Author: Isah Mukhtar

NAN-AE-6
Yam
By Kudirat Musa
Abuja, Oct. 25, 2017 (NAN) Some exporters of yam to UK and the U.S. have debunked certain media reports, purporting that the yams exported after the launch of the initiative were rejected at their export destinations.

A statement by Dr Olukayode Oyeleye, Special Adviser, Media and Communications to the Minister of Agriculture, in Abuja on Wednesday said that the exporters stressed that the reports, initially aired by a local television network, were false.

Oyeleye said that the yam export initiative, which was launched at Lilypond Container Terminal, Lagos, by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, had attracted widespread criticisms on various media platforms due to the misleading reports

“The concerned exporters and other prospective exporters have expressed worries about the potential impact of the negative publicity on their prospects at the export market, in the wake of Federal Government’s initiative on diversification of the economy through agricultural produce export.

“Most commentators and analysts in the mainstream and social media have retailed the negative aspect of the laudable initiative and have played up the wrong versions of the export story.

“Discussions with the exporters have since shown the prevailing storyline as inappropriate and misleading,’’ he added.

Oyeleye said that the yam exporters had emphatically said that their consignments were successfully cleared at ports in UK and the U.S. and delivered to their various warehouses.

“The exporters said that although some cases of tuber spoilage were reported in both cases, the bad ones were separated from the good ones, and the good ones were distributed to the buyers.

“The exporters noted that Ghana, which has been exporting yams for a while, routinely records cases of tuber spoilage without making an issue of it; and their yams don’t get rejected as a result, he said.

Oyeleye said that Mr Michael Adedipe of ADES UK Foods and Drinks, whose warehouse was visited by television station, had denounced the TV report and subsequent commentaries on the rejection of his yams by the British authorities.

He quoted Adedipe as saying: “The yams consignment was not rejected, it was cleared.

“I have watched the television programme which lasted for about two hours; all the positive stuff has been removed.

“We that decide to venture into this project are aware of the risks involved because yam is fresh produce; so we will expect five to 10 per cent damages.

“I don’t know why they said that the produce got rejected. I’ve sent my release note; I’ve sent the video of the loading; I’ve even sent relevant documents to say that there is no issue like that at all.

“In spite of the sour experience with the media report, I am sustaining my investment; I still expect to take at least a container of yams from Nigeria every week.’’

Besides, Oyeleye said that Mr Yandev Amaabai, Managing Director, Wan Nyikwagh Farms Nigeria Ltd., had similarly condemned the yam rejection report.

“The story from television station was focused on UK. So far, I am the only person who has lifted yams to the U.S.

“Whatever we can do to clarify this issue will be good. We learn as we progress and the whole idea was to diversify the economy.

“Yams are perishable items; definitely, some yams may go bad in transit. But the report says that the American government rejected Nigerian yams; where did those yams come from?

“Ghana, which produces 4.8 million tonnes of yams, according to 2008 estimates, occupies a niche as the leading exporter of the crop, accounting for over 94 per cent of total yam exports from West Africa.

“Nigeria, which is by far the world’s largest producer of yams, accounting for over 70 to 76 per cent of the world production, producing 35.017 million tonnes of yams, going by the 2008 estimates, should do better than Ghana in the export market

“Ghana is the first country in West Africa to launch its national yam development strategy in 2013.

“The country aims at generating 5 billion U.S. dollars through yam exports by 2018. Nigeria, which produces seven times higher than Ghana’s production volume, is beset with criticisms over attempts to bring its yam to the global yam market.

“There are more Nigerians than Ghanaians in these countries, meaning there are more prospects for Nigerian yam exporters,’’ Amaabai was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the minister of agriculture and rural development has expressed dismay at the negative news trailing the nascent efforts to put Nigeria on the global yam export market.

Ogbeh said: “We are not going to stop because this is not enough to demoralise us. We have food to export; never mind what the so-called critics are doing.

“We are going to talk to the port authority to provide cooling vans for vegetables and fresh produce so that exporters do not lose money, while we do not lose face.

“We should begin to build cold trucks that are temperature-controlled to keep the yams till the time they have to go; we should invest in special containers for their storage.

“We will go ahead with our efforts to export yam; we are determined to reposition our people to capture the investment opportunities and benefits in yam exports to these countries.

“We will, however, emphasise global best practices, engage with world-class experts and international organisations as well as leverage the strength in indigenous knowledge.

“We have commenced engagement with the National Assembly for the repeal of the 1989 law that prohibits export of yams and other agro-commodities; the bill has passed the second reading at the National Assembly.

“The continued existence of this law is an obstruction against the economic diversification and export initiative of this administration.

“We plead with the National Assembly to fast-track the repeal of the law and help us further unlock our export potential.’’ (NAN)
ROK/OOK
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NAN-H-8
Donation
By Aledare Akinwale

Lokoja, Oct. 25, 2017 (NAN) Mr Akinwale Malcolm, A philanthropist and farmer, on Wednesday donated 5,000 exercise books to students in 10 primary and secondary schools in Kabba area of Kogi State.

Malcolm, who is the Managing Director of Akincolms Integrated farms, Kabba, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja after the donation that the gesture was his little way of contributing to the education of the less privileged in the society.

The philanthropist said that his love for education had endeared him to inaugurate a foundation in the name of his company to support educational development in the area.

Malcolm urged parents to ensure that their wards went to school to attain minimum basic education.

“We are targeting 10 schools in kabba and our next area of focus will be the schools around Bunu axis of the town,” he said.

“We have distributed notebooks and other educational materials to St. Monica’s College, Sacred Heart Nursery and Primary School, St. Mary’s School, St Andrews Primary School and Comprehensive High School, all in kabba area of the state,” he said.

He also said that the gesture was part of his company’s social responsibility to the society and urged other Nigerians to emulate the gesture.

Malcolm expressed his determination to help students, especially the less privileged, to make sure that they fulfilled their dreams of acquiring education.

Responding on behalf of the beneficiaries, Mr Emmanuel Oshamola, thanked the donor and appealed to other indigenes of the area to emulate the good gesture.

According to him, anyone that will be useful for the nation will start from home. (NAN)
WAL/MNA/TÁ
Edited by Maureen Atuonwu/Tajudeen Atitebi
(more…)

NAN-H-34
Drivers
By Aledare Akinwale
Lokoja, Oct. 25, 2017(NAN) The Kabba/Bunu chapter of the National Union of Roads and transport workers (NURTW) has urged its members to install speed limit device in their vehicles for safety.

The chairman of the union, Mr Alaba Ajibade, who spoke in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja on Wednesday, urged the drivers to be cautious during the ember months.

Ajibade said that there were too many cases of drivers involved in accidents due to over speeding on highways, therefore there was need to make use of the speed limit device to control their speed.

He said that every driver had been mandated to get a speed limit device for their buses to enable them monitor their speeds.

He said that it became imperative for the union to create time to give necessary information to drivers and awareness during the ember months.

Ajibade expressed the hope that drivers within the union would be more careful as they were being enlightened on the correct ways to use the roads, especially on the highways.

“I believe drivers now know reasons why they must be patient at all times and to over speed on high ways,’’ he said.

He said he had always been thankful that throughout his chairmanship position in the association, there had not been any record of unnecessary accidents by members.(NAN)
WAL/GY
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Edited by Grace Yussuf

NAN-AE-2
Qualifications
By Kudirat Musa
Abuja, Oct. 25, 2017 (NAN) Prof. Ambrose Voh, the Acting Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), has advised the council’s staff to obtain additional qualifications to enhance their capacity to provide quality service delivery.

Voh gave the advice on Wednesday in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

“The council regulates, coordinates and supervises the activities of the research institutes, colleges of agriculture and university-based research institutes, in which some of their staff are professors, Ph.d and Master’s degree holders.

“It is not possible for B.Sc degree holders to supervise, coordinate and regulate the activities of that calibre of workers; the council staff must, therefore, be equipped and up to standard before he or she can be promoted to the next level.

“The issue of promotion is very straightforward because we have requirements for promotion; if you are going to a certain level, that position may require you to have a Master’s degree or Ph.d.

“If you know you do not have it, even for your own assessment, you should know that you are not likely to be promoted because you cannot meet up with the requirements,’’ he said.

Voh said that that the Governing Board approved the guidelines and requirements for staff promotion, in consonance with the Act that established the council.

He said that the council was undergoing some reform so as to strengthen it for efficient service delivery.

“The part of the requirement is to make sure that we have a solid human resource development programme because if we are going to supervise, coordinate and regulate the institutes under us, we must be above the people we are going to regulate or supervise.

“As part of efforts to enable the staff to acquire the needed qualifications, the council gives waivers and a window of about six years for its employees to go to school on sponsorship.

“We have some statistics on the effectiveness of the policy; many workers, including married women, have taken the due advantage of that window to improve themselves; they acquired Master’s or Ph.d degrees and came back to work.

“Some workers, however, refused to utilise the opportunity to improve themselves and whenever they get to certain stages, they would remain stagnant,’’ he added.

Voh said that those workers who failed to have additional qualifications were the masterminds of the workers’ demonstration at the headquarters of the agency between Oct. 13 and Oct. 20.

He reiterated that the actions of the management on staff promotion requirements were in accordance with the council’s rules, adding that the window for the acquisition of extra qualifications was still open to the staff.

NAN recalls that Mr Ubi Ikpi, the Secretary, Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions, once criticised the promotion interviews, which the ARCN management conducted on Sept. 27.

Ikpi then said: “The promotion committee led by Dr Celestine Ikuenobe, Director Knowledge Management, were asking the workers questions that were not relevant to the promotion exercise.

“The members of staff became angry about the development and this eventually led to their protest.

“Ikuenobe said that the workers needed additional qualifications to enable them to qualify for promotion but this is not tenable in the council.

“We are not a research organisation; we do not have research focus and there is a circular to that effect from the Head of Service in 2015; we are to supervise, regulate and coordinate the institutes under us.’’(NAN)
ROK/MOL/OOK
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Edited by Mustapha Lamidi and Dayo Komolafe

NAN-H-85

Salary

Lokoja Oct. 24, 2017 (NAN) The organised labour in Kogi has threatened to call out its members for mass action, should government continues to default in the payment of salary to its workers.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council (JPSNC) issued the threat in a statement in Lokoja on Tuesday.

Messrs Olakunle Faniyi, secretary of NLC, Mr James Kolawole, TUC and Mr Isa Abubakar of the JPSNC signed the statement.

They said that the mass action was to protest government’s insensitivity and indifference to the plight of their members that had not been paid salaries for between two and 21 months.

The officers said though the unions directed the workers in the state to embark on indefinite strike since Sept. 27, the state government were yet to invite them for negotiation.

They said that workers would not succumb to threat of sack and called on them to remain firm and committed to the struggle.

“It is the right of workers to embark on strike when their employers have failed to meet with the terms of employment, therefore the principle of ‘no-pay-no-work’ also applies,” the unions said.

NLC, TUC and JPSNC commiserated with the family of late Edward Soje who committed suicide on Oct. 16 ( NAN)
KKA/DUA

Edited by Dada Ahmed

NAN-H-38

Accident

Lokoja, Oct. 24, 2017 (NAN) The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has confirmed the death of 11 people in a motor accident on the Auchi-Okene highway in Kogi.

The Sector Commander of the FRSC in Kogi, Mr Olusegun Martins, told reporters in Lokoja on Tuesday that the accident occurred at a sharp bend on the road on the evening of Oct. 23.

He said that 23 other people sustained various degrees of injuries in the accident, involving a total of 34 people.

Martins said that six of the victims died on the spot, while five others died in hospitals.

He said that two vehicles, a trailer loaded with cows, foodstuffs and passengers and a Toyota Corolla car were involved in the incident.

The sector commander gave the registration number of the trailer as Katsina XF 914 KTN, and the number of the Toyota car as Abuja BWR 756 BJ.

The two vehicles were coming from Lokoja.

He said that all the dead victims were from the trailer coming from Abuja, while the driver of the car and its other occupants escaped unhurt.

Martins said that the accident occurred when the trailer hit the car from behind before losing control and crashing into a nearby bush.

The sector commander blamed the accident on spend but promised that full investigation would be carried out on the incident  in due course.

He said that the corpses of the victims were taken to the morgue at the General Hospital, Okene, while the injured were taken to TAO Hospital and God’s Mercy Hospital in Okene as well as the Federal Medical Centre in Lokoja. (NAN)
KKA/SN

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Edited by Silas Nwoha

NAN – H – 32
Killings
Gunmen kill two policemen, abduct expatriate in Kogi
Lokoja, Oct. 24, 2017 (NAN) The police in Kogi on Tuesday confirmed the killing of two police officers and the abduction of an expatriate by unknown gunmen at a construction site in the state.
Spokesman of the state police command, ASP William Aya, told newsmen in Lokoja that Insp. Ezekiel Negedu and Sgt. Gini John were killed while on guard duty on Obajana – Oshokoshoko – Kabba road.
Aya said that John died on the spot while Negedu died on arrival in hospital.
According to the police spokesman, about 15 gunmen emerged from a nearby bush and attacked the construction site of A .G. Dangote Company currently handling the rehabilitation of the 45-kilometre Obajana – Kabba Road.
He said that the abducted expatriate, Mr Jose Machada, a Portuguese civil engineer, along with other expatriates and Nigerians, were inspecting the project when the gunmen struck.
According to him, the deceased policemen put up a gallant fight and resisted attempt by the invading gunmen to wreak further havoc.
The police spokesman, however, expressed regret that Negedu and John died in active service to the nation.
Aya said that the state police Commissioner, Mr Ali Janga, had a raised a team headed by the Deputy Commissioner of Police and comprising men of Special anti-robbery squad, mobile police force, Counter Terrorism Unit and others to comb the bush and rescue the victim.
He said that Janga had also visited the scene where he met with top officials and workers of the construction company on the incident.
Aya said that the police commissioner assured the workers of adequate security and promised to rescue the abducted expatriate. (NAN)
KKA/WOJ
========
(Edited by Wale Ojetimi)

NAN-H-57
Autopsy
Lokoja, Oct. 23, 2017 ( NAN) Kogi State Police Command on Monday said it would conduct an autopsy on the body of late Mr Edward Soje who committed suicide on Oct. 16 to ascertain the cause of his death.

The Police Public Relation Officer, ASP William Aya, who disclosed at a news conference, said that late Soje before committing suicide had partial stroke and hence the need for the autopsy.

He said that the report of the autopsy would be made public as soon as it was ready.

Aya also disclosed that the police were yet to be in possession of the suicide note allegedly written by Soje before committing suicide.

Soje, a Director in the Kogi State Teaching Service Commission was on Oct. 16 found hanging on a tree behind the mammy market at Maigumeti Army Barracks in Lokoja.

“Police were notified of the development by the military intelligence office in the barracks,’’ Aya said.

He said the police later came to remove the body and took it to the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre.

He said that the family of the late director was yet to lodge any formal complaint to the police.

The state government on Sunday confirmed that it stopped payment of salary to Soje in December, 2016 for engaging in age falsification.

Mrs Deborah Ogunmola, the State Head of Service who confirmed this in a statement said that the late director was scheduled to receive six months of his outstanding salary arrears in September.

The late Soje was not paid any salary since the beginning of this year, a family source said to confirm the statement issued by Ogunmola. (NAN)
KKA/GY
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Edited by Grace Yussuf

NAN-AE-6
Grains
By Kudirat Musa
Abuja, Oct. 23, 2017 (NAN) Kaduna State Anchor Borrowers Forum and Kaduna State Commercial Agricultural Development Association have appealed to the Federal Government to stop the importation of all grains into the country.

The associations made the appeal in their letter to the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, a copy of which was made available to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.

The associations urged the government to stem the importation of agricultural produce so as to encourage local production.

“We have been reliably informed that a reputable company had imported maize and soya beans massively into the country.

“The imported grains were not only for the company’s factory but they have also flooded our local markets.

“Our harvest is about to begin and if measures are not taken immediately, there will be a further decline in the price of grains, far below the cost of production,’’ they said.

The associations implored the Federal Government, through the Minister of Agriculture, to help address the situation.

“The importation will affect the interest and enthusiasm shown in the 2017 wet season farming, as farmers went into massive grains cultivation, with the hope that surplus produce will be made available for exports.’’

They also urged the Federal Government to create a regulatory body to work with the Nigeria Customs Service to put an end to the importation of grains so as not to defeat the farmers’ vision. (NAN)
ROK/AIB/OOK
===========

Edited by Abdulfatah Babatunde and Dayo Komolafe

Nigeria should learn from China – Expert
NAN-H-16
Development
By Victor Asije
Lagos, Oct. 23, 2017(NAN) Prof. Bola Akinterinwa, former Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs
(NIIA), on Monday urged Nigeria to evolve a long-term political and socioeconomic development policies like China.

Akinterinwa gave the advice in Lagos at an interactive session organised by the Nigeria-China Friendship Association (NICAF) to commemorate the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The theme of the interactive session was “The Communist Party of China (CPC) and Regional Peace and Security: A case of the North Korean
Nuclear Tests’’.

The professor of international relations said that it was imperative for Nigeria to consider making her development policies achievable and sustainable over decades like China.

“The Communist Party of China (CPC) currently operates a five-year programme of national development. And in between these years, they
always stop to access what has been achieved each year.

“Nigeria can learn how to do this from China to enhance her political and socioeconomic development.

“Let me say that there are many things and development styles that the Chinese are adopting that Nigeria should begin to learn from.

‘’We currently do not have a policy of grandeur of what we really want Nigeria to be in the next 100 years,’’ he said.

Akinterinwa also enjoined Nigerians to begin to inculcate the attitude of Chinese hard work, commitment and creativity.

According to him, the CPC has been able to unite people of all ethnic groups to carry on and advance socialism with Chinese characteristics.

NICAF Chairman, Chief Jacob Wood, said that the celebration of the 19th Communist Party of China’s Congress in Lagos was meant to promote
better Nigeria – China relations.

Wood said that NICAF would continue to serve as a bridge for building more business and people-to-people relations between both countries.

“We are gathered to discuss how to further develop and improve our people-to-people friendship between China and Nigeria.

“We are really looking at the possibility of working closely and harmoniously with the Nigerian government and people in developing
Nigeria,’’ he said. (NAN)
AVU/WOJ
(Edited by Wale Ojetimi)