NIGERIAN NOTCH

The Federal Government says it is engaging foreign media organisations, networks and think tanks to shape their opinions on the true position of things and correct the negative narratives about the country and President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed this in London after an engagement with the Royal African Society, a body founded in 1990 to promote relations between the UK and Africa. Specifically, the minister said that the engagement was to shape their minds and opinions on the true position of insurgency in the North East, farmers/herdsmen clash and the achievements recorded by the Buhari administration which were being downplayed. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister arrived in London on Sunday and delivered a lecture in Chatham House, the UK-based Royal Institute of International Affairs. He also interacted with foreign and Commonwealth Office officials, All Party Parliamen

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he would continue to hold the former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, in high esteem because he (Jonathan) conceded defeat at the 2015 presidential election. President Buhari made the statement on Thursday night when he hosted members of the Kannywood entertainment industry to a dinner at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Buhari, while recalling his political struggles since 2003 when he made his first attempt to clinch the presidential seat, lauded Jonathan for accepting defeat in the 2015 general elections.  According to him, “I’ll continue to hold former president Jonathan in high esteem as a result of that singular act. “He (Jonathan) was in power as Deputy Governor, Governor (Bayelsa), Vice-President and President, all for about 10 years and he voluntarily accepted defeat and surrendered power to me,’’ he said. Buhari also reassured that the brutal activities of the Boko Haram sect in the country would soon become history.

The Anambra Government has banned religious bodies from using either public schools or its facilities to conduct religious services across the state. The state Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr Don Adinuba, announced the ban on Friday in an interview with newsmen in Onitsha. Adinuba said the ban became imperative because of the ongoing seeming ownership tussle of Bishop Crowder Memorial School, Onitsha, being contested between the state and the Diocese on the Niger, Anglican Communion. The Church, through its legal Secretary, Mr Tabugbo Anaeto, is claiming ownership of the school. Members of the Anglican Church recently staged a peaceful protest and subsequently released a statement, accusing the state government of its alleged refusal from allowing it to assume ownership of its property.  Anaeto, in a statement, alleged that the state government had refused to make public the report of the fact finding committee on the ownership of the school set

Human rights activist and Lagos lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, yesterday, eclared that $12.7 billion worth of crude oil was allegedly stolen from Nigeria between 2011 and 2014, even as he called on the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, to prevail on the anti-corruption agencies to institute a probe to trace the funds and determine the culprits. Speaking at the 40th Anniversary Celebration of PENGASSAN in Abuja, Falana also called for the immediate recovery from oil companies, royalties accruable to the Federation Account since 2014, stating that the Offshore and Inland Sharing Contract Act that provided that for 50 years no royalty would be collected from oil and gas mined from below 1,000 meters depth had expired in 2014. Commenting on the alarming cases of oil theft, Falana said the crude oil theft data was released by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, while he promised to make the report available to the