Bauchi

The Bauchi State Government is to merge the College of Administrative and Business Studies Azare and the Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic to transform into a full-fledged institution.

The Bauchi State Head of Service, Mr Abdon Dala-Gin,made the announcement on Tuesday in Bauchi when he inaugurated an 11-man committee, set up by the government to work out modalities for the merger.ions

Dala-Gin said the committee would be chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Establishment and Service Matters Bureau, Alhaji Hashimu Dori.

He named Chairman, Governing Council of Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Prof. Andrew Haruna representatives of the state’s Attorney General as well as representatives of staff unions of ASUBP as members.

Speaking after the inauguration of the committee, the Chairman, Academic Staff Union of College of Administration and Business Studies, Mr Adamu Waziri, described the merger as a “welcome development. ’’

FCT

To avoid a spillover of the Kaduna and Yobe crises, the Federal Government has commenced a nationwide peace-building efforts, starting with Plateau.

Director General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Mike Omeri, made this known in Abuja on Tuesday in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Paul Odenyi.

Omeri said time had come to take practical steps not just for religious and social tolerance but also for mutual acceptance among the citizenry.

He appealed to chief imams and other Muslim clerics across the country to always emphasise peace, unity and mutual acceptance in their sermons as there was no alternative to peace and unity.

The NOA director general denounced the attacks on ECWA headquarters in Plateau and other parts of the country.

According the statement, these are the handiwork of mischief makers who take advantage of issues that can be resolved through dialogue to foment trouble.

Kaduna

Some customers on Wednesday trooped to various banks in Zaria, Kaduna State, to withdraw money following the relaxation of the 24-hour curfew imposed by the government.

The state has been under 24-hour curfew imposed since Tuesday, June 19, due to the spate of attacks on worshiping centres.

Malam Bala Tijjani, who was on queue to use an ATM, commended the government for relaxing the curfew, saying it was a thing of joy.

“We have been at home days and nights like women. Apart from that, all our pockets are dry.

Another customer, Mr Mike Okey, said that money was a basic necessity to keep life going and for meaningful survival.

“Without money, nothing moves perfectly. However, I can testify that peace is by far greater than money,’’ he said.

Kogi

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has set up a new special patrol exercise code named “stop the killing/eagle eye’’ on Lokoja-Abuja Road and other highways in Kogi.

The state Sector Commander, Mr Mohammed Garba, made the disclosure at the commencement of the exercise in Lokoja on Tuesday.

Garba said that the initiative was to curtail the excesses of drivers plying Lokoja-Okene-Abuja Road and other highways in the state

He said that the operation would entail creating special corridors on Okene-Lokoja-Abuja Road to check over-speeding, overloading and motorists that engage in phoning while driving.

Garba said that 100 marshals, 10 patrol vehicles and one ambulance had been deployed for the exercise, which would hold simultaneously in Isanlu, Kabba, Ankpa, Magongo, Zariagi, Okene and Koton-Karfe towns.

Kwara

Five professors from the University of Ilorin are now jostling for the position of vice-chancellor of the institution .

The office is due to be vacant in October when the incumbent, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, would have completed his tenure.

At the close of the application for the job of Vice-Chancellor on Monday night, five of the professors from the institution had applied.

They included Prof. Hassan Salihu of the Department of Political Science, Prof. Ganiyu Hambali, Dean of Veterinary Medicine, and Prof. Luke Ayorinde, immediate past Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Management) of the university.

Others are Prof. Albert Olayemi, the former Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics) and Prof. Musbau Akanji, Director of Academic Planning.

The authorities of the institution had in an advertorial on May 14, declared that the exalted office of the Vice-Chancellor, currently occupied by Oloyede would be vacant by October 6.

Lagos

The Social Workers League, a human rights group, on Tuesday blamed the continued killing and destruction of properties in some parts of the country on mass poverty and high level of illiteracy.

The League, in a statement issued in Lagos and signed by its co-ordinator, Mr Baba Aye, said that economic underdevelopment had also encouraged discontent among some youths to cause havoc in the society.

“For about one week, Nigerians have been killed in Kaduna and Yobe states. There is need for the Federal Government to do all within its powers to guarantee the safety and security of Nigerians,’’ it said.

The statement said the level of destruction of lives and properties showed that the guns, vehicles and other logistics used by the Boko Haram group did not come from the contributions of their members who are poor.

It noted that the killing had forced communities to form vigilante groups to defend their lives which encompassed Christians and Moslems, amongst others.

“There is the need to forge greater unity of working people in the communities within the states now faced by this painful violence,’’ it said.

Niger

The Northern States’ Governors Forum (NSGF) on Tuesday expressed sadness over the death of ASP Ado Yahaya , a security aide to Gov. AbdulAzeez Yari of Zamfara.

Yahaya died in an auto accident on the Gummi-Sokoto road during an official assignment with the governor.

In a condolence message to Yari, signed by Gov. Babangida Aliyu of Niger and the Forum’s Chairman, the forum said they were pained by the sudden death of the well groomed cop “who died in active service’’.

“We can only pray God to grant the soul of the deceased eternal rest and his family, friends and the Nigeria Police, the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss,” the statement said.

Ogun

The  Ogun police command said on Tuesday in Abeokuta that it has uncovered a shrine belonging to ritualists and fraudsters in Iganke, a boundary town with Lagos States. The shrine, located deep in a forest was filled with charms and other scary objects.

The Ogun Police Commissioner, Mr Ikemefuna Okoye, who supervised the operation, told newsmen later that his men had been on the lookout for shrines and other places where evils were perpetrated.

He said the arrest of two members of the group in Abeokuta led to the discovery of the shrine, and attributed the breakthrough to the cooperation and collaboration with various communities in the area.

Okoye said, “One of them tried to dupe someone of huge amount of money, but through intelligent gathering we got to hear about it.

The commissioner further said that the two suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigation into the matter was concluded.

While thanking members of the various communities for the cooperation extended to the force, he charged anyone with useful information to supply such to the command.

“I can assure you that the identity of anyone, who volunteered information that will help us uncover men of the underworld will be highly shielded,’’ he said.

Ondo

An Akure Chief Magistrates’ Court has remanded two officials of the State Security Service (SSS) in prison custody for alleged armed robbery.

The officials, Owolabi Kolawole, 25, and Okunola Kayode, 28, were arraigned before Chief Magistrate Igbekele Akinyele on a two-count charge of conspiracy and armed robbery.

They were said to have committed the offence with others at large on June 14, 2012 at about 11.30 a.m. at UBA on Owo/Ado Road, Akure. The police accused the two SSS operatives of robbing a car dealer, Peter Charles Denis of his N480,000.

The offence, the police said, was contrary to and punishable under Section 402 (1) of the Criminal Code cap 30 Vol. II laws of Ondo State, 1978. The accused pleaded not guilty.

But Magistrate Akinyele, however, told them that in legal parlance, what they did amounted to taking bribe.

Police prosecutor, ASP Pelumi Adejuwon, informed the court that he had four witnesses and urged the court to grant an adjournment to enable him to assemble them.

Counsel to the accused persons, Mr Ilesanmi Ikuemenisan, urged the court to admit the accused persons to bail on liberal terms.

Plateau

A Jos State High Court on Tuesday ordered the Nigeria Police to pay N1 million as damage to a suspect, the Secretary, Kanam Traditional Council, Alhaji Mohammed Abdullahi.

The court also ordered the police to refund N700, 000 said to have been extorted from Abullahi, who was unlawfully detained and prosecuted for a crime he was not guilty of.

Justice Yargata Nimpa of High Court 4, while delivering judgment on the case of conspiracy, breach of trust and criminal offence, said that the police over-stepped its bounds by extorting N700, 000 from Abdullahi.

The court had heard that Abddullahi was arrested in Kanam Local Government and taken to the state Criminal Investigation Department where he was forced to “cough out N700, 000 said to be part of N8 million given to one Nafiu Abubakar.

The court further heard that one Mohammed Kabir, proprietor of Al-yusura Primary and secondary school, Konar Shagari, Jos, was alleged to have given Abubakar, a cousin to the Emir of Kanam, the said money to organise a launching for his school.

Zamfara

Barely one month into the commencement of fertiliser sale for 2012 farming season, the Zamfara Government has jacked up the price of the commodity from the initial N1,000 to N3,000 per 50kg bag.

The decision is viewed by political observers as a policy reversal after the landslide victory of the ANPP in the June 23 local government elections in the state.

Announcing the new price to newsmen in Gusau on Tuesday, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Malami Yandoto, said the new price would affect all categories of farmers who applied for the input through the ministry.

He said that the state government had fulfilled the promise to sell fertiliser at N1,000 per bag to smallholder farmers through their polling units.

According to him, 550,000 bags of fertiliser out of about 800,000 bags procured for distribution to farmers for the 2012 farming season, were sold at N1,000.