Eko Haven Opens Doors to Domestic Violence Survivors

By Adedapo Adesanya The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the Senate to reject the planned N15 billion for the construction of the vice president’s residence new building contained in the FCT 2023 supplementary budget. The call was contained in a letter addressed to the Senate President, Mr Godswill Akpabio. In the letter, dated December 2 and signed by SERAP’s deputy director, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation urged Mr Akpabio to use his leadership position “to promptly reject the plan by the Minister of the FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike to spend N15 billion for the construction of a

By Bliss Okperan A helicopter operated by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Friday crash-landed and exploded at the NAF Base, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, confirmed the incident in a statement, noting that the NAF-35p had taken off on an operation against oil thieves in Rivers State before the unfortunate incident. He said five persons on board survived the air mishap with minor injuries. “A Nigerian Air Force (NAF) MI-35P helicopter crashed at Port Harcourt today, December 1, 2023. The unfortunate incident occurred at about 7.45 am shortly

By Modupe Gbadeyanka An initiative aimed to promote the diversity of the African continent and showcase its rich cultural heritage to the rest of the world has been launched by YouTube. The social campaign, The Voices of Africa, will be used to celebrate the continent’s unique and traditional expressions through a select group of African creators. They will create and share videos on their YouTube Channels of their unique cultural heritage stories about their local traditions and practices, conversations with friends and family, and with people in their local communities. Some of the creators who are part of the campaign

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The Oyo State government has maintained that its decision to register all commercial motorcycle and tricycle riders in the state was to promote public safety and not for any other purpose. The Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mr Dotun Oyelade, said this during a one-day sensitisation meeting with Okada and Keke riders in Ibadan. He explained that the meeting became necessary following a recent state security council meeting, noting that the exercise will help in the documentation of riders in the state. The Commissioner called for sustained cooperation between motorcycle and tricycle riders and the state

By Adedapo Adesanya Oil prices made an average three percent recovery last week as major futures ended the week pointing up as demand improved around possibilities that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies will come through with the production cuts a technical committee recommended during its meeting two weeks ago. Also, prices were driven up as investors looked to draw up an optimistic approach despite the worsening case of the coronavirus, now named COVID-19, with the market faced with a lot of bearish outcomes into two months this year. Brent, the International crude settled at

By Adedapo Adesanya The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the Senate President, Mr Godswill Akpabio, and 13 other former governors, who have now become senators, to “disclose the total amount of life pensions, if any, that have been received from your states as former governors.” In a statement on Sunday, SERAP Deputy Director, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare, urged the new lawmakers to “promptly clarify if you have collected and/or currently collecting life pensions as former governors from your respective states, to stop collecting any such pensions and return the pensions collected to the treasury.” According to the group,

By Adedapo Adesanya After maintaining stability over the course of the past one week, the Naira weakened against the US Dollar, the Pound Sterling and the Euro at the parallel market segment of the foreign exchange market on Friday, January 8. At the black market, the local currency lost N2 against the US Dollar to quote at N472/$1 in contrast to N470/$1 it traded on Thursday. It was the same outcome for the Naira against the Pound and the Euro at the unregulated segment of the forex market. The domestic currency depreciated by N2 against the British currency to sell

By Asiayei Enaibo With different manifestos, with different promises to even the ancestors, the living are always anxious about what gain they could get, shared among their two jaws, bring it, let’s share it and chop it, who democracy help? Both the illiterate and literate candidates speak their words; some eloquently express a great hope for tomorrow, and the party members hail their candidates, saying he is the most qualified; the oppositions care not about his eloquence, “na English we wan chop?” Share the money, anything beyond that; he is a bad leader. Yes, some of us have shared and

By Modupe Gbadeyanka In order to further ease the Naira against the Dollar, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced the release of $185 million into the foreign exchange market. The apex bank made this disclosure on Monday when it announced a new forex policy, pegging the retail price of Dollar at commercial banks at N360. The CBN, through its spokesman, Mr Isaac Okorafor, disclosed that the $185 million was released to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in the country to meet the demand of genuine users, especially for those using it for school fees, medicals, BTA and among others.

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira appreciated against the United States Dollar in the different segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Tuesday amid the lingering forex liquidity crisis in Nigeria. Business Post reports that the Naira closed stronger against the greenback yesterday in the black market, the Peer-2-Peer (P2P), and the Investors and Exporters (I&E) windows after the Easter break. The local currency was exchanged with its American counterpart during the session at N742/$1 compared with the preceding session’s rate of N748/$1, indicating an appreciation of N6 or 0.80 per cent. In the I&E segment of the market, the

The Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Ltd (NELM) and the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) have been directed to pay the sum of N21.8 million to a former employee of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Mr Olufemi Bamidele. The Presiding Judge of the Benin Division of the National Industrial Court, Justice Adunola Adewemimo, in his ruling, said the two organisations must pay the amount within 30 days. Justice Adewemino said awarded N1.794 million to the former staff of the collapsed national electricity firm as cost of his medical bills in special damages, while the N20 million was awarded

By Michael Owhoko, PhD I am neither a prophet nor a clairvoyant, but from the manifestation in my crystal ball, I see Nigeria in 2023 shaped by upheaval fueled by miseries and hopelessness. Agitation reminiscent of the #EndSARS protests will break out. Primary triggers are the country’s pathetic economic indices, including growing unemployment, cynical gross domestic product (GDP), inflation and the undiversified weak mono-commodity economy, lacking leadership and managerial oxygen. Secondary triggers are the dampened economic opportunities induced by nonchalance over worsening corruption, mounting debt burden, crude oil and foreign exchange manipulation, macroeconomic flux, insecurity, hunger, poor electricity supply, and