News

Staff Audit: Stakeholders Besiege NDDC, Demand Umana’s Sack

Published

2 years ago

August 15, 2022

Editor

Stakeholders of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Monday besieged the commission’s premises in protest against what they described as an “unwarranted audit” of staff of the Commission by the newly appointed Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Okon Umana.

The protesters also faulted Umana’s “deep” involvement in the administrative affairs of the Commission which they claimed is contrary to his assigned role as a supervisory minister of the NDDC.

Speaking on behalf of the staff of NDDC, Mr. Victor Idaye Briggs said that it was wrong for the Minister to call for the audit of staff of the Commission, an exercise he claimed was carried out years ago before the commencement of the forensic audit in the commission.

Briggs alleged that the main intent of the Minister was to sack some staff of the Commission and bring in his cronies as a way of compensating them for political reasons.

He said, “We have discovered that his actual intention is to recruit those he will use for the 2023 politics and we will never allow that to happen.

“We are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency stop the minister of the Niger Delta Affairs from destroying the Commission with the ulterior motive of sacking genuine staff of the Commission and replacing them with political cronies. They are our breadwinners. They pay our school fees. If they are sacked now, where do we go to?

“We will be here as long as possible until Mr. President responds to our request. This is very unfair and we don’t want a situation where the region is plunged into an avoidable crisis. You can see that we are all young people who are dependent on their parents or relations in this Commission”.

A staff of the Commission, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “undue interference of Umana in the affairs of the NDDC has already gone beyond his supervisory role. He is going too far about the issues affecting the NDDC despite the fact that the office of the director general had since carried out an audit on the staff and contracts in the Commission.

“About two years ago, we did biometrics and all the data for staff audit were submitted to the Head of Service when this Commission was still at Aba road. Umana has no right to order his own staff to carry out a staff audit in NDDC because this is a Commission duly established by law.

“As a supervisory minister then, former Minister Godswill Akpabio never tried that kind of a thing. What is happening in NDDC right now is a clear annexation of the Commission. It is equivalent to what Russia is doing to Ukraine. On that note, we are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently inaugurate a substantive board to run the affairs of the Commission, going forward”.

Others said the protest came at the right time to forestall the possibility of using the Commission as a cash cow to fund the coming elections.

“First of all, it is our constitutional right to protest peacefully against anything that is against the interest of the staff of this Commission and by extension the Niger Delta region. Our collective demand is that the federal government should do the needful by giving the NDDC a board in accordance to the Act that established the NDDC.

“Secondly, we want the staff of the Commission to be protected from undue interference by politicians. We have discovered that what Umana Okon Umana is trying to do is to politicize this place for political reason. We don’t want that and we will never allow that to happen.”

Some of the placards read, “NDDC not a ground to settle political acrimonies”, “Mr President return NDDC to the office of SGF”, “Umana/perm Sec leave NDDC staff alone” and “President Buhari sack Umana now”, among others.

Efforts were made repeatedly to reach the Corporate Affairs Department for reactions but to no avail.

News

Why I Wrote UTME Again, UNIZIK’s Best-graduating Student Reveals

Published

3 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Editor

A graduate of Chemistry from the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Anambra State, Juliet Chidiebube Uka, has scored 324 in the just concluded 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

Uka was the best-graduating student in the Department of Chemistry at UNIZIK in 2021, graduating with a first class.

She said she sat for the 2024 UTME to study Medicine as she wants to fulfill her dreams of becoming a medical doctor.

Her result made public, showed that she scored an aggregate of 324 in UTME as she seeks to re-enter the university.

Her elder brother, Obiora Uka, said his sister made up her mind to study medicine and surgery at all costs.

“She has demonstrated resilience through outstanding performance. She has maintained that her ambition is to become a doctor. This led her to write Jamb again this year 2024 and scored an aggregate of 324,” he added.

Obiora said the family hopes she can actualize her lifelong dream of becoming a medical doctor.

Meanwhile, users of the social media app, X, have continued to the inflow of candidates’ results from the concluded 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, in its statement, disclosed that 1,402,490 candidates out of 1,842,464 failed to score 200 out of 400 marks.

Netizens have continued to display the results of some UTME candidates nationwide who had scored 300 and above.

One such is the daughter of a lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in Kaduna State; Toro Shehu, who scored 348 out of a total 400.

News

Banned: Remove Your Eyelashes, Nigerian Pastor Orders Bride At Wedding

Published

3 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Editor

A Nigerian bride recounted how her pastor told her to remove her lashes during her church wedding.

Jessica Okah, the bride, disclosed this incident on TikTok, mentioning that the pastor had raised the issue of her eyelashes before the wedding day.

However, she said she had completely forgotten about it and thought it would be overlooked during the wedding.

She said, “What would you do if your pastor asked you to remove your lashes in the middle of your wedding ceremony? It was like a movie, but it was happening for real.

“After my husband’s family accepted me, that’s when my pastor realised that he told me the day before that I wasn’t supposed to wear lashes to the wedding ceremony.

“Let me not lie, I didn’t have a problem with it anyway, but truthfully, I forgot.

“He said before the service had to continue, I had to go and remove the lashes.”

She shared a video that captured the moment her pastor stopped the wedding proceedings over her eyelashes and resumed the ceremony after she had taken them off.

News

Operation Feed Edo: Obaseki Launches Christians Feeding Programme, Distributes 10kg 60k Bags Of Rice

Published

5 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Editor

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, on Friday, said he has earmarked nothing less than N1bn Naira monthly to feed vulnerable Christians in the state in the next three months.

This is as he said a similar programme has been mapped out for people in the Muslim faith in the state.

Obaseki disclosed this during the official flag-off of phase one of Edo State Food Support Programme also known as Christian Feeding Programme in Benin City.

The Governor, who said he was worried by the rising number of people who cannot afford a square meal in a day in the state, said he had to call Christian leaders in the state on how best to address the alarming situation.

Obaseki said in order not to make it look political, he decided not to involve political office holders, but Christian leaders in reaching out to vulnerable Christians in the state.

The Governor who added that the state government already had data of the vulnerable in the state database, said the means of reaching out to them maximally was the issue, hence using churches to reach out to them.

He said: “I was worried by the rising number of people who cannot afford a square meal in a day. So, I thought to myself how do we solve this problem. This is not politics I told myself.

“I then called the chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and some of the blockheads to a meeting and explained to them what I intended to do. So, that’s how we put our heads together to come up with this programme.”

Obaseki added: “I told them this is the amount of money I will be giving you every month. I’ll give you a billionaire monthly for three months first. At least, Let us try this for the first three months.”

The governor said the programme was not just to feed the vulnerable, but also together more data about people in the state on how the government can create employment for them and how the government can render help where necessary.

Earlier, in his remarks, Chairman of the Organising Committee who also doubles as the Chairman, CAN,
Apostle Irekpono Omoike, while thanking the governor for the initiative, said 10kg of 60,000 bags of rice have been purchased for onward distribution to the three senatorial districts in the state.

According to him, 27,000 bags of the 10kg would be distributed to the seven local government areas in Edo South, 15 bags to Edo Central and 18 bags to Edo North.

Further giving the breakdown, Omoike said 3, 000 bags would be distributed to each local government across the 18 local government areas, summing upto 54,000 bags, while the remaining 6,000 bags would be distributed to churches not captured under CAN.