the President for offering to assist Ghana in her war against corruption, when his own administration allegedly “reeks heavily with corruption as evinced by the Transparency International report which exposed the fact that corruption has worsened in Nigeria under your watch.” The party, in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in Abuja on Wednesday, said the President and his handlers should have been embarrassed that while the President of Ghana paraded credentials ...