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Jos Monarch Wants Confab Report Revisited

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Jos Monarch Wants Confab Report Revisited
The Gbong Gwom Jos, Jacob Da Buba
The Gbong Gwom Jos, Jacob Buba

Chairman of the Plateau State council of Traditional rulers, Da Jacob Buba has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to take a second look at the report of the National Conference convoked by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Gbong Gwom Jos made the remarks when Samuel Ankeli, the Senior Special Adviser to President Buhari on Disability Matters, paid him a courtesy visit in his palace in Jos, the Plateau State capital.

He acknowledged that the Confab was not a perfect one, but added that its recommendations were not entirely irrelevant as to be thrown into the dust bin.

Buba said some areas of the report of the National Conference, if implemented, would improve the lot of the citizens and add value to the society.

The Royal father also assured people living with disability in the State that the council of traditional rulers would work to create room for them to contribute their quota in improving the values in the society.

He commended President Buhari for appointing a disabled person as a Special Adviser on Disabled Matters and urged the SSA not to relent in his efforts to make life easier for physically challenged persons.

He said: “I appreciate what you are doing, we are going to work together because there are values which people with disability can add to the society.

“Honestly we do not consciously consider the disabled persons in projects but I promise to accommodate the needs of the disabled in our projects.

“At the national conference, many issues including that of the disabled were discussed.

“President Buhari should have a look at the recommendations made; they may not be perfect but can add value to governance.

“We can leverage on them to build the capacity of the disabled and the traditional institution will lend its support in your areas of engagement with government,” Buba said.

Ankeli, who is on a nationwide tour to sensitize the people on the need to give the disabled to chance to add value in the society, called on traditional rulers and all leaders in different sections of the country to commit themselves to the course of the physically challenged.

The presidential aide stressed that children with disability must be allowed to attend schools so as to gain knowledge which will enable them contribute their quota in governance and eradicate the begging habit which some disabled persons engage in.

Ankeli said, “We are touring the 36 States to discuss disability issues. People with disability are Nigerians but this set of over 25 million people suffer the most in every situation.

Samuel Ankeli, SSA to the president on Disabilities matters
Samuel Ankeli, SSA to the president on Disabilities matters

“When there is crisis, they suffer the most so the rights and privileges of the disabled should be protected.

“We are here to ask you as an ambassador for the disabled persons to advocate to include the disabled persons in discussions.

“A living dog is better than a dead lion, we can do things better than some able bodied because our brains are functional but the key is education and empowerment.

 

“Three million children living with disability are out of schools. Encourage parents to release their disabled children to go to school and people should not harass or intimidate them.

“We are also being faced with the challenge of marriage, people don’t like marrying us but our brains are intact. Please talk to people to allow their children marry the disabled if they so desire.

“The disabled are not remembered for titles but we can contribute our quota if given the opportunity. We need all the supports from government, traditional rulers and individual to add value to the society,” the presidential aide said.

Commonwealth Calls Gender Inequality “Greatest Hindrance” To Development

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Commonwealth Calls Gender Inequality “Greatest Hindrance” To Development
Commonwealth Ministers of women Affairs met in Apia, the capital of Samoa
Commonwealth Ministers of women Affairs met in Apia, the capital of Samoa

The Commonwealth has identified gender inequality as one of the major hindrances to development in Africa.

The Commonwealth secretariat said this in a press release following its Women Affairs Ministerial Meeting in Apia, Samoa.

According to the statement, the under-representation of women and increasing gender inequalities must be reversed if sustainable development goals are to be met.

Patricia Scotland, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth said: “An increased empowerment and inclusion of women is not just about fairness, it’s about huge economic opportunity that is otherwise simply missed.

She said this during the Commonwealth 11th triennial meeting of mostly female leaders and campaigners from around the commonwealth member-nations.

The meeting had climate change as its standalone priority but also highlighted the inclusion of women in adaptation interventions as key to success.

“Climate change most severely threatens the poor of this planet, the majority of whom are women.  Yet, exclusion and marginalisation prevent women from participating in tackling such an important issue,” Scotland said.

Experts say Climate change poses life-threatening risk to everyone on the planet, and is of particular threat to small island states such as the host Pacific island of Samoa.

A UNDP report estimates the cost of mitigating the effects of climate change to be between $249 billion to $1,371 billion annually by 2030.

Sustainable Development Goals, SDG, number 13, set targets for effective climate-change planning in least developed and developing states that focus on women, children and marginalised communities.

Mariama Williams, Senior Programme Officer at the intergovernmental organisation South Centre, said: “If we are going to meet SDG 13, climate financing is a priority. It must not exacerbate gender inequalities but instead progress gender equality.”

She said: “We need to know how much is going to reach women. This needs gender analysis of distribution to ensure it reaches women’s organisations and local projects to build their capacity and become more involved globally.”

“We know that women die more than men during natural disasters. We know children and pregnant women are more susceptible to vector and water borne diseases. Finance facilities can no longer simply be gender sensitive but must be transformative, gender responsive and inclusive. Gender cannot be secondary, it is crosscutting in mitigation, adaption and policy.”

The Secretary-General, Scotland corroborated  Williams’ position, adding that: “We must make the connections, economic and social, social and environmental, that will ensure truly lasting development, with no-one left behind. Alone we are invisible, together we are invincible.”

Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau Lead In Road Crashes

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Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau Lead In Road Crashes

benue-nasarawa-plateau-lead-in-road-crashes

The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, has revealed that zone 4, made up of Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau States has the highest rate of road accidents in the country.

The Corp Marshal and Chief Executive of FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi, stated this during a speech to flag off the sensitisation rally on the speed limiting devices and the 2016 ember months campaign in Jos.

He said the zone last year recorded 905 accidents, in which 279 people died.

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He however, said in 2015, road accidents in the zone decreased to 784, but it still recorded 331 deaths- the highest number of fatalities.

He said these accidents were largely caused by human error such as over speeding and urged motorists to exercise caution while driving in these ember months.

Oyeyemi said, “Over time, the corps, through research and statistics has established that speed and speed related offences have been responsible for high percentage of crashes (over 60 per cent) and this prompted the introduction of the speed limiting devices.”

In 2015, a total of 12,077 road crashes were recorded, and  5,400 people, representing 65 percent of those involved in the crashes, lost their lives.

 

Buhari Asks Nigerians To Change

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Buhari Asks Nigerians To Change
President Buhari handing over the "Change begins with med" campaign document to Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed
President Buhari handing over the “Change begins with me” campaign document to Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed

President Muhammadu Buhari has called on Nigerians to be agents of change and to be patient with his administration, saying that “the change we seek will not happen overnight.”

The president made the remarks during a ceremony to officially launch the National re-orientation campaign tagged “Change Begins With Me” in Abuja on Thursday.

“We are under no illusion that the change we seek will happen overnight but we have no doubt that the campaign will help restore our value system and rekindle our national power,” he said.

Buhari said the campaign, which will last throughout his tenure, has become imperative due to the fact that “our value system has been badly eroded over the years.”

He said: “The long-cherished and time-honoured, time-tested virtues of honesty, integrity, hardwork, punctuality, good neighbourliness, abhorrence of corruption and patriotism have given way to dishonesty, intolerance, indolence, unbridled corruption and wide-spread impunity.

“The resultant effect of this derailment in our value system is being felt in the social, political and economic sphere.

“This campaign is part of the determination of our party to seek to carry Nigerians along on the journey to a better and greater society that we can all be proud of.”

President Buhari urged citizens to view change “not merely in terms of our economy and social progress, but in terms of our personal behavior, on how we conduct ourselves, engage our neighbours, friends and, generally, how we relate to the larger society in a positive and definitive way to promote our common good and common destiny.”

“I am therefore appealing to all Nigerians to be part of this campaign.

“In other words, before you ask ‘where is the change they promised us?’ you must first ask, ‘how far have I changed my ways? What have I done to be part of the change for a greater society,” he said.

The “Change begins with me campaign” is a brainchild of the National Orientation Agency, NOA, under the federal ministry of information and culture, headed by  Lai Mohammed.

Electricity Company Cry Out Over Activities Of Vandals

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Electricity Company Cry Out Over Activities Of Vandals

kano-electricity-company-cries-out-over-vandals

Kano Electricity Distribution Company Plc, KEDCO, said it lost materials worth N108,831,550 to vandals in the state within a period of six weeks.

Spokesman of the company, Mohammed Kandi, said items lost to vandals include transformer oil, aluminium conductors, cables and other valuable

He said the increase in vandalism, energy theft and meter bypass in KEDCO areas of operation had become unbearable.

Kandi said the development had caused the company huge losses and setbacks within the period under review, calling on the customers, who bear the brunt to watch over the installations in their areas.

He quoted KEDCO’s Chief Technical Officer,CTO, David Omoloye, as saying “the quantity of vandalized materials from August to date include: 46.5 drums of transformer oil, 2, 130 aluminium conductors (150mm2), 4, 500 aluminium conductors (100mm2), 535 and 15 (150mm2&70mm2).”

He added that other items vandalised  include 825 XLPE Cable (35mm2), 529 (500mm2) &161 (300mm2) Incomer Cables and 40 Busbar.

Omoloye, an engineer, disclosed that these crimes were common in Sabon Gari, Sharada, Tudun Wada, Dala, Dakata, Dutse, Funtua, Hadejia, Kabuga, Katsina, Kumbotso, Malunfashi, Mariri and Nasarawa.

“I am appealing to all our esteemed customers in Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states to safe guard our installations in their domains because when the damage is done they suffers weeks of blackout,” he stated.

IGP Warns BBOG campaigners Against Lawlessness

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IGP Warns BBOG campaigners Against Lawlessness
The Police has consistently prevented the BBOG group from entering the presidential villa
The Police has consistently prevented the BBOG group from entering the presidential villa

Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Ibrahim Idris has issued a stern warning to members of the ‘BringBackOurGirls’, BBOG, campaign group to carry out their protest within the ambit of the law and refrain from deliberative provocation of law enforcement officers.

The campaigners have been protesting every 72 hours in the FCT, demanding to have an audience with President Muhammadu Buhari.

On Tuesday, however, a pro-Buhari group clashed with the Chibok girls campaigners, alleging that the campaign was being sponsored by supposed enemies of the Buhari administration.

IGP Idris, whose appointment was recently ratified by the Nigerian Police Council, pointed out that the BBOG protests posed a threat to public peace and order.

He explained that if the aim of protests is to draw attention to a particular issue, then the group had achieved their objective.

The IGP made the remarks in Abuja while receiving the National President of the National Council of Women Societies, NCWS, Gloria Shoda and other executive members of the association.

He said: “The police management is aware of the agitation and the plight of parents of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls and other civil groups. As parents ourselves, we sympathize with them in these trying moments.

“Evidently, the government has invested huge resources in ensuring that the girls are rescued and re-united with their various families.

“However, the activities of the “BringBackOurGirls” group in Abuja, the nation’s capital recently, is becoming worrisome and a threat to public peace and order.

“Bring Back Our Girls protagonists must understand that in the exercise of their rights, they must not trample on other peoples’ rights through “over-dramatization of emotions, self-serving propaganda and disrespect of public (office) holders.

“The police will not sit on the fence and watch such a scenario unfold. The rights of law-abiding citizens must be protected within the context of the law and we believe that enough is enough.

“I watched them on television saying they were enforcing their rights. Every citizen of this country has rights and we believe that where your right ends, the rights of others begin and we should try to conduct ourselves in such a way that everybody in the process of enforcing right, do not encroach on the rights of others.

“I believe that blocking the highway or stopping traffic and over dramatization of emotion, trying to confront and provoke policemen, I don’t think that is part of enforcement of rights because even the policemen have rights and they are doing it lawfully.

“The essence of procession is to bring the attention of the society or the government to your plight and I think the demonstration has been going on for too long. We believe and advice that it is time for them to maintain some level of control so that people of Abuja can live in peace and tranquility.

“We however ask that they tread with caution and that their grievances be channeled within the ambit of the law,” Idris added.

He drew the group’s attention to the movement of other persons as enshrined in Chapter 4 Section 41 of the 1999 constitution as amended.

“Pressure groups should not resort to arm-twisting of government in order to achieve their aim,” he added.

INEC Ignores Advise To Postpone Edo Election

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The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said it will go ahead with Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State as planned.

This was disclosed  by the commission’s Director of Publicity and Voters’ Education, Oluwole Ozzi, on Thursday.

“We are going ahead with the election,” Oluwole said in a short text message.

The commission had earlier said it was carrying out wide consultations after it was advised by the police and the Department of State Services, DSS, to postpone the election.

The security agencies said that the advice was based on credible intelligence at their disposal, that insurgents were planning to attack communities and soft targets with high population during the forthcoming Sallah celebrations between September 12 and 13.

According to them, Edo State is one of the states that have been earmarked for these planned attacks.

In a joint statement, the police and the DSS reminded the public that similar threats were earlier issued during the Labour Day and Democracy Day celebrations as well as the Eid-el-Fitr holidays in July, 2016.

Earlier on Monday, some candidates of the West African Examination Council, WAEC, writing the General Certificate Examination, GCE, in Edo State demanded for a shift in the date of the governorship election as it clashed with the date of their exams.

Some of them staged a protest at the Government House in Benin City, the capital of Edo State, with placards stating their demand.

Prisoners In Nigeria Consume N1,200 Meals Per Day

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Prisoners In Nigeria Consume N1,200 Meals Per Day

prisoners-consume-1200-per-day-in-nigeria

Assistant Controller of Prisons, Othman Musa, revealed that the cost of feeding a prisoner is N1,200 on a daily basis.

He made the disclosure during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN on Thursday in Abuja.

The prison boss also blamed the cases of awaiting trials, overcrowding and jailbreaks in the country’s prisons on the frequent adjournment of cases by the law courts.

Musa added that prison structures in the country are old and dilapidated.

He said: “Most of our facilities are virtually as old as Nigeria because most of them are over 100 years old and the same structures, housing large number of inmates.

“These are buildings constructed during the pre-colonial period and they house as much as 40 inmates, more than thrice its capacity.

“So you find out that at any given time, there is congestion, which is not unconnected with the frequent adjournment of court cases. “We have more awaiting trials than the convicted inmates.

“So where you are supposed to have 10 people in a room, you are now having 20 or 25 people,” he said.

Musa added that the welfare of the inmates was poor but that efforts were on to improve on the condition.

He said, “As at now, I can say the feeding is okay. You know you cannot feed a person three times daily on N1,000 and expect that food to be okay.

“But with the present increase in feeding fee, there is much improvement in the quality of the meals.

“Their feeding is N400 now per meal three times per day (which is equal to N1,200 daily).”

The prison boss urged members of the public to always show love and care to prisoners.

“Those incarcerated are our brothers, sisters and relations, but we hardly go and visit them, when they are in prison or out of prison,” he said

“The moment you stigmatise an ex-convict, he has no alternative than to go back to their old friends and then, back to prisons.

“But if you show them love and care after imprisonment, introduce him to religious activities, bring them closer to you and give advice, we may perhaps change them,” he suggested.

Online Publishers Demand Release Of Blogger

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Online Publishers Demand Release Of Blogger
dss-arrests-another-nigerian-blogger-in-akwa-ibom
Iroegbu Emenike,

The arrest and detention of a 38-year-old blogger, Iroegbu Emenike, by the State Security Service, SSS, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Tuesday has been condemned by the Coalition of Online Publishers in Akwa Ibom, COOPA.

The group described his arrest as “worrisome” and a breach of his fundamental human rights guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution.

A statement signed by Ifreke Nseowo and Nelson Nse Abasi, Chancellor and Secretary General respectively read: “According to the wife of the blogger, Mrs. Ekaette Emenike Iroegbu, the blogger was arrested by three (3) SSS operatives who invaded their Uyo residence in a Gestapo style in a black jeep. The operatives took away the two phones of Mrs. Emenike; the bloggers own phones and laptop, etc. After ransacking their apartment, they whisked the blogger away without disclosing the reason for his arrest and their destination.

“We the Coalition of Online Publishers in Akwa Ibom (COOPA) hereby call on the SSS and other security agencies to resist being used as a tool by political office holders to clampdown on Nigerians for exercising their constitutional liberties. This means that democracy is being threatened in Nigeria by the rising display of intolerance to free speech.

“Those who believe that their reputation have been lowered in the eyes of right thinking members of the society should explore the legal option by seeking redress in a court of law instead of taking laws into their hands.

“This incessant arrests must stop, looking at similar cases in the West and in the North, now gradually becoming a norm across the nation.

“We believe that his immediate release will strengthen our democracy, and uphold the people’s trust in the government of the day.”

FG Debunks Claims It Plans Importation Of “Poisonous” Rice

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FG Debunks Claims It Plans Importation Of “Poisonous” Rice

presidency-denies-importing-poisonous-rice

The Federal Government has described  attempts by  unscrupulous individuals on social media  linking the government and Dangote group with a plan to ‘flood’ the country with genetically modified rice, as extremely uncharitable.

A statement signed by Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the president on Media and released on Wednesday clarified that the federal government in 2014 signed a $1billion Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, for investment in integrated rice project with Dangote Industries Ltd.

Further to this agreement, Dangote Industries Limited this year cultivated over 8,000 hectares in Hadejia, Jigawa state, creating over 10,000 direct and indirect jobs for farmers who are the major beneficiaries of the scheme.

In consolidation of the rice project of the FG, President Muhammadu Buhari administration is also in partnership with the African Development Bank, ADB, and other reputable companies to tap into the vast potentials in the private sector and broaden the economic base of the country.

“The Presidency said the gains of the diversification drive especially in the agriculture sector are already yielding dividends as shown by the recent statistics in the sector as published by the National Bureau of Statistics.

“These engagements will continue until the present administration has laid a solid foundation for the economic development of the nation.

“It is therefore ridiculous that a government that is wholly devoted to the generation of employment for Nigerians especially through Agriculture will turn around to get involved in an activity that will reverse the gains of the same partnership.

“President Muhammadu Buhari has said it repeatedly that, ‘’we have the capacity to feed ourselves in Nigeria and even export from what we produce in the country.”

He has also said that through the provision of N200 billion by the CBN for small holder farmers and processors involved in local production of rice and other grains, rice importation  will hopefully stop  in the next three years.

“It is unfortunate that while the Buhari administration is working assiduously with well-meaning Nigerians to bring the country out of the current economic situation it has found itself, a few self-serving individuals are bent on distracting the administration from the avowed focus to reflate the fortunes of the country through the diversification of the economy which, very soon, Nigerians will begin to see and experience the results.

“The Federal Government warns purveyors of such malicious information and those thinking of embarking on the same route to have a rethink and retrace their steps.

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