Customs seizes 14 items worth over N71m in Kebbi

From Ahmed Idris, Birnin Kebbi

The Kebbi State Customs Command said it has recorded 17 seizures of assorted items worth N71, 287,056 of the duty paid value in one month.

Addressing press conference on Friday, the Kebbi Command Controller, Dr. Ben Oramalugo, said the seizures were between 15th April to 15th May 2023, adding that the arrests were made through Bunza Town to Maje axis, in the border area.

Oramalugo explained further that the effort was made through stop and search, saying that the officers were able to intercepted a truck load of donkeys’ skins and meat, along kamba border axis.

According to him, “during conveying it to the command our officers were attacked by some unscrupulous elements from the village of Bunza, which they broke the windscreen of the two patrol vehicles belonging to the command”.

He added that other items seized include: Volvo truck (6 tyres) fully loaded with 212 big sized sack and 202 small sized sacks of Donkey meat/skins.

Others are 4 used vehicles comprising 2 Toyota Camry 2013, 2 used Honda Jazz 2005, 55 bales of secondhand clothes, and 4925 liters of PMS, while 13 bags of foreign parboiled rice, 5 kegs of vegetable oil and 1 blue Volvo truck 6 tyers and 1 Toyota corolla Ash as means of conveyance among others.

“This command has steadily continued to record a boost in one of our core mandates of revenue generation in the month of April we were able to generate a sum of one hundred and twenty-seven million, three hundred and sixty-four thousand, one hundred Naira (N127, 364100)”, he stressed.

Ministry inaugurates revised service charter, honours staffers

The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has inaugurated its revised service charter.

This is to ensure rewards and efficient service delivery among the members of staff of the ministry.

Inaugurating the document on Thursday in Abuja, the Minister, Sadiya Farouk, said the charter aimed at defining the service experience its publics would have with it.

Farouk said that the revised edition of the charter was created to ensure strict service compliance in the discharge of the ministry`s responsibility to the public.

“This document is a compendium that gives an overview of the ministry, the aims and objectives of the ministry as well as mechanisms for redressing grievances”, she said.

The Minister also used the event to honour some staffers of the ministry with a prestigious award of excellence in service delivery for their outstanding performances.

“The ministry has been rendering services to millions of its beneficiaries through various programmes as such it has become necessary to recognise and reward hard working staff,`’ Farouk said.

Also speaking, the National Coordinator, Service Compact with all Nigerians (SERVICOM), Mrs Nnenna Akajemeli, commended the minister for her commitment towards providing efficient service delivery to Nigerians.

Akajemeli said that the document would remain a tool that boosts quality service delivery.

“So, implementation is key to the success of this service charter, we are also lending our voice to what you’re already doing to satisfy the citizens through service delivery“ she said

The Permanent Secretary, Dr Nasir Gwarzo, said the ministry`s mandate was to develop humanitarian policies by providing effective coordination of national and international humanitarian interventions.

“This mandate has put the ministry in the spotlight since its inception, three years ago and with the commitment of all the staffers, their skills, their focus, we have been able to serve our customers.

“The mandate also includes strategic disaster miitigation preparedness, response management.

“it also entails the formulation and implementation of a fair and focused social inclusion, as well as protection programmes in Nigeria.

“The charter was put in place in order to ensure that the ministry maintains efficient and effective service delivery to its customers,” he said (NAN)

Buhari approves immediate resumption of new governing board of NEDC

By Egena Sunday Ode

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the immediate resumption of the new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the North East Development Commission, NEDC, Umar Abubakar Hashidu and other members of the Board.

This was disclosed in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.

According to the statement, the President’s directive followed the expiration of the tenure of the former Board on May 7, 2023.

“The President has therefore directed the immediate completion of handover formalities in the organisation in order to avoid a vacuum in the day to day running of this very important and strategic Commission, pending the confirmation by the Senate,’ Shehu said. Members of the new Governing Board which has Barrister Bukar Baale as the Chairman include; Suwaiba Idris Baba, Executive Director, Humanitarian Affairs, (North East, Taraba), Musa Umar Yashi, Executive Director, Administration and Finance, (North East, Bauchi), Dr Ismaila Nuhu Maksha, Executive Director, Operations (North East, Adamawa), and Umar Abubakar Hashidu, MD/CEO, (North East, Gombe).

Others are Onyeka Gospel-Tony, Member, (South East), Hon. Mrs Hailmary Ogolo Aipoh, Member, (South-South), Air Commodore Babatunde Akanbi (rtd), Member, (South West), Mustapha Ahmed Ibrahim, Member, (North West), Hadiza Maina, Member, (North Central), the Director, Humanitarian Affairs Department of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster

President Muhammadu Buhari

Management and Social Development, Alhaji Grema Ali and a representative from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.

Stakeholders canvass abolition of female genital mutilation

Stakeholders, on Friday, called for the outright abolition of female genital mutilation (FGM), describing as it as an anomaly.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the stakeholders made the call during the launch of a book: ‘Ogorire: Our Blood, their Bond,’ written by a federal civil servant, Mr. Kunle Awojemila, in Abuja.

One of the stakeholders and wife of former Gov. Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, Mrs. Olukemi Mimiko, said:“We must shout; we must scream; we must pass the message in our cars, homes, offices and villages that we should stop FGM, until there is no one female being subjected to this horrible treatment.

“There have been cases of women who had been rendered barren because of infection from the day they were mutilated.

“There have been stories of women, after marriage, who have to be sent back for surgeries to open them up again.

Mind you, those are even the lucky ones who have the money, means and knowledge”.

Mimiko, who was the mother of the day at the occasion, said that many women had been left to wallow in tears, nights without end, because they could not satisfy their husbands on bed.

“There have been stories of women who killed themselves because of the consequences of FGM,” she said.

She opined that the author of the book should be celebrated, as he had succeeded in passing cogent messages that should be spread across every corner of the communities until FGM was totally stopped.

Also speaking, a retired Director at the federal civil service, Mr. Olowoofoyeku Olusoji, said that the book was going to add to the others earlier written on FGM.

While urging everyone to spread the message in order to stop the practice, Olusoji commended the author on the sensitisation on the dangers of FGM through the book.

The Eleriti of Eriti-Akoko, Oba Amos Ogunleye, and the Olojo of Igashi-Akoko, Mrs Mojirade Ipinaye, commended the Federal Ministry of Environment for its support to the author, whom they described as a hospitable and resolute person.

Responding, the author, Mr. Kunle Awojemila, said the book was aimed at sensitising societal segments on the danger of FGM.

Awojemila urged everyone to read and propagate what was in the book to every nook and cranny of the country for the barbaric act to be eradicated.

NAN reports that “Ogorire” is a festival in Terengo-Orisa Akoko in Ondo State and also an initiation into womanhood through circumcision.

NAN also reports that Awojemila, who was born in 1971, is a staff member of the Federal Ministry of Environment.

NAN