Flowerbud News

Category: General News

  • Polio: Pakistan launches vaccination drive

    More than 250,000 health workers have fanned out across Pakistan to vaccinate millions of children against polio in a week-long drive, officials said on Monday in the country’s push against the crippling disease.

    “The drive would target 38.6 million children under the age of five,’’ said Safdar Rana, who leads Pakistan’s fight against polio.

    Rana added that the children of Afghan refugees who frequently travel between the two countries would also be administered the vaccine.

    Pakistan and Afghanistan are among only a few countries in the world where polio still exists as an epidemic.

    The UN-funded vaccination campaign has, however, helped Pakistan to control the spread as the number of new affected children came down to only four so far this year compared to 306 in 2014.

    “Pakistan is closest ever to its goal of polio eradication,” Rana said.

    The disease that cripples kids for life spread in the country’s mountainous north-west near the Afghan border, which remained under the control of militants linked with al-Qaeda for several years.

    The militants have killed hundreds of health workers and police guarding them because they thought the polio vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile.

    A series of military offensives was launched against Islamist militants to make sure workers could reach children in previously inaccessible areas. (dpa/NAN)

  • PDP screens 30 governorship aspirants in North East

    The Screening Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says it has screened the party’s 30 governorship aspirants in the North-East comprising Adamawa, Bauchi , Borno , Gombe. Taraba and Yobe.
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    The Chairman of the five-man committee, Mr John Mathew who disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi on Sunday, said one of the 30 aspirants was disqualified.

    Matthew who did not reveal the name of the disqualified aspirant said the rest 29 met the electoral and party requirements to contest in the primaries in their respective states.

    ?’’We screened all the 30 governorship aspirants and issued them with qualification certificates.
    ?One of the aspirants was disqualified for some reasons which will not be disclosed here.
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    “Despite that, we gave him the disqualified aspirants certificate and reasons for his disqualification as a governorship aspirant,” he said.
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    ?The chairman said that the committee followed the guidelines of the party in determining the aspirants that would vie for the flag of the party.
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    “We screened seven governorship aspirants from Adamawa, four from Bauchi, two from Borno, 13 from Gombe, one from Taraba, and three from Yobe,” he added

    Matthew, who said most of the aspirants were not seeking the office for the first time, added
    that they presented all the required documents to the screening committee.
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    “The aspirants showed their voters’ cards, membership cards, tax clearance, age declaration certificates, educational qualifications, birth certificates and other statutory requirements by the Federal Government and the party.
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    “So we are satisfied that the aspirants met the requirements for governorship in their states,” Matthew said. (NAN)

  • Declare Adeleke Osun Governor-elect, Says Dankwambo

    Declare Adeleke Osun Governor-elect, Says Dankwambo

    Declaration

     

    By Esbee Oguns

    Abuja,Sept.23,2018(Flowerbud News) Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, incumbent Governor, Gombe state and Presidential aspirant has called on Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) to reverse itself and conclude Osun Gubernatorial election by declaring Sen. Ademola Adeleke of Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) winner of Sept.22 election.

    Dankwambo,a PDP Presidential hopeful, made the call on Sunday  in a statement signed by  Dr. Ayoade Adewopo, Director, Media & Strategic communication of his presidential campaign organization.

    Flowerbud News reports that PDP candidate Adeleke, polled 254,698 votes against 254,345 votes for APC’s Gboyega Oyetola while  3,498 votes were cancelled by INEC at four polling units across four of the 30 Local Governments in the state

    Full text of the statement:

    Declare Adeleke Osun Governor-elect, Says Dankwambo:

    Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, incumbent Governor of Gombe state and Presidential aspirant under the flagship of PDP, this afternoon stated in a released statement by the Director, Media & Strategic communication of his presidential campaign organization, Dr. Ayoade Adewopo, that INEC should declare Senator Ademola Adeleke the winner of the just concluded gubernatorial election in Osun state. In the statement, Dr. Dankwambo declared INEC’s pronouncement that the Osun gubernatorial election is inconclusive a rape on our democracy by INEC and its pay master APC. He further stated that the action is a deviation from the sportmanship demonstrated by former President Goodluck Jonathan, a hero of our democracy in 2015.

    Dr. Dankwambo further advised the other 47 candidates in the election to pick up their phones and make congratulatory calls to Senator Ademola Adeleke who was duly elected as the 5th executive governor by the good people of Osun in the historic election.

    According to Dr. Dankwambo, INEC’s pronouncement has no standing under our laws. Section 179 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as Amended) clearly stated that for a candidate to be declared duly elected to the office of Governor of a State in Nigeria he should win a majority of the total number of valid votes cast and must have scored at least 25% of the total number of valid votes cast in at least two-thirds of the total number of local governments in the state.

    Therefore, once the constitutional requirements are fulfilled a winner of the election must be declared irrespective of the margin of victory.

    According to  Dankwambo, a winner should have been declared, there is no need for a re-run.

    Finally, Dr. Dankwambo congratulated Senator Ademola Adeleke, Osun State PDP Chapter, the National organ of the party and all the good people of Osun state for putting up a good fight at ending the draconian APC government in Osun and Nigeria at large.

     

     

  • China to issue white paper on U.S. trade frictions – Media

    China’s state council will publish a white paper on the ongoing bilateral trade frictions with the United States, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

    The report said the white paper, which will be published at 1 p.m. local time (0500 GMT), will contain “facts and China’s position” on the trade frictions, without elaborating further.

    The latest U.S. and Chinese tariffs on each other’s goods took effect at 0401 GMT. (Reuters/NAN)

  • NASS postpones resumption to Oct. 9

    The National Assembly has rescheduled resumption from its annual recess from Sept. 25 to Oct. 9.

    This is contained in a statement by the Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr Mohammed Omolori on Sunday.

    Omolori explained that the postponement was due to activities of primary elections by political parties.

    He said, “this is to inform all Distinguished senators and Honourable members that resumption of plenary session earlier scheduled for Tuesday, 25th September, has been postponed to Tuesday 9th October due to activities of primaries of political parties.

    “All distinguished senators and honourable members are expected to resume plenary session by 10 a.m. on the 9th of October, please.”

    The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that the national assembly proceeded on its annual vacation on July 24 and was expected to resume on Sept. 25.(NAN)

  • Ndume renews call for power rotation in Borno

    Former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, has renewed his call for Borno South Senatorial District to be allowed to produce the next governor of the state.

    Ndume made the call when he appeared as a guest on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Sunday.

    The lawmaker, who represents Borno South in the Senate, noted that in the interest of fairness, equity and natural justice, it was proper for someone from his constituency to be allowed to serve the state as governor.

    “It is feasible if there is an agreement, and that is what I have been advocating for, I am part of the advocacy for power rotation.

    “But let me say that when I was the Senate leader, I made sure that power rotation was included in the Constitution Amendment Bill.

    “Unfortunately, it did not see the light of the day because the majority had their way. But we have started the struggle. It is not something that is realisable in a day.’’

    Ndume identified lack of unity and understanding among the minorities in the district as the major challenge undermining their aspiration.

    He, however, said he had seen some improvement as the people of southern Borno had become more united than before.

    “We are giving it a shot, because out of the 23 or 24 contestants for the gubernatorial election, we have about three or four people from southern Borno, this time around.

    “Although it is still a small number if you look at it, but we are hoping we will get there one day,’’ he said.(NAN)

  • Mantu commends Secondus for “repackaging PDP into a portent political force”

    Dr. Umar Mantu, a House of Representatives aspirant in Plateau, has commended PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, for “repackaging PDP into a portent political force’’.

    Mantu, son of former deputy senate president Ibrahim Mantu, who is seeking to represent Mangu/Bokkos Federal Constituency, spoke on Monday in Bokkos, in an interactive session with PDP stakeholders in the constituency.

    “Not long ago, the PDP was virtually written off by political analysts, but the situation has changed dramatically.

    “Now, the PDP is a portent political force courted by many and envied by rival political groups.

    “Few months ago, all we heard were people defecting from the party to other political parties. Now, everyone is rushing into the PDP. It has turned into our modern Noah’s ark.

    “The PDP has attracted new members and regained the old ones that left. It has regained the leadership of the National Assembly with Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Tanimu Dogara back to the fold.

    “We started this year as an opposition party, but we now lead the legislative arm of government and the rival APC has been reduced to the opposition party.

    “Secondus has done so much for the party. He has re-positioned the PDP into a popular brand cherished by everyone. In fact, even PDP’s rivals admire and envy his leadership style,’’ Mantu, a 32-year-old lawyer, said.

    Mantu particularly lauded the PDP national and state leaderships for learning from its past mistakes and resolving to make every member a stakeholder.

    “Those defecting to the PDP had many options. There are close to 100 other options, but the defectors chose to troop to PDP because of the way its affairs are being steered,’’ he said.

    The aspirant particularly commended the PDP leadership for remaining firm and standing by its promise to be fair to everyone.

    He also commended the PDP leadership for respecting people’s wishes and carrying everyone along in decision making processes, saying that the impunity that brought the party to its knees in 2015, was no longer the trend.

    On his aspiration, Mantu said that he was consulting with stakeholders toward picking the PDP ticket in the primary election, and expressed confidence that winning the secondary election would be “much easier’’.

    “I have met with the delegates that will determine my fate in the primary election and they have promised to vote for me. I have no reason to doubt them,’’ he said.

    The aspirant also commended the national and state leaderships of the party for accommodating the interests of the youth and women, and encouraging them to vie for elective posts.

    “The PDP offers free nomination forms to women seeking elective positions and strives to encourage them to vie for its tickets. I see this as a very positive development,’’ he said.

    Mantu urged women and the youth to take full advantage of such opportunities to pursue their ambitions so as to contribute to societal growth, and cautioned them against allowing anyone to intimidate them.(NAN)

  • Gas flaring: FG threatens to revoke licences of oil companies

    Gas flaring: FG threatens to revoke licences of oil companies

    The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, says the Federal Government will from 2019 commence the revocation of the licences of oil companies that fail to stop gas flaring in their operations in the country.

    Kachikwu made this known while speaking at the 2018 Buyers’ Forum/Stakeholders’ Engagement organised by the Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria (GACN) in Abuja, on Monday

    He said that the Federal Government had been locked in a battle with upstream oil companies over the issue of gas flaring.

    He noted that the Federal Government was keen on ending gas flaring, but oil companies still give lot of reasons why gas flaring cannot be ended.

    “Government wants to end flare, oil companies still give lot of reasons why flare cannot be ended.

    “ Bottom line is cash call and money. But the reality is that whether or not we deal with cash call issues, it is not an optional agenda, it is a compulsive immediate agenda.

    “ It is destructive to the populace; it is intolerable in developed country and it should not be tolerated here either,’’ he said

    He added that any oil company that could not find a way to ending its flare ought not to be producing.

    “And I have said to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), beginning from next year, we are going to get quite frantic about this and companies that cannot meet with extended periods — the issue is not how much you pay in terms of fines for gas flaring, the issue is that you would not produce.

    “ We need to begin to look at foreclosing of licences. This is very urgent.” he added

    The Minister stressed that the quest to discourage gas flaring led the Federal Government to initiate the gas flare commercialisation programme.

    He said that future renewals of oil and gas licences would involve the assessments of the gas components and gas flare rate of each company seeking renewals.

    “Some of the ones that have come recently for renewals have insisted that they are building massive gas processing plants  and we are going to follow this right through so that the supply obligation, the processing facility, the treatment of gas; their submissions  are very accurate and very aggressive,” he noted.

    On domestic supply obligation, he said that there was the need  for a critical implementation, adding that it would be extended  for both gas and crude oil.

    Kachikwu said that the country needed to move away from the point of just producing these commodities, throwing it into the vessel and shipping it out, to the point of processing as much of it locally as much as possible.

    According to him, it is only through this that the country will we be able to create more jobs, create better profit and returns on investments.

    “It will also help to achieve better pricing and address the challenges of local industries and industrialisation,’’ he said.

    The Minister disclosed that the Federal Government would launch the infrastructure revamp programme in November.

    This, he said, has the potential of attracting between 20 billion and 30 billion dollars of investments into the petroleum industry and also help address the infrastructural deficiencies in the industry.

    Also speaking, Managing Director of GACN, Mr. Morgan Okwoche, highlighted the need for optimum collaboration among industry players in the development of the gas sector.

    He called on the DPR to expedite action on the issuance/renewal of the five-year rolling Domestic Supply Obligation (DSO), volumes which will help in effective project planning. (NAN)

  • Indian father slits six-year-old daughter’s throat in suicide pact

    A Kolkata family of three were found with wrists slit and throats slashed at their Tollygunge area home early on Wednesday as a result of what police suspect to be a suicide pact, Times of India reported.

    Police said the three are being treated at a hospital where the condition of the six-year-old child is serious. The 42-year-old man appears to have slit his daughter and 39-year-old wife’s throats before attempting suicide.

    Teenager ‘commits suicide’ over scuffle with husband

    Police believe the incident occurred at two in the morning. At 7am, the wife called her relatives crying for help.

    When the woman’s brother and cousin arrived, they tried to get an ambulance in vain due to a BJP strike in the city. They then reached police who took the family to a hospital.

    Police are probing the family’s calls records and transaction history. Internal family trouble has not been ruled out either. A relative said the man had fallen in depression after failing to secure a loan.

    The incident came as a shock to the family’s neighbours with all vouching for domestic bliss. “They (the couple) were extremely close to one another. Atish hardly even spoke to neighbours, but he was always cordial with his peers and respectful towards elders.” The woman, police claim, has not blamed her husband.

    This article originally appeared in Times of India.

    Culled from Express Tribune