Dries Mertens and Fernando Llorente scored late goals as Napoli defeated holders Liverpool 2-0 in Tuesday’s opening round of Champions League group stage matches.
Mertens converted a penalty on 82 minutes and Llorente added a second in stoppage time as Napoli gained a measure of revenge for last season’s 1-0 loss at Anfield that denied the Italians a spot in the knockout rounds.
(AFP)
A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Hon. Ayoola Lawal has commended the Chairman, Air Peace Airline, Bar. Allen Onyema for his heroic kindness in airlifting Nigerians from South Africa to Nigeria.
He hailed the kind gestures of Onyema in responding to such a critical situation to save the lives of Nigerian citizens regardless of ethnic background.
In a statement made available to The Nation, He said “The Chairman of Air peace airline, Mr. Allen Onyema’s heroic act of kindness, patriotism, and pure leadership in airlifting stranded Nigerians that were targets of the barbaric killings in South Africa is worthy of commendation”
He however urged Nigerians to support Onyema’s business and encourage him to be the best airline in Africa and possibly the world best airline soon.
Lawal, also hailed the efforts of the Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa for living up to expectations once again through seeing to the effective and prompt evacuation of Nigerians caught up in the xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
He further commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s hard stance against South African government on the issue of killings of Nigerians and other African nationalities urging other African leaders to always take immediate actions when it comes to its citizen’s rights.
He said, “Our leaders across the board should reflect on the barbaric killings of Nigerians in South Africa as part of their leadership failures because most of the Nigerians became victims because they traveled in search of green pastures.
“This should serve as a clarion call to all our leaders to discharge their duties in providing a conducive environment for Nigerians to strive, create job and ensure basic amenities for all because no individual will leave his or her country in search of greener pasture when he/she as a son/daughter of nobody can become somebody without knowing anybody.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Uyo Zonal Office, has arrested three men in Uyo for impersonating the staff of the Commission.
EFCC spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, in a statement on Tuesday, said the men also impersonated officials of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
According to him, the suspects are Norbert Rampa, 51, Patrick Essien, 50 and Gabriel Daniel 32.
He said that the trio along with other members of their team had last year September paid a courtesy visit to the Commission’s Uyo office, under the auspicies of Grassroots Development Advocacy Initiative (GDAI).
“They claimed that the initiative was a registered organisation with the National Anti-Corruption Coalition (NACC).
“During the visit, its national director, Essien spoke extensively on the several trainings that the members had gone through to ensure grassroots engagements in budget processes, aimed at sustaining the fight against corruption.
“They, however, requested that they be granted operational powers, to which the Zonal Head, Mr Garba Dugum refused and advised them to rather report all perceived corrupt practices to the commission.”
Uwujaren further said that forged documents recovered from their apartments included Fake EFCC letterhead papers, ICPC operational jackets, forged identity cards of NACC of ICPC/EFCC Partnership. (NAN)
Traditional rulers in Owo and Ose Local Government Areas of Ondo State, have lauded the Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu administration for the various infrastructure developments in their various communities.
The traditional rulers spoke in Owo at a consultative meeting organised by the state Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Olowo of Owo, Oba Ajibade Gbadegesin Ogunoye was represented by the Ojumu of Owo, High Chief Olarewaju Famakinwa,
The traditional ruler said the people of the state were particularly grateful to Akeredolu for changing the face of many towns and villages with road construction and other laudable projects.
NAN further reports that the meeting was part of the 2020 budget preparation and the 2020-2022 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).
In his own address, the Alani of Idoani, Oba Olufemi Olutoye, also said that he was impressed by the governor’s infrastructure development across the state.
Olutoye said the people of the area were going to reciprocate Akeredolu’s good governance of the state by massively voting for his second term bid during the next governorship election in 2020.
Earlier in his address, the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr Emmanuel Igbasan, said that the present government had executed more than 280 projects in the two Local Government Areas.
According to Igbasan, these projects include constructions and rehabilitations of roads as well as boreholes through ‘Kamomi Aketi’ Accelerated Water Scheme.
Others are rehabilitation and construction of public primary schools, health facilities, distribution of agricultural seedlings and inputs, among others.
Igbasan, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Bunmi Alade, said the interaction would enable government to always go for people’s top priority projects.
He added that it would foster better relationship and improve public awareness of government’s policies, programmes and achievements.
Igbasan said Akeredolu had laid a solid foundation for sustainable development with the 2018 budget while the 2019 budget was built on the modest achievements of the 2018 budget.
He added that the 2020 budget would focus on projects that would have positive impacts and transform the lives of the citizens, particularly youths and women through agriculture, micro, small and medium scale enterprises among others.
Igbasan stated that the state government developed the bottom-up approach in its budget preparation to accommodate the interest of various groups and embark on projects that were chosen by the people, a clear departure from past administrations.
In his opening remarks, the Director of Budget, Mr Stephen Aworere, said the forum was meant to enhance transparency and accountability in the budget preparation process of the states.
He stated that the rationale behind the adoption of MTEF was to achieve accurate estimation of resources available to the state within the medium term planning horizon.
NAN reports that the meeting was attended by caretaker chairmen in the zone, market women, non governmental organisations, youth leaders, farmers and other stakeholders.(NAN)
Governor Dapo Abiodun on Tuesday disclosed that the Security Trust Fund initiated and launched by his predecessor; Ibikunle Amosun, failed and blamed the then Governor for its failure.
Amosun launched the Trust Fund during the early life of his first tenure as Governor but the initial enthusiasm that trailed the initiative soon fizzled out after it was inaugurated and was rarely heard of in his second term of four years.
But Abiodun who spoke at a “thank you meeting” with members of his All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state to appreciate them for their support, especially during his pre – election court cases and the Election Petition Tribunal, said Amosun’s Trust Fund initiative failed because of the way it was managed.
The Governor who did not elaborate on how the style of running the fund led to its failure, added that he decided to send a bill for an amendment of the law establishing the Trust Fund to avoid a repeat of the fate that befell it under the last administration.
According to him, the previous security trust fund was beset by “governance issues.”
He explained that the new amended Security Trust Fund has at its management level, a “wholesome team of people whose job is to ensure that they liaise with” the law enforcement agencies, look at their needs, provide the funding and manage it.
Abiodun stressesed that the team would enjoy autonomy and be independent in carrying out their responsibility in a manner devoid of a situation where the Governor would turn them into errand boys.
He said: “We are determined to make this state a safe state for ourselves, the citizens, our visitors, residents and investors. We will not tolerate lawless under any guise. We will not tolerate indiscipline, we will not tolerate cultism.
“If we indeed want to attract investors to Ogun state, if indeed the Ogun state citizens have entrusted me with their mandate as the chief security officer of this state, I must ensure that people can go about their legitimate businesses, sleep in their homes without having to worry about crime or criminals. So we began to take the issue of security very seriously and very important.
“We cannot invite people to come and invest in this state when it is one day of kidnappings, the other of armed robbery. So we decided that we are going amend the law that set up our security trust fund so that it has appropriate governance and why do we do that, we realised the fact that the previous security trust fund failed, it failed because of governance issues and we thought we needed to look at that.
“We have amended it, through the State House of Assembly, we sent the law to them, they approved it, we reconstituted that trust fund to ensure it has the right combination of people, to make sure that the trust fund has people of integrity that can add value to the fund.
“We looked at what other funds were coin in other parts of the country. So we now have the chairman, the executive secretary, we have people on the board who come from the private sector. We chose the chairman from the organised private sector, who is no other person than Mr. Bolaji Balogun who is the chairman of larfage.
“We chose the executive secretary Mr. Opeyemi Agbaje who has been the executive secretary of the Lagos state security trust fund for seven years. We have our banker friends, we decided that we are going to have an executive director each from a bank, this assures inclusiveness and they are buying into it.
“We now decided to have our royal fathers and also our father’s in both sides of the religion. We put a retired AIG, who sits on the board of INTERPOL.
“We have a wholesome team of people whose job is to ensure that they liaise with our law enforcement agencies, look at their needs, they provide the funding and they manage the funding. On our part as a State, we will also provide our counterpart funding.
“In the mean time, we have also appointed auditors because it is not a case of me, the governor calling on the members of the trust fund to go and buy this and go and buy that.
“The governance is instituted in it so that they are independent, they are autonomous, they take decisions accordingly, they fuel the vehicles and equipment, they maintain them so this is sustainable.
” We felt that this is very important if we indeed must fight crime, if we indeed must ensure that people continue to live, reside and work in Ogun state, if indeed we want to invite people to Ogun state and we want Ogun state to be that investment number one choice destination in this country.”
An NGO, Aid Foundation, on Tuesday urged Nigerians to always speak out against corruption and demand for accountability in governance.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NGO made the appeal at a town hall meeting on corruption held in Kaduna.
The programme was supported by Action Aid, with funding from United Kingdom Agency for International Development under Strengthening Citizens Resistance Against Prevalence of Corruption (SCRAP-C).
The meeting was also organised in partnership with Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission, Kaduna Electric and the Police.
Others are the Kaduna State Ministries of Health, Education and Justice, Human Services and Social Development, Works as well as the state Internal Revenue Service.
The Executive Director of the foundation, Mr Emmanuel Bonet, said that the objective was to ensure that citizens do what is right of them and keep away from all forms of corrupt practices.
He also said that the foundation had been enlightening citizens on the steps to take in speaking against corruption, upholding values of honesty, integrity, transparency and hard work in every sphere of life.
“As good citizen, we should refuse to give or take bribes or gratifications before carrying out our services, every meaningful individual, organization or group should mandate themselves on discouraging and reporting corruption.”
Bonet added that the foundation works around thematic areas including governance, monitor and analyse budgets, promote peace building and anti-corruption crusades.
“We have decided to make the town hall meetings quarterly to provide platform for government and citizens to interface, and for the government to tell the citizens about their reform programs.
“The government should listen to the people, they would focus more on areas being pointed out by the people and improve more on the services provided,” he said.
Earlier, The Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Hajiya Hadiza Balarabe, said that such gathering was important to the government, as it provides opportunity to discuss with citizens on how to improve service delivery.
She also said that the fight against corruption was one of the cardinal principles of the state government, as it strives to ensure equity and transparency in delivering its mandate.
The deputy governor who was represented by Ado Zakari, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, said the government was doing a lot to strengthen primary health care services.
“We have established the Kaduna State Primary Halthcare Development Agency and brought together all the components of primary health care into one, so as to ease administration and service delivery.
“We try as much as possible to ensure equity in the provision of the services. To achieve this, we are working to have a facility in every political ward under the representation of a councillor.
“The facilities would be well equipped and well staffed, and capable of providing service 24 hours every day at every ward.
“At the secondary level, a lot has also been done to ensure good service delivery; in 2017, we did a gap analysis of human resource at the secondary health care facilities and we presented it to the governor.
“We later recruited Doctors and Nurses to fill in the gaps, currently, we have an agreement with an international organization to supply all the needed equipment we need at both primary and secondary healthcare facilities”, he said.
The Kaduna Zonal Head of EFCC, Mr Yakubu Mailafia, said that the meeting would assist citizens to know how corruption cases are reported, the type of cases the EFCC handles and where the EFCC’s offices are situated.
He called on the citizens to desist from any form of crime, stressing that nobody is above the law.
Mailafia assured that the commission was always ready to assist citizens who fall victims of fraud to get justice.
NAN reports that questions were asked by some participants on contemporary issues and problems confronting Kaduna state and the country at large.
NAN also reports that phone numbers of various government organizations and ministries were shared to enable citizens complain on irregularities and inefficiency noticed on services being delivered by the organizations.(NAN)
The leadership crisis rocking the Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) has taken a new dimension, with the expulsion of the National President, Mr Osakpanwan Eriyo, by the National Executive Council (NEC).
The RTEAN NEC, which took the decision at an emergency meeting in Lagos on Tuesday, also announced the suspension of the union’s Secretary- General, Mr Ibrahim Yusuf.
It consequently announced the appointment of Alh. Mohammed Musa, the Deputy National President (Administration) and Mr Henry Ejiofor, the Deputy Secretary-General, as replacements for the duo, in acting capacity.
The NEC said that the expulsion Eriyo and Yusuf followed allegations of fraudulent activities against them and the alleged creation of chaos in some state executive councils of the union.
Addressing newsmen after the emergency meeting, Alhaji Adamu Jalaludeen, the First Assistant National Secretary-General of the union, urged the government and the general public to stop recognising the duo as RTEAN officials.
Jalaludeen alleged that Eriyo, having been suspended and dismissed in 2017 for anti-union activities in Benin, enthroned himself through a coup in September 2018 as the de facto president, in connivance with Yusuf.
“Within the past one year since the unconstitutional take over, our association has witnessed a drastic decadence and erosion of the values which it had stood for,” he said.
According to him, legal steps will be taken to ensure that the expelled national president and secretary-general are not seen close to the association’s secretariat.
Jalaludeen alleged that the expelled members had an expansionist agenda of annexing and personalising various state chapters and enthroning their appendages and surrogates to perpetuate their corrupt practices.
He said that the agenda had seen a disruption in the union’s activities in Kaduna, Ogun, Niger and, more recently, in Lagos State.
Jalaludeen also alleged that the duo had been involved in ticket racketeering, funds diversion and sidetracking of the NEC in decision-making, saying that no NEC meeting was conveyed before the dissolution of the Lagos chapter of the association’s executive committee .
He said that the Lagos executive committee had unanimously resolved to support the second term bid of the state chairman, and that the position was duly communicated to Eriyo, who, he said, approved same.
NAN reports that the expelled national president had, in a statement on Sunday, announced the dissolution of the executive committee of the Lagos State chapter, citing expiration of their tenure on Sept. 13 as reason.
Eriyo announced the inauguration of a caretaker committee, headed by Alh. Suleiman Onigbanjo, to manage the affairs of the branch, pending the emergence of a new executive committee.
The state executive members, however, at a news conference on Monday in Lagos, described the dissolution as illegal, null and void, saying that their tenure would lapse on Oct. 31.
They said that the resolution for the continuity of their executive committee had been passed at the chapel, zonal and state executive levels, adding that it had since been forwarded to the national body.
They said that the branch had also paid its dues to the tune of N60 million to the national body, alleging that Eriyo’s move was to create crisis in the union which had hitherto been peaceful.
NAN reports that the emergency NEC meeting was attended by 28 national executive members of the union, drawn from 17 states of the union.
Reacting to the development on the telephone, Eriyo dismissed his expulsion, saying that it could not stand, as Lagos State was not the National Secretariat to make such a pronouncement. (NAN)
THE rising cases of women being murdered by a “serial killer” in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, has drawn widespread condemnation, with many calling for the protection of girls and women in the city.
Social media has been abuzz since the murders increased.
On Monday, Twitter users expressed outrage over the unfortunate killings through hashtags #ProtectPHGirls and #PHCSerialKiller, with many condemning the lackadaisical attitude of the police on the issue.
The death of a girl in a hotel situated in Obo Road, Omoku, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of the state last week was just one of the many killings of women in PH hotels recently.
According to reports, the victims are usually found strangled and gagged with a white handkerchief.
Over the weekend, several women groups took to the streets of Port Harcourt to sensitise residents on alleged serial killers on the prowl in the city.
The convener, Nengi Ibifuro Jumbo, Port Harcourt Significant Girls (PHSG) said, “There is a serial killer on the loose in Rivers State. We want to go out and return home without fear.
“We acknowledge the police for what they are doing, but we urge them to do more so that the killer is arrested, tried and made to face the full weight of the law.”
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Police Command has advised young women to shun prostitution.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration, Chuks Enwonwu, while addressing protesters said, “In as much as societal values are disintegrating, we must go back to try to educate them (women) and discourage them from going into prostitution because that is how they fall victim to these crimes.”
The Lagos State Government has commenced plans to establish two more Accident and Emergency Centres (Trauma) at Abule Egba and Lekki-Ajah axis of the state to improve response time to victims.
This was disclosed by the Director General Lagos State Emergency Management Agency Alausa (LASEMA) Dr. Femi Oke-Osayintolu at the stakeholder meeting on Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) on Monday.
Osayintolu said the state also plan to establish a training institute at Igando for emergency workers, volunteers, mothers and designated officials across the 57 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state.
“A mobile app has been created with necessary features to enable callers select the exact emergency situation they are reporting and by so doing, reduce emergency hotlines call time.”
Osayintolu said the app would be test run by all relevant agencies and simulations done with it before it would be unveiled to the public.
He reiterated the need for a holistic view on the causes, prevention and response to RTAs.
He said: “We have put a lot of things in place. We have decentralized the operations of LASEMA. We have put in the monitoring and evaluation unit so that we will have best practices in LASEMA and all other key stakeholders.
“We are working on establishing an emergency institute that will be located at Igando. The institute will train all the key stakeholders on how to manage, respond, plan and prepare for emergency in Lagos State.
“We are also going to build the capacity of all our 57 LGAs and we are going to ensure that disaster management is everyone’s business. All these will happen very soon.
“We are currently testing some emprical equipment and want to be sure they work well before rolling them out to the public.”
In his presentation, Dr. Adeolu Arogundade who represented the Trauma centre said the unit had attended to over 22,000 patients since its inception in 2009, adding that the figure comprised 72 percent males and 28 percent females.
Despite most of the cases being life threatening, Arogundade said the unit has had over 98 per cent success rate, adding that the modalities were mainly from hemorrhagic shock and head injury.
According to him, RTAs amounted to 55 percent of the cases, assaults 12 percent, accidental fall 8.8 percent, gunshot injuries 0.1 percent and other emergencies 20 percent.
He said the centre is experiencing inadequacies such as power supply, referral systems, skilled manpower and funding.
A Chief Magistrates’ Court, sitting in Zaria, Kaduna State, has remanded a housewife, Mrs Nnennaya Edmond in prison for allegedly pouring hot water on a nursing mother and her 10-month-old baby.
The woman is standing trial on a two-count charge of criminal offence and causing of grievous injuries on one Gloria Cyril and her 10-month-old baby, Bright Cyril.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that both the accused and the complainant are living in the same house at ECWA Church area of Wusasa, Zaria, Kaduna State.
The Chief Magistrate, Mr Abubakar Aliyu-Lamido, ordered that the accused be remanded in prison custody and adjourned the case to Oct. 15, for the complainant to present witnesses.
Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp. Mannir Nasir, had told the court that on Sep. 10, at about 1:00am, one Mary Ijeoma, reported the case to Danmaaji Police Division.
He said that Ijeoma had the accused the defendant of pouring hot water on her daughter, Gloria and her 10-month-old grandson, Bright.
The Prosecutor added that the complainant had narrated that the action caused grievous injuries on the nursing mother and baby who were rushed to St Luke’s Hospital, Wusasa for treatment.
He said that the offence was contrary to sections 223 and 216 of the Penal Code Law 2017.
The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The prosecutor, then asked the court for a short adjounment to enable him present witnesses.
(NAN)