Umar Danbatta, the executive vice-chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, says 40 million Nigerians are living without access to telecommunication services.
Speaking at the emerging technologies research and ICT forum that held in Kano on Wednesday, Danbatta said the service gap is brought about by the inability of the service providers to spread their services to rural areas.
Listing ways of addressing the situation, he said “One is to address the infrastructural deficit in the long term. In the short term, we need to deploy more and base transceiver stations,
“At the main time, the base transmitter stations are about 58, 000; and that is not enough for a population of about 190 million.
“At an average of 10 base transmitter stations per year, it is going to take this country 20 years to bridge the gap and bring telecommunications services to people living in rural areas.
“People living in rural areas don’t have the patience to wait for 20 years. So, we are looking at rural technology solutions that can bridge the gap in two years. This is on-going.”
For now, Danbatta said rural areas are being left behind as far as fibre networks were concerned.
- THECABLE
Manchester United are ready to pay for Alexis Sanchez exit from Old Trafford this summer, according to The Sun.
United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has decided that the player will play no part in his plans this season and desperately wants the Chilean out.
Solskjaer is now ready to dump the winger into the Red Devils’ reserves side and offer Roma the cash to sign him on loan.
Sanchez, who joined the Old Trafford club from Arsenal in January 2018, was left out of the United squad that beat Chelsea 4-0 on Sunday.
The newspaper reports that Solskjaer is desperate to get rid of the £505,000-a-week flop.
Roma want him on loan, despite not paying his massive wage bill.
-DAILY POST
A twenty-six-year-old man has protested the non-payment of gratuity to his late father.
He took the protest to the Governor’s office in Calabar, Cross River State capital.
The lonely protester, Mr. Joseph Odey arrived governor’s office in the afternoon of Wednesday and displayed his placard with inscription “Your Excellency Please pay gratuity, my family is distressed”.
Speaking to newsmen, the lonely protester said, “I am at the Governor’s office today to bring attention to the non-payment of my late father’s benefits and gratuity after he had put in 32 years of faithful service to the state and died as a school principal a few months before he was due for retirement.
“The weight, pain and suffering of my family is getting out of hand, and I am becoming more depressed seeing my family suffer on a daily basis, I am the first son and first child, I can’t bear to watch my siblings and poor mother suffer anguish like this.
“Following the sad death of my father, I commenced processing the paperwork for payment of his benefits, completed it in 2017 and received official approval in January 2018. After waiting for another year and no payment was made to my family by the Government, I approached the Accountant General of the State about the matter but he told me that no payment was being considered and that there is a backlog of pending payments stretching back to 2014, all awaiting the Governor’s approval.
“Following this disclosure, I attempted several times to bring the Governor’s attention to the issue but all messages to that effect were unanswered.
My family has been facing hard times since the death of our father who was the breadwinner.
“My two immediate younger sisters at different levels of study in the University are on the verge of dropping out, while the third that passed WAEC and JAMB exams this year faces an uncertain future due to our financial incapacitation.
“I make this public appeal to Governor Benedict Ayade to kindly let my family have the chance to lead a decent life by giving the authorization for us to be paid.
“I will be here with my placard every day, come rain or shine, until the approval is given or else I will take the easy way out, because I can’t stand this pain and shame for too long.”
In a swift reaction to the protest, Ayade’s Chief press Secretary, Mr Christian Ita stressed that Government had cleared 2013, adding that government was warming up to commence payment of 2014 backlog of arrears.
“We have cleared 2013 and we are paying in batches, we inherited gratuity and we are clearing them as soon as possible. Everyone affected will be paid.
“We are currently paying 2014, we will get to everyone because we are offsetting the backlog in batches,” he stated.
- DAILY POST
Nearly 83 percent of Chinese parents have blamed excessive use of electronic products such as mobile phones for their children’s weakening eyesight, showed a survey released by China Youth Daily on Thursday.
Of the 1,989 surveyed parents, 72.6 percent said their children suffer from nearsightedness and 68.6 percent said their existing eye problems have aggravated during the summer vacation.
Obsession with mobile phones has been regarded as the biggest threat to children’s eyes, followed by overuse of computers and video games, according to the survey.
In addition to excessive exposure to electronic screens, unhealthy sleep habits, insufficient physical exercise and overloaded schoolwork over the summer vacation have resulted in weakening eyesight among Chinese children.
In spite of labelling electronics as a major threat to children’s vision, 85.6 percent of the surveyed parents admitted that they have no effective way to limit their children’s screen time.
Growing up in the Internet age, this generation of young Chinese know the Internet better than their parents, Wang Ying, a high school teacher in Beijing, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
“Now a lot of learning tasks need to be done with the help of computers or mobile phones, inevitably increasing the time they spend using electronic products,” said Ying.
- PM NEWS
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide has hit back at the Chairman, Board of Trustee, BoT, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Walid Jubril over his recent declaration of support for Ruga.
Youths of the apex Igbo social-cultural organization also absolved Governors of South East of any secret dealing with Fulani groups in the region.
The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB had earlier claimed that the governors have secretly awarded lands to the federal government for the purpose of establishing settlement for Fulani herdsmen.
A statement signed by Mazi Okechukwu isiguzoro, President General of the group, said, “We observed keenly the unpopular agitation and open Declaration of the suspended Ruga Settlements by PDP Bot chairman, Senator Walid Jubril as a means of stability and end up the Herdsmen/farmers clash, as this is a calculated plot to use his position in PDP as BoT chair to intimidate and harass predominantly PDP Governors in the Southern Nigeria to adopt Ruga Settlements in the South.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide is not partisan and will not dictate how PDP run their affairs, but its an open secret that PDP Bot chairman Senator Walil Jibrin is engaging in anti party activities, and PDP Governors forum should facilitate the machinery to investigate his secret activities and do the needful through recommendation for the suspension of Sen Walid Jubril and relieve him of his position if found guilty based on his anti party activities.
“We want to assure our Biafra agitators that there’s no proof anywhere that the South East Governors have the intention of going contrary to their earlier resolutions adopted in their last Enugu meeting, to donate lands secretly for the Suspended Ruga Settlements in the South East.
“Irrespective of that, we are calling on the south east Governors to ensure they are not instigating uproar and civil disobedience through mingling into the affairs of self determination of Biafra agitators. We should avoid anything that will bring declaration of state of emergency in any State in the South East.
“We urge South-East Governors to allow the sleeping dog to rest, there’s no gain in using confrontation through State machinery against Biafra agitators, and plead on agitators to eschew violence and maintain a non violent posture of Biafra agitation.”
- DAILY POST
Nollywood actress, Toyin Abraham has welcomed a baby boy.
The development followed pictures of her wedding to colleague, Kolawole Ajeyemi, which surfaced some weeks ago.
The 34-year-star was previously married to Nigerian actor, Adeniyi Johnson, from 2013 to 2015.
Friends and colleagues have congratulated her on the birth of her son by posting photos from her baby shower.
Meanwhile, Abraham has deleted all her posts on Instagram.
Toyin had last year denied reports of her engagement with her actor husband.
She said: “It has come to my attention reports from some quarters saying that I am about to get married to a fellow actor.
“This assertion, insinuation and report is false and fallacious. I have respect for actors but I am not about to get married to anyone who is an actor.
“I have been busy with my work as an actor, working tirelessly on my TV, my lipstick launch and other businesses.
“The only relationship I have with any man in the industry is purely professional and it is high time we stop insinuating and spreading false rumours when we see two colleagues of opposite sex working together.
“That is what the job entails and I expect that people should be smarter than this”.
- DAILY POST
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has quizzed Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita over alleged N3billion contract scam, Nation Newspaper reports.
She faced a four-day grilling during which she was in custody of the anti-graft agency beginning from August 8. Mrs Oyo-Ita has now landed in the hospital after being granted an administrative bail.
She was also interrogated for alleged abuse of duty tour allowance, money laundering and stealing of government funds.
Oyo-Ita has been given restricted access to visitors at the private hospital in Jabi area of Abuja where she is receiving treatment.
Although the administrative bail was granted so that she could be reporting for further interrogation from her office, she has not been able to return to the anti-corruption agency’s office since she was allowed to go.
About N600million has been traced to the account of one of her key aides who has been unable to give any justifiable explanation for it.
The EFCC has blocked the account and has initiated the process of obtaining an interim forfeiture clause to seize the cash.
Preliminary findings confirmed that about N3billion has been traced to the Head of Service which came in through proxy companies.
Detectives, it was gathered, uncovered slush funds linked to the Head of Service while probing the activities of a former Minister under who she served as Permanent Secretary.
A source privy to the ongoing investigation said: “Preliminary investigation confirmed that she used different fronts or cronies to obtain contracts from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)
“While tracing embezzlement by the ex-Minister, detectives stumbled on diversion of funds into proxy companies which the Head of Service has relationship with.
“The startling revelations made detectives to dig further into her activities as a Permanent Secretary and Head of Service.
“There were proofs of how she secured contracts through proxy firms from some ministries including Special Duties, Power, Works and others. There was a case of abuse of office because there was evidence of pressure on Permanent Secretaries to get her contracts. She moved from one ministry to the other.
“Investigators also discovered that she was involved in falsification of Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) and estacodes
“About N600million has been traced to the account of one of her aides. This illicit account has been blocked and the EFCC is in the process of invoking interim forfeiture clause.”
Sections 28 and 34 of the EFCC (Establishment Act) 2004 and Section 13(1) of the Federal High Court Act, 2004 empower the anti-graft agency to apply Interim Assets Forfeiture Clause.
- DAILY POST
Nigeria’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Ambassador Kabir Bala, has said that over 6,000 Nigerians were being investigated for various crimes in the country.
Bala disclosed this on Wednesday in an interview with Channels Television in Johannesburg, South Africa.
He explained that the crimes range from drug-related offences to murder, fraud and armed robbery.
Noting that the statistics were from the South African Police Service, the envoy said: “We have to look at it from a proper perspective so that we don’t tilt the balance. And then we overlook the fact that some of our nationals engage in things that are not legal here.
“We have 6,089 of them having cases that are being concluded or investigated and some of them in prison, we have them.”
The diplomat, however, explained that the accused persons, whether Nigerians or other nationals, have the right to fair trial before being convicted if found guilty in line with the laws.
- DAILY POST
