The Founder of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Dr Boniface Aniebonam, says the party will contest the Ondo and Edo governorship elections to be held later this year. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, scheduled the off-cycle governorship elections in Edo and Ondo State for Sept. 22 and Nov. 16, respectively. INEC, on March 31, released the list of the 17 political parties and their candidates for the Edo governorship election. The NNPP and its candidate were among. Similarly, INEC, on March 30, announced that 19 political parties, including the NNPP, had indicated interest to contest in the Ondo…
Author: GuruTrends
UEFA announced on Thursday it had fined Barcelona 25,000 euros ($26,680) for racist behaviour by their fans after two supporters were questioned by police following their Champions League quarter-final first leg with Paris Saint-Germain. Barcelona were also banned from selling tickets to their supporters for their next away European game, although that punishment is suspended for a year. Barca lost the tie 6-4 on aggregate after PSG won Tuesday’s second leg 4-1. On April 10, Paris police said they had questioned two people after videos were published on social media of a supporter making monkey noises and another making Nazi salutes at the Parc…
Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has directed the holding of a logo crafting competition between April 19th and 26th. The Osun State House of Assembly had in July 2023 repealed the state Anthem, Crest, and Flag Law 2012 and replaced it with a new law which enabled the executive to come up with a new logo for the state. Adeleke had on Wednesday, signed a bill adopting a new logo for the state but the design released through the social media was greeted with criticism. But Adeleke while commenting on the decision to have a logo drafting competition said, “As…
A PUNCH reporter, Babatunde Titiola, was on Tuesday morning attacked and robbed by ‘one chance’ robbers in a commercial vehicle along the Sagamu end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. PUNCH Metro gathered that the incident occurred at about 6:40 am. The term, “one chance”, is frequently used in Nigeria to describe a robbery committed by a group of criminals who pick up people who are waiting for a bus or taxi just to rob them. Speaking in an interview with our correspondent, Babatunde revealed that the fact that there were five of them inside the bus did not raise suspicion that they…
The United States and the United Kingdom announced widespread sanctions against Iran’s military drone programme on Thursday in response to its weekend attack against Israel. Washington is targeting “16 individuals and two entities enabling Iran’s UAV production, including engine types that power Iran’s Shahed variant UAVs, which were used in the April 13 attack,” the Treasury Department said in a statement, referring to Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicle program. The United Kingdom is also imposing sanctions “targeting several Iranian military organizations, individuals and entities involved in Iran’s UAV and ballistic missile industries,” the Treasury Department said. Tehran launched its first-ever direct…
The Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party has queried the continued stay in office of the party’s acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, and National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu. Recently, many party members have raised concerns about the ongoing tenure of Damagum and Anywanwu in their respective positions. Previously serving as the PDP National Deputy Chairman (North), Damagum assumed the role of acting National Chairman following the court’s suspension of the party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, in March of the preceding year. With the National Secretary being selected as the PDP candidate for the Imo State 2023 governorship election, the…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Democrat who represented southeast Wisconsin in Congress in the 1990s before going on to become a leader in the Assembly and state revenue secretary announced Thursday that he’s running for Congress again. Peter Barca announced his bid against Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, who is seeking a fourth term. Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District, previously represented by former House Speaker Paul Ryan, leans Republican but was made more competitive under new boundary lines adopted in 2022. The seat is a target for Democrats nationally as they attempt to regain majority control of the House. It is one of…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the International Monetary Fund said Thursday that the world economy has proven surprisingly resilient in the face of higher interest rates and the shock of war in Ukraine and Gaza, but “there is plenty to worry about,’’ including stubborn inflation and rising levels of government debt. “ Inflation is down but not gone,’’ Kristalina Georgieva told reporters at the spring meeting of the IMF and its sister organization, the World Bank. In the United States, she said, “the flipside’’ of unexpectedly strong economic growth is that it ”taking longer than expected’’ to bring inflation down. Georgieva also warned that…
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The spring homebuying season is off to a sluggish start as home shoppers contend with elevated mortgage rates and rising prices. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell 4.3% in March from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.19 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s the first monthly decline in sales since December and follows a nearly 10% monthly sales jump in February. Existing home sales also fell 3.7% compared with March last year. The latest sales still came in slightly higher than the 4.16 million pace economists were…
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine Legislature approved sweeping gun safety legislation including background checks on private gun sales, waiting periods for gun purchases and criminalizing gun sales to prohibited people before adjourning Thursday morning, nearly six months after the deadliest shooting in state history. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and the Democratic-led Legislature pressed for a number of gun and mental health proposals after the shooting that claimed 18 lives and injured another 13 people, despite the state’s strong hunting tradition and support for gun owners. “Maine has taken significant steps forward in preventing gun violence and protecting Maine lives,” said…
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — For decades, only three people knew Gloria Johnson had had an abortion. But a year of watching women and doctors agonize under Tennessee’s strict abortion ban kicked up a fire in the longtime Democrat. She watched in dismay as her Republican colleagues in the General Assembly dismissed concerns that the law was harming women. Many GOP lawmakers argued that only on rare occasions was an abortion needed to save a life. So without telling her legislative staff or family in advance, the then-60-year-old state representative stood before a Republican-controlled House panel in March 2023 and testified about the abortion she…
LONDON (AP) — Prince William returns to public duties on Thursday for the first time since his wife’s cancer diagnosis, bolstering the royal family’s ranks as health problems continue to sideline the princess and King Charles III. William is set to visit a surplus food redistribution center and a youth club it serves, highlighting efforts to reduce food waste as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions and feed people in need. The prince stepped away from public duties after Kate, the Princess of Wales, announced on March 22 that she was undergoing treatment for an unspecified type of cancer. In a…
NEW YORK (AP) — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has completed a book about her years in public life, from legislation she helped enact to such traumatizing moments as the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol and the assault at her San Francisco home that left her husband with a fractured skull. Simon & Schuster announced Thursday that Pelosi’s “The Art of Power” will be released Aug. 6. “People always ask me how I did what I did in the House,” Pelosi, the first woman to become speaker, said in a statement. “In ‘The Art of Power,’ I reveal how — and more importantly, why.”…
A mobile court in Oshodi has sentenced a man simply identified as Paul to nine months imprisonment for not using a pedestrian bridge and assaulting personnel of the Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps. The state Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, disclosed this in a post on his X handle on Thursday. Wahab wrote, “Paul was apprehended on the April 16 for not using the pedestrian bridge at Agbado Oke Odo, and in the process, he assaulted and wounded the enforcement personnel of LAGESCOfficial (KAI). “The mobile court sitting at Oshodi yesterday sentenced him to nine months imprisonment.”…
A Federal High Court in Kano has ordered the purported suspension of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje, by his ward, be stopped. The ruling came late on Wednesday after Ganduje filed an ex parte motion seeking to enforce his fundamental right to a fair hearing. The respondents in the application are the police, the Department of State Services, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and nine other individuals. Recall that on Monday, April 16, APC executives in Dawakin ward, Tofa LGA of Kano State, purportedly suspended the APC National chairman over alleged corruption. Subsequently,…
The Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has bemoaned the obstruction of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from performing its constitutional duties. According to him, the EFCC has the power to invite anyone in the course of its investigation. His statement is coming after the EFCC’s effort to arrest the former governor of Kogi State, Yayaha Bello, proved abortive on Wednesday despite obtaining a court order. After several hours of laying siege to his house in Abuja, his successor, Usman Ododo, was said to have whisked him away. Fagbemi, however, did not…
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated has repaid its $500 million five-year Eurobond, which was due today, April 18th. The bank stated this in a corporate filing with the Nigerian Exchange Limited, as obtained by PUNCH Online on Thursday. The Group Chief Financial Officer, ETI, Ayo Adepoju, said the bond represented ETI’s first Eurobond issuance in April 2019, noting that the repayment serves as evidence of ETI’s robust financial standing. He said, “The Eurobond was warmly received by a diverse group of global investors, including our esteemed long-term development partners, FMO and Proparco, who acted as anchor investors to the issuance.” Adepoju added…
The 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has lamented the deteriorating security situation across Nigeria and called for decisive action to free the remaining Chibok girls still in captivity. The former Anambra governor expressed anguish that 276 schoolgirls kidnapped in April 2014 have “continued to undergo different traumatic experiences at the hands of their abductors.” “It is saddening and very worrisome that 10 years after the unfortunate kidnap of over 250 young girls from Chibok in Borno State, 91 of them have continued to remain in captivity. “What is more distressful is that a decade later, the situation of…
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has initiated a campaign to enforce price display and quantity compliance at supermarkets throughout Abuja. The Commission started this at 4U Supermarket, Wuse 2 Abuja on Thursday. This move is a direct response to concerns raised by consumers about the rising costs of goods, which go against the recent strengthening of the naira. The Commission said price discrepancies remain a significant issue. It emphasised that consumers have the right to be informed of the prices of items they intend to purchase.
The short-selling-prevention tips posted Wednesday on Trump Media’s website come as its DJT stock has sharply fallen in price since it began being public trading on March 26. Trump Media is making a point of telling its shareholders how to prevent their stock from being loaned to short sellers — who bet the price of the shares will drop. The short-selling-prevention tips posted Wednesday on Trump Media’s website come as its DJT stock has sharply fallen in price since it began being public trading on March 26 — and as short sellers have taken a keen interest in the owner of the Truth Social app despite relatively high fees to finance such trades. Trump Media’s share price rose sharply on Wednesday,…