Nineteen Nigerian players will compete for honours when the Lagos Squash Classics serves off on Tuesday (today) at Teslim Balogun Stadium for the first time since 2018, The tournament, which was last hosted five years ago, with Egypt’s Karim El Hammamy clinching the title that year, has Nigeria’s top-ranked player Babatunde Ajagbe leading the country’s title bid at the tourney dubbed the ‘Challenger Tour.’ Other Nigerian stars Ayomide Michael, Adegoke Onaopemipo, Femi Shedara, Kehinde Temitope, Gabriel Olufunmilayo and Faruq Sulaimon will compete against European players for the $12,000 prize money in the men’s category. In the women’s category, Titlayo Akinleye,…
Author: meridianspy
The House of Reps has announced the postponement of its plenary expected to resume today, May 9, 2023. The new date scheduled for the House sitting is May 16. This was disclosed in a statement signed by the clerk of the House, Dr Yahaya Danzaria, on Monday evening and shared on the official Twitter handle of the House (@HouseNGR). The reason for the postponement is to allow members of the House to participate in the ongoing induction programme of the 10th National Assembly. “This is to inform all Hon Members and the general public that the House of Representatives will…
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that meeting the country’s expanding energy needs would necessitate “serious” private sector investment in the power industry. Mr Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Transcorp Ughelli Power Limited, the main investor in the Ughelli Power Plant, was handed with the discharge certificate by Osinbajo on Monday in Abuja. The discharge came one month after the National Council on Privatisation approved the Bureau of Public Enterprise’s recommendation that Ughelli Power Plc be delisted from routine monitoring for having met five core post-acquisition requirements: available capacity, capital expenditure, human resources, health, safety, and the environment, and corporate social…
Fixing The Future, a civil society organization, has asked that President-elect Bola Tinubu, Vice President-elect Kashim Shettima, incoming governors, and other public officials reveal their assets before their inauguration on May 29. The group also pointed out that public officials’ spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21 are required by the Code of Conduct Bureau Act to report their assets. The FTF said the Assets Declaration Compliance Survey it conducted revealed that “about 94 per cent of public officials in Nigeria do not comply with the provisions of Section 15 (1) (c) of the CCB and Code of…
The Central Bank of Nigeria has said it will sanction banks assisting the operations of unlicensed foreign firms. It stated on Monday in its ‘Guidelines for the regulation of representative offices of foreign banks in Nigeria’, signed by the Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Muhammad Musa. ‘Any CBN regulated entity found to be assisting, supporting, harboring or facilitating the presence and/or operations of an unlicensed international financial institution in Nigeria shall be liable to severe sanctions including suspension or revocation of their banking licence,” it stated. According to the guidelines, representative offices of foreign banks served an important purpose…
Prof. Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate, has said he did not discuss reconciliation with Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi during their meeting on Sunday. Obi had shared photos from his visit to Soyinka, giving the idea that the visit was to appease his supporters who had attacked the literary legend last month. The supporters, dubbed Obidients, had unleashed foul language on the internationally recognized novelist during an electoral interview. Soyinka stated in the interview that he told Obi that if he lost the presidential race, it would be owing to his followers. But on Sunday, Obi said he made…
Three of the remaining seven females detained by bandits at the Federal Government College in Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State, have been released. “It took six days of negations in the forest before four of the girls were released to us,” Kaoje said at the time. Elizabeth Ogechi Nwafor, Esther Sunday, and Aliya Abubakar have all been released. Malam Salim Kaoje, the chairman of the parents of the Abducted School Girls’ Forum, told our newsmen that the freshly released girls landed in Kebbi on Monday afternoon. “Yes, three of the schoolgirls were released to us on Sunday evening.” “They…
ECOWAS Parliament commends Peter Obi, Atiku for challenging Tinubu’s Victory in Cour ECOWAS Parliament on Monday in Abuja congratulated Nigeria for the peaceful conduct of its 2023 general elections. While addressing the opening of the First Ordinary Session of the parliament, the speaker, Sidie Tunis, also commended Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for heading to court to challenge the victory of Bola Tinubu of APC. “I thank aggrieved parties for seeking redress in the court of law. Such is the democracy we crave, and I am grateful that Nigeria, our…
Moses Olapade, a 56-year-old ex-boxer, beat his wife Tinuke into a coma over a TV remote, MeridianSpy reports. According to reports, the incident took place at their home in Akure, the state capital of Ondo State, in the Oke-Aro Community. Upon his return from his trip, Olopade wanted to watch a television program. However, his wife refused to give him the remote control to select his chosen station, which led to an argument and a subsequent free-for-all, claims a source who does not wish to be named. Olopade, who is also a truck driver, out of anger, reportedly rained punches…
The governors of Kaduna and Anambra states, Nasir El-Rufai and Prof. Charles Soludo, will be among the panellists who will discuss new pathways for creating a robust and resilient economic future for Nigeria at an event scheduled to hold on Tuesday. This was disclosed in a statement issued on Sunday by one of the organisers, Nigerian think tank, Agora Policy. The governors will serve as panellists at a policy conversation in Abuja, which is jointly organised by the Africa Programme of the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Abuja-based Agora Policy with the theme, ‘How Nigeria can build…
Serving senators and senators-elect from the South-east have rejected the zoning of senate presidency to the South-south region as well as the reported choice of Godswill Akpabio for the position. They stated their position in a communique issued after their meeting on Sunday in Abuja. Outgoing governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, on Friday announced that governors of the ruling APC have resolved to endorse Mr Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, as the president of the 10th Senate and Jibrin Barau as deputy senate president. The following day, the governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, a senator-elect…
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has described calls for quick determination of the ongoing presidential election petitions mischievous. Keyamo made this assertion in a statement via his verified Twitter handle on Sunday. The Minister said it would be impossible to amend laws and rules of court to accommodate such an idea. Keyamo’s statement comes on the heels of calls by some Nigerians, asking the court to ensure speedy determination of election petitions before it, especially the presidential election. Some had also argued that May 29 swearing-in should be stopped pending the determination of presidential election…