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World Bank Grants TCN N5.9bn Loan to Study Nigeria’s Electricity Demand

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Chineme Okafor in Abuja The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on Wednesday said it has secured a $30 million (about N5.977 billion) grant from the World Bank to study the nature of electricity load demand and energy mix in Nigeria. TCN’s Deputy Managing Director, Mohammed Atiku, said at the fifth Nigerian International Power Expo and Conference that the country’s power sector lacked reliable data to plan from, hence the funding support from the bank. Organised by BKG Exhibition Limited in conjunction with the Ministry of Power in Abuja, the event brought together key actors in the sector, with the aim of improving on the existing policies and achievements in the privatised sector. Atiku who explained that electricity demand and supply are two critical elements that must be studied and quantified to help operators make appropriating plans, said: “Demand and supply are two critical elements in the power sector which has to be understood, to be identif...

Buhari Sends N465.64bn Supplementary Budget to N'Assembly

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                               President Muhammadu Buhari  Revises oil benchmark to $48/bl as Iraq prepares to flood market   President fails to hold FEC meeting Omololu Ogunmade and Damilola Oyedele in Abuja With only six weeks left to the end of the year, President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday sent a supplementary budget of N465,636,926,857 to the National Assembly for appropriation. The president also sought for an upward review of the initial N882.1 billion borrowing in the 2015 budget to N2.103 trillion to finance the budget. Of the N465.6 billion supplementary budget, N413.363 billion has been earmarked for the payment of subsidy for petrol, N39.65 billion for the fight against Boko Haram, code named 'Operation Lafiya Dole', N2 billion for the provision of prison rations, feeding for unity schools and others, and N10.62 billion for severance gratuity and ...

Gombe Judiciary Hotbed for Corruption -NBA

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                                Ibrahim Dankwambo   Segun Awofadeji in Gombe The judicial arm of Gombe state government has allegedly degenerated into a hotbed for corruption as a result of many years of neglect, the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, has said. The state NBA Chairman, Haruna Saleh, who spoke during the 2015/2016 legal year of the State judiciary on Thursday said the neglect of the judiciary has encouraged corruption in the system. “When we critically look at the dilapidated court rooms, some courts are rented houses and shops. The limited existing structures that are made court rooms are now something else that calls for a reasonable and immediate attention. This clearly reveals how judiciary is ranked in the State,” he said. The NBA Chairman added: “There are inadequate infrastructure...

Who is Abdelhamid Abaaoud, suspected ringleader of the Paris terror attack?

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The suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks has been on the counterterrorism radar for some time and was targeted in French airstrikes on Syria last month, a French counterterrorism source told CNN. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, in his late 20s, is believed to be close to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and is probably the link between the senior ISIS leadership and ISIS operatives in Europe, European counterterrorism officials have said. French military forces carried out airstrikes in October targeting an ISIS training camp for foreign fighters in Raqqa, Syria, in an effort to kill Abaaoud, the French counterterrorism source said. At a glance: Get up to speed "He was the one training foreign fighters," and he spent time at the camp, the source said, but it's not clear if Abaaoud was there at the time of the airstrikes. France's former top counterterror judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere told CNN's Jim Sciutt...

I’ll be alive to actualize Biafra - MASSOB leader

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The leader of the Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, yesterday, encouraged members of the movement to remain steadfast and focused in the revolutionary struggle, saying that the non-violent methods adopted by MASSOB had become discomforting to northern socio-cultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, and the Nigerian military. Uwazuruike said there was no going back in his bid to actualize Biafra stressing that he was in the struggle for freedom not for any other person but for his own children, who, he said, desire a free country where the security of their lives and properties can be guaranteed. He was displeased that some Igbo elite had become stooges to oppressors, who often used them to do odd jobs and also sponsor them to discredit Biafra in order to win contracts from their masters in Abuja. He said MASSOB has been trying to actualize Biafra for about 16 years and that nothing wil...

LIVE: Two more suspected Paris attackers identified

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The Paris prosecutor’s office on Monday named two more suspected suicide bombers who blew themselves up at the Bataclan music hall and the national stadium during Friday’s attacks, which killed 129 people. A search is underway for “the eighth man” in the Paris attacks. French police late Sunday issued a public appeal for information on 26-year-old Belgian Salah Abdeslam in connection with the attacks

Heavy rain brings flood disruption across northern England

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Heavy rain brought flooding to communities across the north of England on Sunday despite river levels stopping short of some predictions. Rivers burst their banks in Cumbria with flooding affecting roads, farmland and train services across the county. Only a handful of homes are thought to have been affected despite initial fears up to 1,600 properties could be at risk. In mid and north Wales,  train services have been disrupted due to flooding . Arriva Trains Wales said routes between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury had been cancelled because of high river levels at Machynlleth in Powys. Over the weekend, a sinkhole opened up in Lindal near Whinfield, swallowing a 20ft (6m) cabin, a wagon and a Nissan Micra. Threlkeld Cricket Club near Keswick,  which was destroyed by flooding in 2012 , was saved from a second threat when club members and villagers managed to divert the waterflow away from the site. Reception centres were set up in the Cumbrian towns of Kendal and ...