Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was formally sworn in as President by Mali’s Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Keita’s inauguration began with a silent hand-over procedure with interim President DioncoundaTraore, followed by a ceremony observed by select Malian institutions at the international conference centre in the capital, Bamako.

“I swear before God and the Malian people to loyally protect the republican regime, to fulfil my functions in the best interest of the people, to preserve democratic gains, to protect national unity, the independence of the homeland and Mali’s territorial integrity,” Keita swore..

After taking the oath of office, Keita thanked the international community for its support in retaking the north from the hands of extremists and vowed to prioritize national unity after a rebellion, a coup and an Islamic insurgency plunged the long democratic nation into near ruin.

A public inauguration ceremony with foreign dignitaries is planned for September 19.

Keita won Mali’s August 11 presidential runoff with 77.6 per cent of the vote. His opponent,Soumaila Cisse, conceded defeat even before those results were announced.

Keita emerged as the overwhelming winner of the first election held since mutinous soldiers overthrew long time President Amadou Toumani Toure in March 2012.

In the aftermath, al-Qaida-linked jihadists seized power across northern Mali and were only ousted by a French-led military offensive earlier this year.

The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has urged the governments of Adamawa andTaraba States to allocate lands for the setting up of safety camps for anticipated flood victims as part of proactive measures to combat flood occurrence.

The director-general of the agency, Mohammad Sidi, made the call in Bauchi on Wednesday while declaring open a one day consultative forum organised by the agency for stakeholders in disaster management.

Sidi said that the call became necessary considering efforts by the Bauchi State government to provide safe grounds where NEMA had set up camps for communities considered vulnerable to flood disasters.

He said that the camps were expected to serve as models for State Emergency Management Agencies, SEMA and Local Emergency Management Committees to replicate in their areas of jurisdictions.

He warned that there should be no excuse for loss of lives and property in 2013, especially as the Nigerian Metrological Agency, NIMET, had issued earlier warnings on weather conditions.

The DG said more worrisome is the anticipated overflow of rivers, dams, reservoirs and streams where several surrounding communities are at risk of flood devastation.

“It has therefore become necessary that all hands must be on deck for emergency responders here present to share experiences on how to adopt measures and response strategies for the anticipated flood. Several communities in Bauchi State have already been affected,” Sidi noted.

Earlier, the head of operations at the Gombe State operations office of the agency, ApollosJediel, said that the forum was a follow up to an earlier one held in Taraba State.

Jediel said that the participants drawn from various organisations within Bauchi, Gombe and Tarabastates would share experiences acquired during various rescue operations.

Members of All Progressive Congress, APC, on Monday staged a protest on the streets of Offa and Ilorin in Kwara State demanding for their mandate allegedly stolen.

The chairman of the Kwara Independent Electoral Commission, KWASIEC, Uthman Ajidagba had declared Abdulwaheed Olanipekun of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, winner of the chairmanship seat of the Offa local government council in a re-run election conducted on Saturday.

Olanipekun was said to have clinched the seat with 35,937 votes against Saheed Popoola, the APC candidate who got 20,161 votes.

However, the protesters who occupied major streets of Offa and Ilorin, had two demands – they want to be given the official results of the election and they also want to be witnesses to the collation.

Speaking with reporters, spokesman for the group, Comrade Iji, said after the election, they approached the local government collation centres where the results collated at the wards would be compiled for final announcement of the winner but were told that the returning officer who is also the local government electoral officer of KWSIEC was no where to be found.

“He absconded and we waited there till about 10pm before the materials were moved to the headquarters of KWSIEC here in Ilorin that night. They said we should return on Sunday morning by 10.00 am, but surprisingly by around 5.00 am we started hearing from Kwara Radio, the KWSIEC chairman announcing the false results. It was not in his place to announce any results,” he said.

Iji added that the party will not accept the results announced as authentic as it is sure that it won the said position.

The interim national publicity secretary of the APC, Lai Mohammed, had described the results as “cooked up” and assured that it will be fought to a logical conclusion using the instrumentality of the law.

“There is no iota of doubt that the APC won the elections. It is common knowledge that if the elections were conducted 10 times, APC will beat the PDP 10 times. Offa people know who they voted for and are ready to defend their votes. Therefore, any attempt to thwart the will of the people will be resisted to the hilt,” he said.

The rally commenced around 10 .00 am at the former Congress for Progressive Change, CPC’s office, Offa road, Ilorin.

The Plateau State government has condemned Sunday night’s killing of six members of two families in their homes at Kungte village in Jos South Local Government Area of the state.

Unknown gunmen attacked the village at about 8pm on Sunday killing six people in two compounds. The gunmen said to have been armed with sophisticated weapons, shot sporadically into the compounds.

A statement issued by commissioner for information and communication, Yiljap Abraham, described the incident as an evil and wicked act that should be condemned by all members of society, adding that It is a display of cowardice by the perpetrators who under the cover of darkness deliberately chose to visit violence on women and children.

“Such an attack, coming at a time when the state has been mostly peaceful for quite sometime appears a desperate attempt to reverse the gains of our hard-earned efforts in breaking down the barriers of ethnic and religious intolerance and thereby rebuilding the bridges of communal consensus,” he said

Abraham added that security has been beefed up in the affected areas to check any further breach of the peace.

Confirming the killing, the Police public relation officer in Plateau State, Felicia Anslem, told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Jos that the incident involved father, mother and three children in a family.

Anslem stated that investigations are underway into the killing and that police was doing its best to apprehend the assailants.

Last week, six people, including a pregnant woman, were ambushed and killed at Bisichi while returning to their villages from Bukuru by uniidentified gunmen.

The National Working Committee, NWC, of the Peoples Democratic Party on Monday said it is having consultations to resolve the issue of the setting up of a parallel party from its fold last Saturday.

Olisa Metuh, who was re-elected as the party’s national publicity secretary at its just concluded special national convention, told newsmen at the end of a meeting that consultations were going on at very high level to address the situation.

“Consultation is going on at the very highest level of the party, the President, the party’s national chairman, the chairman of the Board of Trustee (BoT) and PDP Governors are meeting on this,” he said.

According to him, the response so far is encouraging and the party will convey the outcome of the consultations to the public in due time.

“There will not be any rancour or division, the party will remain united. We have only one chairman and we will abide by his decisions, the decisions of the NWC and the party’s constitution,” Metuhsaid.

He further said that Remi Akintoye would remain the party’s acting national secretary as long as there was no court order restraining him from functioning as such.

Consultations are expected to continue today.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the new faction of the PDP has asked a Lagos High Court to restrainBamanga Tukur, chairman of the other faction, and other party officials elected on Saturday from parading themselves as members of the national executive of the party.

Joined as plaintiffs in the case are the national secretary of the new faction, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, factional chairman, Abubakar Kawu Baraje and the deputy national chairman, Sam Sam Jaja.

The matter is to be heard in court on September 9.

The Police in Rivers State on Monday declared Seimeikumo Debewari, ADC to Governor ChibuikeAmaechi, a deserter from the force.

A statement signed by the assistant commissioner of police, administration, Augustine Sanomi, saidDebewari ceased to be the ADC to the governor with immediate effect for ignoring all lawful directives to see the state commissioner of police and the Inspector-General of Police since July 10 over his role in the fracas at the Rivers State House of Assembly.

He said the whereabouts of Debewari was currently unknown to the police and that the move to declare him a deserter is in line with the Police Act and the Regulation Cap of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.

Sanomi also said the IGP had approved the declaration of Debewari as a deserter from the force.

Also confirming this position, the Nigeria Police Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, said that if a police officer leaves his duty post for 21 consecutive days without permission, the Police Act and regulation authorises the force to declare the officer a deserter.

Mba told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, that “being a deserter is an offence because the officer involved can be arrested without a warrant of arrest”.

Mba also said that it was within the purview of a state commissioner of police to declare an officer a deserter in the force.

A High Court in Abuja has granted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC an interim order to take possession of assets and properties belonging to Atiku Abubakar Kigo and Uzoma CyrilAttang over their involvement in a N32.8 billion Police pension scam.

Justice Sunday E. Aladetoyinbo gave the order in pursuant of Section 29 (a) and (b) of the EFCC Establishment Act 2004.

Consequently, the accounts of the suspects have been frozen pending the final determination of the corruption case filed against them.

Attang, a former assistant director at the Police Pension Office between 2005 and 2008 and Kigo, a former director of the office were first arraigned on March 29, 2012 on 16-count criminal charge bordering on conspiracy and criminal breach of trust before Justice Mohammed Talba of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Gudu, Abuja alongside seven others.

Properties covered by the interim order include a block of 4 flats at 3 Mama Ada Street, Alasia, Ajah, Lagos; a block of 4 flats at 33 Pamona Street, Sun City Estate, Abuja; blocks of flats at 71 Pamona Street, Sun City, Abuja; a piece of land and a 3 bedroom duplex along Ajah- Epe Express Way, Alasia, Lagos; 2 blocks of 3 bedroom duplex at 13 & 15 Adele Road, Apapa, Lagos; 2 units of 2 bedroom bungalows at Plot E148, Prince and Princess Estate, Abuja.

Other properties include: 5 bedroom house at Ikot- Nseten,Ikono, AkwaIbom State; a 4 bedroom house at Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State; shops 1,2 & 3 at Garki 2 Ultra Modern Market, Abuja;  3 bedroom bungalow at 44 Main Street, Sun City, Abuja; 3 bedroom bungalow, 8 pomona Street, Sun City, Abuja and 5 bedroom House, at 12 Olushola Agbaje Street, Lekki Phase 1,Lagos; Shops/Office B74 & B76,Effab Mall, Area 11,Gark- Abuja; Shops E1 to E5, F6 & F7 at Oba Elegushi Market, Jakande Estate, Lekki-Lagos.

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• PDP Embarks On Fence Mending Consultations
• Police Declares Gov. Ameachi’s ADC A Deserter

Also included are: Shops D11, C03, C04, C07, C08 & D02 at Effab Mall, Area 11,Garki-Abuja; Shops 174,176,185,186 &187 at Ikota Shopping Complex, Ajah, Lagos; a Warehouse at 3, Nwanyinkwo Street, Ajah, Lekki, Lagos and a Water Factory at Industrial Estate, Idi Iroko Road, Otta, Ogun State.

Some companies allegedly operated and used as conduits by Attang to siphon public funds were also confiscated. They include: Anifon Nigeria Limited; Enyiuzo Ventures Limited; Quill Ponte Nigeria Limited; Royal Diadem Business Logistics Limited; Status Symbols Rental Limited; Status Symbols Fashion Limited and  Status Travel & Tours Limited.

In addition,  22 accounts in various banks purportedly used to launder the stolen funds were frozen.

The minister of health, Oyebuchi Chukwu, on Tuesday said Nigeria had been certified as a guinea worm-free country.

Chukwu made this known in Ibadan at a symposium tagged: “Global Perspective in Emerging Diseases”.

“For any country to be certified as a Guinea worm-free country, you must not record any Guinea worm for three consecutive year,” he stated.

The success recorded in guinea worm eradication will make the World Health Organisation, WHO, to present a certificate to President Goodluck Jonathan in December, Chukwu disclosed.

The minister said further that although polio was still endemic, the transmission of Type 3 virus had been interrupted for more than one year for the first time in the history of the country.

He also said that maternal mortality ratio had dropped from 545 per 100,000 in 2008 to 350 per 100,000 in 2012 and that the prevalence of malaria and HIV/AIDS were also declining as evidenced by the recent national survey.

Leading medical practitioner, Sunny Kuku, in a keynote address on Nigeria’s  health sector in the last 40 years, said that the country had fallen short of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs.

According to him, most Nigerians still travel abroad for medical care because they have lost confidence in the healthcare system.

“Our healthcare facilities are fast deteriorating and are unable to meet the medical needs of our people while life expectancy is still under 50 years,” he said.

Kuku urged the federal government to improve funding of the three tiers of health institutions in the country.

Senate President David Mark on Monday recommended stiff punishment for anyone caughtvandalising national assets and infrastructure irrespective of status to serve as deterrent.

Mark made the call in a remark at the opening of a two-day stakeholders’ forum tagged: “Protection of Critical National Assets and Infrastructure (CNAI)” held in Abuja.

Mark noted that some of those charged with the responsibility of handling and protecting national assets collude with vandals to destroy such infrastructure for selfish reasons.

The senate president, who was represented by the chairman, senate committee on national security and intelligence, Mohammed Magoro, said that the most critical asset of any nation was its human resource.

According to him, protection of assets must start from within and an

attack on them should be seen as an attack on the country’s national interest.

“When you put these assets and infrastructure, they are handed over to certain persons but we have had experience in this country where internal connivance has brought down a number of them,” he said.

Mark also called for adequate remuneration for security forces and others saddled with protection of the infrastructure to motivate them as some of them compromised due to poor pay.

Similarly, the speaker of house of representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, called for a review of the national security policy to enable security agencies adequately deal with vandalism of infrastructure and other challenges.

Tambuwal, who was represented by Umar Bature, the chairman house committee on interior, noted that the policy had not been reviewed since 1986.

According to him, our greatest challenge now is how to respond to vandalism of assets and terrorism.

In his opening remark, the National Security Adviser, NSA, Sambo Dasuki, said that vandalism of infrastructure and terrorism were the two current prominent threats to national security.

“The potency of threat of terrorism, militancy, oil theft, vandalism and sabotage of critical national assets and infrastructure has now become unprecedented,” he said.

He noted that vandalism of infrastructure including oil facilities, telecommunication and power supply equipment was affecting government’s ability to provide adequate power and essential services to the citizenry.

“The level of crude oil theft, vandalism of telecommunication, power, and oil and gas infrastructure is serious drain on the economy and degrading the ability of government to provide services,” he said.

Dasuki called for the support of all stakeholders including government at all level as well as host communities in the protection of national assets and infrastructure.

The form was organised by the Office of the NSA for stakeholders to interact and come out with measures to protect state assets.

About 24 youths in the fold of the Civilian JTF have been killed in Monguno, Borno state, as search for members of the outlawed Boko Haram sect continues.

It was gathered Saturday, that about 100 vigilante youths stormed territories of sect around Kaleri,Shuwari, Maganari and Nannari villages in a bid to capture them but got more than they bargained for.

Members of the sect who had probably got wind of the plan, disguised in military clothes and stolen patrol vehicles and posing as military officers ambushed the vigilante group.

The youths were thus tricked into approaching the impostors in uniform for partnership.

About 15 of them were immediately gunned down, a source told journalists.

The source said nine youths who wore charms and could not be killed with guns were made to lie on the road while a moving vehicle ran them over, bringing all the deaths recorded to 24.

Some other “lucky” youths escaped with broken arms and legs, while about 36 are said to be missing.

“The vigilante youths numbering over 100 were on a mission to capture some Boko Haram terrorists in their camps  before they were ambushed by the terrorists which led to the death of 24 vigilante youths, while about 36 were still missing,” the source said.

According to the account, there was an initial arrangement with military troops that they will accompany the vigilante youths to the Monguno camp of the sect members, but when the youths waited for hours without seeing them, they decided to go on their own.

It was gathered that the caretaker chairman of Monguno local government council. MohammedMongunu travelled to Maiduguri yesterday to brief Governor Kashim Shettima on the incident.