The Asset management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) on Wednesday dismissed as false, claims that it had taken over ownership of Wema Bank.
Head, Corporate Affairs, AMCON, Mr Kayode Lambo said the corporation does not have any impact on Wema Bank’s normal business.
AMCON he said was established to help revive and stabilise the Nigerian economy by effectively resolving the non-performing loan assets in the Nigerian banking sector.
Senate President, Senator David Mark, on Wednesday cautioned those fanning ambers of disintegration and beating drums of war to stop their actions, saying the country cannot afford another civil war.
He said the “unity of Nigeria is extremely important.”
Mark spoke when he led members of Alumni Association of Course 3 of the Nigerian Defence Academy to pay a courtesy call on Niger State Governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu.
He said, “The strength of Nigeria is in our unity not in our division, so let us all work for the unity of this country.”
Mark, who fought during the country’s 30- month civil war warned those shouting war slogans to desist, pointing out that no nation can achieve any development in war.
He then offered to use his office and influence to ensure peace and unity of the country.
“I want to assure Nigerians that I will work for the unity and peace of the country because our strength is in our unity not in our division so we must all work for the unity of this country.”
In his remarks, Governor Aliyu urged those calling for session to think on how to move the country forward.
Three killed
Three people were reportedly killed on Wednesday in Onitsha, Anambra State, when a four- storey building still under construction collapsed after early morning down pour.
The building situated at No 24 Obanye Street in Odoakpu area of Onitsha, near the city’s General Post Office collapsed at about 3:30pm.
The Nation gathered that the building is valued at over N40 million.
The alleged causality could not be confirmed as at press time but an eyewitness said nobody died as the workers have finished work for the day when the building came down.
He said workers were sighted in the building at about 8 o’clock in the morning.
A mechanic, Mr. Willy Chima, told our correspondent that he once operated a workshop on the land before it was sold out for building construction.
When our correspondent arrived the scene of the incident, sympathizers were seen discussing in groups.
Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was formally sworn in by the Supreme Court as Mali’s new President on Wednesday, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
Keita’s inauguration began with a silent hand-over procedure with interim president Dioncounda Traore, followed by a ceremony observed by selected Malian institutions at the international conference centre in the capital, Bamako.
A public inauguration ceremony with foreign dignitaries is planned for September.
The United Bank for Africa (UBA) has invested $700 million this year financing power assets in Nigeria and is looking to put $2 billion into power projects across the continent over the next three years, the bank’s chief executive officer, Phillips Oduoza, told Reuters.
Oduoza also said he expected the bank to grow loans by around 14 percent in the next six months, as it had done in the last six months.
Nigeria is reforming its electricity sector in a privatisation scheme meant to end the country’s chronic power shortages.
President Goodluck Jonathan last week said bidders for state electricity assets had completed payments, clearing a major hurdle in the process.
“We have been financing different parts of the power sector both generation and distribution. We are looking in Nigeria and across Africa with around $2 billion in the next three years,” Oduoza said on the sidelines of an economic conference in Abuja.
Of that, he said around $1.2 billion would be earmarked for Nigeria, a country suffering massive power shortages as demand outstrips supply, forcing those who can afford it to rely on diesel generators.
The state-owned Power Holding Company of Nigeria has been broken up into 11 generation companies and six distribution companies, all being sold separately to private consortia, for a total of around $2.5 billion.
UBA said in May it expected to grow its loan book by 30 percent this year, up from six percent in 2012, as it targets consumer and infrastructure financing.
“The top line loan growth by first half was about 14 percent … for the next half we are expecting about the same thing,” Oduoza told Reuters.
The Head of the Nigerian Mission in Cote d’Ivoire, Akaniyene Bassey, has called for adequate investigation into the death of a Nigerian girl, Queen Ebimaho, who was murdered in Abidjan, the country’s commercial capital.
Akaniyene told the West African Bureau Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abidjan on Wednesday that Ebimaho’s death must not be swept under the carpet.
He said the Consular Department in the embassy had been detailed to work with the Ivorian security agencies to ensure that those behind the murder were unravelled.
The mission head said the embassy could not afford to fold its arms and watch the life of any Nigerian in the country being toyed with.
“The lives of our citizens are important to us; the girl in question could have been anybody’s sister, so it is not a matter to be played with.
“ If a matter of this nature is left uninvestigated, who knows who will be the next victim, we have resolved to get to the root of the matter,’’ he said.
Akaniyene called on Nigerians in the country to go about their daily activities without any form of fears.
NAN reports that Ebimaho’s death has left many Nigerians in Ajame in fear as some have described the circumstance as terrible.
Ebimaho, who hails from Edo, was on August 24, found dead in her room in a brothel in Ajame, Abidjan.
She was reportedly found in the pool of her blood.
Cardiff City new signing, Osaze Odemwingie, has stated that he will be more than happy to be involved in his team’s next outing after the international break.
The Welsh capital side plays fellow EPL newcomer Hull City after the international break, futaa.com reports.
Odemwingie, who has since return to his usual happy self after the transfer deadline-day £2.5m move to Cardiff is aiming to settle fast into his new team.
“The next 10 days or so will go fast and I’d love to be involved at Hull, futaa.com quoted Odemwingie as saying on Cardiff’s official site.
He added, “Its good timing to come at a time like this.
“I have two weeks to get to know the other players and I’m really looking forward to that.
Cardiff is currently 11th on the EPL table with four points from three matches.
Ariel Castro, who kept women captive at his home in Cleveland, Ohio, has died after being found hanging in his cell, BBC reports.
Prison officials said he died in hospital late on Tuesday, after prison medical staff failed to revive him.
Castro, 53, held three women against their will for about a decade until May this year. He kept his victims chained up and raped them.
He was sentenced on August 1 to life imprisonment without parole plus 1,000 years. The house was demolished.
The former school bus driver abducted Michelle Knight, 32, Amanda Berry, 27, and Gina DeJesus, 23, from the Cleveland streets between 2002-04.
A spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, JoEllen Smith, said: “He was housed in protective custody which means he was in a cell by himself and rounds are required every 30 minutes at staggered intervals.
Ariel Castro at his sentencing: “I’m not a monster, I’m a normal person, I am just sick, I have an addiction.”
“Upon finding inmate Castro, prison medical staff began performing life saving measures. Shortly after he was transported to [the prison medical facility] where he was pronounced dead at 10:52 pm.”
“A thorough review of this incident is under way,” she added.
Castro was placed in protective custody because of the notoriety of his case, but was not on suicide watch.
Gina DeJesus was 14 years old when she disappeared. Amanda Berry was 16, and Michelle Knight, 21. Castro also fathered a child with Amanda Berry, who was rescued after she escaped from the house and contacted police.
HEDA Resource Centre in partnership with Oxfam GB and Trust Africa will on Wednesday, September 4 hold a social media dialogue on Food Security and Agriculture in Nigeria.
Questions to be considered during the online forum are:
– How do we make Agriculture the mainstay f Nigeria’s economy again?
– How young people can create wealth from the Agriculture value chain?
– How do we make Agriculture fair to Small scale Women and Men Farmers?
– Despite the 10% budget to Agriculture signed up to by Africa’s leaders, why does Nigeria budget less than 3% to Agriculture?
The vital details for this conversation according to a statement by HEDA signed by Arigbabu Sulaimon are from 7am – 7pm includes the following:
Twitter: @HEDAgenda
Facebook: head resource centre
Web address: www.hedang.org
Hashtag: #hungerpalava, #wetinUthink
Among others, the forum aims at helping to halt the menace of hunger, youth unemployment and a failing national economy due to dwindling oil revenue,
Towards ending the crisis that engulfed the ruling party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck Jonathan Tuesday night met behind closed door with some state governors loyal to the Bamanga Tukur led exco.
The crisis in the party came to a head on Saturday when seven governors including Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Abdulafatah Ahmed (Kwara), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto), and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) had left the venue of the 2013 Special National Convention of the party with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to form a parallel exco for the ‘new PDP’.
In order to bring back the aggrieved governors to the fold, the President had met with four of the aggrieved governors on Sunday with a decision to continue the meeting yesterday.
But the meeting with the aggrieved governors could not hold yesterday as it was again rescheduled to hold next week Tuesday.
The President only met last night with some governors loyal to the Bamanga Tukur led exco at the First Lady conference room at the Presidential Villa.
The meeting started around 9.10 pm when President Jonathan arrived the venue of the meeting.
Among the state governors that attended the meeting last night included Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Ramalan Yero (Kaduna), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Theodore Orji (Abia), Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), Liyel Imoke (Cross Rivers), Serieke Dickson (Bayelsa), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Idris Wada (Kogi) and Isa Yuguda (Bauchi).
Also at the meeting were the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, PDP National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Ahmed Gulak and Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati.
As soon as the meeting started, journalists were asked to leave the venue as the meeting was said to be a private meeting.