Headline
Again, FG Talks Tough, Threatens To Revoke Lokoja-Benin Road Contract

The Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, has again threatened to revoke the sections I-IV Lokoja-Benin, Obajana Junction Benin roads in Kogi and Edo States should the contractors handling the project fail to sign the reviewed contract.
Umahi issued the fresh threat during a meeting with the contractors in his office, in Abuja, yesterday.
The Miniater had in March issued a similar threat during a visit to the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki. He had expressed displeasure over the slow pace of work earlier this year.
Representatives of the contractors messers Mothercat Ltd, CCECC Ltd, Dantat & Sawoe Ltd, CGC Ltd and RCC Ltd attended the latest meeting with the minister in his Abuja office, on Thursday.
The minister also directed staff of his Ministry to, within 7 days , carry out a comprehensive audit of the ongoing projects with a view to knowing the status of work done, the capacity of personnel and equipment being used by the contractors.
READ ALSO: Umahi Threatens To Revoke Road Contract In Edo
Umahi did not mince words when he expressed displeasure at what he described as the pranks being played by the contractors.
He noted that they were part of the process of re-scoping and reviewing the contract specifications but that they failed to sign the review contract documents after signing that they would do the job based on the new specification.
Umahi said, ”The project was initially N121 billion, but before the administration of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the project was already reviewed to about over N870 billion .
“When I came in as Minister, I saw that the project was over-bloated, and I refused to take the No Objection to FEC. I had to go through the road myself, and I realized that some sections of the road could not survive asphalt.
“So we started meetings that took us over five months with all the contractors, and in the meetings, we agreed to re-scope the project. So we re-scoped the project where we said okay, the new lanes should be done on concrete and the other ones done on asphalt.
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“So, we kept the contracts up and we all signed the documents and based on signing the documents, we took it to BPP and from BPP we went to FEC, and before we went to FEC, we demanded for them to approve that they can do the job. They all gave us letters of approval.”
He wondered why contractors were given jobs without having the required manpower and equipment to execute, and warned that henceforth, any contractor signing a contract must sign alongside the basic rate and timeline.
The minister furthersaid, ”The position of the government is that if you are not signing the contracts between today and tomorrow, you will forgo the jobs. You can go to court. We will not enter into any condition for further negotiation.
“This contract is over N2 billion per kilometer. You don’t have equipment to do the work. Let me even assure you that if you are signing the contract, you will sign it alongside the basic rates.
“You sign it alongside the timetable, and you deploy in three sections, or I will terminate the job. Enough of playing with the psyche of the people.”
He declared that the Ministry would not allow any contractor to hold the nation to ransom or to impose their conditions on the Ministry.
READ ALSO: Alleged Discrimination: FG Seals Abuja Chinese Supermarket
Umahi said, “You don’t want to work, leave the job. It’s not compulsory that you must be the one to do the job. You can not be on site, and the people are dying.
“The vehicles are falling down, and you’re playing politics with the lives of the people. And we fold our hands and leave you for what? You can’t be on site….So if you are not working, pack your things out of that site.”
In his remarks, the Director, Highways (SP) South, Engr. C.A Ogbuagu gave account of the techinical processes undertaken by the Ministry before Federal Executive Council approved the augmentation of the project,
which the contractors accepted, and letters of award were given to them.
He expressed suprise that the contractors refused to sign the new document.
He said, “After the FEC’s approval of the argumentation, the legal department was brought in so that this new contract will now be executed so that work will continue on site. So, for about two weeks now, the draft addendum has been with the contractors, and none of them has positively responded, except RCC.”
In its response, the representative of the CGC said, “for our side, and firstly for our section, and currently we are seriously working. And secondly, we have a sent the draft to the Head Office And there there is any issue, we have answered them and may be later tomorrow morning, we can get the approval from them so we can go ahead.”
Headline
White House Slams Trump’s Nobel Prize Snub

The White House lashed out at the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday after it awarded the peace prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and overlooked US President Donald Trump.
“The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung said on X.
“President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives. He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will.”
READ ALSO:White House Threatens Mass Firings Amid Stalled Shutdown Talks
Since returning to the White House for his second term in January, Trump had repeatedly insisted that he deserved the Nobel for his role in resolving numerous conflicts — a claim observers say is broadly exaggerated.
Trump restated his claim on the eve of the peace prize announcement, saying that his brokering of the first phase of a ceasefire in Gaza this week was the eighth war he had ended.
But he added on Thursday: “Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn’t do it for that, I did it because I’ve saved a lot of lives.”
Nobel Prize experts in Oslo had insisted in the run-up to Friday’s announcement that Trump had no chance, noting that his “America First” policies run counter to the ideals of the Peace Prize as laid out in Alfred Nobel’s 1895 will creating the award.
AFP
Headline
Transgender Woman Jailed For Deceiving Man About Gender In UK

A British court has sentenced a transgender woman, Ciara Watkin, to 21 months in prison for deceiving a man into sexual activity by falsely claiming to be a biological female.
According to a BBC report on Friday, the victim told Durham Crown Court he would not have consented to the sexual encounter had he known Watkin was biologically male.
The court heard that Watkin, 21, from Thornaby in Stockton-on-Tees, was found guilty of sexual assault after jurors rejected her claim that the man “would have realised” her gender identity.
Recorder Peter Makepeace KC said he was “certain” the victim “fully believed from start to finish” that Watkin was a woman due to her “lies and deception.”
READ ALSO:NERC Transfers Regulation Of Electricity Market To Bayelsa
Watkin, who was born male and had used the name Ciara since childhood, had not undergone any medical transition or surgery, the BBC reported.
Both Watkin and the victim were 18 when they met on Snapchat, where she used a female cartoon character as her profile picture. They later met in person, leading to sexual contact. Prosecutor Paul Reid told the court that Watkin even claimed to be menstruating to stop the man from touching her below the waist.
When Watkin later confessed to being biologically male, the man said he was “physically sick” and immediately reported the matter to the police.
“He said he was shocked and upset about being deceived, adding that he felt ashamed, embarrassed, and had been ridiculed online due to Watkin’s actions and deception,” the report stated.
READ ALSO:Transgender Inmates Panic As Trump Orders Transfer To Men’s Prisons
The victim, who described himself as heterosexual, told the court he felt “part of his masculinity was taken away.”
Defence counsel Victoria Lamballe argued that Watkin’s actions were not “predatory or sadistic” but stemmed from “shame and a deep sense of discomfort” with her own body.
She said Watkin, who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, identified as female from primary school and had endured years of bullying.
“It is hardly surprising that Watkin built up a façade and presented almost as a caricature of herself to mask the inner turmoil she feels at having been born into the wrong body,” Lamballe said, adding that Watkin “simply wanted to be loved.”
READ ALSO:Transgender Inmates Panic As Trump Orders Transfer To Men’s Prisons
However, Recorder Makepeace ruled that the victim was “totally deceived,” saying Watkin had lied to “get away” with her deception and was aware the man would not have consented if he knew her biological sex.
The judge also criticised Watkin’s attitude during the trial, describing her as “flippant, disinterested, and bored,” showing “not a shred of remorse.”
He said, “At the heart of this case was your frustration at wanting sexual experiences with heterosexual males, which, by definition, you needed to deceive to achieve.”
Watkin will serve her sentence in a male prison, where authorities said protective measures would be taken to ensure her safety. She will also remain on the sex offenders register for 10 years and has been issued a lifetime restraining order preventing contact with the victim.
Detective Constable Martin Scotson of Cleveland Police said Watkin “purposely concealed her sex in order for the sexual activity to take place,” adding that he hoped the conviction would allow the victim to “move forward with his life.”
Headline
Burkina Rejects US Deportees, Calls Trump’s Proposal Indecent

Captain-Ibrahim-Traore
Burkina Faso, ruled by a junta hostile to the West, has refused to take in people kicked out of the United States, in a snub to one of President Donald Trump’s signature migration policies.
Since Trump’s return to the White House, his administration has made deporting people to third countries — often to nations they have no connection to — part of a sweeping immigration crackdown.
In Africa, Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda and South Sudan have all accepted people expelled from the United States in recent months. But late on Thursday, Burkina Faso’s foreign affairs minister said the west African country had refused Washington’s overtures.
READ ALSO:Junta-led Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger To Launch Common Passport
“Naturally, this proposal, which we considered indecent at the time, runs completely contrary to the principle of dignity,” Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore said on national television.
Hours earlier, the US embassy in the capital Ouagadougou announced the suspension of regular services for most visas for people living in Burkina Faso.
Instead, Burkinabe citizens will now have their services handled in Lome, the capital of neighbouring Togo.
“Is this a way to put pressure on us? Is this blackmail? Whatever it is… Burkina Faso is a place of dignity, a destination, not a place of expulsion,” Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore said.
READ ALSO:US Deportations ‘Profoundly Disturbing” — UN Official
Burkina Faso’s leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, styles himself as an anti-imperialist Pan-African strongman.
Since seizing power in a coup in September 2022, he has shunned former colonial master France and the wider West, forging closer ties with Russia instead.
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