Peterside Blames APC Crisis On Unresolved Disputes

THE Director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside, has attributed the crisis in the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to refusal by some aggrieved stalwarts to explore the party’s internal dispute resolution mechanism.

Peterside, who made the assertion while appearing on a radio programme in Port Harcourt, yesterday, said: “In a big party, there would be different tendencies. What is seen as internal crisis in Imo State is a struggle for the party’s structure, and the National Working Committee has intervened. The Vice President of the country, as a leader of the party, has intervened. These are people who understand what it means to seek proper internal channels of the party to resolve issues. They didn’t approach any court.

“In Ekiti, indeed they had an election that ended in stalemate. They have also sought internal party processes to resolve their issues.

They didn’t approach any court. But, because we have a ‘monkey’s hand in the soup’, our case in Rivers is different. The democratic path is to create institutions where you can seek redress within the party.”

LAGOS State government said about 11,268 jobs were created in the last 12 months through its employability and loans programme.

The Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Pharmacist Uzamat Akinbile-yussuf, who disclosed this during the ongoing 2018 Ministerial Press Briefing to mark Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s third anniversary, said that as a result, 8797 new taxpayers were added to the state’s tax register.

Akinbile-yussuf further said the jobs were besides the thousands of graduates and artisans trained and retrained by her ministry. According to her, through the Lagos State Employability Support Project, Ambode hopes to create 10,000 skilled persons in key sectors, and place 6,000 trained persons in jobs.

“The project’s website and application portal was launched in October 2017. So far, we have received over 13,000 applications, while 3,335 candidates have been approved for training in various trades in the selected sectors.” She added that over 1,500 youths were trained by the Ministry, in partnership with different stakeholders under the Young Entrepreneurs Foundation for Africa. She said another set of 500 new members of the Lagos State Tie and Dye Association were also trained.

She disclosed that under its Graduate Internship Programme, 1,800 candidates were screened.

Of the candidates, 910 were deployed to various private organisations, and 460 were confirmed and accepted.

The Commissioner stated that the Ministry is planning to hold a mindset re-orientation programme for 2000 unemployed youths.