President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday assured Nigerians that the 11.9km Second Niger Bridge, 120 km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and other key projects under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) will be completed within the second term of this administration. The assurance was given at the opening of a two-day Mid-Term Ministerial Performance Review Retreat organized to assess progress made towards the achievement of the nine key priorities of this Administration. Addressing guests at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the president expressed delight that over the past two years, ministers have rendered reports to the Federal Executive Council on their activities related to the achievement of their ministerial mandates; reports which President Buhari said speak of feats attained by his administration. He listed accomplishments in the areas of infrastructure, transportation, economy, electricity supply, the petroleum industry, among others. ‘‘On transpor

      Mr Frank Mba, the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO) The Inspector General of Police, Mr Usman Baba, on Thursday guaranteed the public that there was no plan to reintroduce the disbanded Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) into the Nigeria Police Force. Mr Frank Mba, the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), announced this in a statement in Abuja. Mba explained that the clarification followed reports making the rounds both online and offline that the IGP had directed the reinstatement of the disbanded SARS. He said, “The Force wishes to emphasise that there is no plan whatsoever to bring back the disbanded SARS. SARS is gone for good and will not resurrect under any guise whatsoever.” According to Mba, the Nigeria Police had re-organised the operational structure of the squad to fill the vacuum created by its disbandment, as the leadership of the Force remains focused on efforts at deepening reforms within the Force. The FPRO said the idea was to bequeath Nigerians, a Police Fo

Google has announced a plan to invest $1bn over five years to finance Africa's digital transformation. The investment focuses on enabling fast, affordable internet access for more Africans; building helpful products; supporting entrepreneurship and small business; and helping non-profits to improve lives across Africa. The statement was made at Google's first-ever Google for Africa event, broadcasted live virtually. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, shared the planned $1bn investment and will include: Enabling affordable internet access and building helpful products Google is building global infrastructure to help bring faster internet to more people and lower connectivity costs. The subsea cable Equiano will run through South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria and St Helena and connect the continent with Europe. Internet access is also hampered by the affordability of smartphones. Android has developed a device locking technology as part of the Android platform that will enab

      Late Ahmed Idris Nasreddin. The Management of NASCO Group Nigeria has  demystified  reports making the rounds where the company is linked to the sponsorship of terrorism in the country. In a Press release on Tuesday, the company stated that it had never been involved in such practice, and that their founder Ahmed Nasreddin, who died last week, had been exonerated of these claims several times in time past. The company, described the allegation as defamatory and slanderous. The statement read, “We state categorically that we have never and will never be sponsor of any criminal act, organisation, or violence of any kind that will disrupt the peace and tranquillity of the Nigerian state or any country in the world.” The company declared that, after the “unfortunate events of 2001,” thousands of people and entities around the world were subjected to investigations. “A detailed examination by the United Nations Security Council and the US Government totally exonerated NASCO’s late fou

  The Nigerian Army has been accused of brutalizing youths in Nde village, Ikom LGA,  Cross Rivers state, for protesting against cattle grazing in their farmland. About 10 youths of Nde Community in Ikom Local Government Area, Cross River State were brutalized by soldiers, prompting residents and monarchs to cry out to the military and state government for help. Community members claimed that the youths “pleaded with the herdsmen” to leave their land after their cattle destroyed almost all their products. Consequently, soldiers allegedly arrived in the community and beat up their youths for asking the herdsmen to leave. “The herdsmen then went to Edor Army Barracks which is about three kilometers away to report that youths of Nde attacked them and sent them away from the Community. “Soldiers from the barracks came in truckloads on Sunday, rounded up youths and took them to the barracks, flogged them severely, leaving them injured. “Our community is currently on fire as military men deh

  The United Kingdom (UK)-based forensic and ballistic company, engaged by Lagos State government to investigate the shooting incident at the Lekki Tollgate, has come  to a conclusion  that live military-grade ammunition were not fired at protesters on the night of October 20, 2020. The Executive Director of  Oxygene Consulting UK Ltd,  Dieye Willie-Harry, gave a review on Tuesday via zoom during the proceedings of the Lagos State Judicial Restitution for Victims of #EndSARS Related Abuses and Other Matters Panel investigating police brutality. He said: “We have not viewed any footage, which definitively shows a muzzle aimed towards any individual and at the same time being fired with the effect thereof, but what we can freely assess was that no live bullet was fired. “However, given the injuries sustained from 21:00 hours and further, we believe that live and military-grade ammunition were fired at some point by persons yet-to-be-identified.” He said by the time the team of experts ar

President Biden received a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, a booster shot, on Monday. The White House hopes that the publicly broadcasted event will convince Americans of the vaccine's safety. He got his first shot on Dec. 21 and his second dose three weeks later, on Jan. 11, along with his wife, Jill Biden. Biden, 78-year-old has been a champion of booster doses since the U.S. experienced a sharp rise in coronavirus cases from the delta variant in the summer. Video Credit: The white House