Nnaemeka Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha, says he did not have any disagreement with former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the Second Niger Bridge. The monarch’s position was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by Chinyelugo Anionwu, chief of staff to the Onitsha traditional council. In a statement on Monday, Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, had criticised Obasanjo over the latter’s recent remarks criticising the present administration under President Muhammadu Buhari. Shehu had also said Obasanjo deceived the southeast during the flag-off for the construction of the Second Niger Bridge, adding that the Obi of Onitsha had some altercation with the…

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE Russian military issues update on deadly Ukrainian strike Nearly 90 troops were killed by a Ukrainian missile strike that hit a temporary housing area used by the Russian forces in the city of Makeyevka in Donetsk People’s Republic just after midnight on January 1, the Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday. The death toll has grown to 89 people, including the unit’s deputy commander, the ministry said, as more bodies were pulled from the rubble of a vocational school where the troops were stationed on New Year’s night. The facility was targeted by six missiles from a US-supplied HIMARS…

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE Dozens dead in Ukrainian strike on Russian troops More than 60 Russian troops have been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike, Moscow confirmed on Monday. The attack hit a temporary housing area used by the Russian forces in Donbass. The facility in the city of Makeyevka in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic was targeted by six missiles from US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, the Defense ministry said. Two projectiles were intercepted by air defenses, but four made it through, the statement added. "As a result of a strike by four missiles with high-explosive warheads on a temporary deployment point,…

Central Bank of Nigeria’s advances to the federal government rose 2,900 per cent in the last seven years to N23.8 trillion, an unprecedented rise that violated the law, stoked inflation and worsened the country’s debt burden. Central banks sometimes help governments to fund budget deficits, but such loans, called Ways and Means Advances, are tightly controlled as they can fuel inflation and distort monetary policy. In May 2015 when the Buhari administration came to office, the CBN’s loans to the federal government were N789.7 billion cumulatively. Since then, the government has drawn central bank loans each year at an unprecedented…