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Cholera kills six in Kebbi State
Six people have died after an outbreak of cholera in Shanga local government area of Kebbi State, `The Post Express' reported on Wednesday.
According to the newspaper, Council Chairman Haliru Dusu said the Council had sent medicines to the affected villages to try to stop the disease from spreading. He added that the council had spent about N100,000 (US $1 = 94.5 Nigerian Naira) to control the disease and appealed to the state and federal governments for help.
He also urged the federal government to help Dogu Raha village which was being threatened by gully erosion, adding that 50 houses had already been destroyed there. The cost of controlling erosion in the village had been put at N54 million, a sum, Dusu said, beyond the reach of the Council.
Benue State needs N500 million to fight ecological problems
Benue State government needs some N500 million as a first step towards checking ecological problems there and more than N3 billion to stop them altogether, State Governor George Akume announced on Monday, according to `The Post Express'.
Akume, speaking to visiting members of the Senate Committee on Environment, said the money was needed to build dykes around some major rivers, construct drainages in major towns and control environmental pollution around the state, the newspaper reported. He cited the river Katsina Ala which flooded weeks ago, damaging crops and livestock and rendering people homeless, as well as dust pollution emitted by a cement factory which he described as a serious environmental threat to local people and farmland.
The governor appealed to the lawmakers to make urgent legislation on the ecological problems facing Nigeria. The chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment had earlier expressed shock at the environmental problems facing the state, 'The Post Express' reported.
Recovery of government land promised
A presidential commission investigating the allocation of federal government lands has affirmed its commitment to the recovery of landed property illegally acquired by individuals between 1 January 1984 and 29 May 1999, `The Guardian' reported on Thursday.
The eight-person commission gave the assurance at its first public sitting since its inauguration by President Olusegun Obasanjo on 28 June this year.
Its chairman, Oluwole Rotime, said it had received overwhelming support and encouragement from Nigerians who had volunteered information to help recover land illegally acquired by successive regimes although he did not specify the number of petitions currently before the commission, 'The Guardian' reported.
Security agents probe death threats to foreign pilots
Security agents have begun investigating the ultimatum issued to foreign pilots working for domestic airlines by a group which calls itself the Unemployed Pilots Association of Nigeria (UPAN), `The Guardian' reported on Thursday.
The investigators will try to unmask the leaders of the faceless UPAN, which warned foreign pilots by letter on 18 October to leave the country within 28 days or risk losing their lives.
Some foreign pilots said on Wednesday they had no plans to leave the country and blamed the unemployment of Nigerian pilots on the grounding of Nigeria Airways, according to `The Guardian'.
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Item: irin-english-1874
[This item is delivered in the "irin-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Subscriber: afriweb@sas.upenn.edu Keyword: IRIN
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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