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Ihiala local
government council of Anambra State has received more than N9 million
from the Federal Government/World Bank for the Fadama III programme.

Augustine Egolum,
the director of agricultural services in the council, said on Thursday
in Ihiala that “our Fadama User Groups (FUGs) have received close to N10
million from the Federal Government for the various Fadama III projects
in the council, and the projects so far are sailing smoothly.

“We commend the
Federal Government/World Bank for the initiative, which has come to
change the fortune of farmers and other farming related productive
enterprises in the council area. It has also created jobs for school
leavers in our communities, especially in oil palm processing, animal
husbandry, and fishery projects,” she said.

She added that the money was disbursed in tranches to the various FUGs in the area.

Ebonyi rice farmers
may record low production due to the re-emergence of pest known as
‘rice gall-midge’, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

The largest rice
producing Izzi and Ikwo Local government councils are worst hit by the
pest attack.Emmanuel Echiegu, the state commissioner for Agriculture and
Natural Resources, told NAN on Thursday in Abakaliki, that the
re-emergence of the pest came to the ministry as a surprise.

‘‘We thought it had
been completely eradicated. The effect of the pest in Izzi and Ikwo from
what I saw when I visited the areas is devastating and would definitely
result in poor harvest this year’’.

“Unfortunately,we
did not distribute the tolerant varieties to farmers on time to ward off
the pests from their rice farms as we did not anticipate the
re-emergence of the pest,” Mr. Echiegu said.

The Nigeria
Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) on Thursday in Abuja
threatened to withdraw its services nationwide if the Federal Government
fails to tackle the challenges in the oil sector.

Lawal Isah, the
National Operations Coordinator of the association, issued the threat at
a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.He said the association would
only rescind the threat if government granted an immediate bail-out of
the oil industry,by injecting physical funds to assist stakeholders who
are directly involved in the sector.

Mr. Isah said
government must also intervene in the ongoing impasse between some major
indigenous oil marketers and some financial institutions.

He added that,
government should also wade into what he described as a “frivolous
court order’’ obtained through an ‘exparte motion’ which led to the
closure of MRS group’s accounts with all banks in the country.

Abia state
government is worried over the establishment of poultry farms very close
to residential areas, Felix Erondu, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry
of Information and Strategy, has said.

Mr. Erondu said this
on Thursday in Umuahia at a sensitsation workshop on ‘Avian Influenza’,
organised for teachers and students. He said the trend had become
worrisome considering the fact that the deadly Avian flu has not been
totally eradicated worldwide.

According to him,
health experts are also worried about the development, “that our state
has been lucky to escape the scourge is no reason for us to rest on our
oars. Let me stress that we must be vigilant at all times’’.

“The need has become compelling with the recent report on Nov. 17, of
a 59-year-old woman diagnosed with the first human case of bird flu in
Hong Kong,” he said.

The National
Assembly staff on Wednesday barricaded the main entrance to the
chambers for hours, following protest over their unpaid salaries and
allowances.

The staff, who
serve the lawmakers directly as aides and in other service departments,
alleged that the National Assembly management has refused to pay them a
100% increase in their salaries, which was due since July.

The protesting
workers, under the aegis of Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria,
and numbering about 400 – including the security men – flooded the
entrance to the chambers chanting solidarity songs and booing at their
director of finance, Abdulazeez Bukoye. They alleged that even though
the Senate president has approved the funds since July, their
management fixed their salary in a bank account where it will yield
interest for some months out of selfish interests.

The deputy clerk of
the National Assembly, Muyiwa Adejokun, who spoke to the protesting
workers on behalf of the management, denied the allegations, saying the
finance ministry was yet to release funds for the implementation of the
salary increase.

For the sake of a
‘distinctive identity’ and a desire to attract and retain high calibre
workforce, the National Assembly had in July approved a 100% increase
in the salaries of the National Assembly workforce. The increase was a
result of an agreement reached by the National Assembly Service
Commission and the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria.

The increment is
said to have taken effect from January this year, but would be deployed
in batches: 50% to be paid immediately, while the balance will be
spread over the next eight years. The 50% balance will be added up
incrementally by 20%, 15%, and 15% after the second, sixth, and eight
year respectively.

According to George
Sekibo, the chairman, Senate committee on labour, who spoke on behalf
of the Senate, confirmed that the Senate president has approved the
payments, and asked the workers to give them within a fortnight to
verify from the finance ministry why the money has not been released.
He also requested that the workers nominate five of its members to be
part of the delegation to the finance ministry.

The workers,
however, reluctantly accepted his offer to intervene, but said they
will down tools if the delegation fails to get the money out in the
specified date.

The protesting workers spoke individually; they had no leader as their president, Rawlings Agada, absconded from the protest.

Attahiru Jega, the chairman of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday, solicited
the cooperation of the National Population Commission (NPC) in the
effective discharge of the 2011 general elections.

Mr. Jega, who made the appeal when he
led a team of INEC commissioners to the premises of the NPC, stated
that it had become necessary for INEC to seek a partnership with the
NPC because of the huge scale of organisation required.

The chairman explained that some
members of the NPC were already workers in the ongoing voters’
registration exercise. He also said the commission had requested the
use of the NPC’s storage facilities to keep its materials during the
elections.

“INEC is out to partner with several bodies, because everybody is interested in seeing that every vote counts,” Mr. Jega said.

“The fact that the commission has
announced a timetable for elections shows our level of readiness and
commitment to the exercise,” he added.

Aid to INEC

The chairman of the NPC, Ismail Danko
Makama, said INEC can use the NPC’s council offices in 36 states and
the FCT, as ancillary operational bases. He told Mr. Jega and his team
that the NPC has the demographic profiles of everyone in the country
from the 2006 census and sample surveys conducted, which could be
useful to INEC. He also promised that INEC can use the commission’s
vehicles for the movement of the materials during the elections.

“The scanning technology of the NPC,
which they use to detect fake documents and identify multiple data
entry, could be useful by INEC in detecting electoral fraud and other
malpractices,” Mr. Makama said.

“[The] commission has well-equipped data processing centres across
the country that can assist INEC during the elections, and we will not
hesitate to come to their aid in whatever form they deem necessary,” he
said.

The former Governor
of Ekiti State, Segun Oni has denied the claim by the state government
that he left a debt profile of over N40 billion.

Mr. Oni, in a
statement signed by his media aide, Wale Ojo-Lanre, said there are
inconsistencies in the allegation saying two weeks ago the current
governor, Kayode Fayemi, claimed the debt stood at N30billion, “only
for him to wake up yesterday to declare that the debt has risen to over
N40 billion.”

“This is the second
time we are reacting to the lies and dishonest statements of the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi
concerning the debt profile left behind by the former governor of the
State, Olusegun Oni,” Mr Ojo -Lanre said.

“The imaginary debt
he inherited is just to prepare the ground for his impending
non-performance, looting of the state treasury and the N40 bond
agreement of which is already being drafted by a Lagos- based lawyer.”

State allegation

Mr. Oni, however,
claimed that the true account it left behind, as at on October 15,
2010, shows that “the bank loan and borrowings then was about N7
billion and this included the outstanding loans of N3.4 billion
obtained by civil servants in the state on which deductions are being
made from their salaries.

“On the
contractors, it is clear that Fayemi was only playing to the gallery
when he said that the total debt owed contractors amounted to N27
billion,” Mr. Oni said, declaring that it is a general knowledge that a
contract does not become a debt until it is certified completed and
contractor moves out of site.

Revealing the alleged debt profile on Tuesday, the state
Accountant-General, David Ibikunle and its Auditor-General, Adebayo
Ajayi, said the state owed contractors handling various projects in the
state about N27 billion, while the various loans obtained by the
deposed administration were said to amount toN7.5 billion.

Although
government is constitutionally empowered to hold land in trust for the
people, it also has to allocate them to buyers, Anambra State
commissioner for lands, survey and urban planning, Peter Afuba, said on
Wednesday.

Mr. Afuba who was
reacting to allegations of indiscriminate sale of lands in parts of the
state, by a civil society group, Intersociety, said in a statement made
through the director, ministry of lands, Chris Arukwe, that government
allocated the lands to deserving organisations and people who met its
requirements.

According to him,
there were two categories of land; state land and non-state land. In
state land, he said, government has direct control while it exercised
minimal control on non-state land. “We merely have a supervisory role
in non-state land over the type of development that takes place there,”
he said.

Intersociety had
petitioned the lands ministry over what it termed indiscriminate sale
of lands particularly in the Onitsha area where it alleged that land
was sold to churches and individuals in a manner that ‘rubbished’ the
hard earned reputation of the state governor.

“Today, it may be
correct to say that the feat recorded or achieved by Peter Obi’s
administration in the area of land management and town planning is
being lost,” it alleged, stating that “the indiscriminate sale and
conversion of the government lands in the state especially in Onitsha
zone appear to be on the increase.”

Buying cemeteries

According to Emeka
Umeagbalasi, chairman of the group, “One of such criminal sales is the
Awada Cemetery, which used to have over 30 plots of land. It is
situated on Oraifite Street. Presently, there are over 25 residential
buildings, in addition to Catholic, Anglican and Pentecostal Churches
as well as other structures meant for commercial purposes.

There are less than
two plots of land now left as public cemetery, and some land
speculators are still fighting tooth and nail to “buy” same. There is
no public or government cemetery in Onitsha zone presently.”

He said their
recent finding showed that between 2008 and 2010, over sixty plots of
land belonging to government, hitherto occupied by debris and those he
called tenant-artisans, had been sold dubiously to certain wealthy
individuals and churches leading to the current absence of any
government designated refuse dumping site at the heart of Onitsha.

The group is thus
demanding that all public land illegally sold or converted should be
recovered and government officials responsible for such criminal
conducts investigated and prosecuted.

Responding the
allegations, Mr. Arukwe maintained that most of the references made in
the petition by Inetrsociety were on issues that happened many years
ago and that those places were not government lands.

“They’re not government lands and government is not involved in what’s happening there.”

The Bayelsa State government is to
evolve a legislative framework to compel traditional rulers and
chairmen of councils to reside and discharge their functions in their
domains.

The State Governor, Timipre Sylva, on
Wednesday, in Yenagoa, at a Town Hall meeting with community leaders,
said that the practice where some traditional rulers and council
chairmen were residing in the state capital was counter-productive to
the development of the rural areas.

About 90 percent of council chairmen
and traditional rulers in the state reside and carry out their
functions from Yenagoa, abandoning their subjects in the rural
communities.

“If only the traditional rulers and
council chairmen would stay in their respective domains and carry out
their leadership functions, I believe we will have fewer problems in
the state,” Mr. Sylva said.

The governor’s decision to return them
to their areas of authority followed a complaint by a concerned
community leader, Dennis Atimi.

Mr. Atimi, who is from Ekeremor local
government area, had, at the meeting, complained to the governor that
the absence of the council chairmen in their areas had led to the
collapse of local government administration in the state.

“If the chairmen were compelled to stay in the council areas and
discharge their functions, there will be high sense of responsibility
and commitment to the growth and development of the councils,” he said.

The tactical
intervention of the Senate President, David mark, stopped the Senate
from throwing out the $3.702 billion outstanding external borrowing
plan of the federal government.

The intervention of
the Senate President came on Wednesday after a heated debate which saw
most Senators strongly opposing the plan of the federal and state
governments as requested by the president.

Mr Mark who noticed
that the debates might not favour the bill refused to call for votes on
it, and instead referred it to the Senate Committee on Finance and the
Committee on National Planning.

President Goodluck
Jonathan had for the second time since assuming office written the
National Assembly on 4th November demanding the approval of his
outstanding borrowing plan for 2010.

The National
assembly, in April, partially approved the plan which was forwarded to
them alongside the 2010 budget proposals. They approved $915 million
out of the $5.22 billion loan amount proposed under the 2010 borrowing
plan leaving out $4.31 billion.

However, having
gotten the $915 million already approved, the president is now asking
for the approval of the outstanding amount of $3.702 billion which
sixteen states, the Federal Capital Territory, and the federal
government are the beneficiaries.

The loans and
credits would be secured on concessionary terms with repayment periods
of 25 to 40 years and moratoriums of 7 to 10 years.

The amount is to be
implemented on projects like rail construction, building of markets,
urban water and sanitation projects, equipping of hospitals, and rural
access and mobility projects.

Most senators
argued that the loans – especially those requested by the states – has
vague intentions and were not necessary now that 2011 is just a month
away.

“This money, from all indications is money that will disappear into private pockets,” Lee Maeba (PDP River state) said.

He argued that with
the 2011 elections around the corner, the monies will be used by the
state governments to run campaigns and mortgage the state rather than
apply it for the reason they were borrowed.

Like Mr. Maeba,
Ahmed Lawan (ANPP Yobe) said he does not support the borrowing plan. He
added that they do not even have the report on the utilisation of the
initial $915 million that was approved and acquired in April.

Uche Chukwumerije (PDP Abia state) also argued that the timing of the borrowing – end of tenures; election season – was wrong.

However, a few
other senators, including the deputy senate president and the senate
president argued in favour of the borrowing plan saying that it is
practically impossible for any nation to develop its infrastructure on
it’s internally generated funds.