NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA
General News

NCWS congratulates Tinubu, seeks all-inclusive govt.

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By Dorcas Jonah

National Council of Women Societies (NCWS) has congratulated the President-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu, on his victory at Saturday’s Presidential election, calling for an all-inclusive government.

NCWS National President, Hajiya Lami Lau, in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, also congratulated the Vice-President-elect, Sen. Kashim Shettima.

She urged individuals and political parties that were not satisfied with the election results not to take laws into their hands but seek redress in the court of law.

Lau said that an all-inclusive government was crucial to nation building and transformation of the country.

She also said that increased participation of female technocrats in politics would go a long way in repositioning the country for greatness.

Lau called on the president-elect to recognise the role of women in nation-building by giving them more opportunities in governance.

“If more women are given the opportunity to serve in various government positions, they will bring hope back to the masses and the society will benefit.

”There cannot be any meaningful development without an all-inclusive government of women, youths and persons with disabilities.

”More women are needed in government, as they are the most-productive part of the society,” she said.

The NCWS national president commended women and youths for coming out en masse to vote for the candidate of their choice in the just-concluded presidential and national assembly elections.

She urged them to repeat same in the March 11 governorship and House of Assembly elections, saying that they should focus more on female candidates.

Lau also stressed the need for peace as a tool for national development. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by ‘Wale Sadeeq

Defence/Security

Police officer shoots “mistress” to death in Ilorin, kills self

194 total views today

By Olayinka Owolewa

Police in Kwara are investigating a homicide in which a police officer shot a woman to death at a school premises on Thursday in Ilorin.

The police officer also shot himself to death after the murder.

The murdered woman was believed to be mistress of the police officer.

An eye-witness told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that upon arrival at the school with her child, the police officer accosted the murdered woman, had some discussions with her before shooting her twice.

He added that the police officer immediately shot himself to death also.

Another eye-witness who saw the incident from a nearby building confirmed the report.

A man, claiming to be a property owner said the police officer and the woman hired an apartment from him some weeks back and had been behaving like love birds until they started having problems since five days earlier.

“They have been having issues since five days ago. When they rented the house, we were always happy with the way they showed love to each other.

“Some say the police officer was a man friend of the woman, but they had been quarrelling for the past few days now,” the man said.

Police spokesman in Kwara, SP Ajayi Okasanmi, confirmed that a police officer killed a woman and himself on Thursday in Ilorin.

He told NAN that while details were still sketchy, he was told that it was a case of love affair gone sour.

Okasanmi said the police had begun investigation into the matter. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Gregg Mmaduakolam/Alli Hakeem

Politics

Ex-ALGON chief felicitates Tinubu, elected Ekiti NASS members

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Felicitation

By Bolanle Lawal
Mr Yomi Ayorinde, a former Chairman, Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) in Ekiti, has congratulated the President-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu, on his victory at the Feb. 25 presidential election, describing it as well-deserved.

Ayorinde, in a congratulatory message in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday, expressed delight that Nigerians had freely given the former Lagos governor and National leader of All Progressives Congress (APC) their mandate.

According to him, Tinubu’s victory is one built on years of hard work of a democrat, with evident credentials in both public and private administrations.

Ayorinde expressed confidence in the ability of the president-elect to turn around the fortunes of the country, as citizens look forward to the implementation of his visions for a new Nigeria.

He noted that Tinubu’s visions were clearly stated in his policy document during the electioneering.

Ayorinde, also the immediate past Chairman, Ekiti State Urban Renewal Agency, prayed God to imbue the president-elect with the desired wisdom in the task of transforming the country.

The former ALGON chief, who is also the party’s House of Assembly candidate for Ido/Osi Constituency II, congratulated the newly-elected National Assembly members in all the senatorial districts and federal constituencies in the state.

According to him, their victory represents the true voice of Ekiti people, who are determined to reward Gov. Biodun Oyebanji for his numerous people-friendly policies.

Ayorinde further appreciated the people of the state for their unwavering support and determination to deliver all the APC candidates at the election.

He also described the development as an attestation to APC’s popularity and acceptability by the people of the state.

Ayorinde urged all the newly-elected national assembly members to use their offices to facilitate dividends of democracy to the state and take it to greater heights. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Remi Koleoso and ‘Wale Sadeeq

Sports

Nigeria targets 2nd Olympics participation in gymnastics

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By Emmanuel Afonne

The Gymnastics Federation of Nigeria (GFN) says arrangement were on to ensure its athletes participate in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.

Secretary-General of the federation, Davies Oludare, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja that they were looking to qualify for the Olympics the second time.

Nigeria’s maiden participation was at the Tokyo 2020.

It would be recalled that the 2020 Olympics hosted in Tokyo, Japan was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic that affected activities across the globe.

Uche Eke qualified to represent Nigeria at the Olympics after winning a bronze medal at the African Championships in Cairo, Egypt in 2021.

“We are planning to go for qualifiers towards the middle of this year and we are looking at where we have strength,” Oludare said.

He said that the federation was considering which countries to attend qualifiers as there were lots of them lined up.

Oludare also said that the federation would be participating in individual events and was looking at its areas of strength.

“We want to be realistic and as such looking at three to four athletes for qualification; they are the athletes we are seeing to attain international standard and we have watched them for years.

“And the countries we are looking at are Egypt, Turkey, any West African countries.

“We are also looking at Azerbaijan or Paris, because we are concerned about training with good facility ahead of the qualification,” Oludare said.

He regretted that the African Games scheduled to be hosted by Ghana would not be a platform for Gymnastics Olympics qualification.

NAN reports that Ghana is not affiliated to the International Gymnastics Federation. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Ismail Abdulaziz

Foreign

U.S. approves arms sales to Taiwan worth $619m

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The U.S. has approved a 619 million dollars potential sale of weapons to Taiwan to help boost the island’s defence capability.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that the deal was Biden administration’s ninth arms sale to Taiwan, which fulfils its promise to normalise a policy to sell military equipment and services to Taiwan.

The U.S. is legally bound to support Taiwan’s defence capabilities due to the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.

U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a Wednesday statement that the deal includes missiles and equipment to be used with F-16s fighter jets, including anti-radiation missiles, air-to-air missiles and launchers.

“The proposed sale will contribute to the recipient’s capability to provide for the defence of its airspace, regional security, and interoperability with the United States,” U.S. DSCA said.

It said the deal would help improve Taipei’s security and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance and progress in the region.

In Taipei, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence (MND) expressed gratitude for the approval, adding that the deal is expected to take effect one month after U.S. Congress is notified.

MND said the deal would further help Taiwan’s Air Force strengthen its capability to defend the island’s air space in face of frequent Chinese air force incursions.

The deal is likely to draw ire from China, as it considers self-ruled Taiwan part of its territory, in spite of the Island having an independent government since 1949.

MND on Thursday reported a second day of large-scale Chinese air force incursions nearby.

Over the prior 48 hours at least 40 Chinese fighter jets were detected in Taiwan’s airspace, it said. (dpa/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Hadiza Mohammed/Uche Anunne

General News

Buhari arrives Maiduguri to inaugurate power, other projects

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By Hamza Suleiman

President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived Maiduguri as part his one-day official visit to Borno to inaugurate a 50-Megawatts Power Plant and other viable projects executed by the state government.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the presidential jet landed at the Nigerian Air Force wing of the Maiduguri International Airport on Thursday at about 11:10 a.m.

Buhari was received on arrival by Gov. Babagana Zulum, members of National and State Houses of Assembly, and some top government officials.

Other dignitaries that received the president were the Theatre Commander, North East Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK), Maj.- Gen. Ibrahim Ali, Heads of security agencies, community and religious leaders.

NAN reports that the president is expected to inaugurate the new 50-megawatts Maiduguri Gas Power plant constructed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

He will also commission the Ahmadu Bello Way, Shehu Sanda Kyari, Lafiya and Mogoram Roads, before proceeding to the Maiduguri Monday Market gutted by fire recently.

Buhari would be conducted round the scene by the General Manager of the market, Mustapha Loskorima.

The President will also inaugurate the Cancer Center at the University of Maiduguri and the newly constructed Tashan Bama Motor Park, consisting of 475 shops and an administrative complex. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Chidi Opara/Rabiu Sani-Ali

Oil & Gas

Security beefed up as Buhari unveils Maiduguri power plant

153 total views today

By Ella Anokam

Security measures have been beefed up at the Maiduguri Emergency Power Plant (MEPP) project site in Borno ahead of its inauguration by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the president will on Thursday commission the 50-Megawatt gas-fired power plant built by the Federal Government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in collaboration with Borno state government.

Maiduguri, a major city in the North-East Nigeria, was thrown into darkness due to vandalism and attacks by insurgents on the town’s critical power supply infrastructure, which degenerated into perpetual power outages.

Two major incidences of such unfortunate attacks were the destruction of three towers of electricity power lines along Damaturu – Maiduguri Road by the insurgents on Jan. 25 and March 27, 2021.

President Buhari in April 2021, directed the management of the NNPC Ltd., to restore power supply to Maiduguri and its environs.

Following engagements with the Borno government, the NNPCL embarked on a 50-Megawatt gas-fired power plant project aimed at providing reliable and sustainable electricity to the city and its environs.

NAN reports that many officials of Nigerian security agencies, including the Department of State Security Service (DSS), soldiers and police personnel have been deployed at the site.

Some para military agencies including the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Federal Fire Service are also on ground.

The officials of the NNPCL, members of the cabinet, some royal fathers and some medical teams with their equipment are also seen at the site.

The president is expected to be accompanied by the Minister of Power, Mr Abubakar Aliyu, and his Petroleum Resources counterpart, Chief Timipre Sylva, Gov. Babagana Zulum and Group CEO, NNPCL, Malam Mele Kyari.

Other top government functionaries from federal and state governments are also attending the event. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Rabiu Sani-Ali

Politics

Yiaga Africa advocates legal timelines for testing new electoral technologies

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By Angela Atabo

 

Yiaga Africa, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO), has recommended legal timelines for testing new electoral technologies in Nigeria’s electoral legal framework.

 

The CSO made this suggestion in Abuja on Wednesday in its post-election statement signed by Dr Aisha Abdullahi, the Board Chair, and Mr Samson Itodo, the Executive Director, Yiaga Africa.

 

According to the group, the testing timeline will equip the commission more to use its adopted technology effectively during election.

 

It said that for the Feb. 25 presidential election, Yiaga Africa employed the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology.

 

The CSO explained said that the organisation deployed 3,014 observers in pairs to a representative random sample of 1,507 polling units, 822 mobile observers in all 774 local government areas (LGAs), 36 states and the FCT.

 

“This deployment strategy enabled Yiaga Africa to provide timely and accurate information on the election day process commencing from the set-up, voter accreditation, voting, counting and to independently assess the official results of the presidential election as announced by INEC.

“This statement is based on reports from 1,454 to 1,507 (97 per cent ) sampled polling units in Nigeria.

 

“The PVT statistical analysis was based on the number of registered voters and not on the number of PVCs collected.”

 

It said that Yiaga Africa’s findings on the election included: late arrival of INEC officials at the polling unit, challenges with locating polling units and insufficient election materials.

 

The organisation listed others as functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), uploading and transmission of results, among others.

 

“Yiaga Africa expressed concerns about the delay in uploading polling unit results for the presidential election on the INEC Election Results Viewing Portal (IReV).

 

“Undoubtedly, the delay in uploading the polling unit-level results cast doubts on the credibility of the results management process resulting in broken public trust in electoral technology.

 

“Yiaga Africa notes that the delayed upload of the results on the IReV is a flagrant disregard of INEC’s Regulations and Guidelines, and it failed to meet citizens’ expectations.”

 

It said that Yiaga Africa also condemned the cases of violence and disruption of the voting and results collation process by thugs and hoodlums, especially the violence targeted at National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and INEC staff.

 

The group said that the creation of additional polling units was a positive and long-needed step by INEC, however the implementation failed to address overcrowding.

 

As a result, there were polling units with fewer than 10 registered voters and others with over 10,000. Some voters who were migrated to new polling units experienced difficulties locating their respective polling units.”

 

Yiaga Africa also recommended a comprehensive audit and investigation to unravel the factors that led to the delay in the upload of election results on the online portal as critical.

 

It said that persons found complicit in sabotaging the critical aspect of the election should be sanctioned.

 

The CSO also advised INEC to provide clarifications on its interpretation of key aspects of the legal framework on issues like results collation and transmission process.

 

It said that there should also be clarity on the threshold for determining the winner in an election and the commission’s power to review election results declared under duress or in contravention of the Electoral Act, INEC Guidelines and Manual.

 

Besides, Yiaga Africa urged INEC to sustain the uploads of polling unit results form EC 8A on its IReV portal. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola

General News

Nigerian businessmen urge Pakistani govt. to make business easy

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Some Nigerian delegates at the 2nd edition of the Engineering and Healthcare Show (EHCS) holding in Lahore.

 

By Maureen Okon

Nigerian businessmen and women have urged the government of Pakistan to entrench the ease of doing business to strengthen bilateral relations between the two nations.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports  that the Nigerian delegation had a meeting the sidelines of the ongoing 2nd edition of the Engineering and Healthcare Show (EHCS) holding in Lahore.

The Nigerian delegates said this at a meeting with the Special Assistant (SA) to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Mr Malik Ghulam, when he met with the  businessmen and the Nigerian community in Pakistan.

NAN also reports that, EHCS was organised by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and the Ministry of Commerce of Pakistan.

NAN reports that during the meeting some of the businessmen urged Pakistan to create a platform where they can make payments with a relative ease, adding that the protocol of business transaction was difficult.

Other speakers said the prices of pharmaceuticals products were high and urged the government to subsidise the rates of the pharmaceutical products.

Some Nigerian delegates at the 2nd edition of the Engineering and Healthcare Show (EHCS) holding in Lahore.

Mr Ibrahim Musa, the Managing Director, IBM Investment and the Leader of the Nigerian delegation to EHCS event said: ”When the government addresses these challenges, the outcome of both countries’ achievements would be commendable.”

He added that the Nigerian pharmaceutical businessmen mostly dealt with pharmaceuticals products from China and India.

Musa said: ”Jf the government will see to the price reduction of the pharmaceutical products we will patronise Pakistani products.

“We have a huge take-over, our people mainly deal with Indians and China and we believe that Pakistan is known for quality products and that is why we want to shift our market from India and China to Pakistan.

“But, our basic problem is price challenges and some are saying that the government of India and China used to assist the manufactures by subsidising their prices.

“So, we need Pakistani government to do the needful to assist business people to beat the prices in order to penetrate the Nigerian market for all parties to benefit immensely.’’

Musa also sought the support of the government of Pakistan to collaborate in setting up joint pharmaceutical factories in Nigeria to boost both countries’ existing bilateral relations.

Responding, the SA to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Mr Ghalum, assured the Nigerian delegation that TDAP would look into their concerns as it was the purpose of the expo.

“The purpose of this expo and exhibition is for business people to have first-hand interactions with manufacturers and to see the quality of Pakistani products.

“As regards to payment issue, the whole point of the event is also to identify some of these challenges that our business people are facing.

“It is also aimed at finding lasting solutions to these problems to make the ease of doing business for our Nigeria partners smooth,’’ he said. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Bashir Rabe Mani

Elections

BVAS: U.S.-based don urges elimination of human factor

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By Cecilia OIogunagba

U.S.-based Nigerian historian and Professor of Africana Studies, Apollos Nwauwa, has commended the Federal Government for the introduction of electronic voting machines, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), for real-time transmission of polling results.

Nwauwa, who is the Chairman, Nigerians Diaspora Movement (NDM),  told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in New York that when deployed as intended, the BVAS machines were supposed to check human manipulations.

The official, however, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to do more than introduction of the BVAS to proper usage in the future elections.

“We need to find ways to eliminate the human factor, the botching of results by returning and collation officers.

“We should find a way to depend more on these electronic gadgets than these returning officers who, as humans, may be induced to alter or manipulate numbers,’’ he said.

In addition, he advised that INEC should be restructured to check the powers of the chairman, saying how independent is our INEC?

“In our current structure, the INEC chairman has broad powers. As an individual, if ever he becomes compromised, we will never get a free and fair election.

“I would rather recommend that we change our electoral laws to have three INEC co-chairs instead of one consisting of chairmen/women of the three major political parties.

“Under this structure, it will become extremely difficult to successfully induce any of the chairs to compromise an election result since each will protect their parties’ interest resulting in no compromises and no manipulations.

“I wish our lawmakers can take this into consideration because this sole INEC chairman, with unrestrained broad powers, is not doing our country any good,’’ the don said.

According to him, various reports received from the country and from international observers regarding the recently concluded Nigerian Presidential election are quite somber.

Nwauwa, a director of African Studies at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, U.S., said election observers from across the world, including Nigerian Diaspora observers, report the glaring lack of transparency by INEC.

“Visual and audio evidence abound of voters intimidations and disenfranchisement as well as ballot box stuffing and snatching.

“Worse were reports of frozen electronic machines and inability of election officials to upload polling unit results as soon as polls closed; then reports of the manipulations of numbers at the collation centres.

He, however, advised the aggrieved presidential candidates to use all legal means to correct the anomaly.

“If this election imbroglio is allowed to go unchallenged, we worry that it might become the ‘new normal’ in our national live and politics.

“I would strongly plead with the Nigerian Judiciary to be ready to take up the challenge and dispense justice dispassionately. The whole world will be watching.

“The judiciary should not be compromised in any form because they are the last hope for ordinary Nigerians, especially the youths, who were so mobilised and participated in the political process than ever before,’’ he said. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola

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