The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Anambra State

  • Make safety tips part of your sermon, FRSC urges clerics

    Convicts 30 over traffic offences in Anambra

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has charged the clergy and other religious leaders to always include road safety tips in their sermons to ensure the message permeated all nooks and crannies of the society.

    The State Sector Commander of the Corps, Mr Sunday Ajayi who stated this in Awka, said regular stressing of such messages would further increase safety consciousness among motorists and other road users.

    He disclosed that thirty persons have been convicted by the Mobile Court of the Anambra State Command of for various traffic offences.

    He said the penalties of the convicts depended on the gravity of the offences committed.

    Assuring that the Command would leave no stone un-turned in its effort to ensure sanity on the highways, Ajayi cautioned motorists against acts capable of causing carnage on the roads.

    Read Also: FRSC establishes fire fighting unit in Kaduna

    The Sector commander underscored the need for them to always ensure their vehicles were in good condition before embarking on any journey.

    He said, “The command will deploy its officers and men to all flash points across the State as part of efforts in reducing gridlock on the highways, especially during this yuletide.

    “We will also carry our campaign on road safety measures to all the twenty-one local government areas of the State, in addition to increasing its campaigns on both print and electronic media.”

    Ajayi commended the State government, individuals, groups and co-operate bodies, for their support to the Command, calling for its sustenance.

  • 270 physically challenged graduates to get employment in Anambra

    Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State has disclosed that no fewer than 270 physically challenged would be engaged in the state workforce.

    Obiano dropped the hint at the Governor’s lodge, Amawbia during the distribution of over 100 wheel chairs to the People Living with Disabilities.

    He reiterated that physically challenged undergraduates would continue to enjoy free education in all the special schools across the state.

    He said, “We will continue to provide excellent environment for every teeming youth, especially people with disabilities to strive.

    “Every citizen of Anambra has equal right. It is against divine law to discriminate humans. It is not their fault that they were born with disabilities.

    Read Also: ‘Interest in job skills growing in Anambra’

    “So, we must provide them with necessary facilities to live on. They need our love and it is our duty to help them at any given time. Doing it is for God not human.”

    The Governor recalled the promotion of some disabled people in his government to enviable positions, who, according to him, were neglected by previous administrations.

    He commended his wife, Mrs Ebelechukwu Obiano for touching lives through her pet project, Caring Family Enhancement Initiative (CAFE), unveiled 30 years ago.

    Appreciating supporters of the project, especially Dr Arthur Eze, for donating generously for the construction of buildings to indigent and widows, Obiano appealed to other spirited individuals to emulate the gesture.

  • Hero dazzles fans with music fiesta

    The Chuba Ikpeazu Stadium in Onitsha, Anambra State, came alive penultimate Friday, as Duncan Mighty, Timaya, Harrysong, Omawunmi, Reekado Banks and Rudeboy, one half of PSquare and other artistes, took to the stage to thrill the crowd at the fourth edition of the Hero Lager fiesta themed ‘Bridge edition’.

    Poised as a brand that represents the southeast, Hero was launched into the Nigerian market in August 2012, working its way into the hearts of consumers in the South Eastern region who christened the beer ‘Oh Mpa’, in reverence and as a mark of respect (Mpa means father in Igbo language). The premium lager, Hero, was also only recently knighted with a new crown cork -a Red Cork and with the title of ‘Dike Mba Nile.’

    Speaking at the event, Marketing Director, International Breweries, Plc., Mrs. Tolu Adedeji said every year, the Hero fiesta attracts thousands of fans who are loyal to the brand and appreciate what it stands for.

    “We made the decision to make Onitsha the venue of our annual fiesta as a way of appreciating the acceptance and the loyalty enjoyed by Hero Lager beer and it gets bigger and better with each passing year,” Adedeji said.

    “We hope to continue bringing so much value to our customers and maintaining the good relationship.”

    Marketing Manager, Hero Lager, Obumneke Okoli, said, “Hero is a well-established brand in the eastern part of the country and International Breweries Plc. is tremendously thrilled to bring to them a night packed with fun and excitement as a way of expressing our unwavering gratitude to our Igbo brothers.”

    Hero fiesta is an annual music extravaganza put together by International Breweries to celebrate its customers for their loyalty, while identifying with the culture of the people, particularly those resident in the South-Eastern part of the country.

  • Obiano tasks Anambra judiciary on civil procedure rules

    Anambra State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano has urged stakeholders in the justice sector to evolve acceptable rules of proceedings that would ensure efficient and effective functioning of courts in the state.

    Obiano made the call on Friday in Onitsha, Anambra State during a two-day public summit on the review of civil procedure rules for courts.

    He said the synergy between the executive and judicial arm of government in the state has led to series of landmark changes in the justice administration and the working condition of judicial officers in the state.

    Represented by the Secretary to the State Government Prof. Solo Chukwulobelu, the governor thanked the Chief Judge, Justice Peter Umeadi for commencing the process that resulted to a total overhaul of the rules governing civil procedure of various cadres of courts in the state.

    Earlier, the State Chief Judge, Justice Peter Umeadi explained that the review of the rules of proceedings was occasioned by its outdated nature.

    He said, “The rules of courts have become obsolete which necessitated the setting up of various review committees to look into them and come up with draft documents that would be subjected to public  scrutiny before being Adopted as rules of procedure for all Courts in the state.

    “The rules being reviewed are the High Court Rules (2006), Anambra State Magistrate Court Rules (1991) and the Rules Establishing the Anambra State Multi-Door Court House.

    Read Also: Obiano mulls allowance increament for NYSC members

    “It is the recommendations of the various committees set up to review these laws that the Chief Judge presented to the public during the just concluded summit for appraisal.

    “The dynamism of the law does not allow its rules of practice to be latent.”

    Umeadi explained that participants were free to make suggestions in gray areas in the committee’s recommendations, which he promised would be reflected in the final draft that would ultimately become the rules of procedure for courts in Anambra State.

    Some of the key areas that engaged the attention of participants were issues of enhanced court fees, summary trials, granting of adjournments, probate matters, and preliminary objections.

    Other areas included pre-trial conferences, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Mechanisms, enforcement of  ADR awards and use of modern technology in litigation process.

    One of the resource persons who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Arthur Obi-Okafor made case for synergy between the regular courts and the multi-door courts, to ensure that judicial officers at various levels were bound to enforce the ADR decisions reached at the Multi-Door Court House.

    Participants which cut across all public strata, from the bar, bench, academia, stakeholders and other groups in the state justice system; engaged in robust debate in what seems like a clause-by-clause consideration of the proposed new set rules of Courts.

  • Anambra Speaker urges IG to unseal Assembly complex

    Mr Ikem Uzoezie, a factional Speaker of Anambra House of Assembly, has urged the Inspector General of Police,  Ibrahim Idris to direct the Police Command in Anambra to unseal the Assembly complex.

    Ikem made the call in an interview with our reporters on Monday in Awka.

    He said there was no time its leadership applied for sealing off of the complex and described it as illegal and unconstitutional.

    It will be recalled that some members of the Anambra House of Assembly had purportedly impeached the speaker, Mrs Rita Maduagwu on November 13, and elected Uzozie as the new Speaker.

    Policemen were deployed to the complex by the command on November 15 to forestall breakdown of law and order by the factions after it issued a statement sealing off the premises and ordered workers to vacate.

    Uzoezie said what happened was mere internal business of the House where it changed its Speaker which did not warrant police occupation of the Assembly complex.

    “The occupation of Anambra House of Assembly is needless, there is no anarchy.

    “It smacks rascality and dictatorial tendency by the police in Anambra, they have no business sealing off the House of Assembly and ordering our staff to report to the Head of Service (HoS) office.

    “It is unfortunate that the police have taken over our job and occupied the complex; Anambra is not in anarchy to warrant this act.

    “The commissioner of police should know that his men are on illegal assignment,’’ he said.

    Read Also: Police seal Anambra Assembly complex

    Uzoezie said the legislature was the first arm of government which defined democracy, adding that a clampdown on it was an attack on democracy.

    He said the Anambra people were the ultimate victims of the injustice being done to the house as that was the only arm of government where everyone had their say.

    He said the executive arm of government should be worried that the parliament which gave it legitimacy as a democratic government had been shut down.

    “The idea is that the executive don’t want us to function so that they can continue their lawlessness.

    “The struggle is to liberate the legislature to serve as the conscience of the people.

    “Anambra people are the ultimate victims of what is going on because they elected us and are the beneficiary of the services we render, we refuse to be an appendage of the executive,’’ he said.

    He said the Inspector-General of Police should act on the letter that he had written to him and order for immediate vacation of police from the complex to enable members return to their normal business.

    NAN

  • Anambra bachelor killed seven days to wedding

    A middle aged man, Abuchi Edekobi, reportedly lost his life on Saturday following a cult clash in Obosi, Idemili North local government area of Anambra State.

    The deceased, allegedly killed together with his friend, Somto Egbe by a rival cult group, was said to be preparing for his wedding a week before he met his sudden death.

    The duo, suspected to be members of Vikings fraternity, were allegedly attacked by a rival group suspected to be members of the Black Axe fraternity.

    A resident, who identified himself as Charles, said the attack by the rival group was a revenge mission over recent steady killings of their members in the area.

    Read Also: Police seal Anambra Assembly complex

    He said, “Edekobi, popularly called Ija, had left Obosi for Ghana at the heat of the cult crisis where he spent about five years before his return.

    “He was preparing for his wedding scheduled to hold on the 29th of this month before he met his untimely death.

    “He was even in a burial party the same day he died and was sighted spraying money on a notable musician without knowing he was being trailed by those who later killed him.”

    Another resident, who did not want to be named, dismissed the report of cult activities in the area, saying the deceased was killed by his business associates.

    The officer in charge of the Special Anti- Cultism Squad, CSP Christopher Bassey, when contacted, said the force was on top of the situation, but declined further comment on the incident.

  • Cleric hands over baby abandoned in church to police

    A 7-month old baby boy abandoned in a church in Nnewi, Anambra State has been handed over to the police by the priest in charge of the church.

    The baby reportedly abandoned by an unknown person was brought to the police station in the area by Rev. Fr. Christopher Ezimo, of St. Martin Deporres Catholic Church Umudim, Nnewi.

    The State Police Public Relations Officer, Haruna Mohammed, in a press release in Awka, said the sick baby was brought to the station on November 12, 2018.

    He said, “On the 12/11/2018 at about 4.50pm, one Rev. Father Christopher Ezimo, male of St. Martin Deporres Catholic Church Umudim, Nnewi brought to Nnewi division a seven months old sick baby boy alleged to have been abandoned inside the Church by unknown person.

    “The scene was visited by Police operatives attached to juvenile and welfare unit of the division and the baby was rushed to Nnamdi Azikwe University Teaching Hospital Nnewi where he is presently receiving treatment.”

    Read Also: Police arraign man over sale of expired beverages

    Mohammed added that the case was being investigated to ascertain circumstances surrounding the incident.

    Assuring that efforts were on to trace the biological mother of the baby, the Police spokesperson implored the public to approach her with useful information that could help trace the parents of the child.

  • NEMA receives 174 Nigerians from Libya

    The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has received another batch of 174 stranded Nigerians from Libya.

    The returnees arrived at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at 1.10a.m. on Friday.

    They were brought back in an Al Buraq Airlines Boeing 737-8000 aircraft with registration number 5A-DMG by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the European Union (EU) under the Assisted Voluntary Return Programme.

    The returnees were received by officials of NEMA and other government agencies including the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, the Nigeria Police Force and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons.

    The Acting Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, South West Zonal Office, Mr Segun Afolayan, said after profiling  the returnees that they included 61 female adults, four female children and eight female infants.

    Afolayan said there were also 91 male adults, six male children and four male infants, along with an unaccompanied male child, among the returnees.

    He said the returnees included 10 families, three minor medical cases and three pregnant women.

    Afolayan advised Nigerians to be wary of traffickers who lure them into perilous journeys with false messages of getting rich quick outside the country.

    One of the returnees, 30-year-old Mr Chukwudi Onyemechie, from Anambra State, told newsmen that he was a successful auto tyres dealer at Ladipo Market, Lagos, before he was fooled by the promise of a better life in Europe.

    Onyemechie said a man convinced him to travel to France via the Libya route and he eventually sold off his wares and proceeded to Benin Republic where he began the unfortunate journey.

    He said :”I was told that the journey would be by road but I never knew that it was a deadly and dangerous route.

    “I entered Libyan town where I was taken to a camp controlled by Nigerians where I spent three months in detention.

    “My trafficker organised my detention in order that I would be forced to pay him money. He asked me to pay some amount to a connection man who denied that I didn’t pay. and my trafficker claimed he settled the man and I had to double the amount.

    Read Also: 116 Nigerians deported from Libya

    “I left Nigeria in June 2017. I experienced unstable and dangerous life over there. After struggling to cross but unsuccessful, I was helped to get to IOM office in Libya, who helped me back to Nigeria today.”

    Onyemechie advised Nigerian youths who were thinking of going to Europe through Libya to jettison such plan, stressing that it was better for them to make the journey in a regular manner and with adequate information.

    Another returnee, Mrs Kikelomo Ajasa, a mother of one from Ibadan, Oyo State, said she left Nigeria in 2016 with the hope of getting a better job abroad, with the encouragement of her husband.

    Ajasa, who holds a National Diploma in Hotel and Tourism, said she left Nigeria because of the various challenges that her family was facing.

    She said :”I got to Libya with God as my saviour but the racial discrimination by the Libyans is too bad.

    “If you’re unfortunate to enter bus and sit beside a Libyan, throughout the journey, the Libyan will not want your body to touch his own and he will cover his noise throughout.

    “Though, some of them are very nice and good, majority, especially the youths, don’t wish the blacks well.”

    Ajasa said she got a housemaid job where she was being paid 6,000 Dinars, equivalent to about N60, 000.

    “If I want to send N20,000 to Nigeria, I must part with N40,000 or N50,000 before my family will get the N20,000.There is no banking system there.

    “Nigerians who had settled down are the launderers. They have their Nigerian bank accounts.

    “Once, we pay them there in dinars, we don’t know how they transmit the money, but our families will receive what we agreed on their bank accounts here in Nigeria.

    “I am not happy for the wasted years. If I had stayed back, I could have been more settled and successful,” Ajasa lamented.

    NAN

  • 83-year old woman rescued as fire guts 12-bedroom flat in Onitsha

    An 83-year old woman was reportedly rescued from a twelve bedroom bungalow razed by fire in Onitsha, Anambra State.

    The apartment, located at No. 36 New Market road Onitsha, was said to have went up in flames following a kerosene explosion.

    The Nation learnt that documents of the occupants and property worth millions of naira were lost to the fire incident.

    A resident of the area, who simply identified himself as Ebuka, said the explosion occurred when an elderly occupant of the building ignited light on a stove he was about to cook with.

    “He had bought a kerosene suspected to be adulterated which he poured inside the stove and lit light when the stove suddenly exploded,” he said.

    Narrating his ordeal, one of the occupants of the bungalow, Mr Chukwudi Nwankwo, said he lost property worth over N6million to the fire.

    “I equally lost several documents including the certificates and NYSC discharge papers of three of my children,” Nwankwo said.

    Read Also: Widow arrested for biting house-help in Onitsha

    The visibly devastated victim wondered what would become of the family having lost all their belongings to the inferno.

    Another victim, Mr Obinna Ikah, thanked youths of the area who assisted in putting out the fire and rescuing the octogenarian said to be alone in the building when the incident happened.

    “The fire could have affected other buildings if not for their timely intervention. We thank God that no life was lost in the inferno,” he added.

  • Kidnapped female lecturer regains freedom

    A lecturer at the Federal College of Education (Technical), Umunze, Anambra State, identified as Mrs Okwuchi kidnapped by unknown gunmen has regained her freedom.

    The victim, lecturing at the Agricultural Department of the institution was reportedly kidnapped on Saturday afternoon at the market square.

    The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Haruna Mohammed, said the victim was released in good condition.

    He however assured that the Command was making frantic efforts to arrest the abductors.

    “The victim was released in good condition and manhunt for the perpetrators is ongoing to bring them to justice,” he said.

    Read Also: Varsity lecturer’s abductors demand N30m ransom

    Okwuchi was said to have been abducted while purchasing some house hold items in the market.

    The Nation learnt her abductors had forced her to enter their vehicle after shooting sporadically into the air.

    “She was kidnapped at Nkwo Umunze on Saturday when she drove into the market in her Toyota Camry.

    “People in the market fled and they took her away, leaving her car there in the market,” the source said.