BUGI CITY

Reigners Bible Church International, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital collapses

About three persons have been confirmed dead in the incident which happened at about 12 noon on Saturday.

A source revealed that the founder of the church, Apostle Akan Weeks was supposed to be ordained Bishop on the day of the incident.

high profile citizens of the state present at the event including the Governor were believed to have been trapped before help finally came...

The governor is believed to be in good shape as he was rushed to the government house immediately

Trending News about A dead body was found on Wednesday in the wheel well of a Nigerian plane after it landed in South Africa, the airline said in a statement.

The body was found on a plane operated by Arik Air, one of Nigeria’s largest airlines, that had departed from the country’s commercial hub of Lagos and landed at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport Tuesday evening.

“The lifeless body of a stowaway was on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 found in the main wheel well of one of Arik Air’s A330-200 aircraft,” Arik Air spokesman Adebanji Ola said in a statement.

Guardian news

Prince Eheneden Erediauwa, becomes the 39th Oba of Benin kingdom. Erediauwa is ascending the 836-year-old throne of his ancestors which is the oldest and one of the most revered in Nigeria

Like every other Oba before him, he has chosen a name unique only to him and which henceforth all the children would answer.



The Oba was born in 1953 he was educated severally in Nigeria and UK. He holds a B.A in Economics and Sociology which he received from the university of Wales and a member of the Nigerian Institute of International affair. Some of the dignitaries already seated are VP Osinbajo Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, Olugbo of Ugboland in Ondo Akinrutan Obateru, Esama of Benin Kingdom Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion, Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Eniitan Ogunwusi and Emir of Zazzau Alhaji Dr. Shehu Idris. Also present is minister of state for petroleum Dr. Ibe Kachikw

Popular Tommy Strawn in the '90s television series "Martin"died at 52 as a result of aneurysm an excessive localized swelling of the wall of an artery. TMZ broke the story. He passed away on Wednesday, October 12, 2016, was on life support at an Atlanta hospital after suffering a ruptured aneurysm on Sunday.  

Celebs to social media sending their condolences to his families and friends

The aggressive manner in which Alhaji Aliko Dangote is investing in local rice production and the effort of government in enhancing the domestic production of rice, Nigeria may soon return to the international market as a net-exporter of rice. Years ago, Nigeria was among the top rice producers until an aversion for home-grown rice sets in. This has turned Nigeria to the second largest importer of rice in the world, buying at least five million metric tons per year from exporting countries like China and Thailand. Yet Nigeria’s fertile land and rich agro-climatic conditions could easily produce rice to feed the entire country and generate surplus for the region Rice remains an integral part of the average Nigerian’s diet. As such, there is no surprise that the country import is heavy on this food crop. The FGN’s estimates show demand at 6.3 million metric tons per year (mmt/y) while domestic supply is estimated at 2.3 mmt. According to the FGN’s Agriculture Promotion Policy, rice import still exceed $1 billion per annum. It was gathered that the CBN’s policy, which focused on limiting the importation of 41 items (rice inclusive) led to a 300,000 metric ton decline in rice import in first quarter, 2016.
 The inclusion of rice on the list of 41 items excluded from accessing foreign exchange (FOREX) from the official window as well as the general issues with sourcing of FOREX has led to a drop in rice supply to the domestic market and a spike in prices. Considering that the FGN’s set minimum wage currently stands at N18,000 per month, a bag of rice currently priced at between N18,000 to N19,000 per bag is almost not affordable to the average household. Despite the ban on rice imports through land borders, there has been increased smuggling.

The Nigeria Customs Service has recorded a pick-up in seizures since January 2016. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has expressed its commitment to improving rice productivity. Local rice production has been projected to hit 2.7 mmt in 2017. On the public- private partnership sphere, Dangote inaugurated its 8,000-hectare rice out-growers’ scheme in Hadejia, Jigawa state early this year, when he distributed rice seedlings to farmers. The scheme is said to help reduce the level of Nigeria’s imports and potentially provide direct and indirect jobs to about 10, 000 Nigerians.

 Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) also recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) to invest $1 billion on establishment of fully integrated rice production and processing operations across Nigeria. Farmlands in Edo, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kwara, and Niger states totalling 150,000 hectares have been penciled down for the commercial production of rice paddy. Rice is one of the viable investments in agriculture, as a high yield crop, the return on investment for rice farming is high and it takes just four months to plant and harvest rice. Starting with 20,000 hectares of rice cultivation under scheme known as outgrowers, to be expanded to cover 800, 000 hectares over the next three years, the president of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote said time is now to turn to agriculture to save the nation’s economy. The business mogul commenced the scheme with the distribution of treated rice seedling for planting to some 5,000 farmers expected to participate in the scheme. He explained, “We are committed to the development of outgrower scheme by providing local, value added products and services that meet the basic needs of the populace. To this end, the Dangote Rice Farm, will run an initial pilot in Hago-Fadama, Kafin Hausa and Auyo areas which would see Dangote Rice developing small hold farmers by providing quality inputs, certified seeds, fertilizers, agro-chemicals and petrol improved agricultural practices and technology to increase yield and produce quality rice paddy which would also be bought back from them by Dangote Rice Limited.

The Outgrower programme in Jigawa state is expected to create more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs to the host communities.” Aside the outgrowers aspect of the investment, he explained, Dangote Rice is planning to plant approximately 150,000ha of long grain white rice and produce near one million tons of high quality par boiled white rice for sale into the Nigerian market. “Our internal policy within Dangote Rice is to procure 30 per cent of our rice production from local farmers who will be developed into outgrower groups. These outgrowers will be simultaneously developed alongside our commercial farming operations.” he said.

 The business mogul justified his investment in rice cultivation pointing out that the situation the country has found itself needs a reversal, saying “Nigeria spends nearly $1.8 billion per annum importing approximately 3.2 million MT of rice to feed its population. These are dollars that could be used on more impactful social development interventions if they were not needed for food imports.” During the rice seedling distribution by the company, the minister of state for Agriculture, Senator Heneiken Lokpobiri lauded the initiative of Dangote, saying intervention in the government efforts at providing food security for the citizenry, creating jobs and reducing dependency on food importation are being boosted. While expressing the government readiness to provide all the needed support to make the Dangote Rice Outgrowers Scheme a success, the minister said the government is putting in place a strategy that will make farmers have greater access to farm implements to help them produce with ease.

Also, the special adviser to Dangote on Rice and Coordinator of the Outgrowers Scheme, Mr. Lulu Carlos explained that 6.1 mmt of rice is consumed annually but not more than 2.6 million metric tons are produced locally leaving the rest to importation. Lulu said, “We are happy to start today the partnership with the first Outgrowers bloc of 200 hectares, shared among eight communities.” He pointed out that the same project was applied by Brazil, which transformed the country from a net importer of rice in the year 2000 to a net exporter in the year of 2009, saying “This was achieved through a big outgrower scheme in the rice region, which, today involves thousands of independent farmers responsible for 80 per cent of the 12 million tons locally produced rice and a small number of large commercial farms supplying the remaining 20 per cent.” Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Badaru Muhammed Abubakar thanked the Dangote Rice Limited for choosing Jigawa as the pilot state for the project. He pledged the readiness of his administration to provide all necessary support to the project. With the federal government rice production scheme, stakeholders have expressed hope that the scheme will stop the massive importation of rice in Nigeria, in the next three years.

 Apart from large entities like Dangote, there has been increased participation by small holder rice farmers. However, access to credit still remains a challenge. There are other areas within the rice value chain which are largely untapped, they include processing, storage, packaging and distribution. Insufficient supply chain integration was highlighted as a core issue within the rice segment by the federal government. While the supply deficit is huge, closing the gap could be accelerated through increased private sector participation. However the onus is on the government to create an enabling environment. Excluding the job creation potential, this would also ease pressure on the country’s import bill.
Source naija247news.

Edo State, residents have trooped out in their numbers to decide who takes over the baton of leadership in the state for another four years. Wednesday, September 28, 2016 is finally here and the election is taking place in 18 local government areas of Edo State in South-south Nigeria. Voting is ongoing at the polling centre in Agbado Primary School in Benin City. INEC National Commissioner, Mrs Amina Zakari, said that the process has gone based on expectation with security agents are doing their work and the people of Edo State are doing what is expected of them. The poll got off to a smooth start in some polling centres at Esan West Local Government Area with good turnouts of electorates. While voting takes place in an orderly manner, polling officers at the central primary school in Esan West say the entire process has been going on smoothly with little or no incidents with the card readers. Election is going on peacefully. The turnout of voters is massive with the presence of heavily-armed security operatives at the premises of the election venue. Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security operatives and voters arrived the polling centre as early as 07:00am. vangard news paper reported that a female police officer who was caught by an agent of the APC while collecting money from a chieftain of the PDP at unit 28, ward 7 in Ikpoba Okhai LGA was arrested by APC supporters who handed her over to the police. About 9 local government have release results; but The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has cried out saying the results for nine local government areas in the governorship election in Edo state are already out. Overall, APC, PDP, ACP and ACPN agents have so far expressed satisfaction at the on-going governorship elections in Edo state. The governorship election in Edo has recorded an impressive turnout with voters arriving at polling stations in large numbers across the state

According to the publication, the following ministries and agencies are currently recruiting: Federal ministry of education, federal ministry of employment, labour and productivity, federal ministry of finance, ministry of foreign affairs, federal ministry of information and culture and federal ministry of power, works and housing.

Others are federal ministry of science and technology, federal ministry of transportation, office of the auditor-general of the federation, office of the surveyor-general of the federation, and bureau of public procurement.

Suitably qualified candidates with character and integrity, who are interested in making career in the Federal Civil Service, are invited to apply online at http://www.vacancy.fedcivilservice.gov.ng/.

For avoidance of doubt, application form is free. Completed Application Forms must be submitted where collected on or not later than six (6) Weeks from the date of this Publication (Advertisement).

All Application Forms should be submitted in a sealed envelope clearly stating the Ministry, the post applied for.

Application form is free. Completed Application Forms must be submitted where collected on or not later than six (6) Weeks from the date of this Publication