Dennis

A former Spokesman to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Doyin Okupe, has withdrawn from the 2023 presidential race. Okupe also announced that he would now support the candidacy of former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant addressed a press conference at the NUJ Secretariat, Iwe Iroyin, Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Wednesday, saying it will be wrong for the PDP to jettison the existing zoning arrangement. He said he has abandoned his ambition and conceded the same to the South East in the spirit of fairness and equity, even though “I was the first to declare for the presidency in Nigeria.” According to him, the leader of the Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo, had in a meeting told him that the next president must come from the South East, saying he has gone beyond Afenifere to pick Peter Obi, whom he considered as a right peg in a right hole. Okupe said it was clear to him that those at the PDP helm of affairs “are tr...

Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri and General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor William Kumuyi, have again called on Nigerians to embrace peace, love and unity to move the country forward. The two leaders made the call on Tuesday at the grand finale of a six-day global crusade organized by the Deeper Christian Life Ministry in Yenagoa, the state capital. They stressed the need for people of the country to exhibit untainted love and patriotism in all their dealings to enable Nigeria harness its God-given potentialities and pride of place among the comity of nations. Speaking through his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, Governor Diri urged Bayelsans to close ranks, regardless of their political differences, to work for sustainable prosperity and development of the state. While thanking the people for attending the crusade en masse, he reiterated his administration's commitment towards transforming the state slogan of 'Glory of Lands' in tangible t...

Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, has appealed to foreign investors to come tap the economic potentialities of his state beyond its depleting oil resources.   Governor Diri, who spoke on Tuesday evening at one of the closing sessions of the annual global investors meeting known as the Dubai Expo 2020 holding at the picturesque Dubai Exhibition Centre in the United Arab Emirates, said Bayelsa is an amazing state with several investment opportunities waiting to be harnessed.   The Bayelsa governor said the state, which was created in 1996, seeks investors to develop its agricultural potential in areas it had comparative advantage such as in rice, cassava, plantain, sugarcane, oil palm production as well as in fisheries and aquaculture.   He invited investors to partner with the state to exploit its rich mangrove forests and natural beaches to make it a tourists’ haven.   Diri stressed that Bayelsa’s sprawling coastline, which is the longest in Nigeria, provided vast ...

  Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, has expressed regret on Tuesday that the attack on the Kaduna-bound train could have been averted.   “I am devastated and I honestly don’t know what to tell Nigerians anymore; the process of procuring the integrated security surveillance and monitoring solution has been tedious, if the processes were shortened, we would have saved lives,” Mr Amaechi wrote on his verified Facebook page.   The minister also posted a video of his visit to the scene of the attack on the train.   So many reports have gone viral on how the Abuja-Kaduna train was attacked by terrorists Monday evening.   At least eight people have been confirmed killed in the attack with many other passengers still missing.   Details later…    

  At least 26 per cent of schools in Nigeria’s North-East have been targeted by suicide bombers, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.   It said an improved system of school data collection, analysis and usage would help bridge the gap caused by protracted conflict in the education sector.   The Chief of the Maiduguri Field Office, UNICEF, Phuong Nguyen, said this in a statement on Tuesday.   According to Nguyen, 50 government education officers in the North-East region have been trained in the collection of quality data with support from the European Union.   She added that the capacity building initiative would serve as evidence to guide interventions in the education sector.   Nguyen explained, “In Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, 1.9 million conflict-affected boys, girls and adolescents are without access to basic quality education. Since 2012, 31 per cent of all schools in North-East Nigeria have been hit, at least once by bullets, shells, or...

The Congress of University Academics in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, has berated the President, Academic Staff Union of Universities, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, for attacking the university’s outgoing Vice Chancellor, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, who he referred to as a member of an unregistered union.   A statement signed by CONUA’s National Coordinator, Dr. Niyi Sunmonu, obtained in Osogbo on Tuesday, said that the ASUU President wrongly claimed that CONUA assisted Ogunbodede to become VC in 2017, while the group was not formed in OAU until 2018.   The statement read in parts, “Prof. Osodeke’s vituperations on Prof. Ogunbodede being a member of CONUA is uncalled for and it is laughable. As a professor and supposed activist, he should know that the formation of an association is a prerequisite for its registration and not vice versa.   “Saying that Prof Ogunbodede claims to be a member of an association which is yet to be registered is a personification of ignoranc...

  Gunmen suspected to be herdsmen have kidnapped a former Chairman of the Federated Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Julius Osahon, and some co-travellers along the East-West Road, in the Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State.   Osahon, who is the Bayelsa State correspondent of The Guardian Newspaper, was reportedly attacked on his way to the press centre at Warri, Delta State, when he was abducted together with 18 other passengers.   Bayelsa Daily online gathered that the abductors, who struck on Sunday, March 27, also shot dead a driver with Sunny Eru Motors.   The hoodlums were said to have contacted the journalist’s wife, demanding N5m as ransom.   A Warri-based lawyer, Mr Lucky Egboyi, who narrowly escaped from the scene, told journalists in Warri that he was returning from Bayelsa, where he went for a case, when their vehicle ran into the herdsmen.   According to him, the herdsmen shot the driver in th...