Author: Opalim Lifted

With only 10 days till the presidential and parliamentary elections on February 25, Nigeria’s Voters Watch (NVW), a civil society organization, has petitioned INEC to dismiss Mr. Olusegun Agbaje, the REC for Lagos State. Agbaje allegedly made “disturbing statements,” according to the organization. According to newsmen, INEC has granted NVW election-related CSO accreditation. Dr. Stella Ford, the NVW Convener, told reporters on Wednesday in Lagos that Agbaje’s urgent dismissal was required to keep him from overseeing the upcoming elections in Lagos state. According to her, the removal can be either by suspension or termination of appointment with immediate effect, to…

In a show of defiance against the ongoing shortage of naira notes, a group of angry youths in Warri, Delta State, set a branch office of Access Bank on fire on Wednesday, stressing on their level of protest. In a widely shared video, young people were seen blocking traffic and destroying priceless infrastructure at Warri’s Udu Road axis. An eyewitness who used a Twitter handle to post a video of the incident; @sabiboiharry, said: “Breaking! Massive protests are ongoing in Warri, around the Udu road axis, over the CBN’s order to stop the old Naira as legal tender. Access Bank…

At the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday morning, President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (ret.) met with All Progressives Congress presidential candidate Bola Tinubu. Senior presidential sources claim that the reason for Buhari’s 40-minute delay in getting to the Council Chambers to preside over this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting is the meeting, which took place at his official residence. Buhari came in the Council Chambers nearly an hour after the scheduled time of 10:00 am, at around 10:40. This comes four days after the APC held its campaign rally at Eagle Square, Abuja. Although the reasons for the meeting…

The upcoming national Population and Housing Census would be entirely digital, according to Alhaji Nasir Isa-Kwarra, Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), to improve accuracy and timeliness. The NPC chairman announced this on Tuesday in Abuja at a reform seminar hosted by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) on “National Development and the Imperative of 2023 Population and Housing Census.” Isa-Kwarra was represented by Mrs. Adebayo Foluke, NPC Director of Data Quality Management. He said data capture, processing and database management would be undertaken using CSPro, an open-source software developed by the US Census Bureau. ”Indeed, for Nigeria…

The February 8 order prohibiting the Federal Government and its agencies from enforcing the February 10 deadline for the use of the old 200, 500, and 1000 naira notes is still in effect, according to the Supreme Court. Following a complaint from attorney Abdulhakeem Mustapha (SAN) to the states of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara that the Federal Government and its agencies had disobeyed the judgment and had purportedly ordered the rejection of the old notes, the court made the clarification on Wednesday. Mustapha said that the plaintiff submitted a notice of non-compliance with the February 8 court order and urged…

On Wednesday, angry protestors due to the recent naira scarcity, blocked several sections of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, leaving motorists stranded in Oyo State. When one of our reporters visited several locations, they saw that some youths had set up barricades in the Iwo Road, Gate, Challenge, Olorunsogo, and Academy sectors. On the highway, several youths were seen playing football, and some protesters set up barriers while begging passing drivers for money. The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway’s Ibadan terminus was also impassable due to multiple vehicles stopping along the side of the route. Some of the motorists who spoke in an interview with…

Lt.-Gen. Faruk Yahaya, Chief of Army Staff, has directed all General Officers Commanding (GOCs) and other formation commanders to create a conducive and secure environment for the 2023 elections. Yahaya issued the order while launching Operation Safe Conduct across all army divisions and formations in the country. Brig-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, Director, of Army Public Relations, made the announcement on Tuesday in Abuja. The army chief reaffirmed the Nigerian army’s resolve to play its constitutional role by assisting the Nigeria Police, the lead security agency in the security architecture for the 2023 elections. He charged the commanders to identify and dominate…

The window for exchanging old naira notes for new ones has closed, as reported by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which announced yesterday that the deadline of February 10 has passed. It also cited a number of other causes for the difficulties in getting access to new notes, including “our leaders who are buying and keeping the notes” and “reprehensible conduct of miscreants” at bank facilities. However, the CBN pledged to make “suitable optimal amounts of currency of N500, N200, N1000 denomination and even the existing N100 note, N50, and N20 to promote economic activities” available. The bank also…

Since Abloh’s passing in late 2021, Pharrell Williams will be Louis Vuitton’s first permanent head of menswear. However, Pharrell’s role as creative director differs from that of Abloh at Louis Vuitton, where his title was “artistic director.” The design superpower verified the rumors in an Instagram post and complimented Pharrell as “a visionary whose creative universes transcend from music to art, and to fashion.” Also warmly commended was Pharrell’s accomplishment of “establishing himself as a cultural global star over the previous twenty years.” The company also went on to laud Pharrell Williams as an individual who continually “breaks boundaries across…

Gbenga Ezekiel, a senior secondary school student from Ijapo High School in Akure, the capital of Ondo State, has entered his record for the most skips in one minute on one leg in the Guinness Book of World Records. In his effort, Ezekiel recorded 265 skips, breaking Rasel Islam of Bangladesh’s previous record of 262 skips. About four months after the 16-year-old’s first efforts at the Ondo State Sports Complex in Akure, it was established as a record. The feat was communicated to the national coach of the Nigeria Rope Skipping Federation, Chubuisi Ukandu, and has also been updated on…