Bauchi

The Director-General of Bauchi State Christians Pilgrim
Board, Pastor Zakka Magaji, said the state government sponsored 400 Christian Pilgrims to Israel in 2012.
Magaji made this known in Bauchi last Tuesday, when he embarked on sensitisation tour of communities in Bauchi Southern Senatorial District in preparation for the 2013 pilgrimage to Israel.
He said that Bauchi State Government was the only government that sponsored 400 pilgrims to Israel during 2012 Pilgrimage and explained that the aim of the tour was to encourage the Christian communities to sponsor themselves to Israel in order to complement government’s efforts toward such venture.
Benue
Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State said his ad
ministration would soon commence implementing the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) to strengthen the state’s accounting standards.
Speaking at Makurdi, Tuesday, at a sensitisation workshop on IPSAS, Suswam stated that such a step would bring about transparency and accountability in the system
The governor, represented by the Head of Service, Dr David Salifu, said all local governments in the state would be directed to adopt the standards in line with global best practices.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Finance, Omadachi Oklobia, said IPSAS would be entrenched in all the tiers of government in the state.
“This will also bring about transparency and adherence to accounting standards in all sectors,’’ he said.
FCT

The Legal Aid Council of Nigeria says it will not rest on
its oars in developing new strategies to tackle prison congestion across the country.
The Director-General of the council, Mrs Joy Bob-Manuel, said in an interview last Tuesday in Abuja that as part of its mandate, the council had begun to work closely with relevant stakeholders to speed up the criminal justice system by decongesting the prisons.
Bob-Manuel said that the council was working hard to ensure that all indigent Nigerians had access to justice and called on lawyers to contribute their quota to the speedy delivery of justice and prison decongestion by offering free legal services.
Kaduna
A member of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Mrs
Esther Habu has advised women in the state to take more active interest in politics, by vying for elective positions.
Habu said in an interview last Tuesday in Kaduna that women had the capacity to appreciate the problems of the society and proffer better solutions to them.
She said as mothers, the women would also use their positions to mentor young people and guide them into becoming responsible citizens.
According to her, politics was about leadership, which women could also offer as enshrined in the Holy Books, and appealed to the various political parties and the government to accord concessions to women contesting elections.
Katsina
The Katsina State Government says it has procured
a mobile ambulance and drugs for the Almajiri model schools in Daura.
The Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Hussaini Garba, disclosed this to newsmen during the presentation of the items to the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Faruk Umar, at his palace in Daura, Tuesday.
He said the items were procured for Daura Senatorial District under its Free-Medical-Care programme for the Almajiris, adding that the new ambulance was procured to replace the one damaged during the recent robbery attack in the town.
The commissioner said the state government had purchased three ambulances under the Almajiri model schools to provide free medical services to the pupils across the three senatorial zones of the state.
Kebbi
The Kebbi Ministry of Environment is to send 19 unemployed
youths to Kano State to be trained as forestry guards under the Great Green Wall Programme of the Federal Government.
The state Commissioner for Environment, Mr Ishaku Daudu, said this while supervising the programme at the two designated local government areas of Dandi and Arewa last Tuesday in Dandi. Daudu said the youths would be selected from four communities in Unguwar Hassan and Marina in Dand Local Government Areas and Garun Ango and Bachaka in Arewa Local Government Areas.
“These communities were selected considering their proximity to Niger Republic and also desert-prone zones that pose a great challenge to afforestation in the state.
“The youths will be sent to Kano for three months training on forestry guarding from September to November,’’ he said.

Kogi
Acting Managing Director of Kogi State Sanitation and Waste
Management Board (SWMB), Mrs Florence Joseph, has appealed to residents of the state to stop indiscriminate dumping of refuse.
Joseph, who spoke with newsmen in Lokoja last Tuesday, appealed to the people to dump their refuse in waste disposal bins provided by the government.
The managing director said the government had provided all the necessary materials like trucks and waste containers for public use and declared that the government sanitation programme had provided jobs for unemployed graduates in the state.
She thanked the government for approving more comprehensive recycling sites meant for the conversion of waste after collection from different parts of Lokoja, stating also that very soon, government would provide more waste disposal trucks as promised in order for other parts of the state to benefit.
Kwara
No fewer than 1,950 people  have registered for family planning
services at the Okelele Primary Healthcare Centre in Ilorin  between January  and August, following the intervention of  the Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI).
Head of  Health Department, Ilorin East Local Government Council, Hajiya Fatima Kuranga, disclosed last Tuesday in Ilorin, that the number of beneficiaries during  the eight month period under review increased considerably when compared with the about 680 recorded in 2012.
Kuranga explained that NURHI had helped in training and retraining of health care personnel and family planning supervisors.
She also stressed that NURHI had created awareness at the community level, adding that this had made residents of the area to embrace the free service being provided.
Lagos
Educationists have urged the governors of states in the South-
West geopolitical zone to be cautious in adopting Yoruba as the official language of instruction in primary schools.
Some educationists told newsmen in Lagos that implementation of the proposed policy would face some challenges.
The governors had on August 30 proposed that primary schools in the region would soon begin to use Yoruba as the language of instruction.
This was parts of their decisions at a meeting on the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN)  in Ibadan.
Nasarawa
The Nasarawa State Government has concluded plans with a Chinese
firm to build a five-star hotel at Farin-Ruwa in the Wamba Local Government Area of the state.
The state’s Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Adamu Adogi, made the disclosure last Tuesday at the inauguration of a hotel in Keffi, near Lafia.
Adogi said that the construction of the hotel would boost the state’s revenue base and improve its tourism potential.
He stated that the Chinese partner, who recently visited the site of the proposed hotel, would soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the State Government for the commencement of the project.
The commissioner assured that the government would explore ways to to ensure the development of the state’s natural resources  for the benefit of the people.
Sokoto
The Commissioner of Police, Sokoto State Command,  Alhaji Shaibu
Gambo, has solicited the support of members of the public in the fight against crime in the state.
Gambo said in Sokoto, Tuesday that the officers and men of the command were determined to give their best to protect lives and property in the state, noting however, that this would not be possible without the cooperation of members of the public.
He said the personnel in the state command had received operational order on how to tackle insecurity in the state, adding that they were doing their best to ensure full compliance.
The commissioner, also solicited the support of traditional leaders in the fight against crime, pointing out that they play strategic role in mobilising their subjects for public policing.

Taraba
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) fact-finding Committee on the
health condition of Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State has affirmed Alhaji Garba Umar as the Acting Governor of the state.
Briefing journalists after about a two-hour close door meeting, the Committee Chairman, Senator Hope Uzodima, stated that the impasse had been resolved with all stakeholders including Suntai’s wife, Hauwa.
He said the Ag. Governor should from time-to-time consult with Suntai on major political issues in the state, while he (Suntai) continued to recuperate, and further stressed that the issue was a purely PDP in-house problem which, as a family, could be sorted out amicably.
Suntai returned to the state on Sunday, Aug. 25, after 10 months of medical treatment abroad, following his involvement in a plane crash in October, 2012.

Zamfara
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Alhaji Musa
Sada, has urged miners in Zamfara State to form cooperative groups in order to attract Federal Government support.
Sada said last Tuesday at the opening of three-day training on health and safety issues on miners’s operations in Gusau that formation of cooperatives by the miners would also promote safety in their operations.
The minister, who was represented by the Director of Planning, Policy Analysis and Monitoring, Mr John Mshelia, pointed out that the Federal Government was concerned about mining operations in the state.
He said the outbreak of lead poisoning in the state and subsequent death of victims since 2010 was worrisome.