State Government
Official: Police free eight kidnap victims, arrest four suspects in Zamfara
The police in Zamfara have arrested four suspects over alleged killing of a Fulani herdsman. At a press conference in Gusau on Sunday, the Commissioner of Police, Abutu Yaro, said the police command also recovered 200 rustled cows following its steadfastness in crime fighting. He said some weapons were recovered and the command secured the release of no fewer than eight persons abducted three weeks ago. “We recovered no fewer than 200 stolen cows, five AK 47 rifles, three vehicles and a large number of ammunitions,” he said. According to the commissioner, the peace process being led by the state government has yielded huge results, including the unconditional surrendering of three 3 AK-47 rifles and 47 rounds of live ammunitions. “As a result of the ongoing peace engagement in Shinkafi Loc...
Niger debunks plan to recruit youths to fight bandits
Niger state government has debunked reports making round in the state that the government is planning to engage youths to fight against banditry in the state. Newsmen learnt that a social media post has been making rounds across the state on Saturday morning that the state government has concluded plans to recruit about 4,000 youths across the 25 local government areas of the state to fight the security challenge in the state. The Commissioner for Local Government, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mallam Abdulmalik Sarkin Daji stated this in a statement made available to newsmen in Minna on Saturday. He said that although the state is faced with serious security challenges, the government has no immediate plan to engage the youths in the fight against armed bandits. According...
Official: Gombe records 200 rape, 37 sodomy cases in 2020
Gombe State Commissioner for internal security and Ethical Orientation, Dauda Zambuk, on Saturday said the state recorded 200 rape, 37 sodomy and 10 kidnap cases in 2020 with five recorded in January of the new year 2021 alone. Addressing a group of journalists in his office in Gombe Zambuk said 61 persons were also arrested for an act of gross indecency while three children were reported abandoned. “In all the total number of 314 suspects were arrested and all were charged to court,” he said. The commissioner said the state government after the investigation was a shock to find out that all kidnappings were perpetrated by criminals from the neighbouring Adamawa and Taraba States. According to Zambuk, 40 rape cases were lodged in Gombe alone while 39 attempted rape were reported in the ent...
160 Almajirai rescued in Kaduna State
No fewer than 160 children have been rescued by Kaduna State Government COVID-19 Task Force officials from locations that are neither authorised and licensed as schools nor as children’s homes in the state. According to a statement issued by Muyiwa Adekeye, the Special Adviser to the State Governor on Media and Communication, on Friday, some of the rescued children are toddlers who aren’t yet able to properly identify themselves. He noted that the rescued children are from thirteen states in the northern and southern parts of the country. Adekeye added that some of the kids are from Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, and Niger Republic. The statement read in part, “The locations in which the children were found were operating in violation of regulations that had ordered the closure of all schoo...
NHIS: Sokoto received N518 million Health Intervention Fund
Nasir Sambo, the Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) said the Buhari administration has disbursed N518 million to Sokoto State Government in 2020 as National Healthcare Intervention Fund aimed at enhancing the lives of vulnerable persons in the society. Speaking to newsmen on the sidelines of the official commencement of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF), Mr. Sambo said the federal government remained committed to attainment of mandatory Universal Health Coverage (UHC) toward ensuring improved healthcare to citizens. He stressed that the federal authorities was committed to achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The executive secretary noted that the National Health Act enshrined one percent from accrued consolidated national revenue f...
Lecturer found dead with bullet wounds in Ebonyi
A lecturer with the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, Ebonyi State, Mr Kyrian Nwoke, has been murdered by unknown assailants. Until his death, he taught in the Department of Physiology in AE-FUNAI. His lifeless body was found along Abakaliki rice mill axis of Ogoja Road, on Monday, with bullet wounds. Newsmen gathered that the deceased was using his car for a taxi in order to fend for himself and his family following the hardship occasioned by the lingering dispute between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities which has led to the withholding of salaries of lecturers for months. Mr Nwoke was said to have gone missing on Sunday after a yet-to-be-identified person called him to come to Udemezue in Abakaliki to pick customers to a popular eatery a...
Taraba: Striking resident doctors demand beyond hazard allowance
iStock As resident doctors strike in Taraba state enters week three, the state government, Tuesday said the demands of the aggrieved doctors were beyond the payment of COVID-19 hazard and inducement allowance. The state commissioner for health, Dr Innocent Vakkai speaking at a press parley, also disclosed that a committee has been constituted to compile the total cost of the COVID-19 hazard allowances due for health workers. He listed the demands of the striking doctors to include, “increase in doctors wages, training, and retraining of doctors on residency programs, improved working conditions and for the state to commence training of horsemanship officers. On the payment of the COVID-19 hazard allowance to health workers, Vakkai said the compilation of the total cost has reached the last...
2021: Banks to walk a tightrope amid low revenue environment
Nigeria’s deposit money banks (DMBs) must brace up for the challenge of 2021 that might tax their resolve to remain in business. Reason: the industry is faced with a tougher operating environment that could threaten the operators’ ability to meet their stakeholders’ needs and expectations yet perform meaningful corporate social responsibility roles. Their valuable customers such as high net-worth individuals, corporate bodies and other institutions are equally challenged. In his book, Business Stripped Bare, celebrated iconic entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson, says, “without trustworthy banks, there can be no business, no employment, no money. According to Branson, “People have got to be able to go to bed at night secure in the knowledge that the money they depo...
Lagos shuts airport bridge indefinitely
The Lagos State Government on Sunday announced the closure of the Airport Bridge at Toyota on Oshodi/Isolo Expressway indefinitely. This follows the inferno that recently occurred on the Apapa Oshodi Expressway as a result of a PMS loaded tanker exploding in a fireball from collision with another truck, with the structure of the Airport Bridge at Toyota on Oshodi/Isolo Expressway has been affected. “The bridge therefore has to be temporarily closed to vehicular traffic movement to enable the State Government conduct structural engineering tests on the bridge,” said Commissioner for Transportation, Dr Frederic Oladeinde. He announced alternative routes for use by motorists pending the outcome of the tests and the reopening of the bridge to traffic. “Motorists from Mile 2 to Cele on Apapa-Os...
Ekiti imposes curfew, bans public gathering of more than twenty
In a bid time curtail the spread of the second wave of Covid-19 in Ekiti, the state Government on Sunday imposed a curfew from 8.00 pm to 6.00 am. The Government also banned all gatherings of more than twenty people in the state until further notice. The Commissioner for Information and Values Orientation, Hon Akinbowale Omole, who announced these new guidelines in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday, said the restrictions take effect Monday at 6 am January 11, 2021. Omole cited the alarming rate at which the deadly pandemic is spreading in Nigeria and elsewhere as the reason for these drastic steps. He said there is a need for the government to be proactive and take decisive steps to secure the citizens from falling prey to the second wave of the pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives all over the ...
Kaduna debunks rumour of helicopter supplying arms to criminals
The Kaduna State Government on Friday described as false, the news in circulation that helicopters supplied gunmen with arms at Ungwan Dankali and Tsallaken Dogo in Zaria Council Wednesday. The State’s Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, said the security stakeholders in the state conducted checks and discovered that the report was fake. While urging residents of Kaduna to always provide useful information to fight banditry, cattle rustling and kidnapping, Aruwan in a statement also assured the residents that the state government, together with security operatives are working round the clock to maintain peace security in the state. According to Aruwan, “the attention of the Kaduna State government has been drawn to a story that is being circulated by certain...
#EndSARS: It’ll take long to rebuild destroyed property – Governor Sanwo-Olu
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, said, yesterday, that it would take the state time to rebuild the properties destroyed during the EndSARS protests. This came on a day the Lagos State government disclosed that the 2021 budget of N1.164 trillion would be funded from a revenue estimate of N971.028 billion in the fiscal year, with a target on the expansion of tax nets. Governor Sanwo-Olu stated this while briefing State House correspondents, after meeting behind closed doors with President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He said the meeting dwelt more on the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic, security situation and the impact of the #EndSARS protests in the state. On rebuilding Lagos after the EndSARS protests, he said: “It is also some of the things I dis...
