Category: General News

First Lady Oluremi Tinubu has expressed gratitude to women leaders across the country for supporting the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) and the broader goals of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.

Mrs. Tinubu’s gratitude to women leaders comes as Nigerians savour the new year.

In a message of appreciation yesterday in Abuja, the First Lady acknowledged the contributions of the wife of the Vice President, Nana Shettima, governors’ wives, who are also RHI state coordinators, wives of National Assembly members, ministers, service chiefs, and other women leaders nationwide.

Mrs. Tinubu said the compassion, dedication and readiness to act, as demonstrated by the women leaders, had strengthened the collective efforts to deliver on President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly in empowering Nigerians and supporting the most vulnerable, irrespective of their backgrounds or status.

The First Lady noted that the sustained partnership and commitment of women leaders across the country had been central to the work of the Renewed Hope Initiative, which focuses on social welfare, inclusion and support for disadvantaged groups.

She also extended goodwill to Nigerians for prospects in the new year, wishing them peace, productivity, and prosperity.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has raised the alarm over planned campaigns of calumny by some politicians and groups with vested interests in suspects being investigated or facing prosecution by the commission.Its spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, said this in a statement in Abuja.

According to Oyewale, a motley crowd of paid jobbers has been recruited by some disgruntled elements to orchestrate campaigns of calumny through sponsored media attacks.

“The attack is targeting the Chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, and the institution with phantom allegations of political bias in the execution of the commission’s mandate. “Their objective is to befuddle the work of the commission and, through scaremongering, intimidate the commission into a timid mode,” he said.

The EFCC spokesman said the essence was to make the commission afraid of investigating opposition politicians for fear of being labelled partisan. He said the campaign was likely to intensify as the political space becomes charged in the months leading to the 2027 general election.

Oyewale said any political actor, whether in the ruling party or opposition party, with corruption baggage has no hiding place from the operational radar and dynamics of the commission.

He said the commission had no alliance or working relationship with any political party, noting that all these facts were unassailable.
He said the EFCC would not be pressured or blackmailed into making public disclosures of politically exposed persons being investigated for alleged corruption cases. “The EFCC reiterates its commitment to justice, without fear or favour, in the fulfilment of its mandate.”

The Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, has accused Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State cancelling an employment process undertaken by his (Wike’s) administration which engaged 10,000 youths of the state.

Wike made this allegation on Wednesday at Ahoada main Town, during the ‘Renewed Hope Family thank you visit’ to Ahoada East Local Government Area.

He said his administration had employed 10,000 youths into different sectors of the state’s economy, but regretted that Fubara, his successor, sacked the beneficiaries.

He slammed Fubara for claiming the construction of Ahoada-Omoku and Emohua-Kalabari Road, which he said he had made 70 percent payment before handing over, describing the governor as “a bad child”.

Four persons, including two pregnant women, have been confirmed dead from suspected cases of Lassa Fever in the Awe Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

The deaths, which occurred on Wednesday, forced the state government to shut down the General Hospital in Awe, as health workers, including the Medical Superintendent, have been quarantined.

Speaking on the development, the Disease Surveillance Officer in the area, Ahmad Yahuza Abdullahi, explained that tension began to mount when a woman was brought to a health facility in Awe with Lassa fever symptoms suddenly died before receiving medical care.
He explained that a few days later, the woman’s husband also died after presenting similar symptoms.

Abdullahi pointed out that poor handling of the suspected cases is one of the major challenges confronting health workers in managing disease outbreaks.According to him, some suspected patients who were conveyed to Lafia, the capital, for isolation, reportedly escaped, further causing tension in the area.

Also speaking, a nurse at the General Hospital, Awe, Ovey Polycarp, called for the urgent provision of protective kits for health workers in order to help curb the spread of the disease. But the Director of Public Health at the Nasarawa State Ministry of Health, Dr. Peter Attah, insisted that only one confirmed case of Lassa fever has been recorded in the Awe Local Government Area.

The director argued that the patient died before the laboratory result could be released.