Voice of Nigeria Broadcasting Service

PDP inaugurates 16-member campaign committee in Lagos

Politics

Nnenna Okoronkwo

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January 25, 2023

The People’s Democratic Party(PDP) in Mainland Local Government of Lagos State on Tuesday inaugurated a 16-member campaign committee for the party’s Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

The party’s chairman in the local government, Mr Adelabi Malomo, while inaugurating the committee at the LG PDP Secretariat, charged members to ensure victory for the party in the forthcoming general elections.

Malomo named Mr Folabi Alimi as the Local Government Coordinator, while Prince Segun Gbayi, the party’s House of Representatives’ candidate for Mainland federal constituency is the Assistant Coordinator.

According to him, since the party has the national and state presidential campaign council (PCC), there is the need to inaugurate such committee in the LG to enhance electoral victory for the party.

He called on the committee to swing into action, hold stakeholders’ meetings and inaugurate such committee at the ward and polling unit levels.

The chairman said: “Let us go back to our polling booths, we are managers there; we should deliver our polling units to PDP.

“Everybody is important. Those of us who are at the LGA PCC Committee should not think we are better than those who will be at the wards and polling units.”

Malomo listed other committee members to include Mr Kehinde Osinowo (Deputy Assistant Coordinator), Mr Alli Ibrahim (Publicity Chief), Mr Ola Alimu (Field Operations) and Mrs Patricia Archibong (Women Mobiliser).

Other are Mr Oudus Oridedi (Youth Mobiliser), Mr Anthony Edward (Finance), Mr Motayo Ojoye (Religion Affairs-Muslims), Pastor Femi Olubolade (Religion-Christiians), Ganiu Ibrahim (Religion-Culture)

The rest are Mr Peter Okunomo (Security), Mr Bayo Olukoga (Research/Strategy), Mr Dayo Osifeso (ICT/Control Room), Mr Paul Ogunnubi (Support Groups) and Mr Jelili Shodipo (Volunteer Group).

He noted that all members of PCC both at the national and state levels, were automatic members of the committee

In his acceptance speech, Alimi said that there was a huge task ahead for the committee to deliver for PDP.

While calling for unity of purpose, Alimi said: “I am assuring you that we shall not leave anybody behind.

“Let us move out to spread the gospel and reconcile with those we have disagreement with.”

NAN/N.O

Cricket: Oyo State Dominates South West National U-17 Qualifiers

Sports

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January 25, 2023

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Oyo State won both the boys and girls categories of the South West National Cricket U-17 Zonal qualification tournament and will compete in the National U-17 Cricket Championship finals in Abuja.

Lagos showed a brilliant performance in the boys category, while it was a close call for Ekiti and Ogun States in the girls category

The South West were the first to begin the zonal qualification for the Nigeria Cricket Federation National Under-17 Cricket Championship, which took place in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Read more: Cricket: States Register Players For National Under-17 Tournament

Five States namely Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti, Osun and hosts Oyo have all presented both boys and girls team for the event. The tournament lasted for 3 days and the winners will get the chance to produce the majority of players to form the zonal team.

NFF President Extends Tenure Of IMC Team

Sports

Chidi Uduma Nwoke

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January 25, 2023

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President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Ibrahim Musa Gusau, has extended the tenure of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), till the end of the 2022/2023 season.

Gusau said he decided to extend the IMC’s tenure in order to allow the team to concentrate fully on the organisation and management of the ongoing NPFL season, which is only heading to its 3rd Match day this weekend.

It can be recalled that the NFF President had inaugurated the IMC of the NPFL, headed by Gbenga Elegbeleye, on 21^st October 2022 with an initial mandate of three months, and a slew of terms of reference aimed at engendering a new life generally for Nigeria’s elite football division.

Read more: 2022/2023 Football Season: IMC presents N200m to NPFL clubsides

At the Draw Ceremony for the new season, staged on 28^th December 2022, the NFF President had thumbed up the IMC for the tremendous work it had been doing since inauguration and assured it of NFF’s support in turning around Nigeria’s domestic League for the better, including fostering a viable football economy.

Due to time factor, the IMC opted for an abridged format for the 2022/2023 NPFL Season, with 10 Clubs in Group A and 10 Clubs in Group B. The current season is scheduled to end in May 2023.

Lagos Records History In First State powered Rail System

Nigeria

Emmanuel Ukoh

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January 24, 2023

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The official inauguration of the Lagos Blue Line Mass Transit by President Muhammadu Buhari marks the beginning of a new dawn in the actualization of the intermodal transportation promised by Lagos State government.

Lagos residents today watched electric-powered train in excitement as the State recorded another history in infrastructure delivery.

The moment also completed the President Buhari’s two-day working visit to Lagos for projects commissioning.

The President who performed the inaugural ride on the train with Governor Sanwo-Olu and other invited guests, was feasibly elated to the development in Lagos.

At the event, President Buhari supervised the signing of contract by Gov. Sanwo-Olu for the commencement of the project’s second phase, which will cover 14-kilometre stretch from Mile 2 to Okokomaiko.

Federal support

The completed tracks, spanning 13 kilometres in the first phase, extend from Mile 2 to Marina, covering five stations which was constructed by Lagos Metropolitan Transport Authority (LAMATA) with the design to transport 250,000 passengers daily.

Sanwo-Olu said that since 1999, Lagos has not enjoyed the kind of support it is receiving from the President Buhari administration since 2015, stressing the enormous collaborations by the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said: “The socio-economic impacts of various projects we have commissioned during the President’s two-day visit bear testimony to the support and collaboration we have enjoyed from the APC-led Federal Government. Mr President, we are proud in Lagos to be associated with your national vision for infrastructural transformation.”

The Governor maintained that the Blue Line would be operational after the completion of 750 volt-ampere dedicated power supply source which was designed as Africa’s metro hub with a capacity to process 28,000 passengers per hour.

He however acknowledged the courage of his predecessor, former Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, who started the Blue Line project despite opposition from the then central government.

John Randle Centre

Earlier, the President inaugurated the John Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History – a museum built by the Lagos State Government to promote cultural renaissance. The museum is sited in Onikan, an artistic neighbourhood steeped in the rich history of Lagos.

The John Randle Centre originally built in 1928, used to serve as a hub for cultural tourism, recreation and entertainment. Its reconstruction started in 2018.

Sanwo-Olu said the Centre fitted into the State’s overall objectives in Arts, Culture and Tourism as stipulated in the recently launched 20-year Arts and Tourism master plan towards making Lagos a tourism destination.

The Centre has an exhibition gallery, which chronicles the history of Yoruba, cultural evolution and journey from the race’s origins, through present day, to the future.

Emmanuel Ukoh

Agency Speaks On Capacity Building In Disaster Management

Nigeria

Oluwasola Akintonde

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January 24, 2023

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The Director General of Federal Emergency Management Agency, (FEMA), in the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory Administration, Dr Abbas Idriss has stated that capacity building is a vital aspect of Disaster Management.

The FEMA DG stated this at the opening ceremony of the ongoing one week strategic Executive Seminar for Nigeria Emergency Management Stakeholders organize by the National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA), in Abuja.

Idris stressed that when the drivers of disaster management do not update their skills or not knowledgeable enough, then they will continue to do the wrong thing in a wrong direction.

He commended the tenacity of the Director General of NEMA, Mustapha Habib, for having keen interest in building the capacities of State Emergency Management Agencies, (SEMA).

In his words, ” I want to appreciate the Director General of NEMA for putting this executive seminar together for all the participants here. You will agree with me that capacity building is a very vital aspect of disaster management, if the drivers of disaster management can not update it and are not knowledgeable enough then we will continue to do a wrong thing in a wrong direction.

“I remember last year, we had the multi agency coordination training and this year we are having another training. This has shown that the Director General is really very interested in building the capacities of the State Emergency Management Agencies”.

” It is very important to note that all of us seated here are the drivers of disaster race production at our local level. We take disaster management to be bottom up and that is how it is suppose to be from the Local Emergency Management Committees to State Emergency Management Agencies then to National Emergency Management Agency. That is how it is supposed to be. But if we are not educated and we are not trained definitely we will be left with nothing but serious disaster affecting multiple number of people in our communities”, he added.

While appreciating the DG of National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA), for sustaining the seminar over the years, Dr Iddriss also appealed that going forward, the SEMAs should have more training in different aspect of disaster management.

According to him, ” I appeal on behalf of my colleagues that we need more training and capacity building. We thank you most sincerely for this and others that you have done”.

The Leader and lead facilitator of the Seminar, Director, Bournemouth University International Disaster Management, BUDMC, Dr Richard Gordon who explained that the institute was founded in 2001 and provides world-class training and technical assistance in disaster management in order to help reduce risks, build resilience and ensure rapid and sustainable recovery when disasters strike.

Dr Richard added that the team has years of experience working in the UK and Overseas assisting governments, ministries, NGOs and multi-national organisations with disaster and crisis preparedness, response and recovery.

He further explained that the Agency’s collaboration with the centre dates back to 2007, when the Nigeria “National Disaster Management Course” sponsored by the British High commission through BUDMC, at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji from the 29th October — 9th November with twenty (20) critical stakeholders participating.

Olusola Akintonde

Nigerian Singer Tems Gets Oscars Nomination

Entertainment/Tourism

Oluwasola Akintonde

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January 24, 2023

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Nigerian singer, Temilade Openiyi, has again made the country proud with her historic nomination in the 2023 Oscars for her contribution as a songwriter on ‘Lift Me Up’, one of the soundtracks on Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”.

Tems, co-wrote “Lift Me Up” with global singer, Rihanna; music producer, Ludwig Göransson; and Black Panther’s director, Ryan Coogler.

The full list of nominations was released on Tuesday with multiverse sci-fi smash, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, topping the list with 11 nominations.

This was followed by Irish dark comedy, “The Banshees of Inisherin”, and World War I flick, “All Quiet on the Western Front”, at nine each.

Tribune/Olusola Akintonde

Kwara Governor Signs 2023 Budget Into Law

Nigeria

Emmanuel Ukoh

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January 24, 2023

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The Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has signed the 2023 budget into law.

According to him, the fiscal document provides funding for completion of some ongoing projects and continuation of many of the administration’s impactful programmes.

The size of the budget is N188,845,603,561.00 — a few millions less than the N189,436,248,054.00 that the Governor had proposed in his November 30, 2022 budget presentation speech.

The budget has a capital component of N94,855,769,496.00 (50.2%) and a recurrent component of N77,626,089,869.96 (49.8%).

The Governor commended the House for their collaboration with the executive, saying such harmonious relationships help to deepen the delivery of democratic dividends to the people.

The Speaker of the House, Yakubu Danladi Salihu said the parliament properly scrutinized the budget and found it very important for continuous development of the state, especially completion of ongoing projects.

The budget signing was witnessed by some House of Assembly and cabinet members.

Emmanuel Ukoh

NEPC to reposition operational activities to promote export

Business and Tech

Emmanuel Ukoh

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January 24, 2023

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The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) is set to reposition its operational activities to meet the needs of the exporting community.

The Executive Director/CEO of NEPC, Dr Ezra Yakusak disclosed this at NEPC 2023 work plan review and validation session recently in Abuja Nigeria’s capital.

He said, “This is sequel to the tremendous performance recorded in the non-oil export sector in 2022 in which the sector recorded a significant and highly impressive result of US$ 4.820 billion recorded for the year 2022 representing an increase of 39.91% over 2021.”

Dr Ezra noted that the session was targeted at aligning the Council’s operational activities with that of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, FMITI.

According to him “In line with the FMITI Ministerial Mandate (2020-2023) and the Medium-Term Development Plan (2020- 2025), two important reference materials that have over the past few years guided the implementations of the Council projects and activities and of which we are expected to align to, to support the diversification agenda of the Federal Government, the need to reposition our operational activities is desirable”.

Mr Yakusak while pointing out that Departments and outstation offices implemented projects at will without recourse to the work plan and allocation of resources noted that the practice has not only made tracking of projects difficult and unaccountable but grossly affected the impact assessment of such projects which do not align with set project implementation frameworks.

“While some of these projects that are expected to a have direct bearing on exporters at the grassroots, are being implemented by Departments at the Headquarters, the Regional and State Coordinating Offices are also implementing different projects outside the approved Work plan thereby making Monitoring and Evaluation of these projects difficult” he added.

Dr Ezra disclosed that the few structural changes in the Council departmental nomenclature and organogram as approved by the NEPC Board were in tune with global best practices and classifications and compliance with some recommendations of the International Trade Centre Benchmarking program for the NEPC.

Emmanuel Ukoh

Court Dismisses PDP’s Forgery Allegation Against Gombe State Governor

Politics

Mercy Chukwudiebere

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January 24, 2023

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The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has struck out a case brought before it by the the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its Governorship Candidate, Muhammed Jibrin Barde against Governor Muhammadu Yahaya.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and two others were included.

The court, in a ruling delivered by Justice Binta Nyako, dismissed the allegation that the Governor submitted forged documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in aid of his qualification.

The suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1301/2022, was brought before the court by PDP, Mohammed Barde and Timothy Danlele.

Cited as 1st to 3rd defendants in the matter were the INEC, the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Governor Yahaya, respectively.

Specifically, the plaintiffs, through their lawyer, Mr. Johnson Usman, alleged that “the Governor lied on oath in documents he presented before the INEC.”

However, both the APC and Governor Yahaya, through their lawyer, Mr. Marshall Abubakar, challenged the allegation and the competence of the suit, even as they urged the court to dismiss it for want of jurisdiction.

The defendants argued that “the PDP and its members lacked the locus standi to institute an action to challenge the nomination of candidate by another political party.”

According to the defendants, “only members of a party and its aspirants can challenge the outcome of a primary election or the nomination of a candidate.”

They argued that the plaintiffs failed to establish any reasonable cause of action, stressing that the suit had become statute barred since it was instituted after INEC published Governor Yahaya’s name as a candidate for the election.

In her ruling, Justice Nyako upheld the defendants’ preliminary objection and struck out the suit for want of competence.

Mercy Chukwudiebere

WHO Appeals for $2.54 Billion to Address 54 Global Health Emergencies

Health

Mercy Chukwudiebere

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January 24, 2023

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The World Health Organization is appealing for a record $2.54 billion to assist millions of people in 54 countries facing catastrophic health emergencies triggered by multiple man-made and natural disasters.

In launching the appeal, the WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus said the world is witnessing an unprecedented convergence of crises that demand an unprecedented response.

He said; “WHO is addressing an overwhelming number of intersecting health emergencies. These include climate change-related flooding in Pakistan, drought and acute hunger across the Sahel and in the greater Horn of Africa, health challenges sparked by the war in Ukraine, and the outbreaks of measles, cholera, and other killer diseases in dozens of countries.”

Tedros said; “The world cannot look away and hope these crises resolve themselves.

“With funding and urgent action, we can save lives, support recovery efforts, prevent the spread of diseases within countries and across borders, and help give communities the opportunity to rebuild for the future.”

WHO reports 80% of humanitarian needs globally are driven by conflict and around half of preventable maternal and child deaths occur in fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings.

The African region faces the highest burden of public health emergencies globally. In 2022, the continent accounted for 64% of all Grade 3, or most acute, emergencies globally.

Fiona Braka, health emergencies operations manager in WHO’s regional office for Africa, said “the continent has had to deal with conflicts and climate-driven humanitarian crises combined with new and recurrent outbreaks of diseases.”

Speaking from Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, she said dealing with these complex emergencies has not been easy. But she said “support provided by WHO and partners is proving to be beneficial in many ways.”

She noted that member states have been making progress in dealing with emergencies as they arise.

The 54 health crises WHO currently is assisting include 11 classified as Grade 3. They include seven African countries, along with Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen.

VOA/ Mercy Chukwudiebere

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