Author: Festus Adeloye

Israel is close to completing the phase of eliminating the military capabilities of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but strikes on its remnants will continue, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday. “Yesterday, I returned from a tour of the Gaza division’s location, I saw great achievements in the battles fought in Rafah. “We are nearing the end of the elimination phase of the Hamas ‘terrorist army’, the strikes against its remnants will continue,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with students, adding that Israel will achieve all military goals. Dmitry Gendelman, an adviser to the prime minister, said that the…

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says the commission has no constitutional power to conduct local council elections except in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Yakubu said this on the sidelines of a two-day induction retreat for INEC Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs), on Monday in Lagos. Reacting to the agitation seeking constitutional backing for INEC to be saddled with the responsibility of conducting local council elections, Yakubu described it as ‘a constitutional matter’. According to Yakubu, unless necessary constitutional amendments are made, the commission will only continue to organise national and state elections. “The same section of…

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has said existing party members are not required to revalidate their membership as the ongoing membership drive is targeted at new members. National Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, gave the clarification in Abuja, on Monday. He said the clarification became necessary in the light of disturbing reports that existing party members were being requested to revalidate their membership. Ologunagba said the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) had, “received reports that some existing members of our great Party in some Wards in certain States are being requested…

Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has been re-elected to office after winning 56.12 per cent of the vote, provisional results showed. His main rival, Biram Dah Abeid, an anti-slavery human rights activist, came in second place after winning 22 per cent of the vote. Hamadi Sidi Mokhtar of the Islamist Tawasul Party got 12.76 per cent. Elections were held on Saturday in Mauritania, a former French colony in north-west Africa. Results were announced late Sunday after 99 per cent of the votes were counted. Before the announcement, Abeid alleged that there was fraud, and riot police dispersed his supporters demonstrating…

The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, has announced that it has fixed the date to conduct local government elections in the state for October 5. The Commission, on Monday, released its guidelines in view of the conduct of the council elections in the state. This was coming as the police in the state have maintained the occupation of the local government area council secretariats following the leadership crisis rocking the councils. Following the expiration of the tenure of the elected chairmen and councillors of the 23 LGAs, the governor of the state, Sir Siminialayi Fubara, inaugurated Caretaker Committees pending…

The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) on Monday described as reports the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun was making moves to prolong his tenure as false. The proposed amendment to the Nigeria Police Act 2020, the police said, seeks to extend the years of service for Police officers from 35 to 40 years and the age limit from 60 to 65 years. NPF clarified that the bill was originally introduced during the 8th Assembly but did not progress beyond the initial stages before the Assembly’s dissolution. The police said it was standard legislative practice to review and update laws to…

Amid the ongoing hardship and high cost of living in the country, the Presidency has advised Nigerians to stop buying food items such as pepper and tomatoes at supermarkets. Tope Fasua, the Special Adviser on Economic Affairs in the office of the vice president gave the admonition after doing a market survey at Utako Market in Abuja at the weekend. He said Nigerians should stop complaining of high prices on social media and go to local markets to but their food items. Posting the pictures on his Facebook page, Fasua wrote “Market survey 29.06.24. Utako Market. Small portion of tomatoes…

The Acting Governor of Borno, Alhaji Umar Kadafur, has said that the fight against insurgency and terrorism must continue. Kadafur made this known when he visited victims of the Saturday suicide bomb blast in Gwoza, Borno. NAN reports that the attacks, carried out by suspected female suicide bombers, struck a wedding, a hospital, and a funeral in Gwoza, a town near the border with Cameroon. NAN reports that the Borno Police Command spokesman, Nahum Daso, said on Sunday that three blasts took place on Saturday in Gwoza. The deputy governor condemned the attacks on the people. He said the perpetrators…

A helicopter belonging to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has reportedly crashed on Monday morning in Tami village of Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Locals said the incident happened at about 5 a m when they heard a loud sound from the crash site, which made them rushed to the scene where they saw the pilot emerging from the wreckage. “A team of military officers from the Nigerian Air Force swiftly arrived at the scene to secure the area and conduct an initial investigation.” “They cordoned off the crash site to prevent unauthorized access and to ensure the…

Despite leaving Nigeria for the UK two years ago, Sabitu Adams gets paid each month as a junior official at a government agency back home. Adams, who now works as a taxi driver in the UK, had his name changed by a BBC report to protect his identity. The taxi driver has yet to resign from his job in Nigeria. Adams is one of the thousands of ghost workers, a rampant issue in the Nigerian civil service. Each year, the government carries out biometric verifications and reels out numbers representing discovered ghost workers, and money saved. But no one is…