LIONFACE NEWS INTERNATIONAL

The Senate yesterday amended the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act (CCB/CCT Act) tinkering with Section 18(1) & (2) of the extant law by transferring the president’s regulatory power over the bureau and tribunal to the National Assembly. The parliament also reintroduced a provision which authorises the CCB to invite anyone found culpable in asset declaration to make necessary correction as against being charged to the tribunal for trial. This provision had earlier been expunged from the extant law. It was the deleting of this provision in the extant law that paved the way for Senate President Bukola Saraki, whose appeal on the jurisdiction of the CCT to try him for alleged concealment of assets was for the second time dismissed yesterday in Abuja. The new amendment contained in Section 3 (e) of the bill provides that “upon complaint(s) of any breach or where it appears to the Bureau that there is a breach of the provisions of this Act, the person concer...

Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State A critic of Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, Dr. John Danfulani, was, yesterday, arraigned before a Kaduna High Court presided over by Justice Bilkisu Mohammed for ‘inciting comments’ on Facebook.  When the issue of bail was raised by his lawyer, Mr. James Kanyip, Justice Bilkisu said she was too busy to entertain the application, saying she had a seminar to attend and would only be back on November 7.  John Danfulani had been arraigned for the same offence by Kaduna State at the Magistrate’s Court on January 6, before the Chief Magistrate of Court 1, Kaduna, presided over by Mallam Awwalu Musa.  The state government lost the case in August, but did not appeal.  Danfulani, a former lecturer in the Departments of Political Science, Kaduna State University, KASU, was charged yesterday in a case referenced KDH/KAD/102c/16 at the State High Court.  Danfulani, a political activist, had...

Tom Ilube (Iluobe), a member of the PDP/POI Campaign Committee on Diaspora headed by Paul Nosa Ogiehor, has been named Britain’s most powerful black person. A panel chaired by Dame Linda Dobbs, the first black woman in Britain to be appointed a judge, have decided that out of the hundreds of thousands of people of African and African-Caribbean people living and working in the UK, this unassuming, softly spoken man who looks a bit like your maths teacher is the most influential of them all. No one is more perplexed by this year’s choice than Ilube himself. “I think what I said was, ‘Are you running low on black people?’” he says with a huge laugh. “It’s a huge honour, if not a bit of a surprise.” His humble response, however genuine, hugely undersells his achievements. While it might be the first time he’s topped the Powerlist, a magazine founded by former newspaper editor Michael Eboda 10 years ago to highlight black success stories, it’s not the first time Ilu...

ONOJIE OF UROMI VILIFIED AND ALLEGEDLY SUSPENDED on trump up charges... Victor Oshoke SSA to APC Gov on news media reports; Edo State Government has suspended His Royal Highness Anselm O Aidenojie, the Onojie of Uromi from office as the Onojie for seven days. A letter signed by Secretary to the State Government, Prof Julius Ihonvbere dated October 26, 2016, titled “Suspension from Office as Traditional Ruler”, states: “I write to convey to you, the decision of the Edo State Executive Council at its meeting on the 26th October 2016, suspending you from office for 7 days as Onojie of Uromi. The suspension from office was based on, among other reasons: ‘Your unprovoked attack, inflicting grievous bodily harm on one Mrs Betty Okoebor on September 28, 2016 in full public glare to the embarrassment of those present and causing disgrace to your otherwise esteemed office; ‘Your refusal, even after two weeks, to respond to a query issued by the appropriate authority within t...

The rogue economist has served the US faithfully for over 40 years BY JL YASTINE Recently, a rogue economist walked into my office, sat down and with a calm voice that did not waver, said: “They betrayed us.” Knowing that this economist has met with and counseled the world’s most powerful leaders including former presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton, I immediately gave him my full attention. The rogue economist has served our country faithfully for over 40 years. “This is a bigger financial threat than Islamic terrorism or a Nuclear Iran,” he explained. Our fiercest enemies and closest allies have just formed a 57-nation alliance. They have one goal: to dethrone America as the world’s financial superpower.” Taking documents from his briefcase, this man revealed how this “alliance” has already obtained a $47 trillion financial arsenal — 300% larger than that of the United States. He exposed their exact plot, naming names and pulli...

Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has replied his administration’s critics, saying former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki could not have stolen the $2.2 billion cash voted for arms purchase. He also said his administration may not be perfect but he did his best. Besides, he advised Nigeria and other African countries on how to break even – they should invest in education and youth entrepreneurship. It was all at a lecture on Youth Entrepreneurship at the famous Oxford Union in the United Kingdom. The text of the lecture and some parts of the transcript of the question session were released to the media yesterday by PRNigeria, a military propaganda outfit against Boko Haram during the Jonathan administration. The ex-President said:  “They said the National Security Adviser (Sambo Dasuki) stole $2.2billion. I don’t believe somebody can just steal $2.2 billion. “We bought warships, we bought aircraft, we bought lots of weapons for...

The Federal Government has urged Emirate airline and other foreign airlines operating in Nigeria not to withdraw their services. The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika who made the plea in Abuja during a visit by West African Regional manager for Emirates Airlines, Manoj Gopi Nair noted that the challenges confronting the aviation sector would be resolved soon. Emirate however attributed its decision to scale down operation to poor access to Foreign Exchange for its operations, high cost of aviation fuel and the state of the Abuja Airport runway. The Minister however urged the airlines to consider the adverse effect the decision would have on their customers. According to a statement in Abuja yesterday by the Deputy Director of Press of the Ministry, James Odaudu: “the minister has appealed to the Management of Emirates and other airlines to reconsider their decisions to either suspend their operations or scale them down, considering the adve...

A brilliant and dedicated lecturer at the Edo state-owned Michael Imoudu College of Physical Education at Afuze in Owan East local government area of Edo state has been sacked over allegations that he voted for the PDP in last recently concluded Edo state governorship elections. Mr Ohis Braimah who obviously felt there was nothing wrong in voting for the party of his choice in the election, had told some of his friends about his decision. It was these friends, sources say, who took the information to the APC majority leader of the Edo state legislature, Mr Folly Ogedengbe, who immediately ordered for the termination of the appointment of the lecturer. Am embattled Braimah who resumed duties at the institution a day after the elections, was shocked when he was given the sack letter by the school management. Although neither the teacher nor the lawmaker could be reached for comments,  a coalition of civil society organizations led by Comrade Adams Ogden...

' The current recession rocking the Nigerian economy has hit one of the biggest employers of labour in the country outside of the government as the Dangote Group, belonging to Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has fired 48 members of staff. Our correspondents gathered that those sacked were made up of 36 expatriate and 12 Nigerian workers from the group’s headquarters and one of the subsidiaries, Dangote Cement Plc. Though no official of the group was willing to speak on the matter on Sunday, one of our correspondents gathered from highly placed sources that the decision to sack the workers was not unconnected with the current high cost of running business in the country occasioned by the unavailability of foreign exchange and the unprecedented hike in the naira to dollar exchange rate. It was further gathered that the huge amounts in foreign currencies being paid to the expatriate workers had become a burden on Dangote due to the steady depreciation in the ...

The Arch­bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiye­kan, appealed to President Bu­hari to refrain from abusing the fundamental human rights of Ni­gerians in prosecuting the anti-graft war. Onaiyekan made the appeal in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, during an interview with news­men. He noted that the fight against corruption did not start with the present administration but faulted the way the past ad­ministration handled it. “The entire world is now watching how it’s being fought by the Buhari government, hence the need for suspects to be giv­en fair hearing when apprehend­ed,” he said. The eminent cleric also ad­vised the government not to take too drastic actions in the cam­paign so as not to make life too difficult for Nigerians and not to also allow the international com­munity to have a negative im­pression about its fight against corruption

The Benin monarch,  Oba Ewuare II has ordered the immediate suspension of Community Development Associations (CDAs) in all the seven local government areas of Edo State which constitute the Benin Kingdom. All land matters would henceforth be adjudicated by the Oba or through the Enogie or Edionwere and no longer through Community Development Associations. The seven local government areas of the Benin Kingdom are Oredo (capital),  Egor,  Ikpoba Okha, Uhunmwode, Orhionmwon, Ovia South West and Ovia North East local government areas. The Oba, who is the paramount ruler over the Edo South District of Edo state, has traditional right over all native lands in the kingdom,  especially lands that falls outside the rights of the governor under the Land Use Act. For many decades the Oba was in charge of adjudicating on land disputes throughout the district. But in recent times, especially since the advent of democracy in 1999, there had been a prolif...

The submachine gun is an automatic or selective-fired shoulder weapon that fires pistol-caliber ammunition. The concept of submachine gun dates back to World War One; the trench warfare of this war required effective and compact weapons for short-range fighting in trenches; additionally, a lightweight and maneuverable fully automatic weapon was desirable to complement light machine guns in both defensive and offensive scenarios, to cover last 200 meters of assault on enemy positions. The first weapon which can be considered to some extent as the world's first submachine gun was the Italian Villar-Perosa, which was a twin-barreled automatic weapon that fired 9mm Glisenti pistol ammunition from top-mounted box magazines. It was compact, but its primary tactical role was of short-range machine gun; therefore it was usually fired from some sort of mount, and fitted with machine-gun type spade grips instead of more conventional rifle-type stock. Villar-Perosa submachine gun in ...