The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Kogi State

  • Four HND graduates die in well in Kogi

    Four Higher National Diploma (HND) graduates were drowned in a well they were engaged to evacuate on Monday night in Kabba, headquarters of Kabba/Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

    It was gathered that the four graduates, whose names were given as: David, Sunday, Ayo and Ogbekedo, with two of them from the same parents,  specialised in digging wells.

    A witness said the tragedy occurred at Zango quarters in Kabba, where a primary school mistress, whose name was given as Mrs. Agnes Baiyere, had contracted them to dig the well in the front of her newly constructed four-bedroom apartment.

    The woman, a teacher in St. Mary’s Primary School, was said to have contracted one of them, David, who invited the others to join him in digging the well.

    Work was said to have been completed, when two of them returned Monday evening, to evacuate some broken blocks that fell into the well.

    Read Also: 7 die as truck plunged into river in Kogi

    However, when one of them entered into the well, he was said to have complained of dizziness, following which another came to his aid.

    The two were said to have been trapped in the well and could not come out.

    As the news filtered round, the two other workers , who were said to have made for the site to rescue their colleagues, were also trapped and could not come out.

    Personnel of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Kabba office were later contacted to evacuate the remains of the four workers.

     

  • Army warns officer over meddlesomeness

    THE Nigerian Army yesterday warned its unit Commander in Kogi State to stay out of the conflict regarding the alleged plot to remove the Chief Judge, Justice Nasir Ajanah, from office.

    It demanded that soldiers should not be part of any plan to remove or eject the chief judge from his official residence.

    A statement from Army spokesman, Colonel Sagir Musa, distanced the Army from the problem regarding the judiciary.

    The statement reads: “The Nigerian Army has received a report of the purported or planned use of soldiers to remove and eject the Kogi State Chief Judge from his official residence.

    “The NA under the leadership of Lt-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai will not contemplate interfering under any guise in the internal Executive – Judiciary conflict in Kogi State or any other state for that matter.

    Read also: Army arrests arms manufacturers

    “The Army Headquarters has already directed and warned the Commander in the state to stay clear of this conflict (not to interfere under any guise).

    “As a professional and law-abiding organisation, the NA hereby strongly distances itself from Kogi State conflict between the State Executive and the Judiciary.”

     

  • Gov. Bello plotting to sack CJ, Kogi judiciary alleges

    The judicial arm of the Kogi State government headed by Justice Nasir Ajanah has alleged of plans by Governor Yahaya Bello to remove the former from office.

    The judicial service, in a statement on Tuesday by Saqeeb Saeed, Senior Information Officer, Kogi State Judiciary, alleged the plot being hatched by the governor to remove Ajanah as the state’s chief judge is to use the speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly to illegally remove the chief law officer.

    The statement read: “Events in the last few days have made it necessary for the Kogi State Judiciary to issue this press statement.

    “The Kogi State Judiciary is aware of clandestine moves by His Excellency, the Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello to use the Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly to illegally remove the Chief Judge of the State, Hon. Justice Nasiru Ajanah, from office over some trumped up allegations.

    “This dangerous and ill-advised move is coming from the executive inspite of the fact that the matter is now before the National Judicial Council (NJC), and there is a subsisting court order restraining the governor from doing so.

    Read Also: Bello lauds military support to internal security

    “The governor is advised not to do anything that will plunge the state into an unnecessary constitutional crisis. Rather, he should obey the rule of law and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which he swore to uphold.

    “Meanwhile workers of the judiciary should remain calm, as the rule of law shall prevail at the end.”

    As at the time of filing the report, activities at the Assembly indicated moves were in the offing to ease Ajanah out from office as Kogi CJ.

    Judicial staff members on Monday marched through some major streets of the capital, Lokoja, protesting the alleged plan to sack Ajanah as CJ.

    The speaker, Prince Mathew Kolawole, had however denied knowledge of such plan.

    Kolawole, who was at the government house on Monday, said he was unaware of the name(s) of such person(s) making the allegations.

  • Many injured as gunmen attack Kogi fishing festival

    This year’s edition of the annual Dankwo fishing festival in Lokoja, Kogi State, ended abruptly yesterday after three unknown gunmen opened fire on participants.

    The gunmen, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), stormed the Kabawa Waterfront venue in two engine boats about an hour into the festival, and launched their attack.

    Guests and spectators at the event fled in different directions for safety.

    But five of them were not so lucky as they were hit by bullets.

    Read also: Gunmen injure five, disrupt fishing festival in Kogi

    Police were immediately contacted but the gunmen had escaped in the same engine boats that brought them.

    The Kogi State Police Command spokesman, DSP William Aya, confirmed the incident which he described as unfortunate.

    He said the five wounded victims had been taken to the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, for treatment.

    He explained that nobody died in the attack and that two suspects were arrested.

    Aya said that full investigation into the incident had started, adding that all those linked with the attack would be arrested and prosecuted.

    The annual event is organised by the Lokoja Traditional Council.

  • 1, 600 Batch ‘A’ 2018 Corps members pass out in Kogi

    THE National Youth Service Corps ( NYSC ), in Kogi State, has said  1, 600 Batch ‘ A’ 2018 corps members have successfully passed out of the scheme; with none of them having extension in service year.  In addition, two corps members got state award for outstanding performance in their personal community development service projects (PCSP) during their service year, NYSC added.

    The two corps members who won the state award are: Dr Alabi Boluwaji Vincent with state code number KG/ 18A/0445, and Seun Albert Oyelude with state code number KG/18A/007.

    State NYSC Co-ordinator, Mrs. Oludolapo Ahile, described the set as ‘unique’ with outstanding CDS initiated projects. He praised them for their active participation in national assignment which ended recently.

    Oludolapo urged the outgoing corps members to remain focused on becoming self-reliant and selfsustaining, asking them to put into practice all the skills and entrepreneurship training they had acquired during their one year national service.

    He said: “In this one year, you have understood the meaning of mobility of labour. In this sense, you are free to remain behind after the service year as a result of discovery of greener pasture.”

    Oludolapo expressed her appreciation to Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello for the support during the service year. He said the success of the service year was on account of peaceful and secured environment, and improved camp facility, courtesy of the government.

    Read also: Mass failure in General Studies at Sokoto Varsity

    As part of activities to mark the end of their service year, the corps members organised a ‘Corpers week’ an event, which featured visitation to the prison, sanitation exercise, visit to the motherless home in Lokoja where the corps members identified with them and distribution of gifts to them.

    The climax of the end of service year week was the dinner and award night, which held at Glass House, Government House, Lokoja.

    Speaking at the event, Governor Bello pledged to support the corps members with 1,500 benches to ease their discomfort at Muslim Community Secondary School, Lokongoma, Lokoja where their CDS meeting always hold.

    The governor, who was represented by his Chief of Staff Edward David Onoja, enjoined the corps members not to give up on Nigeria, stressing that he believes in the present administration’s commitment to youth development.

    Bello pointed out that the future of Nigeria lies in youths’ hands, therefore, they must avoid discrimination along religious and tribal lines.

  • Colleagues attribute Kogi magistrate’s death to unpaid salaries

    The death of a Kogi State Magistrate and Deputy Chief Registrar (Litigation), Mr. Zekery Aguye, has led to disquiet in the state judiciary service.

    Aguye’s colleagues are attributing his demise to the backlog of unpaid salaries.

    He reportedly died at the National Hospital last week after a protracted battle with prostate cancer.

    According the magistrate’s colleagues, Aguye stopped treatment due to alleged inability to offset his medical bills.

    The Chief Registrar of the state High Court, Mr. Yahaya Adamu, who confirmed the sad development, described Aguye’s death as pathetic.

    He described the deceased as one of the best hands in the state judiciary.

    Adamu said: “I am very sorry to say that even as we subscribe to the will of Almighty Allah, who gives and takes life, you and I know certainly that sometimes there are deaths that are evitable. In this particular one, we feel it may have been further delayed if we had continued to manage his ailment as we were doing in the past before the judiciary was financially grounded.”

    According to him, the Magistrate’s illness surfaced two years back, when he was diagnosed of the disease.

    He added that with quick and appropriate response and the concerted attention of the family and the judiciary, the deceased received the proper medical treatment.

    Adamu said: “He was taken to the National Hospital, where he was treated, to the extent that he even started driving his car by himself, having survived the critical period of the illness, which also affected his spine.

    “When it all started, we thought it was one of those usual ailments. But when it became obvious that he needed to be handled by specialists, we headed for the National Hospital. You will agree with me that treatment there was highly capital intensive. So, in conjunction with the family and other wells wishers, he was revived.

    “He was subsequently placed on drugs and periodic examinations by the hospital, which we consistently complied with. This processes costs between N400,000 and N500,000 monthly, depending on the result of the tests.

    “By the grace of God and with the cooperation of the family and others, we were coping with the management of the illness. However, we started having problems with his treatment as from the middle of last year when the Kogi State Judiciary started facing funding crises.

    Read also: Faleke didn’t sponsor me, says Kogi ADC Rep-elect

    “At this point, his salary, allowances and even the little assistance the judiciary was giving him ceased to come anymore. His care suddenly became the exclusive responsibility of the wife and the family alone. You’ll surely agree with me that, coupled with the children’s demands, it will be difficult for the wife to bear this enormous burden.

    He added: “As a matter of fact, before he finally gave up the ghost, he was withdrawn from the National Hospital for lack of fund. It was at the critical point of his death that he was rushed back to the hospital by which time it was already too late.”

    He appealed to Governor Yahaya Bello to find solution to the impasse between the state judiciary and the state government to avert further loss of lives.

    “I will like to use this medium to ask well-meaning Nigerians to plead with His Excellency, Governor Yahaya Bello, to save Kogi judiciary and the state similar calamities by releasing the judiciary funds, so we can pay the nine months we owe our workers.

    “As I speak with you, many others are hospitalised, their children withdrawn from schools and some even homeless resulting from tenancy problems with their respective landlords,” he pleaded.

  • Adesanmi’s death, a great loss to our family – Sister

    Mrs. Iyabo Toluhi (nee Adesanmi), the elder sister of the late Prof. Pius Adesanmi, on Saturday described the death of his brother as a great loss to the family and community.

    Toluhi, spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the sideline of Memorial Mass held in honour of the deceased at St. Joseph Catholic Church, in his home town in Itedo-Ijowa, Isanlu, Yagba East, LGA, Kogi State.

    Adesanmi with 156 others on board, died in the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 on Sunday March 10, 2019.

    The elder sister to the late professor, with tears rolling down her eyes, told NAN that it was really difficult for her to talk about her younger brother.

    She said that her brother’s death was a great loss to the family as he was the only son among three children of their mother.

    ”We appreciate the whole world the way they have celebrated our brother, Bola (Pius), the last born and only son among the three siblings of our parent,” she said.

    ”Pius was a very hard working and a highly intelligent man, right from the nursery, primary, secondary and tertiary schools.He was an excellent child in school.

    ”We thank God for the life he lived and that is what we are seeing now, how people all over the world are celebrating him.

    ”It shows the kind of life he had lived. He loved and cared for his people including his immediate, nuclear, and extended family including his community,” she said.

    Rev. Fr. (Dr) Kunle James, of the St. Joseph Catholic Church, Isanlu, appealed to Kogi Government to pay the gratuity and pension of Adesanmi’s mother’s (Mrs Lois Olufunke Adesanmi), saying it was the greatest tribute and major honour they could give to him.

    ”The government has said so many great things about the late professor, but we are appealing to the government to pay his mother’s pension and gratuity,” James told NAN in an interview.

    However, Dr (Mrs) Folashade Ayoade, the Secretary to Kogi Government, told NAN that the state government would expedite action on the payment of the late Adesanmi’s mother’s gratuity.

    ”We learnt that she retired from Kogi civil service, and her gratuity had not been paid.

    ”We will make sure as a government we expedite action on the payment of her gratuity, and we shall be in constant touch with his daughter and the wife,” Ayoade pledged.

    The delegation from the Kogi State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, led by its Perm. Secretary, Mr Eric Aina, had earlier on Saturday paid a condolence visit to the aged mother of the late scholar.

    The late Prof. Pius Adebola Adesanmi was born on Feb. 27, 1972.

    Before his death he was the director of the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada.

    He joined the university in 2006, after spending three years at Pennsylvania State University in United States, where he was assistant professor of comparative literature.

    He was educated at Titcombe College, Egbe, Kogi state, University of Ilorin, University of Ibadan and University of British Columbia.(NAN)

  • Six INEC staff kidnapped, released in Kogi

    Six staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were kidnapped and later released in Lokoja, Kogi State during the state assembly election on Saturday.

    The kidnapping of the staff was one of the incidents recorded during the election that was  generally marred by violence.

    The staff  were kidnapped by armed thugs decked in fake police and army uniforms at the polling unit inside the Crowther Memorial College in Lokoja.

    They were taken away in a van  by their armed abductors.

    The Director of publicity in Lokoja office of the INEC, Mr Ahmed Bimabo said the victims were released few hours later and were  being medically examined at the Lokoja office of the commission.

    He did not say whether the workers returned with the sensitive election materials and ballot boxes that were seized by the hoodlums as they were taken away.

    Also in Ward D area of Lokoja , the election was marred by violence launched by thugs who invaded the area when the election was underway.

    A witness  said that voting took place in only in one out of the five polling units.

    Hoodlums were also on the rampage at the workers village on Hassan Usman Katsina Road in Lokoja.

    Masked armed hoodlums invaded the village and  carted  away ballot papers and sensitive election materials from the only polling unit in the area,  amid gunshots.

    At Ganaja village , a former Commissioner for information in the state, Mr Anthony Puke lost his bungalow and three cars, as they were  set  ablaze by hoodlums.

    Puke is said to be a chieftain of the APC. Why the hoodlums attacked him was not so clear.

    Also incidents of  ballot box snatching were recorded  during the election in Kabba/Bunu, Yagba West, Yagba East and Ijumu local government areas of the state.

    Sunday Karimi, who represents Yagba federal Constituency in the House of Representatives described the election as sham.

    ” There is no need for future election . They have taken us back to the old days when crude ways and outright manipulation of figures were the order of the day,” he said.

    Karimi lamented the use of armed thugs in fake police and military uniforms for ballot box snatching and arm twisting of traditional rulers to win election at all cost.

    Meanwhile , the election has ended and results being collated at the ward level.

    The turnout for the election was generally low but the card readers performed better than what happened during the Feb. 23 elections.

    It was.also observed that the INEC made better preparations when compared with the Presidential and National Assembly  elections on 23 February. ( NAN)

  • Shooting, ballot box snatching spread in Kogi

    Shooting and ballot boxes snatching by armed hoodlums have spread to some native parts of Lokoja, Kogi capital, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    As at the time this report, some hoodlums in fake police and army uniforms were scaring away voters at the polling units opposite Bishop Delisle Catholic Cathedral in Lokoja.

    A staff of the Justice, Development and Peace Commission, Mr Sunday Adwjoh, told NAN that many people from Karaworo Polling Station ran into the church premises for safety.

    Adwjoh who spoke on phone said “as we are talking, all of us are lying down to escape being hit by stray bullets.’

    Also, at Oke Egbe Polling Unit 01 in Yagba West Local Government Area, a man was shot on the leg when some people invaded the polling unit to snatch ballot box and other materials.

    The victim, identified as Mr Tunde Oladipo, was said to have joined hands with others at the polling unit to prevent the armed thugs from snatching the ballot box.

    NAN gathered that the invaders were however prevented from going away with the ballot box. (NAN)

  • Bello laments low turn out of voters

    Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State voted at about 8.38 a.m. at Agasa Uvete Polling Unit 011 in Okene Local Government area.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Bello and two of his wives spent about 15 minutes to go through accreditation and voting unlike February 23 when the card reader failure kept the governor for over two hours before voting.

    The process went smoothly with the card reader working well.

    Read Also: NLC, TUC, pensioners endorse Bello for second term

    Speaking after, the governor commended INEC for a job well done in terms of timely arrival of materials and personnel.

    Bello, however, observed that the turnout was not as impressive when compared with that Feb. 23 election.

    In Lokoja, the state capital, election started few minutes after 8.00 a.m. in many polling units.

    NAN reports that voting and accreditation were also going on peacefully in other parts of Okene like Adavi, Ihima, Okengwe, Eika and Kuroko, among others.

    The turn out was also picking up gradually, while the polling units remain peaceful with security agents in attendance.

    NAN