Author: Opalim Lifted

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…

Explosions on Tuesday allegedly killed scores of persons in the Galkogo community, in the Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State. There were two accounts of the circumstances surrounding the explosions that created tension in the community. A resident, Tanko Erena, while speaking with our correspondent, said the explosions were caused by air strikes from officials of the Nigeria Air Force, adding that the explosions occurred when men of the Joint Security Task Force were patrolling the area. He said, “I believe the occupants of the fighter jet thought that the JTF members were bandits because there is really no…

Rwandan forces on Tuesday fired at a fighter jet from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that it said had violated its airspace, prompting the Congolese government to accuse it of an act of war. A video shared widely on Congolese social media showed a projectile shooting toward an airborne military plane, before exploding in the air near the plane, which continued to fly. Media reports could not immediately verify the video. Congo denied Kagame’s accusation that the jet had been in Rwandan airspace – the latest dispute between the two countries whose relationship has been strained by a rebel…

Justice Abiola Soladoye of an Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court, Lagos State, on Tuesday, sentenced an Islamic teacher, Adam Farouk, to life imprisonment for defiling eight pupils in his class. Farouk defiled the pupils, who were between the ages of six and 11, between November 2018 to February 2019 on Balogun Street, Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos. The convict was arraigned on eight counts of sexual assault preferred against him by the Lagos State Government. While delivering judgment, Justice Soladoye stated that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt the ingredients of the eight counts bordering on sexual assault by…

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Tuesday faulted Ethiopia’s final report into the March 2019 Boeing 737 MAX fatal crash and said investigators did not adequately address the performance of the flight crew. NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said in an interview that Ethiopia’s Aircraft Investigation Bureau (EAIB) had made errors in its report. “We feel what they did not do is really delve into the flight crew performance issues and whether they were adequately prepared,” Homendy said. “We felt like it was not as comprehensive and robust as it could have been.” The MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019…

The Founder of Rochas Foundation and former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, has launched a Teach a Child/Sponsor a Child Project aimed at targeting one million out-of-school children and bringing them to school. According to a statement made available by the foundation to our correspondent on Wednesday, Okorocha made this known at the unveiling of the project in Abuja on Tuesday. Speaking during the launch, the former governor noted that the country owed a responsibility to give every Nigerian child and unborn children the right education for their liberation. “In Africa, we have over 50 million out-of-school children and…