Today's Headlines: S-East Govs Vow To Deal With Simon Ekpa, Gas development is priority for Tinubu’s administration – Presidency
Sit-at-home: S-East govs vow to deal with Simon Ekpa
Photo Credit: Vanguard papers)
Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi and Imo State governments yesterday, vowed not to yield to the antics of non-state actors disrupting governance in the southeast geo-political zone.
Their reactions followed the threat by the factional leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Simon Ekpa, to impose a two-week sit-at-home in the Southeast, commencing from July 31st to August 14th.
But responding yesterday, Anambra government said it will never yield to non-state actors.
The state government, through the press secretary to Governor Chukwuma Soludo, Christian Aburime, said Ekpa was a fugitive who should be completely ignored.
Photo Credit: Google
Gas development is priority for Tinubu’s administration – Presidency
Photo Credit: Vanguard papers)
Ms Olu Verheijen, the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, said on Wednesday that the development of gas was a priority for the President Bola Tinubu administration.
The Agency of Nigeria reports that this project is expected to be achieved between 2021 and 2030.
Verheijen said that the president placed high premium on gas and as such was committed to seeing the country utilize it to its fullest.
Farouk Ahmed, Chief Executive, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), said that the country was working towards becoming more of a gas-based country for local consumption and export.
Sit-at-home: Disruption of business in South East is criminal activity – Peter Obi
Photo Credit: Vanguard papers)
The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has condemned the sit-at-home by a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), describing it as a criminal activity causing innocent people to suffer.
Obi, in a series of tweets, called for a more strategic approach to stop the killings in the Southeast, Benue, and Plateau states.
He said that it is unacceptable that hundreds of innocent lives will continue to be wasted in Nigeria needlessly through communal clashes, bandits, and kidnapping activities.
He commended Southeast governors for their renewed efforts at restoring peace but said there is a need to be more strategic and intelligence-driven in our approach to reducing the suffering of innocent people.
Zamfara bankrupt when I took over, says Gov Dauda Lawal
Photo Credit: Vanguard papers)
Gov. Dauda Lawal of Zamfara has said that the state he inherited was bankrupt when he took over power.
Lawal, who stated this on Wednesday evening at an interactive session with Zamfara professionals in Abuja, said that the state was in in a bad state when he assumed office. The governor, however, gave assurance that things were going to change for better.
Lawal, who said that he inherited three-month salary backlog with no single money to take care of the civil servants, said as at the time he took over, the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) exam was already over and the children were unable to sit for it.
He said that though the state was owing WAEC about N1.6 billion and NECO about N1.4 billion which had made the students to be unable to sit for the exams in the past, his government had recently paid off NECO’s debt.
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