Socioscope News Agency

FG stops postgraduate training in low-ranking varsities abroad The Federal Government on Friday announced that it had stopped postgraduate training programmes for Nigerian lecturers and scholarship awards to students to study in “ mushroom ” and low - ranking universities abroad . The decision takes effect from this year , 2017 . The government also condemned a situation in the past where lecturers were sent by their institutions to study in “ mushroom and bottom - of - the -league universities abroad ” , under the Academic Staff Training and Development intervention of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund programme. The Executive Secretary of TETFUND , Dr Abdullahi Baffa , said this in Abuja when he received the leadership of Education Correspondents Association of Nigeria led by its chairman , Chuks Ukwuatu. He said , “ From 2017 , we have stopped all that , public funds would only be spent to train scholars in top - of - the -league universities across...

ASUP begins warning strike tomorrow The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics on Sunday declared a one week warning striking beginning from Monday (tomorrow ) to February 5 th , 2017 , lamenting that the federal government had remained adamant to the plight of polytechnic education in the country. ASUP ’ s South- South/ South- East Coordinator , Dr . Chika Ogonwa, who disclosed this to journalists in Asaba on Sunday on behalf of the national body , said its members would embarked on an indefinite strike if the outstanding issues confronting body were not resolved within one week by the federal government . Dr Ogonwa noted that the warning strike was ‘ a fight ’ aimed at redeeming nation’ s education from total collapse , expressed anger over FG non - commencement of renegotiation of the ASUP /Government agreement of 2010 on the review of the Federal Polytechnics Act . The union had during its 86 th meeting of the National Executive Council in August 2016 shift...

FG must prosecute hate preachers – Afuye A former Commissioner in Ekiti State and Majority Leader of the State House of Assembly , Mr . Funminiyi Afuye , has urged the Federal Government to prosecute politicians and religious leaders who incite the people to engage in violence . Afuye , who has indicated his intention to vie for the 2018 Ekiti governorship poll, said it is laughable for anyone to say he is fighting for God . He appealed to security agencies to tackle ethnic and religious crises in the country by dealing ruthlessly with clerics that engaged in hate preaching. The chieftain of the All Progressives Congress while asking the party to consider the agitation to zone the ticket to the South Senatorial District , urged the party to conduct credible primaries in Ekiti to promote unity among members . Speaking in Ikere Ekiti on Sunday , Afuye said , “ The genocidal killings in Southern Kaduna and cases of widespread massacre in some sections of the country in rec...

Reps tackle menace of articulated vehicles, tankers ACCIDENTS involving tankers and other articulated vehicles, which are often fatal, took a center stage on the floor of the Green chamber and the lawmakers believed that urgent concerted action must be taken to put a stop to it. The first step taken by the lawmakers before embarking on the Christmas/New Year break to mandate an ad hoc committee, chaired by Wale Raji, to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the accidents with a view of finding enduring solution to the menace. As a result, the committee took the investigation to the doorsteps of the stakeholders with the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), National Union of Petroleum (NUPEND) and the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) having a date with the committee for their inputs. By the end of the interaction, it became clear there were issues that are beyond ownership. Non-existent national policy as it concerns articulated vehicles and non-implementati...

Mother of four dies in Kano after 5th caesarian session Tragedy struck in the ancient city of Kano on Tuesday, January 17, 2017, when a mother of four died, moments after undergoing caesarian session at a private hospital to deliver her fifth child. The 37-year old woman, whose first child died at birth, hailed from Iheakwu-Awku, Igbo Eze South Local Government Area of Nsukka, Enugu State. The ages of her four children range between eight, six, four and two, before the last baby delivered via caesarian session. Until her death on January 17, 2017, she was a sachet water and soft drinks retail trader on France road, Sabon Gari, Kano. Proceeds from the small scale business, according to our findings, were used for the upkeep of the family, as she was said to be the breadwinner. However, due to abject poverty of the family, the husband, said to be a tricycle operator lacked the financial muscle to offset the N120, 000 charged by the first hospital she was rushed to for the usual caes...

DSS invites Apostle Suleman over ‘inciting’ sermon (DSS) yesterday formally invited the General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleman for interrogation, four days after its botched attempt to arrest him in Akure. Suleman indicated last night that he would honour the invitation. But he also dismissed insinuations that he was inciting one segment of the society against the other or that he hated Muslims and Fulanis. The DSS, in a letter to Suleman, whose church is based in Auchi, asked him to report at its headquarters in Abuja tomorrow “for an interview by 10am over an inciting statement.” An attempt by operatives of the agency to arrest Suleman in his hotel room in Ado-Ekiti was aborted by Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State who rushed to the hotel and took the pastor to the Government House. Suleman was in the state for a crusade. A top source said: “The service decided to invite Apostle Suleman to interact with him on whet...

Wike: Seized helicopters belong to Rivers State Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike said yesterday that he gave his backing to the federal government in handing over the two Bell helicopters imported by the Rivers State government to the Air Force. The Customs Service announced on Friday that the helicopters were smuggled into the country by an unknown person who failed to produce end user certificate from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) in contravention of Section 36 ( 2) of the Customs and Excise Management Act. The Customs Area Comptroller, Mr. Frank Allanah, put the import duty value of the two helicopters and their accessories at N9,757,135,240.86k. He proceeded to hand them over to the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, at a ceremony at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja. However, Wike in a statement by his Special Assistant on Electronic Media, Simeon Nwakaudu, in Port Harcourt said he officially wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari asking tha...