Thursday, June 11, 2020 Edition

Thursday, June 11, 2020/ Rajab 11, 1441 AH

2153 Days after

Reps barred journalists from Infectious Disease Bill public hearing >>page 2

Vol. 33 No. 074 N150

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peoplesdailyng

. . . putting the people first

The nation awaits rescue of the remaining abducted Chibok schoolgirls

Edo/Ondo guber: Violence, interference’ll cause cancellation of polls - INEC warns

page 5

Revised Budget:

Reps raise proposed sum to N10.805 trillion page 5

...Approve $5.513 external loan for Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari presides over Online FEC Meeting held at the Council Chambers, State House Abuja.

Freed inmate goes beserk in Delta, strips naked pAGE 6

Nigeria begins identification number issuance to citizens in U.S., UK, 14 others pAGE 4

PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. JUNE 10 2020.

Muslim women demand capital punishment for rapists pAGE 6

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

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News CONTENTS News 2-10,14 Editorial 11 Op.Ed 12-13 Politics 15-17 Business 19-20 Metro

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World News

22

Africa News

23

World News

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Reps barred journalists from Infectious Disease Bill public hearing

By Christiana Ekpa

J

ournalists covering House of Representatives were Wednesday barred from covering public hearing on the controversial Control of Infectious Disease Bill currently before the House When journalists, particularly members of the House of Representatives Press Corps turned up to cover the event, they were turned back by operatives of the Sergeantat-Arms, acting on the instructions of the Chairman of the Health Services Committee, Tanko Sununu and the Committees Clerk, Joyce Umeru.

According to the operatives who hide their identity said they were told that only the Nigerian Television (NTA) and Channels Television were invited to cover the public hearing, hence journalists from other media organizations can not be allowed in.

The bill Sponsored by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamilla, Pascal Obi, Chairman, House Committee on Health Institutions and Tanko Sununu, Chairman of the Committee on Health Services, seeks to repeal the Quarantine Act and enact the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill, make provisions relating to quarantine and make regulations for preventing the introduction into and spread in Nigeria of dangerous infectious diseases, and

for other related matters.

The Bill had been heavily criticised, particularly for giving too much powers to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in the management of infectious diseases and pandemic in the country in ways that could infringe on the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.

The Bill amongst others empowered the Director-General of the NCDC to be incharge of the administration of the new Act, notification of prescribed infectious diseases, surveillance, medical examination and treatment, vaccination post-mortem examination, destruction and disposal of infected animals, food and water, isolation of certain persons, prohibition or restriction of meetings, gatherings and public entertainments as well as control of occupation, trade or business.

Some provisions of the Bill stipulated that: “Except as otherwise provided by this Act, the DirectorGeneral of Nigerian Centre for Disease Control shall, subject to any general or special directions of the Minister, be responsible for the administration of this Act. “The Director General may, subject to such conditions or restrictions as he thinks fit, appoint any public officer, officer of any statutory body; or employee of a prescribed institution, to

be a Health Officer for the purposes of this Act or any particular provision of this Act. “The Director General may require any person who is, or is suspected to be, a case or carrier or contact of an infectious disease to submit to medical examination or medical treatment within or at such time, and at such place, as the Director General may determine.

“The Director General may order any person who is, or is suspected to be, a case or carrier or contact of an infectious disease to be detained and isolated in a hospital or other place for such period of time and subject to such conditions as the Director General may determine”.

Another provision of the Bill that particularly generated serious condemnation is the power to order certain persons to undergo vaccination or other prophylaxis. It stated that: “In an outbreak or a suspected outbreak of any infectious disease in any area in Nigeria, the Director General may by order direct any person or class of persons not protected or vaccinated against the disease to undergo vaccination or other prophylaxis within such period as may be specified in the order”.

It was in the face of these heavy criticisms that Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila said the House will subject the Bill to a public hearing where Nigerians from all walks of life would be

given the opportunity to contribute to the draft law.

“The Control of Infectious Diseases Bill will be put forward to a public hearing where stakeholder contributions will be sought to make improvements to the Bill before it is reviewed and debated by the Committee of the whole”, Gbajabiamila stated.

The House of Representatives appeared to be intolerant to opposition against the Bill as it had resolved to take legal action against an online media organisation for reporting that the leadership has collected $10 billion from Bill Gates to hasten passage of the Bill.

Only last week, the House referred the spokesman of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere to the Police and the Department of State Security (DSS) for criminal investigation and to activate processes for requisite redress against Ikenga over the allegation of $10m bribe to pass the Control of Infectious Disease Bill.

The lawmakers while adopting the report of its ad-hoc Committee on the matter chaired by Henry Nwawuba (Imo, PDP), said despite alleging that lawmakers collected the sum of $10 million to work on the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill, Ikenga failed to appear before the House Ad-hoc Committee to prove the claims.

L-R: Director of Revenue and Investment, Office of Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Alex Adeyemi; AGF, Ahmed Idris, and Director of Finance, Mr. Sabo Mohammed, during the Investigative Hearing on the disbursement of Covid 19 donation fund, at the National Assembly, yesterday in Abuja.

Malami receives best Minister Award 2020 Page 9

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Feature 25 Sports 29-31 Back Page

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NAHCON patners NITDA on digital transformation, meets NASS

By Maryam Garba Hassan

T

he National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), in collaboration with Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has concluded plans on a strategic digital transformation of Hajj operations and management in Nigeria.

A statement issued yesterday in Abuja by the Commission’s Head Public Affairs, Fatima Sanda Usara, said.

According to the statement, the rollout meeting was held Tuesday, 9th, of June 2020 in the Hajj House.

The statement further said during the parley with the NITDA team and NAHCON’s Commissioners, senior management and ICT staff, Chairman of the Commision, Zikrullah Kunle Hassan, outlined the importance of digital technology in the 21st century.

He said the plan is to make the Commission’s operations ICT driven for efficiency and advancement.

The statement said leader of the NITDA team, presented a transformation planning model to NAHCON, emphasising that the strategy they want to adopt needs the leadership and staff to have a mindset ready to think out of the box like a private venture.

He called for a resolve by staff and management to accept digital transformation culture and be ready to switch to it and to sustain it.

He explained the implementation roadmap.

“It is believed that with the transformation program, pilgrims’ experience will be greatly improved through an end-to-end automation of services to them. It is also hoped that the system will help increase NAHCON’s revenue through cutting

of waste and creativity in revenue generation”, he said.

A pilot team comprising somd selected management staff, some ICT members and the NITDA facilitators was formed during the meeting.

In another development, the NAHCON Chairman and his entourage visited the National Assembly on the invitation of the House Committee on Pilgrimage. The visit was to update the committee members on Hajj 2020 preparations by the Commission and to identify areas where the NAHCON needed assistance.

In his presentation, the NAHCON helmsman explained the 2020 Hajj feasibility studies conducted by the Commission and adjustment strategies deployed against the global challenge posed by Covid-19.

He disclosed that NAHCON is in consultation with critical stakeholders

in any decision it will take while soliciting the NASS members’ intervention where it has difficulties.

Alhaji Zikrullah Kunle Hassan reiterated NAHCON’s preparedness whether Hajj takes place or not.

The NAHCON delegation also seized the opportunity to brief the Chairman Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs of NAHCON’s plans in respect of this year’s Hajj .

Senator Muhammad Adamu Bulkachuwa, appreciated the team and assured them of the Committee’s readiness to assist the Commission where it needs help.

He commended the NAHCON leadership for always keeping them updated.

Similarly, Hon. Abubakar Hassan Nalaraba commended the NAHCON team’s presentation and assured them of their support always.

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

News

Alleged Fraud: Court to rule on EFCC’s witness eligibility against exSGF July 6

By Vivian Okejeme, Abuja

J

ustice Jude Okeke of a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Maitama, will on July 6, rule on the eligibility of EFCC witness to testify in the alleged N544.1 million fraud filed against a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal and six others.

The Economic and Financial Crime Commission(EFCC) charged Lawal alongside six others with alleged N544.1 million contract fraud.

Among them are the former SGF, his brother, Hamidu, who is a director of Rholavision Engineering Limited; an employee of the company, Sulaiman Abubakar and the Managing Director of Josmon Technologies Limited, Apeh John.

At the resumed proceedings yesterday, the prosecution called a Compliance Officer from Eco Bank Plc, Chidi Eboigbe, to testify for it.

Reacting, Counsek to the ex-SGF, Akin Olujinmi SAN, objected to the witness giving evidence in the case, saying that he was not listed by the prosecution in its proof of evidence before the court.

“I have looked through the proof of evidence and I cannot see any name like that of the witness. ”The only name I saw is Obadina Abiola Ganiyu, who made a statement to EFCC on 15/11/2017.

“It is settled that for a witness to be called he must be listed, he cannot testify because we don’t know what the witness will say and we cannot prepare for the purpose of cross examination” he said.

Olujimi then urged the court to rule out the witness from testifying in the case, citing the provision of Section 379 (1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.

Meanwhile, Counsel to other defendants aligned themselves with the submission of Olujimi , arguing that the prosecution wanted to take the defendants by surprise.

In a separate arguments, they held that it was a statutory provision that the prosecution must give the defendants all materials they need to prepare for their defence.

The prosecuting counsel, Offem Uket, told the court that the prosecution had listed representatives of Eco Bank as a witness in the case.

According to him, Eboigbe was not in court in his personal capacity but as a representation of the bank to speak on the statement of account from the bank already part of proof of evidence before the court.

Uket argued further bthat the bank is a juristic personnel that can always act through a servant, saying that, “that being the case, any staff of the bank can be assigned to come to court to speak on its past records.”

He therefore, urged the court to discountenance the defendants’ objections.

After hearing out both parties in the matter on the eligibility of the witness to testify, Justice Okeke then adjourned until July 6 for ruling on the eligibility of the witness to testify.

Page 3

News Editor, Ese Awhotu

Melaye loses as tribunal affirms Adeyemi’s election

By Vivian Okejeme, Abuja

T

he Kogi State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, has affirmed Senator Smart Adeyemi’s election as lawmaker representing Kogi West in the November 2019 by-election.

The three-man panel led by Justice Isa Sambo, unanimously dismissed the petition by Senator Dino Melaye, challenging the emergence of Adeyemi as the winner of the said election.

In the judgment, the tribunal

held that the evidence of the witnesses called by the petitioners was discredited during crossexamination and turned out to be “worthless, unreliable and unmerited statement”, and as such could not be relied on.

Court of Appeal which nullified Melaye’s victory in the main election which earlier held in March 2019, however, ordered a rerun in 53 polling units on November 30, 2019.

The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Adeyemi of the All

Progressives Congress, who garnered 88,373 votes as the winner of the poll.

INEC declared that he defeated Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party who polled 62,133.

But Melaye had in his petition urged the tribunal to declare him the winner of the election or order a fresh election.

However, the tribunal held that both Melaye and his party failed to prove their claims in the petition.

They also held that the Dino Melaye failed to prove non-

compliance with the standard of electoral acts in the election.

The tribunal said all the 71 witnesses called by the petitioners contracted themselves during cross-examinations and made a “worthless, unreliable and unmerited statement” that cannot be relied on.

The court also rejected the videos and other documents presented by the Petitioner during the final written addresses, because they were not pleaded uring proceedings.

L-R Deputy Chairman House Committee of Public Account, Mr. Abdullahi Saad; Member of the Committee, Nasir Gabasara; Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris, and another Member, Mr. Kabir Idris, during the Investigative Hearing on the disbursement of Covid 19 donation fund, at the National Assembly, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Ondo PDP guber aspirant vows to retrieve power from Akeredolu

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

T

he governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, during the 2016 election in Ondo State, Mr Eyitayo Jegede has said that his party is determined to retrieve power from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state and put same in the hands of the people of the state.

Jegede said this at the PDP headquarters on Tuesday in Abuja when he came to pick his nomination/expression of interest forms

The former PDP governorship candidate promised to create jobs for the people of the State and make the place generally secured, peaceful and driven by development.

He assured that if elected the governor of the state during the October 10 this year’s election, he would provide opportunities to access medical care for the youth, for the young and for women especially pregnant women.

In the words of Jegede, “Now, we have an unfinished business and that business is to retrieve power and put it in the hands of the people

of Ondo state.

“We have to open and give access to our teaming youths, who are the prospective students in our universities. A lot of them have dropped out of schools because of the collapse of the education system in Ondo state especially the imposition of a humongous amount as tuition fees.

“We intend to also give access to our people to access medical care, for the youth, for the young and for women especially pregnant women.

‘We intend to develop Ondo state economically and open the

coastal areas and ensure that in reality the port in Ondo state will come on stream.

“We want to ensure that our people our youths have access to opportunities that are available.

“We will create job for everybody and make the place generally secured, peaceful, driven by development.

“We will ensure that we place the entire state in the hands of the people of Ondo state”, he said.

Reps ask Niger Delta Ministry to rehabilitate abandoned East/West road

By Christiana Ekpa

T

he House of Representatives yesterday urged the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to as matter of urgency rehabilitate most threatened section of East/ West road particularly at the Rivers/Bayelsa and Delta states axis with immediate effect to avoid cut off of the portion of the road .

The House equally Urge the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to direct the contractor Messers SETRACO and any other contractor to immediately return to site and do the needful.

It’s also Urged the Federal Government to redeem all liabilities owed contractors on the construction of the road.

The lower Chamber also Urged the Federal Government and Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to

complete this important economic road without any further delay.

The resolutions of the House followed a motion of Matter of Urgent Public Importance sponsored by Hon. (Prof) Steve Azaiki, and 20 members on the need on the “ need to immediately repair the failing section of the East/West Road particularly the Bayelsa/Rivers and Bayelsa/Delta axis and Complete the Construction of the road” Presenting the motion, Azaiki noted that “the East/West Road is spanning five states, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa-Ibom and Cross-River state. This road is in the heart of the oil rich Niger Delta where the oil revenue is derived and hence very vital.

According to him, the deplorable condition of the road

makes traffic very heavy all season, “Notes that it is in recognition of the importance of this road, that the administration of President Olusegun Obansanjo approved the construction of a second carriageway and the rehabilitation of the existing one. Sadly, this road is yet to be completed.

“Informed that a greater portion of the road in these states have failed even as the project contracted to SETRACO construction company has been abandoned. The road has become a death trap and causes nightmares to commuters who has to unavoidably use the road.

“Further informed that in particular some sections of the road in Bayelsa shall cut off in the coming few days as the rains intensify. This immediacy

can only be saved if the Federal Government intervenes without any further delay.

“Believe that there is the need to urgently repair these failing, sinking sections of the road to avert more loss of lives, properties and ameliorate the hardship experienced by road users and ensure that the entire road is completed.

“Notes that the East/ West Road which was constructed decades ago is one of the most important roads in Nigeria and its contribution to the economy and development of the country cannot be overemphasized.

He said the silence of the people in the area should not be taken for stupidity and ignorance, adding that Niger Delta axis have been neglected in terms of roads and infrastructure.

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

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News

Insecurity: Bauchi youths condemn call for sack of service chiefs

By Vivian Okejeme, Abuja

A

civil society group, Bauchi Youths Discussion Circle, have condemned the recent calls from some Nigerians for the sack of service chiefs.

The group who spoke through their President, Prince Mohammed Sani Hassan, expressed their unalloyed support for the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar in his efforts towards ending insecurity in the country.

They described Abubakar as one of the best hands from Bauchi state to work President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Youths commended the President over his decision to retain Abubakar as a security chief followong his exceptonal performance in providing Airforce suviliance which completes the military operation in the North East Nigeria and some part of North West that was ravaged by the activities of kidnappers and bandits.

They maintained that, one of the best things that happened to Nigeria and Bauchi State in particular is the appointment of Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar as the Chief of Air Staff who as head of the nation Air Force has procured and acquired a number of Aircrafts and has done more than enough in ensuring that the welfare of his men are secured.

“We are are here today to pass a vote of confidence on one of our own who has made us proud . As you can see , within a short period, Sadique Abubakar he has built an Airforce base along the BauchiKano road with standard hospital and functional equipments which has created employment opportunities to graduates from and outside the state in the field of medicine .

“Nigerians now take solace in those hospitals for their medical care,’’ he said Further in his speech, the group assured that the efforts of Sadique Abubakar to ensure that Bauchi State gets an Airforce University which is the first of its kind in Nigeria will never be forgotten.

“We will continue to identify with all his laudable projects and achievements in the country,’’ he assured.

Nigeria begins identification number issuance to citizens in U.S., UK, 14 others

N

igeria has commenced enrolment and issuance of National Identification Numbers (NIN), to its citizens in 16 countries across five continents.

The Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Mr Aliyu Aziz, made the announcement on Wednesday in Abuja.

He was speaking on: “Strategic Roadmap for ID Development’’ at an online zoom meeting with editors.

Aziz said that as at March this year, capturing and issuance of NIN to Nigerians by the NIMC had taken place in the U.S., UK, China, South Africa, Austria, Germany and India.

According to him, the

registration has also taken place in Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Togo, Canada, Benin Republic, Italy, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates.

He, however, did not say the exact number of Nigerians in the diaspora so far captured in the identity registration but assured that Nigerians everywhere would be registered eventually.

The NIMC chief disclosed also that 11 million Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) had been harmonised by the organisation and that additional 25 million BVN holders would be harmonised in the second quarter of this year.

Aziz said, however, that only about 41.5 million citizens and legal residents had been

enrolled since 2012 when NIMC commenced the registration scheme, assuring that the NIMC had intensified efforts to register more people.

He disclosed that 12 million people had registered in the 40 years to 59 years age bracket with 18 million people registered in the 25 years to 39 years age bracket, while five million people had been registered in the 20 years to 24 years age bracket.

According to him, two million people registered in the 15 years to 19 years age bracket with 800,000 people captured in the five years to 14 years age bracket while only 79,000 people are captured in the under five years age range.

The chief executive officer said that only 3.4 million people were

registered in the senior citizens cadre, whose ages ranged from 60 years and above.

Explaining details of the registrations, Aziz noted that more people were registering in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna and Kano, compared to other cities, while residents of states in the South-East appeared to show little interest in the identity capturing.

Aziz said that the NIMC had entered strategic partnerships with the News Agency of Nigeria, National Orientation Agency, Nigerian Television Authority and other media organisations to sensitise Nigerians on the importance of identity registration.

T

he Jigawa state Government proposed to cuts 2020 appreciation budget by 19% to mitigate the effects of covid-19 pandemic in the state.

Page 5

News

News Editor, Ese Awhotu

Revised Budget: Reps raise proposed sum to N10.805 trillion ...Approve $5.513 external loan for Buhari

By Christiana Ekpa

T

he House of Representatives has passed the 2020 revised budget, increasing the proposed sum from N10.509 trillion to N10.805 trillion.

This recorded N296 billion difference from the the amount sent by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The new budget is also N211 billion higher than the N10. 594 trillion passed by the legislature in December 2019 before it was revised to N10.509 trillion against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Though the report of the Committee on Appropriation had provided N10.801

trillion for the revised budget but during consideration, N4 billion was added to take care of hazard and other welfare packages for Residents Doctors not hitherto captured.

The budget was passed on Wednesday at plenary after clause by clause consideration of the report of the Committee on Appropriation by the Committee of Supply chaired by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila.

In his brief explanation during consideration of the budget, Chairman of the Committee on Appropriation, Muktar Betara said the increase in the revised budget was for interventions to cushion the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the country.

Titled: “A Bill for an Act to amend the Appropriation Act, 2020 to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N10,801,544,664,642 (raised by N4,000,000,000)”, the budget allocated N422. 77 billion for Statutory Transfers and N2.951 trillion for Debt Service.

Also, the sum N4.938 trillion is allocated to Recurrent (NonDebt) Expenditure while the sum of N2.488 trillion is for contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure.

Under the statutory transfers, the National Judicial Council took N110 billion, Niger-Delta Development

Commission N44.200 billion, Universal Basic Education N51.120 billion and National Assembly gulped N128 billion.

Furthermore, Public Complaints Commission took N4.700 billion, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) N36 billion, National Human Right Commission N2.250 billion, North East Development Commission N20.944 billion while Basic Health Care Fund got N25.560 billion.

Out of the N2.951 trillion allocation for debt service, Domestic Debts got N1.

873 trillion, Foreign Debts took N805. 470 billion and Sinking Fund to Retire Maturing Loans is allocated N272. 900 billion.

The House also approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to borrow $5.513 billion to finance the deficit in the 2020 budget.

A breakdown of the loan indicated that the federal government intends to borrow $3,400,000,000 from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for rapid financing instrument; $1,500.000,000 from the World Bank for development policy financing; $500, 000, 000 from the African Development Bank for Covid-19 crises response budget support operation and $113, 000,000 from the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) to part finance the 2020 revised budget deficit.

NIPC reports N152bn investments in Q1 2020 report

By Miriam Humbe

T

he Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, (NIPC) has announced a total investment of N151,916 billion, in the first quarter, 2020 report.

The report shows that 18 new applications and 1 extension application were received during the period with 8 applications granted approvals-in-principle, each for 3 years.

The companies have 1,460 staff and are in various sectors including agriculture, construction, administrative service, information and communication, and manufacturing.

This information was contained in the Nigerian Investment

Promotion Commission report of Pioneer Status Incentive (PSI) applications processed between 01 January and 31 March 2020.

One company was granted extension for 2 years; the company had a total investment of N88,700 billion, while its staff strength was 573.

The report further revealed that one company was granted Pioneer Certificate with confirmed production date. During the reporting period, 3 applications were declined.

As at 31 March 2020, 39 companies were still enjoying PSI, no application was deemed abandoned, 125 applications were still pending, and no PSI certificate was cancelled.

Federal Commissioner of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, Sen. Basheer Mohammed (R), greets Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia), during the former’s visit to his colleagues in the Senate Committee on Special Duties, at the National Assembly in Abuja on Tuesday (9/6/20).

Oshiomhole’s panel adopts secrecy to screen aspirants

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed (R) with the Minister of State for Works and Housing, Abubakar Aliyu, during a meeting at the Ministry of Finance in Abuja on Tuesday (9/6/20).

Lalong hails Plateau assembly, describes as responsive Parliament From Yusuf Shekarau, Jos

Mairiga

T

he Plateau State Governor, Simon Bako Lalong has lauded the 9th State House of Assembly on its first year anniversary under the leadership of Speaker Rt. Hon. Nuhu Ayuba Abok.

A statement by Dr. Makut Simon Macham, the director of press and public affairs to the

Plateau state Governor Lalong quoted him as saying “The legislative arm of Government has remained proactive, thorough and responsive in carrying out its duties of law making and oversight”.

He described The 9th House “ As Honourable Members who have the interest of their constituents and the entire State at heart”.

“You have given due attention

to passing laws that have direct impact on the citizens of the State in the last one year”.

Lalong identified specifically, their conduct toward consistently extending a collaborative spirit in all engagements with the Executive arm and heads of MDAs in the course of carrying out their duties as exemplary.

While wishing the Assembly a fruitful engagement ahead

as they continue to serve the people of the State and contribute to the consolidation of the Plateau Rescue Mission, the governor commended them for diligently scrutinizing and passing the 2020 budget on time and also supporting the fight against COVID-19 19 as well as measures taken toward addressing the economic and health impact of the disease.

COVID - 19 : Jigawa to cuts 2020 budget by 19 percent

From Mika’il Tsoho, Dutse

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

This was contained in a letter received by the Jigawa state House of Assembly from the state government seeking for the review of the budget.

The letter read by the Speaker, Alhaji Idris Garba Jahun during plenary session said, the review

of the appropriation law became necessary as a result of the negative impacts of the Corona Virus pandemic on the economy.

According to the letter, the pandemic has continued to ravages the world economy thereby posing challenges on

internally generated revenue and the federation account allocation.

The letter said, state government proposed to review downward the 2020 budget from 152.92 billion naira to 124.357 billion naira in order to

be realistic towards government and public expenditures.

The Speaker of the House, Alhaji Idris Garba Jahun then directed the Clerk Barrister Musa Aliyu Abubakar to read the bill for the first time and then adjourned sitting to tomorrow.

T

he drama unfolding in the Edo state governorship primaries of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has assumed a fresh twist as the screening panel set up by the chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday barred all journalists from observing the exercise.

The screening which commenced around noon yesterday, recorded the attendance of four candidates, including Pius Egberanmwen Odubu, Osaro Obazee, Chris Osa Ogianwonyi and Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

However, Governor Obaseki came in and quickly breezed out

of the Secretariat, promising to return, but he was not seen as at the time of filing this report, while Iduoriyekemwen Matthew Aigbuhuenye, who is alleged to be sponsored by Governor Obaseki, was not seen throughout yesterday at the complex .

The screening is billed to last for two days, meaning that the remaining aspirants (Godwin Obaseki and Iduoriyekemwen Matthew Aigbuhuenye), who could not get screened yesterday may be called today for the exercise.

None of the aspirants agreed to speak to journalists after the screening as they quickly entered into their vehicles already in wait

and drove off the Secretariat.

As at the time of filing this report around 6:30pm, journalists, political aides and associates still thronged the APC headquarters in wait for the embattled Edo governor to return.

Recall that on Tuesday, the chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole, assembled professors and lawyers to screen the six aspirants on the party’s platform and to consider the appeals arising from the screening of the six aspirants.

This came amidst the allegations that Edo state Governor, Godwin Obaseki, forged his certificates, an allegation threatening to quash

his chances of securing the APC governorship ticket for a second tenure as Edo governor.

The screening committee is chaired by Prof. Jonathan Ayuba, while Prof. Abubakar Fari will lead the Appeals Committee.

Members of the screening committee are Prof. Agbo Madaki, Hon. Ibrahim Zailani, Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed “Binani”, Dr. Jane- Frances Agbu, Hon. Fort Dike and Dr. Rabe Nasir who would serve as Secretary.

Also, the members of the Appeals Committee are Prof. Sadeeque Abba, Barr. Gbenga Olubajo, Mohammed Idris, Esther Bepeh and Barr. Daniel Bwala who would serve as Secretary.

Inaugurating the screening committee members at the APC national Secretariat in Abuja Tuesday, Oshiomhole who said the NWC of the party still retains the final say on the recommendation of the screening committee on all the aspirants, also inaugurated another panel to serve as an appeal committee for the issues that will arise from the screening processes.

He expressed hope that the committee would work towards ensuring that the Bayelsa experience does not repeat, in which the ruling party’s victory was nullified by Supreme Court due to alleged certificate forgery by its governorship candidate.

Edo/Ondo guber: Violence, interference will cause cancellation of polls - INEC warns

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

A

head of the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo State this year, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has warned that where an election is disrupted, it (the commission) will not make a declaration on the outcome due to lack of adherence to guiding rules of the election.

The Chairman of the Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu gave the warning while speaking at a virtual event on Democracy and Elections in West Africa, organised by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington DC in collaboration with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) on Tuesday.

At the event, which sought to put a limelight on the future of democracy

in the West African region, the INEC Chairman also assured of the Commission’s commitment to free, fair and credible elections.

The governorship election in Edo State is scheduled to take place on September 19, while that of Ondo State is billed for October 20, 2020.

The INEC Chairman specifically warned that where an election is disrupted, the commission will not make a declaration on the outcome due to lack of adherence to guiding rules of the election.

Professor Yakubu said: “Where the election is disrupted and the commission cannot vouch for the integrity of the process, we will not go ahead to make any declaration.”

Noting that political parties have been duly notified on this, Professor Yakubu said: “You (political parties,

politicians and voters) either behave for the elections to be concluded in a free and fair manner or we do what the law says.”

Professor Yakubu said there will be no point making a declaration in such situation because the commission will not endorse fraud or function outside the minimum standard set for the conduct of credible elections anywhere.

“While elections are disrupted, we should look far beyond the electoral commission. I think you put your fingers on the problem, on the political class and the security challenges. And that is why we have been engaging with them,” Professor Yakubu said.

Addressing the challenges the Commission might face in conducting an election in a Coronavirus pandemic period, Yakubu, said Nigeria with ten

bye-elections and over 6.2 million voters is determined to ensure democracy is not truncated.

“Our electoral and democratic process can’t be suspended on account of the COVID19 pandemic, “ Professor Yakubu said.

He said proper measures have been put in place to contain the possible spread of COVID-19 among voters and officials. Listing some of the measures, the INEC Chairman said, machines used for voter authentication will be disinfected, the use of face masks and a two-meter (6 feet) physical distance between voters will be enforced while infrared thermometers will be provided in voting and collation areas.

Professor Yakubu said adequate security, during the process, will be put in place, while officials participating in the conduct of the election will be

properly trained in line with advisories and guideline listed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

According to him, INEC will continue to relate with political parties across the country to ensure a free, credible and fair respective of the pandemic “INEC is one of the most litigated against public institutions in the country.

In the last one and the half years over the conduct of the general elections and party primaries, we have been dragged to court over 2000 times and it is counting, “ Professor Yakubu.

In her address, the Director of CDD, Idayat Hassan, called for sanctions against political parties and individuals who make efforts to jeopardize electoral systems in African countries.

Hassan said unruly behaviour by politicians and their supporters should not be condoned.

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

PAGE 6

News Lagos hospital successfully manages 700g pre-term baby

T

he Amuwo Odofin Maternal and Child Centre (AOMCC) says it has successfully managed and discharged a preterm baby who weighed 700g at birth.

The Medical Director of AOMCC, Dr Dapo Soyinka, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a Lagos on Wednesday – when the baby boy came for checkup – that he weighed 1.5kg within 50 days.

Soyinka said that successful delivery and management of a pre-term baby with such weight was a feat for the hospital which, he said, had not had such a challenge.

He said that the baby was not only born too early but also born too small for his gestational age.

According to him, it took expertise and dedication of specialists and staff of the hospital to be able to successfully manage the baby.

He pledged the hospital’s continued monitoring of the baby’s development until 24 months, to ensure there would not be any complications.

The hospital‘s Head of Paediatrics Department, Dr Oyejoke Oyapero, also told NAN that the hospital was informed – when the mother was referred to the hospital – to expect a small baby.

She said that the hospital was worried about the weight.

“Our fear was heightened with the weight of 700g, which is the smallest we have had in this hospital.

“We were very skeptical about the survival of the baby because a baby is supposed to be about 25 weeks at that size, not 33 weeks, and the chance of survival is really slim,” she said.

The paediatrician told NAN that after assessing the baby, given his size and age, the hospital intended to refer the baby to a tertiary hospital but could not find any with a space to admit him.

She noted that babies born too early, too small or too sick could develop complications that may lead to cerebral palsy, blindness, deafness and other diseases.

“So, we progressed with the management of the baby, put him in an incubator, gave drugs to monitor any apnea (cessation in breathing) and fortunately, he did not have a lot of that.

“The baby pulled through, we needed to transfuse at some point and we put the baby under photo-therapy, expecting jaundice.

“At the first week, he dropped to 600g and we were scared but he started picking up again, and as the days went by, he got to 1,000g (one kilogramme), then 1,200g.

“We had to bring the baby out of the incubator earlier because he had stayed longer, given the age, and monitored him closely,” she said.

Oyapero added that the Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) was then adopted to help the baby to get heat from the mother.

She said that this served as an apnea monitor to keep him awake and alive.

She told NAN that managing the preterm baby, who was born during the period of the total lockdown in the state , was challenging for the hospital and his mother, who had to monitor the baby two-hourly.

Freed inmate goes beserk in Delta, strips naked From: Nosa Akenzua, Asaba

O

nlookers and family members of a freed inmate at the Warri Custodial Center in the early hours of Wednesday were dazed and could not help laughing when the released Inmate identified as Moses Obodo suddenly went beserked and naked immediately after his release from the Custodial Center by the state Chief Judge, Justice Marshall Umukoro.

In what appeared to be shocking mild drama, the inmate, 30 years old was among the 149 awaiting trial inmates released by Justice Marshall Umukoro, Delta State Chief Judge in line with President

Muhammadu Buhari resolved to prevent many from the spread of Covid-19 Pandemic disease.

Obodo as fondly called, and two other accused persons were released after their victims, one Sunday Onyia appeared before the Chief Judge Justice Marshall Umukoro and declared he had forgiven them in the open court.

The Kidnap victim, Sunday Onyia, a business man from Enugu state had told the court that he was abducted by the three man Kidnap gang comprising , Sylvester Ukpebor 39, Akpos Adisi 35 and Moses Obodo in 2017 at Airport Road warri.

But Obodo in the open, displayed himself naked

immediately he was released, shouting himself down like a dog until his family members who were earlier laughing rushed to arrest him and was taken to the hospital where he is currently being admitted.

Speaking to Journalists, Obodo younger brother, James Obodo said” Perhaps, My brother has gone mad and we had to take him to the hospital when he striped himself naked immediately he was released from the Custodial Center by the Chief Judge, Justice Marshall Umukoro, my brother was Just shouting himself down, talking gibbishly and was ready to bit anybody on his way before people helped us out and arrested him”.

Also among those released was a 37 year old Ogaga Thompson accused of murder and who had been discharged and acquitted by High Court two, Warri but was still being detained at the Custodial Center in breach of his fundamental human right.

Justice Marshall Umukoro who however granted bail to six other accused persons, noted that the Warri prison established in 1916, was meant to accommodate 307 inmates, but was over congested and called on the Government to expand correctional Centers, Since the increase in population had equally led to increase in crime rate.

Speaker of Oyo state House of Assembly (OSHA), Debo Ogundoyin (R), leads in Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo state (L), into the legislative chamber for the anniversary celebration of the Ninth Assembly of OSHA in Ibadan on Wednesday (10/6/20).

Ortom appoints veteran Sports Journalist as aide From: Uche Makurdi

Nnorom,

G

overnor Samuel Ortom has appointed a veteran Sports Journalist as Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Sports.

He is Mr. Law Possible Ediba from Adim-Akpa, Allan Ward of Otukpo Local Government Area.

According to the appointment letter signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof.

Anthony A. Ijohor, SAN, the appointment takes effect from 8th June, 2020.

In the appointment letter, the Governor explained that the appointment is based on pure merit and stressed that it is also, a call to National Service.

He therefore, urged the appointee to mobilize all his qualities which singled him out for this appointment to justify the confidence reposed 1n him.

Reacting, Mr. Law Possible Ediba expressed thanks to God and gratitude to Governor Samuel Ortom and assured that he will discharge his duties and responsibilities with absolute

commitment, high sense of responsibility and diligence to justify the confidence reposed in him.

He thanked the Chief Press Secretary, Hon. Terver Akase, Government House Media Crew led by Dr. Charles Iomumbe and the entire members of the external correspondents, NUJ Benue State for their great support.

Delta Chief Judge advocates Correctional Centre expansion From: Nosa Akenzua, Asaba

T

he Delta State Chief Judge, Honourable Justice Marshal Umukoro has attributed delay in the administration of justice, amongst other factors, to include large number of cases in cause lists, even as he advocated for the expansion of the various custodial centres.

Justice Umukoro expressed grave concern at Warri

Custodial Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Service where he freed 149 inmates awaiting trial and granted bail to six.

Reviewing the warrants of 786 awaiting trial inmates, the number one Judicial Officer of the State who lamented that the number of the Centre has tripled the number which it was originally constructed for in 1916, bemoaned federal government’s inability to expand its facilities to commensurate

with the astronomical increase of inmates.

He also listed other factors leading to congestion of custodial centres to paucity of vehicles to reproduce inmates to court, delay in sitting by courts, frivolous interlocutory applications by Lawyers, decay of societal mores, law and other, delay in rendering legal opinion by the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) of the Ministry of Justice, transfers of investigation police

officers (IPOs) and relocation of witnesses.

The Chief Judge admonished inmates between 17 to 18 years old in Warri custodial centre to refrain from associating with bad company.

He stated some of them might be innocent of the offence allegedly committed, but inadventedly found themselves in their present predicament because of the bad friends they keep.

PAGE 7

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

News

4 Adara youths informants lynch to death

Police arrrest 73 street beggars in Asaba, Ughelli, Sapele

From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

From: Nosa Akenzua, Asaba

F

our Adara youths in Kajuru local government of Kaduna State suspected to be informants to Fulani in the crisis rocking the area have been killed by angry mob.

The National President of Adara Development Association, Dio Maisamari confirmed the development in a statement made available to media in kaduna yesterday.

The statement disclosed that the four Adara youth were allegedly lynched by their kinsmen in Doka and Kallah villages of Kajuru Local Government Area of the state.

They were identified as Ayuba Zagi, Danladi Shekarau, David Kampani and Jumare Anthony.

According to him, three were allegedly lynched in Doka village but Jumare Anthony met his death at Kallah.

Maisamari said: “We have been informed of the incident and our association condemns jungle justice in all ramifications.

“We have been told what happened but our position is that we condemn anybody involved in criminal activities whether he is Adara or Fulani.

“We were told that some of the suspects have been taken to the police station. So, our view is to allow justice take its course so that there won’t be jungle justice again.”

The Kaduna State Police Command said it had arrested five people in connection with the mob action.

Police Public Relations Officer, Mohammed Jalige said the police were on top of the situation as those arrested had assisted with information.

F

ollowing the dwindling state of economy as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic disease spread ravaging the world, security agents in Asaba, Ughelli and Sapele towns in Delta state have arrested no fewer than 73 streets’ beggars in the named areas.

With a negligible number of of Nigerian population across the Nigeria resorted to begging as a way of surviving the though times, the security agents said the arrested persons, many of whom were found to be marabouts unpon interrogation, adding that they have in the constituted themselves into hoodlums to rob unsuspecting members of the public.

Delta state government through the Commissioner for information,

Mr Charles Aniagwu who spoke to Journalists in Asaba on Tuesday has described as pathetic the poor economy situation in Nigeria, adding” the situation is really operation no mercy, the economy is really unfair and unfortunate for the unemployed, even the employed are not finding anything easy, and so people especially the Jobless ones have resorted to begging, and the state government is unconformable with the situation” Speaking to Journalists, the state Commissioner of Police, Hafiz Muhammed Inuwah said that those beggars arrested are going through interrogation, adding that those with genuine intentions might be released while those with suspicious characters would face the law and be charged to court

In Asaba, Ughelli and Sapele towns, these beggars are clad in suits with ties and armed with Christian tracks often as measures to woo unsuspecting members of the public for fund assistance at various busy Junctions where they will either be waiting for Keke Nape to convey them to their destinations In Asaba for instance, these beggars, many of them supposedly married men are seen at various motor parks, Ibusa Junction, Summit road Junction, Traffic light Junction and headbridge openly begging for alms from car owners including business men and women One of the beggars, Isaac Wilson who spoke to our Correspondent in Asaba said” we are dying of hunger, no Job and food for my family, Government did not provide Job opportunities for us,

Covid-19 Pandemic disease ravaging everywhere had destroyed virtually the economy, we are hungry” A survey conducted by our Correspondent in Asaba, has shown that many were seen appealing to the Federal Government to take them off the streets, saying that the beggars had become a nuisance to the environment.

A respondent, Mrs Meg Monday a business woman who spoke to our Correspondent said” people have resorted to begging as a result of the hash economic situation of Nigeria, people with Jobs have also been laid off due to the Covid-19 Pandemic” adding that in an attempt to proffer solutions, ninety percent of the solutions to begging lies in the hands of the government who will create centers where people can be trained on certain skills.

Edo Primary:APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole right inaugurate Screening and Appeal Committee for Edo State Governorship Election while other members of NWC look on Tuesday in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Court convicts herder to 1 year imprisonment for grazing on Ortom’s farm From: Uche Makurdi

Nnorom,

A

26-year-old Fulani herdsman, Umaru Bature, of Kanje Awe local government area of Nassarawa State was Tuesday sentenced to one year imprisonment by a Makurdi Chief Magistrate for grazing on Governor Samuel Ortom’s farm in Gbajimba.

The Chief Magistrate, Mr Isaac Ajim, while delivering

judgement said the prosecution has been able to prove that the herdsman trespassed and grazed on Governor Samuel Ortom’s farm with 65 cows.

He added that he was satisfied that the guilt of the herder was established beyond reasonable doubt.

The trial Magistrate sentenced the herder to one year in prison for the offence of criminal trespass and open grazing.

Upon hearing the plea for leniency entered on behalf of the herdsman by his counsel, Ayuba Adeniran, he fined the herder the sum of N500,000 with an option of one year Imprisonment.

Earlier, the prosecution counsel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps,NSCDC, Shaibu Anthony told the court that on May 12, 2020, Mr Umaru Bature was caught with 65 cows grazing on Governor Samuel Ortom’s farm in Gbajimba,

Guma Local Government Area of Benue State by a team of Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps led by the Unit Commander of Agro Rangers attached to the Governor’s farm, Adole Terwase.

Mr Shaibu told the court that the offence was contrary to section 342, 348,of the penal code law of Benue State and section 19(1)(2)(3)(4)(5) of the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law of

Benue State, 2017.

He said while the herdsman was brought to the NSCDC headquarters in Makurdi for investigation, and the 65 cows were handed over to the Benue State Livestock Guards unit in Guma for safe keeping.

Mr Bature pleaded guilty to the charges of trespass and open grazing, he however told the court that he was not aware the farm belonged to Governor Ortom.

COVID-19: Stephen Keshi Stadium hosts 70-bed isolation centre From: Nosa Akenzua, Asaba

A

s part of efforts to ensure that lack of bed space will not hamper the treatment of COVID-19 patients in Delta State, a 70-bed isolation centre has been sited at the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba.

The Secretary to the Delta State Government, Mr Chiedu Ebie, Commissioner for Health in the state, Dr Mordi Ononye, among others, on Tuesday, inspected the

readiness of the isolation centre to receive patients and expressed confidence that while efforts have been stepped up to curb the spread of the virus, the state was prepared in case of an upsurge in cases.

According to Mr Ebie, bearing in mind the speedy way the virus was contracted, the state government was preparing isolation centres across the State to ensure quick response to save the lives of Deltans.

He disclosed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation

(NNPC) in conjunction with Agip and other partners erected the isolation centre at the stadium.

“Our resolve is to provide isolation facilities across the state and this project was started about four weeks ago and will be put into use any moment from now as almost all the equipment needed are in place.

“With the manner with which the virus is spreading, government cannot handle it alone and corporate organisations and well

meaning individuals have come to render assistance, NNPC/Agip came together and galvanised other oil companies to provide these facilities.

“Deltans can be safer if they obey established health protocols because, it is our prayers not to have more patients in the State and for those in the isolation centres to get well and be discharged,” Mr Ebie said.

In his contributions, Dr Ononye disclosed that the isolation centre

has a comprehensive health facilities, including accommodation for the patients and care givers.

He stated that COVID-19 was not a death sentence, especially with early detection, disclosing that the deaths so far recorded in the state was as a result of the victims having prevailing health challenges that were compounded by COVID-19.

The Commissioner stated that with early detection, the state has the expertise and facilities to manage the patients.

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

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PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

PAGE 9

News

News

Corruption: NDDC stinks, alleges Frank

...Urges EFCC’s thorough investigation of Akpabio, Nwaboshi’s allegations

By Tobias Lengnan Dapam

A

political activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Comrade Timi Frank, has asked President Muhammad Buhari to remove the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) currently under the Niger Delta Ministry back to the Presidency.

Frank described as embarrassment allegations and counter allegations between the Senate and the Minister of Niger Delta Ministry Godswill Akpabio, over alleged missing N40 billions and other contract racketeering, saying politicians have turned the commission to a cash cow.

In a statement made available to newsmen Tuesday in Abuja, the Bayelsa born political activist said it is sad that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-graft agencies were still looking other ways despite the ongoing revelations between the Senate committee Chairman on Niger Delta Sen. Peter Nwaboshi and the Minister, Godswill Akpabio, regarding alleged contract racketeering and looting of public

funds in the commission.

Senator Nwaboshi, in a statement signed by his Media Aide, Luka Igbinoba, had accused Akpabio of looting the NDDC through contracts, adding that documents available with him clearly show that the Minister recieved N500 million contracts from the NDDC in 2017 when he served as Minority Leader of Senate.

The activist said there were also allegations that the Minister has been demanding for 30 percent kick-back from all the contractors he ordered the commission to pay, saying all these allegations must be investigated.

Frank said while majority of his people in Niger Delta are living in abject poverty, “politicians are daily running the commission like a private business against the purpose the commission was established.

“Where is the forensic audit ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari today? I commended the President when the news broke that he had ordered for the forensic audit of the commission but today the story remains what it was.

“It is shamful and embarrassing to the people of Niger Delta because each day you

open the pages of Newspapers the damaging reports of looting in NDDC is always conspicuously written.

“I hereby call on the government to save the region of this daily embarrassment by removing the NDDC from the control of the Niger Delta Ministry back to the Presidency and ensure that all the names mentioned in all the allegations of looting in the

commission are brought to book.

“I will also call on the Minister of Niger Delta Ministry, Godswill Akpabio, to step aside for now to allow an independent probe of the commission.”

Frank called on EFCC and other anti-graft agencies to do thorough job of cleaning the NDDC of corruption and expose all those who have used their influences to enrich themselves through

fake contracts and all manners of activities in the region.

Frank, however, called on all the elders and leaders of Niger Delta region to put pressure on the presidency to return the commission back to its control so as to save it from total collapse ,adding that since the commission was brought under the Ministry nothing tangible has been achieved.

President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo SAN during the Online FEC Meeting held at the Council Chambers, State House Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. JUNE 10 2020.

President Muhammadu Buhari presides over Online FEC Meeting held at the Council Chambers, State House Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. JUNE 10 2020.

Governors hold teleconference today, receive memoranda from groups

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

G

overnors of the 36 States of the federation, under the aegis of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, will today hold their 10th teleconference meeting during which they will receive memoranda from various groups.

One of such groups, the Nigeria Governors’ Spouses’ Forum, headed by the wife of the Chairman and Governor of Ekiti State, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, is expected to present a statement on violence against women and children as well as rape, which have become a matter of national emergency.

The virtual meeting will take place online today, Wednesday 10th June 2020, at 2pm.

A statement yesterday by the Head, Media and Public Affairs of the NGF, Mr Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo,

confirmed that an invitation from the Director General of the Forum, Mr Asishana Bayo Okauru to the governors, listed the issues to be discussed at the meeting to include an update on Executive Order 10, a brief from a subcommittee that was assigned to engage the Presidential Task Force on Covid19 headed by Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, Governor of Delta State among other pressing national issues.

The teleconference is basically to review the Covid19 situation in the various states of the country and advance or evolve more pragmatic ways of dealing with the Pandemic, going forward.

The statement reads, “Governors of the 36 states will be holding their 10th teleconference meeting since the outbreak of the Covid19 pandemic and the lockdown that resulted therefrom.

“This time around the governors will receive memoranda from various groups including a statement from the Nigeria Governors Spouses Forum, headed by the wife of the Chairman and Governor of Ekiti State, Erelu Bisi Fayemi.

“The Nigeria Governors’ Spouses Forum is briefing the Nigeria Governors’ Forum on violence against women and children and of course rape, which have become a matter of national emergency as the number of incidences continue to take front burner in the country.

“The teleconference is to review the Covid19 situation in the various states of the country and advance or evolve more pragmatic ways of dealing with the Pandemic, going forward.

“The virtual meeting takes place online tomorrow, Wednesday 10th June 2020 at 2pm.

‘An invitation from the Director General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Mr Asishana Bayo Okauru to the governors, lists the issues to be discussed at the meeting including an update on Executive Order 10, a brief from a subcommittee that was assigned to engage the Presidential Task Force on Covid19 headed by Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, Governor of Delta State among other pressing national issues.

“Governor Nasir el Rufai of Kaduna State will also present the report of his committee set up at the last NEC meeting in March 2020 to review the impact of the Covid19 Pandemic on the economy for endorsement.

“The state governors will also take a peek into such issues as the World Bank Cares program, the public hearing on the NCDC Bill 2020, the progress made on the refunds to states on FAAC

deductions, the restructuring of states’ loans by the CBN Governor Mr Godwin Emefiele and the reimbursements for construction of Federal Roads to states like Rivers, Bayelsa, Ondo, Osun, Cross Rivers etc.

“The Inspector General of Police has also been invited to brief the governors on the Police Trust Fund just as the Women Affairs Minister Mrs Pauline Talen will interface with Governors on critical gender issues including rape and sexual violence in the country.

“Also on the agenda is the a briefing on the CACOVID Distribution of palliatives and also a feedback from States.

“The NGF is expected to get an update to see whether or not the palliatives have made any impact on the citizenry”, it said.

Reps ask IGP, C’ttee to Investigate Kogi armed robbery attack

By Christiana Ekpa

T

he House of Representatives yesterday Urged the Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Adamu and the House Committee on Police Affairs to investigate the armed robbery attack of the First Bank branch and the killing of 8 Police officers and others, in Isanlu, Yagba East Local Government of Kogi State and to apprehend and prosecute the suspects.

The House equally urged the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector General of Police to ensure formidable security apparatus, including efficient backup response to armed robbery attacks in Isonlu and its environs.

The Lawmakers also requested the set up of a joint security

• Request joint security taskforce for the area. taskforce comprising Army, Police, Airforce and NSCDC to be stationed at a border town of Kogi/Kwara Isonlu-Esso olong Egbe -Potigi road which serves as an escape route for those who robbed in Yagba Federal Constituency because of complete absence of security agents in the whole area up to Kwara state.

The House resolutions followed a motion of Urgent Public Importance Sponsored by Hon. Leke Abejide at the Tuesday plenary precided over by the Speaker of the House Femi Gbajabiamila.

Presenting the motion titled “need to investigate Armed robbery attack on First Bank Breach and the Killing of 8 Police Officers and others in Isanlu, Yagba East Local Government Area of

Kogi State” Abejide noted with dismay the deadly armed robbery attack on First Bank Branch and Police Station at Headquarter of Yagba East Local Government Area of Kogi State, In which 8 police officers and several others were killed and wounded on 4th of June, 2020.

According to him, “ that the robbers numbering about 8 simultaneously attacked the First Bank branch and the lsanlu police station, where 8 police officers, including 3 women officers and the DPO were brutally gunned down, while also emptying the armory.

“Further notes that the armed robbers in the process of robbing the bank killed the security guard, blew off the fortified of the bank with explosives, and carted away yet to be

disclosed sums of money.

“Disturbed that the armed robbers managed to escape without being caught, further throwing the residents of lsanlu and its environs into a state of panic over the pervading insecurity and helplessness of the security apparatus to protect themselves or the citizens. More worrisome was the length of time they operated unchallenged which was about three (3) hours!

“Dismayed that such pattern of bank robberies and killing of security agents is now common in the axis and also along the stretch of the Federal Road of towns such as Kabba, Aiyetoro Gbede, Iyamoye, Odo Ere and Egbe.

“Concerned that if such attacks should continue it may lead to closure

of financial Institutions in the town and this may cripple commercial activities in the town and environ.

As I speak there is no functional commercial Bank in the whole Yagba East and Mopomuro LGAs which are two 0ut of the three (3) LGA that makeup Yagba Federal Constituency.

“Concerned that should efficient backup response be lacking at every count of these pattern of attacks, the citizens’ confidence would be eroded, while the fundamental rights to security and life of citizens as guaranteed in the Constitution would be trampled upon” he said.

The however Mandated the House Committee on Police Affairs to investigate, and report back to the house in 4 weeks.

Malami receives best Minister Award 2020

By Vivian Okejeme, Abuja

T

he Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has received certificate of nomination as the Best Minister of the year 2020 by a nongovernmental organization, Face of Democracy Nigeria Project.

This is contained in a statement issued by Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, Media Aid to office of the Minister.

Presenting the award to the Minister, the President of the organization, Mr. Alexandra Olufunsho said the Malami was chosen as the recipient for this year’s Democracy Hero Award as the Best Minister of the year 2020 after nomination of names of 22 ministers rigorous scrutinized by the organization.

Mr. Olufunsho said the choice of Malami for this year’s award was informed by his unprecedented performance in the fight against corruption, unwavering respect to the rule of law and unflinching support to democratic ideals especially his role in the most recent executive order on the autonomy of the state legislature and judiciary.

Responding, Malami considered the award as a clarion call to redouble efforts and do more for the democratic system, as well as enhancement of speedy dispensation of justice and improvement of the welfare of judiciary officers in the county.

Muslim women demand capital punishment for rapists

By Osaigbovo Iguobaro, Benin

M

uslim Women in Nigeria on Tuesday demanded for capital punishment for rapists in the Country.

They also tasked the Media to support awareness creation on the effects of rape which would to break the culture and silence and complacency in Nigerian society.

National President (Amirah) of FOMWAN, Hajia Halima Jibril made the disclosure during a protest match against rape and violence against women at the King square and in major streets in Benin City.

The protest is coming amidst the recent rape of an undergraduate student of University of Benin (UNIBEN), Miss Uwaila Vera Omozuwa in church in Benin.

Hajia Rabi Rabiri, Edo State Amirah, FOMWAN who spoke on

behalf of the national President, raised concern over the increase in rape cases overtime, adding that rape is not limited to a particular age group.

She called for the domestication of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP).

In a remark, Monira Ozeto Abubakar, the Youth Amirah of FOMWAN, Edo State Chapter, tasked the Government put laws that are working in place towards ensuring that perpetrators of rape are brought to book.

“I think doing this will put others away and reduce the number of rape cases in Nigeria.

“Even though some rapists have been set free in courts, we will not rest. That is one of the reasons why we are creating awareness through peaceful protest.

“Even though our voices are

faint. We will keep talking until the Government listens to us and do something to end rape.

“We have different opinions.

Some have said that they (rapists) should be castrated, killed. But, I just think that rapists should be punished and jailed after diligent investigation”, she said.

Mrs Sule Hafishat, Women Leader, Nasrul-Lahi-Fathi society of Nigeria (NASFAT), Edo State Chapter, called for the protection of women’s rights .

On his part, the Chief Imam of Benin Central Mosque, Alhaji Abdulfatai Enabuele said the protest was necessitated by the barbaric behaviour of some Nigerians.

‘You stoop so low and start having sex with young virgins and our young girls. You could imagine the raping a girl in church?

“In Islam, it is very wrong for

anybSadato go into a woman that he has not paid dowry on. Those who are doing it; It is evil and they should be dealt with accordingly.

“In our criminal code those who rape and kill are supposed to be killed. Those who rape is life imprisonment. Those who attempt it is 14 years imprisonment.

“So, the authority should have the political will to deal with the perpetrators of rape and sexual violence.

“Even when they ate caught, nobody takes them serious. The security agencies make jest of them of those who are raped. It is time we begin to use them to make example; The rest will now stop.

“God did not create women to be raped so that we men can take care of them. Women are our companion and comforters. They are not our enemies”, he said.

COVID-19: PDP urges FG, States, LGs on more sensitization, monitoring ...Urges prayers gor Ikpeazu, others

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

T

he Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has called on governments at all levels to ensure more multisectoral and multilayered responses to the coronavirus pandemic particularly in the areas of sensitization, monitoring, care giving as well as therapeutic and nontherapeutic intervention to check the COVID-19 transmission and mortality rates in our country.

This is even as the PDP called

on Nigerians to continue to pray for the speedy recovery of Abia state governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu and other compatriots who have tested positive to COVID-19.

The PDP which made the calls in a statement personally by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, expressed worry over reports of increasing number of Nigerians who are infected by the deadly virus.

The party, notwithstanding, was optimism that with the collaborative and concerted

effort of all, Nigeria would soon overcome the pandemic.

The leading opposition party urged Nigerians not to despair over the situation but to remain at alert and redouble their efforts in adhering to health safety directives including social distancing, personal hygiene, early report of symptoms, wearing of face mask in the public among others, especially with the easing of the lockdown.

The PDP called on governments at all levels “to ensure more multisectoral and

multilayered responses to the pandemic particularly in the areas of sensitization, monitoring, caregiving as well as therapeutic and non-therapeutic intervention to check the COVID-19 transmission and mortality rates in our country”.

It added, “Our party restates its commendation to our health workers and others on the frontline for their sacrifices at this trying time and urged Nigerians to reciprocate such gesture by keeping safe”.

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

PAGE 10

N ews

‌By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

A

midst the allegations that Edo state Governor, Godwin Obaseki, forged his certificates, the chairman of All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday assembled university professors and lawyers, to screen the embattled governor and five others who are contending for the party’s ticket for the Edo governorship election.

The screening committee is chaired by Prof. Jonathan Ayuba, while Prof. Abubakar Fari will lead the Appeals Committee.

Mmbers of the screening committee are Prof. Agbo Madaki, Hon. Ibrahim Zailani, Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed “Binani”, Dr. Jane- Frances Agbu, Hon. Fort Dike and Dr. Rabe Nasir who would serve as Secretary.

Also, the members of the Appeals Committee are Prof.

Sadeeque Abba, Barr. Gbenga Olubajo, Mohammed Idris, Esther Bepeh and Barr. Daniel Bwala who would serve as Secretary.

Inaugurating the screening committee members yesterday at the APC national Secretariat in Abuja, Oshiomhole who said the NWC of the party still retains the final say on all the aspirants, also inaugurated another panel to serve as an appeal committee for the issues that will arise from the screening.

He expressed hope that the committee would work towards enduring that the Bayelsa experience does not repeat, in which the ruling party’s victory was nullified by Supreme Court due to alleged certificate forgery by its governorship candidate.

Oshiomhole said while the screening committee would act as the High Court, the appeals committee as the appellate court, the NWC would act as the Supreme Court, pointing out that “the NWC can reject the screening result.

Screening committee is High Court, Appeal Committee, Appeal Court and the NWC, the Supreme Court.”

He further lamented the Supreme Court judgement which cancelled its victory in Bayelsa, saying “After intensive consultations, we decided to have people who in our own judgment are sound and when they go through this process, their recommendations will be very helpful. Under our rules, we are expected to set up a screening committee before every election.

“The responsibility of the

Edo primaries: Oshiomhole assembles Profs, lawyers to grill Obaseki, others • Says NWC determines fate of every aspirant screening committee is to interact with all those who have aspirations to contest, strictly speaking, not yet aspirants. You become an aspirant after the screening committee has passed you.

“If anybody is dissatisfied with the screening committee’s recommendation, he/she will file an appeal and it will be forwarded to the Appeals Committee and after that, they will make a final recommendation to the National Working Committee NWC that has the final decision as to who is eligible or who is not eligible.

“In the past, we have always performed this role but may be we did not give it the appropriate weight. Maybe we had assumed that

people who want to aspire to certain offices particularly high elective offices of executive governor, we expected that no one would submit documents containing information that may possibly lead to disqualification. In the past, this was more of a formality but with what happened to us in Bayelsa state earlier this year, we decided to approach the issue of screening much more seriously than ever before.

“I want to encourage you to take this exercise very seriously. I am sure you can only imagine how we felt as a party when after we had won an election, there were no questions, in fact it was the best election ever conducted in Bayelsa

State. No violence, people voted but we lost it because the deputy governor according to the Supreme Court had contradictions in his documents and so we lost it.

“So, the screening is not a formality and we expect you to be very meticulous in every material particular to protect our party so that let it not be said that we did not learn anything from Bayelsa. As you know sometimes when things go wrong, everybody sees it that NWC did not do a thorough job. So people personalise it saying, if the chairman was thorough, if he had done his job this will not happen but that is the price of leadership.

“For me, the important lesson is if we have made a mistake in

R-L; President Muhammadu Buhari Vice President Yemi Osinbajo SAN, SGF Mr Boss Mustapha, Chief of Staff Prof Ibrahim Gambari and NSA Maj-Gen Babagana Mongonu during the Online FEC Meeting held at the Council Chambers, State House Abuja.

PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. JUNE 10 2020.

Buhari mourns Abubakar Tsav

By Egena Sunday Ode

P

resident Muhammadu Buhari has condoled with government and people of Benue State over the passing of an illustrious son, Abubakar Tsav, who was a former Lagos

the past, are we taking the steps to correct it? I think this is what this exercise represents. So, we will give you copies of our party’s Constitution, for that is the primary contract among members of the APC. This constitution is the basis of our actions.

“We will make it available to you and we will also make available to you the guidelines that have been developed for the purpose of conducting primaries. I trust that given the calibre of your persons, that you will help the party to do a thorough job as to protect us as an institution from any possible judicial reversal of anything arising from the process”, Oshiomhole added.

State Commissioner of Police.

The President joined family members, friends and associates in mourning the retired police officer, whose years in service continue to resonate with the discipline and focus he brought into security operations,

particularly in Lagos State, a statement Tuesday by the Presidency Spokesman, Garba Shehu said.

President Buhari, the statement said, noted with sadness, that the vociferous voice of Tsav, would be sorely

missed, while acknowledging that his wise counsels to leaders in his state, and national level, especially on good governance were most timely and impactful.

“I feel very special about people like Tsav, who took great personal risks to defend me and

my government in all situations and circumstances,” Buhari said in the statement.

The President prayed for the repose of his soul, urging the family to find strength in his contributions to humanity, the statement added.

Executive order 10 sacrosanct for our democracy – Malami

By Vivian Okejeme, Abuja

T

he Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN has said that the Executive order No- 0010 was necessitated to deepen democracy from grassroot and ensure effective implementation of the doctrine of

separation of powers.

Malami said that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, came out with the Order No 0010, for reenforcement of the constitutional provisions on the autonomy of the state legislature and judiciary as contained in Section 121(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal

Republic of Nigeria.

The AGF informed that the Governors of the 36 States of the Federation have agreed to the constitutionality of the autonomy of the state legislature and judiciary maintaining that the essence of the Order was to see to the implementation of the autonomy.

The Minister called on more inter-agency support for the Order which he said will accelerate development Nigerian masses have been clamoring for.

In furtherance of the implementation of the Order, the Federal Government and Nigerian Governors’ Forum are jointly working on modalities for

effective implementation of the order.

Malami said the Executive Order implementation Committee will incorporate valuable submissions from Governor’s Forum and other stakeholders with a view to seeing practicable implementation of the Executive Order.

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

PAGE 11

EDITORIAL The amnesty bid for terrorists

T

he Nigerian senate made the first move, recently, to grant amnesty to repentant Boko Haram foot soldiers, giving them an opportunity to become normal members of the society again. The move is in the form of a bill introduced by a senator, aimed at setting up a national body to “educate, rehabilitate, de-radicalize and integrate” former insurgents.

The sponsor is Senator Ibrahim Gaidam, a former governor of Yobe State, one of the states in thick of the insurgency. The bill ”National Agency for the Education, Rehabilitation, De- radicalization and Integration of repentant Insurgents in Nigeria (Est, etc) Bill, 2020 (SB.340)” was read for the first time on the floor of the Senate.

The bill seeks a legal framework for amnesty for defected and defecting Book Haram fighters.

According to Gaidam, the proposed agency would be a platform for promoting reconciliation and national security. It also would be “an open door” for half heated fighters of Boko Haram to abandon the group. He believes the agency will be in a position to gather intelligence on the “inner workings” of the group, intelligence that is vital for winning this asymmetrical war.

Besides, it would be able to wane active insurgents away from Book Haram’s poisonous ideology and give them a chance to reenter mainstream society.

Yes, the military option is the one that immediately comes to mind. It is true that the nation’s military has been doing its very best to end this 11-yearold insurgency. Boko Haram is no longer the all powerful military monolith it used to be. However, its head has not been entirely scorched. In this unconventional or The bill seeks a asymmetric warfare, legal framework it is impossible to pin the enemy down at for amnesty for one place and finish defected and him off. Defeat him defecting Book here and he resurfaces there.

“

Haram fighters.

According to Gaidam, the proposed agency would be a platform for promoting reconciliation and national security

As expected, opinions are divided on the notion of amnesty for Boko Haram fighters ready to abandon the group. This divide is regional - north against north. Opponents reject any comparison with the amnesty granted to former Niger Delta resource control militants or the “no victor no vanquished” declaration by the federal government at the end of the Civil War in 1967. Against this background, getting the Boko Haram amnesty bill passed in the National Assembly will be difficult, if not impossible.

OUR MISSION “To be the market place of ideas and the leading player in the industry by putting the people first, upholding the truth, maintaining the highest professional and ethical standards while delivering value to our stakeholders”

This is why supporters of the bill must try to reach out to the other side of the divide with a message that is both convincing and reassuring. The message should start by arguing that there is an ongoing armed conflict that is consuming a lot of lives and resources. Development has been halted. Secondly, all of us want peace but what are the options available to us?

This is why we now need a working combination of what the military term as kinetic and nonkinetic approaches in the campaign.

The military itself has proved that this combo is working. It recently announced that it had trained and rehabilitated 1400 repentant insurgents at one of its centres in Gombe State.

Neighboring Borno government has also confirmed that 1000 former Boko Haram elements have been released into the society. There have been no reports that some of those former insurgents have found their way back into Boko Haram fold.

An amnesty, no doubt, will be the ricing on the cake. But it should not be blanket amnesty. Beneficiaries should be foot soldiers who show remorse and submit to debriefing.

The high command is definitely out of it. It is the head of the snake that must be cut off.

OUR PEOPLE Chairman Malam Wada Maida, Oon, Fnge

Chief Operating Officer Editor, Daily Hameed M. Bello, PhD Manager, administration Hassan Hammanyaji

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Letter to the Editor

China and her new law to safeguard her Hong Kong

By Ikenna Emewu

T

he Hong Kongers are ethnic Cantonese; just exactly the same people as the natives of Guangzhou and all the Guangdong and Guangxi provinces of South East China.

The native place of the Cantonese Ethnic people include Guangdong, Guangxi provinces, Macau and Hong Kong, all located round the Pearl River known as Zhujiang in Chinese.

On the second week of June, 2018, I was among the Nigerian journalists that witnessed the opening of the world’s longest sea crossing bridge over the Pearl River, Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) that stretches 55km linking Hong Kong, a Cantonese Island with her Cantonese kins of Mainland China in Zhuhai, and also Macau.

Some of the reasons for creating that mega project of CNY127b (US$12.8bn and longest bridge on earth include fostering brotherhood by facilitating access to each other on the two sides of the divide, creating better economic possibilities and ensuring closeness between Mainland China and the Island outpost of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has always been part of the China Empire until the Qing Dynasty when in 1842 through the Treaty of Nanking (Nanjing) was ceded to the British Empire to govern as part of the conditions to end the Opium War. The cession was renewed in 1898 for 99 years which ended in 1997 when Hong Kong returned to its original place, China as agreed to.

At the eastern end of the south of China, the Taiwanese are of Min’an ethnicity, just exactly like the Fujian Province natives of Mainland China just across the sea. These are the basic original links between the Mainland and island outpost China territories that outsiders who for their personal reasons refuse to emphasise or don’t even know.

The bonds between Mainland Chinese people and those of Taiwan and Hong Kong are far beyond political delineation. They run deep in the blood and it was rather politics that actually created or intended to create a wedge in between. I can say I am familiar with some of these places and their affinities. By blood, these people at the fringes are more related than with far flung mainlanders up north.

Last year, there were seven consecutive months of civil unrest in Hong Kong that actually brought the island flat on its belly with societal disruptions in so many ways. Politically, the string linking the Mainland China and HK is premised on the One Country Two Systems constitutional provision enunciated by Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s while negotiating with the UK preparatory to the return of HK to China. That took effect in 1997.

The social upheaval of last year in Hong Kong that took tact and wisdom to handle necessitated the Chinese National Security Law of May 2020.

However, what stands out in that law is its dimensions that actually touch on only security and hasn’t tampered with the One China Two Systems that constitutionally guarantees the existing political system independence of Hong Kong.

Whereas no reasonable person would support subjugation of any people including Hong Kongers, and of course, they are not subjugated by Beijing, but there are so many factors of benefit embedded in the unity and oneness of Mainland China and HK, including economy, culture, freedom and a larger world for Hong Kongers.

On a fateful day in June 2018, at a Zhuhai waterfront, I saw checked in passengers of a flight on Hong Kong airport who waited to be crossed by ferry to board the flight. In fact, boarding of the HK fight is announced at the bay in Zhuhai where we sat while the passengers proceed to the ferry to cross over. The exit door was marked ‘Boarding Gate’.

The common story in Guangdong is that due to cost of living, many people that work in HK, even natives, live in Shenzhen and Dongguan, and with the bridge connecting them already in place, its just 30 minutes to touch each end between China Mainland and HK. I sat next to a man that I later found to be a Hong Kong native mid November 2019 on the NairobiLagos Kenyan Airways flight. After introductions, the man who lives in Costa Rica and was on his maiden trip to Nigeria and I got talking. His interest to discuss with me in depth was when I introduced myself as a journalist who was in Nairobi to attend

the summit of Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, and the African media partners. He became curious to know how a Nigerian journalist who operates his media agency in Nigeria partners with Xinhua. He wasn’t less curious to hear that I had worked in China as journalist with a Chinese media organisation of repute, the People’s Daily.

The man told me the story of what causes fights and street protests in Hong Kong. That was just when the seven-month long protest was just abetting. The real reason behind the skirmishes, according to this man who sounded really informed and with so much exposure having been to and lived in almost all continents of the world to overcome little biases, was to really politics.

He told me in details what I already heard in part that cost of living in HK is prohibitive, making it one of the top three most expensive cities of the world. He said the truth behind the façade of politics in the brouhaha in HK is that those young ones on the streets venting their anger are people who see no future in their little expensive world where their new jobs as fresh university graduates won’t afford them basic livelihood.

They seemed to have found a cord and struck it to drive home bottled up anger and frustration of not having an assured future in that little island world.

Conversely, China is vast and with opportunities, just next door. Hainan Island, some 25 minutes by air from HK is evolving greatly – from Haikou through Wanning down to Sanya and Qionghai, the location of the enigmatic Boao Forum headquarters.

These are great playgrounds for the HK future and younger people who seek a place to go. While there, they would not have lost touch with their nativity.

Shenzhen, the world class innovation and ICT city is next door, the heavily industrialized Dongguan, and of course mega city Guangzhou and many others are there as the future of young Hong Kongers.

The HZM Bridge is there already as link and no one discriminates against the HK person just over the bridge in Guangdong, the world’s largest cluster of industries and with an amazing economy so large and vast to be the 12th largest in the world.

My first visit to Guangdong was from Hangzhou, immediately we rounded off covering the 2016 G20 Summit and the leaders of the city of Guangzhou joked that they should ordinarily belong to the G20 as the world’s 12th largest economy.

Hong Kong won’t lose a thing to be with all China where opportunities abound? As an island, no other world is closer to HK than their sister locations across the sea. Why not leverage on this waiting opportunity and natural affinity?

My concern about the disturbances in HK is akin to what I always say about North Korea and its style. That country by advantage of location has no reason to be poor in between the world’s strongest economic triangle of China, Japan and South Korea that together hold 33% of global GDP. Instead of bellicosity that picks no bills, why not friendship that would untie the strings of opportunities and explosion into prosperity?

As a location at the periphery and by a busy global seaway that is so important to world economy, China felt a need to take a closer look at the security situation in Hong Kong. That need became more compelling with the external influences that fueled and sustained the disturbances on the Island in 2019. The government of the US, major economic rival of China, under Donald Trump never pretended about its unhealthy interest in Hong Kong and the disturbances that trail it.

Therefore, China during the legislative session in May 2020 felt the need to make laws to better safeguard its Hong Kong territory from external undue influences dished out to people, most of whom don’t really know the undercurrents of this unhealthy interest of Trump.

Let’s turn the table and ask, if security situation of concern starts brewing on Hawaii and Alaska, island territories of USA, would Trump sit quiet and watch them conflagrate? Would any other state in the world play such complacency card?

By a very sweet coincidence of history, Hawaii, the island state of USA since 1959 ceded to US in 1898, the same year Hong Kong was ceded to the British Empire and returned 99 years later to its owner according to the agreement.

Emewu, journalist, wrote from the AfriChina Media Centre, Lagos

PAGE 12

Opinion

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

World Environment Day and the wobbly Niger Delta region

By Jerome-Mario Utomi

O

n Friday 5th June 2020, during the celebration of World Environment Day co-hosted by Colombia and Germany and streamed live online from Bogotá, I listened with real curiousity to Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez and Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), lead other world leaders calls for action to combat the accelerating species loss and degradation of the natural world.

From the United Nations UN Secretary-General António Guterres to Presidents of Colombia, Perú, Chile, Kenya, Ethiopia, Southeast Asia, India and Britain, the message was the same; they endorsed a statement, calling “on all governments around the world to retain our precious intact ecosystems and wilderness, to preserve and effectively manage at least 30% of our planet’s lands and oceans by 2030, and to restore and conserve biodiversity, as a crucial step to help prevent future pandemics and public health emergencies, and lay the foundations for a sustainable, global economy through job creation and human well-being.”

Indeed, I understand the words and position of these world leaders. Their resolve to create a liveable world appears to me a great message of hope for our environment. But, about the same time, it invites some maze of high voltage confusion.

Essentially, this feeling of confusion naturally come flooding when one reflects on the environmental challenge in the Niger Delta region-a region going by reports that is littered with over 139 gas flare locations; where communal rights to a clean environment and access to clean water supplies are being violated without adequate compensation for their loses, where the oil industry by their own admission has abandoned thousands of polluted sites which need to be

identified and studied in details, a region where using the minimum components of the right to a healthy environment as a baseline, is qualified as deplorable, and most importantly, a region without good record of survival.

In fact, a visit to the region reveals that the situation in the area is quite opposite and different from what the global leaders advocate. Aside from the fact that for over five decades, when oil was discovered in commercial quantity in the region, ‘a fierce war has been raging between ethnic and social forces in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, and as a direct consequence, a long dark shadow has been cast on the efforts to improve the well-being and economic development of the peoples and community, there are of course, many historical examples and vivid imageries revealing that the region in the estimation of the successive government and multinationals operating in the region is an endangered species strategically marked for extinction using neglect and abandonment as a formidable tools.

The ordeal suffered by Erovie community in Ozoro, Isoko North Local Government of Delta state, in the hands of oil giant that operated in their locality stands as a telling example of this assertion.

On one side is government’s attitude of listening without being attentive to the hazards (both health and environmental) caused by crude oil exploration and production, especially flaring of gas in the region, their erroneous believe that so far the eggs are secured, the condition of the goose that laid the eggs become secondary, government’s constant expression of more interest in promoting petroleum production, without giving symbolic attention to environmental protection process or any substantial action to environmental issues in the region. And the unwillingness of successive administrations to identify the Niger Delta as a troubled spot, that must be regarded as a special area for purposes of development-as

recommended by the colonial government long before independence The second has to do with the International Oil Companies (IOCs) consideration of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and call for publicprivate partnership in the area as a dangerous fiction created as an excuse to impose an unfair burden upon the wealthy and powerful’.Their lackadaisical handling of the environment, and lack of compliance with the implementation of the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMOU) entered with host communities. Equally fueling the discord is a shocking discovery that most of the multinationals find it more convivial getting entangled in legal battles with the host communities as against imbibing good corporate citizens attributes. In the words of the creek dwellers, these operators go to the extent of inciting troubles between the elders and the youths using financial inducement.

In reality, there is no question that the region will continue to face news challenges as there are some sets of abuses and disappointments that did so well to make the people of the region lose interest in whatever form of solution that government may have in stock, and have since resigned to fate while handing over their situation to God almighty The first and very fundamental issue is the controversy/discordant tones surrounding the Federal Government’s claim that it has Set aside US$170m seed funding for the Ogoni Clean Up, in an Escrow Account established for that purpose of which the Escrow Agreement Signing Ceremony took place in April 2018, and the Clean-Up commenced in January 2019, with the handover of the first batch of sites to the selected remediation firms, after a painstaking procurement process the FG’s non-implementation of the Akure-accordthe 16points development agenda drafted by the Pan Niger Delta Development Forum (PANDEF) and submitted to the FG. in November 2016,

Equally fuelling animousity between the people of the region and the Federal Government is Mr. President’s refusal to sign into law the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), passed by the out gone 8th Assembly-a bill which the people of the region believe holds the key to development and peace in the region.

Regardless of what others may say, the Federal Government, in my views, has thousands of opportunities to develop the region. All that keeps them away from utilizing/realizing those opportunities is their inability to apply what they learned abroad- from nation that once faced the challenges we currently grapple with, and lack of a creative way of looking at the environment and the people they want to serve as well as what it will require to improve their life chances.

Take as an illustration, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on Friday 5th June 2020, announced £10.9 million to protect rare wildlife and habitats, including turtles in the British Virgin Islands, penguins in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the coral reefs in the Comoros, and chimpanzees in Uganda.

From the above, the question before us as a nation could be of no greater moment; when will President Buhari set aside a specific amount for, and make development of the Niger Delta region a ‘personal fight’? Or will they continue to live in a degraded and polluted space till eternity? When is he coming up with laws that will help end flaring of gas in the region? Above all, when is he going to sign the PIGB into law?

Finding answer(s) to these questions will definitely help the development conversation of the region gets going.

are performed to obtain human body parts for use in rituals that are expected to transform the perpetrator from poverty to wealth. Because of this, ritualists, also known as headhunters, go in search of human parts at the request of native doctors, who require them for the preparation of various magical potions.

Despite the proliferation of churches in Nigeria, ritual killings continue to be practiced and have in fact become more prevalent since 1999 according to experts.

Though more common in the South, experts say ritual murder is not limited to any specific part of the country and “every region, tribe and state has its own share of the scourge”.

In the last ten years alone, there’s been the cases of a “hunchbacked” person in four separate incidents reported in the capital of Ondo State, a convicted serial killer and former soldier who killed a 22-year-old female student in Kogi State, intending to dismember her body for ritual purposes, before being arrested by police, the story of two men from Nasawara State who confessed to killing a seven-year-old boy, severing his head for a man who had promised them 250,000 Naira, the story of seven people who were arrested for kidnapping, killing, and dismembering a young girl, reportedly for money-making rituals in Ebonyi State and so on.

Now, if one makes the argument that there is a group of wealthy people with connections to government contracts or other sources of businesses that can yield wealth, and this group requires a poor prospective member to dismember another person as a prove that he is ready and willing to keep a code of silence, or prove he can do anything to make money and as such is admitted into their group and given contracts, thereby transforming him into a wealthy person, I would agree because that sort of story makes more sense.

But why should I believe that after severing the head of the victim, and planting it in a wardrobe, the severed head would start vomiting raw cash? In which currency will the cash come and from where?

Every single currency in circulation today has a serial number because the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN printed it, tell me, which serial number does these blood monies carry? Has the CBN ever reported any cash disappearances from its vaults at any time, which is not due to physical stealing? Why are the native doctors who promise riches through money making rituals always so impoverished and dependent on the ‘beneficiaries’ of the scheme to make them rich?

Why is Nigeria now the poverty capital of the world?

Why are there still poor people even in places where more ritualists have been arrested and why do such

superstitions and beliefs in concepts like witchcraft, blood money etc., thrive in places with no awareness or little enlightenment? How many people who claim “money ritual”, “blood money” etc. is real today, can actually substantiate their claims? Why is it hard for an average European or American to believe in money rituals in the same way we Africans or Nigerians do?

Yet the vibrant Nigerian movie industry occasioned by the decline in celluloid film making and the rise in the availability of modern technology and social media, and the entry of the Igbo filmmakers into the industry, conitnue to ignore these questions and have totally changed the configuration of filmmaking in Nigeria.

While the likes of Helen Ukpabio’s Liberty Film Industries and Mount Zion Film Productions are making movies on the one hand and churches like Mountain of Fire Ministries, MFM and Lord’s Chosen on the other hand, are indoctrinating Nigerians into beliefs in witchcraft, the Igbo film industry has made the churning out of materials that are not relevant in the construction of public good, their major focus over the years.

And the dominant refrain in these films is the utilization of rituals to generate contexts in which wealth and riches transport the characters from a normal reality to a world of fantasy…where a pauper today with no skills or education, can become a wealthy man overnight because he severed his daughter’s head or that of his wife.

How can one even want wealth so much and therefore think the only way to get it is by dismembering another person?

Yet, this exactly what those who subscribe to money rituals want; wealth without the legitimate efforts required to acquire it. And we have seen how it often turn, police arrests.

Some may say, well, there are those who don’t get arrested and become wealthy, well, go investigate, there must be an explanation for their wealth, certainly not due to the dismembered body parts of innocent people.

I think we have reached a stage in our national life where we need to begin to vigorously debunk these and many superstitions like it, if for nothing, for the sake of the poor, vulnerable and innocent people who fall prey to these evil.

The author of an article I read recently asked the question: “Is it not curious that with all the claims of efficacy of money rituals in Africa, nobody can identify a single billionaire who made their money from such magic? Should the beneficiaries of such magic not be standing shoulder to shoulder with the billionaires of this world like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg?” Yet,

in my own village, I see men with rumours of money ritual swirling around them still as wretched and struggling like any other person I understand that there are lot of readers with “vivid” stories who would disagree with me because we live in a society where we are constantly bombarded with such narratives, from popular culture to religious houses, considering our history of poverty, exploitation, and consequent disillusionment, I won’t blame such readers.

What do you expect, when people do not see a rational link between what some wealthy people do for a living and the bullion vans that drive money into their compound, they begin to accept that there must be some truth to the belief that spirits dispense favours and raw cash and such beliefs are further strengthened by our religious leaders?

Then, the media that uncritically reports stories of “money rituals” to a credulous audience. It is precisely because of the role that the media is playing in all this that gave birth to Doppler Effect Films. We want to see a society that is well educated, well informed, we want to share the stories of victims of these negative superstitions, we want to see a Nigeria that rises above superstitions that does nothing but destroy others.

Mind you, it is not as if there are societies in the world that are immune to these sort of superstitions, no! It is just that these civilized societies run in a way that, over time, they have established a logical connection between the factors of production, money, and politics.

Those who claim they can generate money through rituals, and demand human lives for that purpose, do so for various reasons. But the truth of the matter is, if they can actually do it, they would do it first for themselves, after all, who doesn’t want to be as rich as Bill Gates?

Time to begin to challenge these myths of money rituals, witchcraft etc. and save our vulnerable people from the machinations of evil imaginations, is now.

The government must create more awareness and legislations too. Already, our Criminal Code (1990) states that a person who commits a murder will be sentenced to death and a person found in possession of a human head or skull… can be sentenced to five years in prison, it is time to enforce and improve on those laws. We need massive re-orientation in this country, and our religious houses should also join the effort.

Jerome-Mario Utomi (jeromeutomi@ yahoo.com), is a Lagos-Based Media Consultant.

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

By Gbenga Oloniniran

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he releases of the university of Benin and RCCG managements respectively on the muder of young Uwa, confirmed the hypocrisy of these institutions. It is the same way the police institution might tell you that a crime is not robbery, rape and murder as reported in a news…

Ending rape is not a protest against men by women or against women by men, lest it becomes another gender war, another division, like racism, like xenophobia. It is fine that we call out the evil excesses of men to men, but it is finer that we take cognizance of the institutions that strengthen these excesses.

Many governments across the world are racists and rapists in themselves whom we do not have to wait for their outright pronunciations of themselves as racists before we call them out.

From calling Africa the “shit hole” countries and labelling a global pandemic as “Chinese virus”, maybe we do not need an academic study on racism to see the tendencies of a Donald Trump.

Whether or not a virus is Chinese’s, we are not here to debate that for the imperial powers, of course not, because we are not dying in their war.

Like the characters of the ruling class in many places, they are quick to make the citizens responsible for the predicaments caused by poor governance, they constantly appear to seem to settle scores for the masses they have succeeded in dividing. Nigeria has had her president calling

T

T

Albert Afeso Akanbi is a Public Affairs Analyst.

the youths lazy, in a country where joblessness abounds and where resources to make quality living only revolve around the few elite, but the youths are rather blamed for this, at times, even the elders who are in themselves not spared of these austere policies are also made to think the youths of this generation are probably lazy as sponsored by the ruling bosses, forgetting it is not about the old and young generation but about the generation repression of the week and poor by elements in power.

When people are victims of societal violence such as being raped or murdered, the institutions of the system express their sympathies in writings and proceed to blame the whereabouts of the victim and subsequently advise others to be careful or stay safe, but neglect the role of the government in failing to guarantee a safe environment. The releases of the university of Benin and RCCG managements respectively on the muder of young Uwa, confirmed the hypocrisy of these institutions. It is the same way the police institution might tell you that a crime is not robbery, rape and murder as reported in a news, that it is only murder or that it is only robbery and murder, and you begin to wonder which among them is not a crime after all or which is lesser and least, or which among them is insecurity not responsible for.

Again, when the system makes people poor and economically helpless, the governments and their institutions make the citizens blame themselves for it, they fight across race, ethnic and religious divides.

The system molds its apparatuses, the police, military and other forces to consciously and unconsciously brutalize the people they are meant to protect, the state armed forces sometimes physically assault the people more than they are interested in keeping them safe and preventing crimes, this is not only in Nigeria or Africa, but across the globe.

The economic underlying of racism is not different from that of xenophobia. On one hand, imperialist subjugation of other counties plays role in fueling the racist characters of the whites against the blacks. Just as using the soldiers to fight the battles they did not create, citizens are employed to battle other race to continually keep the imperialists in control of nations under their neocolonization. On the other hand, at a point where the economic gap between the rich and the poor is notoriously widened by the greed and bad governance of the ruling class, the xenophobic and racist characters of the people are equally brazened along, it becomes more violent a situation, blazing like wild fire in the harmattan. Unfortunately, they are in the wrong battle against the wrong section of people.

Maybe unlike racism and xenophobia, socioeconomic undertone behind rape is not loudly pronounced, but, the ideology of the system fuels human criminality no matter how hard the ruling class try to pretend to fight these crimes. Robberies, cybercrimes, human trafficking, kidnaps and incessant terrorisms are only some symptoms bred by bad governance, and rape is also one of these symptoms. Of

course if we can agree that joblessness and poverty breed crimes, we should not agree less for rape to be in the category of such crimes, this is without prejudice to the excesses of man’s inhumanity to man – as in rape and murder, as in police brutality and other forms. The institutions that breed insecurity, unemployment, social inequality and social depression is first the government and its economic arrangement, we should not always forget. Their actions and inactions has psychological effects on the social behavior of people, and this is to a large extent.

To sacredly put, the idle brain is the devil’s workshop. To simply put, joblessness and poverty continually breed insecurity, and other crimes perpetrated, including rape and every large number of domestic violence that are not even pronounced. These symptoms are reflections of the system’s ideology and this ideology which keeps the masses helpless is the ideology that keeps the ruling class in power.

As we fight and call out against the evil excesses of men, we should never spare the governments and agents of the institutions that strengthen these evils, who only later come out like referees to settle scores for the battles and divisions they created.

All lives matter and as we struggle in every situation, we must know our real enemies too, we have common ones.

Gbenga Oloniniran is a Public Affairs Analyst.

Post COVID-19: The challenges ahead

By Abraham John Onoja

ime to begin to challenge these myths of money rituals, witchcraft etc. and save our vulnerable people from the machinations of evil imaginations, is now.

One fateful Saturday evening in 1996, in Owerri, Imo State, a local television station broadcasted images of a certain man holding the freshly severed head of a child…

Before then, rumours of child kidnappings had been rife in the South Eastern Nigerian State.

Although the man would later die in police custody, a search of the hotel premises where the crime was committed would lead to the unearthing of the body of the late child and a host of other victims.

The gruesome sight caused a massive outrage, inspiring citizens to go on riots in which the hotel, supermarkets suspected of catering to the needs of questionable wealthy people, and even the palace of a traditional ruler was burnt to the ground…

Fast forward to today 2020 and place that episode side by side the gruesome murder of a University student, one Miss Favour Daley-Oladele, by a young man in pursuit of “money rituals” who, according to reports, was the victim’s boyfriend, who had allegedly connived with a pastor who promised to make a potion that would magically draw money for him and his mother. When they were busted, the pastor claimed the ritual failed because “the spirit did not bring any money” and yet the victim was dead and gone.

Reported cases of “ritual killings” in Nigeria as well as beliefs in “bood money” has been on an increase since the 90s, and there is virtually no Nigerian today who does not believe in its realness.

This belief is so ingrained that almost every fortnight, Nigerians are greeted with stories of one innocent victim or the other, of mutilated or dismembered body parts, because perpetrators believe by so doing they could get an easy pass to wealth of untold proportion.

Even family members are not safe as we have read and heard about stories of sons killing mothers, fathers killing sons and so on, all because of the belief that this can facilitate an escape from poverty.

We are even told there is a certain town in Anambra State, Eastern Nigeria, where families could hold a meeting and decide which of the kids should be used for rituals, on the consent of the kid himself!

It is doubtful today if anyone can actually put an exact and accurate figure to the number of victims who have been killed for money rituals in Nigeria over the years, but the figure should be running into thousands.

According to experts, ritual killings in Nigeria

Comment

Rape and Racism: Who to call out!

Nigerians and the concept of money rituals

By Albert Afeso Akanbi

PAGE 13

he lack of a well-diversified economy coupled with a weak healthcare system is challenging to the economy of Nigeria, requiring urgent steps to be taken to avoid the deepening crisis. Several sectors of the economy have also been greatly affected, both the formal and informal sectors.

COVID 19, the sensational corona virus, has led to unprecedented disruptions and impacts affecting all markets and economies globally. Things will not be the same again, at least, for quite a while.

Nigeria faces a greater challenge than most from COVID-19 pandemic as a result of being the largest economy in Africa, with a population of 200 million people (approx.). While there is an ongoing effort to curtail the spread of the virus, as we still hope and wait for a vaccine to be produced, the economic uncertainties and disruptions present a real threat. With this dangerous health emergency developing in the country, the economic impact of COVID-19 has been projected to be profound for Nigeria, especially with the fall in the price of crude oil (which has greatly affected the government revenue) and the general downturn in major sectors in the Nigerian economy. Currently, the exportation of crude oil currently accounts for over half of government revenue and generates 87% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange. The collapse in oil prices by 60% since the start of the year to below $30 per barrel has affected the government revenues, which could fall by as much as 45%.

The lack of a well-diversified economy coupled with a weak healthcare system is challenging to the economy of Nigeria, requiring urgent steps to be taken to avoid the deepening crisis. Several sectors of the economy have also been greatly affected, both the formal and informal sectors.

Let us cursorily review a few issues.

– The transportation sector This sector contributes greatly to Nigeria’s GDP and is the live stream of all economic operations. The importance of the sector as the lifeblood of the economy of nations cannot be overemphasized, most especially because transportation is an essential service which is needed.

Moving passengers, goods and services with safety and security is a fundamental objective and should be a top priority for the government (the regulators) to ensure everyone working in the sector and using it in Nigeria are secured and safe.

However, the pandemic has led to opening a wide gap in the transportation sector that needs to be closed. The government is investing heavily in infrastructural development. These investments have to be seen to completion and complemented with the nodal security architecture to ensure not just free passage but safety of lives and properties.

As the government begins to close the widening gap created, meeting essential needs of steady supply of food, medical supplies, and emergency goods with minimal delays or restrictions during this period as well as assuring the economic prosperity of the players in the sector would benefit the country in the long run.

– Labor force (formal and informal Most of the small businesses in the country are ill-equipped to handle a crisis of this sort, especially as they were predominantly previously focused on survival. Teeming job losses have been announced and many, earning significantly low incomes, have been subjected to half salaries and such abnormalities. Active steps need to be taken for tighter labor laws and actionable job creation projects. Ongoing efforts are appreciated but if they were insufficient prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, they would need further focused strengthening during this challenging period.

Some of the key sectors impacted

by COVID-19 include tourism, leisure, aviation, manufacturing, construction, and real estate. Employees in these sectors will be hard hit as companies will be left to make tough decisions.

– Tax payments The pandemic has small businesses crashing and the unemployment rate increasing.

Nigerians, previously famously multi-taxed, will find it difficult to meet those fundamental obligations when juxtaposed with personal survival.

This will greatly affect the effort to

“

The pandemic has small businesses crashing and the unemployment rate increasing. Nigerians, previously famously multi-taxed, will find it difficult to meet those fundamental obligations when juxtaposed with personal survival

diversify the economy and widen the tax net and brackets. Businesses and individuals have been observing social distancing and self-isolation during this period of COVID–19 pandemic; meeting obligations will be extremely hard.

– Increased Borrowing and Foreign Reserves Challenges The harsh realities of the time means increased borrowing and reserves depletion are inevitable. We are left with the question of what if? What if things get tougher, what would we have as a nation to fall back on? Saddled with debts and depleted reserves, the country is at a precarious stage. We are grossly unprepared for any minor shake in stability and thus our continued corporate existence is threatened greatly due to cash-flow constraints – Security The advent of the pandemic has largely shifted focus away from our security challenges. While we celebrate the victories of our gallant men of the Nigerian Armed Forces, the increased rise and boldness of bandits and criminals needs to be urgently addressed. These evil forces have seized the initiative and are entrenching themselves comfortably. The government needs to address this matter urgently because without security, every economic aspiration and effort will be futile. Our police need to be trained and properly equipped to meet the challenges presented. We cannot in good faith continue to accept the loss of lives and properties nor be subjected to Mafioso styled ‘tax’ regimes in our own country.

These are a few of the issues facing us post COVID19 pandemic. The economic fallout for Nigerians subsequent to the pandemic will be severe. In times like this, it is important we start looking ahead as a country.

Abraham John Onoja is a Public Affairs Analyst.

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

PAGE 14

News

Nigeria’s diversity should be turned into our strength, Lawan tells Leaders

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

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L-R; Chief of Staff Prof Ibrahim Gambari, Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola and NSA Maj-Gen Babagana Mongonu during the Online FEC Meeting held at the Council Chambers, State House Abuja.

PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. JUNE 10 2020.

Bauchi APC suspends Sen. Bulkachuwa over absenteeism in constituency From Ahmad Mohammed , Bauchi

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he executives of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kafin kuka, kofar gabas ward of katagum local government area of Bauchi state on Tuesday suspended Senator representing Bauchi North, Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa over alleged absenteeism from the constituency for a long time since he was elected.

Addressing Journalists at the party’s Bauchi North Zonal secretariat in Azare, the APC ward chairman Sa’adu Muhammed alleged that the senator has deserted the party and the constituents since his inauguration as member of the National Assembly.

He said Bulkachuwa never deemed it good to visit the area to commiserate with them on the outbreak of coronavirus.

“The essence of democracy is primarily to present and safeguard the interest of the populace. A representative most importantly should uphold the interest of the people he represents above his personal ones. If he cannot afford to do that, he is not worth given the mandate.”

Gbajabiamila never said going to prison is honour for politicians - Wase

By Christiana Ekpa

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he Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase has reacted to a misleading story in national daily of June 9, 2020 with the headline.”

Going to prison is honour for politicians, says Gbajabiamila”.

The story according to the Deputy Speaker, is most misleading and a deliberate misrepresentation of facts. “ At no time did the Honourable speaker declare or insinuate that “prison experience for any politician is a “badge of honour” as erroneously published in the said story.

The Deputy in a statement

by Umar Muhammad Puma , his

Chief Press Secretary disclosed “To set the record straight, it is true that the Rt. Hon. Speaker, was represented by Deputy Speaker Ahmed Idris Wase, who led Principal Officers of the House on a visit to Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, at his residence in Abuja on Monday, June 8, 2020.

“During the visit, the Deputy Speaker, on behalf of the speaker and the entire leadership of House of Representatives, sympathized with Senator Orji Kalu and advised him to consider his incarceration and subsequent release from jail as part of “destiny” and should not be discouraged.

“Wase also relayed his

experience with the former governor of Plateau State, Late Chief Solomon Lar, whom he said once told them after coming out of prison that as politicians they should expect things like this.

“There was never a time, the Deputy Speaker, who spoke for a little over three minutes during the visit said that “going to prison is badge of honour for politicians”.

“Wase only alluded to what the Late Solomon Lar had told them. Therefore, there is no way the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker would have said what is stated in the story.

“It is most unfortunate, and strange to have ascribed

this to the person of the Rt. Hon. Speaker, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila who was represented by the Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase.

“We advise readers to disregard this piece of news, which was deliberately slanted and twisted to suit the reporters vague intention.

“The leadership of the House of Representatives under Speaker Gbajabiamila will continue to accord due respect to the media and support responsible journalism. We advise journalists to at all times get their facts right before going to press” he said.

Group floats welfare scheme for Journalists in the North From: kaduna

A

Femi

Oyelola,

Group under the auspices of Journalist Support Initiative (JSI), has concluded arrangements to float a welfare scheme for Journalists in the North.

The Secretary of the Group, Ibrahim Mohammed disclosed this during a courtesy call to Kaduna State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists

(NUJ) yesterday.

Ibrahim Mohammed noted that the fate of journalist in and out of service is always not encouraging, saying to cushion the bad situation, there was a need to put in place a welfare scheme for members of the fourth estate of the realm in the region.

To this end, Mohammed said his organisation will leave no stone unturned to see that the scheme stood

the test of times, adding that every journalist is qualified to register as a member of the NGO. Mohammed said, “The fate of Journalists in Kaduna and the country as a whole is very gloomy when talking about financial support in times of sorrow or celebration.

“We will be tasking ourselves to raise funds to support our members instead of going cap in hands, asking for a token

from members of the society that Journalists have rendered so many services.

“It is solely to take care of the welfare of Journalists. You are all members of JSI. As time goes on we will unfold our plan for the partnership with Kaduna NUJ”.

The JSI Chairman presented the sum of N10,000.00 for the burial of a late member of Kaduna NUJ, Chief Dominic Ezeuzu. professional duty.

PAGE 15

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

resident of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has called on leaders in the country to take advantage of the country’s diversity to wield the required strength to foster unity, peace and development.

Lawan gave the charge while reacting to a point of order brought to the floor on by Senator Emmanuel Bwacha (PDP – Taraba South) during plenary on Tuesday.

Bwacha while relying on order 43 of the Senate Standing Rules, drew the attention of his colleagues to the recent killing of George Floyd by the Police in Minneapolis, United States of America.

“The global protest against racism which was ignited from the action of a racist police in Mineapolis in the United States.

“We are all aware of what followed, the wicked despicable manner the life of George Floyd was taken from this world.

“This singular incident, Mr. President, ordinarily would have generated debates even in this chamber. Meaning, I would have invoked order 52 to enable us debate this matter.”

According to the lawmaker, his decision not to bring up the matter for consideration was due to the fact that Nigeria lacks the moral standing to condemn the killing of Mr. Floyd as the country presently grapples with its own problems of killings arising from ethnic and religious discrimination.

Bwacha was countered by his colleague, Senator Adamu Aliero (APC – Kebbi Central), who also relied on order 43 on personal explanation, to crave the indulgence of the Senate not to entertain any matter that may spark unnecessary controversy.

Bwacha, however, explained that the reason for bringing up the death of George Floyd was to remind Nigerians on the need to work on all associated problems that are spin-offs from the country’s diversity.

In his remarks, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan said, “We should ensure as leaders that we use and weave this diversity into strength, and that is trying to provide leadership regardless of geographical, ethnic and religious differences. Many of our leaders are trying to do that, so I think you tried to deviate a little bit and it almost turned controversial.”

Lawan tasks SEC on efficiency, as Senate confirms SEC, RMAFC nominees

By Musa Adamu

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resident of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has tasked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to ensure efficiency in the discharge of its duties so as to attract local and foreign investments to the country.

The Senate President gave the charge on Wednesday in his remarks after the Upper Chamber confirmed the appointment of Mr. Lamido A. Yuguda (Gombe) as Director-General of the Commission.

Also confirmed are: Reginald C. Karawusa (Imo); Ibrahim D. Boyi (Katsina); and Obisan T. Joseph (Lagos) as Commissioners full-time Commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The nominees were confirmed after the Senate considered the report of the Committee on Capital Market.

The Committee which is chaired by Senator Ibikunle Amosun (APC – Ogun Central), recommended that “the Senate confirms the Four (4) nominees as appointed by Mr. President , the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the Board of the Securities and Exchange Commission, (SEC).”

Speaking after the nominees were confirmed, the Senate President said, “the Security and Exchange Commission must be efficient and effective in ensuring that we are able to attract and sustain not only domestic investment but foreign direct investment.

“People should bring their monies and feel safe with their investments here. This is essential to create the very enabling climate for investors to be attracted and retained here in the country.”

In a related development, the Senate on Wednesday also confirmed the appointment of five out of the six nominees forwarded

by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly for confirmation as Members of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).

The confirmation of the nominees followed consideration and adoption of the report of the Committee on National Planning and Economic Affairs.

Chairman of the Committee, Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi (APC – Ekiti North), in his presentation on the screening of

the nominees, said the Committee recommended that the nomination of Barr. Emmanuel D. Nwosu, be suspended pending security investigations on the petition against his nomination as a Commissioner in the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission representing Imo State.

He advised the Executive to investigate the alleged wrongful conduct in the petition against the nominee before further further action by the Committee can be taken.

The nominees confirmed by the Senate are: Salamatu Mohammed Bala (Adamawa); Hon. Alfred Egba (Bayelsa); Adamu Shettima Yuguda Dibal (Borno); Oladele Gboyega (Osun); Bello Abubakar Wamakko (Sokoto); and Ahmed Yusuf (Taraba).

From left: Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha; Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and President Muhammadu Buhari during a virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday (10/6/20

Infectious Disease Bill: CNPP demands investigation of Reps principal officers

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

C

onference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has called for thorough investigation of the Principal Officers of the House of Representatives following a secret public hearing conducted by Reps Committee on Heath Services and the barring of journalists from covering the process that would lead to the passage of the contentious infectious disease bill.

In its reaction to the refusal to allow journalists cover the public hearing in Abuja, the CNPP in a statement issued by its Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu said that it has become imperative for all security agencies to commence a transparent investigation of the Reps leaders to ascertain who they are working for.

The Bill sponsored by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, Pascal Obi, Chairman, House Committee on Health Institutions and Tanko Sununu, Chairman of the Committee on Health Services.

It seeks to repeal the Quarantine Act and enact the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill, to make provisions relating to quarantine and regulations for preventing the introduction and spread of dangerous infectious diseases in Nigeria, and for other related matters.

“We were shocked that the House of Representatives, supposedly working for the good of Nigeria and Nigerians, would stop journalists carrying out their legitimate duty were barred from covering proceeding at the public hearing on a bill that was

initiated to force Nigerians to be vaccinated.

“The action raises question on who the House of Reps members are working to satisfy and gives Nigerians reason to believe that the legislators were bribed to carry out a predetermined exercise by certain paymasters.

“We therefore call on all relevant security agencies, including the Police and the Department of State Services to leave no stone unturned in determining who these paymasters are or in whose interest the House of Representatives is serving.

“When the Coalition of United Political Parties raised the alarm that the lawmakers may have been compromised, not many Nigerians took the allegations as seriously as it deserved.

“Meanwhile, we call on all

lawmakers of good conscience in the House of Reps to reject any report emanating from the Public Hearing when presented for consideration on the floor of the House.

“It is time to save not only our democracy but also our public health institution from the apron strings of western influence who have vowed to turn Nigerians into guinea pigs for experiment in the name of vaccination against infectious disease.

“And, because of the strong resistance mounted by majority of citizens against the bill that would make vaccination compulsory for all, we expected the House of Reps to hold the Public Hearing online to accommodate more views but they went ahead to even shut out journalists creating more doubt about their sincerity of purpose”, the CNPP stated.

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

PAGE 16

Politics

Appeal Court President nominee vows to digitalise Nigerian courts system

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

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he Appeal Court President nominee, Justice Monica Dongban Mensem, has vowed to digitise the Nigerian court system, by making them Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Compliant, if eventually confirmed by the Senate.

This is just as the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, has charged the nominee to stand up against injustice in the Judiciary, if eventually confirmed by the Senate as substantive President of the Court of Appeal.

The stand up against injustice admonition given to the Acting President of the Court of Appeal, was made when she appeared before the committee for screening as substantive President as requested by President Muhamnadu Buhari based on recommendation of the National Judicial Council (NJC).

Specifically, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Micheal Opeyemi Bamidele (APC Ekiti Central) in making the admonition said the ethusiasm with which Nigerians greeted her nomination, respect the Senate had for it by suspending its rule for expeditious screening, should be in vain if eventually confirmed.

“You must demonstrate the required courageous leadership the Judiciary deserve by standing up in fair and fearless manner by the Nigerian people when it comes to justice.

“Your Lordship must ensure that Justice is not only delivered but in timely manner because justice delayed, is justice denied.

“It should not be business as usual, the very reason the Senate and by extension,the National Assembly, is revisiting the budget of the Judiciary which is less than 1% of the N10.509trillion 2020 budget size for the country”.

He added that the insignificant votes given the Judiciary requires urgent and upward reviews.

He lamented further by stating that the welfare situation of the judicial officers , is nothing to write home about .

According to him, the last time salaries and emoluments of judicial officers were reviewed , was in 2008 , the benefits of which have been completely eroded by inflationary trends .

“This sector might go into extinction if the needful is not urgently done , because in years to come , Nigerians may no longer be interested in going into the sector “ , he warned .

Earlier before the Chairman’s closing remarks , virtually all the Senators who attended the screening session from the Deputy President of the Senate to other members of the committee , described the nominee as square peg , nominated for fixing into a square hole .

The nominee in her introductory remarks , said she had spent 40 years in the Judiciary from 1980 when she was called to bar and served in the Ministry of Justice and subsequently appointed as Registrar of the Court and made

Magistrate few years after which culminated in her appointment as Judge of High Court in Plateau State in 1996 .

She added that she became judge of FCT High Court thereafter till 2003 when she was transferred her service to FCT

Judiciary as Judge of FCT High Court till 2003 when invited to serve as a Justice of the Court of Appeal .

“I’ve lived the substantial part of my life in the Judiciary and I have tremendous passion for its positive transformation , one of

which is my intention of making the Court of Apoeal ICT compliant when confirmed as substantive President . “ I also have a lot of compassion for fellow human being and a solution provider and not trouble maker”, she said.

Faces of Ministers participating at a virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday (10/6/2020)

COVID-19: Senate moves to establish College of Traditional, Alternative Medicine

By Musa Adamu

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he Senate on Wednesday considered a bill seeking to give legislative backing for the establishment of the Federal College of Traditional, Complimentary and Alternate Medicine as an agency under the Federal Ministry of Health.

The bill which was sponsored by Senator Yahaya Oloriegbe (APC – Kwara Central) scaled second reading during plenary.

According to Oloriegbe, the need to explore the option of traditional and alternative medicine has become imperative “in light of our present day realities, especially the ongoing challenge of COVID-19 Pandemic and the need to find cure for it from available local herbs and traditional medicine.”

“With this bill, the Federal College of Traditional Complementary and

Alternative Medicine will become a legal institution for the training and retraining of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine professionals in Nigeria and this would enable the implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Traditional Medicine strategic plan 2014-2023.

The lawmaker while emphasizing that the college would boost the standard of practice of Traditional, Complimentary and Alternative Medicine in Nigeria, underscored its importance towards improving the coordination of evidence-based medicine in the field of Nigeria Indigenous Medicine.

“It will also update the extent of usage of Traditional Medicine in Nigeria and facilitate the implementation of National Policy on integrative medicine.”

“The domestication of the training,

(instead of spending huge resource to train people abroad) will prevent unnecessary wastage of hard earn foreign currency which could be put to other essential services. The College would also serve as training hub for West Africa Sub-Region”, Oloriegbe added.

The bill after consideration was referred by the Senate President, Ahamad Lawan, to the Committee in Tertiary Institution and TETFUND to report back in four weeks.

Meanwhile, A bill for An Act to repeal the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Act 2010 and to enact the Nigerian Local and Content Development and Enforcement Commission Act scaled second reading during plenary on Wednesday.

The bill which was sponsored by Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (APC – Niger North) was referred to the

Committee on Local Content for further legislative work.

In a related development, A bill for an Act to amend the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority Act also scaled Second reading on the floor of the Senate.

Sponsored by Senator Albert Bassey Akpan (PDP – Akwa Ibom North East), the Bill according to the lawmaker, seeks to “stimulate economic development by means of reducing inflationary pressure and insulating the the national economy from volatility in the prices of non-renewable resources.”

The bill was referred by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to the Committee on Finance for further legislative input.

The Committee which is chaired by Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (APC – Lagos West) is expected to submit its report in four weeks.

Senate to consider 2020 revised budget today

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi and Musa Adamu

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he Senate will today consider the revised 2020 budget, to forstall further delay of the Appropriation documents.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, gave the hint on Wednesday during plenary after the Committee on Appropriation laid the report on the 2020 revised budget.

“Tomorrow, we can receive and consider the report to ensure that we don’t delay anything as important as that. So, this is the essence of altering the order paper,” Lawan said.

Recall that Senate on Tuesday deferred presentation of the report over a delay by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, to provide details for the sum of N186 billion, an amount which is part of the N500

billion COVID-19 intervention fund.

Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Barau Jibrin, on Tuesday had explained to his colleagues that the Finance Ministry was yet to comply with the request of the Committee by attaching necessary details for the amount to be captured as part of the 2020 budget amendment bill.

However, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on Wednesday

disclosed that the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning had complied with the request of the Appropriations Committee by providing the relevant details for the outstanding N186 billion.

The development, according to him, makes it expedient for the upper chamber to consider the revised 2020 budget on Thursday during plenary.

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

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Politics

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PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

African Finance Ministers, Central Bank Govs to Parley at Agric Confab in Abuja

By Etuka Sunday

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inisters of Finance and Governors of Central Banks in Africa will converge on Transcorp Hotel, Abuja from Monday, March 9 to Tuesday 10, 2020, for a Senior Policy Seminar on agriculture, aimed at promulgating a policy on how the continent would leverage research for agricultural development.

The seminar is organized by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), a Nairobi-based public nonprofit organization, devoted to advancement of economic policy research and training.

The seminar is expected to provide high-level African policy makers, including Central Bank Governors, Ministers of Finance and others across the continent, the opportunity to come together to dialogue and exchange ideas and policy experiences and research studies conducted by the AERC and its affiliates.

The seminar, with the theme, “Agricultural and Food Policies for Better Nutrition in Africa”, will have about 15 Central Bank Governors and Ministers of Finance across the continent in attendance.

The AERC’s partnership with the CBN for the sponsorship of the seminar was informed by the Bank’s effort to revamp agricultural value chains in the country in line with the Nigeria’s agenda of reviving and diversifying the economy.

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FIRS to block PAYE tax leaks in MDAs, others T

By Etuka Sunday

he Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is working closely with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to increase the rate of compliance with the remittance of Pay-AsYou-Earn (PAYE) tax and block loopholes being exploited by the MDAs to pay lesser tax than they should pay under the Progressive Tax System which Nigeria operates.

Director, Communications and Liaison Department, Abdullahi Ismaila Ahmad in a statement said, the Chairman, FIRS, Mr. Muhammad Nami, gave this indication on Thursday during a courtesy call on the InspectorGeneral of Police (IGP), Mr. Mohammed Adamu, at Force Headquarters, Louis Edet House, Abuja.

According to the FIRS, remnants of MDA workers who have not been migrated to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information

(IPPIS) platform are exploiting the inadequacies of the old salary system to dodge tax, a situation the FIRS is moving fast to address.

Mr. Nami explained this following a query raised by the Police authorities during the courtesy call that their personnel who earn comparable salary with their sister security agencies were paying higher tax than obtainable in some MDAs. The FIRS Chairman said: “Nigeria operates the progressive tax system under which the more you earn, the higher you pay.

However, the progressive tax system also provides a better tax relief package on your dependent relatives compared to the former system through the provision of consolidated tax relief.

“If you earn below N300,000 per annum for instance, you virtually don’t pay any tax. And even if you earn well above that threshold, the consolidated tax relief system gives you N200,000 per person in the first instance. If your earning after

this first tax threshold is still above N300,000, the consolidated tax relief system still gives you 20 per cent as tax rebate on the total taxable sum of your earnings. This was not the case under the old system where you only got N2,500 tax relief per child.”

Mr. Nami, commended the Police for making their correct remittance on Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax deducted from their personnel’s salaries.

He also lauded the Police for their support to the FIRS, especially in enforcing tax compliance nationwide.

However, the FIRS chairman charged the Police to apply same approach to deduct withholding tax, value added tax (VAT) and 1 per cent Stamp Duty on contractual transactions they have with their contractors and service providers as well as procurement-related activities as statutorily demanded by the 2019 Finance Act, saying this would go a long way in helping the

FIRS to achieve its N8.5 trillion tax revenue target in the current fiscal year.

Mr. Nami pledged to continue to engage the Police and other tax payers as well as collecting agents in clearing up all grey areas in tax matters.

In his response, IGP Adamu commended the FIRS for its diligence in collecting tax, which he said is applied to pay “our salaries and build public infrastructure,” stressing that “Nigerians should willingly pay tax in enlightened selfinterest.”

The Police chief stressed: “every Nigerian should be happy to pay tax in order to help everybody. I urge the FIRS to put up a tax system that will ensure that nobody in the country is able to evade tax. The Police are open to provide any support you need in this regard.”

Representative of GMD, NNPC, Managing Director, KRPC, Kaduna, Engr. Ezikiel Osarolube (center), led the others Senior Management Staff of NNPC and President of KADCCIMA, Hajiya Muhibba Dankaka (left) during the NNPC, Spacial Daiys at the ongoing 41st Kaduna International Trade.

Photo; BASHIR BELLO

NDIC pays depositors of 18 closed Banks From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

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he Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) said to date,it has fully paid all the depositors of 18 closed Deposit Money Banks (both insured and uninsured) that were trapped in such banks.

The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation, Umaru Ibrahim disclosed this in speech at the occasion of NDIC’s special Day at the on going 41st Kaduna International Trade fair.

He added that Creditors and shareholders of the closed banks had also been paid liquidation

dividends to the tune of N4.987 billion as at 31st December, 2019.

The MD further disclosed that the Corporation has developed the Framework for the extension of Deposit Insurance cover to the tune of N500,000 per depositor for depositors of Payment Service Banks (PSBS).

“The PSBS, recently granted license in principle by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), are to provide basic banking and financial services to individuals and small businesses.

“The prompt response by the Corporation ensures that depositors of the PSBS will be protected by the NDIC once the

banks commence commercial operations.

“This development underscores the operational readiness of the NDIC and its commitment to the enhancement of public confidence in the nation’s banking system.”

He said Speaking on the theme of this year trade fair: “Consolidating Interface between Industry and Agriculture for Nigeria’s Sustainable Development”, he said Agriculture was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, and was identified in several National Development Plans as a catalyst and engine of growth for the nation’s economic development.

He said the reawakened

desire to Spur agricultural sector performance has continued to be a cardinal objective of the current administration, and has continued to leverage on active support and collaboration of critical stakeholders, like the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines & Agriculture (KADCCIMA) “ The NDIC, like the other critical stakeholders in the financial system is fully aware of its obligations towards the fulfilment of the Federal government’s elaborate economic policies.

“We are especially aware that for agriculture to recapture its previous position as the top revenue

earner for the nation, our famers at all levels will require safe and secured access to financial services, especially at the grassroots levels. “ As a critical pillar in the Nigerian Financial System, NDIC will continue to promote the much needed interface between Industry and Agriculture by working to ensure a safe, sound and stable banking sector that offers strong support to the agricultural sector.

Against this backdrop, the NDIC and CBN have been taking steps to strengthen the operations of the Microfinance Banks (MFBS) with a view to making them relevant to the needs of farmers.

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

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INDUSTRY

SON’s absence at the ports and substandard, endangering goods influx

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

FCTA doles out palliative items to NCWS, NLC, Coaches

By Stanley Onyekwere

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s part of measures to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, the FCT Administration has doled out palliative items to the leadership of FCT National Council of Women Societies (NCWS), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) FCT chapter and Nigeria Football Association of Coaches, for onward distribution to vulnerable persons among them.

While the Nigeria Labour Congress

The Indian, Omkar Shinde and two Nigerians being led into the Court room by a Correctional Officer

DG, SON Osita Aboloma (left) explaining a point to the Chairman and members of the Senate Committee on Industry at the Ogba Laboratory Complex

By Miriam Humbe

implementation of the African Continental Free Trade agreement (AfCFTA).

Other areas pointed out to the Ministers include: International accreditation of the SON Management Systems Certification Service, as well as the International recognition for the SON Management Systems Training Services.

Operation of 42 SON State offices and 6 Regional offices across the nation for daily factory inspections, market surveillance, awareness creation as well as receiving consumer complaints and feedback for investigation and resolution.

Automation of its processes and introduction of electronic product registration to reduce human interactions and turnaround time, electronic demand notes and receipts including for ports and border operations.

Sustained fight against influx and circulation of substandard and lifeendangering products through the setting up of a rapid response squad and diligent prosecution of standards infractions with capacity support from the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.

Support for development and growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises through active participation in the Nationwide Clinic being organized by the office of the Vice President, 50% on purchase of standards, testing, certification and import permits for raw materials and machinery under the off-shore Conformity Assessment Program.

SON’s Director of Operations, Mr. Dauda Yakubu explained that this is standard practice the world over, as nations’ standard bodies man their seaports to prevent having to chase counterfeit goods which may have found their way into the markets.

Efforts by the SON to ensure the consumers’ safety appeared to be yielding results. A Federal High Court in Lagos recently ordered the remand of an Indian, Omkar Shinde and two others for allegedly forging Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) products registration documents.

The two others Chucks Okeke, Shittu Adedeji and a company, Everchem Paints Nigeria Limited, along with Shinde were arraigned before Justice Saliu Saidu on a

I

n the wake of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak in the Wuhan province of China starting in late December 2019, and into January 2020, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council, (FCCPC), in executing its mandate, recently shut down some stores in Abuja belonging to Chinese business men.

The stores were alleged to have stocked expired food items with outrageous expiry dates and sold same to the consuming public.

It was also discovered that some of the products sold at one of the supermarkets had 2089, 2073, 2037, 2018 and 2019 outrageous and fictitious expiry dates respectively.

In spite of various government regulations, it is curious therefore, how these items find their way into the country, possibly through the seaports, and are transported to their destinations for onward sale to the consumer.

With some of the nation’s regulatory authorities at the seaports and land borders, it becomes curious to ask; how is it possible for substandard consumables, particularly edible foods to find their way into the markets thereby shortchanging the consumer.

Panda supermarket, which is reportedly a Chinese Supermarket where imported seafoods and other animal meats from the Asian country are sold illegally in the Jabi area of Abuja, was reported to have been shut down by the federal government agency.

The exercise was spearheaded by the FCCPC’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Babatunde Irukera, in line with the agency’s mandate to safeguard the consuming public in the wake of the news of the staggering figures emanating from the outbreak of the coronavirus in China.

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission Chief Executive, Irukera, on his tweeter handle, disclosed that the supermarket was shut down as a precautionary measure to the outbreak of coronavirus.

The tweets read: “FCCPC inspected Panda Supermarket; Jabi on credible reports that it discriminated and had a concealed area for Asian nationals. Allegation confirmed, seafood and animals imported illegally from China discovered,” the tweet read.

“Store closed in abundance of caution considering coronavirus. Products with expired and irregular shelf life were also discovered at Panda Supermarket, Jabi, Abuja yesterday.

“Regulatory activities to remove all offensive products from the Supermarket continues,” he said.

But the urgent need to have a standards regulatory body at the nation’s seaports cannot be overemphasized.

Established by the Act No.56 of 1971, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria is the sole statutory body that is vested with the responsibility of standardising and regulating the quality of all products in Nigeria.

The Standards Organization of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Program (SONCAP) was introduced in 2005 by the federal government to address the concern of unsafe products entering the country.

This assessment conformity scheme requires all imported products, whose standard specifications were declared compulsory by SON, to be inspected for conformity to the relevant Nigerian standard before release into the Nigerian market.

The SONCAP is a mandatory scheme introduced by the federal government of Nigeria to ensure the quality and standards of all imports of regulated products into the country.

Upon assumption of office of the now ministers of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Richard Adebayo, and Ambassador Mariam Yalwaji in 2019, the SON management led by the Director General, Osita Aboloma laid a request before the Ministers of the need for the SON to be present at the nation’s seaports to executive its mandate.

Aboloma enumerated the organization’s major challenges as including its absence from the seaports to undertake quality verification and prevent the influx of substandard and life threatening products.

He said the recent revalidation of international accreditation of the SON Food Technology Laboratories for biological and chemical testing with increased scope of parameters are aimed at supporting the economic diversification agenda of the federal government and timely for the

three-count charge of forgery.

Senior State Counsel Olofindare Adeleke alleged that Okeke and Shinde, an Indian, and Everchem Paints, forged 15 SON receipts on February 12, 2020 at Close 6, House 4 Satellite Town, Lagos, and at 110/114 Oshodi Apapa Expressway, Isolo.

He said the defendants committed the alleged offence “with Intent to use the false documents as genuine”.

Meanwhile, the SON has also through its Management Systems Certification Service has enjoined its current and potential clients to provide objective assessment of its service delivery to enable promotion of continual improvement in its service delivery in the Nation’s interest.

Director General, SON, Osita Aboloma made the call during Clients’ Forums held by the SON MSC in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Aboloma spoke through the Director, SON MSC, Engr. Felix Nyado. He enumerated the objectives of the Clients’ forums scheduled for Port Harcourt, Lagos and Abuja as opportunity to receive undiluted feedback on the performance of the SON Management Systems Certification Services for improvement in its service delivery to customers and other stakeholders.

He disclosed that the SON MSC Department commenced certification in 1994 with one client, but has evolved over the years, certifying 426 companies to various Management Systems Standards, including the Quality Management System (QMS), Environmental Management System (EMS), Food Safety Management System (FMS) and the Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS).

He stated further, “As a standardization body involved in Conformity Assessment (CAB), we have continued to ensure that our certification processes and schemes are in line with the requirements and guidelines set out by the IAF and Conformity Assessment Committee (CASCO) of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).

We have demonstrated this competence by having our certification accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCD), India”, he stressed.

METRO

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(NLC) FCT Chapter received 1000 bags of 5kg rice and 1000 bags of condiments, National Council of Women Societies (NCWS), FCT, 1000 bags of 5kg rice and 1000 bags of condiments.

However, the Nigerian Football Coaches Association, FCT chaper, 80 bags of 5kg rice and 80 bags of condiments.

Making the donations, the FCT Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu used the occasion to appeal to the leaders to ensure that the palliative

items get to the vulnerable, assuring that in no distance time Nigeria would be free from this COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have been going round and round in the distribution of palliative items in the Federal Capital Territory. “ But I know you must have wondering why we have not come to those who really laboured, those who really spare their time to ensure that we succeed.

“It is not because we did not appreciate your contributions, but because we have to take the battle to the

poorest of the poor who domicile in the rural areas.

“We combed every part of the territory to ensure that the message of President Muhammad Buhari gets to them,” she stated.

Responding, the President of FCT Council of National Council of Women Societies, Hajia Hadiza Umar, thanked the FCT Administration for the kind gesture.

She assured that the items would be distributed among widows in the society.

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Minister of Water Resources, Alhaji Sulieman Adamu during a virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday (10/6/2020)

AMAC to up infrastructural development in communities

By Stanley Onyekwere

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hairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Abdullahi Adamu Candido has reiterated his administration’s commitment to continue working towards infrastructural development and ensure that residents are affected positively.

The chairman, who made this assertion at a recent town hall meeting

to mark first year of his second term in office, however stressed the need for the institutions to be sustained after his tenure.

He appreciated the legislative arm of the council for their support and called on all stakeholders in the council to work together for the progress and unity of the council.

“We appreciate the people of this area council for supporting us thus far.

Today marks our four years in office and the first year of our second tenure.

“This meeting is to let you know where we are and where we are heading to as an area council.

“From our various established institutions, we have been able to employ over one hundred people as an area council.

“We have been able to reduce the rate of unemployment and we have been able

to sustain them from the security votes meant for the office of the chairman.

“For me, touching lives of people is more important than organising a once in a month security meeting and pocketing the rest.

“I am fulfilled however, that these youths can get something to eat, go to school and even marry.

This is the essence of leadership and governance,”he said.

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world news

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

N international_peoplesdailyng@yahoo.com

George Floyd’s funeral gets under way in Houston

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he funeral is getting under way in Houston, Texas, for African American George Floyd whose shocking death in police custody caused global outrage.

His coffin will be taken from a church where it was on public display on Monday, to be buried beside his mother.

Mr Floyd died in Minneapolis last month as a white police officer held a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes, his final moments filmed on phones.

Four police officers involved have been sacked and charged over his death.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden visited the dead man’s family to offer his sympathies on Monday.

Mr Floyd’s death was “one of the great inflection points in American history”, Mr Biden later told CBS news.

Mr Biden has sharply criticised President Donald Trump, who is standing for re-election as the Republican candidate on 3 November, accusing him at the weekend of making “despicable” speculative remarks about Mr Floyd.

The Democratic politician was himself recently accused of taking black American votes for granted when he said African Americans “ain’t black” if they even considered voting for Mr Trump.

What are the funeral plans?

A service is being held at the Fountain of Praise church, attended by some 500 guests including politicians and celebrities, CBS News

President Trump held up a Bible outside the boarded up St John’s Church reports.

The coffin will then be taken to a cemetery in Pearland, south of Houston. For the last mile of the procession it will be conveyed in a horse-drawn carriage.

Barriers have been erected along the route to allow members of the public to pay their respects safely as the procession passes.

Mr Floyd will be buried in a private ceremony.

His body was on display at the church for six hours on Monday.

Memorial services were also held in Minneapolis and North Carolina, where Mr Floyd was born.

What did Biden say about Floyd’s family?

“They’re an incredible family, his little daughter was there, the one who said ‘daddy’s going to change the world’, and I think her daddy is going to change the world,” Mr Biden told CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell.

“I think what happened here is one of the great inflection points in American history, for real, in terms of civil liberties, civil rights and just treating people with dignity.”

Floyd family spokesman Benjamin Crump, who tweeted a photo of the meeting said Mr Floyd’s relatives welcomed Mr Biden’s comments.

“That compassion meant the world to this grieving family,” he added.

Aides to the former vice-president said he would also record a video message for Tuesday’s service.

Timeline of US police killings Every candidate casts their forthcoming election as a pivotal moment in history. Sometimes it is; most of the time it isn’t. Joe Biden has been saying from the start that November will be the opportunity for Americans to define what kind of nation they want to be.

Many have shrugged that off as standard rhetoric from a veteran

politician. Now, however, Biden’s case may be building.

Polls suggest American views on race and law enforcement have shifted dramatically in just a few weeks and that the issue, usually a lower priority, is now at the top of voters’ minds.

Six years ago, only 33% of Americans said police were more likely to use excessive force against blacks. Now that number is 57% including 49% of white respondents.

Biden, given that black voters were the backbone of his Democratic primary support, could be well positioned to capitalise. While he has a penchant for verbal stumbles, his empathy is one of his strengths on display during his visit to George Floyd’s family.

Elections can hinge on unpredictable events and movements, with successful candidates spotting the wave and riding it to victory.

While five months is an eternity inAmerican politics, Biden may have found his moment.

CRIME AND JUSTICE: How are African Americans treated?

What charges do the sacked police face?

Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis ex-policeman accused of killing Mr Floyd, made his first court appearance on Monday, where his bail was set at $1.25m (£1m).

Mr Chauvin - who kept his knee on Mr Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes - faces charges of seconddegree murder and manslaughter.

Three other arresting officers are charged with aiding and abetting murder.

Coronavirus: Lockdowns in Europe saved millions of lives

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ockdowns have saved more than three million lives from coronavirus in Europe, a study estimates.

The team at Imperial College London said the “death toll would have been huge” without lockdown.

But they warned that only a small proportion of people had been infected and we were still only “at the beginning of the pandemic”.

Another study argued global lockdowns had “saved more lives, in a shorter period of time, than ever before”.

The Imperial study assessed the impact of restrictions in 11 European countries - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK - up to the beginning of May. By that time, around

130,000 people had died from coronavirus in those countries.

The researchers used disease modelling to predict how many deaths there would have been if lockdown had not happened.

And the work comes from the same group that guided the UK’s decision to go into lockdown.

They estimated 3.2 million people would have died by 4 May if not for measures such as closing businesses and telling people to stay at home.

That meant lockdown saved around 3.1 million lives, including 470,000 in the UK, 690,000 in France and 630,000 in Italy, the report in the journal Nature shows.

“Lockdown averted millions of deaths, those deaths would have been a tragedy,” said Dr Seth Flaxman, from Imperial.

A SIMPLE GUIDE: How do I

protect myself?

IMPACT: What the virus does to the body RECOVERY: How long does it take?

LOCKDOWN: How can we lift restrictions?

ENDGAME: How do we get out of this mess?

Their equations made several assumptions, which will affect the figures.

They assume nobody would have changed their behaviour in response to the Covid threat without a lockdown - and that hospitals would not be overwhelmed resulting in a surge in deaths, which nearly happened in some countries.

The study also does not take into account the health consequences of lockdowns that may take years to fully uncover.

Only the beginning?

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

The model also predicted that the outbreak would be nearly over by now without lockdown, as so many people would have been infected.

More than seven in 10 people in the UK would have had Covid, leading to herd immunity and the virus no longer spreading.

Instead, the researchers estimate that up to 15 million people across Europe had been infected by the beginning of May. The researchers say at most, 4% of the population in those countries had been infected.

“Claims this is all over can be firmly rejected. We are only at the beginning of this pandemic,” said Dr Flaxman.

And it means that as lockdowns start to lift, there is the risk the virus could start to spread again.

“There is a very real risk if

mobility goes back up there could be a second wave coming reasonably soon, in the next month or two,” said Dr Samir Bhatt.

Meanwhile, a separate study

by University of California, Berkeley, analysed the impact of lockdowns in China, South Korea, Iran, France and the US. Their report, also in Nature, says lockdown prevented 530 million infections in those countries.

Just before lockdowns were introduced, they said cases were doubling every two days.

Dr Solomon Hsiang, one of the researchers, said coronavirus had been a “real human tragedy” but the global action to stop the spread of the virus had “saved more lives, in a shorter period of time, than ever before”.

Source: BBC

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Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza dies of ‘cardiac arrest’ at 55

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urundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza, aged 55, has died after suffering a cardiac arrest, the government says.

He was admitted to hospital on Saturday after feeling unwell, his condition improved but on Monday he had a cardiac arrest and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, officials say.

After 15 years in power, Mr Nkurunziza was due to step down in August.

In 2015, the announcement that he would run for a third term plunged the country into chaos.

It sparked anger as some questioned the legality of a thirdterm bid.

There was a failed coup attempt, hundreds of people died in clashes and tens of thousands fled the country.

After a change in the constitution, he was able to run

for a further term in last month’s election but he decided to retire and was to be known as the “supreme guide to patriotism”.

He was also due to receive a $540,000 (£440,000) retirement pay-out and a luxury villa.

Mr Nkurunziza came to power in 2005 after a civil war which left 300,000 people dead.

The former rebel leader took pride in the fact that his administration brought peace to Burundi.

But his government has been criticised for widespread human rights abuses.

These include “extrajudicial executions, disappearances, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence, extortion, beatings, and intimidation”, according to Human Rights Watch.

Political opponents have been targeted and journalists have been imprisoned.

Pierre Nkurunziza was campaigning for his party’s candidate in last month’s presidential election Mr Nkurunziza’s wife was rumoured to have tested positive for coronavirus - a disease Mr Nkurunziza had appeared to

downplay, holding an election in the midst of the outbreak, and even expelling World Health Organization representatives

from the country.

The government has announced seven days of national mourning.

Outcry in South Africa after woman found stabbed and hanging from tree

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he hashtag #JusticeForTshego has been trending on Twitter in South Africa after the horrific killing of 28-year-old Tshegofatso Pule.

Her stabbed body was found hanging from a tree near Johannesburg.

She was eight months pregnant, local media are quoting police as saying.

There are high levels of violence against women in South Africa and last year President Cyril Ramaphosa said the country was one of “the most unsafe places in the world to be a woman”.

Crime statistics released last year showed that 2,930 adult women were murdered in a 12-month period from 2017 to 2018, which amounts to one murder every three hours.

Ms Pule went missing last week and her body was found

on Monday, the Sowetan newspaper reports.

It also quotes police spokesperson Capt Kay Makhubele as saying that a murder investigation has been opened.

On Twitter, people have been urging the police to find the culprit, but they also question whether the justice system will serve Ms Pule properly.

Last year, a spate of murders of women that received a lot of publicity led to a series of demonstrations with people calling for more action to be taken.

Since then special sexual offences courts have reopened - they have worked intermittently over recent years because of funding difficulties, reports the BBC’s Pumza Fihlani from Johannesburg.

More resources have also

Tshegofatso Pule was missing for four days before her body was found

been directed towards both places of safety for survivors of

abuse, as well as governmentfunded programmes aimed at

changing men’s behaviour, our reporter says.

SA teachers’ union celebrates school closures

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hey say it’s not safe for the academic year to resume amid the pandemicImage caption: They say it’s not safe for the academic year to resume amid the pandemic A trade union representing teachers in South Africa says it

feels vindicated after a number of schools were forced to close temporarily because staff members tested positive for coronavirus.

Most of schools across South Africa opened their doors for grades 7 and 12 on Monday after

months of lockdown.

The Educators Union of South Africa, which represents more than 27,000 teachers across the country, has accused the education department in court of compromising the health and safety of teachers and pupils.

Two Durban schools were temporarily closed after teachers tested positive for Covid-19, and one in Johannesburg was also closed after a positive test was reported.

Yesterday, Gauteng’s provincial education minister

announced that 38 schools in the province had reported coronavirus cases, contracted before schools reopened, and that tracing and testing of those who were in contact with those who tested positive was underway.

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PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

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hina has warned students to consider the risks of studying in Australia during the pandemic, aggravating a political row between the nations.

China’s education ministry on Tuesday issued the advisory to students before Australian universities reopen in July.

The ministry cited the threat of Covid-19 and discrimination against Asians as possible risks.

In a statement, it said students should be “cautious” when choosing to go or return to Australia.

“The spread of the new global Covid-19 outbreak has not been effectively controlled, and there are risks in international travel and open campuses,” the ministry said in its statement. “During the epidemic, there were multiple discriminatory incidents against Asians in Australia.”

The advisory marks the latest escalation in tensions between China and Australia, whose governments have been embroiled in several diplomatic disputes

during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Australia is a popular destination for international students because we are a successful, multicultural society that welcomes international students and provides a worldclass education,” Australia’s Education Minister, Dan Tehan, said.

“Our success at flattening the [coronavirus] curve means we are one of the safest countries in the world for international students to be based in right now.”

Relations between the nations have been more strained since Australia called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, which was first detected in China late last year.

Since those calls for an inquiry, China has imposed tariffs on some Australian imports and warned citizens about travel to the country.

China has denied its actions are connected to the inquiry call, which it has dismissed as

N

for the first time in 21 months, its morning call had gone unanswered, although contact was made in the afternoon.

“We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit faceto-face with the south Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay,” KNCA said.

Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader’s sister, threatened last week to close the office unless South Korea stopped defector groups from sending leaflets into the North.

She said the leaflet campaign was a hostile act that violated the peace agreements made during the 2018 Panmunjom summit between the South’s Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un.

It’s likely that this shut down isn’t just about sending leaflets over the border - but instead, all part of a grander plan by Pyongyang.

North Korea may be creating a crisis in order to use the tension as leverage in later talks. In short, it could be simply spoiling for a fight to get attention and ask for more from its neighbour.

They’ve played this particular game before in 2013 to try to win more concessions from South Korea.

It’s also a good distraction domestically. Kim Jong-un is failing to deliver the economic prosperity he keeps promising and rumours continue to circulate that Covid-19 is affecting parts of the country. Giving the nation a

COVID-19 fallouts CAPPA wants FG to save environment

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

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Students from China make a large contribution to Australia’s economy politically motivated.

Last week, another Chinese government agency issued a travel advisory to its citizens, warning of a “significant increase” in racist attacks on “Chinese and Asian people” in Australia.

The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism reminded

“Chinese tourists to enhance their safety awareness and do not travel to Australia”.

There have been reports of racist abuse and attacks on people from Asian countries in Australia since the pandemic started. In April, a woman was accused of a racist attack on two students from

the University of Melbourne.

But Australia’s Tourism Minister, Simon Birmingham, said China’s assertions about the dangers to tourists “have no basis in fact”.

He said Australia was “the most successful multicultural and migrant society in the world”.

North Korea halts all communications with South in row over leafleting

orth Korea has said it will cut off all inter-Korean communication lines with the South, including a hotline between the two nations’ leaders.

The North said this was the first in a series of actions, describing South Korea as “the enemy”.

Daily calls, which have been made to a liaison office located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, will cease from Tuesday.

The two states had set up the office to reduce tensions after talks in 2018.

North and South Korea are technically still at war because no peace agreement was reached when the Korean War ended in 1953.

What do we know about North Korea?

North Korea “will completely cut off and shut down the liaison line between the authorities of the North and the South, which has been maintained through the North-South joint liaison office... from 12:00 on 9 June 2020,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) report said.

Military communication channels will also be cut, North Korea said.

When the liaison office was temporarily closed in January because of Covid-19 restrictions, contact between the two states was maintained by phone.

Could North Korea handle a Covid-19 outbreak?

The two Koreas made two phone calls a day through the office, at 09:00 and 17:00. On Monday, the South said that

ENVIRONMENT

s i a

Coronavirus: China warns students over ‘risks’ of studying in Australia

North Korean students held a rally to denounce defectors on Monday common enemy helps rally his people back around a cause.

It’s worth noting one of the two signatures on this policy. Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-Jong gave the order to sever ties with Seoul. This gives her a platform and the spotlight and will fuel more speculation that she is being groomed as a potential leader.

But how disappointing this must be for the Moon administration. Two years ago in a wave of optimism, the country cheered as the two leaders met and agreed to keep the phone lines

open. Now all calls to the North are not being picked up.

And the question is, if this is just the start of Pyongyang’s plan, what comes next?

North Korean defectors occasionally send balloons carrying leaflets critical of the communist region into the North, sometimes with supplies to entice North Koreans to pick them up.

North Koreans can only get news from state-controlled media, and most do not have access to the internet.

Ties between the North and

South appeared to improve in 2018, when the leaders of both countries met three times. Such high-level meetings had not taken place in over a decade.

But Pyongyang largely cut off contact with Seoul following the collapse of a summit between Kim and US president Donald Trump in Hanoi last year that left nuclear talks at a standstill.

The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-1953 Korean war ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. Source: BBC

PAGE 25

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

s Nigeria joins the global community in marking the World Environment Day, the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has called on the federal government to learn from the positive fallouts of the COVID-19 global shutdowns and save the nations environment through concrete steps aimed at transiting from fossil fuels.

CAPPA said its position is influenced by the reduced carbon emissions and better air quality that scientists have observed in some regions of the globe in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic due to slowed industrial activities and limited human mobility.

The World Environment Day is held June 5 annually. The theme of this year’s commemoration

is “Biodiversity” which underscores the importance of nature in providing the essential infrastructure that supports life on earth and human development.

According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the theme provides the driving momentum about nature in the lead up to the 15th meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which was earlier billed for October 2020 but has been postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement issued in Lagos, the group re-echoed the UN position that when man destroys biodiversity, the system that supports life itself is destroyed.

Executive Director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi said: “The theme of this year’s World Environment Day commemoration reinforces our

conviction that all hands must be on deck to save the environment.

For Nigeria, the message is that it must wean itself of fossil fuels addiction and transit to clean and safe community-driven forms of energy that ensures harmony of nature and the people.

Unfortunately, the current model that is reliant on fossil fuels has only brought on dislocation and disharmony” Oluwafemi explained that the negative effects of Nigeria’s fossil fuels-driven model of development is unquantifiable and is amply reflected in the parlous environment it has created in the Niger Delta and communities across the country where mineral extraction happen.

“The Ogoni situation and that of other oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta are in plain

sight. We are now witnesses to fish dying in large numbers and washing up ashore in that region.

We equally see the conflicts in communities where extractions occur occasioned by the quest of for-profit only entities to evict them from their ancestral lands so that they extract without resistance. It is happening in every part of the country” He pointed out that while the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the global economy, it equally offers lessons and opportunities that Nigeria and other nations of the world should take seriously to influence environmental actions.

He stressed for Nigeria it is time that the government demonstrates seriousness by first stopping investments in new oil fields. This should be followed up with a comprehensive

environmental audit and clean up of the mess that fossil fuels has caused.

“Additionally, Nigeria must honour its climate commitments at global climate discussions which include introduction of mass transit to reduce the number of vehicles on our roads with positive impact on vehicular emissions, adoption of environment-friendly agricultural practices, and put in place a workable framework for adoption of clean energy forms, among others” “The focus on nature to commemorate this global event should be a wakeup call to the Nigerian government. We must no longer delay our move from dirty energy and transit to clean and safe community-driven forms of energy. Talk is cheap. Action is what we need”, he insisted.

Environmentalists canvass enforcement of ecosystem laws

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ome environmentalists recently called on Federal and State Governments to enforce the environmental laws to sustain the ecosystem.

The environmental stakeholders made the call during a zoom programme on the sidelines of the World Biodiversity Day celebration in Lagos.

The programme, organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MOE&WR), is themed: “Our Solutions Are in The Nature”.

Ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment interacting as a system.

Dr Fisayo Jerome of the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) urged the Lagos State Government to enforce environmental laws to sustain the environment.

Jerome, who spoke on the topic: “Role of Nature in Ecosystems Sustainability”, called for the enforcement of environmental laws to protect endangered species in our oceans and rivers.

According to her, all sectors should maintain the sustainability of the ecosystem through continuous awareness.

She said there was need for man as a specie to consider the need for the sustainability of the ecosystem.

“Ocean covers about 97.5 per cent of the world, while the remaining percentage represents land.

“Ocean is the primary regulator of the global climate, while the Nigeria’s maritime zone is also an ecosystem, as the country has a stretch of 850 kilometres of coastline totaling 200,000 nautical miles.

“In those areas, fishing has been permitted on a small scale, while beyond is the non-exclusive economic zone.

“Here is where we have the nonliving resources such as crude oil and ad hoc,” Jerome said.

She described Nigeria as the highest exporter of crude oil and largest ad hoc of the ecosystem in Africa and third in the world.

Mr Adedamola Ogunsesan, Project Manager, Lekki Conservation Foundation (LCF), said that wetland had more value than a new building.

He spoke on the topic: “Conserving Wetland for Sustainability of Urban Livelihood”.

Ogunsesan said there was the need to integrate urban development, to

ensure that wetland provides solutions to people in the environment.

He urged the Federal and State Governments to develop a master plan for wetlands in the country.

Mrs Belinda Odeneye, Permanent Secretary, MOE&WR, said the state government was committed to achieving a Cleaner Lagos in terms of supporting ecotourism.

She said the state government was encouraging local tourism and biodiversification to ensure greener and healthier environment.

“If we destroy our environment, we are destroying ourselves,” the permanent secretary said.

Source : enviro

President Muhammadu Buhari (R) and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo during a virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday (10/6/2020)

World Ocean Day: Don’t muddy our waters – Nnimmo Bassey

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irector, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, at the Freshwater Ecosystem Convergence webinar held recently to commemorate the 2020 World Ocean Day, makes a case for protecting freshwater and marine ecosystems in the Congo Basin.

Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) The theme of this year’s World Ocean Day is “Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean”.

Innovation resonates readily because it speaks of new ideas, methods and ways of doing or using something. It speaks also of products and exploitation. Like most concepts, innovation is not value neutral.

This calls for a careful consideration of what uptakes may arise from innovative ocean use.

The theme aligns with SDG 14 – Life Below Water. Targets of this SDG include reducing marine pollution including those from land-based activities. It also targets the management and protection of marine and coastal ecosystems in ways that do not yield negative impacts.

The Atlantic coastline of the Niger Delta and its network of rivers and creeks is notorious for being heavily impacted by oil spills, produced water and chemical wastes.

The oceans have become huge sewage dumps for polluting industries. While floating plastic “continents” have caught global attention, oil spills frequently get pushed to the bottom of the sea with fractions evaporating into the atmosphere, avoiding notice until bits float to the coastline or are picked up by fishers struggling to make a living in the polluted seas.

Spectacular offshore oil spills here include Shell’s 40,000 barrels Bonga oil spill of 2011 and the one from a Texaco

(Chevron) offshore station in 1980 that released 400,000 barrels into the ocean. It is estimated that about one million barrels of crude oil are dumped into the Niger Delta environment annually. According to NOSDRA, Nigeria has an average of five oil spills daily and has had 1,300 oil spills in the last two years.

Besides oil production, other industries are serious threats to the oceans. The phosphate factory at Kpeme, Togo, pumps industrial waste directly into the Atlantic coast, turning the water green for up to 1.5 kilometres into sea and rendering the area a dead zone for fisheries. Phosphate factories equally pollute the Atlantic Ocean with heavy metals at El Jadida-Safi coastal zone in Morocco.

Our freshwater ecosystems are under threat because of the offhanded manner they are treated. Rivers and lagoons get contaminated by industrial effluent and offshore extractive industries simply load the ocean with wastes and are not accountable to anyone. In sum, it is tragic that our rivers, creeks, lakes and seas are often seen as waste dumps.

The story does not end there.

Considering the energy deficit in Africa, energy projects get many excited. Consider the grand Inga hydropower project in Democratic Republic of Congo. While being touted as an infrastructural development that will power and light up Africa, the local people believe the main beneficiaries will be the extractive industries in the region.

They believe that there will be major disruptions of the freshwater ecosystem and that they will be left to suffer the negative impacts of such an infrastructural development on the world’s deepest river and the second longest in Africa.

The Inga III Dam to be located at the mouth of the Congo River is attracting finance from China and from the African Development Bank (AfDB). While we like to see the AfDB support and finance energy projects on the continent, they should be circumspect about funding projects that would have huge negative repercussions for Africa’s biodiversity and her peoples, just as they did by withdrawing support for the Coal Power plant at Lamu, Kenya.

The decision showed the bank’s consideration for public opinion as well as the adverse climate change realities the power plant would contribute to. The bank cannot do any less with regard to the Inga III Dam project considering the dire impacts it would have as we hear from grassroots activists opposed to the project.

Rather than allow the World Ocean Day to be another opening for talk shops, we are determined to make it a day of deep reflections from a people’s perspective on the state of our marine and freshwater ecosystems with a view to outlining concrete steps towards protecting them. One of our key recommendations is that it is time for the creation or expansion of protected Freshwater and Marine Areas in the Gulf of Guinea, the Congo Basin and in other inland lakes and rivers.

Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has just issued a Policy Paper calling for the creation of Marine and Freshwater protected areas in Nigeria.

The paper is adaptable for other countries in the Gulf of Guinea and Congo Basin. It states “There is need to develop institutional framework and an all-inclusive marine protected areas policy to protect the marine ecosystem against destructive and extinctive practices.

Although there are no official gazettes of Freshwater or Marine Protected Areas in Nigeria, community people through cultural and local knowledge have led and managed the creation of protected areas, protection of some aquatic animal species and even scheduling of fishing periods.” The issue of recognising indigenous knowledge and practices is central to the call. We insist that protected areas must not deprive local populations of access to ecosystem resources. Any such protected areas must have provisions that are gender sensitive and socially inclusive.

We are also concerned that innovation in the oceans may herald the upscaling of plans to implement the Blue Economy concept which we see as an aquatic version of the Green Economy. The concern here is that just as the Green Economy epitomises the commodification of Nature, the literal placing of Nature on the market shelf, the Blue Economy will lead to partitioning and grabbing of our aquatic ecosystems with the attendant rise of extractive activities such as deep sea mining, marine biotechnology and bioprospecting.

It is time to raise the capacity of our fishers to monitor aquatic ecosystems, share knowledge, map threatened and valuable species, network with other fishers within and across borders. Water is life is not a mere slogan. It is declaration that must be fought for.

Many see water as a resource that is limitless, conveniently forgetting that only three percent of Earth’s water is freshwater and only 1.2 percent can be used as drinking water while the rest are inaccessible in ice caps, permafrost or way down in the ground.

Thinking about that should be sobering.

Source : environewsnigeria

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020,

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FEATURE

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY JUNE 11, 2020,

26

George Floyd protests: The statues being defaced

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hen anti-racism protesters in England pulled down the statue of a 17th Century slave trader and promptly dumped it in the deep waters of a harbour, the message was clear.

Edward Colston’s ships are believed to have transported about 80,000 men, women and children from Africa to the Americas. But his memory has been honoured for centuries in his home city of Bristol, which benefited from his vast wealth.

While the government condemned the act on Sunday, protesters said they hoped it signified change.

“Statues are about saying: ‘This was a great man who did great things.’ That is not true, he was a slave trader and a murderer,” historian David Olusoga told BBC News.

Global protests, like the one in Bristol, have shed a light on cities’ colonial or slave-owning history and the figures that represent it.

Henry Dundas A monument in the Scottish capital Edinburgh commemorating a politician who delayed the abolition of slavery has been spraypainted with the words “George Floyd” and “BLM” (for Black Lives Matters).

The 150ft (46m) tall Melville Monument, in Edinburgh’s St Andrew Square, was erected in 1823 in memory of Henry Dundas.

Dundas was one of the country’s most influential politicians in the 18th and 19th centuries and had the nickname “the uncrowned king”.

He put forward an amendment to a bill which would have abolished slavery in 1792, opting for a more “gradual” approach.

This allowed the practice to continue for 15 years longer than it otherwise would have done.

Thousands of people have signed petitions calling for the monument to be taken down.

Amid protests over the monument, officials have announced that a plaque will be added to it offering “reflective” details about the city’s links to slavery.

“We need to tell our story and make sure people understand Edinburgh’s role in the world historically - not just the bits that we’re proud of but frankly the bits we’re ashamed of as well,” Edinburgh City Council leader Adam McVey told BBC Scotland.

King Leopold II People in Belgium are calling for statues of the country’s longestreigning king, Leopold II, to be dismantled.

Online petitions demanding their removal have garnered tens of thousands of signatures, while some anti-racism protesters have taken more direct action.

A bust of the colonial-era king in the city of Ghent was covered in red paint, with cloth over its head marked with the words “I can’t breathe”. The cloth evoked those last spoken by George Floyd as a white police officer knelt on his neck, leading to the recent protests.

In Antwerp, another statue of

The Late George Floyd

A statue of King Leopold II in Antwerp was set on fire and painted red the king was set on fire by protesters removing a statue of Confederate States Army, a coalition of southern and later removed by officials, who General Robert E Lee, which has states, in the US Civil War of 1861 said it had been transferred to a been vandalised in the George Floyd to 1865. museum. In the capital Brussels, a protests.

Lee also married into one of the statue was marked with the word Announcing the decision to wealthiest slave-holding families “assassin”. remove the 12-ton monument in Virginia and took leave from King Leopold II ruled Belgium erected in 1890, Governor Ralph the army to run the family estate from 1865 to 1909, but he is best Northam said: “We no longer following his father-in-law’s death. remembered for his terrible legacy preach a false version of history.

He met resistance from slaves who in the Democratic Republic of the “That statue has been there a expected to be freed.

Congo. long time. But it was wrong then, Documents show that he Between 1885 and 1908, the and it’s wrong now. So we’re taking encouraged severe beatings for monarch of one of Europe’s smallest it down.” those who tried to escape. He is countries made the DRC, then It is among five Confederate also said to have broken up slave known as the Congo Free State, his statues on Monument Avenue, in the families. own private colony. state capital Richmond, that have Many in the US view Lee as a He turned it into a massive been marked with graffiti during symbol of the country’s history of labour camp, making a fortune the protests, including messages to slavery and racial oppression. from the rubber trade. Those who “stop white supremacy”.

Other Confederacy statues have resisted slave labour were often Robert E Lee was a commander also been defaced by protesters. shot, and Leopold’s troops were of the pro-slavery Confederate Some of those who believe ordered to collect the hands of their victims.

Leopold reigned over the mass deaths of an estimated 10 million Congolese. He also put Congolese people into a human zoo in Belgium.

He was forced to relinquish his control of the Congo Free State in 1908, but the country did not gain independence from Belgium until 1960.

Some who are against the statues’ removal say Belgium’s wealth is because of its success as a trading economy under King Leopold II. Robert E Lee The US state of Virginia is Graffiti appeared on the base of the Melville Monument

the statues of Confederate figures should remain standing argue that they are markers of US history and southern culture.

Winston Churchill A statue in London of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was vandalised with graffiti declaring him a “racist”.

Churchill is lauded for leading Britain to victory in World War Two. He is described on the UK government website as “an inspirational statesman, writer, orator and leader”, and was voted the greatest ever Briton in a 2002 BBC poll.

But for some he remains a deeply controversial figure, in part because of his views on race.

“It’s absolutely not in doubt that Churchill was racist,” said historian Richard Toye, co-author of the upcoming book The Churchill Myths. “He certainly regarded white people as being superior, he said that explicitly.

“He made unpleasant remarks about Indians who he said were a beastly people with a beastly religion, and he said unpleasant things about Chinese people. I could go on.

“One obviously needs to acknowledge that Churchill’s Victorian background was certainly an influence on him, but I would say it wasn’t necessarily a defining or determining influence on his racial views because they did oscillate through time,” he added.

In a 2015 interview with the BBC, John Charmley, author of Churchill: The End of Glory, said the late prime minister believed in racial hierarchies, in which white protestant Christians were at the top, above white Catholics, while Indians were higher than Africans.

In 1937, Churchill told the Palestine Royal Commission: “I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.”

Churchill has also faced criticism over his remarks on Jews and Islam, and his actions, or lack thereof, in the 1943 Bengal famine, which killed more than two million people.

Churchill’s grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames, has previously said his grandfather was “a child of the Edwardian age and spoke the language of [it].”

Source: BBC

ISSUES

PAGE 27

Fighting Covid-19 to Build a Global Community of Health for All

By Zhou Pingjian

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he Covid-19 global pandemic is the most extensive to afflict humanity in a century.

A serious crisis for the entire world, and a daunting challenge, it poses a grave threat to human life and health. This is a war that humanity has to fight and win.

China, through arduous efforts, has for now succeeded in cutting all channels for the transmission of the virus. Having forged the idea that the world is a global community of shared future, and believing that it must act as a responsible member, China has fought shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world.

On June 7, 2020, the State Council Information Office of China published a white paper titled “Fighting Covid-19: China in Action”. The 37,000-word document records the Chinese people’s battle against the virus, shares with the international community China’s experience in curbing the virus and clarifies China’s stance in fighting the virus.

The Covid-19 virus has spread faster and wider than any other since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, and has proven to be the most difficult to contain. It is both a crisis and a major test for China. Under the personal command of President Xi Jinping and the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the whole nation has waged an all-out people’s war on the virus. Thanks to the peoplecentered governance philosophy of the CPC and China’s ability to mobilize resources to accomplish major initiatives, the Chinese government has acted swiftly to fight the virus and provide medical treatment for patients. It has adopted the most thorough, rigorous and comprehensive prevention and control measures, enforced quarantine and isolation on a scale never seen before, and rapidly mobilized the manpower and resources of the whole nation and done everything possible to protect the lives and health of its people.

Through painstaking efforts and tremendous sacrifice, and having paid a heavy price, China has succeeded in turning the situation around. The White Paper, which faithfully records five stages and 126 important moments in a timeline of China’s fight against the epidemic, demonstrates key policies, measures and achievements of China in coping with the epidemic. In little more than a single month, the rising spread of the virus was contained; in around two months, the daily increase in domestic coronavirus cases had fallen to single digits; and in approximately three months, a decisive victory was secured in the battle to defend Hubei Province

and its capital city of Wuhan. As of the end of May, a cumulative total of 83,017 confirmed cases had been reported on the Chinese mainland, 78,307 infected had been cured and discharged from hospital, and 4,634 people had died. This demonstrates a cure rate of 94.3 percent and a fatality rate of 5.6 percent.

The Covid-19 is currently raging all over the world, and lives are being lost every day. The situation in Nigeria and Africa remains grave as well. In the face of this serious crisis humanity once again stands at a crossroads.

Every country has a choice to make. China believes that all countries should make the choice that is right for the interests of all humanity and the wellbeing of our future generations. Upholding the vision of a global community of shared future, we should support each other and join hands to contain the spread of the virus, and protect the health and wellbeing of people across the globe.

China has been carrying out exchanges and cooperation with the international community from the outset. It has strengthened high-level communication, shared information, and cooperated in scientific research with international organizations and other countries, and done all it can to provide assistance, contributing ingenuity and strength to the global fight against the coronavirus.

President Xi has personally promoted international

cooperation. On May 18, he addressed the opening of the 73rd World Health Assembly, calling for a joint effort on the part of all countries to overcome the virus and build a global community of health for all. Six proposals were put forward: to do everything we can for Covid-19 control and treatment, to support the WHO in leading the global response, to provide greater support for Africa, to strengthen global governance in public health, to restore economic and social development, and to strengthen international cooperation. He also announced a series of major measures that China would take in supporting the global fight, including US$2 billion of international aid over two years, the establishment of a global humanitarian response depot and hub in China in cooperation with the United Nations, the establishment of a cooperation mechanism for Chinese hospitals to pair up with 30 African hospitals, the building of the Africa Center for Disease Prevention and Control headquarters to help the continent ramp up its disease preparedness and control capacity, the Covid-19 vaccine to be used as a global public product once it is developed and deployed in China, and the implementation of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative for the poorest countries together with other G20 members.

China has shared information and experience with the international community. China

wasted no time in releasing information such as the whole coronavirus genome sequence and the specific primers and probes for detecting the coronavirus to the WHO and other relevant countries and regional organizations, and has kept them informed with regular updates.

The “delay” and “cover-up” accusations fabricated by politicians from certain countries are totally groundless and scapegoating. The National Health Commission has worked out diagnosis, treatment, prevention and control solutions, had them translated into three languages, and shared them with over 180 countries including Nigeria. China has held video conferences with health experts from over 170 countries to share our proven protocols of diagnosis, treatment and control without any reservation. Among them, Chinese medical experts have held over 30 virtual exchanges with the African side. Nigerian Health Minister Dr. Osagie Ehanire has consecutively attended all 4 video conferences on technical exchange on Covid-19 between China and Africa.

China has provided humanitarian assistance to the international community. Even while under the tremendous pressure of coronavirus control, China has moved quickly to provide as much assistance to the international community as it can.

It has provided two batches of cash support totaling US$50 million to the WHO. China has been active

in providing medical aid to other countries. As of the end of May, China had sent 29 medical expert teams to 27 countries, and offered assistance to 150 countries and 4 international organizations. A total of 8 teams with 148 medical workers have been sent to 11 African countries and 2 patches of governmental medical supplies have been donated to the Nigerian government. The medical teams so far organized over 400 online and offline training sessions in this regard. Local governments, enterprises, non-governmental organizations and individuals in China have donated materials to more than 150 countries and regions, and international organizations through various channels.

As the White Paper said, “The pandemic will have a significant impact on the development of humanity, but the people’s longing for a happy life will remain unchanged. Peace, development, and win-win cooperation will prevail.” The great force running through this arduous journey has become China’s firm confidence and strong will to overcome difficulties and challenges, to support the country and the world to jointly protect the lives and health of the people, to safeguard the common homeland of mankind, and to jointly build a global community of health for all.

(Dr. Zhou Pingjian is Ambassador of China to Nigeria)

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

Sports

PEOPLES DAILY

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29

Reps to probe death of footballer by SARS THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

sports@peoplesdailyng.com, SMS- 08142929046

By Christiana Ekpa

T

he House of Representatives yesterday mandated Committees on Police Affairs, Justice, Human Rights to investigate the recent action by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS operatives that led to the death of Tiyamiyu Kazeem.

The House also asked the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu to re-examine the objectives behind the establishment of the tactical squads, return them back to their original concept, streamline their scope of operations and restrict their interference with civil and financial crimes.

It’s equally urged the Federal Government, through the National Human Rights Commission and alongside the committee on Police Affairs to pay unannounced regular oversight visits to all detention facilities to affirm that no human rights are being violated.

The decision of the House followed a motion titled “Need to Re-Assess and ReEvaluate the Tactical Squads of the Nigeria Police Force” by Hon. Adewunmi Oriyomi Onanuga, Urging the Nigeria Police Force to establish a Special Bureau Unit that monitors officers including Tactical Squads, arrest and charge erring ones.

Onanuga had while moving the motion earlier noted the brutality, overbearing intimidation, recklessness and lack of professionalism on the part of the tactical squads, particularly the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, otherwise known as SARS, and the Zonal Intervention Squad (ZIS) of the Nigeria Police Force.

She said that cases of indiscriminate arrest, illegal detention and torture to extort money from both young and old members of the public were rife with operatives of SARS and ZIS. The lawmaker recalls the #ENDSARS campaign, saying it was the anthem on the streets of many states of the federation and different platforms on Social Media, which, she said, led to the setting up of a panel headed by the Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Mr Anthony Ojukwu, to investigate and submit reports on the allegations of misconduct against SARS. She said: “The House recalls that the panel came up with recommendations to the President which included among other things, the dismissal of 37 officers, prosecution of 24 officers, some compensations to be paid, the renaming of SARS and the creation of State and Local Government Police in the country; “Aware that in reacting to the recommendations of the panel, the Inspector General of Police released a statement saying

Late Tiyamiyu Kazeem that SARS has been reformed and itemized 6 new terms and conditions of the operations of SARS; “Worried that the recent death of this young and vibrant man, Tiyamiyu Kazeem has shown however, that even the Nigeria Police Force cannot bring its officers to abide by the rules of engagement; as their action was in clear contrast with the terms and conditions of the alleged Reform SARS, and therefore, actions more effective and lasting needs to be taken; “Also worried that a prolonged negligence of the issue may result into a crisis between the police and the citizens as evident after the death of Kazeem, when the protector becomes the harm, the protected will look for

ways to defend and shield himself from any harm; “Also notes the swift and encouraging response of the IGP in disbanding all SARS satellite offices across Nigeria and the assigning DIG, Ogunyanwo to Ogun State from Abuja; “Further aware of the restiveness among the youths, which is being suppressed by the Royal fathers and elders of the community with the assurance that the matter will not be swept under the carpet and that justice will be served; “Recognises that the efforts of SARS at combating crime, especially armed robbery & kidnappings cannot go unnoticed, but for the unprofessional and overambitious conduct

of SARS which defeats the whole objective and pales all seemingly achieved gains into nothing when promising lives are cut short”.

Adopting the motion, the House urged the Federal Government to look into the recommendations of the Tony Ojukwu led panel with a view to adopting it.

It also asked the government to strengthen the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) department of the Police, establish State and Local Government police, institutionalize a Special Investigation Panel (SIP) to annually hear and determine complaints of alleged human rights violations against the Nigeria Police Force.

The Committees were given 6 weeks for its assignment.

Nigeria lacks sports infrastructure, says Dare

>>>PG30

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SWAN congratulates Sirawoo

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he Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) has congratulated its President, Sir Honour Sirawoo on his recent appointment as the Permanent Secretary of the Rivers State Ministry of Sports, by Governor Nyesom Wike.

Indeed, this is an honour well deserved and we have no doubt in our mind that Sirawoo who is a go-getter par-excellence will bring his wealth of experience to bear in the discharge of his new responsibilities.

SWAN is particularly delighted that given the track record of achievements it recorded under the leadership of Sirawoo, the Ministry of his primary assignment will be the better for it.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) also wants to assure the new Permanent Secretary that the

entire body of SWAN members across the country are solidly behind him and will do everything within their powers to help him succeed.

SWAN is also appreciative of Governor Nyesom Wike for deeming it fit to appoint Sirawoo, a disciplined and dedicated personality who has always shown an uncommon commitment to any assignment he engages in.

We therefore want to assure Governor Wike who has been very supportive of sports development not only in Rivers State but in Nigeria in general that he made the right choice in Sirawoo.

SWAN is well convinced that very soon the sports sector in Rivers State will experience a man who has the passion, zeal and ability has been saddled with the responsibility of doing what he loves to do most.

Ancelotti fined £8,000 for improper conduct

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verton manager Carlo Ancelotti has been fined £8,000 after accepting his Football Association charge of misconduct, following his red card after the Toffees’ 1-1 draw with Manchester United in Sunday’s Premier League game.

Ancelotti approached referee Chris Kavanagh following the final whistle after Dominic The former AC Milan coach became the first manager to be shown a red card in the Premier League.

By accepting the charge, the

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Nigeria lacks sports infrastructure, says Dare

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Mr. Sunday Dare

Sir Honour Sirawoo

By Albert Akota

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

60-year-old avoids a touchline ban.

Ancelotti said after the 1-1 draw at Goodison Park that he was not disrespectful to Kavanagh, whose initial decision to award the stoppagetime goal was reversed by the video assistant referee because Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson was lying offside in front of United goalkeeper David de Gea. Ancelotti said he also had a subsequent, private conversation in which he spoke to the referee “calmly”.

By Albert Akota

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he Minister of Youth and Sports Development Mr. Sunday Dare, has said that Nigeria will not be given due recognition in the comity sporting nations if nothing is done to address the deficit in sports infrastructure in the country.

The Minister made this assertion in a chat with a team from the Bureau of Public Enterprises in his office in Abuja.

The Minister explained that the country is losing relevance in sporting activities as far as the world is concerned, losing chances to host international events and will continue to do so if nothing is done.

“We have lost two major international events this year as a result of this. There must be deliberate effort from public and private organizations to ensure there is timely intervention about the stadia the country.

“This business model around

sports can help to achieve the desired goal of sports in the country. When there are no good stadia, you can’t attract the investors. The investors need good infrastructure to enable them to market their product too.”

The Minister who revealed that there is only one good international stadium in the country which is in Uyo added that concerted efforts were being made to upgrade some stadia in the country with the help of public spirited individuals and organisations.

EPL matches to be played behind closed doors amid coronavirus fears

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remier League fixtures could be played behind closed doors within weeks over fears of the coronavirus.

That is the grim warning after it was announced all Serie A games will be played without fans in the stadium for the next four weeks.

And Everton director Alexander Ryazantsev, speaking on FT Business of Football summit, insists the same prospect is now heading for the Premier League.

“We feel it is quite likely it may happen in the coming weeks.

“It would be a forced decision rather than one we would proactively engage in. “But the whole situation goes far beyond the world of sport.

“Of course nobody wants to play behind closed doors and I don’t think it’s inevitable at the moment that it will happen.”

Premier League and Football Association bosses have already held secret talks about the possibility of playing games behind closed doors to stop the killer virus from spreading.

There is also growing doubt about England’s friendly at Wembley on March 27 because Italy has been the worst hit country in Europe so far.

The FA have insisted that they are planning as if the game is going ahead while the Premier

EPL fans

League say they are taking daily advice from the Government.

But the biggest fear of all is a player testing positive for the virus because that would effectively result in the whole club being shut down for weeks.

That would result in a “domino effect” which could stop fixtures being completed with a growing fear some

leagues will not be completed this season.

UEFA insisted this week they are pressing ahead with Euro 2020 which is being played across Europe this summer but there are growing fears about the Tokyo Olympics.

The deadly coronavirus started in China and has found its way into some countries.

PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

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THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020

SPORTS latest

Ronaldinho arrested in Paraguay for holding fake passport

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Olympic champion jebet ban for four-year ban

lympic 3,000m steeplechase champion Ruth Jebet has been given a four-year ban after testing positive for man-made EPO. The 23-year-old Bahrain athlete was suspended in February 2018 after failing an out-of-competition test.

Jebet told the Athletics Integrity Unit in March 2018 she had not taken it intentionally, but a disciplinary tribunal has now ruled against her.

The AIU said the ban would run from the date of the initial suspension in 2018.

Advert: business: news: lagos:

Not about Floyd (I)

By Mohammed Adamu

razilian legend Ronaldinho has been held by police in Paraguay along with his brother Roberto for allegedly holding fake passports.

Ronaldinho, 39, arrived in the South American country for a charity event on Wednesday.

While the passport carries Ronaldinho’s original name, place and of birth, it allegedly labels him as a Paraguay citizen.

He remains in custody alongside his brother after being allowed to stay in the hotel and they must report to the prosecutor’s office by yesterday morning.

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SPACE FOR SALE

our hundred years ago all that they could do as slaves in the Americas -agonizing under the yoke of captivity and drudgery- was to fearsomely hum nostalgic songs and lamentable ditties as they toiled and moiled on the plains and prairies of a white slave-master-America. The slave-master was reputedly brutally punitive. Some were not averse to publicly ‘staking’ errant chattels to teach others a lesson. Others may have even invited fellow white slave-owners to witness and to cheer the barbequing on stake, of an unruly slave or an innocent hunky one whose only offence was that the slave-master’s daughter or wife seemed to irresistibly lust after. And so all that Negros in those days could do to keep hope alive was hum some metaphorical songs usually evocative of the biblio-Jewish lament about the ‘Rivers of Babylon’, by which as captives in tribulation, they found solace, weeping and wailing as they remembered their long lost Zion, back in Africa.

But things did change no matter how grindingly slow. Because from only fearfully humming lamentable ditties, in time American slaves had also grown a little more confident; so that they could now openly –if defiantly- sing freedom songs importuning help from the gods to come get them out of their own Egypt. And in fact to their credit was a collection of timeless, somewhat even classic, freedom-numbers referred to as the ‘Underground Railroad songs’ –of which a few stood out like: ‘Follow the Drinking Gourd’, ‘Wade in the Water’ and ‘Steal Away’ which were said to be coded guide-melodies for giving escape clues about routes especially to run-away or intending run-away slaves seeking path to a free Canada, then. It was the much that they could do: sing to lament captivity while fantasizing about freedom, or lament the drudgery of life as they poeticized about escape routes.

Yet slaves, even then, dared not rampage to sing ‘We Shall Overcome’.

You needed first to own ‘yourself’ and your ‘time’ to afford to put them to use your own way. To go off the drudgery of building America and to assemble as slaves singing ‘We Shall Overcome’ would’ve been the worst case scenario of sedition and treason to be known to the statute books of a barbaric America. It would be tantamount to acting ‘free’ and ‘self-owning’ while being a chattel. How much worse then, for slaves in those days to dare (in addition to singing ‘We Shall Overcome’) to also go ‘swinging’ like blacks now have the privilege of doing in protest over the killing of one of them. Things are really changing in white-America –even if imperceptivity so.

By the way, it was still Uhuru for the Negroes as the 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln, in the

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dankande2@gmail.com thick of the American Civil war, in 1863 signed the Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery and freeing all slaves from their white owners. And although the South, unlike the North, was not willing to give up its slave-owning ‘right’ (a major factor that formed part of the reason for the war), all the same Lincoln, by the dint more of providence than of grit, was victorious. And this victory for the Negroes, was especially against the backdrop that although Lincoln set out to achieve two things, namely save his white country from dismemberment and also free her ‘from the great crime of slavery’, nonetheless he was prepared, if it proved impossible to accomplish both missions all at once, to save the ‘Union’ and to preserve the crime of slavery.

Yet Lincoln’s victory was pyrrhic.

Because soon, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor with a representative grudge on behalf of a Southern Confederate army that had just surrendered, would shoot and kill the President at a Theatre in Washington DC where he had gone to witness the premier of a film. Booth was said to have shouted, as he made his escape, “The South is avenged”.

Alas, the assassin together with three other conspirators missed the Vice President and the Secretary of State – as planned- and thus failed to achieve their goal of leaving a constitutional succession crises strong enough to through a spanner in the imminent victory which the Lincoln Federal army was about to have over the Southern Confederates.

Fast forward to 28 August 1963, the historic date of the peaceful ‘March On Washington’ -about a hundred years since Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Negroes long freed from the shackles of slavery were still bondaged by the manacles of racism

“

and the denial of freedom and civil rights; -including the right to work to eke a decent living. Over 200,000 blacks from all over America led by a Reverend, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gathered in Washington to press home demand on the JF Kennedy administration for a civil right bill and at which Dr. King delivered his famous moving speech, ‘I Have A Dream’. And so, although it was still not “Free At Last” as Dr. King had foreseen in his ‘Dream’, at least the Negro slave of the plantation who once could only hum or sing ditties of freedom with Mosaic undertones, at least now owned himself and could organize to assemble – including now in Washington, where he had the constitutional right to press home civil rights demands and to sing ‘We Shall Overcome’.

And although the ‘March On Washington’ paid off with President JF Kennedy initiating a Civil Rights Bill in Congress, Martin Luther King himself would still thereafter pay the supreme sacrifice for daring to improve the lot of his fellow blacks. He would be killed by a white fugitive James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968 in Memphis Tennessee –even though his family believed some other shadowy force sponsored by America’s racist secret service did it.

And which would Prove that although the fiery violence-preaching Malcolm X may have come well ahead of his time (because he wanted ‘swinging’ even before it was time for ‘swinging’), yet, like Malcolm X, even Martin Luther King who preached non-violence, ironically was not spared by a violently racist white America.

Now fast forward again to June 5, 1968. Robert F Kennedy, younger brother to JF Kennedy was virtually prescient about racial violence in the United States, when, in 1968 while he was campaigning in Indianapolis for

But things did change no matter how grindingly slow.

Because from only fearfully humming lamentable ditties, in time American slaves had also grown a little more confident;

the Democratic nomination, Martin Luther King Jr. would be assassinated just when Robert Kennedy was about to address a black audience. He had received the news at the venue and was warned by the police that it might be suicidal to proceed with the address especially because he would be breaking the news to the black audience.

Language maven and Journalist William Safire, in a preface to Robert Kennedy’s speech that day, said it was “with a shield of personal courage and (the) memory of the loss of his own brother (JF Kennedy) to an assassin’s bullet also, (that Robert) went (ahead) and broke the news to the crowd”.

And although he was able to condole and calm the restive nerves of his black audience, yet Robert did not save it the unpleasant truth that given the America that he knew, even the assassination of Martin Luther King would not be “the end of violence”. Said he: “We’ve had difficult times in the past. We will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder”.

Ironically Robert Kennedy himself, three months after the assassination of King, would be gunned down in California, this time by a Christian Jordanian of Palestinian descent, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan who was angered by Robert’s open support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine. And although in the killing of Robert Kennedy by an Arab with a Middle-Eastern political grudge there is hardly any racial significance of the nature of black-targeted-whiteviolence, yet the irony of it again is that this same Robert Kennedy when he was Attorney General, AG, did in fact remotely have a hand in the assassination of Martin Luther King -because he it was who approved the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI’s wiretapping of Dr. King, setting the institutional process that led to the latter’s Assassination.

To be continued...

DAN GAYE DAN GAYE

Insecurity: Senate demands restructuring of police - News

Restructure their pockets too!

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