Nasarawa Guber: Appeal Court Reserves Judgement On Sule’s Petition 

The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal, has reserved judgment in an appeal instituted by Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressive Congress (APC). Sule was at the appellate court, contesting against the majority decision by a tribunal nullifying his election, in favour of David Ombugadu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). A three-member panel of justices headed by Justice U. Onyemenam told parties involved that the date for judgment will be communicated to them. In the actual proceedings, Wole Olanipekun, counsel to Sule who filed five processes to challenge the appeal urged the Court to dismiss the judgment of the Tribunal and allow the appeal of his client.  Olanipekun argued that the Tribunal refused to take the submissions of their witnesses during the Tribunal hearing and that data from the BVAS tendered to the Tribunal were merely dumped and without been considered as evidence. In his response, counsel to Ombugadu, Kanu Agabi SAN, and the PDP urged the court to dismiss the appeal stating that their evidence are merely documentary. On the issue of BVAS, Agabi argued that it was sufficiently demonstrated in the Tribunal as demanded by law, with the print out from the machine shown, against the argument that they were merely dumped without being analysed.  Agabi who referred the court to the judgment of the Tribunal argued that in delivering judgment, the lower court painstakingly gave a breakdown of how it arrived at its decision.

NAICOM Takes Compulsory Insurance Campaign To Nasarawa 

Ahead of its National Insurance conference which comes up in October, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has taken the campaign for compulsory insurance to Nasarawa State.   A statement from the Commission said the Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Olorundare Sunday Thomas led a delegation from NAICOM on a courtesy visit to the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State, Engr. Abdullahi A. Sule to intimate him and members of his executive council on the benefits of insurances. Some of the compulsory insurances the commission is driving includes Public Buildings and Buildings Under Construction, 3rd Party Motor Insurances amongst others. Narrating a personal experience while he was still in the private sector of how the sugar refinery where he worked as the Managing Director was razed by fire but thanks to insurance, a newer and better one was built from the claims paid by the insurance company. The Commission has intensified its drive towards Insurance penetration with some novel products built to captivate the general public.

Army nabs 3 rail track vandals in Nasarawa

Troops from 4 Special Forces of the Nigerian Army Doma, Nasarawa State, have arrested three suspects for rail track vandalism at the Kwarra community of Keana Local Government Area (LGA). The Acting Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, 4 Special Forces Command, Doma, Maj. Joseph Afolasade made the disclosure at a news briefing in Doma on Monday. Afolasade said: “On August 5 2023 at about 11 pm, troops of the command intercepted three suspected railtrack vandals during a routine patrol at Kwarra community of Keana LGA. “The suspects were arrested with a large number of railtracks loaded in one 18-tyre truck with Registration Number DED 364 YC.” He said that the suspects claimed that they were deceived by their sponsors, who are still on the run. Afolasade said that preliminary investigations revealed that on August 23, the driver of the truck, Chibuki Akubilo, was contacted to convey the vandalised railtracks to Ilorin in Kwara for N1.6 million. He further said that the Commander of the Special Forces, Maj.-Gen. Hillary Nzan, had approved that the suspects be handed over to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) for further investigation and prosecution. He, therefore, handed over the suspects to the representative of the state command of NSCDC. Responding, the NSCDC Public Relations Officer, Mr Jerry Victor, expressed gratitude to the Army for collaborating with the corps to tackle insecurity in the state. “Usually, this type of crime is being committed by a syndicate,” Victor said. He promised that the investigation would be continued to arrest other members of the group for prosecution. The driver of the truck told newsmen that he was contacted by one Mr Charles to convey the items to Ilorin.

Subsidy Removal: Organised labour in Nasarawa joins nationwide protest

The organised labour in Nasarawa State has joined the nationwide protest against the hike in the price of petrol in the aftermath of the Federal Government’s removal of fuel subsidy. The unions, consisting the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), led the protest march from Total Filling Station, Lafia, to the Office of the Deputy Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Akabe. Speaking at the event on Wednesday in Lafia, Comrade Ismaila Oko, NLC Chairman, called on the Federal Government to reconsider the action in view of the hardship being experienced by the workers and the masses. The NLC chair said that the Federal Government should immediately take measures that would improve the lots of Nigerians before things get out of control. “Since the subsidy was removed, workers now spend their entire salaries on transport fares to their offices. “Workers can no longer cater for the school fees of their children, feed their family members and meet up to other responsibilities in the family,” Oko said. On his part, Comrade Mohammed Doma, TUC Chairman, urged the government to act fast to address the fuel hike. He wondered why the citizens of a country that was producing petroleum would be buying petrol at an exorbitant price that the citizens could not afford. “Our salaries cannot take care of our transportation to our offices, we are suffering,” the TUC Chairman noted. The union submitted a protest letter to the Head of Civil Service, Ms Abigail Waya, who lauded them for conducting themselves peacefully. Waya said that already both the Federal Government and the Nasarawa government had constituted committees to work out palliatives for the citizenry. She promised to brief Governor Abdullahi Sule about their issues and to submit their letter to him. 

FG/IFAD-VCDP distribute agric inputs to 363 smallholder farmers

The Federal Government and International Fund for Agricultural Development Programme (IFAD) assisted Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP), on Sunday, distributed agricultural inputs to 363 smallholder cassava and rice farmers in Nasarawa State. Dr Eunice Adgidzi, State Programme Coordinator, FG/IFAD-VCDP, stated this at the flagoff of the 2023 wet season agricultural inputs distribution exercise in Lafia. Adgidzi said that distribution of the agricultural inputs to the smallholder farmers was to improve their livelihood and enhance their productivity towards ensuring food security in Nasarawa State and the country. She noted that smallholder farmers were at the centre Nigeria’s food security drive as they accounted for about 90 per cent of agricultural produce in the country. “However, these farmers have always been the primary victims of threat to agriculture including insecurity, climate change, rising cost of inputs among other. “These factors pose grave threat to their productivity thereby leading to the current high rate of poverty among them, hence the need for the support,” she said. The programme coordinator said the 363 smallholder farmer were drawn from Lafia, Doma, Wamba, Nasarawa and Karu Local Government Areas of the State. She listed the agriculture inputs distributed to include 1, 800 kg of improved rice seeds, 1,650 bundles of cassava stems, 402 bags of fertilisers (NPK and Urea) as well as 156 litres of selective and non-selective herbicides. She called on the farmers to effectively utilise the inputs in order to enhance their productivity for the benefit of everyone in the state. In her remarks, Dr Fatima Aliyu, National Programme Coordinator FG/IFAD-VCDP, commended the Nasarawa State Government for keying into the programme, which had recorded tremendous successes in the state within the last three years. Represented by Hamza Shehu, Technical Assistant to National Programme Coordinator, Aliyu particularly lauded Gov Abdullahi Sule for supporting the vision of VCDP and making agriculture a top priority. “We are proud of the achievements in this State and will continue to work with all stakeholders to ensuring that we give smallholder farmers a more quality livelihood,” she said. Aliyu, therefore, urged the farmers to make the most use of the inputs bearing in mind that the whole nation was looking up to them for survival. Also speaking, Mr Isa Eya, Permanent Secretary, Nasarawa Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, lauded FG/IFAD-VCDP for the support to farmers in the state. He pointed out that distribution of the inputs was timely and in compliance with the 2023 seasonal rainfall prediction by the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (Nimet). Eya also encouraged the smallholder farmers to fully deploy the knowledge acquired through VCDP over the years on good agronomic practices in order to surmount the numerous challenges to agricultural production in the state.