‘77m urban dwellers risk poverty’
THE United Nations has estimated that some 77 million urban residents risk falling into poverty, if no action is taken to stop climate change.
It called for a more sustainable and resilient world to contain the rapid urbanisation.
The secretary-general, António Guterres, in a message to mark the World Cities Day celebrated on October 31, asserted that about 1.4 million people move to cities every week, which had strained local capacities, contributing to increased risk from natural and man-made disasters.
He stressed that “the hazards do not need to become disasters, as the answer is to build resilience to storms, floods, earthquakes, fires, pandemics and economic crises.” The UN scribe noted that the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the New Urban Agenda, together, provide a roadmap for a more sustainable and resilient world.
FORMER governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, yesterday berated the chief judge of the state, Justice Ayodeji Daramola, for describing the new High Court complex built by his administration as “hybrid of absurdity”.
He asked the judge to shed the toga of unbridled hatred for him.
Justice Daramola had, on Tuesday, at a special court sitting to mark the commencement of the 2018/2019 Legal Year of Ekiti State Judiciary at High Court 1, stated: “As laudable as the new building is, it is still, in a way, a hybrid of absurdity. In its present state, it can’t properly and comfort-
• FG, UNICEF partner to end FGM in Ekiti
ably function as a court house, as it was not properly designed for that purpose nor was it designed for administrative purposes.
“That, of course, is why we have not been able to put it into use since that building was commissioned earlier in May this year.”
He appealed to Governor Kayode Fayemi to reconstruct the interior of the building “to enable us put it into appropriate use.”
However, Fayose’s chief press secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, said that the High Court complex “is the first of its kind since the creation of Ekiti State in 1996. If Daramola can- not commend Fayose, he could as well shut up his mouth and stop behaving like a cry-baby.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), yesterday, disclosed that Ekiti ranked third in Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the country, saying concerted efforts must be made to end the practice in the interest of female children.
UNICEF stated this at a sensitisation programme of mothers it embarked on, in partnership with the National Orientation Agency (NOA), in Ekiti on the need to end the practice.