The Leprosy Mission Nigeria on Thursday revealed that over 3,000 new cases of leprosy disease are recorded yearly in Nigeria, while stigmatisation and discrimination against sufferers remains high. Terver Anyor, the Funds Development Manager of TLMN, disclosed this at a one-day workshop on: “Reducing Leprosy-Related Stigma and Discrimination.” It was organised for media practitioners in Lokoja. Anyor said the country had been rated as “high burden” in line with the World Health Organisation standard, which classified any country with record of more than 1,000 new cases yearly. He said: “The way to eradicate leprosy is by finding and treating every…
Author: Emmanuel Leke
Less than three months after he assumed office as number citizen of Niger State, the state House of Assembly has directed the Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, to probe the past administration led by Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu. The Assembly instructed Bello to set up Commissions of Inquiry to investigate the alleged fraudulent manner in which Aliyu conducted the activities of the state for the eight years he was in the saddle. This was the resolution taken by members of the state House of Assembly during its sitting on Thursday, after they resolved that the immediate past governor cannot evade…
Going by the objective of this piece, one of the articles I wrote some six years back could be described as the first of a two-part piece. The article, titled ‘Options Before the Opposition’, came at a time the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was not only in control of affairs in Nigeria, it also held five of six states in the Southwest by the jugular. Osun, the-then ‘State of the Living Spring’ was one of them. While the grip lasted, Osun State was not only regarded as PDP’s world, the party’s word was also law. At the helm of affairs…
President Olusegun Obasanjo initiated the privatisation of the power sector in Nigeria
The Peoples Democratic Party-led Bayelsa State Government on Thursday assured the All Progressives Congress in the state of adequate security for its planned rally in Yenagoa on Saturday. The assurance was contained in a statement issued by Governor Seriake Dickson’s Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, in Yenegoa. According to the statement, Dickson is committed to ensuring there is a level playing field for everyone ahead of the December 5 governorship election in the state. It said the governor had charged all relevant organs of the government to grant the APC the use of the state-owned Samson Siasia Sports Complex and…
The Police in Plateau State on Thursday said it recovered 42 of the 500 cows rustled in Kadunung village in Mangu Local Government Area of the state. The Command’s spokesman, DSP Emmanuel Abu, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Mangu that the recovery of some of the rustled cattle was a herculean task. Abu said: “Officers and men in conjunction with other security operatives in Mangu made stringent efforts since the rustling incident of Mondayand made tremendous success. “Out of the cattle carted away, 42 cows were recovered with one seriously injured and slaughtered for meat by the owners.…
Ukura said this on Wednesday in Abuja after submitting three special reports to the National Assembly
The Peoples Democratic Party says it will not offer automatic ticket to any aspirant in the November 21 governorship election in Kogi State. The National Organising Secretary of the party, Abubakar Mustapha, announced this when he briefed newsmen after the National Working Committee meeting in Abuja on Wednesday. Mustapha said the party would not impose any candidate on the people and credible people would be used to conduct the party’s primaries. He said: “Kogi State is PDP and we are ready to retain the state. “We have found it necessary to conduct free, fair and credible primaries. “We appeal to…
Adetokunbo Sijuwade, the son of the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, on Wednesday officially announced the death of the monarch, saying he would be buried on Friday. Addressing newsmen at the Government Office in Osogbo, the younger Sijuwade said that the body of the late monarch would be flown in from London on Thursday and buried on Friday at 10am. Also speaking, Governor Rauf Aregbesola said the “late Ooni represented the Yoruba nation and has done a lot in uplifting the traditional institution in the state”. Aregbesola, who read the last text message he received from the Ooni…
Senators on Wednesday rejected a proposal to cut their salaries and allowances, The Eagle Online has learnt. The rejection of the pay and allowances cut came as the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, postponed the debate on the report of the Adhoc Committee on the Review of the Finance of the Senate. The Senate had on resumption of plenary session on Wednesday gone into a closed-door session. It lasted from 11:26am to 12:50pm. The focus of attention was their allowances and salaries, which had been scheduled for debate in the Wednesday Order Paper. A source at the…
Prof. Julius Okojie, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, has decried the inability of Plateau State University, Bokkos to graduate students since inception in 2005. Okojie, who expressed his displeasure when Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State visited him in Abuja on Tuesday, attributed the problems to lack of accreditation and political issues. The NUC boss said some final year students of the institution were farmed out to the University of Jos (UniJos) in 2007 in order to graduate them. He urged Lalong to expedite action towards getting accreditation for the programmes of the institution, recalling that…
The Police in Plateau State on Tuesday confirmed the killing of four persons following a cow rustling incident that occurred in Kadunung village in Mangu Local Government Area of the state. The Mangu Divisional Police Officer, Williams Nkarang, confirmed the attack to the News Agency of Nigeria in Kadunung. Nkarang said he was waiting for the details from his men who went on a rescue mission to the village. He also confirmed that his men had retrieved the corpses of the “four persons killed in the two different incidences”. Also confirming the report, the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Emmanuel…
The Senate asked the National Electricity Regulatory Commission to mandate the Distribution Companies to discontinue with monthly charges
The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria on Monday said it was set to commence the transportation of prospective pilgrims to Saudi Arabia on August 23. The Permanent Amirul Hajj, the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, made the disclosure at a stakeholders meeting organised by the Commission in Abuja. Abubakar said the meeting was part of preparations before the commencement of Hajj. The Sultan said the meeting always availed the various stakeholders and the Federal Government delegates the opportunity to brainstorm before the commencement of the airlift of the intending pilgrims. He urged the Commission to be proactive rather than…
The Bayelsa State Government has applauded President Muhammad Buhari for approving the implementation of the UNEP report on the cleanup of Ogoniland. The Commissioner for Environment in the state, Iniruo Wills, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Yenagoa on Sunday applauded the President for initiating the implementation of the cleanup the oil-polluted Ogoniland. Wills said: “President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval of the steps to fast-track the cleanup and restoration of Ogoniland in line with UNEP’s recommendations is a positive signal for the hitherto relegated environment sector and for the Niger Delta region. “This is an elixir, coming…
The Federal Road Safety Commission on Sunday confirmed the death of 14 persons in an auto crash that occurred on Saturday at Amasiri Secondary School Junction along Afikpo-Okigwe Road in Ebonyi State. Roland Ogbuke, the Afikpo Unit Commander of FRSC, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the accident involved an articulated vehicle and a 14-seater bus. According to Ogbuke, the bus was conveying members of the Assemblies of God Church, Isu in Ohaoazara Local Government Area, who were returning from a burial. He said: “We received a distress call on Saturday and immediately mobilised my rescue officers to the…
Osun State lawmakers under the aegis of Osun Legislators’ Forum are to converge on Osogbo on Monday to chart the way forward for the state. Tagged stakeholders’ conference, State and National Assemblies’ members are expected to participate in the one-day summit. Rep. Ayo Omidiran (Irewole/Ayedade/Isokan) told newsmen on Saturday in Osogbo that the conference was a form of intervention in the polity. According to Omidiran, the summit is expected to proffer solutions to the challenges facing the state. The lawmaker said the conference, which would be an interactive session, was a necessary platform to exchange ideas between the people and…
President Muhammadu Buhari is working. Nothing best demonstrates the promise of PMB to rise up to Nigeria’s myriad challenges than his prompt response to the United Nations Environment Programme Report on the environmental restoration of Ogoniland. It is a show of good faith, a promise kept and a hope restored. At the instance of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the UNEP began an investigation into the environmental pollution of Ogoni, part of the oil-producing Niger Delta of Nigeria, in 2008. The investigation followed over 50 years of environmental devastation engendered by oil exploration and exploitation, on the one hand, and…
A former Governor of Yobe State, Senator Buka Abba Ibrahim, has revealed that over 6,600 orphans were camped in one location in the state due to insurgency. Ibrahim said not less than 217 people displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency are staying in his house in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital. The former governor also disclosed that contrary to the belief that Boko Haram started in Nigeria about six or 10 years ago, the ideological movement to that effect had actually been in existence in the Northern part of the country since the 1970s after the killing of the sect’s…
No fewer than 100 security operatives besieged Agura Hotel in Abuja, the venue of the election of a new leadership for the National Youth Council of Nigeria, over the weekend. The election saw Barrister Ugochinyere Ikenga emerge as the National President of the Council. A combined team of policemen, the Directorate of State Services, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and the Nigerian Army had taken over the venue of the hotel, apparently to stall the election of the new officials of the council. Sources alleged that the security operatives were drafted to the venue following a purported petition…