The Nation Newspaper

Tag: evacuation

  • Govt begins new waste evacuation system

    Satellite Towns Development Department (STDD) has begun a new system of evacuating garbages across designated dump sites at the outskirt towns of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    Under the new scheme, the agency would handover waste evacuation to a contractor, and will only play the role of monitoring the exercise which is expected to ensure more prompt actions by those involved.

    The STDD coordinator, Ishaku Yamawo broke the news at the weekend after monitoring waste evacuation in Jikwoyi phase I and phase II dump sites under Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).

    Yamawo, who was represented by the Deputy Director environment, Olusegun Olusa said the new arrangement was to address threat to residents’ health and promote their wellbeing.

    Olusa explained that the agency’s action followed a letter written by the communities’ neighbourhood to STDD concerning the worrisome state of the dump site.

    He asserted that the present mop up of the areas was an emergency one aimed at paving way for the main exercise which would begin after the procurement processes in progress are completed.

    “We have started with the mop up operation but as soon as the procurement processes in progress are completed the agency will have a contractor that will be evacuating the waste regularly, at least three times in a week” he said.

    The deputy director stated that evacuation of garbages was the statutory job of area councils but,he regretted that with the slow evacuation exercise being carried out by them compare to the generation, STDD had key into the process.

    He sought for the community leaders and members support in areas of strict monitoring and putting in place sanitary guards that will make the compliance more effective.

    Olusa appealed to the area council chairmen to ensure that their residents heed to the sanitation guidelines.

    One of the community leaders, David Iya who spoke on behalf of the residents pledged his readiness to ensuring that the new initiative stand the test of time.

    He urged the government to evolve measures that will sustain the system, even as he appealed to the agency to make provision for a permanent site for dumping of garbages by the community members.

  • Medview Airlines appointed for evacuation of 5,037 Nigerians from Libya

    The federal government has appointed Med-View Airline to participate in the evacuation of 5,037 Nigerians facing social challenges of various degrees in the Northern African country, Libya.

    An agreement to that effect was signed at the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) headquarters in Abuja on December 29 between the two organisations to facilitate the  smooth airlifting of Nigerians out of the troubled zone.

    Med-View will be participating in the airlifting of 5,037 evacuees with another Nigerian carrier.

    “This kind of responsibility is meant for Nigerian carriers, because it’s our responsibility and we have the capacity to carry out this operation. We have demonstrated the capacity that we can do it and we are honoured to have been appointed by the federal government through NEMA”, said Med-View’s Executive Director, Business Development and Commercial, Mr. Isiaq Na’Allah who participated in the signing of the agreement.

    “It is a known fact that Med-View Airline has been in operations for the past 10 years. We do Hajj operations and we do it successfully and the record is there for everybody to see, that is a factor I think the government considered before we are assigned this national project. We will deliver professionally up to international standard and the government is not making any mistake for entrusting Nigerian carrier to this kind of project.”

    NEMA’s Director-General, Mustapha Maihaja; Fatima Bukar, a Senior Legal Officer to NEMA; Med-View’s Executive Director, Business Development and Commercials, Mr. Isiaq Na’Allah and Med-View Corporate Affairs Officer, Johnson Omole, participated in the signing of the agreement.

    Recently, President Muhammadu Buhari constituted a 17-man fact finding committee to aid the evacuation process of 5,037 Nigerians. The 17-man team is headed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama.

    Members of the team includes Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mohammed Babandede; NEMA Director-General, Mustapha Maihaja; Senior Special Assistant to the President on the Diaspora, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa; National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) Director-General, Julie Okah-Donli; National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq; amongst others.

    The federal government has also established a Reception Centre in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, to be managed by the Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, to receive the 5, 037 returnees.

    News Agency of Nigeria – Subscription Service

  • Lawyer recommends adoption as viable alternative to abortion

    Lawyer recommends adoption as viable alternative to abortion

    Mrs Maureen Ajogo, an Abuja-based legal practitioner, says giving up an “unwanted” child for adoption is a better option than having an abortion.

    Ajogo gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bwari.

    According to her, abortion is a deviation from the moral norm of the sanctity of human life.

    The legal practitioner said no civilised society should permit a human to intentionally take the life of another human.

    “It must be punishable. However, adoption is a viable alternative to abortion.

    “There is no such thing as an unwanted child. Look around you today; you hear of families travelling to remote places just to either conceive or get a child they can adopt,’’ she said.

    Ajogo explained that abortion could result in complications later in life with the person terminating the pregnancy at risk of experiencing ectopic pregnancy, miscarriages, and pelvic inflammatory disease.

    She identified rape victims as persons at risk of becoming pregnant with an “unwanted’’ baby.

    According to her, if a situation like that should arise, the victim should be given proper medical care to ensure that she does not get pregnant.

    “This is how the excuse for the act of terminating the pregnancy begins because we say it is unwanted.

    “Abortion punishes the unborn child, who has committed no crime.

    “It is the perpetrator who should be punished. Abortion should not be used as another form of contraception,” Ajogo said.

  • Kubwa residents seek evacuation of refuse

    Residents of Kubwa Extension III in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have appealed to the environmental department of the council to evacuate the heaps of refuse in the area.
    One of the residents, Mr. Ighedosa John, a member of St. John Mary Vianney Quasi Parish, the catholic church located very close to a dumpsite, expressed disappointment at the FCT authorities for locating it so close to residential houses, worship centres and the ice block industries.
    John said the dumpsite should be relocated, after the church leadership sought in vain to get the Bwari Area Council authorities to do something on the dump.
    “I went to Bwari area council, with a letter dated July 13, I was told to come back after the Salah celebration, which I did. When I went back, I met a woman called Alhaja, who told me that this area which we are complaining about has the ministerial blessing to be used as a dumpsite.
    “I told her that where the dump site is situated is a residential area, but, she replied that there is nothing they could do about it, that they have even buried some refuse in the ground in the past.
    “We are appealing to the government to come and help us to remove this refuse from this place, because it is dangerous to the lives of people living here. The road is blocked with the refuse and cannot be accessed any longer, because of the refuse and the bad odour from it,” he said.
    Ms. Bola Aberuagba, one of the owners of the Ice Block industries located directly behind the dump site, said they are not happy with the environment hazard in the area, saying that the smell is too much for them to continue their business there, but they have no other option than to continue to pray for the government to come to their rescue.
    “We cannot even eat, because of the countless numbers of flies. During the rainy season like this, we cannot move about because, of the stinky water that comes out from it to the road and most times to our business centre, to the extent that people will find it difficult to stand and patronize us mostly when it rains.
    “Even the Catholic church at the other end is suffering seriously from the smells that come out from the refuse. When we came to this area initially, there was no dump site here, it was the mobile refuse collectors that told us that they are paying money to the area council to dump refuse here, because it is a designated dump site. We have done all we could to chase them away, but to no avail,” she said.
    Ibrahim Ibrahim, one of the mobile refuse collectors at the dump site, explained that they were initially located close to Dutse junction, a place called Ugwan-Bacha, and the land was sold for Estate to be constructed, before the leadership of council moved to the present dump site at Kubwa Extention III, because it is under a high tension.
    “We use to have people from the environmental department of Bwari area council that used to come and evacuate the refuse after it gathers for awhile, but recently, we do not know what went wrong that they allowed it to get to this level after some months. We are appealing to the council to come and evacuate the refuse for us.
    “Also, in order to survive in this challenging period, we collect rubber plates and buckets that could be recycled, and we sell them to rubber factories for them to be recycled. We do not want to chased out of this place, so that we will not loose our daily bread,” he said.

  • TCN records 71.66Mw evacuation gap

    TCN records 71.66Mw evacuation gap

    • Claims 6,000Mw capacity 

    Of the 3,449.85Mega Watts  which the electricity generation companies produced as at September 28, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) sent out 3,378.19MW, according to the statistics published by the Federal Ministry of Power on its website.

    As to why the remaining 71.66MW could not be evacuated, the TCN General Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs. Seun Olagunju, said the gap was due to the fire outbreak at the Apo, Abuja transmission station,  adding that the station has been restored .

    She said the company has a “guaranteed 6,000MW capacity.”

    The spokesman was then asked to respond to the claim of the Chairman, Heirs Holdings Limited, Mr. Tony Elumelu, who had on September 10, said that in Nigeria, one of the biggest challenges to power generation is transmission.

    He was quoted in a statement by the Communications Manager, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Bolanle Omisore as saying that “in fact, while Ughelli Power Plant generated at full capacity for the first time in July, we’ve been asked to scale down generation because of the outdated transmission systems. For every 100MW generated and sent to transmission companies, 40 per cent is lost, in part because of this infrastructure issue.”

    But Olagunju explained that it is easier to blame government owned TCN, which is the only government owned entity in the power value chain, stating that in the history of the Nigeria power sector, it has never generated power beyond the company’s wheeling capacity 6,000MW.

    The spokesman debunked Elumelu’s statement and maintained “That is not true. But it is easier to blame TCN because it is the only government owned company in the sector. Nigeria has never generated up to 5,000MW and TCN has a guarantee capacity of 6,000MW. We can evacuate 6,000MW if they can generate it.”

  • Kashim Billa dam: FEC approves N31.2b for power evacuation

    Kashim Billa dam: FEC approves N31.2b for power evacuation

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday approved N31.2 billion for the evacuation of electricity power from the Kashim Billa multipurpose dam in Taraba State.

    Minister of Information, Labaran Maku and Minister of State for Power, Mohammed Wakil spoke to  State House correspondents at the end of FEC meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja.

    Maku said the project which involves building of transmission lines was awarded to SCC Nigeria Ltd., with 18 months completion time.

    According to him, the dam is expected to add 40 megawatts to the national grid.

    Director General, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Emeka Eze, who was the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Erosion in Southeast, also submitted its report to FEC yesterday.

    According to him, all the teething problems of the 15 erosion projects in the Southeast have been addressed.

    According to him, the report was carried out last year, adding that most of the projects are near-completion and would be completed in the next two or three months.

    Maku said: “We devoted a substantial part of today’s FEC (meeting) to the review of report of the erosion control project in the Southeastern part of Nigeria.

    “As you are all aware, Mr. President, on assumption of office, promised prompt intervention in resolving some of the key erosion problems in the Southeast which is known through out this country to be the most affected when it comes to erosion.

    “Several communities in the Southeast have always been affected and Mr President had promised to handle some of these projects in order to bring relief and stop the deterioration of the environment and the destruction of their means of livelihood.”