2023: EFCC to arrest Politicians involve in vote-buying
By Matthew Denis Abuja
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it will continue to partner with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to curb vote buying, especially during the 2023 general elections.
The Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa gave his support in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Thursday, shortly after defending the Commission’s 2023 budget before the Senate Committee on Anti Corruption.
Bawa informed that the Commission would partner with INEC to arrest and prosecute persons involved in vote buying, adding that cases of those arrested for vote buying in previous elections were ongoing in court.
“We will continue to do what we have to do, we are trying to ensure that illegitimate funds are not finding their way into our electoral processes,” he said.
The Commission’s Chairman also thanked the National Assembly for supporting the commission, via landmark legislations designed to further assist it to deliver on its mandate.
“I want to use this opportunity to thank the National Assembly for their support as EFCC Chairman, particularly the committee on anti corruption.
“They have been with us 100 per cent. You remember recently they have worked with us to pass landmark Acts and legislations and the President has assented to it .
“So, we are working with them towards ensuring that this country is free of economic and financial crimes,” he said.
The EFCC Chairman lauded the redesigning of naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), adding it was a welcome development.
According to him, with the new policy, the Commission will be able to monitor people holding currencies legitimately and illegitimately.
“We welcome the policy; it is a good thing that the country is designing its currency, because how can you have an effective monetary policy when you don’t have control over 85 per cent of your currencies.
“Out there, people are holding it, people are using it to speculate on foreign currencies, and so coming out with this policy ,the government is trying to contend with it.”
“I am sure that those people that are holding back this money whether legitimately or illegitimately, we will be able to monitor and the right cause of the law will take its course,” he added.
On fight against cybercrimes, Bawa urged youths to support the Commission to rid the nation of cybercrimes and other criminal activities associated with cyberspace.
According to him, their activities are tarnishing the image of the country in the global arena, revealing that as of October 2022, the Commission succeeded in securing 2,847 convictions of cybercrime perpetrators.
“These are Nigerians from the youthful constituency, they should join me in fighting the scourge of Cybercrime.
“It is part of our mandate to fight cybercrime, to fight advance fee fraud,and we are working in conformity with the law.
“I am pleading with them not to stop doing such things at this time of transition of the country in terms of elections, in terms of government efforts to see that the economy is back on track,” Bawa added.
[6:29 PM, 10/27/2022] +234 815 938 5912: Delta goverment bags US award on healthcare financing
By Dave Okpogadie, Asaba
Delta Government has been conferred with the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC) Award for exemplary leadership in healthcare financing.
The award – Partnership for Sustainability Healthcare Financing (Budgeting, Release and Expenditure) was 8 at the USCDC Biannual Program Performance Review Meeting/2022 End of Project Cycle Symposium held in Abuja.
Receiving the award at the Flag-off of 2022 State Integrated Measles Vaccine Campaign in Asaba on Wednesday, the State Governor, Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa, commended World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF), National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and other partners for collaborating with the state government to safeguard the health of children.
He said that the flag-off was a component strategy at sensitizing mothers and caregivers on the need to vaccinate their children and wards aged between nine months and 59 months with the measles vaccine, thus conferring immunity against the disease on the recipients.
Okowa said that Measles outbreak occurred when the child population immunity waned and a high proportion of the children in the communities were zero-dose for routine immunization.
“The objective is to increase population immunity, thereby reducing the risk of measles virus transmission and outbreak in our communities.
“This, in addition to poor community and environmental hygiene practices, are risk factors for the disease.
“It is one of the diseases of great public health importance, thus requiring enormous collective efforts of individuals, households, health workers and various community-based organizations to ensure its prevention, control and surveillance,” he said.
He restated that the State Government, through her policy of a clean environment and tackling floods, was constructing drainages across the landscape of the State.
“I call on Deltans to properly dispose of their refuse and not dump them in the drainages as this has serious health consequences for the communities, which apart from worsening the flood situation in those areas, nurture more breeding sites for disease vectors and vermin.
“I hereby admonish all of us to take responsibility for our personal and communal health while supporting government health initiatives, interventions and programmes to achieve optimal health in line with this administration’s determination to achieve Universal Health Coverage through the Stronger Delta Agenda,” he stated.
Okowa who is Vice-Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), urged mothers to come out massively with their children aged nine to 59 months and get them vaccinated against the deadly measles disease irrespective of previous vaccination status at the various health facilities across the State.
Welcoming guests earlier, Commissioner for Health in the state, Dr Mordi Ononye, said Measles was one of the vaccine- preventable diseases of childhood and accounts for a large proportion of child deafness, blindness and death among under-five children in Nigeria.
He said the vaccination would be implemented in two phases for effective supervisory support to skilled health workers participating in the exercise.
