About four hundred bloggers in Anambra State and Southeast will grace the forthcoming Bloggers Summit taking place in Awka, the Anambra State capital.
The Summit is organized by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Anambra State Council in partnership with Life International Hospital, Awka. It will take place at the Godwin Ezeemo International Press Center, Awka on Friday July 8, 2022.
The Summit themed: ‘Managing Information Crisis in the Era of Citizen Journalism’ is expected to drill bloggers on managing information especially in the period of information crisis.
The event will be chaired by the National Vice-President of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Demian Okeke-Ogene, while the keynote will be delivered by Chinelo Ude-Akpeh, PhD, a Senior Lecturer & HoD Research & General Studies at NTA Television College, Rayfield, Jos, Plateau State.
Speakers at the Summit will include: Anambra State Commissioner of Police, CP Echeng Eworo Echeng; Director DSS Anambra State, David Enoch Pawa; and former MD/CEO, Anambra Broadcasting Service and Chairman Umunna Media Ltd, Chief Uche Nworah, Ph.D.
However, a ‘Special Talk will be delivered by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Admin) Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka and founder Life International Hospital, Awka, Professor Joseph Ikechebelu on In Vitro Fertilization (IVF); an emerging type of assisted reproductive technology.
Distinguished guest of honour and Executive Governor of Anambra state, Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo is expected at the event; while other special guests are Anambra State Commissioner for Information, Chief Paul Nwosu; and Mazi Ejimofor Opara, the Senior Special Adviser on New Media to the state Governor.
Catholic Archbishop of Onitsha and, Metropolitan of Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province, His Grace Most Rev. Dr Valerian Maduka Okeke is the Spiritual Father of the day, while HRH Igwe Chris Onyekwuluje, (Nya 1 of Umunya) is the Royal Father of the day.
The event will feature panel discussions led by Dr Henry Duru – Lecturer, Department of Mass Communication at UNIZIK.
Other invited discussants are: Cornel Osigwe – Publisher www.anaedoonline.ng; Chief Chuka Nnabuife – MD/CEO Anambra state Newspapers and Printing Cooperation, publishers of National Light Newspapers; and Dr Obiorah Edogor – Lecturer, Department of Mass Communication, UNIZIK.
The event is scheduled to commence at 9:30 am with registration expected to last from 8:00am – 9:00am.
A Westminster Magistrates Court in the United Kingdom, on Thursday, ruled that David Nwamini Ukpo, the alleged kidney donor for the daughter of Senator Ike Ekweremadu, is not 15 years old.
It was reported that the Ukpo has admitted to the court that he is 21 years old and had been in the UK since February but only presented himself to the police in May.
The counsel for the defendants has also denied the allegations of exploitation laid by the alleged victim.
The case was adjourned till August 4, 2022.
Senator Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, have been remanded in custody until the next hearing.
Present at the hearing were some members of the Senate and delegates from the Nigerian High Commission.
Also present were former Senate Minority Leader, Eyinnanya Abaribe, former Senate President, David Mark, former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Adamu Bulkachuwa.
Doyin Okupe, the Peter Obi‘s campaign Director General who was previously serving as the Labour Party’s vice presidential “place holder” has submitted his withdrawal letter to the INEC.
Doyin Okupe made the announcement via his official Twitter page…
Nigerians and millions of #OBIdients globally await the announcement of the real Vice presidential candidate to enable the task of “saving Nigeria” from total collapse begins.
Chukwuemeka Ohanaemere, predominantly known as Odumeje, is a Nigerian clergyman and general overseer of The Mountain of Holy Ghost Intervention and Deliverance Ministry and a musician.
His church was previously marked for Demolision by the New government of Soludo because it was reported to have been built on the drainage area. It would be recalled Governor Soludo had marked so many other houses at Onitsha for demolition as well.
However, video clips of Men of the government’s task force assaulting Odumaje has stired so many backlash as it was a Terrible way to handle a human being.
The embattled British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has resigned as the leader of the Conservative Party and effectively as prime minister.*
Mr Johnson announced his resignation Thursday afternoon at 10, Downing Street, London.
He said he will, however, remain in office until the Conservative Party elects a new leader who will also assume office as prime minister. That is expected to happen before October.*
In his speech on Thursday, Mr Johnson thanked the Conservative Party and the British voters for trusting the party and helping it to victory in the 2019 elections.
Calls for Mr Johnson’s resignation from his party members reached its climax with about 50 leaders of the party resigning their government positions.
“I want you to know how sad I am giving up the best job in the world,” Mr Johnson said Thursday.
He added that in politics, no one is indispensable. From now on until the new prime minister is in place, the interest of the British people will continue to be served, he said.
Mr Johnson pledged to support the new leader who emerges. The timetable for choosing a new leader will be released next week.
*Pressure mounts on Boris Johnson as 32 officials resign. Mr Johnson came under severe public scrutiny over the party gates scandal and recently over Christopher Pincher who he appointed as Chief Whip despite being aware of his misconduct.
Other issues that sparked Mr Johnson’s woes include the current economic hardship faced by Britons.
A lot of the ministers who resigned cited a loss of confidence in the prime minister as a reason for their resignation.
SPOKESMAN of Anambra State governor has condemned the falsehood being spread in some sections of the social media, alleging ‘budget-padding’ in ongoing right-sizing of the state’s budget.
A release signed by the press secretary to the government, Christian Aburime dismissed the misinformation and described it as “losers and detractors at work.’’
“The misinformation”, he noted, “should evoke pity for the purveyors in the light of the manifest ignorance boldly couriered in every paragraph of the hasty piece of distraction. Bad as it is, no credible reporter has signed this off, establishing it for what it is; lazy propaganda.”
Explaining the development, Mr. Aburime said, “for clarity, it is important we state that we are not oblivious of the diversionary antics of those whose lucrative criminal enterprise is being smoked out by our renewed fight against all forms criminality in the state, housed in various camps and bushes perpetrating heinous crimes.”
He identified the promoters of the report as those whose source of livelihood is government money and patronage as a result of free oil money which sadly has stopped coming given the paucity of revenues coming from Abuja currently, to even fund infrastructural development.”
According to him, given the current lack, Anambra is prioritising to ensure that every fund it procures is deployed to building quality infrastructure, and not for consumption and to make the state “a livable and prosperous smart mega city by confronting head-on the infrastructural decay” such as in the area of roads that is clearly in deplorable situation.
Given this, Gov. Soludo has declared a state-of-emergency on Anambra roads. Hence there is an “unprecedented allocation of about 64 per cent of the capital budget and an ambitious target of flagging off at least 220km of roads as soon as the rains abate; with this ambitious program and knowing fully, that failure does not exist in our determined minds, the detractors are at loss and are raising the battle cry with the sole aim of trying to scuttle our determination with all manners of blackmail.
“They claimed that the commissioner for works refused to appear before the state Assembly to defend the budget. This again is the figment of the imagination of the unknown writers with the intent of creating rancor between the executive and the members of the House of Assembly. The Commissioner for Works and infrastructure was, indeed, the first commissioner to appear before the House Committee on the first day of the budget defense exercise being 29th of June, 2022 at about 10.00AM. This is on record and was captured by the Press.”
Continuing, the governor’s aide stated: “On the cost of road per kilometer, it is funny that the “Unknown Writer” like his counterpart, the “unknown gunmen”, is using propaganda and deceit to hoodwink the unsuspecting public. How do you start talking about the cost of contract for roads currently being designed and contract not awarded? Very funny! Of course people always judge others by their own standards.
“Since the “unknown writer” made dubious comparisons to previous administrations, it is important that we place on record for the purposes of Ndi Anambra who employed us and to whom we are accountable, that the previous administrations awarded roads with the cost per kilometer varying from above One Billion Naira per kilometer to a little over Two Hundred Million naira per kilometer when diesel was about One Hundred and Twenty naira (N120) per liter and asphalt was about Eighteen Thousand naira (N18,000) per ton. Of course, cost per kilometer depends on several factors including the topography, soil texture, design, stone base or just on laterite, overall quality etc.
“Examples of the roads awarded by our predecessors and their costs per kilometer include but not limited to:
Construction of:
*Awkuzu-Nteje-Umueri Airport Road
Length of road 5.2Km
Date awarded: 2015
Award Sum: N6,550,000,000.00
Cost Per Kilometer: N1,259,615,384.61
*Construction of Section 2 Nmiata- Nzam Road
Lenght of Road: 10.5km
Date Awarded December,2014
Award Sum N10,030,992,206.44.
Cost per kilometer N980,952,380.95
*Construction of Afor Oroma-Umudora – Umuikwu-Onono with spur to Umueze Anam/Nzam/Kogi federal high way road.
Length: 18.518Km
Date of Award: April 2018
Award Sum: N5,592,438,115.69
Cost per Kilometer N302,000,114.25
*Amansea-Ebenebe-Ugbenu-Ugbene-Awba Ofemili
Length: 26Km
Date of award: 2009
Award Sum: N7,816,193,590.63
Cost per kilometer N300,622,830.41
* Rehabilitation of Upper Iweka-Zik roundabout and Amawbia roundabout-Amansea Bridge
Length: 23.47Km
Date of Award : 2012/2013
Award Sum:N10,636,799,741.81
Cost per Kilometer: N462,469,553.99
*Ajali-Akpo-Nawfija-Ufuma Ogbunka Road
Length: 16.2Km
Date of Award: 2017
Award Sum:N6,509,966,773.51
Cost per Kilometer N408,022,640.34
*Construction of Ukwuoji-Awka-Umuelechi Villiage-Ifite Nibo-Isiagu Road
Length: 2.9km
Date of Award: 2017
Award Sum:N608,570,640.25
Cost per Kilometer N208, 058,338
“These are samples of roads awarded between 2009 and 2018, none of them cost less than N200,000,000.00 per kilometer at a time when price of diesel was about N120/liter and asphalt was about or less than N18,000 per ton.
“It is also on record that none of our predecessors awarded any road for less than Two Hundred Million Naira per Kilometer.
Comparatively, these basic costs of major materials for road construction now stands as follows:
*Diesel N850/Liter,
*Asphalt N65,000/ton currently in 2022 and the cost as of 2018 and below.
“This shows an increase of over 708% for diesel and 361% for asphalt, making it almost impossible to get any standard or durable road at N200,000,000 per kilometer that can be guaranteed to last more than 15 years with heavy traffic as in most parts of Anambra.
“Of course, one can even get a road for less than One hundred Million Naira by spreading sand and lean asphalt on it to be washed away within one raining season. Fortunately, this is not the Soludo standard. Soludo promised and will deliver quality roads to Ndi Anambra at the cheapest price possible.
“The losers of the new order will continue to try desperate acts to fight back but we remain focused on doing the people’s work. During the dry season, Ndi Anambra will see the mass action on their roads and Anambra will continue to win.”
The Nigerian government has announced the restructuring of five electricity distribution companies, also known as DISCOs, in the country.
This was contained in a statement jointly signed on Tuesday by the Executive Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Sanusi Garba, and Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Okoh.
According to them, the affected companies are Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO), Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Kaduna Electric, and Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED).
Garba and Okoh explained that the announcement followed Fidelity Bank’s activation of the call on the collaterised shares of KEDCO, BEDC, and Kaduna Electric over their inability to repay loans obtained to pay for assets acquired in the 2013 privatisation exercise.
They added that the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) would be a placeholder board for IBEDC in a temporary capacity while the PHED undergoes restructuring to prevent its imminent insolvency.
The NREC and BPE chiefs said the new boards for the affected discos have been approved and the bureau was collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Ministry of Power to ensure no service disruptions during the transition.
Read the statement announcing the restructuring below:
Today we were informed by Fidelity Bank that they have activated the call on the collateralized shares of Kano, Benin, and Kaduna (Fidelity and AFREXIM) DISCOs and that they have initiated action to take over the Boards of these DISCOs and exercise the rights on the shares.
Fidelity Bank’s action is a contractual and commercial intervention and is between the Core Investors in the DISCOs and the lender. BPE is involved because of the 40% shareholding of Government in the DISCOs. Fidelity Bank has informed us that the new Board members of the affected DISCOs will be as follows:
– Kano DISCO: Hasan Tukur (Chairman), Nelson Ahaneku (Member), Engr. Rabiu Suleiman (Member)
BPE has nominated Bashir Gwandu (Kano), Yomi Adeyemi (Benin), and Umar Abdullahi (Kaduna) as independent Directors to represent Government’s 40% interest in the three DISCOs respectively, during this transition.
The Presidency has confirmed that the advanced team of President Muhammadu Buhari was attacked by bandits in his home; Katsina.
Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media to the President in a statement said the attackers injured 2 officials in the ambush.
The Presidency has described as sad and unwelcome, the shooting incident near Dutsinma, Katsina State, at the convoy of cars carrying the Advance Team of security guards, protocol and media officers ahead of the President, Muhammadu Buhari’s trip to Daura for Sallah.
The attackers opened fire on the convoy from ambush positions but were repelled by the military, police and DSS personnel accompanying the convoy.
Two persons in the convoy are receiving treatment for the minor injuries they suffered. All the other personnel, staff and vehicles made it safely to Daura.”
Secretary General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Muhammad Sanusi Barkindo, is dead.
He died at about 11 pm on Tuesday 5th July. He was aged 63.
In a statement on his verified Twitter handle, @MKKyari, at 4.32 am Wednesday, the NNPC GMD wrote: ”We lost our esteemed Dr Muhammad Sanusi Barkindo..
Certainly a great loss to his immediate family, the NNPC, our country Nigeria, the OPEC and the global energy community. Burial arrangements will be announced shortly,”
