News

By Johnson Nwankwo Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru of Ebonyi State has announced this September as the commencement of the N70, 000 minimum wage in the state. Nwifuru announced this during the grand finale of the Ojiji Izhi New Yam Festival 2024. He said he had directed concerned government authorities to draft out modalities for the payment of the new minimum wage. He frowned at the way government projects awarded as contracts to prominent leaders of the state were handled. He mentioned the housing estates at Izo Autonomous Community in Ishielu Local Government as one of such. He ordered the state…

By Johnson Nwankwo Gov Babajide Sanwolu of Lagos State has ordered investigations into the death of the commissioner of police, Akwa Ibom State, CP Waheed Ayilara. The CP died after a prostrate cancer surgery on Wednesday. It was conducted at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Thursday. Lagos Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, Saturday, said a medical panel had been constituted to probe the death of Ayilara. According to him, “In the light of the circumstances surrounding his passing, happening some hours after an apparently uneventful surgery, the ministry of health, following a directive from Mr Governor, has constituted a…

By Johnson Nwankwo Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Wednesday, described the video calling for food poisoning of Yoruba and Benin natives as a product of "a depressed drowning ethnic bigot, obsessed by the negative side of history and unflinching satanic in orchestration." The viral video, @Anyi_anambra on tiktok, is asking the Igbo to put poison in the foods of Yoruba and Benin people, with a lady character promising "to encourage other Igbo to poison Yoruba and Benin people”. She urged Ndigbo to "get heart of wickedness and to start poisoning Yoruba and Edo; to put ota pia-paia, eat and die sniper; I…

By Hadiza Suleman About 810,726 mangrove seedlings have been planted by the Hydrocarbon Carbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to restore the degraded Ogoniland in the Niger Delta. The Project Coordination Office (PCO) of HYPREP stated this in a release. It added that it targets to restore 560 hectares of lost mangrove areas destroyed by oil extractive activities in Ogoniland. The body revealed that it had contracted nine companies that are currently carrying out the mangrove planting in Bomu in Gokana LGA, adding that the restoration also involved the removal of Nipa palms which are threatening mangrove vegetation in the shorelines.…

By Johnson Nwankwo The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council has expressed anger over the non-inclusion of the entire South-East from first phase of the disbursement of the students' loan scheme. It would be recalled that tertiary institutions in South East had hitherto complained that they were marginalised by the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND). Our correspondent reports that the federal government, through NELFUND, last week, announced that the sum of N2.9 billion had been disbursed to 27, 667 students as the first set of beneficiaries of the loan scheme across 19 tertiary institutions in the country. South-east beneficiaries were conspicuously missing.…

By Johnson Nwankwo The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Monday, described the victory of Gov Hope Uzodinma of Imo State at the Supreme Court as a testimony of God's favour upon him. Ohanaeze also attributed the victory to Uzodimma's hard work, administrative savvy and large heart. Ohanaeze stated this in a release by its national publicity secretary, Dr Alex Ogbonnia. Recall that the Supreme Court had last week upheld the election of Uzodimma, who doubles as the Chairman of the South East Governors’ Forum and the Chairman of the Nigerian Progressive Governors Forum. The release read, "Ohanaeze salutes Uzodimma for his prolonged…

By Hadiza Suleman The Enugu State government says it has uncovered 2640 ghost and deceased pensioners on its payroll. This was disclosed on Sunday by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof Chidiebere Onyia. Onyia further announce that the state government had commenced payment of pensions to local government retirees in the state. The SSG said the payment was in line with Governor Peter Mbah's promise to clear outstanding pensions and gratuities inherited by his administration. He said that over 7000 local government pensioners had since received payments following the governor’s approval of the recommendations of the Local Government…