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Akeredolu knocks govt for arming ‘Non-State Actors’ in pipeline protection

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Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu

Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), has criticised the Federal Government for permitting “non-state actors to bear heavy assault weapons while denying the same privilege to the states and federating units” with joint security outfits like the Amotekun Corps.

 

Akeredolu stated this is a statement he signed on Wednesday and made available to Channels Television by his Chief Press Secretary, Richard Olatunde.

 

The chairman of the South-West Governors’ Forum and the Southern Governors’ Forum condemned the decision of the Federal Government to award a contract for the protection of pipelines in the South-South to a private security company.

 

The Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, had on Tuesday described as the right decision, its resolve to award the contract for the surveillance of pipelines to a company that a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, has an interest in.

 

Kyari, who spoke at the 49th session of the state house briefing at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said, “We need private contractors to man the right of way to these pipelines…

 

We don’t have access to that and therefore, we put up a framework where contractors were selected through a tender process for people who can do it, not everyone can do it and Tompolo is just mentioned, we’re dealing with corporate entities.

 

“He may have interest in the company, we’re not dealing with Tompolo, but we know that he has interests in that company.”

Credit: channelstv.com

ASUU gives govt fresh condition to end strike

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ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has outlined fresh conditions the Nigerian government must take to end its six-month-long academic strike.

 

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said the government must exhibit transparency to end the ongoing strike.

 

“Government should tell us and Nigerians – the money that has been alleged to have been approved for revitalisation – how much is it and where is it lodged? When will it be released?” Osodeke said.

 

Osodeke added that the government must clearly state its position on the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), a payroll system that ASUU wants as a replacement for the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS).

 

“Three, have they accepted the agreement we reached with their panel? They should come and tell us this, and not go to the press,” Osodeke added.

“Strike is a symptom of a problem. Any day you sort out that problem, you will not have strike.”

 

ASUU has been on strike since February 14, 2022.

In a related development, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, President of the Academic Union of Universities (ASUU), has said that the union did not ask for students’ help before it embarked on a strike.

 

DAILY POST recalls that the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) president, Sunday Asefon, had said that students would no longer support the union’s call for intervention.

 

He accused the ASUU body of being self-serving.

Reacting to the comment by the students’ leadership, Osodeke said students who have been kept at home because of the industrial action had not supported the union’s struggle.

 

According to him, “Any day students and parents take over this struggle, ASUU body will not have this problem. Had they supported any of our struggles apart from going from one office to another? So leave that alone. Go and ask students in the street, not those leaders”.

Credit: dailypost.ng

Buhari mourns late Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev

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Buhari mourns Mikhail Gorbachev

President Muhammadu Buhari has described the last leader of the former Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, as “a courageous reformer, who will be remembered for years to come because of his immeasurable contributions to world peace and openness in his own once rigidly closed society.”

Reacting to the death of Mr Gorbachev at 91 on Tuesday, President Buhari said “the late Gorbachev was a remarkable gentleman whose reformist agenda had fundamentally changed the Soviet society through his policy of Perestroika and Glasnost, both of which set the stage for economic and political transformation of his own country and that of others in the defunct Soviet Union.”

Mr Gorbachev was in power between 1985 and 1991. He died Tuesday evening after “serious and long illness,” according to the Central Clinic Hospital in Moscow.

His emergence as the country’s leader set in motion revolutionary changes that transformed the map of Europe and brought the cold war that had threatened the world to an end.

President Buhari explained that, “although Gorbachev’s political career was consumed by those reforms, history and posterity will be kind to him for placing the interests of the Soviet people above his own ambition.”

According to the Nigerian leader, “the impact of Gorbachev’s legacy was not limited to the former Soviet Union, but it also affected the wider world, such as his voluntary dissolution of the Warsaw Pact military alliance in pursuit of permanent peace in the world.”

President Buhari said “we cannot forget in a hurry how Gorbachev advocated for the destruction of nuclear weapons by both the former Soviet Union and the United States during his meeting with Ronald Reagan.”

The President added that, “although Gorbachev died without achieving his dream of a nuclear-free world, his genuine commitment to durable international peace and security would never be forgotten.”

Credit: premiumtimesng.com

Tinubu visits Goodluck Jonathan, seeks support

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Tinubu and his team pose for the camera with ex-President Jonathan

Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate in 2023 polls, has met with former President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja.

The meeting is in continuation of Mr Tinubu’s nationwide consultation with critical stakeholders ahead of the 2023 elections.

Mr Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State and one of APC’s national leaders met with Mr Jonathan on Tuesday night at the latter’s residence and was accompanied by his running mate, Kashim Shettima and five APC governors, among others, on the visit.

The source, who was at the meeting, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the brief meeting gave the leaders the opportunity to discuss various national issues and the forthcoming 2023 general elections.

Mr Tinubu, after the brief meeting, was quoted as saying that he was on a courtesy visit to the former president being a former leader and one of the critical stakeholders in the Nigeria project.

According to the source, “Tinubu told Jonathan of his presidential ambition and sought his support. ”

Those who accompanied the APC presidential candidate included Gov. Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, Gov. Bello Matawale of Zamfara, Gov. Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa and Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara, among others.

The source pointed out that the meeting was part of efforts by Mr Tinubu to get the support of all critical stakeholders for his presidential ambition.

“Truly, Jonathan was at home with us. He was very receptive. You know the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) no longer accords him that respect.

“He is more comfortable with us. He is happy that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu visited him, he is at home with his aspirations,” the source said.

Mr Tinubu also recently had a similar meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta.

Credit: premiumtimesng.com

It’s wrong to criticise me for sounding Nigerian -Camidoh

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NANA KWESI COOMSON
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Camidoh

Camidoh is lashing out at critics who claim he is deliberately sounding like a Nigerian to penetrate the Nigerian music industry.

The ‘Sugarcane’ singer was speaking in an interview with Joy Prime’s Noella Kharyne Yalley who asked,” a lot of people say you sound so Nigerian what are your thoughts about it?” and Camidoh replied that “it’s their opinion, for which they’re entitled to“.

“With time, people will get to understand that we were never meant to be just Ghana. We were meant to be Africa. I’m Ewe, if I chose to go by that mentality, I’ll be doing music solely in Ewe. And if we think like that, then we will be encouraging boundaries,” he added.

Defending his creative freedom to create music in the best way he cam, he continued tha, “it’s 2022, and a time the world is trying to be one.

So if we’re going to sit here and allow Nigerians, South Africans, come to Ghana, borrow our words, make music with it, and we jam to it, yet when we (Ghanaian musicians) borrow their words and make music with it, we (Ghanaians) criticize it, then we’ve erred. So whoever thinks that I’m shining in the shadows of another country, it’s a shallow way of looking at things.”

Credit: pulse.com.gh

Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War, dies aged 91

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Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War and was the last leader of the Soviet Union, has died at the age of 91, Russian news agencies reported, citing medical sources.

“Gorbachev died this evening after a serious and long illness,” the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow said late on Tuesday, as quoted by the Interfax, TASS and RIA Novosti news agencies.

Gorbachev led the Soviet Union from 1985 until its collapse in 1991.

The dissolution of the Soviet bloc — marked by Gorbachev’s resignation that year — ended the Cold War and years of confrontation between East and West, freed Eastern European nations from Soviet domination, and established the modern Russian state.

Gorbachev’s death comes six months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has intensified tensions between Moscow and the West.

US President Joe Biden, who was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Gorbachev was in office, described the former leader as a “man of remarkable vision”.

Credit: Aljazeera.com

EU visa ban for Russians would lack support -Josep Borrell

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EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell

European Union foreign ministers are unlikely to unanimously back a ban on visas for all Russians when they meet later this week, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said.

“I don’t think that to cut the relationship with the Russian civilian population will help and I don’t think that this idea will have the required unanimity,” Borrell, who chairs EU foreign ministers’ meetings, told Austria’s ORF TV on Sunday.

“I think that we have to review the way that some Russians get a visa, certainly the oligarchs not. We have to be more selective. But I am not in favour of stopping delivering visas to all Russians.”

The foreign ministers would need to reach unanimous agreement to implement a ban, which would be the bloc’s latest action intended to publish Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Instead, they are expected to back suspending a visa facilitation agreement with Moscow when they meet on Tuesday in Prague.

The move would make it significantly more difficult and expensive for Russians to travel.

Credit: aljazeera.com

Queen Elizabeth to stay at Balmoral to appoint new PM

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Balmoral Castle

The new prime minister will have to travel to Balmoral in Scotland for their audience with the Queen before formally taking over in Downing Street, the royal family has said in a statement.

Boris Johnson will also have to travel 500 miles from London to the monarch’s Aberdeenshire estate next Tuesday before he steps down as prime minister, to be succeeded by either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak.

Traditionally, the outgoing PM makes a brief statement outside No 10 before travelling to Buckingham Palace to present his resignation to the Queen. Their successor then sees the monarch, who invites them to form a government, before going to Downing Street, where they also speak.

However, the Queen is 96 and in increasingly frail health. She has spent the summer in Balmoral, and her lack of mobility means she finds travel difficult.

Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will be announced as leader of the Conservative Party on Monday, 5 September.

Credit:  theguardian.com

Taiwan fires warning shots to drive back drones

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Taiwan fires warning shots

Taiwan has fired warning shots for the first time to drive back drones that flew over its outlying islands near China. Taiwan’s defence ministry said the three drones were seen flying back towards the Chinese mainland.

Taipei has in recent weeks complained of Chinese drones flying close to its islets near the Chinese mainland. Cross-strait tensions remain high after US politician Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan earlier this month.

Taiwan has reported an increase in drone incursions after China launched huge military drills in a show of force after Mrs Pelosi’s visit.

The Kinmen Defense Command said three civilian drones were spotted on Tuesday evening in Dadan, Erdan and Shiyu – three Kinmen islets that are just a few kilometres away from the Chinese city of Xiamen.

It added that it fired warning flares, before firing a live round at a returning drone. The drones eventually headed towards Xiamen.

Credit: bbc.com

Trump accused of hiding classified documents

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Classified files on the floor of Trump's Mar-a-Lago office in the 8 August search

Ex-President Donald Trump may have concealed and removed documents during an FBI visit to his property in June, Department of Justice officials say.

In a court filing, the department said “efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation”.

The filing is in response to Mr Trump’s lawsuit for a “neutral” lawyer – known as a “special master” – to oversee part of the ongoing case.

Mr Trump has denied any wrongdoing and said the items were declassified.

Upon leaving office, US presidents must transfer all of their documents and emails to the National Archives.

In the filing released on Tuesday, the Justice Department’s counterintelligence chief, Jay Bratt, gives the clearest picture so far of the department’s attempts to retrieve documents from the former president.

Those attempts led to a National Archives team visiting his Mar-a-Lago home in January, an FBI team visiting in June, and the FBI searching the mansion on 8 August.

The FBI is investigating whether Mr Trump improperly handled records by taking them from the White House to Mar-a-Lago after he left office in January 2021.

Credit: bbc.com

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