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Tag: lagos

  • SON seals N5b sub-standard tyres warehouse in Lagos

    SON seals N5b sub-standard tyres warehouse in Lagos

    •Two Chinese arrested

    Two Chinese are to be prosecuted for their involvement in the importation of fake and substandard tyres worth N5 billion into the country

    MessrsTaolung Shen and Xu Jing Yao were arrested and their company Sino Nigeria Import and Export Limited’s warehouse in Lagos sealed by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

    Director-General of SON Osita Aboloma, who showed reporters round the warehouse at Alakija area on Badagry Road in Lagos at the weekend, lamented that the importation of such tyres endangered the lives of millions of Nigerians.

    He said many of the over three million tyres brought into the country in over 60 containers, had post-dated manufacturing dates –some of them with March 2017 date on them.

    They also cloned different sizes of tyres under such brand names as Powertrac, Aptany, Harmony, Duraturn, Bearway, City Tour, Winda, Glory, Chachland, City Grand, Grandsonte (Tyre Type) and Sunny (for tricycle) among others.

    Many of the tyres arrived in Nigeria stuffed into one another. In some instances as many as five stuffed into one. Many are bent and ruptured and looking weak and slack.

    Aboloma described the tyres as “dead on arrival”, adding that allowing such consignments into the country could lead to motor accidents and loss of lives.

    He said stuffing tyres through the long sea journey from China to Lagos had already compromised the quality let alone the crude way the tyres were separated on arrival in Nigeria and the poor storage facility, without sufficient aeration in the warehouse.

    ”The SON Directorate of Compliance intercepted one of their trucks on the highway, tracked it and then this. You can see the amount of danger that these people are posing to our people and our economy just because they want to make huge profit at the expense of the lives of Nigerians”, Aboloma said.

    He lamented that the raid on the company revealed a lot of illicit activities, including re-labelling, high level of stuffing of tyres into one, tampering with expiry dates and staking the tyres in very adverse conditions.

    “it is a clear case of investing millions in illicit business in order to take away the lives of millions of Nigerians. to destroy the lives of millions of Nigerians. If we should allow something like this, it will amount to killing Nigerians”, Aboloma said.

    ”I want to reiterate that there is no hiding place for those who deal in substandard products as they will be caught and their products confiscated. Today’s is an example”, he said.

    ”Nothing can be recouped from such stuffed in tyres, no need to test anything because the tyres have already been destroyed on arrival,” he said.

    Aboloma promised to bring the Chinese and others in illicit trade to book.

    He said SON was exploring all avenues towards nipping acts like that in the bud.

    “For us, it is a continuous fight. Currently, we are prosecuting about five cases in different high courts in line with the mandate of the SON. We burn substandard products when there is need to, following laid down procedures.” he said.

    Aboloma cautioned users of automobile tyres on the need to be extra cautious when buying products.

    He said: “The nation’s laws must be made to work by ensuring that it is implemented to the letter.  l must reiterate here that the  full force of the SON Act that empowers  her to prosecute offenders will  be invoked on the perpetrators of this  economic crime  in no short time. It is left to imagine the number of lives that would have been lost to this wicked act by a few people”.

  • Crisis looms in Lagos community

    Residents of Ilamose, Oke-Afa community in Ejigbo Local Council Development Area of Lagos State have raised the alarm over plans by a Lagos property developer, Alhaji Hakeem Osuolale, to destroy their landed properties.

    Spokesman of the embattled community, Mr Dele Olokobi, said the property developer had started issuing new threats despite a court order suspending the execution of an earlier judgement (Suit No : ID/ 1752/89) in the community.

    In spite of the court order, Osuolale, he said had been going on air and newspapers threatening the residents that by the end of this month, he would bulldoze properties in Ilamose.

    “Despite our law abiding stance and the fact that many pronouncements have been made by the court, Alhaji Osuolale, attorney to the judgment creditors, has continued to harass, intimidate and force residents out of their houses.”

    He enjoined Osuolale to respect the court order, pointing out that at the February 2 court sitting on the case, the judge  advised parties not to resort to any form of self help.

    “Since the matter is still in court, he has no right to carry out the execution,” he said.

    He called on the police to help forestall any acts of hooliganism, malicious damage to property, public disturbance which may result to threat to life and property in the community.

    But Alhaji Osuolale insisted that an agreement was signed between the community and his company in 2016 at the instance of the Ojoun of Ejigbo and Ijanland, Oba Moroof Adekunle Ojoola as the mediator.

    He advised the property owners to honour the agreement to ratify their properties on or before the expiration of the deadline to avoid demolition.

  • Lagos trains 400 butchers on abattoir management

    Lagos State government has trained no fewer than 400 butchers and live cattle dealers from various abattoirs and slaughter slabs.

    The training was aimed at ensuring a hygienic environment within abattoirs and wholesomeness in the red meat value chain business.

    The programme was organised by the Ministry of Agriculture.

    Presenting certificates to the participants at the end the programme, Commissioner for Agriculture Oluwatoyin Suarau called for attitudinal change among stakeholders and concessionaires in the red-meat-value chain business especially in the areas of operational procedures and abattoir management.

    He said the government in addressing these challenges sponsored some butchers, live cattle dealers and other stakeholders on a study tour of Kenya and Botswana Red Meat Industry.

    “The aim of the tour then was to expose the butchers to the international standard of operation in the industry towards improving the hygiene status in all the approved abattoirs and slaughter slabs and to ensure wholesomeness in the meat that is locally consumed,” Suarau said.

    Lagos State Butchers’ Association Chairman, Alabi Bamidele Kazeem praised the government for the capacity building programme, saying it is a sign of things to come.

    He implored the participants to train other butchers not opportune to participate so that the programme’s objective can be achieved.

  • Resilient Lagos

    •Nigeria’s iconic city joins the 100 club

    It did not happen as a matter of chance or a function of luck. Rather, the recent certification and admission of Lagos State as a member of the 100 Resilient Cities (100 RC) in the world, an initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation, was the outcome of a deliberate decision and painstaking effort by a forward looking governor, Mr. Akinwumi Ambode, and his inspired aides. Speaking on the occasion of the formal entry of Lagos into the 100RC global group, the Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Akinyemi Ashade, revealed that Mr Ambode had in August 2016 issued a directive for the commencement of processes for Lagos to become a 100RC affiliate. This was no doubt informed by an appreciation of the immense benefits that could accrue to Lagos from opportunities for profitable networking among a multinational club of urban agglomerations motivated by a common commitment to best practices.

    Giving an insight into the route taken by Lagos towards membership of the group, the President of 100RC, Mr. Michael Berkowitz, said the megacity’s bid was successful out of over 1000 applications and after a competitive selection process that went through three rounds. Pointing out that Lagos was chosen because of its innovative leadership, infrastructural strides as well as status in Africa and the world, Mr. Berkowitz said “We are trying to inspire a movement across the world to change the way cities approach their risks and opportunities and so Lagos is not just the most influential city in West Africa or the continent but around the world and that is very appealing to us”.

    Resilience is perhaps the word that best encapsulates the impressive development strides of Lagos particularly over the last 16 years of this democratic dispensation. The smallest state in the country in terms of geographical size, Lagos with about 23 million inhabitants is the most populous and fastest growing jurisdiction in Nigeria with many new entrants flocking to the city daily. While this offers a great opportunity in terms of a huge market as well as a dynamic and resourceful population, it also poses tremendous challenges such as chronic infrastructure deficit, high vehicular density and problematic traffic management, environment sanitation, insufficient housing, security, unemployment, urban planning and heavy pressure on critical social services like education, health care and water supply.

    Matters have not been helped by the country’s defective fiscal federalism that sees Lagos contributing substantially to the national treasury through the Value Added Tax (VAT), Petroleum Tax Fund (PTF) and revenue derived from her ports, for instance, without commensurate compensation to enable the state effectively meet up with her statutory responsibilities to the citizenry. However, rather than whine helplessly, Lagos has seen the successive administrations of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (1999-2007), Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) (2007-2015) and now the incumbent, Mr Akinwumi Ambode, contributing their quota to the state’s unfolding narrative of relentless progress against daunting odds.

    It is indisputable that under Mr Ambode there has been the acceleration in the tempo of governance in the last two years, thus justifying the confidence reposed in the governor by the electorate as a man thoroughly acquainted with the machinery of governance and who had lived and worked in practically all parts of the state before becoming governor. There is hardly any sphere of governance – security, traffic management, education, health care delivery, roads rehabilitation/construction, employment generation, housing and construction of drainages to name a few that the administration is not making a decisive impact despite the current economic recession.

    Surely, all citizens of goodwill should be motivated not just to lend a voice to the demand for according Lagos the special status she deserves in the Nigerian federation but to the campaign to get more residents of the state to fulfill their tax obligations to the state.

  • Unemployed man docked over theft of neighbour’s tricycle

     A 28-year-old unemployed man, Daniel Raji, who stole his neighbour’s tricycle valued at N450,000, was on Thursday charged before an Magistrates’ Court, Lagos.

    The accused, residing at Rafiu Sanni Street, Omolayo in Meiran area of Lagos State, is facing a charge of stealing.

    The prosecutor, Sgt. Mike Unah, told the court that the accused committed the offence on Dec. 21, 2016 at 4.00 a.m in his residence.

    Unah said that the stolen tricycle belong to Adamu Ibrahim.

    “The complainant said he usually lends his tricycle to the accused whenever he was off-duty to help him earn some money,’’ he said.

    The prosecutor said that the accused had begged the complainant to help him to get another tricycle, when he could no longer lend him his own.

    “The complainant, when he could not get the tricycle for the accused that day came home, packed his tricycle in the compound and went to bed.

    “When he woke up around 4.00 a.m to clean the tricycle, he discovered that it was no longer in the compound, while the accused also was not in his room.

    “The complainant, who suspected the accused, reported the matter to the police and was arrested,’’ he said.

    The offence contravened Section 285 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

    The accused, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 285 prescribes three years jail term for offenders, upon conviction.

    The Magistrate, Mrs A.O Gbajumo, granted the accused bail in the sum of N100, 000, with two sureties in like sum.

    Gbajumo then adjourned the case to March 6 for trial.

  • Lagos to launch 300 coding centres in April

    The Asset and Resource Management (ARM) Holding Company, has agreed to set up 15 ICT centres for the CodeLagos project of the Lagos State Government taking off next month.

    The 15 centres will be among the 500 that the government would establish this year in primary, secondary schools, tertiary institutions and public libraries to teach pupils and students in the school system as well as young people outside the school system to code.

    Special Adviser to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh, said the aim of the project is to equip one million youths with coding (programming) skills by 2019.

    He said the project, which was unveiled last year, aligns with Lagos State’s vision to be a smart city with adequate manpower to take advantage of technological solutions for economic development.

    Bank-Olemoh said ARM-sponsored centres would be among the 300 to be launched in April, while the remaining 200 will be ready by September.  Of the 500, he said 100 centres would be financed by the government.

    Each centre would be equipped with computers, a projector, solar panel, and raspberry pi, a low-cost computer device used to learn programming.

    The SA added that the centres, which will be launched in both public and private schools, would be run by facilitators to be screened and trained by the government, while maintenance would be carried out by small scale ICT firms contracted by the government.

    “Our plan is to set up coding centres in 500 schools. Come April, we will set up the first 300 schools and by September we set up the remaining 200.  Lagos is currently the fifth largest economy in Africa.  Our target is to be the third largest economy by 2020.

    “We are contracting facilitators.  We are going to do screening; at the end, we will contract 1,500 facilitators to train in our afterschool classes between 2.30 and 4pm for five days in a week,” he said.

    While the government may not set up centres in private schools, Bank-Olemoh said their facilitators would be trained free of charge and they would have access to the coding curriculum developed by the state for the project. Bank-Olemoh said the government is working to sign up more partners to establish centres for the project.

    On her part, Managing Director of ARM, Mrs Jumoke Ogundare, said the firm was delighted to be part of the project because of its empowerment potential.

    “It is a privilege to partner with Lagos on this project.  Technology has become an important part of the economy.  We see this initiative as a way to improve the competitiveness of Lagos in the global economy. Everything we are doing is improving the quality of education because we believe it translates to economic development,” he said.

  • Auctioneers storm Lagos as court nullifies anti-caretaker committee order

    Auctioneers storm Lagos as court nullifies anti-caretaker committee order

    State chapter chairmen of the Nigeria Association of Auctioneers (NAA) and members of its caretaker committee are billed for a meeting tomorrow with the Board of Trustees in Lagos in continuation of efforts to unite the body, writes WALE AJETUNMOBI

    hief Saibu Akan, Mr Suara Ajuwon and Alhaji Fatai Mogbonjubola will have a busy day tomorrow. They are members of the registered Board of Trustees of the Nigeria Association of Auctioneers (NAA) and are billed to superintend over two meetings in Lagos. The first will be with members of the body’s caretaker committee. The second meeting will involve the caretaker committee members and the state chairmen. Both meetings are not unconnected with the order of Justice A.M. Talba of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, which vacated the injunction against the caretaker committee.

    As a result of the ruling, the BoT on Monday urged members to ignore Alhaji Aliyu Kiliya who dragged Akan and others to the court for not recognising the election that gave him a fresh mandate as the association’s president. The BoT said any act by Kiliya on behalf of the association was a potential contempt of court.

    On February 2 when the motion on notice was to be heard, Kiliya, through his legal team led by Adewale Yusuf, said: ”We have an application pending before the court. But regrettably we cannot proceed. Because we are looking up to the possibility settlement and we need to put house in order to regularise our documents. We ask for a short adjournment.”

    The lawyer for the Board of Trustees, Dayo Ajibola, said: “Ordinarily I would not have raised any objection because my colleagues intimated me. But I seek to make two applications. Since my learned friend intends to put his house in order, I apply that the court should discharge the interim order granted. And more so the interim order lasts for 14 days. Since they are not ready to proceed with their motion on notice, it is necessary for the court to make a pronouncement on the interim order. We are not opposed to the request for adjournment. The interim order was advertised in the national dailies.”

    Kiliya’s team tried to stop the vacation of the interim order by arguing that: “

    We are opposed to the application to set aside the interim order. The interim order was granted pending the hearing of the motion on notice. If they want to apply for the vacation of the order, they should come formally.”

    Justice Talba agreed with Kiliya’s counsel. He thus ruled: “The ex-parte order is meant to last pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice. Today is fixed for the hearing of the motion on notice. The plaintiff/applicant counsel had asked the court to adjourn the matter because regrettably he cannot proceed with the motion on notice, reasons being that there is a move towards settlement out of court and applicant needs to regularise their documents. On this note the respondent counsel applied that the interim order granted should be discharged hence it is meant to last for not more than 14 days. And hence the motion on notice cannot be taken then the ex-parte order should be discharged without much ado it is trite that unlike an interlocutory order which is to last for more than 14 days. It is meant to last pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice. But the plaintiff/applicants are not ready to proceed with the motion on notice; therefore, the interim order is liable to be discharged accordingly the interim order granted on the 30/12/17 hereby discharge.”

    Trouble had broken out late last year after the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at the Women Development Centre, Abuja. The AGM, some aggrieved members said, was inconclusive.

    Since then, the association has been in disarray, prompting its registered Board of Trustees (BoT) members to make moves to save the association from imminent collapse. The BoT said it has dissolved the national leadership of the association and constituted a caretaker committee to run its affairs.

    The BoT members said the dissolution of the NAA executive followed a crisis which rocked the association over the ‘inconclusive’ AGM. The trustees also said they had disbanded the electoral committee inaugurated by NAA national executive, describing the committee as fraudulent. They said the election will not stand.

    Akan, who spoke for the five-member registered trustees last December, said the BoT took the move to save the association from imminent disrepute, which he said may lead to the collapse of the body founded 30 years ago.

    Relying on Section 34(3) and (4) of the association’s constitution, Akan said the trustees the exercised powers vested in the registered BoT by dissolving the Kiliya-led executive and inaugurated caretaker committee led by Alhaji Salisu Garba to run the association for a period of six months.

    The caretaker committee, which has Mr Goke Adedokun as its secretary, was installed on December 15 with the mandate to unite aggrieved members and conduct a new election into the national offices of the association.

    Kiliya ran to the court to challenge the legitimacy of the caretaker committee. He got an interim injunction which has now been vacated.

     

    How the crisis began

    The crisis rocking the association, according to the BoT, started with the constitution of the organising committee for the AGM, which was initially scheduled to hold in Bauchi State. But, for security reasons, the AGM was moved to Abuja to enable members across the federation participate in it.

    After a meeting held to select members of the AGM organising committee, Akan said the registered trustees were sidelined by the Kiliya-led executive in the process of ratification and swearing in of the committee members.

    This, Akan said, contravened the association’s procedures and rules. He alleged that some unknown persons were appointed as members of BoT to ratify the organising committee members’ selection.

    Akan said: “These unknown persons were nominated as trustees to represent their geo-political zones, but their membership is yet to be approved by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in line with the laws and procedures. They were engaged as unregistered members to swear in the AGM organising committee. This was not proper, because it breached the provision of the association’s constitution.”

    Of the five registered trustees statutorily recognised by the CAC, The Nation gathered that two are deceased. They are the late Mr. Ojo Olufemi and the late Chief Felix Igbinosa Ehigiator. The remaining three registered BoT members are Akan, Ajuwon and Mogbonjubola.

    Akan said the three living members of the BoT should have inaugurated the organising committee for the AGM and the electoral committee in accordance to the association’s procedure.

    He said: “When we discovered the NAA executive breached the constitution, we drew the attention of Kiliya to the problems. We instructed him to tell members of the committees to constantly submit the reports of their activities to the registered trustees for approval. Kiliya agreed to conditions and promised to do things in proper way.

    “About two days to the AGM, the registered trustees summoned the organising committee members to submit the report of their activities, none of them showed up. We learnt they met with unrecognised trustees and took decision to go ahead with the AGM.”

    This led to discontent in the association, because state chapters’ members feared they could be favouritism in the NAA election. This led to the call for the dissolution of the committees constituted by the unregistered trustees before the annual meeting.

    Akan said: “We still reached out to the committee members on the eve of the AGM and told them they would use their agenda to destroy the association. We gave them the last chance to submit the report to know whether the AGM could hold or not. We reminded the committee members that all decisions must be taken at our instances.

    ”It has never happened in the history of the association that the president would not give members annual report of his stewardship. It is the annual report that gives members a sense of direction about the association’s progress. Where there is a fault, members will take note and draw the attention of the executive. There will be argument and counter-argument before conclusion is reached and report is adopted. This was not done.”

    The last straw the broke the camel’s back was the process adopted by the electoral committee on the conduction of election into the national executive offices. Against the association’s electoral procedure, candidates were asked to pay between N50,000 and N100,000 each to facilitate their nominations.

    The registered trustees said the development was contrary to the principles of the association, which make all offices open to members free of charge.

    It was gathered that some candidates, who could not pay up to N100,000, had their names screened out by members of the electoral committee.

    Akan said: “When we received the petitions from aggrieved members, we knew the association was heading to precipice. We summoned the national president and aggrieved members for resolution of the crisis that arise from the AGM and election. To our surprise, Kiliya said he would not attend the meeting. Then next thing we heard was a rumour that the BoT has been charged to court.”

     

    Kiliya defends self

    Speaking through the association’s External Counsel, Ibrahim Jibril Gusau, Kiliya denied wrongdoings in the organisation of the AGM and constitution of the electoral committee. He described members of the BoT as enemies of the association, alleging that the trustees employed divide and rule tactics to perpetuate themselves in the BoT position for life.

    Gusau said: “It is not true that the last AGM was inconclusive. We have the video evidence to support this. The people claiming the event was inconclusive made the vote of thanks after the meeting. How possible is it for a vote of thanks to be said at an event some people claim is inconclusive? These people are enemies of the association.”

    On the allegation of appointment of unregistered persons as BoT members, Gusau said: “We want the public to know that the association is a national body and every zone in the country must be given fair representation in the leadership of the association. In line with the constitution, members said the BoT membership should not come from one zone. The present BoT members are all from the Southwest, which does not reflect the true spirit of our constitution.

    “At the 2014 AGM held in Minna in Niger State, members met to agree on the expansion of BoT membership to minimum of nine or maximum of 10 from five. The resolution was ratified by all members present and it was enshrined in the constitution that each zone must produce BoT member.

    “Since this was done in 2014, the three registered trustees have not gone to the CAC to regularise the BoT membership expansion. They have been using divide and rule tactics to perpetuate themselves in the position for life. This is not done anywhere.”

    Gusau also denied the allegation of financial appropriation against the Kiliya-led executive, wondering why the BoT members did not raise the issue during the AGM. He said there was never a time any member called for the auditing of the association’s account, noting that Kiliya is ready anytime for auditing of the executive activities.

    The lawyer said the crisis came to the fore because the BoT members did not want membership extended to people from other region. He said all allegations against any member of the executive were unfounded. He advised the aggrieved members to follow the conflict resolution process spelt out in the association’s constitution, urging them to channel their complaints to the body’s disciplinary committee.

     

    Back to dialogue

    Now that Kiliya has told the court of his readiness to explore out-of-court settlement, it is hoped that the end is in sight to the crisis rocking the association.

     

  • Why abduction persists, by Lagos lawyers

    Some lawyers in Lagos believe the rate of unemployment, bad morals and inadequate security contribute significantly to the recurrent cases of kidnapping experienced in the country.

    The lawyers spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday.

    “There is no particular region today in the country that is free from kidnapping. The economic reality today is that people are losing their jobs and a lot of people are not even employed.

    “The high level of unemployment should give the government serious concern, because if you are idle, you become the devil’s workshop,’’ Mr Monday Ubani, one of the lawyers, said.

    He said unemployed youth could easily be recruited to carry out nefarious activities that were detrimental to the development of the country.

    ”The government should ensure adequate employment is created to reduce the issue of kidnappers in the country.

    ”The government should also ensure that the country is well policed with necessary equipment,” Ubani told NAN.

    The lawyer, who gave tips on how to avoid being kidnapped, said people needed to be more security conscious of their environment.

    ”Watch the people you live with in your neighborhood and mind the kind of information you give out to people, because the information could be detrimental to your safety.

    “Also, watch how you boast. Know your relations well, because successful kidnapping cannot be complete without an insider,” he said.

    Another lawyer, Mr Kayode Ademiluyi, identified bad morals as part of the factors contributing to the rising cases of kidnapping.

    ”Apart from the economy that is not too good, when children are not brought up with good values, they tend to join bad gangs,” he said.

    Ademiluyi called on the government to increase the level of security in the country and urged individuals to be security conscious and alert.

    Also speaking on the issue, Mr Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa urged the government to engage the youth and adopt the use of technology to stem the tide of kidnapping in the country.

    Mr Kayode Akinsola, another lawyer, urged the police to be more proactive and enjoined everyone to continue to pray for the country’s economy to be back in good shape.

    He, however, commended the government for its efforts at fighting kidnapping in the country.

    Lagos, one of the latest to do so, imposes penalties that include death for offenders, where a victim dies in the hands of his abductors, and life imprisonment for kidnapping for ransom.

     

  • Lagos sets to recruit more Yoruba teachers

    Lagos sets to recruit more Yoruba teachers

    Gov. Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos State on Tuesday announced his administration’s plan to recruit more Yoruba teachers into all public schools in the state, to promote the language.

    Ambode, represented by Mrs Anike Adekanye, the state Tutor-General, made this known at the celebration of International Mother Language Day, organised by the Yoruba Teachers Association in Lagos.

    The theme of the event is: “The Traditional Values of our Culture Must Not Go into Extinction.’’

    According to an online publication, calendarlabs.com, International Mother Language Day is celebrated every year on Feb. 21.

    “The main purpose of celebrating this day is to promote the awareness of language and cultural diversity all across the world. It was first announced by UNESCO on November 17, 1999.’’

    Ambode decried the attitude of those that studied the language at degree level, but deviated to other disciplines.

    “This is happening because the system has not encouraged them to take pride in the language.

    “To prevent the language from going into extinction, a day has been set aside to conduct plenary in Yoruba Language at the Lagos State House of Assembly (LAHA).

    “The initiative came about when an American visited the assembly and addressed the lawmakers in Yoruba Language and that challenged the legislators,’’ the governor said.

    Ambode urged teachers in the state to put in their best and reciprocate the government’s commitment to their welfare.

    In her remarks, Mrs Adebimpe Akinsola, Special Adviser to the governor on Arts and Culture, said that parents have role to play in ensuring that the language did not go into extinction.

    “We should appreciate and embrace our language, culture and values, that is the only way we can handover unadulterated language to the coming generation,’’ Akinsola said.

    Also, Mrs Adebola Lawal, President of the association, said that teachers in the state were committed and dedicated to the teaching profession.

    Lawal said that the planned recruitment of more Yoruba teachers would boost the language among students. (NAN)

  • Lagos assures farmers of safety

    Lagos assures farmers of safety

    •‘Our N20b investment threatened’

    Farmers in Epe, who are being terrorised by kidnappers, have nothing to fear, Lagos State Deputy Governor Dr Idiat Adebule assured them yesterday.
    Mrs Adebule gave the assurance during a meeting with representatives of the farmers of Igbodu/Isiwo axis of Epe who were at the Governor’s Office to protest against the scourge of kidnapping and demand government’s intervention.
    The farmers carried placards with inscriptions such as: “Help us from kidnappers.” “Save farmers, save the nation,” “Please, flush out the creeks,” “Food security is threatened’, “Save our Investments.”
    A statement from her office said despite the government’s efforts to make the state safe for residents and investors, some scrupulous persons still making life difficult for people.
    It said: ‘’Let me assure you that the government is not resting on its oars. We are doing all we can to guarantee the safety of lives and restore peace in the area.
    ‘’Currently, the government is speaking with the Federal Government to see how they can work with us to combat the problems of insecurity because we cannot do it alone.
    ‘’As a matter of policy, government does not pay ransom, but will ensure that it provides the security agencies with necessary equipment and support to contain the situation and rescue the kidnapped.
    ‘’We sympathise with you and we beg for your understanding. I will relay your complaints to Governor (Akinwunmi) Ambode for further and appropriate action on the matter.”
    The farmers’ spokesperson Ayokunle Ore, said their farms had been under kidnappers’ attacks since last September.
    Ore urged the state to seek the Federal Government’s support to extend the mandate of the Joint Taskforce (JTF) to Epe to curtail the high rate of kidnapping.
    He said the issue should treated urgently as their investments were suffering and their lives at risk.
    He said: “With the desire to contribute our quota to national food security and sufficiency, we have invested our lifetime savings and borrowings from banks to the establish farms in the agricultural belt created by the state.
    ‘’Some of us even relocated from abroad to come and invest in farming to respond to government’s call for diversification of the economy.
    ‘’We estimated over N20 billion investments by small, medium and large scale farmers in the area and now it is at grave risk.
    ‘’We urge Governor Ambode to intervene urgently and come to our rescue by seeking the support of JTF in the area to destroy the camps of these kidnappers
    ‘’They should extend the mandate of the JTF (Operation Awatse), currently in Ikorodu and Festac to also cover the Igbodu/Isiwo axis and adjoining creeks.”
    Ore said over 50 farmers had been kidnapped and millions of naira paid as ransom.
    He noted that because of poor security, farmers are abducted at will, adding that “last September 16, three female farm workers and a six-month-old baby were kidnapped. Two months later, precisely, November 16, four farmers were kidnapped from farmville. Also, on November 21, five workers were kidnapped from Kodjo Farms. On January 19, we also recorded another incident when two farm workers were kidnapped from Tanda Farms.
    “The kidnappers also visited Elysian Farm, the farm managers and a customer were kidnapped on the same day. On February 14, the kidnappers returned to Elysian farms and kidnapped four workers, a casual worker, two vigilante group members. As at the last count, kidnappers were demanding N5million for each of the kidnapped seven people who are still in their captivity.
    “As criminal continue to ravage our communities and our farms, we have met with the police commissioner, unfortunately whatever efforts the police must have made so far could not yield any result as the spate of kidnapping is on the increase. Even our private efforts in engaging community vigilantes to support the police have also not yielded any reprieve. Sometime, we have had to pay heavily for police to come to our farms.”