NIGERIAN NOTCH

The world’s largest aircraft, a carbon-composite plane, took its first flight on Saturday from California, U.S.  over the Mojave Desert in California. The carbon-composite plane was by Stratolaunch Systems Corp, a company started by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, as the company enters the lucrative private space market. The white airplane called Roc,  nicknamed  after a giant mythical bird,  has a wingspan the length of an American football field and is powered by six engines on a twin fuselage, took to the air shortly before 7 a.m. Pacific time (1400 GMT). It stayed aloft for more than two hours before landing safely back at the Mojave Air and Space Port as a crowd of hundreds of people cheered. “What a fantastic first flight. “Today’s flight furthers our mission to provide a flexible alternative to ground launched systems, “We are incredibly proud of the Stratolaunch team, today’s flight crew, our partners at Northrup Grumman’s Scaled Composites and the Mojave A

Juliann Assange has been in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has urged the Government not to extradite Julian Assange to the US Julian Assange following his arrest yesterday. The WikiLeaks founder was hauled out of Ecuador's London embassy by Metropolitan Police officers on Thursday after his asylum was withdrawn. Assange had spent 2,487 days hiding there to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations - claims that he denies. The Swedish authorities are now considering whether to reopen an investigation into the allegations. However, an arrest warrant for the Australian-born fugitive has also been issued by the US, where he faces a charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, in relation to his collaboration with army whistle-blower Chelsea Manning. The offence carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Corbyn is insisting that Assange should not be extradited “for exposing evidence of atrocities in Iraq

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria wishes to inform passengers and the general public that there was a fire incident that affected some parts of the terminal building of Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, Owerri at about 1400hours today. The fire was however curtailed swiftly by officers of the Aerodrome Rescue and Fire Fighting Services Department of FAAN. There was no casualty and normal operations has since commenced at the airport. The Authority has commenced preliminary investigations into the cause of the incident. Faan...... Committed to our core values of Safety, Security and Comfort. Henrietta Yakubu (Mrs.) General Manager, Corporate Affairs

The Ag. Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, on Sunday in Abuja, advised members of the public to ignore fake social media reports on Federal Government’s decision to suspend mining activities in Zamfara. The federal government through the acting IGP had on Sunday announced the suspension of mining activities in the state and threatened to revoke licenses of violators of the order. The Acting Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Muhammed Abubakar Adamu  The government also ordered all foreigners engaged in mining activities to leave the area within 48 hours as part of measures to check banditry in the state. Adamu, however, noted that the order issued by the government may attract various fake social media reports, and advised that such reports should be ignored in the interest of peace and stability in the country. “May I appeal for the cooperation of the local communities especially the traditional and religious leaders within the communities to cooperate with the security

A cryptocurrency firm, Paxful Incorporated, has been accused of defrauding thousands of Nigerians of millions of dollars earned from online trade in digital currencies. The Estonia-based company allegedly suspended the accounts of its Nigerian subscribers, thereby denying them access to millions of dollars in their online wallets. A Non-Governmental Organisation, United Global Resolve for Peace, which made the allegations in a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, explained that many accounts had been deactivated and the monies therein trapped. The petition, signed by UGRP Executive Director, Shalom Olaseni, dated April 2, 2019, said  the illegal action was taken despite the fact that the accounts were not involved in any fraudulent acts. It said, “A few days ago, our organisation was approached by some Nigerians who complained bitterly that Paxful Incorporated, the company that owns the online cryptocurrency trading and exchange platform, ‘https://paxful

Air force officers involved in the fight against insurgency suffered a setback on Sunday as the rotor of a helicopter killed an ACM simply identified as Umar. An airman, who witnessed the tragic incident, told  The Cable  that it happened at Bama in Borno state on Saturday evening. The aircraft was said to have developed a fault. The deceased, who was the co-pilot, had gone to pick his bags and on his way back, he passed through the side of the rotor which was functioning. “Immediately his head was chopped off,” the source said. “The aircraft has been recovered and taken back to the air base. No damage was found the on tail rotor,” the source said. The tragic incident reportedly occurred around 4pm on Saturday. The source said family members of the deceased have been informed while the burial arrangement was on as of the time this report was filed.

Prominent leaders of Okigwe in Imo North senatorial zone in Imo State have disown the results of the February 23, 2019 senatorial election as well as the March 9, 2019 senatorial re-run election in the zone, saying that only total cancellation of the results would assuage the people of the zone. They said that there was under-hand arrangement allegedly perpetrated by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its cohorts during the elections. The spokesman of the Okigwe leaders, Chief Athan Anyanwu yesterday said that INEC had made itself a laughing stock in the elections with three conflicting results emanating from one election. They alleged that one of the results showed Senator Ben Uwajumogu of All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election, while another result in the INEC official website shows Attorney Charles Onyirimba of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) as the winner with yet a third result indicating Mr. Ndubuisi Emenike of Action Allianc

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has advised mothers to embrace six months exclusive breastfeeding of newborns for optimal child growth and development. Dr Zakari Adam, the Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Kaduna, gave the advice on Wednesday in Akwanga at the opening of a six-day capacity building for 32 participants on Community Infant and Young Child Feeding Counseling package. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the six-days training was sponsored by UNICEF in collaboration with Nasarawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency in which participants were selected from the agency. Adam said that the training was aimed at equipping nutritional health personnel with skills for effective healthcare service delivery. He said that exclusive breast feeding was key to the development of the child, adding that it establishes early relationship between the mother, the family and the nation at large. Adam explained that exclusive breastfeeding was good for

An advocacy group, Igbo Youth Assembly Worldwide (IYAW) yesterday urged   President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration and   All Progressives Congress (APC) not to allow exclusion of the South-east from the top positions in the country, in the build up to the new government. They specifically advocated for the APC to zone Deputy Senate Presidency and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to the South-east zone as part of the administrations drive to ensure that all zones are carried along. They maintained that the South-east remains a major stakeholder in the Nigerian project and as such should be given a prime positions in this administration. They added that the zone gave the President and APC much more votes than in 2015, stressing that it shows that the people from the South-east, despite the seeming stranglehold the opposition party has over region, is ready to work with the President and his party. The President general of the IYAW, Ifeanyi Nwaudunna, wh

The European Council and the Parliament have announced that after Brexit, UK citizens coming to the Schengen area for a short stay of 90 days in any 180 days should be granted visa free travel. The agreement, which was already confirmed by EU ambassadors on behalf of the Council on Tuesday, was approved by the European Parliament Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee on Wednesday. The text now needs to be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council.

Urges Nigerians to voluntarily declare foreign assets •FIRS targets N750 b from 55,000 millionaire tax defaulters •Tax Amnesty: We’ll make our position known— PDP  The Federal Government, yesterday, said it has approved tax amnesty and permanent waiver of criminal prosecution for owners of offshore assets who are willing to voluntarily declare them. The  Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, who made the disclosure, said the immunity package would shield the owners from tax offences, penalties and interests concerning such declared offshore assets. Malami spoke at the unveiling ceremony of the Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularization Scheme, VOARS, in Abuja. Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has asked for time to study the rationale behind the Federal Government’s plan to grant tax amnesty to offshore asset owners, to respond appropriately.    This came as the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, said it was targeting a