4 news extra
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Group News Editor: Tony Amokeodo Jega, National Commissioners To Supervise Ekiti Election Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Attahiru Jega is to lead top ranking officials of the Commission to Ekiti State for the conduct of the June 21 governorship election. The State’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Alhaji Halilu Pai, made the disclosure yesterday in Ado-Ekiti while receiving members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists/Nigerian Bar Association Peace initiatives on Election in his office. He said Jega’s decision to be in the state during the election was borne out of his commitment to ensure a thorough and hitch-free exercise. The commission chairman, according to Pai, would be accompanied to the State by six national commissioners and supported by all the RECs from neighbouring states. He said the team, apart from the conduct the poll, would also supervise the electoral exercise in a number of places across the state to ensure the credibility of the poll. Pai stated all measures had been put in place to guard against the late arrival of electoral materials at polling units. By Alo Abiola, Ado-Ekiti
Recomposition Of Reps Leadership, Plot To Weaken Opposition –Gbajabiamila The leader of the minority caucus in the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, has described the recent call by APGA, Accord and Labour party representatives to have their parties reflected in the leadership as an attempt to weaken the opposition in the House. The lawmaker said in a statement released by his aide, Mr Olanrewaju-Smart, yesterday that the move was laughable and a twisted logic aimed at undermining existing House rules. Describing it as “wishful thinking,” he said such a change will not come as the House rules does not provide for it. Going further he stated, “Who is fooling who? APGA and LP make partisan democracy in Nigeria a joke. “They are PDP for all intents and purposes: they hold meetings with PDP, vote with them on the floor of the House and at the governors’ forum election. They have adopted President Jonathan of the PDP as their presidential candidate. Where in the world is that done?” By Adesuwa Tsan and Eegbe Odemwingie, Abuja
All Progressives Congress (APC) local government chairmen and executives Niger State with the founder, LEADERSHIP Group, Sam Nda-Isaiah (middle, front row) during the party’s meeting in Minna, yesterday.
Boko Haram: Widows, Elderly Victims Take To Begging In Borno, Yobe By Kareem Haruna, Maiduguri
Locals who had lost their bread winners or got displaced as a result of the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency have now been forced to take to begging in the streets of Borno and Yobe states, LEADERSHIP reports. Men and women who have become circumstantial beggars have become a common sight within the city of Maiduguri and Damaturu, capital cities of Borno Yobe states respectively. They also beg on the highways. A large number of them are women who have lost their husbands in the ongoing insurgency. They go from office to office, or position themselves in front of eateries and shopping centres and beseech any person that comes around for alms to feed themselves and their children. A young woman, Ya’ana Mustapha, about 30 years old, told LEADERSHIP that she lost her husband when gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram at-
tacked Benisheik town some months ago. “They killed my husband and his two brothers. My father in-law is a very old man who was depending on his children to feed, but now all of us have been displaced after they burnt down our home and my husband’s petty provision shop in Benisheik last year, “I am left alone with six children. My parents are poor, too. I don’t have anything to do than come to Maiduguri to ask for alms, since no one has asked for my hand in marriage,” she said. Though the number of widows-turned beggars has been on the rise, even the male folk are not left out in the increasing stream of streets and highway beggars. Travelling between Maiduguri and Damaturu gives a better testimony as to how the ongoing insurgency has badly affected the socio-economic fabric of the affected states. It is now a common sight to come across elderly men, not the vi-
sually impaired or crippled, begging for alms. LEADERSHIP gathered that these old men and women were once responsible persons being catered for by their children in their various homes before the Boko Haram gunmen destroyed their homes and livelihood. “Most of them have either lost their children who are bread winners or have been chased out of their communities by the insurgents”, Muhammed Benisheik, a resident of Ngamdu, a border village between Borno and Yobe states, told LEADERSHIP. “You see, many towns and villages have been attacked in the interior, just like they did to Benisheik and Mainok towns. Those that lost their homes fled to Mainok or Benisheik or even here at Ngamdu. Most of them, like the old ones, don’t have anyone to depend on or any place to go, so the only means of survival is to stand along the highway and beg for alms.” LEADERSHIP observed how
aged villagers position themselves near military checkpoints and take advantage of vehicles being stopped for routine checks to ask for alms. “We cannot go to farm because the insurgents have taken over the bush - no one can go to farm again; in some places, people did not farm in the last one year, so there is hunger now,” said an elderly man, Masta’a Goni. A soldier near at checkpoint along the Kano-Maiduguri highway said: “Today, the number is even small. Sometimes, they are over 100 that will come and gather here, begging all day. Initially, we tried to disperse them each time they come nearer, but later we found out that they are harmless - they are just poor villagers who had lost their homes and relatives in these attacks. What we do now is to share them - some on the other side of the check-post coming from Damaturu and another group would stand along the side coming from Maiduguri.”
APC States Top Presidential Scholarship Award Winners By Kuni Tyessi, Abuja
Despite the ongoing saga concerning the presidential scholarships and the key players including members of the National Assembly and the National Universities Commission (NUC), the federal government yesterday went ahead to announce winners of the scheme with the APC states of Ogun and Osun topping the list with 17 and 15 candidates respectively out of the 104 beneficiaries.
The beneficiaries are aged between 20-22, all having first class honours in selected disciplines, will be undergoing different Masters and Doctoral courses. During the presentation of certificates, the supervising minister of education, Barr Nyesom Wike, said “this is the first time in Nigeria, we have a programme whose selection process is purely on merit.” He further stated that 28 females and 76 males made the cut this year and that they have
all “demonstrated extreme intelligence judging by their performances.” He congratulated the 629 shortlisted candidates but expressed regret that the body could not award the scholarships to all of them because of cost. The executive secretary of NUC, Prof Julius Okojie revealed that out of 2,000 entries received, 104 were finally selected after a highly competitive process which was done purely on merit. He said, “The last NEEDS as-
sessment of the universities reports that only seven universities have up to 60% of their academic staff with PhD degrees. PRESSID will help us to increase the number of PhDs in our university system.” The specified disciplines include sciences, basic medical sciences, special aspects of biology, economics, engineering and technology as well as medicine while the countries selected for study include USA, UK, Canada and Australia.