The Kingdom of Saudi Arabian has banned individuals and businesses from using the country’s flag in commercial promotions, including publications, goods and products, brochures, special gifts and others.
The Kingdom’s Ministry of Commerce, in a statement today, September 16, explained that the major reason for the ban is that the national flag contains the name of Allah, and the official state emblem of two swords and palm tree.
It said that the ban also covers pictures and names of Saudi leaders and officials.
The ministry said that it has carried out inspection tours in markets in all regions of the Kingdom to control such violations, especially during festive occasions such as National Day.
It said that the ministry would also monitors e-shops, saying that legal measures would be taken against those who violate the ban.
According to the statement, a circular had already been issued to businesses four years ago, banning the use of the State’s emblem of two swords and a palm tree in commercial transactions.
The Kingdom is scheduled to celebrate National Day next Friday.
Paul Ibe, media aide to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has said that the candidate would embark on a trip to Europe and a visit to his family in Dubai, starting from today, September 16.
Ibe, in a statement today, September 16, debunked the news making the rounds that Atiku, a former Vice President of Nigeria, is undertaking the journey on medical ground.
“Today’s trip is in continuation of an earlier business trip of 3 weeks ago.
“At the conclusion of his European trip, the former Vice President will also use the opportunity to visit his family in Dubai. “His trip is for business and family purposes and has nothing to do with medicals as being insinuated in some quarters.”
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL), Malam Mele Kyari, has listed the benefits of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project.
Mele Kyari said that apart from helping to mitigate agaist desertification it will also drastically reduce carbon emission in Africa.
The NNPC boss, who spoke at the signing ceremony of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) in Rabat Morocco yesterday, September 15, said that the project will also create wealth, and improve the standard of living of people in countries in the African region.
Kyari described the event as a very important milestone in the Nigeria Morocco Gas Pipeline project as it reaffirms the commitment of stakeholders to deliver on the project.
The NNPC boss explained that the NNPC is well positioned to advance the project by leveraging on its experience and technical capabilities ranging from gas production, processing, transmission and marketing as well as our vast experience in executing major gas infrastructure projects in Nigeria.
He said that from inception of the project to the present stage, concerted efforts have been made by the government of Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco which led to the “very commendable achievements recorded.”
He expressed appreciation to His Royal Majesty, King Mohammed VI of Morocco and His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari for entrusting NNPC Ltd with the strategic project.
“As you are aware, our countries stand to benefit immeasurably from the execution of the project which extends beyond the supply of gas to energize the countries along the route.
“Some of the benefits include creation of wealth and improvement in standard of living, integration of the economies within the region, mitigation against desertification and other benefits that will accrue as a result of reduction in carbon emission.
“I am glad to say that NNPC is well positioned to progress the project by leveraging our experience and technical capabilities ranging from gas production, processing, transmission and marketing as well as our vast experience in executing major gas infrastructure projects in Nigeria.
“On our part, NNPC Limited will facilitate the continuous supply of gas provide other enablers such as the required land for the first compressor station for the pipeline to be deployed in Nigeria which is among the thirteen stations earmarked along the pipeline route.
“On behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, I would like to thank you all as we continue to strengthen our partnership for the benefit of our countries.”
It was earlier reported NNPC Ltd would sign an MoU on a 7,000km gas pipeline project estimated to cost $25 billion, with the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines of Morocco (ONHYM) and the ECOWAS Commission.
NNPC and National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines of Morocco, also signed two MoUs with Société Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures (SMH) of Mauritania and Petrosen of Senegal.
The Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) Project is an initiative of the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco, and was conceived during the visit of King Mohammed VI of Morocco to Nigeria in December 2016.
The NMGP Project is aimed at monetization of Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources thereby generating additional revenue for the country, diversification of Nigeria’s gas export routes, and elimination of gas flaring.
The 7,000km gas pipeline when completed, will supply about three billion standard cubit feet of gas to Morocco, 13 ECOWAS countries and Europe.
The pipeline will originate from Brass Island (Nigeria) and terminates at North of Morocco where it will be connected to the existing Maghreb European Pipeline (MEP) that originates from Algeria (via Morocco) to Spain.
The President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, September 15, conferred Nigerian citizenship rights on 286 foreigners, including Lebanese, British, Americans, Egyptians, Syrians, Italians and Palestinians.
Of the 286 foreign nationals presented with certificates of Nigerian citizenship, 208 received certificates for naturalisation, while 78 got certificates by registration.
‘’You have pledged your allegiance to Nigeria. When you give your love and loyalty to Nigeria, she returns her love and loyalty to you,” Buhari said at the event held at the State House, Abuja.
The President said the Ministry of Interior ensured that only deserving persons were recommended to the Federal Executive Council to be conferred with Nigerian citizenship.
He assured the new citizens that Nigeria is a nation united by the principles of opportunity, equality, and liberty as enshrined in the Constitution.
“No matter where you come from, or what faith you practise, this country is now your country. Our history is now your history, and our traditions are now your traditions. Nigeria is your home and pride and joy.
“You are expected to abide by the ideals and institution of the Nigerian national flag, anthem, pledge and respect for all constituted authorities.
‘’All those concerned with immigration matters are to offer our new citizens quick legal identification. Also, their local governments should assist with their integration into the local community to enable them to enjoy all the entitlements of a Nigerian citizen.’’
In his address, Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said, ‘’Without any doubt, Nigeria is a great nation, richly endowed and blessed with great people. Smart people continue to flock to our country to do business with us.’’
He noted that Nigeria would continue to welcome every qualified citizenship applicant.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has suspended the Air Transport Licence of Azman Air for failure to remit N1.2 billion ticket sales charge from passengers.
The Director-General of NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, in a statement in Lagos yesterday, September 15, said that the airline was suspended for failure to also submit security clearance for the renewal of its ATL, which expired in April 2021.
Nuhu said that the N1.2 billion debt was the revenue accrued from the five per cent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) and Cargo sales Charge collected from the air travellers by the airline.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the is shared among five aviation agencies; NCAA and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency.
Others are the Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria. NCAA gets 58 per cent from the total 5 per cent of and it is the major revenue earning for the agency, while the other four agencies share the remaining 42 per cent.
Nuhu decried that the regulatory agency had made efforts to recover the debt from the airline over the years, but ”the carrier was recalcitrant in paying back the sum despite collecting it from the passengers.”
However, the withdrawal of the airline’s ATL rendered its Air Operator Certificate invalid.
Nuhu told aviation journalists that its management had held series of meetings with Azman Air leadership on how to pay back the debt, but both parties failed to reach an agreement.
He said that the airline’s management had promised to pay back the sum of N10 million monthly as part of the N1.2 billion debt, but said the regulatory body insisted on N50million monthly. Besides, the D-G said that the airline could not provide its security clearance, which was one of the prerequisites for renewal of ATL.
“We didn’t suspend Azman Air’s Airline Operator certificate, but suspended their ATL, which had earlier expired.
”The ATL earlier expired in April 2021, but we gave the airline extension because of the disruption to aviation activities by the COVID-19 pandemic. This was what we did for other airlines, too. However, we wrote a reminder letter to the airline six months to the new expiring date, which is statutory.
“Later, the airline requested for another extension of 90 days, but we only granted it 60 days. At the expiration of the 60 days, we also gave it 30 days reminder, which elapsed on Wednesday night, yet nothing was done by the airline.”
Nuhu said that the airline owed us N1.2 billion as, adding, ”we invited them and set up a committee for that purpose.
”Azman said they would pay the sum of N10 million monthly out of the debt, which we refused. They later came up to N20 million, but we insisted on N50 million monthly.
“If we had agreed to the N10 million monthly, it means it will take them about 12 years to repay back the money it had already collected and by then, the money would have lost.”
Nuhu threatened that the ATL or AOC of any other airline that owed the agency’s five per cent would not be renewed. He appealed to other carriers to pay up the backlog of debts.
The Presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has described the poll suggesting the emergence of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, as the next President in 2023 as fake and biased.
The spokesman of the Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, who reacted on behalf of Tinubu, in a statement yesterday, September 15 said that the said poll is dubious and made up of unreliable statistics.
He said that the APC and its presidential flagbearer are not bothered about the fake and biased poll.
The statement read: “The attention of the APC Presidential Campaign Council has been drawn to a poll conducted by the NOI polls which made wild and incredible permutations on the presidential elections.
“We are unperturbed by these dubious and unreliable statistics because our research shows that NOI Polls have been off the mark at critical election periods in recent times.
“For example, preparatory to the March 2015 presidential elections, NOI published in October 2014 the results of a “Viability Poll” which used the concepts of Familiarity and Net Favourability Position to survey. In the results, NOI claimed that President Goodluck Jonathan has the best overall familiarity rating at 99% and Net Favourability Probability of ±25.
“By contrast, NOI dismissed the then All Progressives Congress candidate, Muhammadu Buhari as a “borderline candidate” who needed ” huge public relations” to shore up his performance.
“But when the Nigerian people went to the polls, who won? The APC candidate and now President, Muhammadu Buhari. This is not the only instance when the NOI has turned its political bias in an election period to fraudulent statistics.
“Towards the 2019 presidential elections, and knowing fully that President Muhammadu Buhari was going for re-election for a second term in office, the NOI pollsters embarked on another abracadabra. In June 2017, they issued the results of another poll, that Nigerians prefer a middle-aged president claiming that this poll was inspired by the election of Macron as the president of France and the campaign of the Not Too Young To Run.”
It added: “According to the predictable bias, NOI claimed that 64% said they would prefer to vote for a presidential candidate between the ages of 40 and 50 years and 15% preferred candidates between 51 and 60.
“In short, for a presidential candidate in his 70s running for re-election, NOI results meant certain defeat. But when the Nigerian people went to the polls on February 23, 2019, the man the NOI polls had tried to bully with statistics out of the race won again.
“It is significant that at the time NOI was generating unrealistic figures to boost the ego of President Jonathan, a more serious and independent team of pollsters- Neo-Telligence based in the United Kingdom used geo-demographics and public sentiment analysis to forecast the emergence of President Buhari.
“By contrast, their empirical analysis showed that two years before the 2015 presidential elections, Goodluck Jonathan’s public approval rating on corruption, insecurity and the economy had nosedived across most of the battleground states.”
Onanuga described NOI Polls as an anti-APC research organisation, stressing that it has chosen Obi as its preferred candidate and has decided to use fake, dubious statistics to package him to the Nigerian voters.
The council spokesman, however, advised NOI to stop sharing irresponsible, unscientific and biased statistics and polling.
“Our objective profiling of NOI Polls as an anti-APC research organisation is grounded on the aforesaid facts and that is why we believe this present report is, in the language of Nigerians, “wuruwuru to the answer”.
“The NOI has chosen the preferred candidate and has decided to use fake, dubious statistics to package him to the Nigerian voters.
“We know, as a matter of fact, the owners of NOI and where their political interest lies and wish to advise NOI to stop polluting the political system with irresponsible, unscientific and biased polling so that we don’t expose the puppeteers pulling its strings.
“Our party is putting every necessary machinery in motion to win the federal elections with a margin that will be too wide to contest. Our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu recorded the highest votes of a senator across the country under the Social Democratic Party in July 1992. He will do it on a nationwide scale on February 25, 2023.”
The Presidential Candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, has dismissed as laughable, the projections in the presidential poll by Anap Foundation which concluded that the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi has won the 2023 Presidential election.
The spokesperson of the NNPP Campaign Council, Ladipo Johnson, who reacted on behalf of the candidate, said that results of the poll are self seeking, self serving, misleading, inaccurate and laced with partisanship. The poll projected Kwankwaso as coming fourth in the 2023 general elections.
Johnson described the projection as bogus and misleading, adding that he watched the interview on Arise Television programme earlier in the morning when the Chairman of ANAP Foundation, Atedo Peterside could not adequately respond to, or substantiate “the sampling method used in arriving at the obviously unverifiable or concocted data”.
“His defence was rather unclear and begging the question whether the poll was authentic by telling Nigerians or whoever is not comfortable with the outcome to go do their own poll!
“I would take it with a pinch of salt. This is a known template. In this season we should expect many more dubious sounding opinions, polls etc.
“Unfortunately there are many who for parochial reasons are drawing back the development of our democracy, due to various propaganda tricks.”
According to him, the data purportedly relied upon did not go far enough in an empirical manner to show the ethnic and religious backgrounds of those polled.
He added that there was no indication as to whether those polled were artisans, educated or non educated, professional or non professional Nigerians among others.
“The poll is to say the least bogus and an attempt to create the impression that the LP candidate has the potential to succeed when in actual fact, the reality on ground is totally different.
“This is similar to a misleading poll they conducted before the Ekiti election,” he said.
According to him, in any event, the poll will succeed in giving their supporters temporary euphoria.
“On our part, we are building momentum at the grassroots level round the country and look forward to Sept. 28 when we will openly bring our positive message for a new and prosperous Nigeria where every citizen will have the opportunity for a better life, to the people of the country.
“The NNPP insists that the complete process of the poll should be published if not, the poll cannot be taken seriously.”
A few days to the beginning of the campaigns by political parties for the 2023 general elections, a private concern, Anap Foundation, has declared the candidates of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi the winner of the Presidency.
In a poll, conducted by NOI Polls Limited, Peter Obi is declared to be leading the race with 21 percent of votes in the poll against the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, coming second and the candidate of the ain opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, coming third.
In the poll result, released today, Obi’s votes give him an 8 percent lead over APC’s Tinubu and PDP’s Abubakar who each got 13 percent of the votes to end up as joint second in the poll.
The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, was fourth with three percent of the votes.
“Mr. Peter Obi’s 8 percentage point lead at this early stage is significant, but not sufficient to separate him completely from a leading pack of candidates scoring 21%, 13%, and 13% respectively,” said a statement by Anap Foundation’s President and Founder, Mr Atedo Peterside, CON.
“Undecided voters and those who prefer not to reveal their preferred candidate add up to a whopping 32% and 15% respectively.
“The gender split of undecided voters shows that 39% of women are undecided versus 27% of male voters.”
A female teacher, Joy Eze, has complained to a customary court in Jikwoyi, Abuja that her husband her husband Nuel Chukwu have turned against her and calling her prostitute.
“My husband keeps telling my children terrible things about me. He told them that I was a prostitute. He told them that all the clothes and shoes I wear were bought by my lovers.”
Mrs. Eze, in a divorce petition she filed against Chukwu, said today, September 15 that her husband has also continually refuses to eat the food she cooks, accusing he rof wanting to poison him.
“I cannot continue to live under the same roof with this man. He has stopped eating my food, when I confronted him on the issue, he said that he is aware of my plans to kill him.
”He also told members of his family that if he dies I should be held responsible,” she said.
She also told the court that Chukwu has turned the children’s mind against her.
She begged the court to dissolve the marriage and grant her custody of her children.
The husband, who is a tricycle driver, denied all the allegations even as the presiding Judge, Labaran Gusau, adjourned the matter to September 21, for further hearing.
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