Author: Alade Adisa

A former speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has lampooned Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State for antagonising the minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike. While reacting to the FCT minister’s criticism of his opposition to the tax reform bills, the Bauchi State governor had described Wike as a liability in President Bola Tinubu’s administration on January 24, Recall that Mohammed, who chairs the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum, has stridently and frequently kicked against the bills, alleging that they favour one region.AHowever, in a statement on Tuesday, Dogara said Mohammed is “an ingrate”…

The legal brickbat between legal giant, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) and activist lawyer, Dele Farotimi has finally been laid to rest as the Federal High Court in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday struck out the defamation suit filed by the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun against Farotimi over the defamation of the senior lawyer and alleged cybercrime. As one of the most debated cases in recent time, the case, which stemmed from comments made by Farotimi in an interview about his book, ‘Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System’, particularly concerning the founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Babalola, was…

Billionaire founder of social media group seeks to work more closely with Trump administration Mark Zuckerberg is exploring buying a property in Washington DC, according to two people familiar with the matter, as Meta’s billionaire founder steps up his efforts to shape US President Donald Trump’s approach to the tech sector. A potential property had been identified, one of the people said. The 40-year-old already owns multiple properties in California, where Meta is headquartered, as well as a compound in Hawaii. The move signals Zuckerberg’s ambition to work closely with the Trump administration, the people said, as he seeks a…

The recent 50 percent increase in call and data tariffs has continued to generate tension as telecom subscribers and advocacy groups are contemplating challenging the contentious action in court after failing to get the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to have a rethink. In light of this, the subscribers’ umbrella group, the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) on Wednesday, declared its intention to initiate legal proceedings against the telecom regulator, citing the NCC’s failure to address its demand for a reduction of the tariff hike to a more acceptable 10 percent. The NCC announced the tariff hike last week Monday,…

Out of the nearly two million persons classified as illegal immigrants by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation from the country, 3,690 have been identified to be Nigerians. The deportations come as President Donald Trump enforces his crackdown on illegal immigrants in the country. According to a document from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), titled “Noncitizens on the ICE Non-Detained Docket with Final Orders of Removal by Country of Citizenship,” Mexico and El Salvador top the list of nations facing the most deportation, with 252,044 and 203,822, respectively. The document revealed that as of November…

U.S. President Donald Trump still plans to make good on his promise to issue tariffs on Canada and Mexico on Saturday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday. Leavitt told reporters in her first White House press briefing that Trump also is still “very much” considering fresh tariffs on China for Saturday. Shortly after taking office last week, Trump set a Feb. 1 deadline for imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada unless the countries move to halt flows of illegal immigrants and the deadly opioid fentanyl into the U.S. He also said he would slap a…

Chinese tech company Alibaba (9988.HK), opens new tab on Wednesday released a new version of its Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model that it claimed surpassed the highly-acclaimed DeepSeek-V3. The unusual timing of the Qwen 2.5-Max’s release, on the first day of the Lunar New Year when most Chinese people are off work and with their families, points to the pressure Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s meteoric rise in the past three weeks has placed on not just overseas rivals, but also its domestic competition. “Qwen 2.5-Max outperforms … almost across the board GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3 and Llama-3.1-405B,” Alibaba’s cloud unit said in an announcement posted on its official…

Global investors who have historically bet on China’s economic development are ditching grand narratives of long-term prosperity and instead adopting more modest views that see the market as an opportunity for smaller bets with quicker payoffs. Frustration over Beijing’s efforts to shore up faltering growth and fading investor conviction over where the economy is headed have kept stocks moving sideways, despite some initial excitement over promises of stimulus last year. The lack of investor consensus and increasing policy uncertainty have fundamentally changed the way analysts and money managers see China’s domestic markets and have tightened their investment horizons. “People basically…

Most of us are increasingly aware of the importance of gut health, with its link to every aspect of our overall wellbeing – from our immune systems to our moods. We know that to enhance the quality of friendly bacteria in our microbiome, the community of microorganisms within our intestines, we should be eating kefir for breakfast, ordering kimchi with our sushi and drinking kombucha with our evening meal. Fewer of us realise, however, that the key to optimal gut health lies not just in the food we consume, but the way we combine those foods. “Pairing certain foods with one…

Police have recorded 504 cases of child sexual abuse in UK high street hotel chains in 2023, according to data shared exclusively with BBC News. Of these, 92% (464 cases) involved physical contact with a child, and 40% (203 cases) were classified as rape. The data, provided by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), reveals that most incidents occurred in budget hotel chains, often located near transport hubs like train stations and motorways. These areas make it easier for perpetrators to meet victims. While offences in hotels accounted for less than 1% of all recorded child sexual abuse and exploitation…