Edo State
Sports minister receives report of Edo 2020 committee; set to make final decision
The Edo 2020 Sports Festival Committee set up to review Edo state readiness to host the event in the wake of the postponement due to the outbreak of covid-19 has submitted its report to Youth and Sports Development Minister Mr. Sunday Dare. Speaking while submitting its report to the Minister on Thursday in Abuja, Chairman of the Committee, Honourable Tonobok Okowa, said the committee had done a thorough job which would help the government decide on the best possible date to host the festival. According to the Minister, ”Exactly a month ago this committee was set up , i thank you for keeping to the schedule of your mandate. We shall study your report, sit down with relevant agencies of government to examine the recommendations therein. The Ministry is properly guided by Covid-19 protocol a...
Governor Wike slams NGF as toothless bulldog
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike on Monday slammed the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) for not standing up for embattled Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki. He said the NGF had become a toothless bulldog as it has lost focus on its role in defending the rule of law. Wike said the Forum used to be non-partisan and a powerful voice on national issues. He noted that since the All Progressives Congress (APC) took over the NGF in 2015, governors have been turned to beggars. The governor spoke at a media parley held at Government House in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. He said: “Before 2015, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum used to be very powerful as symbols of their respective states but APC killed it because they were protecting the interest of the ruling party. “It is quite unfortunate ...
Trouble in PDP camp over Governor Obaseki’s possible defection
File Photo As Governor Godwin Obaseki seeks a new political fortress in his bid to govern Edo state for another four-year term, emerging reports claim the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been plunged into confusion. The embattled governor was on Friday, June 12, axed out of the race for All Progressive Congress (APC) governorship ticket over alleged “defective certificate.” Since then, Governor Obaseki has become a darling target for the state opposition parties including Action Democratic Party (ADP) but with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) likely to be his next political destination. The Edo governor faces a tricky hurdle of being received with an open arm by PDP members. Legit.ng recalls the opposition party’s nomination process closed on June 2 while screening of aspirants closed on ...
Edo guber: PDP applauds Governor Obaseki’s infrastructural development
The Edo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has applauded Governor Godwin Obaseki’s developmental strides in the various sectors of the state. The Chairman, Edo PDP, Dr Tony Aziegbemi, gave the commendation after inspecting facilities at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City, ahead of the party’s forthcoming primary election scheduled to hold on June 19th 2020. Addressing journalists at the stadium, the state PDP chairman expressed appreciation to the governor for approving the use of the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium for the conduct of the party’s primary election. He noted that the PDP is very impressed with the transformation of the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, adding, “We are going ahead with our preparations and on the 19th of June, we are coming here to do what we know ...
How music legend Majek Fashek passed on
Legendary reggae artiste, Majekodunmi Fasheke, aka Majek Fashek is dead. The artiste died in a New York hospital after a protracted illness on Monday about 5:45pm. He was aged 71. His manager, Uzoma Omenka, confirmed this in a video uploaded on the late singer’s Instagram handle. “Yes, it is true that the legend has gone to be with the Lord. But this time I want to say we should all celebrate him, his achievements. He has done a lot for Nigeria and for Africa. Whatever the family decides, I will get it to you. This is all I have to say for now.” He said. Fashek, who battled a mysterious protracted illness had been down since 2019 and was at a time on admission at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich in England . Fashek was born in Benin-City, Edo state to an Ijesha father and a Benin mot...
President Buhari meets Governor Obaseki at Villa
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday met with the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The Personal Assistant on New Media to the President, Bashir Ahmad, announced this via his Twitter handle. He said, “President Muhammadu Buhari meets with Governor of Edo State, His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki this afternoon, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.” Newsmen reports that eight governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, on Sunday, held a meeting with the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, at the State House Marina, Lagos State to make a case for Obaseki. It was gathered that the governors were at the closed-door meeting to seek Tinubu’s intervention in the search for a truce in the political conflict between Obaseki and h...
68 travellers hidden in trucks arrested in Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Ministerial Task-team on the enforcement of COVID-19 Restrictions, on Wednesday, arrested about 68 persons travelling through the territory from various parts of Nigeria. Confirming the incident in Abuja, the Chairman of the task force, Ikharo Attah, lamented the increasing rate in which people violate the ban on interstate travel as announced by President Muhammadu Buhari. According to him: “Drivers of the two Dangote trucks who were coming from Kano and Zaria after delivering goods, they now took passengers who were charged N1,500 each. “Owners of the trucks must do all to ensure their trucks which are meant for haulage of goods are not converted to be illegally transporting persons from one state to another, thus violating the lockdown directives of t...
Nigeria governors meet Wednesday on quick way out of coronavirus effects
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum says it will meet on Wednesday to review the situation of COVID-19 pandemic in various states, and as well find paths for a quick way out of the effects of the pandemic. The forum made this known in a statement by Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, NGF Head, Media and Public Affairs, in Abuja on Tuesday. Bello-Barkindo said issues to be discussed at the 8th teleconference meeting, according to the invitation sent from the NGF Director-General, Mr Asishana Bayo Okauru, include update from the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19. He also listed a new initiative codenamed CACOVID-Volunteer Health Workers Support Scheme to States, including a consideration for a CACOVID–Healthcare Training Proposal, among others. Bello-Barkindo said: “The state governors will also take a...
Edo screens 104,186 persons for coronavirus, discharges one, contact traces 689 others
The Edo State Government, as part of efforts to contain the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, has ramped up ongoing screening and testing exercise across the state’s 18 Local Government Areas (LGAs), screening over 104,186 persons, testing about 704 residents and contact tracing over 689 others who have had various degrees of contacts with confirmed cases. Commissioner for Health, Dr Patrick Okundia, who disclosed this to journalists in Benin City, also announced the discharge of one more COVID-19 patient, who has tested negative twice for the virus and cleared from the state’s isolation centres. According to him, the new discharge brings the number of patients successfully managed and discharged from the state’s isolation facilities to 13. Okundia, however, reassured that the remaining cas...
Mabel Madojiemu rues schools athletics cancellation
Former Nigerian women 400m great, Mabel Madojiemu, has lamented the cancellation of the 2020 Schools athletics championships originally billed for May 15 in Benin City, Edo State. The championships, which is solely sponsored by the Princess Mabel Madojiemu Athletics Foundation, was well on its way to make it’s second edition with the young athletes looking forward to participating, but the event became another victim of the worldwide sports postponements due to the Coronavirus pandemic. “Just like the young athletes, I’m sad that we are not going to have the Schools Athletics Competition as scheduled,” said Madojiemu. “We were good to go, and were looking to give the kids a treat, most especially with the National Sports Festival which would have been hosted in Benin by Edo State. It was o...
Edo marketers defy petrol price reduction
AHA Taxis Independent petroleum Marketers within Benin metropolis in Edo, have continued to dispense petrol at N125 per litre in deference to the recently announced pump price of N108 per litre. It would be recalled that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Wednesday announced a reduction in the ex-depot price of petrol to N108 per litre This was the second time the NNPC has dropped the price of petrol after its first reduction on March 19, 2020, to N125. However, investigation shows that filling stations across Benin, the capital city of Edo, still maintained their old pump price of N125 per litre. Speaking in separate interviews on Saturday, motorists lamented that five days after the directive, all the filling stations, including the NNPC Mega station, had refused to ad...
Gunmen shoot police inspector dead in Edo
A police inspector, Felix Egbon, was on Friday night shot dead by unknown gunmen who attacked a team of police operatives in Auchi, Edo State. This was contained in a statement issued Saturday evening by the state Police Command spokesman, DSP Chidi Nwabuzor, titled “Attack on policemen and the gruesome murder of a police inspector.” The statement stated that Inspector Egbon, who was attached to the Auchi division, was on patrol with his team, enforcing the COVID-19 curfew imposed by the federal government when they were ambushed. “Edo State Police Command wishes to inform the general public of the attack on the operatives of Auchi Divisional Police Headquarters, Auchi, Edo State and the gruesome murder of a Police Inspector, Felix Egbon during the process. “On Friday the 8th of May, 2020,...
