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Ondo Assembly approves repayment of N27bn bond by 3 years

Ondo State House of Assembly on Thursday approved three years extension for the repayment of the state government N27 billion bond inherited from the previous administration. The House’s resolution followed a letter by Gov. Olurotimi Akeredolu, seeking the lawmakers’ approval to restructure the payment period of the bond. Akeredolu said in the letter that restructuring of the payment period of the bond would enable the state government to attend to other financial expenses. The House, at the plenary presided over by its Speaker, Mr Bamidele Oleyelogun, unanimously approved additional tenure of three years for repayment of the bond. The House also agreed that restructuring of the bond would reduce the state monthly debt services and inject more funds to the recurrent expenditure. The House Majority Leader, Mr Olusegun Araoyinbo, while debating on the governor’s request, said that the letter should be given express approval. Araoyinbo said that this would enable the state gov...

More war, hunger imminent in 2018, report says

Humanitarian crises around the world will worsen in 2018, with no let-up in civil wars in Africa, near-famines in war-torn regions and the threat of extremist Islamist violence. A Geneva-based think-tank, ACAPS, made the prediction in a report published on Thursday. ACAPS, a non-profit venture that supports humanitarian aid workers with daily monitoring and analysis of 150 countries, examined the anticipated needs of 18 countries in 2018 and found little to cheer. “If 2017 did not look good, predictions for 2018 are no better: violence and insecurity are likely to deteriorate in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Ethiopia, Mali, Somalia, and Syria in 2018,” ACAPS director Lars Nissen wrote in the report. In 2018, Ethiopia will join northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen as places at risk of famine, said the report, entitled “Humanitarian Overview: An analysis of key crises into 2018”. Rather than bringing stability, the prospect of elections in Afg...

Google introduces data-saving app for internet users

Google has inaugurated a new product known as `Datally’, a mobile data-saving app that helps one to understand, control and save data into the emerging market. The Google Country Manager, Mrs Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor in a media briefing in Lagos, said that with Datally, one could save and do more with data. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that an emerging market is a country that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not meet standards to be a developed market. This includes countries that may become developed markets in the future. According to Ehimuan-Chiazor, the app is a technology built to tackle some of the challenges being faced by internet users of the emerging market. “Some of the characteristics of the emerging market are their aspirations for better life, appetite to lift family out of poverty, and highly mobile among others. “They face some challenges such as; huge percentage of people who use low earned phones, connectivity and localis...

25 Nigerians die in the Sahara Desert: Libyan returnee

Nigerian returnee from Libya has revealed that 25 compatriots, ferried from Nigeria to Libya by a trafficker identified as Charles, perished in the Sahara Desert, in the course of the journey. The returnee, who identified himself as Alex Otoide, from Edo state, said seven of the group also died inside a Libyan jail. “We were 55 that travelled from here to Libya, 25 people died in the desert.More than seven people died from hunger and thirst inside the prison”, Otoide said in a report published by TheNation newspaper today. Otoide spoke with journalists in a government camp in Benin City. He said the human trafficking agent, Charles collected the N500, 000 from him with a promise of a better life in Europe. He, however, regretted that instead of Europe, he ended up in a Libyan jail. He said but for providence, things could have been worse for him as he witnessed the sale of 20 Nigeria girls in the prison where they were all kept. “They sold about 20 girls in the night. I sa...

Finance Minister Adeosun denies Maina

The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, on Thursday said the former Chairman, Pension Reform Task Force, Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina, did not receive salary from government after his disengagement. Adeosun said this in Abuja when she appeared before members of House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee investigating the disappearance, re-appearance, re-instatement and promotion of Maina. She said that from the records of the ministry, there was no trace of any payment of salary to Maina after he was disengaged from service in 2013. “We have looked very well and we have no biometrics of Maina, so there is no way he could have received salaries,” Adeosun said. In his submission, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, said that Maina was last paid salary in February, 2013. According to Idris, from March, he was removed from the payroll so I don’t know where he was receiving the salary. “If there was any payment of salary to Maina, there should be payslips an...

Trump tweets into fresh row with Theresa May, muslims

U.S. President Donald Trump, in an unprecedented Twitter attack, has sharply rebuked British Prime Theresa May after Britain criticised him for retweeting British far-right anti-Islam videos. “Theresa @theresamay, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine,” Trump tweeted, sparking further outrage in Britain that has seen several major Islamist militant attacks on its streets. .@Theresa_May , don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2017 Trump’s unrepentant response was a reaction to May’s spokesman who on Wednesday criticised his retweets of anti-Islam videos originally posted by a leader of a British far-right fringe group. “It is wrong for the president to have done this,” the spokesman said. Trump sparked criticism on both ...

ECOWAS on Wednesday said it would not take lightly the maltreatment of its citizens across countries in Northern Africa. President of the ECOWAS Commission, Marcel Alain de Souza said this this while presenting the Status Report on the State of the Community to the Second Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja. De Souza was represented by the commission’s Vice President, Edward Singhatey. Following the presentation of the report, parliamentarians raised concerns over efforts made by the sub-regional bloc to investigate reports on African migrants being maltreated and sold into slavery in some North African countries. Some members of parliament also expressed concerns over the requests made by Tunisia to be an observer country and Morocco to be a member of ECOWAS respectively, in spite of reported abuse against African migrants in those countries. The commission’s president, however, called for thorough investigation of such reports and judicial enquiries to be made to ensure that perpetrators of acts of abuse were brought to justice. “The problem is that at this point in time, we do not have anything official from Morocco or Tunisia. We hear about it but there is no proper or thorough investigation and there is nothing documented. “With regard to their inclusion in ECOWAS, they will be bound to ensure that they look after our citizens within their shores; but at the end of the day, there is no guarantee with regards to that. “Through engagement we will be able to put our interests forward to ensure that these states know that we do not take likely the maltreatment of any of our community citizens and what is happening across North Africa right now is unacceptable.” He further urged member states to continually condemn the maltreatment of African citizens in Libya. According to him, the bloc has commenced the assessment of the situation and sought assistance from the international community to repatriate and reintegrate citizens. He also reiterated that there were several measures put in place by the bloc to skilfully engage the youth to curb the illegal migration. “We do not know how many exactly of our youths are in Libya or where all of them are because we understand that some of them are being held in different detention centres. “We do not have enough funds to go to Libya and bring them, so we have written to the International Organisation for Migration for immediate and urgent assistance. “We are still trying to stop the tide of youths flowing northwards; we have to keep them (youths) by giving them reasons to stay and find decent living for themselves. “But if we continue this trend with very little funds, there is also very little we can do. We are constantly engaging our donours to try to immediately do something for us.” He further said that the ongoing European Union-African Union Summit in Abidjan sought to address the challenges of illegal youth migration and terrorism.

ECOWAS on Wednesday said it would not take lightly the maltreatment of its citizens across countries in Northern Africa. President of the ECOWAS Commission, Marcel Alain de Souza said this this while presenting the Status Report on the State of the Community to the Second Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja. De Souza was represented by the commission’s Vice President, Edward Singhatey. Following the presentation of the report, parliamentarians raised concerns over efforts made by the sub-regional bloc to investigate reports on African migrants being maltreated and sold into slavery in some North African countries. Some members of parliament also expressed concerns over the requests made by Tunisia to be an observer country and Morocco to be a member of ECOWAS respectively, in spite of reported abuse against African migrants in those countries. The commission’s president, however, called for thorough investigation of such reports and judicial enquiries to be mad...