Senate approves names of nominees for NASS commission

Senate approves names of nominees for NASS commission

 

Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Monday approved the names of 12 nominees for the board of National Assembly Service Commission (NASC).

This is contained in a statement by the Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to the Senate President, Yusuph Olaniyonu, in Abuja.

The nomination and appointment of the members of the NASC is one of the demands of the striking National Assembly workers.

Court Jails 66 Soldiers Who ‘Stormed’ Minister’s Office

Court Jails 66 Soldiers Who ‘Stormed’ Minister’s Office

 

A military court in Ethiopia on Saturday jailed 66 soldiers for between five and 14 years for marching on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s palace in October, ruling they had broken military ethics, officials said.

The 66 were among 200 soldiers in fatigues and red berets who descended, armed, on the compounds of Abiy’s residence and office on October 10 and met him in what the government initially said was a bid to press for a rise in pay.

Fuel Subsidy Debt: Marketers receive N236bn promissory notes

Fuel Subsidy Debt: Marketers receive N236bn promissory notes

Tankers at a NNPC depot

Petroleum products marketers on Monday confirmed they have started collecting the N236 billion promissory notes for their outstanding subsidy debts. The payment is an implementation of the federal government’s promise to pay them latest last Friday.

The Executive Secretary, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), Olufemi Adewole, told Nigeria newsman  in an interview that marketers began to collect the payments on Friday.

OAU ‘sex-for-marks’ lecturer, Akindele sentenced to two years in prison

OAU ‘sex-for-marks’ lecturer, Akindele sentenced to two years in prison

 

A former lecturer in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Prof. Richard Iyiola Akindele, who was dragged to court for demanding sex to pass one of his students, Monica Osagie, on Monday was sentenced to two years in prison.

Akindele had earlier changed his plea from ‘not guilty’ to ‘guilty.’

BREAKING: President Buhari visits Niger Republic on Tuesday

BREAKING: President Buhari visits Niger Republic on Tuesday

President Muhammadu Buhari

The Presidency, in a statement on Monday, said President Muhammadu Buhari would  use a one-day official trip to Zinder, Niger Republic, to “participate in the programme of activities marking the 60th anniversary of the formal Proclamation of the Republic of Niger.”

The statement, which was released by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, reads in part, “At the invitation of President Mahamadou Issoufou, President Buhari will join fellow West African leaders as Special Guest of Honour as Nigeria’s northern neighbour commemorates December 18, 1958, the date of its founding as a Republic and the creation of the Presidency even before it gained complete Independence from France on August 3, 1960.

Electoral Bill: Gbajabiamila Shoots down Debate on Buhari’s Letter

A point of order by the Majority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, shot down debate on the letter sent to the House of Representatives by President Muhammadu Buhari, where he gave reasons for not assenting to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2018 for the fourth time.

At the opening of the Tuesday plenary, the Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, had read the letter on the floor, sparking spontaneous reaction from Hon. Aliyu Madaki (Kano, PDP), who immediately started making observation about the president’s action.

Death toll in suicide attack near Kabul jumps to 12

Death toll in suicide attack near Kabul jumps to 12

The death toll from a suicide bombing targeting a security forces convoy outside Kabul early Tuesday jumped to 12, officials said, with eight civilians killed in the latest Taliban-claimed attack near the Afghan capital.

The car bomb follows a wave of deadly violence against Afghan forces across a year in which insurgents have inflicted record-high casualties on security personnel in the war-torn country.

“Twelve people including four members of the security forces were killed,” ministry of interior deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told AFP.

250,000 refugees could return to Syria next year: UN

250,000 refugees could return to Syria next year: UN

Syrian displaced kids gather inside a tent in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp of al-Hol in al-Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria on December 8, 2018. – People from the localities of Hajine, Soussa and al-Shaafa have fled in recent days a pocket held by the Islamic State group (IS) in Syria’s eastern province of Deir Ezzor, where the jihadists have fiercely resisted for almost three months in an offensive launched by the Kurdish coalition Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). 

A quarter of a million Syrian refugees could return home next year, despite massive hurdles facing returnees, the UN said Tuesday, urging support to the millions still in neighbouring countries.

“We are forecasting … up to 250,000 Syrians go back in 2019,” Amin Awad, who heads the UN refugee agency’s Middle East and North Africa operations, told reporters in Geneva.

“That figure can go up and down according to the pace with which we are … removing the obstacles to return,” he stressed.