Bothered about the rate at which crimes and other social vices increase in their communities, residents of Agbara community have donated a patrol van to the Agbara Division of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Ogun State Command.
The gesture was to help in strengthening its capability towards curbing crimes in the area.
The Managing Director, Ogun State Property and Investment Corporation (OPIC), Babajide Odusolu, who handed the vehicle over to the police said community policing is crucial to effective crime control.
Odusolu, who was represented at the ceremony by the General Manager, Agbara OPIC Estate, Taiwo Aridegbe, said security is a collective responsibility, even as it also necessitates corporate support to the security agency.
He added that the donation was part of OPIC’s corporate social responsibilities (CSR) towards combating security threat which has plagued development in the area in the last decade.
He praised the police for their partnership with the state government to foster peaceful environment, adding that part of the agenda of Senator Ibikunle Amosun’s administration was to secure people’s lives and property.
He said: “Government alone cannot face the business of policing in the state, either by way of personnel or equipment. So, if we cannot add to their personnel, we should help them with equipment. One of the cardinal programmes of Governor Amosun is to ensure safety of lives and property in Ogun State.
“In recognition of our plan to enhance the reach of district police station, the board and management of OPIC decided to donate a patrol vehicle for use by the district police post in patrolling OPIC Estate, Agbara.”
Responding, the Commissioner of Police, AbdulMajid Ali, who was represented by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Agbara Oyeniyi John, described OPIC’s effort as timely and commendable.
Also, the Baale of Igere community in Agbara Estate, Apostle John Bamidele, said a robust security network would enhance development and attract industrialists to the state.
It was a gathering of families, friends, well-wishers and members of the Rotary Club of Agege District 9110, Nigeria. They gathered to raise funds for its various community projects. The event was also used to install Rotarian Kolawole Ojelabi, President, Christ Ambassador Society of Christ Church, Elere-Agege, as the 32nd president of the club for the Rotary year 2015 to 2016.
The event began with recitation of some lines of rotary anthem. After the recital, Mr Ojelabi, his wife, Olumuyiwa and some other dignitaries, including the outgone President, Rotarian Adeniji Agboola, his wife and Mrs Lydia Ojelabi (mother of the new president) were invited to the top table amid applause.
Rotarian Seyi Martins presented Rotarian Ojelabi to the gathering after which Mr Agboola installed him as President of the club.
He removed the rotary neck tag and hung it on Mr Ojelabi and inducted him as a world-class President of Agege amid ovation by guests. Agboola and Ojelabi hugged each other after.
Mr Agboola described the new President as someone to be proud of anytime.
The club’s past presidents, members’ families and well-wishers embraced and congratulated the new president on his achievement.
In his speech, Mr Ojelabi said he was happy that members of the club are rejoicing with him. He recalled his past challenges as a Rotarian, saying Rotarian Agnes Olatunmi later brought him back to rotary after five years of nonattendance.
Reeling off some projects he intends to execute during his tenure, Ojelabi said: “During my tenure, I will assist children in orphanage homes; provide relief for internally-displaced persons (IDPs); support post-graduate students; carry out health education programmes; provide six-room toilet facility and water at Central African Primary School, Oniwaya Agege; promote breastfeeding campaigns in selected government hospitals in Agege; renovate dilapidated six-classroom block at Anwar-Ul-Islam Nursery and Primary School, Ogba and provide micro-credit loans to members of the community, among others.”
In his speech, the guest speaker, Mr Sam Omatseye emphasised on volunteerism in the society. He said volunteerism comprises people who have ambition and passion for the less-privileged people.
Mr Omatseye, who is the Chairman, Editorial Board, The Nation Newspaper, defined the less-privileged as people who are in need of water; skills; academic enlightenment and shelter, among others. He said a group of church members built a library and provided books for inmates of Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison in Apapa.
He recalled how he learnt how to nail a wood to the wall to prevent it from being blown off by windstorm or rainstorm. This, he said, was for members of a family who were living in dilapidated house in the United Kingdom. He added that there is a bad form of volunteerism that is made up of people who take pleasure in destroying people’s lives through killing, embezzlement of government funds, thereby causing increase in poverty.
Mr Omatseye said: “The club is one of the good forms of volunteerism, as the members are always ready to cater for the poor, eradicate poverty and enhance the well-being of the less-privileged in the society.
Quoting copiously the eight verse of the sixth chapter of Isaiah, he said members of the club had made themselves available towards reaching out to the poor; an assignment he said is quite taxing.
The District Governor, Mr Bolaji Onabadejo congratulated the mother of the president, Mrs Ojelabi for witnessing her son’s investiture, adding that some mothers were not opportune to celebrate with their children when they had attained some enviable heights.
Mr Onabadejo also spoke about development of the club, saying without recruitment of new members, no club would be able to receive a trophy.
He inducted Mr Bayo Oke as a new member of the club.
Highpoint of the event was an award of excellence presented to Mr Omatseye and other special guests by the new president.
No fewer than 500 residents of Sari Iganmu in Apapa-Iganmu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State benefited from free malaria and HIV screening programme.
The event, organised by Apapa-Iganmu LCDA for members of Olaitan and Ojoafeje Community Development Associations, was attended by the young and elderly who were screened of the diseases by medical personnel.
Besides the free medical screening, the people were also sensitised to the need to keep their surroundings clean by fumigating them.
After conducting the tests on the residents, free drugs were given to the them as well.
Deputy Majority Leader, Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Olumuyiwa Jimoh, represented by Hon. Alabi Fatai, said the programme was organised in order to improve the health of the people.
Executive Secretary of the LCDA, Mrs Olufunmilayo Akande identified malaria as the most common disease in the community.
She said the incidence of malaria increases during the rainy season because mosquitoes find ready breeding ground on stagnant water during the wet season.
Coordinator, Environmental Coppers, Alhaji Shoremekun Safarudeen, who recommended the programme to the council, said the programme would encourage the people to keep their environments clean.
He lamented that the canal in the area had been blocked because of poor sanitation, adding: “during rainy season, the gutters are waterlogged; hence it became a breeding ground for mosquitoes”.
Safarudeen urged the government to intervene in order to get rid of mosquitoes that cause malaria that is usually life-threatening.
The chairman of Olaitan Ojoafeje CDA, Alhaji Alogbo urged the people to always participate in environmental sanitation exercises.
For him, it is vital to engage in sanitation exercises in order to prevent some diseases that are associated with dirty environment.
Snakes have flooded Pankshin/Kanke/Kannam Federal Constituency – no thanks to the flooding in Plateau State.
The member representing Pankshin/Kanke/Kannam Federal Constituency Timothy Golu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Jos yesterday that “all manner of snakes” had taken over his constituency.
“The floods have pushed snakes into my constituency. They move around openly and snake bites have become very common there.
“As the waters pushed them, some snakes climbed trees; others entered holes while some just held unto any straw . All of them later descended into residences and farms where they have been wreaking havoc,” he said.
He said the commonest species were black mamba and carpet viper.
He said the people used to travel to a snake clinic in Zamko, in Langtang Local Government, but there were no more drugs in the facility.
“The drugs are very expensive and purchasing them had been dificult for the proprietor of the clinic because it was always difficult or outrightly impossible for the patients to pay,” he said.
Golu advised the federal and statd governments to take over the production of local drugs to help the generally rural populace that had been the victims of the menace.
He said that farmers were being advised to use hand gloves and rain boots at the farms to minimise the effect of such bites, but lamented that many hardly heed the counsel.
Ukpor community in Nnewi South Local Government Area has honoured the Speaker of the state Assembly, Hon Rita Maduagwu who hails from the town.
Maduagwu helped to lift the infrastructural profile of the community after former governors of the state, Dr Chris Ngige and Mr. Peter Obi provided roads and water there.
For her impact on the community, indigenous Ukpor people resident in Lagos under the aegis of Mkpodu Forum gave her an award.
The forum is led by Hon Cyril Maduabum.
Maduabum, who previously represented Nnewi North, Nnewi South, Ekwusigo Federal constituency, described the Speaker as Oduko Na’mba, Igbo for rare breed.
The event which attracted de-crème la-de crème in Ukpor community and in the state including Governor Willie Obiano, first Nigeria Aviation Minister, Dara Akunwafor Mbazululike Amechi, among others, took place at the Best Western Meloch Hotels in Awka at the weekend.
Obiano who was represented by his deputy, Dr. Nkem Okeke called on the citizens of the state who reside outside Anambra to think home by investing here in the state, especially, now that security is guaranteed.
Describing the speaker as an astute politician, Obiano assured the people of Ukpor community that his administration would continue to remember them in all its development initiatives.
But the concern of the octogenarian former Aviation Minister, Chief Mbazululike Amechi, was for the legislature and executive to work hand in glove to achieve success in Anambra state, which according to him, had eluded the state before now.
The synergy, Amechi said, would enable more development to thrive, adding that already, there had been a sign of such accord between the two arms as he had noticed.
Speaking with the Nation, the new national chairman of the All Progressives grand Alliance, Sir Victor Ike-Okoye, said the present leadership in the state, being spearheaded by Obiano, would make sure that all the 177 communities in the state were not left out.
Earlier, in her emotion ladden remarks, the speaker, Rt. Hon Rita Maduagwu, thanked Ukpor Community for the honour done her, while assuring that her tenure as speaker would bring additional good tidings to the citizenry.
However, she called for the encouragement of more women to join politics, but did not equally; fail to thank her husband, Hyacinth Maduagwu, also a lawyer for his support.
Furthermore, she assured the state government of the support of Ukpor Community in taking the state to the higher level.
The chairman of the occasion, Hon Cyril Maduabum, President General of the community (Ukpor development Union(UDU) Col Anthony Ogunna and chairman of the forum, Chief Emma Nwachukwu told the Nation that the honour was to show the speaker that they were solidly behind her.
They thanked members of the state House of Assembly for finding the speaker worthy to be elected their leader while urging the citizenry to give support to Obiano to move the state forward.
Some youths in Ossah, Umuahia North Local Government Area, Abia State have been in “protective custody” after they were said to have beaten up two traditional prime ministers who were performing rituals ahead of the community’s New Yam Festival.
The traditional prime minister of Uzzi/Akpizu community Mr Friday Nwoko and his Eziama/Mgbaja counterpart Sunday Igbokwe were also said to have been stripped naked by the youths, a development which incurred the wrath of elders.
One of the victims Igbokwe, said, “This happened on the 3rd of September 2015 when Nwoko and myself went to the village square connecting the three Ossah communities Uzzi/Akpizu, Uhabiri-Umuchime na Amonso and Eziama/Mgbaja to pour libation so that the Iri-ji festival which was supposed to hold the next day will be successful. We were performing the ceremony when some angry youths barged into the venue at Orie-oji and started beating us without mercy with machetes and when you consider my age which is 77 years, it means those boys wanted to kill me and my colleague.
“All my life I have never seen this type of humiliation, as they stripped us naked and asked a woman take pictures of our nakedness, we were not doing anything wrong, as it is the duty of the prime ministers of the three communities in Ossah to go to the Orie-oji square to perform the rites before any festival is held in these communities.
Igbokwe pointed the finger of accusation on a traditional ruler from one of the communities.
One of the traditional rulerss, Eze Iheanyichukwu Ezeigbo of Uhabiri-Umuchime na Amanso community attributed the crisis to a misunderstanding among the three traditional rulers of the villages that make up Ossah community.
The traditional ruler said that Ossah community has two festivals which the three communities celebrate: Ekpe festival and Iri ji.
Eze Ezeigbo said that before the festivals three traditional rulers of the three communities authorise the prime ministers to perform the rituals before the festivals.
He said, “We are surprised over what happened during this year’s ceremony, when news got to us that some youths from the community had beaten up the prime ministers who were performing their rightful duties and while we were trying to find out what happened some military men invaded the community.
The arrested youths were said to be held at the Federal Prisons, Afara, Umuahia pending investigations into their alleged involvement in crisis.
Residents of Eha-Alumona community in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State lamented the disrepair of a road which links them with other communities in the state.
They urged the state and federal governments to fix the only road in order to ease business.
•Some parts of the road
The poor condition of the 14km road has for long adversely affected the people in the area.
One of the road users, Mike Ekeh said that the deplorable condition of the road was due to the lackadaisical attitude of the representatives of the area in the House of Assembly and at the National Assembly.
He said, “The road is very bad and it is a clog in the wheel of our development in this community. Access road is the major problem in the development of this community. This road has been like this for decades. Each time one government comes they promise to construct it, but all to no avail. Till now we have seen no positive development…To some extent peasant farmers who produce agricultural products like yam, palm oil and other cash crops do not make much profit from their products, owing to the fact that they pay heavily for transportation, due to inaccessibility of the road. At times you just store the products till they get rotten. But we do believe that the incumbent governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi will do something about it.”
ýSimilarly, a businessman in the area Mr. Charlse Eneje said,
“The first thing the governor should do is to construct this road because there is no road in Enugu State worse than it.”
To improve access to quality education for residents of Amalem community, Abua Central in Abua/Odual Local Government Area of Rivers State, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has built a model primary school.
The school, which has 10 classrooms, common rooms, toilets, washrooms, and water tanks among others, would replace the old school building of Agbebi Memorial State School built in 1957.
Speaking at the inauguration, NDDC Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Dr Henry Ogiri said the model school would be replicated in all the nine states of the Niger Delta to address the challenge of decayed infrastructure in the education sector.
Ogiri said the overall objective is to enhance teaching and learning to make education very interesting for school children.
“The NDDC feels that education is an all-encompassing training process. If the school is in a way that can support learning effectively, then of course, students will be motivated to go to school,” he said.
In his speech, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of Abua/Odual LGA, Chief Isaac Ukwe, who inspected the school with other stakeholders, expressed delight at what he described as the beautiful edifice built for his people. Ukwe said as an oil-producing community that has contributed immensely to the economic growth of Nigeria, his council area deserved the attention.
“I want to thank the NDDC on behalf of our people. This model school is something our people will cherish for a long time. I, also pray that the NDDC will do more for us. The commission should not stop at giving us a beautiful school building. There is need to also give us a well-equipped library to enable our children read books from different parts of the world,” he said.
Headmaster of the school, Chief Thankyou Ogini, said more pupils have enrolled in the school since the completion of the project.
“Previously, we had only 210 pupils, but now we have 300 even as schools have just resumed. Obviously, the beautiful building and the surrounding environment are attracting more pupils to our school,” he said.
Paramount ruler of Omalema community in Abua Central, Chief Imerari Anatho, said his domain did not have any meaningful Federal Government presence before now.
Mama Nyiwan Uja, the step mother of The Nation reporter in Benue State, Emmanuel Uja, is dead.
She died last Thursday at Sabon Gida Takye in Gassol Local Government. She was 70.
The woman is survived by two daughters, Ade and Nyimar.
A statement by his step son said Mama Nyiwan Uja would be buried on October 17 at Tse Dzungwe, Mbakorya, Tommbo ward, Gaambetiev, Logo Local Government.
The people of Uwessan, a community that comprises of eight villages, are not happy. What pained them is that they see communities around them enjoy basic amenities such as good road network, electricity and water but they are still yearning for government to come to their aid.
Uwessan is located in Esan Central local government. It is a boundary community between Estako West and Esan North East local government areas in Edo State. Indigenous of Uwessan are mainly farmers but they find it difficult to convey their farm produce to where they could sell for profits because the main road connecting the community to other communities is an eye sore.
The road which connects from Utako in Esan North East through Ujabhole to other communities in Uwessan is about 21 kilometers. It is supposed to reduce travel to Abuja from the Eastern part of the country without motorist getting to Ewu along the Benin-Auchi express road. The road however cuts off at Utako and has been overtaken by weeds. Residents who live opposite each other along the road cannot walk through to the other side.
Side drains constructed on the road and was abandoned have collapsed. The drainage was said to have been constructed in 2005 by the then Chairman of Esan Central, Okhai Enegbo but was stopped because of funding.
Residents in the area blamed former Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen for the collapsed side drains because flood water from Uromi was channelled to the drains. Besides, they said the former Minister focused on building roads within Uromi and environs without extending same to other local government.
Apart from the inaccessible road to Uwessan, the residents said access to portable water has remained a mirage to them since the days of Awolowo. Water tap erected in the community many years ago still stand but no water.
Charles Akhere, a businessman, said his house used to be a like a fighting spot during the dry season as people struggle to get free water.
According to him, “This road is appalling when you are going from Utako to all the villages. We have no business following another long route. Uwessan as a whole, there is no road. We go through another road.”
“When it is time for campaign, you see politicians here. It has affected development of Uwessan. Good road network is vital to development. If the road were good, those places where you find bushes, people would have built houses. A journey of five minutes would take you longer hours. It has affected business and our farmers are mainly affected.”
“We don’t have a single borehole dug by either the state or local government in the whole of Uwessan. During dry season, you see my house like a war front because people are looking for water. There are no teachers in the secondary school here. Oshiomhole has renovated the primary school but our grammar school is appalling. I built house for female corpers here. It is at Uwessan you find the worst road in Esanland”.
Vice Chairman of Uwessan Youth Movement, Henshaw Oligbi, described the situation as pathetic. He said vehicles stopped playing the road for the past 16 years.
His words, “That is the original road to access Uwessan Community. It was the original road connecting Southern and Northern part of the country via Auchi before it was diverted to Ekpoma-Ewu-Auchi road. For the past 16 years, the road has been abandoned. Successive government has promised to construct the road for us but after election, we will not see them again.”
“During the days of Action Group, we were told politicians used the road to campaign but nothing was done. We are farmers but no road to move our products to the market. Uwessan is made up of eight communities but the road is our headache. We have been neglected for so long that we don’t have government presence in our communities. All the developmental structures were through self help or through our sons who excelled in their chosen careers.”
“The electricity was brought by late Sunday Okoduwa. Uwessan has the highest population in Esan land. Oshiomhole promised to construct the road during his second term electioneering campaign. We need govern-ment to construct the road so that we would stop passing through long distance.”
Paul Iyoha, Ujabhole community youth president, said, “This is the only access road we have that lead to the eight villages in Uwessan. We have not been passing that road for many years now.”
“
he Bad Roads In The Community
The road has been in a deplorable condition. There is no accessible road in the whole of Uwessan. You see lorries falling off the road. We have paid our taxes and it is government time to help us. We have been trying through self help. Flood water from Uromi destroyed the whole drainage that was constructed. There is no pipe borne water. The last time we had water was during the days of Awolowo. Since the water scheme broke down, we have not had water. We get water from wells.”
Retired Commissioner of Police, Young Emmanuel Arebamen, said it was bad politics that caused the situation of the road linking Uwessan to other communities.
Arebamen said the Auchi expressed road was diverted to pass through Agbede by powerful politicians even when the colonial masters saw that the stretch of road between Ewu-Agebde and Auchi was swampy and not suitable for road construction.
According to him, “The only solid road in that axis is through my village. I am surprised that what politicians promised my forefathers, they are promising my children in my presence.”
“Our people are suffering. Nobody can go there and buy anything. The schools were built by our collective effort. What is the essence of government? We want Oshiomhole to come and work in our community.”
