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The Federal Government has suspended N-Power programme indefinitely.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu announced the suspension during an interview with TVC News.

According to Edu, the decision to suspend the programme was birthed by several flaws within the scheme.

The Minister added that a government:s probe into how the money has been used since the program’s inception has already kick-started.

She said that some of the beneficiaries are not found in their place of assignments yet they expect monthly stipends.

Some of the beneficiaries, according to the Minister, should have left the programme since 2022 but are still on the payroll.

According to her:: “We must go back to look into N-Power and understand what the problems are so we will basically suspend the programe for now until we are done with proper investigation into the utilization of fund into the N-Power program.

“We want to know how many persons are basically on the program right now, how many persons are owed, amount they are owed. We are totally restructuring the N-Power and expanding it.

“There are lots going on. We met people who are supposed to have exited the program since last year and they are still on claiming that they are still teaching.

“Sometimes we contact the school or the places where they are working and they are not there. They are not working yet they keep claiming that they are being owed eight or nine months stipends.

“About 80 percent of them are not working yet they are claiming salaries.”

The Imo state Police command, on Saturday, paraded a suspect, Wisdom Mmaduka, a 30-year-old man, over alleged fake marriage promises to six ladies just to defraud them of their money.

The suspect was paraded at the Imo State Police headquarters in Owerri, alongside other suspects in connection with criminal activities.

Addressing newsmen, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Henry Okoye, tagged the suspect an “advance fee fraudster”.

Narrating how the suspect was apprehended he said: “Intelligence-led investigation and data tracking analysis by detectives of Owerri Area Command led to the arrest of notorious and advance fee fraudster named Wisdom Mmaduka, 30, of Onicha.

“He fraudulently obtained N1,400,000 via ATM transfers from Miss Judith, in the guise of marrying her.

“In the course of the investigation, the accused revealed that his modus operandi is to go after wealthy unmarried ladies, promise them marriage and in the process defraud them of their hard-earned money.

“He has a syndicate he uses as parents and in-laws, who he takes these unsuspecting young ladies to in his village in Mbaise for confirmation of his intention.

“On seeing these, the innocent lady will believe he has good intentions, thus he will steal their ATM cards, withdraw all the money in their account, and fade into thin air.

“Amazingly, on his arrest six ladies he has defrauded surfaced at the station, confirming being defrauded by this same suspect of huge sums of money with the same promise of marriage.

“But luck ran against him this time and he was arrested.

“One Red Highlander Jeep with Reg No. LLD 54AR he stole from one of his unsuspecting victims, Rose Mgbe, of Cross River State, was recovered.

“More so, he has a duplex he allegedly built at Naze with the money he got from his fraud dealings. He has been arraigned in the Federal High Court, Owerri, and remanded in police custody.”

I only collected money from two ladies – Suspect

Reacting, the suspect, Mmaduka, said: “I only collected money from two ladies. I don’t know about six ladies.

“I did not steal their money. They gave me the money. One of them promised to buy a car for me.

“I did not force them. They do it for me freely. One of them even gave me the money to open shop for her and I opened the shop for her.”

Controversial singer, Habeeb Okikiola, popularly known as Portable, has vowed to retrieve cars bought for his artists if they leave his record label, Zeh Nation, claiming the cars are the record label’s properties.

The ‘Zazu’ crooner also pointed out that his artists have not made more than N70,000 since joining his record label but he gifted them multi-million Naira cars.

In a recent Instagram live session with fans, Portable said, “Do you know how many record labels that have signed Abuga before I signed him and gave him fame? Use your brain bro. No enviousness. No ripping. Zeh Nation.

“However, I will collect all the cars I bought for Youngiduu and Abuga when they leave Zeh Nation. The cars are the record label’s properties. I’m the one promoting the record label. I’m the top artist of the record label. I’m the one making all the money for the record label.”

Former President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick has called out singer Davido for allegedly refusing to show up at the 19th edition of the Warri Again fest despite getting paid an excess of $94,600 (about 72 million naira).

The sports administrator said the organisers also booked a private jet for $18,000 to bring the artist to perform at the event in Warri, Delta State.

He disclosed this while addressing attendees at the event.

Speaking in Pidgin, Pinnick said, “We paid Davido $94,600 on the 6th of April. We paid $18,000 for his plane. If im say him be big boy, we go tell am say we Big pass am.

“I’m not joking. So, why he was playing his games back and forth, we decided to hunt to find another artist, Shallipopi.

“You see when people say dem big, I just dey laugh. The biggest artiste in Nigeria today, no be Burna Boy? Burna Boy is half Itsekiri. Burna Boy’s paternal grandmother is Itsekiri. So, he big pass am.

“Anybody fit big pass RMD for acting industry? Anybody fit big pass Ali Baba for comedy? Warri na back to back we get dem. Nobody fit big pass Warri.”

These days, there is so much debate on the internet that borders on university funding and why university education is no longer for every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Well-meaning individuals, who subscribed to this philosophy of increasing public university tuition fees, have maintained that those who would be unable to afford it would find, or be pushed to look for, alternatives in vocational skills or anything else, asides school.

They assert that these vocational skills are even far more beneficial than university degrees in some ways because of the sheer rise in unemployment. They have also believed that it is the panacea to this recurring and perennial ASUU strike.

This popular belief, that without university education, an individual who is armed with the requisite skills would still survive in the labour market, is held by many people as true, and I couldn’t agree more. However, university education is far beyond the acquisition of degrees and skills.

University education is not just about the certificates. It also includes development of the mind, character and intellect. Earlier this week, I was discussing with a university friend who confessed to me that the early morning classes that she attended, tyrannous deadlines that she met, different personalities in the coursemates that she has, sociolinguistics courses and many other courses that she took at the University of Ibadan have helped her to build resilience in the fashion brand she is building, as well as insights into her customers’ needs as well as improvement in customer relations.

An individual will definitely do better as a university graduate when he or she goes into fashion, baking, modelling, photography and you name it, because he or she has become more aware of his or her environment and the needs or wants of the people he or she is dealing with.

With university education, they are more likely to succeed in their vocation and will know how to develop their business better. With multiple failures in school, they will have been more prepared to deal with failures in real life situations and in their businesses. I hold this to be true and valid when the individual looks beyond university degrees and certificates while he or she is learning in school.

While it is true that there are some who had no university education and became successful in the trade; however, you will find out that some of them go back into the university to obtain some education in spite of the already achieved success.

The truth that I think many of us know remains that it is not just and only about the degrees that some of us go to school to get and one’s university education is never a waste of time even when one does not practice what one read in school.

As the University of Ibadan has always maintained, university education is geared towards finding the student worthy in character first before knowledge and learning.

What one studied in school does not necessarily have to translate to what one will eventually do in life or be successful at in the long run
I also believe that university education exposes one to what one would eventually like to do in life. At their formative years, a child in their early teens may not completely know what career they want to do until they get into a university or about to graduate, or even shortly after graduation.

Therefore, we should not establish our reason for an increase in tuition fee on the possibility that a graduate, who read law or medicine in school, ditches what she studied to go into filmmaking, modelling, or say fashion designing. I would believe that some people still desire university education because of the beauty in it.

One does not have to practice what one studied in school. The education, and this case, the formal education he or she has acquired in the university has some effect, a positive one at that, on his or her approach to societal issues and even in the way he or she handles things.

Furthermore, any discussion about increasing university tuition fees must not be driven by an ill-advised remark that university education is primarily about acquisition of degrees or certificates. It is not.

Far beyond university degrees and certificates, university education serves as a training ground for character and intellectual development. A soldier that sweats profusely during battle will bleed less in battle. This is also true about the students at higher institutions of learning.

Lastly, the discussion of increased tuition fee must also take into consideration some students from humble background whose means of getting out of low social class or position hinges on getting a university degree and by extension, university education.

University education, to many of these people, is a means to an end; a huge life changer for them, and after being equipped with the necessary values and norms of formal education at the universities, they can then contribute meaningfully to the development of the country.

The Nigeria Broadcasting Commission’s warning to Arise TV over what the regulatory body called ‘unguarded incendiary remarks’ by the station’s guests is an erosion of press freedom.

According to him, “This is a very unfortunate situation and gross erosion of press freedom in Nigeria which has been on for a long time now. Imagine the sickening and so much slavish ways Arise TV tried to absolve itself from the bare facts presented by Kenneth Okonkwo and Dele Farotimi.

“Just like a slave trying to protect and whitewash the crystal clear brutality of his master to avoid backlash. Yet NBC (the master’s tool of terror) still wants to punish the tv station.

“Let no one tell me that the Nigerian broadcast media is free. And if the media is not free, then the Nigerian press is not free. Pactising journalists should wholly condemn this caging of the press.”

Hisbah uncovers HIV patients, pregnant women among intending couples at Kano mass wedding

The Hisbah Board in Kano has uncovered health conditions among intended couples, including HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B, and those carrying an early pregnancy ahead of the consummation of a sponsored mass wedding in the state.

Hisbah’s spokesperson, Lawan Ibrahim Fagge, told The Guardian that most of those found with the conditions realised their status for the first time after they were subjected to medical tests.

The state government re-introduced the mass wedding initiative with 3,600 men and women selected to benefit from government funding to set up their marital homes.

N800 million was budgeted for the mass wedding as part of palliatives by the government.

The Director General of the Board, Barrister Abba Sufi, had told journalists plans to sponsor a bill that mandates pre-marital screening to determine the health status of couples.

According to him, the laws will allow anyone with diseases like HIV and other conditions to be advised appropriately, while those with other ailments that could be treated will be placed on medication immediately.

“The discovery has proven the importance of pre-marital screening, which has made it essential for us not to take things for granted. For instance, what we discovered during the screen is because we mandated it.

“Only God knows the number of children that are going to be born as sickle cell patients, and so many diseases will also be transmitted among people,” he said.

Sufi added that in Islam, it was forbidden for pregnant women to get married, adding that so far, the board had completed the screening of 1,600 people from the 44 local government areas of the state.

Suspected armed robbers on Friday engaged men of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, in a gun duel while robbing a hotel in the Sagamu area of Ogun State.

One Police Inspector and two security guards were shot by the armed robbers, according to a statement by the Ogun State Police Command.
The injured policeman and the guards were rushed to the Olabisi Onabanjo Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) in Sagamu, where they are reportedly responding to treatment.

The police spokesperson in Ogun State, Omolola Odutola, said in the statement that the Sagamu Area Command had received a distress call at about 1:00 am “that armed hoodlums were operating at Remo Majestic Hotel in Sagamu”.

Based on the report, Odutola said a combined team of policemen were mobilised to the scene.

“Immediately the hoodlums sighted the policemen, they opened sporadic firing while the policemen engaged the hoodlums,” she explained.

According to her, “two of the hoodlums were fatally wounded while others escaped into a nearby bush with bullet wounds”.

Odutola disclosed further that “two locally made single-barrelled guns, four unexpended cartridges, 13 expended cartridges, one big scissors, 10 Android phones, one Java phone, a white Toyota Venza Car with registration number BWR 123DD Abuja were among items recovered at the scene of crime”.

She added that the suspected armed robbers had earlier mingled with lodgers before launching the attacks.

The Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu Abiodun, ordered an immediate manhunt for the two fleeing suspects, the statement added.