Small arms and light weapons

By Harrison Arubu

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday night urged the international community to take strong action against illicit flows of small arms and light weapons.

Addressing the virtual United Nations General Assembly through a pre-recorded video statement, Buhari said Nigeria was deeply concerned over the menace.

Nigeriaremains deeply concerned over the illicit trade, transfer, and circulation of small arms and light weapons,particularly on the continent of Africa.

We urge the international community to renew efforts to stem this traffic and promote the Arms Trade Treaty.

This is to codifyaccountability in the on-going battle against trans-border crimes, including terrorism and acts of piracy, he said.

The president also reminded the world of the litany of terrorist attacks across the globe, saying it is a harsh reality of the challenges the world is facing today.

He emphasised that the problem could only be solved through international collaboration and solidarity.

In Nigeria, we are still facing violent extremism from the insurgency of Boko Haram and bandits.

We continue to count on our strong cooperation with UN counter-terrorism bodies and neighbouring countries to overcome the terrorists in the Lake Chad Basin and the wider Sahel Region.

We will vigorously sustain the rehabilitation, reconstruction and resettlement of victims of terrorism and insurgency in the North-East.

The North-East Development Commission has been established for that purpose, he said.

Buhari also stated Nigerias position on other global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, illicit financial flows and nuclear proliferation.

On COVID-19, the president joined other world leaders at the forum in calling for uninhibited supply of safe and effective coronavirus vaccines for all.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the call for global solidarity against the pandemic featured prominently in all the statements delivered on Tuesday.

The developing world has been watching helplessly as some wealthy countries pre-order millions of doses of potential COVID-19 vaccines from pharmaceutical companies.

This move, which has come to be known as vaccine nationalism, is a source of concern to the UN and other stakeholders.

They fear that this would leave the poor countries thereby undermine efforts to end the pandemic.

In his statement earlier in the day, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted that vaccine nationalism is not only unfair but also self-defeating.

Buhari decried the lack of global solidarity in the battle, urging the UN to marshal an inclusive response to the pandemic.

According to him, failure by the orgainsation in this direction means failure in its core mission of giving expression, direction and solution to the yearnings of the international community.

Turning to illicit financial flows, he called for an overhaul of existing international structures that undermine countries efforts to generate and retain their financial resources.

Speaking further, the president expressed Nigerias commitment to ongoing efforts by the UN to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

He said: We recall the adoption of the landmark Treaty on The Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which opened for signature on 20 September 2017.

Nigeria participated actively in the processes leading to its adoption and was an early signatory and ratifier.

With less than ten ratifications needed for the TPNWs entry into force, we urge other member states who have not done so to quickly ratify the Treaty for the actualization of its important objective. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Damilare (left) and Christiana (right) winners of the Big Dreams Nigeria Talent Hunt Show in music and acting

By Joshua Olomu

Adaja Damilare and Christiana Nsolo have carted home N1 million each as star prizes after emerging winners at the grand finale of Big Dream Nigeria Talent Show on Tuesday night.

The reality show is geared toward discovering and developing young talents in acting and music.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the youngsters were announced winners at the grand finale of the maiden edition of the show which held in Abuja.

The duo beat 12 other budding talents who made it to the final day of the 5-week-long event to clinch the highly coveted grand prizes.

Damilare, Ondo State born model and upcoming singer, won the grand prize for the music category of the contest, while 22-year-old Christiana from Delta State clinched the grand prize for acting.

According to the organisers of the show, the two best winners are to receive a plot of land each in the Federal Capital Territory as part of the star prizes.

The organisers also announced a plot of land each for the first and second runners-up in both music and acting categories of the show.

Amb. Kingsley Amafibe, CEO of Peace Ambassador Agency and Principal Executive of the Big Dreams project, told NAN on the sidelines of the grand finale that contestants were selected from a nationwide audition held at the beginning of the year.

He explained that 30 housemates started the show and that the number of contestants kept reducing in a weekly eviction process until the last two persons were announced winners.

According to him, the Big Dream Nigeria talent show initiative is imed at offering talented and passionate youth a platform to express themselves and to be discovered in the creative industry.

He said that movies and music produced by housemates in the course of the show had been premiered and that all participants would be recommended to relevant stakeholders for music and movie roles.

The reality show is aimed at building the next generation of talented Nigerians in the areas of music and acting.

During their stay in the house, contestants were coached and mentored by seasoned filmmakers, actors, singers, and even leadership experts.

They produced a movie and a song titled 9JA Go Beta, which is to commemorate Nigerias 60 years of independence, he said.

Amafibe said that the housemates were earlier quarantined in preparation for the premiere and commencement of the contest because of the coronavirus pandemic.

He called on relevant stakeholders, especially government at all levels to support initiatives such as the talent show in order to empower and gainfully engage teeming talented Nigerian youth.

Our youths are talented but they need to be given platforms to express themselves, and that is why we want everybody to support this project so that we can get our youth off the streets.

The entertainment industry can create the much needed jobs for our youth, especially as the country faces economic challenges, he said.

Speaking with NAN, Christiana, a 300-level student of Architecture at the University of Benin, who won the star prize in Acting, expressed gratitude to the organisers.

She described the show s the kind of veritable platform talented and passionate young Nigerians needed for mentorship and direction in pursuit of their dreams.

Source: NAN News

NSE

By Itohan Abara-Laserian

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Nigerian International Securities Limited (NISL) and the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) expressed commitment to expanding retail investment opportunities in the capital market.

The trio made the commitment at a webinar organised by the NSE in collaboration with the NISL in Lagos.

It was also supported by the CIS and the Association of Securities Dealing Houses of Nigeria (ASHON).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the webinar was on Capital Market Investing in a Digital Age.

Mr Oscar Onyema, Chief Executive Officer, NSE, in his address, said that investor participation was crucial to sustainable economic growth.

Onyema said that the Exchange was committed to playing its role in advancing the Federal Governments financial inclusion goals.

Investor participation is central to the growth of sustainable development of any economy.

NSE is committed to playing a critical role in the advancement of the FGs financial inclusion goals.

As part of our efforts to realise the objectives of the financial inclusion, we intend to facilitate conversations which will serve to equip existing and potential investors with the necessary skill to effectively manage and grow financial resources at their disposal.

In these engagements, we will also expand the retail investment opportunities available in the capital market and the channels through which they can be accessed, Onyema said.

The CEO of the Exchange also hailed operators and investors in the capital market for their resilience, with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The outbreak of COVID-19 adversely affected the global economy in many ways and at different magnitude.

The Nigerian capital market was also negatively affected, with the market witnessing a downturn in Q1 of this year.

However, the market rebounded in Q2 and as a result the NSE all share index has recorded a 18.9 per cent increase from its position at the end of March.

The market also witnessed the growth in the percentage value of equity transactions contributed by retail investors, currently at 29 per cent from 21.8 per cent in 2018 and 24.72 per cent in 2019, he said.

According to him, these highlight the markets resilience in time of adversity and is a testament of market stakeholders ability to adapt.

Onyema said that digital technology played a significant role in achieving the positive results recorded in the NSE so far.

He said that technology had helped to make significant services more easily accessible.

Mr Laolu Martins, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, NISL, said that it had become imperative to ensure that retail investors were made aware of the opportunities inherent in the capital market.

Martins said that for retail investors, navigating through the web of processes in the capital market was usually difficult, thereby discouraging them from investing.

He said: The general belief is that retail investors are often left behind and do not have enough knowledge on the workings of the capital market.

It is interesting to note that the NSE has over the years taken time and work to ensure that retail investors are carried along and aware of the various opportunities inherent in the NSE.

NISL is a securities trading company, financial advisory service, offering consulting solutions to corporate bodies across the value of activities on the stock exchange.

In order to invest properly, all investors need to carry out some sort of financial planning, no matter how small or big.

We realised that for retail investors, it is usually difficult for them to navigate through these web of processes and other issues that create a bottleneck or discourage investors.

Martins said that some processes that create difficulties for investors include budgeting, investment, savings, risk management and liquidity management.

At NISL, we have enough expertise to ensure that we help our investors navigate through this web of terms and processes to ensure that their investment is rewarding, he said.

Martins said the reason for the webinar was to expose some of the investment opportunities for retail investors.

This webinar is to enlighten the investing public, retail investors, that they can buy bonds in the NSE and it is like lending your money to a company or a government entity.

It is advisable that retail investors should approach their stockbrokers to guide them in which bond they should invest in, he said.

Mr Femi Balogun, Head, Market services Department, NSE, spoke on the importance of market data in guiding investors decision.

Market data is important to the investment of an intending investor.

Some people are good at picking stocks, but If you use data to drive your decision in conjunction with your expertise, you make a better informed decision on your investment, he said.

Mr Olatunde Amolegbe, President of CIS, commended the NSE, while pledging the Institutes continued support to drive an inclusive financial system.

Amolegbe said that the Exchange had always provided avenues that would support and ensure a seamless investing process for retail and other investors.

Source: NAN News

COVID-19 updates by NCDC

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced 195 new cases of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the country.

The NCDC made this known on its official twitter handle on Monday.

According to the agency, the new infection takes the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 57,437.

The health agency sadly reported two new deaths raising the death toll in the country to 1,100.

It also reported that 105 patients who had been treated and had also recovered from the infection were discharged across the country.

The NCDC said that Enugu State recorded the highest number of new cases with 51, followed by Gombe with 40, Lagos with 39, Plateau with 23, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with 15.

Among other states that recorded new cases were Rivers (12), Kaduna (8), Ondo (3), Bauchi (2), Edo (1), and Ogun (1).

According to the agency, till date, 57,437 cases have been confirmed, 48,674 cases have been discharged and 1100 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the FCT.

The health agency said a multi-sectoral national emergency operation centre (EOC) activated at Level three, had continued to coordinate the national response activities across the country.

Meanwhile, the agency has warned that majority of Nigerian states were not testing enough.

It said, We do not have enough data coming out of these states to ascertain if we are improving or not or where exactly we are.

So we have to work together; in summary, it is way too early to make any interpretation whether we are flattening the curve or not.

The NCDC appealed to more states to test consistently so that progress could be monitored on a national level.

Source: NAN News

Mr Boss Mustapha, the Chairman, Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, has advised religious leaders to without fear or favour continue to prevail on their congregations to wear facemask.

Mustapha gave the advice, while responding to questions during the PTF media briefing on COVID-19 on Monday in Abuja.

The Chairman, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, expressed displeasure over the way some people had started moving about without facemask.

He said that religious leaders and traditional rulers have a lot to do to curb the further spread of the pandemic.

The best we can do for our people and our country is to adhere to these non-pharmaceutical interventions that have been put in place.

Wear your mask, observe social distancing. Stay away from large crowd and if you have no business dont travel.

It is sad when people gather and they do not think it is appropriate to wear mask.

What we can do is to continue to appeal to our people that COVID-19 is still alive, it has not gone on any vacation.

It is not relaxing. As much as we are not seeing the figures reflecting in our country, does not mean that inflations are not going on in other countries.

People are dying on a daily basis from COVID-19. The high, the mighty are dying. So it is a very serious issue.

And I will keep on saying this as we expect vaccines to show up on the horizon. The only vaccine we have in our hand now let us apply it.

And the only vaccines we have are the non-pharmaceutical interventions.

So we will continue to appeal to our people in places of worship to ensure that they insist on members of their congregation to wear mask either in the mosque or in the churches and we will continue our engagements.

Because we have ceded communication of the risk to the communities now.

We will often time remind them at this level that it is the responsibilities of traditional rulers and religious leaders to drive home that point, Mustapha said.

Source: NAN News

DPR Officials

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) says it will continue to use its regulatory instruments to enhance revenue collection for the Federal Government.

DPRs Director, MrSarki Auwalu made this known in a statement issued on Tuesday in Lagos.

Auwalu said the DPR, as a revenue collection agency of government had remitted 1.03 billion dollars to the Federation Account from oil and gas royalties and legacy debts.

He said this was achieved through robust regulatory reforms that had been put in place to ensure timely and efficient revenue collection drive.

Auwalu said the department collects oil and gas royalties, which represent the proportional value of oil and gas production and flare gas penalties.

It also collects concession rentals paid forgrant of oil and gas acreages and miscellaneous oil revenues comprising statutory application fees, licences, and permit fees.

Such revenues are generated from licenses, permits and approvals to enable businesses and create opportunities for investors in the oil and gas sector, the director said.

Auwalu explained that it was not part of DPRs functions to advise government against borrowing from global financial institutions.

According to him, there are agencies that are statutorily empowered to do that.

Source: NAN News

Court symbol

By Uche Bibilari

A Chief Magistrates Court in Gwagwalada, FCT, on Tuesday ordered a 25-year-old student, Akeem Yakubu, to cut grass in the Gwagwalada Divisional Police station for two days for stealing two cell phones worth N8,700.

The police charged Yakubu with theft.

He pleaded guilty to the charge and told the court that he sold the phones for N5,000 and used the money he realised to buy clothes.

Chief Magistrate Aliyu Shafa, ordered that he should report to the Gwagwalada Divisional Police station by 10 a.m. and close at 2 p.m each day.

Shafa also ordered the convict to return to his parents in Okene, Kogi.

He warned the convict to desist from committing crimes and to be of good behaviour.

Earlier, the Prosecution Counsel, Abudullahi Tanko, told the court that the complainants, Suleiman Ahmadu and Tijani Adamu of Angwan Fulani, Kuje Road, Gwagwalada, reported the matter at Gwagwalada police station on Sept. 17.

Tanko said that Yakubu stole the phones of the complainants while they were charging it.

He said the offence contravened the provisions of Section 287 of the Penal Code.

The Defence Counsel, Yusuf Jibril, prayed for the court for leniency.

If he is sentenced to a prison term, he will mostly likely come out hardened and pose treat to the society.

He is a very young man at the peak of his formation age, I urge the court to assume a human and parental face ,and to temper justice with mercy, he prayed the court. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Fashion designer, Kudrat Oyewole, petitions an Ile-Tuntun Customary Court in Ibadan, seeking dissolution of her two-year-old marriage with her husband, Sikiru.

By Olawale Akinremi

A fashion designer, Kudrat Oyewole, on Tuesday, petitioned an Ile-Tuntun Customary Court in Ibadan, seeking dissolution of her two-year-old marriage with her husband, Sikiru.

Kudrat is seeking the divorce on grounds of harassments and unfulfilled marital life.

The mother of one testified before Chief Henry Agbaje, the courts President that she had endured sadness and frustration in her matrimonial home.

She further said that her husband kept her and the child in a lonely developing site to live a ghostly existence and to starve.

Sikiru keeps ignoring my plea to empower me by paying for my shop as a fashion designer.

He also tells me that I had the option to pack out of his home if I was not ready to keep living a wasteful life with him.

In fact, Sikiru usually record some of his romantic moment with his concubines on his mobile phone and plays it in my presence to further frustrate me.

I reported him to his parents, but he never changed.

Just two weeks ago when I went to visit my uncle, he changed the key to the house and locked me out because I didnt get back in time.

I am tired of staying with Sikiru, I also want to make progress in life, Kudrat told the court.

However, the respondent, who lived at Fatusi area in Ibadan, opposed the suit and denied some of the allegations levelled against him.

He submitted that his wife was fond of frequently running to her parents home anytime there was a misunderstanding between both of them.

Kudrat went to enrol for a menial job without my knowledge and I told her that such behaviour doesnt happen in our own family.

That was the reason why I prevented her from entering.

I have done everything humanly possible to rent Kudrat a shop, but she is not ready to be patient.

She must also learn to stop running to report me to her relatives, Sikiru told the court.

In his ruling, Agbaje appealed to the duo to exercise patience with each other.

He directed them to provide more evidence to support their arguments and adjourned the case until Oct. 6 for the continuation of hearing.

Source: NAN News

Air Peace plane

By Yunus Yusuf

The management of Air Peace has announced an increase in the number of flights from Lagos to Enugu, with effect from Sept. 22.

This is contained in a statement in Lagos by Mr Stanley Olisa, External Relations Officer, Air Peace on Tuesday.

He assured Enugu passengers of seamless flights.

As we commence a daily second Los-Enugu-Los in the afternoon. Passengers can now leave Lagos for Enugu in the morning and still come back to Lagos in the evening, same day with Air Peace.

While this is going on, we are almost finished with plans to reintroduce our night stop and early morning flights in and out of Enugu to Lagos daily.

We thank our teeming customers for their unflinching loyalty to the Air Peace brand, he said. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

FRSC personnel at the scene of an accident

By Ibironke Ariyo

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) on Tuesday directed its zonal and sector commanders to evolve improved strategies that would ensure effective traffic management and reduction in road accidents in the country.

The FRSC Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, gave the directive at the third quarter corps operators meeting in Abuja.

He said that zonal commanders should ensure that component commands tackle critical offences with desired vigour during the ember months.

Oyeyemi noted that the FRSC operators meeting was a prelude to the series of planning and technical interactions toward a hitch-free end-of-the- year patrols.

He said that it was particularly timely, as it would provide the platform for participants to interact on internal response plans toward the escalating security threats across the country.

The corps marshal stated that it was important for commanding officers to ensure that public education and advocacy were stepped up by both regular and special marshals.

According to him, You must introduce measures that will restrain our operatives from negative tendencies.

Aggressive public enlightenment targeted at mitigating health risks, associated with road traffic carnage, must be put in place.

You must also ensure prompt response to road emergencies and the follow up on crash victims.

Focus on the speed reduction strategies as a means of bringing down crashes and fatalities, he said.

Oyeyemi noted that all patrol vehicles, ambulances and other equipment would be put in order for the highest enforcement capacity attainable.

He stated that COVID-19 remained a major life-threatening challenge, urging zonal and sector commanders to continue to educate field command operatives on the need to take personal responsibility for their safety.

He said that they woulc achieve that by simply accepting the trend and complying with the directives of the Presidential Tasks Force on COVID-19. (NAN)

Source: NAN News