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Tag: Jigawa

  • Gov. Badaru appoints permanent secretary

    Gov. Muhammad Badaru of Jigawa has approved the appointment of Garba Ahmed as Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Commerce.

    A statement issued in Dutse on Tuesday by Alhaji Isma’il Ibrahim, Public Relations Officer, Office of Head of the State Civil Service, indicated that the appointment takes immediate effect.

    “Until his appointment, Ahmed was the Director-General, Directorate of Protocol, Government House”.

    “The appointment of the new permanent secretary to serve the state government in this capacity is purely on merit, competency and personal integrity,” the statement added.

  • SDGs: Nigeria may miss 2030 deadline on sanitation, access to safe water

    Nigeria may likely not meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 6, with the continuous decline in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), it was learnt.

    The SDG goal 6 states that countries must achieve universal and equitable access to potable water for all achieve access to adequate sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation.

    The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS 5) has revealed that access to basic sanitation has steadily reduced in Nigeria between 2000 and 2015.

    This is as 70 million people still lack access to potable water despite efforts by governments and partners.

    The survey also revealed that open defecation has worsened between 2010 and 2015.

    According to the report, Sanitation in the country is quite alarming, as over 110 million people lack access to improved sanitation in 2013 while about 46 million people still practice open defecation.

    Open defecation and poor hygiene have been linked to increased diarrhoea cases, which in turn affects the nutritional status of children. Every year, an estimated 124,000 children under the age of 5 die because of diarrhoea.

    Though there are efforts to address the situation through the European Union (EU) assisted Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform Project (WSSSRP) has continued to build strong institutions and systems for effective and sustainable water services delivery.

    Six states which include Anambra, Cross River, Jigawa, Kano, Osun and Yobe states are benefiting from the initiative.

    Speaking during a recent media dialogue on WASH in Anambra State, a specialist with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Mainga Banda, said about 130 million Nigerians use unimproved sanitation facilities, with majority of them living in rural areas.

    Read Also: Soldiers embark on sanitation, sweep Kaduna streets

    Mrs Banda, while quoting the MICS5 published in 2017, said that over 46 million people still practice open defecation, which ranks Nigeria 3rd among countries in the world with such people.

    She said, “Despite all effort, sanitation is declining instead of improving and this calls for concern. The trend in water availability between year 2000 and 2015 revealed that the gradient is going up instead of declining, same with sanitation especially in the rural area.

    “WASH plays a critical role in improving health, nutrition and hygiene in Nigeria. So it is a necessity for Nigeria to curb issues of water borne and sanitation related diseases to meet its SDG 6 by 2030,” she said.

    Mrs Banda also noted that most people in rural areas still lack latrines, basic hand washing tools, among others, ”which if not provided will keep worsening sanitation in the country”.

    A visit to Ononaku Ezinifite, a community in Aguata LGA, Anambra State with over 2,000 residents, reveals the benefit of the project to the people, especially those in the rural communities.

    The secretary, WASHCOM unit in the community, Ike Christian, said the project has relieved them (residents) of a lot of stress.

    He noted that before the introduction and completion of the project, children used to go to a distance to fetch water for home use and ”people made use of the nearby bushes to defecate.”

    Mr Ike said since the provision of the facilities, there has not been reported cases of any water-borne disease in the community. He added that people now take care of their environment “because of the orientation they are getting from WASHCOM officials in the community”.

    He also said the officials are making efforts to ensure that the facility is secured.

    A resident of the community, Nathan Ofoma, said since the completion of the project, people no longer defecate openly.

    He laments that before now, residents rely majorly on rain water  “as there is no single river in the community”.

    The Programme Manager, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), Ministry of Public Utilities and Water Resources, Anambra State, Ezekwo Victor said the state government was committed to WASH. He also said they have ”completed 33 water supply schemes, the compilation of phase 11 rehabilitation works for non-functional boreholes, among others.”

    He noted that the state has also rehabilitated 116 non-functional boreholes across the state.

    The project was co-funded by EU and the Anambra State government with 70 per cent EU/UNICEF support and 30 per cent from the state government. It was a public procurement concept awarded to the lowest bidder.

  • Jigawa pays N724m to retirees

    THE Jigawa State government has paid N724 million to over 429 retirees and families of deceased state and local government workers.

    The Acting Executive Secretary of the Contributory Pension Board (CPB), Musa Muhammad Yalleman, who addressed reporters yesterday on disbursements for the second quarter of the years, said: “No fewer than 429 beneficiaries from the state, local government council and local government education authority have collected their July benefits.

    “Of the amount, over N473 million was paid as retirement benefit to 285 state, local government and local education authority workers and over N209 million was paid as death benefits to relations of 103 workers.”

    He noted that other payments include N40 million paid to 38 relations as death pension balance and N1,114,000.00 million paid to three workers as refund of eight per cent of their contribution.

    Yalleman praised Governor Muhammad Abubakar for the support and cooperation given to the board always, and thanked staff and management of the board, as well as the Office of the head of service, for their dedication in prompt payment of staff benefit.

  • NJC poise to stop pension fraud

    The Executive Secretary, National Judicial Council  ( NJC )Ahmed Saleh has disclosed that the council is determined to rid the it’s system of any form of irregularities as it has paid eighty per cent pension arrears to retirees of Federal Judiciary from 2013 to date.

    Saleh made this known on Tuesday, shortly after inspecting enrollment exercise for retirees of the federal judiciary in Kano, Katsina, Jigawa and Kaduna states respectively.

    According to him, payment of monthly pension and outstanding arrears has been one of his major priority since his assumption to office.

    “When I assumed office in 2017, I didn’t mince words, I made it clear that pension administration is one of my priority areas and as such all operational and structural frameworks must be put in place to ensure timely and prompt payment of monthly pension, clear outstanding arrears of pension owed, have a reliable and accurate data of pensioners and deployment of a robust platforms to detect and do away with ghost pensioners,”

    “The pension administration in NJC has recorded remarkable achievements since my assumption. These include introduction of E-monitoring solution to the accounting processes, -voucher, introduction of Direct Data Capture machine, computerised computation system and contributory pension module that will aid in minimizing errors or omissions in preparation of remittance to pension fund administrators,” Mr. Saleh revealed.

    Further more, he added that, the council has set up a data base centre for the Pension department and organised series of pre-retirement training for the staff of federal judiciary with the sole aim of preparing them for life after service.

    The council has also established a toll-free complaint line where pensioners can lodge in their complaints in order to a avoid duplications by blocking any loopholes against fraudulent acts.

    Responding to the legal backing of handling pension by the commission, Saleh said the administration of pension of federal judicial officers was transferred to the National Judicial Council via the Pension Rights of Federal judicial officer ( administration of pension) Act 2007.

    He explained that with the enactment of the act, the NJC was mandated to cater for funding of it’s pension costs through budgetary process which hitherto was being handled by the office of the head of civil service of the federation and that challenges such as inadequate funding and misappropriation of pension funds to delays in payment of benefits, lack of authentic records of pensioners, existence of ghost pensioners among others have been taken care of.

    “In 2013, the National pension commission also transferred the administration of accrued rights of all federal judiciary staff to the NJC and thereby making it the responsibility of NJC to source the funding of all accrued rights of federal judiciary staff.

    “Consequent upon this His Lordship, the Chief Justice of Nigeria Walter Ononghen approved the upgrading of the pension unit to a full fledged department,” the Executive Secretary revealed.

    An enrollee from Court of Appeal Kaduna, Asabe Bawa expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the exercise.

  • Jigawa approves N2.9b for infrastructure

    THE Jigawa State Government has approved the release of over N2.9 billion for the construction and equipping of schools, hospitals.

    Commissioner for Information, Youth, Sports and Culture Bala Ibrahim, who stated this yesterday in Dutse, said the decision was taken at the State Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Muhammadu Badaru Abubakar.

    He said: “To ensure that the people have access to secondary healthcare services, the government has approved and awarded the contract for the construction of three new general hospitals in Guri, Garki and Buji Local Government Areas at N1.497 billion, with a  completion period of 12 months.

    “To ensure adequate manpower to manage the health facilities, the government awarded the contract for the construction of a new school of Nursing and Midwifery in Babura at N591.56 million, with a completion period of 12 months.”

    Ibrahim added that the government also approved N819.60 million for various projects in the education sector to tackle the challenges of increased enrolment in schools.

    According to him, the projects included the construction of additional three classrooms and six toilets in 26 secondary schools across the state, among others.

  • $322m Abacha loot: Cash transfers to poor homes begin in July

    The Federal Government says it will commence disbursement of the recovered 322 million dollars Abacha loot through Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) to 302,000 poor households in 19 states in July.

    Mr Tukur Rumar, of the National Cash Transfer Office (NTCO), said this at a roundtable on assets recovery organised by the Swiss Embassy on Thursday, in Abuja.

    The event was organised to intimate citizens and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on the efforts both nations were making on asset recovery after the Post-Global Forum on Assets Recovery (GFAR) held in Washington D.C. in Dec. 2017.

    At the forum, Nigeria made commendable commitments on beneficial ownership, tax transparency, asset recovery, transparency management of recovered funds and payments to victims of corruption.

    The states are: Niger, Kogi, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, Kwara, Cross River, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarrawa, Anambra and Internally Displaced Camps (IDPs) in Borno.

    According to Rumar, the benefiting households will receive N5,000 monthly and are derived from the National Social Register (NSR) that the 19 states are already on.

    He said the programme was designed to also train beneficiaries on livelihood skills, social skills and other programmes that would change their lives completely.

    Rumar, however, said that NCTO had been making payments to the 46,000 poor and vulnerable households across the 19 states since Dec. 2016, adding that the number had increased to 290,000.

    Mr Iorwa Apera, the National Coordinator, National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO), said 503,055 households were already on the NSR register from the 19 states, adding that by July, there would be a social register for all the states of the federation.

    He said that of the Abacha loot, about 302,000 poor homes across the 19 states would be mined by the NCTO to begin to receive the Abacha loot.

    Apera told the participants that the Federal Government would begin with those states, because they had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NASSCO to put in place certain infrastructure to empower the national register.

    “Some of the states delayed, but the other ones were quick enough to set up infrastructure that allowed us to start work there, but all the states are now on board as they have set up their state operating offices and donated office equipment to us.

    “As states come on board, we enroll and so they extend to the beneficiary register, and presently we are generating data in all the states now,’’ he said.

    Read Also: EFCC launches probe as $500m Abacha loot goes missing

    Mrs Linda Ekeator of the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment said the Abacha loot was invested in the social investment programme, because it was a programme that was already supported by the World Bank.

    She said that before the money was returned to Nigeria, there was an agreement with the Swiss government that it should be used for alleviating poverty and this was to be done with the supervision of the World Bank.

    The Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Eric Mayoraz said the 722 million dollars of the Abacha family money that was hidden in Switzerland was fully repatriated in 2005.

    He also said that the 322 million dollars that was repatriated in Dec. 2017, was money that was frozen by the Swiss Attorney-General, but was not domiciled in Switzerland, but in other countries, mainly Luxembourg.

    He, however, said measures had been put in place to ensure that Swiss banks were not used to hide stolen funds from other countries.

    “For possible new cases, the Swiss legislation has fundamentally changed.

    “The law in Switzerland does not allow bank secrecy anymore, and all banks and financial institutions have a due diligence duty to ask everyone coming with money where it is coming from.

    “That does not mean that there are no illegal or stolen assets now in Switzerland, but then there is another instrument I signed myself with the Nigerian Ministry of Justice and Switzerland two years ago on mutual legal assistance and this is for new cases.

    “Now, this agreement with our own Ministry of Justice and Nigeria is that there will be direct communication and exchange on mutual legal request and we are really collaborating with EFCC and other agencies in Nigeria,’’ Mayoraz.

    The Executive Director, ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor, said for Nigerian citizens to not keep spreading rumours about the whereabouts of recovered loots, the government must be transparent in all the processes.

    He also said that CSOs should be given access to the social register to enable it monitor properly whether or not the beneficiaries received what was due to them.

  • Two toddlers drown in Jigawa pond

    Two teenage boys who attempted swimming in a pond in Gantsa village of Buji Local Government Area of Jigawa State have drowned.

    Adamu Shehu, the spokesman of the state Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Dutse.

    Shehu said the incident occurred on Thursday at about 6 p.m.

    The spokesman, who gave the names the deceased as Yusuf Adamu, 6, and Umar Ibrahim, 4, said they were confirmed dead by a doctor after they were taken to hospital for medical attention.

    He, therefore, advised parents and guardians in the state to monitor the movement of their children and wards in order to avoid such tragedy.

    NAN recalled that on Dec. 7, 2017, four teenage girls drowned while swimming across a pond in Sakwaya village of Dutse LGA.

    Also, on July 8, 2017, The state Police Command, in a statement through the its spokesman, SP Abdu Jinjiri, said that no fewer than 11 persons have drowned in rivers in different parts of state in one month. (NAN)

  • Seven die, three injured in Jigawa auto crash

    Seven persons on Wednesday lost their lives in an auto crash along Hadejia to Kaugama road in Jigawa.

    Mr Angus Ibezim, Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps in the state, who confirmed the incident, told our reporter that four others sustained various degrees of injury.

    He said the accident, which involved a Cetroen car and tanker vehicle, occurred at about 7 a.m, and was caused by excessive speeding and poor visibility caused by rainfall.

    Ibezim said the victims are cattle dealers and were on their way to Gaidam town in Yobe State when the accident occurred.

    According to him, the car, which is supposed to carry eight persons, was conveying 11 passengers.

    “The FRSC is therefore advising motorists to desist from speeding, overloading and driving when visibility is not clear, particularly as the rainy season has set in,” he added.

    Ibezim further said that the corps recovered N1,216,870 million, six mobile phones, clothes and lamp belonging to the deceased, saying that the recovered money and items would be handed over to their relations.

  • FG to permanently shut land borders over rice smuggling

    Says Thailand rice is poisonous

    Federal Government has issued stern warning against consumption of Thailand rice saying it is poisonous.

    Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh disclosed this when he interacted with youths during The Guardians of the Nations International (GOTNI) leadership clinic held on Monday in Abuja.

    He disclosed that the land borders will soon be totally shut, in order to prevent smuggling of foreign rice and other toxic materials into the country.

    His words: “Our other problem is smuggling. As we speak, a neighbor of ours is importing more rice than China is importing. They do not eat parboiled rice, they eat white rice, they use their ports to try and damage our economy.

    “I am telling you now because in a few days, you will hear the border has been shut, we are going to shut it to protect you, us and protect our economy. You will start seeing all sorts of negative things on the internet. Let me tell you why we need to shut the border, I grow rice, I was the first Nigerian to mill rice free of stones, if you plant rice in certain parcels of land, some poisonous materials gets into the rice.”

    Ogbeh lamented that the friendly relationship that existed between Nigeria and her neighbouring African countries was adversely affecting the nation’s economy, hence the decision to shut the borders.

    Read Also: Rice smuggling: FG to shut land border in few days

    According to the Minister,  the federal government in past two years had succeeded in reducing rice importation by 95 percent and increased the number of rice farmers from five to 30 million.

    He noted that states like Anambra, Ebonyi, Kebbi, Kano, Jigawa have taken advantage of the Anchor Borrower Programme (ABP) of the Federal government to upscale rice production, and such achievements will not be allowed to fizzle away through smuggling activities.

    “There are three kinds of water in their natural state; there is fresh water from the river, salt water from the sea, blackish water. If you go to the Delta in many countries, in South East Asia where they grow the rice, if you plant rice in the same place like four to six years continuously, the quantum of arsenic begins to increase and arsenic causes cancer and that is what they are dumping for us.

    “Some people say they prefer Thai rice because they are very sophisticated, welcome to poison. We just have to handwork you to prosperity otherwise, this country will not grow. My wish for you is to have a better time than we had,” he added.

  • 237 teachers sat for TRC examination in Jigawa – NUT

    The Nigerian Union of Teacher (NUT), Jigawa chapter says no fewer than 237 teachers in the state have sat for the 2018 Batch ‘A’ Teacher Professional Qualifying Examination (TPQE).

    The NUT Chairman, Mr Abdulkadir Yunusa made this known to the our reporter in Dutse on Wednesday.

    NUT examinations are conducted by Teacher Registration Council (TRC) nationwide.

    Yunusa said about 270 teachers in the state registered for the examination conducted on June 9, while 337 sat for it, 37 were absent.

    He said about 5,000 teachers in the state registered with TRC, adding that more teachers would be registered in the Batch ‘B’ TPQE slated for October.

    Read Also: Board urges pilgrims to register before June 22

    The chairman said that the registration of about 5,000 teachers was as a result of massive mobilisation embarked upon by the union on the need for teachers to register with TRC.

    “The large number of teachers in Jigawa that so far registered with the TRC is due to the level of mobilisation and awareness created by the NUT on the need for our members to register.

    “It is a very important national policy that is why we don’t want to be left behind.

    “And we will continue to mobilise and encourage them until we see that all the over 26,000 teachers in the state are registered with the TRC,” the chairman assured.

    According to him, TRC’s registration and TPQE will enable teachers to acquire global practice of teaching.

    “We want all teachers to register, this is because if you register and pass the TPQE, you will be a recognised teacher. I mean it is a license that will allow you to teach anywhere in the world.

    “And the maximum qualification to register is NCE, Degree, Masters and above,” Yunusa said.