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Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State has lamented that the vulnerability of children to HIV remains a major source of concern.
Buni raised the concern on Monday at an event commemorating the 2024 World AIDS Day with a theme: “Take the Rights Path: Sustain HIV Response and Stop HIV among Children in Nigeria by 2030.”
Represented by his deputy, the governor said prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) and paediatric HIV care are central to the state’s strategy in combating the virus in the state.
“Yobe State has prioritised the integration of PMTCT services into primary healthcare centres to ensure that no child is born with HIV,” he said.
Buni stressed that the state is committed to scaling up early infant diagnosis and treatment services and providing support systems for children living with HIV.
“This effort will require close collaboration with traditional rulers, community leaders, and healthcare workers to ensure that these services reach even the most remote areas of our state,” he added.
He assured development partners that the capacity of local government healthcare departments would continue to be strengthened and ensure that they have the resources and support to implement effective HIV programs.
“Traditional rulers, as custodians of culture and community values, will play a pivotal role in mobilising community support and addressing stigma and discrimination,” he said.
Buni commended implementing partners, NGOs, CSOs, and the Network of People Living With HIV and AIDS, NEPWHAN, for ensuring access to treatment, prevention, and care for those affected by HIV/AIDS.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, has said that there are no other means of generation of funds for projects in the nation’s capital apart from the Internally Generated Revenues, IGR.
Wike said this is the only way the FCT Administration has been able to fund the numerous projects in both the city center and area councils.
The minister said the FCT Administration relies mainly on IGR and also applies prudence in the utilisation of available resources, stressing the need for residents to pay their taxes.
The minister spoke during a routine inspection of ongoing projects in FCT, and the inspection of the full scope development of the 11km FCT Highway 105, otherwise known as Kuje Highway, from the Airport Expressway to Kuje Junction with Spur at Kyami.
The minister also inspected the emergency construction of a 5-kilometer Kuje township road from the Garage Junction to the LEA Secretariat within the Kuje Area Council.
He reiterated the FCT Administration’s commitment to providing infrastructure in the FCT in line with the President’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Wike also stressed that the road projects would be constructed with streetlights, adding that it would ultimately change the area’s topography.
“It’s a matter of strategy and being prudent with the available resources. No government or institution can say they will have all the necessary resources to carry out every service or services,” he said.
The FCT Minister further said: “What is important to us is yes, we try to make sure that people pay their taxes. One thing I can tell you about people or Nigerians is that when they see that their taxes are being utilized, they reciprocate by making sure they pay their taxes. But they are reluctant to pay when they see that the taxes they pay and nothing has been done with it.
“We are trying as much as possible to continue increasing our IGR. We are using our IGR to pay. There is no other money coming from anywhere.
“And again, we restrict the number of projects and ensure that we have gone far before awarding other projects and that the funding is available so that it will not be an abandoned project or projects.
“So, it’s not that we have so much money. It’s just that we are trying to prudently manage what we have and apply it in the best interest of our people.”
Senators were on Thursday divided while debating the source of funding for the newly established Zonal Development Commissions which have been signed into law by President Bola Tinubu.
All the geopolitical zones have their Zonal Development Commissions with exception of the North Central zone, which the bill is currently receiving legislative attention.
The sharp disagreement ensued on the source of funding while considering the South-South Development Commission Establishment bill 2024 as operational and structural template for the other Commissions.
The rancorous debate followed a report submitted by the Senate Committee on Special Duties which recommended that 15% of Statutory allocations of member States should be used to fund the Commission by the federal government.”
In their observations, Senators Yahaya Abdullahi (PDP Kebbi North), Wasiu Eshinlokun (APC Lagos East) and Seriake Dickson PDP Bayelsa West), argued that tampering with the funds going to states would generate a constitutional crisis.
They feared that governors would go to court against the Federal Government, even as governors have premised their expenditure proposal including minimum wage on their resources.
Senator Yahaya Abdullahi said: “Mr President, distinguished colleagues, the 15% of statutory allocations of member States, recommended for funding of their zonal development commissions, would be litigated against by some state governments.”
His line of argument was corroborated by other lawmakers in the upper legislative chamber.
In a bid to quickly correct the meaning read into the 15% statutory allocation, the Deputy President of the Senate, Barau Jibrin, drawing attention to the Committee’s report, posited that the 15% Statutory allocation of member states for funding of their zonal development commission, would not entail any deduction from their statutory allocation.
“Mr President, distinguished colleagues, the 15% of Statutory allocation of member states, recommended for funding of Zonal Development Commissions by the federal government, is not about deduction at all.
“What is recommended as contained in the report presented to us by the committee on Special duties and being considered by the Senate now, is that 15% of statutory allocation of member states in a zonal development commission would by way of calculation by the federal government, used to fund the commission from the Consolidated Revenue Fund,” he said.
Barau’s clarification did not dissuade skepticism as some Senators wondered on the possibility of funding the Commissions without statutory deductions.
Amid rancor by Senators, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio calmed nerves.
“We don’t need to be debating on whether 15% statutory allocation of member states in a commission would be deducted or not in view of provisions of section 162 ( subsection 4) of 1999 constitution which empowers the National Assembly to appropriate from either the Consolidated Revenue Fund or Federation Account.
“15 % of statutory allocation of member states has been recommended by the Senate and by extension, National Assembly, for funding of their zonal development commission by the federal government, anybody who wants to go to court over that may do so,” he said.
An Immigration source at the Nigerian-Benin Republic border has provided details on the arrest of controversial crossdresser Bobrisky during a passport check at the Seme border on October 21. According to reports from Premium Times, the source revealed that Bobrisky was apprehended around midnight and detained until the following morning before being transferred to the Lagos zone of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) in Ikeja.
The source explained, “He was arrested at midnight, detained until this morning, and is currently being moved to the Lagos zone of the NIS in Ikeja. He handed his passport to someone to stamp for him, but the officer noticed his name immediately and requested that he come down from the vehicle.”
Bobrisky’s arrest is linked to an ongoing investigation involving a Committee of the House of Representatives, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Nigerian Correctional Service. The case centers on allegations of bribery, with previous claims suggesting that Bobrisky had paid bribes to avoid serving a proper jail sentence. As the investigation continues, the incident at the Seme border has further complicated Bobrisky’s legal troubles.
One of the domestic workers of Aribemchukwu, the slain daughter of Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, has owned up to being involved in the murder of her boss, a police source exclusively disclosed on Thursday.
PUNCH Metro reported that the deceased, popularly called Chuchu, was reportedly killed in her Parkview Estate residence in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State.
Although a family source said she was killed Tuesday night, her lifeless body was discovered on Wednesday morning outside the gate of her residence.
Her three domestic employees, which included the house help, a security guard, and a driver, were, however, arrested in connection to the murder.
Providing updates on the findings made so far, a police source who craved not to be mentioned as he was not authorised to speak on the matter said the house help confessed to the crime during interrogation.
The source also clarified that the deceased was murdered inside her room, and her body was thereafter dragged from the spot outside the gate where it was dumped.
According to the source, the suspects attempted to clean up the blood stains but missed some spots because the act was perpetrated at night.
“The deceased was killed in her room and her body was dragged to the front of the gate to make it look like she was killed on the spot. After that, all the blood stains were carefully cleaned but still, they missed some spots. They did not clean it well because it happened at night.”
“The house help did not deny what happened. She said, ‘We do am, na we do am’, during an interrogation and everything she said tallied with the evidence on the ground.” the police source disclosed.
The suspects were also said to have immediately packed all the valuables of the deceased after killing their boss.
The source also confirmed that the three domestic workers were employed at the same time a week before the incident.
Until her death, the late Aribemchukwu was a doctor and had recently married.
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, said investigations were still ongoing.
He said, “Investigations are still ongoing on the incident. We will provide updates as soon as there are more developments.”
A former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) investigating officer, Abubakar Madaki on Monday told a Federal High Court in Lagos that former National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki, paid former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose N1.2 billion in cash disguise the source of the money.
Madaki informed the trial judge, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, that during the anti-graft agency‘s investigations into the money laundering charge, it was discovered the money was paid in cash to disguise the source of the funds and to avoid traces.
LEADERSHIP recalled that a former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, had earlier told the Judge that he was instructed by Dasuki to transfer N1.2 billion to Fayose from an account used as Boko Haram Special Intervention Account.
Obanikoro who testified as an EFCC witness in the ongoing trial of Fayose over an alleged N3.3 billion fraud, claimed that the N1.2 billion was initially transferred from the imprest account of the NSA into the particular intervention account.
Madaki had also informed the court that contrary to the statement made to the Commission by Fayose that the money was a campaign donation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the EFCC discovered that the fund was from the office of the National Security Adviser NSA and that it was budgeted for the purchase of security equipment.
The former governor, alongside his company, Spotless Investment Limited, faces an 11-count charge of criminal breach of trust, theft and stealing of public funds.
The anti-graft agency alleged that Fayose and one Abiodun Agbele, who is also standing trial on alleged money laundering offences before another division of the court, on June 17, 2014, took possession of N1.219 billion to fund his 2014 governorship campaign in Ekiti State.
He, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
At the resumed hearing of the matter on Monday, Madaki, the 13th prosecution witness told the court that Fayose did not personally make any financial transactions relevant to the charge before the court.
Madaki, while being cross-examined by the second defence counsel, Olalekan Ojo (SAN), testified that there was no transaction relevant to the charge when the first defendant personally made it.
Defence counsel then asked the witness if he recalled telling the court that he did not witness any of the transactions in the case, and the witness replied, “I only said it was in the course of the investigation.”
On whether he acted based on facts in his investigation, the witness replied, “Yes, very well, my lord.”
The judge has adjourned the trial to July 19 to continue the trial.