Twenty-four states across the country are currently battling with a deficit of 260,551 classrooms in their public primary schools, The PUNCH has learnt.
The figure was contained in the Universal Basic Education Commission’s data obtained by our correspondent on Thursday.
UBEC is a Federal Government agency saddled with the responsibility of coordinating all aspects of implementing the Universal Basic Education Programme, which was introduced in 1999 as a reform programme aimed at providing greater access to and ensuring the quality of basic education throughout Nigeria.
In the document obtained by UBEC on Thursday, the commission highlighted some factors responsible for the development and the increasing number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) on Friday morning returned to Abuja from Seoul, the South Korean capital, where he attended the first World Bio Summit 2022.
Buhari’s official jet touched down at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, minutes before 6 am, ending his six-day working visit to the Asian country.
While in Seoul, the President, most notably, witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for the rehabilitation of the Kaduna Refinery between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Daewoo Group.
At the signing, Buhari said, “Daewoo Group has massive investments in the automobile, maritime and other sectors of our economy.
The nation’s apex anti-graft agency, Economics and Financial Crimes Commission, INEC, has confirmed the conviction and sentenced of a 29-year-old Chinese National, Gang Deng, to five years imprisonment for offences bordering on illegal mining and possession of minerals without lawful authority by Justice Muhammed Sani of the Federal High Court sitting in Ilorin on Wednesday, October 19, 2022.
A suspected jihadist attack on three lorries and a motorcycle in western Niger near the border with Mali killed 11 people, local sources told AFP on Sunday.
The Labour Party has said that sit-at-home in the South-East region and other forms of agitation will come to an end if its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, wins the forthcoming presidential election.
The National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Abayomi Arabambi, who made this remark while speaking in a telephone interview with Saturday PUNCH on Thursday, stressed that Obi represented a pan-Nigerian outlook on national issues.
He said Obi’s integrity, level of engagement, and sense of equity and justice would contribute to dousing various tensions and agitations if he emerged the president in 2023.
Arabambi also noted that the revitalisation of the “moribund” economy would make the sit-at-home in the South-East “die a natural death”.
The British monarch, King Charles III, has expressed grief over the lives lost and those displaced by the devastating flood ravaging several states in Nigeria.
This was contained in a statement titled, ‘A message of condolence from His Majesty the King to the President of Nigeria’, and signed by the monarch.
While recalling his visits to Nigeria, King Charles said the United Kingdom stood in solidarity with the country as it recovers from the “truly terrible events.”
He wrote, “I wanted you to know how deeply saddened both my wife and I are to hear of the many people who have lost their loved ones and whose lives have been so dreadfully affected as a consequence of the devastating floods across Nigeria.
The United Arab Emirates Immigration authorities have announced a visa ban on Nigerians adding that all submitted applications are rejected and fees non-refundable.
It was gathered that the announcement was made on Friday in a notice issued to its trade partners in Nigeria including travel agencies.
Although no reason was given for the ban, the Dubai authorities declared that all applications were on-hold until issues between the UAE government and the Nigerian government were resolved.
The latest decision made by the UAE immigration authorities is for all Nigerians seeking to travel to the UAE.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), on Friday declared the future of Nigeria is safer in the hands of the All Progressives Congress.
This is as Buhari said the APC-led government has managed to make Nigeria stable, laying a solid foundation for progressive growth.
This was made known in a statement signed by the president’s spokesperson, Femi Adesina.
Buhari stated this despite the unfavourable circumstances of global economic downturns, the COVID-19 pandemic and very low international oil prices ,resulting in low revenue.
The President, who stated this at the unveiling of the Presidential Campaign Council and the action plan of the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, pledged to be at the forefront of electing the former Lagos State governor as his successor.
He noted that electing Tinubu would consolidate the achievements of his administration as the presidential candidate had the capacity, visionary leadership and track record to do more.
He said, ”It would be disastrous to allow a situation that will lead to the reversal of the progress our country has made. Let me add that I joyfully accept the position of the chairman of the campaign council we are unveiling today.
”Our candidate, Asiwaju Tinubu is too well known for his capacity and can-do spirit. He stands tall in his track record as a democrat, a champion of the rule of law, a man at home in every part of our country and a truly visionary leader. All you need to do is think of Lagos in 1999 and 2022.
”I, therefore, want to assure all party members and supporters of our government that I will be at the forefront of this campaign.
Gunmen on Friday attacked the convoy of Apostle Johnson Suleman along the Benin Auchi Road, Edo State, and allegedly killed seven persons including three policemen.
The PUNCH gathered that Suleman returned from a foreign trip and was heading to a destination in Edo State when the gunmen attacked his convoy around the Auchi area of the state.
During the attack, the gunmen opened fire on Suleman’s convoy, allegedly killing three of his police orderlies and four yet-to-be-identified persons.
Suleman’s lawyer, Samuel Amune, who confirmed the attack to our correspondent, said the cleric just returned from a program in Tanzania, adding that he escaped death by a whisker.
activist and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP for Ideato North and South Federal Constituency seat in Imo State, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, has said the violation of the order of the Court of Appeal,
Kaduna State Government says it has concluded arrangements to build a dam on the 800,000 hectares forests between Buruku and Birnin-Gwari towns, which had, over the years, remained den for terrorists and other related criminals.
sitting in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory on Thursday upheld the appeal of the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
The court also discharged and acquitted the embattled leader of the proscribed group.
