BREAKING: GUNMEN STORM ZAMFARA SCHOOL, ABDUCT 300 FEMALE STUDENTS

Suspected terrorists have kidnapped some students of Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in Talata Mafara local government area of Zamfara state .

The EHSadvisor gathered that the incident happened in the early hours of Friday, February 26.

A resident of Kawaye village identified as Sadi Kawaye told Daily Trust that his daughters, Mansura and Sakina were among those abducted.

“I’m on my to Jangebe now to see the situation myself. I was told they invaded the school around 1am,” he told our reporter over the phone.

When contacted, SP Muhammad Shehu, Police Public Relations Officer in Zamfara, said he could not react.

“Give me some time, I can’t say anything now,” he said.

It was the fourth of such massive kidnap by terrorists in Northwest Nigeria, starting from the abduction of over 300 students from a government college in Kankara, Katsina state.

The latest kidnap in the girls school in Jangebe, in Talatu Mafara LGA, happened around 2 a.m today.

The gunmen stormed the school and herded the children away.

Scores of the terrorists were said to have overrun a military checkpoint close to the school before storming the school itself.

Several soldiers were said to have sustained injuries.

It was not clear whether some fatalities occurred as at press time. 

P.M.News sources said vigilantes exchanged gunfire with the terrorists and are said to be on their heels to rescue the schoolgirls.

Zailani Bappah, Special assistant to Governor Bello Matawalle on public enlightenment confirmed the kidnap to BBC Pidgin.

“More than 300 girls are unaccounted for after a head count of remaining students,” Sadi Kawaye, a teacher said.

Police have not yet spoken on the incident

Niger state has also experienced two of such kidnapping by terrorists this month.

NAFDAC TO SHUT DOWN PACKAGED WATER FACTORIES ENDANGERING HEALTH OF NIGERIANS

NAFDAC

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has vowed to shut down packaged water production facilities that fail the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) requirements as it pledges to collaborate with the various associations in the efforts to sanitise the packaged water sector of the economy.

 

Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, disclosed these on Friday, in Abuja, at a virtual stakeholders’ meeting with packaged water producers in Nigeria on the need to sanitise the industry.

 

Adeyeye, however, appealed to the 412 producers that participated in the interactive forum to always ensure that the level of compliance with NAFDAC regulatory requirements for which their products were registered be maintained at all times.

 

Adeyeye, in a statement signed by Resident Media Consultant to NAFDAC, Sayo Akintola, yesterday, expressed dismay that after procuring registration approval, many of the over 16,000 registered producers of packaged water across Nigeria, more often than not, do lower standards and produce under despicable conditions, putting the health of Nigerians at risk.

“Today, we are gathered on this platform as producers of packaged water and we all know that the situation in Nigeria today is such that the entire Nigerian populace (including the healthy, elderly, pregnant women, children and the weak with low immunity) depend on packaged water for sustenance, as many believe falsely or rightly that the municipal water, where available, may hardly be safe for drinking,” she said.

Describing water as a unique product because it has no alternative, Adeyeye said everybody needs water or at least water-based product for hydration, proper digestion of food, drugs and other human needs to sustain life. The NAFDAC boss, however, said that water could only sustain life when it is available for drinking in the safe and potable form; otherwise, it could cause health complications and even death.

 

Both national presidents of the Association of Table Water Producers (ATWAP), Mrs Tina Ativie, and Water Producers Association of Nigeria (WAPAN), Mr. Egberi Odiri Mackson, commended NAFDAC for the initiative and expressed the desire of their associations to cooperate and collaborate with NAFDAC to ensure sanity in the packaged water sector.

NIGERIAN SENATE TO PASS BILL PROHIBITING EMPLOYERS FROM HIRING CASUAL WORKERS

Ahmed Lawan, President of the Nigerian Senate

The Nigerian Senate, on Thursday, February 18, 2021, commenced consideration of a bill seeking to stop employers in the private and public sectors from engaging employable Nigerian graduates as casual workers.

The Prohibition of Casualization Bill 2020, is sponsored by Senator Ayo Akinyelure (PDP-Ondo Central).

Akinyelure, while citing the banking industry, said banks turn female marketers into harlots and sexual slaves in a desperate attempt to make them meet huge targets.

The Senator observed that casualization of graduates in the Nigerian labour market has become a subject of great concern to everyone.

Akinyelure said more workers continue to groan under the strategy of cutting costs by employers rendering them inferior to their counterparts in other countries.

“Young graduates are employed as marketers and given unrealistic targets. The female desperate in keeping their jobs turned to harlotry and sex slavery, moving from one office to the other looking for invisible customers. It is high time this evil act is stopped,” he fumed.

Senator Biodun Olujimi (PDP – Ekiti South) supported Akinyelure’s observation on banks.

Olujimi said many girls have been turned into what cannot be imagined. The lawmaker lamented marketers are not promoted if they don’t bring in funds.

Noting that profit has to be made, she said it does not give banks the power to use their staff anyhow.

Ovie Omo-Agege, the deputy senate president, decried the treatment of casual workers by oil companies operating in Nigeria.

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, charged the Committee on Employment, Labour, and Productivity to strike a balance to ensure that casual workers are not made victims of layoffs.

The bill after scaling second reading was referred to the Committee on Employment, Labour, and Productivity. A report is expected within four weeks.

CROSS RIVERS GOVERNMENT DEMOLISHES OVER 200 ILLEGAL STRUCTURES AT CALABAR MARKET

The Cross River State Governnent on Sunday demolished over 200 illegal structures at the popular Ika Ika Oqua Market (Marian Market) along Marian road, Calabar Municipality Local Government Area of the state.

EHSadvisor learned that most of the illegal structures owned by some traders not only obstruct vehicular movement but also constitutes huge nuisance because drainages have been blocked making the environment unhygienic.

Speaking with newsmen on Sunday at the Ika Ika Oqua Market, the Commisioner for Environment, Hon Nfon Bassey, said the general clean up exercise was to make the market clean, hygienically excellent and safe as compared to markets of it’s kind.

His words: “We are just doing a general clean up around the Ika Ika Oqua market. As you can see people have come to build shanties around the market and on the road and they turn into place into a shopping centre.

“You can see even behind me part of the coldtar is being used as refuse dump which is supposed not to be so. Before today when you come around the market there is no road.

“All the drains around the market are completely blocked. As you can also see the traders themselves outside the building lines also brought in their own projections from their shops to the main road thereby making this road impassable in a normal day.

“So we are just trying to sanitise the market, restore it to what it used to be and free the road. So from what we have done today, we are going to have an enforcement team to ensure that the traders do not come back.

Speaking further, the Commissioner explained that traders and owners of the make shift containers were given notice 13 months ago.

“In fairness to them all, today makes it a year and a month that we started announcing the demolition.

“The truth is when you enter the market most of the lock up shops are empty, we want them to go back to their shops inside the market. We want to clean up to create enough space for vehicular movement and easy access .

“I can assure you that after today, we will have enforcement team, they can’t come back here anymore, there will be provision for waste bins too.

“Every member of our cluster including waste management, CUDA and our Ministry will ensure the market remains clean, safe and hygienic. Traders should leave the road and enter their shops inside the market. The market must be clean,” Nfon said.

LAGOS SEALS DALEKO RICE MARKET OVER VIOLATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

Lagos State Government on Friday, sealed up the Daleko rice Market, in Mushin Local Governments Area for violating the state environmental laws.

The Managing Director, Lagos State Waste Management Authority, LAWMA, Ibrahim Odumboni, who confirmed the closure, said the operators of the market had been served several abatement notices over improper management of waste in the market.

LAWMA, Enforcement and Monitoring Team, EMT, carried out the operation.

Odumboni, reiterated that Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu led-administration would not tolerate any act of environmental degradation and any offender caught would not be spared.

“The market was sealed over Illegal and indiscriminate dumping of waste. And it will not be reopened until they conform with the state environmental laws.

“Over time Lagosians have been urged not to dump waste indiscriminately which often ends in drainages, thereby blocking free flow of wastewater.

“They are also encouraged on the need to patronise Public Sector Participants, PSPs, and desist from patronising Cary pushers,” Odumboni stated.

NAFDAC SEALS FACTORY FOR ‘REVALIDATING’ EXPIRED PRODUCTS

In a bid to rid the country of unwholesome foods and other consumables as well as safeguard the health of the Nigerian populace, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has shut down a food manufacturing company over alleged revalidation of expired curry and thyme spices.

In a statement signed by the Resident Media Consultant to NAFDAC, Sayo Akintola, yesterday he said following a tip-off, operatives of the Investigation and Enforcement Directorate of NAFDAC swooped on the main warehouse and factory of Every Rose Limited, manufacturers of SomGeo brand of spices, located at Petu Village, Ibeju-Lekki, and No. 23, Tunji Bello Street, Lekki, Lagos, respectively.

It said sequel to the visit by the NAFDAC officials, it was discovered that large quantities of expired curry and thyme spices were stored in the warehouse with packaging materials, labels as well as stamps that were being used to illegally revalidate the already expired products (spices).

The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, had warned firms against the act, saying the company will be heavily sanctioned for endangering public health.

He said the two locations visited were sealed and placed on hold, adding that the company staff members found revalidating the aforementioned products at the factory have been apprehended and taken to NAFDAC Investigation and Enforcement office for further investigation.

The statement added that different finished products and working tools were also found in the factory while the business owner, a lady (names withheld), is at large.

The statement said records available in NAFDAC showed that the company located at 19, Adelajo Ojo Crescent, Magodo, Lagos, registered 16 different products for listing under the brand name SOMGEO and these include SOMGEO ginger powder, SOMGEO garlic powder, SOMGEO thyme leaves and SOMGEO mixed spices powder among others. The registration, however, expired on December 5, 2017.

The director-general of NAFDAC warned that there is no more hiding place for unscrupulous manufacturers and marketers who have turned themselves to merchants of death with a view to making illicit money by sending unsuspecting Nigerian consumers to their early graves through production and sale of falsified and revalidated expired products.

She said the agency would stop at nothing to track down the illicit merchants wherever they are within the country.

“We are ready to eliminate the incidence of falsified products in our markets and bring it down to the minimum to safeguard the health of our people,” the NAFDAC boss said.

JOHESU TACKLES SENATE OVER ALLEGED HARASSMENT AT PUBLIC HEARING

The Joint Health Sector Unions and Assembly of Health Care Professionals, on Tuesday, berated the Nigerian Senate over alleged harassment and intimidation of health workers and professionals at a public hearing which held on Monday, a claim the senate denies.

National Chairman of JOHESU, Biobelemioye Josiah, at a press briefing in Abuja, specifically accused Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, who is the sponsor of Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCAN), Ibrahim Oloriegbe, of bias against other health professionals during the public hearing.

Josiah, while speaking to journalists on what transpired at the hearing, alleged that the Committee Chairman, Ibrahim Oloriegbe, disregarded the arranged list of presenters during the public hearing and hand-picked presenters and barred his perceived antagonists.

According to him, Oloriegbe, as a Medical Practitioner and interested party in the bill is not eligible to preside over a public hearing of that nature on moral grounds.

Oloriegbe has dismissed the accusation, insisting all the associations and unions present at the event were allowed to make presentations.

The lawmaker also debunked allegation of giving preferential treatment to one association against others, saying all were treated with fairness despite time constraint.

He, however, said the noise was as a result of inter professional rivalry among the health professionals, noting that the public hearing was not a platform for unions to play politics.

He said: “We allowed everybody to speak. We also received memoranda from them, which I assured them that their views will be accommodated.

“No association or union is denied from expressing its views on the Bills.”

Industrial peace no longer guaranteed in health sector

He warned that industrial peace can no longer be guaranteed in the health sector nationwide if the Senate fails to tender an unreserved apology to the health workers and consider all its demands.

Daily Trust reports that the Senate through its Committee on Health, is presently considering not less than five health bills which include: Advanced Health Care Development Fund (Establishment) Bill 2020 and Federal Tertiary Teaching Hospital Development Tax Fund (Establishment) Bill 2020.

Others are: Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill 2020; Federal University of Health Sciences, Otukpo, Benue State (Establishment) Bill 2020 and National Maternal and Pre-natal Deaths Surveillance (Establishment) Bill 2020.

Describing what happened at the hearing as unfortunate, undemocratic, discriminatory and unparliamentary, the health workers said the purpose of the public hearing was defeated because other critical stakeholders who submitted memoranda ahead of time were not allowed to make presentations.

Condemns harassment

He said, “JOHESU condemns in its entirety the harassment and intimidation of health workers and professionals during the above public hearing by Senator Ibrahim Y. Oloriegbe; the Chairman, Senate Committee on Health.

“The action is not only unfortunate but undemocratic, discriminatory, and unparliamentary. It is a violation of our members’ rights to freedom of speech and expression as enshrined in Chapter IV of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.

“JOHESU demands an unreserved apology on this unfortunate incident from Senator Oloriegbe or face the wrath of JOHESU members through all possible legitimate means.”