Author: The Nation

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said it will distribute food items to 7,750 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in camps and host communities in Borno, Yobe, and Kano states.

The food items were donated in the spirit of Ramadan by King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief).

The food items include: 7,750 bags (25kg) of rice, 7,750 bags (25kg) of beans, 7,750 packaged (4kg) of masa vita flour, 7,750 gallons (2 litres) of vegetable oil, 7,750 packaged (1kg) of salt, 7,750 packaged (2kg) tomato paste and 7,750 packaged (0.8kg) seasoning.

This is contained in a statement in Abuja on Saturday by the Head of Press unit of the agency, Manzo Ezekiel.

The agency explained that the food distribution will be based on a standard food basket, where each beneficiary household will receive a bag of rice (25kg), bag of beans (25kg), masa vita flour (4kg), vegetable oil (2 litres), salt (1kg), tomato paste (2kg) and seasoning (0.8kg)

In preparation for the food distribution, NEMA stated that it has conducted detailed profiling of the target beneficiaries at the identified camps and host communities.

According to the agency, 5,300 beneficiaries will get the food items in Borno, 2,250 will be given Yobe and 200 beneficiaries will be given in Kano State.

The relief food donation by KSrelief, a humanitarian aid Agency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is a continuation of assistance to persons affected by insurgency and disasters in Nigeria.

The Saudi agency has previously donated similar food items that were distributed to victims of insurgency in Borno and Yobe states as well as persons affected by armed banditry in Zamfara State.

Recall that between 2018 and 2019, KSrelief donated a total of 140,468 baskets of food items that were distributed to the IDPs affected by insurgency in Borno and Yobe States.

This will be the fourth time that KSrelief relief food donations will be distributed through NEMA.

The newly commissioned one-stop shopping facility for foreign diplomats will help curb capital flight, The Nation has learnt.

Besides, the facility will help the country track wavers granted foreign diplomats, the operator of the Diplomatic Village, Uche Odozor said.

Odozor, who is the Managing Director, Diplomatic Village, said the three sections: the duty free shop, restaurants and gym and beauty clinic facility has a huge economic benefit for the country.

The government-backed privately-run facility, he said, provides a conducive shopping and relaxation environment for diplomats, thereby making them do their purchases in Nigeria rather than importing their needs from their various countries.

Explaining the benefit of the establishment of the village, Odozor said, “Yes, it has huge economic benefit because before now, every diplomat, a lot of them were bringing in items for their consumption into this country.

“And you know, Nigeria is where we have the largest contingent of deployments on the continent. So, wherever a diplomat could just say, okay, look, I’m bringing in a container and I’m bringing it now and so it is done.

“But now the privilege has been subjected to abuse and that has worried the nation and we have incurred a lot of losses.”

With the Diplomatic Village, he said, “The government can now track the level of waiver granted these diplomats through a database… Government can now keep a record of the waiver. But of course, what it means now is a strict or more stringent measure in terms of controlling the level of arbitrary importation on the part of diplomats, which by their right, they are entitled to.

“So this is going to curb capital flight.

The League of Concerned Professionals in Plateau State has exonerated the Returning Officer of the recently concluded 2023 general elections in Nasarawa State, Professor Ishaya Tanko, of all allegations levelled against him by the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Nasarawa State.

At a press briefing yesterday in Jos, the Plateau State capital, the league under the leadership of Chesil Drenkat, described the allegations as baseless, noting that Prof. Tanko is a man of integrity, patriotic, forthright, God-fearing and a perfect gentleman that cannot be bought to rig election as claimed by the PDP.

Drenkat said the league finds it imperative to hold the press conference to dispel what they described as smear campaign against the person and personality of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jos and to let the world know that the professor is a gentleman of repute with very high integrity, selfless, God-fearing gentleman that it can vouch for.

“As concerned professionals who know and can vouch for the person of Professor Tanko Ishaya, by the special grace of God, the Vice Chancellor of Uni-Jos. We feel compelled to rise to the occasion by not only putting issues into their proper perspective but to counter and dispel this dangerous campaign of calumny against a patriotic, forthright, God fearing perfect gentleman in the person of Prof. Tanko Ishaya.

 “Prof. Tanko has contributed to securing, implementing and managing external grants of over 15 Million US Dollars to the University of Jos. He currently holds 4 funded research grants, including the Search and Development of Artificial Intelligence. In the administration of all these funds he attracted to the University of Jos, he has never been found wanting in accountability and management of the funds.

 “We submit therefore that Prof. Tanko Ishaya is no stranger to money and no candidate in Nassarawa State irrespective of political party can entice, induce or influence this man of high pedigree with some paltry sums of money…

 “We on the Plateau cherish and respect Prof. Tanko as an accomplished scholar, far beyond the entire value associated with the local politics in Nassarawa State. Nassarawa State politics cannot afford the price of Prof. Tanko Ishaya because he is a priceless Jewel with unshakable fear and faith in God in addition to his forthrightness.” the group added.

The group explained that the role played by the professor as a Returning Officer was to await the final result collated and certified at unit level in form EC8a, at Ward level in form EC8b, at L.G.A level in form EC8c before finally getting to him for final collation in form EC8d.

 “We challenge any person, party or candidate to fault the role played by Prof. Tanko in this regard. In all the foregoing, the political parties had their agents who were bound to be vigilant and alive to their responsibilities at all stages of the collations.

 “It is therefore preposterous, reckless and unfounded to assert or hold the erroneous notion or conclusion that this man of unwavering integrity, incorruptible man of honour can be or was actually induced by money or whatever material thing (s) to proclaim and announce a winner in the Gubernatorial Elections in Nassarawa State. “

They advised the aggrieved party to find areas of electoral infractions/fraud, none conformity to the Electoral Act, 2022/Guidelines that will substantiate and prove their claims at Election Petition Tribunals, instead of seeking to find fault in the role assigned to Prof. Tanko Ishaya as the State Returning officer.

It could be recalled that since the declaration of Nasarawa State Governorship election results that returned the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Alh. Abdullahi Sule as winner, groups of women have continue to stage protest half naked at the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC in Lafia, accusing the Returning Officer of the election, Prof. Tanko Ishaya of sub-changing the real winner of the election.

The State Working Committee (SWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State has suspended the Gwadabawa ward executives of the party for announcing the suspension of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, from the party.

The APC executives in Gwadabawa Ward in Yola North LGA, where Boss Mustapha has his political base was on Thursday reported as having suspended the SGF, allegedly for not contributing to the success of the party.

The state Exco of the party, however, moved against the ward executives, Saturday, describing Boss Mustapha’s purported suspension as “unconstitutional and malicious”, and went ahead to pronounce its own suspension of the ward officials.

Secretary of the party in the state, Dr Raymond Chidama, who addressed newsmen at the party’s state secretariat in Yola, said the SWC received the resolution of Yola North Executive on the unconstitutional conduct of the ward Exco members who went without cogent reason and due process to announce to the media that they had suspended Boss Mustapha from the party.

The party scribe stressed that the suspension on the ward excos followed the recommendation of the Yola North Local Government APC officials, who called for formation of a caretaker committee to replace the errant ward Excos.

Chidama said the SWC, upon receipt of the report, formed another committee which studied the report of the Yola North Exco and ratified it.

He recalled how ward and state excos respectively recently made similar moves by suspending the North East National Vice Chairman of the party, Mustapha Salihu and the governorship candidate, Senator Aishatu Ahmed Dahiru (Binani), both of which were immediately invalidated, while cautioning lower level party executives to desist from such acts.

He emphasised that the Gwadabawa Ward excos were an embarrassment to the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari.

He added that the state Working Committee had also approved a seven-man caretaker committee to take the place of the suspended executives.

The state party secretary said, “All the removed and suspended members of Gwadabawa ward are hereby directed to hand-over all party properties in their possession to the chairman of Yola North Local Government Area immediately.”