Connect with us

National

Fire razes 200 shops in C’River

Published

12 months ago

on

No fewer than 200 shops were on Monday night razed by fire at Ikom main market in Ikom Local Government Area of Cross River.

Mr Chika Anya, Chairman of the Lagos line of the market, said the intensity of the inferno was such that nothing could be savaged from the affected shops.

According to him, the fire incident has been a reoccurring issue almost every year in the market.

He alleged that as with previous cases, the state fire service was unable to provide much support.

“All we want now is support from the government to enable us get our lives back.

“Government should also do the needful by having a functional fire service in Ikom and other council areas of the state,” Anya told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

One of the affected shop owners, Augustine Eze, said it was difficult to ascertain the cause of the fire as there was no electricity “and nobody is allowed to pass the night in the market.”

Eze said they got little support from the state fire service during the incident.

“This is not the first time we are having fire issue in the market and there is always no assistance to quench the fire since the state fire service lacks the equipment to fight one here,” Eze claimed.

Meanwhile, Mr Peter Okorebi, the state Director of Fire Service, said they would investigate the cause of the fire and take preventive measures.

Okorebi, however, said that the shop owners have for long formed the habit of cooking in the shops inspite of repeated warnings against such by the fire service.

ALSO READ:  3 killed in Israeli strike on outskirts of Damascus Strike

According to him, the traders have refused to heed to safety precautions.

“Our safety officers have repeatedly advised them against this trend but they simply won’t listen,” he added.

The director debunked the claims that the fire service lacked the necessary facilities to contain fire outbreaks in the area. (NAN)

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

National

JUST IN: Supreme Court sets aside judgment recognising Abure as LP’s National Chairman

Published

2 hours ago

on

April 4, 2025

By

The Supreme Court has set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja recognising Julius Abure as the National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP).

In a unanimous judgment on Friday, a five-member panel of the apex court held that the Court of Appeal lacked the jurisdiction to have pronounced Abure National Chairman of the LP having earlier found that the substance of the case was about the party’s leadership.

It held that issue of leadership was internal affair of a party over which courts lacked jurisdiction.

The court allowed the appeal filed by Senator Ester Nenadi Usman and one other and held that it was meritorious.

It proceeded to dismiss the cross-appeal filed by the Abure faction of the LP got being unmeritorious.

Details shortly…

ALSO READ:  Alleged Age Falsification: CSO Urges Tinubu Not to Confirm Adeniyi as Customs CG
Continue Reading

National

Hakeem Baba-Ahmed resigns as presidential political adviser

Published

3 hours ago

on

April 4, 2025

By

Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, special adviser on political matters to Vice-President Kashim Shettima, has resigned from his position, According to Daily Trust.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that the former spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) resigned two weeks ago.

President Bola Tinubu appointed Baba-Ahmed as special adviser on political matters to Shettima in September 2023.

Baba-Ahmed is the elder sibling of Datti Baba-Ahmed, vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election.

Baba-Ahmed served as chief of staff to Bukola Saraki, former senate president, from 2017-2019.

CONFRONTATION WITH MATAWALLE OVER NEF

In April 2024, Bello Matawalle, minister of state for defence, described the NEF as a “political paperweight” after the group stated that the north made a mistake voting Tinubu in 2023.

In his reaction to Matawalle’s remarks, Baba-Ahmed said it would have served the Tinubu administration better if Matawalle had listed his achievements as minister — and the achievements of the other northern appointees — instead of attacking NEF.

“Scathing criticism of NEF by a junior minister of defence, Matawalle, is ill-advised. He could have done a better job for this admin if he identified contributions of especially northern ministers and other appointees like me to improving security and reducing poverty in the North,” Baba-Ahmed said.

In a riposte, the minister said any appointee must defend and promote the administration they work for.

“Dr. Baba-Ahmed’s relationship and affinity with Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) is well-known,” Matawalle said.

“The fact now is that he is an appointee of the administration as Special Adviser and it is incumbent on him to work for the success of the government he is part of, protect and defend the government against unjust and vicious attacks from those who hide under ethnic and other primordial interests to heat up the polity for myopic reasons.

ALSO READ:  2025 budget: Defence allocation shows Tinubu’s political will to end insurgency — Okupe

“It is pertinent to state that every appointee of President Tinubu including Dr. Baba-Ahmed owes the government a copious duty to promote, elucidate and advance the good works and commendable efforts of the government across all sectors.”

He added that northern appointees must defend the government or take their exit.

Matawalle is a native of Zamfara while Baba-Ahmed hails from Kaduna.

Continue Reading

National

INEC: We are not partisan in failed recall of Natasha

Published

4 hours ago

on

April 4, 2025

By

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has denied being partisan in handling the failed recall of the Senator representing Kogi Central, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of INEC, Rotimi Oyekanmi, who was on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, explained how the Commission handled the process.

“In the case of the Kogi Central District, we received a petition and a cover letter and of course what Nigerians were saying was that we were taking sides,” Oyekanmi said on the programme.

INEC logo and Senator Natasha Akpoti (Kogi-Central PDP)
INEC logo and Senator Natasha Akpoti (Kogi-Central PDP)

“But what happened was that in the covering letter, the representatives of the petitioners did not include their address as required in our regulations and guidelines and what we just did was to ask them to supply their address, it has nothing to do with the petition.

“And of course, there is nowhere in the law where INEC is asked to reject a petition just because the cover letter did not contain the address. So, there was no hanky-panky in what we did.”

Earlier on Thursday, INEC rejected the petition to recall Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, saying that it has not met the requirements.

The electoral commission said the petition to recall Senator Natasha did not meet constitutional requirements.

Senator Natasha was suspended for breaching Senate rules, prompting some of her constituents to initiate her recall. They claimed the move was to ensure their constituency did not lack representation following the suspension of the 45-year-old senator.

Asked whether there could be a repeat of the recall process, the INEC spokesperson said the law did not specify if the process could be repeated and how many times.

ALSO READ:   Kano Gov Announces Return Of Sanusi As Emir

“The law just talks about the threshold, the threshold meaning that if you want to recall, you must have, in addition to your petition, 50 per cent plus one signatures. The law did not specify how many times you can undertake that,” he said.

Channels

Continue Reading