Katsina Now Second State With Lowest HIV Prevalence – Commissioner [LEADERSHIP]
The Katsina State Government has said that the state is now rated as the second lowest in HIV prevalence with a declined from 1.4 to 0.3 per cent of the total population.
This was disclosed on Friday by the commissioner for Health, Nuhu Yakubu Danja, while briefing journalists on the achievement of the APC administration under Governor Aminu Bello Masari from inception of office in 2015.
According to him, “The state agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS has also recorded remarkable achievements as the state HIV prevalence has declined from 1.4 per cent to 0.3 per cent in general population; second lowest across the country.
“Distribution of food items to 29 support groups, purchase of laboratory reagents for the conduct of chemistry and haematology tests, procurement of rapid HIV test kits and consumables have also been sustained.”
He further explained that the present government had been up and doing in ensuring that the people have adequate health facilities, adding that N4.6 billion has been earmarked for the rehabilitation, upgrading and remodelling of eight general hospitals with the view to improve the quality of healthcare services in the state.
Katsina Now Second State With Lowest HIV Prevalence – Commissioner [LEADERSHIP]
The Katsina State Government has said that the state is now rated as the second lowest in HIV prevalence with a declined from 1.4 to 0.3 per cent of the total population.
This was disclosed on Friday by the commissioner for Health, Nuhu Yakubu Danja, while briefing journalists on the achievement of the APC administration under Governor Aminu Bello Masari from inception of office in 2015.
According to him, “The state agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS has also recorded remarkable achievements as the state HIV prevalence has declined from 1.4 per cent to 0.3 per cent in general population; second lowest across the country.
“Distribution of food items to 29 support groups, purchase of laboratory reagents for the conduct of chemistry and haematology tests, procurement of rapid HIV test kits and consumables have also been sustained.”
He further explained that the present government had been up and doing in ensuring that the people have adequate health facilities, adding that N4.6 billion has been earmarked for the rehabilitation, upgrading and remodelling of eight general hospitals with the view to improve the quality of healthcare services in the state.
Police Arrest 17 WAEC Officials Over Exam Offences [LEADERSHIP]
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has arrested 17 officials of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) over their involvement in various examination malpractices in the just concluded West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in some states in Nigeria.
Parading the suspects, the force public relations officer (PRO), DCP Frank Mba, said the arrest was consequent upon the renewed partnership between the exam body and the Police aimed at ensuring and promoting the integrity of examination processes in the country.
He said investigations by police operatives revealed the suspects used their privileged positions as invigilators, supervisors and school functionaries during the 2020 WASSCE to conspire, perpetrate and encourage varying degrees of examination malpractices, including online transmission of examination questions and answers on various social media platforms.
Some of the suspects, Daye West ‘m’ 52 years, Shalom Essien ‘m’ 39 years, Anyanwu Precious ‘f’ 27 years, Hanson Beloved ‘m’ 38 years, Ali Musa ‘m’ 46 years, Umar Mohammed ‘m’ 50 years, Isa Abdullahi Arikya ‘m’ 39 years, Hamisu Haussaini Abdullahi ‘m’ 33 years, Maharazu Sabo ‘m’ 41 years, Yusuf .M. Mailafiya ‘m’ 55 years, Sule Bukata Garba ‘m’ 40 years, Wudana K. Solomon ‘m’ 30 years, were arrested in Kano, Rivers, Nasarawa and Bauchi states.
Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, assured the examination body of continuous support to discourage examination malpractices and bring perpetrators to book.
He also enjoined parents, guardians, students and all other stakeholders in the examination processes to cooperate with the police and the exam body towards bringing an end to examination malpractice in the country.
Ondo 2020: We Shall Continue To Protect Corps Members – INEC Chair [LEADERSHIP]
The chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has reiterated the commission’s assurance that members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) participating as ad-hoc staff during the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State would be adequately protected.
Yakubu stated this during the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) meeting held at the conference room of the INEC state office in Akure.
He said the success recorded during the recently held election in Edo State is an indication the commission is improving on its operation in all ramifications and cannot afford to lower the bar come October 10, 2020.
“The NYSC is one of our principal partners at ensuring that we have credible, free, fair and generally acceptable election and we shall do all things legally possible to make sure that their participation is not in any way jeopardised,” he added.
The INEC boss expressed the commission’s readiness to conduct another successful election in the sunshine state, saying all hands must remain on deck to leverage on the Edo experience.
Earlier in her remarks, the NYSC state coordinator, Mrs Grace Akpabio, restated management’s stand that corps members should not be posted to riverine areas for the election duties.
Akpabio informed the stakeholders which had in attendance INEC national commissioners and heads of security and uniformed agencies as well as the representative of Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 that the members of the service corps have been sensitised on the roles expected of them during the election.
At the meeting, the security chiefs who spoke through the joint chairman of ICCES and commissioner of Police, CP Bolaji Salami, allayed the fears expressed by the NYSC management and disclosed the corps members would receive the best from the security personnel deployed for the election.
I’ll spend 67 years on throne, says Oluwo of Iwo [THE NATION]
The Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, on Friday, boasted to residents of the community that he would spend 67 years more on the throne.
The residents of the ancient town thronged to his palace on a solidarity walk opposing the petition dated September 9, 2020, by the twelve king-makers urging Governor of Osun State, Adegboyega Oyetola, to remove him from the throne over alleged misconduct.
Speaking to his supporters in his palace, the Oba Akanbi said, “I have 67 more years to spend on the throne, I’m going to live for 120 years. Those who want me out, and want to become Oluwo should wait because this is my time.
“With this crowd that engaged in solidarity walk, it is now obvious that I am in the good book of my people. That is why you are all standing in support of me.
“Leaders must always strive for the development of their people. If I had not been good to you, my people, you would have stoned me today. In as much as I am being loved by my people, nobody can remove me from being the king.”
Edo: I can’t escape blame for APC loss – Buhari [THE NATION]
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday re-evaluated last weekend’s governorship election in Edo State, saying that he could not escape being held responsible for the loss of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), at the poll.
But he said it was important for him to develop in the country a political culture based on integrity and build his party on a “civilized basis, rule of law and respect for human rights and human beings.”
Buhari spoke in his Abuja office while receiving Governor Godwin Obaseki who won the election after defeating the APC candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.
Obaseki, who was accompanied by his deputy Philip Shaibu and other Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders, ruled out a return to the APC from which he switched camps to the PDP.
He said going back to his former party would be immoral.
But the chairman of his campaign council, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, said the Edo governor was free to leave the PDP if he found that his new party was not working for him.
Wike, who featured in a television programme, also spoke on why he thought Police Inspector General Mohammed Adamu wanted him out of Edo State during the election.
He said it was because of some previous roles he (Wike) played, which did not go down well with the police authorities.
Buhari, at the meeting with Obaseki and Shaibu, said it was his duty to “preside over all Nigerian interests, whether I like it or not.”
Continuing, he said: “My single desire is to make sure that innocent people don’t suffer. That message I got across to the Inspector General of Police, that elections must be free and fair.
“If contestants have too much money and they decide to spray, so be it. But what I insist (on) is (that) nobody should go and raise a counter force to the government, arm heavily-drugged thugs to go and humiliate people.”
My story, by owner of orphanage sealed off in Osun [THE NATION]
The fenced property could easily pass for a nursery school. The black gate at the entrance of the building had seen better days and was definitely on its last legs. The paint had faded to give way for rust, highlighting the apparent desolation in the compound.
A few weeks before The Nation visited, Oroyemi Elizabeth Covenant Home and Care Centre, Opa, Ile-Ife, Osun State was a beehive of activities. Children and teenagers were everywhere, especially the playground. But all that has changed since officials of Osun State Ministry of Women, Children and Social Affairs visited the orphanage and sealed it off.
The ministry had had to wait for three to four years before it unleashed its sucker punch on the strength of intelligence reports allegedly gathered about the home. Among them was alleged inability of the home to take care of the children in its custody as many of them were malnourished. It was also accused of operating in an environment that was anything but tidy.
By the time the ministry struck, 47 children and unspecified number of adults including a physically challenged were said to have been “rescued”.
The owner of the orphanage, Mrs Elizabeth Oroyemi, a widow and former headmistress, however, said there was no justification for the ministry’s action, noting that the children were traumatised and shocked with the way the home was invaded. She said she had taken the incident in good faith, believing that it is a phase that would soon pass.
Insisting that she was not doing anything illegal at the home, Oroyemi said: “It is God that gave me this ministry; it is God that has taken it. When it is time for God to return my captivity, He will surely do it. This is a gift from God.”
‘Yahoo Boys’ migrate to rural communities [THE NATION]
They are young men who live their lives on the fast lane. They love the good things of life but lack the legitimate means to acquire them. Rather than seek legitimate means of fulfilling their fantasies, they took to cybercrimes, defrauding unsuspecting individuals and organisations until they recently came under the radar of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The onslaught by operatives of the anti-corruption agency has since dislodged these young persons from their bases in the urban centres to various rural communities, particularly in the Southwest to escape EFCC’s searchlight.
It was gathered that many remote settlements in Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti and Ogun states are now hosts to fleeing internet fraudsters. They include communities like Ikotun, Ojodu-Berger, Alagbado, Abule Egba, Badagry, Ijanikin, Oto-Awori, Lambe, Matogun, Giwa, Oke Aro, Ajuwon, Akute, Ifo, Ewekoro, Ilaro, Ijebu Ode, Sagamu, Ilisan Remo, Itele, Atan, Ogbomoso, Oshogbo, Ado Ekiti, and Akure, safe havens where some of the embattled fraudsters are now recruiting young school leavers into their syndicates.
True to its slogan, ‘you can run but you can’t hide’, however, the anti-graft agency is unrelenting in smoking out the scammers popularly called yahoo boys from their various hideouts. One such was a raid carried out in the early hours of June 16 at Itele, a sleepy community near Ota in Ogun State, in June this year. Residents of the community were roused recently by the unusual presence of EFCC operatives who cordoned off several roads as they searched vehicles that moved in and out of the community in an operation that was to shock unsuspecting residents.
A few minutes later, their targets were picked up in their posh vehicles while one of the scammers escaped in his car.
Ekiti APC boils with counter suspensions [THE NATION]
Some frontline members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State on Friday slammed Governor Kayode Fayemi and his key supporters with suspension apparently in retaliation for Wednesday’s ‘indefinite suspension’ of Senator Babafemi Ojudu and others by the governor’s loyalists.
The Authentic Members of the APC, as the anti-Fayemi group calls itself, accused the governor of anti- party activities.
They alleged that he worked against the party’s candidate in last weekend’s governorship election in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.
Fayemi dismissed the action of the group as a joke taken too far.
However, the APC Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary National Convention Planning Committee (CENCPC) stepped in yesterday and annulled the rash of suspensions handed out by the two sides in the fight.
‘Suspended’ along with Fayemi by the statutory members of Ekiti State Executive Committee of the APC were the party chairman Paul Omotosho and other executives.
The SEC members said the decision to ‘suspend’ the affected persons was taken at an emergency meeting of the State Executive Committee of the party, which took place on Wednesday.
The SEC members, in a communiqué entitled “Re: Dr. Fayemi Anti-party Activities”, yesterday said: “After painstakingly reviewing the activities of some members of the APC in Ekiti State, we the authentic members of the party in the State and members of SEC per Section 12.8 of the APC Constitution being duly constituted members of the National Convention of the Party, rose from its meeting of the 23rd September 2020 with some far-reaching resolutions.
Sanwo-Olu flags off construction of 377 roads, power projects [THE NATION]
The governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Friday flagged off the construction of 377 projects across all the wards in the state to address specific challenges at the grassroots level.
The projects will lead to the construction of over 250 roads and installation of 23 power projects across the state.
The flag-off ceremony took place at the Adeyemi Bero Hall, Alausa, Ikeja.
Sanwo-Olu said his government initiated the intervention in response to series of requests from the various communities across the state to address specific challenges.
He said the execution of the projects would change the narrative as to what grassroots development and government’s responsibilities are all about.
He said: “The state-wide 377 ward projects being launched today are state intervention projects in grassroots development.
“The projects are conceived in response to requests by the various communities across the state to address specific challenges.
“These projects are not universal; they are diverse, reflecting the needs of each ward across the state.
“The implementation of the projects will commence immediately after this official flag-off, as contractors have been fully mobilised to move to site.
“I urge residents, who are the ultimate beneficiaries of these projects, to take ownership by monitoring the implementation process and ensuring that the job conforms to quality and standard specified in the project design.”
Petrol/electricity tariff hikes: Labour adamant as FG obtains fresh order to stop strike [PUNCH]
Despite the two court orders restraining the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress from embarking on their planned nationwide strike on Monday, the two labour unions have said they will go ahead with the industrial action.
They added that the mobilisation of workers for the strike and protest scheduled to commence on Monday had already commenced.
The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba and his TUC counterpart, Quadri Olaleye, told Saturday PUNCH in separate interviews on Friday that they had not been served the court processes and would therefore not suspend the proposed strike.
The NLC and TUC had jointly declared their readiness to embark on a nationwide strike to compel the Federal Government to reverse the recent hikes in electricity tariffs and petrol pump price. The hikes had generated nationwide criticism.
Justice Ibrahim Galadima of the National Industrial Court in Abuja on Friday issued a fresh restraining order against the unions, following an ex parte application by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.
The fresh order came barely 24 hours after the same judge made a similar restraining ex parte order in favour of a group, Peace and Unity Ambassadors Association, on Thursday.
The judge, sitting as vacation judge, ordered that both the NLC and the TUC joined as the defendants in the suit should be served with the fresh court order within seven days from Friday.
Boko Haram kills 15 in attack on Borno gov’s convoy [PUNCH]
An ambush on the convoy of Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, on Friday left about 15 persons dead.
The governor’s convoy was said to have been attacked between Monguno and Baga areas of the state.
A security source said the attack left mainly security personnel comprising eight policemen, three soldiers and four Civilian Joint Task Force operatives dead.
A source at the Borno State Government House in Maiduguri also told our correspondent that the governor had left Maiduguri for Baga to prepare for the planned return of internally displaced persons from Maiduguri to the camps in Baga.
The governor was said to have left Maiduguri with a retinue of armed soldiers, police officers and Civilian-JTF personnel.
A senior police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that he was told eight persons were killed, including security personnel and civilians.
Friday’s incident is the second attack on the governor’s convoy in recent times around Baga.
I’ll support Tinubu’s presidential bid —Senator Buhari [PUNCH]
Oyo North lawmaker, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, says he will support All Progressives Congress stalwart, Bola Tinubu, to be the next president of Nigeria the moment he declares his interest in the nation’s top job.
Buhari said this during an interview with journalist, Edmund Obilo, on Thursday.
When asked if Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State was working against Tinubu’s interest, Buhari said that was not true.
He responded, “No. I am Tinubu. I am not Fayemi and I will not be in a meeting where somebody would be working against Tinubu. I am supporting Tinubu.”
Responding to a question on whether Tinubu was running for president, Buhari said, “If he wants to be President, I will support him. I will campaign for him.”
As regards the crisis rocking the APC in Oyo State, the lawmaker said the disagreement was caused by the loss of the governorship seat to the Peoples Democratic Party.
He, however, said a former Governor of Oyo State, Adebayo Alao-Akala, is the leader of the party in the state.
Ondo poll: Akeredolu’s aide kicks as Wike says incumbency won’t work [PUNCH]
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Friday alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies were under pressure to scuttle the will of the people during the October 10 governorship election in Ondo State.
Wike stated this during a television programme in Port Harcourt, according to a release from the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim.
The governor also said that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s incumbency would not work during the Ondo poll.
But Akeredolu fired back at Wike on Friday, warning him to steer clear of the October 10 governorship election in the state.
The Rivers governor said just as the people of Edo State fought against godfatherism, those of Ondo State would respond to the several unfulfilled promises made to them by the All Progressives Congress.
The statement read, “Having lost Edo State, everything will be done not to lose Ondo State because they know that will mean the end of the APC. It is such pressure that is on INEC and the security agencies now that may lead to their compromising (SIC).
“I fear that INEC and the security agencies may succumb. But I pray they resist it and continue to defend democracy. In Ondo State, the will of the people is against them and incumbency will not work.”
Wike lamented that the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, exhibited impunity when he ordered him (Wike) to leave Edo State during last Saturday’s governorship election in the state while his Imo and Kano states’ counterparts were not harassed. The PDP candidate and incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki won the election.
Meanwhile, Ondo State Governor, Akeredolu, who spoke through the state Commissioner for Information, Mr Donald Ojogor, said there would not be any room for Wike to influence the governorship election.
Ojogor said, “What amuses us is his imperious attitude and recourse to spurious allegations just because of an election. He should know that the people of the Ondo State, who have a history of rejecting external influence and domination, will resist his attempt to play the role of a godfather in Ondo State. Ondo is not Rivers.