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FG presents 42,000 metric tonnes of food items to Kano
The Federal Government on Monday, presented 42,000 metric tonnes of assorted food commodities to the Kano Government for distribution to vulnerable persons in the state.
The Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Hajiya Zubaida Umar, presented the items to Gov. Abba Kabir-Yusuf in Kano.
Umar, represented by Dr Ishaya Isah-Chonoko, NEMA Acting Zonal Director of the Northwest, said the gesture was part of the federal government’s efforts to cushioning the effect of high cost of food in the country
“President Bola Ahmed, approved the release of 42,000 metric tonnes of assorted food commodities from the National Strategic Reserve.
“In fulfillment of his promise to reduce the impact of the current economic down-turn being experienced in the country in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda.
“We are here to hand-over the food items to the state government for distribution to the identified deserving beneficiaries in the communities through the constituted Committees in each local government.
“The food commodities include: 19,360 bags of 50kg of Maize, 26,400 bags of 50kg of Sorghum and 8,360 bags of 50kg bagsof Millet..
Umar said following Mr President’s directives, 20 per cent of the food items due each LGA would be given to religious organisations while boarding schools in each LGA would receive 3 per cent of the food items.
Meanwhile, the DG drew the attention of the state Governor to the 2024 Seasonal Climate and annual flood predictions that 25 states and 72 local government areas had been identified to be within flood high-risk areas, with heightened vulnerability to flooding during the months of April, May and June.
“Tofa, RiminGado, Kabo, Madobi, Kura, Dawakin Kudu, Wudil, Ajingi, GarumMalam, Bebeji, Sumaila,Dala, Rano, and Warawa Local Government Areas of Kano State are highly probable flood risk areas in 2024” Umar said.
She urged the state government to direct SEMA, frontline local government authorities and other response agencies to remain proactively prepared.
“Carry out public enlightenment campaigns, Identifying high grounds for possible Internally Displaced Persons camps, to shelter evacuated communities and clearing of drainages among
Responding, Gov. Kabir-Yusuf, commended the federal government for the kind gesture to support the needy and vulnerables in the state.
He said the items would go along way to cushioning the economic hardship faced by vulnerables within the 44 local government areas in the state.
Kabir-Yusuf also commended the DG NEMA, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, and Dr Nura Abdullahi, NEMA Kano/Jigawa Territorial Coordinator, for their support.
He called on the local government constituted committes to comply with the federal government’s directives in sharing the food items to the vulnerables persons and urged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the items.(NAN)
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.
“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.
“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.
The lawmaker has made headlines in recent months after she accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment, a claim the Akwa Ibom lawmaker has equally denied.
She was thereafter suspended by the Red Chamber for violation of its rule of conduct.
The National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has handed over 19 kidnapped victims rescued by the security agencies to the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa.
The brief ceremony took place on Thursday at the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Office of the National Security Adviser in Abuja.
The victims included Ambassador Gideon Yohanna, the former Director-General of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Maharazu Tsiga (retired) who had spent 56 days in captivity and 17 others, including a child.
Both Ribadu and Musa pledged to remain relentless until the criminals are wiped out and normalcy restored in the country.
“As a result of the work of our armed forces and other security services, we are able to rescue and bring back our own people,” he said.
“This time, it involves important personalities who served this country. We thank God for their lives, we are grateful to those who made it possible.
“This is an ongoing operation and we are doing it quite silently, we will go after the bad ones.”
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan on Thursday applauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for rejecting a petition to recall her as the lawmaker representing Kogi Central Senatorial District.
The female lawmaker, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, said the electoral umpire should have thrown out the petition long before it did on April 3, 2025.
“I’m a lawyer. I’m a senator and I understand how Nigeria works. For me, the most important thing is this recall process has been stalled.
“I give kudos and credit to INEC even though I believe they should have thrown it away from the get-go.
“I think it was void ab initio because there is no law in the Electoral Act that says a petition should be discarded just because there is no address but again, what if the address is false?”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain argued that most of the addresses provided in the petition for her recall were false because most houses in her district weren’t labelled.
“Even though INEC did count 208,000 signatures, I bet you if they had gone into the verification stage, they would have struggled to even have 500 people come out to attest to signing that,” she added.
She accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Governor Usman Ododo and ex-governor Yahaya Bello of sponsoring her failed recall.
In a much-awaited statement on Thursday, INEC said the petition for the recall of the lawmaker did not met the requirement of Section 69(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
“Therefore, no further action shall be taken on the recall of the Senator,” INEC declared.