Chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) and Zamfara Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, on Thursday, assured increased synergy among leaders to check killings and destruction of properties.
Yari gave the assurance when he led five other governors on condolence visit to Gov. Aminu Tambuwal and people of Sokoto State over the killings that occurred in Rabah Local Government Area of the state.
He described the incident as worrisome, noting that Sokoto State enjoyed relative peace in spite of the fact that it shared boundary with some areas experiencing troubles in Zamfara.
Yari said “we were in Plateau 10 days ago and now in Sokoto for the same condolence, which signified that drastic measures were needed to stop this menace.
“As leaders, we must stand up to our responsibilities, being that most of us here are affected.
“We are losing loved ones, property and many being injured all over the affected places.
“We need to look inward because the crime is a chain that must be stamped out. As leaders, we must cooperate and evolve measures to tackle the situation.”
Gov. Tambuwal thanked the governors for the visit and concern, stressing that the number of people who died in the Tuesday attack in Rabah Local Government Area increased to 39.
He added that after 32 people were buried on Wednesday, another set of corpses were recovered.
The governor explained that such mass killing was happening in Sokoto State for the first time.
He said that “currently, there are three Internally Displaced Persons camps comprising more than 10,000 people in the affected areas.”
According to him, security personnel have been mobilised for constant patrol in the areas.”
The Governor of Jigawa, Alhaji Badaru Abubakar, led the gathering in prayer for the deceased and quick recovery for the injured.
Other governors in attendance were Alhaji Aminu Masari (Katsina), Alhaji Jibrilla Bindow (Adamawa), Alhaji Abubakar Bello (Niger) and Alhaji Kashim Shattima of Borno.
The Sokoto State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Ahmad Aliyu, Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir and Ahaji Sadiq Achida, National Vice Chairman Northwest and Sokoto State Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) as well as APC Chieftain, Alhaji Umarun Kwabo were also on the visit.
Hundreds of suspected bandits on Tuesday invaded Gandi and Mabanni villages in Rabah local government of Sokoto State and killed many people, destroyed properties.
Six workers died in a poisonous gas leak at a Brazilian-owned steel plant in India’s Southern State of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, Police said.
The accident occurred following maintenance work at the unit in the Anantapuramu district.
“While testing, they used a gas in the furnace that had large components of carbon monoxide that the workers inhaled and died,’’ senior police official GVG Ashok Kumar said by phone.
Two workers died on the scene, while four others died at the hospital, he said.
Police denied local media reports that said more workers were in serious condition after the incident.
The steel mill belongs to Brazilian firm Gerdau, a leading producer of long steel products in the American sub-continent.
Repeated phone calls to company officials went unanswered.
State authorities have ordered a probe into the accident, police said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa kicks off his state visit to Saudi Arabia this morning as he is scheduled to meet King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud.
President Ramaphosa arrived in Jeddah this morning for the visit which will present an opportunity for South Africa to increase co-operation.
“The purpose of the State Visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is to assess the status of bilateral relations, whilst focusing primarily on strengthening economic linkages between South Africa and Saudi Arabia, particularly in terms of increasing inward investment and diversifying the trade relationship,” the Presidency said on Thursday.
South Africa currently imports approximately 47% of its oil from the Arab country and regards it as a strategic partner in the Middle East.
The country is also a large investor in South Africa, especially in the area of renewable energy.
Total trade amounted to just more than R55 billion in 2017.
To further strengthen trade, investment and economic ties, including business–to –business cooperation between South Africa and Saudi Arabia, a substantive business delegation is accompanying President Ramaphosa on the visit.
President Ramaphosa is also accompanied by Ministers of International Relations and Cooperation; Defence and Military Veterans; Energy, Police and Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry. – SAnews.gov.za
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Ministers of Finance have agreed that regional integration within the finance and investment sector should be deepened.
The Ministers met under the chairmanship of the South African Minister of Finance Nhlanhla Nene on Wednesday.
“With an expanding regional integration agenda, Ministers are spearheading a process to deliver, in the medium term, additional financial resources for the region through the SADC Resource Mobilization Framework.
“In addition, having adopted the Financial Inclusion Strategy in 2016, Ministers are now focusing on ensuring its implementation,” the Ministers said in a joint statement.
The meeting in Ekurhuleni further emphasised the need to develop the financial sector by, among other things, centralising the bond markets in SADC.
The Ministers were joined by Central Bank Governors for the Peer Review of Macro-Economic Convergence of the Region. The objective of the convergence is to promote economic stability to ultimately contribute to growth and job creation.
The meeting heard how the SADC Project Preparation and Development Facility has performed well since its operationalisation in 2014, and the meeting reaffirmed its commitment to financial regional integration.
The meeting welcomed the progress made with the implementation of the SADC Integrated Regional Electronic Settlement System (SIRESS). This platform facilitates the clearance of transactions amongst SADC member states instead of using a corresponding bank.
The Ministers also emphasised the importance of harmonising tax regimes in the region to facilitate economic growth.
The meeting heard how SADC member states must work tirelessly to maintain macroeconomic stability and implement the structural reforms that will raise growth and lift people out of poverty.
South Africa is the current chair of SADC from August 2017 until August 2018.
The theme for the country’s chairpersonship of SADC is “Partnering with the Private Sector in Developing Industry and Regional Value Chains’.
A series of meetings between Ministers in various portfolios take place in between Heads of Government Summits.
The meeting of the Committee of Ministers of Finance and Investment is but one of the meetings that take place when a country has the chairmanship of SADC.
The SADC Member States are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. – SAnews.gov.za
Karl Marx rightfully observed: ‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.’
Name-calling and tossing blame is the latest scene in the Liberian trig-comedy, with bizarre cast acting in the theater of the absurd. It is now a comedy of errors as quacks and nobodies are posing as experts on the socio-economic logjam that is wrecking the country, making a complete but trashy mess of economics with unbridled audacity.
You know you are in a dark cave when yellow-bellied nonentities and bottom-feeder of the CDC and the government hurl vulgarities at decent compatriots instead of tackling the crisis that is generating a collective anger among the mass of people. What else can one expect from a party and the government that dismiss competence but embrace incompetence, inadequacy and ignorance?
It is all but clear that the regime is at a cul-de-sac. Under seven months, the Weah regime produces industrial quantities of blunders. A blunder galore and governance at the nadir are apt epithets that best characterize the regime. The whole government is in the state of collective psychosis and
mass hypnosis and thus lost in the middle. Hot air and crude verbiage have been traded with a brand of obfuscation to conceal the stark incompetence of the regime.
Economic sclerosis and political inertia with bubbling effect is the current state of affairs in the homeland and thus the regime is an unknown prisoner of its own incompetence. This is the worst form of imprisonment a body of people can be confronted with. One which is unknown and has high prospect of self-destruction.
The mass of the people have gone full cycle in the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance and thus accepted our analysis that this regime is a political bomb. The reality has changed in the social basses of the party in West Point, New Kru Town, Clara Town, Soniwein, etc. And this was manifested days ago when the people snubbed the so-called pro-poor day—a day set aside for elements of the government to display vulgar wealth to the disillusioned masses.
Now, some blame are placed on the erstwhile government which is a lofty claim to make and this writer shares similar sentiment. However, the current crisis has been exacerbated by the gross incompetence on the part of the current regime which has failed to properly use the tools of governance to assuage the disaster. All the same the government has the machinery of the state to pursue the corrupt cabal of the erstwhile regime. Should we wonder why Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and her supporting cast of plunderers have not been investigated? Should we also wonder why they openly mingle with her
in the day and seek her pieces of advice in camera? Should we also wonder why key loyalists of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf are calling the shots in this government?
Forget about the playacting and mere posturing on the part of certain elements of this government. They will bluster and blather to bamboozle the mass of people about EJS. If it were not so, why the Weah government has refused to constitute a commission of inquiry to probe into matters of the erstwhile regime of Sirleaf as was done by President Julius M. Bio of Sierra Leone against the Koroma government? Truth be told, the Weah government is an architectural design of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. She has a stranglehold on the current president. An attempt to go after her Weah will be inviting a macabre conflict which will hasten his political demise.
From the wailing and outburst of the lumpen masses and other declassed elements residing in the jungle of a capital city—Monrovia—it would be correct to conclude that Liberia is gradually getting ripe with revolutionary ferment. All over Monrovia there is a near consensus that the Weah government is a grotesque fraud perpetrated on the people.
But whining and lamentation cannot be the refuge of the masses. The mass of the people, the collective opposition, militant students and all popular democratic forces must be told that these contradictions can only be solved through the conscious class struggle. The class struggle is the motor force of history and it is what must be used to retire this predatory paternalism of a regime.
The Constitution of Liberia is clear that ‘All power is inherent in the people. All free governments are instituted by their authority and for their benefit and they have the right to alter and reform the same when their safety and happiness so require.’ Similarly, Article 17 of Liberia’s Constitution gives the people the right to assemble in order to express their grievances. There can be no better day to expose the government for the fraud which it is than to protest on Independence Day to send a signal to Weah and his band of economic gangsters that it is treading on a backward trajectory.
Against this background, the people must commit themselves to change this despicable reality. An option to remain silent is akin to self-immolation. The other path which calls for them to take action because the plunder orchestrated by this regime is due to their silence. The people must act to indicate that they have a class power in our society. Only went they wake up from their slumber and start to take class action can we carve a collective itinerary which will usher in that glorious era where the nation makes advances in art, culture, technology and engineering because there has been a conscious effort to elevate them!
Liberians of all shades, protest!
Kiadii studies Political Science with emphasis in Public Administration at the University of Liberia. He is the Secretary General of the Movement for Social Democratic Alternative (MOSODA). You can reach him through bokiadii@gmail.com.
Kaduna State Counsellor for Information and Communications, Sa’idu Adamu said on Thursday that about 800 civil servants were discovered to be working in two places within the State civil service and collecting double salaries.
Speaking during his maiden meeting with journalists on Thursday in Kaduna, Northwest Nigeria, Adamu said the phenomenon came to light during a verification exercise by the present Administration.
He said, Gov Nasir El-Rufa’i came to the State with a vision of change, explaining that the policies of the Administration so far were not aimed at witch hunting anyone, but for the overall development of the State and wellbeing of the people.
The Information and Communication Strategist stated that the government had a lot of Programmes with good intentions for the State, but in the process of executing them, mistakes could be made as human beings.
“Leaders made mistakes. It is human. Everyone has his own left and right. There are certain decisions taken by the government through political will to achieve positive results. It is normal to have issues or divergent views even among families. If there are no issues or problems then no politics,” he emphasised.
Adamu therefore Called on journalists in the state to collaborate with the Administration to forget the past and chart a new cause admitting that it was now time for the government to be proactive.
A 17 years old teenager who stabbed her brother to dead in Sabon Gari area of Kano State last month is pleading for mercy, saying she had no intention of killing her elder brother.
The teenager, Ada Olisa Okeke, who has been handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Kano State Police Command could hardly say much about the incident as tears kept falling on her cheeks intermittently.
Ada stabbed her brother, Anthony Okeke (21years) on June 29th in their residence at 82, Yoruba road in Sabon Gari area.
While speaking to Africa Prime News on behalf of the teenager, the Investigation Police Officer (IPO), Sgt Mohammed Kabiru, who is handling the case pointed out that, Ada has pleaded guilty as she has confessed to the crime and was remorseful, she kept on saying she loves her brother.
The parent who are now both the complainant and defendant are also pleading on behalf of Ada, saying they can’t loose two children at the same time, he added.
According to the Officer, the deceased took his kid sister from their parent and have been living together for over two years until when his girlfriend started visiting the house frequently which later resulted to a misunderstanding that led to the incident.
Based on Ada’s confession, Sgt Kabiru narrated that; “on that fateful day in the evening when she came back from the market, she met Anthony’s girlfriend lying down on the bed – the girlfriend warned her not to touch anything in the house, so she waited for the brother to return from work to make her report but instead of resolving the issue, he defended his girlfriend and they started exchanging words.
Based on Ada’s word, he continued, “late Anthony started beating and punching her head and she ran towards the fridge where she saw a knife on its top which she picked to threaten him to stay away from her but he rushed her and the knife pierce into his chest and he fell unconscious.
“The deceased however gave up the ghost at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital where he was referred to from the international clinic.
“Ada also said prior to the incident, she has never had any misunderstanding with her brother’s girlfriend,” the IPO noted.
Spokesperson of the Kano State Police command, SP. Magaji Musa in his remarks said the weapon used in committing the crime has been recovered and Ada will be charge to court on completion of investigation and securing of a full medical report of the deceased.
A southern Vietnam court on Thursday sentenced six people to prison for attending violent demonstrations against government plans to create three new special economic zones, officials said.
The move according to the officials could increase Chinese influence in the country.
The convicts, who were arrested in June in Binh Thuan province Phan Ri township, were charged with throwing rocks and petrol bombs at police, according to Phan Thiet City People’s Court.
Protests broke out across Vietnam on June 10, over a law before the National Assembly that would allow, under special circumstances, foreign firms to sign 99-year leases in three new special economic zones.
A vote on the bill, scheduled for June 15, was postponed until the October parliamentary session.
In spite the delay, protesters stormed a government building in Binh Thuan province on June 10, burning vehicles and fighting police. More than 100 people were arrested.
The sentences imposed ranged from 24 months to 30 months behind bars, while the only teenage defendant received 18 months of house arrest.
The court verdict said that some defendants were paid as much as 200,000 Vietnamese dong (8.66 dollars) to attend the protests, although this could not be independently verified.
A U.S. citizen Will Nguyen, 32, remains in police custody in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest city where he is being investigated for disturbing public order on June 10. (NAN)
