No fewer than three persons escaped death when a cement-loaded truck belonging to Dangote Group rammed into a taxi in Panseke area of Abeokuta, Ogun State, in the late hours of Thursday. Punch reporter who visited the scene of the accident gathered that the Dangote truck with registration number GRZ753XA, Kano, rammed into the taxi with registration number FFF197XB, Ogun, crushed it against the culvert, and damaged the rear windshield of the taxi. An eyewitness who spoke with PUNCH Metro, Ismat Abdulsalam, noted that the accident occurred when the Dangote truck tried to climb the hill part of the…
Author: meridianspy
The Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Christopher Musa, has pledged the military’s support to ensure peaceful and successful conduct of 2023 census exercise. General Musa disclosed this while playing host of Nigerian Population Commission, NPC, delegates led by Honorable Nasiru Isa Kwarra at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja on Thursday. Musa acknowledged the significance of an accurate census in steering the nation towards robust growth and security. The CDS pledged the military’s wholehearted cooperation in providing logistical support and security coverage for the census. “We’ll assist the commission in the aspect of logistic. As you know the military has…
Some lawyers on Thursday staged a walkout on a programme that was being held as part of the Nigerian Bar Association’s annual general conference in Abuja. The programme which was tagged ‘Unbarred’ was held at the Velodrome of the MKO Abiola Stadium. According to the event’s poster, the host was Timi Agbaje. DJ Skillz and Veentage Band were billed to man the Music Policy and it promised a surprise act. After waiting for the concert to begin for several hours, lawyers were astonished to hear Portable was the guest performer. The NBA president, Yakubu Maikyau, gave a brief speech…
Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation and aerospace development, has ordered all foreign airlines to cease operations at MMIA as of October 1, 2023. He claimed that this became necessary to make place for airport-wide repair work. The minister disclosed this during a tour at the international airports in Lagos, where he was accompanied by the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr. Kabir Yusuf Mohammed The minister while speaking at the sideline of the airport tour, directed the airlines and companies operating in the airport to move to the new terminal, MMIA terminal two constructed by the Chinese…
Six Ukrainian soldiers were killed as two military chopper crashes during a combat mission in the east of the country, investigators said Thursday. The crashes took place Tuesday in the Kramatorsk district of the eastern Donetsk region. the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) did not give details on what happened. “Two Mi-8 military helicopters crashed during a combat mission. Six servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine died,” the SBI said in a statement. It said a pre-trial investigation by the Security Intelligence Service would provisionally focus on possible safety breaches during or in preparation for the flight, which would…
Prior to the governorship elections in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) launched the portal for ad hoc personnel hiring. The application process for the off-season elections will open on Thursday, August 31, 2023, according to the electoral umpire. In a statement titled “Notice of Recruitment of Ad-hoc Staff,” INEC announced that the application site for the recruitment process would close on October 2, 2023. “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) invites you to apply as an Ad-Hoc Staff for the upcoming off-cycle Governorship Elections in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi States. “Portal Opens: Thursday, 31st August…
Police Need 190,000 More Personnel To Secure Nigeria, Says IG Olukayode Egbetokun, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), says that a shortage of officers is impeding the agency’s attempts to combat crime. He claims that 190,000 more people are required for the police to adequately staff the entire nation. In a paper presentation to the Senior Executive Course 45 on Wednesday at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies in Kuru, Plateau State, IGP Egbetokun made this statement. He asserts that Nigeria’s police-to-citizen ratio is 1-650, compared to the UN’s suggested ratio of one police officer to 460 citizens. “Therefore,…
FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has disclosed that there is a garnishee order to the tune of $800m against the FCT Administration, saying the administration is in a mess. To fix some of the challenges, the minister yesterday threatened to take serious actions against highly placed persons whose actions were producing a negative impact on the FCTA Wike, while drawing attention to the impact of the order on the economy, said the amount was enough to fund the budget of the FCTA for 10 years. The minister, who spoke on the state of the economy of the FCTA, said the situation…
Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya has reshuffled his military commanders. Biya has been in power since 1982. The key changes in the country’s ministry of defense, comes hours after the coup in Gabon. Paul Biya, 90 years old (born 13 February 1933), has been the president of Cameroon since November 6, 1982. Prior to that post, he served as prime minister (1975–82). He is Africa’s second-longest-reigning president, the world’s oldest non-royal national leader, the oldest head of state in the world, and the oldest president in Africa.
Obi Would have Won If he’s Better than Tinubu — Wik The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, said if the flag bearer of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, was a better candidate, Nigerians would have voted him in the February 25, 2023 poll. The ex-governor of Rivers State said he supported the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the expense of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the standard bearer of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the keenly contested poll. Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday, Wike…
Nyesom Wike, the minister for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has dared the PDP leadership to suspend or penalise him. The party leader who will suspend or remove Wike from the party has not been seen, according to Wike, who spoke exclusively on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday. “Who will correct me? Since the party encouraged rotation, I ought to be the one demanding that these people who disobeyed the party’s rules be punished. He informed PDP leadership before he took the ministerial offer of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Wike, the former…
President Bola Tinubu has reacted to developments unfolding in Gabon very closely “and with deep concern for the country’s socio-political stability and the seeming autocratic contagion appearing to spread to other parts of the African continent.” The President, according to a statement by his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, “remains steadfast in his unwavering belief that power belongs in the hands of Africa’s great people and not in the barrel of a loaded gun.” The President affirmed that the rule of law and a faithful recourse to constitutional instruments of electoral dispute resolution must not be allowed to perish from our…