NewsReports

One year after the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control had declared Lassa fever a public health emergency, Nigerians have continued to die of the hemorrhagic fever. It may be recalled that between January 1 and April 28, 2019, 554 laboratory-confirmed cases of Lassa fever were reported, with 124 deaths in 21 states of the federation. Before then, Lassa fever cases …

The Governing Board of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi has submitted a report on the crisis rocking the agency over the controversial doctoral degree of the acting Director-General, Chima Igwe. The PUNCH correspondent learnt from sources that the board members, who were agitated by the crisis in the institute, held a meeting with the Minister of Science and Technology, …

The federal government and the governors of the six South-west states have agreed on how Amotekun, the new security outfit set up by the region, should proceed, Vice President Yemi Osinabjo said Thursday. Mr Osinbajo met in Abuja on Thursday with the six South-west governors, alongside Attorney-General Abubakar Malami and the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar. His spokesperson, Laolu …

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Saturday’s House of Assembly re-run election in Sokoto State, Alhaji Bature Lili, along with his supporters have dumped the party for the Peoples Democratic Party. This development is coming two days before the scheduled House of Assembly election for Binji constituency in the state, in which Lili was seeking to retain his …

National Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday called for dialogue between governors of South West states and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice over the zone’s security initiative, code-named “Amotekun.” In a statement titled “Public Discourse on Amotekun” in Lagos, Mr Tinubu said he did not believe the Western Nigeria Security Network was intended to put the …

Armed Policemen, on Tuesday morning, aborted a rally, when it barricaded Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota, Lagos State, venue of the planned pro Amotekun protest, preventing protesters from converging on the ground. The rally was in support of the establishment of the Western Nigeria Security outfit, codenamed, “Operation Amotekun” which has remained a controversial subject in the country. The security personnel, …

The United States President, Donald Trump, has confirmed that the nation plans on expanding a controversial travel ban to include more countries. Trump revealed this in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He, however, declined to list the countries that will be included in the new announcement. US …

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has withdrawn licences from 11 Computer-Based Centres (CBTs) for charging candidates unreasonably high amount in the ongoing 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME). The Registrar of the board, Ishaq Oloyede, said this in Abuja on Tuesday at an interactive session with the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), banks, E-transact, Digital Partner …

Nine lawmakers in the Imo House of Assembly, including its minority leader, have defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) days after the ruling party clinched the governorship position via a Supreme Court ruling. The Deputy Speaker of the assembly, Okey Onyekamma (Mbaitoli, PDP) also, on Tuesday, resigned his position as a principal officer of the Assembly. The minority …

Oxford English Dictionary has added 29 Nigerian words and expressions in its January updates to the dictionary. This was confirmed in a blog post on the dictionary’s website. OED, in the post, said some of the words were borrowed while others are coinages. “The majority of these new additions are either borrowings from Nigerian languages, or unique Nigerian coinages that have only …