These are the stories that drove the conversation today:
Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki has on Wednesday said that the Senate was ready to reconvene from its recess to consider the N242billion Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) budget pending before it.
Saraki said this during a World Press Conference, following Tuesday’s invasion of the National Assembly by operatives of the DSS, assuring that if the outcome of Wednesday’s meeting with the INEC chairman would require the Senate to reconvene, he would not hesitate to reconvene the senate to pass the budget.
He however knocked the executive for failing to bring the budget since January knowing fully that there would be an election in 2019.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has frozen the bank accounts of the Government of Benue, domiciled in three banks.
The action of the EFCC is reportedly as a result of investigations which indicated alleged abuse of Benue State’s security funds.
The state government has however described the action of the EFCC as part of alleged plots to frustrate its efforts after Governor Samuel Ortom left the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the installation of technology monitoring schemes and structures under the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) at the cost of N17 billion.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday, presided over by the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo,in Abuja.
He noted that the deployment of the automated fuel system management and censor network would ensure 100 per cent tracking and monitoring of petroleum products.
The Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) on Wednesday commenced a two-week warning strike due to poor funding of the University by the owner states government- Osun and Oyo.
In a statement issued after its congress and jointly signed by its chairman, Biodun Olaniran and the secretary, Toyin Abegunrin said that despite the Memorandum of Action (MoA) signed with the union and the Governing Council of the University after its eight months old strike last year, government of the two states reneged on fulfilling their own part of the deal.
The union which said that the two states only paid one out of the eleven months salary arrears owed the workers.
And stories from around the world:
US Democrats enjoyed a major morale boost Wednesday following elections that highlighted their momentum ahead of November’s midterms, as President Donald Trump’s Republicans sweated the outcome of a congressional contest that was supposed to be easy pickings. (AFP)
Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday there is no room for mediation in the kingdom’s deepening diplomatic dispute with Canada, and that Ottawa knew what it needed to do to “fix its big mistake.” (Reuters)
Zimbabwe’s defeated opposition has vowed to go to court to overturn the results of the country’s elections, as one of its senior members fled to neighbouring Zambia to evade arrest. (Aljazeera)
The US is making history not just by violating a United Nations security council resolution it voted for three years ago, but also by penalising countries who stick to the same unanimous resolution, the Iranian ambassador to the UN has claimed. (The Guardian)
Iran’s foreign minister has said the United States will not be able to prevent the country from exporting oil.
Mohammad Javad Zarif told the Iran newspaper that President Donald Trump’s goal of forcing the rest of the world not to buy Iranian oil was impossible. (BBC)
Temidayo Taiwo-Sidiq is a Journalist, Political Analyst and Satirist with major interest in Nigerian Politics, Governance and Sports.
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