Nation
Benue, UNICEF Partner To Provide 2,000 Boreholes To Eight LGAs
Benue State Government in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has provided over two thousand boreholes to communities in eight local government areas of the state.
Outgoing UNICEF Chief Field Officer in Nigeria, Ibrahim Conteh, who disclosed this on Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at the Benue Peoples House during a farewell visit to the Governor, said the feat was achieved in a period of four years.
Conteh stated that the intervention was to ensure that the most deprived communities have access to safe drinking water which he said could save the people, especially children and women from contracting water borne diseases.
The UNICEF Chief Field Officer who is moving to Afghanistan stated that the UN Agency has gone a step further to connect the boreholes to primary health care centres and primary schools in the communities and assured that they would also undertake rehabilitation of the boreholes.
According to Dr Conteh, UNICEF has also expended about one million dollars to provide temporary learning centres in IDPs across the state as well as partnered the ministry of education to ensure that children were enrolled in schools.
He commended Governor Samuel Ortom for always providing the needed counterpart funding to make the work of UNICEF easier as well as consistently feeding the IDPs to ensure that children living in the camps are not malnourished.
Governor Samuel Ortom expressed appreciation to UNICEF for assisting the state through various interventions and assured that apart from the counterpart funding, the government would ensure that facilities provided by the UN Agency are well managed.
The Governor lamented unequal treatment of IDPs in Benue State as compared to what happens in the North Eastern part of Nigeria, stressing that the development was against justice, fairness and equity.
Governor Ortom prayed God to grant the UNICEF Chief Field Officer success in his new assignment in Afghanistan where he is redeployed to help intervene in humanitarian crisis.
Local government areas where the boreholes are cited include Konshisha, Katsina Ala, Guma, Tarka, Buruku, Ogbadibo, Oju and Obi.
The Chairman of Malumfashi Local Government Council of Katsina State, Maharazu Dayi, has been impeached.
Maharazu Dayi was impeached yesterday by 11 out of 12 councillors, barely two days before the local government elections in the State.
The councillors reportedly took action following allegations of misconduct and poor governance against the chairman after a dispute over the distribution of the council’s Paris Club funds.
The development has sent shock waves across the local government area, especially as the impeached chairman is among those who failed to secure the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to contest in the forthcoming election.
The Rumuwoji Ultra Modern Market Traders Association, Mile 1, Port Harcourt, has urged the state government to utilise the available spaces within the area to build phase 3 of the Rumuwoji Market in order to solve the ever increasing needs of traders.
The association, which said this at a media briefing in Port Harcourt, also described as a welcomed development the decision by the state Governor to open the phase 2 of the market for business.
According to the association, “We consider it as an answer to the various cries of the people, because he is a man on a mission who is out to place the interest of Rivers people first. It is a dream come true for the first time for the market to be dully allocated and open for business”
Chairman of the association, Hon Godspower Wobo, who briefed the press shortly after a meeting of the association in Port Harcourt, also urged the public to disregard the activities of some persons whose stock in trade is to cause disaffection in the market.
He said the attention of the association was drawn to the activities of some strange fellows who went about misforming the people about situation in the market, stressing that apart from his association, no other group exists in the market except subdiary unions.
Wobo also tasked the reallocation committee to tread with caution so as to avoid being deceived by any group.
According to him, time has come for the state government to engage in robust discussion with aggrieved shop owners who went to court and those who paid monies to the state coffers and issued with allocation certificates for the overall interest of peace.
He also advised the public to deal directly with his association, stressing that the meeting was to review activities for the last year as well as unveil their new Constitution.
Also speaking, former Chairman of the association, Deacon Kenneth Eze urged the Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara to open the phase 2 of the market, as it is long overdue.
Eze who is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the association also urged the public to do business with only the Rumuwoji Ultra Modern Market Traders Association as it is the only union recognised by the traders.
The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwunmi Adesina, has debunked reports linking him with the race for Nigeria’s presidency in 2027.
Reacting to the report on his X handle yesterday, following a recent interview with Arise TV, the AfDB boss said his quotes were misrepresented and misinterpreted in several Nigerian media reports.
However, the AfDB president denied the media reports, stating that he never said that he wanted to contest for President.
“A segment of my recent interview on @Arise TV has been both misinterpreted and misrepresented in several Nigerian media outlets. What I said was, “I will be available to serve in any capacity, globally, in Africa, anywhere, including my own country.”
“A listen to the substantive and robust interview, which is available online, will show this to be the case. For clarity and for the record, I did not say that I am running for the office of President of Nigeria,” Adesina said.