Blog

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Supplements
By Bushrah Yusuf-Badmus
Ilorin, Nov. 10, 2016 (NAN) A medical practitioner in Ilorin, Dr Darasimi Bello, has advised the people to be cautious with food supplements as it could cause more harm than good.

Bello told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin on Thursday that though the products should be harmless, certain medical conditions did not go well with them.

He advised the people to consult their doctors before taking supplements, especially when nursing a particular medical condition.

“Truly, these supplements are made of herbs, but some may not be safe, especially if you have certain medical conditions or take some medications.

“The best thing is to talk with your doctor before taking any supplements because you cannot be so sure of yourself, “Bello said.

He noted that some common supplements should be taken cautiously.

“The common ginger that people take to ease nausea brought on by surgery, chemotherapy, motion sickness or arthritis should not be taken by someone that has gallstones or take blood thinners.

“This is because ginger can cause problems with blood clotting, heart rhythms, blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

“The same thing goes for garlic because it thins the blood; though it helps with high blood pressure, treat cold symptoms and lower your cholesterol.

“But it can increase your risk of bleeding if you take blood-thinning medications for heart problems.

“Even the popular aloe vera that is rubbed on a burn or wound to heal it or feel better and some people also take it can cause an abnormal heart rhythm.

“It also may lower your blood sugar levels if you have diabetes.

“So, it is not enough to use supplements without knowing your health condition so that you won’t end up compounding problems for yourself,” Bello said. (NAN)
BAY/KOLE/MVO
(Edited by Remi Koleoso/Mbadiwe Okwor)

NAN-H-64
Threat
By Monday Ajogun
Benin, Nov. 10, 2016 (NAN) An Egor Magistrates’ Court in Benin on Thursday remanded Dickson Uwadinusu, 30, in prison for allegedly threatening to kill his parents.

The Magistrate, Mrs E.E. Edokpayi, who frowned at the accused person’s act, vowed not to grant him bail, adding that no parent would sue their child to court.

Edokpayi said that if the accused person was granted bail, he would go home and continue the same act or even do more.

She ruled that bail for the accused person would be considered in the next adjourned date and adjourned the case till Dec. 29 for hearing.

The accused, who pleaded not guilty to a two-count charge, told his girlfriend who accompanied his parents to the court: “I am happy going to the prison and will see you on the next adjourned date.”

Earlier, the prosecutor, Mrs Violet Soyemi, told the court that the accused committed the offence on Nov. 4 at Agbanbe Street, Evbotubo Quarters, Benin.

Soyemi, an inspector, alleged that the accused locked his father, Mr Goddy Uwadinusu and his mother Mrs Elizabeth Uwadinusu, out of their home and threatened to stab them with a knife and a bottle.

She added that the accused unlawfully assaulted his father by pointing a knife and bottle and threatened to stab him with the objects.

Soyemi said the offence contravened the Criminal Code. (NAN)
AJOM/ORO/MVO
(Edited by Razak Owolabi/Mbadiwe Okwor)

NAN-H-24
Fadama
By Mohammed Mamman
Damaturu, Nov. 10, 2016 (NAN) Alhaji Mustapha Gajerima, Yobe Commissioner for Agriculture on Thursday said that the state government had paid N20 million counterpart fund to participate in the Fadama III Additional Financing II project.

Gajerima made this known when the Fadama III Desk Officer, Ibrahim Alkali, paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Damaturu.

He said that the new project would address the livelihood problems of victims of insurgency in the North-East through agriculture.

Gajerima said that the government was committed to ensuring smooth operations of all agriculture-related donor-agencies in the state.

Earlier, Alkali commended the government for paying the counterpart fund.

“This has paved way to kick-start the implementation of the project,” he said.

He described the Fadama III project executed in the state from 2008 to 2013 as successful.

“I have confidence that the state will also perform successfully in this new project,” he said.

Alkali gave the assurance that the National Fadama Office would support the state in its agricultural programmes.

The state Coordinator, Alhaji Musa Garba, said that the project would be implemented in 103 communities across the state.

Garba urged the project facilitators and benefitting communities to cooperate to achieve the desired goals.  (NAN)
MM/ORO/IGO
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(Edited by Razak Owolabi/ Ijeoma Popoola)

Tough reality check for Trump’s pledge of better heartland jobs, wages

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Pledge

Chaelotte ( North Carolina), Nov. 10, 2016 (dpa/NAN) Donald Trump’s promise to revive small town America faces a tough challenge in an economy that for decades has been wired to direct income and opportunities towards urban hubs and the better educated.

Little in the president-elect’s so far sketchy economic plans indicates the trend can be reversed any time soon, according to interviews with experts on income inequality and as recent occupational trends.

The manufacturing jobs Trump pledges to bring back have disappeared as much because of automation as the trade deals he has promised to rewrite, and that process will only continue.

A promised infrastructure revamp would boost middle wage jobs but for only as long as the programmes last, economists point out.

During President Barack Obama’s eight years in office incomes for the best off continued to diverge, despite nearly 10 million new jobs and recent strength in those paying middle-tier wages.

On a pre-tax basis, the share of income to the top fifth of households increased from 50.4 per cent to 51.4 per cent between 2008 and 2015 at the expense of all the others, according to census estimates.

“Without the sort of tax and redistribution policies Republicans have traditionally opposed, Trump may struggle to make good on his promise to help those left behind in the global economy.

“We have 30 to 40 years to catch upon lots of money has gone to the top and to change that is going to be a long and slow process,” David Madland, a senior fellow at the Centre for American Progress, said.

Trump campaigned promising to shake up a Washington establishment, he argued, was responsible for destroying middle class jobs with bad trade deals.

The message hit home across rural America and mid-sized cities, where voters felt they missed out on the fruits of the seven-year economic recovery that big cities may have enjoyed. (dpa/NAN)

OYE/MST

Edited by Damilola Oyewole/Muhammad Suleiman Tola

NAN-H-26
Defilement
By Ngozi Njoku
Lagos, Nov. 10, 2016 (NAN) A 43-year-old businessman, Danladi Abdu, was on Thursday docked in Lagos over the alleged defilement of an 11-year-old neighbour’s daughter.

The accused, who resides in the Mile 12 area of Lagos, is facing a two-count charge of defilement and indecent treatment of a child at an Ogudu Magistrates’ Court.

The prosecutor, Sgt. Lucky Ihiehie, told the court that the father of the victim reported the matter at the Ketu Police Station.

He said that victim’s father said that the accused defiled his daughter by having carnal knowledge of her.

Ihiehie said that the complainant told the police that his daughter was abused by the accused on four occasions, in his room.

“On that day, he discovered that his daughter was nowhere to be found in the compound.

“Everyone was looking for her and shouting her name severally, before she was seen coming out of the room of the accused,’’ he said.

Ihiehie said that when the father of the victim asked his daughter about her whereabout, “she revealed that the accused lured her into his room and had carnal knowledge of her.

“The little girl told her father that the accused had touched her vagina on four occasions forcefully, in the month of September,’’ he said.

The offences contravene Sections 135 and 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

Abdu, however, pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge preferred against him.

Counsel to the accused, Mr Darlington Agbale, urged the court to grant him bail on liberal terms.

The Magistrate, Mrs O. Sule-Amzat, in her ruling, admitted the accused to bail in the sum of N100, 000 with two sureties in like sum.

She ordered that the sureties must provide evidence of tax payments to the Lagos State Government and should also deposit N50, 000 each into the Chief Registrar’s account.

Sule-Amzat adjourned the case to Nov. 24, for mention. (NAN)
NG/DEB/PIO
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Edited by Debo Oshundun/Idonije Obakhedo

EU’s Juncker wants clarity from Trump on trade, climate, NATO

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Climate

Berlin, Nov. 10, 2016 (Reuters/NAN) European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday that clarity was needed from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on issues such as trade, relations with NATO and climate change.

“We would like to know how things will proceed with global trade policy.

“We would like to know what intentions he has regarding the (NATO) alliance.

“We must know what climate policies he intends to pursue, this must be cleared up in the next few months,” Juncker said at a business event in Berlin.

He said that he did not expect the trade deal between the U.S. and the European Union, currently being negotiated, to be done within the next two years.

“The trade deal with the U.S., I do not view that as something that would happen in the next two years,” he said. (Reuters/NAN)

OYE/MST

Edited by Damilola Oyewole/Muhammad Suleiman Tola

NAN-H-67
Monitoring
By Kate Obande
Abuja, Nov.10, 2016 (NAN) An NGO, Connected Development (CODE), has expressed its readiness to monitor the 100 million dollar World Bank’s grant for improvement of girl-child education in the northern Nigeria.

Mr Hamzat Lawal, the CODE’s Chief Executive Officer, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.

Lawal said that the grant was meant to promote girl-child education in Kano, Katisna, Sokoto, Kaduna and Jigawa states.

He said that the fund would be effectively monitored by the organisation through its monitoring team called “Follow the Money’’.

According to him, the team is set up to ensure that such money achieves the dream of an improved girl-child education.

“ This is an opportunity for us to ensure that the implementing agencies in states utilise these monies judiciously.

“We want to make sure the government is accountable and transparent in implementing the grant to avoid corruption or a situation where the money is misappropriated and illiteracy level keeps on increasing.’’

To actualise this goal, Lawal said the organisation had already written a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Jigawa Government.

He explained that in the request they were asked to outline their work plan on how they hoped to use the money and provide better service delivery in the education sector.

He told NAN that the organisation had not received any feedback from the government after a month.

“But we will not relent; we will keep pushing till the right thing is done.

“For us what we were asking was the costs work plan of what the government hope to use this money for and the time frame.

“Knowing that girl child education is very low and this fund is meant to promote girl-child intervention in the state and to access health education services,’’ Lawal said.

He said, though CODE had also written such request to Niger but the state had already sent its budget to the origination.

Lawal, however, explained that the budget was further streamlined and N6.7 billion was earmarked for basic education in Niger.

Lawal, therefore, appealed to the Niger government to use the money to rehabilitate Zugurma Community School where pupils were currently receiving lessons under the tree due to dilapidated structures. (NAN)
KTE/AOM/MO
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Edited by Abdullahi Mohammed/Morayo Omolade

Workers reject FG’s planned concession of railways

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Concession

By Kazeem Akande
Lagos, Nov. 10, 2016 (NAN) The Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NURW) has appealed to the Federal Government to withhold its planned concession of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC).

Mr Segun Esan, the Secretary General of the union, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos that there was no reason to defend privatisation and concessioning as policy of economic development.

Esan said that concession has simply reinforced underdevelopment, encourage massive unemployment, with massive corruption and social inequality.

According to him, systems threaten the security and corporate existence of the country since inception of its implementation in the country.

“The policy has been consistently observed that assets of privatised enterprises have been deliberately undervalued.

“There has been no due process with high level collusion between the authorities and the companies that bought the privatised enterprises, leading to failure to pay over the appropriate monies to government coffers.

“The Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) has also failed to exercise its oversight functions on the privatisation process,’’ the unions regretted.

He described the policy as an abuse of due process characterised by corruption which has affected the outcome of the exercise.

According to him, the privatisation of the power sector offers another insight into the failure of the system and the fraudulent actions surrounding it.

Esan said that government has also injected huge capital into the sector without corresponding results.

He appealed to the federal government to withdraw its planned concessioning of the corporation to help safeguard selling public asset without appropriate technical valuation with labour disengagement.

NAN recalls that the Federal House of Representatives had at its plenary on Oct. 25, moved to investigate the planned concessioning of the Nigeria Railways Corporation to General Electric (GE) to avoid violating Nigeria’s privatisation laws.

The lawmakers also looked into the moves by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to concession the Western (Lagos-Kano) and Eastern (Port Harcourt- Maiduguri) rail lines to GE without recourse to the Bureau of Public Enterprises and Privatisation regulations.

NAN further reports that federal government had constituted a 20-member steering committee on the concessioning of the Eastern and Western lines of the Nigeria Railways.

The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, inaugurated the committee, headed by the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, in August. (NAN)
AKA/MST/MST
Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola

NAN-S-7
Eagles
By Bassey Bassey
Uyo, Nov. 10, 2016 (NAN) The Super Eagles Coach, Gernot Rohr, has assured Nigerians the team would defeat the Fennecs of Algeria in their 2018 World Cup qualifier in Uyo on Saturday.

Rohr, who gave the assurance in Uyo on Thursday while addressing sports journalists on his preparation for the match, disclosed that he had eight new players in the team.

“I try to see a lot of young players, our team is a mixture of young players and the experienced; we expect victory.

“We want to win this game. Our stars are humble; they are good examples for the young players. They are in good mind. They will be efficient on Saturday,’’ Rohr said.

He said that though the Algerians were a good side, having experience and exposure in Europe, the Super Eagles would play the game and win.

The coach also expressed confidence in Super Eagles Captain, Mikel Obi, saying that he was fit in spite of his non-appearance in Chelsea’s fixtures for some time now.

Rohr said that his team was playing at home and called on their fans to pray for the team to win.

Obi said that the game with Algeria was important to the team, adding that they all arrived early to prepare for the match.

“The Algerians are a very good side, we have a task to win the match,’’ he said.

He commended his Chelsea teammate, Victor Moses for his recent impressive performance at their English club.

On his part, Moses pledged to do his best for the Super Eagles on Saturday in the match with the Algerian national team.

“We want to do our best and to get the three points, I will play where the coach finds me fit,’’ Moses promised.

Also, Ogenyi Onazi said that the match with the Algerians was not going to be an easy one.

“We know the task ahead, we ask God for the grace to go forward and get the three points,’’ Ogenyi said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that football fans in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom capital, are expecting the Super Eagles to win. (NAN)
BB/PDE
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(Edited by Peter Ejiofor)

NAN-AE-7
Facilities

By Mohammed Bashir
Dutse, Nov. 10, 2016 (NAN) The Jigawa Commissioner for Water Resources, Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim, on Thursday called on Water Consumer Associations (WCAs) in the state to protect water facilities in the area.

Ibrahim made the call in Dutse at the opening ceremony of training for the associations based in Gidan Adede, Gandun Fawa, and Hara communities in Dutse and Kiyawa local government areas of the state.

He stated that the state government is fully committed to providing potable drinking water to all nooks and crannies of the area.

The commissioner added that the government’s gesture is aimed at improving water supply and easing the difficulties experienced by residents in accessing clean water.

He urged the associations and other residents to ensure that all other basic amenities provided by the government in their respective communities are not vandalised.

He urged the participants to make the best use of the knowledge and skills acquired during the training.

NAN reports that the participants were trained on maintenance and repair of the newly installed solar-powered water facilities in their respective communities.

They were also trained on how to contribute money in order to maintain the facilities without waiting for funding from the government. (NAN)
MNB/JPE/YEE
Edited by Joseph Edeh/Emmanuel Yashim
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