Headline

Dino Melaye We Met is Not Stable – Senator Shehu Sani

Published

8 years ago

April 26, 2018

Eric

Senator Shehu Sani, on Wednesday said he was not able to immediately say whether his hospitalised colleague, Dino Melaye, was “stable or not”, hours after visiting him in hospital.

Sani, representing Kaduna Central, was among the dozens of senators who stormed the National Hospital in Abuja to ascertain Melaye’s health on Wednesday afternoon.

“He was not on handcuffs but on drips,” Sani said in a Fecebook update. “He was barely able to speak and his neck was bandaged. I’m not a medical Doctor or a Nurse to conclude whether that means ‘stable or not’.”

“That is the truth,” he added.

Another senator who also met with Mr Melaye said the Kogi senator had been moved to the intensive care unit and that police and hospital officials left him unfed for nearly a day.

The senators had earlier postponed plenary to create enough time for the visit. They arrived at the hospital at 1:29 p.m. in four buses.

Melaye reportedly jumped out of a moving police vehicle on Tuesday afternoon while protesting police’s decision to move him to Lokoja, the capital of his home state of Kogi.

He said he had obtained a court order for the criminal case that police have against him to be tried in Abuja, saying he his life would be in danger in Kogi.

He was rushed to a private hospital in Utako District, Abuja, after jumping and wounding himself.

A medical official at Sanklin Medical Centre where the senator was initially taken told PREMIUM TIMES there were preliminary indications that the senator had broken a vertebrae, but was not in critical condition.

Shortly after news broke that Melaye had been hospitalised at Sanklin, the police stormed the facility to arrest him.

He was chained to a stretcher and moved to the National Hospital Tuesday evening, where he had remained ever since. Some of his colleagues who visited him in hospital expressed grave concerns about his state of health.

Of immediate concern to the senators was Melaye’s inability to speak or feed, according to one of them who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES strictly on anonymity because he was not a Senate spokesperson or leader of the entourage.

Premium Times

Headline

Defence Gulps Lion Share As Tinubu Presents N58.47trn 2026 Budget to NASS

Published

7 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Eric

President Bola Tinubu has presented a budget of N58.47 trillion for the 2026 fiscal year to a joint session of the National Assembly, with capital recurrent (non‑debt) expenditure standing at N15.25 trillion.

Tinubu presented the budget on Friday, pegging the capital expenditure at N26.08 trillion and putting the crude oil benchmark at US$64.85 per barrel.

He said the expected total revenue is N34.33 trillion, projected total expenditure: N58.18 trillion, including N15.52 trillion for debt servicing. The budget is N23.85 trillion, representing 4.28% of GDP.

The budget was anchored on a crude oil production of 1.84 million barrels per day, and an exchange rate of N1,400 to the US Dollar for the 2026 fiscal year.

In terms of sectoral allocation, defence and security took the lion’s share with N 5.41 trillion, followed by infrastructure at N3.56 trillion.

Headline

Mike Adenuga, Emmanuel Macron Hold High-Powered Meeting in Paris

Published

2 days ago

December 18, 2025

Eric

Accomplished billionaire businessman and Commander of the French Légion d’Honneur, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr., GCON, CdrLH, has held a private meeting with the French President, Emmanuel Macron.

The two powerful citizens of the world held the meeting on Wednesday at the historic Élysée Palace in Paris.

The high-level engagement underscores the longstanding relationship between Dr. Adenuga and the French Republic, as well as his continued relevance in global business and diplomatic circles.

A respected industrialist and philanthropist, Adenuga has been widely acknowledged for his contributions to economic development, telecommunications, energy, and humanitarian causes across Africa and beyond.

The meeting adds to Dr. Adenuga’s growing profile as a bridge between African enterprise and international leadership.

Headline

Free at Last: Burkina Faso Releases 11 Nigerian Soldiers, Aircraft

Published

2 days ago

December 18, 2025

Eric

Burkina Faso has released Nigerian soldiers who were detained after their aircraft made a forced landing in the Sahelian country earlier this month, Nigerian officials said.

The release followed a diplomatic intervention by President Bola Tinubu, who dispatched a high-level delegation led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, to meet Burkina Faso’s Military Leader, Ibrahim Traoré, on Wednesday.

In a statement, Alkasim Abdulkadir, Tuggar’s spokesperson, said both sides resolved the matter amicably and secured the release of the Nigerian Air Force pilots and crew.

The soldiers had been held for nearly two weeks after the Confederation of Sahel States (AES) described the aircraft’s landing as an “unfriendly act” carried out in defiance of international law.

The Nigerian Air Force, however, said the crew encountered a technical issue that required a precautionary landing in Bobo-Dioulasso, the nearest available airfield. It said the landing complied with standard safety procedures and international aviation protocols.