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Ebonyi First Lady assures development partners of favorable environment
Ebonyi First Lady, Mrs Mary-Maudline Nwifuru, has promised an enabling environment for development partners and other agencies to advance their missions in the state.
Nwifuru made the promise on Wednesday when officials of UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS) and Alex-Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu Alike (AE-FUNAI) Women Association paid her a courtesy visit in Abakaliki
The First Lady also sought synergy with the partners to facilitate coherent humanitarian response.
She said that the partnership would help agencies partnering with her projects to achieve long-term sustainable development.
She expressed her readiness to work with UNFPA in eradicating human trafficking, Gender-Based Violence (GBV), harmful practices against vulnerable persons in the society and to promote family planning.
Nwifuru praised the development partners for their support and interventions in the reduction of vices in the state.
“My office is ready to partner with NMS to check and ensure every child taken away from the state is certified.
“This will reduce the trend. We need your help, including that of the police,” she said.
Mr Arasu Jambuke-Swaran, UNFPA Programme Coordinator, said that the agency would use its technical resources to partner her projects billed to better the lots of Ebonyi people.
Jambuke-Swaran, who is also Head of Office, Cross River, disclosed that the GBV cases were high and requested for synergy to reduce the menace.
Speaking, the NIS Comptroller in Ebonyi, Mrs Catherine Uzzi, pledged her organisaton’s readiness to support the Office of the First Lady in the fight against human trafficking.
According to her, human trafficking emanated in the early 1980s because of the country’s dwindling economy.
Mrs Chinyere Elom, President of AE-FUNAI Women Association (AE FUNAI WA), said the group would identify with the Ebonyi government in its tripartite principle of equity, fairness and good conscience.
The Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN has warned against obstructing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from carrying out its lawful duty .
Fagbemi’s warning is contained in a statement in Abuja.
“This is a matter of very grave concern, it is now beyond doubt that the EFCC is given power by the law to invite any person of interest to interact with them in the course of their investigations into any matter, regardless of status.
“Therefore, the least that we can all do when invited, is not to put any obstruction in the way of EFCC, but to honourably answer their invitation.
“A situation where public officials who are themselves subject of protection by law enforcement agents will set up a stratagem of obstruction to the civil and commendable efforts of the EFCC to perform its duty is to say the least, insufferably disquieting’’.
He added that running away from the law will not resolve issues at stake but only exacerbate them.
“Nigeria has a vibrant judicial system that is capable of protecting everyone who follows the rule of law in seeking protection.
“I therefore encourage anyone who has been invited by the EFCC or any other agency to immediately toe the path of decency and civility by honouring such invitation instead of embarking on a temporising self-help and escapism.
“This can only put our country in bad light before the rest of the world’’.
He said institutions of state should be allowed to function effectively and efficiently.
“I stand for the rule of law and will promptly call EFCC, and indeed any other agency to order when there is an indication of any transgressions of the fundamental rights of any Nigerian by any of the agencies’’.
NAN reports that the EFCC had on Wednesday warned members of the public that it was a criminal offence to obstruct officers of the Commission from carrying out their lawful duties.
Section 38(2)(a(b) of the EFCC Establishment Act makes it an offence to prevent officers of the Commission from carrying out their lawful duties. Culprits risk a jail term of not less than five years.
The warning , the EFCC said, became necessary against the background of the increasing tendency by persons and groups under investigation by the Commission to take the laws into their hands by recruiting thugs to obstruct lawful operations of the EFCC.
On several occasions, the anti graft agency said, operatives of the Commission have had to exercise utmost restraint in the face of such provocation to avoid a breakdown of law and order.
Some unknown gunmen have kidnapped Joshua Rogers, the ChannelsTV reporter in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Politics Nigeria learnt that Rogers was picked up close to his residence at Rumuosi in Port Harcourt and to an unknown destination by the gunmen around 9pm on Thursday, April 11.
The reporter was driving his official ChannelsTV branded car when the hoodlums accosted, pointed a gun at him and took him away in the same vehicle.
Rogers was said to be returning from his official assignment in Government House after a trip to Andoni for a government event when the incident happened.
Already, the gunmen were said to have contacted his wife and demanded a N30million ransom for bis release.
His cameraman confirmed the incident and appealed to his abductors to set him free unconditionally.
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