Author: Festus Adeloye

Domestic travellers paid 25 per cent more for air flights in July 2024, a new report by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said. The bureau in its Transport Fare Watch Report for July said domestic air fare rose by 25 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to ₦98,561.74 in July 2024 from ₦78.775.74 in July 2023. NBS said: “In air travel, the average fare paid by air passengers for specified routes single journey was N98,561.74 in July 2024, showing an increase of 9.65 per cent compared to the previous month (June 2024). “On a YoY basis, the fare rose by…

The Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Magaji Bichi, has resigned. His resignation was made known in a statement signed by the media aide to President Bola Tinubu, Ajuri Ngelale on Monday. Ngelale also announced the appointment of new Directors-General for the DSS and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), whose DG Ahmed Abubakar had earlier tendered his resignation to the President on Saturday. While Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi replaces Bichi as the new Director-General of the DSS, Mohammed Mohammed replaces Abubakar the new Director-General of the NIA. Bichi made a steady career in the DSS where he…

President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of new Directors-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Department of State Services (DSS). Ambassador Mohammed Mohammed is the new Director-General of the NIA. Mr. Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi is the new Director-General of the DSS. Ambassador Mohammed has had an illustrious career in the foreign service since joining the NIA in 1995. He had served in various roles, culminating in his promotion to the rank of Director and his subsequent appointment as the head of the Nigerian mission to Libya. The 1990 graduate of Bayero University, Kano, had served in North…

Swedish football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who coached England from 2001 to 2006, died Monday at the age of 76 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, his agent said. “He passed away peacefully this morning with his family around him at his home,” Eriksson’s agent Bo Gustavsson told AFP. AFP

The proposed meeting between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities initially scheduled for Monday (today), has been postponed. According to Channels Television on Monday, the ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, confirmed that the meeting which was previously announced by the Minister of Education on Friday will no longer hold. Although no reason was given for the postponement, the meeting is now expected to take place on Wednesday, August 28. Public university lecturers, following resolutions reached at the union’s national executive council meeting held at the University of Ibadan on August 19, 2024, threatened to go on a…

The Federal Government says it stands with its decision to void over 22,700 degree certificates obtained by Nigerians in some “fake” universities in neighbouring Togo and Benin Republic. Education Minister Tahir Mamman, who was on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, said Nigerians who obtained degree certificates from such “illegal” tertiary institutions are denting Nigeria’s image. He said the measure to invalidate degree certificates from illegal universities in the Benin Republic and Togo was not a harsh one as the authorities in the neighbouring Francophone West African countries also adjudged the concerned schools as fake. Last year, an undercover journalist detailed…

Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov is to appear in court Sunday after being arrested at a Paris airport for offences related to his popular messaging app, sources told AFP. Russia has accused France of “refusing to cooperate” following the arrest of the Franco-Russian billionaire, 39, at Le Bourget airport on Saturday night. Durov had arrived from Baku, Azerbaijan, and was planning to have dinner in the French capital, a source close to the case said. An investigating magistrate was to decide later Sunday on a possible extension of Durov’s 24-hour detention. Depending on that decision, he could be charged or…

The Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has urged politicians in Nigeria to stop weaponising insecurity against their opposition in office. She spoke before a room filled with lawyers at the Eko Hotel & Suites in Lagos during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on Sunday. The former Nigerian finance minister delivered a keynote address entitled, ‘A Social Contract For Nigeria’s Future’. “We cannot have socio-economic development without security. We certainly cannot have security without development,” the WTO chief said. “We all know that security has been…

Senator Duoye Diri has welcomed the Supreme Court ruling that reaffirmed his election as the governor of Bayelsa State. The apex court in its verdict on Friday dismissed the appeal of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva. A five-member panel of the apex court headed by Justice Lawal Garba, on Friday affirmed the Court of Appeal decision of July 15 which deemed Sylva’s appeal as an abuse of Court process for filing two notices of appeal. Speaking in Abuja after the apex court gave its verdict, Governor Diri said the victory was not for him or his…

The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the election of Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the Kogi State governorship election which held on November 11, 2023. The affirmation followed the dismissal of the appeal of Murtala Ajaka, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party who challenged the outcome of the election. In a unanimous judgment, the Apex Court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal which on the twenty-seventh of May affirmed the election of Mister Ododo. The five-man panel held that the allegation of substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act was not proven…