Daybreak, Politics, Entertainment, Sport

Category: News

You can add some category description here.

Enugu Assembly passes 2021 budget
Enugu State House of Assembly has passed the 2021 budget of One hundred and sixty-nine billion, eight hundred and forty-five million, seven hundred and fifty-eight thousand, five hundred naira (N169,845, 758,500.00) only.
The budget is expected to be transmitted to governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for assent.
The budget was presented on Wednesday, 9th of December to the State Assembly.
Presenting the budget proposal tagged: “Budget of Recovery and Continued Growth”, Gov. Ugwuanyi disclosed that it “is 13.8 percent higher than our revised 2020 budget”.
The governor explained that the budget proposal was carefully designed to strategically enhance the recovery of the state from the drawbacks of 2020, occasioned by the unexpected and unpleasant outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) and the negative effects of the #EndSARS protests, which were hijacked by miscreants and hoodlums to unleash mayhem on the country, “pushing back all the efforts at economic recovery from COVID-19 challenge”
December 29, 2020
Benue Security Council Bans use of motorcycles in three LGAs
The Benue State Security Council has banned motorcycles in Katsina-Ala and Ukum Local Government Areas of the state.
However, tricycles, (Keke Napeps) and other means of transportation will be allowed in the two local government areas.
The State Security Council also mandated that apart from the revenue collection points at the head bridge in Katsina-Ala, no other revenue point is allowed within the local government area.
According to a statement issued on Tuesday by the Permanent Secretary, Bureau of Internal Affairs and Special Services, Uyina Matthew, the decision was reached as a result of the security situation in the state.
“Security operatives have been mandated to arrest defaulters and impound their motorcycles,” Matthew said.
He added that: “All staff of the Board of Internal Revenue Service, BIRS are required to wear customized jackets and identity cards.
“Security agents are mandated to dismantle all illegal revenue collection points and makeshift shops. In the same vein, loitering at Katsina-Ala head bridge is prohibited.
“Loading and offloading of vehicles at Takum Junction and Katsina-Ala head bridge has also been prohibited.
“Law-abiding residents of the affected areas are advised to go about with their normal activities without fear”.
December 29, 2020
Court strikes out Obaseki’s alleged unlawful nomination suit against Ize-Iyamu
The Federal High Court Abuja, on Tuesday, struck out a suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking Osagie Ize-Iyamu’s disqualification from the Sept. 19 governorship election in Edo.
Delivering judgment, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, struck out the suit on grounds that it had become academic.
The judge also said that he saw no legal benefit that would accrue to the plaintiff if the suit succeeded.
The PDP had dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Ize-Iyamu to court praying for an order disqualifying Ize-Iyamu from the elections on the grounds that he was unlawfully nominated by APC.
READ ALSO: COVID-19: FG bans flights from 2 countries next week
The PDP alleged that he was unlawfully nominated because APC did not conduct proper primaries to nominate candidates for the Sept. 19 election in Edo.
The party based its allegation on the grounds that Mr Adams Oshiomohle, who conducted the “purported” primaries that nominated Ize-Iyamu was no longer national chairman of the party and had no right to conduct the primaries.
The PDP held that the APC, having failed to conduct a valid primary election, was not entitled to participate in the election.Objecting to the suit, the APC held that the election had already been conducted and the candidate of the PDP had won the election.
The APC also submitted that it had not challenged the outcome of the election, neither did it petition the winners at the election petition tribunal.
On the last adjourned date, Mrs Wendy Kuku, arguing on behalf of INEC, had urged the court to dismiss the suit for lacking in merit.Similarly, counsel to the APC, Mr Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, had prayed the court to dismiss the suit on the grounds that the suit was tantamount to “Mr A taking panadol for Mr B’s headache’’.
Ize- Iyamu’s counsel, Roland Otaru (SAN) had also prayed the court to dismiss the suit on the grounds that it had become academic since the election had already been conducted and won by Gov. Godwin Obaseki.
December 29, 2020
It is unfair to say I called for a coup — Bishop Kukah
Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has dismissed claims made by some Nigerians that his Christmas day message was a call for a coup to overthrow the Buhari-led administration.
Kukah in his Christmas day message said that Nigeria would have suffered a military coup or be thrown into a war if a non-northern Muslim president was in power and has done a fraction of what Buhari has done since assuming office in 2015. Kukah accused President Buhari of nepotism and others. Read here.
The Arewa Youths Consultative Forum has since called for his arrest and prosecution. According to them, the clergyman was calling for a coup against the Buhari administration.
At a press conference held today December 29, Bishop Kukah stated that he never called for a coup. In his words;
”I am pained and very sad that my emergency critics never see that many innocent lives are being lost on a daily basis. The loss of lives in the last ten years, even before the advent of this administration, calls for concern.
The reactions are a reflection of every citizen that make up Nigeria. It is sad that when you drop something in Nigeria, everybody goes back to their enclave and abandon the larger picture. I am someone who never takes offense to what people say about me.
What I said was my opinion based on evidence and what has happened in Nigeria, and if you looked into the records, there is evidence that justifies that statement, and if anyone thinks I am wrong, they should come out with a superior position.
It is unfair for a journalist or news medium to report that I called for a coup while expressing my personal view about Nigeria.”he said
Kukah dismissed calls for his to drop his priestly garment and join politics to effect the changes he so desires to see in
”I have no plan and will never play partisan politics for any reason. Those who link my message to partisan politics are only playing to the gallery.
Take, for instance, brilliant Nigerian youths making comments about Chelsea or Arsenal and have never been to England, does that make them players of such club sides?
So, why will someone think because Bishop Kukah is speaking therefore he is a politician? People who make this argument are totally ignorant of elementary politics and ignorant of the role of a Priest.
The truth is that a lot of us have not seen a priest saying what I am saying. The truth of the matter is, we are all in politics, but party politics for me, no. I am not a member of any political party and I cannot be. If it comes to voting, I do my right.
Whatever I said can please or displease anyone, but that is my own opinion and doesn’t stop others from saying their own opinion. If you think my motive is wrong, say yours.
I have no problem with Muslims, Christians, or any other religion but what I don’t like is when someone is using a religious issue to play politics, it is wrong.”he said
December 29, 2020
COVID-19: FG bans flights from 2 countries next week
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Smart Adeyemi, on Monday said the National Assembly and the Ministry of Aviation were considering banning flights from the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries with high rates of COVID-19.
Adeyemi, who stated this in an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja, said a decision on the issue would be announced next week.
The Federal Government’s plan may not be unconnected with pressures on it to stop further spread of coronavirus by banning flights from nations with high rates of the virus.
READ ALSO: Chairman of Labour Party Abdulkadir Abdulsalam is dead
The President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Prof Innocent Ujah, in an interview with the Punch, on Sunday, said travellers from the UK and the US were worsening COVID-19 cases in Nigeria.
The NMA president stated, “Government knows that they (travellers from the UK and the US) are the ones responsible for increase in cases and the results have shown that and government knows what they should do.”
Although the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 had on Thursday imposed fresh requirements on passengers from the UK and South Africa, flights from the two countries were not banned.
The PTF only opened registers for travellers from the two countries because of deadlier strains of coronavirus discovered there.
It, however, said there were no new strains of the virus in Nigeria. But there are fears that travellers who obtained fake COVID-19 results could have brought the new virus into the country.
According to worldometers.info, as of 6:55pm on Monday, the US had recorded 19,589,952 COVID-19 cases with 341,332 deaths.
The UK had 2,329,730 COVID-19 cases with 71,109 deaths. Sweden.
As of Sunday, Nigeria had recorded 84,414 cases of the virus with 1,254 deaths. But deaths from the virus have increased sharply since the second wave started last month.
December 29, 2020
SOKAPU Youths to Arewa Youths: You’re a religious bigotry
..Say’s calling for Bishop Kukah’s arrest baseless, senseless
By Gabriel Udeh, Kaduna
Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU) Youth Wing has described Arewa Youths Consultative Forum as tribalistic, ethnistic and religious bigotry, for calling for the arrest of Bishop Kukah over his Christmas day message.
SOKAPU Youth Wing, in a statement signed by its National youth leader, Comrade John Isaac, stated that the statement credited to Arewa Youths Consultative Forum and signed by it’s national President Yerima Shetima, calling for the arrest of Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah over his Christmas day message was baseless and senseless.
The release made available to journalists in Kaduna on Tuesday by the SOKAPU Youth, stressed that, calling for the arrest of Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah over his Christmas day message where the Bishop, out of love for country, stated that the President would had been long over thrown if he were to be a Non Northern Muslim, given the “gross nepotistic leadership style of his administration, was naive and lacks of sense of history on the part of Arewa youth.
It stated that “The attention of the Youth Wing of SOKAPU has been drawn to a statement credited to Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, signed by it’s national president Yerima Shetima, calling for the arrest of Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah over his Christmas day message, where the Bishop out of love for country, stated that “considering the gross nepotistic leadership style of the president and his administration, the president would had been long over thrown if he were to be a Non Northern Muslim”.
SOKAPU Youth also stated, “We’re however surprised and sadden that despite the visible failure of the Buhari administration evident in the high rate of kidnapping and banditry even in the president’s Katsina.
“That despite the poor state of the Nigerian economy which has seen Nigeria plunged into recession for the Second time in five years with a ridiculous foreign reserve and an embarrassing debt profile.
“That despite clear signs of maladministration in the Buhari’s administration evident in the fact that the administration has continuously bankrolled bandits and terrorist Boko Haram groups through payment of ransoms and freeing of captured terrorist members under the guise of “repentant members”.
“That despite the clandestine and lopsided composition of the security architecture of the country, Arewa Youths Consultative Forum could allowed itself to be drown in the murky waters of tribalism, ethnic loyalty and religious bigotry, choosing to look away the realities of the North which has become a pool of blood and a yard of graves”, it stated.
SOKAPU further stressed that “Yerima’s North is unarguably a valley of dry bones, a dent of terror and horror and unquestionably the most insecure and dangerous part of the country where no one is safe including the President.
“It is therefore unfortunate that the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum would call for the arrest of a Bishop who only pointed out the obvious.
“It thus appears that the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum is naive of historical facts. It is therefore imperative to remind the forum that President Buhari in 1983 thwarted a democratically elected Government of Shehu Shagari citing Nepotism, insecurity, corruption, and poor state of the economy all of which are worst today than they were in 1983.
“It has become necessary therefore to state in clear terms that the entire youths of Southern kaduna distant and disassociate themselves from the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum’s call for the arrest of Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, a call we all considers as not just baseless but senseless.
“The Buhari administration is undoubtedly the greatest political and administrave fiasco Nigeria has had since independence.
“While we the Youths and People of Southern kaduna stands firmly with Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah and condemn any call for his arrest.
“We are calling on all well-meaning Nigerians to speak out and save the country from sliding into a failed state as the signals are at the moment clearly visible to the blind and audible to the deaf”, it lamented.
December 29, 2020
BREAKING: Chairman of Labour Party Abdulkadir Abdulsalam is dead
The National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Alhaji Abdulkadir Abdulsalam, is reportedly dead.
READ ALSO: Angry Mob Set Two Allege Robbers Ablaze In Ibadan
The Deputy National Secretary of the party, Kennedy Chigozie, who confirmed the demise of the Chairman, said he died in the early hours of Tuesday December 29, 2020.
Details later…
December 29, 2020
Legendary designer Pierre Cardin dies aged 98
Legendary designer Pierre Cardin has died aged 98.
The fashion icon’s death was confirmed by his family to Agence France-Presse.
He died at the American Hospital of Paris, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, on December 29.
READ ALSO: Angry Mob Set Two Allege Robbers Ablaze In Ibadan
Cardin, who was Italian born but naturalised French, was known worldwide for his Space Age designs and avant-garde style, which often ignored the female form and adopted experimental unisex styles.
One of his most iconic creations was his ‘bubble dress’, which he introduced in 1954.
December 29, 2020
Philippines temporarily bans foreign visitors from 20 countries
The Philippines is temporarily banning the entry of foreign travellers from 20 countries where a new strain of the coronavirus has been reported, the government said on Tuesday.
The ban initially covered only visitors from Britain, but it was expanded to 19 other countries and will be in effect until Jan. 15, presidential spokesman Harry afaRoque said.
The other countries are South Africa, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Israel, Hong Kong, Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, Singapore, Lebanon, Japan, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Australia, France, Iceland and South Korea.
Passengers who are already on transit will be allowed to enter the Philippines, but they will be required to undergo a 14-day quarantine in government-accredited facilities in spite a negative RT-PCR test result, Roque said.
READ ALSO: Angry Mob Set Two Allege Robbers Ablaze In Ibadan
During the temporary ban, Filipinos coming from the identified countries are allowed to come home but will also have to undergo the 14-day facility-based quarantine.
The government “may impose restrictions to travellers coming from other countries that report the presence of the new variant of COVID-19,” Roque said, adding that outbound travel was allowed, subject to entry protocols of the destination.
President Rodrigo Duterte has kept the capital region of Metro Manila and eight areas in the Philippines under a less-stringent lockdown protocol until Jan. 31.
Malls, restaurants, and other commercial establishments are allowed to operate, but not at 100 per cent capacity.
Public transport is operating with downsized capacity, and inter-island travel is allowed, but with some restrictions.
On Tuesday, the Department of Health reported 886 new infections, bringing the Philippines’ total caseload to 471,526. The death toll was up by 32, to 9,162, it added.
December 29, 2020
Aide defends Tambuwal’s award as special needs people’s most friendly governor
Alhaji AbdulAziz Ibrahim, a Special Adviser to Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, says the award to his principal as “Most Friendly Governor to People Living with Special Needs of year ” is highly justified.
Ibrahim, the Special Adviser on People Living with Special Needs, on Tuesday in Sokoto, that the award, given to Tambuwal by Global Hope for Justice, an NGO, was in recognition of his special attention to special needs persons.
He said the NGO recognised the governor’s efforts at the just concluded National Disability Summit in Abuja.
He noted that Tambuwal had fulfilled his promises by giving them office of Special Adviser, as well as running many friendly policies that were uplifting the people’s living standards across the state.
According to him, people with special needs are currently receiving monthly stipends from the government as part of the administration’s efforts at discouraging the group from street begging.
The governor’s aide also said that Tambuwal had provided a fully furnished skills acquisition center where people living with disabilities were getting empowered to be productive in order to promote self reliance.
READ ALSO: Angry Mob Set Two Allege Robbers Ablaze In Ibadan
“Our people are engaged in shoe making, cap making, tailoring, knitting, mobile phones repairs and other businesses from the training they receive at the center.
“We are pursuing computer training programmes for our capable persons also, and the state government has provided work stations.
“During my visit to Abuja, I also contacted the Minister for Communication and Digital Economy, and he has promised to support this group of persons with more training facilities, tutors, as well as hard and software equipment,” Ibrahim said.
He appealed to his members to enroll in skill acquisition trainings and business opportunities; and reciprocate the governor’s efforts by shunning all forms of begging.
“Just of recent, Gov. Tambuwal facilitated some donors to assist our members with motorbikes which eases the difficulty in transportation that our members are facing,” he added.
Ibrahim also called for the domestication of People Living With Disability Act in the state; noting that many structures and programmes were not friendly to people with special needs.
December 29, 2020