Author: Opalim Lifted

The House of Representatives is considering a bill that seeks to stop landlords, estate agents and property managers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from demanding more than 12 months’ rent upfront. The proposed legislation aims to protect tenants from excessive advance rent demands and unfair practices in the rental market. Sponsored by Paul Nnamchi, representing Enugu East/Isi-Uzo Federal Constituency, and Ahmed Doro, representing Bindawa/Mani Federal Constituency, the bill also seeks to establish a regulatory authority to oversee rent payments and resolve disputes between landlords and tenants. What the proposed FCT rent bill says Under the bill, landlords would be…

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has asked President Bola Tinubu to account for the ₦10 billion approved for Ebola preparedness in June. The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate made the demand in a statement issued on Wednesday by Phrank Shaibu, his director of strategic communication. Atiku’s remarks followed an announcement by Ali Pate, the coordinating minister of health and social welfare, that the federal government had confirmed an Ebola case in Abuja and identified 44 close contacts for tracing to prevent further transmission. Atiku said the confirmed Ebola case in Abuja had raised questions about the government’s preparedness and…

Meta has been ordered to pay $25 billion to the US state of New Mexico after a judge ruled that the technology giant misled the public about Facebook users’ personal data and its business practices. The ruling, delivered on Wednesday, October 21, follows a jury verdict that found Meta responsible for more than 43 million violations of New Mexico’s consumer protection laws. District Judge Francis Mathew reduced the potential penalty of about $219.5 billion to $25 billion, although the company intends to appeal the decision. According to the BBC, the ruling followed a two-week trial earlier this year over allegations…

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned of a “complex” Ebola outbreak across Africa after Nigeria reported an imported case of the Bundibugyo strain, marking the first reported case in West Africa in the current outbreak. Nigeria announced the case on Tuesday after a woman, the wife of a diplomat with a history of travel to Uganda, tested positive for the virus. The development makes Nigeria the fourth African country affected by the outbreak, which began in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and has spread to other parts of the continent. Kenya, in East Africa, has reported nine…

Government agencies and companies worldwide have temporarily shut down websites as they race to fix critical security flaws in PHP, a programming language used by millions of websites. The vulnerabilities were discovered with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), prompting urgent warnings from cybersecurity experts and the United States National Security Agency (NSA). Wiz, one of the cybersecurity firms that identified the flaws, estimates that PHP code powers about 70 per cent of websites worldwide, including online stores, news outlets and government services. The company described the vulnerabilities as “among the most severe vulnerabilities discovered in PHP, and arguably in…

Health authorities in France have reported the death of a “severely immunocompromised” patient infected with the Shamonda virus (SHAV), marking the first reported human case of the virus. According to AFP, the death was announced on Thursday in a statement released by the French health and agriculture ministries. The ministries described the human infection as “an exceptional case involving a severely immunocompromised patient”. French authorities said the patient, who died in early October, was believed to have contracted the virus through the bite of a midge in eastern France, where the virus had been circulating among animals during the spring…

A House of Representatives committee has summoned the chief executive officers (CEOs) of major telecommunications companies operating in Nigeria over poor network quality across the country. The ad hoc committee investigating poor telecom services issued the summons on Wednesday, directing the heads of MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, Globacom (Glo), Mafab Communications Limited and other service providers to appear before it on October 28. The panel passed the resolution after lawmakers expressed dissatisfaction with the alleged failure of the chief executives to honour earlier invitations. The committee directed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to ensure that the CEOs comply with the…

Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), has unveiled plans to expand the group’s petroleum products distribution network across Africa, with investments in pipelines, storage facilities and a proposed refinery in Kenya. The industrialist disclosed the plans during a conversation with David Pilling, a journalist with the Financial Times (FT), outlining investments spanning Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Cameroon and Namibia. Dangote said the group had acquired a 25 per cent stake in Kenya’s petroleum products pipeline network as part of efforts to improve the distribution of refined products across the continent. “Just let me tell you, yesterday, with the support…

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, linking the sharp depreciation of the naira to worsening poverty in Nigeria. Obasanjo spoke on Wednesday at the Financial Times Africa Summit 2026 in London, United Kingdom, where he argued that the currency’s loss of value had significantly reduced Nigerians’ purchasing power. He also linked the naira’s depreciation to Nigeria’s position as the country with the largest number of people living in poverty. “We do not live in isolation as a country. We interact with the rest of the world. And overnight, you devalue the currency by 300 percent.…

Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, has directed the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to place 46 people who came in contact with an Ebola patient on a no-fly list for 21 days. Keyamo announced the directive in an X post on Wednesday following a virtual meeting with Muhammad Ali Pate, coordinating minister of health and social welfare, over the Ebola outbreak. On Tuesday, Nigeria confirmed its first case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD) after a diplomat who reportedly arrived from Uganda fell ill in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Pate said the federal government had identified…