Felix Duru Mbah

By Sam Tyav, Makurdi Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia has presented the state's 2026 budget estimates totalling ₦605,506,764,066.16k to the State House of Assembly, in Makurdi, for consideration and subsequent approval. Addressing the lawmakers during the budget presentation at the Assembly complex, Gov. Alia who described the budget as a practical roadmap to inclusive growth, stressed that economic progress must translate to better living conditions for ordinary households. The budget titled 'Budget of Rural Development, Livelihood Support and Sustained Growth', according to the governor, was a deliberate strategy to reposition the state’s economy and improve the living standards of people…

Federal Government (FG) said it has secured the release of a further 130 schoolchildren kidnapped from a Catholic school in November, after 100 were freed earlier this month. “Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity,” presidential spokesperson Sunday Dare said on X, in a post accompanied by a photo of smiling children. In late November, gunmen kidnapped hundreds of students and staff from St Mary’s co-educational boarding school in Niger State. There has recently been an upsurge in mass abductions, reminiscent of the kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok by the militant group Boko Haram in 2014.…

*Oyo Head Of Service Salutes Civil Servants Over Conduct During Examinations By Stephen Gbadamosi, Ibadan The Circular Road Stakeholders Engagement Committee set up by Oyo State governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, to look into the grievances of those protesting against the planned corridor for the 110-kilometre road, paid a courtesy visit to the Olubadan of Ibadanland, His Imperial Majesty Oba (Senator) Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja, Arusa 1, at the Oke Aremo Palace to brief him on its activities. It also sought guidance on how to further successfully prosecute its assignment. The committee, made up of some prominent Ibadan mogajis (family heads), Chairmen…

By Idibia Gabriel, Kaduna A fresh scandal is rocking the Kaduna Polytechnic. On the heels of the subsisting allegation of land grabbing on the institution's Bypass-By-Television Village site by outsiders believed to be fronting for some staff of the federal polytechnic, the school is now gripped by a bids controversy over its move to lease out the school's hotels for five years to qualified operators. The reported rejection of a particular highest bidder's proposal has sparked outrage and suspicion in governance accountability and transparency circles in the Northern political capital. Worse still, no genuine reason was given for the rejection…