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BREAKING: Goodies for Anambra ‘wonder girl’ *Gets full foreign scholarship, cash, as Ubah steps in

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Fortunes have finally smiled on Ifebube Chelsea Benson, who was decorated by the National Examination Council, in November last year, for coming tops, as overall best in the 2023 Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE), as she has now been offered the opportunity to study in any university of her choice free.

In addition, a cash award of more than N2million was also given to the young girl, who is presently a medical student at the University of Abuja, all courtesy of Ifeanyi Ubah, Senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District, in the National Assembly, the constituency where she hails from.

A palpably elated Ubah, announced the awards when he received Benson, and her parents in his office at the National Assembly on Monday, showering praises on her for the rare feat and her parents for their diligence in instilling the spirit of hard work and resilience in their daughter, adding that his contribution was to ensure that the young girl, achieved her dreams of getting the best of education, which would not only benefit the entire society but particularly, his constituency.

Ifebube, 18, a South African-born indigene of Ndikelionwu in Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra state, who had put Anambra State on the glorious part once again by emerging OVERALL BEST FEMALE CANDIDATE in the examinatio with nine distinctions, including Mathematics, English language, Further Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and three others, was first honoured in November last year in an elaborate ceremony at the NECO headquarters in Niger State.

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Ubah, who was thrilled that such brilliant girl hailed from his Senatorial District, congratulated her and offered her a cash gift and a scholarship to pursue her dream of becoming a big scientist and a medical doctor abroad, while further appreciating her for her diligence, urged her to remain focused.

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Suleiman Adegote, Chairman, Staff Productivity Award Committee, signed the letter, dated November 4, 2023, inviting the parents to the award ceremony where the girl would be decorated with a national award at Justice Legbo Kutigi Conference Centre, Minna, Niger State on December 6, 2023.

The letter read in full: “I hope this letter finds you and your loved ones in good health. I write on behalf of the Registrar/Chief Executive, National Examinations Council (NECO) to give you a formal invitation to receive an Award of Excellence for emerging as the Overall Best Female Candidate National in 2023 Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) Internal. Kindly accept our humble invitation to grace the ceremony with your physical presence. Congratulations.”

Ifebube, whose name translates, “beautiful thing to glamourise,” came back to Nigeria in 2022 to complete her secondary education at the Renaissance Garden Secondary School, Ago-Okota, Lagos, from where she took the NECO examination, to create the feat, which is coming alongside other beautiful stories of academic excellence by indigenes of Anambra State, nationally and internationally.

At the brief ceremony, Ben Benson-Okoli, father, accompanied by the wife Chinny, while hailing Ubah for honouring their daughter, also thanked Ifeanyi Nwankwo (Oloma Igbo) for facilitating the event and prayed for more grace and wisdom upon the Senator, his family and staff.

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Also present at the event were Chigozie Gerald Udogu, Chief of Staff and Senior Legislative Aide to the Senator, and the Director-General of Ifeanyi Ubah Foundation, Chief Vin Onyeka.

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BREAKING: Death penalty for fake drugs! *NAFDAC to push new law at NASS

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Those peddling fake and substandard drugs in Nigeria should be ready for the hangman’s noose, if the thinking of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), becomes the new law.

Mojisola Adeyeye, Director General of the body, who said on Friday that no other form of punishment is fitting enough, gave instances of where the application of such dangerous substances in form of health drugs, had led to fatalities.

Advocating that only stiff penalties would deter peddlers especially when deaths of children became involved, the NAFDAC boss, who appeared as a guest on The Morning Brief, a breakfast programme on Channels Television, said: “Somebody bought children’s medicine for N13,000 or something like that, another person was selling about N3,000 in the same mall. 

“That raised an alarm. Guess what? There was nothing inside that medicine when we tested it in our Kaduna lab. So, I want the death penalty. Because you don’t need to put a gun on the head of a child before you kill that child. Just give that child bad medicine.”

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Advocating that the National Assembly and the judiciary to make the proposal a reality, adding that the agency was open to partnering with lawmakers and other stakeholders on the matter, she added: “You cannot fight substandard, falsified medicine in isolation. The agency can do as much as it can but if there is no deterrent, there’s going to be a problem.

“Somebody brought in 225mg of Tramadol that can kill anybody, fry the brain and you give a judgment of five years in prison or N250,000. Who doesn’t know that that person will go to the ATM and get N250,000? That is part of our problem.

“There are no strict measures to deter [people] from repeating the same thing. We can do as much as we can but if our law is not strong enough, or the judiciary is not strong enough to stand up, we’re going to have a problem.

“So, our judiciary system must be strong enough. But we are working with the National Assembly to make our penalties very stiff.  But if you kill a child by bad medicine, you deserve to die. We have a lot on our plate in stemming drug peddling.

“Withe about 2,000 staff members nationwide and limited funding, NAFDAC is constrained in carrying out its activities. So, when it comes to staffing, you’re right on the point. We are short-staffed and I am hoping things will be better.”

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Give us electoral offences tribunal to take care of heist – INEC  

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Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday, made a fresh push for the creation of an electoral offences tribunal, to curb the cases of attacks on the Nigerian democratic system.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, told reporters at the commission’s first regular quarterly consultative meeting with the media that the tribunal had become important owing to the backlog of electoral offence cases.

He said: “A major obstacle to the speedy dispensation of justice in this regard is that electoral offences are not time-bound as is the case with post-election offences through the tribunals. Furthermore, they are solely prosecuted by the Magistrate and State High Courts in the jurisdiction where the alleged offences are committed,” the INEC chief told the gathering.

“No priority attention is given to such cases as the courts deal with a variety of other cases. Consequently, electoral offences are carried over from one General Election to another which may sometimes affect the diligent prosecution of the cases. It is therefore imperative to renew our call for the creation of the Electoral Offences Tribunal that have a specific jurisdiction and limited timeframe for the speedy dispensation of cases.”

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Bemoaning the delay in the justice delivery system, citing the conviction of a returning officer in Akwa Ibom after six years in court, the INEC boss, said: “The recent successful prosecution of a Returning Officer in Akwa Ibom State is a case in point.

“The Commission has been diligently pursuing the case which arose from the 2019 General Election. In this particular case, it took nearly six years to achieve the successful prosecution at the trial court.

“Through our collaboration with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) cases involving 774 alleged offenders from the 2023 General Election are being prosecuted. So far, successful prosecutions have been recorded in Kebbi and Kogi States while our collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on vote-buying has yielded similar results in Lagos, Kwara, and Gombe States. Yet, many cases are still pending.”

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Again, terrorists attack Sokoto, kidnap 10 worshippers at a mosque

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A mosque in Bushe community, Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State, fell into the hands of bandits on Friday, after which 10 worshippers including the Imam were spirited away, adding to growing cases of terrorist attacks.

Channels Television reports that the gunmen invaded the mosque on Thursday while worshippers were performing their early morning Subhi prayer, quoting residents as saying that the gunmen had been molesting the people of the community for some time now, even with the presence of security agents.

Ahmed Rufai, spokesman of the Sokoto State Police Command, who confirmed the attack on Friday, said the police authorities were working with other security agencies to rescue the abducted victims.

A member of the Sokoto State House of Assembly, representing the Sabon Birni B state Constituency who also confirmed the attack, commended the security agencies for their timely intervention.

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