Author: David Great

The immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, on Monday announced his return to the private sector with the launch of a venture capital firm, Afri-Venture Capital Company Limited. The company, which is scheduled to start operations in January 2024, will have its office located in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. Announcing his return via his verified X (formerly Twitter) handle, El-Rufai said, “I can confirm that our VC-PE firm, Afri-Venture Capital Company Ltd will by the Grace of God, begin operations initially in Abuja in January 2024 with Jimi Lawal, Hafiz Bayero, Eyo Ekpo and Kabir Yabo as founding…

A magnitude-5.1 earthquake struck just south of Istanbul on Monday, rattling parts of Turkey’s largest city but causing no immediate injuries or damage. The disaster epicentre was in the Marmara Sea’s Gemlik Bay, which lies about 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of Istanbul, near the city of Bursa, according to the AFAD emergencies service. AFP reporters felt walls shake on both the Asian and European sides of Istanbul, with television images showing people walking out on the street for safety. Turkey’s most populated city is situated near the North Anatolian Fault, one of the most active in the world. A…

Analysis of the 2024 budget proposal has shown that appropriations to the National Assembly, judges, the Independent National Electoral Commission, and five other agencies of government is set to increase by 39.66 percent in 2024 to N1.38tn. This is as the Federal Government increased statutory transfers from N985.49bn in 2023 to N1.38tn in 2024, according to data from the breakdown and highlights of the 2024 Executive Budget Proposal. Statutory transfers, which are payments made to government institutions authorised by law to get financing first from the federation account before others, will use 13.45 percent of the government’s total non-debt recurrent…

Darosha Losobeh, the cousin to the late artiste, Ilerioluwa Aloba, popularly known as Mohbad, has broken his silence on the viral video of the singer’s coffin allegedly showing he had a broken neck. In a lengthy post via his Insta story, Darosha who also doubles as the late singer’s (Mohbad) personal assistant stated that he was not the one who broke the late artiste’s neck while begging those peddling the information to desist from it because it was affecting his mental health. “I’m so down to the extent that I had to write this up to clear this whole damn…

Five people were killed and eleven others were injured in a deadly car accident on Saturday along the Calabar-Itu highway. The accident happened at 3 p.m. between a Nissan Caravan with the registration number GWB532XY and a Mack Truck with no registration number. According to a statement released on Sunday by the Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Akwa Ibom Command, Mr. Matthew Olonisaye. According to a statement made by the command’s Public Enlightenment Officer, Mr. Paul James, the reason of the accident was overspeeding, and the disaster might have been averted if the motorists had followed safety…

President Bola Tinubu says Nigeria is taking a significant step towards a sustainable and eco-friendly future through its pioneering initiative to deploy a fleet of 100 electric buses. Presidential aide Ajuri Ngelale said in a statement on Saturday in Abuja that the president disclosed this at a meeting with stakeholders and investors in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Mr Tinubu was speaking on the Nigeria Carbon Market and Electric Buses Rollout Programme on the margins of the COP28 climate summit. The president explained that the strategic initiative was to reduce Nigeria’s carbon footprint and modernise the country’s transportation systems. This, Mr…

Nigerians have expressed their displeasure after it was revealed that 590 delegates accompanied President Bola Tinubu to the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28 summit in Dubai, UAE. This comes on the heels of economic hardship and high inflationary rates which the country is currently experiencing. A list circulating on social media by Carbon Brief revealed that Nigeria registered 1,411 delegates for COP28, the largest in Africa and the third largest globally behind China and Brazil. According to multiple reports, the Nigerian government reportedly sponsored 590 of the 1,411 delegates. Many citizens have criticised the government’s latest spending with…

The National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced the arrest of a suspected Indian hemp farmer in Sokoto State. “It is the first such case in the history of the state”, the commandant of NDLEA in the state, Adamu Iro, told journalists in Sokoto on Saturday. Mr Iro said that the suspect, Anas Sani, was arrested in Sayinna village, Tambuwal Local Government Area, following a tip-off. He said that the suspect planted a foreign variety of cannabis sativa in his maize farm, which was uprooted by NDLEA operatives who stormed the farm. According to him, the suspect will be…

Three shops and valuables worth millions of naira were destroyed on Friday by fire at Bakin Kasuwa area in the Hadejia Local Government Area of Jigawa State. Spokesman for the state National Security and Civil Defence Corps, DSC Adamu Shehu, confirmed the incident in Dutse on Saturday. Mr Shehu said that the inferno razed three shops, a stall and part of a mosque in the area. He said, “On Friday at about 10:30 p.m., NSCDC Hadejia divisional office received a distress call about a fire outbreak at Na Mallam Zangi Shopping Complex situated at Bakin Kasuwa, Hadejia main market. A team…

Israeli air strikes killed two Syrian pro-Hezbollah fighters when they hit sites belonging to the Iran-backed group near Damascus early on Saturday, a war monitor told AFP. The strikes near Damascus came less than 24 hours after the end of a Gaza truce between Hezbollah ally Hamas and Israel. “Two Syrian fighters working for Hezbollah were killed and seven other fighters working for the group were wounded in Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah sites near Sayyida Zeinab,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour since…