From Mike Tayese, Yenagoa

The people of Amatu 2 Community in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, have appealed to the State government to come to their aide, saying that for the past three years their children have not been attending classes both at the primary and secondary school level due to the unavailability of teachers and corps members.

While making the appeal in Ekeremor Town, Mr.

Jerry Samasuode, a leader of the community, said they have written several petitions to the State Ministry of Education, State Universal Basic Education Board and Post Primary Schools Board to draw attention of government to their plight but no action has been taken for the past three years.

He said the situation is so bad that children of the community have forgotten their academic calendar as they don’t know when schools will resume or close for holiday, and that they fear that if nothing is done urgently to save the situation their children may grow up to become a problem to society.

Explaining further, he said “about five years ago corps members used to cover up for unavailability of teachers but today they also abandoned us. Both the teachers and corps members that were posted to the community used to complain about distance and poor standard of living as excuses but today there is a road from Yenagoa to Ekeremor.

“So, today distance should not be an excuse. Concerning the issue of poor standard of living, the community made an effort by providing accommodation, food and stipends to encourage them even though that is not part of our responsibility. Yet, when they are posted to our community, they will lobby officials to redeploy them to urban cities.

“Most of the teachers who work their redeployment to urban areas, told us that they are doing so because the government does not pay them rural posting allowances, even though we made money available for them to cover up for that but they have refused to come to our community. Yet, they will say education is the bedrock of development.”

From Sylvia Udegbunam, Enugu

The Executive Chairman of Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board (ENSUBEB), Associate Professor Hyginus Banko Okibe has flagged off the 2022/2023 Agricultural Education training programme for head teachers, teachers, and pupils at Independence Layout Primary School, Enugu.

Professor Okibe emphasized the importance of agriculture for economic development and growth, stressing that the country’s major problem is hunger due to people not engaging in farming activities anymore.

He noted that schools should be exposed to agricultural skills and technology; he however announced that there will be an agricultural trade fair, where produce from all schools will be showcased.

The Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro Industrialisation, Dr. Patrick Nwabueze Ubru, in a keynote address, highlight the importance of agriculture, stating that without it, there will be no life.

He disclosed that 12,000 bags of fertiliser will be distributed to registered farmers in the state and noting that non-farmers will not receive farming inputs and fertilisers.

Ubru reiterated that agriculture occupies an important space in the Governor’s vision and manifesto as one of the developmental areas for reviving the economy.

He said that Enugu State has introduced dry season farming with solar pumping machines and embarked on three-cycle rice production, making it the largest producer of cassava in the country.

He further disclosed plans to establish agricultural processing industries in the three senatorial zones of the state.

Dr. Amaka S. Ngene, Executive Chairman of STVSMB and former Permanent Member of ENSUBEB, appreciated the guests and emphasized that the agricultural education training programme is child-centered, aimed at making agriculture a future career or hobby for the pupils.

She enumerated the objectives of the training, including the provision of requisite skills for self-employment.

Hon. Nwakaego Ajah, Permanent Member 3, thanked the Executive Governor of Enugu State, the Executive Chairman of ENSUBEB, and UBEC for the initiative in making Agricultural Science more practical-oriented at the Basic Schools.

She urged the learners and teachers to take the training serious and also promote their dignity in labour.

 The event featured lectures on food crops, planting, and care, and the distribution of farm inputs and plants to various schools.

The highlight of the occasion was the decoration of Dr. Amaka Ngene by the Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro Industrialisation.

 The Police said they have arrested three suspects over house breaking, robbery of gold and other valuables in Abuja.

The Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said this during a media briefing in Abuja.

He added that the suspects were arrested following an investigation by operatives of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT).

ADejobi said further investigation revealed that the prime suspect in the case was a fish trader at the Kado fish market in Abuja.

He said the suspects had raided three houses in the Lugbe area of Abuja before getting to the fourth house where they jumped the fence and used a motor jack to expand the bars of the burglary.

Adejobi said the suspects expanded the bars of the burglary and had access into the house where they searched for items they could steal.

He said in the process, they found a safe in the house, went away with it and used a hammer and chisel to break the safe forcefully and found money, documents and gold.

“Upon the discovery, the prime suspect contacted a buyer to dispose of the items where he realised over N60 million after selling the items,” he said.

Adejobi said operatives of the IRT had also arrested 16 suspects in connection with theft and robbery of motorcycles and tricycles in Plateau.

He said the suspects, who were particularly involved in moving around at late night, picking up any tricycle parked without supervision, were arrested following credible intelligence.

The police spokesman said the suspects were also involved in moving around and stopping motorcyclists on the road while parading themselves as police officers with fake identity cards.

He said the members of the syndicate, who posed as policemen and accused motorists of late night movement, were engaged in confiscating motorcycles and telling them to go to the nearest Police Division to retrieve the motorcycles.

He said the suspects had so far stolen several motorcycles which they had sold to the receiving group in their syndicate.

Adejobi said police operatives had recovered eight motorcycles and 11 tricycles from the suspects.

He said police operatives had in the past six weeks arrested a total of 1,284 suspects over the offences of armed robbery, kidnapping, rape, homicide, cultism and other criminal offences.

Adejobi said 307 of the suspects were arrested over armed robbery, 296, kidnapping, 301, homicide, 176, rape and defilement, and 204, cult related offences.

The police spokesman said 284 firearms, 6702 ammunition of various calibres, 107 vehicles were recovered from the suspects while 97 kidnap victims were rescued during the period under review. (NAN)