NEWS In Nigeria This Afternoon, Friday, 6th Of November, 2020

HERE ARE THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS IN NIGERIA THIS AFTERNOON, FRIDAY, 6th OF NOVEMBER, 2020

Make sure you click on the FOLLOW button above to get updated when we drop more news like this. 

1. Lekki shootings: Lagos panel reviews CCTV footage

The Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up by the Lagos State Government to probe the Lekki shootings as well as complaints of human rights abuses against members of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad has commenced the review of the CCTV footage submitted by the Lekki Concession Company, operators of the Lekki toll gate.

The Managing Director of LCC, Abayomi Omomuwa, had submitted the video footage on Tuesday.

The retired Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel on Friday began viewing the footage around 11:30am on Friday.

2. Sacked teachers, others reinstated by DSS staff school

The dismissed teachers and other staff of the Community Staff Schools, Asokoro, Abuja, have been reinstated four days after they were issued letters of disengagement by the school management.

The school which was earlier shut for two weeks re-opened on Thursday while lessons were expected to commence Friday (today).

 A source confirmed on Thursday that the dismissed staff had been recalled. Our correspondent who visited the school also observed students and a few teachers on the premises.

The PUNCH had reported that the CSS owned by the Department of State Services had sacked the 140 teachers and other workers in the school for demanding better working conditions and regularisation of their appointment in line with the public service rules.

The service also asked the 1,800 pupils in the nursery/primary and secondary arms of the school to stay at home for two weeks to enable it to reorganize the school.

The DSS spokesman, Dr Peter Afunanya, in a text message on Thursday said, “The school is autonomous and not run by the DSS; it has an independent board that takes decisions for it. Though I may not be speaking for the school, I, however, learnt that no single worker was dismissed. I was also told that the school will be cutting short its earlier two-week break to resume on Thursday, 5th November 2020.”

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the Nigeria Union of Teachers has threatened to go on strike if the Department of State Services fails to reverse the sack of 140 teachers in its Community Staff Schools, Asokoro, Abuja.

In an interview with The PUNCH, the Secretary-General, NUT, Dr Mike Ike-Ene, said the union had written the authority to reverse and withdraw the sack letters.

He said, “The teachers came and we took photocopies of the sacked letters; we wrote to the authority and asked them to reverse it. If they don’t reverse the sack, all the teachers in primary and post-primary, even the private schools will all go on strike, because an injury to one is an injury to all.

“Somebody is saying give me better welfare, what you can do is negotiate. Is DSS itself not asking for better welfare? This is man’s inhumanity to man.”

Ike-Ene said that their employment was applicable to anyone in the federal civil services and so there was no justification for the sack.

3. FG to establish solid minerals processing hubs

The Federal Government plans to establish solid mineral processing hubs in the six geopolitical zones of the country.

While speaking at the 2020 Nigeria Mining Week, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, said the hubs would be cited close to the locations of artisanal miners.

He made this known while addressing the topic ‘Formalising Artisanal and small scale mining: The urgent need to formulate adequate policies’.

According to him, the ministry will consult with artisanal miner groups to understand their needs and reach a consensus on the type of processing hub they require.

“We have some interventions around mining on a regional basis. We are looking at bringing a processing centre for the artisanal miners in a particular region.

“There will be hubs in the six geopolitical zones across the country. We will consult with them before deciding on the kind of processing centre they will need.”

He noted that small scale mining in Nigeria constituted between 85 per cent and 90 per cent of the mining activities in the country.

He stated that artisanal miners needed to be encouraged to create employment and wealth for the country.

Rather than classifying them as illegal, the minister said it would be better to bring them together and provide incentives for them to thrive.

He said, ”At the ministry, we have established a remote sensing station and we are working with the satellite companies to identify areas where artisanal mining is going on.

“When that is done, we send out foot soldiers with hand held equipment, identify them, take their metrics and engage them on the benefits they will derive if they come together as a group.”

Adegbite said the government had been able to create 400 groups of artisanal miners and was making funding opportunities available to them.

“A lot of artisanal miners can’t access these funds because of the conditions. What they need now is just a guarantor to access the money and pay within a period of six months,” he said.

The Executive Secretary, Solid Minerals Development Fund, Hajia Fatima Shinkafi, stated that most artisanal miners were farmers who look for extra income in the off-farming season from mining activities in order to earn a living.

She expressed support for initiatives that aimed to equip miners with safe guides and bring them into the regulatory framework by licensing them and opening bank accounts for them.

She said, “Formalisation is not an easy task. It is not profitable and not what a private sector investor will find appealing. It needs a multiple pronged approach and there should be a collaborative effort and huge politically will from all stakeholders involved.”

Also speaking, the Managing Director, Nivek Mining, Kevin Joseph, said safety, environment, trust, care and excellence were important in any mining activity.

He stated that Nigeria mining projects should benefit communities and should be facilitated by the Federal and State Government.

This, according to him, will ensure continuous employment for people and create a safe mining environment.

4. Governor, political stalwart in verbal war over COVID-19 palliatives

What started as an innocuous comment on a local radio station in Adamawa State has now assumed a serious face-off, putting the first citizen of the State, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri and an opposition figure, Alhaji Husseini Gambol, of the All Progressives Congress, at loggerheads.

In fact, neither the governor nor his accuser had contemplated that this would spiral into a major verbal confrontation, threatening to consume both of them politically and otherwise.

The APC stalwart, Alhaji Gambol had in a programme of a private radio station criticised the governor over the way and manner the palliatives meant to cushion the impact of the raging COVID-19 pandemic were distributed in the state, which he claimed sparked the recent destruction of private and public property in the state.

If Gambol had thought the governor would take the comment he made lightly and move on as one of the normal political issues of the day, he was mistaken.

An aggrieved Governor Fintiri reportedly called Gambol on his mobile phone and threatened to deal with him if he ever mentioned his name on the issue of COVID-19 palliatives.

The governor, it was learnt, was shocked to his marrow when he suddenly discovered that his phone conversation with the APC stalwart had gone viral, thereby exposing what he said privately to the opposition politician to the global community, a development that attracted immediate widespread condemnation.

Like a whirlwind, the issue soon created ripples within and outside government circles and became the talk of the town for days, prompting the governor and his handlers to distance themselves from the viral material.

The governor even denied ever threatening the APC top shot on the phone, claiming that his conversation with Gambol was ‘doctored’ by his traducers for political gains.

The Director-General Media and Communication to Governor Fintiri, Mr Solomon Kumanga, said the governor, being a humane and God-fearing man could not have issued any threat to the Gambol over a public issue.

The DG described the report as sheer fabrication and a brazen attempt by social media agents of the opposition in the state to mislead the public. In the viral audio clip, Fintiri was heard in Hausa swearing by Allah to deal ruthlessly with Gambol if he didn’t stop mentioning his name in the media.

The governor, who seemed to be brimming with anger from the tone of his voice, promised to use his vantage position to deal with the APC man. “I swear by Allah that I will deal with you ruthlessly if you ever speak about me. I promise that nobody can rescue you from my wrath in Nigeria,” the audio claimed.

During the 39 seconds altercation, the governor repeatedly threatened to deal ruthlessly with the chairman of the Adamawa Concerned Citizen, a pressure and rights group in Adamawa State, if he did not stop mentioning his name.

When the threats became unbearable, Husseini Gambo asked the governor the reasons behind his anger, only to receive more threats.

Disturbed by the controversy generated by the viral audio, a group is known as Adamawa Global Trustees, dragged Gambol to a Magistrate Court sitting in Yola for allegedly defaming the governor and promoting instability in the state.

However, when the case came up for hearing, the presiding Magistrate, Rejoice Dattire, dismissed the case for lack of evidence against the accused person.

The Magistrate ruled that she invoked section 352 sub-section 1 of the Adamawa State Criminal Justice law to dismiss the case.

Reacting to the judgement, counsel to the APC politician, Husseini Gambol, Barrister Desmond Adebole, said the court had no option than to dismiss the case because the complainant failed to show up in court.

5. Tank Farm fire: LASEMA urges calm, says fire under control

The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) on Thursday night urged Lagos residents around Ijora Badia, where Oando Tank Farm is located, to remain calm as efforts are being made to put the fire which occurred at the facility under control.

LASEMA Director-General, Dr Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, said in a statement that a combined response team, made up of public and private stakeholders, had successfully localised the fire and prevented it from spreading to other sites.

He said the tank farm, which has a storing capacity of 7.5 million litres, caught fire at about 12:20 p.m. on Thursday.

He said it was currently burning off in a controlled manner following the activation of the state’s emergency response plan.

“All appropriate measures to combat the flames and prevent secondary incidents have been taken.

“Though the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, all relevant stakeholders from the Federal Fire Service, LASG Fire Service, Nigerian Navy Fire Fighters, UBA Fire Service, Forte Oil Fire Service and Officers of the Nigerian Police Force are working assiduously to curtail the fire from escalating to other tanks in the depot,” he said.

Oke-Osanyintolu noted that so far there has been no loss of life or injury resulting from the fire outbreak.

6. El-Rufai: destruction in Lagos moved me to tears

Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai on Thursday said the destruction he saw in Lagos during the EndSARS protest moved him to tears.

He praised his Lagos State counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for quickly stopping the protest as it degenerated into violence.

El-Rufai spoke in Lagos when he visited Sanwo-Olu to empathise with him on the mayhem that occurred in the state during the protest against police brutality.

The Kaduna governor said those who thrived by violence infiltrated the hitherto peaceful protest to achieve their agenda of causing large-scale destruction on public and private assets in the state.

He said: “I have spent time to see some of the pictures of the destruction done on public properties in Lagos and I nearly shed tears. Anyone who cares about development and progress will cry after seeing what has been done to public facilities and people’s investments that provided jobs to youths.

“While expressing anger on police brutality may be right, but destroying public properties, which will have to be rebuilt by using money that is needed to invest in other public infrastructure, under the guise of protest, is nothing but self-destruction.

“The Lagos and the Federal governments will have to re-invest scarce resources that could have been used for other things to rebuild the vandalised facilities.”

Also, Sanwo-Olu has advised fellow state chief executives to avoid unnecessary spending so that they could have more resources to meet the basic needs of the people.

Sanwo-Olu spoke on Thursday at the 22nd annual Tax Conference of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) at Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The governor stressed the need for better utilisation of tax payers’ money by public office holders to build the trust of the citizens.

He said fellow governors need to work for a better reform process.

Sanwo-Olu, who claimed that he had not bought any new vehicle for himself since he assumed office on May 29, 2019, said it is not fanciful that governors must buy brand new vehicles when there is no need for such.

“We need to look at our expenditure profile as Chief Executives of our states and ask ourselves: where can I cut the red tape? What can I do away with so as to increase the revenue of my state or even make available more money for my state?

“What I have done till date is that I have not purchased any single official vehicle for myself, for any of my personal staff or any of my family members from the government purse. If you see me have a convoy of 10 vehicles, these are all vehicles I was using during my campaigns.

“Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai joined me in one of my cars this morning and I can tell you that vehicle was one of the vehicles I used for my campaign; it is not brand new.

“So, I said to my people that it is not a fanciful thing that every governor must begin to buy brand new vehicles when you do not need to. So, all of those millions have gone back into the treasury of the state and we are using it to develop the state very well.”

What's your opinion on this? please drop your thoughts in the comment section below and don't forget to click on the follow button to get more contents from us.

Please maintain social distance, wear your face masks, wash your hands regularly with sanitizer for prevention is better than cure.

Stay Safe.

Happy marriage life