Author: Vardiafrica

The pump price of Automotive Gas Oil, popularly called diesel, has dropped from about N1,700/litre which it sold for a few weeks ago, to around N1,350/litre in some locations across the country following the sale of the commodity by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery. It was gathered on Tuesday that the $20bn worth refinery started pumping out diesel to the domestic market last Wednesday. It sold a minimum of one million litres to each registered oil marketer that got the product from the plant since it commenced diesel sale. Officials of the multi-billion dollar plant and oil dealers confirmed that the…

The seven-man panel set up by the Chief Judge (CJ) of Edo State, Justice Daniel Okungbowa, to investigate the allegations of misconduct levelled against the embattled deputy governor of the state, Comrade Philip Shaibu, on Wednesday, begun sitting. The panel, headed by retired Justice S. A. Omonuwa, was set up by the Chief Judge following the resolution of the Edo State House of Assembly, which initiated the impeachment proceedings against Shaibu. At the panel’s inaugural hearing on Wednesday morning, the House of Assembly was represented by its Deputy Clerk (Legal), Mr. Ohiafi Joe, while the deputy governor Shaibu was represented…

A total of 1.3 trillion naira worth of revenue has been generated by the Nigeria Customs Service in the first quarter of 2024. Speaking during a press briefing on Wednesday, the Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, explained that over 572 seizures were made with a duty-paid value of N10bn. He said, “In the first quarter of 2024, the NCS demonstrated remarkable performance in revenue collection. Total revenue collected during this period amounted to NGN 1,347,675,608,972.75. The collection for the first quarter represents a substantial increase of 122.35% compared to the same period last year, where NGN 606,119,935,146.67. “When compared…

The Nigeria Police Force has claimed that its operatives no longer torture suspects to extract information from them whenever they are arrested and held in the custody. The Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Muyiwa Adejobi, said this while speaking on the arrest of some suspected killers of the Divisional Police Officer in Rivers State when he featured on a Channels TV programme on Tuesday night. According to the Force spokesperson, the police are now conscious of the provisions of the Anti-torture Act 2017. He said that the police do not need to torture anybody to get needed information, noting that…

A storm is brewing for cryptocurrency giant Binance as two separate charges have been filed against the company and its executives at the Abuja Federal High Court. The arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, April 4th,2024 The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is accusing Binance executives Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla of money laundering to the tune of $35.4 million. This five-count charge alleges that the company operated without a valid license, a violation of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020. Meanwhile, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has filed a separate four-count charge against Binance. This…

The Federal Government has again said security agencies will go after individuals with fake university certificates in the country. Education Minister Tahir Mamman spoke during the maiden quarterly citizens and stakeholders’ engagement in Nigeria’s education sector in Abuja on Tuesday. The minister assured Nigerians that there would transformation in the education sector with the unveiling of 13 pillars roadmap. He said for proper planning to be done in the sector, particularly from a basic level, it has become imperative to build a reliable and authentic database that would promote skills acquisition and development and reduce to the nearest minimum, the…

President Bola Tinubu and other African leaders witnessed the swearing-in of Bassirou Faye as Senegal’s fifth president. Faye was sworn in on Tuesday at an exhibition centre in Diamniadio near Dakar, the capital of Senegal. The inauguration ceremony was attended by many African leaders, including Nana Akufo-Addo, president of Ghana and Sierra Leone’s President, Julius Maada Bio, among others. On March 24, Senegal held its presidential election after numerous postponements Faye defeated Amadou Ba, Senegal’s former prime minister, and won 54 percent of the votes cast. Faye was released from detention alongside Ousmane Sanko, his political mentor, 10 days before…

Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a left-wing pan-Africanist, was sworn in Tuesday as Senegal’s youngest president after sweeping to a first-round victory on a pledge of radical reform 10 days after he was released from prison. The 44-year-old has never before held an elected office but several African leaders attended the ceremony in the new town of Diamniadio, near the capital Dakar. “Before God and the Senegalese nation, I swear to faithfully fulfil the office of President of the Republic of Senegal,” Faye said before the gathered officials. He also vowed to “scrupulously observe the provisions of the Constitution and the laws”…

President Bola Tinubu has approved the Federal Capital Territory’s over N1.1trn statutory budget for the 2024 fiscal year. The FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, disclosed this during an ongoing media chat at his office in Abuja on Tuesday. He expressed delight over the assent by the president, and explained that the budget will impact on infrastructure development, healthcare facilities, as well as rehabilitation of schools in the FCT, amongst others. The development comes on the heels of the FCT appropriation bill passing the second reading at the Senate last month. A breakdown analysis of the N1.1trn budget, indicated that N280bn was…

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have introduced a “third gender” option on citizenship forms to collect data of immigrants with greater accuracy, as some of them do not identify as a male or female. Initially, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) forms and associated documents have only offered male and female options, which has “created significant barriers” for people who do not identify with either of the two genders. In an official statement issued on Monday, the USCIS said, “We have revised Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, to provide a third gender option, ‘X’, defined as ‘Another Gender Identity’.” “We…