Author: The Nation

 Ogochulwu Anioke, Abakaiki

 

THE Ohanaeze Ndigbo faction led by Chidi Ibeh said on Tuesday it is set to roll out scholarship programmes for orphans, who are indigent students to cushion the effect of COVID-19 pandemic.

It also plans to distribute 7,000 face masks and other palliatives in the seven Igbo-speaking states.

Ibeh, who stated these in a statement issued in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, noted that the faction would also offset bills of 700 students writing the West African Senior School Certificate (WASSCE) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) Senior School Certificate examinations in the seven states.

He noted that they were partnering with a philanthropic organisation to achieve the group’s programmes.

According to him, there will be distributions of face marks and other palliatives in major markets and public schools for the protection of kids and teachers from COVID-19 pandemic.

Read Also: Ohaneze Ndigbo: Playing the exclusion politics?

Ibeh added that the distribution will begin from February 1.  He assured the people that the new Ohanaeze must meet the challenges of Ndigbo headlong and restore the confidence of Igbo people in Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

Ibeh stressed that his members are aware that Igbo are losing faith in Ohanaeze Ndigbo based on its elitist nature.

The statement said: “Drastic measures will be put in place for the resuscitation of Igbos faith in Ohanaeze Ndigbo, a lot of indigenous Igbo people in Benue, Kogi, Akwa Ibom and Edo will be identified and given necessary support.”

 

 

Our Reporter

 

KOGI State House of Assembly Speaker Mathew Kolawole on Tuesday explained that Governor Yahaya Bello’s insistence that COVID-19 was a ruse was to ensure that the virus did not set the state’s economy backward.

He said in Ilorin on Tuesday that “it is not that the governor is not accepting the fact that there is a virus called COVID-19.

“He just wants us to know it is an advancement of malaria, which is not really a big deal.

“That is why Kogi has refused to lockdown ever since the emergence of the virus because we don’t want what will negate our economy the more.’’

Kolawole spoke after the Correspondents Chapel of the Kwara Council of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) awarded him with a medal for his contributions to youth empowerment.

Read Also: How Bello is fighting COVID-19 in Kogi, by commissioner

He also told reporters that the Kogi legislature supported Bello’s presidential ambition to compensate the North Central geopolitical zone.

Kolawole said since Nigeria came into being, no-one from the zone ever occupied the presidential seat.

“So, it will not be a bad idea if we have a president from this geopolitical zone as all other zones have been represented either as president or vice-president,’’ Kolawole said.

He added that the Assembly’s support for the governor was for the development of the country.

 

Our Reporter

 

UNITED Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Boris Johnson has offered his condolences to families bereaved by Coronavirus and said he took “full responsibility”, after the nation passed the grim milestone of 100,000 COVID-19 deaths.

“It’s hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic, the years of life lost, the family gatherings not attended, and, for so many relatives, the missed chance even to say goodbye,” the PM said during a coronavirus news briefing yesterday.

“I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost and, of course, as prime minister, I take full responsibility for everything that the government has done.”

On Tuesday, the UK death toll during the pandemic crept above 100,000 within 28 days of a positive test, as the government reported another 1,631 fatalities. It also registered 20,089 new cases of the virus.

Labour leader Keir Starmer described the figure of 100,000 deaths as a “national tragedy”, while Liberal Democrat Ed Davey called for an immediate public inquiry.

Read Also: Troops wipe out terrorists in Borno, Yobe

The PM was joined at the briefing by England’s Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, who warned the UK would see “quite a lot more deaths over the next few weeks” before the effects of the country’s vaccine rollout would start being felt.

As of Tuesday, more than 6.8 million people in the UK had received a first dose of one of the country’s three authorised COVID-19 vaccines, while 400,000 have received a second dose.

Whitty also stressed that the new, more infectious B117 strain of the virus discovered in the UK last year had “changed the situation we’re in very substantially”.

The variant has rapidly replaced old forms of the virus in the UK, and the government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Patrick Vallance, said last week it may be 30 per cent more transmissible.

The numbers of new Covid-19 infections in the UK are falling, but the country’s healthcare system remains strained, with more than 37,000 people hospitalised with the virus, according to the latest government data, published on Sunday.

The UK’s COVID-19 death toll is the worst in Europe and the fifth-worst in the world after the U.S., Brazil, India and Mexico, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, in the United States.

 

 Nwanosike One, Awka and Emma Elekwa, Onitsha

 

ANAMBRA State Police Command has arrested and paraded 56-year old  Philip Emeka Chinwuba, a Senior Special Assistant (SSA)  to Governor Willie Obiano  over false and malicious publication against his boss.

The suspect alleged that Obiano and his wife Ebelechukwu were infected with Coronavirus through the wife of Chief of Staff (CoS), Chief Primus Odili, who returned to Nigeria from abroad.

He was also accused of alleging that over 30 other government officials in Anambra State were infected with COVID -19 from the returnee lady.

In the publication, the suspect reportedly said the situation made Obiano to go into isolation with his aides

Parading the suspect on Tuesday at the State Police headquarters in Amawbia, near Awka,  the police spokesperson, Haruna Mohammed, said the suspects action was a cause for hatred and panic, which could lead to a breach of peace and order in the state.

He said: “The suspect claimed that Coronavirus has hit Government House, Awka with more than 30 senior government officials, including Obiano, in isolation and that late Igwe Kelly of Igbariam contracted the virus after visiting the governor to thank him for lifting his suspension and died three days to the last Ofala celebration.

“That the virus was brought into Government House by Mrs. Maureen Odili from USA, who is the wife of Chief of Staff to the governor.”

Mohammed added that a preliminary investigation conducted by the police revealed that same publication, which was traceable to the suspect’s own platform was what was sent to a blogger, who the command subsequently invited for briefing.

Read Also: Obiano to aspirants: tell ndi Anambra your plans

“The blogger corroborated that the item was sent to him by the suspect to disseminate.

“We have them as witnesses and will stand before the court to give his own evidence in line with the allegation levelled against the suspect,” the police spokesman said.

He said the suspect would be charged after investigations are concluded.

However, in his reaction, the suspect denied the allegations, claiming that his platform might have been breached.

“Around November 27, last year, my laptop and some of my devices were stolen from my vehicle at Access Bank, but I reported at the Central Police Station (CPS), Awka and the incident is still being investigated.

“My phone may have been breached and same thing with the information in it. Unfortunately, I read the said information like everyone else,” he said.

The suspect, who claimed to have a good relationship with the governor and the chief of staff, said he was sorry.

“All I have to say to the Governor of Anambra State is that I am sorry because my platform was used against Odili and his wife but I did not publish anything against the governor,” he said.

 

 

 Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

 

A FEDERAL High Court in Abuja has ordered the final forfeiture of various amounts, estimated at about N700 million, linked to former Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) claimed that Yari kept the funds in accounts in banks, using his two companies, Kayatawa Nigeria Limited and B. T. Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited.

In a judgment on Tuesday, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu held that Yari could not prove how he got the funds while or before serving as governor of Zamfara State between May 29, 2011, and May 29, 2019.

He queried how one of the companies’ bank accounts grew from zero to $301,319 at the end of his tenure.

The judge, who said Yari could not claim the funds as his without providing evidence, rejected his claim that the action of the ICPC was a political witch-hunt.

“There is nothing wrong in having huge sums of money in one’s account. But what the law requires is that such proceeds should emanate from legitimate sources or businesses.

“The respondents, who have been given an opportunity to tell their story, have failed to provide evidence for such legitimate income.

“The respondents have not countered the case and facts presented by the applicants (ICPC).

Read Also: NNPC committed to OPEC agreement, says Kyari

“The respondents, having failed to establish the legitimate source of the money as stated in this case, this honourable court hereby makes an order of final forfeiture of the following:

“An order of final forfeiture of N12,912,848.68, being proceeds of some unlawful activity stashed in the name of Abdulazeez Abubakar Yari.

“An order of final forfeiture of $57,056.75, being proceeds of some unlawful activity stashed in an account number …in the name of Abdulazeez Abubakar Yari.

“An order of forfeiture of N11,159,674.17, being proceeds stashed in an account in the name of Kayatawa Nigeria Limited.

“An order of final forfeiture of $319,000.91, being proceed of some unlawful activity stashed in the name of Kayatawa Nigeria Limited.

“An order of final forfeiture of N217,000.04, being proceeds of some unlawful activity allegedly stashed in the name of B. T. Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited.

“An order of final forfeiture of $311,817.15, being proceeds of some unlawful activity stashed in the name of BT. Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited,” the judge said.

Justice Ojukwu added that the funds, “as identified and stated above, shall be and are hereby forfeited to the Federal Government”.

The ICPC had accused Yari of illicitly taking the money from Zamfara State’s treasury to the detriment of the residents.

Upon an earlier application by the ICPC, Justice Taiwo Taiwo (also of the Federal High Court, Abuja) on August 16, 2019, ordered interim forfeiture of the funds pending when Yari and his companies could prove ownership.

 

 

 

 Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

 

ONE person was reportedly killed when the police and members of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), also called the Shi’ites, clashed on Tuesday in Abuja.

Members of the group had staged a protest near the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) junction in Maitama.

They carried placards with inscriptions asking for unconditional release of their leader, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, and his wife, Zeenat, from Kaduna Correctional Centre.

Read Also: Police disperse Shi’ites protesters

Trouble started when a detachment of armed policemen sighted the protesters near Transcorp Hilton junction and fired teargas canisters and live bullets to disperse them.

One of the protesters was reportedly shot in the stomach, while many others were said to have been injured.

The situation degenerated into pandemonium: motorists and passersby scampered for safety to avoid being trapped in the melee.

The area was also crowded as motorists were seen taking an alternative route.