The planned computer-based test format for the next West African tests Council tests in the nation has been criticized by the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum. The group claims that implementing such an exam format will cause a large number of pupils to fail, especially in rural areas where computer literacy is either nonexistent or very low. The West African Examinations Council declared that it would no longer be using the paper and pencil test model and would instead be using a computer-based test mode to administer the Senior School Certificate Examination, according to The PUNCH. This was stated in a…
Author: Mathew Aremu
On Thursday, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency issued a warning about young people in Borno State substituting fermented human urine—which has been kept for ten days—for hard drugs. This was revealed in a statement made in Maiduguri by Iliyasu Mani, the NDLEA’s Commander of Narcotics in Borno State. He claimed that young people frequently abused psychoactive chemicals and mentioned other strange stuff they took, like camel urine, lizard excrement, gin-soaked Lipton, and mentholated spirit blended with soft beverages. He claimed that in their attempt to become drunk, they also breathe in gutter debris and toilet vapors. Mani declared, “Let…
Six new executive directors have been nominated to the Nigerian Ports Authority and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency by President Bola Tinubu on Thursday. The Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy oversees both organizations. This was disclosed in a statement that Ajuri Ngelale, the President’s Special Advisor on Media and Publicity, signed on Thursday. Tinubu named Ibrahim Umar as Executive Director, Engineering & Technical Services; Olalekan Badmus as Executive Director, Marine & Operations; and Vivian Edet as Executive Director, Finance & Administration at the NPA. Fatai Adeyemi was named Executive Director of Operations at NIMASA, Chudi Offodile…
A study of the terms and processes governing the sale of homes under the National Housing Program has been launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. This occurs two months after the National Housing Program subscribers’ preliminary letters of allocation were rescinded by the government. The government declared that the impacted subscribers included program participants from the first to the fourteenth batches, claiming to have reviewed the terms and processes of the house transactions. However, the Ministry of Works and Housing said in a statement signed on Thursday by Permanent Secretary Mahmud Mamman that the review procedure is…
Test runs at the 60,000 barrels per day Port Harcourt refinery are scheduled to conclude this month, according to a release from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited. “Testing will soon come to an end, guaranteeing the refinery’s smooth functioning. That phase would be finished this month, a NNPC spokeswoman named Femi Soneye told Reuters. The test run, Soneye continued, was a significant step toward starting up again five years after the factory was down. The facility’s Area-5 Plant’s mechanical repair work was completed, the state-owned oil firm stated in December. It stated that the plant’s initial phase had been…
According to the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu’s elimination of the fuel subsidy means that its members cannot afford to buy 45,000 liters of gasoline. In a conversation with The PUNCH, Surajudeen Bada, a National Ex-officio of IPMAN and the previous Chairman of the organization in Ogun State, revealed that oil marketers presently provide funds to purchase 45,000 liters of gasoline, which they then divide among themselves. He blamed the loss of the gasoline subsidy for individual marketers’ incapacity to buy a truckload of fuel. He clarified that the price of a 45,000-liter gasoline tanker used…
On the official Foreign Exchange window for Investors and Exporters, the naira ended trading on Wednesday at N1035.12/$. From the N988.46/$ it closed trading on Tuesday, this represents a 4.72% decrease, per statistics from the FMDQ Securities Exchange. The national currency has declined in the first two trading days of 2024, and Wednesday’s closing above N1,000/$ is the third time it has done so since the Central Bank of Nigeria lifted its rate cap. The I&E window showed that the naira hit an all-time low of N1,099.05/$ on December 8. Following a modest rebound, it dropped to N1043.09/$ on Thursday,…
Operation Hadarin Daji, part of Joint Task Force North West, has seen the troops neutralize ten terrorists and free nine captives who were kidnapped between the states of Zamfara and Katsina. Along with weapons and ammunition, they also found functional motorcycles and communication devices. Cpt. Ibrahim Yahaya, the Force Information Officer, revealed this in a statement. Yahaya said that Maj-Gen Godwin Mutkut, the General Officer Commanding of the 8th Division of the Nigerian Army, had accomplished the feat during recent clearance operations during the dry season. According to Yahaya, on January 3, 2024, the OPHD’s combined forces carried out an…
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, expressed sorrow on Thursday over the death of Afolabi Stephen, a 19-year-old Nigerian student who was reportedly slain in Manitoba, Canada. The PUNCH claims that on December 31, 2023, in Manitoba, Canada, Stephen was slain by police. The Winnipeg, Manitoba Police Department said in a statement published on its website via Winnipeg.ca that its officers responded to a report regarding a young male who was acting “erratically,” despite the fact that the specifics of his death are still unknown. When the police arrived, they observed that their attempts to calm…
The BUA Towers at PC 32, Churchgate Street, Victoria Island, Lagos State, are under siege by agents of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. The incident happened after a previous siege of the headquarters of BUA Plc’s main rival, Dangote Plc, in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub. The anti-graft agents’ search of both offices, which started at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, is still ongoing, according to information our correspondent received at the time this story was filed. The foreign exchange allocations made to around 52 firms, including BUA Plc and Dangote Plc, during the tenure of the former Governor of the…
In a statement made available to PUNCH Metro on Wednesday, Florence Okpe, the Public Education Officer of the Ogun State Federal Road Safety Corps, revealed that three adult females died in multiple road crashes on the Ijebu-Ode Road in the Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area of Ogun State, while six others suffered injuries of varying degrees. The accidents happened separately on the same route between 9am and 12pm on Wednesday, involving 17 people: three deaths were recorded, six injuries were reported, and eight people managed to escape unharmed. Okpe stated that the first accident happened around the J4 Junction along the…
According to Eddy Megwa, Director of Press and Public Relations for the National Youth Service Corps, an investigative reporter was able to apply for the program twice by providing different details. According to PUNCN Online, Umar Audu, an investigative reporter, disclosed how he completed the required one-year NYSC duty after receiving a degree from a Cotonou-based institution in less than six weeks. Audu had described in his report how the site had recognized his first attempt to register using his old information and how the registration proceeded once he used a new email address and phone number. He said, “It…
The ongoing open defecation on the renovated drainage system has been bemoaned by locals and walkers along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. According to PUNCH Metro, the practice has spread widely as petty offenders covered the road median in dog poop, forcing pedestrians crossing the freeway to shield their noses. The midway between Kara, Warewa, and Mowe in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State and Berger in Lagos State had turned into regular defecation sites, according to our correspondent who was monitoring the sanitary conditions on the highway on Wednesday. However, locals and pedestrians have expressed concern that the…
The attack on a supermarket in One Man Village, close to Mararaba in the Karu Local Government Area of the state, has prompted the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the State Criminal Investigative Department in Lafia to launch an investigation, per the directive of Umar Nadada, the Commissioner of Police for Nasarawa State. Four armed men are reported to have assaulted the supermarket, killing four customers. The event was said to have occurred on Tuesday at approximately 8:45 p.m. A speaker was heard stating that one of the deceased had an identity card issued by the Central Bank…
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has granted bail to the troubled National Coordinator and CEO of the National Social Investment Program Agency, Halima Shehu, who was detained in relation to a ₦44 billion money laundering case. According to information obtained by our correspondent exclusively, Shehu was ordered to go to the EFCC Headquarters each day while the investigation was ongoing after being freed on Wednesday night. According to The PUNCH, the NSIPA Coordinator was suspended by President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday night, at which point she was detained by the EFCC. It was discovered that the ₦44 billion had…
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has come under fire from a soldier for ordering the arrest of his colleague and three other motorcycle riders for riding against the flow of traffic on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway. The unidentified soldier criticized Sanwo-Olu for labeling a soldier “useless” in front of “bastard civilians.” The soldier appeared to be defending his teammate in a widely shared video on Thursday. According to PUNCH Online, Sanwo-Olu issued an order on Tuesday to arrest three additional motorcycle riders and a soldier for riding against traffic on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway. Sanwo-Olu was seen telling his troops to…
The Abuja-Kaduna portion will be delivered by the Federal Government before the year is out, as it has pledged once more. The PUNCH claims that since the project’s contract was given on December 20, 2018, the government has repeatedly pledged to finish it. In order to lessen the negative effects on road users, Umar El-Yakub, the former minister of state for works and housing, stated in October 2022 that work on the Kaduna-Abuja highway and the Zaria-Kano route would be finished in early 2023. Similarly, in April 2023, Babatunde Fashola, the previous Minister of Works and Housing, claimed that the…
Femi Falana, a human rights attorney, has sworn to see to it that the soldier detained by Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for a traffic violation is brought to justice. According to a Tuesday story in the Daily Post, Sanwo-Olu detained a few individuals who were riding one-way motorcycles on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway. When the event happened on Tuesday, the governor was en route to the opening of the Femi Gbajabiamila Conference Centre at the Lagos State University (LASU) Ojo campus. When one of the criminals claimed to be a soldier, he may have believed that he would be set…
A deadly car accident that happened in Ikare Akoko, Akoko North-East Local Government Area, Ondo State on Monday resulted in one fatality and two injuries. A bus lost control and crashed into a group of young people who were enjoying a carnival along the road to celebrate the New Year. PUNCH Online found out about this. Our correspondent was informed by an eyewitness that two of the young people had injuries and were taken to the hospital almost away. “Yearlings from the Olokelede neighborhood of Ikare were participating in a procession from Ekan to Okela when the event occurred yesterday…
Lezibi Usman was detained by the Ondo State Police Command on Tuesday night for allegedly killing Olatunji Sunday on Monday night in Ikare Akoko, Akoko North-East Local Government Area, Ondo State. PUNK Metro learned that the incident happened as the victims, who are young people, were enjoying a carnival-style New Year’s celebration. An unnamed eyewitness told our correspondent that Usman, the driver of the car, lost control and crashed his car right into the middle of the young people conducting a parade along the road. “Youths from the Olokelede area of Ikare were holding a procession from Ekan to Okela…