KWSG DEBUNKS RUMOR, INTRODUCES SPECIAL ID CARD FOR WORKERS
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The State Commissioner for
Finance, Alhaji Demola Banu, who made the clarification in a statement on
Tuesday, said the actual cost of the card is N1, 200 but was subsidized by the
consortium handling the workers’ biometric verification exercise.
Banu explained that the
multi-purpose ID card contains features including Kwara Resident Identification
Number (KRIN), payment enabled and can be used as an automated teller machine
(ATM) card.
He added that the card would also
form the basis of entitlement to the State-wide Health Insurance Scheme when it
becomes operational.
The Commissioner said that the
deduction was done with the knowledge of the State chapters of the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Pensioners Union of
Nigeria, who were expected to inform their members.
Providing further clarification on
the matter, the State Head of Service, Mrs. Susan Oluwole emphasized that
officials of the labour unions were at the meeting where the decision to deduct
N500 for the ID card was made.
N2BN FRAUD: MAINA AT LARGE
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he embattled
ex-chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed
Maina, who has been accused of complicity in a N2bn fraud, has gone into hiding.
The fugitive,
who is still on the wanted list of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
for the alleged offence, went into hiding soon after news that the anti-graft
agency had launched a manhunt for him became public.
One of our
correspondents gathered that Maina, who had been reinstated as an acting
director in the Ministry of Interior, was to meet with yet to be identified
persons in his office but apparently had a change of heart because he was
nowhere near the office building when our reporter arrived at the office at
8.20am and at 2.00pm when he left.
The office
located at the Old Secretariat in Area 1, consists of a reception, a waiting
room before a massive door leading up to the director’s office.
The reception
looked dreary while two young men in the waiting room fiddled with their phones
as they conversed in low tones. Attempts to speak with the female secretary,
who refused to give her name, failed as she rebuffed all questions.
In response to
enquiries about the whereabouts of her new boss, she snapped, “I don’t know
where he is.”
A source, who
spoke to one of our correspondents, in confidence because of the sensitivity of
the matter, said Maina travelled to Kano during the weekend and had given
appointments to some persons to meet him at the office on Monday but went into
hiding soon afterwards.
The source
said, “He planned to meet with some visitors in his office on Monday but for
him to have aborted the appointment and switched off his phones meant he had
gone underground. He may not be seen for a little while.
It was learnt
that the fugitive had over the last few months held meetings with several
groups and individuals with respect to his ambition to contest in the 2019
governorship election in his home state of Borno.
“Maina has not hidden
his political plans as he is known to broadcast his ambition on WhatsApp platform to
his friends and associates,” the source further explained.
Nigeria’s
foremost anti-graft agency, the EFCC also said it was still searching for Maina
whom it declared wanted about two years ago.
The EFCC
Spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, who spoke to one of our correspondents around
8pm on Monday, said the commission was still on his trail.
He, however, stated
that the commission had marked his houses in Abuja including a house in Jabi
said to be worth about $2m.
THE PUNCH
No Law Over Hate Speech, Fake News -
Lai Mohammed
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inister of
Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed said
the federal government will
not make any law or directive over hate speech and fake news.
The Minister said this during a working visit to the TV
Continental on Monday.
He
described as fake news, the alleged directive from National Broadcasting
Commission (NBC) regulating phone-in programmes and Newspaper review on TV and
radio programmes.
Mohammed said “no government that stifles the press, ever
succeeds”.
He stated that the position of the government has been and still remains that the industry should regulate itself.
He stated that the position of the government has been and still remains that the industry should regulate itself.
He said many
Nigerians relied on newspaper review on radio and TV as their source of news
daily and such review should, therefore, be done from the holistic perspective.
The minister
also underscored the need for media houses to regulate the calls received
during phone-in programmes to checkmate opportunists from using such avenue for
hate speech.
DAILY POST
"IMPOSTORS HAVE MADE US SUFFER IN IGBOMINA LAND"- COMRADE ISHOLA
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he President, National
Association of Igbomina Students, NAIS, Comrade Akeem Ishola also known as Momentum
has expressed his displeasure over the neglected state of the association by Igbomina
stakeholders who he said have lost their faith in the development of the
association over the years, blaming the ugly situation on some impostors in the
association who had actually used the name of the association for their personal
interest.
Speaking with OJUTO’LE during annual
celebration of Igbomina day of the Kwara State College of Health Technology
Offa Kwara State, Comrade Ishola regretted that the aims and
objectives of the founding members of the association is to develop every
members as future leaders, but has turned to a futile effort.
“The National
Association of Igbomina Students has been in existence for a while now, the
aims and the objectives of the association is to build and develop ourselves as
future leaders, but the reverse has been the case because some unscrupulous elements
have actually used the name of the association for their own interest which has
caused the Igbomina stakeholders to lose faith in the interest and development
of the association.”
Comrade Ishola who
enumerated various project proposals to be executed by the association
expressed with dismay that none of the wealthy individuals in Igbomina land was
giving them attention because they had had enough deceptions from impostors in
the association.
Comrade Ishola however
appealed to all stakeholders in Igbomina land comprising of Kwara and Osun
States, home and Diaspora to give the association another chance by giving them
necessary and needed support in actualizing their potentials which he said
would go a long way in developing Igbomina land and the country in general.
He further assured that the new leadership
under his watch would do everything legally possible to revive the association and
make it viable.
Some of the proposed
projects according to him included Igbomina Student Association secretariat,
establishment of vocational education centre for self reliant, creation of
association website to showcase their activities, provision of bus for mobility
and to project the name of the association among others.
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