Author: Opalim Lifted

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has commenced punitive measures on commercial banks by fining them N1 million per day for each box of new naira notes they refused to pick and disbursed to their customers ahead of the 31st of January 2023 deadline. The CBN leadership made this known on Friday during a sensitization program organized for Osun market women at Ayegbaju market to acquaint them with the new Naira notes of N200, N500, and N1000. Speaking at the event, the Deputy Director, of Research, CBN, Adeleke Adelokun disclosed that CBN had printed enough new naira notes, however, banks…

Google’s parent company Alphabet will cut 12,000 jobs, in the latest staff redundancies to hit the tech industry. Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said he took “full responsibility” for the cuts, in an internal email. The cuts will affect 6% of Alphabet’s workforce worldwide, in teams including recruitment and engineering. This comes days after Microsoft announced 10,000 jobs would be lost, and weeks after Amazon announced 18,000 job cuts. Mr. Pichai thanked staff for “working so hard” in their roles, adding that their “contributions have been invaluable”. N50m SuperPicks launches on Google Play, iOS coming soon He wrote: “While…

British police issued Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with a fine on Friday for travelling in the backseat of a car without wearing his seat belt while filming a social media clip, a potentially embarrassing blow as he tries to revive his party’s fortunes. Rishi, who apologised on Thursday for what he called a “brief error of judgement”, filmed a video in the back seat of his car while travelling in the north of England, without wearing a seat belt. It is the second penalty Sunak has received from police after last year they found him to have broken COVID-19 lockdown…

LoveNo fewer than 17 students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State sustained varying degrees of injury while an unconfirmed number of female students were raped during a midnight robbery attack in the off-campus hostels. A gang of suspected armed robbers, numbering about twenty were said to have raided scores of the hostels located along Ifite road, Awka. The Nation gathered that the robbers who stormed the area at about 12.30 pm on Thursday, shot sporadically, robbing and raping girls for hours. A student of the university, who preferred anonymity, said the robbers, heavily armed with guns, axes, and matchets,…

The Police Command in Borno said it arrested a nine-man gang of serial ritualists known as “Karangiya” who specialized in dismembering body parts of their victims. The Commissioner of Police in the state, Abdu Umar, who disclosed this to newsmen on Friday, said they were arrested on Dec. 16, 2022, by men of the command. He said that the suspects murdered unknown persons and dismembered their remains, noting that the last incident was recorded where a victim’s eyes were removed around the Post Office area. “There was another case where a woman was killed and thrown into the river and…

Stakeholders on Thursday tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recruit locals as ad hoc staff for the 2023 general election, instead of non-residents of the state. The stakeholders said this at the European Union (EU) Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) Programme Publication series 2 seminar in Abuja. “INEC should recruit locals as ad hoc staff electoral officers instead of non-residents of the state. “The usual norm of deploying National Youth Service Corps members may portend more danger in the 2023 voting process. It is therefore, recommended that INEC should recruit staff who will use its local…

An outbreak of diphtheria infection in Kano States since last week Friday has, as of Thursday, claimed not less than 25 lives. Our correspondent learned that the child killer disease, first recorded in the state in late 2022 is being treated as an outbreak at the Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital and Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital in Kano. According to medical experts, diphtheria infection is a serious infection of the nose and throat, which is easily preventable by vaccines. The signs and symptoms of diphtheria, according to the experts, may include, sore throat, hoarseness, swollen glands (enlarged lymph nodes) in the…

The paramount ruler of Izere nation in the Jos East Local Government Area of Plateau State, Dr. Isaac Azi Wakili, has been kidnapped. Newsmen learned that the first-class monarch was abducted in the early hours of Friday when gunmen invaded his palace at Shere community. A resident of the community, Philip Izam, confirmed the monarch’s abduction in Jos on Friday. Izam said that during the invasion, one person was killed while others were injured following a gun battle between the assailants and the security men in a failed bid to rescue the monarch. He said: “I can confirm to you…

Hundreds of people have had to be evacuated after a fire broke out in a shanty town in South Korea’s capital, Seoul. Roughly 60 homes are reported to have been destroyed in Friday morning’s blaze in Guryong Village. There have been no reports of deaths or injuries. South Korean media has described the area of closely packed makeshift homes as the capital’s last remaining slum. It took more than 900 firefighters and several helicopters five hours to put out the blaze. South Korea’s President called for all available firefighters to be deployed to the blaze. “Right after I opened the…

Gunmen on Thursday abducted Mr Kefas Ishaya, the Catechist of St. Monica Catholic Church, Ikulu-Pari, in Chawai Chiefdom of Kauru Local Government, Kaduna State. The media reports that the gunmen picked the Catechist when they could not get his boss, Rev Fr Joseph Shekari, who was not in when his residence was attacked. Fr Shekari, who was abducted in similar circumstances in February 2022, had travelled out of the village and was not available for a second ordeal in captivity. The Parish had held its annual Thanksgiving Service on Sunday and its members suspect the abductors were targeting the proceeds…