ORTOM TO OUTSHINE APER AKU

ORTOM TO OUTSHINE APER AKU

By: James Ornguga

President, Benue Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture(BECCIMA), Arc. Austine Asema Achado has urged  Gov.  Samuel Ortom to be focused, consistent and bring to bear on the Benue developmental landscape achievements that will surpass and outshine efforts of the late Appolos Aper Aku, first civilian governor of Benue state and by so doing, write his name in the good books of history.

Arc. Achado gave this charge when the MINDA Youth Coalition, a group peopled by proactive youths of conscience and  passionate about the realisation of the Ortom vision of a "collective vision for a new Benue" paid him a familiarisation visit in his Makurdi residence to interface with him on how best to carve an arrowhead of progress for the MINDA intermediate area.

The BECCIMA President who expressed confidence in the ability of the Ortom government to bring about an industrial revolution emphasised that the governor was from all indications poised to boost development in many facets of the state but was at the moment hampered by the current dwindling economic fortunes, which has slowed down the pace of development, not just in the state but the whole nation, maintaining that when his efforts finally come to fruition, critics of the government would be proved wrong.

He urged the governor not to be intimidated and distracted by the challenges of the day as better is the end of a thing than a hasty take off glory. Arc. Achado observed with optimism that those of them in the private sector equally  have a critical role to play as he has constantly been in touch with the governor and his professional colleagues in the state to cross-fertilize ideas on how to move out of the present quagmire, pointing out that this is the more reason he has on his part embarked on the massive entrepreneurial and community based services. He encouraged all sons and daughters of the state to move beyond the blame game and in their minimal and maximum capacities contribute their quota to save the state rather than shift the burden of development to the shoulders of the government.

Earlier in his speech, President of the Coalition, Philip Mbakuuv Ankyhquwa who  explained the activities of the group as being development- centred lamented the backwardness of the MINDA zone when placed head to head with their contemporaries and sued for support not just for the Ortom administration but for the emancipation of the zone. Ankyhquwa who lavishly poured accolades on Arc. Achado for hosting the group sooner than expected pointed out that the BECCIMA president has through his various establishments given job opportunities to many youths of MINDA and Benue in general, urging him to fast- track the take off of Benysta College of Education, Makurdi and  the Aliade Cement Factory, which are his brainchildren, so as to bring more job opportunities to stranded youths of the state.

In their vocal responses, Collins Ahokegh, James Gbudu  and Bem Dzwa representing the three super- clans of Masev, Ihyarev and Nongov unanimously bestowed on Arc. Achado the worthy title of "Jewel of the MINDA People" , which they said was merited based on his unequalled community based establishments and services, such as; Angus College, Makurdi, Benysta Hotel, Aliade, Construction of nylon tarred streets in Aliade, and building of the biggest Catholic church auditorium within Benue in Aliade. The trio equally reminded him of his earlier efforts which manifested in the setting up of Benysta Communications, one of the earliest computer centres that had introduced internet services in Makurdi, adding that by the time the College of Education and Cement Factory go operational, a large population of youths must have been employed and urged Achado to always involve and develop the youth of Benue.

In his final address, Honourable Special Adviser to the Governor on Lands and Survey, Prof. Jonathan Uever who was recently conferred the prestigious title of Garkowa Maitasa Arewa by the Arewa Youth Youth Council (AYC) praised the unequalled innovations of Arc. Achado and thanked the MINDA Youth Coalition for their wise decision to support their own government, under the leadership of Governor Samuel Ortom to succeed. Prof. Uever tasked the youth to be creative and unite for their good as the state will certainly overcome the current economic challenges and make life easier for all. He lamented the activities of naysayers who are bent on seeing nothing good in the government of the day but expressed hope that a turnaround was on the way.

HOW TO ARREST GANA.

We are all aware of the atrocities commuted by Terwase Agwaza alias gana. Briefly put, gana was the brain behind cattle rustling ,kidnapping and even broad day armed robbery.
He turned hitherto very brilliant chaps into instruments of destruction.
It is obvious that it the PDP that nurtured and even sustained gana for their political gains. No wonder the then Governor of Benue state , Gabriel Suswamused to talk of Blood will flow at optical rallies.
No wonder gana was rich and acquired assorted weapons.
When PDP was overthrown,  gana was given amnesty after he surrendered some of his weapons.
Killings, kidnapping and cattle rustling continued desire gana's purported repentance.
The height of his kinnings was when Mr Igbana, the security adviser to governor on special security was assassinated. Mr Igbana, he he did placed his death squarely on gana.
Gana has been declared wanted by the Government and a reward of 5m naira placed on who will volunteer information leading to his arrest.
How do we find gana?
Gana may be in Benue ,operating in Benue.
 He is being used by PDP to cause mayhem to the APC government in the state. Search houses of PDP. Gana may be there.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NOT PERSECUTING GOODLUCK AND WIFE- LAI MOHAMMED.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the Federal Government led President Muhammadu Buhari, is not persecuting Former President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience.
The Minister revealed this in an interview with journalists in Oro, Kwara State, on Tuesday, saying it would be wrong to submit that the Federal Government was probing Goodluck Jonathan or Dame Patience Jonathan.
“If you look at the history of Mrs. Patience Jonathan’s issue, I think she was the one that came out to claim that the money found in the accounts of one of the aides to the former President, her husband, belonged to her”.
“It was not the EFCC that claimed so. She claimed that the money that the guy was being prosecuted for belonged to her. It was only then they later found an extra $5m in another account. it is not as if anybody has gone out to probe Mrs. Jonathan directly or indirectly. Rather. Mrs. Jonathan was the one that said ‘that money for which you are accusing Mr. X actually belongs to me. So, you cannot start talking of prosecution or persecution.”
”“People have always said that no APC politician had been investigated. The question is ‘those who are those being prosecuted today, for what reasons are they being prosecuted?
“It is wrong to say that the government is only investigating and prosecuting PDP members. We have not even started investigating the oil and gas industry. It is not about going out to investigate PDP. No! We lost about 15,000 people. Nobody can, in honesty, accuse the FG of being one sided.’’

Former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has written a letter the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) explaining  that the $31.4 million connected to the financial fraud levelled against Mr. Waripamo Dudafa by EFCC was for the payment of the medical bills she incurred in London in 2013.

The monies in a local bank and claimed by Mrs. Jonathan were placed on a No Debit Order in the course of investigations into the financial affairs of Mr. Waripamo Dudafa, who served as Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Patience Jonathan claimed ownership of the $31.4 million in the affidavit before a Federal High Court in Lagos.

In the affidavit by Sammie Somiari a legal practitioner on behalf of Patience Jonathan claims that it was Dudafa who helped Mrs Patience Jonathan to open the four bank accounts which the EFCC froze.

This made the EFCC to file an amended 17-count against Dudafa and seven others, including the four companies, with the defendants being accused of conspiring to conceal the monies which the EFCC claimed they ought to have known formed parts of the proceeds of an unlawful act.

The former first lady in her letter to the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu by her lawyers, Granville Abibo (SAN) and Co enjoined the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Skye Bank to lift the restriction placed on the accounts.

In the letter Patience Jonathan admitted that the she is the sole signatory to the accounts and the accounts were card-base. She further went to say that she has been using the account to pay for her medical bill and other personal purposes and that she is a law-abiding citizen.

“It is noteworthy to emphasise that the said accounts, which were in US dollar denomination, were card-based accounts and our client is the sole signatory to these accounts.

“Our client has been operating the said accounts using the cards for her medical bill payments and purchases for her private purposes without any let or hindrance.

“Our client was therefore surprised when the said cards stop functioning on July 7, 2016, or thereabout. Our client immediately, thereupon, contacted Skye Bank Plc through our solicitors.

‘‘It was only then that the bank officials informed our client that the said accounts were placed on a ‘No Debit Order’ following investigations and instruction from your commission and this is without notice to our client by either the bank or the commission.

“It is in the light of the foregoing that we urge you to use your good offices to vacate the ‘No Debit/Freezing Order’ placed on the said accounts.”

“Despite the foregoing, our client, who is a law-abiding citizen, has watched with surprise how efforts are being made surreptitiously to indirectly harass or harangue her and short-change her of her personal funds in breach of her fundamental human rights.

“We urge you sir, to kindly intervene to stop the untoward and wrongful actions of your officials to embarrass, inconvenience and short-change our client.”
Madam Patience Jonathan, on the 17 of February in 2013, had said she died and woke up after seven days during her illness for almost three months.

Patience Jonathan testimony.

According to her testimony in 2013 she said she underwent seven surgery operations within one month and the doctors had given up hope on her survival.

“I remember when Chief Obasanjo was the President of the country, I was close to his late wife, Stella. We worshiped together in this chapel.

It was a painful moment for me that time when she (Stella) died and her corpse was brought here.

“That was how my corpse would have been brought here. It was not an easy experience for me. I actually died, I passed out for more than a week. My intestine and tummy were opened.

“I am not Lazarus but my experience was similar to his. My doctors said all hope was lost.

“A black doctor in London who is with us in this service was flown in when the situation became critical. It was God himself in His infinite mercy that said I will return to Nigeria. God woke me up after seven days.

“I know that some people somehow leaked the information that I was dead. They are people that I trust and rely on; to them, I was dead and I would never return to the country alive. Some of them even sold my things off.

“I won’t say everything here. It is the Lord’s doing that I returned alive. When God says yes, nobody can say no.

CITING “People are always afraid of operation (surgery) but in my own case, while my travail lasted, I was begging for it (surgery) after the third operation because I was going to the theatre everyday. vanguardngr.com

MAKE NIGERIA GREAT AGAIN-BUHARI.

President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday in
Daura called on Nigerian youths to make
Nigeria great again through pursuit of
knowledge, patriotism
and commitment to values that promote
national unity.
This was contained in a press release made
available to the media by the Senior Special
Assistant to the President on Media &
Publicity, Garba Shehu on Tuesday.
Over 100 National Youth Service Corps
(NYSC) members serving in Daura local
government area, paid a courtesy visit to the
President at his residence in Daura.
President Buhari pledged his unalloyed
commitment to the unity and prosperity
of Nigeria.
He urged them to remain focused in life,
pursue their dreams and reject those fanning
embers of discord and disintegration of
Nigeria.
The President, who specially recognised
corps members from the Niger Delta and
South-Eastern states serving in Daura,
praised the vision of
former President Yakubu Gowon in setting up
the scheme in 1973.
The President said the scheme has
creditably promoted national unity and
cohesion by exposing young people to the
uniqueness and cultural
diversity of Nigeria.
“I asked for those from the other extreme of
Nigeria because I very much appreciate the
NYSC scheme and whenever I see General
Gowon, I
always thank him for that.’’
Speaking specifically to corps members from
the South Eastern states, the President said:
“Tell your colleagues who want Biafra to
forget
about it.’’
“As a military commander, I walked from
Degem, a border town between the north
and the east, to the border between
Cameroons and Nigeria.
“I walked on my foot for most of the 30
months that we fought the Nigeria-Biafra
civil war, in which at least 2 million
Nigerians were
killed.
“We were made by our leaders to go and
fight Biafra not because of money or oil,
because oil was not critical factor then, but
because of
one Nigeria.
“So if leaderships at various levels failed, it
was not the fault of the rest of Nigerians
who have no quarrel with one another.
“So please tell your colleagues that we must
be together to build this country. It is big
enough for us and potentially big enough in
terms
of resources.
”Those who work hard will earn a
respectable living. I have seen this country, I
fought for this country and I will continue to
work for the
unity of this country,’’ the President said.
The Corps Liaison Officer in Daura, Mr
Egbewumi Adebolu, in his remarks, thanked
the President for the honour of receiving
them and
making their stay in Daura memorable.
He said the youths strongly believed in the
programme of the President to reduce
unemployment and create jobs for more
Nigerians.
Adebolu thanked the President for his
personal gifts of cows, bags of rice and cash
to corps members in the community for
Salah celebration.

749,000. CANIDATES APPLY FOR NPOWER JOBS NATIONWIDE.

The Federal Government social investment programme aimed at recruiting 500,000 graduates and 100,000 trainees said it has received 749,000 applications as at the close of the online portal on 31st of August.

The Special Assistant to the President on Social Investment Programme, Mariam Uwais who stated this while speaking to journalists in Abuja said the N-power program received application from all the 774 Local government areas of the country with the highest applicants coming from
Lagos, Oyo, Rivers and Bauchi.
She said they are in the process of compiling the application and commence training of successful applicants by October adding that the training would last a period of one month before the participants are deployed to states to provide extension services.

She disclosed that the participants would be provided with a training device which would be used for the extention services, adding that the aim of the program was to help young Nigerians acquire and develop lifelong skills become solution providers in their communities and become players in the domestic and global markets.

Uwais explained that the programe has been divided into three sections namely, Paid Volunteer Teacher Corps for Graduate (N-Power Corps), Training and Empowerment for Knowledge Work (n-power Knowledge), Build Nigeria Program for Training and Empowerement of Artisans (N-power Build).

She added that the aim of the N-Power Corps was to provide temporary jobs in the area of primary education, agriculture, public health and community education, adding that the programme, which would last for two years, was targeted at employing 500,000 unemployed graduate.

She said trainees would be deployed to their immediate rurual and local communities, where they would assist in improving the inadequacies in the education, health and and agricultural sectors, adding that states government would assist in deployment of beneficiaries to the communities.

The President Aid said that others include the N-Power Knowledge, which would train 25,000 Nigerians in the area of technology, and N-Power Build, which train another 75,000 in the areas of building services, construction, utilities, hospitality and catering, automotive vocations, aluminium and gas services.

“Besides their monthly take home pay estimated at about N23, 000, the selected 500,000 graduates will also get computer devices that will contain information necessary for their specific engagement, as well as information for their continuous training and development. They get to keep the devices even after exiting the programme.

“According to the plan of the Buhari administration, the N-Power Teacher Corps programme is an invaluable opportunity for young Nigerians to make immense economic and social contributions to the nation while developing their skills.
It will also help to address the problems of inadequate teachers in public schools.

MY GOVERNMENT INHERITED NOTHING- BUHARI

Amidst economic recession and unprecedented level of hunger in the land, President Muhammadu Buhari has said he inherited absolutely to legacy from the previous government of former President Goodluck Jonathan. He also said that other administrations of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP led by former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and late Umuaru Musa Yar’Adua left nothing to build on.

This was the president also said that patriotic Nigerians ought not express worry over his fight against corruption, assuring that his administration would ensure justice and fairness to all. Buhari spoke to Journalists Monday in Daura after attending Eid prayers to celebrate Eid El Kabir. He however said those who abuse public trust would face justice, in addition to returning their stolen assets to the nation’s coffers. President Buhari in Daura. President Buhari in Daura.

The President expressed gratitude to Nigerians for supporting the Federal Government policies, programmes and actions aimed at improving security, revamping the economy and combating the fight against corruption. ‘‘We should thank God this year, the reports I’m getting, which is very pleasing, is that we will have a bumper harvest this year.

‘‘I want Nigerians to realise that what this government inherited after 16 years of the PDP government was no savings, no infrastructure, no power, no rail, no road and no security. ‘‘Nigerians can see what we have done on Boko Haram and what we are doing to resolve the problem in the Niger Delta. ‘‘Before the elections, we identified three major problems confronting our country.

The first is security; we need to sufficiently secure our country to manage it well. ‘‘The second is economy, especially job for the youths and fighting corruption which is continuous. ‘‘For the youths, graduates and non-graduates who are interested in agriculture, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the CBN are doing something to provide employment for them,’’ the President said.

A statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu stated that President Buhari was observing this year’s Eid holiday in his native home Daura, Katsina State and would return to Abuja after the two-day public holidays.

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