COMMUNITY NEWS ,
onagnc Oiliekan OlabuJa, Lagos
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H E Senat o r tepre senting Ogun West senatoria l dis trict, Akin Odu"si, has enjoined res ide nts of th e district to brace up (o r ag ri culture. w h ich lecording to him. will help in uplUting the people of the area. The ~nalor also called on the Preside nt , Dr Good lu ck Jo n a than, 10 look critically into the issue of power, outing thOl I regu lar power s u pply would alle\' ja!c thE" problem of lmemployment In the oounlry. The senato r . while speakillgduringthe stakehulders meeting wilh the people of the five differenl loe., 1 go"e mme nts Ihal
h,~~:d Uih,:"f,."::~~I~
o rganise a workshop on agricultuft>asn w.,y ofel.... gaging his people. He s tated that the worksho p would serve as a way of galhering materials to be used in the :f~I~I:~~~~ 't1:::ro::: the int.... ~t of the peuple ~~!~e d ist rict in agriculSenator Odunsi, while spcaking BUheAdo--Odo Ota Loca l Govern ment meeti ng. noted thai women and yo ulh e mpowermen l issues should be !<Iken very seriously and therefo re , ~romised (Iuarlerly grants
nees.s u mm oningof5ecutily o,iefs o\'er the oonlinued security threa ts posed by the BokoHanun sect. the rainfall o f 10th of July, 2011 and the consequences, especia lly in lagos., the mo tion on Pri vat iz ati o n and th e
subsequent sell ing up of an Ad -hoc Comm ittee to invesligate priva tisation processes in the country. wcre the major activities that he took part in. He. however. decried the m a rg ina li zat io n of the district, especially at the na t ional level. lamenting tha t .. we are not getting our share of appointments. It is fai r 011 the sta le level but at Ihe fed eral level. we did nol get an\' considerallon!' '
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Fish farmers m Oyo want disease control laboratory F
IS H farmers In Oyo S lat e have appeal e d to th e s~ate gove~nment to. as· 51s t them m es tabli s h· ing a £is h disease con· Iro l laboral o r}' in Ibadan . Mr Ayodele Oyeniyi. Vice-Chairman, Catfish Farmers Association (CAFAN) Oyo S tale chapte r. made the ca ll in Ibadan in an inte rview with the News Agl!J1t'Y o/Nigeria (NAN). Oye nl yi contended thai the es tablis hme nt of the laboratory would
perie nced members o f the associailo n had o n their own, done a lot to control diseases aHeci. . h ' f h k
II1g" ~V:l rh~~/~':p~rts.
who h .. ve gone "ery far in di sease cont rol and a re .. ble to train othe r members to idenlify these di seases and control th em," Oyeniyi sai d . He, however, sa id h h ' t a t I e experumce garnered by 50me members o f th e association in identifying and control ·
labo ratorybylheslate g ove rnm en t wo uld h e lp to redu ce th e morta li ty rate o f f ishes " If ' we can ha ve s uch a fun ctiona l
h l aboratory . i n tme s t ate. the fis h ~ar In'S buslll ess Will be d eve l oped .an d th e welfare of fis h farmers w ill be improved," Oyeniyi s aid .
HE Fadamn III Nigeria (NAN) in Mubi project has dis recently that the monel' bursed N1.8 mil- was dist ribu ted u nd er lion to four fa rming com- the phase I of disbursemunities In Mubi South men I si nce inception of Local Government Area the programme. of Adamawa State. Solomon s a id the The Project Desk Of- .. mounl was disbursed 10 fi cer. MrsLydia Solomon, the benefiting communito ld the NeWll Agency of ti es to enable them en ·
gage in fi shery, poultry and ot he r economic acliltjties. She named the bcnefil ins g ro ups as KwedonSa le. Wo me n of Ziun. Yukur and Mwibiki. The dC5k officer added that about 137 Fadama User Groups (FUGs), wllh
the1rslockcouldnotbe effiCient and tlm e-sa,,ingasmalabora lory. Th e CAFAN chai rman told NAN that the establis h ment of ri s h d isease control
Fadama disburses Nl,8m to 4 commuru'ti'es m' Mubi T
t~~t~he people of the dis- ;~~~~eceh~~gl~~~:I~~; lirn:=~ooIlaboratimwithmnnl!)fnrc!cnoilspills :~;~ ht~~~n7r!~i;;ee;;
lie, ho",:ever, infonned iheinrugenes of the district that strictconditions\Vould be put In place in ItCCCSSing Lhe 'sofi.Io..'lIlS' that will be provided and adminis. ten!d by theomdals atsenatorial offlO! inOta. ll1esenato r. wllile giv. ing his rerorts of lhe proceeding at lile senate, info rmed the people of the d istricts thllt : lhescreening of millisterial nomi-
and healthy (ish. He said that like hu· man be ings, fis hes were a lways infec ted with diseases . Oyeniy i sa id some diseases affec ti ng .fishes could not be detected wi th the naked eyes unless with the usc of sophisticated laboratory equipme nt. He sa id thM some ex-
' warne d to renew exptre ' d MotOrJ.sts vehides' particulars in Katsina
H E Po li te COm mand in Kalsi na 1l01$ wamed moto ris ts whosO! ,'ehide particulars hrwe expired to r.... new them o r face the wrath of the law. The warning is con· ta ined in a s ta temenl by the s ig ned command s Public Relatlon Qrfittr (PPRO). ASP M u ham mad Muhammad. w ho lurthe r wa med mo torists • who were in the habit of driving umegistered 'Iehides and moloTcydes in . the s tate ~o desist from \ doing so or have their vehides imFou.nded.
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"The co mmand wishes to draw the attentio n of me mbers of the pub~i c t~ the. unrestricted blaring of Siren and revo l'ling lights by some motorists and warned such molorists to ~esis l fr o m such acts, the statement .added. According to the statemenl, police patrol ope.ratlons will soon be earned out in the state to ensure the a rrest and prosecution or offenders. II called on the people Of. the state to coo~r~{(' With the command III Its con lin u ~d e fforts to ensure a mme- free society.
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T H E ooastal commu nilies nea r Q ua I boe oil fie Id s in Akwa Ibom Sta te have c.,lled for a close working relationship with oi l ind ustry regula tors to rt'· du~ the environmen tal impact of oil production. The comm uniti es spoke through their representatives in separate Inlen'le(\-s wilh the News ApteyofNigerill(NAN)
in Eket recently. Chief Ekpu Johnson, National President. Ekid Peo pl es' Un ion (EPU) urged Ihe Na ti ona l Oil Spills Delection and Rt"sponse Age ncy (NOSDRA) to pa rtne r with hosl communities to make their job easier. Johnson told NAN that the coastaJ communities were willing to Ilssist NOSDRA In its bid to re-duce the fTequ ency and impact of oil spills. According to him, " we in the coastal communi· ties that suffer the impact of oil spills feel a great re-He! with thi s develop-
ment. · \V . t e p' e d ge t0 assis NOSDRA an d 0 th erregulators in the oil ind ustry in Ihe discharge of their duties. -rhe entire o il fi eld is known to U 5 and each lime a spill happens our fishermen are the firsl to know. " U we work loge ther with the regulators we would be ab le to s ho w them the exact spols. "The implica tion will be Ihal the response time is ~uced and less hann would be done 10 our en· vironment," Johnson said, Also in its reaclion, A£igh Iwaad Ekid, a sociacultural youth group in Akwa tbom, said it would collaborate with the regulators to ensure that exlstIng leglslaHons relating to the environmen t were complied with. Obong lwaad Bassey Nkanag. prf!'Sident of the group, sald that oil produdng communities were emboldened by the enact· ment of the' Nigeria Oi l
.. nd Gas Content De\'elopment Law, 201 0, i ve d "We h ave reso Ihat we shall no longer be o nlookers in the affairs tlmt go on within our rom· mun ities. "We shall participate and takeadvanlageofthe law and eMure that we gel maximum benefit (rom the oil industry. "We ha ve set' in 010tion the machinery to en· su re that all com panies that operate at the Qua Iboe Oil fiel ds which fa U within o ur land comply with Ute law. ~We have engaged the m:Jnagement of Mobil Producing Nigeria . The next phase of our actlvities would involve o ther servicing companies that do business at the Qua Iboe oil fields. "They are compelled by law to have thei r project offices within the communities; when they do so,employmenlopportu nit ies will naturally spring up." Nkanag said.
in the area. According 10 her. the p",,'eet has .. Iso embarked o n a sens iti sa tion cam. paign to educate commu. nitles and promote par. ticip.. tion in the exercise. "We embOlfked o n g rass-roots mobili sation to crea te awarf!'nt'SS and educate communities un how 10 participate in the programme. "The campa ign also fo~u ses on tra ining the benefiting communi ties on how to draw up proposal s for projects and ens ure effective utili satio n of fund s, " Solomon said . She urged thl" communiti es to form a ssociations to enable them benelit from various faciliti es ini tiated und e r th e project. The desk oHicer also called o n the local government council to pay its coun terpa rt fund to Ihe project to enable the communities access the fund eannarked for socio-economic development of rural communities.