NAN-HG-20
Upgrading
Dutse, Nov. 23, 2016 (NAN) The Jigawa Government on Wednesday said it had approved N216.4 million to upgrade health facilities in the state.

The state Commissioner for Information, Youth and Sports, Alhaji Bala Ibrahim, disclosed this in Dutse while speaking with newsmen after the state executive council meeting.

Ibrahim explained that N87.7 million had been set aside for the renovation and improvement of Ringim General Hospital, while N86.7 million would be utilised for the upgrading of Babura General Hospital.

According to him, N8.4 million will be spent for the completion of lassa ward and ebola centre at the Rasheed Shekoni Specialist Hospital, Dutse.

The commissioner also said that N19.8 million would be released for the purchase of HIV/AIDS testing kits for the hospitals.

Ibrahim also disclosed that N13.8 million would be spent on the rehabilitation of burnt hostel at the School of Health Technology, Jahun.

He said that the state government was committed to provision of quality health care to the people. (NAN)
MS/MOL/AMY
=========
Edited by Mustapha Lamidi/Abdullahi Yusuf

NAN-F-34

Reactions

Nsanje (Malawi), Nov. 23, 2016 (Xinhua/NAN)The sentencing of a Malawian man to two years imprisonment for performing “sexual cleansing” to widows and underage girls has attracted mixed reactions from Malawians.

Eric Aniva, 45, was arrested on July 25 following President Peter Mutharika’s directive after the man revealed that he had had sex with over 100 young girls and bereaved widows.

Aniva, known as a ‘hyena,’ who claimed his act was done at a fee in the name of cultural cleansing also admitted to BBC prior to his arrest that he was HIV positive.

In some parts of Malawi, men known as hyenas offer paid sex service for newly-bereaved widows and young girls to fend off bad luck.

A local magistrate court in the southern district of Nsanje, where Aniva hails from, found the man guilty of engaging in and attempting to engage in “harmful practices”.

His sentencing has, however, triggered mixed reactions from Malawians through the social and local media monitored by Xinhua, with some saying he deserved a stiffer penalty.

“It’s really a mockery of justice; the maximum sentence for defilement is 14 years imprisonment,

“What Aniva did to the young girls within the 100 victims is tantamount to defilement and he ought to have been punished severely,” wrote a Malawian journalist, Pat Botha, on the social media.

Another woman said the fact that Aniva had confessed to have been HIV positive and slept with over 100 young girls and women without any protection justified the need for a stiffer penalty.

“Think of how many young girls and women he has put to the risk of contracting the virus.

“And how many people have Aniva’s clients exposed to the risk of contracting the virus. It is a total chaos: he has put the whole village under a curse,” she said.

However, Aniva is not without sympathizers who think he was just a victim of circumstances who did not deserve to be punished for indulging in what is culturally acceptable in his community.

“It is a deep-rooted cultural practice that cannot be taken away from the people by sending men to jail,” said Sifa Velosi on a WhatsApp group debate.

“Men like Aniva, ‘hyenas’ as we call them, are in every village among the Sena people and they are hired to perform sexual cleansing to widows and newly-initiated girls.

“It is a custom and it has never been an issue until now,” he said.

Another respondent on the WhatsApp group, a teacher based in the capital, Lilongwe, pointed out that Aniva’s conviction would only succeed in making the practice more secretive and lucrative as ‘hyenas’ would charge an extra penny for the risk.

In July, President Mutharika who emphasised the need to promote positive cultural values and socialisation of children, however, said harmful cultural and traditional practices shall never be accepted. (Xinhua/NAN)
IAA/AMY

Edited by Isaac Aregbesola/Abdullahi Yusuf

NAN-H-102
Ports
By Sumaila Ogbaje
Abuja, Nov.23, 2016 (NAN) Mr Hassan Bello, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), says the council is committed to ensure efficiency in the nation’s ports system to be able to compete favourably with neighbouring countries.
Bello stated this on Wednesday at the Abuja Transport and Aviation Correspondents Association (ATACA) Forum, a flagship programme of the association in Abuja.
He said that automation of the ports services was necessary to drive the change needed to reform the sector and be able to attract more cargos into the country.
Bello said that automation of ports operations would increases efficiency, decrease waste, adding that openness would interrogate the system and process of cargo clearance.
He said the effect was that people would be attracted to Nigerian ports with increased volumes of cargo which would then enhance the revenue of government.
According to him, there will be more employment and then the Nigerian ports will then become the preferred destination for importers.
“ If it is five days in port A and it is one day in port B, I will rather go to port B because it is the economies of scale that determines which port is used.
“We have made it possible for us to make that comparison within the sub-consciousness of the national discuss in the economy.

“It is important for our ports to be efficient and our ports are picking up now.
“Corruption is what we have been talking about and there are many ways to kill corruption and one of them is automation because the moment you have automation, corruption will just disappear.
“ With the introduction of their electronic payment platform, what took place in six days then, now takes place in six seconds.
“All the delays have been eliminated by NPA and the agency is also trying to introduce other electronic system of doing things, the same thing with customs.’’
The NSC boss urged the government to take a deliberate action to address many challenges confronting the port system through consistent and predictable policies.
He said that investors needed certainty and ease of doing business in Nigeria which could be brought about by government intervention especially in the gridlock at Apapa.
According to him, no matter how efficient a terminal is, if you don’t have the road to evacuate cargos, how can you do it. So there must be some level of intervention.
“ The ideas are to have an electronic passage to ensure that a truck is only in Apapa when it is needed to pick or drop cargo.
“Then the thank farms, we don’t need trailers tanker to go to tank farms because we have the pipeline which is also a means of transportation.
“The moment we have these pipelines pumping to Mosimi and other flow stations, then we don’t need tankers in Apapa.
“ We cannot rely on only access like road; port should be accessible by road, rail, inland water ways and pipelines because the port is not a storage place for cargo at all.’’
Bello also said that NSC had also started the process of establishing Truck Transit Parks along major highways in the country to help address the challenges of trucks parking along major roads in the country.
He said the project was Public Private Partnership (PPP) aimed at reducing incidences of road congestion and loss of cargos due to indiscriminate parking by truck drivers.
The executive secretary explained that the council, in partnership with states government would build modern parks that would have hotels, restaurants, filing stations and garages for repair and maintenance of vehicles.
According to him, the facility will also have weigh measures not only for trucks but also small cars travelling at night can stop over there and stay because there will be security.
“This will provide revenue for the state government because there will be employment for people and other small businesses can spring up there also.
“We have secured a land from Kogi State Government along Abuja road, Enugu State Government has also given us land in Obolo Afor and Kaduna State has indicated interest in the project.
“When we introduced this issue, the Kaduna state government particularly became extremely interested and now they have advertised for people to take interest because it is modern and a cash cow.’’  (NAN)
OYS/MO
=========

Edited by Morayo Omolade

NAN-DS-14
Navy
Maiduguri, Nov. 23, 2016 (NAN) The Nigerian Military said on Wednesday that it deployed Naval troops to Borno as part of its renewed efforts to end the Boko Haram terrorism in the North-East.

The Theater Commander of the Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj.-Gen. Lucky Irabor, told newsmen in Maiduguri that the troop were inducted into the theater as the Maritime Component to strengthen its operation.

“The advance party for the Maritime Component of Operation Lafiya Dole has been inducted into the theater on Sept. 8.

“They will be deployed at Naval Outpost in Baga and will later operate around the fringes of Nigerian side of the Lake Chad.

“However, they are now temporarily accommodated at the Federal College of Fresh Water and Fishery Technology in Baga, awaiting arrival of the main body and other logistics.

“Currently, they are conducting patrols in conjunction with troops of Multi National Joint Task Force in Baga,” he said.

The commander said that the troops of the theater recorded tremendous successes in the clearance of Boko Haram remnants under its “Operation KARYA GWIWA’’.

“On Oct. 28, our troops commenced clearing operations on two axis to clear and destroy insurgents along Golgore, Doksa, Ajigin and environs.

“The troops located a terrorist’s camp and on sighting the team, they fled the camp abandoning seven motorcycles, five bicycles, a desert camouflage and a large quantity of drugs.

“All the recovered items were destroyed and during the operations, 37 terrorists were killed while two officers and five soldiers were wounded and a member of the vigilante died, during the offensive operation.

“On Oct. 29, our troops continued their advance and later came under Boko Haram ambush at Ugundiri, where five soldiers sustained gunshot wounds.

“Two anti-aircraft guns were recovered from the terrorists and a gun truck was destroyed,” he said. (NAN)
ABI/OIF/AMY

Edited by Ifeyinwa Okonkwo/Abdullahi Yusuf

NAN-F-20

Warning

Beirut, Nov.23, 2016 (Reuters/NAN) Extending U.S. sanctions on Iran for 10 years would breach the Iranian nuclear agreement, Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said on Wednesday, warning that Tehran would retaliate if the sanctions are approved.

The U.S. House of Representatives re-authorised last week the Iran Sanctions Act for 10 years.

The law was first adopted in 1996 to punish investments in Iran’s energy industry and deter Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The Iran measure will expire at the end of 2016 if it is not renewed. The House bill must still be passed by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama to become law.

Iran and world powers concluded the nuclear agreement, also known as JCPOA, last year. It imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in return for easing sanctions that have badly hurt its economy.

“The current U.S. government has breached the nuclear deal in many occasions,” Khamenei said, addressing a gathering of members of the Revolutionary Guards, according to his website.

“The latest is extension of sanctions for 10 years, that if it happens, would surely be against JCPOA, and the Islamic Republic would definitely react to it.”

The U.S. lawmakers passed the bill one week after Republican Donald Trump was elected U.S. president.

Republicans in Congress unanimously opposed the agreement, along with about two dozen Democrats, and Trump has also criticized it.

Lawmakers from both parties said they hoped bipartisan support for a tough line against Iran would continue under the new president.

President-elect Trump once said during his campaign that he would “rip up” the agreement, drawing a harsh reaction from Khamenei, who said if that happens, Iran would “set fire” to the deal.

The House of Representatives also passed a bill last week that would block the sale of commercial aircraft by Boeing (BA.N) and Airbus (AIR.PA) to Iran.

The White House believes that the legislation would be a violation of the nuclear pact and has said Obama would veto the measure even if it did pass the Senate.(Reuters/NAN)

IAA/MO

Edited by Isaac Aregbesola/Morayo Omolade

NAN-H-99
Rainstorm
By Solomon Asowata
Lagos, Nov. 23, 2016 (NAN) Rainstorm on Wednesday destroyed some parts of the terminal building, pilot lounge and general aviation terminal at the Akanu-Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), confirmed the incident in a statement signed by its Acting General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Mrs Henrietta Yakubu and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Lagos.

The statement said the storm, which occurred in the early hours of the day, also affected electric power lines to the airport, FAAN Staff Secondary and Primary School buildings and private residential buildings.

“However, FAAN management took immediate remedial action which allowed flight operations in and out of the airport. FAAN is doing its best to restore normalcy.

“There was no loss of life or injury. Flight operations were not affected in the airport.’’

Yakubu added that the management regretted the inconveniences caused by the incident to airport users and the public. (NAN)

ASO/OIF/IEA
Edited by Ifeyinwa Okonkwo/Idahosa Asowata

NAN-F-19

Support

Addis Ababa, Nov. 23, 2016 (Xinhua/NAN) Italy and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Wednesday to advance leather sector development in Ethiopia.

Part of the agreement was a 2.8-million-Euro financial support from the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation to assist UNIDO’s initiative.

The agreement was dubbed; “Technical Assistance Project for the Up-Grading of Ethiopian Leather and Leather Products Industry Phase 2’’.

Giuseppe Mistretta, the Italian Ambassador to Ethiopia, signed on behalf of Italy while UNIDO Representative Jean Bakole signed for the organisation in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia

Tadesse Haile, the State Minister for Industry of Ethiopia signed for his country.

Mistretta said the support was designed to create conducive environment for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in Ethiopia’s leather products sector.

Ethiopian Minister noted that MSME development was considered as one of the most important pillar of the second five-year Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II /2016-2020).

UNIDO representative said the technical assistance project was targeted to build local capacity, facilitate access to loans and linkage with financial institutions.

Bakole said the project was also aimed at creating new cluster areas for MSME development in Ethiopia’s leather production sector.

He said with 52 million heads of cattle, Ethiopia is the number one in Africa and sixth in the world in cattle population. (Xinhua/NAN)

IAA/EEE

=======

Edited by Isaac Aregbesola/Ese E. Ekama

PTAD to begin North East pensioners’ verification

NAN-HE-22

PTAD

Abuja, Nov.23, 2016(NAN) The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) says it will begin its verification of pensioners in the north east from Nov. 28.

This was disclosed by its Executive Secretary, Mrs Sharon Ikeazor, during a courtesy visit to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.

She said PTAD came to NAN because she believed in collaboration of sister government agencies, to help government on its development programmes.

Ikeazor said the first phase of the civil service pensioners’ verification would start from the north east region comprising Adamawa, Bauchi, Taraba and Gombe states

“The first place to start the verification must be the north east so that we can key into the Federal Government’s efforts at rebuilding the northeast.

“We can’t forget the north, insurgency or no insurgency; we are going in there to verify the pensioners so that we can put them on the pay roll,’’ she said.

Ikeazor also said there were four of such pension departments to be involved namely the Police Pension, the Civil Service, Custom and Immigration as well as the parastatals.

She said while PTAD would start with the civil service, the other departments would foll soon.

The PTAD executive secretary said efforts would be made to  determine the state with the highest number of pensioners through the nominal roll.

She said Adamawa, with a little over 2,000 pensioners, “will take like a week to verify”.

According to her, “each of the pensioners has to come with the employment record, we need to know their length of service, their grade level before retirement and their pension entitlements’’.

“So we expect them to come with their essential employment records to compute their pension and capture their bio-metrics,’’ she said.

Ikeazor, who visited NAN with the Project Coordinator for the north east, Nneka Obiamalu, explained that the essence of the details of employment records was to retain them in the data base.

“This is so in order for them not to go through this repeatedly, which is the essence of the entire exercise.

“We hope to come away with a little over 6,000 pensioners in our data base so that we can solve their problems,’’ Obiamalu said.

Responding to question from the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, Mr Bayo Onannuga, on the cut-off year for federal civil servants, Obiamalu said: “For the federal civil service, the cut-off year is the last day of June, 2007.

“For the state pensioners, it is March 31, 2011.’’

“In future, we intend to have offices in the 36 states of the federation.’’

She said besides verification, PTAD also carried out“mobile verification” for pensioners who were ill or too old to move.

“We visit them with our computers to do their biometrics for them in their homes or hospitals. So the era of pensioners suffering is over; we treat them with empathy,’’ Ikeazor said.

The team also said that PTAD had a Call Centre linked to the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation to address complaints.

Onanuga thanked the team for the visit, pledging the agency’s support the directorate.

Onanuga spoke of the agency’s magazine whose maiden edition was expected to be launched next week.

“We call it Nigeria. We have no other befitting name. We hope to project our government in a positive light because the story about our country is usually negative,’’ he said.

Onanuga also highlighted the agency’s multimedia service products including the NAN TV. (NAN)

SET/IA

Edited by Idris Abdulrahman

NAN-HE-19

Pension

By Emmanuel Mogbede

Abuja, Nov. 23, 2016 (NAN) The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) is collaborating with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other government agencies to fight fraud in pension administration.

The Executive Secretary of PTAD, Sheron Ikeazor, made the statement in Abuja on Wednesday at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum.

“I call the people you call pension thieves blood money thieves, we are working with EFCC, ICPC and other security agencies to block all the loopholes.

“Since I came in, we have established an anti-corruption unit in collaboration with ICPC and also, I have made a policy role that we must have incidence report of these frauds,’’ Ikeazor said.

She decried fraudulent practices in the pension system and added that stringent measures were being put in place to address the situation, including partnership with banks.

According to her, part of the measures is to ensure that the database of the directorate`s payroll is clean while monies are paid into only bank accounts with Bank Verification Numbers (BVN).

“If we have accounts that are dormant or do not have BVN numbers, we definitely will not pay into it and we have saved lots of monies for government through this measure.

“We are following that up and we are making savings through that by collaborating with banks, no BVN no paying of monies in account even if you are on our payroll’’.

She said the directorate was able to discover some loopholes during verification in 2015 and dropped 7, 000 names from the pension payroll.

Ikeazor expressed gratitude to banks which notified the directorate of the deaths of some pensioners and so saved the government a lot of money.

She added that under the law, banks were expected to notify PTAD about the death of pensioners and return pension monies paid into their accounts.

Ikeazor also said that PTAD was working on recovering  assets from some pension custodians.

“We are going after recovery of assets that are still with these companies, the ones in court, I cannot comment on that.

“But we indeed intend to recover all the assets because it’s not fair that it is just liability that are passed onto PTAD.

“Take Nigeria Railways for instance, we still have assets which they should have sent over to us,’’ she said.

She further said that PTAD had so far, recovered N1.2 billion assets of Nigerian Railways pensioners and hoped to recover more.

Ikeazor added that the priority of PTAD under her leadership, was to ensure a staff audit in spite of its major challenge which was funding.

She stressed that funding was the directorate`s major challenge because the monthly pension was not paid into its account at the right time.

She added that the directorate was making plans to restructure the pension payment system with special focus on its data base.

This is critical to ensure a genuine tamper proof data base for the capturing of biometrics that will have less human interference, Ikeazor said.  (NAN)
EEM/JCE
=======

Edited by Chukwudi Ekezie.

NAN-AE-14
Projects
By Vivian Emoni
Abuja, Nov. 23, 2016 (NAN) Mrs Ibironke Olubamise, the National Coordinator, Global Environmental Facility/Small Grant Programme (GEF/SGP) says the programme has spent more than four million dollars in executing projects from 2009 till date.

Olubamise disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday at the inauguration and appreciation ceremony of the new National Steering Committee members of GEF/SGP.

She explained that GEF, through the SGP had spent four million dollars in executing projects, directly or indirectly, in various communities.

“In terms of co-financing GEF have also raised a one-on-one co-financing to those four million dollars.

“GEF is more concerned about co-financing.

“The idea is that if you are putting some resources for a project, it is important to ensure that the people handling it are serious with such project, “ she said.

She said that GEF through SGP had worked with more than 100 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the execution of projects.

She added that GEF released maximum of 50,000 dollars to the NGOs for such projects.

“The minimum we have given to NGOs is 18,000 dollars and we are really having a good working relationship with the NGOs and better result, “ she added.

She said that the out-going 11-member committee worked with GEF for seven years, adding that the committee worked selflessly to ensure that SGP achieved its goal.

She said that GEF would continue to carry out projects to help the needy and promote utilisation of environmental resources, especially in the rural communities in the country.

She said that GEF focal areas include biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation and persistent organic pollutants.

Mr Lamin Beyai, UNDP`s Country Director said that GEF through SGP support the activities of NGOs and community-based organisations in developing countries.

Beyai said that about 130 countries that participated in SGP had ratified conventions on biological diversity and climate change.

He said that there are 84 country offices, two regional offices and two sub-regional offices with daily management by SGP coordinators.

He, however, advised the new committee members to work with GEF to enable quick execution of projects across the country.

The country director also thanked the former committee members for their dedication in strengthening GEF activities in the country. (NAN)
VOE/MOL/GY
===========
Edited by Mustapha Lamidi/Grace Yussuf