PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin’s latest steps in Russia’s war against Ukraine show his panic and the European Union will continue supporting Kyiv, three of the bloc’s leaders said on Wednesday. The Belgian and Dutch prime ministers and the chairman of all the EU’s 27 national leaders spoke after Putin mobilised more troops for Ukraine, backed a plan to annex swathes of the country and issued a nuclear threat to the West. “It is all a sign of panic. His rhetoric on nuclear weapons is something we have heard many times before, and it leaves us cold,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark…
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RUSSIAN President, Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday called up 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine and backed a plan to annex parts of the country, hinting to the West he was prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia. It was Russia’s first such mobilisation since World War Two and signified the biggest escalation of the Ukraine war since Moscow’s February 24 invasion. It followed mounting casualties and battlefield setbacks for Russian forces, who have been driven from areas they had captured in northeast Ukraine in a Ukrainian counter-offensive this month and are bogged down in the south. In an address…
By Peace O. Aboje A National Industrial Court in Abuja has directed the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to end its over seven months old nationwide strike which began on February 14, 2022. Justice Polycarp Hamman, in a ruling on Wednesday, said he was invoking Section 18 of Trade Dispute Act, which allows the court to order an end to strike when national interest is at stake. Justice Hamman held that it was necessary to end the strike because the students have a right to education. The suit which was filed in the court by the federal government through…
MAHDI Shehu, one of the supporters of the bloodthirsty Abacha military regime, runs around today in the outfit of a ‘human rights activist’. I don’t have any problem with that; anybody can call himself anything he wants. He trashes the Buhari presidency when he has the opportunity. As a Nigerian citizen, he has a right to his opinion and in any case, I do not hold the Buhari administration in high esteem. Besides, when the Abacha regime was sending innocent Nigerians to early graves, forcing some into exile, looting our commonwealth and employing terror, including bomb blasts against Nigerians, Shehu and…
THE Debt Management Office (DMO) has reviewed its bonds issuance calendar for the third quarter of 2022. According to the revised calendar, the DMO is scheduled to raise about N720 billion through some re-opened Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) bonds. On 19 July, the office was scheduled to re-open a March 2025 FGN bond valued at between N70 billion to N80 billion, and at an interest rate of 13.53 per cent per annum. It has a two-year, eight-month maturity period, with an original tenor of seven years. On the same date (19 July), the DMO re-opened an April 2032 FGN…
THE Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has begun geographic mapping of rice production in Kebbi as part of its national strategic products for sustainable export. The Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the NEPC, Dr Ezra Yakusak, made this known at an interactive session on rice production in Birnin Kebbi on Thursday. He said that the event was not only important, but also critical at this time when the nation is dependent on the non- oil sector to improve the economy. “According to the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), with the current production rate, Nigeria was poised to become a…
THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N28 billion for the provision of roads and other infrastructure in the Wasa District of Abuja. The FCT Minister, Mohammed Bello, said this while addressing journalists at the end of Wednesday’s meeting of the council, chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari. “I presented as memo for the augmentation of the contract sum for the development of the Wasa affordable district in the Southern borders of the Federal Capital City Abuja and the augmentation was in the sum of N28, 117, 904, 027. “The initial contract for that project was awarded in 2014 at the…
By Vera E. Abah THE Abuja panel probing allegations of human rights violations committed by the defunct Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) on Wednesday, awarded N289 million to victims of police brutality. The beneficiaries include a man who lost his limb after he was unjustly shot by a police officer and the family of a young man who was arrested by SARS operatives and who died in detention six years ago. Wednesday’s ceremony marked the second and final batch of compensation by the Abuja panel to victims of widespread rights abuses by the police. The Abuja panel, like those of…
AN Ado-Ekiti High Court has on Wednesday sentenced a 31-year-old commercial motorcyclist, Ojo Adebayo, to life imprisonment for raping a nine-year-old girl. The defendant was arraigned on one count charge of defilement before Justice Olalekan Olatawura in March. Delivering judgment, Justice Olatawura held that identification of the defendant by the victim as the person who raped her is not only compelling but credible, same not having been discredited under cross-examination and therefore not mistaken. “In all, I find established and proved beyond reasonable doubts by the prosecution that the defendant and no other person defiled the minor. Consequently thereupon, the…
By Vera E. Abah THE Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-Owned Universities (COPSUN) has cautioned state governments against the proliferation of universities. COPSUN however expressed its support for the No-Work-No-Pay rule invoked by the federal government in the face of the ongoing strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). ASUU has consistently blamed the governments at both the federal and state levels for establishing new universities while the existing ones remain underfunded. The pro-chancellors, in their support the no-work-no-pay policy against university workers’ unions, said the decision will significantly address the challenge posed by the frequent shutdown of the…