Bauchi

Bauchi State Agency for the Control of AIDS, has paid the dowry of 152 couples living with HIV/AIDS who were married from 2008 to date.

Malam Usman Zico, Chairman of the state chapter of Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria said this in Bauchi. He spoke at the inauguration of the second phase of the HIV/AIDS Programme Development Project (HPDP-2).

Zico said that the agency paid between N20, 000 and N30, 000 as dowry for each couple who got married during the period.

He said that the effort was not in vain as the marriages had, according to him, “produced an impressive number of babies that tested negative to the HIV virus”.

The chairman urged the agency to continue the good work and called on other organisations to emulate the gesture.

Ekiti

Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti has ordered queries to be issued to workers of Ilejemeje Local Government Council who were absent during his unscheduled visit to the council.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Olayinka Oyebode, said the state’s Local Government Service Commission had been directed to issue the queries.

The statement said the governor gave the directive when he discovered that only 42 of the entire staff of the council were at work when he visited the secretariat.

Also absent during the governor’s visit were the Director of Administration, the Treasurer as well as majority of the staff.

Kano

The Kano State Chapter of the NLC, is to declare its stand soon on the alleged plan by the state government to stop payment of ‘Ram Bonus’ to civil servants.

The Chairman of the NLC in the state, Mr Isa Danguguwa, made the disclosure in an interview in Kano on Thursday.

A law was enacted by the state’s House of Assembly during the immediate-past administration to pay workers 50 per cent of their basic salaries every year before Eid-el-Kabir celebrations. The bonus is to enable workers to buy rams for the festival.

The state government recently sent a bill to the state’s assembly, seeking an amendment of the law to make it optional for the government to pay the bonus.

He said the NLC was yet to be communicated officially on the issue and “as soon as we do, we shall take the appropriate step ’’.

Kebbi

The World Bank-assisted Community and Social Development Project in Kebbi has spent N573.7 million to execute 260 projects in rural communities, the General Manager, Alhaji Usman Abubakar, said.

Abubakar told the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Alhaji Habibu Aminu, in Birnin Kebbi that the communities contributed 10 per cent of the cost of each project.

He said that the programme was introduced in 2009 to address development issues in the areas of education, electricity supply, health, water, environment and sanitation.

Abubakar explained that 103 of the projects had been completed while 90 others were in various stages of execution.

Kwara

Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed of Kwara says his administration will partner with the World Bank to tackle unemployment in the state.

Ahmed said this in Ilorin while declaring open a meeting with a World Bank group, Youth Empowerment and Social Support Operations (YESSO).

The governor was represented by his deputy, Mr Peter Kisira.

Ahmed said 2,730 youths had been placed in the Kwara Bridge Empowerment Scheme (KWABES) for one year and would be offered permanent employment.

He also said that his administration had designed numerous programmes to tackle unemployment in the state.

Kogi

The Speaker, Kogi House of Assembly, Alhaji Abdullahi Bello, has urged members of the House to shun corrupt practice and guard against being lured into taking bribes during their oversight functions.

Bello made the call in Lokoja at the plenary when the House resumed from a four-week recess to commence the second legislative session of the Fifth Assembly.

The speaker said: “I urge you to learn from the recent happenings in our political environment and guard against any conduct that could portray the House in bad light.’’

Bello enjoined them to discharge their assignments with all sense of commitment and responsibility.

Niger

The Niger Government has appointed a 40-man committee to plan the fund raising for the construction of a church and a mosque in the Three Arms Zone in Minna.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Alhaji Hamidu Kuta, made the disclosure to newsmen after the state executive council’s meeting.

He said that designs for the two places of worship had been completed and that the appeal fund, which the government would support would ensure the prompt completion of projects.

Kuta said that government had also planned to assist Muslims to break their fast during the 2012 Ramadan.

Ondo

A chieftain of the Labour Party in Ondo State, Chief Yemi Adetoyinbo, has advised youths in the state to shun violence during the forthcoming governorship election in the state.

Adetoyinbo said in Akure that youths in the state must reject any call to cause trouble during the election.

“As future leaders of the state and the country, youths have a stake in the Nigeria project.

“ They must not allow any politician in whatever garb to lure them into violence,” he said.

Plateau

The General Manager, Jos Metropolitan Development Board (JMDB), Mr Mathias Hata, said that the 1974 Jos master-plan as been reviewed.

Hata said in Jos that the review, completed last month, would prepare the city to fit into the current wave of infrastructural developmental strides.

According to him, reviewing the plan became imperative to enable the JMDB to meet its statutory mandate.

He said that the master-plan would be reviewed regularly “to meet up with the development and growth of the city’’.

Sokoto

The Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Ado Muhammad, has said that the agency has procured vaccines worth N6 billion to ensure effective immunisation of children nationwide.

Muhammad told newsmen in Sokoto that the vaccines would be distributed to the 36 states and the FCT for routing immunisation.

According to him, the Federal Government has made adequate provision for the immunisation of over six million children nationwide, annually.

“So the recent reports in some media that there was a vaccine stock out was untrue, unfounded and baseless,’’ he stressed.

He said that over two million vaccines were distributed across the country for the fifth round of the National Immunisation Plus-Days which commenced on Wednesday.

Taraba

Alhaji Mohammed Abdullahi, president of the National Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), has described the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) as the apex of the print media.

Abdullahi said this in Jalingo when the national executives of the institute paid a courtesy call on the Jalingo station of NAN.

“I wish to state without mincing words that NAN is the apex of the print media. Most media organisations in the country depend largely on news and news materials from you (NAN).

“No print media has the strength and capacity of covering events in the country and beyond like NAN. If NAN is down, majority of Nigerian media organisations will be down,’’ he said.

Zamfara

Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara last Wednesday warned the new local council chairmen in the state against truancy.

The governor gave the warning in Gusau at the inauguration of the 13 local government chairmen elected on June 23.

Yari advised the new chairmen to brace up for the challenges of making life better for their people, adding that the victory of the ANPP in the elections showed that the people had confidence in the political leadership of the state.

He said that the government would continue to support the autonomy of the local government councils through prompt release of their statutory allocations.

The governor, however, said that the state government would closely monitor the utilisation of the funds and would deal with any council official found guilty of financial impropriety.