The Senate on Tuesday confirmed nominees for the Governing Boards of the North West Development Commission (NWDC) and the South East Development Commission (SEDC) during a plenary session presided over by Senate President Godswill Akpabio. Professor Abdullahi Ma’aji and Mark Okoye were confirmed as the Managing Directors and Chief Executive Officers of the NWDC and SEDC, respectively. This decision followed …

An Oyo State High Court, sitting in Ibadan, on Monday granted bail to an ex-queen of the Ooni of Ife, Naomi Silekunola. The bail also applied to an Ibadan-based media personality, Oriyomi Hamzat and the Principal of Islamic High School, Abdulahi Fasasi. Presiding over Court 8, Justice K. B. Olawoyin gave the ruling following a bail application filed by the …

The House of Representatives is considering a bill to separate the offices of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) from that of the Minister of Justice. Offices of the Attorney General of a state will also be separated from the Commissioner of Justice if the bill scales through. The bill, co-sponsored by two Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers, Mansur …

The Federal Government’s statutory allocations to the National Assembly (NASS) and the National Judicial Council (NJC) in 2024 hit a total sum of N564 billion in October, findings by Saturday PUNCH have revealed. In February, the House of Representatives pushed for five per cent of the country’s yearly budget to be allocated to the federal legislature and judiciary. The Green …

Vanguard columnist, Dr Ugoji Egbujo, in his column 23 November 2024 went down memory lane of how election rigging set the western region on fire soon after independence, bringing down the first republic. The crisis, he argued, wasn’t just frustration and impatience but also a rejection of the courts. According to him, “in the fourth republic, politics degenerated precipitously into …

A Bill seeking the creation of a Coastal State out of the present Ondo State has scaled the first reading at the Senate. The Bill, sponsored by Ondo South Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, is seeking a constitutional amendment to allow creation of the proposed Coastal State from Ondo State. The Bill passed through the first reading yesterday on the floor of …

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Ecology and Climate Change, Seriake Dickson (PDP, Bayelsa West), has said the National Assembly will pass the tax reform bills despite opposition from different quarters. In an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Monday, Dickson said the bills would be passed like the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), stressing that heavens would not fall when the …

The Senate has refuted claims that it failed to honour its late member, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, during his burial rites. Some media reports claimed that the lawmakers rejected their colleagues by not attending the burial ceremony in his hometown in Nnewi in Anambra State. Photos emerging from the burial ceremony captured some lawmakers like the Minority Whip, Osita Ngwu, former …

According to the legal body, its investigations established that the Chief Judge of Imo State, Hon. Justice T. E. Chukwuemeka Chikeka and the Grand Kadi of Yobe State, Hon. Kadi Babagana Mahdi, had in their bid to remain on the bench, falsified their age. Consequently, the Council, which has the statutory powers to discipline erring judicial officers, recommended the compulsory …

The National Judicial Council has dismissed as false, the report that two out of the five justices that sat on the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal panel which upheld President Bola Tinubu’s election died mysteriously. Both Justices, Justice Mistura Bolaji-Yusuf and Justice Boloukuoromo Ugo, who were a member of the panel that delivered the 6 September 2023 judgment, dismissed the petition …