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Address undue delay in getting int’l passport – Ondo Speaker tells Immigration Service

Published

10 months ago

July 21, 2023

Nigerian passports

Address undue delay in getting int’l passport – Ondo Speaker tells Immigration Service

MR Olamide Oladiji, the Speaker, Ondo State House of Assembly, has called on the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to ensure that Nigerian citizens get their international passport without undue delay.

Oladiji made the call on Friday when Mr Kayode Afolabi, Comptroller of NIS, Ondo State Command, paid him a visit in his office.

According to the speaker, the rate at which people complain about delay in getting international passport is worrisome.

“The NIS Command should take urgent steps to address any impediments that may be responsible for delays in passport issuance.

“It is the right of every Nigerian that desires to obtain passport at any time without unnecessary impediment,’’ he said.

The speaker said that there should be a lasting solution to the issue of passport delay, especially “at this critical time that people wish to travel out for medical checkup or visitation.”

He expressed the readiness of the House to partner with the NIS in combating child trafficking and other needed areas.

“I can assure you that we are going to partner with you in our various constituencies and give you information regarding child trafficking,” he said.

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Oladiji also said that there was need to always carry members of the assembly along during recruitment exercise into the immigration service.

He said that such a step would enable them to carry their constituents along.

“It is from you that we can get the genuine recruitment advertisement, so that as representatives of our people we can let them know.

“We have a lot of graduates who don’t have jobs. So, we will partner with you for the development of our dear state,” he said.

The speaker, who later appreciated the command for the visit, urged NIS to continue to work for the overall development of the state and Nigeria at large.

Earlier, Afolabi, the State Comptroller of NIS, said the reason for the visit was to build a robust relationship with the state to achieve a common goal.

Afolabi, who decried the high rate of child trafficking in the country, called on the assembly and other relevant stakeholders to join hands with the Service in combatting the ugly trend.

“It is good for our children to travel abroad, but it must be legal.

“Traffickers use other means to convince our children and take them out of the country illegally, where they are being enslaved in different countries,” he said.

Address undue delay in getting int’l passport – Ondo Speaker tells Immigration Service

(NAN)

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Depressed Delta lady kills self over hardship

Published

2 hours ago

May 7, 2024

Trends Admin

Depressed Delta lady kills self over hardship

A 34-year-old lady simply identified as Blessing has committed suicide in Warri, Delta State.

The deceased was said to have taken her own life after consuming sniper, a popular insecticide, and the go-to poisonous chemical substance for suicidal people.

Details of Blessing’s demise is still hazy but her friend simply identified as Ejiro, said the deceased had been battling chronic depression.

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The deceased also was said to have left behind a note, explaining why she took her own life.

In the note, she disclosed that life has been hard and no one has reached out to help her.

According to her: “She bought Sniper and drank it without anyone knowing. Before she drank it, she wrote a letter near her dead body, and she said in the letter that she was depressed. No help from family members and friends.”

At the time of filing this report, the remains of the deceased had been buried by her family members

Depressed Delta lady kills self over hardship

metro

Many injured as Police teargas Delta protesters

Published

3 hours ago

May 7, 2024

Trends Admin

Delta Police Command Public Relations Officer, DSP Edafe Bright,

Many injured as Police teargas Delta protesters

One middle-aged woman was shot while many others sustained varied degrees of injury in Ughelli on Monday as operatives of the Delta State Police Command resorted to forceful dispersal of a group of protesting women.

The women from Oteri-Ughelli in the Ughelli North Local Government Area were protesting against alleged incessant harassment and extortion by policemen in the community.

Eyewitnesses said what started as a peaceful protest turned bloody when the aggrieved women, in their hundreds, who had mobilised to the Police Area Command office in Ughelli to register their grievances, were rebuffed by the men and officers of the area command.

The women protesters carried placards with assorted inscriptions such “Oteri-Ughell is a peaceful community with law-abiding citizens, stop making life difficult for us”; “Police are making life difficult for our poor and innocent citizens”; etc.

But security operatives reportedly used heavy teargas against the unarmed women and shot one middle-aged woman in her left leg while others were beaten to stupor.

Two leaders of the protesting women, who volunteered to speak with journalists, Harvest Ugbhwiako and Mrs. Vivian Aphiare, alleged that the police unlawfully arrested and detained their children and wards who were on errands. She said they were made to part with between N150,000 and N200,000 to secure their release on bail.

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Also addressing newsmen at the emergency ward of the General Hospital, Ughelli, where some victims of the police gunshots were admitted, the President General of the community, Efe Peter, berated the police “for using guns with live ammunition against the peaceful protesters”.

He said, “The women from Oteri community were in peaceful protest to the palace of the Ovie (monarch) of Ughelli kingdom and the Area Commander to register their grievances.”

Efe stated that the Area Commander called him to appeal to the protesting women to go home, promising that he would look into their complaints, “but before I looked back, policemen started shooting and teargassing the women, thereby shooting one in the leg and injuring many.”

He lamented that “people of the community had come to notice, with worries, that they could no longer access their community nor come out from the community without experiencing extortion by policemen.”

“Whenever you come out of the community to Ughelli main town, once it is 8 o’clock in the evening, you cannot get motorcycles or tricycles to convey you any longer because of the police extortion.

“Consequently, our mothers and women trek home from Ughelli main market every day as a result of police harassment and extortions of money from motorists.

“Recently the police embarked on incessant arrest and vandalism of houses belonging to youths of the community and carted away their personal belongings, detained them and collected a huge amount of money from them without offence.”

When contacted, the Police Area Commander in Ughelli, ACP Adebayo, told journalists that his office “is looking into the complaints of the community with a view to sanctioning erring police officers and men.”

Many injured as Police teargas Delta protesters

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Six NSCDC officers arrested over N6bn fraud

Published

3 hours ago

May 7, 2024

Trends Admin

Six NSCDC officers arrested over N6bn fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested six senior officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps over alleged N6bn fraud.

The senior officers are currently being grilled by EFCC interrogators at the commission’s headquarters, Jabi, Abuja, The PUNCH can confirm.

Though details of the probe are still sketchy, our correspondent gathered that the NSCDC officers were handed over to the EFCC on Monday on the order of the NSCDC Commandant General, Ahmed Audi.

Impeccable sources privy to the development but who were not authorised to speak to the press revealed that the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, had earlier written a letter to the NSCDC CG, demanding the officers’ release for interrogation.

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A source revealed, “Six senior NSCDC officers are currently in our custody. They’re being grilled by our investigators over alleged fraudulent activities running into over N6bn.”

Confirming the development, another source said, “The EFCC did not arrest the NSCDC CG, neither is he being probed. We only have six senior NSCDC officers in our custody, and they’re being probed over alleged N6bn fraud.

“The EFCC Chairman had earlier written to the NSCSC CG to provide the officers, and the CG did. Now they’re in our custody and are being grilled by EFCC interrogators.”

The spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, could not be reached for comments on Monday as phone calls and text messages to his phone lines were not responded to nor returned.

Meanwhile, when contacted for comments, the spokesperson for the NSCDC, Babawale Afolabi, said he was not aware of the development.

“I’m not aware of this,” Afolabi said in a terse WhatsApp message sent to our correspondent on Monday.