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  • Immigration Board promotes 10 ACGs to DCGs across its four Services

    The Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board (CDFIPB) has promoted 10 officers from their former ranks of Assistant Controllers/Commandants and Assistant Comptrollers –General (ACGs).

    The men moved to the ranks of Deputy Controllers/Commandants and  Deputy Comptrollers-General (DCGs) across its four Services.

    Mrs  Georgina Ehuriah, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Interior, announced this on Friday in Abuja, in a statement signed by  Mr Mohammed Manga, Director Press and Public Relations of the ministry.

    According to the statement, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the promotion thus enabling the board to act.

    ‘’The Board in compliance with its guidelines on Appointment, Promotion and Discipline has recently conducted written and oral examinations and interviews for the affected ranks in the respective Services.

    ‘’This is  with the aim of filling the available vacancies in tandem with the Federal Character Principle, for which each geo-political zone is expected to produce at least one officer on the rank of Deputy Controllers/Commandants and Deputy Comptrollers-General (DCGs).

    “Consequently, President Muhammadu Buhari has therefore approved the promotion of the officers to their new ranks following their excellent performance both during the written and oral examinations as well as interviews recently conducted by the Board in line with its statutory responsibility.”

    Ehuriah in the statement listed the names of the promoted officers as Azogu Gerald of federal fire service (Imo – South East)

    Officers promoted in Nigeria Prison Service are: Bitrus Filibus (Borno – North East); Aremu Tajudeen (Oyo – South West); and Mbabure John (Delta – South South).

    In the NSCDC THOSE promoted are: Adamu Soja (Yobe – North East); and Aminu Abdullahi Katsina (North West).

    Others from NIS are Ogwu Julius (Benue – NorthCentral); Uebari Saro (Rivers – S/S); Idris Here (Kaduna – N/W) and Didi Adaeze (Rivers  – S/S).

    Ehuriah urged the newly-promoted officers of the Services under the Ministry to ensure improved security and service delivery in line with the policy direction of the Buhari administration.

    She congratulated the officers on their promotion and assured them of the support of the Ministry.

    She however, implored them to reciprocate the gesture by giving the best of their service towards ensuring the consolidation of the reform policies of the present Administration. (NAN)

  • PTDF tasks PHD candidates on research works to solve challenges

    PTDF Executive Secretary Aliyu Gusau

    By Edith Ike-Eboh

    Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), has urged selected candidates for the 2019 overseas PHD scholarship programme to focus on research works that will proffer solutions to challenges in the oil and gas sector.

    Dr Bello Gusau, the Executive Secretary of PTDF gave the charge at the induction for beneficiaries of the scholarship programme in Abuja.

    “You are here because you have been selected after a rigorous process that looked at your earlier academic work and your statement of purpose.

    “At PHD level, we are not interested in your skills, we are particular with your research work and we charge you to focus on the ones that can tackle interesting challenges.

    “Put in your best, appreciate the opportunity the country has given to you by selecting you to be a beneficiary among multitude of applicants,’’ he said.

    He assured that PTDF would support them to have a smooth stay abroad while on study but advised that they should be focused and diligent.

    Gusau noted that the Fund, which was working with scarce resources, may not be able to support anyone who could not finish his or her programme as scheduled.

    “You must appreciate the fact that the country is supporting you, therefore, you must strive to give something back in return.

    “Wherever you find yourself, respect the rules and regulations of the country and institutions you are going to be in.

    “Go the extra mile to leave a positive impression as good ambassadors of Nigeria,’’ he said.

    Earlier in his presentation, the Special Adviser to the      Director-General of the Nigeria Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr David Akoji advised scholars to uphold the ethics stipulated in the 1999 Constitution.

    He listed the ethics as discipline, integrity, dignity, religious tolerance, patriotism and self reliance.

    “These ethics are stipulated in Chapter II, Section 23 of the 1999 constitution and if you hold unto it, you will be outstanding while studying abroad.

    “Nigeria is a great country and it our duty as Nigerians to pride ourselves with what we have by representing the country well anywhere we find ourselves.

    “Being disciplined will help you to respect rules of the country and your school of study, ensuring integrity will help you to be honest and exhibit strong moral principle.

    “The countries you are going to have various religious pratcises, therefore, you are bound to respect and tolerate people with various religious belief,’’ he said.

    He urged scholars to seek solution to any challenge they come across while on study from the appropriate channel.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 148 people were selected for the 2019 overseas PhD programme and 194 for the masters’ programme.

    The PhD scholars had been admitted in various universities in United Kingdom, France and Germany. (NAN)

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  • Jacob Zuma to face corruption inquiry

    South Africa’s Zuma to face corruption inquiry

    Former South African president Jacob Zuma will be questioned at a public inquiry into state graft on Monday, a dramatic fall from grace for a politician who has cast a long shadow over the country’s politics for the past decade.

    Zuma, ousted by the governing African National Congress (ANC) in February 2018, will be asked to respond to allegations that he allowed cronies to plunder state resources and influence senior government appointments during his nine years in power.

    He has consistently denied wrongdoing, saying the allegations against him are politically motivated. His lawyer said in a letter to the inquiry last month that Zuma believed it was prejudiced against him.

    Zuma is expected to give evidence from Monday to Friday, testimony that will be broadcast live on South African television to millions of viewers.

    It is a rare example of an African leader being brought to book soon after losing power.

    Zuma, 77, has also been in court on several occasions over the past year to answer corruption charges linked to a deal to buy military hardware for the armed forces in the 1990s.

    He set up the corruption inquiry in his final weeks in office under pressure from rivals in the ANC, including his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, who feared scandals surrounding Zuma could tarnish the party’s reputation indelibly.

    Zuma had avoided establishing the inquiry since a 2016 report by the country’s anti-corruption watchdog, the public protector, instructed him to do so to investigate allegations that three Gupta brothers had been able to influence ministerial appointments and had won state contracts improperly.

    The Gupta family, business friends of Zuma, denied the accusations and left South Africa around the time that Zuma was ousted.

    Ramaphosa, Zuma’s former deputy, has made sweeping personnel changes in government and state-owned companies as part of an effort to curb corruption and revive the stagnant economy.However, he has been hampered by the lingering influence that Zuma and his allies exert over the ANC’s top decision-making bodies, as well as by the scale of the problems he inherited.

    The inquiry, headed by South Africa’s deputy chief justice, Raymond Zondo, held its first hearing in August and is due to finish next year.

    Reuters

  • Tribunal: Leave Justice Ijorhor alone – Group tells A/Ibom APC

    Tribunal: Leave Justice Ijorhor alone – Group tells A/Ibom APC

    A socio-political group, Akwa Ibom Liberation Movement (AILM) has called on the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state not to blame Justice Jennifer Ijohor for their seeming poor outing at the Tribunal.

    The group while reacting to demands by the APC for the removal of Ijihor from the tribunal, stressed that the party should rather focus on getting their lawyers and witnesses to present a formidable case.

    Addressing journalists in Uyo on Sunday, Acting Secretary of AILM, Barr. Solomon Abasiekong, said the APC demand indirectly reflects their resort to blackmail having performed poorly at the tribunal.

    “Let everyone note that the attempt by APC to blackmail members of the tribunal particularly Justice Ijohor, is the last resort for the party. By now the APC knows it has no case; however leaders of the party are looking for what to hold on to.”

    “We advise them to desist from their current deceitful attempt to whip unnecessary sentiments against the election petitions tribunal by blaming Justice Jennifer Ijohor for its woes at the election tribunal,” he said.

    Abasiekong alleged that the leadership of APC in the State was making frantic attempts to accuse members of the tribunal of compromise, with the intent to have some of them replaced.

    The group claimed it has received reliable intelligence that stalwarts of the APC are working frantically towards relocating the tribunal to Abuja.

    “We are aware of the antics of the APC, part of it is to accuse the tribunal of working for the PDP and using that to campaign for the relocation of the tribunal from the State.

    “Every reasonable person who has followed proceedings of the tribunal will quickly corroborate that there has not been any crises or security challenge to warrant any person or group to call for the relocation of the tribunal.”

    The group called on the President of the Court of Appeal to ignore the purported attempt by Akwa Ibom APC to have the tribunal relocated from Uyo.


  • American Airlines to ground Boeing 737 Max till Nov.3

    American Airlines to Ground Boeing 737 Max

    American Airlines says it will keep the Boeing 737 Max plane off its schedule until Nov. 3, which is two months longer than it has planned.

    In a statement, American said the action will result in the cancellation of about 115 flights per day. It said it “remains confident” that the Boeing plane will be recertified this year. But some airline executives are growing doubtful about that timetable.

    United Airlines announced Friday that it was extending its cancellations until Nov. 3, a month longer than it had planned.

    United has 14 Max jets while American has 24 of them. Southwest Airlines, which has 34 Max jets — more than any other carrier — is canceling about 150 flights per day.

    The announcement Sunday marked the fifth time that American Airlines had pushed back the expected time that the Max would resume flying.

    “American Airlines remains confident that impending software updates to the Boeing 737 Max, along with the new training elements Boeing is developing in coordination with our union partners, will lead to recertification of the aircraft this year,” the airline said.

    In its previous announcement of further flight cancellations last month, American Airlines had said it had expected the recertification to be accomplished “soon.”

    In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Airlines, said, “I expect it’s going to take longer than people expect” before the Max is certified to fly again. He said he could not venture a guess as to when that might occur.

    The Federal Aviation Administration has said it is following a thorough process but has no timetable for when the recertification will be completed.

    The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that fixing the 737 Max’s faulty flight-control software and completing other steps to start carrying passengers will likely stretch into 2020.

    Unnamed officials at the FAA and pilot-union leaders were quoted as saying that no firm timeline has been established but one scenario anticipates the plane could return to the air in January 2020.

  • Kano state Govt. vows to stop street begging

    Some Nigerian children begging for alms with bowl in their hands

    By Mohammed Nur Tijani

    Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, has reiterated his administration’s determination to stop beggars and almajiris from roaming the streets seeking for alms in the state.

    Ganduje stated this while addressing the new House of Representatives’ Majority Leader, Alhaji Alhassan Ado Doguwa and the people of his constituency, who paid him a courtesy call at Government House, Kano on Sunday.

    He said, “I holistically consider free and compulsory education as my major cardinal thrust considering the compelling need for me to take millions of kids out of school to access education.’

    He said that the practice must stop as Islam frowned at begging as a means of livelihood.

    “Begging under whatever guise is not legitimised in Islam and I am determined to stop it at all costs.

    “All those that see begging as Islamic are ignorant of the Islamic law.

    ‘‘I have made it explicitly clear that my government is on course to introduce compulsory and free education at primary and secondary school levels in the state,’’ Ganduje said.

    According to him, the state government conceived the idea of creating new additional emirates for the overall development of the areas affected in the face of the prevailing challenges.

    “Those opposing the creation of the new emirates are only being myopic and inconsiderate because they have failed to see things beyond their noses.

    “We have created the four new emirates not with the intention of offending or hurting anyone but to ensure even development,” Ganduje said.

    He said his administration was a government of continuity and that he would leave no stone unturned in forging ahead with notable developmental projects left by his predecessors.

    He gave assurance that he would complete all the abandoned five- kilometre road dual carriageways in all the headquarters of 44 local government areas of the state.

    In his remarks, Alhaji Alhassan Ado-Doguwa said the people of Doguwa and Tudun-Wada Federal constituency were at the Government House to express their gratitude to Ganduje over the role he played in ensuring that he became House Majority leader.

    “We are here to thank you for the pivotal role you played in realising my ambition of becoming the House majority leader of the lower chamber of the National Assembly,” he said.

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  • UNIBEN final year student jumps from 2-storey building

    UNIBEN final Year Student jumps over 2-storey building

    A yet-to-be identified final year student student of the University of Benin, UNIBEN, has reportedly committed suicide by jumping down from the 2nd floor of a hostel building.

    The incident occurred Sunday evening at the Faculty of Arts.

    The deceased male student was said to be a student of the Department of Actuarial Science, Faculty of Management Sciences.

    As at the time of filing this report, it was not clear if the deceased left a suicide note.

    It was, however, gathered that the victim who was supposed to have graduated before now, had a spill over.

    Efforts to get confirmation from the Public Relations Officer of the University, Mr. Michael Osasuyi, failed, as calls made to his mobile phone failed to connect.

    It would be recalled that a 21-year-old student of the University, Christabel Buoro, also committed suicide over alleged failed love affair.

    The lifeless body of the 300-level student of Medical Laboratory Science was discovered four weeks ago at her hostel located on Plot 4 Uwaifo Lane, off Newton Street, Ekosodin, a sprawling students’ community behind the University’s main campus.

    Unconfirmed reports had it that Christabel mixed sniper, a popular insecticide, with a bottle of soft drink, which she allegedly drank.

    Source:

  • NUJ hails Gbajabiamila, Wase over appointment of her members

    NUJ hails Gbajabiamila, Wase over appointment of her members

    The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ),  Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Correspondents’ Chapel has commended the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and his deputy, Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase for appointing its members as his media aides.

    In a statement issued Sunday in Abuja and jointly signed by the Chairman of the Chapel, Philip Nyam and the Secretary, Jide Oyekunle, the body commended Gbajabiamila and Wase saying by these appointments, they have confirmed their confidence in Nigerian media.

    “Your Excellency,  you have broken the jinx that have existed over the years with the appointment of round pegs in round holes, which will continue to be a reference point in the annals of history.

    “It gladdens our heart that you have taken professionalism and expertise in selecting your information managers.

    “We commend you for appointing these highly proficient persons, Lanre Lasisi of Channels TV,  Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Musa Abdullahi Krishi of Daily Trust, Chief Press Secretary and Dele Anofi  of The Nation Newspapers as Special Assistant (Print Media).

    “We equally appreciate the Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase for appointing Mohammed Umar Puma of Peoples Daily Newspapers as Chief Press Secretary”

    “It is our hope that these highly cerebral and tested journalists imbued with experience will contribute immensely towards the achievement of your policy agenda of ” Nation Building; a Joint Task.

    According to the Chapel,  by choosing to appoint journalists who report from the House of Representatives as their aides, it is an indication that both presiding officers appreciate the media and the exploits of those they have chosen.

    The Chapel  noted that Gbajabiamila is the first speaker and in deed the first presiding officer ever in the history of the Nigerian parliament to appoint three journalists covering the same beat as his media aides at the same time.

    “It is gratifying to note that the speaker respects professionalism. Instead of appointing nonprofessionals, the speaker has acknowledged the contributions of the journalists reporting the Parliament, and handed them the responsibility of managing his image. This is a master stroke and we believe with these appointments, the 9th House would have a seamless working relationship with the media”.

    “We congratulate Lanre Lasisi, the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity; Musa Abdullahi Krishi, the Chief Press Secretary and Dele Anofi, the Special Assistant (print media) and Mohammed Umar Puma, Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Speaker on their well deserved appointments.

    “We urge you not to betray the confidence the speaker has in you, the House Press Corps and Nigerian journalism in general.

    “We can attest to the fact that these three gentlemen are journalists of high standing; and we have no doubt that they will do the journalism profession proud and serve the nation with the best of their ability”, the statement stated.

    “Mr. Speaker, the chapel will like to assure you that our members covering House of Representatives will continue to collaborate with the 9th National Assembly  to ensuring strategic communication of your policies and programmes”,   the group assured.

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  • NiMet predicts chances of increased rainfall on Monday 15/07/2019.

    NiMet predicts chances of increased rainfall on Monday

    Gabriel Agbeja

    The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has predicted chances of increased rainfall and thundery activities within the country on Monday.

    NiMet’s weather output on Sunday in Abuja predicted thunderstorms over Sokoto, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa and other Northern States in the morning hours.

    It forecast thunderstorm/ rain over most part of the region in the day, with day and night temperatures of 29 to 31 degree Celsius and 22 to 24 degree Celsius respectively.

    ” For Central States thunderstorms/ rain are anticipated over the region in the morning hours.

    ” There are possibilities of thunderstorm/rains over Abuja, Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau and Bauchi state during the afternoon/evening hours.

    “Day and night temperature are expected to be 25 to 30 degree Celsius and 22 to 24 degree Celcius respectively, except for Jos 25/11oC,” NiMet said.

    The agency envisaged intermittent/ moderate rains over most places in Southern States throughout the period of forecast.

    According to NiMet, day and night temperatures of the region are to be 27 to 30 degree Celsius and 21 to24 degree Celsius respectively. (NAN)

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