Nation
THE STATES
Bauchi
The Bauchi Territorial Headquarters of the Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) said it generated over N25 million as revenue in 2010.
The Area Postal Manager, Alhaji Dauda Musa, made the disclosure on Wednesday in an interview with our correspondent in Bauchi.
He said that the increase in the use of mobile telecommunications had not affected the services rendered by NIPOST.
Musa explained further that the organisation was able to meet its financial target in 2010.
He also confirmed that about 300 cargo luggages belonging to Bauchi State Muslim Pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia had been dispatched to their owners.
“In 2010, we were able to achieve our target because people continued to patronise our services.
“The existence of mobile telecommunications did not make our customers stop patronising us and as a result, 2010 was a successful year for us,” he said.
The NIPOST Territorial Manager expressed gratitude to the Bauchi State Government for its continued support and patronage.
Ekiti
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Ekiti State yesterday secured the conviction of 275 persons who contravened road traffic laws during the yuletide.
They were among the 310 offenders arrested by the Ekiti command of the corps.
Seven mobile courts, headed by magistrates, sat simultaneously in Ado-Ekiti, Ikole-Ekiti, Ifaki-Ekiti, Aramoko-Ekiti, Ido-Ekiti, Omuo-Ekiti and Ado/Ikare road to try the offenders.
During the trial, 120 persons were convicted for riding motorcycles without helmets while 155 were found guilty of violating the seat belt and number plate rules as well as overloading.
The magistrates fined the convicts between N500 and N3,000 as stipulated in the road safety laws.
Speaking with our correspondent after the trial, the Sector Commander of the corps, Mr Francis Udoma, said the offenders were arrested by officials of the command at various locations in the state.
FCT
The Minister of Finance, Dr Olusegun Aganga, has described a recent letter by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to President Goodluck Jonathan on the state of the nation’s economy as “mischievous and a deliberate misrepresentation of facts”.
He told State House Correspondents in Abuja on Wednesday that the letter, dated Jan. 2, was “a desperate attempt to mislead the electorate with a view to making political gains ahead of the 2011 general elections”.
Aganga said: “Atiku, who is contesting the PDP presidential primaries with Jonathan, purportedly wrote the letter berating the Nigerian economy.
“I will not want to believe that the letter was written by Abubakar. For an individual with aspirations to govern the country to resort to outright lies and misrepresentation to seek cheap political points, is regrettable,” he said.
The minister said Nigerian economy had continued to grow, both the oil and non-oil sectors, and outperformed many global economies.
Kaduna
The Kaduna State Agricultural Development Project (KADP) has said that the targets of the Community Based Agricultural and Rural Development (CBARD) programme for 2010 were achieved.
The KADP Programme Manager, Alhaji Abdulkadir Kasum, spoke through the Head of the Media Unit, Mr Shehu Aliyu.
Kasum told newsmen in Kaduna yesterday that the targets included equipment procurement, capacity building and production development.
Others were provision and distribution of farm inputs, community development and extension services.
Kasum said that the KADP carried out a successful management, monitoring and evaluation services in the participating local governments of the state.
Kano
The Kano State Governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, says he has administered the state to the best of his ability.
Shekarau, at an interactive session with newsmen on Wednesday in Kano, expressed satisfaction with the way and manner he discharged his mandate to the people of the state.
The two-term governor, however, noted that governance was a continuous affair, saying that subsequent administrations would build on his achievements.
“I am aware of criticisms of my administration by some people but there will always be agitations for more service.
“I am sure by the time we leave government, there will still be a lot of things undone; there will still be a lot of things we would have wished to do, but probably we are unable to do,” the governor said.
He expressed happiness for improving the situation he met “in virtually all sectors”.
Katsina
A Malumfashi Chief Magistrate’s Court in Katsina State, has sentenced a 30-year-old commercial vehicle driver, Nasiru Lawal, to 14 months imprisonment for mischief and breach of trust.
Lawal, a resident of Kurnan Asabe, Kano was convicted on Wednesday by the court after he had pleaded guilty to the two-count charges.
The Prosecuting Police Officer, Mr Garba Magaji, had earlier told the court that one Alhaji Sani Bature of Aston Road, Kano, complained to the police that he entrusted his articulated tanker with registration number XE 253 GWL to the convict.
Magaji said the convict stopped a tanker loaded with petroleum product from Lagos to Kano on the way and dishonestly dispossessed part of the product valued at N390,000 at Yar’tasha Village in Malumfashi Local Government Area of Katsina State.
Lagos
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it is discussing with the Italian government on partnering for effective anti-money laundering and global drugs control.
In a statement by the NDLEA spokesman Mitchell Ofoyeju, the Agency’s Chairman, Mr Ahmed Giade was quoted as saying the move was aimed at tightening the noose on illicit drug syndicates seeking to operate in Nigeria.
The two parties, the statement said, had already had a first round of discussions where Giade was represented by the Agency’s Director of Administration and Finance, Dr. Daniel Ismaila.
Sokoto
The ECWA Church located in Wuse II, Abuja, has donated food items, clothing and foot wears worth more than N500,000 to the Sokoto flood victims.
The items were delivered to Dr Kulu Haruna, the Special Adviser to Governor Aliyu Wamakko on Relief Matters in Sokoto late on Tuesday.
Mr Mike Achimugu, the elder in charge of welfare at the church, presented the items to the governor’s aide on behalf of the Senior Pastor of the church, Rev. Barje Maigadi.
Achimugu said the donation was aimed at alleviating the suffering of the victims.
He prayed God to prevent a recurrence of the disaster.
While receiving the materials, Haruna commended the church for the provisions and gave assurance that they would be distributed to the victims equitably.
The items donated included 45 pieces of 50kg bags of rice , one carton of three-litre gallons of vegetable oil, six bags of used clothes as well as shoes and hand bags.
Yobe
One corps member died while 17 others sustained various degrees of injury in a road accident on Jos-Bauchi-Damaturu-Maiduguri Federal Highway.
The accident occurred on Tuesday, when the bus conveying the corps members to Damaturu from Jos, after the New Year holidays had a burst tyre and somersaulted.
Alhaji Habu Sani, Secretary of Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital, Damaturu, told our correspondent that one of the corps members died on the spot.
He said two of the corps members sustained serious injuries while others suffered various degrees of injury.
The accident occurred at about three kilometers to Damaturu following a burst tyre.
”They were said to have hired the bus in Jos to convey them to Damaturu and Maiduguri but unfortunately they had the accident just before reaching Damaturu,” Sani said.
He said some of the victims were receiving treatment at the Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital, Damaturu, while the two with severe injuries had been referred to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.
Rivers state Deputy Governor Professor Ngozi Nma Odu has commended “The Port Harcourt City One Love,”a Port Harcourt based humanitarian orgnisation For it’s commitment towards alleviating the sufferings of the poor and vulnerable in the society.
Professor Ngozi Nma Odu said this while speaking at this year’s edition of “operation feed the needy” a yearly outreach program of “The Port Harcourt City One Love ” in Port Harcourt.
The Deputy Governor said by feeding more than sixty thousands hungry people within the past six years, the Port Harcourt City One Love Movement has distinguished itself as a club that cares for the less privilege in the society.
She commended the , organization for listing eleven thousand persons to be fed in the current exercise.
Meanwhile The Port Harcourt City One Love has planned a permanent solution to the problem of feeding the poor in the state.
The leader of the group Mr Idaere Gogo Ogan who said this in an interview with newsmen during the distribution of food items to the poor and vulnerables in Port Harcourt said the organization is planning a permanent food kitchen where poor and vulnerable persons can work in anytime and get fed.
Idaere Gogo Ogan said more than sixty thousands poor and vulnerable persons across Port Harcourt City and environs have been fed since the inception of “The operation feed the needy” program six years ago,adding that so far sixty thousands poor and vulnerable persons have beneffited.
He described the group as a platform to promote friendship, brotherhood, community development empathy and feeding the less privilege and hungry people
“That’s what we are doing today here,so we started the exercise six years ago”.he said.
Ogan said the effort was a private sector driven initiative but added “it also involves people in Government because the platform does not recognize any division,we bring everybody together in unity , friendship and brotherhood”he said.
He said the effort will go along way in alleviating hunger especially following the prevailing hunger in the country.
According to him “you know the country is very tough, people are hungry people are starving, there is a whole lot of economic hardship,so for us, this is just our own way of reaching out, our own social contribution to what is very difficult”he said.
Over eleven thousand persons were fed in the just concluded exercise.
Areas of coverage include, Isaac Boro park, Port Harcourt prison/Macoba, Borokiri/Enugu waterside Bundu areas Waterlines and others.
Some of the beneficiaries including an 80 years old widow commended the movement for the annual programm and urged other organizations to emulate them
John Bibor,/Esuuk Oyet/Suotor Memoye /Jeremiah Hannah
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