By Tosin Omoniyi, Abuja

The Nigeria Police Force has indicated its willingness to reassess the use of force and firearms by its officers and men in the discharge of their duties.

It said that this was to ensure that the Nigerian Police conforms to international best practices.

The Inspector General of Police, IGP, Solomon Arase, who said this on Tuesday during a parley with reporters at a policy workshop in Abuja, disclosed that the police had lost over N1bn in the last three years to costs from litigations alleging infractions on the rights of Nigerians by its personnel.

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Arase also used the occasion to warn officials that the era of impunity and indiscriminate use of force and firearms is over.

He said the disproportionate use of force by armed personnel was no longer permissible in an atmosphere of heightened political consciousness in Nigeria and rising international condemnation.

It would be recalled that Amnesty International had consistently accuse the nation’s security forces, including the police, of constantly trampling on the civil rights of Nigerians, particularly in the North east where troops are battling Boko Haram insurgents.

By Tosin Omoniyi

The Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, PPMC, has withdrawn the bulk purchase agreements issued to three petroleum marketers allegedly caught diverting petroleum products from the country.

Reports monitored on the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, said that the manager, public affairs and community relations of the PPMC, Nasir Imodagbe, made the disclosure on Tuesday during an interview.

The marketers are Funo Alfa Ltd, Organiser West Africa Ltd and Rich Oil Ltd.

The PPMC spokesperson said the marketers’ actions violated a bulk purchase agreement with PPMC.

“The revocation is part of the corporation’s effort in sanitising the industry by checkmating marketers diverting products meant for domestic consumption. This will also reduce frequent petroleum hoarding and diversion by marketers,” he said.

He also said the process was a continuous one and that the agency would ensure adequate monitoring of marketers.

It would be recalled that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had on July 19 banned 113 oil tankers from venturing into Nigerian oil facilities and territorial waters for sundry offences.

Violence erupted in the early hours of Tuesday in Burundi as a policeman and a civilian were killed in clashes before the start of Burundi’s presidential elections.

The nation has already been hit by a gale of opposition boycotts and protests over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial decision to run for a third term.

Burundi has been faced with weeks of unending demonstrations, a failed coup and violent clashes between rebel soldiers and the army.

Opponents accuse Nkurunziza of violating the constitution by seeking another five year term in office.

Reuters reports that blasts and gunfire echoed around the capital before polling stations opened on Tuesday in a nation grappling with its worst crisis since a bloody civil war that ended in 2005.

Western donors and African states have urged Burundi to postpone the poll, calls that have been ignored by the Burundian president who cited a court ruling which says he can run again as reason for his defiance of global calls for peace.

The government instead said it had already delayed the vote as long as it could and promised a fair poll.

Voting however began in rural areas as dozens queued to cast ballots in areas of Bujumbura that are traditional strongholds of Nkurunziza’s supporters.

However, there were only few voters in other districts of the capital while some polling stations stayed closed after the official 6.00 am start.

Presidential adviser, Willy Nyamitwe, has blamed opponents as those behind the protests and violence.

The UN Programme on HIV and AIDS, UNAIDS, on Monday said it would soon effect a 35 per cent reduction in the cost of HIV early infant diagnostic technologies in order to tackle the high mortality rate among children affected by the disease.

This assertion was contained in a statement issued by the UNAIDS’ executive director, Michel Sidibé, in New York.

Sidibé said the new access price was pegged at $9:40 per test which he said was much lower than what obtained in the past.

Sidibe noted that an agreement had already been reached with Roche Diagnostics which would serve as a step towards ending the obvious failure of the world to meet the treatment needs of children living with HIV.

“We now need to use this agreement to rapidly scale up diagnostic and treatment services for all children living with HIV in line with the 90-90-90 target,” the statement quoted Sidibé as saying.

The director added that in the process of bringing together global and regional partners, the initiative tagged ‘Diagnostics Access Initiative’ also called for improving laboratory capacity to ensure that all people living with HIV could be linked to effective, high-quality HIV treatment services.

He said that the initiative which was launched by UNAIDS in July 2014 involved partners such as, the Clinton Health Access Initiative Inc., the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and a host of others.