THE STATES

The General Overseer, Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye (left), with the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, during the cleric’s courtesy visit to the Ooni’s Palace in Ile-ife, yesterday

Borno

Barely a week after Dalori village in Borno State was
attacked, Boko Haram insurgents in a convoy of 10 bicycles laden with explosives and petro-bomb also attacked Alomari and Malari communities, killing 10 people, including four women and torching two villages.
The insurgents, according to Tijani Ahmed of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), burst into the villages through the northern flanks that adjoin Mafa-Dikwa axis in Konduga Local Government Area of the state.
“We alerted the military on phone but before the soldiers reached the villages from Alau Dam military post, the gunmen fled after several houses were set ablaze, and abandoned the food items they snatched yesterday,” said Ahmed.
A military personnel, who was not authorized to speak on the twin incidents, also said: “The insurgents have resorted guerrilla warfare, without attacking any military post or base in the theatre war of Operation to Lafiya Dole. Before our troops reached the affected villages, ten kilometres from this post, the terrorists fled towards the Mafa-Dikwa axis on bicycles.”

Ekiti

An Ado-Ekiti Customary Court has dissolved a 15-year-
old marriage between Azeez Yemisi and her husband, Kehinde for desertion and lack of care for her and the children.
Yemisi, 35, a resident of No. 10, Odo-Ado, Ado-Ekiti, told the court that she had been responsible for the upkeep of the children and the payment of the first child’s school fees.
The mother of three said her husband packed out of the house when he knew that she was pregnant for another man.
She claimed that she had remarried and likewise her husband, and therefore, urged the court to dissolve the marriage.
Kehinde, 45, a resident of No. 97, Idemo, Ado-Ekiti, said he deserted the house when his wife took in for another man.

FCT

President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki has
ruled out the possibility of reversing the Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy excluding some imported goods and services from the list of items valid for forex in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market.
Saraki, while responding to a request by the Tomato Sub-Sectoral Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), seeking his intervention to lift the exemption by the CBN on certain imported goods, said based on the present economic realities, difficult decisions are necessary to be taken to overcome the challenges.
The Senate President, who addressed the tomato paste producers when they paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja, said: “It is high time we start telling ourselves the home truth as a nation, we are where we are because of our refusal to take hard decisions.
“As a country, we have to chart a new way different from the past, and that path is going into manufacturing as we cannot continue to remain an import dependent country,” he said.

Kano

Executive Secretary, Kano State Scholarship Board, Prof.
Fatima Umar, said the State Government had approved N500 million for payment of outstanding scholarship to 1, 550 students studying in 11 foreign institutions.
Umar disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Kano.
She said the state government had also given an approval for settling the allowances of 91, 000 students currently studying in tertiary institutions in the country.
The executive secretary said the gesture was part of the government’s resolve to provide scholarship to Kano indigenes pursuing academic courses at home and abroad.
According to her, the present administration is committed to funding the professional courses of 108 Kano state indigenes currently pursuing professional courses at the Nigeria Law School.

Katsina

Katsina State Pilgrims Welfare Board has announced N700, 000
as the minimum deposit for each intending pilgrim from the state wishing to perform the 2016 hajj.
The Executive Director of the board, Alhaji Muhammad Abu Rimi, made the announcement in Katsina at the inauguration of committees for the distribution of hajj seats for the 34 Local Government Areas of the state.
He said that the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) had allocated 4,463 seats to the state for the 2016 exercise like the previous year.
He said that the board would conduct ballot for hajj seats and registration of intending pilgrims across the 34 local government areas simultaneously on February 20.
Kwara

The Kwara State House of Assembly yesterday held a
valedictory session in honour of a departed member, Hon. Moses Afolayan who represented Oke-Ero constituency in Kwara South Senatorial District.
Afolayan died on January 30, 2016 at his residence in llorin following an illness.
Our correspondent reports that the valedictory session was attended by top government functionaries, former legislators and family members of the deceased.
The Speaker, Dr Ali Ahmad, declared the session open with a condolence message from the state governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed.
The governor in his message read by the Speaker , described Afolayan’s demise as a colossal loss to the state.

Lagos

The Nigeria Institute of Food Science and Technology
(NIFST) has tasked manufacturers and governments on the need to use modern technology in packaging food items.
The National President of NIFST, Dr Chijioke Osuji, gave the charge in an interview with newsmen in Lagos.
Osuji said that the use of modern food packaging was inevitable for the country to advance in the value chain of the food business.
He said that it would enable packaging to be done properly, especially when it had to do with export.
“While within Nigeria, we may prefer unattractive unpackaged products just like our fore-fathers did, but a foreigner may not buy into it even while still within the country.

Ondo

The Ondo/Ekiti Command of the Nigeria Customs Service
(NCS) generated N15.13 million in January 2016, up from N12.86 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2015.
The Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Filibus Machu, made the disclosure in Akure when the Customs Zonal Coordinator, Zone ‘A’, Mr Eporwei Edike, visited the command.
Machu said that the command generated N193.12 million in 2015
“Our command generates revenue from duties paid on intercepted vehicles,’’ he said.
“I have observed since January 14 when I resumed in this command that all the officers are respectful.

Osun

An housewife, Mrs Mukaila Kafilat, has asked an Osogbo
Customary Court to dissolve her marriage to her husband, Mr Mukaila Olaoye over allegation that her husband had attempted to kill her.
Kafilat told the court that, “I was sleeping one day when I felt hands around my neck and discovered my husband was trying to strangle me to death.
“But for the intervention of our neighbours, I would have been dead by now’’.
She told the court with tears streaming down her face.
She also accused her husband of lack of interest in her and that he does not love her any more , which is the reason he had stopped caring for her and their children.
Oyo

Wife of Oyo State Governor, Mrs Florence Ajimobi, has
advocated strict enforcement of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP), Act, 2015.
Mrs Ajimobi stated this in Ibadan at an event to commemorate the international day of zero tolerance for female genital mutilation.
The governor’s wife who was addressing a group of women in the state said that the law prohibits female genital mutilation and other unwholesome practices against women.
Mrs Ajimobi noted that it was the duty of everyone to ensure that the traditional harmful practice of genital mutilation stopped.
She explained that victims of the harmful practice suffered a great deal “socially, psychologically, physically emotionally and sexually’’.

Plateau

The Managing Director of Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC), Alhaji Mohammed Modibbo, says the new hike in electricity tariff is to address decades of neglect of critical infrastructure in the power supply chain.
Modibbo told newsmen in Jos that the new investors in the power sector inherited dilapidated infrastructure which must be replaced to enhance efficiency.
“Some transformers were even older than 50 years and certainly could not cope with even basic distribution.
“So the little upward review will help to mitigate negative cash flow that has bedevilled the sector,” he said.
Modibbo spoke against the backdrop of nationwide picketing of electricity formations by labour unions protesting the recent tariff hike that took off last week.
He said that increased power generation by the private firms was being hindered by the inability to pay their gas suppliers.

Sokoto

Lawmakers from the Sokoto State House of Assembly
yesterday visited their counterparts in Lagos State to know more about the Lagos Traffic Law.
Our correspondent reports that the delegates were led by Mr Sanni Yakubu, the Chairman, Sokoto State House of Assembly Committee on Works and Transportation.
Yakubu said the Sokoto Assembly was motivated by the successes of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and the Lagos State Traffic Law, to make the trip.
He said the legislators had a proposed traffic law before them and embarked on the journey to seek advice from their counterparts in Lagos.
According to him, the lawmakers decided to visit Lagos State, being the centre of excellence with viable traffic laws.
He said that Sokoto State could learn a lot from Lagos in the area of traffic control and management.
“We came to the Lagos State House of Assembly based on the laws before us on traffic management and control in Sokoto State.