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Healthcare In Nasarawa Get Free Drug Boost

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Healthcare In Nasarawa Get Free Drug Boost

By Godwin Ojoshimite

The Nasarawa state government and the Millenium Development Goals. MDG, office have provided drugs worth N49 million to 39 Primary Health Care centre in the state.

Senior special assistant to governor Umaru Al-Makura on MDG, Salisu Raj, disclosed this on Wednesday at a workshop in Lafia for directors of Primary Health Centres, PHCs, and ward development committee leaders in the state.

He said that three PHCs from each of the 13 local government areas will benefit from the pilot phase of the Drug Revolving Fund Scheme, adding that others would join the scheme as it improves.

Raj explained that the scheme was introduced in compliance with the National Primary Healthcare guideline for achieving sustainable drug supply in Nigeria before the end of 2014.

“I am convinced that the provision of sustainable drug supply scheme to our PHCs will assist in reducing the hardship faced by care givers and health workers in providing effective health delivery services,” he said.

He noted that the workshop would serve as an avenue to build the capacity of the directors and other stakeholders in order to effectively manage the drug revolving fund scheme.

“Today’s workshop is a manifestation of Governor Al-Makura’s commitment to ensure affordable, sustainable and efficient drug supply to the people of the state,” Raj added.

He therefore urged participants to make judicious use of the skills to be acquired and appealed to citizens to assist government in enlightenment on the need to embrace the scheme in order address some avoidable sicknesses confronting various communities.

Also speaking, Emmanuel Akabe, the state commissioner for Health described the scheme as one of the critical things that could happen to the health sector of the state as medicine is fundamental to healthcare.

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Akabe, represented by Thomas Affi,a director in the ministry, pointed out that most secondary health facilities (General Hospitals) in the state had already keyed into the state drug revolving fund.

He said the era of health facilities being consulting centres is gone as patients attending such facilities would not only be diagnosed and given prescriptions but would also access drugs.

He also said the scheme would go a long way to check the proliferation of fake and adulterated drugs endangering the lives of the people.

House Passes N315 Billion NDDC 2013 Budget

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House Passes N315 Billion NDDC 2013 Budget

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the 2013 budget of N315 billion for the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

The breakdown of the budget revealed that N15 billion was approved for personnel costs while capital expenditure got N2 billion.

Overhead expenditure had N11 billion, while N286 billion was allocated for development projects of the commission.

Chairman, House committee on NDDC, Nicholas Mutu, expressed optimism that the budget would enhance the operations of the commission.

Also, the House passed for second reading a Bill seeking to provide for the right of appeal from the Industrial Court to the Court of Appeal.

The Bill also seeks an Act to alter the 1999 Constitution (as amended), with a view to providing for the right to appeal judgments from the industrial court to court of appeal.

Leading debate on the general principles of the Bill, Friday Itulah said the bill, if passed, would give litigants the opportunity to appeal to court of superior jurisdiction.

Ossai Ossai and Mohammed Monguno  also spoke in support of the proposed legislation, but others spoke against the bill.

They argued that it was not necessary to amend the Constitution.

“The National Industrial Court, a creation of the Act of National assembly, is a special court to solely take charge of labour matters. We don’t need to subject the industrial court to constitution amendment, it is a court established to expeditiously resolve labour and trade disputes”, Uzo Azubuike said.

The opposition notwithstanding, the bill scaled through its second reading and Speaker Aminu Tambuwal referred it to the special ad- hoc committee on the review of the Constitution.

PDP Condemns Oshiomhole’s Celebration, Alleges Edo Owes N250 billion

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PDP Condemns Oshiomhole’s Celebration, Alleges Edo Owes N250 billion

From Jefferson Ibiwale, Benin

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has criticised the Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state for throwing a party to celebrate his fifth year in office, insisting that there is nothing to cheer about  a debt profile of over N250 billion.

Chairman of the Edo state chapter of the party, Dan Orbih, said the governor has ran the state aground inspite of the over N400 billion which accrued to the state under him.

“Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s administration has collected over N400 billion since 2008. This is apart from the N33.4 billion he has collected in five years as the cost of running government security votes. Oshiomhole has collected N19 billion as security votes alone,” he said.

Orbih therefore described the fifth anniversary celebration as “self aggrandizement”, as there was nothing to show for all the monies received.

Orbih also accused the state government of dragging the judiciary into partisan politics, saying that the presence of the Chief Justice of the state at the launch of the APC was condemnable.

NSCDC Distances Agency From Land Racketeering

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NSCDC Distances Agency From Land Racketeering

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, has said that the 61 houses and 45 plots of lands recently seized by officials of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, does not belong to the organisation.

Chairman of the ICPC, Ekpo Nta, told the Senate last week that his commission had seized the properties spread across the Federal Capital Territory and Nasarawa, from a top NSCDC official.

According to a statement signed by its public relations officer, Emmanuel Okeh, on behalf of the NSCDC Commandant-General, Ade Abolurin, the para-military agency stressed that “the property seized by the ICPC do not belong to NSCDC; rather, they belong to some indicted officers who are currently under investigations.”

It said the seized property were purportedly acquired with proceeds of the illegal land sales by the scammers.

Abolurin noted that the NSCDC is not involved in sales of land and did not at any time delegate persons, organisations or agents to do so on its behalf, adding that it neither has land for sale, or any housing estate in its name.

He said the mandate of the corps as a para-military agency was to protect and safeguard the critical infrastructure of government and the country’s national assets.

It listed some of the assets as petroleum pipelines, power transmission equipment and telecommunication installations, among others.

The commandants said further: “The corps, therefore, does not have any business with the purported land sales and the officers who are culpable must be sanctioned according to the law.

House Of Reps Investigates NNPC Over New Oil Scam

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House Of Reps Investigates NNPC Over New Oil Scam

The House of Representatives on Tuesday mandated three of its committees to investigate the alleged connivance of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, with some Swiss oil dealers to “rob” Nigeria of billions of dollars.

The committees are Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Petroleum Resources (Downstream) and Justice.

The resolution followed a motion moved by Abiodun Balogun (APC-Ogun), at plenary which was adopted without debate when put to vote by the deputy speaker, Emeka Ihedioha.

The motion was titled “Urgent need to investigate the alleged connivance of NNPC with Swiss oil dealers to rob Nigeria of billions of dollars”.

Balogun noted that there had been a long standing allegation of secrecy surrounding the operations of the NNPC and the oil industry.

According to him, the National Assembly had carried out several previous investigations into the sector with far reaching recommendations which has saved Nigeria billions of Naira.

The legislator expressed concern that there are still allegations of corruption in the sector in spite of the actions of the National Assembly.

He further expressed concern over the new report by a Swiss non governmental advocacy organisation, the Berne Declaration, which detailed how NNPC connived with major Swiss oil trading companies.

Balogun said the report showed how Swiss oil trading companies were draining Nigeria of billions of dollars in revenue through the sale of crude oil below the market value.

He said that the report entitled “Swiss Traders Opaque Deals in Nigeria’’, detailed the schemes employed by NNPC and foreign oil companies to dupe the country.

The lawmaker was worried that the Berne Declaration had described the Nigerian oil scam as the greatest fraud Africa had ever known.

According to Balogun, the Berne report specifically mentioned Vitol and Transfigura Commodity Trading Firms (NNPC partners) in the shady deals.

He said the report also accused the NNPC and its subsidiaries of not publishing detailed reports since 2005.

Balogun urged the relevant committees to wade into the matter and find out the truth concerning the allegations.

“I am not passing judgment here, but our economy is at stake, I am only asking that an investigation be done to ascertain the truth” he said.

Jonathan Postpones 2014 Budget Presentation

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Jonathan Postpones 2014 Budget Presentation

The Senate on Tuesday in Abuja said President Goodluck Jonathan had postponed the presentation of the 2014 budget due to “certain exigencies’’.

Jonathan had written to the National Assembly last week seeking to present the budget proposal to a joint session of the National Assembly on November 12.

The chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Enyinnaya Abaribe, told newsmen that no further reason was given by the presidency for the postponement.

He said the postponement was conveyed in a correspondence to the lawmakers.

“It was supposed to happen today, but the President wrote to the National Assembly asking that the event be put off till November 19 due to exigencies that were beyond the control of the Presidency.

“The reasons were not made known, but if the President asks us to give him one more week I don’t think there is any reason for us to start looking for the `whys’,” the said.

The Senate spokesman, however, added that both chambers of the National Assembly were looking forward to hosting and listening to Jonathan during the joint session on November 19.

Abaribe said it was wrong as being insinuated that the postponement was because of the lawmakers’ inability to debate and pass the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF.

He said the MTEF report had been presented to the Senate.

Abaribe also said there was the possibility that the budget could be passed before the end of the year.

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“Miracles have been known to happen and another miracle can happen and we will pass it. We will do our best within the time limit that we have,’’ he said.

The senator said the National Assembly was, beyond passing the budget 2014, far more focused on making sure that the 2013 budget was fully implemented.

“We also expect that the 2013 budget will be fully implemented because Nigerians need everything that can improve our economy,’’ he told newsmen.

Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa Hold Labour Summit

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Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa Hold Labour Summit

Trade Union organisations from Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria, will converge in Abuja, on Wednesday, for the second tri-lateral conference of workers organisations from the three countries.

Addressing the media, Vice President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Chairman, International Committee of the NLC, Issa Aremu, said the conference will give the participants the opportunity to among other things, share ideas about workers conditions in their respective countries.

They will also exchange ideas on how to improve the lives of their members.

Aremu, said that the conference would provide a veritable platform for the three organisations to strengthen the cooperation among them as well as re-position the trade unions in Africa to face the challenges in the place of work.

The three unions which are the Labour Centres in their countries, are the Congress of South African Trade Unions COSATU, Ghana Trade Union Congress GTUC and the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC.

The tri-lateral conference, the second in its series, is expected to host over 200 delegates from the affiliate unions.

According to Aremu “the forthcoming forum creates opportunity for the unions in South Africa and Ghana to meet with their Nigerian counterparts to exchange views on how to promote closer cooperation between the unions in the three countries.”

“It also complements the good relations between governments of the three great countries of Africa. It is a practical example of people to people international relations,” he said.

The conference, scheduled to be declared open by Vice President Namadi Sambo, has the theme “Working class solidarity for poverty eradication; the imperative for industrilisation and decent jobs in Africa”.

PDP Suspends Oyinlola, Baraje, Others

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PDP Suspends Oyinlola, Baraje, Others

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Monday suspended Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who was reinstated by a Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, last Thursday.

In a swift reaction to the action, Oyinlola said it was taken in disobedience of the order of the Court of Appeal, adding that this was the kind of impunity that many members of the party were fighting.

Others suspended members are former acting national chairman of the party’s faction, Abubakar Kawu Baraje, former deputy national chairman, Sam Sam Jaja and Ibrahim Kazuare.

Monday’s action by the party to suspend the members is  interpreted by political analysts as calculated to forestall any move by the New PDP to enforce Oyinlola’s reinstatement.

The PDP has also directed that the four suspended party members face the national disciplinary committee of the party headed by Umaru Dikko.

The national publicity secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh, who addressed journalists on the issue on Monday, said the decision to suspend the four persons, was in line with Section 58 of its Constitution.

Section 58 (1) states: “Subject to the provision of this constitution, the party shall have power to discipline any member who (b) commits any breach of the party’s constitution and or manifesto; (g) engages in disorderly conduct at meetings or rallies or at any party function; (h) engages in any conduct likely to cause disaffection among members of the party or is likely to disrupt the peaceful, lawful and efficient conduct of the business of the party; (i) engages in unauthorised publicity of disputes within the party or create a parallel party organ at any level.”

Oyinlola in his reaction said the suspension “is part of the impunity we are protesting against. None of us has been queried or requested to give explanations for any alleged offence.”

He reasoned that if their suspension was a reaction to the issue of the New PDP, “why did they decide to leave out the serving state governors, senators and members of the House of Representatives who have been very vocal?”

“It’s all an attempt to circumvent the ruling of the Court of Appeal,” he said but added, “certainly, the last has not been heard on this matter and I am sure that the truth will prevail over falsehood.”

Spanish Police Arrests 25 In Nigerian Sex-Trafficking Ring

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Spanish Police Arrests 25 In Nigerian Sex-Trafficking Ring

Spanish police say they have arrested 25 people in a sex-trafficking ring that brought women from Nigeria to work as prostitutes.

The women, allegedly lured with the promise of good jobs in Europe, were first flown to Mexico or Brazil, travelling with false documents.From there, they were flown to Paris, then smuggled into Spain to work in the sex trade, police say.

Five women who were victims of the sex ring were freed in the raids.

Police found one member of the gang performing an abortion on one of the five women, the BBC reported.

The arrests, apparently coordinated,  were made across Spain – in Madrid, Toledo, Cantabria and Palma de Mallorca.

More than 100 vans concealing luxury goods were also seized.

The gang used the vans to launder their profits and send them back to Lagos, police say.

The vans, with dark-tinted windows and welded doors, were stocked full of beer but had luxury items hidden deeper inside.

Police say the gang was formed more than 20 years ago in Nigerian universities and was also known for sending scam  letters by email, asking recipients to send money.

Taraba House Gets New Speaker

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Taraba House Gets New Speaker

Josiah Kente on Monday emerged new Speaker of the Taraba State House of Assembly after an election that resolved to retain the position for the Taraba south senatorial zone.

Kente who was former deputy majority leader, replaces Haruna Tsokwa who died on November 4 after a brief illness.

Monday’s election comes after an assassination attempt on the deputy speaker, Adamu Maikarfi, on Sunday by four masked gunmen who trailed him to the residence of one of his relations but unfortunately did not find him there.

Maikarfi said he would not be intimidated by those who are bent on stunting the growth and development of the state, adding that the matter had since been reported to the police.

After Kente’s appointment, the Taraba lawmakers also announced the names of nominees for the post of commissioners sent to them by the Acting Governor, Garba Umar.

The screening of the nominees will commence on Tuesday.

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