News
2023: Sen. Adeola empowers over 4,000, donates 25 transformers
…Drums support for Tinubu, Gov Abiodun
Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta
The Chairman Senate Committee on Finance and the All Progressives Congress (APC) Ogun West senatorial candidate, Sen. Solomon Adeola has said that his ambition to represent the people of Yewa at the red chamber is rooted in advancing the socio-economic development of the senatorial district.
Sen. Adeola who is currently a second term senator representing Lagos West maintained that his decision to come back to his root, Ogun West is anchored on using his political platforms and influence to make life much more rewarding for his kinsmen and the State at large.
The Senator fondly called Yayi reiterated the commitment on Monday during the empowerment of over 4,000 members of APC drawn across the Senatorial District.
The empowerment saw the beneficiaries going home with tricycles, deep freezers, sewing machines, make up kits, laptops, dryers, cash grants, grinding machines as well as cooker and gas cylinders. 25 communities having challenge with their electricity were also given one transformer each.
The mega empowerment programme is coming after that of two weeks ago when about 6,000 market women and traders were supported with cash grants running into millions of Naira to boost their various businesses.
The lawmaker said, “In the face of incapacitating economic challenges facing many of our citizenry across the nation, my focus in these facilitations is to bring succour and renewed hope for many Nigerians that would have been left with no where to turn to.
“By facilitating training and empowerment in equipment and cash grants, beneficiaries can have a start at making a living and contributing to the socio-economic development of our nation.”
He said the beneficiaries drawn across the five local government areas in the Senatorial District have been trained on how to make good use of the various empowerment tools by the Teachers Registration Council and the National Productivity Centre.
The Senator said, “My vision here is to further impact directly on critical sectors of the society in ways to cushion the effects of the downturn of the economy on vulnerable persons. Last year alone, I trained and empowered 3,500 Ogun West citizens in various skills with all of them going away with various equipment for their learnt skills as well as startup grants.
“Equally last year, I trained and empowered 200 youths with computer laptops from the Senatorial District in the area of ICT, while few weeks back another batch of 445 graduates have been trained to be internationally certified in different Microsoft software packages and are each being given a computer laptop today.”
The lawmaker appealed to all the beneficiaries of the empowerment programme to make good use of the empowerment tools to improve on their fortunes and not dispose them for pittance.
He urged them to go all out on Saturday and vote massively for him, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the party’s presidential candidate as well as other candidates of APC with a promise to bring massive turn around to the entire senatorial district.
The Coordinator of West to West Agenda, Dr Isiaq Salako lauded Sen. Adeola for his committed interest in the well being of the people of the Senatorial District, saying that the Senator had in the last six months directly empowered over 15,000 with a very significant multiplier effects.
Salako said that all that the people should do to sustain the bounteous harvest of dividends of democracy with unfettered development spreading to every nook and crannies of the Senatorial District, is to troop out in their thousands, on Saturday and vote Sen Adeola as well as the APC presidential candidate, Tinubu and other candidates of the party.
A middle-aged woman, Kafayat Ayobamidele has narrated how some people in Nigeria are threatening to take her life. Ayobamidele, a mother of two based in South Africa said her life has been under threat since her marriage with her ex-husband, a situation that forced her to leave her former residence at No. 22, Salem Street, Magboro area of Ogun State seven years ago.
According to her, she was not aware that her ex-husband had a wife identified as Folashade, whom he married legally before she agreed to marry him about thirteen years ago.
The woman disclosed this in a WhatsApp note made available to journalists last weekend.
Ayobamidele stated that she could not come to Nigeria to check on her two children as a result of the daily threat she received from her former husband’s wife.
The victim added that she was attacked on April 9, 2022 when she came to Nigeria to check on her children by some thugs suspected to be hired by the woman, saying she was sexually molested during the process.
“My life is not safe in Nigeria. That’s the reason I left the country for South Africa. I had some issues with my ex-husband whom I had a child with. Before I married him, he lied to me about being single. But I later got to know he had a wife whom he married legally after a child.
“When the wife got to know about me, she started threatening to kill me. She said I should leave her husband, saying he belonged to her. I had to escape Nigeria when the threat was getting out of hand and I wasn’t safe anymore.
“After some time, I decided to go back to Nigeria to check on my two children. On getting there, I don’t know how the wife got to know I was around. She came to attack me with some thugs. Those thugs whisked me away to an unknown place. I was beaten and got injured in that process. I almost got killed but God saved my life.
“I have to leave Nigeria immediately I escaped the assassination attempt. At this point, I’m not safe to go back to Nigeria and my children are there. I cannot go back there to check on them. In fact, I was molested during that process,” she asserted.
A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Maitama, on Tuesday, fixed October 21 for the continuation of the trial of a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele.
The trial judge, Justice Hamza Muazu, fixed the date on the agreement of the counsel after the close of the cross-examination of the ninth prosecution witness, Mrs Abibia Ockiya-Ogeleye.
Ockiya-Ogeleye, a lawyer, answering questions from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commision’s counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, told the court that she rendered some services to the company, Architekon Nigeria Limited.
She told the court that in 2021, she filed the company’s annual report and also changed the director and shareholders of the company.
She added that before the addition, Architekon had only two directors.
She said, “Sometime in 2021 one madam Esther called me to effect a change in the company by adding her as a director of the company.”
She tendered a CAC document, which contained the names of Margaret Omoyile, McCombo Omoyile and Esther Oyeladun Adeoun as shareholders.
She also tendered another document containing the record of transfer from McCombo to Margaret, dated March 4, 2021, as well as another document containing the resolution of the company on Esther’s admittance as a director of Architekon.
The witness also presented to the court a copy of an email she said Oyeladun sent her requesting that she be added as a director of the company.
Justice Muazu admitted all the documents as evidence.
The defence counsel, Mathew Burkaa (SAN), during cross-examination, asked the witness if she had a physical meeting with McCombo and she replied no.
He asked her about the signatures in the company documents she presented and if she saw McCombo sign on it.
She replied that she couldn’t tell whether they were at the meeting and signed the resolution since they were sent to her and she wasn’t physically there.
Earlier, the eight prosecution witnesses, a Zenith Bank Compliance Officer, Mr Umar Tilda, tendered three bank documents before the court which included a copy of Emefiele’s bank statement.
Tilda, citing a portion in Emefiele’s bank statement, informed the court that there was a N4 million transfer from Emefiele’s account with the bank to Architekon on January 13, 2015.
When Burkaa asked him if he knew what the transfer was meant for, he said he did not know.
Also when asked if he knew that the accounts he listed as belonging to Emefiele were salary accounts, investments, savings and dividends, he replied, “I wouldn’t know.”
He also confirmed that some of the accounts contained Capital Interest Credit.
He also confirmed that a transaction of N15 million debit, dated April 13, 2015, in count number 2020000064 was part of litigation.
The court adjourned till October 21, for the continuation of trial.
President Bola Tinubu has directed the setting up of a presidential committee to oversee the Cholera Emergency Operation Centre, operated by the National Centre For Disease Control.
The Minister of Health, Ali Pate, made this known on Tuesday after the Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by President Tinubu at the State House, Abuja.
He added that the committee’s effort is in addition to state government support to ensure Nigeria makes progress in reducing open defecation.
“The Council then approved a cabinet committee comprising the federal ministries of Health, Finance,Water Resources, Environment, Youth, Aviation, Education because some of our children will be returning to school . In addition to this, the state government, we will co-opt, so that Nigeria makes progress in reducing open defecation because cholera is a developmental issue that requires a multi-sectoral approach.
“The President directed that a cabinet committee be set up to oversee what the emergency operation centre led by NCDC is doing and for the resources to be provided complemented by the state government,” he said.
Pate further disclosed: “At the moment about 31 states have recorded 1528 cases and 53 deaths in Nigeria. That is what we are working through the Emergency Operation Centre that was activated by NCDC on Monday.
“Now we have a cholera outbreak and we discussed extensively in the Council in addition to a new emergence of Yellow Fever specifically in Bayelsa State.
“On cholera we are in the middle of the 7th pandemic globally which is decades in the making. In 2022, the world had almost 500,000 cases of cholera so it is not only peculiar to Nigeria. In 2023 almost 700,000 cases of cholera were reported by the World Health Organization.
“This year more than 200,000 cases have occurred in five regions of the World.”
He emphasised that a multi sectoral approach is required to tackle the outbreak .
“Resources were deployed to 21 states to help them respond to cholera. We are improving awareness of population, handwashing, hygiene sanitation, in addition to treatment with drugs, and intravenous fluids,” he added.
