The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigerian news

  • Defeating Algeria imperative for national pride – NFF

    Defeating Algeria imperative for national pride – NFF

    Dr Mohammed Sanusi, General Secretary, Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF ), on Friday said victory by the Super Eagles over Algeria in their last World Cup match was imperative to uphold national pride.

    Sanusi, who made this known in Abuja said that all necessary preparations were being made for the nation’s male national football team to maintain their lead in Group B of the world cup qualifiers.

    He said that the Super Eagles had all that was required to beat Algeria considering the level of support given to them by the NFF.

    The NFF scribe called on Nigerians to continue to support the team, promising that they would not disappoint the country.

    “The match against Algeria is about national pride and we are doing everything possible to win the match,” Sanusi said.

    NFF had last week released a 24-man list of players for the matches against Algeria and Argentina.

    The Super Eagles, which has qualified for the global event, will play Algeria on Nov. 11 in their last World Cup qualifiers and a friendly against Argentina on Nov.14, ahead of Russia 2018.

    NAN

  • Notorious kidnapper Evans seeks bail

    Notorious kidnapper Evans seeks bail

    Notorious kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, a.k.a Evans, on Friday filed an application for his case to be given accelerated hearing and be released on bail.

    However, Ms. Titilayo Shitta-Bay, the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions, described his bail application as confusing and an abuse of court processes.

    She said it is a ploy to frustrate the trial.

    The court proceeding is still in progress.

    Details soon.

     

  • Truecaller hits 6.2m Nigerian mobile subscribers – Official

    Truecaller hits 6.2m Nigerian mobile subscribers – Official

    The Chief Commercial Officer, Truecaller, Mr Ted Nelson, said on Friday that the company out of the 150million phone subscribers in Nigeria, 6.2million had subscribed to Truecaller.

    Nelson disclosed this on the side-line of the launch of its Developer programme in Lagos.

    According to him, in Africa, we have 50 million registered users and this is about 20 per cent of total global Truecaller users.

    “Africa is growing and it is important for us, to establish our presence to be felt in Africa, there is need for us to understand the market and to enable us grow faster as a brand.

    “This is currently carried out by studying most likely Nigeria and South Africa for us to gain our subscribers base,’’ he said.

    Nelson said that presently, we have good position both in Google play store and Apple play store as Truecaller in Nigeria and this was amongst the top five download in the past two-years.

    He said the market was growing and that the company would leverage on smartphone penetration increase to become stronger.

    He said this  was to engage technology developers was the objective of the company in kicking off the African tour, which started in Nigeria in partnership with CcHUB, Africa’s leading social innovation centre.

    “To launch our Truecaller Developers Programme, which is becoming the major skill in the India environment, is also why we are here in Lagos, Nigeria.

    “We want the same in Africa and so we want African developers to access the tools that we can offer when it comes to making communication more safe and beneficial.

    “The Developer Programme, ‘Truecaller SDK’ is a mobile identity product for digital start-ups and app developers.

    “Truecaller SDK enables third party app developers, digital businesses and start-ups to verify end users quickly and frictionless by utilising their Truecaller profile with a one-touch and password free experience,’’ he said.

    He said that the Truecaller app, allows people to see who was calling and filter out spam calls and SMS.

    “The service is helping users block more than half a billion spam calls on a monthly basis in the region, and more than 50 per cent of all messages being filtered is considered as spam,’’ he said.

    NAN

  • Facebook investigates temporary outage of WhatsApp messenger

    Facebook investigates temporary outage of WhatsApp messenger

    Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp messenger suffered a temporary outage in India and many other countries, according to reports from multiple users on Facebook and Twitter on Friday.

    Users in countries ranging from Brazil and Russia to Vietnam and Myanmar reported on social media that it was down in their countries.

    The extent of the outage and the reasons for it were not immediately known.

    ‘Whatsappdown’ was the top trending item on Twitter in India, which is WhatsApp’s biggest market with about 200 million of its billion-plus users.

    It was also a top trending item on Twitter in Pakistan, Britain, Germany and many other countries.

    Users reported WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging service, had begun to gradually function again about 30 minutes after initial complaints of an outage appeared on social media.

    Users in Malaysia and Singapore also complained of WhatsApp being down in those countries.

    A spokeswoman for Facebook in Singapore said the company was still investigating the matter.

    Independent websites monitoring outages of popular social media services via online conversations and Twitter messages report regular outages for WhatsApp, often one every few weeks, but these are typically brief and confined to certain geographies.

    WhatsApp has faced similar widespread outages this year, including for several hours in May.

    WhatsApp is used by more than 1.2 billion people around the world and is a key tool for communications and commerce in many countries.

    The service was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for 19 billion dollars.

    NAN

  • Worse NFP can potentially trigger a good buy signal on the Gold

    Worse NFP can potentially trigger a good buy signal on the Gold

    Second half of the October was for Gold. The price was declining almost every day and was close to create a major sell signal in the mid-term. Fundamentally, the main two reasons for this downswing were the risk on mode on the markets, negatively affecting the safe heavens and the stronger USD. The risk on mode itself would not be such a big problem alone as the gold dealt with that in the past but the appreciation of the Green back was really negatively affecting the price of the XAUSUD as the correlation between the USD Index and the Gold is significant.

    Currently the buyers are defending on the last crucial support here so they still have some hope. This support is created by few bullish elements. First of all, we do have a black up trendline here (connecting higher lows since the end of 2016). Second factor is the blue down trendline (connecting lower highs since the July 2016), which was broken in August and now can be used as a support. In addition to that, we do have two important Fibonacci lines, 61,8% of the latest upswing (brown) and the 38,2% of the main trend (light blue). All that coming together creates an 8 USD wide support and is marked with a green colour on the chart.

    We can see that the price bounced from this level but that is not significant enough to trigger a buy signal. First of all, the bullish reversal is closed inside a flag (blue lines), which in this case is still bearish. In addition to that, we are below the red line, which is a strong resistance connecting recent lower highs. The buy signal will be created, when the price will close a day above that one. Chance for that will appear later today as the NFP data from US is about to hit the screen and the lower number can be a bullish factor here.

    Tomasz Wisniewski
    Chief Analyst – Alpari Research & Analysis Limited

    Alpari Research & Analysis LTD (UK) is a company part of Alpari Brand, which aims to deliver superior market research, analysis and trading education for free both to Alpari’s clients and the general public.

  • Gombe to inaugurate N4bn conference centre

    Gombe to inaugurate N4bn conference centre

    As part of efforts to open up the state to local and international communities, Gombe State Government says its state-of-the- art International Conference Center will be inaugurated soon.

    The centre, constructed along Airport road, Gombe, at the cost of N4 billion, is one of the best in the country.

    Conducting newsmen round the edifice on Friday, the site Engineer, Mr Sylvanus Silas, said the centre had two wings, eastern and western wing.

    Silas, a Deputy Director in the state Ministry of Housing, said the largest hall can accommodate more than 1500 people.

    He said the centre had three other halls that could accommodate between 500 and 150 people.

    “A parking space for more than 400 cars, banks, shops and other commercial activities have been provided.

    “This is aimed at attracting people from within and outside the country to establish businesses in the state.”

    To facilitate easy movement of goods and people, the state government has also constructed 248 roads to link various towns and villages with the state capital.

    Junaidu Abubakar, Special Assistant to the State Governor, said while conducting newsmen round some of the roads, that 25 of the roads had been dualised.

    “Some of them are federal roads but due to their level of dilapidation, we resolved to reconstruct them to facilitate smooth movement of people and goods in the state.”

    He, however, said the state government would request for refund from the Federal Government.

    Other projects visited include: Gombe State University of Science and Technology, State College of Education, Billiri, Government Science and Technical College, Gombe, and Gombe Central Nursery and Primary School.

    NAN

  • FRSC urges Ogun to effect palliative measures on sango-ota roads

    FRSC urges Ogun to effect palliative measures on sango-ota roads

    The Federal Road Safety Corps ( FRSC ) has appealed to Ogun Government to repair roads in Sango-Ota and its environs, to ease free-flow of traffic in the area.

    Mr Adekunle Oguntoyinbo, Sango-Ota Unit Commander of FRSC, in an interview in Ota on Friday that such palliative measures would reduce the suffering of those plying the road.

    According to him, the deplorable state of roads in Sango-Ota and its environs has been the major challenge confronting the personnel of the unit and public in the area.

    “There is an urgent need for the State Government to come to the aid of the people by providing measures that will reduce their hardship,’’ he said.

    The unit commander explained those road networks in Sango-Ota and its environs were bad, adding that they had become death traps for the people.

    He listed some of the bad roads to include: Ota to Agbara, Owode to Ilaro, Owode to Ifo and Ifo to papa area.

    Oguntoyinbo also said that over laden vehicles (longer, heavier vehicles) easily over turn due to the nature of the roads.

    “This development has also affected business activities and contributed to gridlock the areas are experiencing,’’ the unit commander said.

    He also implored companies in Sango-Ota and its environs not to wait for the government before contributing to development where they made their revenues.

    “Do the little you can to enable your businesses move on smoothly in the areas.’’

    NAN

  • El-Rufai warns IPMAN members against unruly behaviour

    El-Rufai warns IPMAN members against unruly behaviour

    Gov. Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State has urged members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria ( IPMAN ) in the state to end the bickering among them and live in peace.

    The governor said in Kaduna when he received newly elected officials of the association who paid him a courtesy visit that the government would not condone any breach of the peace.

    According to him, it is mandatory for members of the association to be given the opportunity to elect their leaders, saying those not satisfied with the election should seek redress in court.

    “Those who are not satisfied with the election should to go to court instead of causing chaos in the state,’’ the governor said.

    El-Rufai stressed that peace was vital for the progress of the association and assured of the government support to the new leadership.

    Earlier, the new state IPMAN Chairman, Alhaji Bala Usman acknowledged that the association was unable to hold election for a long time due to internal crisis.

    He however said with the elections held on Oct. 21, the association was now poised to contribute more meaningfully to the state economy.

    Usman expressed gratitude to the governor for ensuring that the election was peaceful, and pledged that the association would henceforth pay its annual ground rent to government without delay.

    The chairman pleaded with the governor to intervene on their behalf, for the reopening of their secretariat sealed by the management of Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, due to the prolonged crisis in the association.

    Other officials elected include Alhaji Garba Jega as Vice Chairman and Mr Solomon Ehizogie as Secretary.

    NAN

  • Forex trading mastery class set to hold in OAU Ile-Ife

    Forex trading mastery class set to hold in OAU Ile-Ife

    The organisers of the Nigeria Internet Business Conference ( NIBC ) are set to teach the students of Obafemi Awolowo University ( OAU ) Ile-Ife on Forex Trading in conjuction with MacForex Ukraine.

    The Mastery class is set to begin with an awareness class on the 18th of November, 2017 and would be succeed by a 2-week professional class on Forex market.

    Foreign Exchange (FX) or Forex market is the largest and most liquid, market in the world. A market larger than both stocks and futures markets combined, records above $5.3 trillion transactions daily.

    Foreign Exchange market opens 24/7 and just as other Internet businesses, it can be accessed anywhere, you can work anywhere, anytime making money on and off market.

    According to the Chief Operating officer of MacForex; Mr. Leke Ayodele, he said, “Nigerian youths needs to be empowered, not just by buying sewing machine and motorcycles for them, but with the real knowledge of Internet business”.

    “Our company have decided to unveil the project by starting it from the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, where we would organise free awareness class and a two week professional Mastery class on Forex Trading ” He added

    Registrations for the classes has begun and students are enjoined to register so as to reserve their seats through picatic.com/ftmoau as limited seats are provided for.

  • Fire destroys 10m property at Abuja fun spot

    Fire destroys 10m property at Abuja fun spot

    Fire on Thursday razed a fun spot known as Quality Link Park in Wuse Zone VII, Abuja at about 11:00 a.m., destroying property worth more than N10 million.

    The fire gutted two huts at the park.

    The Managing Director of the park, Mr Chinemelu Onwughalu, described the incident as “unfortunate”, noting that more than N10 million worth of property was destroyed.

    He recalled that a similar incident happened four years ago, saying that the cause of the fire had been traced to the same person.

    He, however, commended the FCT Fire Service Department for coming to put off the fire in time.

    A gardener, Mr Abijah Britus, who caused the fire, said it happened while he was clearing refuse at a church sharing fence with the park.

    “I was asked to burn the grass by my elder in the church, known as Community of Hashem Worldwide, and I told him the fire can extend but he insisted that I should go ahead and burn the grass.”

    The leader of the fire service team, Mr Ijomah Azubuike, attributed the incident to “carelessness on the part of the young man burning grass close to the fence of the fun spot.

    “He did not stay there and monitor the fire.

    “This is what we call conventional fire, where smoke rise high above the fire level and breeze carries it sideways and then anywhere it touches it burns, especially this grass roof system.’’

    He said that two huts out of six huts in the park were partially razed with some items recovered from the scene of the incident.

    “For now, we cannot ascertain the cost of the materials damaged by the fire incident because we were not here before it broke out.

    “We have to liaise with the owner of the building before we can ascertain the worth of what was destroyed.’’

    Azubuike advised people to exercise caution during the dry season, especially when using fire to clear refuse.

    NAN