• Governor Otti

Abia state has emerged among the top-performing states in the 2026 BudgIT Report, covering 2017-2025.

The Abia State Commissioner for Information, Okey Kanu, who made the disclosure in Umuahia during a chat with newsmen, noted that the BudgIT 2026 Report ranked Abia second in aggregate revenue growth, third in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) growth, first in total expenditure growth, capital expenditure growth, and personnel expenditure growth.

The commissioner said the performance reflected the administration’s prudent and strategic management of public resources.

“Abia State’s combination of revenue mobilisation, capital investment expansion, and administrative cost restraint points to a story of adroit and prudent management of resources,” said Kanu .

The Federal Government has set up a committee for the activation of the 112 national emergency number.

The committee comprises the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and other relevant agencies.

NEC had recently approved 112 as Nigeria’s single universal toll-free emergency number to replace fragmented and slow response lines, with a view to eliminating bureaucratic red tape and allowing citizens easy access to rapid assistance during fires, accidents, medical crises or security breaches.

Addressing stakeholders during the National Emergency Number 112 Project meeting , yesterday, Vice President Kashim Shettima, urged the committee to ensure its decisions were based on global best practices in order to develop a clear roadmap.

He charged the committee to finalise the roadmap and standard operating procedures for formal NEC endorsement,

Shettima stressed the need to make significant progress, assuring stakeholders that resources would be made available to fund the process once progress became visible.

“Let’s make progress so that whatever time we have spent here is worth spending. And most importantly, the engine is finance. It is resources to drive the process. And I want to assure you that we will get the resources,” the Vice President stated.

•Peter Onwubuariri

Assistant Director, Media, at the Presidential Villa, Peter Onwubuariri, has died in Kano after a prolonged illness.

Onwubuariri, a veteran journalist and staff member of the News Agency of Nigeria, died at the age of 48, according to his wife, Catherine Ezinna Onwubuariri.

He reportedly died on Monday after receiving treatment for about a month at the Kano Cancer Hospital under the state government’s treatment authorisation.

His remains were released from the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital on Tuesday for burial in Owerri, Imo State.

The corpse was handed over to Deputy Director, Information and Public Relations, State House, Oche Egwa, on behalf of the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.