Sahara Reporters Latest News Friday 6th September 2019

Sahara Reporters Latest News Friday 6th September 2019

Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 06/09/19

E2%80%99s-palm-oil-concerns-says-forest-will-be-replenished target=_blank>Expert Disagrees With EU’s Palm Oil Concerns, Says Forest Will Be Replenished

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A Nigerian palm oil expert, John Omale, has said that he disagrees with concerns been spread by the European Union and other global warming advocates that palm oil cultivation was contributing to global deforestation.
While he contends that trees get cut down and bush cleared in order to build plantations, Omale said mature plantations form natural forests that give safe habitat to wild life.
The EU economic bloc has said that it would phase out the use of palm oil as a feedstock for its biodiesel, while global warming campaigners have lobbied for palm oil usage in processed food and other various products to be halted.
On Wednesday, Malaysia’s biggest supermarket chain Mydin, began taking out products labelled ‘palm oil free.’
Omale said, “When you grow oil palm after a long period of time, you will see that the interaction in the eco system starts to come back again.
“When you clear out land for a plantation, it becomes a forest again after a very long period of time.”
The palm oil industry is valued at $60bn, 85 per cent of which goes to Malaysia and Indonesia.
Both governments have begun lobbying against attacks on palm oil by global warming advocates.
Omale said the stance taken by the EU is disturbing to Nigeria especially going by its potential employment opportunity for the country’s unemployed youth.
He added, “The call for reduction in palm oil consumption is not encouraging for me. With an increase in population, an encouragement for us to go into agriculture, undergraduates going here and there, no work to do, palm oil plantations will increase. It will create jobs for people.
“People will also make money from the value chain, they will be able to sell to others and make money too.
The palm kernel cake can also be used to formulate feed for livestock. If you reduce consumption, it will lead to deviant acts in the society.”

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target=_blank>Xenophobia: Punish Attackers, Group Urges International Community

Deejays Association of Nigeria, the umbrella body for disk jockeys in Nigeria and in the Diaspora, has called for the enforcement of punishment on all South Africans, who took part in the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and other African migrants in the former apartheid nation.
The group commended the Nigerian Government for making efforts to ensure that Nigerians in South Africa were safe.
In a statement jointly signed by the National President, Comrade Tade Adeyemi, and National Secretary, Comrade Sebastian Ikpoza, the group said, “Deejays Association of Nigeria hereby condemns in the strongest terms, the attacks on Nigerians and other African migrants in South Africa.
“We commend the Nigerian Government for drawing the ‘red line’ and making adequate efforts to bring back Nigerians who are willing to return home immediately.
“We call on the international community to add their voice to the condemnation of this heinous act and bring perpetrators to justice.”

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E2%80%99s-counsel target=_blank>JUST IN: Drama As Lawyer Snatches Documents From Agba Jalingo’s Counsel

There was mild drama at the High Court of Cross River State on Thursday as Mr. Denis Tarhemba, the lawyer to the Nigeria Police in a suit seeking to enforce the fundamental human rights of journalist and activist, Agba Jalingo, snatched documents from the hands of a former Attorney-General of the state, Attah Ochinke.
Tarhemba, who served his written response to the process filed by Jalingo’s lawyers during the court session, had approached Ochinke for the documents when the court rose for a break to reconvene by noon.
“When the former AG told him that, ‘look, you just served me this response in open court and I can’t give it back to you,’ he snatched the document from his hand,” Jeremiah Archibong, a journalist, who witnessed the scene, said.
According to Archibong, Tarhemba later approached Jalingo’s lawyers to plead with journalists not to report the drama.

E2%80%99t-undermine-psc-huriwa-tells-inspector-general-police target=_blank>Don’t Undermine PSC, HURIWA Tells Inspector-General Of Police

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to caution the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, from undermine the constitutional powers of the Police Service Commission.
HURIWA warned that if the constitutional powers of the commission was not restored and respected, it could lead to misconducts in the commission.
HURIWA said, “We are worried that the show of shame by the police authority in refusing to let the PSC discharge its statutory duties could have lasting damage.
“This would mean that professional misconducts and indiscipline would rise in the nation’s policing institution.
“The PSC Chairman, Musiliu Smith, a retired Inspector-General of Police, was said to have been shocked by the decision of the IGP to release the list when they were yet to resolve the controversy surrounding the suspension of the exercise. This is not good for policing in Nigeria.”

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E2%80%99west target=_blank>Insecurity: Police To Deploy Special Team To S’West

Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has said that a special team will soon be deployed to the South-West region of Nigeria to combat rising insecurity in the area.
Adamu spoke in Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Thursday while addressing men of the state’s Police Command in Ogbatoro.
He said, “We held a summit in Ibadan where all relevant stakeholders, governors, traditional rulers and other security agencies were present to brainstorm on how to secure the South-West geopolitical zone.
“And having done that, I felt I need to go from one command to another to also sensitise the personnel towards implementing the resolutions of the summit.
“We are now ready for the deployment of the special team in the zone to reinforce what the police are currently doing.”

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target=_blank>Ondo Lawmakers Give Akeredolu Go Ahead To Access N50bn Bond

Members of the Ondo State House of Assembly have approved the request of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to access a N50bn bond.
Governor Akeredolu had earlier sought the support of the lawmakers to borrow the funds to facilitate some infrastructural development in the state.
The Ondo House of Assembly gave the approval on Thursday during their sitting in Akure, the state capital.
Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Sunday Olajide, disclosed this to journalists.
Olajide said the bond will come in two tranches, adding that N30bn will be accessed now.
Also, the lawmakers passed a bill seeking to amend the retirement age for workers in the state’s tertiary institutions.
SaharaReporters gathered that those to benefit from the amendment include workers in state-owned tertiary institutions, teaching hospital, research institutes, and colleges of education.

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target=_blank>46 NSCDC Officers In Police Custody For Staging Protest

Forty-six volunteer officers of the Nigeria Securities and Civil Defence Corps have been arrested and detained by the police in Adamawa for staging a peaceful demonstration demanding their entitlements.
The volunteer corps, numbering 631, staged the protest in Yola, the state capital, on Thursday.
Livingston Mohammed, who led the protest, said over 630 people were captured as volunteers in 2008 but up to date none of them were not regularised.
He said, “We have been screened by the committees but as at this moment, we are still awaiting regularisation.”
However, the Adamawa State Commandant of the corps, Nurudeen Abdullahi, said there are no volunteers of the corps in the state.
Spokesperson of the police in the state, Suleiman Nguroje, told SaharaReporters that the NSCDC officers were arrested because they blocked a major road in the city.
He said, “They also blocked access way in and out of the Federal Secretariat, thus preventing workers from going in to do their legitimate work.
“We are interrogating them and by tomorrow if they are found wanting, they will be charged to court according to the law of the land.”

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target=_blank>EXCLUSIVE: Supermarket Owners Rake In Huge Profits Over Closure Of Shoprite In Akure

Some Supermarkets and stores in Akure, Ondo State, are now profiting heavily from the closure of popular mall, Shoprite, SaharaReporters can authoritatively report.
It was observed that impatient customers have begun seeking other means to purchase items in the state by approaching supermarkets and street stores in the city.
Our correspondent, who visited several supermarkets across Akure on Thursday, discovered how customers were trooping in constantly to purchase various items.
Though there have been complains by consumers over the cost of items in many of the supermarkets and stores visited by our correspondent, the crowd in those places did not reduce for the most part of the day.
Manager of one of the stores in the city, Abimbola Chukwudi, told SaharaReporters that they indeed sales had increased for them since the Shoprite outlet in Akure was shut down.
According to her, they were currently overwhelmed with the influx of customers and wish business can remain like this for them.
She said, “We have been witnessing improved sales and high influx of customers in our store since Shoprite was shut down in Akure due to the protest by some youths.

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“In fact, to withstand the large number of customers, we now open all doors to the supermarket so that customers can go in and out easily.
“To be honest, we have been profiting from the closure of Shoprite and we are very happy about this.”
It is the same story for Bimbo Adebakin whose supermarket in the city has also witnessed increased patronage.
According to the middle-aged woman, since the closure of Shoprite, business had flourished so much that she had been smiling to the bank.
“I have requested for two salesgirls to join the four people working at my supermarket at the moment because of the large volume of customers we have been recording since Shoprite was shut down,
“Even customers that had forgotten us for a long time, they have started patronising us again. This is indeed a blessing in disguise for people like me,” she said.

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In the other parts of Akure visited by SaharaReporters, it was a similar tale of job for supermarket and store owners, who said that the entire situation was a way God had used to prosper their businesses – many of which had come under severe threat of even extinction since the arrival of the South African company in the city.
A customer, Iyabo Adebayo, told our correspondent that she has had to rely on supermarkets around her to purchase needed items since the closure of Shoprite in Akure.
“Since Shoprite was shut down, we have to seek another means to buy our goods.
“We have been getting every item need at many of these stores and that is why we are not really feeling the closure of the popular mall,” she said.
The latest development comes barely two days after the Shoprite outlet was shut down over fears of an attack by youths protesting the killing of Nigerians and other African migrants in South Africa.

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target=_blank>Oil: Nigeria Has 10 To 15 Years To Diversify, Says Analyst

Deputy Managing Director at Afrinvest, Victor Ndukauba, has said that Nigeria has a 10 to 15-year window to take advantage of oil revenue.
He was reacting to the fall of Exxon Mobil from the top 10 companies in the S&P index weight – a rating of the top 500 firms in the United States, as well as a few other trends that affected the petroleum industry in August 2019.
Ndukauba reiterated the target of European countries to ban the use of petrol and diesel-powered engines, starting from 2025.
He said, “There is a sense that Nigeria has a 10 to 15-year window in which to optimise oil and gas assets, and use that cash to feed into infrastructure – critically power and transport.
“We have to be extremely deliberate about what we do with our oil resource. We have to be deliberate about attracting capital to exploit, extract and make the most of the resource while there is still a bit of a focus on it.
“We have to be deliberate about leveraging that asset to build infrastructure, open up other segments of our economy and truly begin to push the diversification agenda.
“The rest of the world have determined that oil is a key element of global warming.
“There is a very deliberate push by Western economies to limit the dependence on oil and its derivatives.”

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Xenophobia: Air Tanzania Suspends Flights To South Africa

Tanzania’s Transport Minister on Thursday said that the country’s air carrier has suspended all flights to South Africa.
Isack Kamwelwe said the intent to halt flights to the troubled state was in a bid to protect passengers, Reutersreports.
He said, “You are aware that there is an ongoing violence in South Africa whereby the youth have taken laws into their hands.
“Due to that, we have decided not to transport passengers to the destination where their lives will be in jeopardy.”
At least 17 people have been killed and hundreds of others arrested since attacks blossomed against immigrants of African extraction.
SaharaReportershad earlier revealed that at least 127 Nigerians had been murdered in South Africa between January 2016 and August 2019.

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