Fast-track social work programme opens for applications

A government-backed fast-track training scheme for social workers has opened for applications.
The Step Up to Social Work program, will take on 550 graduates for its fifth cohort, which starts in January 2018. Applications close on 5 May.
Trainees on the 14-month course receive a bursary of more than £19,000 and have their tuition fees paid. The minimum entry requirement is a 2:1 degree or a 2:2 degree plus a higher level qualification. The course is delivered by regional partnerships of councils and universities.
Children’s minister Edward Timpson said the scheme offered a “fantastic opportunity” for people to enter social work and help children and families.

HEALTH ALERT: SICKLE CELL ANEMIA A SILENT KILLER

Raipur, Chhattisgarh - Thirty-three-year-old Ramnath Sahu looks visibly distressed. The day before, his four-year-old son, Kuldeep, was diagnosed with sickle cell - a hereditary disease affecting the red blood cells.
"Don't worry my child, nothing will happen to you," says Kuldeep's 54-year-old grandmother, Ramvati Bai, as she caresses the boy in front of their home in the village of Akola, in Bemetara district.
Kuldeep's seven-year-old brother, Harsh, was diagnosed with the disease last year.

According to a 2013 report by the Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Medical College in the state's capital, Raipur, 10 percent of Chhattisgarh's population is affected by the disease, with the state's indigenous tribal population disproportionately affected.

INSURGENCY: ABUBAKAR SHEKAU STILL ALIVE - MINISTER OF DEFENCE

The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, has declared that the want­ed leader of the Boko Har­am terrorist group, Abubakar Shekau, is still alive and hid­ing in his fortress in Sambisa Forest.

He said that Shekau wears masks to evade being captured by security operatives.

Before the minister’s decla­ration on Tuesday that Shekau is alive, the military authorities had maintained that the Boko Haram leader had been killed by troops.

Ali said that Shekau’s tac­tics notwithstanding, the fu­gitive would be eventually caught, especially as the mil­itary had decimated the core of the forest, which served as the communication and spirit­ual base of the insurgent group that has killed and maimed thousands of Nigerians over a six-year orgy of violence.

Ali spoke to journalists af­ter he met with President Mu­hammadu Buhari in a closed-door security briefing at the State House, Abuja.

IPOB: SENATORS MOVES FOR THE RELEASE OF NNAMDI KANU

 

A group of Sena­tors have initiated moves in the Up­per House to secure the re­lease of the detained leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, and former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd).

The Senators plan to in­voke the relevant orders and rules of the Senate to compel the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mallam Abuba­kar Malami, to direct the immediate release of Kanu and Dasuki.

Their argument is that if Malami could order the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) not to honour the sum­mons of the Senate because of a court injunction, the Executive arm of government has no moral justification to disobey the court ruling on Kanu and Dasuki.

The first attempt by the leader of the Concerned Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume had on Tuesday last week alleged the importation of the vehicle by Saraki with fake documents.

PRESIDENCY: NEW MINISTERIAL NOMINEE LIST SENT TO SENATE

 

President Muhammadu Buhari has sent names of two new ministerial nominees to the Senate for confirmation, the News Agency of Nigeria reports
A source close to the Senate told a NAN correspondent that the letter arrived the Senate late Tuesday.
The source revealed that the two nominees are from Kogi and Gombe states.
Our correspondent gathered that the Kogi nominee will be replacing the late Minister of State for Labor, Barr. James Ocholi while the nominee from Gombe would be replacing former Minister for Environment Ms Amina Mohammed who had gone to serve in the United Nations as a deputy Secretary General.

NIGERIA RANKED 6TH HAPPIEST COUNTRY IN AFRICA

 
By Yemisi Adegoke

The World Happiness Report (WHR) is out and it turns out Nigerians still seem quite happy.

The report, which ranks 155 countries by their happiness, ranked Nigerians as the 6th happiest people in Africa and the 95th happiest in the world. I guess it shouldn't come as a big surprise as Nigeria has a long history of being happy. Or as Fela put it, 'Suffering and Smiling.'

In 2003 the World Values Survey revealed that the world's happiest people lived in Nigeria. The study, which was carried out over a period of three years, reported that Nigeria beat more than 65 countries to claim the top spot. In 2012, a Gallup poll revealed that Africans were the world's most optimistic people. In Nigeria specifically, 88% of people were optimistic about their futures.

EX-GOVERNORS BEHIND NGILARI'S MEDICAL REPORT TO BE PUNISHED BY PRISONS

 

Peter Tenkwa, Controller of the Adamawa State Command of the Nigeria Prison Service, has disowned the “mystery medical report” used by a Yola High Court in granting bail to convicted ex-Governor of the state, Bala Ngilari, on health grounds.

Justice Nathan Musa of Yola High Court on Monday granted bail to Ngilari, currently in the prison for a five-year jail sentence, on health grounds, after he appealed against his conviction.

Reacting, Tenkwa told newsmen Monday in Yola that he was not aware of the contentious letter and that he had communicated same to the prison headquarters.

He said the headquarters directed him to issue a query to officials involved in the matter, including the Deputy Controller of Yola Prison, Abubakar Abaka, and a Superintendent of Prisons, John Bukar, in charge of health.

8 SANS RECRUITED TO DEFEND SUSPECTS ARRESTED FOR ILE-IFE MAYHEM

Following the arrest of about 20 Yoruba after the crisis that rocked  Ile-Ife Osun State recently, eight senior lawyers and several legal practitioners are set to stand for the affected people at the Federal High Court, in Abuja.
It was gathered that the eight Senior Advocates of Nigeria were assembled by the Pan-Yoruba sociopolitical organization, Afenifere, to defend the 20 Ile-Ife indigenes who were paraded at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
The lawyers, it was also gathered are expected to file a motion for the enforcement of fundamental human rights for the suspects.