News & Announcements

More than 40 people have lost their lives in the raging Mediterranean wildfires that are currently threatening villages and holiday resorts, with the majority of fatalities occurring in Algeria.

The fires have led to the evacuation of thousands of people, and the situation remains critical as high temperatures and dry conditions persist.

Greece is bracing for additional evacuation flights from the fire-stricken islands of Rhodes, Corfu, and Evia.

The unyielding heatwave continues to exacerbate the situation, with temperatures predicted to soar above 44C (111F) in certain parts of Greece.

The combination of high winds and extremely dry vegetation is making it challenging for firefighters to control the flames and establish effective firebreaks.

In Algeria, the death toll has been particularly severe, with 34 lives lost, including ten soldiers who were tragically surrounded by flames during an evacuation in the coastal province of Bejaia.

The Algerian authorities have been working tirelessly, employing around 8,000 personnel, hundreds of fire trucks, and aircraft to combat the blazes. Despite significant progress, about 80% of the fires are still active, necessitating continued firefighting efforts.

The devastating impact of the fires has not been confined to Algeria alone. In Greece, the Civil Protection Ministry has issued warnings of an “extreme danger” of fire in six out of the country’s 13 regions.

The island of Rhodes has seen a massive evacuation, with over 20,000 people forced to leave their homes and resorts in the south.

This has significantly affected the tourism industry, which is vital for the island’s economy and many other Greek destinations.

Italy is also grappling with extreme weather events as storms have hit the north, and wildfires continue to ravage Sicily and several southern regions.

In Palermo, a couple in their 70s and an 88-year-old woman lost their lives in separate fire incidents, while a 98-year-old man was found deceased in Calabria, near Sicily.

The situation remains highly complex, with Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci describing it as one of the most challenging days in recent decades for the country.

As the Mediterranean region battles this unprecedented crisis, concerns grow over the influence of human-induced climate change, with climate scientists attributing this month’s intense heatwave to global warming.

Authorities in affected areas are urging residents and tourists to remain vigilant and follow evacuation orders to ensure their safety.

Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has issued a nationwide strike notice to seek the reversal of fuel pump price hikes and other policies by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government.

NLC spokesperson, Mr. Ben Upah confirmed this exclusively to newsmen on Wednesday.

According to him, the nationwide strike would commence on 2nd August 2023.

“Yes, the nationwide strike will commence on 2 August 2023. We will soon issue a communique to that effect”, he said.

The Senate has rejected a motion to release Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the banned Indigenous People of Biafra.

Senator Osita Izunaso (Imo West) introduced the motion to address the continual sit-at-home order enforced by unknown gunmen in the South-East.

In a resolution co-sponsored by other South-East politicians, the congressman stated that senators were aware that hundreds of innocent lives had been lost since the action began, and properties worth over a trillion dollars had been destroyed, causing investors to flee the region.

He said, “The sit-at-home civil disobedience actions in the South-East have led to the disruption/destruction of economic activities and immeasurable financial losses for businesses, workers, and the local economy. Because, when people are forced to stay at home and businesses remain closed, productivity declines and income is reduced, affecting livelihoods and economic growth.

“The “sit-at-home” protests disrupt the education of students, leading to missed classes and delays in academic progress. And such prolonged disruptions have long-term effects on students’ learning outcomes and educational development; Disturbed that disruption of essential public services, such as healthcare, transportation, and waste disposal, continues to have a severe impact during “sit-at-home” protests which adversely affect the well-being and safety of the general population living in the South-East.”

In August 2021, IPOB launched a sit-at-home order for every Monday across the South-East to protest Kanu’s continued arrest. The order was eventually suspended by the separatist faction.

Despite the fact that the IPOB section led by Kanu has ceased the exercise, the leader of a part of IPOB, Simon Ekpa, has continued to announce sit-at-home orders across the region.

Residents of the five South-East states of Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Abia, and Anambra have been repeatedly killed, wounded, and attacked by gunmen enforcing the civil order for going out on Mondays and other days when the order is violated.

In the most recent global rating of passports, the Nigerian passport has advanced nine positions.

The Nigerian passport improved from 100th to 91st place in the newly released Henley Passport Index for Q2 2023 among the 199 nations and 227 travel locations examined.

Based on the number of places passport holders can visit without a prior visa, the Henley Passport Index evaluates the strength of various national identification documents.

The most recent rating shows that Nigerians have better access to the rest of the world. However, 46 countries are still reachable without a visa or with one obtained upon arrival.

According to information obtained by our correspondent, the new ranking may not actually reflect an increase in passport security but rather is a result of other countries losing their previous ranking.

Nigerian passport holders would only be able to travel to 25 countries without a visa as of June 2022.

However, when visa-on-arrival or e-visa programs are included, that number increases to 45 locations.

Nevertheless, among of the 15 nations that make up the Economic Community of West African States, Nigeria’s passport was considered to be the weakest.

The Gambia was placed 72nd, Sierra Leone was 74th, Cabo Verde was 75th, Ghana was 76th, Benin was 78th, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast were 79th, Guinea was 80th, Senegal and Togo were 81st, Niger was 82nd, Mali and Guinea Bissau were 83rd, Liberia was 87th, and Nigeria was 91st.

According to Dr Juerg Steffen, CEO of Henley & Partners, a drop or gain in ranking is caused by a variety of factors, including reciprocity, economic and sociopolitical stability, and tourism.

Ogbole Amedu-Ode is a former Nigerian Ambassador to Singapore. He told our correspondent that an assertive and consistent implementation of Nigeria’s war on drugs and cybercrime would mend the country’s reputation in the global community.

He said, “The offshoot of drug-related crime perpetrated by Nigerians abroad and a low-performing economy has brought us here.

“So, what can we do is strengthen our moral fibre by rigorously implementing regulations that shore up our standing globally.

“We must also ensure that the economy bounces back and becomes robust so well that our people are not voting with their feet. When fewer citizens indulge in criminal activities across international boundaries, and with these other steps I have mentioned, I think we will bounce back. Anything short of this will be a waste of our time.”

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Immigration Service’s Public Relations Officer, Anthony Akuneme, stated that more favorable bilateral agreements with other nations could open doors for Nigerians.

Echoing the observations by Steffen, he said, “It is a function of reciprocity. If one country agrees that my citizens can come without needing a visa, I, too, will extend the same gesture to them.”

Mallam Salihu Lukman, the national vice chairman of the All Progressives Congress for the North-West, has formally submitted his resignation.

His letter of resignation was delivered on Wednesday to Senator Abubakar Kyari, the party’s acting national chairman.

The news comes one week after the resignations of Senator Iyiola Omisore, the party’s national secretary, and Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the former national chairman of the party.

The Kaduna politician blamed his resignation on suspected illegal behavior and meddling in the party’s internal affairs, which he claimed were at odds with the goals of the founding fathers.

Lukman said that he opted to throw in the towel rather than remain in the party to continue his agitation and be seen as a distraction.

The letter read, “Your Excellency, I hereby kindly resign my position as National Vice Chairman, North-West of our great party, All Progressives Congress. My resignation is with immediate effect, which becomes necessary given my conviction that the atmosphere in the party is completely at variance with the founding vision of forming a progressive party.

“Rather than remaining in the leadership of the party and becoming a source of distraction for leaders and especially for the young government of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it is better to excuse myself and take time off from politics.

“I will however retain my membership of the party in the hope that our leaders, especially President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will retract from acts that will be unjust and illegal, which is crucial to any claim of being democratic or progressive whether as politicians or as patriotic Nigerians.”

The outgoing vice chairman also praised Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna State, for recommending him and supporting him throughout his term.

All the while, he made a commitment to continue helping the party in any way he could.

“I wish to convey my sincere gratitude to our leaders in Kaduna, especially Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai for finding me worthy of nomination to serve at the highest level of the party’s leadership. I do hope all our leaders will appreciate that I am left with no option in the circumstance. I wish the party and all our leaders, especially President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu all the best and will continue to give my modest support towards the success of the party from the background,” he said.

According to reports, a middle-aged man who went by the name of Ken was discovered dead in his hotel room while staying in the D/Line neighborhood of Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State.

While his dead body was found on Sunday, Ken was claimed to have booked into the hotel on Saturday.

His death’s circumstances weren’t known at the time of publication.

According to reports, a hotel employee called the local police station and requested investigators be sent to the site.

Grace Iringe-Koko, the state police public relations officer, verified the event when contacted and stated that the inquiry is ongoing.

Police Superintendent Iringe-Koko claimed that officers had visited the hotel and that the body had been placed in a morgue.

“Yes, we are aware of the incident and the man’s corpse has been retrieved. Our men took photographs and a preliminary investigation was done.

“Investigation is still ongoing to ascertain the immediate and remote causes of the death as well as the circumstances,” she said.

Prince Wiro, who serves as the Center for Basic Rights Protection and Accountability Campaign’s national coordinator, has urged the state government to form a task group to mandate the installation and usage of CCTV cameras in hotels and guesthouses in order to increase security.

He said, “Investigations showed that many hotels are not complying with check-in procedures stipulated by the state government sometime in 2018 and 2019 when there were issues of serial killing of young girls in some hotels in the state.

“The essence of complying with check-in procedure, for instance having CCTV camera, log-in register and so on is that if there are issues, it will be easy for the police to investigate.”

“I think the Rivers State Government, through the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, should set up a task force to begin to monitor the level of compliance by hotels and guest houses as regards check-in procedures.”

The government discovered 1,618 civil officials who possessed fake employment letters, according to the head of the federation’s civil service, Folashade Yemi-Esan, who made the announcement on Tuesday.

She also mentioned that the administration was attempting to increase the duty tour compensation for civil personnel.
Prior to the 2023 Civil Servants Week, she discussed salary harmonization in the civil service with a limited group of journalists in Abuja.

“The Presidential Committee on Salary Harmonization is working to review salaries to reduce the disparity. Earlier, 40 per cent of Basic salary approved by FEC as Peculiar allowance with effect from January 2023. Also, we are working towards Upward Review of Staff Duty Tour Allowance.

“On the issue of procurement of insurance cover for the federal government employees from 9th February 2023 to 8th February 2024; and payment of backlog of death benefits to over 1500 deceased officers to their beneficiaries from 2021 to date. 

“On the third pillar of FCSSIP 25, the Office of the Head of Service has been working towards the implementation of HR Module of IPPIS with a view to bridging the identified gaps in the system. As you are aware, prior to the introduction of the current mechanisms put in place to drive the implementation of the IPPIS, the system was bedevilled with considerable leakages and wastes as well as the incessant infiltration of ‘ghost workers’ etc.

“Consequent upon the identified loopholes in the IPPIS, the Office introduced control mechanisms. Notable among others was the inauguration of a Committee on Enrolment of Newly Recruited Civil Servants on the 1st of March, 2021. Hence, this and other initiatives in accelerating the roll-out of the HR Module of the IPPIS has brought about the following: Detection of 1,618 fake/illegal employment letters; Continuous suspension of Officers from IPPIS platform for not uploading their records; Verification of 69,854 officers across the core MDAs in FCT and the six (6) geo-political zones.”

Professor Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate, has urged Nigerian Afrobeat musician Davido to disregard calls for him to apologize for the contentious music video he put on his social media accounts.

Following the release of the latter’s new album, “Jaye Lo,” The PUNCH stated that the head of the Davido Music Worldwide label and his signee, Olamilekan Taiwo, alias Logos Olori, made a commotion online.

Davido shared a 45-second snippet of the new song on Instagram on Friday, and the image has since drawn criticism. Numerous Muslim supporters have deemed the film insulting and are now demanding a retraction while threatening to sue the creators.

In the contentious image, some guys were depicted as praying mallams who were instead dancing in front of a mosque. Some Muslim adherents have since found this dancing move to be objectionable.

Some Muslims are still calling for Davido to provide a formal apology, despite the fact that the video was removed 48 hours after it was posted.

Soyinka, however, claimed that Davido did not owe Muslims an apology in a statement made public on Tuesday.

The literary icon claimed that Nasir El Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna State, made insulting remarks towards Christians in the past but was never requested to offer an apology.

He said, “There was nothing to apologize about, and that applied equally to El Rufai’s comments at the time. It should come as no surprise that I equally absolutely disagree with Shehu Sani if indeed, as reported, he has demanded an apology from Davido on behalf of the Moslem community.”

“It wasn’t Davido’s music that lynched Deborah Yakubu, a second-year Christian college student who was killed by a mob of Muslim students in Sokoto last year over alleged blasphemy,” he added.

The Department of State Services’ conduct in the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday during the court appearance of the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has been condemned.

Despite the fact that the court granted him bail and ordered that he be remanded at the Nigerian Correctional Services’ Ikoyi facility, the DSS rearrested and snatched him away on Tuesday.

The situation resulted in an altercation between DSS agents and jail officials.

Emefiele was charged with illegal guns possession on two counts before Justice Nicholas Oweibo.

He was transported to court in a white Hilux van, escorted by heavily armed DSS agents.

Emefiele, who was dressed in a white jalamia and appeared emaciated when she arrived at the court on Tuesday morning, was promptly taken inside the courtroom.

Emefiele, however, pled not guilty when the allegations were read to him.

Joseph Daudu (SAN), representing the defense, filed an application for Emefiele’s bail with the help of four other senior lawyers.

Mrs Nkiru Jones-Nebo, counsel for the DSS, objected to the bail, claiming she had not been provided with a copy of the application.

However, in a judgement, Justice Oweibo granted Emefiele bail in the sum of N20 million with one surety in the same amount.

The judge, however, ordered that he be remanded in the Nigeria Correctional Services’ Ikoyi prison facility awaiting the completion of the bail terms.

Following that, the judge delayed the trial until November 14.

However, after the court hearings, DSS operatives laid siege outside the courtroom in an attempt to re-arrest Emefiele.

The scenario, which resulted in a clash between DSS agents and men from the Nigerian Correctional Services, kept Emefiele in the courtroom long after the proceedings had ended.

During the following battle for control, the prison commander’s uniform was ruffled and torn as he was pulled towards the DSS vehicle by DSS operatives who converged on him.

The scenario infuriated Emefiele’s family and lawyers, who accused the DSS of acting illegally and disrespectfully toward the court.

A man who introduced himself as Emefiele’s brother and gave his name as George regarded the event as sad in a democratic era.

“Three courts have said release him on bail, he’s not running away for God’s sake. He has served this nation for nine years, where is he going to go to? All his life is in Nigeria here.

“You can imagine a situation where two military federal government apparatus are fighting themselves, manhandling the commander of the prison commission, it is a disgrace to this nation, it is a complete disgrace,” George said.

Condemning the development in an interview with The PUNCH, human rights lawyer, Ebun Olu-Adegoruwa (SAN), said, “I believe that the President is aware of the actions of the DSS; it is giving a bad image to this administration, where security agencies are engaging in a physical scuffle in open court to the extent of tearing their uniforms, which is a symbol of authority of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and desecrating the hallowed chambers of the court without respect for the judge.

“The videos I saw today was a total contempt of the authority of the judiciary because what we are saying is that once anybody is within the premises of the court, you have to respect the authority.”

AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Governor of Kwara State, has approved a N10,000 monthly palliative for workers.

The N10,000 monthly palliative is intended to assist workers in coping with the recent loss of gasoline subsidies and the economic consequences.

On Monday, the administration revealed its decision at a press conference given by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Rafiu Ajakaye, at the administration House in Ilorin.

Ajakaye said, “On top of the palliatives is a cash support of N10,000 for every public sector worker in the state, which will begin this month (July) and last until a new minimum wage is introduced to enable workers to cope with the economic shocks created by the subsidy removal.

“In deference to the new advisory of the National Economic Council for states to design their own independent responses to the development, the governor has directed the leadership of the civil service to continue a staggered work schedule — not exceeding three days a week — to reduce transportation expenses for workers,” he said.

Kwara had already implemented a three-day work week for civil servants, but it was postponed in respect to an earlier NEC guideline urging states to wait for a more comprehensive reaction to the development.

The governor’s spokeswoman confirmed that the staggered work arrangement will not include “essential workers.”

“The governor has similarly approved the payment, from this month, July, of new hazard and skipping allowances, and 100% CONMESS for consultants and medical doctors under the government’s payroll.

“He also approved a new regime of allowances for nurses working for the state government. The whole essence is to check attrition rate in the health sector, and attract and retain medics and specialists to provide improved, qualitative healthcare services for the people of the state,” he added.

“The governor has also endorsed immediate cash-backing of 2019 and 2020 promotion for Teaching Service Commission workers. The administration had earlier cash-backed arrears of promotion for TESCOM for the years 2015-2018.

“In the same vein, he has approved cash-backing for the 2021 promotion exercise of teaching and non-teaching staff of SUBEB and restoration of steps to all of them. This is a policy response to the yearnings of SUBEB workers since 2016 when SUBEB workers no longer had steps.

“The Governor also approved the extension of free bus rides for students of tertiary institutions in the state, while modalities for occasional distribution of food to poor and most vulnerable households are to be activated in the next few days.

“This shall be nonpartisan and would be coordinated by a government team to be supported by respected stakeholders who would get inputs from traditional rulers, religious bodies, market leaders, trade unionists, and community-based organisations to generate the lists of beneficiaries and disburse accordingly.

“The whole idea of these interventions, which gulp billions of naira of public funds, is to show empathy and deploy as much resources as the state can afford to support the people at this special time.

“The Governor has also approved the Kwara State Social Investment Programme (KWASSIP) to activate N500m worth of conditional support for petty traders and MSMEs in the state.

“The state government will receive fertilisers and grains from the Federal Government and pay for same. It is not free. Modalities for the handling of these will be made available later. This is to boost farming outputs and food security in the state.

“The government, meanwhile, will be setting up a committee to interface with marketers on the need to curb extortionist tendencies as seen in the arbitrary fixing of prices of foodstuffs.