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UK Govt. To Build £700,000 Prison in Nigeria

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The United Kingdom (UK) government has drawn up plans to build a prison in Nigeria.

The plan, according to a SkyNews report, is to enable the government to transfer prisoners from Britain.

The proposed 112-bed wing, built to United Nations specifications in the Kiri Kiri prison in Lagos, is to be built as part of a compulsory prisoner transfer agreement.

It will cost just under £700,000, according to a statement submitted to Parliament by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Wednesday evening.

“As part of this agreement, eligible prisoners serving criminal sentences in Nigeria and the UK can be returned to complete their sentences in their respective countries,” Mr Johnson said.

It follows a deal reached between the two countries signed in 2014.

But poor conditions in some prisons overseas have created a legal barrier to returning foreigners convicted in the UK.

“The Government believes that wherever possible foreign nationals should serve their sentences in their own country,” a Foreign Office spokesperson told Sky News.

“Helping Nigeria to improve its prison conditions and increase prison capacity will enable us to transfer more prisoners to Nigeria, which will in turn free up prison places in the UK.”

Deals to transfer prisoners in UK jails to their countries of origin have been made with Albania, Rwanda, Jamaica and Libya, and well as Nigeria.

In 2015 the Government pitched an ambitious £25m project to build a 1,500 bed prison in Jamaica, with the aim of sending more than 300 Jamaican inmates with sentences of more than four years there.

But the Jamaican government rejected the deal, with local media quoting ministers as saying the offer was not beneficial to Jamaica and did not cover the prison’s full cost.

Mr Johnson said tenders for the planned Nigerian jail had been placed and suppliers identified, bringing the project’s total cost to £695,525 including support, monitoring and evaluation.

The bill will be met by the CSSF (Conflict, Stability and Security Fund), he said.

According to House of Commons statistics there were 320 Nigerian nationals in prisons in England and Wales at the end of 2016.

Foreign nationals make up about 12% of the prison population compared to about 9% of the general population.

The annual overall cost of a prison place in England and Wales is about £38,000, according to the Ministry of Justice.

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“80% Of Buildings In Lekki Have No Approval” – Lagos State Commissioner For Physical Planning & Urban Development Reveals

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The Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Oluyinka Olumide, has stated that 80 per cent of buildings in Ibeju Lekki have no approval.

Olumide disclosed this while speaking to newsmen recently.

In his words; “Just last week Thursday and Friday, myself and the team were in the Ibeju Lekki and Epe axis and you would agree with me that anybody passing through that corridor would see a lot of estates marked. We went there, and I can tell you that from what we saw, over 80 per cent 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 expense of land follows.”’

Olumide noted that a layout permit cannot be obtained if it is not zoned for the purpose it was designed for or for the purpose it was being requested.

“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’’ Olumide said

This partly explains why some of the houses are being turn down currently in the state.

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Lady Dies After Friends Pushed Her Into Boiling Pot Of Fresh Pepper In Delta State

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A Nigerian man identified as Israel Joe, has revealed how his friend, Roseline, died after she was pushed into a boiling pot of fresh pepper and tomatoes by her two female friends in Sapele, Delta State.

Joe stated that Roseline, a caterer, went on a trip with her friends to Sapele for a catering job where the bitter ordeal occured.

She tragically passed away on Saturday, April 13 after spending two weeks at the hospital in a very horrible state.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Joe said that before her untimely death, Roseline confided in him about two of her friends who were treating her coldly.
And he has vowed to bring them to justice.

This is such a heartbreaking event.

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IPOB Declares May 30th As Sit-at-home Day Across The Southern East States To Honour Biafran Fallen Heroes

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The Indigenous People of Biafra has declared May 30, 2024, as a sit-at-home day across the South-East to celebrate Biafran soldiers.

The pro-Biafran group said that day is set aside annually to celebrate the men and women who died in the Biafran war between 1967 and 1970 and beyond and even until now.

This was made known in a press statement by the group’s spokesman, Emma Powerful, on Thursday, adding that every Biafran in the South-East is expected to sit at home and reflect on the war.

He cautioned South-East residents to avoid loitering about on this day, adding that those who intend to travel to and fro Biafra land must do so before the evening of May 29.

The IPOB statement also directed that all the residents of “Biafra Land” are to stay indoors from 6 am to 6 pm on May 30, 2024.

He also called on christians and traditionalists to pray to Chukwu okike abiama for the fallen heroes, And also for the independence of Biafra from Nigeria.

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