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Thursday, 19 January 2017 03:19

FG's efforts to secure international loans hit deadlock - sources

Nigeria's efforts to secure funds from international lenders to help haul it out of recession have stalled because it has not submitted the required economic reform plans, according to one of the banks and sources close to the matter. The government has been in loan talks with the World Bank for a year. It had told the lender it would present its proposed reforms to make the economy more resilient and attractive to investment by the end of December, according to Western diplomats and a Nigerian official who declined to be named as they are not authorized to speak publicly.…

Thursday, 19 January 2017 03:18

FG: We’ll use pension fund for infrastructure

The Federal Government is working on how to tap into the huge pension fund to finance infrastructure in the country, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said yesterday. He said at the World Economic Forum holding in Davos, Switzerland that "To do this, we have to first de-risk such financing models for infrastructure.” His Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, in a statement, quoted him as saying beyond welfare of Nigerians, their empowerment was at the heart of the N500 billion Social Investment Programme. He told the panel that “It is about investment in people, in their skills, in…

Thursday, 19 January 2017 03:14

Fuel scarcity looms as marketers stop fuel importation over forex, debt

Marketers of petroleum products in Nigeria have placed embargo on importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol, leaving the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as the sole importer of the product. Nigeria consumes over 35 million litres of fuel daily. Investigations by New Telegraph showed that the development, which was made formal yesterday, has also led depot owners and marketers to begin the sale of petrol above N133.28 per litre ex-depot price. The pricing template by marketers, seen by this newspaper, showed that some depot owners have disregarded the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA’s) ex depot…

Thursday, 19 January 2017 03:11

Nigerian air force deploys to Senegal as Gambia deadline nears

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has deployed to Senegal in case of the need to enforce Gambia's election mandate, it said on Wednesday. As part of a regional response, Senegal's forces are at the Gambian border and will enter the country if veteran Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, who lost a Dec. 1 election, does not step down when his official mandate ends at midnight. "The NAF today moved a contingent of 200 men and air assets comprising fighter jets, transport aircraft, light utility helicopter as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Dakar from where it is expected to…

Wednesday, 18 January 2017 15:36

Senate approves Buhari’s fiscal plans it once rejected as ’empty’

The Senate has approved the 2017-2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and the Fiscal Strategy Paper, MTEF/FSP, submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari last December, in readiness for the consideration of the 2017 budget. The Senate on Wednesday adopted almost all the proposals sent by the president, contradicting its earlier ruling in December, when it dismissed the documents as “empty”. Its decision followed the recommendations of its committees on Appropriations, Finance and National Planning. It adopted the oil production projection of 2.2 mbpd for the 2017 Budget, which it said is achievable, “though dependent on the ability of the Federal Government to…

Wednesday, 18 January 2017 15:31

46 'severely injured' people remain at bombed IDP camp

At least 46 "severely injured" people remain in a refugee camp that Nigeria's military says it mistakenly bombed and they need urgent evacuation, the International Committee for the Red Cross said Wednesday. "Patients are attended to in an open-air space in a precarious environment," the aid group's statement said, raising the possibility that the death toll could significantly rise. A government official has told The Associated Press that more than 100 refugees and aid workers were killed in Tuesday's bombing in a remote northeast region near the border with Cameroon. Nigeria's military said it had been trying to target Boko…

Wednesday, 18 January 2017 15:30

Accidental bombing: Buhari cancels FEC meeting, sends team to Borno

President Muhammadu Buhari cancelled the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting earlier scheduled for Wednesday. A top Presidency source told our correspondent on condition of anonymity that the FEC meeting was put off owing to Tuesday's bombing of a civilian community in Rann, Borno State, by the Nigerian Air Force. President Buhari also yesterday sent a team to Maiduguri on a condolence visit over the incident which left scores of civilians dead and injured. Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, yesterday announced the dispatching of the team in his twitter handle @FemAdesina. Adesina said the…

Wednesday, 18 January 2017 02:56

Militants bomb NPDC pipeline 24hrs after Osinbajo’s visit

An unidentified militant group in the Niger Delta region on Tuesday blew up a crude oil trunkline in Ughelli, Delta State, barely 24 hours after Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo led a Federal Government delegation to the area in search of peace. Osinbajo, accompanied by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu; and the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Gen. Paul Boroh, had on Monday visited the traditional ruler of Gbaramatu Kingdom, the Olu of Warri and a cross-session of traditional rulers drawn from Urhobo, Isoko and Ndokwa ethnic nationalities at the PTI Conference Centre. The attack, which occurred…

Wednesday, 18 January 2017 02:55

Wike acquires 10 gunboats for Nigerian Navy

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, tuesday announced that the 10 new state-of-the-art security gunboats acquired by the Rivers State Government would be delivered to the Nigerian Navy for the enhanced patrol of the state’s waterways. Speaking after inaugurating the 120 Housing Units named Rivers Quarters at the NNS Pathfinder which was funded partly by the Rivers State Government, Wike urged the navy to use the newly acquired security gunboats strictly for Rivers waterways. He said that the state government would continue to support the Nigerian Navy with the needed logistics to protect the nation’s assets. “We have acquired 10…

Wednesday, 18 January 2017 02:46

Flights diversion: FG to spend N1.1bn on logistics

The Federal Government has earmarked N1.1billion as cost of logistics and security during the six weeks period when flights would be diverted from Abuja to Kaduna Airport, the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika said yesterday. Briefing senators on the planned closure of Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, Sirika said the amount would be spent on security, transportation and others. He said of the N1.1bn, the Nigerian Railway Corporation will get N103million, Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC), N237million, Police N358million, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) N29million and Ministry of Transport (Bus services),…

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Wednesday, 18 January 2017 02:36

Ajimobi’s daughter: I’m sympathetic to the plight of LAUTECH students… I didn’t attack them

Ajibola Ajimobi, daughter of Oyo state governor, has denied lambasting students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) over the encounter with her father. The governor had talked down on aggrieved students, who stormed his office to protest 8-month closure of their school. An Instagram user who identified herself as Ajimobi’s daughter, had described the students as “generation of manerless children”, attracting scorching criticisms. But the governor’s daughter denied owning the account, which made the offensive statement. “My attention has been drawn to a series of publications on social media and the Internet at large, which claim that I,…

Wednesday, 18 January 2017 02:33

Boko Haram claims University of Maiduguri attack

Islamist militant group Boko Haram has said it was behind Monday's twin suicide bombing at a university in north eastern Nigeria which killed two people. A video featuring an audio recording purporting to be leader Abubakar Shekau was posted on social media late on Monday. Reuters was unable to verify if the voice was indeed his. "The bomb that exploded on Monday morning, it's our brothers responsible for it," the recording said. A professor at the University of Maiduguri and a child were killed and 17 people wounded in a twin suicide bombing, officials said on the day of the…

Tuesday, 17 January 2017 18:45

Nigerian Air Force fighter jet mistakenly bombs IDP camp, kills more than 100

A Nigerian Air Force fighter jet on a mission against Boko Haram extremists mistakenly bombed a refugee camp Tuesday, killing more than 100 refugees and wounding aid workers, a Borno state official said. A Red Cross worker said 20 volunteers with the aid group had been killed. The state government official, who was helping to coordinate the evacuation of wounded from the remote area by helicopters, spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. Military commander Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor confirmed the accidental bombardment in northeast Rann, near the border…

Tuesday, 17 January 2017 14:48

Participants express concern over MMM new payment rules

Some residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Tuesday expressed happiness with the return of MMM, but say its new system of payment has dampened their moral. Participants of the scheme have continued to celebrate the return of the controversial money-doubling scheme, Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox (MMM), which resumed activities on January 13. The new system of payment prioritises participants with smaller sums of money in the system, therefore causing participants with larger sums to wait for payment coupled with a new payout limit. A number of participants who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, confirmed…

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