Kaduna (Nigeria)–Two members of the Kaduna State House Assembly from the Peoples Democracy party (PDP), northwest of the country, were on Tuesday suspended by the Assembly for alleged anti Assembly activities.
The suspended members are Danladi Agulu Kwasu a member representing Zango Kataf constituency and Bityong Yakubu Nkom a member representing Kaura constituency.
Their suspension followed a motion moved by a member representing Doka Gabasawa, Muktar Isa Hazo which was seconded by a member representing Kawo constituency, Abdulraman Haruna and accepted by the Members present at the plenary.
According to the mover of the motion, Kaduna State Assembly is a well known Assembly as well as being held with high integrity, as such, the members have to be suspended as a matter of urgent public importance
The House also faulted the affected members for bringing issue of party differences into the business of the Assembly thereby attempting to manipulate the House to a stand still.
The suspended members at the floor of the House however demanded to know the reason behind their suspension but were asked to go out of the Chamber.
The speaker of the House Aminu Abdullahi Shagali who presided over the plenary directed the Sergeant at arms to walked them out of the chamber which the affected members resisted, a situation that led to the adjournment of the plenary.
Speaking shortly after the drama at plenary, the member representing Zango Kataf, Danladi Kwasu said there are rules and process in which members could be suspended insisting that the reason for their suspension needed to be stated
Our Assembly Correspondent however gathered that the suspension might not be unconnected with the changes of leadership of the PDP Caucus in the House of Assembly.
According to the Correspondent a letter dated 21st November 2017 was addressed to the Speaker, informing the House of the resolution of four out of the six PDP Caucus of the Assembly effecting a change in their leadership.
In the letter, Bityong Yakubu Nkom representing Kaura constituency is now the Minority leader in place of Irrimiya Ishaku Katiok, Labari S. Tella, Jema’a constituency as Deputy Minority leader in place of Bityong Nkom while Danladi A. Kwasu, Zangon kataf as the Minority Whip in place of Samuel Uban Kato, Kajuru constituency.
The letter added that the present leadership of the PDP Caucus has no objection to their resolved position and that Katiok leadership stands dissolved.
The letter which was signed by the State Chairman of the PDP, Felix Hassan Hyat was also signed by the Four members of the PDP Caucus. These are, Labari Shelly Tella, Bareh Obadiah, Bityong Yakubu Nkom and Mr. Danladi A.Kwasu.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has pledged support for the Ghanaian Professor, Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu as a Judge on ‘list A’ at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The President of the Commission of the regional organisation, Marcel de Souza, stated this on Friday, 24 November 2017 in Abuja, Nigeria, while speaking with Edward Mahama, Special Envoy of the Ghanaian Head of State, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
He promised to inform and request the support of the ECOWAS Member States and the African Union for the candidacy of Mrs Mensa-Bonsu as a Judge at the ICC, despite the late announcement.
He urged the Special Envoy of the Ghanaian President to ask President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to make a case for the Ghanaian candidate before his African and European counterparts at the 5th African Union-European Union Summit scheduled for 29 – 30 November 2017 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
Mrs Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu and Marcel de Souza (middle)
“I will engage in necessary advocacy and lobbying with ECOWAS Heads of State and Government to support your candidacy, despite the fact that time is short because of the late announcement of your candidacy, given that the next West African Heads of State Summit will be held on December 16, 2017, ˮ he said.
Elections for ICC judges will be held from 4 to 14 December 2017, at the 16th session of the Assembly of States Parties, which will be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA.
Apart from the Ghanaian Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, on list A, the Beninese Reine Alapini Gansou is also a candidate for the post of judge at the ICC, but on list B.
Marcel de Souza expressed the hope to see the two candidates from the Community appointed to the positions which will be an honour to ECOWAS. He hoped that in future, West African citizens vying for positions will announce their candidacies well in advance.
Kaduna (Nigeria)–The Northwest Zone of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has pledged to support Prof. Tunde Adeniran in his candidature as the national chairman of the party in the December national convention.
The Secretary of the zone, Joseph Gumbari, made the disclosure in a speech at a meeting with Tunde Adeniran Campaign Organization, TACO, headed by Jerry Gana in Kaduna on Monday.
“We know why you’re here, to canvass for our vote. We’ll give you our vote. We pray you don’t forget us when you’re there. We’re in the process of putting our house together in order for everybody to be carried along,” the secretary said.
Gumbari also noted that, being the largest zone in the north, with seven states, their support for the chairmanship of Adeniran would give him an added advantage.
He said “PDP is key to development, recognition to youth and voice to the voiceless.”
Leader of the campaign team Jerry Gana, said as a result of poor governance and blunder of the ruling party, Nigerians are waiting eagerly for the return of PDP.
He said as former Minister and founding member of the party, the aspirant has enough leadership quality and experience to drive the party to victory come 2019.
TACO, which stormed Kaduna northwest headquarters, held an interactive meeting with delegates from the seven states of the zone
Titled: TACO, for new beginning, the chairmanship aspirant was gloriously ushered into Hotel 17th main conference hall, venue of the meeting, in company of the party youths, led by Danjuma Sarki, chanting songs of praises with posters of varying inscriptions and acceptability.
Accompanying the team, were some PDP top shots including, Adamu Corona’s wife, Inna Maryam Ciroma who is the Deputy national chairmanship aspirant, Haj. Adamu Maina, Jonathan Assake, as well as Kaduna state Chairman of the party, Hassan Hyat.
Others are Ekwesilieze Nwodo, Shehu Musa Gaban, Abubakar Mahdi, Amb. Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi, son of late Gen. Ironsi.
Their scheduled flight on Monday morning was delayed by 10 hours before the team decided to change their trip and leave on Tuesday instead.
They will fly to the Zambia town of Ndola before completing their trip home by road.
The reasons for the change of plans are unclear but the club are blaming the fact that their owner Moise Katumbi is the main opposition to the DR Congo president Joseph Kabila.
Katumbi has been in exile in Belgium for the last two years as he campaigns against Kabila and protests the fact that presidential elections have been delayed since 2016.
Thousands of fans had been expected at the airport in Lubumbashi to welcome the team back with their latest trophy.
“Why should a team that has just won a continental cup be denied landing rights in their own country; just because the team belongs to me?” a fuming Katumbi told BBC Sport.
“This is not about Moise Katumbi. The victory is for the Congolese people. That’s why I have been saying Kabila is bad for human rights.”
Mazembe forced a goalless draw on Saturday with SuperSport United to retain their Confederation Cup title.
Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.
“They were arrested after clashes in the area but the security situation there is now stable. They will soon be brought to Khartoum,” Gen Salem added.
Musa Hilal was appointed as an adviser to President Bashir in 2008 but they later fell out. His fighters have often clashed with Sudanese forces in Darfur.
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces said they lost 10 members, including a commander.
Musa Hilal has refused to surrender the weapons held by his militia and has also declined mediation to resolve the dispute, the report adds.
The Darfur conflict erupted in 2003 when black African rebels began attacking government targets, accusing Khartoum of favouring Arabs.
In response, the mainly Arab Janjaweed militia was accused of carrying out a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide against Darfur’s black African population.
Arrest warrants against President Bashir were issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2009 and 2010 on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Darfur. The conflict claimed at least 300,000 lives.
He denies the charge and has evaded arrest.
Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.
Kaduna (Nigeria) — Child spacing stakeholders from northern Nigeria will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday in Kaduna to discuss strategies of reducing maternal death burdens in the region.
Organised by Kaduna State government, with support from UNFPA, the conference is expected to draw about two hundred participants comprising of policy makers, health workers, the media, development partner and Civil Society Organizations among others from Northern states of the country.
“The main aim of the meeting is to build a consensus on a regional strategy for improvement of access and utilization of reproductive health services and information in Northwest Nigeria by 2018,” says a statement by UNFPA in Kaduna
Northeast Nigeria bears the highest burden of maternal deaths in the country – according to NDHS 2013, the burden is as high as 1,540 deaths per 100,000 live births. This is followed by the northwest with 1,024 deaths per 100,000 live births.
Child spacing experts say the practice can reduce these death burden on countries. The idea is to have women rest well between pregnancies.
“Today millions of women still lack access to child spacing services, yet it is known that about 30% of these deaths can be averted by improving access to contraceptives and increasing uptake of child spacing services. Fast-tracking progress to increase access to child spacing information and services is necessary to meet the national goal of reaching 36 % Contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) by 2018.
“The proposed Family Planning conference is a key moment to reflect on lessons learned, challenges slowing down progress, and to re-orient strategies focusing on equity, addressing the most vulnerable and hard-to- reach populations,” the UNFPA statement says.
In 2012, Nigeria made a commitment at the London Family Planning Summit to increase investment in child spacing for more women to access service. The plan was to have 36% of women of reproductive age in the country to start spacing their birth by 2018. In 2013, only 15% of them were spacing their births (NDHS).
Recent survey (PMA2020) shows that Nigeria is far from attaining the target. This is because the country has failed to allocate adequate resources to make services available to women who genuinely need them – a lot of these abound, especially at the rural communities.
The poor performance has led the country to review its commitment. The current national target is 27% of women of reproductive age in the country to space their births by year 2020.
The country has recently launched new National Family Planning Communication Campaign on use of contraceptives, as well as a new logo called “Green Dot”, to ensure that 7.3 million women have access to family planning.
Director, Family Health Planning, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Abebimpe Adebiyi, told journalists that the campaign, would close the contraceptive gap.
“Years after the first National Family Planning Campaign was launched, Nigeria has remained stagnated.”
“The significant gaps still persist between knowledge and contraceptive use thereby creating marginal shifts in unmet needs for family planning in the country,” she said.
Find Below the UNFPA Press Release
Regional Consultative Conference on Child Spacing Programmes and Services: Scaling Up Strategies to Achieve SDG 3 and 5 in Northern Nigeria
Kaduna: The Kaduna State Ministry of Health and Human Services, through Kaduna State Primary Health
Care Development Agency (SPHCDA) in collaboration with the Child Spacing Technical Working Group and financial support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is organizing a two-day regional
consultative meeting on Child Spacing strategies for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on maternal health in Northern Nigeria from the 28 -29 November 2017 in Kaduna.
The conference will bring together two hundred participants comprising of a wide range of stakeholders including policy makers, health workers, health educators, the media and Civil Society Organizations from the Local Government Areas of Northern Nigeria.
The main aim of the meeting is to build a consensus on a regional strategy for improvement of access and utilization of reproductive health services and information in Northwest Nigeria by 2018.
According to the 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), Nigeria is only 2% of the world’s population yet it accounts for over 10% of maternal deaths globally. Each day, 110 women succumb to pregnancy-related deaths with more women dying in Northern Nigeria.
Specifically, the North West and North East regions have the worst indices where the maternal mortality is twice the national average with over 1,500 deaths per 100,000 live births.
Today millions of women still lack access to child spacing services, yet it is known that about 30% of these deaths can be averted by improving access to contraceptives and increasing uptake of child spacing services. Fast-tracking progress to increase access to child spacing information and services is necessary to meet the national goal of reaching 36 % Contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) by 2018.
The proposed Family Planning conference is a key moment to reflect on lessons learned, challenges slowing down progress, and to re-orient strategies focusing on equity, addressing the most vulnerable and hard-to- reach populations.
UNFPA is fully committed to partnership with all States and with development partners, to leverage on our comparative strengths for more results and sustainable, impactful State-owned child spacing programmes.
As the late Executive Director of UNFPA, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, said with a call to action: “Until every girl, every woman, everybody wherever they may be, can access reproductive health services, especially family planning, the work is not done”. UNFPA remains committed to ensuring that every child birth is by choice, not by chance.
For further enquiry, please contact: Ms Mariama Darboe: 08051101852, darboe@unfpa.org; Dr. Audu Alayande: 08035368020, alayande@unfpa.org.
Media captionMeghan Markle has revealed that Prince Harry proposed on a Sunday night at home
Prince Harry says he and US actress girlfriend Meghan Markle fell in love “so incredibly quickly” and it seemed proof that the “stars were aligned”.
The fifth in line to the throne was speaking after the couple announced their engagement and plans to marry in spring 2018.
The couple told the BBC’s Mishal Husain they met on a blind date and neither had known much about each other.
Prince Harry said “beautiful” Ms Markle “just tripped and fell into my life”.
He believed Ms Markle and his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, would have been “thick as thieves… best friends”.
Ms Markle is already involved with humanitarian work and is a women’s advocate with the UN.
Camping in Botswana
The 36-year-old star of US legal drama Suits confirmed she would be giving up acting and with her new role focus even more energy on the causes that are important to her.
Ms Markle said: “I don’t see it as giving anything up. I see it as a change. It’s a new chapter.”
Turning to Prince Harry, she said: “Now it’s time to work as a team with you.”
The prince, 33, added: “I know that she will be unbelievably good at the job part of it as well.”
The couple described how they were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend, and how they got to know each other camping in Botswana.
Image copyrightEPA
“I think about three, maybe four weeks later I managed to persuade her to come and join me…
“And we camped out with each other under the stars… she came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic.”
Prince Harry said “both of us have passions for wanting to make change for good”.
Ms Markle said “one of the first things we started taking about when we met was just the different things we wanted to do in the world and how passionate we were about seeing change”.
She said it was “disheartening” there had been a focus on the fact her father is white and her mother is African-American.
“At the end of the day I am proud of who I am and where I come from… we’ve just focused on who we are as a couple.”
‘Amazing surprise’
Prince Harry revealed he proposed earlier this month during a “standard, typical night for us” at his home in Kensington Palace as the couple were making roast chicken.
“It was just an amazing surprise. It was so sweet, and natural and very romantic,” Ms Markle said.
Prince Harry said: “She didn’t even let me finish. She said ‘Can I say yes’.
“Then there were hugs and I had the ring in my finger.
“I was like ‘ Can I give you the ring?’. It was a really nice moment. Just the two of us.”
Turning to Ms Markle, Prince Harry said: “And I think I managed to catch you by surprise as well.”
The couple declined to reveal the name of the mutual female friend who introduced them in July 2016.
Ms Markle said she “didn’t know much” about Prince Harry.
“The only thing I had asked her when she said she wanted to set us up, was ‘was he nice?'”.
The prince said he had not been aware of Ms Markle before their first meeting in London as he had never watched her TV show.
Earlier, the couple posed for photographs outside Kensington Palace in London, where they will live.
Media playback is unsupported on your device
Media captionPrince Harry and Meghan Markle posed for the cameras in the garden at Kensington Palace
Prince Harry said he was “thrilled”, while Ms Markle said she was “so very happy”.
Ms Markle, wearing a white belted coat, held Harry’s hand as they appeared briefly for the press at the palace’s Sunken Garden, and showed off her diamond engagement ring.
Asked by a reporter when he knew Suits star Ms Markle “was the one”, Prince Harry said: “The very first time we met”.
The announcement of their engagement was issued by Clarence House on Twitter, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall’s official residence, and said details about the wedding day would be unveiled “in due course”.
Ms Markle’s engagement ring was designed by Prince Harry and features two diamonds which belonged to his mother.
Image copyrightGetty Images
The band is made from gold and at the centre is a diamond from Botswana.
Ms Markle said it was a sign of “Harry’s thoughtfulness”.
She had obviously not been able to meet his mother, she said, but it was “so important to me… to know that she’s a part of this with us”.
Ms Markle said she had met the Queen a couple of times and described her as an “incredible woman”.
Asked about having children, Prince Harry said: “One step at a time and hopefully we’ll start a family in the near future.”
Ms Markle grew up in Los Angeles and attended a private primary school before studying at a girls’ Roman Catholic college. She graduated from Northwestern University School of Communication in Illinois, as her acting career was beginning.
The Archbishop of Canterbury said he was “absolutely delighted” at the engagement announcement and indicated the couple would have a church wedding.
She was previously married, but the Church of England agreed in 2002 that divorced people could be allowed to remarry in church.
Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS
