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The former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, has raised an alarm, over the recent Wednesday military shakeup across the Federation, as it affects the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo. Fani-Kayode took to his Facebook page on Wednesday evening, to express to his concerns about how the affairs of the nation is being handled, and the treatment meted out to Osinbajo. “Finally, all of Osinbajo’s security team have been changed, except for his ADC. Most of the Yorubas have been withdrawn, and he is now being guarded by only Northerners. “He would have lost his ADC too, but he objected strongly to that one, and they left him. The man needs our support and prayers. Every Yorubaman and Southerner, regardless of party affiliation, owes him and the South that much”, Fani-Kayode said. He added: “Trust me when I tell you that the corpsocrats don’t give a damn about constitutional provisions, the rules or the niceties. The only thing that is relevant, is the interpretation t...

There was a little bit of confusion on Wednesday, as the Federal Executive Council, FEC, which was led by the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, failed to swear-in the two newly appointed Ministers. The new Ministers, Stephen Ocheni (Kogi), and Suleiman Hassan (Gombe), were previously billed to be sworn-in last week Wednesday, before President Muhamamdu Buhari departed to London. At as the time of filing in this report, We was unable to find out why Osinbajo dumped the earlier plan. Recall, that the Senate had last week, screened and confirmed Ocheni and Hassan as Ministers, but they were yet to be sworn-in. Ocheni is to replace late James Ocholi, who died over a year ago, while Hassan is to replace Mrs Amina Mohammed, who resigned to become the United Nations, UN, Deputy Secretary-General. The Council meeting which lasted about three hours, was attended by majority of the Ministers, and other cabinet members. President Muhammadu Buhari, had on Sunday night, departed for Lo...

….Analysts in divergent views A CONTROVERSY over capital adequacy amongst Nigerian banks may have ensued on the heels of claims by an international financial rating agency that most Nigerian banks are now undercapitalised following the persistent macroeconomic and currency challenges that characterized their operations since 2015. Amidst mixed results in the full year 2016 and first quarter 2017 financial reports of banks turned in to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, world’s leading financial rating agency, Fitch Ratings, has indicated that the banks still have capital adequacy challenges. The rating agency also indicated that for the full year ended December, 31 2016, most Nigerian banks under-provided for doubtful and substandard loans in other to remain within the regulatory capital adequacy ratio. But some Nigerian investment bankers would not agree with the global rating agency, saying the banks are in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Central Bank Of Nig...

FORMER commissioner for Culture and Tourism in Enugu state, Chief Joe Mammel has apologized to the people of the state, particularly to his native Ezeagu local government area for what he said was a disappointing outing of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 16 years. Mammel who also was the Chairman of Ezeagu local government council said he was sorry to have participated in what he called PDP’s disappointing 16 years outing. He tendered the apology at his country home, Aguobu-Owa, when a businessman from his community, Kingsley Ubenyi joined the APC at Eke Ozom market square. Mammel said: “I am now in APC because of change. Change is that you have to think before you leap, I have thought about it. One thing happened, like what passes through my local government, the Enugu-Onitsha express road. For 16 years I had been in government and my people have suffered, linking themselves to the commercial city was impossible and I am married to an Anambra woman and it was impossible f...

Two Muslim men were beaten to death by stick-weilding Indian villagers who suspected them of stealing cows, police said Monday, the latest such attack over the animal Hindus consider sacred. Police in northeastern Assam state’s Nagaon district said they had registered a murder case over the deaths of Abu Hanifa and Riyazuddin Ali on Sunday. Two suspects have been detained for questioning. “They were chased and beaten with sticks by villagers who said the two boys were trying to steal cows from their grazing field,” Debaraj Upadhyay, Nagaon’s top cop, told AFP by telephone. “By the time we took them to the hospital at night they had succumbed to their injuries,” he added. Footage shot by local onlookers and aired by Indian broadcasters Monday showed the two badly beaten victims cowering with their hands tied as villagers surrounded them. The incident comes amidst a wave of rising tensions over the killing and smuggling of cows in Hindu-majority India, where the animal is conside...

Turkish police on Monday used tear gas to disperse a group of protesters as they sought to defy a ban and march to Istanbul’s Taksim square to celebrate May Day, an AFP journalist reported. Police tried to stop around 200 protesters in the Gayrettepe district on the European side of Istanbul who wanted to walk to the famous square in spite of the ban by city authorities. The protesters — made up of left-wing groups — unfurled anti-government banners as May Day comes after the April 16 referendum brought President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a narrow win to expand his powers. “Long Live May Day, No to dictator!” the banners read. At least one protester was detained, according to the AFP journalist. Turkish authorities imposed a ban on any demonstration at Taksim square, with police sealing off the avenue with barricades. Several thousand people attended celebrations in an officially designated area in Bakirkoy district near the international airport on the city’s western side.

A former Chief of Staff to the governor of Oyo State and Visiting Professor of Political Science at Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Adeolu Akande, has advocated local government autonomy as the panacea to the problem of local government administration in the country. Akande, who was a guest on a television programme monitored in Ibadan, Oyo State capital at the weekend, said local government in the country has failed to achieve the objective of grassroots development because of three factors. He listed the factors as lack of autonomy, lack of direct financial allocation from the federation account and the failure to elect local government councils, explaining that the three factors boil down to the issue of local government autonomy. “Local government councils will be accountable to their people if they are elected. Caretaker committees are only accountable to their appointing autorities,” he said, explaining that it is when a government is accountable to the people that...

US-led strikes aimed against the Islamic State group have “unintentionally” killed 352 civilians since the offensive began in 2014, according to the US military. The tally from the Combined Joint Task Force did not include findings from an investigation the coalition said it had launched into one allegedly particularly deadly strike on March 17 in west Mosul. US General Stephen Townsend had said coalition forces “probably had a role in those casualties.” The statement released Sunday by Operation Inherent Resolve — the coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria — said 42 reports of civilian fatalities were still under review. From November 2016 to March 9, 2017, coalition strikes killed 45 civilians, the statement said. Three separate strikes near Mosul in early March of this year left 26 civilians dead. The statement said the coalition had in February and March finished an audit of its civilian casualty report tracking. The Pentagon said 80 civilian casualt...

When, on the behest of President Muhammadu Buhari, the federal government announced the decision to release about N522.74 billion in the first tranche of the Paris Club refund to the 36 states of the federation to enable them meet pressing financial obligations such as the payment of salaries and pensions arrears, mixed reactions of excitement, doubt, suspense and speculation greeted the move. When, thereafter, the refund was successfully released to states for disbursement in line with the purpose it was meant for, it became a subject of controversy as wild accusations and counter accusations as well as denials/ clarifications over the ingenuity and sincerity of some states to properly manage the refund, dominated the air space. For instance, it was reported in the national dailies that seven Governors were under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly diverting the funds. There was also a plethora of other allegations bordering on th...