The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigerian Newspapers

  • Emirates tackles AON on subsidy claims

    UNITED Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier, Emirates, on Monday faulted the claim of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) that it enjoys subsidies from the Federal Government and therefore in unfair competition.

    In a statement, the carrier said the allegations are patently false, adding that it had repeatedly debunked these myths over the years.

    It also clarified the status of its flight frequency into Nigeria saying it only operates daily flights into Lagos and Abuja Airports respectively.

    It said it was not granted any increase in flight frequency into Abuja as claimed by AON but an arrangement to cater to the needs of passengers travelling for Hajj.

    Read Also: New Emirates have come to stay forever – Ganduje

    “Some detractors like to claim that Emirates receives government subsidies and therefore represent unfair competition. These allegations are patently false, and we have repeatedly debunked these myths over the years. Our audited financial reports for the past 20 years are published on our website for anyone to inspect.

    “Emirates has always been run on a commercial basis. In fact, our success is driven by the very fact that we must stand on our own feet which means we must keep winning over customers with the best possible services, while closely watching our costs so that we can return a profit to our shareholder,” it said.

    It said its double daily flight from Lagos to Dubai and the single daily flight from Abuja to Dubai only took effect in July 27 and will run till August 22  in response to demand for Hajj.

    It said: “Emirates would like to clarify that we have not increased scheduled flight services to Abuja or Lagos.”

  • Fuel import to end in 2023, says Kyari

    NIGERIAN National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) boss Mele Kolo Yari has a dream–to stop fuel import by 2023.

    Kyari spoke on Monday in Lagos as guest of honour at the ongoing 2019 conference and exhibition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Nigeria Council. The theme was: Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Mobile Technology, Changing the Future of the Energy Industry.

    The NNPC chief said: “Nigeria is still a net importer of petroleum products due to the current state of our refineries and the long absence of private investment in the refining sector.

    “We require more investment to revamp and expand our domestic refineries and associated infrastructures to support the growth of the downstream sector and guaranty energy security to the nation.  We are progressing with the establishment of Condensate refineries to fast-track domestic supply of petroleum products.  In the same vein, the Corporation would support the actualisation of the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery, as well as other private initiatives along this line.”

    Kyari acknowledged the important role technology plays in driving the growth of oil and gas industry across the world and the role right environment plays in enhancing the desired growth. He assured that he will address all the impediments on the way of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry’s growth to achieve all the aspirations of the government and players.

    He said: “No doubt, the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has altered the dynamics of our operations by providing quicker processes and interventions in the conduct of petroleum operations. This also is on the back of big data that provides the platform for an effective AI system. The combination of AI and big data are complemented further by mobile technology that enables real time access to information and the execution of apparently complicated operation from remote locations.

    Read Also: NNPC spends N15.5b on pipelines maintenance

    “Today, single data platforms exist that link large amount of information to create robust decision support across variety of industry operations – to grow reserves, increase production at the lowest possible UTC, compete for market with emerging alternative production sources, to take market position in renewable energy, and address the challenges posed by regional security issues, market volatility, activities of vandals and saboteurs, and oil thieves and pirates.”

    He also said the nation’s oil industry is beleaguered by other issues that are not necessary technology driven such as fiscal regime, adding it has to be addressed in order to accelerate investment across the value chain. “Today, despite the opportunities that exist in the industry, investment decisions in oil and gas projects in Nigeria have become increasingly difficult to closeout.

    “This I believe is driven by unclear fiscal terms of various production contracts and the delays in the passage of the lingering petroleum legislation.

    “The effect is for investors to opt for alternative portfolios when making financing decisions. We, therefore, need to collaborate to ensure the timely resolution of contractual issues and the passage of the necessary petroleum legislation,” he said. He added that NNPC, with its partners, are driving the national aspiration to grow the national reserve to 40billion barrels by 2025 and improve crude oil production to three million barrels per day.

     

  • Airtel deepens internet connectivity

    AIRTEL Nigeria has taken a definitive step to deepen broadband connectivity in homes and offices across the country with the roll out of its Home Broadband value offering across the country.

    The telco said the launch of the offerings rides on its expansive and modernised 4G network, which has been deployed in over 130 cities and towns across the country, making Airtel the first operator to launch the Home Broadband plans in all 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory.

    The Airtel Home Broadband (HBB) package is available in Routers and MiFis and comes in various affordable recharge plans, offering up to 100GB of data bonus.

    Read Also: Airtel Africa loses N148.4b in first week

    Under the new plans, when a customer purchases an Airtel Router for N25,000, he /she is instantly credited with 100GB data and also offered complimentary 10GB data for 6 months on purchase of the Airtel N10,000 data bundle plan.

    The MIFI comes at N15,000 and offers instant 40GB data and an additional 5GB monthly for 6 months on purchase of the N5,000 Data Bundle plan.

    The routers and MIFIs are bundled with a 4G SIM and customers can buy a bundle plan, register their data line and check their data balance by dialling *370# or by visiting the website, www.onetouch.ng.

     

  • NEXIM prepares MSMEs for AfCTFA

    WITH the signing of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) by Nigeria, the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) has come up with five initiatives to create more opportunities for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)

    According to NEXIM’s statement yesterday, these initiatives will double the bank’s steps towards deepening regional trade, through which it seeks to create more opportunities for MSMEs and integrate the informal traders into the formal sector.

    Read Also: NEXIM disburses N22b, records growth

    The bank said it has since recognised that “more of Nigeria’s manufactured products are traded in the regional market, as a result, the Nigerian Export-Import Bank, few years ago, launched the ECOWAS Trade Support Facility (ETSF) to boost SMEs access to funds, increase formal trade and improve the payment system”.

    “Arising from our participation at the MSME Clinics and the deeper insights into the operations of small businesses, the bank has developed a number of initiatives towards promoting the sector and enhancing its contribution to export trade,” the statement explained.

     

     

  • Chimamanda’s call

    WORLD-famous novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been reported to rue how Nigeria had been unfair to her native Ndigbo.

    PM News reported she planted trees in Asaba, as guest of Walter Jibunor, the equally world-famous environmentalist.  At that ceremony, she was quoted to have lamented the Igbo raw deal.

    She mentioned the best-forgotten Igbo massacre at Asaba, during the opening stages of the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970), by federal troops.  That indeed was a gory sight.

    She also recalled how Port Harcourt, Rivers State locals seized Igbo property, mainly real estate, claiming the property were “abandoned”.

    She then suggested the setting up of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to thrash out these seedy sides of Nigerian history, and once and for all, reconcile everybody.  Beautiful!

    A Truth and Reconciliation Commission would hurt no one, so long as everyone involved is ready to be reconciled.  More importantly, everyone would bring their grievances into the open — away from one-sided narratives, an umpteenth pattern Chimamanda’s latest narration has followed.

    Read Also: Chimamanda Adichie fetes writers

    Indeed, Chimamanda’s is no different from Chinua Achebe’s swan song, There Was A Country.  They both follow the same theme of Igbo victimhood.

    But might the Igbo themselves have been unfair to others?  Not a few would answer in the affirmative.

    For starters, the abandoned property issue was no pan-Nigeria policy. It was more of former Eastern minorities (mainly now in the South-South), taking it out on their former Igbo majority, who some of them accused of domination.

    But beyond that intra-regional beef, is the Igbo sweeping narrative really fair to others, not really part of that injustice?  Shouldn’t the Igbo acknowledge those that looked after their interest, during those troubled times, as trenchantly as they condemn those who did them in?

    In Western Nigeria, for instance, there was nothing like “abandoned property”.  Indeed, many Igbo came back to Lagos, to be handed yields from their ventures while they were away.  Shouldn’t the Igbo acknowledge these acts of justice, even as they lament the other acts of injustice?

    And now that we are talking history, how fair were the regnant Igbo elite themselves, in those tragic days, after the first coup of January 1966?  Couldn’t the tragedy have been avoided with a little bit of restraint and circumspection, on their own part — particularly between that coup (that claimed mainly non-Igbo politicians and soldiers) and the Unification Decree, and its ogre of Igbo domination?

    The blunt fact is every part of the country can lament its nasty deal from the Nigerian common wealth — for this polity is replete with tales of domination, failed and successful.

    The writer is right: a thorough, honest and sincere Truth and Reconciliation Commission may well exhume all the rotten bones from all sides, before finally laying them to rest.

    But until then, all sides should eschew one-sided stories, of saints and sinners.  Those tales grate.  All sides have more than enough share of both.

  • July people in the news

    The month of July has more than its fair share of the birthdays of eminent Nigerian achievers who have made great contributions to their professions, craft, or calling.

    All protocols observed, I would have to start this eclectic roll with the Nobelist and media person extraordinary, Professor Wole Soyinka, who turned 85 on July 13. Ceremonies to mark the milestone were staged in various cities.  He was characteristically missing from all of them, except the one that brought young men and women together to meet and parley with him in his Ijegba forest home.

    Those students were fortunate.  Soyinka rarely attends such ceremonies. In 2009, I had the honour of presenting the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism Lecture to mark his 75th birthday. It was a packed house, but the man of the hour was nowhere in sight.

    He was in some secret location – the space lab of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, I suspect – undergoing a simulated space flight:  zero gravity, weightlessness, and all that, courtesy of a well-heeled friend.  The experience didn’t come cheap, he told me in an email, in case I was thinking it might be a good idea to check it out.

    Most of what we give others, Allan B Krueger, the late Princeton economist who studied happiness noted, are of little use and thoroughly disposable.  What counts most, according to that economist, is the gift of an experience, and the more exceptional the experience, the more valuable the gift.

    Soyinka’s friend must have thought long and hard about what to give the Nobelist as a birthday gift.  Cash?   That would be crass, insulting even. The choicest wines from Louis XIV’s cellar?  A better idea, to be sure, but the value diminishes when you share it with others, as Soyinka is sure to do.

    But simulated space flight?  How many people can claim to have experienced it?  Several hundreds, and among them, Soyinka may well be at that time the only African.

    I doubt whether he has described that experience in any of his numerous writings.  Perhaps he is saving it for another magnum opus.

    Congratulations, sir, and very many pleasant birthdays yet.

    There must be something in the Nigerian air and water highly conducive to the birth of would-be journalists and media people.  Just think of this constellation for a moment:   Lateef Kayode Jakande, Prince Henry Kayode Odukomaiya, and Olusegun Osoba.

    Jakande, dean of Nigerian editorialists, incisive columnist who plied his trade in the Nigerian Tribune under the pen name John West, newspaper editor, author and one of the most accomplished public figures in Nigeria’s history, turned 90 on July 23.

    The tributes were not in the least feigned. If they were also somewhat muted, it was mainly on account of the great man’s inexplicable refusal to quit the loathsome Sani Abacha’s cabinet even as Abacha had was tearing apart almost everything that Jakande had spent his lifetime promoting – freedom of the press, the rule of law, and democratic institutions.

    Former Daily Times editor Tony Momoh once told me in the run-up to the Second Republic that when Jakande was elected first civilian governor of Lagos State, he prayed fervently and frequently for his success.  Why? I asked him.  Why Jakande in particular?

    Because, Momoh said, Jakande’s success would put paid to the canard that journalists were only good at stirring things up.

    More than three decades later, Jakande’s tenure still stands as a benchmark for good governance.  If all he achieved in five years was the streamlining of the chaotic multi-tier system of primary and secondary education in Lagos State, that would have been achievement enough.  But he accomplished that only in his first year.

    Henry Kayode Odukomaiya, who turned 85 on July 10 is arguably the most versatile newspaperman Nigeria has produced in recent memory:  news reporter, feature writer, editorialist, production wizard, and newsapaper administrator. At the Daily Times where he was deeply but quietly revered (he operated under the shadow of the great Babatunde Jose) for his exacting standards.  At subsequent stops at the Concord Newspapers and the Champion, he left indelible footsteps.

    Olusegun Osoba, cracker-jack reporter, astute media manager, exemplar of the reporter as a judicious insider and nimble political actor and statesman, turned 80 on July 15 and launched his engrossing memoirs Battlelines:  Adventures in Journalism and Politics, which I had the privilege of reading in manuscript.  It lives up to its author’s reputation for getting the inside dope, for fast footwork, and for counter-punching.

    Osoba was a master of networking well before the term came into popular use.  Having learned early that, in Nigeria, the decisions on who gets what, when and how, are taken at night, he made himself a nocturnal operator.  That kept him abreast of the decision-makers and ahead of everybody else.

    His knowledge of how the system functions and his vast network of contacts helped catapult him to the top at the Daily Times ultimately and, en route, turn the Daily Sketch in Ibadan and The Nigerian Herald in Ilorin into newspapers of national reckoning.

    One of the things I found most revealing in the book was the plot to dump Osoba and replace him as chief executive at the Daily Times with Prof Alfred Opubor, who had at one and the same time served as head of the Department of Mass Communication at the University of Lagos, chair of the board of the News Agency of Nigeria, and chair of the Bendel Newspapers, publishers of the Observer.

    Osoba worked the phones, did his nocturnal rounds, and foiled it. He was in my judgment a better fit for the job anyway.

    Though strictly not a media person, Ajibola Ogunshola is deservedly honoured as such.  He would not  kowtow to military president Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha in their craven bid to emasculate the Independent press.  He turned around the fortunes of the Punch.  He drew up and enforced the ethical  principles on which it is grounded.

    But presiding at the Punch was a detour for the pre-eminent African actuary, who turned 75 on July 14?  His 70th was a class act that bore his accustomed painstaking attention to detail. Unfortunately he lost his daughter Yetunde, a person of remarkable intellectual and professional attainments and of vast promise to a rare form of cancer on the eve of his 75th birthday.

    My condolences again, Ba’royin.

    For entrepreneurial chutzpah and innovativeness, it would be hard to beat Nduka “The Duke” Obaigbena, the Thisday publisher who turned 60 on July 14.   Who but Obaigbena would have sent to whomsoever it may concern an advisory that it would be a good idea to buy media space and airtime to congratulate him on the occasion?

    But this may just be yet another tale by those from whom Obaigbena commands respect and dread in equal measure.

    The reader will have noticed, if not pardoned, my partiality to media people even in this necessarily eclectic outing, as if they alone qualify as eminent achievers among those born in July who have made distinguished contributions to their profession, craft, or calling.   Not in the least.

    I am thinking of our pre-eminent cardiologist, erudite scholar and university Administrator, racounteur and wit, Professor Oladipo Akinkugbe, who turned 85 on July 10.  Equally versed in the humanities and the sciences, and a gifted writer to boot, he is emblematic of the cultivated man in the finest sense of that term, a savant.   It makes sense, then, that bird-watching is his hobby.

    Come up with some bon mot, and he would instantly tell you its source. I once struggled in his presence to recall the name of the English man of the nobility quoted to have said, by way of advice to a young man about to get married:  “Don’t.”

    Professor Akinkugbe came up with it effortlessly.  In vain do I struggle to recall it even now.

    I am also thinking of his younger namesake and fellow laureate of the National Order of Merit, Professor Oladipupo Adamolekun, distinguished international civil servant, who turned 75 on July 21.

    As an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan in the 60s, he was one of the brave souls who undertook to distribute copies of The Tribune which the beleaguered authorities in Western Nigeria considered seditious through.  Today, he writes an occasional column for Vanguard Newspapers.

    There has got to be some printer’s ink in his DNA.

    To all July people named here and those inadvertently omitted, a belated happy birthday.

     

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  • Security foils #RevolutionNow protests in Osun, Rivers, Kano, Kwara, others

    SECURITY agencies on Monday foiled the #RevolutionNow protests in many states.

    In Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, security agents defied a downpour to man strategic places in the capital city, especially the Isaac Boro Park, near the State House.

    Governor Nyesom Wike on Sunday warned against the protest, directing security operatives to foil it and arrest participants.

    There was no gathering of any kind and business activities went on as usual in the state.

    As early as 6 a.m., policemen took over the main gate of the Isaac Boro Park in Mile One, Diobu, Port Harcourt, the usual take-off point for most protests in Rivers.

    Shortly after the policemen’s arrival, the downpour started, forcing them to move into the six Toyota Hilux patrol vans parked under the flyover, directly opposite the park. The heavy rain was still on, as at press time.

    In Benin City, the Edo State capital, and other towns, there were no protests. The Oba Ovoranmen Square, the city centre that served as a rallying point for previous protests, was empty.

    Residents went about their daily activities. A news conference scheduled by some activists in the state was called off after a call from Abuja. Security was beefed up around Benin City and major streets.

    In Ondo, the protest also failed. Business and social activities went on smoothly in Akure, the state capital. Security agents were deployed to strategic areas of the Akure metropolis.

    At the M.K.O Abiola Democracy Park, close to the main market, Oja Oba, officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and some plain-clothed men took charge.

    Policemen and NSCDC men were stationed at the Mobil Roundabout, Alagbaka, Shoprite, Oda Road, NEPA Roundabout and Isikan Roundabout. Several police vans patrolled major streets.

    Ondo State Police Command spokesman Femi Joseph, a Superintendent of Police, said the state Commissioner of Police, Undie Adie, ordered policemen to be on red alert.

    He said: “We have a good number of our men in strategic areas of the metropolis. Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) and Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) commanding are in the streets with our men, monitoring the situation.

    “It is the right of every individual citizen to protest, but the manner and the lexicon they (organisers) are using ‘revolution’ depicts forceful takeover of a legitimate government in power. No security agencies would allow that to any groups to attempt to overthrow the government. A forceful takeover is no longer fashionable all over the world. No country would allow that.

    “The only means of change now is through the ballot. That’s why the proposed protest was condemned by many Nigerians. That’s why we are going to resist any vestiges of revolution.

    “We are on the ground and ready. We are not leaving anything to chance because Omoyele Sowore is from this state and surely he would have some of his supporters here. We would not allow that in our state.

    “This is not acceptable. It is tantamount to treason and we all know the consequences. They should dissipate their energy on better things. They should not make any attempt in Ondo State because we will deal with them decisively though within the ambit of the law.”

    Poor response in Southeast

    There was a poor response to the call for protest in the Southeast.

    The Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, attributed the poor response in Enugu to the Igbo quest for president in 2023.

    Okechukwu spoke with reporters shortly after a meeting with Wawa Farmers Association in Enugu.

    He described the call for nationwide protest by Global Coalition for Security and Democracy (GCSD) led by Omoyele Sowore as unpatriotic.

    “Methinks our people are aware that 2023 is the date we are waiting to elect Nigeria president of Igbo extraction. That’s why they didn’t participate in the protest. All one hears from the people one discussed within the meeting with WAWA Farmers Association was their anger over incessant killings like that of Rev. Fr. Paul Offu.

    “Instead of protest, they are urging Mr President to overhaul the security architecture and upgrade the security infrastructure. They cried that insecurity is hampering their farming activities,” Okechukwu said.

    All quiet in Kano

    The protest did not hold in the ancient city of Kano. Business and commercial activities went on as usual.

    Many residents were not even aware of the planned protest. Security men were drafted to beef up security at strategic flashpoints of Kano metropolis.

    Also, several police vans, including that of the armed, patrolled major streets in Kano.

    The spokesman of the Kano State Police Command, DSP Abdullahi Haruna, told this reporter that the Commissioner of Police Ahmed Iliyasu ordered policemen across the state to be on red alert.

    He said: “As I am talking to you, as you can also observe, Kano is peaceful, our men have been drafted to strategic areas to monitor the situation.”

    Police brutalise 70-year-old, arrest 10 protesters in Osun

    The police on Monday brutalised a 70-year-old poor woman, Sariyu Akanmi, during the protest in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.

    She was hawking fufu where the protest was going on. The police hit her with the butt of their gun, kicking her on the floor while trying to throw her inside their van. But the intervention of some people around prevented them from arresting the woman.

    The police also arrested ten of the protesters. Tear gas canisters were thrown at reporters covering the protest.

    Men of the State Security Service and the Police prevented members of the Coalition for Revolution in Osun State from protesting against alleged suffering of Nigerians under the Mohammad Buhari administration.

    The protesters, mainly students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree and other public tertiary institutions in the state, gathered at Olaiya junction in Osogbo, the state capital around 9.00 am to sensitise Nigerians about the “deplorable conditions prevalent in the country under the watch of the President Buhari.”

    The protesters called for a revolution to stem the tide of a spate of joblessness, insecurity, hunger, modulated workers salary and “fraudulent implication of the Contributory Pension Scheme in Nigeria.”

    For hours, security agents, including the SSS, the police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps kept the students under watch and did not allow them to move out of Olaiya junction.

    Some of the students, who used the Public Address System to speak to passers-by, demanded the unconditional release of Omoyele Sowore, the convener of the Revolution Now movement.

    Calm in Kogi, Anambra

    There was no protest in Kogi State. Aside from the early morning rain, normal business activities resumed around the capital, Lokoja. People went about their daily chores.

    Many residents were unaware of the call for the protest march by the NigeriaRevolutionNow group. There was no unusual deployment of security agents.

    Anambra State police command deployed over 50 patrol teams in the state. They moved around the state.  There was no protest in the state. Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Haruna Mohammed said the Command was ready for anybody or group that would try to disturb the peace in the state.

    Commissioner of Police John Abang directed the deployment of policemen both in plain clothes and uniform to patrol all the roads in the state.

    Mohammed said: “The state is not involved in the protest, but what the Command has done is to take proactive measure in case of any disturbances from some miscreants.

    “Anambra has been a quiet place and the Command will like it to remain so. But if anyone tries to be smart, the person will face the wrath of the command.”

     

    Police disrupt sporting activities in Ilorin

    Some heavily armed men of the Kwara State command yesterday stormed the state’s stadium complex to disperse athletes on training.

    The police were ordered to block the stadium gate over speculation that the facility would be used for the pro-revolution rally.

    Police spokesperson Ajayi Okasanmi said the presence of policemen at the stadium was a proactive measure put in place by the police command to prevent chaos.

    Okasanmi said: “Kwara State is largely recognised as a state of harmony and Ilorin is reputed to be peaceful. We owe our law-abiding people the duty to sustain that. More so, we had to prevent the planned protest from being hijacked by hoodlums in order not to lead to any dangerous dimension.”

    Anti-revolution protest in Alausa

    A group, Democracy Watch Africa (DWA), an umbrella body of over 30 Civil Society Organisations in West Africa Monday morning protested against the planned RevolutionNow protest earmarked for Monday.

    Its convener, Josephine Okpara, demanded the expulsion of Amnesty International (AI), and not revolution.

    They carried placards with various inscriptions like: ‘Amnesty International leave Nigeria or we give you war, we will fight you and not our country’, ‘Amnesty International must go’, ‘We stand by peace in Nigeria, we say no to Amnesty International and all her allies’, ‘We say no to terrorism, Amnesty International, Boko Haram, Islamic movement, revolution’, ‘No more war in Nigeria, shame on Amnesty International and her sponsors’, etc.

    They accused the pro-revolution group of acting against the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians “under the active support of some external forces that are bent on destabilising the country.

  • Oil prices may dip by $30 on U.S., China trade war

    THERE were fears on Monday that oil prices could take a significant hit and plunge by as much as between $20 and $30 a barrel.

    The dip is in anticipation of China defying the latest United States (U.S.) tariff threat by ramping up imports of Iranian crude oil in open defiance of America’s sanctions on the Asian country.

    Should this happen, oil prices would be in the neighbourhood of $30 per barrel, a development that may hurt Nigeria’s N8.83 trillion budget.

    The budget has been predicated on estimated crude production of 2.3 million barrels a day; oil price of $60 per barrel and an exchange rate of N305 to a dollar.

    The Bank of America (BofA) Merrill Lynch, which was quoted by CNBC, said in a note: “While we retain our $60 a barrel Brent forecast for next year, we admit that a Chinese decision to reinitiate Iran crude purchases could send oil prices into a tailspin.”

    Early on Monday, WTI Crude was down 1.28 per cent at $54.95 and Brent Crude was down 1.24 per cent at $61.12, as the renewed trade war rekindled fears of slowing global oil demand growth.

    Read Also: Dissonances hobbling oil economy

    On July 1, oil prices took a heavy hit after President Donald Trump said that the U.S.-China trade talks would continue in September, while the “U.S. will start, on September 1, putting a small additional tariff of 10 per cent on the remaining $300 billion of goods and products coming from China into our country.”

    China pledged to impose new “necessary countermeasures” to protect its interests after the latest tariff threat, saying Trump’s tariff announcement was “an irrational, irresponsible act,” according to Zhang Jun, the new Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, reported byReuters.

    China’s reaction to the additional U.S. tariffs could include China resuming oil purchases from Iran to undermine the U.S. sanctions and cushion some effects on the Chinese economy from the new tariffs, BofA Merrill Lynch said.

    Beijing has never actually stopped buying Iranian oil after the U.S. removed all sanction waivers for Iran’s customers in early May. China, the single largest buyer of Iranian crude oil before the U.S. sanctions hit the Islamic Republic’s oil exports, continues to import oil from Iran, despite the ‘zero exports’ maximum pressure campaign of the U.S. China has said that it wouldn’t comply with the U.S. sanctions on Iranian exports. Yet, Chinese oil imports from Iran are much lower than they were just a few months ago.

    Last week, Iran called on China and other ‘friendly countries’, as it put it, to buy more crude oil from the Islamic Republic.

  • Man stabs friend to death over ram betting

    A 25-year-old Yusuf Isiaka was on Sunday stabbed to death by his friend Segun Banji over ram fighting.

    The incident occurred at Oke Oko in Isawo, Ikorodu around 12pm.

    Banji, a resident of 15, Araromi Street, Oke Oko was said to have stabbed Isiaka on his left chest causing an instant death.

    Trouble was said to have started after the duo had a N500 bet on ram fighting but the one whose ram lost the fight refused to remit the money to the other.

    Although it was not clear who was the reneging party, an argument was said to have ensued between them which led to a fight.

    Banji was said to have broken a bottle during the fight and stabbed Isiaka on the left chest.

    As soon as he realised his friend was down, Banji, it was gathered fled the scene and went into hiding but was eventually fished out by officials of the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps Safety Corps (LNSC) with the help of Owutu community members.

    A source said while the suspect was bring moved to the agency’s office in Bolade for onward handover to police, a military officer in Ikorodu stopped the team and directed that they stayed back for police to come and take him.

    “We took the suspect in our patrol vehicle but the military base within the area headed by Captain Ogbodo said we should wait at their check point till the police arrived.

    “On the arrival of Owutu anti-robbery squad, the captain directed we should handover the suspect to the police and we all moved down to the station. A woman Inspector was detailed as Investigating Police Officer (IPO),” he said.

    A relative to the deceased said the suspect was transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) and that the suspect had been begging for forgiveness.

    Read Also: Real Boko Haram defeated, says Presidency

    “He is only begging to be forgiven. The deceased’s mother is alive and mourning. It is very painful. His body is still in the mortuary because police are still doing their work,” he said.

    Contacted, the spokesman for the agency Olawale Afolabi confirmed the incident, adding that the suspect was handed over to the police.

  • NIWA, LASWA to collaborate on waterways operations

    The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) plan to set up a 10-man working committee to assist in achieving the agency’s four cardinal points agenda.

    The agenda are: the harmonisation of tariff, enforcement and regulation of standards, unified waterways operations and creating an enabling environment for passengers and operators.

    LASWA General Manager Emmanuel Oluwadamilola, who spoke at the weekend in Lagos, said the agreement reached by the agencies would focus on enforcement of all waterways laws, adding that harmonisation and unification of operations is key to achieving safety.

    He noted that tariffs, fees and penalties would be streamlined through the harmonised system put in place, adding that all payment made by operators would be designated to a single purse.

    The LASWA boss stressed also that parties would share proceeds in furtherance of their respective agencies. He also disclosed that both agencies would also collaborate with the Nigerian Navy and Marine Police to ensure compliance by passengers and operators.

    “Our agreement reached is for us to set up a joint committee, which is going to ensure the implementation of these points highlighted. That joint committee is made of five people from NIWA and five people from LASWA and they are the people that will sit down and harmonise the whole process put together towards the implementation,” he said.

    He said the previous administration channelised four routes which are about 80 percent completed,  pointing out that the joint committee would emphasis on additional routes that would come on stream.

    “Now that we have joint resources, we will pull them together because channelisation is capital intensive; it runs into millions or billions of naira; and since Lagos was able to do at least four before, now that we have come together you will realise that we will be able to double the figure,” Oluwadamilola said.