News

Youths urge former Reps minority whip to accept defeat

Published

8 months ago

August 31, 2023

A coalition of youth groups has called on Mr Gideon Gwani, the defeated PDP candidate for Kaura Federal Constituency of Kaduna State, to withdraw his appeal against the Tribunal judgement that sealed his fate.

Gwani, the immediate past House Minority Whip, had filed an appeal after the tribunal affirmed the victory of Donatus Mathew of the Labour Party at the Feb. 25 National Assembly election.

The youths made the call on Tuesday during a peaceful march to the three chiefdoms in Kaura where they urged the traditional ruler to prevail on Gwani to sheathe his sword.

One of the youth leaders, Mr Francis Peter, co-ordinator of Kaura Integrity Youths, said the court case was distracting Mathew from delivering the dividends of democracy to his constituents.

Peter argued that the large sums of money being expended on the litigation by both parties could have been channeled into development projects in the constituency.

“The court case is not allowing our representative to focus on the job at hand.

“The resources that should be used to develop our constituency are now being used to pursue the case in court.

“We want our traditional institutions to intervene so that the matter will be resolved internally. We don’t want the courts anymore,” he added.

Also speaking, Mr Ashinge Kanga, spokesperson of Kaura Youth Coalition, noted that having served for 16 years, it was only fair for Gwani to give the youths a chance.

“Given his wealth of legislative experience, we expected Gwani to give guidance and direction to the new member instead of dragging him to court.”

On his part, Mr Emmanuel Bagu, coordinator of Kaura Concerned Youths, thanked Gwani for his contributions to development of the area over the years and urged him to throw his weight behind his successor.

Bagu maintained that while Gwani was within his constitutional right to appeal the verdict of the tribunal, the collective will and interest of the Kaura people should always come first.

“We are grateful for his contribution over the years but now is the time for him to get behind the new lawmaker.

“We understand that it’s his right to appeal but we want him to have a rethink and drop this case for the good of everyone,” he stated.

In their separate remarks, the representatives of the Takad, Kagoro and Moroa chiefdoms in the area promised to look into the issue.

News

Woman killed while crossing road in Anambra

Published

6 days ago

April 18, 2024

Fellow Press

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Anambra State Sector Command, has confirmed the death of a woman in an accident at Okpoko Market on the Asaba-Onitsha Road.

The Sector Commander, Mr Adeoye Irelewuyi, who confirmed the accident to journalists in Awka on Thursday, said that the woman was hit while she was crossing the road.

He said that the accident, which occurred on Wednesday, involved a commercial tow truck with registration number XA550BMA.

“Eyewitness report reaching us indicates that the truck was towing a vehicle in an uncontrollable speed along the axis.

“The vehicle that was being towed got detached from the tow truck.

“It hit and killed a female adult, who was said to be crossing the road, while the tow truck continued its movement.

“FRSC rescue team came to the scene and took the woman to Toronto Hospital, Onitsha, where she was confirmed dead and her body deposited at the hospital’s mortuary,” he said.

While sympathising with the family of the dead, the sector commander urged motorists, especially tow truck drivers, to exercise a high level of professionalism.

He also urged the drivers to always use standard equipment and avoid speeding.

News

LASG’s maize palliative impactful, says poultry association chair

Published

6 days ago

April 18, 2024

Desmond Ukafor

The Chairman, Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Lagos State Chapter, Mr Mojeed Iyiola, said the state government’s maize palliative to members of the association made a positive impact on the sector.

Iyiola said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.

“We received about 150,000 tons of maize in February from the Lagos State government as palliative to cushion the effect of high feed prices.

“The major benefit of the palliative is that it actually cushioned the cost of production for most poultry farmers in the state.

“The palliative was beneficial as it made the cost of some poultry produce, especially eggs to drop,” Iyiola said.

He noted that prior to the palliative, a crate of egg was sold between N3,500 and N3,700 at the farm gate, but after the palliative, it now sells between N3,200 and N3,400.

According to the PAN chair, retailers and middlemen who sell from N3,800 to N4,200 do that for their personal gain.

“We have urged our members to sell their eggs at reasonable prices following the receipt of the palliative from the government.

“We appreciate the Lagos State government for the palliative but we also urge the federal government to do likewise, to further reduce the cost of production in the sector.

“This will consequently lead to drop in the prices of all poultry produce across board,” he said.

He said the palliative was shared among financial members of the association at no extra cost.

“As an association we shared the grains equally across PAN’s eight zones in the state equally. We also mandated each zone not the sell even a grain of the maize.

“We, however, considered new poultry farmers who wanted to the join the association as beneficiaries of the palliative,” said Iyiola.

He noted that through the palliative, more poultry farmers were recruited into the association.

“The maize was shared only to poultry farmers and not feed millers, it is the major component of poultry feed formulation,” he said.