Author: statereporter

The Federal Government of Nigeria has through the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, has announced that candidates under the age of 18 will no longer be permitted to sit for secondary school leaving examinations in Nigeria. This decision, aimed at enforcing the 18-year age requirement, was communicated during his appearance on Channels TV’s Sunday Politics programme. According to Mamman, the Federal Government has instructed the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) to comply with the directive. Effective immediately, only candidates who are at least 18 years old will be eligible to take the West African…

Against the background of the Supreme Court verdict Friday affirming Usman Ahmed Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the Kogi State governorship election held on November 11, 2023, the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has said he is sad by the apex court’s pronouncement. The pronouncement followed the dismissal of the appeal of Murtala Ajaka, the candidate of the SDP who challenged the outcome of the election. In a unanimous judgment, the apex court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, which on May…

The daughter of the former Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, Zainab Ado Bayero, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu; Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf; Senate President, Godswill Akpabio; and other concerned Nigerians for support for her family. Her request comes nearly a decade after the death of her father, the longest-serving emir in Kano’s history. Ado Bayero, who died at 83 on June 6, 2014, was a respected leader, having served as emir from 1963 until his passing. Speaking during an interview with Premium Times on Friday, Zainab said her family had been struggling since her father’s death,…

Ryan Akabusi, an 8-year-old boy with autism from Richmond reported missing by the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office has been found dead, authorities confirmed on Sunday, August 25, 2024. He was reportedly found dead in a lake near his home by Texas EquuSearch. The child’s mom, Ademorowa Oladeinde told ABC13 on Saturday that home surveillance footage showed her son leaving their house in the 19900 block of Kendall Lake Drive at 4:56 a.m. Half an hour later, her neighbor’s camera captured him walking on a nearby street. Oladeinde said she later found a pair of his shoes on the road.…

The Bayelsans state capital Yenagoa and major local government areas in the state have recently experienced wide celebrations over the supreme court victory that affirmed Senator Douye Diri as Governor of Bayelsa state. Recall that Senator Douye Diri has been going through several untold court cases threatening his position as winner of the November 11th Election, even though the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has officially announced him as elected Governor of Bayelsa State, with a total of 175,196 votes leading his rival Chief Timpre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress who scored 110,108 votes. State reporters revealed that many…

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), has raised concerns about the weaponisation of insecurity in Nigeria for political gains. Speaking on Sunday at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Lagos, Okonjo-Iweala highlighted the detrimental impact of political actors exploiting insecurity to undermine governance in Africa’s most populous nation. “We cannot have socio-economic development without security,” Okonjo-Iweala asserted. “We certainly cannot have security without development. We all know that security has been weaponised in our country for political purposes by political actors, leading partly to the situation…

The federal government has disclosed that only eight universities are accredited to award degrees to Nigerians in both Togo and Benin Republic. This was disclosed by the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, on Sunday. The Minister also insisted that there is no going back on the decision of the federal government to cancel about 22,700 certificates awarded to Nigerians by some “fake” universities in neighbouring Togo and Benin Republic. Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, Mamman maintained that the decision to invalidate the certificates was not a harsh one as Nigerians who obtained degree certificates from such “illegal” tertiary…

The Nigerian Armed Forces have successfully neutralized 171 terrorists and captured 327 individuals, including those involved in crude oil theft, in a series of operations across the North East, North West, and other volatile regions of the country over the past seven days. Major General Edward Buba, the Director of Defence Media Operations (DMO), disclosed these achievements in a statement released on Friday. The operations resulted in the detention of 302 individuals linked to terrorist activities and the arrest of 25 suspects involved in oil theft. Additionally, 134 kidnapped hostages were rescued during the same period. In the South-South region,…

Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State has commenced payment of the N70,000 minimum wage approved by the federal government. President Bola Tinubu signed the new Minimum Wage bill into law a few weeks ago. This was after back and forth with organised labour. However, many governors have said they can not pay N70,000 minimum wage as a result of economic reality. The Adamawa governor initiated the payment of the new minimum wage for state workers, starting from August 2024, with a promise that local government workers will begin receiving the increased salary in September. This has sparked widespread celebration…

•25 years of controversy on a new Constitution or amendment refuses to die By Clifford Ndujihe, Politics Editor AFTER five amendments to the 1999 Constitution, two constitutional conferences and various recommendations of committees and panels, Nigerians are still in search of an acceptable grundnorm that will drive socio-economic development 25 years into the Fourth Republic. Currently, the National Assembly is in pursuit of the sixth amendment and the polity is awash with debates on whether the country should go for a new Constitution or continue with the tinkering of the 1999 document. While those for amendments argue that the Constitution…