💥 Please save the date! 8 Days to go!!! 💥
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🇳🇬 2ND ANNUAL
NIGERIAN FESTIVAL UK 🇬🇧
Theme – Our Language, Our Heritage.
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The largest outdoor event gathering of Nigerians in the UK 🇳🇬 🇬🇧
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Visit – www.nigerianfestivaluk.org today and register for free to attend.
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Date: Saturday, June 17th, 2023.
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Time: Starts 11am and ends 7pm
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Venue: Vauxhall Park, Lawn Lane, London. SW8 1JY
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For more information, sponsorship, or to volunteer, please call 07903708677 or 07940020459 or email nigerianfestivaluk@gmail.com
Promoted by AfrinityTv www.afrinitypro.com

Sierra Leone’s president expressed hopes in an AFP interview that a newly announced African mediation effort would end Russia’s war in Ukraine “for the sake of humanity”.

“We are all suffering as a result of the war in Ukraine… For the sake of humanity, for what is happening, let’s end the war,” said President Julius Maada Bio, who was elected in 2018 and will next month seek a second term.

“I think even those who sympathise with Russia are in favour of stopping this war,” he said in the Wednesday interview.

The leaders of Zambia, Senegal, the Republic of Congo, Uganda, Egypt and South Africa will next month launch a mission to Moscow and Kyiv to try to broker peace.

African countries, which were already struggling from the Covid-19 pandemic, have been hit hard by the war and its impact on supply chains and prices.

African countries have been divided at the UN over the conflict, but Sierra Leone has voted with Western nations in favour of resolutions to condemn Russia’s actions.

Last July, Sierra Leone slashed three zeros off its currency hoping to restore confidence in the inflation-hit leone unit.

In August, riots erupted over the rising cost of living and 27 civilians and six police officers were killed.

“We have a vested interest in seeing to it that that war comes to an end as quickly as possible… especially as a country that has gone through war before — but also (because of) the impact on us,” said Bio.

Sierra Leone’s mineral-dependent economy is still recovering from a brutal 1991-2002 civil war and the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic.

Bio, 59, who was elected in 2018, also set out plans to end his country’s reliance on food imports and foreign aid.

“It is not a pleasure to go begging around nations, when you say you’re a sovereign nation,” he said. “I believe that we can do enough to develop our own resources.”

He said agriculture would be a second term focus, pledging “serious policy shift in the Ministry of Agriculture to be able to produce our staple food, to the point that we will not need to import rice”.

The West African country of 8 million people will hold presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections on June 24.

Credit to:

The unprecedented development, according to its management, is due to the high commitment to supporting the government in achieving its national development priorities especially in resources mobilisation among others.

Speaking to The Point Newspaper in an exclusive interview, Seedy M. Touray, the director general of GID, said: “This extraordinary development is due to management’s commitment in ensuring that it does not only meet their revenue target yearly, but also to surpass our target.”

“When I was appointed as the GID boss in 2018, my top priority was to ensure that the country’s immigration department is massively reformed with a view to ensure that they are up to standard. I can happily tell you that these reforms have paid dividends now. It’s through the reforms and the repositioning of the GID to the right direction that we are able to make this huge amount of money in just three months,” he posited.

Quizzed as to how the GID was able to collect the D64, 000, 000 in just three months, he said: “Apart from the reforms that we have undertaken at the GID, I have also made sure that the immigration officers adhere to approved financial practises at the office and also zero tolerance to corruption among others. I can assure you all that this trend will continue. As far as I am the GID boss, I will not entertain anything that has the potential of hindering revenue collection.”

DG Touray added: “I also ensure that my staff embark on a vigorous sensitisation countrywide on the significance of payment of national documents, aliens among others. These are all geared towards ensuring that we create an environment where people will voluntarily come and pay for their documents. In fact, this is happening. People are now coming forward without even our officers going to them. This is a welcoming development,” he stated.

“This massive revenue collection in just three months is also as a result of my intervention, the regional commissioners as well as stations and unit heads were advised and assisted to adhere to the approved financial practises, zero tolerance to corruption, intensified engagements for non-Gambians to regularise their status among others. Regular auditing exercises and follow-up throughout the country also helped in this unprecedented breakthrough.”

Karanlang Jarju, the officer in-charge of Statistics and Internal Audit at the GID, said: “This huge revenue collection is largely as a result of DG Touray’s unwavering commitment to not only reforming the GID, but also due to his foresights in creating programmes and policies that are in line with international standards.”

“We also make sure that we enforce immigration regulation in ensuring that non-citizens and citizens also regularise their status, hence that is why we make this massive revenue collection in just three months.”

Mamanding S. Dibba, the spokesperson of the GID, said: “Since the appointment of DG Touray, there has never been business as usual. What he (DG Touray), always wants is to ensure that people adhere to his plan and policies that are geared towards the betterment and advancement of the GID. I am not surprised that we made this huge revenue collection. Again, with DG Touray at the helm of affairs of the Immigration, more of this revenue will be collected in subsequent years.”

Credit to: thepoint.gm

💥 Please save the date! 9 Days to go!!! 💥
.
🇳🇬 2ND ANNUAL
NIGERIAN FESTIVAL UK 🇬🇧
Theme – Our Language, Our Heritage.
.
The largest outdoor event gathering of Nigerians in the UK 🇳🇬 🇬🇧
.
Visit – www.nigerianfestivaluk.org today and register for free to attend.
.
Date: Saturday, June 17th, 2023.
.
Time: Starts 11am and ends 7pm
.
Venue: Vauxhall Park, Lawn Lane, London. SW8 1JY
.
For more information, sponsorship, or to volunteer, please call 07903708677 or 07940020459 or email nigerianfestivaluk@gmail.com
Promoted by AfrinityTv www.afrinitypro.com

In a small fishing village outside of the Senegalese capital, Ismaila Diene and his wife on Tuesday said goodbye to their youngest son, killed last week during protests that have shaken the country.

The grieving couple don’t want to lay the blame on anyone, and as for many of the 16 people killed in Senegal’s worst spasm of political violence in years, the circumstances of 33-year-old Doudou Diene’s death is shrouded in mystery.

Ismaila, a retired teacher, says the family got the call late on Friday that their son was in hospital and had been shot. He died about six hours later.

They spoke to Doudou on the phone and, as is tradition in Senegal before dying, “he asked his mother and I for forgiveness. I don’t know under what circumstances he was shot,” said Ismaila.

Doudou was married, with a 14-month-old baby, and had two brothers and a sister.

The fishing village of Bargny, around 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the capital Dakar, was one of the sites hit by angry protests after firebrand opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison on charges of “corrupting” a young woman.

The verdict is likely to make Sonko ineligible to run in the 2024 presidential elections, and the former tax inspector alleges the charges were a conspiracy to halt his rising political star.

Bargny, with its sandy paths weaving between faded homes, paid a heavy price, with three killed in the protests, according to several municipal
officials.

“Doudou didn’t take part in the protests, or in politics,” said his weeping mother, Mbene Mbeye, dressed in a white headdress and flowing robes.

The government and opposition blame each other for the deaths.

The opposition points to harsh repression of the protests, while the government denounced a planned destabilisation effort by “dark forces,” foreigners, and armed men.

When the police asked Ismaila what he plans to do, he said he would file a complaint.

“I hope that there will be justice, because there are things that cannot go unpunished,” he said.

“Losing a child is a terrible emotional shock. Either way, justice will be done, if it is not at the hands of men, it will be in the afterlife.”

“Let justice be done. Innocent people are dying. It’s not normal,” said Doudou’s mother, also a retired teacher, shortly before leaving for the mosque for the funeral prayer.

Hundreds of relatives and neighbours gathered at a green mosque where the coffin was laid.

After about ten minutes of tributes, the silent procession of men took the path to the cemetery, on the edge of the town.

The women will visit the grave later.

AFP

Credit to: Punch News