Senate President Godswill Akpabio says since the name of the Nigerian Prison Service was changed to Nigerian Correctional Service there have been more jailbreaks in the country.

Akpabio spoke on the floor of the senate on Tuesday while commenting on two pieces of legislation billed for concurrence.

The bills for concurrence were one to repeal and enact the law establishing Revenue Mobilsation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, and another to repeal the Fire Service Act and enact Federal Fire and Rescue Service.

Abba Moro, senate minority leader, argued that there was no need to change the name because the “rescue component” is already part of the responsibility of the fire service.

“I do not think there is a need for that,” Moro said.

In his response, the senate president said there is a need to examine such laws.

“This is something to be looked at. When you are convicted, you are supposed to learn a skill,” Akpabio said.

“But since we changed the name to the correctional centre, there have been more jailbreaks.”

In 2019, former President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law the bill that changed the name of the Nigerian Prison Service to Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS).

The law provides that the correctional service is split into the custodial service and non-custodial service.

In the non-custodial service, convicts are eligible for community service, probation, and parole.

Since Buhari signed the bill into law, more than 1,000 inmates have escaped from correctional centres across the country.

On April 25, 119 inmates escaped from the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Suleja, Niger state, following a downpour.

Vice President Shettima will no longer be representing President Bola Tinubu at the 2024 US-Africa Business Summit in Dallas, Texas.

The Vice President was scheduled to leave Nigeria on Sunday, May 5, 2024, but his aircraft developed a technical fault, forcing him to abort his trip to the United States.

Stanley Nkwocha, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Communications to the Vice President, made this known in a statement on Monday, May 6, 2024.

According to him, due to the development, Shettima will stay back in the country to carry on with other national duties, while the whereabouts of his principal remain unknown to Nigerians.

The statement reads in part, “Vice President Kashim Shettima who was originally scheduled to represent the President was unable to make the trip following a technical fault with his aircraft, forcing him to make a detour on the advice of the Presidential Air Fleet. The Vice President will carry on with other national duties.

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE

Minister of Foreign Affairs To Now Represent President Tinubu at US-Africa Summit

The Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, will now represent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the 2024 US-Africa Business Summit in…

— Stanley Nkwocha (@stanleynkwocha_) May 6, 2024

As a result, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, has now been scheduled to represent President Tinubu at the summit.

According to Nkwocha, the summit, taking place at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, will bring political and business leaders from across Africa, the United States, and other regions together.

“It features high-level dialogues, networking sessions, and plenaries. Among the African heads of state expected are President Joseph Boakai of Liberia, President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi, President Joao Lourenço of Angola, President Mokgweetsi E.K. Masisi of Botswana, President José Maria Neves of Cabo Verde, and Deputy Prime Minister Nthomeng Majara of Lesotho,” he said.

Oluyinka Olumide, commissioner for physical planning and urban development in Lagos, says 80 percent of buildings in the Ibeju Lekki-Epe corridor have no government approval.

The Lagos government has been facing backlash for the demolition of buildings and shanties across the state.

Tokunbo Wahab, commissioner for environment in Lagos, has repeatedly said the demolished structures were erected in contravention of the city’s masterplan, were never approved by the relevant agencies, and occluded drainage channels.

In an interview with journalists, Olumide said despite the rigorous procedures involved in securing government approval, property developers and owners are still circumventing due process.

“Just last Thursday and Friday, my team and I were in the Ibeju Lekki and Epe axis and you would agree that anybody passing through that corridor would see a lot of estates marked,” he said.

“We went there, and I can tell you that from what we saw, over 80 percent of them do not have approval.

“The procedure to get approval is first to get the planning information, as to what those areas have been zoned for. In this case, what we have is agricultural land, and people now go to their families to buy agricultural land.

“Of course, those lands would be sold because those families do not know the use such land would be put to.

“The next thing to do is the fence permit. If you missed the earlier information on not knowing the area zoning, at the point of getting the fence permit, you would be able to detect what the area is zoned for. After that, the layout permits a large expanse of land.

“So, you can see all these layers. But people still go ahead to start advertising. Some have even gone to the extent of displaying the sizes they want to sell. Imagine someone in the diaspora who wants to send money without any knowledge.

“Then, no approval is eventually gotten. Even if they pass the assignment and the survey to them, we would not grant the individual permit, because that area is not zoned for that purpose.”

On Sunday, Wahab said owners of recently demolished property in Maryland had been served notices since 2021.

“We are not just doing demolitions. The law allows us to remove encumbrances on the right of way of the drainage channels,” Wahab said on Channels Television.