El-rufai Issues Demolition Notices To 40 Churches, 16 Schools

A large crowd of residents of Gbagyi Villa – a suburb of Kaduna metropolis trooped out, carrying placards in protest against demolition notices issued to them by Kaduna State Urban Planning Development Authority, KASUPDA. The residents said they had been living in the community for decades and had acquired the necessary titles to the lands and, as such, were jolted by the intention of Kaduna State government to eject them.

Mr. Chris Obodum, Chairman, Gbagyi Community, later told journalists that the community boasted of about 3,500 buildings, 40 churches, 16 schools and 35,000 residents. He narrated: ‘The story of Gbagyi Villa is easy to understand. For hundreds of years, the area has been inhabited by the Gbagyi people.

 El-Rufai later told journalists that the residents of Gbagyi Villa were illegal squatters and that anyone who did not have C-of-O and Building Permit would have his house pulled down. Since none of the residents has C-of-O, it invariably means that the ‘Villa’ will be demolished.

Native Reports

FG spends N49bn to feed pupils in two years -Presidency

Olalekan Adetayo, Abuja

The Presidency on Thursday said the Federal Government has spent N49bn on the feeding of primary school pupils under the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, a component of the government’s Social Investment Programme, in the last two years.
The Special Adviser to the President on NSIP, Mrs. Mariam Uwais, disclosed this to journalists in Abuja.

Uwais said 8, 596,340 pupils were currently being fed in 46,247 public primary schools in 24 states.
The 24 states, according to her, include Abia, Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, and Zamfara.

The presidential aide said through the programme, 90,670 Nigerians had been engaged and empowered as cooks while over 100,000 local farmers had also been linked with the programme to supply locally sourced farm produce.
She said, “We have created a value chain with significant economic benefits to the microeconomic development of the states.

“The value chain offers additional benefits of job creation and increased livelihood outcomes for both cooks and small holder-farmers, hence improving livelihood and the local economies.”
Uwais noted that government was having challenges with the implementation of the school feeding programme in Niger and Benue states.

She said already some officials in the programme in the two states have been handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for the investigation and prosecution.

“The National Social Investment Office is ably empowered to suspend the programme in any state where the prescribed standard is reported to have fallen below expectation until a redesigned and realignment is achieved,” the presidential aide noted.

Uwais said the government has achieved 30 percent improvement in school enrollment in the country since the commencement of the programme.

She said while the Federal Government budgeted and appropriated N500bn for the 2016 fiscal year and the same amount in 2017, only about N140bn was released in 2017 while N80bn was accessed in 2016.


Other components of the SIP are N-Power, National Cash Transfer Project, and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme.

Punch

Lagos Lawmaker gives free eye care to constituents

Over a hundred residents of Epe Constituency 2 have benefitted from a free eye care programme organised by their representative in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Segun Olulade.

Olulade while addressing journalists at one of the venues of the treatment in his constituency office in Odomola, said he was motivated to embark on the project based on his discovery that some people in the area have serious eye problems.

He revealed that his interaction with the people and his experience during electioneering for his second term ambition in the constituency showed that many people were suffering from common eye diseases.

He emphasised that the exercise, which was done in collaboration with Eye Foundation Centre, was not limited to the people of the area as several people came from other areas within and outside the state.

His words: “The programme is about free eye treatment, surgery and provision of glasses for the people. It is not limited to the people from my constituency as we made announcements on the radio and social media

Daily Independent