Governor Yahaya Bello flags off Itakpe-Okene road
https://youtu.be/a8SK-M_AFek
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JOINT SECURITY TASKFORCE TO PURGE THE STATE OF CRIMINALITY
KOGI STATE GOVERNMENT PRESS RELEASE
KOGI GOVERNMENT COMMENDS JOINT SECURITY TASKFORCE OVER COMMITMENT TO PURGING THE STATE OF CRIMINALITY
1. The Kogi State Government wishes to commend the Joint Security Taskforce consisting of the Nigerian Police, DSS, the Military and NSCDC for their commitment to ensuring security across the State.
2. The State Governor, His Excellency, Alh. Yahaya Bello, CON, has further reiterated his determination to make Kogi the most peaceful state in the federation by continuing to empower security agencies to protect lives and property.
3. The State Government cautions the political class against making reckless statements that could undermine security in the state as we will ensure that the responsibility to keep our people safe is not jeopardised by unbridled political desperation by the enemies of our dear state.
4. Governor Yahaya Bello has assured security agencies of his ironcast support in their efforts at combating crime in the state in line with the Agenda of his administration. Politics is not a crime but crime too is not politics. Anyone who threatens the peace of our dear state shall be made to face the full wrath of the law devoid of political, class, religious or ethnic considerations.
5. We urge our people to go about their normal businesses. Over the last eight years, the Yahaya Bello Administration has created a population of Kogites who are united, unselfish, altruistic and patriotic. We will finish strong.
6. Our dear state holds a promise to greatness. We cannot afford to allow a few elements with no regard for human life reverse our sterling gains in the area of security. From Egbe to Kotonkarfe; Lokoja to Ibaji; Bassa to Okene; we are prepared to defend the rights of our people to peace and security.
Kingsley Femi Fanwo
Hon. Commissioner for Information and Communications
25/06/2023
Kogi Governor Assents to State Varsity Bill
Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has assented into Law the bill for the establishment of a third University owned by the State.
The bill named The Bill for the Provision for the Establishment of Kogi State University, Kabba, and other matters thereto, 2023 was assented to by the governor who vowed that the first set of students would be matriculated before the expiration of his tenure which will end in January.
The State Assembly Committee on the proposed university had promised to cooperate with the Executive to ensure speedy take off.
The new university is sited in Kabba.
Similarly, Gov Bello signed a law to repeal the prohibition of kidnapping and other related offences law, 2015 and to Re-enact the Kogi State Prohibition of Kidnapping and Other Related Matter, 2023.
Bill for the Establishment of Kogi State University, Kabba
Kogi State House of Assembly passes the Bill Providing for the Establishment of Kogi State University, Kabba, into Law.
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Protect Public Infrastructure In Your Domain, Kogi Gov Charges Council Chairmen
The Kogi Governor, Alh. Yahaya Bello has charged Local Government Chairmen on the need to protect public infrastructure in their domain.
The Governor’s charge was disclosed by the State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr Kingsley Fanwo while briefing newsmen after Mondays Extraordinary State Executive Council Meeting in Lokoja.
The Governor was quoted to have expressed disappointment in the manner public infrastructure are vandalized by hoodlums, saying such will not be acceptable going forward.
“The vandalization of our broadcasting facilities at Ochaja is unfortunate and uncalled for. The Governor expressed disappointment over such wanton destruction and has charged Council Chairmen to beef up security around public infrastructure in their areas”, he said.
The Governor also charged law enforcement agencies to get to the root of the Ochaja Broadcasting Corporation vandalization with the aim of bringing the perpetrators to book, expressing confidence in law enforcement agents to apprehend the “enemies of the public “.
Fanwo said the State Governor also promised to set machineries in motion to ensure the station is back on air in the earliest possible time to continue to sensitize the Kogi East people.
It would be recalled that vandals numbering about 30 a few weeks ago stormed the Kogi State Broadcasting Corporation, OCHAJA, carting away generators and cables as well as components of the transmitters.
Happy Birthday, GYB
Happy birthday to the people’s Governor His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello.
Wishing you more years of great achievements, health, and noble heights.
We pray that God will continue to shine His light of benevolence on You.
Happy birthday, Your Excellency.
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https://youtu.be/OLiUgYzvjTw
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Gov. Bello administers oath of office to returning appointees
…as EXCO receives report on projects, promises completion before end of tenure
The Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello on Monday during an Executive Council Meeting administered oath of office, secrecy and allegiance for five returning appointees of his administration who initially resigned their appointments to seek for elective post in the recently concluded gubernatorial primary elections.
The appointees includes the Chief of Staff, Pharm. Abdulkareem Jamiu, Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic planning, Asiwaju Idris Ashiru, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Bar. Deedat Ozigi, Accountant General of the State, Alh. Jubrin Momoh and the Auditor General of the State, Alh. Yakubu Okala.
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In a press briefing by the Commissioner for Information and Communication Strategy, Mr. Kingsley Fanwo, after the Executive Council Meeting he mentioned that the returning appointees were all charged to continue to be loyal and serve diligently in a bid to move the administration further forward.
Similarly, Mr. Fanwo briefed that the EXCO received reports on the progress on several projects currently embarked on by this administration noting that several of these projects were hinted to be in advanced stages while the governor reiterated commitment and determination to ensure completion of all projects before the end of his administration.
Other approvals at the meeting according to the Commisioner includes the Termination of the appointment of the Former Chairman of the Market Board, Mr. Danjuma Ochima who was accused of neglecting duties and promoting the return of filth in the state adding that his replacement would be announced in next few days.
The Commissioner mentioned also that the EXCO approved a Memo seeking for the establishment of the Directorate of Medical Laboratory Services in the Ministry of Health. He alluded that the creation of the Directorate will create cooperations amongst Medical Laboratory Scientist across the states, particularly in health care institutions.
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Mr. Fanwo also hinted that the council approved a Memo seeking for a law to repel the Prohibition of Kidnapping and other related matters, Law 2015 and be reenacted, Kogi State Prohibition of Kidnapping and other related maters, law 2023. He said that the State Attorney General was further directed by the council to forward the bill to the State House of Assembly adding that the law when passed is aimed at strengthening the criminal justice system of the state and to further nip in the bud issues of kidnapping, thuggery and other violent crimes
DEMOCRACY IS A MARATHON AND WE ARE ON COURSE
BEING TEXT OF AN ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, GOVERNOR YAHAYA BELLO OF KOGI STATE ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEMOCRACY DAY, JUNE 12, 2023.
I salute the great people of Kogi State and of Nigeria on this 12th day of June, 2023 – a day we rightfully commemorate as Democracy Day in our nation. It is my humble insistence that when it comes to the practice of democratic governance among the nations of the world, Nigeria has made consistent progress in this Fourth Republic, and we should be proud.
Indeed, we can celebrate how far we have come on this day if only we can count our blessings instead of our missteps. We are a democracy that just 3 decades ago fell into a terrible mishap on June 12, 1993 when our most credible and united mandate was given to a man among us, transcending all our points of division, especially tribe, region and religion.
On that fateful day, our Democracy (and by extension, the whole nation of us), was beaten and left for dead by forces we could not resist initially. From that assault, our democracy slipped into a deep coma for another half a decade before being resuscitated in 1999. Even now, Nigerian Democracy remains nascent – undergoing intensive physical therapy and learning full use of all organs and functionalities.
Yes, June 12, 1993 was a day of sorrow, tears and blood for Nigeria – a day of disenfranchisement and dispossession on which our hard-earned democracy took a knife to the chest and lay in its own pool of blood in full glare of the whole world.
Yet, June 12, 2023, like the many before it, should be a day of introspection and rejoicing on which we ponder on the miracle of how our Democracy, once left for dead on the streets, somehow managed the strength to stagger to its feet and aided by the very finger of God found its way to the Fourth Republic, where, by the imperfect but determined nurture of Nigerians it is gradually regaining its strength, with increasingly bright and favorable prognosis for full recovery.
The lesson of June 12 is that Nigeria’s democracy is not a gift, random candy to be thoughtlessly licked by new generations and discarded. No indeed. It is a priceless legacy built on the labour, sweat and even life blood of countless heroes from every part of this great nation who gave their all, literally, for it.
Many of these heroes lie unknown and unsung, ordinary Nigerians who were felled by bullets or maimed by means we cannot even begin to imagine in those years, months and days of military rule before June 12, 1993, after July 9, 1998 when its protagonist was killed to present and into the future.
They may have made their sacrifice in obscurity, but they are neither forgotten nor ignored. We celebrate them today and always in the face and name of the great man on whose mandate they stood and strove, His Excellency, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola GCFR. June 12 is their day and the inimitable M.K.O Abiola is their alter ego and embodiment. His election, the battle for his stolen mandate and his death in the struggle chronicles the decisive moments of modern Nigerian democracy.
We salute him, and they, today.
The most enduring lesson the present reaps from the labours of these heroes past and the number one characteristic of the democratic system of governance which must stay with us every moment is that it is a triumph of choice in the way we are governed. We are able to choose at elections as we did earlier this year because they paid a price yesterday that many today may find quite steep, if not impossible.
Of course, the challenge at every election is to recruit the best possible manpower choices for our nation from the pool of talent on offer, but even if we miss it, we honour them by keeping faith with the democratic tenets until we can choose again. This assures us, if our choice does not triumph, that it is only a miss and not a failure. Above all, that it is neither final nor fatal because in time we get to choose again.
It is true that on this June 12 our democracy is not yet the colossus we all yearn for it to become, but no Nigerian of goodwill who has played his part in this long and tortuous road that we have journeyed, and who understands the steady, if slow, processes of our recovery will have anything but admiration for our courage and resilience.
The certainty which comforts us above all with every successive June 12 is that our Nigerian Democracy rises, slowly but surely, like the Phoenix, from the ashes of June 12, 1993.
The greatest testament to this renaissance is perhaps the election of His Excellency, Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR as Nigeria’s 16th President earlier this year. Mr. President is a confirmed disciple of Chief MKO Abiola and one of the most prominent footsoldiers of June 12. History tells us that he too, like his principal, was marked for assassination for his services to democracy and barely managed to escape the fate of his leader by the slimmest of fortunes.
Therefore, I am fully persuaded that under his oversight the ideals of June 12 and the very essences of Nigerian Democracy, will find full and faithful expression. Mr. President’s promises of Renewed Hope is one in which Nigerians, especially the youthful demographics, have invested into with everything that we possess. I have no doubt that his Administration will exist solely to fulfill his words to Nigerians.
Democracy is a marathon. Sometimes it speeds downhill over flat ground, and at others it labours uphill over rough terrains but ultimately it is one race and only those who start at the beginning and cross the finish line who receive the prize. June 12 is a significant milestone in our race, a heartbreak hill where we had almost given up, but for MKO Abiola and all the other heroes who gave their all to keep us going.
For everything that June 12, 1993 and every other one after it has meant and will continue to mean to Nigerians – and for every other blessing to our nation, too many to recount, we are thankful to the Almighty God.
Happy Democracy Day, Nigerians.
YAHAYA BELLO
Governor of Kogi State
Governor Yahaya Bello’s Midas touch on Kogi higher institutions
…as institutions achieve 100 per cent accreditation of courses
By Ada’aja Jimoh
Education is the bedrock of any development a society can yean for. It is believed that no amount of money expended by a country or state in educating it’s populace that can be considered too much because the absence of it can be calamitous.
It is in realisation of this important role of education, that Governor Yahaya Bello set his priority right from the very beginning as to what he wanted to achieve for the people of Kogi state. Seven years down the line, these concerted efforts of his administration have started bearing fruits.
The climax of this well focused attention to make the State owned higher institutions, a shinning example to other states culminated into the hundred percent accreditation of courses offered in all state owned higher institutions.
At a press conference to herald the sixth convocation of Prince Abubakar Audu University formerly known as Kogi State University, Ayingba, in January last year, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Mariyetu Tenuche said all the Forty-eight courses offered in the university have secured full accreditation from the National Universities Commission , making it the first time ever since the establishment of the institution.
Aside this feat of hundred percent accreditation of all courses, the Vice Chancellor also said that the institution emerged 25th out of the 170 public and private universities in Nigeria that have full accreditation for all courses offered.
The State owned Polytechnic in Lokoja also shared from the joy of full accreditation of all courses offered at the institution.
Dr Salisu Ogbo, the Rector of the institution broke the news of the achievement when he recently visited the Kogi State Commissioner of Education, Mr Wemi Jones to present the results of accreditation of all courses at the institution by NBTE
Dr Ogbo said “I’m proud to announce that Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja achieved 100 percent success at the recent accreditation exercise conducted by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE)
He attributed the resounding success to Governor Yahaya Adoza Bello’s unflinching commitment to the development of education in the State.
Another regulatory body, the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) also found the two state owned colleges of Education namely ; College of Education, Ankpa and College of Education Technical, Kabba worthy of full accreditation of the courses offered by them.
In the case of College of Education, Ankpa, the Provost, Professor Muhammed Kabiru Ibrahim said the hundred percent accreditation of all courses is the first ever in the history of the college.
The Provost disclosed that out of 32 courses presented to the National Commission of Colleges of Education, all the courses got full accreditation and that the accreditation of all the courses will be valid from 2022 to 2027.
Prof. Mohammed noted that aside the accreditation of courses in the College, the National Commission for Colleges of Education looked at governance, Infrastructure in the College, expressed appreciation with what was on ground, thus making the College to get full accreditation in terms of institutional accreditation.
He said unlike in 2012 when courses in the college were last presented for accreditation, he said out of the 29 courses that were presented then, only 9 got full accreditation.
The Provost said the feat achieved by the College to enjoy full accreditation for all the 32 courses presented could not have been achieved without the support of Governor Bello, stating that the governor gave approval for the recruitment of academic staff to fill the exiting gaps.
He added further that the governor also released money for the purchase of educational resources, in terms of books, chemicals, reagents and furniture, an action that led to the college inviting the National Commission of Colleges of Education to come for the accreditation.
The story is not different at the College of Education Technical, Kabba, 17 courses offered at the College got full accreditation in 2017 ,a year into Governor Yahaya Bello’s administration.
What entices the Provost of the institution, Mrs Olusola Victoria Jagboro most is the partial movement of the institution to it’s permanent site.
According to her, the state government under Governor Yahaya Bello has completed 10 buildings at the permanent site now and one big bus also given.
Worried by the gap created by the number of Kogi indigenes seeking admission yearly and the number that got admitted, Governor Yahaya Bello established the Confluence University of Science and Technology, (CUSTECH), Osara in year 2020 and appointed a renowned Engineer and academic per Excellence, Professor Sadiku Salawu as the pioneer Vice Chancellor
Barely, two years of existence, the university is a growing concern and has bridged the gap for Kogi indigenes seeking admission and even admission seekers from neighbouring states.
The university currently has three faculties with nineteen courses running and all duly approved by Nigeria Universities Commission.
In looking at the attention of Governor Yahaya Bello to health training institutions, the two in the state namely, School of Health Technology, idah and College of Nursing, Obangede were highly favoured.
The School of Health Science and Technology, Idah came alive owing to the support given to the institution by Governor Bello’s administration.
The College secured full accreditation of four out of its five programmes for the first time since its establishment about 43 years ago.
The Provost, Dr Nuhu Solomon Anyegwu, who stated this in a statement, said the college received the letter for the full accreditation from the Registrar, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) recently, that four of the five departments in the college had been fully accredited.
Anyegwu said the fully accredited programmes are; Health Information Management Department (5 years), Community Health Department (4 years) and Medical Laboratory Department (5 years).
The Pharmacy Technician Department has already been granted approval to enlist students while initial provisional accreditation status was being awaited, he added.
He added that the remaining programme, which is the School of Environmental Health, was awaiting approval by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) accreditation.
The provost expressed his appreciation to the visitor, Governor Yahaya Bello, for his contributions and special attention to the college
In telling the story of Kogi state College of Nursing, Obangede, the Provost of the institution, Mrs Hannah Abraham said that the College under Governor Yahaya Bello got full accreditation in 2018
According to her, the accreditation will last for five years before the regulatory agency would visit the College again.
Mrs Abraham praised Governor Bello’s administration for the infrastructural transformation of the college that made it to scale the accreditation hurdles
Aside accreditations of courses, one other big achievement of Governor Bello in the educational sector is academic stability.
In Kogi state, a student can tell his/her year of graduation, the very day he/she gained admission into any state owned higher institutions of learning.
Upon assumption of office, the government inherited the incessant strike actions by academic and non academic Unions in the tertiary institutions. To make matter worst, some of such actions were sympathy strikes embarked upon by the unions in solidarity with their national bodies over issues that have no bearing on the state owned institutions.
To mitigate this disaster being visited on the innocent students, the Governor was left with no other option than to issue a proclamation banning all Union activities in July, 2017.
Yes, there were initial pains from the banning of union activities in schools but the gains now far outweigh whatever pains as students from Kogi State owned institutions graduate in record time.
This has made higher institutions in the state the much sought after as students from even neighbouring states jostle to gain admission in the State owned institutions because they are sure of graduating in record time.
– Ada’aja Jimoh, Features Editor, Nigerian Link, writes from Lokoja