HOPELINE GIST

Unknown gunmen  Residents of Gidan-goga Village of Maradun Local Government Area in Zamfara State have finally paid the N20million levy imposed on them by the dreaded bandits’ leader, Bello Turji. Recall, that Turji had imposed the N20m levy on the residents of the village and asked them to pay the money on or before Sunday, November 27, or face his warth. He threatened to attack the village if the money was not paid on or before the deadline. An indigene of the area who begged for anonymity on security reasons, told The PUNCH that the money was paid yesterday (Sunday) adding that some people who fled to other places, had started returning to the village. “Many people including myself have returned to the village because of the payment of the levy.” He stressed that an additional amount of N6m was also paid by the community for the release of five people abducted by Turji’s men some weeks ago. “We paid additional sum of N6 million for the release of five people abducted by the terr...

  The lowest price the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited can sell Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, to marketers, assuming there is no subsidy, is N400/litre, it has been learnt. Oil marketers, who made the disclosure on Sunday, also gave other reasons for the continued scarcity of petrol, which had led to the lingering queues at filling stations nationwide. NNPC petrol price without subsidy They said PMS imports charges were becoming unbearable for the sole importer of the commodity – the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, disclosing that the NNPC had been subtly pushing these charges to deport owners The source added, “The subsidised ex-depot rate for petrol from NNPC is about N147/litre, but tell me, which depot is selling at that rate today? I know somebody who said he bought from a depot at N182/litre. And he got it at this rate because he did bulk purchase, he bought about 20 trucks. “And he bought it from one of the major marketing companies....

Abdul seye The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has reached a new agreement with the federal government. The leadership of the House of Representatives on Tuesday brokered the new agreement after four hours of meeting at the National Assembly in Abuja. However, the agreement is subject to the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari, who is currently at the United Nations General Assembly meeting at the UN. The President of ASUU, Emmanuel Osodeke led the Union to the meeting, while the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Opiah represented the federal government. After the closed-door session, Femi Gbajabiamila, who chaired the meeting announced that the meeting produced some agreements, however, he did not state the agreement reached. He disclosed that the lawmakers will present the agreement to president Buhari upon his arrival, while ASUU is to do the same with their members. “There were basically seven areas where ASUU has presented what we considered to be requisitio...