NIGERIAN NOTCH

The Imo state government has described as distasteful and cheap blackmail the claim by Innoson Motors that it is owing the company N2.5b being cost of the vehicles it supplied to it some months ago, insisting that the company's claim are half truths ,intended to impugn on the integrity of the state government for ulterior motives. Reacting to a threat by the company that it is filling a lawsuit to recover" over N2.5B debt owed' it by the state government, the  Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Hon Declan Emelumba deplored the manner the company is going about the recovery of the so called debt. The Commissioner said the truth is that the government bought vehicles worth over N5b from Innoson motors and has so far paid them  N3.5b.  According to him, contrary to the claim of Innoson Motors, the said N2.5b is actually the balance due from the original value of the purchase. He regretted that Innoson motors,  for reasons best known to them,  decided to hid...

The Managing Director and CEO of Imo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission Chief Charles Orie has taken delivery of transformers for onward installation in communities in the Oil Producing Areas of Imo State.  This is in fulfillment of the promise made by The Imo State Governor, His Excellency, Senator Hope Uzodimma that the lingering electricity issues confronting the Oil Producing Communities will become a thing of the past. According to the  MD/CEO of Imo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission Chief Charles Orie, Governor Uzodimma had instructed that transformers and the rest of the lightening  equipment be distributed directly to communities and installed. The Governor further directed that all faulty transformers in various communities be replaced for the benefit of the Oil Producing Communities and Imo people at large. Recall that 41 million Naira  electricity bill backlog accumulated since 2011 for the three Local Government Areas of Ohaji...

Nwajiuba's principal assignment of educating Nigerians is at the root of the complex election suit he is now canvassing. Many people were taken aback when the PMB came to council and asked all ministers interested in politics to follow the Nwajiuba example and resign. These ministers read the same Nigerian statutes as Nwajiuba but understood it differently. The many issues Nwajiuba is now asking the court to adjudge are basically constitutional questions. A lot of commentaries have been noted since Punch broke the stale news of a matter filed on the 17th of June (barely 10 days after the APC 8th June convention) by 2 NGOs, in which Nwajiuba and 29 others were defendants. Court records show that Nwajiuba only applied to join the suit as a 2nd plaintiff, when 26 of the defendants were struck off on the 6th of July. Many of these commentaries appear to disclose an uninformed mindset. All the questions Nwajiuba is asking are very generic... whether statutory delegates can be sent ou...

The Presidency has frowned at the threats by some opposition members of the Senate to begin impeachment proceedings against President Muhammadu Buhari over nation’s security challenges. Some Senators from opposition political parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) were reported to have expressed frustration over the nation’s security problems, giving the president a six-week deadline to address the issue or face impeachment proceedings. However, Malam Garba Shehu, the President’s spokesman, in a statement on Wednesday night described the impeachment attempt as ridiculous. The statement read in part: ”The performative and babyish antics of those senators staging a walk out notwithstanding, Senate President Ahmad Lawan’s refusal on Wednesday to entertain the ridiculous motion to impeach our President was quite appropriate and correct. ”Rather than making a mockery out of voters by trying to imitate what they see in...

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on Wednesday said seven ships that had arrived the ports were waiting to berth with petroleum products and others. NPA, in its ”Daily Shipping Position”, listed the products waiting to berth as: bulk gypsum, bulk fertilizer, petrol and container. It said that another 17 ships at the ports were discharging bulk wheat, frozen fish, general cargo, steel products, container, bulk sugar, base oil, petrol and bulk urea. Meanwhile, 23 other ships also laden with petroleum products, food items and other goods were expected from July 27 to Aug. 5. The authority said that the ships were expected to arrive at the Lagos Port Complex. It indicated that the ships contain general cargo, bulk salt, bulk gypsum, bulk sugar, bulk urea, container, frozen fish, bulk wheat, bulk steam coal, petrol and automobile gasoline.  (NAN)

MORE than 18,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported globally from 78 countries, with the majority in Europe, and 98 per cent of cases outside Africa have been reported in men who have sex with men, the  World Health Organizatio n has said. The UN health agency declared monkeypox a global health emergency on Saturday, after more than 14,000 cases were reported across 71 Member States, from all six WHO regions. WHO Director-General  Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus  on Wednesday urged men who have sex with men to consider reducing the numbers of new sex partners and swapping contact details with any new partners. “This is an outbreak that can be stopped. The best way to do that is to reduce the risk of exposure. That means making safe choices for yourself and others,” Tedros said during a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Six countries reported their first cases two weeks ago. While the trend in some countries has declined, others are increasing and coun...

THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) took its two-day protest in support of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to the National Assembly on Wednesday. Members from affiliates of the NLC gathered in thousands in front of the National Assembly complex, with scores carrying placards urging the Federal Government to resolve the impasse with ASUU and other striking university workers in the country. Leaders of major civil society organisations, including the Country Director, Actionaid, Ene Obi, joined the workers in the protest. A former senator who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th Senate, Shehu Sani, was also at the protest. Addressing the gathering, the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said the government should not allow ASUU’s five-month-old strike to continue. He threatened that should the government fail to meet ASUU’s demands within a short time, the NLC would proceed on a nationwide strike.   “If there is no intervention, no urgency, the issue remains the w...

CHIEF Judge of Akwa Ibom State Justice Ekaette Obot on Wednesday sent a lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, to jail for one month from the courtroom. Justice Obot also ordered the arrest of a Premium Times reporter Saviour Imukudo, who was in the court to cover Effiong’s case. Effiong, a human rights lawyer, was handling a case for his client before the judge sent him to prison. Shortly after the court sitting, the lawyer announced his travails on Twitter. “I have been sent to Uyo prison by the Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom State, Justice Ekaette Obot, for one month for defending Leo Ekpenyong in a libel suit filed by Governor Udom Emmanuel,” Effiong said. The Premium Times reporter, Imukudo, was also arrested by the police in the same court on the orders of the Akwa Ibom Chief Judge. Imukodo was covering the court sitting when he was harassed and ushered out of the court before Justice Obot ordered his arrest. Imukudo was in the court to cover the defamation case between Akwa Ibom State g...

It was over breakfast with former Deputy Governor of Imo State, Sir Jude Agbaso when he said to me, "Obinna, if there is one thing I am certain about, it's the fact that Gov Hope Uzodinma really wants to work for Ndi Imo. We have seen governors come and go and you don't need a soothsayer to tell you that Uzodinma wants to leave a legacy behind by the time he leaves office." I agree with Sir Jude Agbaso. Listening to Gov Hope Uzodimma flagging off the Owerri to Umuahia road the other day, I heard a man with a passion to work for his people. A man who is not distracted from the mission to give his people they best he can offer to give them. Gov Hope Uzodinma became governor of Imo State at a very peculiar time, when the insurgency and banditry we used to read on the pages of newspapers as regular occurance in the North, suddenly decided to come down to the South East. From Chief Achike Udenwa to Dr Ikedi Ohakim, down to Senator Rochas Okorocha, it has never been this ba...

...Imo people are my only asset. The Governor of Imo State, Sen. Hope Uzodimma has reiterated his commitment and administration’s resolve to serve and work for the common good of Imolites especially as it concerns development and wealth creation. These he tends to achieve by placing the state above personal interest. In his emotion-laden speech at the flag-off of Orlu-Mgbee-Akokwa road construction, Gov. Hope Uzodimma reinstated that upon assumption of office, he entered into a covenant of shared prosperity with only the people as his asset. “I entered into a covenant of shared prosperity, I *own* no hotel or property in Imo State, my only assets are the people.” as declared by Gov. Hope Uzodimma. This declaration is not far from the truth as the Governor has continued to live up to the mandate of shared prosperity and ensuring that the State is lifted up from poverty through his administration’s numerous achievements. Since the inception of the Shared Prosperity Government in the Stat...