Edo government bows to pressure, reduces Iyamoh tuition fee

Barely 48 hours the management of the newly established University in Iyamoh, and the state governor, Adams Oshiomhole went under attack over the outrageous tuition fee, a new fee has been fixed on Monday.

Iyamoh University

NAIJA CENTER NEWS had published that Iyamoh University was the most expensive University in Nigeria haven’t compared its tuition fee with other expensive private schools in Nigeria.

The students also complained to NAIJA CENTER NEWS that they were never told about the tuition fee before gaining admission since they were the first would-be students.

Few others accused the management of knowingly extorting N10,000 admission fee from them knowing fully well that they couldn’t pay the amount.

Iyamoh had released a noticed to its students requesting them to pay N710,000 with deadline on the 20th of this month.

The school began its first academic session on April 11, 2016. Students who wrote the last Post UTME of the school and were offered admission were astounded when the school fees were released.

According to the new notice which was posted on the school website “The Management of Edo University, Iyamho has fixed the School fees for the new students admitted to the 2015/2016 academic session asN400,000. These fees are inclusive of tuition, accommodation, payment for ICT, Library etc.”

Many students who spoke with NAIJA CENTER NEWS said they are happy but wished that the fee can be further reduced as they believe it will be increased again after their first year.

Edo government bows to pressure, reduces Iyamoh tuition fee

Dangote is my friend, who is your friend? - Oshiomhole asks Ize-Iyamu

I’m proud of my friends, Oshiomhole replies PDP

Governor Adams Oshiomhole has told a gubernatorial aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu that he is proud to call Alhaji Aliko Dangote his friend while Ize-Iyamu can’t boast of his friends and associates as some of them have been convicted of looting the state’s treasury.

Oshiomhole

Pastor Ize-Iyamu who was Secretary to State Government during the administration of Mr. Lucky Igbinedion as Governor of Edo State had in a press statement published in some newspapers said “with the touted relationship with Dangote, it is just a few months to the end of his tenure that he could attract him to lay foundation stone for cement factory in Edo State”, however in a response by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Peter Okhiria, the Governor said “I’m proud to associate myself with Dangote, and I’m proud to say my friendship with Dangote has yielded a $1 billion investment in the state in the form of a brand new Okpella Cement factory which will offer close to 50,000 direct and indirect jobs to people of the state.

“My friendship with Dr. David Ladipo yielded another $1 billion Azura Power Plant. My friendship with Captain Hosa Okunbo has yielded a $750 million Wells and Carlos Farms which is set to employ over 85,000 people.

“I’m proud to say that under my stewardship as Governor, investors now find Edo State very attractive and they are coming down here in droves. Already a Chinese Steel Company, Yongxing, is in full production and is already seeking ways to expand its operations; another Chinese Company, Time Ceramics Limited is also into full production and already into the second phase of expanding its operations.

Also, more Chinese companies are planning to set up their factories in different parts of the state, these are my friends, those are my records which I am proud of.

Now, there is a popular saying “show me your friend and I will tell you whom you are”. Who are Pastor Ize-Iyamu’s friends? It is on record that some of his best friends have been convicted of looting the state’s treasury.

What are Ize-Iyamu’s records as SSG in Edo State? How many of his friends was he able to attract to invest in the state? None. Rather than bring in investors to the state, they siphoned the state money and established phoney companies: Ehor Juice factory, Cassavita Company, AVA Cement factory all of which were designed to fail from the beginning and which they eventually sold to their cronies at give-away prices.

Ize-Iyamu said a PDP Government will commission the Okpella Cement factory. Is the PDP still functional in Edo State? Is it not instructive that nobody finds the PDP attractive to jostle for that party’s gubernatorial ticket. As at the last count, the APC had over 13 aspirants, while the PDP had just four. That is reflective of the apathy, dissatisfaction, and resentment the people have towards that drowning party.

The PDP will never again reverse the development train of the APC government in Edo State and come 2018, another APC government will continue from where we stop on November 12, 2016, and will commission the $1 billion Okpella Cement factory and many other industries which my friends have signified interest to establish in Edo State.

Yes, Aliko Dangote is my friend. Ize-Iyamu, who is your friend?

Dangote is my friend, who is your friend? - Oshiomhole asks Ize-Iyamu

Court orders Edo Monarch to vacate palace

A Benin High has asked the Alhaji Aliru Momoh Ikelebe III, the Otaru of Auchi to vacate the premises he currently occupies as his palace in the last two decades as his an illegal occupant.

The property according to the court, which also ordered the monarch to pay N10million as damages, actually belongs to its rightful owner, Orbit Building society Limited, which sued the Otaru claiming ownership.

Justice Esohe Ikponmwen who granted the claimant the right to take full possession of the property as the rightful owner, stressed that the company acquired the said property in 1993, adding that since the second defendant has no tie with the property he should vacate the property within 31 days.

The court who awarded N5 million as general damages and N5 million as exemplary damages, stressed that the damages would have been bigger owing to the number of years the second respondent occupied the property but was awarded in line with the demand of the claimant.

Orbit Building Society had in 1997 filed a suit against the Otaru of Auchi asking that he quit the property which is located at old Government Reservation Area, Auchi Estako West LGA, Auchi.

It was gathered that the property, which was then known as Bendel Hotel was bought by the claimant from Edo State government in 1993 with an agreement to continue to keep the hotel running and provide employment opportunity for the community. But the Otaru illegally took it over and built his palace on it.

For Ikoghode Julius, the Managing director Orbit Building Society Limited, it was a dream come true, pointing out he had on several occasions confronted the royal father on his decision to move his Palace into the property in 1993, adding that after waiting for five years, he decided to seek redress in the court.

According to him, Edo State government told me that “I should use whatever means available to recover my property and I am happy that the court has given me my property back after twenty two years.”

Court orders Edo Monarch to vacate palace

Jonathan"s Rice: Politics of Rice and Garri out of fashion - Oshiomhole

As controversy rages over alleged diversion of Goodluck Jonathan campaign rice meant for distribution to the people of Edo State in the last general election by a gubernatorial aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Governor Adams Oshiomhole today took a swipe at the said aspirant and the PDP, saying the people of Edo State will no longer be swayed by rice and garri politics.

oshiomhole

A chieftain of the PDP, Mr Okharedia Ihimekpen had alleged that bags of rice released by former President Goodluck Jonathan to sway votes in favour of the PDP in the last general election were not distributed and was shocked to see the portraits of a certain gubernatorial aspirant super-imposed on the bags of rice and distributed as his Christmas package last December.

Speaking at the 2016 Auchi Day celebration, today , Governor Oshiomhole said politics of rice and garri was out of fashion as the people now prefer politics of development which his administration has introduced to the state in the last seven years.

Giving his scorecard to the mammoth crowd of natives of the town who thronged the palace of the Otaru, Alhaji Haliru Momoh, Ikelebe 111 and some invited guests at the Auchi Day celebration, Oshiomhole said: “the PDP Federal Government awarded the Auchi erosion contract to one of their own; in the name of Auchi erosion, they enriched themselves and abandoned even the tractor in the erosion site, compounding the erosion problem. You wrote petitions and those letters were read and ignored but we thank God for using me.

“We thank God that today, in the Auchi Erosion site, we can now locate two, three football pitches of Olympic standards in those areas that erosion had claimed.

“We have shown that government needs not lament, that government can listen and when contracts are awarded, they are meant to be done, not to provide avenue for them to deepen their pockets and use out of it to buy rice once in two years.

“I am glad that, Otaru, it will go down in the records that it was under your reign that God used us to dualise the Auchi road which your highness has kindly named Oshiomhole way and I am humbled. At night, we now can have street light in spite of the challenges of power arising from PDP mismanagement of billions of naira that was voted for power.

“As you drive here, you see red roofs of schools that Auchi children can now attend and this year before the end of my tenure your Highness, the remaining schools in Auchi will wear red roofs. We will do that because your highness, you deserve it and I will try to discharge only part of my debt obligations to you.

“Every commitment that I have made, I will do, including the ones we are already doing. We will sustain them, we will complete them before the end of my tenure. My government will never lament. When others are not paying salaries, we paid before Christmas because my task is to make things happen, not to cry.

“Edo people continue to prosper and our people will never again submit to the politics of rice and garri.”

Jonathan"s Rice: Politics of Rice and Garri out of fashion - Oshiomhole

PhotoNews: Travellers spend 2-3 days from Auchi to Benin

By Kelly Amos

Travellers and students from Auchi polytechnic have spent days from Auchi to Benin due to the bad road, NAIJA CENTER NEWS gathered on Thursday.

A student of Auchi who simply identified himself as Stanley, who spoke with NAIJA CENTER NEWS correspondent said some travellers have spent 2-3 days on the road for a journey that is supposed to take an hour and thirty minutes.

“I had to take motorbike from Ekpoma to Ehor as there is no other way for me. People have spent days on the road from Auchi to Benin because of bad road.

“Transporters are now passing through Agbor to Benin and transport hike to 500 to 1500. I had to take bike from Auchi to Ekpoma 400, Ekpoma to Ehor for N500, then Ehor to Benin for N300.

 

PhotoNews: Travellers spend 2-3 days from Auchi to Benin

Poor WAEC results worry Shekarau

Auchi (Edo) – The Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, on Saturday said the Federal Government would work out modalities for the training and re-training of teachers in the country.

Shekarau spoke at the 22nd convocation ceremony of the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo.

“Government is worried by the poor results recorded in the last Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination conducted by the West Africa Examination Council.

“To ramify this situation, government has taken steps to improve on the capability of the quality of teaching and facilities available in our secondary schools.

“In addition, government is working out modalities for the regular training and re-training of teachers through various short-term courses, workshops and seminars,’’ he said.

Shekarau said the government was very particular about the development of vocational and technology education and believed that strengthening them would reduce the high rate of unemployment and create wealth.

“It is for this reason that government, through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), provides financial support for the development of tertiary institutions.

“There is no gainsaying the fact that our educational system has its peculiar challenges, especially in the area of funding, where it competes with other sectors of the economy for allocation of financial resources.

“Nevertheless, the challenges have not been allowed to overwhelm us.

“This is clear evidence in the prudent manner with which available resources have been deployed for optimum results,’’ he said.

The Minister urged managers of higher institutions to ensure available resources are deployed for maximum benefit and result.

He commended the rector of the polytechnic for its infrastructure development, done with the view to widening access to education in line with the ministry’s six point strategic plans.

“The Auchi Polytechnic has shown good example in this regard, which is commendable.

“The achievement recorded by the polytechnic in the last 50 years calls for celebration.

“And it is at the backdrop of this that I recognise and acknowledge the great and positive development of the institution, especially as they fall in line with the Transformation Agenda of Mr President,’’ he said.

Earlier, the Rector, Dr Philipa Idogho said that the institution graduated students 3,748 with Higher National Diploma and 4,987 with National Diploma.

Idogho urged the graduating students to be good ambassadors of the institution wherever they find themselves.

“I urge you to remember always that you have this polytechnic as your ambassador.

“Those who graduated before you held afloat the worthy banner of this school. You can do no less,’’ she said.

 

Poor WAEC results worry Shekarau