82 students bag 1st Class degree at Covenant University

He said the institution had received recognitions nationally and internationally.

Eighty two students of the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun, on Friday bagged first class degrees at its 2013/12014 convocation.

The Chancellor of the University, David Oyedepo, disclosed this at the 9th convocation and the conferment of honorary doctorate degrees and presentation of prizes to deserving students and eminent citizens.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that 1,429 students comprising 1,334 undergraduates and 95 post graduates received various degrees during the convocation.

In addition to the 82 students that bagged first class honours, 594 bagged second class upper division honours, 531 bagged second class lower division honours while 127 bagged third class honours.

Mr. Oyedepo said that the institution in its 12 years of existence had maintained a culture of excellence in education and this had produced significant results.

He said the institution had received recognitions nationally and internationally.

He said that for two years running, first class graduates of the institution emerged tops in the Presidential Special Scholarship Scheme for Innovation and Development (PRESSID) in Nigeria (2013 and 2014).

“Our graduates are recognised all over the world while most of them have gained postgraduate admissions to world-class universities where they stamped their indelible footprints in the academia and the world,” Mr. Oyedepo said.

He urged the Federal Government to partner with the nation’s universities to provide solution to the security challenges in the country.

He said that the only way the Nigerian universities could be relevant in solving societal problems was to continue to carry out researches that would resolve political and cultural challenges.

Chance Ayo, the Vice Chancellor of the institution, said that the university was committed to producing quality graduates for accelerated national development.

(NAN)

Fasting Muslims to know time of iftar, imsak via Twitter

Twitter announced this saying it has partnered with news organization, Al Arabiya, to keep Muslim Twitter users informed of Ramadan.

Muslims worldwide can maximize social media tool, Twitter, to aide their religious Ramadan fast which is expected to commence on Saturday or Sunday.

With the use of Twitter, Muslims can know the time for iftar (for the breaking of the fast) and Imsak (for beginning the fast) in their respective countries.

Twitter announced this saying it has partnered with news organization, Al Arabiya, to keep Muslim Twitter users informed of Ramadan.

According to Twitter, users simply tweet @AlArabiya with #iftar (for the breaking of the fast) or #imsak (for beginning the fast) followed by the name of their city with a # in front (e.g. #Lagos), and the @ AlArabiya account will reply with the correct time.

Also, ahead of the holy month, Twitter has created two customs hashtags- #Eid and #Ramadan- to be used during the Islamic month.

Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar when the hundreds of millions of adult Muslims worldwide are required to abstain from food and purge themselves from all types of immorality.

Twitter also revealed that people sent more than 74.2 million tweets about Ramadan worldwide last year.

Insecurity: Nigerian Military pledges cooperation with stakeholders

That Mr. Badeh received a delegation from the National Institute of Legislature Studies, NILS, at the Defence Headquarters.

The Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, Alex Badeh, said on Friday that the military would cooperate with other stakeholders to tackle insecurity in the country.

Mr. Badeh, an Air Chief Marshall, pledged that the synergy would also be extended to the West African sub-region to ensure the survival of democracy.

This is contained in a statement issued by the Director of Defence Information, Chris Olukolade, in Abuja.

The statement said that Mr. Badeh dropped the information while receiving a delegation from the National Institute of Legislature Studies, NILS, at the Defence Headquarters.

It said that the CDS lauded the efforts and achievements of the Institute under its Director-General, Ladi Hamalai.

Mr. Badeh, according to the statement, assured the director-general that the military would partner with the institute through its Department of Civil Military Relations.

Ms. Hamalai had earlier told the CDS that the institute was mandated to provide human and information resources to facilitate legislative processes.

She said the mandate also included building capacity by providing training programmes that are certificated by the University of Benin and accredited by the National Universities Commission.

Ms. Hamalai, according to the statement, said NILS also provide back-up services for state legislative assemblies.

The statement quoted her to have disclosed that the institute was working to develop strategies and policies to encompass all major stakeholders in the polity.

The director-general, however, urged the Defence Headquarters to participate in a programme tagged “Parliamentary Security Summit”.

The programme, she said, was designed by the institute in collaboration with the ECOWAS parliament under the auspices of NILS CAP.

Ms. Hamalai said the programme would address capacity building and bring major stakeholders together at both national and sub-regional levels.

She said the programme would deliberate on ways and means of solving security challenges and threat to democracy in the sub-region.

The statement said that the visit provided the opportunity for an interactive session between the principal staff officers of the Defence Headquarters and the management of the institute.

Plateau killings would have been worse without police efforts – Official

In May, some communities in Riyom raised an alarm after discovering a training camp of suspected terrorists.

The killings of scores of people in separate attacks in Riyom, Plateau State, in the past year would have been worse if the police was not up and doing, an official has said.

A Police Superintendent, Babayemi Akomolede, stated this during the 8th meeting of the Plateau Peace Architecture Dialogue series held at the Cabinet office in Jos on Thursday.

Mr. Akomolede denied that the Plateau Police ignored warnings by communities in Riyom Local Government Area of a suspected terrorist training camp in the area.

“The police did not ignore the alarm of an illegal training camp in parts of Riyom. To the best of my knowledge, arrests have been made from those areas,” said Mr. Akomolede.

In early June, some communities in Riyom raised alarm after discovering a training camp of suspected terrorists around Rim and Shonong villages.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the community members called on the police to come to their aid.
Days after the call, in separate attacks, yet to be identified armed men unleashed terror on communities in the area killing no fewer than 14 people including a youth leader.

In one of such attacks on June 11, gunmen attacked Gako and Tanjol communities in Riyom, killing at least six people.

Two churches were also burnt in the attack which took place at about 1:00 a.m.

Residents of the area said apart from the six civilians killed, five uniformed security officials, believed to be members of the Special Task Force, STF, were also killed.

The police in the state, however, confirmed the death of only the six civilians; while saying five others were injured.

“On June 11 at about 1 a.m., unknown gunmen invaded two villages of Gako and Tanjol, shooting sporadically and in the process killing 6 persons, and injuring 5 others,” the Plateau Police Command spokesperson, Dominic Esin, had told PREMIUM TIMES in his office.

Mr. Akomolede, however, denied that the police did nothing to avert the crisis, and several similar ones in the area that have killed scores of people.

“If not for the prompt response of the police … the security situation in Riyom would have been worse than what it is today,” he said. “So I believe strongly something is being done in that regard.”
He called for the creation of vigilante groups in communities to help secure their areas and compliment the efforts of the police.

In his address, the Special Adviser on Peace and Conflict Management to Governor Jonah Jang, Timothy Parlong, said “The abnormal security situation in the state requires the involvement of vigilante groups.

He said the state governor, Jonah Jang, made it a policy for communities to form vigilante groups due to the prevailing security situation.

The peace parley was organized by the Search for Common Ground, SFCG.

'Missing Airplane Not In Nigeria' - NAMA Reveals

ollowing the disappearance of a four-seater plane on Monday night, the  after taking off from Kano airport, en-route to Libreville, Gabon, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has said the plane did not get missing in Nigerian airspace.

According to the Managing Director of NAMA, Mr Ibrahim Abdulsalam, the plane had already been officially handed over to the Cameroonian authorities by the Air Traffic Controllers in Kano airport, Nigerian Tribune reports.

Abdulsalam explained that NAMA could not partake in the search for the missing plane as it did not get missing within Nigerian airspace.

“It did not occur within the Nigerian airspace. So, there is nothing we can do about it. We handed over the aircraft to the Cameroonian airspace,” he said.

The plane, owned by the US company Global Aviation, had taken off from Kano in northern Nigeria at 6.00p.m on Monday en route Libreville in Gabon, where it was scheduled to arrive at 11.00p.m, after a stopover in Douala, Cameroon but the plane which had only an American pilot on board, did not make it to Douala.

Related: Gabon-Bound Plane Flying From Nigeria Goes Missing

So far, the search and rescue mission for the missing plane has not yielded any positive result.

It would be recalled that a Malaysian plane carrying 239 people to China had gone missing in March and till date it is yet to be found.

Sources: Naij.com news, Punch Nigeria, Nigerian Tribune

Gastroenteritis Outbreak Kills 7 In Jigawa

Jigawa State Commissioner for Health, Dr Tafida Abubakar, has announced that seven people lost their lives in Hadejia community, Hadejia Local Government Area of the state following an outbreak of gastroenteritis.

Speaking to newsmen on Wednesday in Hadejia, he said that the deaths were recorded on Monday and Tuesday, adding that about 306 other persons were affected by the endemic but have been treated at the community's General Hospital. 

According to him, the affected persons were treated freely by the state government in order to curb further casualties as well as bring the situation under control.

"The disease is caused by bacterial infection from consumption of contaminated water" Abubakar said, adding however, that sample of faeces of some affected persons had been taken for laboratory analysis to ascertain the cause of the epidemic."

Related: Ogun Cholera: Monarch, 106 Others Hospitalised

Abubakar further revealed that the state government had set up a technical committee, comprising representatives of the ministries of Health, Water Resources and Environment to investigate the outbreak, adding that government had also ordered a total overhaul of old water pipes and upgrade of the reticulation system in Hadejia to avoid a re-occurrence of the misfortune.  

The commissioner stressed that his ministry had sensitised inhabitants of Hadejia and other communities in the area on personal hygiene and sanitation as measures of controlling the spread of the disease.

Related: Gastroenteritis Ravages Kebbi Community: Eight Dead, Many Hospitalised

Meanwhile, gastroenteritis or infectious diarrhea is a medical condition from inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract that involves both the stomach and the small intestine. It causes some combination of diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain and cramping. Dehydration may also occur as a result. Gastroenteritis has been referred to as gastro, stomach bug, and stomach virus. Although unrelated to influenza, it has also been called stomach flu and gastric flu.

Building Collapse In Lagos Kills One, Leaves Five Injured

A building collapse claimed a life of one of the builders leaving several injured at Okegbo village in Ikorodu, Lagos, yesterday, June 24.

It was gathered that earlier the building was used as a poultry farm until its unnamed owner took a crucial decision to construct a multi-storey building on it. The incident occurred when six construction workers were working on the decking when it suddenly fell dragging them along.

Three of them Olaoluwa Olayinka, Mubarak and Yaya have been trapped under the debris. Unfortunately Olayinka passed away while two other workers were rescued. Shagamu road division police officers, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency and the Lagos State Fire Service officials were seen at the scene of the accident.

A food seller and a witness of a tragedy, Toyin Alabi, who escaped the death narrated: “I went to the building site to sell amala to the workers. But for Yinka, I would have been dead by now. He was the last person to buy food. While I was waiting for them to finish eating so as to take my plates get paid, he angrily told me not to hasten him, that I should come back for my plate and money. I left angrily. But barely had I stepped down than the building collapsed. Had I stayed back, perhaps, I would have been dead by now or be among those in the hospital.”