Author: News Room

VivaJets, an African business aviation company under the Falcon Aerospace Group, has urged African leaders to move beyond policy declarations and begin implementing practical measures that will drive economic connectivity across the continent. The call was made during the just-concluded Africa CEO Forum 2026 held in Kigali, Rwanda, where the company stressed that Africa’s economic growth depends largely on the seamless movement of people, businesses and investments. This was contained in a statement made available to The PUNCH by VivaJets on Tuesday. The Africa CEO Forum is one of the continent’s largest gatherings of public and private sector leaders. Founded…

The Kogi State Police Command has arrested a 52-year-old man for allegedly having 339 wraps of substances suspected to be Indian hemp in Kabba, Kabba/Bunu Local Government Area of the state. The Commissioner of Police, Naziru Kankarofi, revealed this on Tuesday during a press briefing at the command headquarters in Lokoja. He said the arrest was made on May 9, 2026, at about 2:00pm through intelligence-led policing, strategic stop-and-search operations, and proactive crime prevention measures. According to the CP, operatives attached to the area command in Kabba intercepted a Honda Pilot Jeep with registration number LSD 456 GE during a…

Nigeria is on the march again to have its eighth general elections in this Fourth Republic. Party primaries are underway in the 22 registered political parties, with the All-Progressives Congress, the ruling party, leading the pack. The party held its House of Representatives and senatorial primaries on May 16 and 18, respectively. Today, May 20, the party will hold its State House of Assembly primaries. Lesson from the APC primaries conducted so far shows that we still have a long way to go in our democratic journey. The party obviously needs to improve its internal democratic process. Amid the preparations…

The screening committee of the Kabiru Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party has cleared former President Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential aspirant ahead of the 2027 general elections. According to the faction, which is backed by Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, Jonathan emerged as its presidential hopeful after the screening committee granted him a waiver. The decision was announced by former Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu, who spoke on behalf of the screening committee at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, where the screening for other aspirants was conducted. Speaking in a video shared by AIT on Tuesday, Aliyu explained that…

Trabzonspor are targeting a €40m sale of Super Eagles defender Chibuike Nwaiwu this summer, a fee that would make him the most expensive player ever sold in Turkish football history, PUNCH Sports Extra reports. The Black Sea Storm have already received offers in the region of €20m for the 22-year-old, according to Dik Futbol, but the club have rejected those approaches and set their asking price at double that figure. If met, the fee would surpass Trabzonspor’s existing record departure — the €27.5 million sale of goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir to rivals Galatasaray last season — while also standing as the…

You warned in 2022 that terrorists were setting up camps in the South-West. Despite repeated alerts, gunmen attacked three schools in Oriire, Oyo State, on Friday, killing two people and abducting teachers and students. What failures by the authorities made this attack possible? The office of the Aare Ona Kakanfo has been limited to just giving out information without being given room for collaboration. I have more information that I can give to law enforcement agencies. Six months ago, we tried to work on our intelligence across the entire South-West region. We spotted many local governments where there was an…

Among the flurry of today’s Google I/O announcements, Google shared details about Wear OS 7, the next major update to its smartwatch platform. To help you keep track of things like deliveries and sports scores, Wear OS 7 will get the iPhone-style Live Updates that were introduced on Android last year — which can appear on your watch or your smartphone — and you’ll also be able to track automated tasks that an AI is working on right from your watch.Wear OS is also getting an upgrade from its widget-like Tiles for glanceable information. With the new update, Google is…

A coalition of privacy and internet freedom advocates led by the Tor Project has announced a new crypto funding campaign to support censorship-resistant digital infrastructure.The first-of-its-kind Web3 crowdfunding campaign for internet freedom tools will support 10 nonprofit projects working across privacy, censorship circumvention, secure communications and public-interest digital infrastructure, according to the campaign leaders, Tor Project and Funding the Commons.The campaign, which kicks off May 19, accepts crypto contributions in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Zcash (ZEC), Monero (XMR) and Golem (GLM).The campaign comes as privacy advocates argue that internet freedom is being eroded on a global scale. Internet shutdowns, including…

A couple in Arkansas will spend two decades in prison after they admitted to using a “ratchet strap” to lock the woman’s 15-year-old son up in a dark bathroom, leaving him there for days at a time without food or clothes. Baxter County Circuit Judge Andrew Bailey sentenced Jaclyn Machelle Barnett and Daniel Alan Wright to each serve 20 years in a state correctional facility after they pleaded guilty to multiple felonies on Monday, May 18. Additionally, the judge tacked on a seven-year suspended sentence and noted that the couple had already served 194 days at the time of their…

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Sa’ad Abubakar, and other prominent Nigerian leaders have called for national reconciliation and the preservation of institutional memory. They made the call on Tuesday in Abuja during the public presentation of former Head of State Yakubu Gowon’s autobiography titled “My Life of Duty and Allegiance”. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the gathering drew top government officials, traditional rulers, diplomats, and elder statesmen. The dignitaries highlighted the importance of leaders documenting their experiences to prevent historical distortion and inspire future generations. They also celebrated Mr Gowon’s enduring legacy of…