Rescuers pulled a two-month-old baby and an elderly woman from the rubble on Saturday, five days after an earthquake devastated Turkey and Syria, leaving more than 25,000 dead. Tens of thousands of local and international rescue workers are still scouring through flattened neighbourhoods despite freezing weather that has compounded the misery of millions now in desperate need of aid. However, Austrian soldiers and German rescue workers called off their searches for several hours in southern Hatay, citing a difficult security situation and clashes between local groups. In the midst of destruction and despair, miraculous tales of survival continue to emerge. “Is the world there?” asked 70-year-old Menekse Tabak as she was pulled out from the concrete in the southern city of Kahramanmaras — the epicentre of Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor — to applause and cries praising God, according to a video on state broadcaster TRT Haber.   In the city of Antakya, a two-month-old baby was found alive 128 hours after the quake, state news agency Anadolu reported. A two-year-old girl, a six-month pregnant woman, plus a four-year-old and her father, were among those rescued five days after the quake, Turkish media reported. In southern Turkey, families clutched each other in grief at a cotton field transformed into a cemetery, with an endless stream of bodies arriving for swift burial. Compounding the anguish, the United Nations has warned that at least 870,000 people urgently need hot meals across Turkey and Syria. In Syria alone, up to 5.3 million people may have been made homeless. A border crossing between Armenia and Turkey opened for the first time in 35 years on Saturday to allow five trucks carrying food and water into the quake-hit region. – ‘Clashes between groups’ – Turkey’s disaster agency said over 32,000 people from Turkish organisations are working on search and rescue efforts. In addition, there are 8,294 international rescuers. However, Austrian soldiers on Saturday suspended rescue operations in Hatay over a “worsening security situation”, an army spokesman told AFP. Two dog handlers later resumed work under protection from the Turkish army. A similar decision to halt rescue operations was taken in Germany by the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (TSW) and an NGO specialising in helping victims of natural disasters, ISAR Germany, according to an NGO spokesman. “There are more and more reports of clashes between different factions, shots have also been fired,” said ISAR spokesman Stefan Heine. The UN rights office had on Friday urged all actors in the affected area — where Kurdish militants and Syrian rebels operate — to allow humanitarian access. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is considered a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies, announced a temporary halt in fighting to ease recovery work. Medical Aid For Aleppo In Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged the healthcare system and parts of the country remain under the control of rebels, aid has been slow to arrive. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took a flight full of emergency medical equipment into the quake-stricken city of Aleppo on Saturday. Tedros toured damaged areas of the city tweeting: “I’m heartbroken to see the conditions survivors are facing — freezing weather and extremely limited access to shelter, food, water, heat and medical care”. The Syrian government said it had approved the delivery of humanitarian assistance to quake-hit areas outside its control in Idlib province. A convoy was expected to leave on Sunday. In Damascus, Suleiman Khalil, an official at the transport ministry, said 57 aid planes had landed at Syrian airports this week. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the Security Council to authorise the opening of new cross-border aid points between Turkey and Syria. The council will meet to discuss Syria, possibly early next week. Turkey said it was working on opening two new routes into rebel-held parts of Syria. The winter freeze has left thousands of people either spending nights in their cars or huddling around makeshift fires that have become ubiquitous across the quake-hit region. – Anger builds – In Turkey, five days of grief and anguish have been slowly building into rage at the poor quality of buildings as well as the government’s response to the country’s worst disaster in nearly a century. Officials in the country say 12,141 buildings were either destroyed or seriously damaged in the earthquake. “Damage was to be expected, but not the type of damage that you are seeing now”, said Mustafa Erdik, a professor at Istanbul-based Bogazici University. Turkish police on Saturday detained 12 people, including contractors, over collapsed buildings in the southeastern provinces of Gaziantep and Sanliurfa, local media reported. Officials and medics said 22,327 people had died in Turkey and 3,553 in Syria. The confirmed total now stands at 25,880. burs-fb/bp/rox © Agence France-Presse

  The Defence Headquarters has dismissed as malicious propaganda, the report peddled by some unscrupulous elements of plot by some military officers to disrupt the forthcoming general elections. The Acting Director of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Tukur Gusau, said this in a statement on Saturday in Abuja. The defence spokesman added that the Armed Forces of Nigeria was dismayed that even politically exposed persons had denigrated themselves into joining the agents of destabilisation. He said that the unscrupulous elements claimed that some military officers met with a Presidential candidate with the aim of disrupting the general elections and setting the country on fire. According to him, the purveyors of the wicked and very malicious propaganda also indicated that a so-called Thursday meeting is plotting a Coup d’etat to establish unconstitutional order. The Defence spokesman said those who made the false claims were agents of destabilisation and violence seeking to heighten tension in the polity and would be made to face the wrath of the law. “It needs to be stated that the Armed Forces of Nigeria is a professional military that is loyal to the constitution of the Federal Republic and will never be part of any evil plot against our democracy. “Besides, the Military remains apolitical and neutral in the current political process and will not engage in the alleged shenanigans. “The Armed Forces of Nigeria will never be part of any ignoble plot to truncate our hard-earned democracy,” he said. Gusau said the military high command would ensure that those who fabricated and spread the unfounded report were invited by appropriate law enforcement agencies to substantiate their claims. “The general public is advised to disregard such information and go about their normal activities,” he added.

  The leader of the pan Yoruba socio-political organisation Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, has said that the ‘Emi lokan’ claim of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, is an agreement between him (Tinubu) and President Muhammadu Buhari. ‘Emi lokan’, a Yoruba phrase meaning “it is my turn” was made popular by Tinubu, following his June 2022 address in Abeokuta, Ogun State when he pushed for the APC presidential ticket. Adebanjo, while addressing Labour Party supporters in Lagos at the final presidential campaign of the party, however, said the expression does not represent the Yoruba people but is an agreement that Tinubu would succeed Buhari after he leaves office. The 94-year-old elder statesman said, “The one who said ‘it is my turn’ is his agreement with Buhari. “Emilokan didn’t say it is the turn of the Yoruba. Emilokan’s agreement with Buhari was that when Buhari leaves office, he will take over. (But) were you there when he said that?” he asked the crowd, who responded saying, “No.” Adebanjo, again reiterated that if the LP candidate does not win the election, “forget about Nigeria.” He said, “I said before that if Obi does not come in as the president, forget Nigeria. The northern elders now say I want to impose Obi on them. No! They want to impose a northerner on us, and we said no.” Adebanjo becomes the second elder statesman of Yoruba extraction to criticise the phrase after former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The elder statesman last week, explained why Obi should win the 2023 presidential election. Adebanjo, who has been a staunch supporter of Obi, said if the LP candidate loses there would be no opportunity for a non-Christian and a non-northerner to be president again. Making his position known at the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum in Abuja, Adebanjo had said, “They are making all sorts of devices to ensure that power remains in a particular part of the country. That’s why they are not even supporting the candidate of their own party. “We will give it what it takes. It is either bend or break. If Obi does not win, forget a country called Nigeria.” Meanwhile, The PUNCH earlier reported that no fewer than four persons were injured in an attack on supporters of the LP presidential candidate on Saturday in Lagos. According to the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, investigations into the attack had commenced. Obi also vehemently condemned the attack against his supporters.

  The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has debunked reports claiming the apex bank is incapacitated to print new naira notes. There were reports earlier in some media claiming that the governor of the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, said the apex bank does not have the capacity to print adequate new naira notes. The reports claimed that Emefiele made the disclosure on Friday when he briefed former Nigerian leaders at the emergency meeting of the National Council of State. They also claimed that, on Friday, Emefiele had told the leaders that the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc (The Mint), suffers capacity constraints, resulting in the failure to print adequate new notes to replace the old N200, N500 and 1,000 notes. But, the CBN, in a statement signed by its Director, Corporate Communications, Osita Nwanisobi, the CBN, said, at no time did the CBN Governor,, disclose this during his presentation to the National Council of State at its meeting on Friday, February 10, 2023. The apex bank noted that its attention has been drawn to a misleading report misquoting Emefiele, as attributing the current challenge in the distribution of the newly redesigned naira banknotes to a shortage of printing materials at the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company Plc. The statement reads partly, “For the records, what Mr. Emefiele told the meeting was that the NSPMC was working on printing all denominations of the Naira to meet the transaction needs of Nigerians. “While the CBN appreciates the concerns shown by all stakeholders about the distribution of the Naira, we are alarmed at the extent to which vested interests are attempting to manipulate facts and pitch the public against the Bank. “For the avoidance of doubt, the CBN remains committed to performing its monetary policy functions, as stipulated in the CBN Act, 2007, as amended. We also wish to restate that the NSPMC has the capacity and enough materials to produce the required indent of the Naira. “The Bank, therefore, wishes to appeal to the public to disregard the said report and exercise more restraint, even as we work assiduously to increase the circulation of the new notes in the country,” it said. The statement further said, “Similarly, there is a misleading voice note trending in social media alleging that the CBN planned to shut down some banks, particularly in a particular geo￾political region of the country. “We wish to state unequivocally that there is no such plan and that the claims are illogical and do not comply with the workings of the Nigerian banking system. “The public is therefore advised to ignore such recordings as they do not represent the policy thrust of the CBN and are only the desperate attempts of persons bent on inciting the public against the Bank,” it added.

  VICE Chancellor (VC) of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Rivers state, Prof Owunari Georgewill, has urged stakeholders to discountenance rumours trending in the social media about a graduating list of 2000 students waiting to be released by the varsity. Owunari made the clarification weekend at the university’s Council Chambers while announcing UNIPORT’s new height as Nigeria’s 4th best university on the new global Webometric Rankings released for 2023. Prof Owunari explained, “Some persons have been talking about 2000 students that are on graduating list waiting to be released. Please take it out from here, there is no such list. No waiting list anywhere. “This administration ensures for every result ready, the VC executively approves, releases that result, to whenever Senate is called to ratify same. So no result anywhere we have left to wait, for what. I have interacted with some of the persons (students) making the claims on social media. “I told them, go to your department. I asked one of the, have you seen your spreadsheet, she said no. So how do know you’re on a waiting list, she said her course teacher told her. I asked, what is your CGPA, she said she does not know, but they said she has something like 2nd Class Lower. “I said are are happy with this thing you’re saying? A student who says she has graduated has not seen her spreadsheet, does not know her CGPA and is waiting for approval of graduating list. Please, any student who says he has finished and has issues, go to your department. Ask for your spreadsheet, the total of all you have done in four, five or six years of your programme. “I also told them, if you have any challenge having your spreadsheet, call me when you’re in that department, I will come. We will explain to you why you have not graduated. Until you do that, you can’t go public to say you’re graduated and they’re holding your result. What would will hold your result for? Nobody is holding any result.” On the new ranking as 4th best Nigerian University, the VC said, “We’ve been ranked first before, during the time of Prof Joseph Ajienka, the 7th VC. It’s unfortunate after that time, we fell and now we are rising again. It is our prayer that we will get to the first position again.” Prof Owunari noted that UNIPORT’s new rapid rise on the ranking from when his administration came onboard to being 5th in 2022 and now 4th best has been propelled by renewed commitment to openness, excellence and harmonious working relationship among staff, students, council, senate and dependable external stakeholders.

  THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has said there would be no extension of registration period in the ongoing 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME. This came as it revealed that so far,over 1.16 million candidates have so far successfully registered to participate in the examination. JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede,said these on Saturday, during a monitoring tour of some Computer Based Test,CBT centres in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Oloyede, during the tour, visited CBT centre located at Total Child International School, Dutse, JAMB Abuja zonal office, Life Camp, Global Distance Learning Institute and Sascon International College, Abuja, in that order. The JAMB boss, while insisting that his organisation would not extend deadline for the 2023 UTME, warned CBT centres against extortion of candidates. It would be recalled that the sale of the 2023 UTME commenced on Saturday, 14th January, 2023, and is set to close on Tuesday, 14th February, 2023 The JAMB Registrar said, “Registration is going on well except some of these schools. “UTME is not a school based examination, it’s individual candidates and you can see what that school, Stella maris is doing, collecting N30,000 from candidates in the name of JAMB and then end up missing up the telephone number of the candidates “So once the keep the telephone number of candidates it is unlikely that the candidates when we are contacting them if we want to make a change in their timetable, you send text to them and it will not get to them after they have graduated from the school and want to do change of course they don’t have access to it. “And that is a way of extorting the parents and we will take adequate steps to make sure that we stop that. One of the reasons is that we will tell evey CBT center to stop doing bulk purchase of pin and bulk registration so if s center sales more than one pin to a source or collect money for more than one pin from a source then we will sanction such center.” He urged candidates to report cases of extortion, saying that there is a code for candidates to reach the board when they come across any case of extortion, while promising there will be a reward for such act.

  The Lagos State Police Command on Saturday confirmed attacks on some supporters of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi. According to reports, the supporters coming from Jakande, Ajah axis of the state to the venue of the rally at Tafa Balewa Square on Lagos Island were attacked by some thugs. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Lagos, Benjamin Hundeyin while confirming the attacks said it was reprehensible, saying it will be investigated. The Lagos State Command spokesperson revealed this via his verified Twitter handle, @BenHundeyin.   “Jakande Ward Chairman of the Labour Party commendably reported an attack on his party members at Ilasan Division. Four injured persons have been given medical attention. DPO Ilasan has commenced preliminary investigations while SCID is to fully take over investigations,” he said in a tweet. “The injured and other witnesses are assisting the Police with relevant information that would aid the apprehension and prosecution of the attackers. “This attack is reprehensible! It is verifiable that the Command had stationed, since yesterday, patrol vehicles and officers at the Tafawa Balewa Square venue of today’s rally. We had already secured the venue to prevent any breakdown of law and order. “The regrettable attack happened about 15km away from the rally venue. As earlier stated, the SCID will take over investigations towards apprehending and prosecuting the attackers.” The regrettable attack happened at about 15km away from the rally venue. As earlier stated, the SCID will take over investigations towards apprehending and prosecuting the attackers.— SP Benjamin Hundeyin (@BenHundeyin) February 11, 2023

  The presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, has said his government will apologise to all victims of police brutality, if elected in the highly anticipated February 25 poll. “We will apologise to all those who are victims of police brutality,” Obi told his teeming supporters on Saturday during his campaign rally in Lagos State held at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Onikan. “All those who have suffered in the hands of government, we will apologise to them. We will make sure that it never happens again. Nigeria will be a peaceful country.” According to him, the country’s security agents will “no longer” be used for harassment. “Police will not harass anybody; they will be your care because we’re going to train those (sic) on how to do policing,” he promised. Obi added that the law enforcement agencies would be equipped and more trained personnel recruited, saying, “The police will be a friend, not an enemy. They will do the work of policing. We will not have all these problems we have.” The 61-year-old candidate vowed to ensure the supremacy of law and order, while the country’s security and unity would be paramount. He also assured voters of a free press that would be allowed to “criticise what we’re doing.”   Obi’s promise comes barely two years after the October 2020 protests that garnered international attention. The call to action tagged #EndSARS saw thousands of Nigerians across the country demanding extensive police reforms. ‘Nigerians Will Celebrate Their Passports’ The LP candidate derided the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for its management of the economy, saying millions of Nigerians had fallen below the poverty line since the party first commenced governance in 2015. He accused the current government of producing poverty, joblessness, university lecturers’ strikes, and “one form of suffering or the other.” Obi promised to increase the nation’s reserves through agriculture and stability of the currency. “No Nigerian will be ethnocentric but a Nigerian We want Nigerians to celebrate their passport,” he said. The former Anambra State governor said if elected, his administration would work hard to secure people from poverty, moving Nigeria from consumption to production. “Lagos will remain the centre of excellence and finance,” he said. “Nigeria has all the endowment to be a great country.” According to him, under an Obi administration, there will be an enabling environment for business and “our gas will be developed to give more money than oil.” He added that his government would will support the youth for enterprise, saying, “Our achievement will be measurable.”

  The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has debunked alleged threat to shut down some deposit banks, over naira scarcity. Disclosing this in a statement signed by Osita Nwanisobi, Director, Corporate Communications, CBN stated that there was no such plan, noting that the claims are illogical and do not comply with the workings of the Nigerian banking system. The statement reads thus: “The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to a misleading report misquoting the Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, as attributing the current challenge in the distribution of the newly redesigned naira banknotes to a shortage of printing materials at the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company Plc. “We wish to state categorically that at no time did the CBN Governor disclose this during his presentation to the National Council of State at its meeting on Friday, February 10, 2023. “For the records, what Mr. Emefiele told the meeting was that the NSPMC was working on printing all denominations of the Naira to meet the transaction needs of Nigerians. “While the CBN appreciates the concerns shown by all stakeholders about the distribution of the Naira, we are alarmed at the extent to which vested interests are attempting to manipulate facts and pitch the public against the Bank. “For the avoidance of doubt, the CBN remains committed to performing its monetary policy functions, as stipulated in the CBN Act, 2007, as amended. We also wish to restate that the NSPMC has the capacity and enough materials to produce the required indent of the Naira. “The Bank, therefore, wishes to appeal to the public to disregard the said report and exercise more restraint, even as we work assiduously to increase the circulation of the new notes in the country. “Similarly, there is a misleading voice note trending in social media alleging that the CBN planned to shut down some banks, particularly in a particular geo- political region of the country. “We wish to state unequivocally that there is no such plan and that the claims are illogical and do not comply with the workings of the Nigerian banking system. The public is therefore advised to ignore such recordings as they do not represent the policy thrust of the CBN and are only the desperate attempts of persons bent on inciting the public against the Bank.” We wish to state unequivocally that there is no such plan and that the claims are illogical and do not comply with the workings of the Nigerian banking system. The public is therefore advised to ignore such recordings as they do not represent the policy thrust of the CBN and are only the desperate attempts of persons bent on inciting the public against the Bank.