Ayeiroyin

Anglo-Dutch oil giant drawn into corruption probe that has dogged Italy’s Eni Italian prosecutors are investigating  Royal Dutch Shell  PLC’s involvement in a Nigerian oil deal, a person familiar with the matter said, drawing the oil company into a corruption probe that has dogged Italy’s energy giant  Eni  SpA. The prosecutors are investigating whether Shell’s piece of a $1.3 billion payment to acquire a rich oil field off the coast of Nigeria constituted a bribe, according to a person familiar with the probe. Italian and Dutch police last month raided Shell’s headquarters in The Hague looking for evidence that could be used in the case, the person said. Shell on Wednesday confirmed it had received “notice of proceedings” from Italian prosecutors in connection with the Nigerian oil block and that its offices had been “visited” recently by Dutch authorities. The Anglo-Dutch company said it is cooperating with the investigators and is looking into the allegation...

The Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the three tiers of government collectively owe the electricity distribution companies about N60bn. According to the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, the umbrella body of the firms, the Nigerian Army is the highest debtor, with over N15bn as of December 2015. The Executive Director, ANED, Mr. Sunday Oduntan, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday, and urged President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the matter, stressing that the debt had started weighing down the Discos heavily. He said, “The total amount of debt owed the power distribution companies by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the federal, state and local governments is about N60bn. As of December last year, the total debt was N58bn, but it has grown to about N60bn as we speak. “A large part of this debt is owed by the military. The Nigerian Army takes pleasure in beating up our staff for unjust reasons and they don’t like to pay their bills. We won’t c...

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Tuesday said that the President of Nigeria has given approval for the corporation to take additional crude oil volume to guarantee the country’s supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) petrol. In a statement “NNPC determined to end fuel scarcity,” its  Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Garba Deen said that  due to the challenges that “major oil marketers face in contributing their supply quota due to constraint in accessing foreign exchange and outstanding subsidy obligations, NNPC is burdened with the obligation to guarantee almost 100% in the national supply, since the domestic crude oil supply (445,000 bbls/d) can only guarantee about 50% of the 45 million litres national requirement for petrol; we have secured presidential approval to take additional crude oil volume to guarantee national supply of petrol.” Explaining the causes of the scarcity, the spokesman noted that in continuing with our d...

The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, yesterday, said the Federal Government had set N3 trillion for projects in . Shehu disclosed this while speaking with newsmen in Abuja. According to Garba, the government of Buhari will make sure that contractors are mobilised and paid for executing the projects. He urged the citizens to be patient with the All Progressives Congress-led government as it would deliver. “unlike what we have in the past, this government will award contracts and back them up with money to ensure their conclusion. “Nigerians will be happy in a short while; let us just have a little more patience.” The presidential aide, who said he attended the event to identify with the celebrator who had been a long-standing companion.

Yemeni protesters hold a placard bearing a portrait of president Ali Abdullah Saleh during a demonstration against the Saudi-led coalition, commemorating one year of the alliance’s military campaign against insurgents on March 26, 2016 next to the Monument to the Unknown Soldier in the Yemeni capital Sanaa. The protest so called for by the General People’s Congress, the party of rebel-allied former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who appeared briefly at the rally, an AFP  The military intervention that began on March 26 last year has yet to deal a decisive blow to the Iran-backed rebels, who continue to control the capital and large parts of the country. Shiite rebels who manipulate the Yemeni capital Sanaa have released nine Saudis in exchange for 109 Yemenis, the Saudi-led coalition fighting them said Monday, ahead of planned peace talks next month. “Nine Saudi prisoners have been recovered and 109 Yemenis who were arrested in the military operations zone” near the border h...

The Federal Government of Nigeria targeting the development of one million housing units annually in collaboration with the private sector. President Muhammadu Buhari disclosed this at a two-day National Economic Council retreat in Abuja last week.  Federal Government will provide 250,000 units, the 22 States controlled by the All Progressives Congress (APC) are expected to jointly provide 250,000 houses while foreign investors and their local partners would provide the remaining 500,000 units. “Some estimates put Nigeria’s housing deficit at about 16 million units. In our successful campaign to win the general election last year, our party, the APC, promised to build a million housing units a year. This will turn out to be a very tall order unless the Federal Government builds 250,000 units, and the 22 APC States together manage another 250,000 units. We invite foreign investors together with locally-domiciled big construction companies to enter into commercial ho...

An Army Colonel serving with Nigeria Army School of Infantry, Jaji, Kaduna State, has been reportedly kidnapped by unknown gunmen. The Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Usman Abdul, confirmed the kidnap on Sunday in a statement issued in Kaduna. He said the colonel was abducted around Kamazo near NNPC junction, Kaduna, at about 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. “The abductors dropped off his wife and left with him in his car and headed towards Abuja. They drove in a Mercedes Benz GK black colour with registration number Abuja, KUJ 154 TZ,” he said