The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Duoye Diri as the duly elected Governor of Bayelsa State after dismissing six suits filed against the Governor. In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta on Wednesday, the apex court predicated the dismissal of the appeals on the withdrawal of the six appeals by lawyers of the appellants. The dismissed appeals were filed by Alliance for Democracy (AD), Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP), Labour Movement (LM) and Accord Party. Diri’s victory has been challenged a number of times but the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja at…
Author: meridianspy
Chiji Collins, Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly, has been impeached. The lawmakers of the state assembly impeached Collins during plenary on Friday over an alleged financial impropriety, high handedness, and gross misconduct. The motion for his removal was supported by 19 out of the 27 members of the House. Following his impeachment, the lawmakers elected Paul Emeziem from Onuimo Local Government Area as the new Speaker of the House. More details soon.
Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, has tested positive for coronavirus. Governor Bello disclosed this in a Twitter post on Monday, adding that he is asymptomatic. “I have tested positive to #COVID19,” the governor wrote. “However, I am asymptomatic and have gone into isolation.” The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Sunday announced 300 new COVID-19 infections in the country, raising fears of a second wave of the pandemic in the country.
Mark Esper, Donald Trump’s Defence Secretary, has reportedly prepared his resignation letter ahead of the declaration of the final result of the US presidential elections. NBC News reports that Esper prepared the letter “because he is one of the Cabinet officials long expected to be pushed out after the election.” The defense secretary has long been at odds with President Donald Trump over several issues including over Trump’s use of the National Guard to quell protests this summer. The report said Esper was currently helping members of Congress draft legislation to remove the names of Confederate leaders from military bases.…
No fewer than 75 Boko Haram and Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists have been killed within the last six weeks of operations by the Nigerian military across the North East. However, one officer and two soldiers were killed while four other soldiers got wounded during the onslaught against the insurgents in the region. Brigadier General Bernard Onyeuko, the acting Director of Defence Media Operations, disclosed this to journalists at the Army Special Super Camp 1 in Ngamdu, near the border between Borno and Yobe states. Onyeuko said the Operation Fire Ball, a subsidiary operation under Operation Lafiya Dole, recorded…
Ejike Mbaka, a Catholic priest and the spiritual director of Adoration Ministry, Enugu, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to apologise to Nigerians for bad governance. In his sermon titled ‘Impure heart’ on Sunday, Mbaka who is well known to be a staunch supporter of President Buhari said the recent ENDSARS protest was not an attack on any government but against bad governance in the country. The Catholic clergy said the president has surrounded himself with “criminals” and “hooligans”. “Buhari, who could have been a solution to this, succeeded in encircling himself with criminals and hooligans, people who do not just…
Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state, says he did not order the military to kill residents of Oyigbo local government area of the state, The Cable reports. Wike declared a 24-hour curfew in Oyigbo on October 21 following the outbreak of violence spilling from the EndSARS protest which led to the killing of some members of the army and the police. The governor, who blamed the unrest on members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), last Wednesday, signed an executive order to enforce the ban on the group and its activities in the state. Soldiers were deployed in the local government to…
Sunday Dare, Minister of Youths and Sports, says the ENDSARS protests exposed the country to the dangers of fake news. Speaking during an interview on Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily on Monday, Dare said the question of fake news is bothersome not only in Nigeria but every part of the world. “The protests brought home the dangers of fake news. Several months back, Nobel Laureate Winner, Professor Wole Soyinka said fake news is like the bomb that can destroy the world and it is sure that the bomb will come from Nigeria,” he said. “What happened during the protests…
Sebastian Osigwe, one of the new Super Eagles players, has tested positive for COVID-19. With this development, Osigwe who was expected to make his debut for Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Sierra Leone next month, may miss the match due to his COVID-19 status. The club of the Swiss-born Nigerian footballer, FC Lugano confirmed that he tested positive for COVID-19, in a statement on Friday. “The management of FC Lugano announces that the tests carried out following the positivity of Mattia Bottani also highlighted the positivity of the goalkeeper Osigwe,” the club of the Swiss Super…
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has admonished journalists in the country to challenge leaders to perform their constitutional responsibilities rather than issuing them awards. Wike gave the admonition when he hosted the national leadership of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) at the government house in Port Harcourt, the Rivers capital, on Friday. “What I have seen of you is that you praise us and give us award because of relationship or friendship. That’s not the way it should be. Challenge us — the people in authority — and we will sit up to our responsibilities,” he said. “We…
There is no government presence in the federal capital territory (FCT). Yes. In fact, there is no such thing as leadership in the FCT. If there was, I would certainly know being a habitué of the city. There are only vulgar structures which are purely administrative habitations of the federal government. Beyond the vast jungle of bricks and glass, the FCT is rudderless. There are many sore points in the ungovernance of the FCT. But I will situate my concerns in only two. Security is in a parlous state and infrastructure is generally decrepit. Derring-do attacks by bandits have become…
There is an agenda to violence — the state’s agenda. The biggest beneficiary of violence in most cases is the government which controls every apparatus of terror. Nothing happens in isolation of executive conspiracy. The infamous connoisseur of terror, Sani Abacha, was once quoted as saying: “If insurgency lasts for more than 24 hours, the government has a hand in it.” Who could have put it better than the grim reaper himself? During the military era, ‘’unknown soldiers and unknown policemen’’ were the agents who executed violence on behalf of the state. Assassinations, bloody clampdowns and even riots – all…