Member representing Bende Federal Constituency and Spokesperson of the House of Reps, Hon. Benjamin Kalu on Saturday welcomed the Senate President, His Excellency, Sen. Ahmad Lawan to the to the constituency for the commissioning of the just concluded road project in Amaokwe Item and other projects facilitated by the Senator representing Abia North, Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu.
The lawmaker expressed gratitude to the Senate President for journeying down to Bende Federal Constituency to commission the 4km road which has just been completed.
He added that this is a show of love and support to the Chief Whip who facilitated the project.
He applauded Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu for being a worthy leader, who has always set the pace for others to follow, appreciating his achievements not just in Abia North but the State in general through the numerous projects facilitated by him.
A staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission involved in the ongoing continuous voter registration exercise, Mr. Anthony Nwokorie has been shot dead by gunmen at his duty post in Nkwo Ihitte, Ihitte Uboma local government area of Imo state.
Radio Nigeria gathered that armed men had on Thursday invaded pooling unit 004 in Amakohia ward where the exercise was going on and started shooting indiscriminately saying that general election would not take place in the area next year.
The National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, INEC Abuja Mr. Festus Okoye had in a statement made available to newsmen in Owerri confirmed the death adding that the whereabouts of two other staff of the commission involved in the registration at the polling unit was still unknown.
He expressed shock over the attack, noting that the matter had been reported to the Police to unravel the circumstances that led to the unfortunate incident with a view to bringing the culprits to justice.
Mr. Okoye called on community leaders and other critical stakeholders in security to ensure the safety of INEC personnel engaged in national assignment in Imo state especially now that the continuous voter registration is taking place at the ward levels.
He stated that the commission had in response suspended registration in Ihitte-Uboma local government area just as it earlier did at Njaba and Orsu local government areas of the state following growing security concerns.
A police officer, Sgt. Odunayo Ologe, on Wednesday told an Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court how a man, Joshua Torile, allegedly raped a 22-year-old woman while she was drunk.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Torile is facing a one-count charge of rape before Justice Abiola Soladoye.
The offence contravenes Section 258 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
Ologe, while being led in evidence by the state counsel, Ms A.R. Abolade told the court that she had been an officer for 16 years and was currently attached to Maroko Police Station, Lagos.
She said the survivor (names withheld) had came to the station with her brother on Oct. 19, 2019 and reported that the defendant raped her while she was unconscious due to high alcohol intake.
“The survivor said that on Oct. 1, 2019, one of their brothers from the same village did a birthday party which she attended and got drunk.
“She said she could not go back to her house on that day because she was drunk.
“She said her brother, one Benjamin took her to the defendant’s house to pass the night because they are from the same village.
“She said she discovered semen on her body in the night but she could not get up because of the alcohol.
“In the morning, she started feeling pains in her vagina but she was afraid to ask about what happened to her,”the witness said.
The witness told the court that the brother of the survivor visited her a few days later at her place of work in Oniru and asked if she knew what happened to her on the day she slept at the defendant’s house.
“The survivor’s brother told her that the defendant had sex with her and that the defendant confided in him.
“The survivor and her brother reported the case at the station and they both wrote down their statements,” she said.
NAN reports that the survivor and her brother’s statements were tendered and admitted as exhibits.
The witness further said that the defendant was arrested on Oct. 15, 2019 in his house and also wrote his statement at the station.
The defence counsel, Ms Enor Agofure, however, objected to admitting the statement of the defendant, arguing that his statement was obtained under torture.
Agofure prayed the court to adjourn the case for cross-examination as it was her first time of handling the matter.
However, the judge overruled her objection, stating that the defendant had not told the court that he was tortured.
Soladoye thereafter admitted the defendant’s statement into evidence.
She further cautioned the defence counsel for asking for frivolous adjournment, noting that she had announced her appearance for the case and must be ready to work.
The judge adjourned the case until May 19 for cross-examination
The chairman of Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, ANAN Abuja FCT 1, Mr. Wahab Shina Omoniyi has been conferred with the prestigious award of Peace Ambassador by Arewa Peace Ambassadors Forum.
The group made up of students from Northern Nigeria says the award is in recognition of his contributions to the development of humans in the society which they say is the backbone of peace.
Led by its president Nura Ali Abubakar to a visit in his office on Tuesday where the award was presented, Arewa Peace Ambassadors Forum thanked Mr. Omoniyi for being outstanding in the service of humanity, urging him to do more.
While noting that the prestigious award is reserved for those who have demonstrated selflessness, zeal and vigour in the service of humanity and society, Abubakar added that it also seeks to encourage effective service delivery among those in positions of authority in the public and private sector to foster peace.
In his response, the awardee, Mr. Omoniyi while thanking the group for the honour encouraged them to be real ambassadors of peace not only in the Northern part of Nigeria but everywhere they find themselves.
He also urged them to see education beyond acquisition of certificates but skills and empowerment as a means to compete favourably in the labour market.
While urging them to remain examplary among young people especially in doing away with social vices and youth exuberance, the ANAN Abuja FCT 1 chairman also enjoined the students to educate fellow youths on the need for peaceful co-existence as a way of moving the country forward.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has knocked the Northern Elders Forum for asking the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to resign over his handling of insecurity challenges bedeviling the country.
This is as he also alleged that the NEF position was borne out of the members’ frustration after they allegedly failed to be part of Buhari’s regime.
Adesina revealed this in an article titled, ‘Hiding under the umbrella of insecurity’, and shared on his official Facebook page on Thursday.
NEF had on Tuesday asked Buhari to resign for failing to provide security in the country. The forum made the demand in a statement by its spokesperson, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed.
It said it was disappointing that after nearly seven years of being in office, Buhari still has no answers to security challenges across the country.
The statement read in part, “The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari does not appear to have answers to the challenges of security to which we are exposed.
“We cannot continue to live and die under the dictates of killers, kidnappers, rapists, and sundry criminal groups that have deprived us of our rights to live in peace and security.
“Our constitution has provisions for leaders to voluntarily step down if they are challenged by personal reasons or they prove incapable of leading.”
But reacting to the NEF’s position in his article, Adesina alleged that NEF was peopled with “self-seeking individuals” who had hoped will get the better of the regime after Buhari’s electoral victory in 2015.
He wrote, “The point of interest today is the hackneyed calls on President Buhari to resign over the country’s security challenges, the latest coming from a so-called Northern Elders Forum (NEF), a group I’d once described as “Generals without troops.”
“The Forum is largely made of angry, bitter, self-seeking individuals, who had thought they would be leading President Buhari by the nose when he emerged in 2015. In fact, key personalities in the group made strenuous efforts to be part of the administration. When they didn’t succeed, they became adversaries.
“It is on record that NEF had always opposed the Buhari administration since its gambit failed, and before the 2019 presidential election, it openly endorsed Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party as next President.
“And that completely vitiates whatever position the Forum adopts today. It is partisan, bilious, by no means neutral. It is from a self-serving standpoint.”
Furthermore, the presidential aide argued that there were issues of insecurity globally and that the President was sparing no effort in securing Nigeria and Nigerians.
“Between 2009 and 2022, there were at least 271 mass shootings in United States of America, resulting in 1,518 people killed, and 980 wounded. Just this week, there has been the Brooklyn Subway Shooting, in which at least 23 people were critically injured.
“vIn all these, did you hear calls for the resignation of any American President? It is on record that last year was the deadliest in a decade, in terms of mass shootings. Have you heard of calls for the resignation of President Joe Biden by a caterwauling band? No.”
“Every life is important. No single life should be taken wantonly. Not in America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and definitely not in Nigeria. And when challenges occur, as we currently have, it should not be turned to a leaky political umbrella, from under which you hide to express hatred and malice.
“That is what is happening in Nigeria today. Individuals, groups, organizations, political parties, who had been against President Muhammadu Buhari, and who had been given bloody noses at the polls, are now using the smokescreen of insecurity to vent their spleen.
“We failed to oust him through the ballot box, let’s run him out of town by another means. Let’s instigate the country against him. But majority of Nigerians know better.”
President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan has arrived Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu in readiness for departure to Isuikwuato local government area of Abia State where he is expected to commission some road projects.
The Senate President was received by his host, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, Chief Whip of the Senate, governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, members of the National Assembly, members of Abia State House of Assembly and top government functionaries.
The Senate President is expected to commission Uzo Rubber, a constituency road project of Sen. Kalu located at Amaokwe Item, Bende local government area.
The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, has approved the promotion of 21,039 junior police officers who were last promoted on or before 2017.
This is coming a few weeks after some officers threatened to embark on strike action over poor condition of service.
In a statement on Thursday, Force spokesman, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said the junior officers promoted were 20,572 Sergeants to the next rank of Inspector, 324 Corporals to Sergeants, and 143 Constables to the rank of Corporal.
According to him, the promotion was part of ongoing efforts to improve the welfare, and conditions of service, as well as boosting the morale of personnel to enhance efficiency.
The police spokesman stated that the exercise was part of the IGP’s manpower development drive to ensure that deserving officers were promoted accordingly, adding that the idea was to encourage hard work and further promote the culture of merit, excellence, and dedication to duties.
He noted that the Force’s High Command was liaising with the Police Service Commission on the release of the promotions of senior police officers.
While commending the newly promoted officers for their resilience and invaluable commitment to duties, Adejobi said the IGP charged them to see their promotion as a call for renewed zeal, vigour, patriotism to duty, and further re-dedication to professional policing standards.
This is even as he restated the commitment of his administration to entrenching longstanding reforms in the Nigeria Police Force.
President Muhammadu Buhari says this period of Easter has emboldened Nigerians to believe that the current spate of uncertainty and insecurity would soon unfold a season of triumph of good over evil, hope over despair and light over darkness.
He said this on Thursday in his 2022 Easter message to Nigerians.
He said Nigerians should let the security and unity of the nation guide their actions and utterances as the country approaches another season of electioneering.
He said this period also evoked in Nigerians the resilience of the human spirit not to give up in the face of “seemingly daunting challenges of life”.
Buhari urged the citizens to increase love for one another rather than hate, and show more patriotism, saying that “this is the only country we have.”
Wishing all Nigerians a joyful and blessed Easter, he said: “This year’s celebration is very unique for adherents of the two great faiths in Nigeria. It culminates the 40-day season of Lent for Christians, where the faithful is expected to fast, pray, assist the poor, abhor injustice and strife, give alms, penitently engage in self-examination and repentance of sins.
“Similar values apply to the Muslim faithful, currently about half-way into the holy month of Ramadan.
“For us as a nation, the message of Easter, which commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ after crucifixion and burial, reminds us of the power of divine love, faith and redemption.”
Ahead of the 2023 Presidential election, the eldest son of late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, acclaimed winner of the June 12 presidential election, Kola Abiola has declared to contest for the most exalted position in the country under the platform of the People’s Redemption Party, PRP.
According to him yesterday at the PRP National Secretariat, Kola Abiola said “Today makes my formal inroad after 27 years back into politics, just as he said that the only party that could give the youth such opportunity to make their number count was the PRP.
“I particularly picked to come back into politics through the PRP for some good reasons.
“I have gone back to the history of Nigeria to look at the party that truly represents Nigeria. I have gone back and I have found out that the oldest living party is the PRP, it still holds those ideals of what Nigeria and democratic practice should be like.
“It is a party that was started by the people and truly for the people. It is a party that has shown first, as its priority, internal democracy.
“I have come back to PRP to show Nigerians that not too long ago, we did things in the right way and the new entities that have come together nowadays forget that there was Nigeria that did things right.
“I am one that believes in an equal opportunity employer be it employment, be it business, equally in politics and I believe this party represents all of these.
“Everybody should have equal opportunity irrespective of age, religion and ethnicity and that is represented here.”
Abiola who raised concerns over the low participation of youths in politics, said “We have a youth population that has been caught out of the system, the political process.
“The first thing I want to do is to disrupt the political process, to disabuse the minds of the youth on godfatherism.
“The way to do this is to give the true owners of Nigeria, that is, the 18 to 36 years age group that make up over 75 per cent of the population an opportunity for their voice to be heard and their numbers to count.”
On his part, the Chairman of the party Mr Falalu Bello said “I formally welcome you into our fold. Your antecedents speak volumes
Senator representing Abia North has concluded plans to take his constituency project to Abia South, Senatorial District of Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe.
To this end, the former Abia governor has resolved to construct two new roads in the shoe line of the popular Ariaria market in Aba before the end of the year.
Speaking with ABN TV on Thursday, the Senate Chief Whip noted that this is in fulfillment of his earlier promise to them when he visited the market.
Sen. Kalu said provision has been made for the construction of the road in this year’s budget, urging them to be ready for a surprise.
He said as a Senator for all Abians, he is not restricted by boundary to affect the lives of people of the state.
The people of Ebem Ohafia Ancient Kingdom have rolled out warm tributes to Hon. Chief Ibe Okwara Osonwa, Member representing Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal Constituency in...
