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.