News
Ondo 2020: Again, police officers lament non-payment of allowances
Some police officers that participated in the gubernatorial election that was held in Ondo state on October 10, 2020 have called on President Muhammadu Buhari, the governors in the Southwest and members of the National Assembly to prevail on the Inspector General of Police, Mr Muhammed Adamu and other top police authority to pay their allowances for the said election without further delay.
The affected officers are those that were deployed as supplementary officers from the Southwest states including Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti, Osun and Lagos, to assist those that had earlier been deployed and categorized as Batch ‘A’ for the said election.
This will be the second time within two months after the Ondo governorship election was held that the affected officers would be lamenting over non-payment of their allowances.
The officers , who confided in Mega Icon Magazine, were surprised that despite repeated demands and appeal made to the police headquarters, no signal whatsoever on when the allowances would be paid and the reason for the delay in the payment.
Their spokesperson who has just been promoted to the rank of Superitendent of Police and spoke on condition of anonymity disclosed that the affected officers were subjected to a lot of hardship before, during and after the said election as a result of non payment of their allowances.
According to him, “all of us that were affected were deployed to Ondo as supplementary officers to those that were in Batch ‘A’ recruited for that election. Before we went for this special assignment, we were asked to submit our individual account number with code number which we did with a promise to credit our account.
“When we got to Ondo, we spent our personal money to eat, securing hotel accommodation and all sort of things, while those of us who could not afford hotel accommodation had to sleep outside. Some of our colleagues had an accident on the road and died. Some had health challenges and could not afford medical bills. Yet, our boss at the headquarters are not ready to listen to our plight. Is this not part of the corruption we are talking about in this country”, the officer queried.
On the claim by the police authority that those that have not been paid their allowances had discrepancies in their account details, the spokesperson described the claim as blatant lie, stressing that they were only saying that as an excuse not to pay their allowances when they know that they could not speak because they don’t have union that would fight for them.
Meanwhile, efforts made by our reporter to reach the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Mr. Frank Mba for comments were unsuccessful as messages to his phone via WhatsApp were not responded to.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery has made headlines by announcing a further reduction in the price of diesel, dropping it from ₦1200 to ₦1000 naira per litre.
The refinery’s decision comes on the heels of its recent supply at a significantly reduced price of ₦1200 per litre, which was introduced three weeks ago, signifying a remarkable 30 per cent decrease from the previous market price of approximately ₦1600 per litre.
This substantial reduction in diesel prices at Dangote Petroleum Refinery is expected to reiterate positively throughout various sectors of the economy, potentially serving as a catalyst in alleviating the persistently high inflation rate in the country.
In a statement last week, Aliko Dangote, Africa’s wealthiest individual and the owner of the refinery, expressed his optimism regarding the potential impact of the price reduction on inflation in Nigeria.
“I believe that we are on the right track. I believe Nigerians have been patient, and I also believe that a lot of goodies will now come through. There’s quite a lot of improvement because if you look at it, one of the major issues that we’ve had was the naira devaluation that has gone very aggressively up to about ₦1900,” he remarked.
As anticipation builds around the implications of this move by Dangote Petroleum Refinery, stakeholders and consumers alike remain hopeful for the positive effects it could bring to the Nigerian economy in the coming months.
More than 50,000 Russian military personnel have died during the Ukraine conflict, the BBC reported Wednesday, citing its own reporters, independent media group Mediazona and volunteers.
They found that more than 27,300 Russian soldiers died during the second year of the war, a 25-percent increase on the first year.
BBC Russian, Mediazona and volunteers have been counting deaths since February 2022, using open-source information from official reports and the media, as well as using satellite images of Russian cemeteries to estimate the number of new graves.
The figure of more than 50,000 is eight times higher than the official toll acknowledged by Moscow in September 2022. It does not include deaths of militia in Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine said in February that it had lost 31,000 soldiers, but that figure is also likely to be significantly lower than the true toll.
Russian losses spiked in January 2023 as it launched a large-scale offensive in Donetsk and again months later last year during the battle for the city of Bakhmut.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” at dawn on February 24, 2022, which has since turned into a bloody and attritional war, isolating Russia from the Western world.
Responding to the report, the Kremlin said it did not disclose any information on military deaths and casualties, which falls under the remit of the defence ministry.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added official secrets laws and those covering what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine meant it was “absolutely understandable” that the ministry did not release the figures.
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has disclosed that 95 million Nigerians need to enroll for the National Identification Number (NIN) to meet its target of 200 million enrollments by 2025.
Kayode Adegoke, Head of Corporate Communications at NIMC, emphasised the importance of this enrollment during an interview on X over the weekend.
He stated, “For NIMC to meet the 200 million target by 2025, 95 million Nigerians need to register for the NIN.”
Adegoke revealed that over 105 million NINs have been issued to Nigerians and legal residents so far.
He assured Nigerians of the commission’s commitment, saying, “We want to assure Nigerians that within the next one or two years, we will reach our target of enrolling all Nigerians.”
“The NIN serves as a unique identifier for each citizen and has become increasingly important for various government initiatives aimed at improving security, governance, and service delivery.”
Adegoke highlighted the efforts to streamline the modification and enrollment processes under the leadership of Abisoye Coker, the director-general of NIMC. He announced the development of a self-service platform, allowing Nigerians to make necessary modifications such as changing names, dates of birth, email addresses, and phone numbers from anywhere, using different devices.
Emphasising the convenience of the self-service modification portal, Adegoke encouraged Nigerians to utilize this innovative solution.
He noted the evolution of the process, citing the past requirement for applicants to visit NIMC offices for data corrections.
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