It was a weekend of double celebrations as Ace Newscaster and Head of the News Department of Inspiration 105.9 FM, Uyo; Imaobong Dem, Over the course of the week won 2 Prestigious Outstanding Media Performance Awards courtesy of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA).
The awards were for Outstanding HIV – THEMED RADIO PROGRAMME CONTENT, and Outstanding HUMAN INTEREST STORY ON HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS Media Advocacy Initiative kicked off in February 2021, with the clearly set aim of increasing HIV/AIDS reportage to aid the HIV/AIDS response in the South and drive decline in the Prevalence.
Ima Dem in her acceptance speech returned all glory to Almighty God for the awards. He went further to thank her Family, The Amazing Inspiration group and listeners globally who she described as her daily motivation to do more.
Imaobong described the awards as a call to do more in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has suspended the collation of results for the Anambra governorship election held on Saturday November 6.
Florence Obi, the returning officer for the election, announced the suspension in the early hours of Monday.
According to her, the decision to suspend the collation of results is to give room for a supplementary election in Ihiala Local Government Area, which has been fixed for Tuesday November 9, 2021.
Ahmadu Umar, the collation officer for Ihiala LGA, had earlier said there was no election in the entire area.
After the collation of results from 20 out of 21 LGAs on Sunday, Charles Soludo had secured 103,946 votes, followed by Valentine Ozigbo who got 51,322 votes, while Andy Uba had 42,942.
The margin between Soludo and Ozigbo currently stands at 52,624, and according to the collation officer for Ihiala, there are 148,407 registered voters in the LGA.
Citing relevant sections of the constitution, the returning officer said the final collation of results cannot be done until the polling units in Ihiala LGA are covered.
“The outstanding result is for Ihiala LGA, where for various reasons, the commission could not deploy materials yesterday. Consequently, based on constitutional considerations and provisions of the Electoral Act, as well as revised regulations and guidelines for the conduct of election issued by the commission, supplementary election is indicated for Ihiala local government area,” she said.
“First, section 179(2) of the constitution provides for a candidate to secure both the highest number of votes cast and 25 percent of the votes cast in at least two-third of the LGAs in the state to be declared the winner of the governorship election. Therefore, it is important to complete the election in Ihiala LGA to make this determination.
“Also, section 179(3) of the constitution provides that a runoff election shall take place if no candidate meets the requirement of subsection 2 of the section. Such a runoff shall be between the candidate with the highest number of votes and one among the remaining candidates who secured a majority of votes in the highest number of LGAs in the state. This further underscores the importance of conducting election in Ihiala LGA so that we shall cover all the LGAs to make the declaration.
“Secondly, section 26 of the Electoral Act envisages the postponement of an election where there is a cogent and verifiable reason to do so, especially threat of breach of the team. One major reason for not deploying for election in Ihiala on Saturday, 6th November, is due to security threats which led to staffing and transportation constraints, among others.
“Finally, clause 47 of the revised regulations and guidelines for the conduct of elections provides that supplementary election shall be conducted when the commission, due to logistical challenges, is unable to deploy on election day.
“Given the foregoing, it becomes imperative to bring Ihiala LGA at par with the other 20 LGAs in this election before we can make a valid declaration or take any further action based on the extant law.
“Therefore, I, professor Florence Banku Obi, in my capacity as returning officer for this election, hereby announce the suspension of the process of collation of results and declaration of a winner until a supplementary election is held in the 326 polling units in Ihiala LGA of the state.”
Apostle Chibuzor Chinyere, founder of Omega Power Ministry (OPM) in Port Harcourt has built and equipped a free school for children with autism and down syndrome. He also provided a bus that will carry the students to school and back home.
The school located at Aluu in Port Harcourt was officially opened on 1st November 2021 and the Apostle accompanied the 1st set of admitted students to the school.
“Today Monday 1 November 2021 is the first day the children born with autism and Down syndrome are using there new school bus. There were all so happy and excited enter there new fully Air conditioned. For me Apostle Chibuzor Chinyere, this is what makes me happy.
“Putting smiles on the faces of the helpless and the less privileged. Remember autism school is free with free books, free school uniform etc”
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs; Senator Ita Enang, has advised Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) to re-strategies on their policy engagement approach if they want to successfully influence Policy Makers on issues to bring about the desired change.
Senator Enang gave the advice while delivering his keynote address at a meeting with Civil Society Organization (CSO’s) on Policy Engagement and Influencing: Insight and Perspectives organized by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Center (PLAC) with support from the Ford Foundation on Thursday, 28th October, 2021, in Abuja.
According to the Presidential Aide, “policy engagement and influencing is another way of lobbying, which is to identify the issues and the challenges around the issues, Identify the audience that you meet, is it Legislators or those who draft the Law? then you determine the mode of approaching it”.
Speaking further he added that “Will it be by public hearing? organizing dinner? cocktail so that experts can come and talk or Media Advocacy or bringing in members of the public to add pressure on the members of the Legislature? It would depend on what you do and the target that determines the method you will adopt”.
While clarifying issues on the theme “Understanding the Political and Policy Making Landscape: Effecting Strategies for Influencing Government” he noted that lobbying is a means of making the other person to see your point of view, buy into it, agree and flow with you the way you want it done, lobbying does not involve giving money”
The event was put together by PLAC with Ford Foundation to enable NGO’s/CSOs to benefit from insights and inside perspectives from experienced policy stakeholders to build better understanding of the factors that can enable them to influence the power dynamic between policy makers and advocates and increase their likelihood of influencing the policy making process.
Senator (Dr) Ibriahim Yahaya Oloriegbe, Acting Chairman Senate Committee on NGOs’ and Diaspora, who is also the Chairman Senate Committee on Health (Secondary and tertiary) was also at the event.
