Governor
US state bans transgender athletes from women’s sports
Mississippi became the first US state on Thursday to ban transgender athletes from competing on girls or women’s sports teams, a move denounced as discriminatory by LGBTQ groups and likely to face legal challenges. Governor Tate Reeves said the “Mississippi Fairness Act” would “ensure young girls are not forced to compete against biological males.” The bill requires public schools in the conservative southern state to designate sports teams based on biological sex as for “Males,” “Females” or “Coed.” “Athletic teams or sports designated for ‘females,’ ‘women,’ or ‘girls,’ shall not be open to students of the male sex,” it states. Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a group which defends LGBTQ rights, described the bill as “discriminatory anti-transgender legislation” and said it would be challeng...
PDP governors inaugurate finance, legal affairs, legislative liaison committees
File Photo Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party have inaugurated three committees of the forum, namely Finance, Legal Affairs and Legislative Liaison. This was one of the outcomes of the meeting of the forum held Thursday at the Conference Hall, Sokoto State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja. A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting and signed by the Chairman of the Forum, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State says the Finance Committee is chaired by Abia Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and has as members Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers, Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta, Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa, Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo and Gov. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom. The Legislative Liaison Committee has Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi as chairman, while Gov. Okowa, Gov Ifean...
Brazil hospitals pushed to limit as coronavirus death toll soars
Hospitals in Brazil’s main cities are reaching capacity, health officials have warned, as the country recorded the world’s highest COVID-19 death toll over the past week, triggering tighter restrictions on Thursday in its most populous state. Intensive care wards for treating COVID-19 patients have reached critical occupancy levels over 90% in 15 of 27 state capitals, according to biomedical center Fiocruz. In Porto Alegre, the largest city in southern Brazil, there are no free intensive care units (ICUs), and occupancy has also hit 100% in two other state capitals, Fiocruz reported. The Health Ministry on Wednesday reported a record 2,286 deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, as new infections rose by 79,876. With more than 270,000 deaths, Brazil’s pandemic death toll over the past y...
Kaduna governor: Bandits have challenged the sovereignty of Nigeria
Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has declared that bandits have challenged the sovereignty of Nigeria, and must therefore be wiped out. He reiterated that the state government would never negotiate with the criminals. According to the governor, the activities of the criminals have driven farmers from their land and shaken the confidence of the people. The governor, who stated this yesterday at the Government House in Kaduna while receiving the 2020 Security Report from the state Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, warned that food security of Nigerians is seriously at risk in view of activities of criminal elements across the country. Kaduna is one of the states in the North-west region that is worst hit by activities of bandits and kidnappers, ...
Bayelsa bans open grazing, vows to arrest armed herders
Bayelsa State Government has enacted a law prohibiting open grazing of livestock in the state. The law, Livestock Breeding, Rearing and Marketing Regulation Law 2021, was signed into law by Governor Douye Diri on Monday at the Executive Chamber of Government House, Yenagoa. Governor Diri said the essence of the law is to ensure harmonious living between cattle dealers and other inhabitants of the state and to forestall the violent clashes being experienced in other parts of the country. His words: “Bayelsa State welcomes all and sundry to eke out a living legitimately. The people of Bayelsa want to have a mutual and harmonious relationship with non-natives and natives. The essence of the law is to avert and forestall any clash between herdsmen, farmers, natives and non-natives as experienc...
Ekiti governor urges Nigerians to disregard unfounded theories about coronavirus vaccines
Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has urged Nigerians to disregard any unfounded theories about the efficacy and effects of the COVID-19 vaccines on them saying it is unnecessary introducing sentiments to the health and well-being of the people for whatever reasons. The governor who received the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine alongside his deputy, Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi, and some frontline health workers on Wednesday emphasised that all hands must be on deck to ensure all indigenes know that the vaccine is safe. He spoke while flagging off the vaccination exercise in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital. Fayemi who stated that his administration had put in place measures to ensure that residents have equitable access to the vaccine said, “The availability of COVID-19 vaccines and its glob...
Senator Okorocha meets VP Osinbajo over feud with Governor Uzodinma
Rochas Foundation The former Governor of Imo State and Senator representing Imo West Senatorial District, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, Wednesday took the feud between him and Governor Hope Uzodinma to the Presidency. Senator Okorocha after meeting behind closed doors with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo told State House correspondents that he would not want an escalation of the conflict arising from the government’s sealing of some of his property in Owerri, the Imo State capital, insisting that he wants peace to reign in the state. The proponent of ‘Iberiberism’ doctrine also said that becoming governor was a sacrifice for him. According to him, “The whole thing to me sounds like a movie, a joke, a dream that does not reflect any practical reality, but I am a father, I’m a leader of that state an...
Borno governor extends service years of tertiary institution staff to 65
Governor Babagana Umara Zulum has approved the service elongation of academic staff of tertiary institutions in Borno State. Zulum has assented to the bill passed by the Borno State House of Assembly on the service elongation. A statement from the Senior Special Assistant on Media to the Governor, Baba Sheikh Haruna, indicates that, the tenure of service year of the academic staff is now 65 years of retirement age and 40 years of service. ” The approval followed a bill sent to the legislature by the Executive for the elongation of service year of academic Staff of tertiary institutions in the country. ” The Nine tertiary institutions in Borno to benefit include the Ramat Polytechnic Maiduguri, Kashim Ibrahim College of Education Maiduguri, Umar Ibn Ibrahim College of Education Science and ...
Ogun governor, others get coronavirus vaccine jab
Dapo Abiodun of Ogun has become the first governor to receive a dose of coronavirus vaccine publicly. Abiodun posted on his Twitter page he got the COVID-19 vaccine jab in Abeokuta under the Ogun state health commissioner’s supervision, Omotomilola Coker, on Tuesday. “I just had my dose of the Astra-Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The doses were delivered today in Abeokuta. It is first service to self then people, when we take the vaccine because we must silence the virus,” he tweeted using the handle, @dabiodunMFR. Abiodun, on Monday, received 50,000 out of 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines the federal government allocated to the state. After getting the jab, he said, “There is a portal that already exists, and there is a link that allows you to register or pre-register and identify...
Delta government heads to Supreme Court to reclaim £4.2 million James Ibori loot
The Delta State Government says it will challenge federal government’s plan to deploy the recently returned £4.2 million (around N2.2 billion) recovered from former governor, James Ibori, at the Supreme Court. The Commissioner for Information, Ehiedu Aniagwu, disclosed this on Tuesday while reacting to news of the repatriation of the funds, which the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), said would be used to complete the ongoing work on Second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kano Road and the Lagos-Ibadan road. “We would try to get take advantage of the legal system to make the federal government correct the injustice they are about to visit on us as a state,” he said. “If they are quite sure that the funds they are about to repatriate left Delta State on ...
Minister: Suspension of international flights at Kano airport affecting our revenue
The Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, has said the continued closure of the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport is affecting the revenue of government. International flights into the airport were suspended in the wake of COVID-19 lockdown. When he received a high-powered delegation from Kano State, led by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, in his office in Abuja on Tuesday, Sirika lamented the effect of the suspension. He said it does not make economic sense for government to spend so much money, as it has done on the airport, and abandon it in the end. He highlighted the attendant degeneration of infrastructure, redundancy amongst operational staff, revenue loss, hardship on travellers, amongst others. The Minister promised that necessary steps were being taken for the resumption ...
Katsina governor urges military to fight bandits in North-West, North-Central simultaneously
Gov. Aminu Masari of Katsina State has urged the Military to fight bandits in the North-West and part of the North-Central of the country, simultaneously. Masari made the call when he received the nation’s Service Chiefs led by the Chief of Defence Staff, Lt.-Gen. Lucky Irabor, at the Government House, Katsina, on Tuesday. Lt.-Gen. Irabor led the Chief of Army Staff, Maj.-General Attahiru Ibrahim, the Chief of the Air Staff, AVM Isiaka Amao, the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo, on the visit. “Unless and until these criminals are simultaneously fought,no meaningful result will be achieved. “You will always find out that if you overpower them in one area, they move to another. “It is the same people that move to Zamfara and Niger states to continue with their criminali...
