By Martha Nyam

The Hydro-Electric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC) says it is poised to improve the living standard of host communities in all areas where hydro dams are located in the country.

Joseph Ityav, the Chairman, Governing Council of the Commission, said this in Jos on Tuesday during the inspection of facilities at the Nigeria Electricity Supply Corporation (NESCO) in Kurra Falls, Barkin-Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau.

Ityav also expressed the commitment of the commission and the Federal Government to make women and youths economically self reliant in the area.

We are in NESCO to familiarise with the dam and to discuss with the host communities on the relationship between the owners of the dam and the community.

Our mandate is to look at the challenges being faced by the host communities and to appraise the relationship between the owners of the dam and the community.

Our desire is to see how we can raise the living standard of the host communities in all the areas where hydro dams are located.

We want to make sure that women and youths in the communities get something to improve their economy to be economically self reliant, he said.

The Managing Director, HYPPADEC, Alhaji Abubakar Yelwa, said the commission would be working with the communities to provide physical development in the area.

The President had asked us to come here because he cares about the communities living around hydroelectric power, the Government wants to improve their livelihoods and improve their standard of living.

We want to find out from the communities what they have on ground now, and how to improve on the relationship between the communities and the power producing Institutions, Yelwa said.

The village head of Kurra Falls, Mr Mark Danboyi, said there had been mutual working relationship between HYPPADEC and the community while seeking the intervention of the federal government on persistent flood in the area.

Danboyi said the community had suffered untold hardships such as lack of basic amenities, with their farms and other sources of livelihoods usually destroyed and washed away by dams used to generate electricity during the raining season.

The Gbong Gwom Jos, Da Jacob Buba, while receiving the entourage, appealed to the commission to carry out their assignment dutifully and make a positive change. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

By Alaba-Olusola Oke

Wife of Ondo State Governor, Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, says the appointment of a female Secretary to the State Government (SSG) shows women are invaluable in the Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu-led administration.

In a congratulatory message to the new SSG, Mrs Oladunni Odu on Wednesday, Anyanwu-Akeredolu said that Odu would be the first female politician to occupy that position in the state.

This congratulatory message was issued by Mrs Debo Ikuesewo-Akinbami,the Special Assistant on New Media and Archives to the governor.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Odu was a former Commissioner for Education during the military of late Navy Commodore Anthony Onyearugbule.

She was also a chairperson of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) during the first term of late Gov. Olusegun Agagu in office.

By appointing a woman as the SSG, Akeredolu is reassuring the state that women matter in this government.

It also banners the fact that women can be more, the governors wife said.

Anyanwu-Akeredolu, who said the appointment was a no mean feat, described the new SSGas an accomplished professional, worthy woman leader and a political figure, whose fine renderings had regularly impacted her constituents.

She added that Odus appointment was in recognition of her sterling leadership credentials.

She commended her husband for appointing the first female SSG in the annals of the state.

Source: NAN News

By Aisha Cole

The District Manager, Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Mr Jerry Oche, says the corporation has re-opened freight wagon operations from Lagos ports to other parts of the country.

Uche disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday when the first freight wagon departed Lagos for Zaria in Kaduna State.

According to him, the Corporation ran the first long haul freight wagon after a long period of time.

The last time we had the long haul freight wagon was before the COVID-19pandemic, early last year.

What you are witnessing this afternoon is a movement of the first long train from Lagos District office to Zaria.

We have 6,000 industrial pipes on the ground going to Zaria and if we calculate how many pipes per wagon, we will be calculating over 27 trains to transport the pipes.

It has been long we embark on this kind of journey but we may have to stop when it gets dark, Ochei told NAN.

He was optimistic that by Friday or Saturday, due to stop-overs, the wagons should be able to arrive at Zaria.

The manager said that the corporation had already sent two trains, one to Ibadan and the other to Minna.

The manager that the corporation has also begun the Apapa Shuttle for the carriage of consignments from the ports.

He appealed to port users in parts of Nigeria to patronise the NRC with a view to ending gridlocks in the port environment.

He recalled that before the outbreak of COVID-19, the corporation carried 19 wagons of consignments.

This, he said, meant that NRC was able to take 19 trucks off the road.

He added that the train that just left for Zaria, had 16 wagons. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

By Idowu Gabriel

A group of team members of Ekiti United Football Club of Ado-Ekiti was on Tuesday involved in a mild accident.

The clubs Media Officer, Quozeem Oladapo, in a statement Tuesday night in Ado-Ekiti disclosed that the accident occurred while the players were returning to Ado-Ekiti from Ikere-Ekiti.

They were returning from their evening training session.

According to the statement, there were no casualties as all occupants of the vehicle were safe.

But some of them were with varying degrees of injury, he said.

Oladapo added that the vehicle had been on the road for several hours in recent days with two away matches at Lagos and Ilorin.

After traveling to Lagos on March 8 for the midweek clash with Vandrezzer FC on Wednesday, the team returned to Ado-Ekiti on Thursday night.

The team also embarked on the journey to Ilorin on Friday morning for the Saturday clash with Osun United.

The vehicle returned to Ado-Ekiti on Sunday after Saturdays Nigeria National League (NNL) match without any fault or hiccup, he said. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

By Victor Okoye

Harris Okatta, the President of African Golf Tour Foundation, says the 2021 African Golf Tour season will focus more on youth development.

Okatta told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja that the objective of the tour was to ensure that the future of the game of golf in the country was secured.

Now, we are about to start the 2021 season, and we are going to be focusing on youths between the ages of 18 and above.

This will be so that we can ensure that the future of golf and the future of young players are nurtured and developed from this part of the world.

That is the objective of the tour, and we are 100 per cent focused to ensure that we achieve it and grow the game of golf in the country, he said.

Okatta said the foundation had embarked ona golf education programme in schools in the FCT since 2018 to support the sports grassroots development.

We also just launched the programme in Owerri, Imo late last year. We go on day-to-day basis to teach students the rudiments of the game as well as provide them with kits and equipment.

We are doing quite a lot with the available limited resources at our disposal. But, without doubt, we keep working hard.

Golf is a fantastic sport and other parts of the world have gone ahead of us. So, we are trying as much as we can to catch up, he said.

NAN reports that the 2021 African Golf Tour season commenced on March 8, with the first leg (pro-am) of the Road to Nigeria Masters at the Arsenal Golf Course in Owerri.

The second leg which got underway also in Owerri on Tuesday is expected to end on Friday.(NAN)

Source: NAN News

Former world golf number one Tiger Woods is home from the hospital.

After shattering his ankle and other leg bones in a rollover crash, the golf great is recuperating at home, he said on Twitter Tuesday.

Happy to report that I am back home and continuing my recovery, he wrote on Twitter.

I am so grateful for the outpouring of support and encouragement that I have received over the past few weeks.

He also thanked the medical personnel and staff who had cared for him.

I will be recovering at home and working on getting stronger every day, Woods wrote.

Woods suffered serious leg injuries to both legs and was rushed into emergency surgery last month.

This was after a harrowing rollover car crash in Los Angeles County, authorities and his manager said at the time.

The 45-year-old golfer was conscious but trapped in the mangled 2021 Genesis GV80 SUV he had been driving when the first sheriffs deputy arrived after 7 a.m. on Feb. 28. (dpa/NAN)

Source: NAN News

By Emmanuel Oloniruha

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday disowned a flier for a Town Hall meeting tagged, Generation Next in PDP.

The party, in a statement issued in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, said it neither approved nor had anything to do with such meeting.

The partys attention has been drawn to fliers, advertisements and publications by certain faceless individuals, posturing to have the approval and backing of the party to invite Nigerians to a purported Generation Next in PDP Town Hall meeting.

The makers of the said advertisement even went ahead to list some leaders and members of our party.

They listed former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, former Senate President Bukola Saraki, the Deputy National Chairman, North of the PDP, Sen. Suleiman Nazif among others, as speakers in the supposed event, in a bid to bestow a semblance of legitimacy to the scheme.

For the avoidance of doubt, the PDP states in an unequivocal term that it did not authorize nor is it in any way involved or connected with the event or these organisers.

The PDP, therefore, alerts the public, particularly our members and teeming supporters to completely disregard the said event as it has nothing to do with our party, he said (NAN)

Source: NAN News

By Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma

Financial experts on Tuesday said the February inflation figure of 17.33 per cent was inevitable due to drop in agriculture production and price hikes in electricity and petroleum.

They spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, in reaction to the February inflation figure released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Professor of Economics, Sheriffdeen Tella, of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, said that the inflationary trend was expected because production in agricultural sector was falling.

Tella told NAN that production in agricultural sector was dropping due to herdsmen and bandits nefarious activities as well as bad weather.

He said that cost of production in industry was rising as a result of hike in electricity tariff, petroleum products and depreciation of naira.

On the way forward, Tella said that government should take decisive action on the herdsmen and bandits activities now that the rainy season is here.

Secondly, government should subsidise industries through tax relief, putting a stop to price hikes in electricity and fuel.

They should also encourage consumption by paying salaries as and when due because production without corresponding consumption will discourage producers from production and expansion, which ultimately promote employment, he said.

Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., said the inflationary pressure in February was largely impacted by higher food prices due to the high cost of transportation, production and insecurity in the north.

Omordion said that many farmers were driven from their farmlands as a result of insecurity in the north.

He said that government needed to map out policies that would tackle insecurity in the country to boost confidence.

The pump price of fuel and electricity tarrif, according to him, also contributed to the development.

Also, analysts at Cordros Research, said that the figure reflected the effects of persistent conflict between farmers and herdsmen, particularly in the Northern region of the country.

They said that lingering impact of supply chain challenges and foreign exchange devaluation on food prices amid the partial reopening of the land borders contributed to the trend.

NAN reports that the NBS said that the inflation rate increased in February by 0.86 per cent to 17.33 per cent, from 16.47 per cent in January.

The NBS said this in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for February 2021 released on Tuesday in Abuja.

The bureau said that CPI increased by 17.33 per cent (year-on-year) in February.

The report said increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index.

On month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 1.54 per cent in February, this is 0.05 per cent rate higher than the rate recorded in January (1.49 per cent), said the report. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

By Sumaila Ogbaje

The Nigerian Army says its troops of Operation Lafiya Dole have eliminated more Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists and captured more arms and ammunitions in an encounter in the Dikwa axis of Borno.

The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Yerima, in a statement, on Tuesday, said the troops carried out the operation on Monday.

Yerima said the troops sustained onslaught against the terrorists had continued to gain traction, following the knock by troops of 81 Task Force Battalion, in conjunction with the Civilian Joint Task Force and Vigilante in the axis.

He said the troops had conducted an aggressive fighting patrol and concealed picketing in continuation of the ongoing subsidiary operation code named, operation TURA TAKAI BANGO. (Push comes to shove).

According to him, the troops on patrol came in contact with terrorists mounted on motor cycles and a gun truck, swiftly engaged them in a fierce firefight, killing six of them and recovering several weapons, ammunitions and sundry items.

Items captured in the encounter included, one PKM, two AA47 rifles, one FN rifle, three FN rifle magazines, two AK47 rifle magazines, 36 rounds of 7.62mm NATO,19 rounds of 7.62mm special and 67 PKM linked rounds.

Others were two motor cycles, one magazine pouch, two mobile handsets and a tube of adhesive solution, he said.

Yerima also disclosed that troops of Bravo Company, while on similar routine perimeter patrol same day, recovered a mobile handset phone suspected to have been abandoned by the fleeing members of the terrorists, who came under troops heavy fire during the attempt to infiltrate the camp on March 14.

He said that the handset had been handed over to 7 Military Intelligence Brigade for scrutiny.

In line with the directive of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, troops will remain resolute and determined to ensure that the general area was completely cleared and protected, while aggressively dominating every route where terrorists are suspected to move around in order to smoke them out, he said. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Eleven Malian soldiers were killed and 14 others injured on Monday in an ambush near Tassit, in Malis northern region of Gao, the Malian Armed Forces confirmed on its website on Wednesday.

More than one hundred men of armed terrorist groups on pickups and motocycles ambushed a team of Malian soldiers in Tassit, a town located in the region of Gao, killing 11 Malian soldiers, the Malian army said in a statement.

The army added that 14 soldiers were injured, with 8 in critical condition, together with 11 others reported missing.

According to Malian military, all the injured have been evacuated and taken to hospital by UNs peacekeeping mission MINUSMA for medical care.

The army said the French counter-terrorism force Barkhane also deployed two helicopters to support Malian Armed Forces in its sweeping operation.

Following a military coup in 2012, insurgents have been roaming northern Mali.

Armed attacks have recently extended to central Mali, regardless of the presence of the French military and United Nations peacekeepers in this West African country. (Xinhua/NAN)

Source: NAN News