15102019 - What Benin, Niger must do to get borders reopened — FG

10 — VANGUARD, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2019
INVESTITURE—Builder Tijani Shuaib, Chairman of the ocassion; Lion Oluwasanmi Ojo, Past
President; Lion Ajijola Abraham, President, Yaba Centennial Club, district 404A1, his wife, Magret,
and Lion Adekunle Adedoyin Adedipe, District Governor, during the Investiture and Fundraising
ceremony, held in Lagos, at the weekend, PHOTO: Kehinde Shonola.
MINIMUM WAGE: No going back on nationwide
strike — Ondo NLC
By Dayo Johnson
A
K U R E —
CHAIRMAN of
the Nigeria Labour
Congress, NLC in Ondo
State, Comrade Oluwole
Adeleye, yesterday,
insisted that there was no
going back on the
proposed nationwide
industrial action by the
NLC.
World Thrombosis Day: Experts
worried over rising blood clot
deaths
By Chioma Obinna
LAGOS— TO mark the
2019 World Thrombosis
Day, the Nigerian Society
of Haematology and Blood
Transfusion, NSHBT, has
raised the alarm over the
increasing deaths of
Nigerians from a silent
killer disorder called
thrombosis just as it urged
Nigerians to demand
screening and prophylaxis
from their physicians.
Thrombosis, which has
two different types - Arterial
and Venous – and
popularly known as
V e n o u s
Thromboembolism, VTE, is
the formation of potentially
deadly clots within the
blood vessel.
The society, however,
lamented low awareness
on the disorder that kills its
victims within 40 to 60
seconds of its occurrence.
Addressing a press
conference to mark the day
in collaboration with
multinational
pharmaceutical company,
Sanofi in Lagos, a
Consultant Haematologist
Adeleye said this in
Akure during a chat with
newsmen.
The NLC leader,
however, said: “Only
favourable outcome of
the meeting between the
labour and the Federal
Government today would
stop the proposed strike.
” We received a mail
precisely on October 11
at the Lagos University
Teaching Hospital, LUTH,
Professor Sulaimon
Akanmu said patients on
admission in the hospitals
should insist they are
screened for thrombosis to
enable them know their risk
and also demand
prophylaxis to prevent
complications from VTE.
Prof. Akanmu said: “In
Europe, Deep Vein
Thrombosis, DVT/
Pulmonary Embolism, PE,
events are responsible for
more deaths each year than
A c q u i r e d
Immunodeficiency
Syndrome, AIDS, breast
cancer, prostate cancer, and
traffic accidents combined.
Sadly, in Nigeria, 50
percent of the cases show
no symptoms and most of
the diagnoses are done
during post-mortem.”
Also in a communiqué,
jointly signed by the
President and Secretary of
the society, Professor Aisha
Gwarzo, and Dr.
Abdulazizz Hassan, the
society noted that the
disease is sometimes
unrecognized or undertreated
in Nigeria.
from the National
Headquarters of NLC
alerting us in the state to
get prepared for national
industrial action that it’s
going to be total.
”But in that letter, we
were made to
understand that the
Federal Government,
through the Minister of
Labour
and
Employment, has invited
the labour to a meeting
tomorrow (today).
”Don’t forget the
ultimatum will lapse on
the 16, that’s
Wednesday, and if they
are able to give us what
we have demanded from
them, which is 29
percent increment for
workers between level
seven and fourteen and
24 percent increment for
workers between fifteen
and seventeen, then
there’s no point going
on strike.
“But anything short of
that, we are going to
prove to the whole world
that we are ready to get
what we want because
we know the
Government can pay.”
”Minimum wage is
not a gift or award. It is
a negotiated salary
which was sent to the
National Assembly as a
bill and passed as a law
and assented to by the
President himself on
April 18. That makes a
national issue and a
matter of law.
”It is criminal on the
part of government not to
obey the law of the land
which was assented to by
the Federal Government.
”It took us two years
to get to where we are.
Is it going to take us
years for them to
implement it? We started
with N65,000 and came
down to N30,000.
“The last time there
was an increment of
salaries in the country
was 2011 and that was
N18,000. Between 2011
and now, the indices for
determining increment
in salaries have shown
that workers deserved
more than N30,000. For
example, the pump price
was increased from N87
to N145 per liter. That’s
over 60 percent
increment."
FELABRATION 2019: Stop
celebrating opportunism,
Falana tasks Nigerians
By Benjamin Njoku
L rights AGOS—HUMAN
activist, Mr.
Femi Falana, SAN,
yesterday, urged
Nigerians to desist from
celebrating opportunism,
saying “they have not
been conquered by the
President Muhammadu
B u h a r i - l e d
administration.”
Falana said this while
reacting to the recognition
accorded the presidential
candidate of the Young
Progressive Party, YPP, in
the last general elections,
Dr. Kingsley Moghalu, at
the flag off of the 2019
Felabration in Lagos, with
a symposium referred to as
The FELA Debates.
The topic for this 2019
Symposium is Teacher
Don’t Teach Me
Nonsense.
Faulting the public
recognition accorded
Moghalu, Falana urged
Nigerians to desist from
celebrating opportunism.
His words: “I think it is
600 DAYS IN CAPTIVITY: Leah’s
father laments FG’s inability to
secure daughter’s release
By Sam Eyoboka
LAGOS—AFTER 600
days in captivity, Mr.
Nathan Sharibu, father of
the only remaining female
student abducted by ISIS-
WA from Dapchi school in
2018, yesterday, lamented
the inability of the Federal
Government to keep its
pledge to release his
daughter.
Leah Sharibu was
kidnapped at the
Government Girls’ Science
and Technical College,
GGSTC, Dapchi in Yobe
State in 2018.
In a telephone interview
from his Yola base, the
distraught father of two
wondered why the Federal
Government, which had
vowed to rescue his
daughter from her
abductors, chose to be quiet
over the matter.
Mr. Sharibu said: “We
were very expectant while
the President was, in a
nationwide broadcast,
addressing the nation on
A BUSINESS DO-EKITI—
activities
were paralysed in Ado
Ekiti, Ekiti State as
members of Road Transport
Workers of Nigeria,
RTEAN, yesterday,
engaged one another in a
violent clash.
the 59th Independence
anniversary but our hopes
were dashed as no mention
was made of my daughter
who was spending 589th
day in captivity while her
fellow school mates were in
school.”
Sharibu, however,
lamented that a few days
after the independence
anniversary was the
International Day of the
Girl, when “we again
hoped to hear the voice of
our daughter but nothing
happened.”
According to him, there
was no call from any
government quarters to the
family even for an update
about the welfare of Leah
Sharibu who was abducted
at the age of 14 from school
along 104 other schoolgirls,
who were one month after
released to their parents in
a very dramatic fashion.
Leah Sharibu was kept
behind because she refused
to denounce her Christian
faith for the Islamic faith.
Police arrest 3 persons, as drivers
clash in Ekiti
By Rotimi Ojomoyela
unfair to single out Dr.
Moghalu for recognition.
We should not celebrate
opportunism. Here is a
politician, who contested
on the platform of a party
and has conveniently
moved to the APC, and
they have even given him
an appointment. It’s very
big a challenge to his own
political party. I don’t
think that is fair enough.”
Also, speaking in the
same vein, awardwinning
novelist,
Chimamanda Adiche,
traced the problem of this
country to leadership.
While in conversation
with Yemisi, head of the
Ransome-Kuti family,
Adiche decried a situation
in the country where
leaders are selected and
not elected as the case may
be.
She, however, advised
Nigerians to stop selling
their conscience for
peanuts, especially in a
system that is unkind to
them.
The violent clash was
reported to have started in
the morning around
Okeyimi area of Ado Ekiti
while also stretching to Post
office, Old garage, Ijigbo
and Ajilosun.
A report had it that the
hoodlums freely used
Cutlass, knives, bottles and
guns during this clash.
The ugly development
was said to have caused a
logjam on some major
streets of the capital city as
some motorists abandoned
their vehicles and took to
their heels, while market
women and school children
also scamper for safety.
As of the time of writing
this report, details of this
violent clash was still
sketchy as there were
conflicting reports from
eyewitnesses.
However, in a statement
by the Nigerian Police, Ekiti
State Command, the
Command’s Public
Relations Officer, DSP
Ikechukwu Caleb,
described the violence as a
case conspiracy, malicious
damage and unlawful
possession of firearms.
He said the command
recovered some dangerous
weapons from the
hoodlums.
Caleb said: “Today about
0500 hours, information
received that some
hoodlums suspected to be
Aderiye Adebayo AKA
Ojuigo, barricaded the
roads at Oke Yinmi, Post
office, Ijigbo Area in Ado
Ekiti.
“On sighting the Police,
the hoodlums fired
sporadically and shouted:
‘we are for Ojiugo, police
no road for you.”
DSP Caleb, however,
confirmed that three
suspects have been
arrested.