22042019 - ACUTE HUNGER: Outrage as IDP children feed on onion leaves

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2019—41
Labour accuses Trade
and Investment Minister
of unfair practices
By Victor Young
ASSOCIATION of
Senior Civil
Servants of
Nigeria, ASCSN, h<strong>as</strong>
called on President
Muhammadu Buhari, to
call the Minister of
Minister of Industry,
Trade and Investment, Mr
Okechukwu Enelamah, to
order, accusing him of
impunity high
handedness, and denying
workers of their rights.
The group also claimed
the Minister had
succeeded in duplicating
and w<strong>as</strong>ting resources
through the creation of the
Nigerian Office of Trade
Negotiation, NOTN,
b<strong>as</strong>ed on a memo or advice
to the Federal Executive
Council, FEC.
Speaking with
journalists in Lagos,
weekend, General
Secretary, ASCSN, B<strong>as</strong>hir
Lawal, alleged that the
minister had destroyed
the Trade Department and
rendered Commercial and
Trade officers redundant,
adding, “We are also
demanding that all
outstanding payments
since 2014 till date be
prioritized on first come
first serve b<strong>as</strong>is. The
training and welfare
needs of workers must be
concluded before the end
of December, services of
consultants should be
withdrawn with
immediate effect, timely
conduct of promotion
exercise should be
observed. All c<strong>as</strong>es of
conversion and
upgrading pending in the
ministry and with Head of
Service HOS, and others
should be worked on to
e<strong>as</strong>e off delays.”
On his part, ASCSN
Chairman, Ministry of
Industry, Trade and
Investment branch, Mr
Okonkwo Onwuyah,
alleged a desperate
attempt to privatise
Calabar and Kano Free
Trade Zones under the
management of the
Nigeria Export
Processing Zones
Authority, NEPZA.
Chairman, ASCSN,
NEPZA Unit, Mr Samari
Isah, lamented that the
<strong>as</strong>sociation wrote
President Buhari l<strong>as</strong>t year
on the alleged
unpalatable activities of
the minister in NEPZA,
contending that NEPZA
w<strong>as</strong> established by Decree
No, 63 of 1992 now
NEPZA Act Cap 20, Laws
of Federation of Nigeria
2004 [LN].
According to him,
“Power w<strong>as</strong> granted
NEPZA by section 4 of the
Act, and previous
administrations’ resolved
to give the powers to the
agency to handle the
implementation of the
nation’s drive towards
industrialization. Such
would have been
achieved by accelerating
the
speedy
implementation of the
National Industrial
Revolution Plan, NIRP,
through the Special
Economic Zones, SEZ,
and the attainment of the
Economic Recovering
Growth Plan, ERGP.
“The minister
abandoned the contractors
except DABAJ
Engineering Company
Limited. DABA w<strong>as</strong> paid
upfront and had not
completed the project in
Block H. The minister
created National Trade
Negotiation Office, NOTE
and domiciles it at the
NEPC office despite
protest by management of
the Ministry and he
brought
one
“Amb<strong>as</strong>sador” Osakwe, to
head the office. The new
office h<strong>as</strong> taken away the
duties of technocrats and
professional negotiators
2019 UTME: JAMB says no results rele<strong>as</strong>ed,
warns candidates against fraudsters
The Joint
Admissions and
Matriculation
Board, JAMB, h<strong>as</strong> said
that it would reach out to
candidates through their
telephones <strong>as</strong> soon <strong>as</strong> all
the results of the 2019
Unified Tertiary
Matriculation
Examination, UTME,
were ratified.
The board’s Head,
Media and Information,
Dr Fabian Benjamin
disclosed this in an
interview with NAN,
yesterday in Lagos.
According to him,
candidates should not be
carried away by what he
described <strong>as</strong> rumours
and misleading
information in some
sections of the media,
especially the social
media.
The 2019 UTME w<strong>as</strong>
conducted nationwide
from April 11 to April 18.
Over 1.8 million
candidates registered for
the examination.
“The board want to
distance itself from such
rumours about rele<strong>as</strong>ing
the results of candidates
of the just concluded
UTME and steps to check
these results <strong>as</strong> being
speculated. Candidates
should disregard this
information <strong>as</strong> it is not
true. It is not emanating
from the board.
“No results have been
rele<strong>as</strong>ed yet. Yes the
results are all ready, but
E<strong>as</strong>ter Carnival —Enugu State Governor and Governor-elect, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (2nd right) with the
Chairman of Nsukka Local Government Area, Patrick Omeje jnr (left); popular Nollywood actors,
Chinedu Ikedeze (Aki) and Rachael Okonkwo (Nkoli Nwa Nsukka) during the Children's E<strong>as</strong>ter
Carnival with Nkoli Nwa Nsukka, held at Government Field, Nsukka, yesterday.
we are yet to rele<strong>as</strong>e
them because they are
still being ratified.
“The board is carrying
out all the checks and
balances regarding these
results by way of
viewing the CCTV
camera <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> attend
to all findings brought
before it while the
examination l<strong>as</strong>ted. The
rele<strong>as</strong>e of the result will
be publicised <strong>as</strong> soon <strong>as</strong>
we are through with all
the board h<strong>as</strong> set out to
achieve. We will let the
public know.
“Candidates should
not bother themselves
going to any cyber cafe
to check any result. Our
result check h<strong>as</strong> been
standardised. We will
forward the results to
the respective telephone
numbers of those
candidates who are
deserving of it,” he said.
He said that the board
w<strong>as</strong> intensifying efforts
to ensure that results of
deserving candidates
were rele<strong>as</strong>ed by next
week.
Benjamin further
explained that it w<strong>as</strong> not
also true that the board
w<strong>as</strong> deducting some
marks from candidates
with proven c<strong>as</strong>es of
e x a m i n a t i o n
malpractice.
According to him,
once the board
establishes evidence of
any form of examination
malpractice, it will
cancel outrightly, the
result of such candidate
rather than deduct
marks.
“If we establish any
c<strong>as</strong>e of infraction or
examination malpractice
being carried out in any
centre too, such centre is
shut down and the entire
results of candidates
who wrote in that centre
from the commencement
of the examination,
which is April 11 to the
end will automatically be
cancelled.
“Such affected
candidates are
r e s c h e d u l e d
Continues from Page 5
country, the authorities
are quick to respond and
sometimes rush relief
materials to the affected
nations, but dis<strong>as</strong>ters in
our backyard here are
treated with so much
levity and the victims are
often abandoned for
days.
“It h<strong>as</strong> gotten to the
extent when agencies
have clamped down on
certain electronic media,
warning them to refrain
from showing horrifying
pictures on their
networks.”
Kwankur, however,
appealed to the Federal
immediately for the
examination in another
centre <strong>as</strong> w<strong>as</strong> the c<strong>as</strong>e in
some centres in Abia,”
he said.
He added that the
board made several
arrests of persons
caught trying to
undermine the integrity
of the examination and
process, while it l<strong>as</strong>ted,
just like it shut down
centres that fell short of
standard.
Benjamin said the
Prof. Ishaq Oloyede-led
JAMB h<strong>as</strong> a zero
tolerance for any form of
corruption, which
Government to rise up to
the challenge of
adequately <strong>feed</strong>ing
internally displaced
persons because it’s not
by choice that they find
themselves in such
places.
“It’s indeed
disheartening that there
are <strong>IDP</strong>s in Bauchi. If
they are fall-outs from
crises in other states,
government should
make h<strong>as</strong>te to resettle
them in their places of
abode,” he stated.
ACF on <strong>IDP</strong>
crisis
included examination
malpractice.
“Right now, we have
just read from a major
national daily that an ex-
JAMB staff is about to be
arraigned by the EFCC
over an alleged diversion
of about N100 million
belonging to the board.
“Let me make it clear
that this said c<strong>as</strong>e w<strong>as</strong> not
during the tenure of the
current JAMB Registrar.
Infact, one of the major
guidelines of the current
board is total
transparency and
accountability, coupled
with its open door policy,”
Benjamin said.
<strong>Outrage</strong> <strong>as</strong> <strong>IDP</strong> <strong>children</strong> <strong>feed</strong> on onion leaves
ACF reacting through
Anthony Sani, said: “If
the reports are true that
the <strong>IDP</strong> camp in Bauchi
is being starved of food,
then the media should
investigate and draw the
attention of government
and those in charge to
the situation.
“Because of paucity of
funds, it is hard for
governments to do
enough. What one can
say is to submit that if
they cannot incre<strong>as</strong>e the
resources at their
disposal, they should
incre<strong>as</strong>e the yield
through effective and
efficient management
practices,” he said.