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‘We’re Not Selling Animals In Wildlife Park Because We Are Broke’ – Bauchi Govt

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By Our Correspondent, Bauchi

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Bauchi State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Honourable Ahmed Modibbo, has disclosed that the decision taken by the state government to sell some of the animals at the Sumu Wildlife park was not because the state is bankrupt.

The Commissioner who was reacting to insinuations from some quarters that the decision may not be unconnected with the current Coronavirus crisis that has caused a serious threat on the global economy, revealed that the plan was taken even before the outbreak of the virus.

Modibbo, who described the insinuations as laughable, maintained that “government is not a joke, this state government is not local government, therefore anybody saying this is ignorant of the workings of the government.”

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READ ALSO: Trucks Loaded With Charcoals, Timber Intercepted In Bauchi

He said that the idea came after serious consideration, the space in which these animals are housed.. The animals have over the years been overstretched the park and that informs government’s decision to sell some of them.

“Some of these animals are old and some have multiply in number in such a way that we have to reduce them by selling them out and use the proceed to add to the IGR of the state, because it is not proper to continue to keep those that are too old in the park”, he added.

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The Commissioner who said that selling some of the animals have been a normal practice, wondered why people are making an issue out of the decision.

“I think the reason why some people are complaining is because we made our own decision public unlike what was obtainable in previous governments that do things silently. We are doing our things openly because we are determined to run a transparent government.

READ ALSO: NDE Pays COVID-19 Stipends To Over 1,700 Interns In Bauchi

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“People should know that government is spending a lot of money in taking care of the animals. How much is government going to realise from the sales of the animals that some people are saying it is because the government is broke. Can the money sustain even a local government.

“People should understand that we are not selling them because the state is going broke due to Coronavirus crisis. The arrangement has been there even before we came in, I am just implementing a policy that had been on ground since”, he said

The commissioner who urged the citizens of Bauchi to be proud of Sumu wildlife park, said in the whole of Africa, there is no place like Sumu wildlife park.

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He hoped that by the time the sell of the animals is flagged off, people will patronize the market so that the state will generate some income out of it.

READ ALSO: COVID-19: Majority Of Bauchi Residents Believe Virus Meant For Big Men -Deputy Gov

He also urged the people of Bauchi state to continue to be loyal and submissive to the present government as it is poised to deliver dividends of democracy to all segments of the state.

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On the fumigation exercise that took place in Yankari Game Reserve, the Commissioner said it was meant to make the place safe for tourists and to curb the spread of COVID-19.

He said that there was no suspected case there but the fumigation was done as a precarious measures to de-escalate the spread of the virus into the Reserve.

READ ALSO: COVID-19: Group Commends Bauchi Gov’s Reversal On Salary Deductions To Fight Virus

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Honourable Ahmed Modibbo who prayed for God’s intervention in ending the Coronavirus pandemic, said that the disease is real and that anybody desputing that is not being fair to himself.

(PHOTO: File)

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Elon Musk Puts Twitter’s Value At $20bn

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Elon Musk has put the current value of Twitter at $20 billion, less than half the $44 billion he paid for the social media platform just five months ago, according to an internal email seen by American news media.

The email to employees referred to a new stock compensation program in the San Francisco-based company and the allocation of shares to employees of X Holdings, Twitter’s umbrella company since Musk purchased it in late October.

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The compensation plan values the platform at $20 billion, slightly more than Snapchat’s parent company Snap ($18.2 billion) or Pinterest ($18.7 billion), both of which are publicly traded, unlike Twitter.

Musk, who is also the chief executive of Tesla Inc. and aerospace group SpaceX, said that Twitter would allow its employees to cash in shares every six months.

READ ALSO: Elon Musk Reinstates Suspended Twitter Accounts Of Journalists

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A query from AFP emailed to Twitter’s communications department generated an automatic response in the form of a poop emoji.

In the internal email, Musk describes the brutal contraction in Twitter’s value. He says the platform faced such grave financial difficulties that at one point it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

“Twitter was trending to lose ~$3B/year,” Musk said in a message posted Saturday on the platform.

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He cited a revenue drop of $1.5 billion a year and a debt-servicing burden of the same amount — leaving it with “only 4 months of money.”

Musk, Twitter’s majority shareholder, added simply: “Extremely dire situation.”

But he then said that “It looks like we will break even” in the second quarter of the year, with advertisers — many of whom fled the platform after the mercurial billionaire bought it — now beginning to return.

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READ ALSO: FG Speaks On Banning Twitter Again After Elon Musk’s Takeover

Since taking control, Musk has sharply cut the group’s payroll from 7,500 employees to fewer than 2,000.

He said in the email that he sees a “clear but difficult path” to a valuation of $250 billion, without specifying how long that might take.

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However, in another setback for the company, fragments of Twitter’s source code were published on the development platform GitHub, the latter told AFP on Sunday, confirming a report by the New York Times.

GitHub removed the files from its site at Twitter’s request, but their brief exposure could allow hackers to identify flaws in Twitter’s original software.

AFP

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Obasanjo’s Father Not Fully Yoruba, Might Be Igbo Man – Fani-Kayode

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Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode has expressed the belief that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s father might not be a Yoruba man.

Fani-Kayode said Obasanjo’s ‘silence’ over a recent comment by Igbo businessman Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu that Yoruba people are “political rascals,” was an indication that the former president’s father was an Igbo man, not Yoruba.

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Iwuanyanwu said Igbo people had invested so much in Nigeria and were not going to yield to the pressure of people asking them to leave.

Speaking in Awka, Anambra State, on Saturday, Iwuanyanwu berated Yoruba people.

However, Fani-Kayode said he was disappointed that Obasanjo was silent over Iwuanyanwu’s anti-Yoruba comments.

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Taking to his Twitter handle, Fani-Kayode wrote: “The fact that our revered leader and one of the fathers of our nation, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, can sit there and say nothing when Emmanuel Iwanyanwu, who I have always respected, describes the entire Yoruba race as “rascals” that the Igbo “will DEAL with” tells me that the rumour that he is NOT a fully-fledged Yoruba man and that his father was an Igbo may well be true.

READ ALSO: Coup Comment: ‘I Was Asked To Report To DSS Everyday, Interrogation Challenging,’ Fan-Kayode Laments

“Whatever the case, this is not the OBJ I once knew, loved, defended and worked so hard for. Something has gone wrong. No one could have made a statement against ANY tribe in the presence of the old OBJ that we all knew and respected and got away with it.”

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Following the outcome of the presidential election, there was a face-off between Yorubas and Igbos in Lagos.

The fallout was due to the victory of the Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in Lagos State.

Against the backdrop of Obi’s victory, Igbos were warned against voting during the governorship election in Lagos.

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Report Banks Not Dispensing Cash To State NLC’s Office — LABOUR

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The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has directed workers to report banks not dispensing cash to its state councils, ahead of planned strike over the scarcity of naira notes across the country.

This is even as leaders of NLC have scheduled a meeting of National Executive Council, NEC, meeting tomorrow to take a final decision on Wednesday’s planned nationwide strike.

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It gathered NLC gave the directive weekend after its NEC meeting on Friday where affiliate unions and state councils of NLC were directed to monitor the cash situation and how banks were dispensing naira notes to workers.

Speaking in an interview with Vanguard yesterday, President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, said: “Our affiliate unions and state councils were directed to monitor the situation. Workers have been directed to report banks not dispensing cash to NLC state offices.

”Our state councils and affiliates unions are to report back to us the prevailing situations in their states by Tuesday when we will hold another NEC meeting. The report we get from them will determine our next line of action.

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READ ALSO: NLC Gives FG 7-day-ultimatum Over Naira Scarcity

”In fact, the seven days ultimatum we gave will expire on Tuesday (March 28). The report will determine our final decision. As we speak, I am out on the streets of Abuja monitoring the situation.

”I am aware also that officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, were in Lagos on Saturday and Sunday to monitor the situation.”

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It was gathered that part of the decision was that “the nationwide strike will be a sit-at-home and picketing of the headquarters of the CBN and all its offices nationwide on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. If the strike commences, it would continue until cash becomes available to all Nigerians.”

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