BREAKING NEWS

  The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has marked six residential houses and one plaza allegedly belonging to the embattled former Intelligence Response Team leader, Abba Kyari, in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, for investigation.   The two-storey shopping plaza, Assurance Plaza, located along the Giwa Barracks Road in Maiduguri, has about 100 stores while six other residential houses within the Maiduguri New Government Residential Area allegedly belonging to the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police had also been marked by the NDLEA. This is coming barely 48 hours after a suspected drug dealer allegedly linked to the N3 billion worth of tramadol intercepted by the then Kyari-led IRT team was arrested by operatives of the NDLEA in Lagos.   Recall that on February 14, 2022, Kyari was arrested for his alleged involvement in drug trafficking. He has since been in custody at the Kuje correctional center after his bail application was denied by an Abuja high court.

  The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday, April 26, announced the outbreak of the Ebola disease in Africa following the demise of two people from the heinous disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The report would mark the 14th outbreak of the disease that the country has seen since 1976, with WHO beginning preparations for a vaccine rollout in the country. The National Institute of Biomedical Research reported a 31-year-old patient had died on Sunday, April 24, in the north-western city of Mbandaka, with the man reportedly showing symptoms on April 5 but not seeking treatment until a week later. A 25-year-old woman has also died of the disease, with WHO confirming on Twitter that at least 145 people “came into contact with the confirmed cases”. The woman was said to have started experiencing symptoms 12 days prior to her death and investigations have shown she was the sister-in-law of the first deceased case. It is believed she contracted the disease after coming int

  Founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, made a whooping N405.3 billion ($977.8 million) after the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, acquired the social media company on Monday. Ripples Nigeria had reported that the board of  Twitter  met with Musk early hours of Monday, but the deal was confirmed to have been accepted later in the day by the billionaire businessman. Musk had acquired Twitter with over $43 billion after sourcing $46.5 billion from banks to finance the deal. The Tesla and SpaceX boss is worth $268.2 billion as of April 25, 2022. Following the completion of the acquisition,  Dorsey made N405.3 billion (based on official market exchange rate) from the deal, as Musk paid $54.20 per share to investors holding Twitter’s stock. Dorsey held 18.04 million shares in Twitter before his exit as CEO in November last year, making him one of the top ten largest shareholders in the social media platform prior to the acquisition. Dorsey is the 356th richest p

  The founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, said the social media company is his biggest regret, complaining about investors at Wall Street, a Financial District in United States, taking over the microblogging site. Dorsey said while he doesn’t support one person owning Twitter, he believes the firm shouldn’t be controlled by the Wall Street investors, so Musk’s acquisition is right for the company. Ripples Nigeria had reported that Musk acquired  Twitter  on Monday, parting with about $43 billion to privately own the social media platform. The billionaire had raised $46.5 billion to fund the deal. Dorsey made the comment via Twitter on Tuesday, stating that the platform had always been his sole issue and biggest regret, and he would do whatever it takes to protect the company. He said Musk is the only solution he trusts to solve the issues that have trailed Twitter due to the involvement of investors. Note that there are about seven Wall Street institutional investors in the firm. Some of

Russia's foreign minister   has warned that NATO is now fighting war with Russia in Ukraine and there is a 'very serious' risk the conflict could turn nuclear.    Sergei Lavrov, speaking on Russian state TV last night, accused western leaders of risking a third world war by supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine with the goal of 'wearing down the Russian army,' an aim he described as an 'illusion'. Accusing NATO and its allies of attempting to bully Russia on the international stage, Lavrov said that tensions between east and west are now worse than during the Cuban missile crisis at the height of the Cold War.   Asked about the possibility of a nuclear war, he replied: 'The risks are very significant. I do not want the danger to be artificially inflated [but] it is serious, real. It cannot be underestimated.'   Lavrov said: 'During the Cuban Missile Crisis there were not many "written" rules. But the rules of conduct were clear enough.  &#

The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, yesterday in Abuja, walked out on students protesting the continued face-off between the government and members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, who have paralysed academic activities in the nation’s universities.  The students, under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, had taken their protest to the minister’s office, clutching placards demanding a quick resolution of the crisis. After a few questions by the students, who were led by the NANS President, Comrade Sunday Asefon, the minister angrily left for his office. Commenting on the development, Asefon said:  ”We only asked the minister one or two questions about what the government is doing to resolve the impasse, when he angrily left us and went inside. ”We are surprised at the development because as students, we are the ones bearing the brunt of the strike. We are going to hold a meeting to deliberate on the next step to take and we will

  Nigerian workers are facing very difficult times as they spend about 79% of their monthly minimum wage (N30,000) on transportation. This is according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) January report on transport fare NBS noted in the report that Nigerians in January paid N476.3 on an average per drop for bus journey within the city. This is an increase of 1.18 percent when compared to the N470.83 in December 2021. The amount paid in January 2022 is also a 35.28 percent rise from N352.15 paid in January last year. What this means is that for a Nigerian who is on a minimum wage pay of N30,000, he or she will have to spend over 70 percent of their salary on transportation. Nigeria has an average of 25 working days, if a per drop bus ride is N476.39, that is about N23,819 to get to work and back home in a month, leaving only N6,180 as take home pay. Further analysis also showed the huge pressure on Nigerian workers’ finances. NBS also reported that the average fare paid by commu