Foreign

Pope Leo XIV to be inaugurated May 18

The Vatican on Friday announced that Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration will take place on May 18 with a mass in St. Peter’s Square, following his election to succeed Pope Francis.

The ceremony is to take place at 10a.m (0800 GMT) May 18 at the Vatican.

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was announced as the first U.S. pontiff on Thursday after white smoke emerged from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel following four rounds of voting in the papal conclave.

The new pope is set to keep Francis’ top employees in the Vatican in place for the time being, the Holy See said.

The first of his weekly general audiences is planned for May 21.

NAN

Port Harcourt DisCo explains blackout in Cross River

The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) has attributed the ongoing blackout in Calabar and surrounding areas of Cross River to persistent rainfall and severe windstorm in the state.

Mrs Olubukola Ilevbare, Head of Corporate Communications at PHED, confirmed the development in an interview with the the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt on Friday.

She stated that the incident occurred on May 7 and caused significant damage to PHED’s power lines.

“The sever rain and heavy windstorm that took place on Wednesday between 4:45 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. was responsible for the outage.

“The extreme weather conditions damaged PHED’s power infrastructure, resulting in an electricity outage in Calabar and other neighbouring Local Government Areas,” she said.

Ilevbare, however, gave assurances that the company was taking steps to restore power supply to affected customers in the state as swiftly as possible.

She apologised for the inconvenience currently being experienced by electric users due to the blackout.

“We also extend our deepest sympathies to individuals and organisations whose properties were damaged during the storm.

“We understand the extent of the disruption and appeal to our customers to remain patient, as our technical team is working to restore normal service as soon as possible,” Ilevbare added.

NAN

NUJ advocates domestication of national sports policy in C’ River
The Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Cross River Council, has advocated adoption of the National Sports Policy in the state to boost home-grown talent discovery and development.
The union made the call  at a sports conference it organised on Friday.
The conference was part of activities to mark the union’s 2025 Media Week, which commenced on Monday.
The conference, which attracted policy makers,journalists among other professionals, had the theme, “Journalism, Good Governance and the Quest for Sports Development: the Cross River Perspective”.
Speaking during the conference in Calabar,  Dr Bong Duke, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Cross River Planning Commission, said domesticating the national sports policy should not be optional, but imperative for the state’s future.
Speaking on the topic,”Harnessing Sports for Development: The Case for Policy Domestication in Cross River,” Duke said if the domestication was achieved, it would help to boost sporting standard in the state.
He said it would also boost economic diversification  and job creation, social benefits as well as  funding for sports
According to him, some of the challenges of sports in the state include
overlapping roles between the Ministry of Sports, Sports Commission, and local councils in addition to weak policy implementation.
“Others are  over-reliance on government budgets without structured private-sector participation and poor talent identification systems leaving rural talents undiscovered,” he said.
While giving a framework for effective sports management in the state, he urged the State Executive Council to approve the revised sports policy and called on the State Assembly to prioritise the Sports Development Bill.
He also encouraged corporate organisations to adopt athlete scholarships and facility sponsorships, urging  the media to hold stakeholders accountable through investigative reporting.
While declaring the conference open, the state deputy governor , Mr Peter Odey, represented by his Press Secretary, Mr Fred Abua, congratulated the union on the week  and  encouraged them to uphold the highest standards of journalism ethics.

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