Newscast - Africa

The Chief of Defense Staff, General Lucky Irabor, has faulted the procedure adopted in the release of a document said to be the report of the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry on police brutality.
The leaked report had indicted officers of the Nigerian Army for killing unarmed helpless and defenceless protesters, without provocation or justification, while they were waving the Nigerian Flag and singing the National Anthem” at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.
The CDS however explained that he could not, at the moment, comment on the content of the document because he has not seen the official report.
General Irabor maintained that the Nigerian armed forces are committed to their constitutional mandate and do not engage in ignoble acts.

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, hinted that Nigeria has adopted a forward-thinking approach by developing strategic minerals of the future.
Adegbite noted that the minerals, which include minor metals such as titanium and cobalt, are vital to futuristic industries such as telecoms and electric vehicle manufacturing.
He says the country is endowed with over 44 different mineral types occurring in commercial quantities in over 500 locations across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. These mineral endowments broadly cut across the various mineral spectrums.

The Senate and House of Representatives have intervened in the diplomatic row between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.
They said the situation is having a negative impact on Nigerians amid the work permit restriction and other challenges they face in the Arabian country.
The Senate mandated its Committees on Foreign Affairs, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, National Security, as well as Intelligence and Interior respectively, to interface with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Intelligence Agency on best ways of resolving the dispute and report back to the lawmakers within two weeks.
The House of Representatives, on its part, set up an ad-hoc committee to liaise with relevant government agencies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the treatment of Nigerians by the UAE authorities.

The Federal Government has revealed plans to boost the digital economy with a $600m Innovation Fund from the African Development Bank.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says that they have a $600million Innovation Fund with the African Development Bank which they hope will really energize the industry
Osinbajo identified the digital economy as an area that is “big for us and the next couple of years, and we are focusing on it.”
He says the government’s strategy is to enhance productivity by focusing on value addition as the guiding principle for all sectors, especially agriculture, manufacturing, solid minerals, digital services, tourism, hospitality, and entertainment.

The million to CGI Merchant Group, which plans to remove ex-president Donald Trump’s name from the luxury property’s facade.
The Wall Street Journal says the Miami-based investment fund has struck a separate agreement with Hilton Worldwide Holdings to rebrand the Trump International Hotel as a Waldorf Astoria.
The historic building just a short walk from the White House and down Pennsylvania Avenue from the US Capitol is not owned by the Trump Organization.
The Trump Organization invested some $200 million in the renovation of the building, which was constructed in the late 19th century and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Britain’s booster programme for COVID-19 vaccinations is to be expanded to younger people after scientists gave the green light.
The UK government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation says all healthy adults aged 40-49 should be offered a booster, six months after their second dose.
The booster programme was limited to those aged 50 and over, and the clinically vulnerable. Some 12.6 million Britons have received the third jab.
The JCVI says that 16 and 17-year-olds should now be offered a second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab.

The European Union has decided to impose new sanctions against Belarus, accusing it of driving a crisis that has left thousands of migrants and refugees stranded in freezing forests on its borders with the EU.
The Western bloc seeks to stop the policy by Belarus to push migrants towards it in revenge for earlier sanctions. Belarus has rejected the allegations.
The asylum seekers, who are mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan, began arriving on Belarus’s land borders with the EU this year, trying to cross into member states Lithuania, Latvia and Poland via routes not used before.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas says the inhumane system of using refugees as tools to exert pressure on the European Union has got worse over the last few days pledging to target those involved in what he called human trafficking.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa issued directives to three ministers with the aim of unlocking investment in forestry.
He abolished the export of semi-processed timber products and instructed Investment minister Geofrey Mwambe to visit timber factories to inspect and identify those exporting partially processed products.
The Premier also directed the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office responsible for Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled, Ms Jenista Mhagama, to visit timber processing and resolve wage challenges and occupational safety and health concerns.
Natural Resources and Tourism minister Damas Ndumbaro was also ordered to collaborate with his Finance and Planning counterpart to review and if possible scrap nuisance taxes charged to forestry stakeholders.

Mozambique government says more than 14 tonnes of precious minerals have been smuggled out of Mozambique in the last 10 months alone.
Gold, rubies, tantalite and garnet were smuggled from places where they're most abundant - in the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambézia and Manica.
Judge Counselor of the Supreme Court Rafael Sebastião told fellow attendees discussed at the meeting between the government, the judiciary that legal processes are being fine-tuned to stop criminal exploitation and smuggling.

The Constitutional Court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has declared itself unfit to prosecute former Prime Minister Augustin Matata and two other men accused of embezzling $205m from a farming project.
The court says that it could only try current and not former prime ministers.
The prosecutor had accused Mr Matata of being intellectually responsible for misappropriating funds from the planned Bukanga Lonzo agro-industrial park.
Mr Matata denies wrongdoing, Reuters news agency reports. The ruling means Mr Matata can now hope to return to his parliamentary role as a senator.