Oyo State NLC canvasses living wage, conductive working condition for workers

NAN-H-64
Work

By Akeem Abas
Ibadan, Oct. 7, 2016(NAN) The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Oyo State Chapter has called on employers of labour to pay living wage and provide conductive working environment for its employees.

The NLC made the call on Friday in Ibadan at a rally organised to mark the World Day for Decent Work, with the theme “End Corporate Greed.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the World Day for Decent Work which started in 2008 is celebrated annually on Oct. 7.

Alhaji Bayo Titilola-Sodo, the Vice-Chairman, Oyo State NLC, told newsmen that the day was universally set aside by the World Trade Movement to mark decent work place.

Titilola-Sodo said that the idea behind the celebration was to canvass for people-orientated policies and good working conditions.

“The idea behind the celebration is that people should be the main focus of whatever activities or efforts the government is making to end the national or global recession.

“We must come out of recession and whatever activity or template employed by government, individual, companies and organisations must put people and workers at the centre.

“We must end recession. We must take development seriously for growth to return and when its returns, the economy will grow,” he said.

He lamented non-conducive working environment at some work places and non-payment of salaries to workers, who have worked for 30 days in a month.

“We say no to poor pay, enough of poor pay, casualisation, outsourcing, salary arrears, unemployment, non-payment of pension, non-payment of gratuity and bleak national future.

“We want progress, living wage, conductive working environment, decent attitude on our land and in our country,” he said.

Titilola-Sodo said the Ayuba Wabba-led national executive had enjoined all state chapters to sensitise members on the need to say no to poor pay, among others. (NAN)

TAA/DE/OU

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Edited by Dorcas Jonah/Obike Ukoh

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EU to help India in cleaning holy Hindu river Ganges

NAN-F-17
Cleaning
New Delhi,Oct.7, 2016 (dpa/NAN) European Union and India on Friday, signed an agreement in the field of water management which includes European assistance in helping clean Hinduism’s holiest river, the Ganges.

Over the past decades, billions of rupees have been spent in cleaning up the Ganges (also known as the Ganga), that has been described as a giant sewer by environmentalists.

It was reported that the river was being slowly killed by pollutants and industrial waste along its 2,500-kilometre course from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal.

The agreement was signed by Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati and EU commissioner for the environment, maritime affairs and fisheries, Karmenu Vella, in New Delhi.

Under the agreement, India and the EU aim to strengthen technological, scientific and management capabilities in water management and exchange views on regulatory approaches as well as on EU water laws and conventions.

The project to clean up the iconic river was among Premier Narendra Modi’s campaign promises which brought his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party to power in 2014. (dpa/NAN)

(Edited by Isaac Aregbesola/Julius Enehikhuere)

Human rights group reports 680 deaths in massacres in eastern Congo

NAN-F-10
Massacre
Kigali Oct.7, 2016  (dpa/NAN) Unidentified attackers have killed at least 680 civilians in a series of massacres in eastern Congo over the past two years, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday.

A large presence of Congolese army soldiers and UN peacekeepers in the region has not prevented at least 120 attacks in Beni territory.

Beni territory is where assailants “methodically hacked people to death with axes and machetes or shot them dead,” the rights group said.

“After two years of brutal killings, many people in Beni live in fear of the next attack and have all but lost hope that anyone can end the carnage,” said Ida Sawyer from HRW.

The attacks have been blamed on the Ugandan armed group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), one of the dozens of militias operating in eastern Congo.

But HRW said its research pointed to “the involvement of other armed groups and certain Congolese army officers in planning and carrying out some of these attacks.”

“It is not true that Congolese people have lost hope and faith in the government … because the army is doing everything to ensure that all people living in [Congo] enjoy peace,” government spokesman Lambert Mende said.

Mende blamed the massacres on “radical Islamists or jihadists.”

The ADF claims to have an Islamist ideology, but analysts say ideologies often serve as an excuse for armed groups vying for control over territory and mineral resources in the region. (dpa/NAN)

(Edited by Isaac Aregbesola/Julius Enehikhuere)
 

NAN-S-17

Eagles

By Emmanuel Afonne

Abuja, Oct. 7, 2016 (NAN) Super Eagles Captain, John Obi Mikel, said he had matured to shoulder the responsibility of the team as Nigeria sought qualification for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Mikel said this at the team’s interactive session with the media on Friday in Abuja.

“Sometimes when you are young, you make mistakes but the more you grow up, the more you know the things that are more important.

“I think that I am beginning to know where I come from and that is more important than anything.

“I have more responsibility now to lead the country and the team; I think that is what I am doing right now because I enjoy every bit of it,” he said.

The Chelsea midfielder said that the Eagles would use the opportunity of the World Cup qualifying matches to make up for not qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) two consecutive times.

He acknowledged that the weather would be hot in Zambia, going by the time of the match with the Chipolopolo, but assured that Eagles would be careful to avoid a defeat.

“We want to use this World Cup qualifiers to put things right; I don’t think we are under any pressure but we must put in our best to win.

“I think we have to go out there and play well to win; we want to qualify for the World Cup and there is no doubt about that.

“Just like the coach said, we will not only be thinking about scoring but to also defend to ensure we win.

“So, we have to attack together and defend together; in doing this, we are sure of winning Zambia in Ndola on Sunday.

“I am always ready to lead the team since I took over the Eagles captaincy because I know the responsibility on my shoulder and I will never shy away from it,’’ he said.

Mikel said that he was eager to lead the team to the World Cup, the way he led the Dream Team VI to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

On his part, Arsenal attacker, Alex Iwobi, said that the team was going to Zambia for the maximum three points.

Iwobi said that the quality of players the team possessed was capable of defeating any team in the group.

William Troost-Ekong and Chisom Egbuchulam who were among the four players that interacted with the media said the match against Zambia was very important to the team.

Egbuchulam, who won the Nigeria Professional Football League title with Rangers International FC of Enugu, said the team was working to pick the three points in the game.

Nigeria has won six of 16 previous matches with Zambia, drawing five and losing five.

Nigeria defeated Zambia 5-4 on penalties to win a memorable Africa Cup of Nations final in Tunis in 1994.

The Eagles are expected to depart Abuja for Ndola on Saturday for the crunchy tie against Chipolopolo on Sunday.

The team will host Algeria on Nov. 12 before four more games next year in the qualifying matches. (NAN)

EMAF/OPI/OPI

Edited and controlled by Olisa Ifeajika

Attack on Niger refugee camp targeted only soldiers, loot says UN.

NAN-F-9
Attack
Niamey, Oct.7, 2016 (Reuters/NAN) Gunmen who killed 22 soldiers at a refugee camp in Niger on Thursday did not harm any of the nearly 4,000 Malian refugees sheltering there, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

The armed men attacked soldiers stationed at the Tazalit camp in Niger’s western Tahoua region, bordering Mali, the UN said in a statement.

Reports say they also burned an ambulance and looted a health centre.

In addition to the 22 killed, five soldiers were injured before the assailants fled with a stolen military vehicle, it said.

The camp shelters Malians who have fled to Niger since Islamist militants, some with links to al Qaeda, seized Mali’s desert north in 2012.

A French-led military intervention pushed back the insurgents a year later but rebel fighting and Islamist attacks in Mali have led more people to flee the country.

More than 60,000 Malian refugees now live in Niger.

Last month, a Malian woman and her child were killed when unidentified gunmen attacked a security post at another refugee camp in Niger, the UN said.

Niger’s prime minister confirmed that an attack had taken place on Thursday but gave no information about the suspected identity of the attackers.

An army spokesman was not available for comment on Friday.

Niger’s small army is battling armed groups on numerous fronts.

It is fighting Boko Haram militants launching raids from Nigeria in the south, while seeking to prevent an overflow of attacks from armed groups and bandits in Mali to the west.

There are also concerns that Islamic State fighters could be pushed onto its territory by a government offensive in Libya to the northeast (Reuters/NAN)

(Edited by Isaac Aregbesola, controlled by Julius Enehikhuere)

Jigawa Govt. spends N245m monthly on students’ feeding’, says Commissioner

NAN-H-63

Feeding

Dutse, Oct. 7, 2016 (NAN) The Jigawa Government on Friday said it spent N245 million monthly to feed its boarding students across the state.

The state’s Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Rabi Ishaq, made this known to newsmen on Friday in Dutse.

Ishaq said that the state government had also increased the amount spent on feeding of students daily from N90 to N135 per person.

She dismissed rumours that government was planning to de-board all boarding students in the state due the economic recession facing the country.

“Our commitment has not changed. And there is no any plan by the present administration to disband the school boarding system.

“We are doing a lot of things other states are not doing, especially in the area of students’ feeding.

“As I am talking to you now, His Excellency Gov. Muhammad Badaru, has approved an increase in the amount spent to feed boarding students across the state.

“Henceforth, each students is fed with N135 not N90 as it was before,” the commissioner explained.

According to her, the gesture would boost the literacy level among the youth in the state.

She added that education remained the number one priority of the Badaru Administration, adding that the state government would continue to ensure its development at all levels.(NAN)
MNB/EAL/AMY

Edited by Ekemini Ladejobi and Abdullahi Yusuf

NAN-H-62

Search

By Constance Athekame

Abuja, Oct. 7, 2016 (NAN) The Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement Department of Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), has commenced nationwide search for pre-registered SIM cards.

Prof, Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of the commission, made this known at NCC’s special Day at the Abuja International Trade Fair on Friday.

He said the exercise which is in collaboration with law enforcement agencies, was aimed at arresting and prosecuting offenders.

“The issue of pre-registered SIM cards is rearing its ugly head again and the attention of the commission has been drawn to the menace and NCC is leaving no stone unturned to arrest the situation.

“We have sent directive to service providers to ensure that their agents are not used to perpetrate this fraud. All service providers found culpable will be severely sanctioned.

“But we urge the consumers to be wary of this fraud to avoid being victim of the circumstances.

“Members of the public are advised to desist from buying or using preregistered SIM cards, and to report anybody selling or using pre-registered SIM cards”, Danbatta, who was represented by Mr Reuben Mouka, Head of Public Relations of NCC, added.

He said vandalism of telecom infrastructure, and in some cases, denial of right of way to service providers, was part of the challenges hindering quality of service.

“The commission is requesting partnership with the public, to prevail on some local communities, or councils and sometimes individuals or families, who bar service providers from maintaining their sites.

“Those who prevent them from expanding services to other locations should desist from such as it contributes to poor quality of service.

The NCC boss also urged telecom consumers to be wary of the source of telecom devices which they use adding that there was menace of the substandard and counterfeit devices in the networks.

He said were all kinds of devices and handsets in the market as some of them had been used and dropped in other parts of the world.

He stressed that some of these devices did not meet international standard benchmarks for safety and other requirements.

“They do not only pose risks to the users but also degrade the quality of service in the network.

“We urge all telecom consumers to be wary of the source of telecom devices which they use.

“The commission has a list of the type of approved handsets in its website. These are handset models ascertained to be of international standard and do not affect quality of service.”

Mr Taiwo Oluseyi of Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that Abuja international trade fair was one of Nigeria’s best and most established shows and was delighted to host the commission.

Oluseyi said the fair offered opportunities for business development as well as a platform for all participants to showcase their latest innovation in products and services.

“The choice of the theme `Make it in Nigeria’ is to respond to the current realities of the Nigeria economy because we believe that we must make it in Nigeria.

“Thus `Make it in Nigeria’ is a clear call to government at all levels to do the needful, to improve the business environment and encourage operation of private sectors especially the small and medium enterprises. (NAN)

COA/EAL/IEA
Editor: Ekemini Ladejobi
Controller: Idahosa Asowata

NAN-H-21
Malaria
By Vivian Ihechu
Lagos, Oct. 7, 2016 (NAN) The National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) has adopted a strategic plan to ensure total elimination of malaria in Nigeria by 2020.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that malaria is a tropical disease that kills millions of Nigerians every year.

A top official of the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Perpetua Uhomoibhi, made the disclosure at a forum with health correspondents in Lagos on Friday.

She spoke on “Media Health Editors as Advocates to Malaria Elimination in Nigeria’’.

Uhomoibhi, who is the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation of NMEP in the ministry, said the strategic plan was now focusing on reducing the malaria burden drastically.

“ Our national elimination programme strategic plan now is focusing on bringing the malaria burden to pre-elimination level by 2020 and reducing the malaria death to zero by the year 2020.

She said that NMEP would collaborate with the media to ensure that effective information and actions required to eliminate malaria got to Nigerians.

Uhomoibhi represented the National Coordinator of NMEP, Dr Audu Mohammed.

She said that it was necessary for the media to be equipped with adequate information on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of malaria.

According to her, it is also important for the media to be aware of current policies, community mobilisation and partners’ involvement in malaria elimination.

“Globally, there has been a gradual decrease in both the morbidity and mortality from malaria.

“Similarly in Nigeria, we have also been able to achieve a lot to reduce the national malaria prevalence from 42 per cent in the survey we did in 2010 to 27 per cent in 2017.

“That is a significant decrease and our plan is to bring it to less than five per cent by the year 2020, which is the pre-elimination level.’’

Uhomoibhi said that there had also been some modifications within the malaria elimination programme.

“Within the NMEP and the ministry, there is a policy shift in that the recommended drug for the treatment of malaria is now the combination therapy.

“We no longer use the mono therapy, which is only one drug treatment for malaria, due to resistance.

“The National Council on Health has banned the use of mono-therapy for the treatment of malaria.

“So, we have shifted to Artemisini-based Combination Therapies; you must use artemisinin and another drug for the treatment of malaria that is the shift from what was obtained in the past.

“What the programme is doing in collaboration with the malaria partnership, the roll-back malaria partnership in Nigeria is that they are bringing out different interventions.

“These interventions are in terms of prevention, case management and other cross-cutting issues such as advocacy, monitoring and social mobilisation,’’ she said.

The Managing Director of the Society for Family Health, Mr Bright Ekweremadu, said: “we acknowledge the profound power of the media.

“We had always partnered as well as worked with and through the media to reach the teeming population of vulnerable Nigerians in far-flung places.

“Media editors as important gatekeepers are key to information dissemination everywhere in the world.

“It is our belief, however, that the media need to be equipped with the right and correct information, particularly in health-related areas to be able to provide such information.’’

He said: “malaria control interventions have evolved over the years and there had been a lot of laudable strides made in the campaign for its prevention, appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

“However, not all Nigerians are sufficiently aware of these developments and there still exists a huge information gap on appropriate knowledge about diagnosis, treatment and prevention of malaria.

“We require the media to take the lead in providing investigated and researched evidence of the efficacy of recommended malaria prevention strategies,’’ he stated. (NAN)
VIV/ENN/SN
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(Edited by Edwin Nwachukwu, controlled by Silas Nwoha)

NAN-H-60

Dismissal

Abuja, Oct. 7, 2016 (NAN) President of the Senate,  Bukola Saraki, his deputy, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, have described the dismissal of forgery suit against them by an Abuja High Court as proof of their innocence.

They said in a statement by Saraki’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Yusuph Olaniyonu, in Abuja on Friday that the dropping of the case was a vindication of their positions on the matter.

The presiding officers were alleged to have forged the 2015 Senate Standing Order to pave the way for their emergence as President and Deputy President, respectively, of the red chamber.

They said that the court’s decision was consistent with their position that the case lacked merit and that the charge of forgery of the Rule could not be substantiated by any fact.

They described the case as “politically-induced distraction’’, and said that rather than distracting Nigerians, all hands should be on deck to solve economic recession problem destroying homes and creating severe social disorientation in communities.

The duo, however, acknowledged that the Federal Government displayed courage and strength of character in halting the unnecessary waste of precious time of both parties.

According to them, the Federal Government agrees with the defence team that the case lacks merit and therefore should be discontinued.

“We express appreciation to all our colleagues in the Senate for their solid support and understanding while the case lasted.

“We also thank other parliamentarians in and out of the country and the international community as a whole for the consistent solidarity and belief in our genuine cause since the commencement of the case.

“Our gratitude goes to our legal team, family members, friends, supporters and civil society organisations, members of the bar, the media and the generality of the people.

“We believe that much time has been wasted in pursuing this needless case and we hope that the same treatment will be extended to other politically-motivated cases.

“It is also hoped that from now on, the various arms of government will be allowed to devote all the available time and resources to working on the problems confronting the country.

“What the country needs at this time is a strong economy where a very large percentage of those who are willing to work can be productively engaged.

“A country where there is solid infrastructure, where the atmosphere brings the best out of the people and where all are able to realise their full potential.

“We pledge to work for Nigeria to achieve all these,’’ they said. (NAN)

CJM/MO/OPI

Edited by Morayo Omolade and controlled by Olisa Ifeajika

NAN-H-59
Guard
By Teniola Ibitola
Lagos, Oct. 7, 2016 (NAN)  A Magistrates’ Court in Lagos on Friday remanded a 22-year-old security guard, Tanko Abdulateef, charged with murdering his employer and absconding with her property, in prison custody.

The Magistrate, Miss B.O Ope-Agbe of an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrates’ Court, ordered the remand pending legal advice from the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP).

The court did not take the plea of the accused as it  lacks jurisdiction in such matter.

Ope-Agbe ordered that the accused be remanded at  Ikoyi Prisons pending the receipt of advice from the DPP.

The Prosecutor, Sgt. Jimah Iseghede, said the accused committed the offence on Aug. 17 at 7.30 p.m., at House J68b, Close 9, Victoria Garden City,  Ajah.

He alleged that Abdulateef stabbed his employer, Mabel Mang Okafor, at the mentioned address before absconding to his hometown in Taraba.

The prosecution said the offences contravened Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011 which prescribes a death sentence for offenders.

The court adjourned the case till Nov. 8 pending the legal advice. (NAN)
OAT/JCE
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Edited by Chukwudi Ekezie