Damilola OJETUNDE 77 posts

THE N5.5 billion budget for the purchase of new cars for senators of the ninth assembly will get the Nigerian Police Force at least 36 Robinson R-44 Raven II helicopters, at $500,000 each, meaning that each state can get one. Even if…
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THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Ministry of Budget and National Planning have denied The ICIR access to public information regarding key economic issues. The ICIR on August 7 filed two Freedom of information Act, FOIA, requests…
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THE G7 2019 summit held in France between August 24 and  26 had come and gone.  The G7 annual meeting is attended only by the heads of government from the seven permanent member states and two leaders of the European Union (presidents of…
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ON Saturday, August 10, the social media space was inundated with reactions as to why the official twitter account of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo was suspended. The federal government last Thursday resumed the disbursement of…
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OLUREMI Tinubu, a senator representing Lagos Central, during the just-concluded ministerial nominee screening, begged and requested for employment slots for her constituency. She made the request when Babatunde Fashola, former minister of…
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HAD the  Nigerian Financial Intelligent Unit (NFIU) been granted autonomy to operate for the past 10 years, with its new guidelines on financial autonomy to local governments, it would have helped the 774 local governments across the…
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THE 2019 general elections might have come and gone, though, leaving moments that tested the integrity of Nigerian democracy. Nine states governors have served two terms as the chief executive officer of their respective states. The…
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For the first time in history since the return to democracy in 1999, Nigeria recorded the lowest rate of voter turnout of 34.75 per cent at the last presidential election held on February 23. The rate of voter turnout is calculated as the…
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The announcement of results of the 2019 governorship election held in 29 states of the federation on Saturday, March 9, is still in progress.  While election results in six states, namely, Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Kano, Plateau, and Sokoto…
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What? Fake news has infected Africa’s biggest election via WhatsApp Why now? It turns out there’s an antidote, and the election is tomorrow What do the following have in common? Rumours of a secret meeting between the candidate and…
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THE Code of Conduct of Bureau (CCB) has refused to release copies of asset declaration forms of all cabinet members of the Buhari-led administration, thereby, flouting the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 2011. The ICIR, on January 16,…
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IF you have been on the internet in the last couple of weeks, you would have come across the #10YearChallenge on social media. It's a challenge which involves people posting up then-and-now pictures of themselves from 2009 and 2019, to…
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EIGHTEEN years after member-state of the African Union agreed to allocate 15 per cent of their annual budget to the health sector, Nigeria has continued to be a serial defaulter of this agreement. A healthy population is truly the best…
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THE number one and two citizens of the federal republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari and his vice, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, will both spend N2,801,981,868 on cars, travel and feeding cost, details of the proposed 2019 budget…
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THE unemployment rate in Nigeria has increased from 18.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2017 to 23.1 per cent in the quarter of 2018, an increase of 4.3 per cent. According to the "Labor Force Statistics - Volume I: Unemployment and…
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PETER Obi, vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP has claimed that the unemployment and underemployment rate in Nigeria rose from 24 per cent in 2015 to 40 per cent in 2018. Obi made the claim at the just…
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Ministry of Education; Ministry of Aviation, Nigeria Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) and National Agency for the Control Aids (NACA) have continued to deny Nigerians access to public information by not responding to Freedom of…
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LAURETTA Onochie, a media aide to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has claimed that PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, distributed cash and food at his Sokoto rally held on Monday, December 3. CrosscheckNigeria, a…
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THE number of Nigerians that die annually because of cancer has continued to rise, but the problem lies more in the cost of accessing treatment than in any other factor. RISING cases of cancer and the cost implications of treatment are…
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ON Friday, September 7,  The ICIR submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Federal Ministry of Education. The purpose of the request was to obtain procurement details of contracts approved for the ministry by the Federal…
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THE Federal Government has placed  50 high-profile Nigerians suspected of corruption on travel ban. This was contained in a statement released on Saturday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba…
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ONLY about 73 out of 900 public institutions have submitted their freedom of information (FOI) annual report for 2017 to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF). This statement was made at a one-day reform seminar on open government…
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LAST week, the Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Ahmed Boboyi, stated that the population of out-of-school children in Nigeria has risen from 10.5 million to 13.2 million. The Executive Secretary, who was…
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DESPITE the passage of Freedom of Information (FOI) Act by the National Assembly seven years ago, Nigerian public and security institutions are still hoarding information relating to the procurement process, the Public and Private…
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TWITTER is one of the best social media platforms for conveying political messages in bite-size pieces to the electorate with decreasing attention span.  The use of Twitter in politics has seriously changed the way campaigns are run;…
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EXACTLY a week from now, the electorate in Osun state will go to the polls to elect the governor for the next four years. The September 22nd election will be the fifth consecutive governorship election to be held in the state since the…
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THREE days to the conclusion of the continuous voters' registration exercise,  eligible voters have complained about the high-handedness of INEC officials at the registration centres in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Speaking to The…
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THOUGH Abuja, the federal capital city is the place where auto crashes occur more frequently than any other place in Nigeria, Kaduna State is the place where people are most likely to die on the road. Interestingly, Kaduna state is…
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THE African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), has charged the federal government to protect whistleblowers for the policy to be effective. This was made known at the presentation of a publication commemorating…
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THE Federal Ministry of Justice has charged public institutions to comply with Freedom of Information Act and to proactively disclose public information in their custody if they must avoid being shamed in the public. The charge was made at…
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DEVATOP Centre for Africa Development, a youth-led non-governmental organisation has pleaded  state actors at all tiers of government  to take action against human trafficking in Nigeria. This was made known on Thursday at a world press…
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ABIOLA Fatima Isa is one of the few Nigerians and the first female to be trained as a train driver in China. She received a-two-year training in China and also worked as a driver's assistant for another two years in China. Isa works for…
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Adams Oshiomhole, former Edo state Governor, has been elected national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress. Oshiomhole was elected unopposed through a voice vote by delegates at the national convention of the party at the…
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Of the estimated 200 million victims of female genital mutilation (FGM) around the world, about 20 million, representing 10 percent are Nigerians. This was revealed on Thursday at an event titled Red Card2Female Genital Mutilation (Red…
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PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has announced June 12 as the new date which Democracy Day will be celebrated in Nigeria. He also conferred a posthumous GCFR title on the late Chief Moshood Abiola. Buhari  explained that June 12 will replace…
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FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo, declared on Tuesday he was ready for probe over the $16 billion power project President Muhammadu Buhari had alleged was mismanaged by his administration. This was made known in a statement…
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 The Senate and the House of Representatives have passed the the 2018 appropriation bill into law, with addition of N500 billion. The lawmakers  on Wednesday passed the total sum of N9.1 trillion, an increase of N508…
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Despite being one of the 12 countries that promoted the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs) on Business and Human Rights in 2011, Nigeria is yet to launch its own National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights. This was…
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The Kogi State High Court sitting in Lokoja has granted  a N10 million bail to the  controversial senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Dino Melaye. Justice Nasiru Ajanah granted Senator…
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In compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, 10 states have provided public access to their 2018 budget. But the rest 26 states have ignored call  to make their budget public. BudgIT, a civil organisation that focuses…
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President President Muhammadu Buhari will today, Tuesday undertake a four-day trip to the United Kingdom, rounding up his medical trip abroad to 172 days. Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on media and…
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The Kogi State High Court, Lokoja, has given an interim order that Dino Melaye, senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District in the National Assembly,  be moved to the National Hospital Abuja, for further treatment. Justice…
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Ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government have continued to ignore requests for public information despite the budgetary allocation of over N514 million for the implementation of freedom of information act (FOIA).…
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Muhammed Idris, Sokoto State Commandant of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), says Nigeria is heading towards a major drug abuse crisis, as many young people across the country are becoming drug addicts by the…
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James Ocholi, former Minister of State for Labour, is still listed as a member of the Nigerian Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the website of the Nigerian Embassy in the United States of America, even though he died two…
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The management of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, has approved the suspension of Richard Akindele, a Professor of Management and Accounting who demanded to have sex five times with his student before passing her.…
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Ovi Omo-Agege, a senator from Delta State who is currently on suspension, on Wednesday led some thugs to seize the mace at the upper chamber. On 90-legislative-day suspension for daring to say the Electoral Act amendment by…
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The voice in the sex-for-marks audio tape that went viral on Tuesday is that of Richard Akindele, a Professor of Management and Accounting at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Osun State, his church members have confirmed.…
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Richard Akindele, a Professor of Management and Accounting at the Obafemi Awolowo University who is the subject of an alleged sex-for marks scandal, has quit Facebook. As of Monday when the ICIR was going about its…
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The management of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, says it is investigating case of a lecturer in the university who was caught on tape demanding five days of sex (potentially multiple rounds of sex) to pass a female…
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The Federal Government lost the sum of N14,341,364,756 — N1.2 billion monthly — to "ghost police officers" who appeared on it payroll in 2017. The disclosure came after staff count and full integration of payrolls across the…
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It is alarming and disheartening the ease with which top government officials turn their private homes to overnight 'central banks' where public funds are stashed. A year after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)…
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Dino Melaye, representative of Kogi West Senatorial District at the Senate, is in fresh trouble as he has been charged by the police with criminal conspiracy and illegal possession of firearms. A statement released on Monday by…
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It is widely believed that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Federal Government borrowed N6 trillion in its 16 years of reign while the current All Progressives Party (APC) government has borrowed N11 trillion in just three years. Tunde…
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The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) chapter, on Tuesday staged a protest at the association's secretariat in Garki, Abuja. The protesters, comprising…
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Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa, has resigned from office. He announced his "immediate resignation" on Wednesday after the ruling ANC party threatened to eject him from office via a parliamentary vote of no…
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Mao Ohuabunwa, senator representing Abia North Senatorial District at the National Assembly, distributed frying pans to members of his constituency yet abandoned primary healthcare centres worth N76 million. An investigation by the…
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THE Federal Government has spent at least N15.3 billion on the upkeep of former Presidents, Vice Presidents and their families over a period of 13 years. The figure covers the former leaders’ pension, medicare, yearly foreign vacation,…
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Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (retd.), former Military President, has disowned a statement signed and distributed by Kassim Afegbua, his media aide. The widely-circulated statement had quoted IBB as advising President Muhammadu Buhari…
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Of the estimated 27 million victims of human trafficking around the world, about 875,500 are in Nigeria. This was revealed on Tuesday at a one-day interactive discussion to commemorate the 2018 US National Human Trafficking…
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The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) cannot account for the sum of N12.662 billion they spent in 2015, a report form the office of the Auditor-General has revealed. The audit report obtained by the ICIR…
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The Joint Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) in oil-producing communities in Delta State on Monday staged a protest at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) headquarters in Abuja. The ICIR was at the…
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You already know something about Maryam Sanda, daughter of Maimuna Aliyu: she is alleged to have stabbed her husband to death. Something that wasn't yet known about her, at least until Friday, is that she is a diligent student of the…
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Emmerson Mnangagwa has been sworn in as Zimbabwe's President at a ceremony at inside a packed stadium in the country's capital, Harare. The swearing ceremony followed the dramatic departure of Robert Mugabe after 37 years of…
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Climate change is the latest challenge to sustainable human development. “It is no longer a question of whether the earth‘s climate will change but rather when, where and by how much,” says Robert T. Watson, Chairman of the United…
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Over the years, it has become a norm, or some unwritten law, for members of the first family in Nigeria to embark on frequent trips abroad to receive medical attention. This is in spite of the fact that every year, billions of Naira…
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A healthy population is truly the best insurance to help the economy thrive. This was the main premise of the 2001 Africa Union 'Abuja Declaration'. One important and well-acknowledged criterion for determining quality of…
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President Muhammadu Buhari hosted his media team at the weekend, in what was the latest in a series of visits by high-ranking political office holders to London. Those he hosted this time are Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the…
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The Federal High Court in Lagos has granted an interim order for seven commercial banks to remit a total of $793,200,000, which they allegedly hid in violation of the Constitution and the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy of the…
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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has halted the recall process for Dino Melaye, the Senator representing Kogi West Constituency at the National Assembly. The plan to effect Melaye's recall from the…
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Today, July 11, 2017, is being observed by the international community as the World Population Day. In 1989, the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recommended that the date should be observed as the…
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