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Joe Biden US President-elect, Joe Biden, on Tuesday, appointed nine close campaign aides into key White House positions despite President Donald Trump’s continued legal battle on the result of the election. Biden named Ron Klain as his Chief of Staff. “I am proud to announce additional members of my senior team who will help us build back better than before. “America faces great challenges, and they bring diverse perspectives and a shared commitment to tackling these challenges and emerging on the other side a stronger, more united nation,” the President-elect said in a statement. Joe Biden WowkTV Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign manager, will become Deputy Chief of Staff, Steve Ricchetti, a longtime Biden adviser and lobbyist, will become counselor to the President. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, who was National Co-chairman of Biden’s campaign, will become senior adviser to the President and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. Biden also named ...

National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) The COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria and the resultant lockdown have affected the treatment of people living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus in the country with over 540,000 patients currently in need of treatment. SaharaReporters learnt that about six HIV laboratories in the country had been converted to COVID-19 testing, carrying out about 30 percent of the tests. According to the 2020 Quarterly HIV Fact Sheet, released by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS and obtained by SaharaReporters, the Federal Government needs more than $2.4billion over the next three years to treat these 540,000 Nigerians living with HIV and AIDS. National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) The NACA factsheet added that due to the lockdown induced by COVID-19 and the rising number of COVID cases to attend to, the Anti-Retroviral Treatment initiation for HIV has dropped in the country from 39,450 to 21,495, representing a 45.5% decrease. ...

UNILAG entrance. A university lecturer, Dr Peter Osimiri, has said that the currently devastating state of Nigerian education will not improve until the Federal Government take investments in education as capital expenditure. Osimiri, who is a lecturer of Philosophy at the University of Lagos, made this known in a public lecture delivered at the grand finale of the 40th anniversary of Humani Alaga High School in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. UNILAG entrance. The don, while speaking on the theme, “Falling Standard of Education in Nigeria: Who is to blame” berated the depressing share of the national budget given to the education sector. He lamented that the degrading features of deplorable school facilities, poor funding of researches and ill-equipped educators bedevilled the academic sector at all levels in the country. Osimiri said, “The Nigerian government at all levels has not taken education to be a top priority. Regrettably, our politicians keep feeding education with...

A High Court sitting in Gusau, Zamfara State, has sentenced a serving Deputy Director of the Federal Character Commission, Alhaji Ahmad Balarabe, to 14-year imprisonment, for defrauding job seekers of money worth N7million. This was contained in a statement by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and made available to SaharaReporters on Tuesday. The anti-graft commission, ICPC, had earlier filed a suit against Balarabe, before  Justice Bello Shinkafi. He was first then arraigned in September 2018 on a two-count charge bordering on obtaining by pretence, an allegation to which he pleaded not guilty, thereby setting the tone for the lengthy trial. The ICPC prosecutor, Mashkur Salisu, had told the court that, “Balarabe, while serving as the Coordinator, Sokoto and Zamfara States for FCC in 2017, collected N7million from some job seekers with the promise to get them employment with the Federal University, Gusau, Zamfara State.” Salisu also...

The Nigeria Labour Congress has said that the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities was not only on Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System but also the 2009 collective bargaining agreement. President of Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja while speaking with journalists shortly after meeting with the Senator Smart Adeyemi-led Committee on Aviation. Wanna asked government to show enough commitment to resolve the issue of ASUU strike once and for all. He said, “A lot of issues are contained in the agreement which has not been implemented. The process of dialogue is ongoing. We have tried to give our own side of how the issue could be resolved include giving inputs and writing of letters and we would continue to do that. “The sooner it is resolved, the better for all of us because an idle mind certainly is a devil’s workshop. Clearly speaking, I think it should be a priority if the issues are resolved so that we cou...

Shettima Yerima Youths from the Northern part of the country under the aegis of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum has berated the current political leadership representing the region, saying that they have been disappointing and embarrasing to the region. This was part of the conclusions reached at a meeting og Northern youth held in Kaduna on Tuesday. Shettima Yerima Alhaji Yerima Shettima, National President of AYCF, in a statement after the meeting, condemned Northern political leaders for failing to stop kidnapping and banditry in the region, adding that rather than focus on developing the region, majority of Northern governors were ignoring substance and chasing shadows. He, however, stated that while they had followed old politicians for too long, the youth from the North were prepared to take over politics in the region. Shettima said:m, “We are convinced beyond reasonable doubt, that the quality of leadership we have got from the North has been disappointing and em...

Seun Kuti Seun, one of the sons of Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, has announced the revival of his father’s political party, the Movement of the People. He disclosed this while addressing journalists on Tuesday at the Kalakuta Museum in Ikeja, Lagos. Seun Kuti He said the party was re-established as part of his drive to call for better governance in the country and as well as an end to police brutality. The original Movement of the People was set up by Fela in 1979 when he intended to run for the presidency under its banner but was barred by the Nigerian Government from taking part in the election. He said, “The idea is that we liberate the Nigerian people. I want to guarantee you that this movement will be the movement to cultivate those minds, those ideas. The pan Africanist and socialist foundation. “The movement cannot survive without the Nigerian professionals and the middle class. We have to do the work now to begin to engage those of us in society that have b...

Human Rrghts activists have told the Nigerian Government not to criminalise peaceful protests by citizens calling for good governance. They described the plan by security agents to clampdown on #ENDSARS protesters on Wednesday in Abuja as an attempt to subvert democratic tenets in the country. According to the Convener, Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy and Constitution, Ariyo Dare Atoye, who spoke with SaharaReporters on Wednesday, #ENDSARS protesters had the right to return to the streets to protest. He condemned the undue persecution of participants and members of the #ENDSARS movement by the government with indiscriminate arrest and freezing of bank accounts. He said, “We have not seen any commitment on the part of government and they must take these demands seriously. The #ENDSARS protesters has every justification to return to the streets. We have recorded situation where people have been unfairly treated and government is not responding and they are going af...

Arrested NIS Officials The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission has arrested four officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service over corrupt activities. The four officers — Adeda Retty, Abimbola Louis, Eboji Ngozi, and Okunda Olawale — were arrested for allegedly receiving gratification and purchasing proceeds of crime. Arrested NIS Officials ICPC The ICPC said the officers were arrested alongside one Godwin Agazuwu, an agent of Telly Ship, in a sting operation following an investigation into their underhand activities at the Apapa Port in Lagos. “While Adeda, Abimbola, Eboji and Okunda were at the time of the arrest in possession of seven cartons of frozen fish which were believed to be proceeds of gratification collected from a vessel flying a Panama Flag and carrying a cargo of fish which berthed at the Port, the fifth suspect, Agazuwu, was responsible for buying the frozen fish from the officers. “The commission in its fight against corrupt...

Abubakar Shekau, leader of Jama’atu Ahlissunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad otherwise known as Boko Haram, has claimed that he cannot be arrested because he was doing the work of God and ‘He will protect him’. Shekau, who spoke in a 30-minute video seen by HumAngle in response to the Nigerian Army’s fresh manhunt for him, vowed that the war against the government would continue even after him.  In the video, the Boko Haram leader was shown sitting circled by two of his fighters holding guns in a less spacious room.  He said, “Nobody can apprehend me because I’m doing God’s work. He will protect me like those doing similar work and seeking His protection. “I’m very sure God will protect my commanders. We are all doing God’s work.”  The Nigerian Army had on Wednesday, November 11, kicked off a fresh manhunt for Shekau and some of the top Boko Haram commanders.  A banner showing the pictures of Shekau, Abu Mus’ab Albarnawy, and Ibrahim Abu Maryam, who topped the...

Gov. David Umahi After days of speculation, Dave Umahi, Ebonyi State governor, has formally defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress. The governor, who defected to the APC on Tuesday along with members of his cabinet, said the South-East geo-political zone has suffered injustice from the PDP. Gov. David Umahi His possible defection to the APC has been for quite a while. Speaking with journalists, Umahi said he had no regrets moving to the APC.  The governor said he moved to the party because of injustice metted out to the South-East by the PDP. He said, “Let me clear the air and state that I never sort for the ticket of PDP Presidency and I will not. Whoever that said that I moved to APC because they refused to zone the ticket to me is being very mischievous. Because even if PDP promises me, an individual a presidential ticket, how does it work?   “It is expected that we’ll over 8000 delegates would elect the person and such pr...

A number of persons were on Tuesday injured following a clash between operatives of the Lagos State Task Force and commercial motorcycle riders popularly known as Okada at Second Rainbow along Apapa-Oshodi Expressway. SaharaReporters gathered that the task force officers, who went to arrest Okada riders were faced with serious opposition, which led to chaos in the area. The incident led to traffic on the expressway as the motorcycle riders created bonfires on the road. VIDEO: Chaos In Festac As Lagos Task Force Officers Clash With Okada Riders At Second Rainbow Bus-Stop @PoliceNG @Taskforce112 @followlasg WATCH FULL VIDEO: https://t.co/otRMBtxVXm pic.twitter.com/IYmYyXehoS — Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) November 17, 2020 Adebayo Taofiq, spokesperson for the Lagos Task Force, confirmed the incident. He said operatives of the agency were at the area to enforce the Lagos State Road Traffic Law of 2012. “We went to that axis today, particularly Second Rainbow...