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New Nigerian Newspapers Pensioners Vow To Ensure Every Kobo Owed Its Members Is Paid

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By Amos Tauna

Kaduna (Nigeria) — Irked over the loss of about 200 pensioners and the deteriorating health condition of members of New Nigerian Newspapers, NNN, its chairman, Idi Sule vowed not to withdraw the law suit stopping the owners from selling the company’s assets until every kobo due to them is paid.

“We will not withdraw the court case against the company and the Federal Government until the last kobo of the N8.8 billion areas of pensions owed them is paid,” he said.

Speaking to Journalaists at the ongoing Pensions Transitional Administration Directorate, PTAD, verification for pensioners taking place at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna, northwest Nigeria,  he noted that they have resolved not to withdraw the law suit, which since instituted, has prevented present owners of the company from restructuring it to become vibrant as it was in the past.

Sule observed that the amount approved for payment of arrears is a meagre N2.1 billion, far from the actual areas of N8.8 billion as at December 2016.

“We have lost up to 200 pensioners and up to this moment, people are bed ridden. It was a pathetic sight to behold as some came here for verification in ambulances,” he lamented.

Commenting on the verification exercise, he said they are yet to believe that the government is sincere in paying them, but are only waiting and would believe only when they receive alerts and go to the ATM and succeed in cashing money.

He explained that for 24 years, they have been in the struggle of getting their pensions.

“Initially, it was pegged at N2.1 billion but a committee set up by the Northern Governors which was headed by the Kaduna State Secretary to State Government, reviewed it and it was discovered to be N8.8 billion from January 2000 to December 2016,” he added.

Nigeria: Stakeholders Urge Gombe Government To Increase Funding Of Health Sector

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Map of Nigeria showing Gombe State
Map of Nigeria showing Gombe State
By Auwal  Mohammed,
Gombe (Nigeria) —  Gombe State Accountability Mechanism for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (GoSAM) has urged  the state government to increase budget of Health sector from the present 8.5% to the Abuja declaration of 15%.
Chairperson, Advocacy Subcommittee of GoSAM, Zariyatu Abubakar, made the call Thursday, when the group paid an advocacy visit to the state Ministry for Economic Planning.
“We are appealing to state government to increase the budgetary allocation for health from 8.5 per cent to 15 per cent Abuja declaration of April 2001.
“Also to ensure the release of at least 70 per cent capital budget to State Ministry of Health and Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency “ she said.
She also expressed the need for state government to involve Civil Society Organizations in budget planning process in the Ministry of Economic planning.
According to her, GoSAM is the leading accountability mechanism for Maternal, New born and Child Health in Gombe state.
She said, following the 2016 health budget scorecard which gives the poor pictorial information on the status of Maternal and Neonatal Health and Health budget performance in the state, something urgent need to be done.
“Inadequate resources allocation to health projects, low budgetary provision and timely release of budgeted funds for health.
“Lack of communities and Civil Society participation in budget planning “ she said.
In his response, Permanent Secretary Ministry for Economic Planning, Stephen Ayuba, said the ministry will advise Ministry of Health and State Primary Health Care Development Agency  and others to involve CSOs in budget planning.
He further appealed to GoSAM members not to relent on the good job they were doing.

Nigerian Union Of Journalists Loses Member In Gombe

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NUJ logo

By Auwal Mohammed

Gombe (Nigeria) — The Correspondents’ Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists has lost one of its member in Gombe, northeast Nigeria, Daniel Nyam Gwash

A statement made available to Journalists in Gombe on Thursday by Chairman of the Chapel Abdullahi Tukur, quoted family sources, saying, the deceased passed away at about 11am in Jos central Nigeria, following a protracted illness. 

Gwash hailed from Jos, Plateau state was the Correspondent of the Nigerian Standard Newspapers in Gombe. 

He practiced Journalism for 16 years, and died at the age of 57 years.

He left behind one wife and four children.

After Getting $1.5m Each To Save 1 Million Lives, Zamfara, Kebbi, Kaduna Have Nothing To Show For It

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By Ibrahim Sulaiman

With a combined score of 78 percent each, Sokoto and Kano states have scored the highest marks among seven North West states in the first quarter assessment of the implementation of the WHO-funded Save One Million Lives initiative in Nigeria.

States of the federation have been allocated $1.5m dollars each for the program, whose objective is to increase the utilization and quality of high impact reproductive, child health, and nutrition interventions.

A report of the performance management assessment for North West put together by the Federal Ministry of Health showed that Zamfara has the lowest score of just four percent, followed by Kebbi with 17 percent and Kaduna with 38 percent.

According to the report obtained by DAILY NIGERIAN, the best performing states are Sokoto and Kano (78%), Jigawa (71%) and Katsina (55%).

In assessing the states, the authors wrote that “Zamfara has failed to establish governance structure for the implementation of the SOML initiative.” It said the state has an agency for primary healthcare backed by law but not fully operational

It added that the poor performance of the state was as a result of its failure to constitute an implementation structure, lack of understanding of the programme and a weak health system.

On Kebbi, which had a score of 18%, the report noted that even though the initiative started early in the state, it is now engulfed in “a lot of problems.”

It said everything was delayed and the state is still far from achieving the Primary healthcare Under One Roof policy, a key component in achieving the SOML initiative.

As for Kaduna, the report commended the government for establishing a steering committee and technical consultative group, but Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s failure to endorse a move to access funds from CBN has hampered progress in Kaduna.

While commending the governments of Sokoto, Kano and Jigawa, the document highlighted that the three states have put in place governance structure with proper arrangement to monitor expenditure.

“They also have motivated leadership. Sokoto in particular has co-opted religious and traditional rulers into the campaign and the result is now evident,” it added.

The SMOL is measured based on increase in the combined coverage of six key services namely: vaccination coverage among young children; contraceptive prevalence rate (modern methods); Vitamin A supplementation among children 6 months to 5 years of age; use of skilled birth attendance; HIV counselling and testing among women attending antenatal care; and lastly, use of insecticide treated nets (ITNs) by children under five.

Apart from improving quality of care index at health center level, the SMOL initiative also ensures increased accountability, improved measurement, strengthened management, encouragement of innovation in handling health related-issues.

Curled from //dailynigerian.com

Boardgame-changer

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Former Equifax CEO Richard Smith photobombed by Monopoly ManImage copyright Getty Images

When former Equifax CEO Richard Smith was getting ready to answer senators’ questions in Washington on Wednesday, it is unlikely he gave much thought to the risk of being upstaged by the Monopoly Man.

But sitting behind him, bedecked in top hat, monocle and comedy moustache, was Rich Uncle Pennybags.

Or, at least, Amanda Werner of the campaign groups Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform, dressed as the popular board game mascot in protest against Equifax.

Image copyright Reuters
Image caption Social media users have also pointed out the Monopoly mascot does not wear a monocle

Mr Smith was giving evidence to senators following a massive data breach at Equifax, which may have exposed the personal information of more than 145 million people.

The Public Citizen stunt has captured the imagination of social media users.

Since Wednesday afternoon the phrase ‘Monopoly Man’ has been used more than 42,000 times on Twitter. Images from the protest have been retweeted, sometimes tens of thousands of times, including by finance journalists and celebrities.

As Mr Smith answered senators’ questions, Ms Werner peered intently at the proceedings through a monocle, pausing occasionally to dab imaginary sweat from her brow with a bundle of oversized notes.

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Following the former Equifax CEO into a lift, Ms Werner attempted to hand him a bag of money. On Reddit, some referred to her as “the hero we need,” while others advised “internet trolls take notes” from her actions.

Public Citizen claimed colleagues had earlier hand-delivered ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ cards – handy if you find yourself on the wrong side of the law in the popular Monopoly board game – to all 100 Senate offices.

Image copyright Public Citizen

The campaign group is seeking to highlight forced arbitration clauses which, it says, favour financial institutions rather than customers.

Under the terms of such agreements, individuals sometimes unknowingly sign contracts which prevent them from taking companies to court.

Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS

Teen on a mission

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[unable to retrieve full-text content]Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS

Nigerian Police Parade 34 Suspects In Kaduna

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ibrahim-idris-igp
Inspector-General of Nigeria Police, Ibrahim Idris

By Amos Tauna

Kaduna (Nigeria) — The State Police Command in Kaduna, northern Nigeria has paraded 34 suspects comprising armed robbers, cattle rustlers, murderers, impersonators and kidnappers in the state.

Meanwhile, one of the suspects, a 40-year-old, Moses Angah confessed killing his 84 year old grandfather and carted away N80,000.

Parading the suspects in Kaduna, the state Commissioner of Police, Agyole Abeh, said, most of the suspects were caught in the act while others were tracked through mobile phones they stole from their victims.

According to him, the suspects arrested within the past one week at various spot across the state, were among those that have been terrorising motorists along Kaduna-Abuja highway and Birni Gwari axis of the state.

He said, “We have recorded successes in the areas of armed robbery, kidnapping, murder, cattle rustling and recovery. In clear term, we arrested eight armed robbery suspects, 12 culpable homicide, nine suspects who were in possession of illegal firearms, three dismissed soldiers and one rustler suspect among ithers. We also recovered two AK 47, one locally made pistol and one shot gun.

“It may interest you to know that, we have arrested the armed robbery suspect that robbed and murdered one Alhaji Usman at his residence in Ungwan Rimi two weeks ago. Unfortunately for him, we were able to track him through the mobile phone he stole from the wife of his 84-year-old victim and you can hear from them.”

Confessing to the allegations levelled against him, the 40 year old Moses Angah, said he never knew that his victims was dead after collecting N80,000 and mobile phone from his wife during the robbery operation.

“I specialized in shop burgling. I don’t kill people and I only got to know yesterday that the man I robbed two weeks ago died as a result of injury he sustained from iron bar I hit him on the head. Hash economic condition pushed me into this mess.

“That night, I jumped through the fence of the first and second houses and left in anger when I did not get what I wanted. I then jumped into the third house where I found the man and his wife sleeping. I hit him on the head to scare him while his wife was pleading with me. The woman later gave me N80,000 and her mobile phone and it was at that point that I stopped beating her. I later sold the phone to an unsuspecting person for N10,000.

“The police then tracked the phone and the person that I sold it to later contacted me because he had not paid the N10,000 and that is how police got me arrested. Initially, I denied it that I neither know the buyer nor sell anything to him. But after he begged me to speak the truth, I had to gave in to safe the innocent man for the sake of his wife and children.

“I did not meant to kill and I’m regretting my attitude. If I can have another opportunity to regain my freedom, I will never do such a thing again in my life,” he pleaded.

lntroduce Climate Change Topic In Nigerian Schools To Reduce Climatic Diseases

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By Amos Tauna

Following the adverse effect climate change has on humans, an expert in the field, Mohammed Zakari, has advocated the introduction of climate change in Nigerian schools for students to learn about it at the early stage to save the world from climatic related diseases.

He explained that climate change has forced the emergence of more Insect-Borne Diseases that are hard to control like Mosquitoes, Ebola, Bird Flu, Cholera, Parasites, Lyme disease, Sleeping sickness, Rift Valley fever, among others.

He was speaking at the one-day workshop organised by Network of Climate Journalists reporting in Africa in conjunction with Women Hood school of Health Science Kaduna, northern Nigeria, for students in the school, aimed at sensitizing them on impact of global warming and how they could contribute to reduce the problems affecting the environment.

The expert added that the effect of Climate Change if care is not taken, there would be more diseases in the future, that will become a threat to lives and little plant in the society.

Speaking at the workshop, Nurudeen Bello, a science lecturer at School of Health Science Makarfi, said the knowledge of climate education would create more opportunities for young people and how to adapt to any environmental and natural situation.

Nurudden said, ”Our aim is to teach students more about the causes of climate change and the various ways each one of them will contribute towards saving the environment against all forms of global warming, desertification and pollution.

“The world is going green and we must join the whole world so as to save ourselves and plant.”

Some of the student that attended the training expressed satisfaction and call on more of such training programmes to enable them learnt more about global warming and climate changes in their local communities.

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