A total of N3,770,688,144 has so far been released for the feeding of 1,287,270 school children in nine states under the Home Grown School Feeding Programme of the Federal Government. The Federal Government said, yesterday, that nine states had been covered in the programme. Senior Special Assistant to the acting President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, said the benefiting states, comprising Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta and Abia, at the last count, have received various sums in tranches, while 14,574 cooks have been engaged in the communities where the schools are located. It said the…

Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, said, yesterday, that reports that over 10 million children were out of school was not only alarming but also a ticking time bomb. He, however, expressed the readiness of the National Assembly to partner with stakeholders, such as United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, to drastically reduce the numbers. Speaking, yesterday, in Abuja when a UNICEF delegation, led by its Country Representative, Mohammed Malick Fall, paid him a courtesy visit, Saraki said the legislature was “committed to do all it can to address the issue of out-of-school children through funding and material resources.” Saraki, who lamented…

Kaduna State government has dissolved all districts and village units created in the state from the year 2001. Commissioner for local government and chieftaincy affairs, Jafaru Ibrahim, made this known in a press briefing in Kaduna on Sunday. Mr. Ibrahim said the government needs to reduce the burden that a bloated payroll imposes on local government councils, and empower the councils to be able to undertake capital projects and deliver public goods. “The state has therefore reverted to the 77 districts and 1,429 village units that existed prior to 2001,” he said. He explained that the new restructuring was done…

Funmi Olaitan, Ibadan Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela, at the weekend, warned that herdsmen found shepherding cows into public schools or converting their playground to grazing fields will be arrested for prosecution, while the straying cattle will be seized as exhibits. He gave the warning while addressing journalists in Ibadan, against the backdrop of reports that cows invaded some public schools in Ibadan and other areas recently. Although the state had no designated grazing zones, he said the herdsmen have been cautioned at different meetings from straying into unauthorized places to feed their cattle…