SERAP Sues FG Over N40bn Double Pay to Ex-Governors

By Adedapo Adesanya  The Senate and the House of Representatives will on Tuesday resume plenary after weeks of vacation with expectations that they will attend to correspondences from President Bola Tinubu. The upper chamber adjourned for a six-week annual recess on August 17 after confirmating 45 out of the 48 ministerial nominees of President Tinubu. The Senate President, Mr Godswill Akpabio, also announced the composition of 74 standing committees on that day. Upon resumption, the Senate will commence its legislative duties by attending to correspondences from the President requesting the confirmation of some appointments he made. The appointments include those

By Aduragbemi Omiyale An artificial intelligence-powered feature, Dream Screen for Shorts, designed to redefine how creators use YouTube, has been unveiled by the video streaming platform. The feature was introduced by the tech giant on Thursday alongside others at the Made On YouTube event. It was created to allow YouTube creators to reach more viewers. According to the firm, Dream Screen allows creators to add AI-generated video or image backgrounds to their Shorts simply by typing an idea into a prompt. With Dream Screen, creators will be able to generate new, fantastic settings for their Shorts that are only limited

By Adedapo Adesanya The House of Representatives has urged the Federal Ministry of Power and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to urgently provide funds for the completion of the Okpai–Kwale Transmission Line Project in Delta State. At the plenary on Tuesday, the lower chamber of the parliament mandated its Committee on Power to ensure that bottlenecks mitigating against the completion of the project are effectively addressed and the project is completed in due time. This followed a motion moved by Mr Nnamdi Ezechi, the lawmaker representing Ndokwa/UKwuani Federal Constituency in the National Assembly on the floor of the green

By Bliss Okperan The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has accused a former presidential candidate of the party, Mr Rabiu Kwankwaso, of being responsible for the sacking of the Governor of Kano State, Mr Yusuf Abba, at the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on Wednesday. A three-man panel led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay removed Mr Abba as Governor, ordering the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hand the Certificate of Return to the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the poll, Mr Nasir Gawuna. Reacting to the development, a chieftain of NNPP in Southwest, Mr Abass Akande Onilewura, alleged

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) has been announced as the winner of the Excellence in Cardiovascular Care Award. This award was given to LAUSTH on the premises the hospital is renowned for its contribution to the growth and development of cardiovascular medicine and surgery in the country. The respected health institution grabbed this award at the 50th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Scientific Conference of the Nigeria Cardiac Society (NCS) held in Lagos recently. LASUTH is one of the two tertiary hospitals carrying out open-heart surgery in Nigeria. It has continued to make giant strides

By Adedapo Adesanya  Brent crude futures continued to trade up on Thursday as there were reports of a much smaller-than-anticipated rise in crude inventories in the United States. On Thursday night, the international crude benchmark rose by 0.06 percent equivalent to 3 cents to trade at $58.80 per barrel. On the other hand, the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude moved up by 36 cents or 0.67 percent to trade at $53.84 per barrel. Weekly data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed that U.S. crude supplies edged up by 400,000 barrels for the week ended February 14 from expected

By Adedapo Adesanya The federal government, in its latest determination to increase the nation’s revenue streams, is considering the introduction of excise duties on carbonated drinks consumed in the country. Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, made this disclosure on the sidelines of the ongoing annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington D.C., the United States. She said government was working to maximise existing revenue streams while trying to identify new revenue streams, including the sugar tax, which would be charged on soft drinks. According to her, “Our objective is

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira depreciated against the American currency for yet another session at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday by 0.1 per cent or 43 kobo to N414.73/$1 from the previous day’s rate of N414.30/$1. A significant increase in the demand for forex at the spot market compounded the woes of the Nigerian currency yesterday as the supply side of the curve could not satisfy the demand side. Data obtained by Business Post showed that transactions valued at $266.32 million were executed at the market window compared with the $122.15

By Kester Kenn Klomegah With high optimism and a desire to strengthen its geopolitical influence, Russian authorities are gearing up to hold the second African leaders summit in St. Petersburg scheduled for early November 2022. The gathering, as expected, will focus on enhancing further constructive cooperation and advancing integration processes within the framework of the African Union and a number of sub-regional structures. In their first joint declaration, emerging from the Russia-Africa summit at the initiative of African participants a new dialogue mechanism—the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum—was created. The declaration stipulated that all top-level meetings take place within its framework once

By Adedapo Adesanya Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have busted an alleged online drug trafficking cartel in Abuja. The group, according to a statement issued on Sunday by NDLEA spokesman, Mr Femi Babafemi, sells drugged cookies, cakes, brownies and all sorts of illicit substances to residents of the city, with cyberspace as its platform. “Five members of the organised drug criminal group were arrested during sting operations carried out between Friday, May 7 and Saturday, May 8, 2021, by officers of the FCT Command of the Agency during which different brands of illicit drugs were recovered

By Dipo Olowookere The federal government has unveiled few key strategies it plans to execute in managing the economy of Nigeria during the global crisis influenced by coronavirus and crash in crude oil prices. This week, after the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia threatened the nation’s economy, President Muhammadu Buhari promptly set up a committee to look at the impact of the COVID-19 disease on the country’s economy. The committee was headed by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and was asked to give a report next week to the President. A statement issued by

By Dipo Olowookere Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, has hailed the revival of the centuries-old ‘Ijakadi Festival’ by the Offa Kingdom in Kwara State, assuring that the festival will be one of the beneficiaries of the training for festival managers being planned by the Ministry in collaboration with its partners. The Minister gave the assurance in Abuja on Wednesday when he received a delegation of the Offa Descendants Union (ODU), which came to formally invite him to the festival, scheduled for Offa on December 29, 2016, on behalf of the town’s monarch. He said the decision to