News pathway: May 2020

Friday 29 May 2020

FOR WOMEN: how to control your temper

Do you lose your cool often? What makes you so? Try to come up with a list and we will resolve them together.

Does your list look like below?

A neighbor passed on a cheap comment.

A work colleague made a stinging remark behind your back.

Your hubby argued with you and insulted you.

The Landlady was most uncooperative with you about paying the rent a little late.

A bully chased your child all around the school compound and he got hurt.

How to reverse all the above five cases back? Is it possible? Certainly.

1.Ignore your neighbor and concentrate Talking to your child and converse playfully and happily. Keep your self-esteem high. Under no condition, should you lose it. Look powerful and yet, ignore the lunatic woman.

2.Ignore the stinging woman at your back at work but stay informed about all that she does. Build up a force with other adorable colleagues and stay united. The stinging woman will gradually cripple away.

3.What does your hubby want? Are you denying him something? Why did he argue and insult? What could be the reason? Question yourself and look from his point of view. Is he seeing someone else or he needs more of you? Are the household chores overwhelming him? Try to find out, get help and act accordingly.

4.Nowadays there are lots of online money-making programs. Take help from someone to show you how to work on these and make a steady income so that you never have to pay the rent late. Your Landlady will be impressed and will hardly cause trouble any longer.

5.Train you child to be powerful, strong and courageous. He doesn't have to lose in front of bullies while keeping his power and self-control intact. Teach him to subdue bullies so that they will walk away fearfully. There is always a way. You could buy a book on how to handle school bullies and lend your child a few effective tips. That should work.

There is a solution to every problem. Losing your power and breaking down is not the option now. You need to be mature emotionally. Then you can think and figure out everything rationally, logically and sensibly. You need to be solution-oriented. The more you try the positive and workable solutions, the less you will have to lose your cool and show your emotions publicly. You rise above your challenges and there will not be a second you will need to be emotionally immature.

Benue Vigilante Commandant arrested over N449m fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Mr. George Mbessey, the Commandant, Benue State Vigilante Group (BSVG), following a petition over alleged conspiracy, abuse of office and diversion of N449.5 million public funds.

The EFCC Makurdi Zonal Office Head of Media and Publicity, Mr. Dele Oyewale said in a statement made available to the Newsmen on Friday in Makurdi.

According to Oyewale, Mbessey was arrested by operatives of the EFCC on Wednesday in Makurdi.

”The petitioners state that the BSVG receives its official funding of N20 million monthly directly from the Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs through official account.

“Between October 2018 and May 2020, the suspect allegedly collected funds meant for the group to the tune of N449.5 million, using a personal account.

”An act they claim did not follow due process, hence, the petition to the EFCC,” the commission spokesperson said.

He further disclosed that the suspect has already volunteered useful information to the commission and would be arraigned in court as soon as the investigation was concluded.

Police arrest 250 illegal miners in Zamfara

Police in Zamfara state, Friday, arrested 250 illegal miners. Those arrested included a foreigner,while items recovered from the culprits were 12 pumping machines,29 motorcycles, chemicals for making gold and unrefined gold sifting materials.

The Commissioner of Police in Zamfara stare, Mr Usman Nagoggo told journalists in Gusau that government had felt that there was a nexus between the criminality in Zamfara and mining.

“It is known fact that the Federal Government had last year ,at the heat of banditary, cattle rustling and kidnapping banned all forms of mining activities in Zamfara State,” he said.

He said Intelligence report at their disposal and other leading security agents in the state , revealed that some unpatriotic Nigerians in concert with foreigners were deeply engaged in illegal mining activities in the state.

According to him, “on 20th April, 2020, the Commissioner of Police led a team of Policemen to one of the major mining sites at Kwalli in Bukkuyum LGA.The result was that some Chinese Nationals and their Nigerian collaborators were arrested and have since been handed over to Force CID, Force Headquarters Abuja”.

Nagogo said the magnitude of arrest led both the Inspector General of Police and Chief of Army staff to give a matching order to security agents to go after these illegal miners.

“On 21st May, 2020 the Brigade Commander 1 Brigade Nigeria Army, Gusau, Brigadier General O. M Bello led a team comprising of Army, Police and DSS to raid the mining sites in Anka, Bukkuyum and Gummi LGAs which led to the arrest of two hundred and fifty (250) Nigerians and One(1) Burkinabe national”.

“All the Suspects have confessed to the offence and would be arraigned before the court of competent jurisdiction whenever the court resumes sitting.”

“Let me sound a word of warning that until and unless the Federal Government unbanned the mining activities, anybody who goes against the law will be arrested and severely dealt with according to the law of the land”.

Buhari trusts women more than men: Garba Shehu

The Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr Garba Shehu has said that Buhari trusts women more than men.

Disclosing this when he played host in an NTA programme on Friday, Shehu, said; “Let me say this, I hope I don’t get myself into trouble.

“He is more trusted of women than men, because he has given this country… all these years, all the country’s money is in the hands of women and they kept it safely. And they are doing well.”

Recall that Kemi Adeosun was Buhari’s first finance minister, before, Zainab Ahmed. Both are women of exceptional qualities.

Adeosun resigned on September 15, 2018, following allegations that she used a forged certificate to avoid the country’s mandatory one-year youth service scheme, NYSC.

In her defense, Kemi said she was issued with a certificate that she thought was genuine. She however, resigned honorably.

In her words, “This has come as a shock to me and I believe that in line with this administration’s focus on integrity, I must do the honourable thing and resign”.

FG to pay N20,000 to unemployed youths to maintain public infrastructure

As part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s agenda to reduce unemployment rate in the country, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), said that the Federal Government has agreed to pay the sum of twenty thousand naira, (20,000), to unemployed youths, for three months, to maintain public and social infrastructures in the country.

Disclosing this at a news conference, Keyamo opined: “The pilot programme earlier approved by Mr. President was designed to mitigate lack of job opportunities in the rural areas through a short-term engagement of 1,000 unemployed persons per local government area for a period of three months.

“It is a dry season/off-season transient job programme and was originally designed for the rehabilitation/maintenance of public and social infrastructure. Participants were to be paid an allowance of N20,000 monthly and were to be recruited largely from the pool of unskilled persons resident in those rural areas.

“Some have asked me why there’s no registration portal for the 1000 jobs per LGA. My answer is, our real targets for these jobs are mostly unskilled rural workers who may not be literate enough & who can’t have access to any portal. The elites think everything is now by internet.

“Whilst it is inexpedient to ask largely illiterate, itinerant workers to go on the internet & register for jobs through a portal, we shall surely upload their full names & information AFTER RECRUITMENT on a website for all to see. The monitoring process would be very transparent”.

Twitter CEO Responds to Trump: "We’ll Continue to Point Out Incorrect or Disputed Information About Elections"

POLITICS

Jack Dorsey tweeted in reaction to White House accusations of politicabias after a pair of the president's tweets were flagged for being misleading.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey reaffirmed the company's commitment to fact check information related to elections despite a fierce reaction from the Trump administration over a pair of Donald Trump's tweets that were flagged as misleading on the platform.

After a storm of criticism from the president's allies and threats from Trump himself to regulate social media companies via executive order, Dorsey tweeted on Wednesday night that "there is someone ultimately accountable for our actions as a company, and that’s me. Please leave our employees out of this."

He added that Twitter will "continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make."

"This does not make us an “arbiter of truth.” Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves. More transparency from us is critical so folks can clearly see the why behind our actions," Dorsey wrote.

Trump Pledges Social Media Crackdown, D.C. Circuit Offers Its Version of Subtweet

In a follow-up tweet, Dorsey said the company would clarify its fact check of Trump's tweets, suggesting that "the tweets yesterday may mislead people into thinking they don’t need to register to get a ballot (only registered voters receive ballots). We’re updating the link on @realDonaldTrump’s tweet to make this more clear."

On Tuesday, Trump reacted furiously after Twitter added a fact-check warning to his tweets about mail-in ballots. Via Twitter, the president accused the social media company of "completely stifling FREE SPEECH," pledging not to allow it to happen. On Wednesday morning, again on his Twitter account, he followed that up by tweeting how "Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservative voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen."

By Wednesday evening the president pledged to sign an executive order against social media companies although it was unclear what the order will do.

Buhari to receive report Sunday

PublishedMay 29, 2020

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Our Reporters

The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, has said the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), would receive more recommendations from the PTF on Sunday.

He stated this during the PTF briefing in Abuja on Thursday, saying the report would be submitted in the next 72 hours after an assessment report on the eased lockdown.

Mustapha said, “Within the next 72 hours, the PTF will conclude its assessment on the impact of the measures put in place and further recommendations would be submitted to the President for a decision.”

The PTF chair and Secretary to the Government of the Federation also stressed the need for a drastic change in lifestyle and behaviour of Nigerians because COVID-19 was long term and that the cure was not readily available.

“This advisory is based on the fact that the battle is long term and the cure is still in the distant future, nearest being towards the end of 2021. We continue to urge our citizens to follow these advisories diligently,” he stated.

Also, the PTF National Coordinator, Sani Aliyu, said the task force would be focusing on greater community mobilisation by engaging over 800,000 volunteers.

“This strategy involves an aggressive campaign to ensure everyone in the community is armed with the information they need to stop the spread of COVID-19 and to protect themselves.

“It will empower communities to self-mobilise within their interest groups and collectively practise and enforce prevention measures,” Aliyu said.

He explained that the campaign would cut across communities in the 774 local government areas at the grassroots by engaging partners such as the National Orientation Agency, the Nigerian Red Cross Society, the United Nations Children Education Fund, Jamaatu Nasrul Islam, National Council for Women Societies, Yar’Adua Foundation, Nigerian Interfaith Action Association, the UN system and many more

Anxiety mounts over COVID-19 spread in Kogi after index cases

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced two cases of coronavirus in Kogi on Wednesday.

Although those were the state’s index cases, there are fears the infection rate might already be high.

One of the index cases had reported at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Lokoja, the state capital, when he started having symptoms of the disease but he was later sent to the National Hospital, Abuja, where he was diagnosed.

TheCable gathered that the man who is from Kabba Bunu local government area, is believed to have infected his close aide, who is the second case confirmed by the NCDC.

There is a high possibility that the duo came in contact with a lot of people in the state before they were transferred to Abuja on May 24.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Nigeria, Kogi has laid claim to a clean sheet until Wednesday when NCDC confirmed the two cases.

But the state government rejected the results, accusing the health agency of perpetrating fraud.

TheCable gathered that Austin Ojotule, the state epidemiologist, was immediately informed after the index cases tested positive.

A senior medical doctor at FMC told TheCable that health workers in the state are apprehensive and have been having marathon meetings since the cases were confirmed.

“Everybody is apprehensive; the tension is higher than it was before the cases were confirmed. We are meeting again this morning… we have been meeting since then,” the doctor, who pleaded anonymity for the fear of being punished, told TheCable on Friday morning.

“The doctors that exposed themselves have also gone into self isolation. The state authorities ought to have started contact tracing but with the way they are denying, they are not ready to do anything. It seems they are not taking the lives of the people as seriously as they ought to.”

Speaking during an NTA programme on Thursday, Mohammed Kawu, acting secretary, health and human services secretariat in the federal capital territory (FCT), said with the nature of the two cases from Kogi, it is believed that the infection is spreading.

He said the state was immediately contacted “to ensure that they do contact tracing and carry out tests so that all those found positive would be removed from the communities in order not to infect other people.”

“The issue is that there is infection going on somehow and I think it is the response of the state to search the area and do a lot of testing so that whoever they find infected should be isolated and treated, otherwise it is not going to be good,” he said.

Doctors are also worried that not much has been done on the part of government to curb the spread of the virus.

TheCable had reported how Kogi, which shares a boundary with FCT, has been turning a blind eye to patients with COVID-19 symptoms.

Despite over 500 cases in the nation’s capital, there is seamless flow of movement between the two places, with little or no measure in place to prevent transmission of the virus as many do not wear masks, maintain social distancing, or observe other safety protocols recommended by health authorities.

Both the state epidemiologist and Haruna Saka, commissioner for health, could not be reached for comments as of the time of filing this report.

They neither answered calls nor replied text messages.

FRONT PAGE THE NATION BUSINESS POLICY RADAR PETROBAROMETER LIFESTYLE SPORT ☰ Anxiety mounts over COVID-19 spread In Kogi After The Index cases