Author: Opalim Lifted

Mohammed Idris, minister of information and national orientation, has stated that President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies are now yielding positive results. Idris spoke on Friday, at the eighth edition of the ministerial press briefing session, which held at the National Press Centre in Abuja. Idris cited latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to drive home his point. “Today, I am pleased to announce encouraging news from the National Bureau of Statistics, which released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for April 2025, yesterday,” he said. “According to the report, the headline inflation rate for April stood at 23.71%,…

Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has seen his wealth fall by £6.473bn – more than a quarter of his fortune – in the last year, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List, external. The 72-year-old’s wealth has declined from £23.519bn to £17.046bn in the past 12 months. He has slipped from fourth to seventh on the annual list of the UK’s 350 richest people. Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group bought a 27.7% stake in United in February 2024 in a deal worth about £1.25bn ($1.6bn) that saw Ineos take control of football operations. The British billionaire’s time at Old Trafford…

The Lagos ministry of transportation has announced a traffic diversion on the Marine bridge to allow for maintenance works. The federal ministry of works will handle the repairs. A statement by Oluwaseun Osiyemi, Lagos commissioner for transportation, said the diversion will commence on Sunday, May 18 to Sunday, June 8, 2025. Osiyemi said to minimise traffic disruption, the maintenance has been divided into two phases. “Phase 1 will span from the foot of Marine Bridge (Lawani Oguntayo Road inbound Apapa/Costain) while Phase 2 will cover ljora Badia and Lilypond Access Ramp inbound Apapa,” the statement reads. “During this course of…

President Bola Tinubu convened a high-level security meeting on Friday at the State House with the service chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police in attendance. The closed-door session comes ahead of his scheduled departure to Rome, where he will attend the inauguration mass of Pope Leo XIV, following a formal invitation from the Vatican. Present at the meeting are Christopher Musa, the chief of defence staff; Olufemi Oluyede, chief of army staff; Hassan Abubakar, the chief of air staff; Emmanuel Ogalla, chief of naval staff; and Kayode Egbetokun, the inspector-general of police. While the agenda of the meeting has not…

Seplat Energy has announced the launch of a programme aimed at reactivating more than 400 dormant oil wells across its operational sites. Oil and gas wells become idle when not used for production, injection, or other purposes. Samson Ezugworie, chief operating officer (COO) of Seplat Energy, spoke during the company’s annual general meeting in Lagos on Wednesday. “One of the primary activities that we took on post completion of this deal by December 12, 2024, is to begin to safely ramp up production which you would have seen in our first quarter results,” Ezugworie said. “We have started safely and…

A House of Representatives ad hoc committee has commenced an investigation into the causes of pipeline vandalism in the country. On March 12, Muhammed Shehu from Kano and 14 other lawmakers sponsored a motion calling for a probe of “frequent” pipeline attacks across the nation. Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house, subsequently constituted an ad hoc committee to investigate the matter with Ghali Tijani as chairman. The committee’s mandate includes overseeing the rehabilitation of oil and gas pipelines, as well as the revitalisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPCL) and the Nigeria Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC) depot in…

A 23-year-old Mexican social media influencer, Valeria Marquez has been shot dead while live streaming on TikTok, the state prosecutor’s office said. Marquez was killed when a man entered her beauty salon in the city of Guadalajara “and apparently fired a gun at her”, according to the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office. The motive for the fatal attack has not been identified but the case is being investigated as a femicide – when women and girls are killed because of their gender, the state prosecutor said. Gender-based violence is highly common in Mexico where the UN reports 10 women or girls…

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, detained at the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity, regained the mayorship of family stronghold Davao city in a landslide vote, an initial tally showed. With over 60 percent of returns in, Duterte had built an insurmountable lead of 405,000 votes to 49,000 for his nearest competitor, results from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) released by local media showed. But what role, if any, Duterte will play in governing the city of nearly 1.8 million from his cell in the Netherlands is unclear. His daughter, impeached vice president Sara Duterte, told reporters after…

A female police officer has made startling claims about her spiritual beliefs and warned the public against offending her. The officer, whose identity remains unknown, in uniform, asserted that she serves demons and is a child of a deity, cautioning that those who plan evil against her may face severe consequences in a viral video on X. “I serve demons. I am making it clear to you. If you offend me, no ghost will rescue you,” she said while emphasising her connection to nature and warning against underestimating her. “I am an example of nature. I will not look for…

A 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidate committed suicide on account of her low score. The Lagos candidate, now identified as Faith Opesusi, was said to have scored 146 out of 400 points. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) released the results for its 2025 UTME on May 9. An analysis revealed that more than 78 per cent of candidates scored less than 200 points out of the 400 maximum obtainable points. The metrics, believed to have signalled mass failure, spurred protests from candidates who challenged the integrity of the exam. Oluwafemi Opesusi, Faith’s father, said his distraught…