Gov. Ikpeazu

By Ihechinyere Chigemeri-Uwom

Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia on Thursday inaugurated a Molecular and Diagnostic Laboratory in Aba to boost the state governments efforts in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking at the event, Ikpeazu expressed delight over the actualisation of the project.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the laboratory was realised through Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative between the government and Abia Development Summit (ADS).

He opined that the facility would enhance the peoples access to quality healthcare service.

I pray that this facility will bring hope, succour and also restore the health of the end users, Ikpeazu said.

In an address, Prof. Sam Erugo, the Chairman of ADS, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), credited the laboratory to the visionary leadership of Ikpeazus administration.

We are ready to be in partnership with the Abia government to transform the health sector. This is the first phase and a work in progress, Erugo said.

He expressed the NGOs desire to build a state- of- the-art medical facility in Abia.

He recommended a PPP arrangement that could successfully run the laboratory.

Also, Dr Joe Osuji, the Commissioner for Health, expressed delight over the completion of the laboratory, saying it would quicken governments efforts to flatten the COVID-19 curve.

Osuji said: Some months ago, we were sending samples for COVID-19 testing to other states. From that period, the state government did everything to address the challenge.

This led to the building of a molecular laboratory in Amachara and because of the ingenuity of a group of Abia people, the state has a new molecular laboratory in Aba.

I am happy that from now onward, the Abia people will no longer send their samples outside the state for testing.

Earlier, Mr Fred Ogwo, the acting Transition Committee Chairman of Aba South Local Government Area, described the molecular laboratory as a laudable project.

Ogwo said that the facility would help to curb medical tourism and also address issues arising from poor diagnosis.

He said that the laboratory further demonstrated state governments committment to the transformation of the health sector in Abia.

In a remark, Chief Chris Igwe, an industrialist, commended the state government for its support and contributions toward the actualisation of the project.

Igwe urged Abia stakeholders to join hands with the governamt to transform the state. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Policemen

By Ismaila Chafe
President Muhammadu Buhari has signed into law the Nigeria Police Bill, 2020.

Mr Femi Adesina, the presidents spokesman confirmed this in a statement in Abuja on Thursday.

Adesina said that the president in a memo dated Sept. 16, 2020, communicated his assent to the Bill to the National Assembly, through the Clerk of the legislature.

According to him, the Act repeals the Police Act Cap. P19. Laws of the Federation, 2004, and provides for a more effective and well organized Police Force.

He added that the new law was driven by the principles of transparency and accountability in police force operations and management of its resources.

Among others, the Act establishes an appropriate funding framework for the Police in line with what is obtainable in other Federal Government key institutions, enhances professionalism in the Force through increased training opportunities.

(It also) creates an enduring cooperation and partnership between the Police Force and communities in maintaining peace and combating crimes nationwide.

Source: NAN News

NAFDAC DG, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye

By Aderogba George
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned against buying and using of falsified Proximexa Suspension 125mg/5ml, with Lot No. C830116 currently in circulation in Nigeria.

The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye made this known in statement issued to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.

According to Adeyeye, the agency has been informed by Allen and Hanburys (A

Mr Festus Okoye

By Angela Atabo

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday said there is the need for Nigeria to make elections a civic responsibility instead of imbuing violence and thuggery into the process.

Mr Festus Okoye, National Commissioner in Charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, INEC made this known on Thursday when he featured in the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), forum in Abuja.

Okoye said that the position of the commission was that the conduct of election should be an ordinary civic responsibility where everyone would trust the process just like in order climes.

He explained that in other countries even in Africa, safety and transportation of election materials were not things of worry.
Okoye said that results collated at registration units for transportation to mega collation centres were done without fear of any possible hijack.

He said that in Nigeria, however, the movement of materials from the central bank to the local governments, to registration centres was always under heavy security and everything is conducted under a war-like situation.

So, I think that we must find ways and means of making elections an ordinary civic responsibility, and not that the whole world would gather, getting the political parties to sign a peace accord that they are going to maintain the peace.

We must make violence and violent conduct unattractive; people must be made to understand that there must be other ways of earning a living other than through violence.

The political parties must also commit to the fact that people can only get to power through the votes of the people and through the sovereign power of the people expressed through their votes.

The moment people get to power through other means, it becomes a coup dtat, because the constitution says that nobody, no individual, no institution and no group is permitted to take over the reins of power in the country, other than through democratic means.

Okoye said that those who take power through means that were not democratic have violated the provisions of the constitution because they took power through means other than as expressed in the constitution.

He said with this in mind, the issue of getting people to sign peace accord during elections should not arise if everyone would imbibe the democratic spirit. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

FRSC personnel at the scene of an accident

By Suleiman Shehu

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has confirmed the death of five persons and injury of five in an accident involving a truck and a Mazda bus in Saki area of Oyo State.

The FRSC Sector Commander in Oyo State, Mrs Chukwurah Uche, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan that the accident occurred on Tuesday at Agunrege Village.

She said that the Saki unit command of the corps was there for the rescue operation.

The sector commander said that the bus collided with a stationary truck as a result of speeding and loss of control.

The accident happened on Tuesday at about 9 p.m. along km 28 Agunrege road in Saki area of Oyo State.It involved two vehicles, a white Mazda bus and a black truck.

The accident involved 10 persons consisting of four male adults, five female adults and one male child.

The crash was fatal resulting to the death of five persons, two males, two females and one male child.

Five persons were also injured consisting of two males and three females, she said.

The sector commander said that the dead had been deposited at the Baptist Medical Centre morgue in Saki and the injured treated at the same hospital.

The sector commander called on motorists to drive carefully and consider other road users whenever behind the wheel.(NAN)

Source: NAN News

Gov. David Umahi

By Chukwuemeka Opara

The Ebonyi Government has announced that it will re-open schools in the state on Oct. 5, 2020 with the exception of kindergarten and crches.

The the Commissioner for Education, Dr Onyebuchi Chima, announced the plan on Thursday while briefing newsmen at the end of the states Executive Council meeting in Abakaliki.

Chima described the executive council meeting as a good one for the state ministry of education as it approved the memo from the ministry for the re-opening of schools.

The resumption will be for the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education as academic activities will be staggered according to the ministrys recommendation.

This means that there will be two sections for schools: morning and afternoon sessions with the morning sessions starting from 8 .a.m to 12 p.m., while the afternoon will start from 12.15 p.m. to 4.p.m.

The junior primary section: 13 and junior secondary 1-3 classes will have their sessions in the morning, while the senior primary: 46 and senior secondary 1-3 classes will run in the afternoon session.

This implies that each session will run for four hours and we will dedicate the first two to three weeks of academic resumption to intensive studies to conclude the remaining programmes of the 2019/ 2020 academic sessions, he said.

We will subsequently conduct a mini-promotional examination to enable the schools move fully into the 2020/21 academic session.

The ministry applied and the executive council approved that we will not resume kindergarten and crches in the state for pupils from 0-5 years.

This is because we know that the COVID-19 pandemic is subsiding but we should not give it the opportunity to spring its ugly head again.

Mr Cletus Ofoke, the states Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, disclosed that the governor assigned portfolio to former Local Government Area (LGA) Chairmen as his Special Assistants (SAs).

Chef Sunday Ogodo is the SA on school monitoring and will operate from Ezza South LGA and Chief Ogonnaya Chukwu-Ude is SA on school monitoring as well operate from Ivo LGA.

Chief Ogbonnaya Oko-Enyim is also SA on school monitoring and will operate from Afikpo North LGA.

They all will ensure that teachers and civil servants in their councils and development centres attend to their duties such as monitoring of schools re-opening among others, he said.

Mr Uchenna Orji, Commissioner for Information and Orientation, said that students in tertiary institutions were adults as their respective institutions would determine the schedule for their academic activities. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

State Governors at a National Economic Council (NEC) meeting

By Chijioke Okoronkwo

The National Economic Council (NEC) says 15 states have qualified to benefit from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) funding for education as part of measures to cushion the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the sector.

Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State disclosed this while virtually briefing State House correspondents after the virtual NEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday.

The virtual NEC meeting was anchored from the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

I am very pleased to announce that the Federal Government has put in place some financial incentives to assist the states in implementing the education COVID-19 plan.

Selected states are to benefit from the COVID-19 GPE global partnership for education funding; those that are above the national average from at least two of three criteria.

The states that have qualified are Abia, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kano, Nassarawa, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto and Zamfara.

These are the states that made two of the three criteria for GPE funding; this is the grant from the World Bank and other donors.

He said the Federal Ministry of Education presented to NEC a broad overview of the education sector and how the education of Nigerian students in the COVID-19 era could continue.

El-Rufai said that the Ministry of Education approved the closure of schools and tertiary institutions on March 19 before a formal lockdown was announced.

Some actions taken so far to mitigate the learning loss among children are the education sector COVID-19 strategy and National Education Sector COVID-19 Response Plan in collaboration with parastatals, development partners, public health experts, and the Nigerian education group.

The Federal Government also constituted a ministerial task force on COVID-19.

The primary objectives of the COVID-19 education response plan are to ensure that all children continue learning through access to the best remote learning programmes and appropriate for each context to meet the needs of each child, including the most vulnerable.

Some may have access to the internet, but the poorest can get their lessons over the radio; some through television.

So, the whole plethora of platforms was made available so that no one is left behind.

He said that the federal and state governments were working towards ensuring a safe opening up of the educational system.

The governor said, first, capacity must be built for teachers for ongoing development and deployment of technology in teaching.

According to him, teaching with digital technology is new and requires a lot of training as well as providing technical assistance in selection and delivery of online digital content and offline learning resources among others.

Some of the measures to arrest the potential growth in the number of out of school children, arising from the situation we had before the pandemic and during the pandemic are as follows:

Disbursement of the Federal Government of Nigeria, UBE intervention funds to states on equality basis to states.

This is to enable them to implement tangible state based priority projects, including the building of schools or additional classrooms, renovations, rehabilitations, procurement of furniture and equipment etc with focus on enrolling more pupils or having more flexibility to do shifts.

The Almajiri integrated Quaranic teaching school programmes to mainstream the Almajiri boys into basic education and eradicate the out-of-school children syndrome in northern Nigeria.

Open schooling, which is principally aimed at reducing the number of out-of-school children in the country, among others, he said.

El-Rufai said that, going forward, there should be a national training programme to equip all university lecturers in delivering blended learning.

The governor said that NEC also recommended accelerating and strengthening the management of an electronic digital identity management system for all Nigerians.

El-Rufai explained that such digital identity would aid easy enrolment, retention and completion of learners at all levels as well as curb fraud, forgery and alteration of certificates. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

INEC Smart Card Readers

By Kingsley Okoye

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says it has ordered for a transfer of over 6,000 smart card readers from its Oyo state office to Ondo for the smooth conduct of Oct. 10, governorship election in Ondo state.

INECs National Commissioner, Information and Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye, said this when he appeared on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), forum in Abuja on Thursday.

Okoye, was responding to questions on alternative plans the commission was putting in place for the Ondo election, given the destruction by fire of 5,141 smart cards readers in its Ondo office.

He said it was sad that the commission lost the 5,141 smart cards readers in the inferno.

He, however, noted that Ondo election was a stand-alone election, noting that the commission would move smart card readers from other states to conduct the election.

As at today, we have given an order that all the smart card readers in Oyo state office should be moved to Ondo.

And they have over 6,000 smart card readers in Oyo and so we are not going to have any problems reconfiguring them and using them for the elections.

Okoye said the commission took the decision to move the smart card readers from other states to conduct the Ondo elections because of the long duration required to purchase a smart card.

According to him, the process of ordering one smart card reader takes at least six months, hence the decision to move smart card readers from other states.

He, however, said the commission was also looking at a more secured way of storing its smart card readers to avert any further destruction of the cards given the expensive nature of the cards.

Because these smart card readers were bought with Nigerias tax payers money we have a responsibility to make sure that we dont waste the resources of this country.

But we have recovered quickly and we are proceeding with the Ondo state election, noting will stop the conduct of that election, Okoye said. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

President Muhammadu Buhari

By Ismaila Chafe

President Muhammadu Buhari has advised political parties, candidates and security agents to behave responsibly in the forthcoming governorship election in Edo.

The president, in a message to voters, political parties, election officials and security personnel, also warned against what he described as the do-or-die mentality to politics.

The presidents Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, quoted Buhari to have said:

I am passionately committed to free and fair elections, but my own commitment is not enough if other actors at ground zero refuse to abide by the rules.

I want to see democratic standards in the country raised higher at every level, but these cannot be achieved when politicians resort to do-or- die methods to gain power by any means or machination.

The do-or-die mentality to politics is a threat to free and fair elections because the actors are more focused on winning than caring about a fair outcome that reflects the will of the people.

The president appealed to all political parties and their candidates to respect law and order.

He also advised election officials and security agents to remain neutral to ensure free and fair elections and avoid any action(s) capable of compromising the integrity of the elections.

Conducting free and fair elections is one of my main concerns for our democracy, and I want this commitment to be one of the legacies I will leave behind when I depart office, the statement quoted the president as saying.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission has fixed Saturday for the Edo governorship election.

NAN also reports that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, and that of the Peoples Democratic Party, Godwin Obaseki, who are the main contenders, had since signed a peace accord. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Col. Hameed Ali (rtd)

The Comptroller- General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) has appointed two new Acting Deputy Comptrollers-General of Customs and five Acting Assistant Comptrollers -General of Customs following statutory retirement of some members of NCS management.

The Public Relations Officer of the service, Mr Joseph Attah, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Thursday.

Attah said the newly appointed Deputy Comptrollers-General were DCG Abdullahi Babani to head HRD, and DCG Mohammed Boyi, NCS TRADOC.

He stated that the appointed Assistant Comptroller-Generals were ACG Saidu Galadima in charge of ICT/Modernization, SM Modibbo for Zone B HQ ACG Uba Mohammed for E,I