THE STATES

Adamawa

Sick persons in Mubi, Adamawa, now patronise private clinics as the strike embarked upon by medical and health workers has grounded services in public hospitals in the area.

Junior health workers had in June embarked on an indefinite strike following disagreement with the state government over wages and improved working conditions.

The situation was further compounded in the last five weeks when the NLC went on a similar strike over the implementation of the N18,000 minimum wage, forcing all health care facilities to close down.

Our  correspondent who went round some of the health centres in Mubi on Tuesday reports that they remained locked.

At the General Hospital, Mubi, only a handful of staff offered skeletal services at the Out-Patients Department, Emergency Unit and medical wards, while some of the patients on admission had left the wards.

Borno

The Caretaker Chairman of Kaga Local Government Area of Borno, Mr Kawu Ngamdu, has appealed to Muslims and Christians to pray and fast to end the frequent armed robberies along the Maiduguri-Kaga Road.

Ngamdu made the appeal in an interview with newsmen in Maiduguri, saying that armed robbers had intercepted and stolen the salaries of local government workers running to about N20 million at two different occasions on the road.

According to him, the people have to assist with their prayers and fasting so as to curb the situation.

He noted that if the trend was not brought under control it would affect some developmental programmes geared towards improving the living standard of people in the Local Government Area.

The chairman advised people to watch out for persons with questionable characters and report their activities to the security agencies.

“I will strive as much as possible to improve the living standard of the masses by providing them with good drinking water, boost agriculture and health delivery,” he said.

FCT

Brig-Gen. Okore-Affia, the Director-General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), says the commission is reconsidering the participation of youth corps members in future elections.

Speaking when the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Atahiru Jega, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja on Tuesday, Okore-Affia called for an urgent review of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between INEC and NYSC.

“ You will agree with me that there is an urgent need to review the MOU between INEC and NYSC, because as far as I am concerned, it is one-sided, because it did not cater for the interest and wellbeing of corps members deployed on electoral duties.

“The NYSC wants to ask for a verifiable proof of the preparedness of INEC to put in place measures that will ensure both the safety and wellbeing of corps members.”

Okore-Affia said that if verifiable proof of the safety of corps members was not given by INEC, the NYSC would scale down on the involvement of corps members in future elections.

Gombe

A Federal High Court in Gombe, presided over by Justice Babatunde Quadri on Tuesday granted bail to the former Governor of Gombe State, Alhaji Danjuma Goje, and three others standing trial before it.

Goje and three others were arraigned before the court by the EFCC on an 18-count charge of laundering more than N25 billion public fund between May 2003 and May 2011.

Goje was arraigned along with Alhaji Aliyu El-Nafaty, former Executive Chairman of Gombe State Universal basic Education Board (SUBEB) and two contractors, S.M. Dokoro and Alhaji Sabo Tumu.

S. M. Dokoro Company Ltd, Gombe was also joined in the suit filed by the EFCC.

Quadri while granting the bail, following an earlier application file before it by Adeniyi Akintola (SAN), counsel to Goje, said that it was the constitutional right of the suspects to be granted bail.

Jigawa

Mr Ntufam Ogbu, the Secretary of the National Planning Commission (NPC), has called on state governments to compute their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in order to enhance investment.

Ogbu made the call at a meeting of the Joint Planning Board and the National Council on Development Planning in Dutse.

“We are saying that state governments should generate their GDP because we are operating a federal system of government.

“ We can not go from federal level to compute GDP for a state,’’ Ogbu said.

He said if state governments generated their GDP, it would help the Federal Government to put together the National Gross Domestic Product.

Ogbu also urged state governments to initiate and ensure the passage of a Project Continuity Bill to enhance continuity of government’s projects and programmes.

Kano

The police in Kano have arrested three persons for allegedly raping four minors aged between six years and eight years.

The Public Relations Officer of the state command, Malam Magaji Majiya, told newsmen in Kano recently that the suspects were arrested on October 15, in the metropolis.

According to Majiya, two of the accused persons lured three girls, children of their neighbours, into a room at about 8.15 a.m. and sexually assaulted them.

He said the other suspect was also apprehended for allegedly luring a seven-year-old girl into his room and had illegal canal knowledge of her.

Majiya said all the three suspects had made confessional statements that were further corroborated by the medical examination reports.

Lagos

The Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) on Tuesday urged Lagos residents to monitor activities of Private Sector Partnership (PSP) operators engaged in waste collection in the state.

The Authority’s Public Relations Officer, Mrs Folashade Kadiri, said this in an interview with newsmen in Lagos.

Kadiri said that activities and operations of the operators should be “measured, criticised and appreciated” by the residents to know how effective such operators are in areas assigned to them by LAWMA.

According to her, the various levels of monitoring are the management and employees of LAWMA, Community Development Areas, and officials of the Ministry of Environment, and the residents.

Oyo

Sunday Oladeji, a professor of Economics at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, has called on the Federal Government to make the National Manpower Board (NMB) more functional.

He told newsmen in Ibadan that the board had not been effective lately in the discharge of its mandate.

Oladeji, who is also the Provost of the institution’s Postgraduate School, recalled that the NMB became a body under the supervision of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan.

The NMB, he said, was a product of the Ashby Commission which recommended its formation.

“The mandate of the board includes research and data collection on the manpower situation in the country as well as employment situation.

Plateau

Some residents of Plateau have voiced their opposition to the planned removal of petroleum subsidy by the Federal Government, saying the action will inflict more hardship on the average Nigerians.

In separate interviews that the spiral effects would result in hikes in prices of essential commodities and make life more difficult for Nigerians.

“Nigerians should be allowed to enjoy the subsidy on oil to be able to cope with the current hard times. There is no need to worsen the situation for the poor,” Miss Dorcas James, a student of the University of Jos, said.

She cautioned that the action would have debilitating effect

Taraba

Hundreds of primary school teachers and pupils in Jalingo took to the streets, protesting non-payment of the salaries of teachers and other welfare issues.

Addressing the gathering, the Taraba State Chairman of the NUT, Mr Aliyu Mafindi, said that the refusal of the State Government to pay teachers’ salaries was becoming a source of worry and unfortunate for a state that was already performing well in WAEC and NECO.

Mafindi said: “teachers will no longer fold their hands and watch bad governance continue to deny them their rights.

Zamfara

Farmers in Zamfara who benefitted from fertiliser/agriculture inputs loan are owing the government N5.5 billiion, says Sen. Saidu Dansadau, the Chairman, Debt Verification Committee.

The loan was disbursed by the Zamfara Comprehensive Agricultural Revolution Programme (ZACAREP).

Dansadau disclosed this in Gusau while presenting the committee’s report to Gov. Abdulaziz Yari.

He accused the beneficiaries of abusing the opportunity offered them by ZACAREP to buy fertilisers and other inputs at subsidised rates and pay back after harvest.

“It is unfortunate that while the government introduced the programme to encourage massive agricultural production in the state, both the subsidy and loans payable after harvest were abused.

“As at the moment, our findings revealed that the target farmers, through their emirate councils, who stood as guarantors for the loans, owe Zamfara State Government as much as N5.5 billion from unpaid fertiliser loans.“

According to him, said some privileged farmers had over the years, cornered subsidised fertilisers/loan for inputs at the expense of small and medium-scale farmers who produced the greater percentage of food crops consumed by the people.

He urged the government to review the activities of ZACAREP by taking into consideration the needs of peasant farmers.

The committee chairman noted that small and medium-scale farmers had prominent roles to play to realise the government’s food security and poverty eradication agenda.

Responding, Yari commended the committee for doing a thorough job and pledged to implement its recommendations.