ONE WORD

Nigeria-police force Unknown gunmen in the early hours of Sunday, abducted Mrs Suzzy Nathan, Permanent Secretary, Taraba Ministry of Water Resources, Jalingo from her home. The Police Public Relations Officer in Taraba, DSP David Misal, confirmed the incident to newsmen in Jalingo. Misal said the command was deploying every intelligence to establish if it was a kidnapping case since no contact had been made with anyone claiming to be behind the abduction. “The police were not alerted on time about the incident, but the permanent secretary is missing, so we are using our intelligence to ascertain whether it is a case of kidnapping.” The gunmen, according to a resident who pleaded anonymity, came to the house at Kasuwan Mbera Area of Jalingo, at about 2:17 a.m., forcefully opened the gate and threatened to shoot anyone who tried to stop them from abducting the permanent secretary. He said the gunmen, who were shooting sporadically for some time, scared away residents of th...

Sri Lanka explosion Sri Lankan police on Sunday discovered a 10-acre camp in the eastern town of Kattankudy, where militants linked to the deadly Easter attacks are believed to have practiced shooting and bomb-making. The walled terrain is nestled in a poor residential area on the outskirts of the home town of Zahran Hashim, who is believed to have been a key player in plotting the April 21 attacks. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack that killed more than 250 people and nearly 500 wounded in the attacks by militants on churches and hotels across the Indian Ocean island on April 21. The narrow, sandy plot is dotted with a cinderblock four-storey watchtower, as well as mango trees, a chicken coop and a goat shed. “They wanted to show this place was normal. If someone comes to see, it looks like a farm. But what they were doing is terrorism,” said a senior police officer in the Batticaloa area. Police found bullet holes in the wall on one side of the ...

NNPC The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it transferred N153.01 billion into the federation account in January. The corporation disclosed this in its Financial and Operations Report for the month of January released in Abuja on Sunday. “Within the period under focus, NNPC transferred N153.01 billion into the Federation Account. “Cumulatively, from January 2018 to January 2019, Federation and JV received N905.45 billion and N658.66 billion respectively, under the column of Naira Payments to the Federation Accounts,’’ NNPC said in the report. The corporation also said that it made a trade surplus of N15.04 billion for January 2019, an increase of 24 per cent over the N12.13 billion surplus posted by the corporation in December 2019. It attributed the positive financial position to the improved performance of NNPC’s upstream subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) which recorded surplus numbers in spite reduced operational activities...

FILE PHOTO: Commercial motorcyclists Seven motorcyclists were on Saturday arrested for allegedly attacking officials of the Lagos State Task Force on Environment, while 92 motorcycles were impounded for violating traffic laws in the state. The Chairman of the Task Force, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi, confirmed this on Sunday in a statement signed by the Spokesman of the agency, Mr Adebayo Taofiq. Egbeyemi said that four Officers of the task force sustained serious injuries during the attack. He said the officials were attacked while clamping down on motorcycle operators plying restricted routes around Oworonsoki, Adeniji Adele junction, Obalende, Falomo, Lekki Phase 1 and the Ikoyi link-bridge area of the state. The chairman said the officials were attacked with stones, bottles and iron-rods, while on a legitimate mission to arrest motorcycle operators plying restricted routes. “During the enforcement operation, some suspected motorcyclists started shouting and calling the atte...

Premier League top scorer Mohamed Salah was taken off on a stretcher during Liverpool’s 3-2 win at Newcastle. The Reds forward was left clutching his head after an aerial collision with Magpies keeper Martin Dubravka. Salah, who scored his team’s second goal, was replaced by Divock Origi after 73 minutes with the match level at 2-2. Origi quickly made his presence felt, heading in the Anfield side’s winner with four minutes remaining. The result means the title race will definitely go to the final day of the season on Sunday, 12 May. Liverpool are two points clear of rivals Manchester City, who will play their game in hand against Leicester on Monday. Before that, Liverpool will face Barcelona in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday, and Salah’s injury will be a concern for manager Jurgen Klopp as his side attempt to overturn a 3-0 deficit from the first game. “We’ll have to see and we’ll have to do a proper assessment,” Klopp said of Salah’s prognos...

Hon. Babatunde Raji Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing. The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola SAN has named some contractors who collected money from government but failed to execute the contracts awarded to them. Fashola forwarded to the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) documents from some of the Ministry’s agencies providing some level of details regarding the names of contractors that allegedly collected money for electricity projects but failed to execute any projects. The minister also invited SERAP to “inspect a compendium of verified and paid/outstanding liabilities of contractors, kept at the offices of the Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Limited/GTE.” This development was disclosed today in a statement by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare. The Ministry’s letter with reference number FMP/LU/R2K/2016/T/40 and signed on Mr Fashola’s behalf by the Permanent Secretary (Power) Louis O.N. Edozien...