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BusinessDay 11 Feb 2018

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7<br />

Sunday <strong>11</strong> <strong>Feb</strong>ruary <strong>2018</strong> C002D5556<br />

BD SUNDAY<br />

News<br />

FG set to launch MSME clinic in Kogi<br />

…State to empower 7,000 people under GEEP/MSME<br />

VICTORIA NNAKIAIKE, Lokoja<br />

Vice-President,<br />

Yemi Osinbajo,<br />

will launch the<br />

Marketmoni/<br />

Micro Small<br />

and Medium Enterprise<br />

(MSME) clinic on Tuesday,<br />

<strong>Feb</strong>ruary 13, 2017.<br />

The clinic will serve as a<br />

delivery tool for the development<br />

and escalation of<br />

small and medium enterprise<br />

across Nigeria.<br />

Adoga Ibrahim, senior<br />

special adviser to Yahaya<br />

Bello, Governor, Kogi state,<br />

on Multilateral Donor Agencies<br />

and Special Projects/<br />

Focal Person on Social Investment<br />

Programme who<br />

made this known in Lokoja<br />

on Thursday, <strong>Feb</strong>ruary 8, said<br />

it is under the federal Government’s<br />

Social Investment<br />

Programme (SIP).<br />

Ibrahim said there would<br />

be training, capacity building,<br />

collaborative and interactive<br />

programme to assist the<br />

small scale businesses.<br />

Osinbajo<br />

He also said that the<br />

MSME clinic would attract<br />

over 27 parastatals associated<br />

with the growth of small<br />

and medium enterprises and<br />

open up opportunities for<br />

various businesses in the<br />

state.<br />

The agencies include: BOI,<br />

BOA, CAC, FIRS, CBN, NAF-<br />

DAC, CPC, SON, SMEDAN<br />

and all commerce-related<br />

organisations.<br />

“Registration started recently<br />

and we already have<br />

about 105 businesses that<br />

Give us our guns, we are going back to the<br />

creeks, ex-militants tell Ondo govt<br />

YOMI AYELESO, Akure<br />

Aggrieved militants<br />

at Arogbo in Ese-<br />

Odo Local Government<br />

Area of<br />

Ondo State, who embraced<br />

the amnesty programme<br />

and surrendered their arms<br />

to the state government,<br />

have threatened to return to<br />

the creeks.<br />

Leaders of the 15 exmilitant<br />

camps, ‘Generals’<br />

Bowei Felix (Kakaduku 1 of<br />

Niger Delta) of Seimo Osain<br />

camp, Mefun Duba (Binimobiyomo<br />

camp), Pemi Sylvester<br />

(Dragon camp), David<br />

Eddy (Amafinibai camp),<br />

Soriwei Raphael (D. Devil<br />

made me to do it camp) and<br />

10 others, regretted that<br />

since submitting their arms<br />

last November, the government<br />

had abandoned them.<br />

The groups surrendered<br />

their weapons to the Amnesty<br />

Committee, headed by<br />

Deputy Governor, Agboola<br />

Ajayi, at Arogbo Centre in<br />

the local government.<br />

The ex-militants said<br />

they had been abandoned<br />

and shortchanged, adding<br />

that politicians had considered<br />

their followers in the<br />

scheme.<br />

“We have been totally<br />

short-changed, marginalised<br />

and abandoned, while slots<br />

were given to their political<br />

allies.<br />

“We make bold to state<br />

that the whole programme<br />

has been politicised, as the<br />

1,000 slots they claimed<br />

were approved for Ondo<br />

State, apart from the fact<br />

that they were grossly insufficient,<br />

the distribution<br />

was inequitable as about 97<br />

percent of the camps were<br />

not given a slot.<br />

“This is rather unwarranted,<br />

uncalled for and condemnable<br />

in its entirety,” the<br />

statement read.<br />

The ‘Generals’ insisted<br />

that the amnesty programme<br />

should be all-encompassing.<br />

The statement added:<br />

“We are fed up with the<br />

present situation. We will<br />

likely go back to the creeks,<br />

after retrieving our guns, if<br />

nothing is done to end our<br />

have registered.<br />

“We are building structures,<br />

platforms and foundations<br />

that will enable the<br />

SMEs have confidence in<br />

what they are doing and also<br />

grow their businesses.<br />

“It is 70percent for women<br />

and 30percent for men. The<br />

SMEs will interact and showcase<br />

their businesses to the<br />

parastatals which will find<br />

a way of supporting them,”<br />

he said.<br />

“We will also disburse additional<br />

loans of N50, 000<br />

to 7000 people under the<br />

GEEP/Marketmoni programme<br />

to enable beneficiaries<br />

to boost their businesses<br />

or start new ones.<br />

“These people have been<br />

pre-qualified, their data obtained<br />

and forwarded to<br />

Bank of Industry (BoI) and<br />

accounts opened for them,”<br />

he added.<br />

The focal person added<br />

that about 20,000 beneficiaries<br />

of the Conditional<br />

Cash Transfer (CCT) in Kogi<br />

were already getting a total<br />

of N100 million monthly.<br />

sufferings.<br />

“Gen Bowei Felix, other<br />

Generals with their boys in<br />

their various camps spend<br />

a minimum of N10 million<br />

every month on feeding and<br />

other upkeep before submitting<br />

their arms.<br />

“Federal and state governments<br />

should urgently<br />

address this critical situation<br />

and handle it with caution<br />

to avoid breach of peace,<br />

unrest and avoidable restiveness<br />

in the region.”<br />

L-R: Ifeoma Nkata, Government Relations Advisor, MTN; Maureen Ubi, deputy director Monitoring and Reporting,<br />

Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation Catherine Akochiwe, matron, Divine Wounds of Jesus<br />

Orphanage Home; Bon Ukachukwu, secretary, DWJOH, and Charles Ikezemuoka, director, DWJOH, during<br />

the Donation of Household and Food Items to Divine Wounds of Jesus Orphanage Home by the MTN Foundation<br />

in Abuja.<br />

Reality TV star, Ese Eriata, appears<br />

in Glo’s Professor Johnbull<br />

Ese Eriata, a fake<br />

housemate in the<br />

last edition of the<br />

popular Reality TV,<br />

Big Brother Naija, show<br />

will co-star with Kanayo O.<br />

Kanayo (KOK), Bidemi Kosoko,<br />

Funky Mallam, Yomi<br />

Fash-Lanso and others in the<br />

newest episode of the epic<br />

TV drama series, Professor<br />

Johnbull, sponsored by<br />

Globacom.<br />

According to a press<br />

statement released from<br />

the headquarters of the<br />

telecoms firm over the<br />

weekend, this new episode<br />

entitled Pepper Dem<br />

Gang showing on Tuesday<br />

will focus on the concept<br />

of slay queens, a tag<br />

given to ladies who go<br />

after frivolities instead of<br />

substance.<br />

According to Glo, viewers<br />

should not miss this week’s<br />

episode in order to find out<br />

why there is unhealthy rivalry<br />

among ladies. They will<br />

also find out if the concept<br />

of slay queen is reflective<br />

of the Nigerian culture or<br />

not, whether the fake life<br />

styles of slay queens tally<br />

with their intelligence and<br />

what the connotative and<br />

denotative meanings of slay<br />

queens is.<br />

Viewers will find Pepper<br />

Dem Gang hilarious and<br />

educating as Professor Johnbull,<br />

acted by Nollywood<br />

legend, Kanayo O. Kanayo<br />

(KOK), discusses why most<br />

ladies adopt more than one<br />

birthday dates in a year; why<br />

most dress-to-kill ladies lack<br />

basic idea of the image they<br />

portray and why slay queens<br />

adopt appellations different<br />

from the names given to<br />

them at birth.<br />

How does Flash (Stephen<br />

Odimgbe) react when duty<br />

calls for him to defend Jumoke<br />

(Bidemi Kosoko)<br />

against one of the biggest<br />

slay queens acted by Ese<br />

Eriata, one of the fake housemates<br />

in the last episode<br />

of the reality TV show, Big<br />

Brother Nigeria (BBN).<br />

Viewers will find out this in<br />

the episode.<br />

The drama shows on NTA<br />

Network, NTA International<br />

on DSV Channel 251 and<br />

NTA on StarTimes at 8.30<br />

p.m. on Tuesday with a repeat<br />

broadcast on Friday at<br />

8.30p.m on the same channels.<br />

Veteran TV dramatist,<br />

Chief Chika Okpala, aka,<br />

Zebrudayah, makes a cameo<br />

appearance in the episode.<br />

SOCRISS entreats Otu to<br />

return as senator in 2019<br />

MIKE ABANG, Calabar<br />

Youths under the<br />

aegis of Southern<br />

Cross River<br />

state Students<br />

(SOCRISS) demand a return<br />

of their Grand -Patron,<br />

Senator Bassey Otu to the<br />

Senate after the 2019 elections<br />

in Nigeria.<br />

They also support the<br />

Northern Senatorial District<br />

completing its two-term gubernatorial<br />

seat as provided<br />

for in the peculiar zoning<br />

system in tandem with the<br />

Accord of 1980 which the<br />

other two Districts have<br />

served since the return of<br />

democratic rule in 1999.<br />

The Forum, an amalgam<br />

of students Union representatives<br />

from the seven<br />

Local Government Councils<br />

of the District, issued the<br />

resolutions in a 5-point communiqué<br />

at the end of its first<br />

meeting of the year which<br />

held in Akamkpa.<br />

The communiqué jointly<br />

endorsed by Hilary Ntui,<br />

President, SOCRISS worldwide;<br />

Ajah Ajah, President-<br />

General; and Tete Ekpo<br />

Okon, Secretary-General,<br />

conveyed the wish of the<br />

forum for the Senator to<br />

heed the call to rescue the<br />

district from further misrepresentation.<br />

While Ajah is a former<br />

President of the National<br />

Association of Cross River<br />

state Students (NACRISS)<br />

Worldwide, while Tete is a<br />

former president of the Students<br />

Union Government<br />

(SUG) in the University Of<br />

Calabar.<br />

‘’We hereby send a passionate<br />

appeal, SOS and a<br />

clarion call to Senator Bassey<br />

Edet Otu to shirk off his present<br />

lethargy which may be<br />

misconstrued to suggest<br />

premature retirement from<br />

politics and get ready to benefit<br />

from our massive support<br />

during the 2019 election<br />

for the Calabar North<br />

Senatorial District seat,” the<br />

Communiqué stated in part.<br />

‘’We have also observed<br />

with dismay that the affairs<br />

of our Senatorial district have<br />

not been given the relevant<br />

legislative muscle. The numerous<br />

youths you groomed<br />

during your truncated tenure<br />

are now without positive<br />

future due to glaring misrepresentation,’’<br />

it said.<br />

The communiqué also<br />

enumerated several national<br />

issues affecting the District<br />

which have not been projected<br />

to attract federal government<br />

attention which would<br />

have affected the lives of the<br />

people positively as they<br />

now suffer in the midst of<br />

plenty.

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