Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah has sworn in the newly appointed commissioners that will constitute the State Executive Council, charging them to get down to work immediately as the administration was in a hurry to deliver on its campaign promises.

The newly sworn-in commissioners include Prof. Ndubueze Mbah, Mrs. Ngozi Enih, Engr. Lawrence Ezeh, Prof. Sam Ugwu, Pharm. Chika Ugwoke, Dr. Kingsley Udeh, and Prof. Emmanuel Obi.

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Other are Deacon Okey Ogbodo, Dame Ugochi Madueke, Barr. Lloyd Ekweremadu, Engr. Gerald Otiji, Nathaniel Uramah, Dr. Malachy Agbo, Mr. Aka Eze Aka, Adaora Chukwu, Dr. Martin Chulwunweike, Obi Ozor, Emeka Ajogwu, Chris Robert Ozongwu, Dr. Felix Nnamani and Patrick Ubro.

Reiterating his commitment to the exponential growth of the state’s economy, speedy provision of socio-economic infrastructure, and human capital development in the state, Mbah said the new commissioners were products of a painstaking search for quality hands to help his administration to deliver on its manifesto.

“We expressed a massive vision, a vision that would see us growing our economy exponentially. We also promised our people to eradicate poverty. We want to make Enugu State the premier destination for investment.

“Those are laudable and lofty ideas. But one thing we knew also, when we made those promises, was that we needed a team that will convey our people from where we are today to that destination we want to take them to. For this reason, the process that resulted in your selection was quite rigorous and detailed.

“So, I want to congratulate all of you for at least making it on this list. In about 100 days from now, Enugu people want to turn their taps and see water flowing from those taps. We have promised them. So, they are expectant.

“We want to have access to quality education. We want to have access to quality healthcare services. We want to attract investments to Enugu and it will require you, deploying not only your skills, but also making sure that you acquire those new skills that we need to fix the challenges of breaking new grounds of economic development and growth.

“So, your selection was largely driven by your track-records, your experience, your background and it’s our hope that you are going to bring those experiences to bear and to work for the people of Enugu State.

“In this journey of greatness, this journey of growth, this journey of development, I look forward to working with you all to actualisae the Enugu State of our dreams, together”, the governor stated.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Dr. Martin Chulwunweoke assued the governor that they would not fail him or the state.

“On behalf of all the commissioners, I say that we are very grateful and feel highly honoured for this opportunity to serve. And I will say that with all our hearts, we are committed to delivering an Enugu State of your dream and our dream. We will do all within our power, with unalloyed loyalty”, he assured.

The Russian space programme launched its first moon-landing spacecraft in 47 years, on Friday.

This is in a bid to be the first nation to make a soft landing on the lunar south pole, a region believed to hold coveted pockets of water ice, according to Reuters.

The Russian lunar mission, the first since 1976, is racing against India, which launched its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander last month, and more broadly with the United States and China, both of which have advanced lunar exploration programs targeting the lunar south pole.

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A Soyuz 2.1 rocket carrying the Luna-25 craft blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome, 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow, at 2:11 a.m. on Friday Moscow time (1111 GMT on Thursday).

The lander was boosted out of Earth’s orbit toward the moon over an hour later, at which point mission control took command of the craft, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said.

The lander is expected to touch down on the moon on August 21, Russia’s space chief Yuri Borisov told state television, though the space agency previously pegged August 23 as the landing date.

“Now we will wait for the 21st. I hope that a highly precise soft landing on the moon will take place,” Borisov told workers at the Vostochny Cosmodrome after the launch. “We hope to be first.”

Luna-25, roughly the size of a small car, will aim to operate for a year on the moon’s south pole, where scientists at NASA and other space agencies in recent years have detected traces of water ice in the region’s shadowed craters.

There is much riding on the Luna-25 mission, as the Kremlin says the West’s sanctions over the Ukraine war, many of which have targeted Moscow’s aerospace sector, have failed to cripple the Russian economy.

The moonshot, which Russia has been planning for decades, will also test the nation’s growing independence in space after its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine severed nearly all of Moscow’s space ties with the West, besides its integral role on the International Space Station.

The European Space Agency had planned to test its Pilot-D navigation camera by attaching it to Luna-25 but severed its ties to the project after Russia invaded Ukraine.

“Russia’s aspirations towards the moon are mixed up in a lot of different things. I think first and foremost, it’s an expression of national power on the global stage,” Asif Siddiqi, professor of history at Fordham University, told Reuters.

U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong gained renown in 1969 for being the first person to walk on the moon, but the Soviet Union’s Luna-2 mission was the first spacecraft to reach the moon’s surface in 1959, and the Luna-9 mission in 1966 was the first to make a soft landing there.

Moscow then focused on exploring Mars and since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has not sent scientific probes beyond Earth orbit.

For centuries, astronomers have wondered about water on the moon, which is 100 times drier than the Sahara. NASA maps in 2018 showed water ice in shadowed parts of the moon, and in 2020 NASA confirmed water also existed in sunlit areas.

Major powers such as the United States, China, India, Japan, and the European Union have all been probing the moon in recent years. A Japanese lunar landing failed last year and an Israeli mission failed in 2019.

No country has made a soft landing on the south pole. An Indian mission, Chandrayaan-2, failed in 2019.

Rough terrain makes a landing there difficult, but the prize of discovering water ice could be historic: large could be used to extract fuel and oxygen, as well as be used for drinking water.

Borisov said at least three other lunar missions were planned over the next seven years, and that after that Russia and China would work on a possible crewed lunar mission.

“My colleagues and I from China will move on to the next phase – the possibility of a manned mission to the Moon and the construction of a lunar base,” he said.

Maxim Litvak, head of the planning group for the Luna-25 scientific equipment, said the most important task was to land where no one else had landed – and to find water.

“There are signs of ice in the soil of the Luna-25 landing area,” he said, adding that Luna-25 would work on the moon for at least an Earth year, taking samples.

Roscosmos said that it would take five days to fly to the moon. The craft will spend 5-7 days in lunar orbit before descending to one of three possible landing sites near the pole – a timetable that implies it could match or narrowly beat its Indian rival to the moon’s surface.

Chandrayaan-3 is due to run experiments for two weeks.

With a mass of 1.8 tons and carrying 31 kg (68 pounds) of scientific equipment, Luna-25 will use a scoop to take rock samples from a depth of up to 15 cm (6 inches) to test for the presence of frozen water.

Former South African President Jacob Zuma dances on stage before addressing his supporters following the postponement of his corruption trial outside the Pietermaritzburg High Court in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, on May 26, 2021.

South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma reported back to prison on Friday only to be swiftly released, in the latest twist over the 81-year-old’s contempt of court sentence.

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Zuma was ordered to report back to prison and arrived at 6:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) at a detention facility in the eastern town of Estcourt, where he was “admitted into the system”, the prison service said.

But he was let go in just over an hour as part of a “remission process” aiming to address overcrowding in prison, according to Correctional Services national commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale.

“Upon admission into the system he was subjected to administrative processes… He was then released,” Thobakgale told a press conference in Pretoria.

Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in June 2021 after refusing to testify before a panel probing financial corruption and cronyism under his presidency, but was freed on medical parole just two months into his term.

He started serving his term early in July 2021.

His jailing sparked protests that descended into riots and looting that left more than 350 dead in the worst violence to hit the country since the advent of democracy in South Africa.

The following month, he was admitted to the hospital for an undisclosed condition before being granted medical parole.

In November last year an appeals court found the release was illegally granted and ordered Zuma back to the Estcourt Correctional Centre in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province.

South Africa’s prison service, which had granted Zuma’s conditional release, appealed the decision, but the bid was dismissed by the Constitutional Court last month.

Thobakgale said the ex-president was ordered to return to jail on Friday in compliance with the ruling.

But Zuma immediately benefited from a remission of non-violent offenders approved by President Cyril Ramaphosa, Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said.

More than 24,000 inmates, about two-thirds of them under correctional supervision and parole, are to be released under the process, said Lamola.

The move “will alleviate overcrowding,” which “poses a direct threat to inmate health, security, and management, and it could lead to a surge in gangsterism,” the minister said.

Mzwanele Manyi, a spokesman for Zuma’s foundation, said the ex-president was “at home” and consulting with his legal team.

Zuma served as president from 2009 to 2018 before being forced out over graft allegations.

Besides his 2021 contempt of court conviction he is facing separate charges of corruption in an arms procurement scandal dating to the late 1990s, when he was vice president.

Governors of the five South-East states met on Thursday at the Government House, Enugu, Enugu State.

The governors, who constitute the regional South-East Governors’ Forum, are Alex Otti (Abia), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo (Anambra), Francis Nwifuru (Ebonyi), Dr Peter Mbah (Enugu) and Senator Hope Uzodimma (Imo).

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Today’s meeting marks the first to be held among the five governors since the inauguration of new governors into office on May 29, 2023.

It was gathered one of the things featured prominently on the agenda was the Monday sit-at-home enforced in the region by the Indigenous People of Biafra and the demand for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the separatist group, IPOB, who has been in the custody of the Department of State Services since June 2021.

A Federal High Court in Lagos, on Thursday, fixed August 15 to entertain applications regarding the custody of Godwin Emefiele, suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Emefiele is facing trial on a two-count charge bordering on “illegal possession” of firearms.

During proceedings on Thursday, K.A. Fagbemi, the prosecuting counsel, asked the court to hear the Federal Government’s application seeking a stay of execution of the court order on Emefiele’s bail.

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Fagbemi said the Federal government filed its application first and served it on the defence counsels on August 4.

Responding, Victor Opara, counsel to Emefiele, said priority should not be given to the Federal Government based on the time of filing since the court order was disobeyed.

Opara argued that the applications of both parties should be entertained on the same day.

He added that the federal government has nothing to lose since the defendant is in its custody.

After listening to both arguments, the judge ruled that the applications filed by both parties will be heard on August 15.

Recall on July 25, Emefiele was granted bail in the sum of N2omillion by Justice Oweibo. The judge, however, ordered that the suspended apex bank boss be kept in the custody of the Nigeria Correctional Service pending the fulfillment of his bail conditions.

But the Department of State Services insisted that Emefiele must return to its custody, a development that led to the face-off between the secret police and prison officials.

After the face-off, DSS rearrested Emefiele on the court premises.

The secret service proceeded to file an application before a high court of the federal capital territory seeking to further detain the suspended CBN governor.

The application was struck out after it was withdrawn by the service over jurisdictional concerns.

On August 3, the Federal Government also filed an application before the federal high court in Lagos, seeking leave to appeal the order granting bail to Emefiele.

In the application filed by Nkiru Jones-Nebo, a deputy director of public prosecutions of the federation, the federal government also sought a stay of execution of the order remanding Emefiele in the custody of the NCoS.