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Saturday, 28 August 2021 05:55

3 groups of abducted students freed in 3 Northern states within 24 hours

Authorities in northern Nigeria announced three separate groups of kidnapped students were freed within a 24-hour period, prompting speculation late Friday that large ransoms had been paid to the gunmen blamed for a spate of recent abductions. Among those now free are some of the youngest children ever taken hostage in Nigeria, a group of 90 pupils who had spent three months in captivity. Hours after those youngsters were brought to the Niger state capital, police in Zamfara state said that 15 older students also had been freed there. Then late Friday, word came of a third hostage liberation in…

Saturday, 28 August 2021 05:52

US airstrike targets Islamic State member in Afghanistan

Acting swiftly on President Joe Biden’s promise to retaliate for the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport, the U.S. military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate Saturday. The strike came amid what the White House called indications that IS planned to strike again as the U.S.-led evacuation from Kabul airport moved into its final days. Biden has set Tuesday as his deadline for completing the exit. Biden authorized the drone strike and it was ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity…

Friday, 27 August 2021 06:04

Nigeria’s GDP grew 5.1 percent in Q2 2021. In monetary terms, however, the economy shrank from its Q1 value. Here are more details inside the headline growth

Two key sectors of the Nigerian economy recorded sluggish growth in the second quarter of 2021 – all thanks to insecurity and regulatory policy on NIN/SIM linkage on enrollment. The agriculture sector – which is one of the key sub-sectors in the economy – recorded 1.30% (year-on-year) percent growth. This is a decrease of 0.28 percent points from the corresponding period of 2020. This is largely due to various security issues in the country, such as the Jos north crisis, Zamfara humanitarian crisis, farmers/herders conflicts and bandit attacks. The second sector – the information and communication (Telecommunications) – also slowed…

Friday, 27 August 2021 06:03

FG spent 91 percent of revenue to service debt in Half 1, 2021. Experts warn of dire consequences

Federal government spent N2.02tn on debt servicing in the first six months of this year. This figure represents 90.58 per cent of the total revenue of N2.23tn generated by the federal government within the period, a development which experts said signified a dangerous trend for the economy. Technical Adviser to the Director General of the Budget Office, Alfred Okon, disclosed the figure while presenting the “Overview of FGN 2022 Budget Call Circular” report. Okon made the presentation on Thursday at a training on “Government Integrated Financial Management Information System Budget Preparation Subsystem for Ministries, Department and Agencies.” The report stated…

Friday, 27 August 2021 05:59

Buhari appoints new Statistician-General of the Federation

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Simon Harry as the new Statistician-General of the Federation to head National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This is according to a statement from Yunusa Abdullahi, Special Adviser, Media and Communications to Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning on Thursday. Harry is to succeed the out-going Statistician-General, Yemi Kale, whose second term tenure of five years expired on August 16. Currently, Harry is the Director of Corporate Planning and Technical Coordination Department of NBS with almost three decades of statistical experience. He joined the Federal Office of Statistics as Statistician 11 in…

Friday, 27 August 2021 05:57

Channels TV gets another query from NBC over Ortom interview

National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has queried Channels Television over an interview granted to Benue Governor Samuel Ortom. Checks revealed that this was not the first time Channels TV would be queried by NBC. In April, the agency suspended the broadcast license of Channels Television and imposed a N5 million fine on the station for alleged breach of the broadcast code in its live programme titled: “Politics Today”. Ortom, who was a guest on Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, had accused President Muhammadu Buhari of trying to “Fulanise” Nigeria. He further faulted the President’s decision to review grazing reserves across the country,…

Friday, 27 August 2021 05:56

DSS clamps down on medical doctors at Saudi Arabia recruitment centre in Abuja

Operatives of Department of State Services, on Thursday, dispersed medical doctors, who stormed the Sheraton Hotels, Abuja, to take part in the recruitment interview organised by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health. Newspapers on Tuesday reported that medical consultants in their hundreds flooded the Ladi Kwali Hall of the hotel to participate in the recruitment, while another exercise was scheduled for Thursday. Our correspondents gathered that the DSS operatives stormed the hotel Thursday morning and dispersed the doctors and journalists, who gathered at the venue. A journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, Marcus Fatunde, was arrested at the…

Friday, 27 August 2021 05:55

Kabul airport attack kills 60 Afghans, 13 US troops

Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. The attacks killed at least 60 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops, Afghan and U.S. officials said. The U.S. general overseeing the evacuation said the attacks would not stop the United States from evacuating Americans and others, and flights out were continuing. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said there was a large amount of security at the airport, and alternate routes were being…

Friday, 27 August 2021 05:53

'I saw doomsday', says Kabul airport blast survivor

Even for a city as used to violent death as Kabul, the scenes after twin blasts tore through crowds thronging outside the airport in hope of evacuation were apocalyptic. For one man, a former employee of an international development group with a U.S. special immigrant visa, the day began early. He joined thousands of people around the airport hoping to clear the gates and get onto one of the flights ferrying in and out in the final days of the airlift. He had been in the queue near the airport’s Abbey Gate for around 10 hours when, at around 5…

Friday, 27 August 2021 05:52

Sultan raises the alarm over worsening insecurity; CAN president accuses Buhari of sectional bias

Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, has raised the alarm that the security situation is worsening and urged President Muhammadu Buhari, to as a matter of urgency, convoke a dialogue meeting to discuss the peace and unity of the country. Sultan said the dialogue meeting would be attended by traditional, community and religious leaders, opinion leaders, people from political and business communities and other people that matter in the affairs of Nigeria, to deliberate on issues of rising insecurity across Nigeria. Delivering his remarks at the third quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) in Abuja, the Sultan said the…

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Friday, 27 August 2021 05:49

Gunmen release abducted Islamic students in Niger state, parents confirm

Gunmen have released students abducted three months ago from an Islamic school in Niger state, two parents told Reuters on Thursday. Around 136 school children were taken from the school in Tegina town in May but on Monday the school’s owner said that six had died of illness. The releases were confirmed by an official who asked not to be named because the government planned to issue a statement once they have the children. One parent, Saidu Tegina, said by phone the students have been released. He did not confirm how many students were released. Armed groups carrying out kidnapping…

Thursday, 26 August 2021 05:57

Nigeria signs military cooperation agreement with Russia

Nigeria and Russia have signed a military cooperation deal providing a legal framework for the supply of equipment and the training of troops, the Nigerian embassy in Moscow said on Wednesday. President Muhammadu Buhari had expressed interest in such a pact with Russia as far back as 2019, when he met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at a Russia-Africa summit. The Nigerian ambassador to Russia at the time said Buhari felt Russia could help defeat the Boko Haram Islamic insurgency in the northeast of the country, which remains a major problem. “The Agreement on Military-Technical Cooperation between both countries…

Thursday, 26 August 2021 05:56

Tribunal orders MultiChoice to pay half of disputed N1.8trn tax bill

A tax tribunal ordered the local unit of South Africa’s pay-TV company MultiChoice to pay 50% of a disputed 1.8 trillion naira ($4.38 billion) tax bill relating to previous years, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said on Wednesday. The deposit of 50% of the sum was a condition that had to be fulfilled by MultiChoice Nigeria Ltd before the tribunal could hear a full appeal on the matter, the FIRS statement said. MultiChoice Nigeria, a division of a South African group, provides DSTV, a cable TV product popular in Nigeria. The statement came after FIRS said in July it had…

Thursday, 26 August 2021 05:55

Arrested terrorists mentioned presidency officials, govs, others as sponsors of insurgency - Ex-Intelligence chief

A former Navy Commodore, Kunle Olawunmi, has said that Boko Haram terrorists mentioned names of current governors, senators and Aso Rock officials as sponsors during interrogation but President Muhammadu Buhari has demonstrated an unwillingness to go after the high-profile politicians for reasons best known to him. Olawunmi spoke on Wednesday when he featured on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ breakfast programme. He described as an “aberration”, Tuesday attack by bloodthirsty bandits on the Kaduna campus of Nigeria’s foremost military university, Nigerian Defence Academy, where two military officers were killed and another kidnapped. “It is an aberration; you don’t attack the Nigerian…

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