Monthly Sanitation To Come With New Vigour – Abia Governor

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October 31, 2021

Passengers flying into Rome from 2024 onward will be able to go airborne for their taxi ride into the city center too.

This will happen if a project between Aeroporti di Roma and German startup Volocopter lifts off on schedule.

Startup Volocopter hopes to make Fiumicino Airport a pioneer site for the rotor-bladed, battery-powered two-seater air taxi it is developing.

Aeroporti di Roma (AdR) CEO Marco Troncone said the journey in one of the craft, which takes off and lands vertically, will take around 15 minutes, compared with 45 minutes or more by car.

The initial cost of a ride will be around 150 euros ($175), a price likely to drop as the service goes mainstream, he said.

“The connection will be very swift,” he told Reuters at Fiumicino, where Volocopter was showcasing a prototype. “It will be a silent journey and … the level of emissions will be zero.”

Volocopter, founded in 2011, hopes to get a commercial air licence from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) within three years and then start operations, its Chief Commercial Officer Christian Bauer said.

Rome is seen as the third most suitable European city behind Paris – where Volocopter said in June it hoped to have a service in operation in time for the Olympic Games – and Berlin for the development of air taxis, an EASA study showed.

Nigerian Lady Re-elected As Councillor In Canada

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October 31, 2021

A Nigerian woman identified as Ajibola Abitoye has been re-elected as a councillor in the city of Fort Saskat-chewan, Province of Alberta in Canada.

Abitoye, who is popularly called Jibs, first won the election in 2017 as a new immigrant from Nigeria running against 14 other white candidates and emerging with the 3rd highest vote.

Jibs won her constituency seat at the October 18, 2021 election in which she slugged it out with 12 other white candidates.

Jibs expressed gratitude to the people of Fort Saskat-chewan for giving her the opportunity to serve them for another four years.

She noted that she was honoured and humbled for being given the trust to represent Fort Saskat-chewan again.

Lady Appointed One Day Vice Chancellor For CGPA Of 5.0

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October 31, 2021

For hitting a perfect CGPA of 5.0, a young Nigerian lady has been appointed the vice chancellor of her university.

Kaitlin Gee-Akwada served as the vice chancellor of Godfrey Okoye University, South-East Enugu and shared photos of her time in office on her social media page.

According to her, a year ago she had prepared a speech in commemoration of the occasion which was yet to come, even when her CGPA hadn’t hit the perfect score.

In her words: “About a year ago, I wrote a speech in commemoration of this auspicious occasion, before I even hit a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 5.00. I put my faith to work and took action. Even the Bible buttresses the importance of backing up your faith with work [ James 2:26].”

The excited lady added that her achievement has gone to show that, “…the power to attract what you desire lies in your hands.”

Today In History – Oct. 31 – 1876 – Great Backerganj Cyclone Ravages British India (Modern-day Bangladesh)

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October 31, 2021

1517 Martin Luther sends his 95 Theses to Albrecht von Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz, precipitating The Protestant Reformation

1541 Michelangelo Buonarroti finishes painting “The Last Judgement” in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

1816 Robert Moffat sails for South Africa where he will establish a mission work. Mission leaders had been reluctant to send him, believing he was unqualified. He will become a world-famed mission leader.

1876 Great Backerganj Cyclone of 1876 ravages British India (Modern-day Bangladesh), over 200,000 killed

1877 Samuel Schereschewsky is consecrated Anglican Bishop of Shanghai. Developing Parkinson’s disease, he will resign his position, and spend the rest of his life completing a translation of the Bible into Wenli (a Chinese dialect), typing hundreds of pages with the one finger that he could still move.

1918 Spanish Flu kills 21,000 people in the US in a single week

1920 Baptism of Spetume Florence Njangali in Saint Peter’s Cathedral, Hoima, Uganda. She will become a leader in the effort to obtain theological education for women and their ordination as deaconesses in the Anglican church of Uganda.

2011 The world population reaches 7 billion inhabitants according to the United Nations

Today’s Historical Events
Today in Film & TV
1962 “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” horror film released directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, based on novel by Henry Farrell

1964 Barbra Streisand’s “People” album goes #1 for 5 weeks

Today in Sport
1987 American jockey Chris Antley becomes first rider to win 9 races in a day (4 at Aqueduct / 5 at The Meadowlands)

Do you know this fact about today? Did You Know?
World War I: Battle of Beersheba in southern Palestine – “last successful cavalry charge in history” performed by the 4th Australian Light Horse, on this day in 1917

Tomorrow’s Famous Birthdays
Would you believe this fact about today? Would You Believe?
Giacomo Casanova escapes from prison in Venice by climbing onto the roof, on this day in 1756

Babcock Law Professor, Onyemelukwe, Wins $100,000 NLNG Prize for Literature

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October 31, 2021

Author and professor of Law at the Babcock University, Ogun State, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, has been announced the winner of the 2021 Nigerian Prize for Literature for her book, Son of the House.

The Chair of the Advisory Board for the prize, Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, made the disclosure at the award ceremony and public presentation of the winners of the 2021 edition of the three NLNG prizes at Expo Centre, Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos.

The book, which had competed against 202 books submitted for this edition of the competition, edged out “The Girl With The Louding Voice” by Abi Dare and “Colours of Hatred” by Obinna Udenwe entries in the shortlist of three, to clinch the prize.

In the presentation, Adimora-Ezeigbo, said the novel was chosen not only because it was full of suspense and intrigue but for how it was able to “tell human and indeed universal stories of rural as against urban life, suffering and survival, loss and redemption, decline and renaissance, destruction and reconstruction, and death and rebirth.”

Onyemelukwe expressing her excitement, said “I am just so thankful. God has been good to me in a different way this year.”

She earlier told News correspondence that the novel was rejected many times by publishers before it was finally accepted by a Canadian publishing house.

The award will run concurrently with NLNG’s Prize for Literary Criticism. The literary criticism prize carries a monetary value of N1 million.

While it was announced that Uchechukwu Umez Uwazurike won the NI million Literary Criticism prize, there was no winner for the $100,000 prize for Science.

The prize was judged by a panel led by chairperson of the panel of judges, a Professor of Literature in English at the University of Ibadan. Other panel members include Professor Tanimu Abubakar, a Professor of Literature in the Faculty of Art, Ahmadu Bello University, and Dr. Solomon Azumurana, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Lagos.

Lagos Train 100 Pupils On Water Safety

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October 31, 2021

In a bid to reduce the death toll on waterways in the state, the Lagos State government, through the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), has concluded its weeklong training for 100 public school children in the state on how to be water safe and steps to water safety.

The second edition of the ‘Water Savvy Kids Program’ started on Monday, October 25, with the grand finale, at Ibeshe waterfront Ojo, Lagos.

Some Participants and officials from the training

Speaking on the development, General Manager, Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), Oluwadamilola Emmanuel said the learn-to-swim programme was facilitated to reduce water phobia and improve safety on waterways among the school children, especially those living around riverside who depend on water for transportation.

He noted that the government was proactive on the matter to ensure death on the waterways is prevented by devising every means for safety of all Waterways users in the state.

He also stated that the Sanwo-Olu-led government was doing its best to ensure that the state’s resources were adequately utilized, including the waterways.

Kano Govt. Unveils Back-to-School Campaign

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October 31, 2021

The Kano State Government, says it has begun implementation of the Back-to-School campaign, to redude the number of Out-of-School children in the state.

The Back-to-School campaign also aimed to persuade parents it was safe for pupils to return to school after the pandemic.

The campaign was being implemented in collaboration with the United Nations Childrens’ Fund (UNICEF) and Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

Chairman, Kano State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Dr Danlami Hayyo, stated this in a statement by the spokesman of the Board, Balarabe Jazuli, on Friday in Kano.

Hayyo said the measure was imperative in view of the fact that the state has the highest number of Out-of-School children in the country.

“Investigation revealed that some children dropped out of school since the pandemic,” he said.

The chairman stated that the campaign started in Tsanyawa, Kunchi and Nasarawa Local Government Areas, adding that over 1,000 children were targetted to be enroll in schools in the areas.

He also said that the campaign would be extended to the 44 LGAs across the state, to enhance access to free quality education for all.

Hayyo said the Board would provide support to the pupils to encourage enrollment and retention in school as well as achieve academic excellence.

This, would complement the state government’s free and compulsory education policy, he added.

“The policy is yielding positive results, we have seen increased in the enrollment according to the statistics of the Annual School Census,” Hayyo was quoted as saying in the statement.

The Chairman said the state government accorded premium to the education through construction and rehabilitation of classrooms, provision of furniture and instructional materials as well as teacher development programmes.

While commending UNICEF and GPE for supporting the Back-to-School campaign, Hayyo lauded development organisations, religious and community leaders for their contributions to the education sector in the state.

“The task of ensuring improved enrollment, retention and completion of children education is a task of all and sundry, hence the need to intensify efforts in that regard.”

Six Northern States Owe NECO N1.8bn In Unpaid Examination Fees- Registrar

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October 31, 2021

Registrar and Chief Executive, NECO, Prof. Dantani Wushishi said Northern states’ governments are indebted to the National Examinations Council NECO to the tune of N 1.8 billion.

“State governments offer to pay examination fees for candidates from their states but when it comes to the actual payment, they don’t do it, and that has strapped NECO.

Wushishi told News correspondence in Minna, Niger State on Saturday that “Zamfara, Adamawa, Kano, Gombe, Borno and Niger state governments are owing the examination body N1.8 billion debt for the students they registered in 2019”.

He lamented that most of the states owing the Council a lot of money were yet to remit to it, even when the examination body had not withheld the results of the defaulting states in the spirit of mutual respect, togetherness and understanding.

According to the registrar, the Council had engaged the affected states in dialogue towards the amicable resolution of the matter.

Wushishi reminded the defaulting states that it was with this money that NECO paid the staff involved in carrying out the examinations, in addition to buying needed materials for the smooth conduct of the Senior Secondary School Examination.

He, therefore, appealed to the governors of the listed states to, as a matter of urgency, meet their obligations by settling their debts to enable NECO to diligently discharge its responsibilities.

How We Rejected FG’s N1m Undergraduate School Fees Plan- ASUU

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October 31, 2021