By Jennifer Y Omiloli
There was an explosion on the Abura Crude Trunk Line belonging to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) in Delta.
The incident happened on Friday, August 30 at Otu-Jeremi community in Ughelli south local government area of the state.
A senior officer in the Nigerian Army confirmed the incident to newsmen, but said he not certain of the cause of the incident.
By Jennifer Y Omiloli
The account of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has supposedly been hacked by a gathering called the Chuckling Squad.
The episode which happened on Friday, August 30, saw hacker(s) posting series of hostile messages from his account.
A portion of the hostile messages are said to incorporate racial slurs and re-tweeted message supporting Hittler’s Germany.
By Jennifer Y Omiloli
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has cautioned Nigerians that utilizing inadequate telecom gadgets could be hazardous to their health.
Prof. Umar Danbatta, NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, said at a sensitisation workshop for partners that utilizing inadequate and fake telecom gadgets was risky to human health and security.
The workshop had as topic: “Hazardous Effect of Non Type Approved Handsets and E-Waste: Impact on Quality of Service and E-Waste.”
Mr Clem Omife, NCC’s Assistant Director, Zonal Operation, Danbattta said that inadequate gadgets likewise increase digital security-related dangers, for example, Zero Day attack.
As indicated by him, the NCC is teaming up with different partners in the business to advance methods for checking the danger of unacceptable and fake gadgets.
He said the commission thought that it was important to instruct the overall population on the impact of utilizing non-type endorsed gadgets in the nation through the sensitisation workshop.
Danbattta further expressed that utilizing counterfeit gadgets has a wide scope of negative effects on the nature of administrations given to telecom administration shoppers.
“Using genuine handsets and other devices will help consumers to prevent economic losses and associated ailments.
“As a commission, we are not relenting in efforts to ensure that Nigeria is saved from the hazardous effects of using fake devices,” he said.
In a paper entitled “The Socio-Economic Effects of Counterfeit Devices,” Mr Chukuma Nwaiwo of NCC’s Technical Standard and Network Integrity Department, said the proliferation of fake products and devices was having negative effects on both government and the general public.
He urged consumers to avoid patronising fake telecom devices and equipment, adding that “ Nigerians should support NCC’s move to prevent fake and counterfeit devices from entering the country.”
By Jennifer Y Omiloli
The Nigeria Police Force will get 40,000 new recruits into the security body to aid community policing across the country, the agency’s boss, Mohammed Adamu, has said.
Mohammed Adamu said on Thursday, August 29, in Enugu during the launch of the Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV), that the Nigeria Police Force will get 40,000 new recruits into the security body to aid community policing across the country
The agency boss said the new constables to be recruited would work in communities in all the 774 local government areas of the country.
Adamu, who was represented by the Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) of police, Zone 9, Baba Tijini, said the POCACOV is in line with community policing agenda of the federal government.
According to him, community policing should involve all stakeholders so as to meet its goal of crime reduction in Nigeria.
“Each of the 774 council areas in the country will have a minimum of 50 constables to strengthen security at the local levels.
“It will also involve engaging community-based organisations, groups and institutions to see that it works for the betterment of all,” Adamu said.
“I want all Nigerians to key into this programme for the overall reduction of crime in all our communities in the country.
“We want to engage and work together with local citizens to easily identify security threats and proffer local solutions to them,” he added.
By Jennifer Y Omiloli
The federal government has guaranteed Nigerians that the “Next Level” administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would observe a quicker pace of infrastructure advancement.
The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, gave the confirmation on Thursday, August 29, in Abuja, at the ninth quadrennial meeting of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).
The Minister stressed that a great deal of continuous undertakings would be conveyed and put to use for the solace of Nigerians, including that the government is investing hugely in the arrangement of basic infrastructure.
He said: “As a matter of fact, no government has invested more in infrastructure development than the Buhari administration. As I speak, there is at least one federal road under construction in each of the country’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“The setting up of the 650 million dollar presidential infrastructure fund is aimed at accelerating the ongoing construction work on the second Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan expressway, East-West road, Abuja-Kano expressway and the Mambilla Hydro-electric project. There is no better demonstration of President Buhari’s commitment to deliver on critical infrastructure across the country.”
The minister additionally approached NURTW to help the government as it advanced imaginative measures to handle the challenge of insecurity on the streets.
By Jennifer Y Omiloli
Governor Yahaya Bello on Thursday, August 29, emerged the ticket carrier of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi for the November 16, governorship election in the state.
The Governor won the party’s primary with 3,127 out of 3,596 votes thrown by the agents.
Daybreak.ng assembled that a sum of 3,596 delegates out of 3,838, were authorize for the primary.
It was found out that ten hopefuls were cleared by the APC national working panel to contest in the election.
As the outcome is being anticipated, Justice Abdul Awulu, the vacation judge sitting in a high court in Lokoja, on Thursday, August 29, rejected an ex parte application to stop the governorship primaries of the APC in the state.
Ruling in the application documented by Alhaji Mustapha Audu, a governorship hopeful, Justice Awulu, held that the court can’t stop the primaries by order.
By Jennifer Y Omiloli
The government of Emeka Ihedioha in Imo, on Thursday, August 29, requested a ‘resident’s capture’ against Rochas Okorocha, the recent past governor of the state over supposed ambush on an official, Jasper Ndubuaku.
The request was issued by the Secretary to State Government (SSG), Uche Onyeaguocha, following a supposed ambush on the chairman of the recovery of properties, Jasper Ndubuaku.
It was found out that Ndubuaku was supposedly struck at Okorocha’s residence.
According to Onyeaguocha, the state had additionally set Okorocha on security watch. He spoke to Imo natives to capture him and alarm the government at whatever point they find him in the state.
A video, which trended on the web, had caught a few hooligans beating Ndubuaku at Okorocha’s residence on Spibatt Avenue, Owerri.
The episode was affirmed by the chief of police in the state, Rabiu Ladodo, and the SSG and they were said to have reported that a resident’s arrest had been proclaimed on Okorocha over the occurrence.
They affirmed that Okorocha procured hooligans to assault Ndubuaku, an uncommon guide to Governor Emeka Ihedioha on security matters and that he would be indicted once captured.
The magistrate of police likewise said that police will investigate the representative’s contribution on the issue.
Ndubuaku had asserted that he was beaten at Okorocha’s home and tossed into a drain by certain hooligans.
“We got a court order to recover stolen properties kept in Okorocha’s house and when we got to his house on Thursday, armed thugs attacked us.
“There are twenty government vehicles in his house, four Speed Boats, one movable Crain and generator sets, which we went to recover before the incident.
“We will not give up the battle, we will go back to his house because the property belongs to Imo government,” Ndubuaku said.
Sam Onwuemeodo, special assistant on media to Okorocha, clarified that the recuperation board of trustees was assaulted by the previous governor’s sympathizers and passers-by.
He included that the recuperation group went to Okorocha’s home without a court request and that they attacked Okorocha’s habitation with no less than 50 hooligans.
By Jennifer Y Omiloli
A member of the House of Representatives from Bauchi state, Abdulkadir Umar Sarki, has lost his seat at the green chambers following a decision by the National Assembly election appeal tribunal.
The tribunal, which sat in Bauchi invalidated the race of Sarki, a member of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) speaking to Katagum federal constituency of the state.
“In a unanimous judgment, the three-man panel led by the tribunal chairman, Hon Justice Bello M Tukur, nullified the election of the member on grounds that the elections held earlier this year ought to have been declared inconclusive.
“The Tribunal further ordered a rerun election and withdrawal of the certificate of return issued to the member earlier returned by INEC as winner,” the report said.
Recall that Ibrahim Mohammed Baba of the All Progressive Congress (APC),had filed a petition challenging the declaration of Sarki as the winner of the election.
By Jennifer Y Omiloli
The federal government has said it would start deducting Value Added Tax (VAT) on every single online exchange both locally and globally effective January 2020.
This was revealed on Monday by the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Babatunde Fowler, at the African Tax Administration Forum Technical Workshop on VAT on Monday in Abuja.
He said, “We have thrown it out to Nigerians. Effective from January 2020, we will ask banks to charge VAT on online transactions, both domestic and international.
“VAT remains the cash cow in most African countries, with an average VAT-to-total tax revenue rate of 31 per cent. This is higher than the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s average of 20 per cent.
“This statistics, therefore, is a validation of the need for us to streamline the administration of this tax with the full knowledge of its potential contributions to national budgets.
“It is, however, also bearing in mind the rights of our taxpayers.
“VAT revenue is shared 15 per cent to the Federal Government, 50 per cent to state governments and 35 per cent to local governments.
“FIRS wrote to all commercial banks in May 2018, requesting for a list of companies, partnerships and enterprises with a banking turnover of N1 billion and above.
“This activity is aimed at ascertaining those companies that are compliant with the tax laws and those that are not”.
By Jennifer Y Omiloli
The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has demanded that Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, is purportedly handing out lies to Nigerians over the whereabouts of his boss.
Adesina had released photos shot in Yokohama, Japan, pronouncing that IPOB has had nothing to do with President Muhammadu Buhari since he landed in the East Asian Country on Monday.
He was countering earlier suggestions by the pro-Biafran bunch that the President is nowhere in Japan 24hrs since his takeoff from Abuja, the country’s capital.
Comrade Emma Powerful, the spokesman of the group, on Monday, said: “The well prepared diet of lies from the stables of this presidency and especially Femi Adesina, has run its course. No group, no matter how vicious and cunning can run a government based on blatant falsehood.
“Facts on the ground speak for itself because a government that lives by photoshop will die by photoshop. There has been no public sighting of Jubril-Buhari anywhere in Yokohama or Tokyo. He is not at the residence of the Nigerian Ambassador to Japan, he is not in the Nigerian embassy either.
“IPOB Intelligence Unit (M-Branch) have men stationed at every luxury hotel in Yokohama and Tokyo yet no sign of Jubril-Buhari or any member if his entourage.
“We have directly contacted everything’s top hotel in both cities with no report of any Nigerian mission checking in. Nigerians can be fooled but not we Biafrans.
“If Femi Adesina and the rest of Aso Rock is confident that Jubril-Bubari is in Japan, they should kindly tell us where he is residing and we assure them that within the next hour there will be seismic shock across the political world.
“Nigeria should dare IPOB by telling us where they hid Jubril-Buhari and only then will they know if we flooded into Japan prepared or not. Digitally tampering with pictures will not save the doomed Jubril Al-Sudani. He must be unmasked in Japan.
“Where have you heard that an a youth group from South Korea welcomed a foreign president in Japan? What happened to Japanese youths? The pictures are shameful. Any sensible person looking at those photos being dished out by Femi Adesina will know there is something sickening and sad about Nigeria.
“Our aim is to create an international scene that will compel the Japanese authorities to refer the matter to court either through our arrest at the protest scene or some other form of legal summon. This is a golden opportinity for IPOB to change the course of history by exposing a historic fraud and we won’t let it pass us by.
“We are waiting for Jubril and as soon he is sighted, headlines around the world will read something different tomorrow morning.
“For long we have been waiting for an opportunity to trap the fraud Jubril-Buhari in a civilised country and now we think we finally have him, we intend to make the most if it.”