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Friday, 05 August 2022 07:09

FG secures $134m loan from AfDB to boost wheat production

Federal government has obtained $134 million loan from African Development Bank to boost wheat production. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Muhammad Mahmoud, said this in Abuja, while briefing State House correspondents on the implementation of the presidential mandate given to the ministry. He explained that the aim was to save the country from acute scarcity of wheat, whose demand and price had gone high because of the Russia-Ukraine war. The minister noted that with 250,000 farmers cultivating 250,000 hectares in the 2022 dry season, the initiative would raise wheat production to 750,000 metric tonnes. The wheat, he said, would…

Friday, 05 August 2022 07:07

FG asks Google to block IPOB, others from YouTube

Nigeria asked Google to block the use of YouTube channels and livestreams by banned groups and terrorist organizations in the country, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said on Thursday. Nigeria has been exploring ways to regulate social media usage in the country, Africa's most populous. The country is home to millions of internet users and platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Tiktok are popular. YouTube "channels and emails containing names of banned groups and their affiliates should not be allowed on Google platforms," Mohammed said he told Google executives in Abuja, the country's capital. Charles Murito, Google's sub-Saharan African director for…

Friday, 05 August 2022 07:06

Benue joins Zamfara, Ondo, others to procure AK-47 for state security outfit

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, on Thursday said the state government would legally procure Ak-47 rifles for its security outfit, Community Volunteer Guards. Ortom disclosed this in Makurdi, the state capital, at the unveiling of the security outfit just as states including Ondo, Ekiti, Osun and Zamfara also indicated that they would arm their security agencies as insecurity worsened in the country. Also on Thursday, representatives of security agencies, Nigerian Governors’ Forum, the diplomatic corps and select government ministries, held a summit in Abuja on Thursday with a view to ensuring that schools are secure and re-opened At the unveiling…

Friday, 05 August 2022 07:02

Tafa Balogun, ex-IGP, is dead

Tafa Balogun, a former inspector-general of police (IGP), is dead. A source, who confirmed the development, said he died on Thursday evening. Although details surrounding his death are still sketchy, the former IGP had not been seen in public in recent times, and he was said to have been ill. He reportedly died in a hospital in Lekki area of Lagos on Thursday evening. The former IGP would have clocked 75 on August 8. Balogun served as IGP between 2002 and 2005, during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He, however, resigned his position following allegations of corruption against…

Friday, 05 August 2022 07:01

Airlines cancel, reroute flights as Chinese military continues drills near Taiwan

Some airlines have cancelled flights to Taipei and rerouted others using nearby airspace that has been closed to civilian traffic during Chinese military exercises sparked by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. China deployed scores of planes and fired live missiles near Taiwan on Thursday in its biggest-ever drills in the Taiwan Strait, set to run until noon local time (0400 GMT) on Sunday in six zones encircling much of the island. The airspace involved is comparatively small, but the disruption is hampering travel between Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. Korean Air Lines Co Ltd said…

Friday, 05 August 2022 06:58

What to know after Day 163 of Russia-Ukraine war

Three ships carrying a total of 58,041 tonnes of corn have been authorised to leave Ukrainian ports on Friday as part of a deal to unblock grain exports, as a Russian offensive forced Ukraine to cede territory in the east. The first vessel carrying Ukrainian grain allowed to leave port since the start of the war set sail from Odesa on Monday bound for Lebanon, under a safe passage deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations. The Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul, which groups Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and U.N. personnel, said two ships would leave from Chornomorsk and one…

Thursday, 04 August 2022 06:35

‘It’s true Buhari bought vehicles worth N1.14bn for Niger Republic’, FG admits

Federal government has confirmed the procurement of 10 vehicles worth N1.14 billion for the Niger Republic. Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, said this on Wednesday after the federal executive council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja. The minister said Nigeria has a policy of assisting its neighbouring countries. On Wednesday, David Hundeyin, a journalist, released a document online indicating that the president approved the fund on February 22, 2022, while the contract to supply the 10 units of Toyota Land Cruisers were awarded to IFO Kaura Motors Nig. Limited for the neighbouring…

Thursday, 04 August 2022 06:34

FG fines Multichoice, Daily Trust, others for airing BBC report on banditry

Nigeria's broadcast regulator has fined Multichoice Nigeria Ltd, part of a South African pay-TV group, and others 5 million naira ($12,013) each for airing a BBC report that it said "glorified the activities of bandits and undermines national security." The National Broadcasting Commission said in a statement on Wednesday that the outlets had until Aug. 30 to pay. It also fined local channel Trust TV, part of the group that owns the prominent Daily Trust newspaper, for its own report on banditry. "The Commission wishes to seize this opportunity to advise broadcasters to be circumspect and deliberate in the choice…

Thursday, 04 August 2022 06:30

What to know after Day 162 of Russia-Ukraine war

Fanning out like urban guerrillas through Paris’ darkened streets well after midnight, the anti-waste activists shinny up walls and drain pipes, reaching for switches to turn off the lights. Click. Click. Click. One by one, the outdoor lights that stores had left on are extinguished. It’s one small but symbolic step in a giant leap of energy saving that Europe is trying to make as it rushes to wean itself off natural gas and oil from Russia so factories aren’t forced to close and homes stay heated and powered. Engineer Kevin Ha and his equally nimble friends had been acting…

Wednesday, 03 August 2022 04:21

NRC suspends Lagos-Kano, Ajaokuta train services over terrorism fears

Nigeria Railway Corporation has suspended the Lagos-Kano and Ajaokuta train services due to fear of terrorist attacks. Multiple sources in the Ministry of Transportation and the NRC confided in one of our correspondents that the train services would not resume until the security along the Lagos-Kano route and the Ajaokuta train station was guaranteed. It was also learnt that the NRC suspended services at the Ajaokuta station along Warri-Itakpe route because of the attack on some passengers by gunmen on Monday. It was gathered that the Lagos-Kano train services were suspended because of the high level of insecurity in Niger…

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Wednesday, 03 August 2022 04:19

Nigeria-trained doctors in UK approaches 10,000 - Report

The General Medical Council which licenses and maintains the official register of medical practitioners in the United Kingdom licensed at least 266 Nigerian doctors in June and July, 2022, The PUNCH has learnt. The implication is that more than four Nigerian doctors were licensed per day in June and July 2022 despite the moves by the Federal Government to stop the exodus of doctors and health workers in the country amidst worsening brain drain of the professionals in the country. Our correspondent, who has continued to monitor the GMC register, noticed that the number of Nigeria-trained doctors in the UK…

Wednesday, 03 August 2022 04:13

Pelosi’s Taiwan visit provokes China’s ‘military drills encircling island’

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi became the highest-ranking American politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years, prompting China to announce missile tests and military drills encircling the island that set the stage for some of its most provocative actions in decades. Pelosi on Tuesday night greeted Taiwanese officials including Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on the tarmac, where she posed for photos. She plans to hold a joint press briefing with President Tsai Ing-wen at 10:53 a.m. on Wednesday, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Pelosi said after landing that her visit “in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy”…

Wednesday, 03 August 2022 04:12

Russia accuses US of direct role in Ukraine war

Russia has accused the US of direct involvement in the war in Ukraine for the first time. A spokesperson for Moscow's defence ministry alleged the US was approving targets for American-made Himars artillery used by Kyiv's forces. Lt Gen Igor Konashenkov said intercepted calls between Ukrainian officials revealed the link. The BBC could not independently verify this. There was no immediate comment on the allegation from US officials. Russia previously accused Washington of fighting a "proxy war" in Ukraine. "It is the Biden administration that is directly responsible for all rocket attacks approved by Kyiv on residential areas and civilian…

Wednesday, 03 August 2022 04:11

What to know after Day 161 of Russia-Ukraine war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday said that despite arms supplies from the West, his country's forces could not yet overcome Russian advantages in heavy guns and manpower. "This is very much felt in combat, especially in the Donbas. ... It is just hell there. Words cannot describe it." Donbas, Ukraine's traditional industrial heartland in Ukraine's east, has seen some of the war's heaviest fighting. Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what it calls a "special military operation". Kyiv and the West have condemned it as an unprovoked war of aggression. At a…

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