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The embattled national chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure, has inaugurated caretaker committee for the 20 local government areas in Lagos State. Inaugurating the 16-member executive for each council area Sunday evening in Lagos, Mr Abure expressed confidence that the party would be victorious at the presidential election petition court. Mr Abure, in the company of some party members, including the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi and Pat Utomi, said the 2023 general election was “a struggle to liberate Nigeria.” The chairman decried the current economic hardship resulting from the fuel subsidy removal and the spate of killings in some parts of the country, especially Plateau. He said the LP’s participation in the 2023 general election has changed the poli...

The Heads of Traditional Religion in Oyo state have expressed appreciation to the governor of Oyo state, Seyi Makinde and the members of Oyo State House of Assembly for approving August 20, as 'Isese Day'. The Oyo Heads of Traditional Religion, in a statement signed on behalf of the group by Araba Olu Isese of Ibadanland, Chief Ifalere Odegbemi Odegbola II, expressed appreciation to the governor of Oyo state and the lawmakers in the State House of Assembly for approving August 20 of each year as 'Isese Day'. The statement reads: “The approval of August 20 of each year as 'Isese Day' by the Oyo State House of Assembly and our amiable Governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde is something that gladden our hearts. This is an indication that both the Governor and the lawmakers in State are for al...

By Gami Tadanyigbe Ever-Giving Hope Empowerment Foundation (EGIHEF) have empowered no fewer than 500 women including widows, with skills acquisition at the Women Entrepreneur and Empowerment Summit held in Kuje Area Council, FCT, for self reliance and socio-economic development of the country. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Empowerment Summit with the theme titled "START FROM WHERE YOU ARE" had beneficiaries made up of young women, widows and the less-privileged, who were engaged in skills acquisition programme in Kuje. After an intensive days of training in soap making, catering, confectinaries, makeup, fashion designing, hat making among others, all trainees were over the weekend given starter packs to enable them get engaged with their acquired skills. Th...

By Ruby Cornie and Susan Ajibuwa Facts continue to emerge about the deep rot at Nigeria Correctional Service as Senior Officers due for retirement continue to dig in, refusing to leave and perpetuating scandalous unlawful elongation of service aimed at stifling the career advancement of subordinates. Sharpedgenews through the efforts of its investigative team uncovered efforts by some officers in the leadership hierarchy of the agency refusing to go after being due for retirement, they have perfected a disinformation and misinformation machinery of casting the government of Nigeria in a negative light, by asserting that president Ahmed Tinubu exists for the protection of institutional entitlement for moslems only. According to investigations, a Deputy Comptroller-General, Mr. A.A...

Niger Republic coup leader, General Abdourahmane Tchiani has agreed to dialogue with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) after his meeting with Nigerian Islamic scholars led by the national leader of Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah Wa Iqamatus Sunnah (JIBWIS), Sheikh Abdullahi Bala Lau in Niger Republic. According to Niger Republic’s Prime Minister, Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine, General Tchiani gave the green light for talks with ECOWAS and was optimistic the talks with ECOWAS would take place in the next few days. We have agreed and the leader of our country has given the green light for dialogue. They will now go back and inform the Nigerian President what they have heard from us. we hope in the coming days, they (ECOWAS) will come here to meet us to discuss how the sanct...

Mr Christopher Maikalangu, Chairman, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) has commended President Bola Tinubu over the nomination of an FCT native, Zaphaniya Jisalo, as minister in his cabinet. He said this on the sideline of the inauguration of the 10th executive members of the Youth Progressive Forum (YPF), in Abuja. Maikalangu who described the nomination as a "feat", added that it has been their yearning since the present democratic dispensation in 1999. "The people of FCT are happy, this is the first thing the President has done to us and we will always appreciate him for that", he said. On the newly inaugurated executives of the YPF, Maikalangu urged them to be open to advice in other to achieve the objectives of the forum. He added that on his part, he would contribut...

Lagos State election petition tribunal has reserved judgement in two petitions against the re-election of Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat. The three-man tribunal led by Justice Arum Ashom, on Saturday, said it would communicate the date for the judgement to the parties in the petition. Mr Ashom made this known after counsel to the parties adopted final written addresses. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP) and Abdulazeez Adeniran (a.k.a. Jandor) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are challenging re-election of Messrs Sanwo-Olu and Hazmat of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the first respondent in the petition, while Messrs Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat are the second and third respondents,...

Police in Oyo State have arrested a grandfather for seizing his daughter’s day-old baby in Oyo town and selling the same to a baby factory in Abia for N700,000. Five accomplices of the grandfather were arrested at the baby factory. Commissioner of police in Oyo state, Adebola Hamzat, told newsmen in Ibadan on Saturday that the grandfather took the baby girl from her teenage mother, Sarah Chukwuka, on July 10. He was later arrested at his hideout in Ibafo, Ogun. “The suspect, who identified himself as the biological father of the teenage mother of the day-old baby girl, confessed to the crime. “He explained how he took the baby from the mother, pretending that he would hand the baby over to a caregiver. “The suspect also explained how he moved the baby to Abia, where he s...

Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State has commiserated with the families of victims of Friday’s partial collapse of Zaria Central Mosque. This is contained in a statement by Muhammad Shehu, the chief press secretary to the governor. Mr Sani expressed sadness at the news of the collapse of the iconic mosque and the attendant loss of lives due to the incident. He thanked Emir Amb. Ahmed Bamalli, the Emir of Zaria, for his fatherly role in rallying his subjects to carry out rescue operations and assist the injured. The governor also commended the efforts of Zaria’s first responders, medical personnel, and residents in rescuing the survivors. Mr Sani said some government officials, led by Balarabe Lawal, Secretary to the State Government, had visited Zaria to assess the situation a...

The Defence Headquarters says the Nigerian Army have, in the last week, neutralised 38 terrorists, apprehended 242 others and rescued 89 kidnapped hostages in different operations across the country. The director of defence media operations, Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba made this known in a statement on Friday in Abuja. Mr Buba said the apprehended suspects comprised 175 gunmen, 20 kidnappers, 30 collaborators and 17 pipeline vandals. He said the troops denied the oil theft saboteurs the sum of N607 million being the value of seizures and recovery of 38 assorted weapons and 186 ammunition. Giving the breakdown, Mr Buba said the troops recovered 14 AK 47 rifles, one G3 rifle, one PKT, three AK47 rifles loaded with 23 rounds of 7.62mm special, one SMG, 10 Dane guns and five locally-fab...

Nigeria has debunked social media reports that its embassy in Niger's capital Niamey had been attacked amid the ongoing coup crisis in the region. This comes after videos emerged on social media purportedly showing the Nigerian Embassy in Niamey on fire allegedly attacked by a mob angry at Nigerian government position on the coup. It is ''not true. This is not Nigerian embassy,'' the Nigerian ambassador to Niger, Mohammed Sani Usman, told TRT Afrika on Friday morning. He said more security personnel have been deployed to protect the embassy and its staff and to ensure the safety of other Nigerians living in neighbouring Niger. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu is the current chairman of the West African regional bloc ECOWAS which has threatened to use force against the military j...

Resident doctors under the aegis of Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) have suspended the indefinite strike embarked upon on July 26. Its National President, Dr Innocent Orji, disclosed this on Friday in Abuja. According to him, a review will be made in two weeks. He said “we just suspended the strike. Work to resume by 8 a.m. tomorrow (Saturday, Aug. 12). “We will review progress made in two weeks.” This comes after series of interventions by various stakeholders for the association to either embark on the industrial action in the first place or to suspend it earlier. To avert the industrial action, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Tajudeen Abbas on July 24 urged the resident doctors to suspend the strike. Abbas made the call at a meetin...

By Gami Tadanyigbe  The Centre for Peace Advocacy and Sustainable Development (CEPASD) has called on the Federal Government to invest adequately in Entrepreneurship to enable youths become self reliant and for economic development of the country. The Executive Director of (CEPASD), Mr Igweshi Augustine, made the call during the Nigerian Youth Summit 2023 held at Merit House in Abuja on Thursday.  The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the youth summit titled "Advancing Youth Innovation in Entrepreneurship" brought together youths and major stakeholders in Nation Building.  Augustine said if the government had done enough on entrepreneurship, the high rate of unemployment and youth restiveness wouldn’t have been high the way it ...

By Perpetua Onuegbu The Chief Executive Officer of Federal Housing Authority (FHA)  , Sen. Gbenga Ashafa on Thursday performed the groundbreaking ceremony  of 7000 housing units in Mbora District, Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Ashafa, who said the ceremony was to commemorate FHA  50th anniversary, said the agency was committed to its core mandate of providing housing solutions for citizens. “In recent times we successfully inaugurated the Zuba Housing Estate, currently advancing the Bwari Project, and are on the verge of initiating the development of our Smart City/Diaspora Estate in Maitama II. “The FHA Golden Jubilee Estate will contribute approximately 7,000 district residential units to our national housing inventory upon completion. The meticul...

SheFarmers Initiative, an NGO, has pledged to empower no fewer than 20,000 female farmers in the FCT, in other to boost agriculture businesses and mitigate food insecurity. Mrs Kudirat Ande, President of the Initiative, said this at the inaugural launch of the FCT chapter of the organisation in Abuja. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event with the theme "Embracing Technology, Panacea for women in rural areas", also featured the inauguation of the SheFarmers Advisory Board members as well as Executives for the FCT chapter. Ande, who was represented by Samera Abdullahi, Vice President 1, said that the organisation, established in 2021, was committed to creating an enabling environment for female agric-entrepreneurs to thrive in Africa. Also speaking, Hajiya Lad...

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja has pledged to deploy troops to provide security for personnel of the National Population Commission (NPC) ahead of the population census in the country. The COAS pledged when an NPC delegation led by its chairman, Nasir Kwarra, paid him a courtesy visit on Thursday in Abuja. According to him, besides support in terms of security and availability of troops, the Nigerian Army is open to offering the necessary assistance to NPC in transportation and other areas. “The troops, formations and units deployed in the field will provide security to ensure that your personnel are protected and allow access to areas where they need to conduct the census. “We will rely on our previous experiences to ensure that those areas that are ...

By Collins Yakubu-Hammer The Hotel Owners Forum Abuja (HOFA) has urged the President Bola Tinubu’s administration to establish a stand-alone Ministry of Tourism, to strengthen the regulations of the hospitality industry. The President of HOFA, Mrs Funmi Kazeem, gave the advice on Wednesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja. Kazeem said that having a stand-alone Ministry of Tourism would help the Federal Government to strengthen regulations of the hospitality industry to checkmate crimes in the sector, especially in hotels. “Proper regulation of the hospitality sector would checkmate crimes in the sector, especially in hotels. Though there are criminals everywhere and crimes are not only committed in hotels but outside hotels. “As a matter of fac...

President Bola Tinubu says leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) must prioritise diplomacy in their approach to resolving the crisis in the Republic of Niger. Tinubu spoke on Thursday in Abuja while delivering his opening remarks at the second ECOWAS extraordinary summit on the socio-political situation in Niger. ECOWAS held its first session on the development, presided by Tinubu, its chairperson, on July 30. At the meeting, a resolution was reached to impose several sanctions on Niger over the coup. Some of the sanctions include a closure of all land and air borders between member countries and Niger, a freeze of all service and energy transactions and deals with all financial institutions in Niger, a travel ban and an asset freeze of the military...

The former Emir of Kano and spiritual leader (Khalifah) of the Tijaniyah Islamic movement in Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, says he used his personal connections to arrange and meet with the head of the Nigerien military junta, Abdourahamane Tchiani. Interventions are ongoing,” Mr Sanusi said. Mr Sanusi, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, met on Wednesday with Mr Tchiani in Niamey, the capital of Niger. Mr Tchiani is the president of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) following the illegal overthrow of the government of President Mohamed Bazoum. The coup leader had rebuffed efforts by the U.S., AU, ECOWAS and other Western allies to meet with him. Mr Tchiani also refused to see the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III. Speaking with St...