The Lagos House of Assembly has commenced an audit exercise for all the 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) and the 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state. The Chairman, House Committee on Public Account (Local), Mojeed Fatai, made this known in a statement issued in Lagos on Saturday. Fatai said that the committee was expected to submit its report to the House after the weeklong exercise. The lawmaker explained that the exercise was aimed at checking probity and accountability in the local government administration as provided in the 1999 (Amended) Constitution. He said: “The essence of the exercise is to allow the committee go through the 2019 report of the Auditor General without fear or favour to any local council indicted by the officials of the Auditor General. “Also, t...
The National Orientation Agency (NOA) says Federal Government will enrol 67,307 primary school pupils into the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme in Ebonyi. The Director of NOA in the state, Dr Desmond Onwo, said this on Wednesday during his visit to the Traditional Rulers Council in Abakaliki. Onwo said the programme would capture 561 public primary schools in the 13 local government areas of the state. He urged the traditional rulers to key into the programme and support NOA’s campaign to ensure that the people participated actively. “The programme is going to commence across communities in the state with an enumeration in order to identify the children. “It is going to cover from primary one to three in public primary schools. “This is not for all states in the country but Ebon...
As plans for next year’s budget begins to gather pace, the National Economic Council (NEC) has endorsed the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) which was presented to it at an emergency meeting of the Council today. Besides the MTEF presentation, the NEC also updated its focus on the reports of the State Judicial Panels set up across the country after last year’s #EndSARS protests. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, urged States where the panels are still sitting to also send interim reports so as to measure progress. According to the Vice President, in a statement by his media aide Laolu Akande, the reports are now being received ahead of a Council meeting where presentations would be made on them, both for States where the panels have conclude...
Professor Gorgewill Owunari has been announced as the new vice chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt. The announcement was made on Friday by the Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Port Harcourt, Senator Andrew Uchendu. Senator Uchendu said Prof. Owunari, from the department of Pharmacology, emerged from twelve other contenders for the top job at the university. Presenting the new VC to journalists in Port Harcourt, senator Uchendu said “I want to assure all of you that we meticulously complied with the full provisions of the act on the selection of the vice chancellor of the university. “After interviewing about twelve of them we found three of them appoint-able. “For the first time in my life I have received a delegation of the President to act on his behalf an...
Ondo State government has declared a clampdown on cultists and cult activities in the state. The State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Donald Ojogo, who disclosed this during a media briefing shortly after the State Executive Council meeting, warned parents and guardians to caution their children and wards against cultism. He said “the State Executive Council noted the activities of cultists and cult groups. As you know, Ondo state is not insulated from the menance of cultism. There will be a clampdown on cult activities and cult groups in the state.” Also, he disclosed that the council reiterated the ban on commercial motorcyclists operations in the state. “Council noted the activities of commercial motorcyclists and reiterated that the ban placed on Okada riders from op...
Kwara State Government has announced plans to establish a multi-billion naira Cancer treatment Centre to be situated at the Ilorin General Hospital. This is contained in a statement signed by Alhaji Bashir Adigun, the Special Adviser, Political Communication to Kwara Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. According to him, the N2.5 billion recently donated to the state by the Abdul Samad Rabiu Initiative (ASR Africa) will form a huge chunk of funding for the modern facility. The governor said the centre along with the 12-bed intensive care unit, the modern dental and eye care facilities recently added to the general hospital was part of the huge investments. He said that these facilities would convert the General Hospital to a research facility (teaching hospital) for the take-off of the medica...
The South African government says that stones found in a village last month are not diamonds but quartz. A cattle herder first uncovered the stones in KwaZulu-Natal province. It prompted thousands to rush to KwaHlathi village, more than 300km (186 miles) south-east of Johannesburg. But after conducting tests, officials have said the stones are quartz crystals, which are far less valuable. After feldspar, quartz is the most abundant mineral in the Earth’s crust. “The tests conducted conclusively revealed that the stones discovered in the area are not diamonds,” a local government statement reportedly said. The rush occurred in one of South Africa’s poorest regions. The country – which already suffers from high levels of economic inequality – has seen a surge in joblessness amid the ongoing ...
President Muhammadu Buhari, has ordered Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba to ensure insecurity is reduced to the barest minimum. This is even as the Police Council made up of the President, Vice President, governors, ministers of Police Affairs, Interior and the Federal Capital Territory, confirmed Baba as the IGP. Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Maigari Dingyadi, who confirmed the development at the end of the one and half hours meeting, said he was unanimously confirmed. President Buhari had on April 6, appointed Baba as acting the Inspector General of Police. Baba was a Deputy Inspector General of Police before his promotion. Briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting held at the First Lady Conference Room, the main purpose of the meeting was to “get the appo...
Information minister Lai Mohammed says a prediction that Nigeria would break up in 2015 did not materialise, asserting that current predictions by individuals and organisations will also fail. A former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, and one other expert had suggested that Nigeria had become a failed state calling on the U.S. government to step to salvage the country from total collapse. Mr Mohammed stated, “This declaration is merely the opinions of two persons, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations John Campbell, and the President Emeritus of World Peace Foundation, Robert Rotberg. “Declaring any nation a failed state is not done at the whims and caprices of one or two persons, no matter their status. Just because Nigeria is ...