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COOKING GAS CONSUMERS WILL NO LONGER OWN CYLINDERS – FG

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COOKING GAS CONSUMERS WILL NO LONGER OWN CYLINDERS – FG

The Federal Government, Tuesday, said it is coming up with a policy that would remove the ownership of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, cylinders from consumers.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ forum on LPG penetration in Abuja, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, said the policy would require that the ownership of the cylinders rests strictly with the dealers and distributors, adding that this was part of strategy to deepen the penetration of LPG, also known as cooking gas and address issues of safety.

Kachikwu added that the Federal Government had reached an agreement with two original cylinder manufacturers to deliver 600,000 cylinders to LPG distributors on credit, with a pre-payment period of 18 months.

He stated that the Federal Government would in the next couple of days commence the clampdown of illegal roadside LPG dealers, while he directed all skid operators of LPG to immediately convert their outlets to micro distribution centres before the enforcement begins.

MAN TEAMS WITH PREGNANT GIRLFRIEND TO ASSAULT WIFE

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MAN TEAMS WITH PREGNANT GIRLFRIEND TO ASSAULT WIFE

The Police on Tuesday arraigned Mr. Samson Awotidoye, 38; and Mrs. Toyin Ademola, 35, in an Ile-Ife Magistrates’ Court in Osun for allegedly assaulting his wife.

The Prosecutor, Inspector Monday Ojiezele, told the court that the defendants committed the offence in August 2016 around 11.30 am at Ajebamidele, Ile-Ife.

They were charged with three counts of conspiracy, illegal marriage and assault.

He added that Samson Awotidoye married Toyin Ademola while his legal wife, Victoria, was still alive.

The prosecutor said the defendants also assaulted Victoria.

He stated further that the offence contravened the provisions of sections 351, 370 and 516 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Osun, 2002.

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty

The Defence Counsel, Mr. Yemi Ijalana, pleaded for the bail of his clients in most liberal term, and pledged that they will not jump bail, but would provide reliable sureties.

Magistrate Olukunle Owolawi admitted the defendants to bail in the sum of N100,000 with one surety in like sum.

Owolawi ordered that the sureties must swear to affidavit of means as well as provide three recent passport photographs each.

The case was adjourned until June 28 for hearing.

Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service

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Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service

The U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday started a two-week test transporting mail across three Southwestern states using self-driving trucks, a step forward in the effort to commercialise autonomous vehicle technology for hauling freight.

San Diego-based startup TuSimple said its self-driving trucks will begin hauling mail between USPS facilities in Phoenix and Dallas to see how the nascent technology might improve delivery times and costs. A safety driver will sit behind the wheel to intervene if necessary and an engineer will ride in the passenger seat.

If successful, it would mark an achievement for the autonomous driving industry and a possible solution to the driver shortage and regulatory constraints faced by freight haulers across the country.

The pilot program involves five round trips, each totalling more than 2,100 miles (3,380 km) or around 45 hours of driving. It is unclear whether self-driving mail delivery will continue after the two-week pilot.

“The work with TuSimple is our first initiative in autonomous long-haul transportation,” USPS spokeswoman Kim Frum said. “We are conducting research and testing as part of our efforts to operate a future class of vehicles which will incorporate new technology.”

TuSimple and the USPS declined to disclose the cost of the program, but Frum said no tax dollars were used and the agency relies on revenue from sales of postage and other products. TuSimple has raised $178 million in private financing, including from chipmaker Nvidia Corp and Chinese online media company Sina Corp.

The trucks will travel on major interstates and pass through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

“This run is really in the sweet spot of how we believe autonomous trucks will be used,” said TuSimple Chief Product Officer Chuck Price. “These long runs are beyond the range of a single human driver, which means today if they do this run they have to figure out how to cover it with multiple drivers in the vehicle.”

The goal is to eliminate the need for a driver, freeing shippers and freight-haulers from the constraints of a worsening driver shortage. The American Trucking Associations estimates a shortage of as many as 174,500 drivers by 2024, due to an aging workforce and the difficulty of attracting younger drivers.

A new safety law requiring truck drivers to electronically log their miles has further constrained how quickly and efficiently fleets can move goods.

TuSimple’s tie-up with the USPS marks an achievement for the fledgling self-driving truck industry, and follows Swedish company Einride’s entry into freight delivery using driverless electric trucks on a public road, announced last week.

The developments contrast with retrenching efforts by robotaxi companies such as General Motors Co unit Cruise, Uber Technologies Inc and startup Drive.ai, which have stumbled in building self-driving cars that can anticipate and respond to humans and navigate urban areas, an expensive and technologically challenging feat.

Price said self-driving trucks have advantages over passenger cars, including the relative ease of operating on interstates compared with city centres, which reduces mapping requirements and safety challenges involving pedestrians and bicyclists.

ABORTION-RIGHTS ACTIVISTS PROTEST NEW BAN AT SUPREME COURT

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ABORTION-RIGHTS ACTIVISTS PROTEST NEW BAN AT SUPREME COURT

U.S. abortion-rights campaigners, including several Democrats running for president in 2020, are set to rally in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday to protest new restrictions on abortion passed by legislatures in eight states.

Many of the restrictions are intended to draw legal challenges, which religious conservatives hope will lead the nation’s top court to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy.

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, are among the presidential candidates expected to speak at Tuesday’s rally, according to media accounts.

The rally is one of scores being organised by the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood Action Fund and other civil rights group in what they are describing as a Stop Abortion Bans Day of Action.

Some of the new laws passed by Republican state legislatures amount to the tightest restrictions on abortion seen in the United States in decades. Alabama passed an outright ban last week, including for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, unless the woman’s life is in danger.

Other states, including Ohio and Georgia, have banned abortions absent a medical emergency after six weeks of pregnancy or after the fetus’s heartbeat can be detected, which can occur before a woman even realizes she is pregnant.

Those laws are in defiance of the Roe v. Wade ruling, which affords a woman the right to an abortion up to the moment the fetus would be viable outside the womb, which is usually placed at about seven months, or 28 weeks, but may occur earlier.

The bans have been championed by conservatives, many of them Christian, who say foetuses should have rights comparable to those of infants and view abortion as tantamount to murder. The Supreme Court now has a 5-4 conservative majority following two judicial appointments by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Civil rights groups are suing to overturn the bans as eroding a woman’s right to bodily autonomy and say they endanger women who seek riskier illegal or homespun means to terminate a pregnancy.

MAY 29: POLICE UNCOVERS PLANS TO DISRUPT INAUGURATION

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MAY 29: POLICE UNCOVERS PLANS TO DISRUPT INAUGURATION

Ogun State Police Command has raised the alarm over the alleged plan by some unknown people to disrupt the May 29 handover ceremony in the state.

The Police urged the people of the state to put any form of rallies and procession against Chieftaincy and land matters on hold.

The Police said they were in possession of an intelligence report that showed that “some unscrupulous elements are scheming to foment trouble across the state with a view to disrupting the inauguration of the new administration scheduled for 29th May 2019.

The Police said this in a statement issued by the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, on Tuesday in Abeokuta, the state capital.

According to the PPRO, Rallies, processions, and assemblies in public places are being orchestrated by these enemies of peace supposedly to resolve chieftaincy and land-related matters rather than approaching the Court to seek justice.

He said, “All of these are aimed at heating up the State before the inauguration.

“In view of this, the command has put in place a robust security arrangement aimed at checkmating such trouble makers and other criminally-minded persons, including miscreants and disgruntled elements.

“The special units of the command namely SARS, PMF, STS, anti-kidnapping as well as DPOs and Area Commanders have been placed on red alert with specific instruction to closely monitor these misguided elements and respond swiftly to any distress calls and disturbance of public peace.”

Oyeyemi said further that the commissioner of Police, Bashir Makama, has ordered twenty-four-hour surveillance patrols across the length and breadth of the State.

REPS PASS BILL ENDING HND-B.SC DICHOTOMY

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REPS PASS BILL ENDING HND-B.SC DICHOTOMY

The House of Representatives has, on Tuesday, passed a bill which abolished the existing dichotomy between Polytechnic Higher National Diploma and the Bachelor of Science degree awarded by the Nigerian universities.

The legislation, which was sponsored by Ali Isa and Edward Pwajok from Gombe and Plateau States respectively, was passed for second reading since April 2017.

It seeks to end perceived discrimination against polytechnic graduates and remove the challenges being faced by HND holders, especially those in the public service.

While leading the debate for the bill to pass second reading, Pwajok said research he carried out on both certificates, showed that the discrimination had no moral justification.

He said that the unfortunate situation would make the international community to look down on the status of educational institutions in the country.

The lawmaker said that it was unfortunate that such discrimination existed in a critical sector required for national development, regretting that there was a lot of segregation at employment level.

According to him, those with first degree are placed on Grade Level 8, while those with HND are placed on Grade Level 6 or 7.

He said that in some organisations, degree holders were paid N100, 000 at entry level, while their counterparts with HND were paid N70, 000.

The lawmaker said in other countries, technical experts were paid higher than administrators, adding that “the reverse is the case in the country’’.

He said that if the private sector must develop, proper recognition must be given to polytechnics and similar institutions in the country.

OKOROCHA HAS NOT RELEASED MONEY FOR MY INAUGURATION – EMEKA IHEDIOHA

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OKOROCHA HAS NOT RELEASED MONEY FOR MY INAUGURATION – EMEKA IHEDIOHA

Governor-elect, Emeka Ihedioha, has said that the Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha has not released a dime for his swearing-in on May 29.

Ihedioha, who spoke in a statement issued by the secretary of his inauguration and handover committee, Ray Emeana, who doubles as the secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, said that the governor had refused to finance the inauguration activities.

According to the governor-elect, there was no truth that Okorocha had released N150m to his inauguration and handover committee for the May 29 program.

The statement read partly “Governor Rochas Okorocha has not released any money to the Emeka Ihedioha Inauguration Planning And Handover Committee.

“For the avoidance of doubts, Governor Rochas Okorocha and his outgoing government have not released any money to the Inauguration Planning and Handover Committee. The committee has not requested for any money either. Rather, the joint committee made up of the 31–member Ihediohia team and the 21–member Rochas Okorocha team met and adopted common resolutions on how best to proceed with the inauguration activities. Rochas Okorocha has since abandoned the mutual resolutions and proceeded with his “Internet-based Commissioning of Internet Sited Projects.

“Conscious of the importance Imo people attach to the May 29, 2019 handover date, the Ihedioha/Irona inauguration committee has proceeded with arrangements to deliver a world-class inauguration to Imo people come May 29, 2019.

“Arrangements to ensure this delivery include such activities such as providing clean environments within and around event venues including the Dan Anyiam and Grass Hoppers Handball stadia.

“Indeed, Imo is already agog with excitement. Currently, Owerri is the destination of choice for prominent Nigerians at home and in the diaspora. The hotels are fully booked. Flights into Owerri are filled up. The venues for the various programmes are wearing new and fresh looks.

“We can understand the frustrations of Governor Okorocha and the remnants of his e-rats, having realized that their efforts to derail the swearing-in of His Excellency, Rt. Hon Emeka Ihedioha and Hon (Engr) Gerald Irona as Imo State Governor and Deputy Governor respectively have failed woefully.”

NATIONAL HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION IS BAD – MINISTER OF HEALTH

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NATIONAL HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION IS BAD – MINISTER OF HEALTH

The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has attributed the deteriorating conditions of hospital facilities across the country to poor healthcare foundation.

The Senate had summoned Adewole to appear before it on Tuesday over what the Senate President Bukola Saraki called the poor state of infrastructure that has contributed to deaths of Nigerians in need of health care.

Speaking before the  Senate, Adewole said, “Over the last couple of years, we have had a challenge.

“We can describe the health care as a pyramid, with Primary Health Care at the base, Secondary at middle and Tertiary at the top.

“Only 10% of Nigerians who require care would need to go to tertiary institutions.

“For them to function effectively, they depend on functional primary and secondary health care centres. If these two levels of care are functional, about 90% of ailments will be taken care of.

“For us in Nigeria, they represent the topmost and by design are expected to manage complex and complicated cases.

“We have 22 teaching hospitals in the country and 17 specialist hospitals under the direct body of the Federal Government.

“The teaching hospitals constitute the apex of health care in any country.

“We can compare it to a building — primary health as the foundation, the secondary as the wall and the tertiary as the roof.

“The problem we have is that the foundation is bad and the wall is weak and we are only concerned about the roof.

“If we invest in the Primary Health Care, a lot of people would not have a cause to go to the Tertiary.

“Your Excellency, I must commend you for approving the Basic Health Care Provision Fund. It is a game changer.

“We spent two years developing, and over the last two weeks, we’ve started to roll out.

“Twenty-two of our states have registered for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund.

“Our aim is to structure it in a way that money would flow from the Central Bank to the agencies.

“As of today, 14 states are yet to show interest in basic health care provision.

“We have two signatories to the account — the head of the community where it is located and the head of the facilities.

“Our aim is to offer free antenatal, free deliveries, screening for tuberculosis.

“I commend the Senate for the approval of the 1% primary healthcare inclusive in the Budget.

“Teaching hospitals cannot survive alone and in isolation. The State needs to partner with us so that secondary hospitals would be working.

“We believe that the issue of power supply should be looked into.”

WIKE DETHRONES MONARCH OVER CULTISM

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WIKE DETHRONES MONARCH OVER CULTISM

Governor Nyesom Wike, on Tuesday, dethroned a traditional ruler alleged to be connected to abetting insecurity in the state.

Wike had vowed at a ‘special’ security meeting on May 6 held at the Government House in Port Harcourt, to go after monarchs found guilty of sponsoring crime in their communities.

In a statement on Tuesday signed by his aide on electronic media, Simeon Nwakaudu, the governor dethroned Chief Monday Noryaa, Gbenemene Baabe in Khana Local Government Area.

Wike ordered the withdrawal of the certificate of recognition given to the monarch with immediate effect.

“The withdrawal of Government Recognition from HRM Chief Monday Frank Noryaa followed his alleged indictment on cult-related activities within his kingdom.

“The Traditional Ruler was also indicted for harbouring cultists, leading to insecurity in the area,” the statement said.

DELE MOMODU BEGINS CAMPAIGN FOR TINUBU FOUR YEARS BEFORE ELECTION

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DELE MOMODU BEGINS CAMPAIGN FOR TINUBU FOUR YEARS BEFORE ELECTION

Publisher of Ovation Magazine, Dele Momodu, has backed national leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu to become Nigeria’s president in 2023.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term in office ends in four years.

With the politics surrounding his successor yet to unfold, media guru Momodu has thrown his weight behind Mr Tinubu.

He made this known in a Tweet on Monday evening.

Alongside a picture of Tinubu, he wrote “Nigeria’s next President in 2023? The race has started.

“Best wishes to one of the most influential politicians.”

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