Nation
THE STATES
Adamawa
The Adamawa State Government has announced the release of over 3,000 of its workers for in-service training in various institutions of learning in the country.
The Head of Service of the state, Mr Musa Kaibo, said this at the opening of a five-day workshop on “Plan And Budget Management At the State Level.”
The event was organised by the North-Eastern State Governments in conjunction with National Centre for Management Development, in Yola last Wednesday.
Kaibo said that providing quality knowledge and skills to civil servants to improve their capacity and efficiency was among the top priorities of the government.
The head of service also said that 6,962 staff were engaged in different training by the State’s University, Mubi in 2012.
Earlier, the Director-General of the centre, Dr Kabir Kabo, said the workshop was to bring together planning and budget officers at the sub-national levels of government in the country.
Benue
Following the recurring crisis between herdsmen and farmers in Benue State, a legislator has appealed to the Federal Government to deploy more soldiers to Makurdi, Guma and Gwer West Local Government Areas.
A former Speaker of the Benue House of Assembly, Mr Emmanuel Jime, who made the appeal on Wednesday in Makurdi, said the deployment would quell the crisis between farmers and herdsmen in good time.
Jime, who is a member of the House of Representatives, representing Makurdi/Guma Federal Constituency, said at a news conference that the measure would enable farmers to return to their homes to commence farming activities in earnest.
He expressed regrets that the crisis was happening when the rains have just begun for farming activities to take off in the affected areas, and commended Gov. Gabriel Suswam for restoring relative peace to the crisis torn areas.
In their remarks, the Chairmen of the three LGAs, Godwin Donko, Usar Adi and Eunice Mbajuwa stressed that the soldiers deployed to their local governments should ensure the safety of lives and property.
Kaduna
The Director of Education Quality Assurance Board in Kaduna State, Mrs Elizabeth Garba, says the state has recorded 44 per cent improvement in the 2012 WAEC examination.
She said the board was established by the state government to raise literacy level of students, which had been very low in spite of huge investment in the sector.
According to her, since the establishment of the board, the state has constituted compulsory self evaluation practises in all schools below tertiary level.
She said the schools were being evaluated and screened before getting full accreditation that would qualify them to present candidates for external examination.
The director said that the board was also responsible for the evaluation and re-accreditation of schools at least once in every three years.
Kano
Kano State Scholarship Board said it would begin e-payment of scholarship allowances to students in various institutions of higher learning this year.
The Executive Secretary of the Board, Alhaji Usman Ririwai, said last Wednesday in Kano that the measure would check fraud among students and staff of the board and ensure transparency and accountability.
The executive secretary said the board had selected School for Rural and Community Studies Rano, for the pilot scheme, stating. “As soon as the pilot programme is completed, we shall commence the e-payment in all the institutions, where we have students.”
According to him, each student will be required to open an account with one of the commercial banks for the implementation of the programme.
Ririwai said the board had begun screening of fresh students to ensure speedy payment of their allowances, and added that the board would ensure prompt payment of the allowances to the students, to enable them to concentrate on their studies.
Kebbi
Top officials of Kebbi State Ministry of Education are invigilating students in the ongoing Senior Secondary School Examination (SSCE) to prevent examination malpractice.
The Birnin Kebbi Zonal Inspector of Education, Alhaji Shehu Wali, made this known in an interview with newsmen in Birnin Kebbi on Wednesday. Wali said that students from the public schools preferred to write the examination in private schools because they stood better chances of passing the examinations in the schools.
He said that such practice would be checked to forestall decay in the public schools and collection of examination fees.
The zonal inspectorate department, he said, would invigilate examination in all the schools within the zone to ensure that they comply with the rules of the examination.
Kogi
Six councillorship aspirants last Wednesday dragged the Kogi State Independent Electoral Commission (KOSIEC) to court, seeking an order to stop the May 4 Local Government elections.
The PDP chairmanship aspirant for Omala Local Government, Labaran Oyigebe, and the Attorney-General of the state, were joined as co-defendants.
The plaintiffs, Akpa Salisu, Amodu Omada, Josiah Achimugu, Zackari Abubakar, Karim Paul and Onuh Abraham, contested in the March 15 PDP council primary elections in Omala council.
They prayed the court to determine whether KOSIEC could validly conduct local government election in Omala Local Government as well as the entire 21 Local Government Areas.
Nasarawa
Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State has urged the newly appointed commissioners and Head of Service to see their appointment as a call to ‘selfless service and public trust’.
Al-Makura, who made this known when he inaugurated the commissioners in Lafia last Wednesday, said their appointment was in tandem with his administration’s vision, mission and programme of action.
According to him, it is aimed at providing good governance, enduring peace and development. “You should realise that your appointments are a call to selfless service. Indeed, the oath you have just taken is a litmus test to your public service career,” he said.
Niger
The Niger State Government says it will continue to accord priority to the education sector through provision of basic learning and teaching materials.
The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Saidu Idris, said this last Wednesday when members of the Amalgamated Union of Niger State-owned Tertiary Institutions paid him a courtesy call in his office in Minna, that education had remained the greatest source of empowerment in the world, adding that government would ensure that the sector received the desired attention.
The SSG, who observed that most of the infrastructure in the tertiary institutions in the state were in serious decay, assured that government would rectify the problem.
In his remarks, the Acting Chairman of the union, Alhaji Abdullahi Hassan, commended the State Government for re-shaping the education sector and improving the welfare of staff of tertiary institutions in the state.
Osun
Violators of the National Environmental (Protection of Endangered Species) Regulations risk seven years jail term or N20 million fine, the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) has said.
A Regulation Officer with the agency, Mr Hena Emmanuel, while addressing facility managers at a forum in Osogbo tagged: “ Environmental Compliance and Enforcement,’’ last Wednesday, stressed the need to protect and preserve wild life in the environment so that the country could have something to show to the incoming generation.
Emmanuel also warned against the violation of the National Environmental (Control of Bush/Forest Fire and Open Burning) Regulations and advised the public against bush burning in order to protect the ecosystem.
Oyo
More than 50 illegal structures built on major roads in Sabo area of Ibadan have been demolished under the on-going urban renewal initiative of the state government.
Owners of the demolished structures were sighted last Wednesday removing valuables from the ruins of the structures while motorists experienced difficulties passing through the area.
The state Commissioner for Environment, Mr Lowo Obisesan, said that the government’s decision to demolish the structures was to boost sanitation in the area, and described the sanitary condition of the area as worrisome.
“ Before we started implementing the decision, we decided to carry the leaders and youths of the area along so that they will not start to have a wrong impression that we wanted to chase them away from the area,’ he said.’
Obisesan said that government had given owners of the demolished shops three different sites in Ibadan, adding that the sites are located at TCTC motor-park, Eleyele Water Works and the old airport acquired by government.
Plateau
Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State would complete all ongoing projects in the state before the end of his second term in 2015.
The state Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Mr Solomon Maren, who stated this on Wednesday during an inspection tour of some projects in Bokkos Local Government Area of the state said the pace with which the indigenous contractors were working had convinced him that the vision of the governor was realisable.
He said, “Our redemption Governor is determined to complete these projects before the expiration of his tenure in 2015, and I think the contractors are toeing the line.’’”I am highly impressed with the pace at which the indigenous contractors are handling these projects within the central zone, just within the last one month they mobilised to their various sites. “What we have seen here today is totally different from what we saw earlier in the southern zone, where some of the contractors have not even mobilised to site.
Yobe
The Yobe State Government has approved the release of N192.5 million to the State Independent Electoral Commission to ensure timely preparation for the June council elections.
The Special Adviser to State Governor on Political Affairs, Alhaji Maimala Buni, made this known in an interview in Damaturu on Wednesday.
“Government approved the funds to ensure timely procurement of ballot papers and all other necessary materials needed for the success of the election. “The commission on its part has commenced preparations, according to the time-table, for a successful and credible exercise,’’ he said.
Buni commended political parties in the state for their commitments to the election time-table and process, and disclosed that the stakeholders forum “has given politicians a true sense of belonging in the forthcoming election’’.
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.