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Bauchi Governor Awards N45 billion Projects Within One Year

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The Bauchi State Budget Monitoring and Public Procurement Agency says the administration of Governor Bala Mohammed has awarded projects in critical sectors of the economy worth over 45 billion naira within the first year of his administration.

Speaking with Government House Correspondents on the one year anniversary of the governor, the Chairman of the Agency, Engineer Joshua Sanga said the over seventy projects awarded followed due process and were issued with certificate of no objection.

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Engineer Joshua Sanga pointed out that, the Agency is fully involved in the award of the projects and it will monitor them to ensure their execution in line with procurement act.

READ ALSO: El-Rufai Says Osinbajo Now Chairman, Association Of Short People

According to him, the state has made alot of progress and compliance in the execution of project across the state and in all the identified sectors.

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“Ideally each and every project in the excess of one million naira in the state ought to come to this office before even been awarded, we have to check the price, we have to check the award process, the procurement process, the right contractor was given the job or not and to ensure that the job is done.

” Since the advent of this administration, we have a record of over seventy contract awarded valued at about forty five billion naira and this is unprecedented as there is no government that came between ten to eleven months that awarded a contact of such amount in a short time”, he added.

The Chairman said the mandate of the agency is specifically in the areas of procurement of government projects, ensure that money budgeted for the execution of projects is judiciously used and to ensure the value for money is being driven from each and every project awarded by the government.

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READ ALSO: COVID-19: NGOs Give Palliatives To Over 100 Women

Seventy to eighty percent of government money apart from paying of salaries goes to execution of projects so, the role of this office is price intelligence, we have to check prices to know weather its okay or we add or subtract where necessary to make sure there is value for every single Kobo.

“The other role of the office is also monitoring, once a contract is awarded and the job is being executed, its the role of this office to at least go out and check weather the job is done rightly, that is major the role of this office, budget monitoring, price intelligence and procurement of government projects”, he added.

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He said to ensure execution of projects in line with international best practices, Governor Bala Mohammed has engaged the services of Engineer Emeka Eze, a former engineers who was Director General in the Bureau of Public Procurement to work out modalities of revamping the agency.

Sanga who noted that, being one of the key components of the state Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Programs(SFTAS), the agency has worked very hard with other relevant MDAs to achieve the desired objectives ,said that has qualified the state to access the grants worth billions of naira recently for the years of 2018 and 2019.

READ ALSO: Dele Giwa Exposes Buhari’s Failure

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The Chairman, while congratulating Governor Bala Mohammed for the remarkable achievements in the last one year, assured him of the total support of the agency for the success of his administration.

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Fake LASTMA Officer Jailed Two Years

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The Lagos State Special Offences (Mobile) Court sitting at Bolade, Oshodi on Monday, 27 March, 2023 sentenced a fake Lagos State Traffic Management Authority Officer, Omotutu Bamidele, to a 2- year jail term for impersonating and extorting money from motorists across Lagos.

The convicted fake LASTMA officer was arraigned by LASTMA on a 2-count charge of impersonating as a public officer by claiming to be a staff of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (S.78 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015)” and obtaining money by fraudulent trick (Sec. 323 of the Criminal Law, Lagos State) before the court.

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The PUNCH reports that Bamidele was arrested a few days ago on Olu Holloway Road, around the Alfred Rewane area of Ikoyi by a LASTMA Monitoring/Surveillance team led by the Zonal Head, Ashafa Moyosore.

In a press statement released by the Director, Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department of LASTMA, Mr. Adebayo Taofiq said Magistrate Kehinde Ogundare sentenced Omotutu Bamidele to a 2-year jail term without any option of fine after he pleaded guilty to the 2- count charges levelled against him.

Magistrate Ogundare emphasized that the convict should serve the jail term without any option fine due to the gravity of the offences committed.

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READ ALSO: We Make N35,000 Daily, Fake LASTMA Officer Confesses

The Court Prosecutor Barr. Olufemi Adekunle stated that both offences levied against the convict contravened Criminal Law of Lagos State (2015).

In his reaction to the judgement, the General Manager of LASTMA Mr Bolaji Oreagba said the judgement was a welcome development as it would serve as a deterrent to others who are still extorting money from innocent members of the public under false pretence.

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Oreagba also noted that the “Our (LASTMA) Monitoring and Surveillance Unit which has now been fully restructured would continue to hunt for other bad elements disturbing the peace of the society”

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Ahmed Musa Equals Zidane’s Record, Surpasses Viera, Lampard

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Super Eagles captain, Ahmed Musa, has become the most capped Nigerian player after his appearance in the second leg of Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Guinea-Bissau.

The Nigerian national team defeated the Djurtus of Guinea-Bissau 1-0 at the Estadio 24 de Setembro.

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However, Musa, who made his Eagles debut in 2010, and was also part of the 2013 Nations Cup-winning side, earned 108 caps – setting a new record for Nigeria.

With his feat, he has equaled France’s midfielder Zinedine Zidane, German’s Jurgen Klinsmann, and England’s Tim Cahill’s 108 national caps.

READ ALSO: Jump King! Osimhen Breaks Ronaldo’s Serie A Record

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Also, the 30-year-old Super Eagles captain surpassed Patrick Vieira’s 107 international caps for France, and Frank Lampard’s 106 caps for the Three Lions of England.

Since his debut, the Nigerian forward has scored 16 goals for the national team. He is Nigeria’s highest scorer in the World Cup with four goals.

He also has 92 club goals and 65 assists.

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NGO Trains Delta Community On Tools For Environmental Justice

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The Connected Advocacy, a Benin-based NGO, on Monday trained the residents of Owa/Alidinma community in Agbor, Delta State, on strengthening local movement and demand spaces for environmental justice.

The training featured sessions on environmental monitoring, smart advocacy tools for environmental justice and how to build a non-violent environmental justice movement.

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The Director of the NGO, Mr Israel Orekha, said the capacity building was aimed to enable local communities to advocate for and demand freedom from pollution, environmental degradation and exploitation.

READ ALSO: Pollution: Respect For Human, Environmental Rights Take Centre Stage As NGO Organises Capacity Building In Delta Community

Orekha said the training was due to the impact of oil exploration in the community, which include crises, environmental degradation, diversion of monetary benefits, intimidation from the traditional rulers and non-compliance with environmental multilateral agreements, among others.

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“The imperative of smart advocacy tools for environmental justice are evidence-based collective efforts or strategies targeting decision-makers and polluters.

“The training focuses on influencing the actions, programmes and policies of the International Oil Companies (IOCs) and governments toward environmentally friendly interventions, fulfilling the agreement for the protection of the earth, people and planets.”

Taking the participants on environmental monitoring tools, Cadmus Atake-Enade, said the devices were effective for mitigating the danger of fossil-fuel extraction in the local communities.

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He encouraged participants to monitor their environment through air, water and soil pollution, and biodiversity issues.

READ ALSO: NGO Inaugurates GBV Clubs In Bauchi Secondary Schools

Atake-Enade listed tools for monitoring the physical environment like pens, pencils, cameras and whistles, saying the need to document the findings or monitor the evidence cannot be over-emphasised.

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The training concluded with the reconciliation of the Traditional Community Council and Host Community Network operating in the community.

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