Reps probe closure of CSOs, NGOs, donor agencies in North East

U.S. visa ban stems from misinformation, says Adeyemi
The House of Representatives, yesterday, disclosed that it will probe the closure of some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), donor agencies and development partners in the North East region.

Chairman, House Committee on Civil Societies and Development Partners, Kabir Idris, stated this during an oversight function to the office of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Idris, who commended various humanitarian interventions initiated by the ICRC across the country, noted that the probe would include other donor agencies in the country.

Speaking, Deputy Head of the delegation (Prevention), Rochus Peyer, assured that the ICRC would continue to expand its operations in the North East to respond to the rising humanitarian needs by assisting internally displaced persons (IDPs).

He explained that the ICRC would assist in the provision of food and essential household items, shelter, water, sanitation and health care, including nutritional, mental health and psychological programmes.

Peyer added that the ICRC was a neutral, independent and impartial organisation operating in Nigeria since 1988 and was currently in Maiduguri, Yola, Damaturu, Kano, Biu and Jos, among others.

ON the reported visa ban on politicians who carry out election violence and rigging Senator Smart Adeyemi declared that the United States of America was acting on wrong information.

The ban also did not go down well with the Kogi State Government as it tackled the U.S. in a protest letter to regain its credibility that was tainted by what it described as wild allegations.

Adeyemi argued that the U.S. government slammed the visa restriction on some individuals who allegedly rigged the Kogi and Bayelsa states governorship elections, three weeks after the Supreme Court upheld Governor Yahaya Bello’s victory.

In a letter addressed to the U.S. Ambassador and by Secretary to the Government (SSG) of Kogi State, Mrs. Folashade Arike Ayoade, Governor Bello said the U.S. was not fair, as it did not offer them any opportunity for fair hearing.

MEANWHILE, the Senate has admonished journalists to be mindful of their actions capable of tainting the image of the profession.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Ajibola Basiru, who represented President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan at the 2020 Retreat of the Senate Press Corps, in Lokoja, Kogi State, said unprofessional conduct of journalists was sinking the ship of the profession, stressing that something urgent needed to be done to save the media from total collapse.