City Crime
Monorail: Enugu Seals Concession Agreement With Canadian Firm
The Enugu State Government has signed a Concession agreement with a Canadian Business firm, Globim Corporation, to finance, construct and operate a monorail transport system known as Enugu Monorail line in the State.
The State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Chuks Ugwoke, who made this known while briefing the press at the end of the State Executive Council meeting, said that the new transport system is based on vehicles running on a single rail track without interfering with other road users.
According to him, the project,which will be executed under contractor financed, will provide very efficient and attractive transport system that will not crash with vehicles, never to run over people and above all, generate revenue for the state.
The commissioner, who was accompanied by his Special Duties counterpart,
Chief Luke Mamelu and San Chukwuani, as well as Mr. Matthew Idu of Youths and Sports, disclosed that the transport system will cover all routes of the Coal City from Gariki to Achara Layout – Coal Camp – Ogbete – Abakpa Nike – Asata and Emene.
Shortly after signing the agreement, the Chairman of the company, Dr Jude Igwemezie, said his interest on the project was to appreciate the laudable achievements of Governor Chime in the state and his own contribution to government’s determination to provide affordable, reliable and efficient transport system for residents and visitors in the state.
The Executive Council, he said, also approved the award of contract of additional work for the installation of water distribution pipe network to some parts of the state capital at a cost of over two billion naira to Channel Engineering Construction Company.
He said that the water pipe line network, which is on contractor finance basis, will cover Trans-Ekulu, Government Reserved Area (GRA), Abakpa Nike, Emene and Independence Layout. According to him, the company, which had been given approval to replace and extend water transmission mains, will in addition distribute water to individual homes in the state.
The Commissioner recalled that already, two companies, Suecon Groups of Companies and Sanshek Nigeria Limited had been given approval to extend water pipe lines to cover Ogui, Asata, Uwani and Idaw River as well as parts of GRA, Independence Layout and High pressure areas in the state.
Continuing, Mr. Ugwoke, said the council also approved the award of contract for the electrification of Imilike Agu community in Udenu local government area at a cost of over N35,801,852.
The contract, which will include 33KV distribution network and construction of higher/medium voltage lines and installation of transformers, is part of government’s determination to meet the target of providing electricity to all communities in the state by 2011.
Also at the meeting chaired by the state Governor, Mr. Sullivan Chime, the council approved the establishment of State Medical Emergency Response Team (ESMERT) as a directorate in the Ministry of Health to be headed by a Director and other paramedical staff.
He revealed that for effective take off, the Emergency Response Team Government had purchased eight Advanced life support Ambulances and other seventeen support Ambulances for the seventeen local government areas of the state.
The information commissioner explained that the establishment of the Directorate became necessary to provide pre-hospital medicare to people living in or passing through the state, facilitate access to health care facilities by the critically ill or injured and assistance in disaster management among others.
The Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, yesterday, told the House of Representatives that the government decided to ban the operations of Twitter in Nigeria because it was promoting instability and act of terrorism in the country.
The minister, who spoke at a public hearing on the Twitter ban organised by a joint committee of the House, said despite repeated reminders, Twitter continued to provide separatist groups the platform to promote terrorism in the country.
He said the decision of the government was supported by the position of Section 45 of the 1999 Constitution, the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) and also the Anti-Terrorism Act, among others.
He said the twitter also provided IPOB, an organization that was banned by the court in Nigeria the platform to spread hate news and ordering the killing of soldiers, policemen and burning public institutions.
On the issue of personal liberty, he explained that personal liberty can always be suspended when the rights of others is at stake.
The Chief Magistrate Court 2, Iyaganku, Ibadan, in the Oyo State capital, yesterday, ordered the release of three members of the Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC), three months after their detention by the Oyo State Police Command.
The OPC members – Awodele Adedigba, Dauda Kazeem and Hassan Ramon – had been detained mid-March, 2021, after they arrested a suspected criminal reportedly from the Fulani ethnic stock, Iskilu Wakili.
Wakili had been accused of terrorising Igangan and other villages in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State.
The OPC had handed over Wakili to the Oyo State Police Command but the police subsequently detained three OPC members for allegedly burning down Wakili’s house and killing an unknown woman in the process.
However, the OPC and one of its leaders, Gani Adams, had said that the murder and arson allegations were false; adding that it immediately handed over Wakili and three of his accomplices to the police in Igboora after their arrest.
The three detainees, yesterday, appeared before the magistrates’ court, presided over by A.O. Amzat, and were discharged and acquitted after the state’s Directorate of Public Prosecutions failed to prove to the court that the OPC men were guilty as charged.
Counsel for the defendants, Akwarandu Adetoun, said that the magistrate struck out the case and ordered the release of the detainees.
The OPC Coordinator in Oyo State, Rotimi Olumo, also confirmed the release of his men in a chat with newsmen, yesterday.
Before Wakili’s arrest, farmers and residents of Igangan, Ayete, Kajola and neighbouring villages in Ibarapaland lived in perpetual fear of Wakili who was accused of displacing them from their farms, kidnapping their rich men and raping their women.
Igangan has been in the eye of the storm of late as marauding hoodlums carry out successive attacks on the rustic agrarian village, creating palpable panic and tension in residents of the area.
Earlier in June, no fewer than 17 persons were reportedly shot dead when hoodlums invaded the town on motorcycles around 11pm, and started killing and destroying property, which continued until around 3am the next day.
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the composition of the Federal Government’s team to engage with Twitter over the recent suspension of its operations in Nigeria.
The approval was announced in a statement in Abuja, yesterday by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who will chair the team.
The Federal Government’s team also comprises the Attorney-General of the Federation and Honourable Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN); Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola; Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige; as well as other relevant government agencies.
Following the indefinite suspension of its operations in Nigeria, for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence, Twitter wrote to Buhari seeking to engage with the Federal Government over the suspension, with a view to charting a path forward.
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