Author: News Room

The Federal Government has ordered the immediate beefing up of security at all dormant oil wells in Ogoniland, Rivers State, to prevent interference and acts of sabotage. The government also vowed to identify and prosecute those linked to the massive oil spill at the Yorla Oil Field in the Kpean community, Khana Local Government Area of the state. The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, disclosed this on Monday when he led a Federal Government delegation to assess the extent of devastation at the spill site in Kpean, Ogoniland. Recall that a massive oil spill ravaged the oil field in September,…

The NEM Group has recognised outstanding staff and retirees at its 2025 end-of-year celebration at the Group’s head office in Lagos. The celebration brought together representatives of NEM Insurance Plc, NEM Asset Management Limited and NEM Health Limited. Speaking at the event, Group Chairman Tope Smart expressed appreciation to employees and clients whose contributions helped the group achieve strong results in 2025. He noted that the group exceeded its projections for the year, attributing the performance to commitment from staff and support from partners. Smart emphasised that the combined efforts of the group’s subsidiaries contributed to several awards and recognitions…

Former Nigeria Premier Football League champions, Kano Pillars, will return to their home ground, the Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano, from their next fixture against Nasarawa United on Monday after serving a period of banishment to Katsina, PUNCH Sports Extra reports. The Sai Masu Gida were handed an indefinite stadium ban and ordered to play home matches in Katsina, in addition to a three-point and three-goal deduction, in October following crowd trouble during their 1–1 draw against Shooting Stars. The unrest reportedly led to injuries to opposition players and match officials. However, the banishment was later reviewed by the Disciplinary…

PalmPay, one of the leading digital banking platforms in Nigeria, has launched a N400m festive rewards campaign aimed at giving users cash prizes and international travel experiences. The digital bank said in a statement on Monday that the campaign runs from 17 December 2025 to 8 January 2026. It is designed to encourage everyday transactions on the PalmPay app. Central to the promotion is the “World Travel Carnival”, an interactive card collection experience where users earn city cards for London, New York, Dubai, Sydney, and Cape Town by completing transactions. Collecting all five city cards forms a “World Card”, which…

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has officially undergone a change of leadership, with acting chair Caroline Pham saying she will leave the agency on Monday, while Mike Selig was sworn in as chair.Pham, who had been serving as the CFTC’s acting chair since January and its sole commissioner since August, said on Monday that it would be her last day at the agency.Meanwhile, the CFTC confirmed that Selig was sworn in as the agency’s 16th chairman on Monday after being nominated for the role by President Donald Trump on Oct. 27 and confirmed by the Senate on Thursday.Pham’s departure…

Sigourney Weaver is clearing the air about a kiss between her and Jack Champion’s characters in Avatar: Fire and Ash. “That scene where I say, ‘You’re perfect just as you are,’ we had to be very delicate about that scene because it included a kiss,” Weaver, 76, told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Saturday, December 20. “Obviously, I wasn’t going to kiss Jack, who was 14 or 15, in real life.” Weaver returned in the third Avatar film to play Kiri, a Na’vi teenager who is also the adopted daughter of Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and Jake Sully…

Some police officers attached to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Monitoring Unit, Lagos Annex, on Monday, arrested a journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Sodeeq Atanda, after allegedly detaining his wife and nine-month-old child to lure him out. FIJ’s founder and editor-in-chief, Fisayo Soyombo, confirmed the arrest to PREMIUM TIMES on Monday evening. “They released the wife and the child and arrested Sodeeq. They handcuffed him. The wife confirmed this to me at 8:24 p.m.,” Mr Soyombo said. FIJ reported that the officers first arrested Mr Atanda’s wife and infant at their home, detained them for hours at…

The agreement…signals a recalibration in how partnership is defined. Bilateral health arrangements that combine grant financing with explicit domestic co-financing at this scale are increasingly uncommon. By insisting on measurable national investment alongside external support, the United States is aligning assistance with fiscal responsibility and long-term sustainability, rather than substitution. At a time when global attention is fixed on migration, visa restrictions, border controls, and the language of exclusion, Nigeria has concluded a bilateral health agreement with the United States that deserves to be understood on its own terms. Not as a partisan gesture or as a counter-narrative, but as…

Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State on Monday presented an appropriation bill of N605,506,704,066.16 for the 2026 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly. The governor said the 2025 budget of N550 billion had recorded a performance level of 73.2 per cent as of November, amounting to N402.691 billion. While providing a breakdown of the proposed 2026 appropriation bill, Governor Alia stated that N342.420 billion had been earmarked for capital expenditure. According to him, the proposed recurrent expenditure stood at N281.086 billion. He added that 3.68 per cent of the capital budget had been allocated to social protection. In…

A Computer Engineering scholar at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Segun Aina, has promised a renewed sense of responsibility following his appointment as Professor of Computer Engineering at the age of 39. Aina’s elevation makes him one of the youngest professors in his field in Nigeria. He currently lectures in the Department of Computer Engineering at OAU, where he also holds several departmental and faculty responsibilities. Reacting to the appointment, Aina described the attainment as humbling, noting that it came with greater expectations to serve academia, industry and national development. Aina said, “This milestone is a humbling reminder that excellence,…