Nation
THE STATES
Ondo
The maiden Mare Festival has been won by a 10-year-old boy, Sunday Akinwunmi, in the rocky town of Idare, Ondo State, for climbing 2,000 feed of steep mountain surface with bare hands and feet while professional mountaineers were using ropes and other gadgets.
For this efforts, which the state Governor Olusegun Mimiko, said typified the traits of gallantry and coverage of the average Ondo State youth, the lad was awarded a state-sponsored scholarship upto the university level.
Hundreds of local and international tourists, as well as the local population of Idanre, a town completely surrounded by towering rocky walls, participated in the three-day event.
Packaged as an avenue to make the town a global destination for tourists by the state government in collaboration with mother land Beckons, a tourism consultancy firm, the festival also exhibited the customs and traditions of the people through a carnival of dancing and drumming.
Kaduna
The Guardian correspondent in Kaduna State, Saxne Akhaine has reputedly received a threat to this life via phone number 08132283200.
The text message which was received at exactly 8.46pm, reads: “if you write rubbish again in this Kaduna you will be missing for ever.”
When Akhaine put a call to the phone number someone who referred to himself as driver to Director-General, Media and Publicity to the Kaduna State Governor, Uma Sani, said: “Yes, my oga (boss) is not around now, he left his phone in the car. But I will deliver your message and he will call you back.”
Not satisfied with this response, Akhaine called Sani on his official phone number to protest the text message.
Ekiti
Ekiti State Government has terminated the contract for the reconstruction of River Ele Bridge at Itapaji Ekiti over the failure of the contractor to commence work on the project.
The Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mr Taiwo Olatunbosun, who made this known at the weekend, said the contract was awarded to Messers Kopek Construction Limited since October 2008, adding that the failure of the firm to commence work on the project left the state government with no alternative but to terminate the contract.
He said the Segun Oni-led administration would not deviate from its policy of transparency, accountability and due process towards ensuring that public funds are judiciously spent. He said the contract would soon be re-awarded to another contractor.
The Information Commissioner also disclosed that the government has blacklisted a construction company, Jobitrade Investment Limited, over its handling of the rehabilitation of the Teaching Hospital Theatre building in Ado-Ekiti in 2008.
Makurdi
To tackle the rot in the education sector in Benue State, the stakeholders have advised that all public schools, which were taken over by the State government, be returned to their original owners.
At a press conference during the weekend after the stakeholders’ meeting at the Government House, Makurdi, the Commissioner for Education, Mr Benjamin Ashaver, said that the leaders, realising the rot in the education sector, have resolved that it is in the best interest of the state that the schools be returned to their owners.
He said: “The general consensus at the stakeholders’ meeting is that the schools be returned to their owners. However, the government will continue to grant aid to these schools to build up the education base of the state.”
According to him, the state government will send a bill to the House of Assembly on the resolution of the stakeholders so that a legal framework could be established for the return of the schools to their origional owners in the interest of the state.
Ogun
The Awujale of Ijebu Land, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, at the weekend appealed to all residents of Ijebu-Ife who fled the town during the December 5 mayhem to return home as peace had returned to the town.
Oba Adetona assured that adequate security arrangement has been put in place to protect lives and property.
Meanwhile, the chairman of Ijebu-East Local Council, Tunde Oladunjoye, may appear before the judicial panel of enquiries set up to investigate the circumstances that led to the crisis. He had earlier expressed his lack of confidence in the three members.
The Awujale, who spoke through the Ebumawe of Ago-Iwoye, described the incident as not only unfortunate but an embarrassment to the Yoruba race.
Lagos
Petroleum products marketers across the country appear to have finally gone ahead of the Federal Government to commence a full blown deregulation of the downstream sector as price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly called petrol has gone to an all time high of N150.00 a litre, even as some major oil marketers have also started a strategic sale of petrol at black market prices right inside their station.
Black market price appears to have shot astronomically high as investigation reveals that a litre of fuel in the black market now sells for as high as N450.00, with over 75 per cent of the petrol stations on the Lagos Ibadan Expressway shut to travelLers and other road users as they claim not to have any product.
FCT
The Minister of Information and Communication, Professor Dora Akunyeli has said that everything is being done to ensure that Anambra governorship election in February 2010 is hitch free.
The minister who gave the assurance at the News Agency of Nigerian (NAN) forum in Abuja said “we need to come together and vote and let our votes be counted, so that we will be happy at the end for who ever emerges as the peoples choice. Until that happens, Anambra will continue to be in the news negatively.”
She said further, “Once we have a free and credible election, select somebody of our choice, feel very happy about our leader in Anambra State, even kidnapping will go down.
Ondo
Akure Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State weekend gave scholarship award till university level to a 10-year old boy, Sunday Akinwumu for his skill in climbing over 2,000 feet with his bare hands and feet.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the year’s Mare Festival, the governor said the boy was identified and rewarded as he climbed a 2,000 feet mountain with bare hands and feet while the professionals used ropes and other equipment. He pledged to harness all the potentials of the state to fast track its development.
Dr Mimiko said the festival was about the economic development of the people of the state. According to him, “the idea behind the festival, which featured mountain climbing, was to attract local and foreign tourists to the state.
Plateau
Governor Jonah Tang of Plateau State is banking on the quick recovery of President Umar Yar-Adua or a favourable outcome of the suit challenging the dissolution of the executive of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, by the national working committee, NWC, of the party to regain control of its machinery in the state.
The Tide gathered that following the resolution of the NWC to get the governor to work with the Chief Abu King Shuluwa-led Caretaker Committee it set up for the state, a position Jang is uncomfortable with.
It was learnt that a recent meeting between Jang and members of the NWC held a day to the recent National Executive Committee meeting of the party ended in a deadlock as the governor reportedly vowed not to work with the Caretaker Committee.
Kwara
Chairman, Governors’ Forum in Nigeria, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has lamented the persisting fuel scarcity across the country, attributing the hardship to the uncertainty trailing the proposed deregulation policy of the federal government.
In effect Saraki who is also the Kwara State governor, tasked the government and other stakeholders, particularly labour to come up with the way forward. He said the sooner this is done, the earlier the current fuel crisis would come to an end.
Speaking with newsmen in Ilorin on the state of the nation to mark his 47th birthday, Governor Saraki said: “For now, it is like somebody who is in the middle of the stream, he has departed the shore and did not reach the destination, so during that period, definitely, you will see a lot of challenges.”
Bauchi
About 3,000 applicants turned up in the current senior cadre recruitment into the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, in Bauchi State.
This was disclosed by the State Commandant of NSCDC, Haruna Shehu of the 33 Artillery Brigade, Bauchi, venue of the recruitment exercise, saying 615 candidates were short listed in the senior cadre in the state.
Shehu said, of the over 11,000 who put in their application in the junior cadre, 4,840 were shot-listed.
According to him, only those short-listed were eligible to participate in the recruitment exercise, adding that the exercise, in the state was smooth and hitch-free.
He commended security agencies such as the army, FRSC and the state government who assisted to ensure that the exercise was smooth.
Oyo
Fuel scarcity which resurfaced last week in Ibadan has continued unabated as motorists and residents in the city spend endless hours at few filling stations that dispensed the products. Already, some independent marketers in some parts of the city have adjusted their pump price from the official N65 to N70 per litre.
But The Tide investigations revealed that all of them now sell at N100 per litre. Outlets visited by our reporter include Sabo, Mokola, Samgo, Bodija U.I. Ring Road, Elerele Iyagnaku, Total Garden and others.
The major marketers that sold the products at the official pump price of N65 collected extra charges from customers. The money they collected ranges from N200-N500 depending on the litres of fuel brought. When asked why they sold at such exorbitant prices, most of them who cared to answer said they bought above the official pump price at the depot where they lifted the fuel.
The Tide gathered that many filling stations in the city were shut. Though they claimed that they had run out of supply, investigation revealed that they preferred to sell either early in the morning between 6am and 7am or late in the evenings.
The refusal of the filling station to dispense the products has led to emergence of black market operators along Major roads in the city who now sell a four-litre keg for N600 and above. It was learnt that these illegal sellers of the products usually go to the filling stations at mid-night to buy the product.
Already, the scarcity of the product has taken its toll on the vehicular and human movement in the sprawling city.
Few vehicles now ply the roads, while the commercial drivers have capitalised on the scarcity to hike their fares.
Nation
Senate Passes Bill For Establishment Of University In Abia
The Senate yesterday approved the bills for the establishment of Federal University of Medical and Health Sciences and College of Education, Bende at its plenary session.
The two bills sponsored by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon . Benjamin Kalu came to the Senate for concurrence after the approvals from the House of Representatives.
The Deputy Leader of the Senate, Sen. Lola Ashiru in the absence of the Majority Leader presented the recommendations of the Lower Chamber for consideration and Concurrence .
The Bill for an Act to establish Federal College of Education, Bende in Abia State seeks to provide full-time courses, training in technology, applied sciences, commerce, social sciences, arts and humanities among others.
Kalu had in his lead debate stated that Bende has remained undivided since its creation in 1976, even though with the size of four local government areas as found in comparative federal constituencies.
“Despite its strategic location in Abia and sharing a border with Akwa Ibom, with a growing population and landmass, there is no tertiary institution in the Federal Constituency operated either by Federal or State Government. Bende deserves to have the presence of a tertiary institution to serve the education need of the teeming youthful population, especially now that the need for well-trained educationists has risen. This is accompanied by the need to fill the gaps created by both the consequences of brain drain and the lack of qualified educationists to provide quality training at all levels of education,” he said.
For the bill seeking the establishment of Federal University of Medical and Health Sciences, Bende, Abia State, he said when it becomes law, the university will be charged with the responsibility to, among other things, offer full-time training leading to the award of degrees in medical and health sciences.
Nneka Amaechi-Nnadi
Nation
South East Caucus Kicks As Senate Rejects Nwosu’s Immortalisation
South East Caucus of the Senate has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immorttalise late Professor Humphrey Nwosu considering his commitment to achieving a practical democracy for Nigerian.
The Senators visibly angered by the Senate’s rejection of the need to immortalise the late National Electoral umpire who stood for democracy through the turbulent 1993 elections stormed out of the Senate Chambers and spoke to the press .
The Chairman of the South East Caucus, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe ( Abia South), as he did in plenary on Wednesday, presented a motion for immortalisation of Humphrey Nwosu by naming the national headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) , after him , for laying the foundation in 1993 and conducting the freest and fairest Presidential election in the country .
The late Professor Nwosu was the National Chairman of the National Electoral Commission ( NEC) , now known as Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) , who through option A4, conducted the June 12, 19993 presidential election , adjudged to be the freest and fairest in the country.
Abaribe in the motion co – sponsored by 15 other Senators , said late Humphrey Nwosu deserved to be immortalised like other heroes of the June 12 , 1993 presidential election .
He also urged the Federal Government to honour the late former electoral umpire with post humous national honours .
But Abaribe’s request , seconded by Senator Victor Umeh (Anambra Central) and supported by Senators from the South East including forner Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi ( Kebbi North) , was roundly rejected by other Senators who said the deceased deserved no immortalization .
Specifically , Senator Adams Oshiomhole ( Edo North) , in his contribution to the debate said the motion to him, was nothing but an attempt to manipulate and rewrite history.
“ Professor Humphrey Nwosu as NEC Chairman in 1993, failed to deliver on the June 12 , 1993 Presidential Election for lack of Courage
“ He who is not ready to die for something , will die for nothing
“ If he was afraid of the gun from announcing the election results and winner in 1993 , he cannot be rewarded now , more so, when many Nigerians died for what he inadvertently created “, he said .
Nneka Amaechi -Nnadi
Nation
Military Committed To Supporting Sustainable Food Security In Nigeria – CDS
The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa, says the Nigerian Military is committed to facilitating sustainable food security in the country through the establishment of farms.
Musa said this in Abuja yesterday during the unveiling of the Defence Farm and Agro-Allied Products Logo.
He noted that the agricultural sector played crucial role in guaranteeing food security which was requisite for sustainable national security.
He said that the adverse impact of climate change, environmental degradation and conflict across some parts of the country had continuously threatened food security with dire consequences on national security.
According to him, to address this, the Defence Headquarters in May 2023, conceptualised the Defence Farm and Agro-Allied Products initiative.
“This is with the aim of keying into the federal government’s efforts at addressing food security challenges in the country.
“The initiative which aligns with the ‘People Centric’ policy thrust of my leadership concept is aimed at creating job opportunities and enhancing rural infrastructural development while significantly contributing to food security in the Country.
“Considering the extensive consultation, planning and preparation made by the committee thus far, I am optimistic that the Defence Farm and Agro-Allied Products initiative will have a positive transformative impact on host communities while enhancing national security.
“With similar initiatives replicated across the country, I envision a future characterised by modernised farming techniques in which the agricultural sector significantly contributes to economic growth and national development.”
The CDS enjoined all members of the Armed Forces and the general public to embrace the initiative and maximise its associated gains.
He expressed gratitude to President Bola Tinubu, for his sterling leadership and relentless pursuit of national peace, security and economic prosperity.
He also appreciated the efforts of members of the committee who worked assiduously to actualise the initiative.
Earlier, the Chairman, Defence Farms Committee,