NEWS
Mbah Rules Out Political Correctness in War against Insecurity
From Sylvia Udegbunam Enugu
Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah has ruled out political correctness in the war against insecurity in the state, just as he reiterated his commitment to revamp social infrastructure, banish poverty and grow the state’s economy exponentially.
Mbah stated this in his keynote address at the 2024 Standing Committee Meeting of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, held in the state capital on Thursday.
“One of the oft-repeated goals of my government is the vision to grow Enugu State’s economy to one of Nigeria’s top three, and also to achieve a zero percent rate in the poverty headcount index. These are not mere posturing.
Yet, by no means did we ever assume that their attainments would require anything less than painstaking efforts.“Achieving those targets necessarily entails the fixing of critical building blocks. One of these building blocks is security.
“There is thus in Enugu State, no twiddling of thumbs or sitting on our hands in matters relating to security. In fact, there is no room for political correctness in dealing with any threat to security. We demonstrated this when we ended the illegal ‘sit-at-home’ order that a fringe gang of criminals had tried to impose in Enugu State.
“In securing Enugu State, the strategy has not been limited to the familiar deployment of security personnel to the streets and acquisition of vehicles. Cutting edge technology plays a vital role in the mix. This is no flippant claim.
“Enugu State is on the verge of launching a real-time platform where round-the-clock surveillance of major streets in the capital is done, incorporating human and artificial intelligence,” he said.
He noted that since every nation’s socio-economic fate is often closely tied to the standard of its tuition or the attention its government devotes to improving the quality of education and access to it, his administration devoted the lion’s share of the state’s 2024 budget to education, and was ramping up the establishment of 260 Smart Green Schools to prepare the children of the state for the future.
“At 33 percent of the state’s total budget for the year, our N158 billion allocation to the education sector is the highest in Nigeria – both in percentage and per capita terms. This implies that for every 100 Naira we are spending, 33 Naira goes to the education budget,” he stated.
He also restated his administration’s disruptive innovations, which he said, were currently changing the narrative and repositioning healthcare, water supply, transport infrastructure, agriculture, reviving moribund state-owned assets, boosting the MSMEs, up skilling the youth, and making Enugu State investors’ haven and preferred choice.
“In the last three months, we have secured over N300bn in investments. The growing list of investors underlines our commitment to fostering an environment conducive for business. This ease-of-doing-business climate led to revitalisation of the moribund Enugu United Palm Products Ltd, courtesy of a N100bn partnership between the Enugu State government and Pragmatic Palms Ltd.
“We have also recently secured a deal with ODK Tractors, a Danish company, for the assembly of tractors locally. The target is to assemble 300 tractors before the end of this year, and 1,000 before the end of 2025.
“Indeed, this commitment is at the heart of our recently secured N40 billion deal towards the revamp of the long moribund Sunrise Flour Mills, where the machines fell silent since 1985 – two years after its commission,” he stated.
He restated his administration’s commitment to de-risking investments, noting that the recent approval of the sum of N183bn for the construction of 141 urban roads and 20 rural roads in addition to the 71 roads earlier constructed and 10 rural roads awarded in 2023 were all geared towards improving the quality of life and ease of doing business in the state.
The governor, therefore, craved the Church’s and citizens’ continued support in the task to reinvent Enugu State.
“The path might seem tortuous sometimes; but the hint of the enormous gains the journey promises outweighs the fleeting discomfort,” he concluded.
NEWS
Police Detain Man over Alleged Murder of Business Partner in Yobe
The Police Command in Yobe, says it has detained a man, Yunus Isa, in connection with alleged murder of his business partner, Lawan Adamu.
This is contained in a statement by the Spokesman of the command, DSP Dungus Abdulkarim, in Damaturu on Thursday.
Report says that Adamu’s body was found on Sept.
15, with deep throat cut and stab wounds at Nayinawa area of Damaturu.Abdulkarim said credible intelligence led to the arrest of a prime suspect in the case, Isa, at Shago Tara near Nayinawa.
“Investigation revealed that Lawan Adamu was his employer and business partner in the engine oil trade.
“He (the suspect) borrowed N500,000 from Adamu last year with a profit-sharing agreement.
“However, when he failed to meet the agreement terms, the deceased demanded repayment.
“Isa callously murdered Adamu to avoid repaying the debt, killing him in cold blood,” he said.
The spokesman noted that the swift resolution of the case demonstrated the command’s commitment towards ensuring justice and public safety.
He said the suspect would soon be charged to court. (NAN)
NEWS
Maiduguri Flood: Over N12b Support Generated for Victims
Borno Government says it has realized over N12b cash and material donations for victims of Alau Dam flood disaster in Maiduguri.
Abdurrahman Bundi, the Senior Special Adviser on New Media to Borno Governor, gave the update on the donations for the Maiduguri Relief Fund on Thursday in Maiduguri.
Bundi said the donations came from corporate entities, state governments, State and National Assembly members, individuals, and Non-Governmental Organisations.
List of donors showed that the North East Development Commission (NEDC) donated N3b and food stuff, Aliko Dangote N2b, Aminu Dantata N1.5b, and Mohammed Indimi N1b.
Other donors were Borno LGAs; N1.
2b, Oluremi Tinubu; N500m, Bauchi and Niger states; N250m each while the people of Southern Borno donated N200m.Dahiru Mangal, Atiku Abubakar, Rep. Mukhtar Betara, Ali Modu Sheriff, House of Representatives, Abdulsalam Kachala, and JAIZ Bank states comprising Kebbi, Yobe, Kano, Taraba, katsina, Kaduna and Zamfara gave N100 each.
The Director General of the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), Buba Marwa and Matrix Energy donated 10 trucks of fertiliser and foodstuff worth over N120m each.
Those who gave N50m include Adamawa state, Mr Peter Obi, Rabiu kwakwanso, Ahmed Lawan, Mohammad Maifata, Ibrahim Umar, Mohammad Imam, Ali Dalori, Bauchi APC chapter, Sen. Tahir Monguno, and Sen. Kaka Kaka Shehu and I8th Engineering Company, while the State Assembly donated N60m.
The Nasarawa Government also presented six trucks of rice, spaghetti and sugar.
Many other people donated between N1m and N30m respectively. (NAN)
NEWS
Jigawa Reviews mid-year Performance of MDAs
The Performance Delivery and Coordination Unit (PDCU), says it has concluded mid-year performance review of Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs), to enhance good governance in the state.
The PDCU being supervised by the office of Gov. Umar Namadi, conducted a three-day retreat on the review mid-year performance of the MDAs.
This is contained in a statement by Hashim Hashim, the unit’s Stakeholder Engagement and Communication Facilitator, in Dutse on Thursday.
He said the unit interfaced with representatives of the MDAs to verify submitted data on the progress recorded against set targets in the performance bond earlier signed in January.
According to him, the workshop is pivotal in streamlining government achievements into one single scorecard and finalising the mid-year performance reports for the attention of the governor.
The statement quoted the PDCU Coordinator, Adamu Muhammad, who doubles as Public Private Secretary to the governor, as stressing the importance of the exercise in driving the manifested 12-Point Agenda of the governor.
Muhammad was quoted as emphasising the need for the members of the unit to scrutinise and fine tune all the submitted evidence for accuracy, relevance and completeness.
The coordinator lauded the FCDO-PERL programme for the support to the state government in actualising the PDCU and supporting the review process.
“The PDCU comprises of professional technocrats selected based on merit and specialisation to support the delivery of the Governor’s 12-Point Agenda”. (NAN)