Author: Vardiafrica

President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of 12 consuls-general and five chargés d’affaires to represent Nigeria in 14 countries. The minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar disclosed this announcement in a statement on Tuesday. Tuggar, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Communications Strategy, Alkasim Abdulkadir, charged the newly appointed Chargé D’affaires and Consuls General to be good ambassadors of Nigeria. The minister said the new appointees are pivotal to the economic drive of President Bola Tinubu. He further stressed that as seasoned career diplomats, they should shun the act of politicking and recommit themselves to…

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has sworn to follow the prosecution of former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, to logical conclusion. In a chat with journalists at the EFCC Headquarters in the Jabi area of Abuja on Tuesday, the anti-graft chairman vowed to resign as EFCC chairman if Bello is not prosecuted. He vowed that all those who obstructed the arrest of the former governor would be brought to book. The EFCC is seeking to arraign Bello on 19 counts bordering on alleged money laundering, breach of trust and misappropriation of funds to…

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Tuesday, quizzed a former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, over alleged ₦8bn Nigeria Air fraud. A top EFCC operative told Channels Television that the ex-minister came on invitation to the EFCC Headquarters in the Jabi area of Abuja today. Also, in a chat with journalists on Tuesday, the anti-graft chairman Ola Olukoyede confirmed that the EFCC has been investigating the Aviation and Humanitarian Affairs ministries, saying the probe has not been about only Sirika and Betta Edu but everything about the two ministries. “It is the system I am investigation…

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has frozen over 300 accounts linked to illicit foreign exchange (FX) trading. Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, Ola Olukoyede, EFCC’s chairman, said the agency secured a court order to freeze the accounts. “We got an order to freeze those accounts imagine what would have happened if we didn’t seize those accounts,” he said. “There are people in this country doing worse than Binance,” he said. Olukoyede said over $15 billion passed through one of the platforms in the last year, which was not regulated by financial regulators. The development comes a day after…

Yahaya Bello, former governor of Kogi, says his failure to appear before a federal high court in Abuja is due to fear of arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The EFCC is seeking to arraign Bello on 19 counts bordering on alleged money laundering, breach of trust and misappropriation of funds to the tune of N80.2 billion. Although the arraignment was initially scheduled for April 18, Bello was absent from court on the day. At the resumed court session on Tuesday, Adeola Adedipe, a member of Bello’s legal team, said his client would have appeared in court but was worried…

Dangote Petroleum Refinery has again reduced the prices of diesel and aviation fuel to ₦940, and ₦980 per litre, respectively. This comes after its widely celebrated price reduction to ₦1,000 barely two weeks ago. The price change of ₦940 applies to customers buying five million litres and above from the refinery, while the price of ₦970 is for customers buying one million litres and above. The Head of Communication, Mr Anthony Chiejina, who announced the development in a statement, explained that the new price aligns with the company’s commitment to cushion the effect of economic hardship in Nigeria. “I can…

A Dana Air aircraft with 83 passengers and registration number 5N BKI flying from Abuja to Lagos, was on Tuesday, reported to have suffered a runway excursion at the Lagos Murtala Mohammed airport. A runway excursion occurs when an aircraft veers off the runway in use during the take-off or landing run. Confirming the incident, Dana Air in a statement, said although the passengers were safely disembarked with no injuries, it had reported the incident to the Nigerian Safety Investigation Board (NSIB) and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). It added that the aircraft had been grounded by the maintenance…

The Nigerian government has claimed that terrorists ravaging the country have been finding it hard to kill because AK-47 firearms and other weapons have become too costly for them to afford. This assertion was made by Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser, who maintained that there was a dramatic decline in terrorism-related deaths and the availability of AK-47 firearms in the country lately. Ribadu made the statement while emphasising developments in Nigeria’s fight against terrorism at the High-Level African Counter-Terrorism Meeting in Abuja on Monday. He further stated that the price of the AK-47 has risen from less than N1…

The Bayelsa State Civil Service Commission has approved a two-day weekly farming period for workers, reducing the number of workdays to three. It directed that the remaining two working days should be used for farming to promote food security in the state. This is according to a circular signed by the Bayelsa State Head of Service Biobelemoye Charles-Onyeama. However, the development that followed Governor Douye Diri’s approval only affects civil servants from Grade level 14 and below. Teachers, medical personnel, and other staff on essential services are excluded from the directive The move is expected to become effective from the…

The federal government has ordered the sale of four of the 11 licenced electricity distribution companies (DisCos) in the country under the management of commercial banks and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), as it begins the process of unbundling the firms to increase efficiency and fix the worrying state of power in the country. The Minister of Power, Mr Adebayo Adelabu, made this disclosure while playing host to the Senate Committee on Power, led by its Chairman, Mr Eyinnaya Abaribe, in Abuja on Monday. Mr Adelabu stated that the privatisation of the firms would not be reversed, but…