Osun

The Ooni of Infe, Oba Okunade Sijuade, Olubuse II has praised the Federal Government and all those who made the licensing of Oduduwa University possible.
Oba Sijuade was speaking in his palace recently when the chairman, board of Trustees of the University, Dr Oluwole Adedoyin presented the license of the institution to him for divine blessing.
He expressed deep appreciation to Dr Adedoyin for his steadfastness and commitment in his pursuit of excellent and patriotism, adding that, he has “added value to the lives of all people the state and the entire country.”
The Ooni advised Dr Adedoyin and his team not to toil with the name and take advantage of the leadership skills of Oduduwa in solving some of the challenges that might be encountered in the course of the administration of newly licenced institution.
“Nothing greater could have been done to honour Oduduwa by the Yoruba than the establishment of Oduduwa University. It must be made to succeed. The coming of Oduduwa University will in particular bring limelight to Ile-Ife and honour to the nation” – he said.
In his response, Dr Adedoyin, lauded the Ooni and the entire people of Ile-Ife for t heir encouragement and motivation towards acutalising the dream.
The Maye of Ife, Adedoyin told the Oba that the University plans to have linkage programmes with other universities and technical schools for staff exchange.

Ondo

Parents and family members of a dinner allegedly tortured to death by security operatives over alleged oil theft in Arogbo, Ondo State, have called for an official inquest into his death. The deceased 31 year-old Julius Gbeneme, (alias Asio) was reportedly arrested on the high sea alongside two others and detained in Okitipupa, Ondo State, where he gave up the ghost after being repeatedly tortured in a detentionc amp by some security operatives. According to the family of the deceased, Gbeneme’s death engendered panic among the security operatives who quickly released the other two suspects. They also alelgedlyr eached out to know chieftains of illegal bunkering activities in the area to douse the tension created by Gbeneme’s death by pacifying his family.
It was gathered that the illegal oil-bunkering leaders were making overtures to the deceased’s family with a view to giving them monetary compensation for the loss of their son. But one at the deceased’s brothers who lives in Lagos and pleaded anonymity, said Gbenemes was tortured to death by security operatives who were desperate to cover their tracks in cohort with beneficiaries of illegal bunkering activities in the riverine area of Ondo State.

Nasarawa

Thirteen years after the creation of Nasarawa State, the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Lafia is yet to be connected to the national power grid, General Manager of the station, Maxwell Uloko, has said.
The station, situated on one of Lafia’s hills off the Doma Road axis of the state capital, has been transmitting using diesel-powered stand-by power generating set since inception.
While governments in state created alongside Nasarawa have ensured that their stations were connected to the national grid, NTA Lafia has not enjoyed government’s patronage in that respect.
Rather, it has often been attacked by armed robbers, who even carted away the station’s first heavy-duty power generating set by yanking it off its concrete stands during the second term of former Governor Abdulahi Adamu.
According to Uloko, since the stations connections to the national grid has been delayed for so long, the current cost of linking it to the nation’s power supply is about N8 million.
He said: “this is because so many equipped would be purchased, including transformers, ups facilities and cables to take electricity up the hill where the station. Once that is done, we will save a lot of money and may even go 24 hours.”
According to Ulooko, it costs over N1 million to transmit programmes like the recently concluded Under-17 Football World Cup alone.
He stressed that hooking the station to the grid would save man-hour and other resources spent on generating its own electricity.

Benue

Benue State House of Assembly has alleged that the State Ministry of Finance had misplaced resources by using funds meant for the execution of capital projects in the 2009 budget to settle recurrent claims at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital.
Also, members of the House Tuesday condemned the release of only N5 million to the Benue State Agency for the control of HIV/AIDS (BENSACA) by the State Ministry of Finance, when the State has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the country.
Leading debate on the House committee on Health and Human Services report, minority leader, Tsetim Ayagwer, said the committee found out in the course of its oversight duties that the State Ministry of healthy illegally set aside the recurrent provisions of the 2009 budget for the State University Teaching Hospital and instead continued to release N10 million monthly to the hospital, which still operates with temporary accreditation.
Ayagwer stated that the committee received no satisfactory explanation on the matter from the Ministries of Finance and Healthy, hence its resolve to report the development to the Assembly.
Chairman, House Committee on Education, David Orjime, expressed worry that the Ministry of Finance could ignore the 2009 budget passed by the Assembly, adding that similar violation of the budget might exist in other ministries.

Kwara

Kwara state government has declared its determination to revive its identified tourist centres to boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) capacity.
According to the chairman of the State Tourism Board, Alhaji Funsho Aikone, Tuesday in a chat with pressmen in Ilorin, the state government has perfected plans to involve more private participation in its tourism endeavours.
Prominent among the monumental centres in the state is Esie Museuna, Esie in Irepodum council of the state.
The people of the town some years ago heeded the call of a brave hunter identified as “Bayabon” to have a look that the collection of over 2,000 stone gaven images some metres to the town’s boundary.
Up till now, no one has specifically stated how he images got there. But the strongest report was that God turned the people into images due to their alleged idolatry tendencies.
According to Aikore, the museum, which today has its gallery and curator, will continually be seen as a great wonder of the modern world.
He also spoke on the Shao mass wedding in Moro council as another area the state would publicise.
Recently, 20 maidens from Suho, the Yoruba ancient settlement, participated in this year “Awonga” mass marriage ceremony.
The event, which had since been submitted under the programme of the state’s tourism board.

Oyo

An Ikeja High Court, Lagos Tuesday sentenced the Director of Micro Economic Planning in the Oyo State Ministry of Special Duties, Mrs Helen Banke Laoye, to 20 years imprisonment over fraud.
The judge found her guilty of the two counts of conspiracy and obtaining money under false pretence which is contrary to sections 8 (a) and 3(e) of the Advance fee fraud Act and convicted her on bath counts.
The statement of offence stated that Laoye obtained money by false pretence and conspired with one Dr. Olaoluwa Balogun whi is now at large, to fraudulently collect N4 million from one Segun Olorunfunmi and Adeola Adepoju of the East Atlantic Business System Support Services.
Justice Morenike Obadina, while delivering her judgment said: it is unfortunate that the defendant abused her office. I here by sentence her to 10 years for each of the two charges to run concurrently from September 21, 2008 and she should refund N4 million as restitution upon her release from custody.
According to information field in count, the convicted Helen Laoye carried out the fraud under the pretence of carrying out a project of procuring bond for government in 25 states for the federal government through the DFID, and went ahead with the project without the knowledge of the Oyo State Civil Service.

Taraba

Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State has urged the Igbo in the State to be more united in the interest of peace and development.
The governor made the call Tuesday at the Igbo Day celebration held in Jalingo, the State capital, adding that in spite of the rapid growth and development by the Igbo in the state, unity had continued to elude them.
Suntai, who further observed the uniqueness of the Igbo, said they were mostly spread across the country and beyond and were very accommodating, but lamented that those in the state were factionalised.
He attributed the disunity, which has split the Igbo in the state into two groups as the devils handiwork.
The Igbo Community in the state as gathered by the Guardian has been factionalised into two groups, namely: Igbo welfare Association (IWA) and Igbo Community Association (ICA).

Abuja

Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, on behalf of the party’s National Working Committee has felicitated with Muslims and all Nigerians on the occasion of this year’s Eid el Kabir – the great feast of Muslims’ sacrifice.
Prince Ogbulafor said in a message to Muslims yesterday in Abuja that the Eid el Kabir festival and celebration which places emphasis on the virtues of complete submission and sacrifice once again reminds all of their duties to the Almighty God and nation, Nigeria.
Ogbulafor said he and the PDP were happy to observe that Nigeria is at what he described as “the threshold of a great transformation”, adding that the momentum requires the patriotism, loyalty and sacrifice of all citizens to be sustained.
He said that the occasion therefore offers a unique opportunity to show and share LOVE to one another and not to dwell on issues that have a tendency to divide the nation and her peoples.
He added:” On this special occasion, our great Party, the PDP invites all Nigerians to join hands with the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Umaru Musa Var’ Adua (GCFR) in our steady march to greatness. We wish all Nigerians a peaceful and Joyful celebration Barka Da Sallah”

Lagos

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State Tuesday enjoined Corps members servicing in the state to be of good behaviour, in the same vein, the State Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), mr Ladipo Laniyan, has called on the corps members to avoid any anti-social behaviour.
They made the call Tuesday in Iyana-Ipaja, Lagos during the closing ceremony of the 2009 batch ‘C’ orientation for Corps members.
Fashiola who was represented by Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Duties, Mr Kofo Abayomi, promised to provide opportunities for the new corps members to contribute their “quota to the development of the state in the areas of education, free health care as well as environmental sanitation.”
While commending the corps members for their “display of abundant skills and talents during the orientation course” the governor urged them to accept their posting to their various places of primary assignments in good faith.

Ogun

The Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Ota Business Unit has launched 40 micro Business Units (MTSUS) to bring its service closer to electricity consumers in the network.
The units are billed to motivate customers’ bill settlement habit, monitor customers who illegally tamper with PHCN installations, record complains and ensure that adequate steps are taken to restore any faulty facility at any point in time.
Speaking at the official inauguration of the MBUS at the company’s promises in Ota recently, Mr Kayode Moyosore, said the establishment of MBUS was based on the premises to extend its services to some of the customers which the unit had hitherto found difficult to reach in the past.
“We have discovered that there are lots of potentials around here and if we do not reach out to them it may be difficult for us to extend our improved services to them” – he said.