FG orders sack of 20,000 PHCN workers

ABUJA — THE Federal Government has ordered the retrenchment of no fewer than 20,000 workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, ahead of takeover by successful bidders of its assets.

Vanguard gathered that the Bureau for Public Enterprises, BPE, issued the directive to the Chief Executive Officers, CEOs, of the 18 successor companies to PHCN at a meeting in Abuja, to compile names and drastically reduce the 50,000 strong workforce before the new investors take over.

It was gathered that new investors demanded that the workforce must be pruned before government hands off.

Labour kicks, warns on danger of action

Satellite images show 2,275 burnt houses in Baga –HRW

An international rights crusader, Human Rights Watch, on Wednesday described as hogwash, military’s claim that the fires that razed thousands of buildings in Baga, Borno State were caused by rocket-propelled grenades fired by members of the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram.

HRW, in a statement on its website, said satellite images showed that soldiers may have set the fires that razed down “2,275 buildings and left 125 others” in the town severely damaged.

Calling on the Federal Government to impartially probe the incident, it said that the military was covering up something going by the fact that it had vehemently refused to

Genevieve Nnaji, Funke Akindele, Karen Igho: THE AWARD GOES TO.....

Genevieve Nnaji, Funke Akindele, Osas Ighodaro and Karen Igho
So who played the cleavage game best?

Take a closer look below before you decide…

Traffic law: Motorists accuse enforcement agents of extortion

                                 A section of Ikorodu Road.

Motorists, who usually ply the Ojota-Maryland end of Ikorodu Road, have accused officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority as well as the police of extortion.

The motorists alleged that the enforcement agents used the peculiarity of the terrain to unjustly arrest and extort money from them.

A motorist, Charles Udah, said LASTMA officials and policemen usually arrestmotorists attempting to divert to the service lane through the lane designated for the Bus Rapid Transit buses.

He said, “If you are coming from Ojota and heading

Polymer Currency: Waste, Deceit & Commonsense

The concept of moral hazard is defined as a situation where there is a tendency to take undue risk, because the costs are not borne by the party taking the risk.

Apart from the recent IMF advice to wind down AMCON because of the threat of moral hazard, the policies and strategies of government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, particularly those of the Central Bank of Nigeria are fraught with moral hazards. However, in this article, we will discuss the production and adoption of polymer currency notes and coins as an illustration of the odious implications of such decisions.

In an article titled “Polymer Currency: Waste, Deceit and Commonsense” in November 2009, we discussed issues relating to CBN’s misguided currency strategy; a summary of that article is as follows:

After a frustrating and fruitless attempt to

Colonial crime files on Nigeria hidden in London

As Nigeria prepares for her centennial celebration next year, British lawyers have revealed that a file containing Colonial Britain’s criminal activities in Nigeria are in secret boxes.

An online publication said the information is contained in 200 boxes of files: 1.5 tons of paper covering about 200 metres of shelving.

They are files on torture from 37 different colonies and protectorates, including Aden, Ceylon, Cyprus, Kenya, Malaya, Malta, Nigeria and Northern Rhodesia.

The Northern and Southern protectorates were

Driving through the ‘slope of death’

                                        A section of the road

It is a highly unpredictable stretch of road. Commuters have frustrating tales to tell, having to use the unavoidable Abuja-Karu-Nyanya-Mararaba Expressway daily.

Whether they are going to the Abuja city centre in the morning or returning after finishing the day’s job, the experience most times remains frustrating for them.

A simple vehicular breakdown, rain drops, deliberate wrong parking of articulated vehicles and accidents that are frequent, all can combine to force commuters to pass the night on the road.

A dreaded stretch of this road, Mogadishu Barracks-Kugbo-Nyanya

Mother slashes daughter with blade for wasting N100

                                          Precious

Angry residents of Ono-Odan Street, Ijanikin, Lagos, nearly lynched a mother, Kudirat Abiola, for cutting her nine-year-old daughter, Precious, with razor blade.

Kudirat made deep cuts on Precious’s back, left leg and right arm with the blade to “teach her a lesson.”

We leant that Kudirat decided to punish her daughter after she wasted N100 given to her by her father on junk food.

A resident, who pleaded anonymity, Us

Airtel moves to make voice, data and SMS roaming affordable

Nairobi – Bharti Airtel (“Ariel”), a leading global telecommunications services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa has introduced the ONE AIRTEL service which will further ease the burden of roaming costs whilst travelling.

The newly introduced service will further enhance communication for travelers from Africa by enabling them access data and SMS, in addition to the currently available voice roaming, at a flat attractive rate whilst travelling within Africa and South Asia.

Commenting on the service, Andre Beyers, Chief

Yahoo yahoo aside, guys are honestly making it online

Some 15 years ago, making money online was largely synonymous with advance fee fraud, popularly called yahoo yahoo in Nigeria. That was when the Internet revolution was just taking shape in the country, which was also just getting off the hook of military juntas that thrived on trampling on freedom of information.

While many people could not yet appreciate what the Internet and accompanying social media trends stood for, most of the few that first caught the bug exploited it to dupe unsuspecting folks, especially foreigners. Indeed, that is the time the notorious and ever-recurring letter in which an online conman (or woman), who claims he is stranded in some foreign country or has problems accessing a huge fund, was first composed. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since,

Phone dealers decry China phones’ low durability

Abuja - Dealers in GSM phones and accessories in Abuja on Monday said that Chinese phones sell more due to its dual SIM.

Some of the dealers and repairers at the GSM village on Tuesday said that Chinese phones were also affordable but noted that their accessories were expensive and hard to find.

Mr John Chukuma, a dealer said that Chinese phones were cheap to get but had low durability and battery problems.

He said the phones helped to reduce the number of phones

Ghanaian urinates in court over N550, 000 theft charge

Lagos – A Ghanaian, who was charged with theft of motorcycle spare parts valued N550,000, on Monday urinated in court when a two-count of offence of conspiracy and stealing was read to him.

Mohammed Daniel, 34, whose address is unknown, sells pastries (puff-puff).

The edgy accused urinated on the floor of the Ebute Meta Magistrates’ Court as he was docked.

Daniel immediately pleaded guilty to the charges.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Cpl. Iyobosa Onaiwu said the offences

Oshiomhole begged to join PDP —Metuh

                                           PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh

The Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday alleged that Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, had begged to join the party.

The spokesperson for the PDP, Olisa Metuh, in a statement made available to journalists, said the governor, on several occasions, begged the leadership of the party to let him defect to the PDP.

Metuh said the governor was, however, consistently turned down by his party.

He urged Oshiomhole “to be bold enough to tell Nigerians how many times he begged to join the PDP but was turned down.”

He added, “The same PDP which Adams went on all fours,

Mourinho headed back to Chelsea

                                                  Mourinho

Real Madrid’s Champions League campaign had just ended in defeat when Jose Mourinho spotted an opportunity to send a message.

Even though Madrid can still end a mediocre season – mediocre by its high standards, anyway – with the Copa del Rey title, Mourinho is laying the groundwork for a divorce, dropping heavy hints about a return to the English Premier League and Chelsea, the team he managed from June 2004 to September 2007.

‘’I know in England I am loved,’’ he said during a news conference in Madrid after Tuesday night’s elimination. ‘’I’m loved by the fans. I’m loved by the

NCC orders MTN to collapse rates

TELECOMMUNICATIONS regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission, has ordered MTN Nigeria to collapse the rates for its on-net and off-net voice services, which it said has a 300 per cent differential with effect from tomorrow, May 1.

The NCC, in a report titled, ‘Determination of dominance in selected communications markets in Nigeria,” signed by Mr. Eugene Juwah, Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, said it plans to make a determination of pricing principle to address the rates charged for on-net and off-net voice calls for all other operators, to manage dominance in the market.

The NCC also disclosed that competition in the