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FG, Lagos Disagree Over Banana Island Building Collapse

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The Federal Government, through the National Inland Waterways Authority, and the Lagos State Government have divergent views over the collapsed seven-storey building in the Banana Island area of the state.

The state government recently accused the National Inland Waterways Authority of being culpable in the incident of the collapsed building.

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The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, reportedly accused officials of NIWA of being reckless in the manner in which they issued permits without regard to the topography of the area.

He further stated that the site of the collapsed building was not originally part of the island’s plan.

READ ALSO: Sanwo-Olu Orders Demolition Of Three Buildings On Banana Island

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Reacting to the governor’s claim, the General Manager of Corporate Affairs, NIWA, Jibril Darda’u, in a statement on Friday, said the report by the state government carried a distorted account of what transpired over the collapsed building in Banana Island.

He said the information contained in the report was a misrepresentation of the issue that led to the building collapse.

The statement read in part, “The attention of NIWA has been drawn to a misleading report that has gone viral in social media. The agency vehemently dissociates itself from the statements and allegations of the Lagos State Government over the collapsed building in Banana Island as contained in the said publication.

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READ ALSO: Construction Workers Trapped As 7-storey Building Collapses In Banana Island

“The information contained in the publication is false, baseless and a misrepresentation of the issues that led to the collapse of the building in Banana Island with the intent of misleading members of the public regarding what actually happened.

Darda’u said that the Lagos State Government in the said publication admitted that it was its responsibility to issue building approval.”

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He quoted Governor Sanwo-Olu to have said, “We have responsibility for building approval. All four buildings at the back never got our approval. This is an illegality that is real.

“In another admission by the Lagos State Governor, he specifically stated that some officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency are corrupt, stressing that they would be held responsible for the recent collapse of a seven-storey building on the island”.

READ ALSO: UPDATED: Again, Three-storey Building Collapses In Lagos

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The NIWA image maker, however, said that it was clear that building permits are within the jurisdiction of the state governments of Nigeria including Lagos State.

“Therefore, where such permits are illegally obtained such faults or omissions can only be attributed to the state government that issued them and not the Federal Government or any of its agencies as in the instant case.

“The agency is established by NIWA Act CAP N47 LFN 2004 and there is no provision in the said Act where the agency is mandated by law to issue building permits/approvals and Certificate of Occupancy,” he argued.

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According to him, NIWA as a law-abiding agency of the Federal Government and in compliance with its establishing act issues permits for the use of the right of way, activities within the waterways of Nigeria, and reclamation.
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Bumper Harvest: Foundation Distributes 6,000 Fertilizers To Farmers In Bauchi

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A group, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation has donated 6,000 50kg bags of fertilizer to farmers in Bauchi state in order to have a bumper harvest.

Speaking during the flag off ceremony of the distribution of the fertilizers on Thursday, Mr Abubakar Mohammed, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation, said the distribution was only for the indigent farmers in the state.

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He said the fertilizers would be distributed to farmers in underserved communities across the three Senatorial Districts of the state.

“We are gathered here to flag off the free distribution of fertilizers to farmers, especially the indigent farmers that don’t have the means to buy fertilizer for their farms.

READ ALSO: Fedpoly Bauchi Shut Down Over Violent Students Protest

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“That is the reason why the founder of this foundation bought the fertilizers and distributed them to the low income farmers in the state.

“We have gone round the nooks and crannies of the state to identify the underserved communities and those that deserve this particular gesture.

“We planned to distribute about 6,000 bags of fertilizer and due to the populous nature of the Bauchi LGA, they have the largest share but some other local governments too have hundreds of beneficiaries which we divided into Senatorial zones,” he said.

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According to him, today was the flagging off of the Bauchi South Senatorial District, adding that the extension of the gesture would commence in Bauchi North and Bauchi Central Senatorial Districts tomorrow.

READ ALSO: UNICEF Advocates Six Months Maternity Leave From Working Mothers In Bauchi

Mohammed explained that the only criteria used in selecting the beneficiaries were underserved communities and low income farmers, adding that “we know that a large number of the farmers in Bauchi state are low income farmers.

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“Those are the people that we identified, verified and they are our beneficiaries and we have warned the general public about the activities of some unscrupulous elements that go round to impersonate our foundation.

“Wunti Al-Khair Foundation is not charging a kobo for every part of its activities, be it education, healthcare, economic empowerment and community development”.

Responding, one of the beneficiaries, Emmanuel Samson, described the support as a timely intervention that would greatly enhance his farming activities and appreciated the foundation for the intervention.

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Another beneficiary, Salisu Maidawa, who was short of words for the gesture, said the gesture came at a time when he was in dire need of it.

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IYC Urges Tinubu To Sack NCDMB Boss

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Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Western Zone, has urged President Bola Tinubu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for allegedly not “keeping up to the fundamental mandate,” upon which the agency was established.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by Comrade Nicholas Igarama, Comrade Ebi Joshua Olowolayemo, and Comrade Tare Magbei, Western Zone
Chairman, Secretary, and Information Officer respectively, and made available to newsmen in Warri on Thursday, August 14, 2015.

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According to the IYC, the call for Ogbe’s sack becomes necessary following his incompetence and ethnic bias, adding that Ogbe has turned the agency meant for the whole Niger Delta to his Itsekiri ethnic group alone.

The IYC, while noting that efforts to meet the NCDMB Executive Secretary to discuss critical issues as they affect the region and its people have proved abortive, said it can no longer fold it arms and watch while things go from bad to worse.

READ ALSO: FG Warns Of Flooding In Lagos, Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, 26 Others

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As Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Ogbe has consistently failed to input his supposed industry track record in the advancement of the mandate upon which the agency was founded.

“He has continually had a sectional engagement with his fellow Itsekiri Kits and Kin, thereby shutting all other ethnic nationalites in the Niger Delta region out.

“Repeatedly, he avoided critical youth engagement in the region while sponsoring that of his Itsekiri ethnicity through different human capacity development initiatives, while other ethnic nationalites are left unattended.

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“As Ijaw, mostly from the western flank where Engr. Ogbe also hails from, we will not sit and watch others benefit from the resources that we produce without our practical involvement to better the lives of our people as well.

READ ALSO: Bayelsa Warns LG Officials Against Pension Payment Delays

“It is on record that the leadership of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Western Zone has tried to establish communication with Engr. Ogbe, for the last ten months, but every medium of communication to get his attention has fundamentally proven to be abortive.

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“As youths, we can no longer have leaders in office who have now equated themselves to demi-god and have refused to attend to most significantly youthful issues in the Niger Delta Region.

“To this end, we therefore call on President Bola Ahmed Tinibu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, who has consistently displayed disregard for critical actors in the Niger Delta and has also exhibited the highest level of gross inefficiency by not keeping up to the fundamental mandate upon which NCDMB was founded,” the statement reads.

The IYC also called for the probe Ogbe as Executive Secretary after his sack.

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Efforts to reach Dr. Obinna Ezeobi, the General Manager, Corporate Communications, NCDMB, for reaction proved abortive.

 

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I’m Being Impersonated – Goodluck Jonathan Disowns Social Media Account

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Former President Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday said he is being impersonated by fraudsters.

Jonathan alleged that a fraudulent Instagram handle has been impersonating him.

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In a statement by his Media Aide,
Ikechukwu Eze, the former President insisted that he does not operate any Instagram handle.

READ ALSO:Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan Appointed Africa’s Ambassador For Agricultural Technology

The statement is titled ‘Beware of fake Instagram account impersonating H.E. Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’.

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“Our attention has been drawn to a fraudulent Instagram account operating under the handle goodluck_ebelejonathan, which is falsely impersonating former President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

“This impostor account has been deceitfully posting content, some copied from Dr. Jonathan’s Facebook page, while pretending to represent the former President.

READ ALSO:How Former Konga CEO, Nick Imudia, Committed Suicide

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“We wish to emphasise that Dr. Jonathan does not operate any Instagram account.

“The media and members of the public are strongly advised to disregard, avoid sharing, or promoting any content originating from this fake profile,” the statement read.

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