A Nigerian woman named Esther Agbaje has been elected into the Minnesota House of Representatives in Tuesday’s U.S. general elections. Agbaje polled 17,396 votes or 74.7 percent of the total ballots cast to defeat her closest rival, Alan Shilepsky of the Republican Party who polled 4,128 votes, representing 17.7 percent of the total. With this, the 35-year-old Nigerian will be representing District 59B in the 134-member House on the platform of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), an affiliate of the U.S. She is a graduate of political science from George Washington University, Washington, D.C., and holds a Masters in Public Administration from the…
Author: meridianspy
The International Criminal Court (ICC) says it has opened a preliminary inquiry into the demonstrations against harassment and brutality by the police, The Cable reports. According to BBC, the ICC said it had received information on alleged crimes during the protests, which were organised under the #EndSARS campaign. In October, many Nigerians took to the streets to call for an end to police brutality. In response to the protests, Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police (IGP), announced the dissolution of the special anti-robbery squad (SARS) — a unit that had been accused of extrajudicial killings. The ICC said the inquiry will begin…
The Lagos State Government has urged residents to continue to adhere strictly to COVID-19 protocols to prevent a resurgence of the virus in the state. Tunbosun Ogunbanwo, Director, Public Affairs of the Ministry of Health, said this in a statement on Tuesday, warning that the government may impose a new lockdown and return other measures if there was a recurrence of high cases of Coronavirus in the state. “The Lagos State Government has once again stressed the need for residents to strictly adhere to precautionary measures against COVID-19 infection transmission to prevent a recurrence of the situation that led to…
The #EndSARS protests which lasted for about two weeks until the crisis in Lagos on October 20, 2020, now known as the Black Tuesday in Nigeria’s contemporary history, may have abated, with the disappearance from Nigerian streets of the horde of protesters, looters, hijackers, and miscreants who together lent a new dimension to the protests. But essentially what we are now witnessing is best described as the “silence of the graveyard.” It is at best “a temporary reprieve”. The embers of the youth revolution that resulted in death, arson, wanton destruction and expansive alienation, are still smouldering. The extent to…
Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education, says previous administration is responsible for the persistent strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Nigerian Universities have been closed for eight months after ASUU declared an indefinite strike in March this year. Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU President who announced the strike at a press conference, said the strike is over the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and the non-implementation of the 2009 agreement. However, at a Town Hall meeting in Bauchi state on Monday, Adamu said that the insolvable problem that had resulted in incessant strikes by ASUU was that a past administration sat down with ASUU…
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Babatunde Fowler, former chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), over an alleged N5bn fraud perpetrated under his watch. MERIDIAN SPY confirmed Fowler who is a close ally of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is currently being interrogated at the Lagos office of the EFCC. More details soon.
Humanity is all inclusive. There are no higher or lesser humans. We all breathe the same air. Whether doctor, lawyer, journalist, police or soldier; we are all humans first, and as such we are entitled to the natural right to exist, to live. When this right is breached – even if it concerns our ‘’enemy’’ – we must all stand up against the violator and condemn the abomination. We cease being human when we selectively outrage against transgressions. Every breach of the human code must be condemned. The right to live is eternal; hence any innocent soul lost to violence…
Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information, has said the Federal Government do not intend to shut down social media in the country but will only regulate it in order to prevent it from becoming “a purveyor of fake news and hate speech”. Mohammed stated this during a solidarity visit to Vintage Press Limited, the publishers of The Nation newspapers and Sporting Life, following the October 21, 2020 attack on the organisation’s corporate headquarters by hoodlums who hijacked the #ENDSARS protests. He said the attack which was “clearly premeditated and intended to silence the voice of the nation” was not just an attack on Vintage…
The United States forces say they have rescued an American citizen who is being held hostage in northern Nigeria, The Cable reports. In a statement, Jonathan Hoffman, the Pentagon spokesman, said the rescue operation was conducted on Saturday morning. The American was reportedly abducted in Niger Republic on Tuesday and subsequently moved to Nigeria. “U.S. forces conducted a hostage rescue operation during the early hours of 31 October in Northern Nigeria to recover an American citizen held hostage by a group of armed men,” the statement quoted by CNN read. “This American citizen is safe and is now in the care of…
Ahead of the 2023 presidential election in the country, plans are being made by the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, a apex Igbo socio-cultural group, and some leaders church to hold street rallies to campaign for a president of Igbo extraction. Having fixed December 27 for the street rallies and campaign, they also said they have also concluded arrangements to write President Muhammadu Buhari, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to notify them of the need to zone the 2023 presidency to the region. According to Sahara Reporters, they said the rallies would be held…
Ahmed Zakari, special adviser to the president on infrastructure, says the implementation of the new electricity tariff by electricity distribution companies (DisCos) will resume next week, The Cable reports. The DisCos began implementation of a new service-based reflective tariff (SRT) structure nationwide on September 1 after receiving approval from President Muhammadu Buhari. However, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) protested the new tariff and called for a nationwide strike. After a meeting with the federal government a few hours to the protest on Monday, the NLC and TUC suspended the proposed strike after brokering an agreement to halt the electricity…
Few hours after saying Nigerian youth “are high on drugs all the time”, Nigerians have exposed how Mojisola Alli-Macaulay, member representing Amuwo-Odofin 1 at the Lagos State House of Assembly, used COVID-19 palliatives as birthday gifts, Sahara Reporters reports. Nigerian politicians, who hijacked the distribution of palliatives to Nigerians during the lockdown, diverted it for personal use and distribution to their cronies and party members. Speaking at the floor of the Assembly, Alli-Macaulay said most of the youth are high on drugs and that is part of the problem that led to the destruction and vandalisation of properties in the…