The offer to provide consular assistance by the British Government for the arrested leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Guardian reports that the British Government has said it will provide consular assistance for the arrested leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu. This was disclosed yesterday by the Head of Communications, British High Commission in Nigeria, Dean Hurlock.
As controversies and speculations raged over where and how Kanu was arrested and extradited to the country on Sunday, the British High Commission had earlier dispelled rumours he was arrested in the United Kingdom (UK), where he was based before his arrest in 2015.
Hurlock had said: “We are aware of reports that Nnamdi Kanu has been detained in Nigeria by the Federal Government. We can confirm that Kanu was not arrested in the UK for extradition purposes.”
Kanu, who was born on September 25, 1967, is a holder of Nigerian and British passports. Upon his arrest and extradition from a foreign country, he was arraigned before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday for terrorism-related charges and has since been remanded in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Hurlock continued: “The British High Commission in Abuja is currently in the process of seeking clarification from the Nigerian government about the circumstances of the arrest.
With regard to any questions about whether the British High Commission are providing assistance in this case, we can confirm that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office stands ready to provide consular assistance,” the British official said, adding that the British Government “expects any trial or legal proceedings to follow due process.”
ThisDay says that the University of Lagos, Akoka, is set to graduate a total of 7,754 students with 281 bagging First Class honours and 31 distinctions in the various faculties of the institution.
Mr. Ibrahim Adedeji Alimi of the department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, emerged the best graduating student with a CGPA of 4.98, the best in the field of science.
He is followed closely by Miss Victoria Opeyemi Popoola of the department of Economics, faculty of social sciences with a CGPA 4.90. Mr. Rasheed Olatunji of the department of Marine Science, Faculty of Science had the overall best Ph.D thesis while Mr. Peter Ekundayo from the department of Economics, faculty of social sciences, will be awarded the best Ph.D thesis in the Humanities.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, made this known while briefing journalists, yesterday, to announce the 2018/2019 convocation ceremonies scheduled to commence with a lecture titled, National Development and Knowledge Economy in the Digital Age: Leapfrogging SMEs into the 21st Century’, to be delivered by the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, on July 5 at the J.F Ade-Ajayi Auditorium of the university.
The institution will also be conferring on five eminent personalities; Emeritus Professorship and Honourary Doctorate degrees. They include; a former Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe (post-humous), Lead Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist, First Consultant Hospital, Dr. Stella Ameyo-Adedevoh ( post-humous), founder and Chairman of Oriental Energy Resources Limited, Dr. Mohammed Indimi, Chairman of Premier Lotto Limited, Sir Kessington Adebukunola Adebutu, as well as Chief Executive Officer of Insight Communication Limited, Mr. Biodun Shobanjo.
A breakdown of the statistics of the graduating students, shows that a total of 15,753 are graduating, comprising 7, 754 (49.2%) who will be awarded first degrees and 7, 999( 50.8%) postgraduate degrees, as well as 160 diplomas in Social Works and Human Kinetics.
The VC used the opportunity to confirm that the alleged killer of Super TV boss, Mr. Ataga Usifo, Miss Chidinma Ojukwu, was indeed a part-time student of Mass Communication of the university with matriculation number 170912015 .
The Punch reports that the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, on Wednesday announced that the oil firm saved over $1bn of the cost that would have been built in on the top of petroleum products imports into Nigeria.
The NNPC is the country’s sole importer of petrol for more than three years running and it currently subsidises the commodity, dispensing it to marketers at a subsidised rate, while dealers sell at between N162/litre to N165/litre. Speaking during a live television programme monitored by our correspondent in Abuja,
Kyari said NNPC was able to get petrol at the pumps at about N256/litre, whereas the cost of the commodity would have been about N290/litre.
He explained that since the cost of diesel was currently N280/litre, the price of petrol would have been N10 higher than diesel price, but that NNPC had been able to bring it into Nigeria at about N256/litre.
The corporation’s boss, however, noted that despite the fact that NNPC was bringing in the commodity at the N256/litre rate, it had maintained the cost to marketers at about N160/litre. He said the cost of petrol would remain at the current rate until the ongoing engagements with labour on the matter were concluded.
The newspaper says that World Bank has stated that it has spent over $4bn financing to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana, Benin and 49 other countries.
This was contained in a press statement released on Wednesday on the Bank’s website. The World Bank listed 51 countries that had benefitted from the N4bn funding without Nigeria on the list.
The press statement was titled ‘World Bank financing for COVID-19 vaccine rollout exceeds $4bn for 50 countries’.
A source at the World Bank, who spoke on why Nigeria was not included in the list of developing countries that had benefited from the over $4bn COVID-19 financing by the World Bank, said there were certain COVID-19 financing schemes going on in Nigeria, and as soon as such schemes were finalised, an announcement would be made.
He added that the funding was not a one-off thing and more countries would be included with time. The statement quoted the bank’s Managing Director, Operations, Axelvan Trotsenburg, as saying, “The World Bank is helping developing countries in every region of the world with vaccine purchase and rollout.
The Sun reports that As part of its commitment to African startups and underserved communities, Google has announced new initiatives targeted at supporting startups in Africa.
This includes a $3 million Black Founders Fund for African startups and a $3 million Google.org grant to help low-income communities develop entrepreneurial skills and funding.
The Google for Startups Black Founders Fund in Africa will provide grants and technical assistance to early-stage startups led by black and diverse teams, or with a goal of advancing the Blacks. The programme will have 50 African startups receive $100,000 in cash awards.
Each selected company will also receive $220,000 in Google Cloud Credits and Ad Grants, as well as mentoring, technical and scaling assistance from the best of Google.
Google is also giving $3 million to the Tony Elumelu Foundation, who, through its annual entrepreneurship programme, will provide entrepreneurship training, mentorship, coaching and access to networks and key markets for at least 5,000 women as well as seed capital in the form of one-time cash grants to 500 African female informal business-owners in rural and low-income communities across Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and select Francophone countries.
GIK/APA