NEWS: IN NIGERIA

LAGOS STATE GOVT BANS KEKE NAPEP FROM MAJOR ROADS

Lagos State government Friday banned the activities of Tri-cycle popularly called Keke Napep from the major roads in the state, saying, “it is meant to protect the lives and property of the residents of the state.” The state government however vowed to impound any disused and abandoned vehicles across the state, explaining “4,632 vehicles were currently abandoned on over 9,100 roads in theState.

Commissioner for transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa  disclosed this at the 2013 Ministerial Press Briefing held in Alausa to mark the sixth anniversary of Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration. Opeifa said that the state government had held several meetings with the unions on the development, adding “they have agreed to stay away from these roads.”

Some of the roads tri-cycles operation was outlawed were: the entire Victoria Island, Government Residential Area, GRA Ikeja and Ikoyi. Also on Awolowo road and Awolowo way, Alausa and entire major roads in Surulere Local Government.

MOTHER, NURSES ARRESTED OVER MISSING BABY

A twelve year old girl,  Mary Nmakamba Eyo and two nurses Amaladi Isaac and Lillian Aloysius  are being detained  by the police in Akpabuyo, in the outskirts of Calabar, the Cross River State capital for allegedly stealing  a baby delivered by the girl without the consent of her parents. Mrs Justina Eyo, elder sister to Nmakamba who reported  the matter to the police which led to the arrest and detention of the three,  said the girl who got pregnant sometime in 2012 went missing two months ago and resurfaced last week without the pregnancy or the baby.

According to Justina, the family searched every where for the girl but could not locate her whereabouts until last week when she came back. “She was impregnated by a married man in our village who for obvious reasons could not take her into his home but was taking care of her in the little way that he could but suddenly last March, the girl disappeared and we have searched everywhere without locating her”. She said  last Friday, the girl came back without the pregnancy or the baby. She was asked where the baby was and she said the woman who took her away to Umuahia in Abia State collected the baby and gave her 2,000 naira to  return to Calabar. “She said the woman met her here in Akpabuyo and took her to a Maternity home  Abia and when she gave birth, the woman gave her some drugs and she slept off. When she woke up, she did not see the baby and the woman gave her money to return to Caalabar”

FG TO DECLARE STATE OF EMERGENCY IN BORNO, OTHER STATES

Indications emerged on Friday that the Federal Government might declare a state of emergency in five states in Northern Nigeria, as a last-ditch measure to check the rising killings and insecurity. The states are Borno, Yobe, Nasarawa, Benue and Plateau. A pointer to this emerged as President Goodluck Jonathan held an emergency meeting with security chiefs and some other top government officials in his bid to address the spate of insecurity in many parts of the country, with the latest being the killing of 47 policemen and 10 State Security Service operatives by the Ombatse militia in Alakyo forest in Nasarawa State on Tuesday. They also destroyed nine patrol vans. 

Jonathan, who rushed back to the country from South Africa late on Thursday, was said to have reviewed reports from the security chiefs on recent violence in Baga and Bama in Borno State; Alakyo Village in Nasarawa State; and Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State. Among those at the meeting that lasted several hours were the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Said; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba; Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Alex Badeh; Director-General of State Security Service, Ita Ekpenyong; representative of the Chief of Army Staff, Maj-Gen. Emmanuel Bassey; and Inspector-General of Police,  Mohammed Abubakar.