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(FLOWERBUDNEWS) Vietnamese Police have arrested eight suspected traffickers as part of a crackdown on human trafficking launched following deaths of 39 migrants, whose bodies were found in a parked lorry in southern England in October.

The latest arrests in Vietnam were announced in the state media on Monday, bringing the total number of arrests in that country linked to the lorry tragedy to 10.

The identities of the suspects have not been released due to the sensitivity of the ongoing investigation.

However, the Police in the central Vietnamese province of Nghe An, believe the individuals are part of a brokering ring that illegally sends Vietnamese people to Britain, according to local newspaper VnExpress.

“Following the incident in the UK, some brokers have returned brokerage fees to families whose children have gone missing,’’ Nguyen Huu Cau, Director of the Nghe An Police Department, told Vietnamese media.

British Police discovered a parked lorry containing the victims’ bodies at an industrial estate in Essex, in south-east England, on Oct. 23.

Three days later, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered an investigation into overseas trafficking.

The eight new arrests follow reports on Friday that Vietnamese Police had detained two others for their suspected involvement in the lorry deaths.

Their identities have also not been revealed.

As part of the broader crackdown, police in the central Vietnamese city of Hue have also detained two men and one woman on suspicion of attempting to smuggle people to the U.S.

A fourth person was jailed for trying to smuggle people to Taiwan.

It remains unknown whether these cases are linked to lorry deaths.

The alleged people smugglers were caught after a man paid them $36,000 to send his son to the U.S.

Weeks passed without progress on the son’s trip and the father complained to authorities after the men refused to give him a refund, VnExpress reported.

Late on Sunday, a Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister travelled to Britain to aid investigations into the lorry deaths, according to media reports.

The deputy minister will lead a delegation aimed at speeding up the identification process of the 39 victims. (dpa/N|AN)

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) The Academy (Oscar) has disqualified Nigeria’s “Lionheart” directed by Genevieve Nnaji from the Oscar race in the Best International Feature Film category, dropping the number of films competing for the award to 92 from what had been a record 93 entries.

The film, Nigeria’s first-ever submission in the Best International Feature Film category, is largely in English, which makes it ineligible to compete.

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) Ahead of the  governorship election in Kogi state, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State, Musa Wada, has said he will probe the administration of Governor Yahaya Bello if he’s elected governor.

Wada, who made this disclosure on Sunday, the governorship candidate of the Peoples democratic party said he is determined to unravel the alleged sharp practices currently going on in the state.

According to him: it was because of the fear of such a probe that the present leadership in the state had become desperate to retain power so that the people of the state would continue under such maladministration.

Wada whose rallies have witnessed large turnouts, maintained that he would Probe and have a thorough report on the four years of the Governor Yahaya Bello administration in the state.

The PDP standard bearer told the people of the state not to leave any stone unturned so as to bring to book the darkest four years in the life of Kogi State, where salaries and pensions had become a privilege.

He urged the people to vote for him, while saying the present leaders never meant well for them, but using their platforms as APC members to defraud the people.

According to him: “What is bad is bad, as the pretence of paying salaries to cleared staff of the government, leaving those owed for over 40 months as part of the election fever that has confronted the present administration. The worst will happen when re-elected.

“As far as I am concerned, I will probe the four years administration of Governor Yahaya Bello and his cohorts, as I will be determined to unravel many sharp practices of the present administration.”

The PDP candidate, however, warned the organised labour not to allow the administration to drag them into taking decisions that were harmful to the interest of the workers.

Read also: FG to make rice cheaper, sufficient before Christmas

Wada added: “Kogi State Government has been going round to cajole the labour leaders into unholy agreement to support their cause to return to Lugard House. The issue is beyond the leaders in the current order.

“There will be no Otukpa or Onyagede Accord, and agreement between the labour and the state government, or rather any political bigwig, as we will collectively resolve to install a new government.

“Gone are the days when politicians will be dragged to neighbouring states of Benue, Enugu, Kwara, Ondo and Edo to negotiate the fate of Kogites, as enough is now enough.

“Gone are the days when projects will be inaugurated and not completed, or haphazard virements, all in the name of diversion. We must tidy up our records for public scrutiny.”

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday laid the foundation of the Children with Special Needs School, Igbor, near Makurdi in Benue.

The school, the first of its kind, is being built by the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Igbor is situated on Km 15 along Makurdi/Aliade road, few kilometres away from Ayati pilgrimage venue of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi.

Obasanjo, at the ceremony, regretted that people with various forms of disabilities, who needed special attention from the society, were often neglected.

He, therefore, commended the Catholic Church for ” always remembering the needy”  and patterning with the government to provide some essential services to the society.

The former president blamed what he termed “lack of meaningful development” on the “`absence of spirituality and morality in governance”.

He said that the Church needed to work together with government for the overall development of the nation.

“Those who need special attention among us are always neglected. That neglect leaves them helpless.

“As a country, we shall never be where we deserve to be unless the Church, spirituality and morality work together with governance,” he said.

According to Obasanjo, only agriculture can guarantee overall development and progress in Nigeria.

“In any state in Nigeria, whether it is oil producing state or oil consuming state, we all eat and oil is a wasting asset, the oil that we take from the ground today is gone and gone forever.

“But the land where we produce food is a renewable resource. The land you used today can be fertilised and used next year and will even produce more yields.

“I believe that one of the things that we must be emphasising in this state and all states today is that there is no alternative to agriculture in Nigeria,” he said.

The former president pledged to personally supervise the school project and support it.

Gov Samuel Ortom, in his remarks, commended the Catholic Church for its partnership with government toward the development of the state.

Ortom said that the Church had been “very supportive” of government policies and programmes, adding that the government and the Church would continue to complement each other.

In his welcome address, the Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, Most Rev. Wilfred Anagbe, said that the decision to establish a school for people with disabilities was to give them a sense of belonging in the society.

“We want to give this people a sense of belonging. Our society is too materialistic and we sometimes forget those who are not useful to us immediately, but they have life in them and that life must be upheld.

“For us in the Church, life is valuable and meaningful,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the school is the first for people with disabilities in the state since Benue was created in 1976. (NAN)

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) Dr Mohammed Mamoud, the Minister of Environment says the menace of municipal solid waste is one of the gravest environmental challenges facing the country.

Mamoud made this known during official the commissioning and handover of the Community Based Waste Management Project in Karu Local Government Area, Nasarawa State.

The Community Based Waste Management Programme is an intervention scheme of the Federal Government in municipal solid waste management.

It is designed to assist states to manage their municipal solid wastes in an environmentally sound manner.

The minister said that the menace of municipal solid waste could be linked to urban migration, over population, emergence of urban slums, industrialisation, changes in consumption patterns.

Others, according to him, include inadequate planning, inadequate resources and facilities to sustainably manage waste being generated.

“The menace posed by municipal solid waste in Nigeria, particularly in our urban areas is one of the gravest environmental challenges facing the country.

“In recent years, states and local governments throughout the federation have intensified efforts to ensure that municipal solid wastes generated within their domains are properly managed,” he said.

He, however, said that the problem still persisted as all manners of wastes were being disposed off indiscriminately in open and unlined pits, drainage systems, water bodies and on any available space.

The minister said that more worrisome was both hazardous and non hazardous wastes including hospital wastes were disposed off in dump sites and burnt open|y as these practices pose great risk to health and the environment.

He said that against this background that the Federal Government designed the Community Based Waste Management Programme as an intervention waste to wealth initiative to assist states manage their waste in environmentally sound manner.

“This programme is also expected to among others train and generate employment particularly for youths and women, attract private sector participation and investment including Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

“The ministry is equally reviewing existing waste management instruments and putting in place new ones including policies, regulations, technical guidelines and standard.

“This will ensure that the wastes generated in the country are managed in environmentally sound and sustainable manner with the private sector as the main driver in waste management for viability and sustainability.”

Mamoud said that the project in Karu Local Government Area was one of several community based management projects being implemented by this administration with others at different stages spread across the other geopolitical zones.

The contract for the Karu project was awarded in November, 2017, and it has been successfully completed as designed.

The project components include segregation at household level, backlog evacuation of wastes, continuous collection of wastes, construction of Plastic Recycling P|ant (Pelletizer) and construction of public toilet.

Others include procurement of waste trucks, waste receptacles to be placed in public places such as motor parks, market or high population density areas, Procurement and distribution of colour coded waste bins to facilitate waste segregation/recycling.

Other are procurement and distribution of waste carriage bags for waste collection, 250KVA soundproof generator among others.

Gov. Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa state commended the effort of the ministry for choosing Karu and promised that the state would ensure maximum utilisation of the project.

Sule said that waste could devastate the environment, adding that the state had commenced the monthly environmental sanitation to keep it clean and healthy.

He said his administration would continue to sensitisation the people on indiscriminate dumping of waste in drainage and the need to convert of waste to wealth.

Mr Tanko Auta, the Sole Administrator of Nasarawa State Waste Management Bureau said that greater Karu was adjudged by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to be the fastest growing urban centre in the world.

He assured the ministry that the intervention projects would be judiciously utilised for the purpose they were meant for.(NAN)

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) The National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) on Thursday organised a capacity building on film classification for 200 youths in Maiduguri and provided them with start-up grant and packs.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NFVCB organised the programme in collaboration with the State’s Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.

The beneficiaries, drawn from different Local Government Areas, including IDP camps, were trained and made ‘Community Ambassadors’ of the NFVCB against unclassified films and harmful video contents in the state.

Mr Adedayo Thomas, Executive Director of the NFVCB, said the event was in furtherance of the board’s capacity building and mentorship initiative in the creative sector for youths in the North East.

According to him, Maiduguri is chosen for the event to complement the state government’s effort at ensuring that youths are positively engaged.

“This is another programme in our implementation series for zonal intervention projects on youth and women capacity building and media literacy.

“Over the last nine months, we have touched all the regions of the country and we are glad we could extend this here in partnership with the Borno State Ministry of Women and Social Development.

“This programme entails the sensitisation of youths on the importance of film classification and censorship as well as the various openings in the film and video sector that they can leverage to empower themselves.

“The participants will be inaugurated today as NFVCB ambassadors and given mobile phones each for easy contact with the board to help in sanitising and protecting our cultural and social values as a nation,” said.

Thomas commended the state for the collaboration, adding that young talents abound in the state that needed to be given necessary support and enabling environment.

He, therefore, urged the state government to create film villages to serve as hubs for the incubation and nurturing of talents and to boost job creation and revenue in the state.

He added that there was need for the state to create its Film Classification Board in order to properly oversee development of its movie industry, preserve and protect cultural and moral values.

“The people can tell their own compelling stories in their local languages and sell to the world through transliteration and subtitling.

“We believe there is an urgent need to tap into the inherent opportunities and gains for the State, as Nigeria is now the New Emerging Film Market in the global space,” he said.

Gov. Babagana Zulum of Borno, who was the Special Guest of Honour, commended the NFVCB and the state Ministry of Women Affairs for the initiative.

The Governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Mr Saryinna Buba, said the state would work with the NFVCB to harness the creative potentials in the state.

Earlier in her remarks, Zuwaira Gambo, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, said the ministry, was committed to collaborations that would engender development in the state.

Gambo, who is also a board member of the NFVCB, said the beneficiaries were carefully selected in order of needs and talents.

“There are youths from IDP camps selected for this training to enable them become engaged as part of government’s rehabilitation and empowerment efforts.

NAN reports that seasoned industry players and management team of the NFVCB, as well as top government officials from the state were present at the event.

(flowerbudnews)   The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers has urged House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) to avert looming danger by stopping the sale of liquified petroleum gas otherwise known as cooking gas in filling stations in the country.

The president of the association, Mr Nosa Ogieva-Okunbor, made the call while addressing the Deputy Chairman of the committee, Rep.Alex Egbona (PDP-Cross River) in his office on Thursday in Abuja.

Ogieva-Okunbor said that the association had approached the committee to help resolve some dangerous trends in the industry.

He said that as a result of the expansion in the industry following government efforts in 2007, some Nigerians were taking advantage of the industry in a way that posed danger to Nigerians.

He said that although the association wanted every Nigerian to use gas, it would not lose sight of the safety aspect of it.

Ogieva-Okunbor said that it was unsafe for filling stations that dispensed petrol for vehicles to be filling gas cylinders in the same location.

He said that selling of cooking gas in filling stations should be stopped because of the inherent dangers.

According to him, terrorists could cash into that; the security risk is very is so enormous, there is nowhere in the world where gas cylinders are filled in petrol stations.

He appealed to the committee not to let industry die, recommending that all stakeholders should be brought to the table to revive the industry.

He said if Nigeria could get a bigger vessel and smaller ones to supply Lagos and other deports of the country, gas importation could be stopped.

The Deputy Chairman the committee, Dr Alex Egbona (PDP-Cross River), said that the committee was aware of the challenges.

He noted that before the end of the present administration, most of the challenges would be addressed.

Egbona said that before the end of the year or early next year, all the stakeholders would be invited to discuss issues in the industry and how to resolve them.

He also said that the committee was passionate and want to see that every Nigeria used gas for cooking.(NAN)

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) Nigeria’s participation at the 39th Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX), held in Dubai showed the seriousness of the country to showcase its indigenous technology.

The 2019 GITEX, attracted over 200,000 trade visitors, investors, technology experts, multi-national companies and other interests groups from over 145 countries.

The 2019 GITEX Technology Week, that took place from Oct.6 to Oct. 10, provided platform for participants to share evolving ICT trends.

It brought together arrays of innovative, exciting and ambitious tech start-ups that displayed their world-changing ideas to an audience of hand-picked international investors.

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), that has the mandate to regulate the country’s IT sector spearheaded Nigeria’s participation at the GITEX.

Dr Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications, who led the Nigerian delegation, said Nigeria was at the event to showcase the country’s potential as well as network.

“Our mission is to showcase talents, potential, network with other innovators, learn from them and  showcase our local content, solicit for investors to our innovations, look out for technology transfer, because you cannot undermine the capacity of those you wish to learn from,’’ Pantami said.

He also launched NITDA’s indigenous `Unity Board,’ an education technology hardware platform for teaching emerging technologies.

Being Pantami’s initiative while he was Director-General of NITDA, he said the construction of the board took three years, and was co-authored by Dr Agu Collins, the Director, Corporate Planning and Strategy Department of NITDA.

Collins said the board would facilitate teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) from the basics.

“STEAM education kit is to drive learning and teaching of Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and artificial intelligence, accelerate local content development and indigenisation of technology, through human capital development in emerging technologies.

“Unity Board is a creative medium for advancing teaching and learning, designed specifically as hands-on learning tool to help today’s students to build skills for the creative and digital economy through critical thinking.’’

According to him, it is a board that brings all Nigerians together, showing local content, which is one of the cardinal policies of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

“It can be used in tertiary institutions, it can create an Internet of Things (IoT) system, that can give pre-warning on flooding, remote sensing and in other areas,’’ Collins added.

The communications minister also wooed investors to invest in Africa, especially Nigeria as the country has the population with favourable investment climate.

“The United Nations estimates that half of global population growth, projected to occur between now and 2050, is expected to occur in Africa.

“These statistics show that even though we already have a large market of about 1.2 billion people in Africa, investors should expect an even larger market in the upcoming years.

“Nigeria’s geographic and financial position on the continent make it a very strategic country and good starting point for investors interested in the African continent.

“Nigeria is located between the Central and Western parts of Africa and offers investors’ immediate access to over half of the African continent, represented by those that reside in Western and Central Africa,’’ he said.

Pantami further said that with an average age of over 18 years, Nigeria has a potential and critical mass of ‘digital natives’ that could transform the country into a regional and global ICT power house.

Citing World Bank records, the minister said that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was valued at 397 billion dollars, the largest economy in Africa, and has the 10th largest oil reserve in the world.

He said that investors could acquire visa on arrival, register businesses online, up to 95 per cent, which could be done electronically.

The Director-General of NITDA, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, who spoke on participation of Nigeria’s start-ups at GITEX, said the young innovators had global innovative ideas, but needed an enabling environment and the right mentorship.

He said: “A lot of start-ups are coming up in the country and this shows that government’s effort toward building the ICT sector is yielding positive results.

“Before, oil was the major contributor to our Gross Domestic Product, but now, ICT has taken over; ICT contributes almost 13.6 per cent to our GDP, while oil contributes only about 8 per cent.

“Job opportunities lie so much in ICT; it is just for us to find out the right potential within our environment and develop it,” Inuwa emphasised.

The D-G further said that NITDA, which is the clearing house for all Federal Government’s ICT projects, gives it the opportunity to liaise with investors in a fair and sustainable manner.

He restated that the agency has been using its regulatory framework to drive investment, adding that the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) is the only data protection law in the world that creates a class of professionals called the Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCOs).

According to Inuwa, the DPCOs are licensed to help over 1.5 million organisations, that comply with data protection laws in the country, while the regulation implementation would create over 300,000 jobs by 2023.

“Our local content guidelines also give an opportunity for investors in indigenous ICT companies to reap the abundant opportunities available in Nigeria.

“A ready pool of young digital natives awaits investors in our ICT sector. With a population having an average age of 18.2 years, Nigeria is the 22nd youngest country on earth.

“The youthfulness of our population is an asset and the fact that many young Nigerians are ICT enthusiasts even makes it better,’’ he said.

Inuwa also expressed delight that NITDA’s partnership with European Data Protection Office (EDPO) would enable business entities in Nigeria comply with the country’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

He said: “EDPO would facilitate Nigeria’s aspiration to become the first African country to meet the European Union’s GDPR adequacy requirement, which would open Nigerian businesses to opportunities in the European market.

“NITDA will through its licensed Data Protection Compliance Organisations, assist Nigerian entities to be fully compliant with the GDPR to ensure global competitiveness and business continuity,” he added.

Besides the Unity Board and securing partnership with the EDPO, NITDA showcased some ICT start-ups, with “angel innovations,’’ at the global space.

The start-ups are: Chiniki Guard, an Artificial Intelligence-based security solution for retail stores, to monitor shoplifting, Blue Circle of Notitia, a health solution that digitises patients’ medical history, 247 Medics, also a health solution, that connects doctors with patients across the country within a maximum waiting time of 10 minutes.

Others are Zowasel, an agrotech solution, that provides access to alternate financing and premium markets for all players in the agricultural value chain.

Naira Packet, a Fintech solution, that reduces the costs of micro-transactions in the country and Sublime Square, a waste management solution, designed to ensure an efficient and faster waste evacuation and management.

Chiniki Guard and 247 Medics, were outstanding in the competition for 750 start-ups from 75 countries, that made it to the SupaNova semi-finals of the  GITEX contest.
Chiniki Guard, emerged the first start-up in the AI category competition, with prize money of 10,000 dollars.

The feat enhanced investors’ interest of developing the innovation to commercial and impacting standard.