Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has been dragged on social media for his remarks on the supporters of the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi. Prof Soyinka, in a statement titled, “Media responsibility,’’ on Tuesday, had said he warned the LP flag-bearer on “excesses” of his supporters, otherwise known as ‘Obidients’. “My rejection of fascism is nothing new. On three occasions, I was able to send a message to Peter Obi that if he lost the election, it would be his followers who lost it for him. “It was depressing to watch his lieutenant, a crucially positioned voice…
Author: meridianspy
Subsidy: FG gets $800m From World Bank As Palliatives For Poor Nigerian The Federal Government has secured the sum of $800 million from the World Bank under the National Social Investment Programme as part of palliatives to cushion the negative effects of the plan to remove subsidy on the petroleum products by June 2023. The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, announced this Wednesday while fielding questions from State House reporters after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. She said the fund which had been secured was ready for disbursement.…
There is uproar along the Apapa-Oshodi expressway following the alleged killing of a policeman by some commercial motorcyclists popularly known as okada riders. At least three guns belonging to the police were allegedly hijacked. Daily Trust reports and sighted the lifeless body of the police by the roadside and observed that no fewer than five patrol vehicles filled with fully armed policemen were pursuing the okada riders towards Second Rainbow/Mile 2 along the expressway. The riders were also seen brandishing objects like cutlasses, sticks and iron rods as they fled from police arrest. The cause of the confrontation between the…
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the sum of N320,345,040, 835 as the 2023 intervention funds for public tertiary education institutions in the country. The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Sonny Echono, disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday, during the annual strategic planning workshop with all heads of beneficiary institutions. Echono said the meeting was an avenue to receive feedback and evaluate the performance of its intervention lines to enhance a more robust delivery of the agency’s mandate. According to the TETFund boss, the 2023 intervention cycle will see each university receiving N1,154,732,133.00. Each public Polytechnic is also expected…
A Federal Capital Territory High Court on Wednesday ordered Julius Abure to desist from parading himself as the National Chairman of the Labour Party. The presiding Judge, Hamza Muazu, on an ex-parte application also ordered some named individuals to stop parading themselves as national officers of the party. Those affected include the National Secretary of the party, Farouk Ibrahim; national organising secretary, Clement Ojukwu; and national treasurer, Oluchi Opara
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has waded into the legal travails of a former Deputy Senate President of Nigeria, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, in the United Kingdom over crime of conspiracy to harvest organ of a 21-year-old Nigerian, calling on the Chief Clerk of the Central Criminal Court in London to temper justice with mercy. Obasanjo, in a letter dated April 3, 2023 and addressed to the Chief Clerk of the Court titled ‘Re: Ike Ekweremadu’, said even though the Enugu West Senator’s action was condemnable and unacceptable, he has contributed his qouta to the socio-political development of Nigeria, hence his punishment…
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, said he warned the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi on excesses of the his supporters, otherwise known as ‘Obidients.’ Soyinka, stated this in a statement titled, “Media responsibility,’’ on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the elder statesman said his recent interview with Channels Television was misrepresented, with his remarks rendered unrecognisable. The TV station had aired a one and half-hour interview with Soyinka a week ago on Monday. He maintained that his rejection of fascism wasn’t new and that on three occasions, he was able to send a message to Obi, that, if…
Elon Musk’s Tesla orders to pay black ex-employee $3.2million over Racial Discrimination A San Francisco jury on Monday ordered Tesla to pay a Black former employee nearly $3.2 million for turning a blind eye to racism at the electric car maker’s Silicon Valley plant. The verdict in the retrial was a victory of sorts for Tesla, which had been ordered to pay Owen Diaz $137 million by a jury when the original trial ended in October 2021.m judge later reduced the amount in keeping with legal standards, but Diaz rejected the judge’s proffered damages amount in favor of a new…
Religious War: Nigeria Doesn’t Belong to Ethnoreligious Bigots By Femi Fani-Kayode FFK It is now left for the reverred and respected leaders of the Body of Christ to disavow themselves of the hideous “religious war” agenda of Peter Obi and publicly disassociate themselves from his villainous, venal, venomous, vile and evil agenda. If they choose to get involved in politics they must be discerning, reasonable, fair, impartial, wise and balanced and they must stop being partisan and condemning others for their choices. They must also accept the fact that simply because millions of us supported a Muslim/Muslim ticket does not…
The Senator-elect for Southern Borno, Ali Mohammed Ali Ndume, has accused some senators and reps of using dollars to lobby for various leadership positions in the 10th National Assembly. He revealed this in an interview with BBC Hausa. Speaking in Hausa, Ndume confessed that he would have joined the power tussle in the senate if he were rich noting that he will win because of his legislative experience. “The leadership position in the National Assembly has been monetized by some senators and reps, and they have started bribing members of the senate with dollars seeking their support, votes, and endorsement.”…
The Federal Government has said the second Niger bridge will be fully open to vehicular movement on May 15. The Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola revealed this on Tuesday while inspecting and confirming the completion of the Loko-Oweto Bridge and link roads between Benue and Nasarawa States. Speaking with journalists, the minister explained that the N336bn legacy project of President Muhamadu Buhari was undergoing lane markings and other necessary finishing works, adding that the flag-off ceremony will be formally done by the president. He said, “Yesterday (Monday), we had a periodic meeting in the Office of the…
No fewer than 50 houses have been reportedly destroyed by suspected hoodlums in fresh communal clash in Ebonyi State. The incident, which took place at Ndiefi-Ishieke village in the Ebonyi Local Government Area, threw many innocent members of the community into deep grief and panic. It was gathered that the hoodlums, numbering over 50, went into 43 compounds situated within a communal land, shot some villagers and destroyed their buildings. The PUNCH learnt that 11 persons were injured and 300 households displaced in the affected community. Confirming the incident, an indigene of Ndiefi-Ishieke village, Dr. Nwoba Benjamin, who decried…