Author: Opalim Lifted

At least 51 persons have been killed by an airstrike in the Rukubi community, Ekye Development Area of Nasarawa State. A bomb was dropped on them by an unidentified helicopter. The area, which is in Doma Local Government Area, shares a border with Benue State. A mass burial was held in the council. Police spokesman, Ramhan Nansel, said he could not confirm the number of casualties. He said the state police command was working with sister agencies to arrest the perpetrators. Nansel said: “It is unfortunate that such a thing happened. NAF allegedly drops bomb on Niger community killing scores…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved an $86.9 million extended fund facility for Mauritania, it said in a statement on Wednesday. The Executive Board decision enables an immediate disbursement of $21.7 million, the statement said. The remaining amount will be phased out over the 42-month arrangement under the extended credit facility. The West African country’s economy is on a “recovery path” due to its “determined response” to the coronavirus pandemic and international financial support, the statement said. But the war in Ukraine and regional tensions have reverted the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves observed last year and narrowed the…

Goods worth millions of naira were destroyed when fire gutted a three-storey building housing warehouses with clothes and shoes in the popular Balogun market on Broad Street on Lagos Island. It was gathered that the fire at Thursday midnight and was put out by emergency responders but it started again around 3 am. The South-West Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) told media reporters that the building housed warehouses and firefighters encountered some challenges gaining access to the building because of the iron bars. He, however, said the fire has been brought under total control without spreading to…

A suspected armed robber, Williams Abiodun, on Wednesday, narrated how his gang killed their victims and sold their vehicles in Benin, Edo State. Abiodun, while being paraded alongside 10 other suspects at the command headquarters in Edo State, said he and four members of his gang usually disguised as site workers to lure unsuspecting drivers to where they robbed them of their vehicles. He said, “When we get to the site, we collect their vehicles, kill them with blocks and sell their cars. “We killed the first person, collected his car, and sold it to a Chinese company. The second…

The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday in Abuja approved the National Child Online Protection Policy and Strategy. Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Malam Isah Pantami, told newsmen at the end of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting that the strategy aimed at protecting children from the harmful side of the digital environment. The meeting was presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo. Pantami said the policy was in line with the International Telecommunication Union’s policy document for all its member countries. “There are many benefits of going online; the world population reached 10 billion on Nov. 15, 2022. “Today, we have around 6.3…

The UK government on Wednesday said it had cut tariffs and extended duty-free trade in goods exported from Nigeria. Mr. Ben Llewellyn-Jones, Deputy British High Commissioner to Nigeria said this at the launch of the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) which took place at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. Llewellyn-Jones said the scheme would help to boost Nigeria’s non-oil exports in line with the Federal Government’s wider trade policy objectives and take off in April 2023. He noted that the scheme would reduce import costs by over £750 million per year, thereby reducing prices, and increasing the choice…

Tanzanian opposition leader and former presidential candidate Tundu Lissu returned home after more than two years in exile in Europe to a cheering crowd on Wednesday, after the government lifted a ban on political rallies. A former lawmaker and a fierce critic of the government, Lissu initially left the country to seek treatment abroad after he was shot 16 times, mostly in his lower abdomen, in an attack by unknown gunmen in the administrative capital Dodoma in 2017. He had been arrested eight times in the year leading up to the attack. Lissu was welcomed by a large gathering of…

At least eight people died after a boat crammed with scores of African migrants capsized off the Libyan coast, the local Red Crescent organization said on Wednesday, adding that nearly 100 others had been rescued. Bodies washed ashore near the Libyan town of Castelverde 40km (25 miles) east of Tripoli after the boat sank on Tuesday, part of a growing number of deadly shipwrecks that have killed scores of migrants in the Mediterranean over the past year. The number of migrants and refugees seeking to cross to Europe in search of a safer or better life has grown since the…

Tinubu’s son, Seyi bags chieftaincy title in AnambraSeyi Tinubu, the son of All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been appointed to another chieftaincy position in Anambra state. On Tuesday, January 24, 2023, the younger Tinubu was conferred with the Chieftaincy title of Nwannedinamba by the traditional ruler of the Mbaukwu kingdom, Igwe Peter Anukwui, in the State’s Awka South Local Government Area. While thanking the monarch for the honor, has urged Anambra State voters to vote for his father in the upcoming February 25 general elections. Chief Tinubu, who was also at the Nigeria Union of…

Popular Nigerian singer, Temilade Openiyi, a.k.a Tems, has been nominated for the 95th edition of the Oscars award, scheduled to hold on March 12, 2023. This was announced in the 2023 nomination list released by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Twitter handle on Tuesday. Tems was nominated in the category of Best Original Song ahead of the 95th Academy Awards scheduled to take place in Los Angeles. Snoop Dogg expresses interest to feature Tems She received the Best Original Song nomination for her collaboration with Rihanna on the song ‘Lift Me Up’. The duo was nominated in…