Delegates Approve Diaspora Voting Rights

Delegates at the ongoing National Conference yesterday voted in favour of Nigerians in the diaspora to exercise their voting rights and participate in elections.

 The Committee on Foreign Policy and Diaspora Matters had said in its report that the provisions of section 13(1) C of the Electoral Act 2096 as amended and sections 77(2) and 117(2) of the Constitution, which provides that only citizens present in Nigeria at the time of registration of voters can register and vote in any elections has disenfranchised millions of Nigerians living abroad.

The committee thus recommended that the Electoral Act be amended to provide for diaspora voting rights so that Nigerians living abroad who are not less than 18 years before an election be allowed to register and vote.

 

It further recommended that proper arrangement should be made before its implementation to ensure that the process is not abused.

 

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Centenary City to Cost N2.4trn

The official developers of the Abuja Centenary City, Eagle Hills, have revealed that the project is expected to gulp the sum of N2.4trn.

The Chief Executive Officer of Eagle Hills, Mr Mohammed Al-Abbar, made the disclosure yesterday at the ground breaking ceremony of the Centenary City, which is to be completed in 10 years.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who performed the ground breaking ceremony, expressed delight that what began as a dream was now becoming reality.

“It will be a city of elegance, unity and hope. We want Nigerians to appreciate our journey of 100 years,” the president said.

Also speaking, the chairman of the Centenary City Plc, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, noted that the city was being designed in a way that ranks it among the big cities. He added that the project will create 69,000 jobs and 250,000 construction jobs.

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INEC Meets Political Parties on Guidelines for 2015 Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday in Abuja met with the chairmen and secretaries of the 26 registered political parties to harmonise and approve the guidelines for the conduct of election primaries by political parties.

Speaking at the event, the Chairman of INEC Prof. Attahiru Jega, said the meeting was also called to discuss the approved guidelines for political party registration and deregistration and harmonising the draft guideline for political party campaigns ahead of the 2015 elections.

“This meeting is coming at an auspicious time, on the wake of the recently concluded governorship election in Ekiti State,” he said. “I must therefore use this opportunity to congratulate and commend all stakeholders whose positive involvement in the process has resulted in the successful conduct of the election, such that it has been adjudged the best election INEC has so far thus far conducted.”

“From the INEC staff to the young men and women of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and other tertiary institutions, to the security agencies, political parties, civil society organisations and the candidates and host of other stakeholders, every one put in their best and our collective best turned out to be good enough in the state.  That is how it should be and it is a very good lesson for our future elections,” Jega said.

He pledged that the experience of the state election would be improved upon as the commission prepares for the August 17 governorship election in Osun State and the February 2015 general elections.

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No Intention to Demolish Abuja Auto Parts Market – AMMC

The Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC) has assured auto parts sellers in Abuja that it has no plans to demolish their shops in the Apo District of the Federal capital Territory (FCT).

The Head of Public Relations of AMMC, Mrs Grace Zamani, gave the assurance in Abuja while addressing the traders who staged protest yesterday. She said “there is no plan to demolish the present site until you are properly relocated.’’

She added that the land allocated to the traders in Wasa was going through due process.

The spokesman for the traders, Mr Chime Ife, told journalists that they had embarked on the protest due to threats by the Department to Development Control to demolish the market.

He added the traders had applied for another space for the business which was granted but had not been handed over to them.

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UNIABUJA VC May be Announced Today

The Governing Council of the University of Abuja might announce the name of the new Vice Chancellor (VC) of the university today.

This indication emerged in Abuja during the weekend after three candidates were finally short-listed for the post of VC of the university, out of over 124 candidates.

Those short-listed after the stakeholders’ meeting, involving the members of the university academic community, include Professors Mr. Umar Danbatta of Bayero University, Kano, Mr. Armstrong Adejo of Benue State University, and Mr. Raheem Lawal from the University of Ilorin.

The current VC of the university, Professor James Adelabu’s tenure ends on June 30, 2014. The university, however, is currently closed over protest by students over an indefinite strike by a faction of the staff union of the institution.   

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Kubwa General Hospital Gets Internship Training Accreditation

The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has approved Kubwa General Hospital in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to conduct medical internship trainings.

The Registrar of MDCN, Dr. Abdulmumini Ibrahim, disclosed this when officials of the Council visited the Secretary,  FCT Health and Human Services Secretariat, Dr. Demola Onakomaiya, in his office in Abuja recently. He said the accreditation was based on a report by an eight-member visitation team to the hospital on April 9 to assess its staff and facilities.

 
The Registrar added that the hospital has been granted a training quota of 24 house officers and assured the hospital’s management of the council’s continuous support.

In his response, Dr. Onakomaiya, said the approval will improve qualitative healthcare delivery and also improve capacity building for health staff.

He further stated that plans have been concluded to commission a multi-drug resistance laboratory, a standalone pharmacy, an intensive care unit, provision of bed space for admission of psychiatric patients, and an introduction of a wellness clinic at Kubwa General Hospital.

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SURE-P to Pay 6 Months Allowance to 2,000 Youths

The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) on Sunday has said it would commence the payment of six months allowance arrears it owes 2,000 youths enrolled in the programme as from this week.

 

The Chairman of SURE-P, Gen. Martin-Luther Agwai (rtd), made this known at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja at the weekend, though he did not reveal the amount to be paid to them.

“I want to make it clear to every Nigerian that these young people have not been paid for onward of five months to six months because of lack of fund,” he said. “I want to state it to everybody that nobody has tampered with anybody’s money; the only challenge was the appropriation act.”

SURE-P, he said, was introduced by the Federal Government to reduce youth unemployment and to curb the rural/urban migration by engaging youths in community services.

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Pandemonium on Kubwa Road as Indigenes Protest Demolition of Houses

There was chaos on the Kubwa express road yesterday evening as the original inhabitants of Abuja barricaded the roads in protest of the demolition of their houses around Gwarinpa a few days ago by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA).

 

The protests caused severe hardship to commuters who were stranded for hours in the gridlock.

 

Attempts by many motorists to make detours and return to the city centre worsened the traffic situation.

 

Cab drivers discharged their passengers midway and sought alternate routes. Meanwhile some private motorist abandoned their cars on the road or parked in Gwarinpa estate and continued the journey on foot.

 

A resident of the area who pleaded anonymity said that the protest was sparked by the death of a baby during the demolition exercise. “The baby was sleeping inside when the house was brought down,” he said. “The mother of the baby then committed suicide by stabbing herself.”

 

This morning, however, normalcy has returned to the route as the roads were free as usual.

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NGO Accuses APC of Being Gender Bias

The Nigerian Women’s Trust Fund has accused the All Progressive Congress (APC) of short-changing a woman candidate in its elections to the National Executive Council.

 

This was contained in a statement yesterday by the organisation. It said it was alarmed by the allegations that despite the best efforts of Hajia Zuwaira Sani Bakori (Kaduna APC) to contest for the position of Deputy National Organizing Secretary at the just concluded national convention, her candidature and election was deliberately frustrated by irregularities.

 

“It is a dangerous precedent that APC is setting where of all the 46 positions on its national executive council only 8 are women and ALL this 8 are holding ‘woman leader’ positions,” the statement said. “It is a shame that one of the few women determined enough to serve and who did not automatically go for a position reserved for women should be treated in this manner.”

 

The NGO therefore call on the party to address the injustice in which the said position is currently mired.

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No One Should Be Living in Poverty- Okonjo-Iweala

The Minister of Finance Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said that no Nigerian should be living in poverty when the country has enough land to grow its crop and feed its people.

 

She made the remark yesterday in Abuja in Abuja, when the singer, Dapo Oyebanjo, popularly known as D’Banj, paid her a visit in her office at the Federal Ministry of Finance Headquarters. The minister noted that agric was the best way to fight poverty in Nigeria, and indeed Africa.

 

“I think we are using only about 44% of our arable land,” she said. “Even as we are the biggest economy in Africa, we should turn our attention to the larges sector, which is agric.”

 

D’Banj, who is the federal government’s ‘Do Agric, It Pays’ ambassador, was in her office to present to her a petition signed by over two million African youths calling on their governments to invest more in the agric sector. He also presented to her bags of ‘Koko Garri’, his brand of packaged cassava grain.

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FCTA Inaugurates Urban and Regional Planning Tribunal

In its determination to adhere to the Abuja Master Plan, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has inaugurated the Committee on Urban and Regional Tribunal to arbitrate on matters related to the contravention of land between FCT and the developers.

The Minister of the FCT, Senator Bala Muhammed, who inaugurated the committee yesterday in Abuja, noted that the FCT tribunal was first established in 1990 but could not take off as a result of legal constraints.

He added that a committee was reconstituted in 2008 with a new operational framework approved and gazetted by the then Attorney General of the FCT.

Senator Mohammed said that after moving the seat of government from Lagos to Abuja in 1976, the master plan was created to serve as a framework for the development of the city. Despite the successes recorded within this period, he said, the attraction of Abuja as a city of opportunities had created a massive internal migration of Nigerians to the city, hence the need to strictly adhere to the master plan.

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Boko Haram Plans to bomb Abuja - DSS

The Department of State Security Service (DSS) has revealed that the Boko Haram sect is planning to bomb Abuja in the next few days, using seized fuel tankers.

 

The information, the DSS said, was obtained through intelligence reports. It said the sect would seize petrol tankers at gunpoint and fill it with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other types of explosives.

 

The Coordinator of the National Information Centre and Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Mike Omeri, made this known yesterday while addressing newsmen at the agency’s daily briefing. Mr Omeri who was in company of the Deputy Director of the DSS, Marilyn Ogar, said “The Nigerian security services have received an intelligence report that insurgents intend to seize petrol tankers and plant IEDs in the tankers and drive them to crowded places in Abuja.

”

He therefore called on the Petrol Tankers Association to be on the red alert and advise their members to report any attempt or seizure of their vehicles to security agencies. He also advised Nigerians to report any broken-down tanker in any part of the territory to security agencies or when they see any tanker driving dangerously.

 

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25 Countries to Attend Fashion Summit in Abuja

At least 25 countries are expected to participate in the African fashion summit scheduled to take place in Abuja first week of July.

 

The Minister of Information, Mr Minister Labaran Maku, made this known yesterday in Abuja while briefing journalists on the outcome of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

He said that the council received a report from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation to host a summit on a world fashion industry on 2 – 5 July.

Similarly, the Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, High Chief Edem Duke, said the World Fashion Organisation chose to hold the summit in Abuja after considering Nigeria the best out of five countries that bided for the hosting.

Duke, who said Nigerian fashion designers had made impact globally, said 25 countries had confirmed their participation in the summit which, he added, would also be attended by 30 fashion journalists from 17 countries as well as judges from Canada, Italy and South Africa.

He further stated that in addition to hosting the summit, Nigeria has been earmarked as the country to host the first fashion university and a garment industry.

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Two Women Jailed for Assaulting Policeman

An Upper Area court in Zuba, FCT, yesterday sentenced two women, Ms Binta Mamman and Ms Safiya Aliyu, to five months imprisonment for slapping a police man. The women were also been charged with using abusive language and constituting public nuisance.

 

The women pleaded guilty to the charges after which the presiding judge, Mallam Aminu Sa’ad, handed down the five-month prison sentence.

 

Mallam Sa’ad ruled that on the first count of criminal force and assault, the convicts shall serve a jail term of one month each without an option of fine. He, however, gave them an option of N20, 000 fine each for the offences of using abusive language and public nuisance, saying that the terms would run consecutively.

 

The prosecutor, Cpl. Momoh Ibrahim, had told the court that the convicts were arrested on 14 June 2014, for slapping and using insulting language on Cpl. Abraham Omageni of Deidei police station.

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Sudan Announces Requirements to Extradite Nyanya Blast Suspect

The Sudanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Tagelsir Ali, has said that the repatriation of the alleged Nyanya blast mastermind, Mr Sadiq Ogwuche, requires 17 steps before his extradition to Nigeria.

Ambassador Ali who made this known in Abuja yesterday said that Nigeria had an extradition treaty with Sudan which was to be reviewed.

“The extradition treaty is always a sequence of procedures that have to be taken care of,” he said. “I think it goes to about 17 or 18 procedures that have to be dealt with before a person can be sent back to his country and this is what we keep saying that a country should observe these things. It is very important to wait until the procedures are finalised.”

He added that the Sudanese official handling the process are doing their best to complete the formalities to ensure he is brought back to Nigeria to face trial.

Mr Ogwuche had fled to Sudan shortly after the April 14, 2014 blast in Nyanya, Abuja, which killed about 75 persons and injured nearly 200.

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Banks Agree to Cut Interest Rates

The Bankers’ Committee has agreed to support the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) policy to gradually reduce both lending and deposit rates.

The committee made this known at the end its 316th meeting in Abuja. It however appealed for time until the macroeconomic conditions are conducive.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Mr. Segun Agbaje, alongside other banks chief executives, said the proposed cut in rates would not take place immediately as factors such as inflation, the exchange rate, and cost of personnel, among others, are still a challenge to lowering the rates.

Also speaking, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Mr. Ladi Balogun, said the committee has resolved to pursue policies that are people-centred, which would improve financing to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

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Reps Postpone Diezani’s Probe to June 26

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has shifted the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke’s hearing to June 26, after it had failed to commence on June 17.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Solomon Olamilekan, said that there was no going back on the investigation, as the committee was set to start proceedings on June 26.

 

 “I will go ahead with the hearing and the committee will submit its report to the House,” he said.

The Petroleum Minister is under investigation on the N10bn the allegedly spent in two years to charter a private jet, Challenger 850. Two other jets, including a Global Express XRS, are also under the searchlight of the House.

 

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51 Polys Get N12.4bn Presidential Intervention Fund

The federal government has released the sum of N12.4billion to 51 federal and state polytechnics for the promotion of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Nigeria.

 

The Supervising Minister of Education, Mr Nyesom Wike, made this known yesterday in Abuja at the meeting of the Commonwealth Association of Polytechnics in Africa (CAPA).

The minister, who was represented by the permanent secretary, Mr Mac-John Nwaobiala, said government has also approved the supply of equipment and rehabilitation of the nation’s technical colleges at the sum of N6 billion. This, he said, was in addition to the N15 billion already expended on the rehabilitation of technical laboratories of 51 polytechnics.

He added that government was aware of the importance of education, especially human capital development, to the long-term development of the country.

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Confab Committee Rejects Aviation Merger

The National Conference Committee on Transportation has recommended that the three parastatals in the aviation industry, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and the Nigerian Airspace Management Authority, which were earlier merged, should be returned to the status quo.

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Musa Adede, said this while presenting the reports and recommendations of the committee at the plenary on Tuesdayin Abuja.

The committee also asked the Federal Government to urgently complete the Ajaokuta Steel Complex before the 2015 general elections.

“The Ajaokuta Warri Rail Line was awarded in 1986, with the completion period of five years; as I speak to you 14 years after, that project has not been completed and it is very important for us to realise that the Ajaokuta Warri Rail Line should be completed,” he said.

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FCT Water Board Set to Disconnect Defaulting Residents

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Water Board is ready to begin mass disconnection of households and organizations in Abuja that are yet to pay their water bills.

The Acting Director of the board, Mr Michael O. Adebayo, made this known to newsmen yesterday. He said the action is coming after weeks of plea with residents to pay their debts.

“If all our efforts to let them know before now have not resulted in proper information, perhaps, disconnecting them will help them understand that N80 for five drums of water is not such a huge price to pay,” he said. “When we disconnect them from the central water grid, then, I tell you, they will pay up all the outstanding debt.”

He advised members of the public not to make transactions with staff of the board, but instead pay into the designated bank accounts.

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Minister Promotes Use of Computer-Based Tests by Examiners

The Supervising Minister of Education, Mr Nyesome Wike, has advised public examination bodies to accept the use of Computer-Based Test (CBT) to conduct examinations. Examiner

The advice was contained in his address at the inauguration of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) CBT centre in Kogo community, Bwari. The minister urged examination bodies to employ the CBT to improve operational standard in conduct of examination in line with international best practice.

“I urge other public examination bodies to embrace the CBT mode in order to synergise the administration of public examination in Nigeria,” he said. “The JAMB experience is already a model in Africa and has become a national pride which can proudly be show-cased to the world.”

The minister commended the board for coming up with the CBT initiative, saying that it should not relent in its efforts to maintain the required qualities.

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