Latest Benue News today, Monday, August 8 2022

Good morning! Here is today’s summary of Benue News today, August 8, 2022

1. The Benue State Government has announced that it will formally submit an application to President Muhammadu Buhari this week for approval for licences to procure AK 47 and AK 49 riffles on behalf of the newly established Benue State Community Volunteer Guards.
Governor Samuel Ortom made this known Sunday, August 7th, 2022 at the reception organised by the President, Customary Court of Appeal, Justice Cosmas Idye to mark his 35 years of marriage and call to the bar of his son, Marcel Idye.

2. President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the sum of N24 billion for the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) for the execution of a smart modular irrigation project. Executive Vice Chairman/ CEO of NASENI, Professor Mohammed Sani Haruna made this disclosure while briefing newsmen after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa yesterday Haruna said that he was in the Villa to present the financial details of the agency’s operation to the President. According to him, he was bound to update the President as he remains the Chairman of the agency, stressing that doing so was not because of suspicion of corruption.

3. President Muhammadu Buhari has joined the entertainment industry, particularly artistes and musicians, in commiserating with ace instrumentalist, singer and song writer, Bongos Ikwue, who lost his wife, Josephine Ifeyinwa, 73.
In a condolence message by his spokesman, Femi Adesina, on Friday in Abuja, Mr Buhari condoled with family members, friends, Catholic Women Organisation, International Association of Lions Clubs and associates of the matriarch of Bongos-Ikwue’s family.

4. The plight of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) across the country has continued to assume worrisome dimensions with the rainy season wreaking havoc on their dwelling places. Our correspondents in Benue and Niger states in this report shed light on how these displaced people are affected by the rainy season.

For Mary Shiadon, a displaced mother of five at the Ortese camp in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, the situation is disheartening since the rainy season began.

5. The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, made this known on Thursday at the party’s headquarters in Wadata Plaza, Abuja.

The leadership of the chairman was ratified in a vote of confidence despite disputations from some sections of the party and yearnings for him to step aside as the national chairman.

6. A group of concerned Benue indigenes in the Diaspora, has thrown its weight behind Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, describing his emergence as gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 elections as the “ray of hope for the liberation of our state.”

The Alia Diaspora Support Group, with its membership spread across the globe, in a statement at the weekend, however expressed serious worry over the unnecessary delay in the choice of Fr Alia’s running mate, warning that this could negatively affect the chances of the APC gubernatorial flagbearer in next year’s election.

7. The Benue State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has frowned at the attack by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state against the recently-commissioned Benue Community Volunteer Guards (BCVGs).

The opposition party through its State Publicity Secretary totally condemned the BCVGs being commissioned by Governor Samuel Ortom as a security outfit because, according to them, previous such outfits in the state as the Vigilante Group and the Livestock Guards were not successful.

8. The Coalition of Southern and Middle Belt Youth Leaders Assembly, COSMBYLA, has urged governors of states facing security challenges to emulate the Benue state example by setting up local security outfits like the Benue State Community Volunteer Guards, BSCVG, to complemented efforts of the conventional security agencies.

The coalition noted that the establishment of BSCVG, was a courageous move that was worthy of emulation stressing that every state needed a similar outfit “to assist our conventional security agencies confront the hydra-headed monster called insecurity.”