Darius Warns Against Encroachment Into Mambilla Hydro Power Project Land

Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba State on Friday warned the people of Sardauna Local Government Council of the state against encroachment into the land earmarked for Mambilla Hydro Power Project.

This is contained in a press statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Alhaji Hassan Mijinyawa in Jalingo.

The statement quoted Ishaku as saying that government had revoked all the previous sales and acquisition of land in the area, stressing that the project was so dear to government and people of the state and could not be toyed with.

He said that some individuals, community leaders and elites on the Mambilla plateau had started selling the land to land speculators trooping in from other parts of the country.

According to him, Government will not fold its arms and watch land speculators hold the Manbilla Hydro Power project to ransom.

“The state government is prepared to create an enabling environment and give necessary support to the Federal Government to ensure the success of the project”, he said.

The governor directed the chairman of Sarduana Local Government, Alhaji Mohammed Tepsi and the Chief of Mambilla, Alhaji Shehu Baju to ensure compliance with the directives. (NAN)

Gov Ishaku Blames Women Affairs Minister’s Visit To Taraba

Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba State has berated the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Senator Aisha Alhassan, for not informing the state government of her five days visit and intention to distribute relief materials to Internal Displaced Persons, IDPs.

The governor, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Sylvanus Giwa, claimed that the minister, on her arrival, deliberately refused to notify the Ishaku-led administration on her five-day official visit in the state because the government was allegedly victimising those who sympathised with her during the just-concluded governorship election in the state.

Giwa, in a statement, also alleged that the minister broke protocol as a minister from the state by coming to the state without notifying the government on her planned distribution of relief materials to IDPs in the state, who were under the watch of the state government.

According to the statement, “the minister said she refused to intimate the state governor on her official visit deliberately, but the presidential relieve materials were conveyed by NEMA and handed over to Taraba State Emergency Management Agency. “The Permanent Secretary from Taraba State is under the governor that is working at the agency. Tell me how the state government is not involved in this exercise?”

Taraba Speaker Donates Life Jackets Worth Millions of Naira to Riverian Communities

Determined to halt further re occurrence of boat mishaps, life jackets worth millions of Naira were today doled out to Riverbank  communities of Sardauna Local Government Council of Taraba state by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Tt. Hon. Peter Abel Diah.

The gesture, as observed by our state correspondent, would go along way to protect lives from being washed away by waters which are often necessitated by persistence rainfall.

The communities which share common international boundaries with the francophone country of the Republic of Cameroon, have no doubt been neglected by the Federal Government, following the absence of motor able roads, bridges across the numerous rivers to mention but few.

Most of the road linking the communities to Cameroon, which our reporter noticed are trunk A roads, are presently cap in hand soliciting for federal government attention as they are projects that cannot be shouldered by the state government and the local council.

Our reporter who recently visited the area, noticed that parts of the roads which are to some extend now motor able, were solely renovated by the speaker, whom according to him ” I am left with no any other option since the federal government has failed in its responsibility than not make life better for my people.”

Federal government failure to attend to the plights of communities domiciling in Sardauna council, has no doubt compelled a lot of them to the graveyards due to regular occurrence of boat accidents.

The latest of such accidents which occurred recently led to the death of no fewer than four persons. The situation which has continue to hindered the flow of business between both countries.

Some persons who spoke to our state correspondent, said had not been for the speaker who have continue to use his merger amount to work on the roads, provide life jackets, as well as boats, the situation of the communities, they said would have been worse than that of Internally Displaced Persons in the north-east states..

While beckoning on well to do individuals especially those from the areas to tread the paths of the speaker, the need for the federal government to as a matter of urgency wake up to his responsibilities by ceasing from relegating the communities which they said have contributed immensely to the economic and growth of the country, has become relevant.

Bearing his mind to our report, the speaker reiterates his readiness and determinations to continue to herald the much needed dividends of democracy to the door steps of the people of the council and the central zone at large.

Beckoning at the people to continue to make peace their watch word, the state government under the leadership of Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku, he said is harassing legitimate avenue to spread smiles on their faces.

Had the government at the center put the right peg in the right hole, the present plights confronting the people of Sardauna Council, would have long been a thing of the past.

The lukewarm attitudes of the federal government towards them which has no doubt negates the 1961 plebiscite, if not urgently address, would end up compelling some of the people to pay obeisance to the government of Cameroon instead of Nigeria.

Make Taraba Tourism Capital of Nigeria, Darius Tells FG

The Governor of Taraba State, Arc. Darius Ishaku, has, in the wake of the urgent need to diversify the country’s economy, challenged the federal government to invest heavily in the tourism sector with special attention to his state.

Ishaku, who made this call while speaking to journalists in Abuja on Sunday, said that there is no better place to embark on any serious tourism initiative than Taraba state.

He said the federal government can only demonstrate its readiness to invest in the sector if it makes the state its main pivot scheme.

He said: “One area I believe is very lucrative in terms of investment, is tourism because if you check you find that some countries like Greece, Cuba and even Kenya here make tourism the corner stone of their economy. Tourism gives them enough and it enhances the employment opportunities in these places.

“Unlike other areas, tourism is the sector where the customer doesn’t leave with the commodity. Take the Taj Mahal in India. The place sees millions of customers yearly yet it is still standing. You can only leave with the experience but the tourism attribute remains there for the benefit of the owners. You can imagine how much we as Nigerians spend yearly in travels and sight seeings even with the tough times.

Countries are making a fortune from tourism even in a relatively unsafe world.”

The former university don turn politician, stressed that tourism is a low hanging fruit not requiring too much funding

According to him, “nature has practically finished the work for investment”. “Take our own offer for example. The Mambilla Plateau is already 80 per cent completed by nature with all the wondrous  sight and sound you find there. God has provided natural golf courses, water falls, wildlife, undulating hills and poetic scenes.  The way the weather is constituted, you would think God installed air-conditioning gadgets all over the place all year round.

“It also looks as if God was painting and painted this picture perfect place. So, nature has done its work. What remains now is for us to add the 20 percent of infrastructure needed. This would mean
good roads, hotels, amusement parks and shopping malls,” he noted.

Taraba State Now Ranked Highest In Hepatitis Cases

Like the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Taraba State has again been rated the highest in the country in the prevalence of both hepatitis B and C.

While the national prevalence rate of both hepatitis B and C has remained at 12 percent and 2.2 percent, that of Taraba, according to Danjuma K. Adda, Executive Board Member, World Hepatitis Alliance, Africa Region, has risen to 25 percent and 15 percent respectively, making it the highest infected state in the country.

Adda, who made this known yesterday in Jalingo, Taraba State, while marking the World Hepatitis Day, also noted that 95 percent of “people infected are unaware” and that “less than 1 percent of infected persons have access to treatment.”
Poor access to prevention, drugs and medicines across the country, as well as poor access to diagnosis, he said, are some of the factors accelerating the growth of the epidemic in Nigeria.

Noting that Nigeria was signatory to the Global Health Section on Viral Hepatitis on elimination, as a target by 2030, he expressed dismay at the way and manner the disease is being handled.
Adda, who also doubles as the Executive Director CHAGRO-CARE TRUST, explained that one out of every three people in the world is infected with hepatitis B, while one in 12 lives with chronic HBV or HCV infection and that most people infected with these viruses are unaware of their infection.

Such persons, he said, “faced the possibility of developing debilitating or fatal liver disease at some point in their lives and unknowingly transmitting the infection to others.”



Credit: guardian.ng

RMRDC Gives 5,000 Tea, Coffee Seedlings To Farmers In Taraba

Tea and Coffee farmers in Taraba State were, on Tuesday in Abuja, presented with about 5,000 seedlings of tea and coffee donated by the Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC).

Speaking at the event, the Director-General of the RMRDC, Dr. Hussaini Doko Ibrahim, regretted that the country recorded zero percentage in coffee production for the first four months of 2015 despite the fact that coffee consumption by Nigerians has continued to increase.

He noted that Nigeria has enormous potentials for tea production, especially in the Mambilla Plateau, but the total tea production in Nigeria is not important in the global market, insisting that its production meets only about 25 percent requirement of tea packers and that most of the tea bags sold in Nigeria are imported.

Dr. Ibrahim, who was represented by the council’s director in-charge of Agriculture and Agro-Allied, Abimbola Ogunwusi, however, noted that with adequate planning, Nigeria can make over USD60 million through coffee exports on annual basis, saying the global demand for Nigerian coffee is very high.

In his remark, the National President of the National Coffee & Tea Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Akin Gbadamosi, enumerated the various benefits of drinking coffee and tea and urged Nigerians to support its production nation-wide.

The Senator Representing Taraba Central in the Senate, Yusuf A. Yusuf, stressed the need for a law that will protect the production and processing tea and coffee in the country, saying he will personally lead the campaign.

Representative of tea and coffee farmers in Mambilla-Plateau, Adamu Danjuma Buba, while thanking RMRDC for the gesture, called for government’s assistance in the area of fertiliser, pesticides and access to loan.

The seedlings were donated to the farmers under the RMRDC’s boosting of agricultural raw material for industrial use programme and the event was well attended by stakeholders in the agricultural sector including the representatives of Ministry of Agriculture.

Source: Dailytrust