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  • Kaduna resident doctors to begin strike

    Kaduna resident doctors to begin strike

    The Association of Residents Doctors in Kaduna State, said on Tuesday that its members would proceed on an indefinite strike from Oct. 2.

    President of the association, Dr Joseph Natsah-Jokshan, who made the announcement at a press briefing in Kaduna, said a 21-day strike notice had been forwarded to the government after a congress meeting of the association on Sept. 9.

    He said the ultimatum was to compel the government to implement the 2011 agreement it entered with the association.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the agreement was on funding, equipping and staffing of hospitals, salary payment, residency training, and implementation of corrected Consolidated Medical Salary Structure among others.

    The NARD president explained that doctors in the state were overstretched, with doctor/population ratio at one to 4,000, as against 600 recommended by the World Health Organization( WHO ).

    “The situation is even worse as one move to rural areas. It is therefore requisite that measures should be put in place to correct this.

    “We are aware of government’s efforts to recruit about 100 doctors into the current workforce and that is highly commendable, but infrastructure and doctors welfare must also be addressed.

    “Currently, Kaduna State has the lowest remuneration among other states in the North West zone and in spite of this, some of our colleagues are owed up to 10 months salary.

    “As a result many doctors have left to other states with better prospect, which further compounded the issues, particularly in rural areas where most of the General Hospitals have only two doctors.

    “This has resulted in a lot of quackery, as most patients are forced to seek medical care elsewhere, with detrimental outcomes and needless loss of lives,” he said.

    On infrastructure, Natsah-Jokshan claimed that the state government has no single intensive care unit in any of its hospitals, while services at accident and emergency units were abysmal due to lack of necessary tools including oxygen.

    “Our struggle was because we have a responsibility to care for the lives of people, but we can only achieve that with effective and efficient health care delivery system.”

  • Niger floods leave thousands homeless

    Niger floods leave thousands homeless

    The Interior Ministry in Niger said flooding had killed at least 56 people since the rainy season began in the country in June and left over 185,000 homeless.

    In one of the world’s poorest countries, where most houses are made of earth or mud, the flood destroyed thousands of homes.

    One of the flood victims, Mahamane Soumana, said his home and farm had been completely flooded for the past two months.

    Soumana, who stood ankle-deep in mud, hesitatingly throwing a net in his home’s flooded yard in Banga Bana district, in Niamey, his two houses collapsed with the rain.

    “I‘m a rice farmer, not a fisherman, but my field has been completely flooded for the past two months. So, I fish in my courtyard.

    “I used to have two houses, both of which collapsed with the rain.

    “But, now I have nothing to house or feed my family other than fish,” he told Thomson Reuters Foundation as he tried to untangle a couple of small fish from his net.

    Soumana’s situation is far from uncommon. For Nigeriens unable to afford cement homes, each rainy season increasingly brings a dangerous ordeal, local experts say.

    According to Katiellou Gaptia, Head of Meteorology at Niger’s Met Office, climate change in the Sahel is creating warmer conditions where the atmosphere can hold more moisture, often increasing the volume of rainfall.

    “This year’s rain is just extraordinary. In Niger ( niamey ) alone, the season’s rainfall has increased by 84 percent since 2010,” he said.

    Gabagoura, a village northwest of Niamey, is one of the worst affected areas by the recent floods.

    On the median strip of the main road, mats and foam mattresses dry on guardrails.

    Around them, piles of wood and straw are all that are left of more than 290 homes that collapsed at the end of August, leaving 1,200 people homeless.

    Village chief, Adamou Saley, walks towards a massive silk-cotton tree, under which 15 people have taken shelter.

    “Look at this misery, total desolation,” he said, looking around at the remnants of homes.

    Saley said Gabagoura village had indeed been warned by the Niger state government on television and radio.

    “But, the village was spared the brunt of flooding last year, so people thought they would be safe.

    “Some still tried to build drainage gutters around their homes, but even they collapsed,” said the village chief.

    He said that the government and several non-governmental organisations had sent food and supplies and that some flood victims had moved into the village’s two schools.

    “But some people are still left on the streets. School is set to start again in early October, which may mean those sheltering in schools will need to find a new place to stay.

    “If we don’t get any more help I don’t know what will happen to those currently living in the school,” Saley said.

    He expressed apprehension over more predicted rainfall, saying “80 per cent of us are without homes. If it rains again, we’ll lose the entire village.’’

    Hadjara Yacouba’s house was entirely destroyed by the rains.

    She said “we have nothing, not even a tent.

    “I am a widow with 17 children, and we have lost everything.’’

    “Before the start of the rainy season, the government advised people living in flood-prone areas to leave their homes.

    “But few heeded the advice because they refused to abandon their homes or had nowhere else to go,’’ said Boubacar Sidikou, Secretary-General for Niger’s Ministry of Humanitarian Action and Disaster Management.

    “As soon as we have the funds to prepare the shelter sites we will do so.

    “We believe the shelters will allow us to temporarily house all those currently left in schools,” Sidikou said, without specifying how many people the sites could accommodate.

    Fatima Alher, who heads a project mapping flood-prone zones in Niamey, thinks national and local efforts to prepare for flooding were not enough.

    “To date, we’ve not had an efficient system to alert the entire population.

    “Flood survivors we spoke to said they weren’t properly informed of what was happening,” she said.

    Today, efforts to rebuild flood-stricken areas are not progressing fast enough, residents complained.

    Officials at the Ministry of Humanitarian Action and Disaster Management said they had identified four potential shelter areas in Niamey, but had yet to set them up due to lack of funds.

  • NSCDC sets up special squad for Bama

    NSCDC sets up special squad for Bama

    The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has set up a special squad to boost security operations in Bama community of Borno.

    Spokesman of the Corps, Mr Emmanuel Okeh, who disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, said the squad was codenamed Special Bama Squad (SBS).

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Bama was declared an “Islamic Caliphate’’ by Boko Haram terrorists, who captured it along with Gwoza in 2014.

    But Nigerian troops reclaimed the community in 2015, and reconstruction works are ongoing in areas destroyed by the terrorists.

    Okeh stated that the Commandant-General (CG) of the NSCDC, Mr Abdullahi Gana, announced the squad while addressing members of management, and zonal and state commandants of the agency in Abuja.

    He quoted the CG as saying that the move was in compliance with a recent directive by the Federal Government to security agencies to beef up their presence in the North-East.

    The government, according to him, specifically directed the Army, NSCDC and the Police to provide 1,500 personnel each to Bama.

    They were mandated to receive the Emir of Bama and other returning IDPs, in addition to providing adequate protection for the civil populace of the community.

    “The Special Bama Squad is an additional number of personnel who will carry out round-the-clock patrols in all the nooks and crannies of Bama community and its suburbs.

    “They have been mandated to synergise with other security agencies in the Bama axis,’’ Gana said.

  • Oil rises to $56 as Middle East producers stick to cuts

    Oil rises to $56 as Middle East producers stick to cuts

    Oil prices traded close to five-month highs on Tuesday after fresh data showed key Middle Eastern producers continued to cut supply in line with an OPEC-led deal aimed at ending crude glut.

    A weaker U.S. dollar also lent support to greenback-denominated commodities like oil, traders said.

    Benchmark Brent crude futures were up towards a five-month high of 55.99 dollars.

    U.S. West Texas Intermediate ( WTI ) crude futures were up 44 cents at 50.35 dollars per barrel.

    Sentiment has been buoyed since last week when the International Energy Agency lifted its 2017 demand outlook and OPEC estimated the world would need more of its crude next year.

    OPEC’s second-biggest producer Iraq said on Tuesday it had cut output by about 260,000 barrels per day (bpd), exceeding cuts agreed under the OPEC-led pact.

    This comes a day after official export data showed Saudi Arabian July crude exports dropped to the lowest in three years, highlighting its own compliance with output restrictions.

    However, rising crude prices have encouraged drilling in U.S. shale oil regions.

    The U.S. government said on Monday it expected shale output to rise for a 10th straight month in October.

    Traders also closely watched the progress of Hurricane Maria in the Caribbean.

    Although it remains far from the U.S. oil production heartland in the Gulf of Mexico, it could dampen oil demand and disrupt maritime trading routes

  • Court docks man over theft of N15,000

    Court docks man over theft of N15,000

    A 24-year-old man, Elijah Damilola, who allegedly defrauded one Oluwatoyin Samson of N15, 000 was on Tuesday charged before an Osogbo Chief Magistrates’ Court.

    Damilola is facing a two-count charge bothering on stealing.

    The Prosecutor, Insp. Joshua Oladoye, told the court that the accused committed the offences on Aug. 31 at about 10:30 a.m. at Kunfayakun area in Osogbo.

    Oladoye said the complainant sent the money to the accused through his account, to give to her blind mother but the accused failed to deliver the money.

    He said the complainant reported the matter to the police and the accused was arrested.

    “He was taken to his bank for the print out of his account details and it was discovered that he had withdrawn the money,’’ Oladoye said.

    The prosecutor said the offences committed contravened Section 390(9) of the Criminal Law of Osun, 2003.

    The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

    Counsel to the accused, Mrs Raji Abiodun, urged the court to grant her client bail in the most liberal terms.

    The Magistrate, Mr Ayo Ayeni, granted the accused bail in the sum of N10,000 and one surety in like sum.

    Ayeni said the surety should reside within the court’s jurisdiction and should show evidence of tax payments to the Osun Government.

    He adjourned the case until Oct.13, for mention.

  • Hajj: 2,700 pilgrims return in Zamfara

    Hajj: 2,700 pilgrims return in Zamfara

    No fewer than  2,700 pilgrims out of  the 4,793  that performed the 2017 Hajj exercise from Zamfara  have so far been transported back home.

    Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko, the Chairman of  the  State Transportation Committee on this year’s Hajj, stated this while receiving the fifth batch  of the pilgrims at the State Camp in Gusau on Tuesday.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the fifth flight,  which conveyed pilgrims from Kaura-Namoda, Anka and  the remaining pilgrims from Maru and Bungudu Local Government Areas, arrived  at the Sultan Abubakar lll International Airport, Sokoto,  at 3.30 a.m.

    According to him, the pilgrims later arrived Gusau at about  10. a.m.

    Tanko, who is also the Chairman of  Gusau Local Government Council,  said the pilgrims were transported by Max Airlines, adding that all of them were in good health.

    “We are expecting the sixth flight between today and tomorrow Insha Allah; we are hoping to complete the transportation of all our pilgrims before the deadline given by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON),” he said.

    Tanko said that  the transportation exercise of this year’s hajj was moving on successfully while  the pilgrims in the state  had  behaved remarkably well during the Hajj .

    He thanked the state government, NAHCON, Max Airlines, State Amirul Hajj Committee and the media for their support.

    Tanko also thanked the State Mass Transport Service, security agencies, the Federal Road Safety Commission  and various volunteer groups for their support.

  • FG to block IPOB funding sources

    FG to block IPOB funding sources

    The Federal Government says it is aware of sources of funding of the Indigenous People of Biafra ( IPOB ) and is taking steps to block them.

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed this on Tuesday when he appeared on a live TV programme “Good Morning Nigeria” on the Nigeria Television Authority ( NTA ).

    “Terrorists do not publish where their funding are coming from. But we know the countries that are supporting IPOB.

    “We know the sources of their funding though I am not at liberty to disclose them here.

    “We are taking steps to block them and we are also taking a lot of diplomatic actions in respect of the countries that are supporting them”.

    The Minister said that most of the countries supporting the group were doing so based on ignorance.

    He said they had been hoodwinked to believing that “Nigeria is a country where Muslims persecute Christians” and a country where there is genocide.

    “As we speak today, IPOB has written letters to many Governments outside Nigeria, international parliaments sending fake and cloned videos claiming there is genocide in Nigeria.

    The minister charged the international community not to adopt double standard in dealing with IPOB and to be more diligent before making any pronouncements.

    He said what the countries would never accept in their territories, should not be condoned or encouraged in Nigeria.

    The minister justified the actions of the military for declaring IPOB a terrorist group as well as its proscription by the South-East governors.

    “There are a lot of arguments regarding the constitutionality of the action of the military and the South East governors.

    “People must realise that we are dealing with issue of national security and I do not think that the military and the governors should fold their arms while the country is set ablaze.

    “I have heard a lot of comments as to whether the military has the right to declare IPOB, a terrorist group

    “What the military has done is to catalogue all the activities of IPOB, which are not different from that of terrorists groups,” he said.

    Mohammed said IPOB set up a para-military organisation, a parallel military group, Biafra Secret Service and Biafra National Guard.

    He said the group were attacking army installations and soldiers at check points, extorting money from innocent people.

    “IPOB activities are not jokes. If there have not been the proactive actions on the part of the military and the South East governors, there would have been retaliations from other regions and the entire country will be set on fire.

    “We cannot be talking of semantics or procedure when the nation is moving towards crises and precipices.

    It is only in a Banana Republic that you can see non state actors doing what IPOB is doing.

    “The actions by the military and the governors should be seen from the perspective of ensuring internal security and averting chaos,” he said.

    The minister reiterated his position that IPOB was being sponsored by the association of disgruntled politicians and treasury looters to discredit President Muhammad Buhari”s Administration.

    He admonished the media and opinion leaders to be circumspect in their publications and discussions on IPOB in order not to aggravate the crises the more.

    “The kind of comments and headlines in the media as well as comments from certain quarters are the types that give oxygen and confidence to the IPOB.

    “They must exercise restraint because the only reason we practice our profession or be a commentator is simply because there is peace in the country,” he said.

  • S/A court to hear state’s appeal against Pistorius

    S/A court to hear state’s appeal against Pistorius

    South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal will hear the state’s appeal against the six-year murder sentence handed to Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius on Nov. 3, the National Prosecuting Authority ( NPA ) said on Tuesday.

    The state will argue that six years in jail is too lenient a sentence for the murder by Pistorius of Reeva Steenkamp, his girlfriend, in 2013.

    “The state, in the papers, will stipulate clearly that the sentence imposed is shockingly low,” said NPA spokesman, Luvuyo Mfaku.

    “The presiding officer has the discretion to deviate from the minimum prescribed sentence when compelling and substantial circumstances exist.

    “But… with this matter, the presiding officer exercised that discretion in a very lenient manner.”

    Women’s rights groups in a country beset by high levels of violent crime against women say Pistorius had received preferential treatment compared to non-whites and those without his wealth or international celebrity status.

    The Court told state prosecutors and the defence in November that they would need to argue their cases in court before it would rule on the matter.

    State prosecutors, led by advocate Gerrie Nel, say the sentence was too lenient as the jail term was less than half the 15 years they had sought.

    In his arguments at the trial, Nel said Pistorius had shown no remorse for the 2013 shooting.

    Lawyers for the gold medalist, known as the “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fibre prosthetics, say he did not deliberately kill model and law graduate Steenkamp.

    The athlete was originally convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in jail.

    That conviction was increased to murder by the court in December, 2015 and his sentence increased to six years by trial Judge Thokozile Masipa.

    She dismissed in August, 2016, a request by Nel to appeal Pistorius’ sentence, saying she was not persuaded that there was a reasonable prospect of success at another court.
    Nel then launched his case at the court, in Bloemfontein, 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Johannesburg.

  • ‘My husband’s second wife pounds me at will’

    ‘My husband’s second wife pounds me at will’

    An Idi-Ogungun Customary Court at Agodi in Ibadan on Tuesday dissolved a seven-year-old marriage between Samuel Adeboye and his wife, Temitope, over the woman’s battering by the second wife.

    The President of the court, Chief Mukaila Balogun, leading other assessors — Aare Samotu and Ganiyu Alao — gave the verdict, saying both parties can no longer live together peacefully as husband and wife.

    “Evidence of parties have proved that love does not exist between them; moreover, the respondent has agreed to the dissolution of the union as requested by his estranged wife.

    “Based on this evidence, the marriage is thereby dissolved and the custody of the two children of the union is to remain with the plaintiff (Temitope).

    “The respondent should forthwith pay N7,000 monthly via the court registry as feeding allowances for the two kids,” the court ruled.

    Ealier, Temitope, who filed the suit, said her husband’ second wife always beat her whenever their husband was not around.

    She also accused the defendant of supporting the second woman whenever she (Temitope) complained over the beating.

    “My husband was in support of the brutality I received from her second wife and never condemned his wife’s wrongdoing.

    “Instead, he would ask me to beat her in return despite my ill-health and the big stature of his second wife, ” she said.

    She further accused her husband of not performing his responsibility as a father for the two children,  saying she is solely responsible for their welfare.

    In his defence, Adeboye denied the allegations, but urged the court to uphold the divorce request being sought by her.

    He described the plaintiff as a troublesome woman, who hardly obeys instructions or respects him.

    “She sells ogogoro (local gin) and I have warned her to discontinue but she refused; so, the court should separate us because I cannot cope with a woman that has refused to obey me.”

  • Court jails man for stealing car battery

    Court jails man for stealing car battery

    A Kado Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, on Tuesday sentenced a 22-year-old driver, Daniel Evans, to four months imprisonment for stealing car battery.

    The Judge, Alhaji Ahmed Ado, however, gave the convict an option to pay N5, 000 fine.

    Ado advised the convict to desist from committing crime, adding that the sentence would serve as deterrent to other would-be offenders.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Evans, who resides at Mpape Karmo Abuja, was convicted on a count charge of theft.

    The convict pleaded guilty to the charge, but urged the court to tamper justice with mercy.

    He said he stole the car battery because his was bad and he had no money to buy another one.

    The Prosecutor, Judith Obatomi, had earlier told the court that one Samuel Fisayo of Life Camp, Abuja, reported the matter at the Life Camp Police Station on Sept. 11.

    Obatomi said the convict stole the complainant’s car battery, valued at N45, 000, on Sept. 9.

    The prosecutor added that Evans confessed to the crime during police investigation and begged for mercy.

    Obatomi said the offence was punishable under Section 287 of the Penal Code.