Residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have praised the ongoing construction of 12 divisional police stations and six-unit police staff quarters across the six area councils, describing it as a transformative step for community security.

The initiative, spearheaded by FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, is part of the Federal Capital Territory Administration’s (FCTA) broader security infrastructure plan. Beyond enhancing security, the project has also created job opportunities for local residents.

With the construction nearing completion, Nuhu Musa, the architect overseeing the project in Saburi, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), revealed that work began on November 19, 2024.

“The groundbreaking was on November 19, and the next day, we started clearing the site. By the following week, excavation was completed,” Musa said.

According to him, the project has reached 70% completion, with roofing currently in progress and work progressing ahead of schedule.

The project consists of two major structures: a police station and a residence for police personnel.

“We have a program of work. The schedule of work submitted was for one year, but we plan to be done in six months. If today marks the third month, it means we have roughly three months more, which is too much for us to finish up this project.

“This project is a police station, and the one at the back is the residence for the police staff, which is six units of two-bedroom flats. It’s a block of flats, two on each level, making it six because it’s two floors,” Musa added.

He emphasized that the project has positively impacted the local economy by providing jobs for the residents of the community.

“So far, so good. The people of the community are all cooperating. We employed so many of them. The artisans from here also work for us. The security personnel is also from the community,” he said.

Also speaking, Engineer Ahmed Yahaya, the site engineer for Armodris Nigeria Limited, the contractor handling the project, also highlighted the progress.

“We have been here since November, that is three months now. So far, so good. Work has been moving on. We are moving at a lighter pace. As God would have it, there has been no casualty,” he said.

He expressed gratitude for the project, describing it as a great intervention for the community.

“We thank the minister for bringing this kind of project to this community. Ever since we started this project, people usually come here, and all they say is, ‘God will bless the Minister,’” Yahaya said.

The contractors also commended the residents of the community for their continued support for the project, even as they anticipating its full benefits once it is commissioned.

Prince Yahaya Mohammed, a resident of Saburi 1 who was employed as a supervisor on the project, expressed excitement about the employment opportunities created.

“I am very happy that I have been employed here as a supervisor. I’m from this village, Saburi 1.

“Through this project, many people from this village have been employed, and they now have a source to earn a living,” he said.

While commending the FCT Minister for choosing Saburi for the project, he also urged the government to consider Saburi youths in future police recruitment.

On his part, the Village Head of Saburi, Alhaji Muhammad Yamawo, lauded the FCT Administration for the police station project and other infrastructure developments in the area.

He noted that the newly constructed Saburi-Dei Dei road has also improved security in the area.

“We have suffered a lot due to the absence of a good road in Saburi, but we are happy that Wike has finally wiped our tears,” he said.

“I am very happy with this road project. Security in the area has been improved. Police now patrol the area without hindrances,” Yamawo added.

Meanwhile, the Director of Security Services at the FCTA, Adamu Gwari, has explained that the police station project is part of the administration’s broader strategy to improve security across the FCT.

He said the idea was conceived after the Minister toured the six Area Councils and engaged with residents.

“At that interface, he was made to understand that security is first and foremost. As we usually give him the acronym ‘talk and do,’ he looked at it from the perspective of providing infrastructure that will bring security closer to FCT residents,” Gwari explained.

According to him, the FCT Minister secured presidential approval for 12 divisional police headquarters, each with six-unit staff quarters, across the six Area Councils.

“We started with nine such facilities, and later, the Minister provided three additional ones so that each Area Council will have two, making a total of 12,” he said.

He noted that since the implementation of the security infrastructure projects, crime rates in the FCT have reduced significantly.

“From the time the Minister visited the Area Councils to date, every blessed month, our statistical information about insecurity is dropping. We can beat our chest to say that security has greatly improved beyond even our expectations,” he said.

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

The National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos has ordered the reinstatement of the fired Clerk of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Olalekan Onafeko.

The order follows an ex parte application to the Court made by Onafeko through his counsel, Yusuf Nurudeen, in a case he filed against Lagos State Government, Lagos State Civil Service Commission, Lagos State House of Assembly Service Commission, The Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Attorney-General of Lagos State and Mr. Ottun Babatunde.

Onafeko was the Clerk of the House before January 13 when Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa was removed as Speaker, with the then Deputy Speaker, Mojisola Lasbat Meranda elected as the new Speaker.

Obasa’s removal, a decision that sparked controversy within the Lagos House and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), also led to Onafeko losing his position, with Babatunde Ottun appointed as his acting replacement.

The claimant in the suit marked: NICN/LA/23/2025 sought for an interim injunction restraining the six defendants from parading any individual including Babatunde as the clerk pending the hearing of the motion on notice for Interlocutory injunction already filed in the suit.

Granting the application, Justice M. N. Esowe in an ex parte order directed that Babatunde should cease to parade himself as Clerk

Esowe ordered that that what was in place in terms of the person in the saddle of the Clerk Office prior to the crisis rocking the House of Assembly should now prevail.

“That both parties shall maintain the peace and status quo ante bellum until the motion on notice is heard and determined,” Esowe ordered.

The judge slated the hearing of the motion on notice for March 3, 2024.

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Pope Francis spent his tenth day in hospital Sunday as Catholics around the world prayed for his recovery, the day after the Vatican warned the 88-year-old’s condition was “critical”.

The Argentine pontiff, who is being treated for double pneumonia, suffered a prolonged asthma-style attack on Saturday and required blood transfusions for a low platelet count.

On Sunday morning the Holy See said “the night passed peacefully, the pope rested” — indicating no repeat of the crisis the previous day, Vatican sources said.

But Francis, who had part of a lung removed when he was a young man, is still receiving oxygen through a tube in his nostrils in the papal suite at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.

In a message published Sunday but written in the past few days, the Jesuit thanked hospital staff and said he had confidence in his treatment.

“I am confidently continuing my hospitalisation at the Gemelli Hospital, carrying on with the necessary treatment — and rest is also part of the therapy!” he said.

“I ask you to pray for me,” he concluded in the text published in lieu of his weekly Sunday Angelus, which he normally delivers from a window overlooking St Peter’s Square.

People pray at the feet of a statue of John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalized for pneumonia in Rome on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)

Francis, who has been head of the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted on February 14 initially with bronchitis, but his condition has deteriorated since then.

In its evening update Saturday, the Vatican warned his “condition continues to be critical, therefore the pope is not out of danger”.

It said Francis was alert and “spent the day in an armchair even if he was suffering more than” the day before.

It said he had a “prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis, which also required the application of high-flow oxygen”.

Daily blood tests also “showed thrombocytopenia, associated with anaemia, which required the administration of blood transfusions”, it added.

Thrombocytopenia is a condition that occurs when the platelet count in the blood is too low, which can cause trouble stopping bleeding.

Blood or platelet transfusions, delivered via an intravenous (IV) line, are given to people who are either bleeding heavily or at very high risk of bleeding, according to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“The pope gets worse,” headlined Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper on Sunday, while La Repubblica described it as the “darkest day” at the Vatican.

Well-wishers have been leaving candles outside the Gemelli since Francis was admitted, and a special mass was planned for Sunday evening in Rome.

“I am praying for him, for his health, because he is a special person for all of us,” Italian teacher Ilde Zito told AFP at the hospital.

Prayers and messages of solidarity also came in from among the almost 1.4 billion Catholics across the globe, alongside other Christians and world leaders.

In the cathedral of Buenos Aires, where Francis was once archbishop, TV screens at the entrance showed images of then Jorge Bergoglio’s good works, and the priest held a special mass.

“He is strong, he has always been strong, but there is nature. I know he is very ill and old. I hope he recovers, but it makes me sad,” Hector Armando Diaz, 76, a retired sales clerk, told AFP there.

Across the world in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul, a former bastion of the Islamic State group that Francis visited in 2021, at least a dozen churches also held prayers for him.

“This is the least we can do to express our solidarity, love, and appreciation for this great person,” said university professor Adnan Hadi.

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, offered her hopes on social media for a speedy recovery for the “great humanist” Francis, the first pope from the Americas.

Francis’s continued hospitalisation has sparked huge concern about his health but also speculation about whether he might step down.

He has always left the door open to following his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to resign.

But he has repeatedly said it was not the time.

The pope maintains a punishing work schedule. He carried out a mammoth 12-day tour to the Asia-Pacific in September, but has suffered increasing health issues.

He underwent colon surgery in 2021 and an operation for a hernia two years later. He is overweight and has constant hip and knee pain, which forces him to use a wheelchair.

AFP