Tag: SOKOTO

Sokoto State Government has declared Friday, April 12, 2024, as a work-free day.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Abubakar Bawa, announced this in a statement on Thursday.

The statement revealed that the purpose of the public holiday is to allow civil servants to celebrate Eid-el-Fitr with their families.  

“This is to enable civil servants in the state to continue to celebrate this year’s Eid-el-Fitr with members of their families.

Read Also: Eid-el-fitr: Pray for Nigeria’s economic turnaround, Prophet Olu Alo urges Muslims

“Governor Ahmed Aliyu wishes the entire people of Sokoto State a hitch-free Sallah celebrations,” the statement read.

Katsina State Government also declared Friday, April 12, 2024, a work-free day so that workers can celebrate Eid-el-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan fasting. 

Sokoto Governor Ahmed Sokoto has denied taking loans to execute projects in the State. 

Sokoto denied the allegation while reacting to a report aired on BBC Hausa on Tuesday.

The report listed Sokoto among Northern States that  have took loans to execute developmental projects. 

While dismissing the report as misleading and false, Sokoto in a statement by his Press Secretary, Abubakar Bawa, maintained his administration never received any loan from anybody within or outside the country. 

“Let me make it categorically clear that i have never taken any loan from anybody since we came on board.

” I was shocked when i heard my State being listed among the northern States that have collected foreign loan in order to develop their States. 

‘”The BBC report was indeed misleading, and i expect them to verify the information they claimed to have gotten from the Debt Management service before going on  air.

Read Also: Army, NSA’s office rescue 17 abducted Tsangaya children, lady in Sokoto

“I challenge any individual or body that has any record where we applied or received any foreign or local loans to produce the document.

” You can’t take loan without following certain procedures including seeking approval from your State lawmakers, in our case there is nothing like that,”he declared.

The Governor further said that all the projects executed across the length and breadth of the State were funded through the monthly allocation from the Federation Account and  Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)..

“For now, we don’t need any loan before we execute projects because we are managing the little resources of the State very well,” he said.

The BBC Hausa service on Monday reported that Sokoto State Government is among the Northern States that have taken foreign loans to execute developmental projects..

It reported that the current administration has taken a foreign loan amounting to $489 million to execute meaningful projects across the State.

Governor Aliyu Sokoto says his government will not relent in measures to harmonise its administrative capacity to fulfill all campaign promises to relieve the sufferings of people in the state.

Aliyu Sokoto stated on Wednesday, March 20, during the weekly state executive council meeting.

He noted that the hardship being experienced was a global trend that spared no nation even as he reassured of driving a responsive approach to making things better.

Read Also: Insecurity: Sokoto police consolidate on intelligence approach against crime

The governor said: “We are determined to make Sokoto compete favourably in all human-oriented aspects of development. We need the support and prayers of the Sokoto people to achieve and new Sokoto state.

“We want to take Sokoto state to the next level by genuinely driving our renewed hope 9-point smart agenda.”

The Sokoto State Task Force committee on hoarding and smuggling of food items and essential commodities has vowed to clamp down on selfish marketers and warehouses and shops hoarding food items, warning those involved in the unpatriotic acts to fear God or face the laws of the land.

It insisted that it would tackle the bad ones who are the bane of causing misery to the people in the quest for higher profits by sabotaging the state and national economy for selfish gains.

He said: “Those in the unlawful and unislamic act should fear God or be made to fear the law of the land. Such clandestine practices are against religious doctrines of Islam, and indeed all religions.”

Its chairman, Dalhatu Sidi Mamman, made stern remarks at a briefing in Sokoto Monday that the committee would not shield nor make a sacred cow of anyone with such an unpatriotic act of sabotaging the economy and causing untold hardship for people in the state.

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Mamman disclosed that the committee with the collaboration of relevant security agencies had intercepted and released 20 trucks to rightful owners upon proper investigation even as he said: “We still escort them to the destination.”

However, the chairman stressed that all laws prohibited such acts because they subject people to untold hardships and suffering” Is a crime against humanity and aimed at obtaining higher profits or rather “cut-throat gains”

He noted that it was a form of corruption which a fight against it would drive good governance, economic growth and development of the state and nation.

 “Corruption is a manifestation of under development and poverty which invests by entrepreneurs unappealing”, he pointed out while commending Governor Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto for promptly constituting the Task Force to address the inhuman activities of selfish and unpatriotic marketers causing hardship to fellow citizens for personal economic gains.

“Doing so is an indication of his responsiveness and determination to address the plight of the citizenry.

“Is also a demonstration of the State Government’s concern over their welfare and its readiness to address the unhappy development”, he stressed while assuring a cogent blueprint of action and modalities would be drawn for the success of the committee constituted in February.

Bandits have reportedly kidnapped an unspecified number of Tsangaya students at Gidan Bakuso in Gada local government area of Sokoto state.

Read Also: Abduction of school children in Kaduna despicable, unacceptable – Peter Obi

This came less than 48 hours after another set of bandits abducted over 280 pupils and teachers of Government Secondary School and LEA primary school at Kuriga, Kaduna State on Thursday triggering national outrage.

The Sokoto state government has assured that the Community Guards Corps initiative is a responsive and purposeful security measure against crimes and not as an alternative or substitute to the conventional security system operations.

The Committee Chairman for the establishment of the Corps, Alhaji Yusha’u Muhammad Ahmed Kebbe, gave this clarification recently in Sokoto at the formal signing of the Bill into law by Governor Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto.

Justifying the initiative, Aliyu Sokoto vowed that “Sokoto will no longer be attractive nor a hiding place for bandits, cattle rustlers and kidnappers. “We have put all the necessary mechanisms in place and therefore, all hands must be on deck in providing security for our people whose support is also needed to achieve the desired results,” he maintained.

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Pressed further, Ahmed Kebbe said the essence of the corps was to actively complement the efforts and strengthen the capacity of the Joint Military and Police including NSCDC operations to curb insecurity in the state.

While noting that conventional security operations were not enough, the Guard Corps Committee Chairman disclosed that the recruitment of the guards had started yielding fruitful results as significant improvement in the security situation of the state was fast encouraging.