Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, has signed the state’s 2022 budget into law, with a commitment to complete many of the ongoing infrastructural projects.

Mr AbdulRazaq signed the revenue and spending plan on Friday, a day after it was passed by the state House of Assembly.

The N189.6 billion budget commits 56 per cent to capital expenditure and 44 per cent to recurrent expenditure.

Mr AbdulRazaq had proposed 55.3 per cent of the total package for capital expenditure and 44.7 per cent for recurrent spendings.

Speaking shortly after signing the budget, the governor said it also captured the workers’ promotion and the consequential adjustment component of the national minimum wage. He said the payment will begin this month.

“Some of the highlights of the budget included the implementation of the consequential adjustment of minimum wage and paying some salary arrears that could not be paid by the previous administration.

”We are equally doing cash backing of promotions. Those are some of the major challenges for the administration,” he said.

“We will also focus on completing ongoing infrastructural projects, job creation and expanding the economic base of the state. We will try to ensure full implementation of the budget as much as revenue permits.

“I must commend the House for doing the needful to ensure that the budget is passed on time. We appreciate the work you have done,” Mr AbdulRazaq said.

At the budget signing ceremony were the House of Assembly Speaker, Yakubu Danladi-Salihu; Deputy Speaker, Raphael Adetiba; Leader of the House, Mogaji Olawoyin; Chairman House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Ibrahim Ambali; the Commissioners for Finance and Planning and Economic Development, Florence Olasumbo Oyeyemi and Remilekun Banigbe, respectively; Special Adviser to the Governor on Strategy, Saadu Salau; and Clerk of the House, Halimat Jummai Kperogi.

In his remarks, Mr Danladi-Salihu commended the administration for its commitment to development and of the state.



Source: https://semmatloaded.com/2022/01/kwara-governor-signs-n190-billion-2022-budget/amp/

The federal government has voted N500 million for the prosecution of Boko Haram cases and other criminal suspects in the year 2022.

Over 10,000 suspects are projected to be prosecuted with the money, according to the breakdown of the federal ministry of justice’s approved 2022 budget.

Described as a “new” project in the budget, the allocation is to be expended on fresh Boko Haram and other criminal cases filed in court by the ministry.

The federal ministry of justice has a mass trial arrangement with the Federal High Court that enables judges to be deployed to try terrorist suspects at the various military detention facilities holding the suspects in different parts of the country.

Under the arrangement, the logistical challenges of moving a large number of terror suspects to face trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja or other divisions of the court, is conquered, but there have been local and international concerns about the fairness and thoroughness of the process.

Three phases of the mass trial have been held so far.

The new N500million provision voted for the prosecution of Boko Haram suspects and other criminal cases is different from the over N300million voted for the prosecution of other “ongoing” cases, some of which are also Boko Haram-related.

The “ongoing” cases tagged as ‘Prosecution of prison inmates, maritime/offshore offences, Boko Haram suspects, offenders of government recovered assets, and improving asset recovery and monitoring process’ is to gulp a total of N308,647,164, the budget stated.

Representing about 2.95 per cent of the total N17 billion budget of the ministry, the prosecution of the new Boko Haram cases is the project with the third-largest allocation among the 12 projects listed in the ministry’s 2022 budget.

It comes directly behind ‘Establishment of a Federal Taskforce and Development of a Federal Contracts Administration System (FCAS) in Nigeria’, with N821million allocation.

The project with the highest allocation, tagged as ‘Intervention fund to support the FGN’s Reform Initiatives at the Disposal of Terrorism Cases, prison reforms and decongestion programme as well as the activation on the national cyber security coordination centre to support ongoing reform,’ is billed to gulp N5billion.

Nigeria contends with years-long accumulated terrorism cases with thousands of suspects held in military detention facilities in different parts of the country awaiting trial.

Amnesty International had serially reported deaths of Boko Haram suspects in military detention facilities, as they swell in number over the years without trial.

In December 2020, the human rights organisation claimed that over 10,000 detainees had died in detention since 2011, a charge the Nigerian Army denied.


Contents

Delayed prosecution
Ministry’s budget highlight
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Delayed prosecution

Of the thousands of detained Boko Haram suspects, only 800 of them were being prepared for trial as of May 2021, according to an official.

PREMIUM TIMES reported in May that a Deputy Director, Chioma Onuegbu, who was then heading a team of prosecutors handling the ministry’s “complex cases”, said the 800 suspects were among about 1,000 terrorism suspects whose case files were analysed by prosecutors in her team.

According to her, out of the 1,000 case files that were reviewed in 2019, 800 had prima facie evidence with which to proceed to trial, while 170 lacked evidence and the suspects in them were recommended for release.

Ms Onuegbu added that charges had been filed at the Federal High Court in 280 of the 800 cases. The charges had been served on the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria (LACON) which defends the suspected terrorists, the prosecutor explained further.

The Complex Casework Group (which was established some years ago,) has conducted three different phases of trials of the suspects at various military detention facilities, the then head of the group said.

The fourth phase was originally scheduled to take off in 2019, after the review of the files of 1,000 suspects, but had to be postponed on at least two different occasions.

Ms Onuegbu said the prosecutions of the suspects were delayed due to the escalation of the Boko Haram attacks in 2019 and was further hampered by the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.

No new date has been fixed for it.

Perceived inadequate domestic efforts to deliver justice for the crimes committed by Boko Haram and the atrocities committed by the Nigerian military in the ongoing conflicts in the North-eastern part of the country made the International Criminal Court (ICC) made to decide in December 2020 to investigate the country.



On Tuesday, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, assured that the trial of suspected perpetrators of terrorist activities and members of the terrorist group, Boko Haram, would soon commence.

“’Machineries’ are in motion to ensure the continuation of courts sitting in Kainji, New Bussa for the prosecution of Boko Haram cases,” Mr Malami said, while receiving the Nigerian Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Eniola Ajayi, in Abuja on Tuesday.

Boko Haram, which started in Maiduguri, Borno State, in about 2009, has waged deadly war leading to the death of tens of thousands and displaced millions of residents in the North-eastern part of Nigeria.

Mr Malami said in May last year that the federal government had identified 400 suspected Boko Haram sponsors being prepared for trial.

He promised that the suspects would soon be prosecuted, but no serious step is known to the public to have been taken in that direction since then.

Ministry’s budget highlight

With a total budget allocation of N17, 061,387, 398, to the Federal Ministry of Justice in the 2022 appropriation, personnel cost will gulp N3, 907, 581, 732.

In the 2022 fiscal year, total overhead and recurrent expenditures will cost N4,901,943,073 and N8,809,523,805, respectively.

The ministry will spend N8,251,863,593 as total capital expenditure.

While sensitisation exercises on the role and responsibilities of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria will swallow N170 million, citizens’ rights, sexual and gender-based violence response and torture reduction will cost the government N90,303,254.

Local and international travel will cost N84,862,831 and N106,560,252, respectively.

According to the 2022 fiscal year document, another budget item similar to the prosecution of 10,000 Boko Haram suspects is the “prosecution of prison inmates, maritime/offshore offences, Boko Haram suspects, offenders of government recovered assets, and improving asset recovery and monitoring process,” which will cost N308,647,164.



Source: https://semmatloaded.com/2022/01/nigerian-govt-votes-n500-million-for-prosecution-of-boko-haram-suspects-others/amp/

BBC has employed Nigerian Disc Jockey, Florence Otedola popularly known as DJ Cuppy as a radio presenter.

BBC Radio 1 last December disclosed that DJ Cuppy will join 1xtra to host the station’s brand-new weekend Breakfast Show on Sunday.

BBC Radio while announcing the development in a statement released on their Twitter account wrote, “And, congratulations to Cuppy who will join 1Xtra to host the station’s brand-new Weekend Breakfast Show on Sundays (7 am – 11 am) from Sunday 9 January 2022! Congratulations @cuppymusic and welcome to the 1Xtra family.”

DJ Cuppy, who also confirmed her appointment with BBC through her LinkedIn, shared a picture using the logo of BBC 1Xtra as a backdrop.

She captioned the picture, “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Radio Presenter at BBC!”

This is coming after DJ Cuppy revealed that her decision to cut her hair has affected her relationship.

The billionaire daughter stated that one of the issues her man has with her was because she decided to cut her hair.

She explained that women often try to fit into certain boxes so they can be accepted by others and she does not want to do that any longer.



Source: https://semmatloaded.com/2022/01/dj-cuppy-employed-as-bbc-radio-presenter/amp/

Published 29 January 2022

Just over a month after he was sacked by the Nigeria Football Federation, former Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr, has been linked with the coaching job of Ghana’s national team ahead of their Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifying play-offs against Nigeria in March.

The Black Stars are in search of a new coach following the recent sacking of Serbian Milovan Rajevac due to their disastrous outing at the ongoing 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

Ghana finished bottom of their Group F with just one point and exited the 33rd edition of the AFCON without a win.

The Ghana Football Association announced on Wednesday it had parted ways with Rajevac.

Following the exit of Rajevac, the GFA is now in search of a replacement and Rohr, who until December 12, 2021 was in charge of the Eagles, is believed to have the capacity to turn around the fortunes of the Black Stars.

According to reports in Ghana, the Franco-German is leading the race for the position of the Black Stars head coach job following the departure of Rajevac.

According to ghanaweb.com, a close source of the 68-year-old gaffer revealed that Rohr was leading the race to be appointed head coach of Ghana’s national team.

“Gernot (Rohr) is very much open to the Ghana job,” a source close to the coach told ghanaweb.com.

“Ghana football has great potential and his experience of the African game will help him steer the team in the right direction.

“His knowledge of African football is deep especially with West African teams. Besides Nigeria, he also handled Burkina Faso and Niger. Rohr also had a stint with Gabon in 2017. He has the quality to handle the Black Stars,” the source added.

“Gernot achieved FIFA World Cup qualification with Nigeria in 2018 and is keen on guiding Ghana to the 2022 edition. Ghana has big name players like Andre Ayew, Thomas Partey, Daniel Amartey amongst others who are hungry to play at the World Cup and Gernot can help turn that dream into a reality.”

The Black Stars and the Eagles will battle for a slot at the Qatar 2022 World Cup in March after they were drawn together at a ceremony in Yaounde, Cameroon last week.

Meanwhile, former Black Stars midfielder Otto Addo, has been linked with the position. Another name making rounds is Ibrahim Tanko, who won the UEFA Champions League with Borussia Dortmund in 1997.


Source: https://semmatloaded.com/2022/01/world-cup-playoffs-rohr-leads-race-for-black-stars-job-report/amp/

Popular Nigerian actor, Jim Iyke has disclosed why he is not following any account on his Instagram page.

According to the Nollywood actor, he doesn’t follow anyone on his account because he sees the platform as a marketplace.

Iyke stated this in an interview with media personality, Temisan Emmanuel, of Tea with Tay podcast, which was published on Friday.

A check on his account shows that the actor is being followed by 2.4 million Instagram accounts, but not following any account.

He further stated that Instagram is a pseudo reality and it’s not what people want to take as their everyday life.

Iyke said, “From day one I got on social media, I didn’t want to follow anybody. I wanted to establish the fact that this is a market place. It’s a pseudo reality there. It’s not what people want to take as their everyday life.

“If you see any of my posts, it’s tailored. I don’t post about my family. I don’t post my pleasures. There are certain things I think should be left for one to experience alone.

“There are three tiers of life that I live. I live the private life, the public life, and the secret life.

“Social media is public life. If I want to make a statement in style, if I want to make a statement on my ideology and principles, if I want to market something, or if I want to set a new understanding on my opinion of something, that is where I should be.

“If I’m having a good time with people that don’t mind being on that platform,I go there.”

The actor added that he is protecting his kids from social media so that their actions would not be judged by people on social media.

“I have kids that run the mall at every part of the world and no one will say, ‘I know that face.”



Source: https://semmatloaded.com/2022/01/jim-iyke-reveals-why-he-doesnt-follow-any-account-on-instagram/amp/