Ogun Assembly Pledges More Supports For Rural Healthcare Reform

Ogun assembly pledges more supports for rural healthcare reform. He also advocated improved and timely funding for primary health care centres.

Ogun State Assembly
The Speaker of the Ogun House of Assembly, Oludaisi Elemide, has assured a World Bank-led delegation of sustained legislative support for rural healthcare reform.

Mr Elemide gave the assurance on Friday during a courtesy visit by officials of the World Bank, key federal ministries and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum at his office in Abeokuta.

The delegation was in the state to review public financial management practices at the primary health care level across selected local government areas.

They later visited the Assembly Complex, Oke-Mosan, as part of broader engagements with critical stakeholders in the state’s health governance structure.

“The Ogun State House of Assembly is irrevocably committed to collaborating with the World Bank and other stakeholders.

“We will continue to support initiatives that enhance transparency, accountability and effective healthcare delivery for our people.”

The speaker explained that the legislature was responsible for lawmaking, appropriation and oversight of government programmes and public expenditure.

He clarified that while lawmakers approve budgets, the release and disbursement of funds remain within the executive’s constitutional mandate.

Mr Elemide commended Governor Dapo Abiodun for what he described as significant investments in renovating and reconstructing primary health care centres across the state.

He said the administration’s intervention had improved access to healthcare services, especially in rural and underserved communities.

Ogun Assembly

However, the speaker called for increased recruitment of qualified medical personnel to address manpower shortages in many facilities.

He also advocated improved and timely funding for primary health care centres to consolidate infrastructure gains and ensure quality service delivery.

Earlier, the delegation leader, Maxwell Dapaah, acknowledged visible infrastructural improvements in several centres visited across local government areas.

Mr Dapaah said the team observed better buildings and equipment but noted operational challenges that required urgent attention.

He expressed concern over insufficient funding, weak financial controls and the lack of automation of patient records.

“These issues have been communicated to the executive arm for necessary action and policy response,” Mr Dapaah said.

Judge Scolds Maina, Defence Counsel For Stalling Case In Alleged N738.6 Fraud

Judge Scolds Maina, defence counsel for stalling case in alleged N738.6 fraud. Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, FCT, Asokoro, Abuja on Friday, February 20, 2026 scolded former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina and the defence counsel for their antics aimed at stalling his trial before the court and demanded that the defendant should show up in court and defend himself against the charges of corruption and fraud levelled against him.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is prosecuting Maina, alongside Ann Igwe Olachi on a nine-count charge, bordering on receipt of stolen funds to the tune of N738, 612,019.99 (Seven Hundred and Thirty-eight Million, Six Hundred and Twelve Thousand, Nineteen Naira, Ninety-nine Kobo). They were arraigned in 2019.

The Friday’s proceedings, billed to be a trial-within-trial was again aborted following a request by Maina’s new counsel, Emmanuel Wuyi, for yet another adjournment of sitting, which he said would enable him to study the facts of the case as he was appearing in the matter for the first time.

“My lord, the first defendant has been ill and I understand that this case has a history of adjournments. This is my first time appearing before your lordship, being that I have just been briefed about this case. I am asking your lordship for two weeks to enable me to study the facts of the case and I am even looking at resolving this matter with the prosecution,” he said.

In his response, Kutigi said “Two weeks for what? Everybody is ready, everybody is tired. We want every party to have fair hearing and do their cases, but when there is an adjournment, he will go and hire a new lawyer and when we insist, we will go on, you will now say you were denied fair hearing.

He has changed to another lawyer now and I have lost count of the numbers of lawyers who have appeared in this case. We know the substance and the end will determine it. The integrity of what we do here is critical and important,” he said.

Prosecution counsel, Francis Usani while addressing the court, regretted the stagnation of the case by the defendant and the defence team, pointing out that the witnesses of the prosecution for the trial-within-trial were present in court.

“My lord, only yesterday we were served with an application for a stay of proceedings, application on the jurisdiction of this court, travel application and application for appeal. If he (defence counsel) has been able to file such voluminous and bulky applications, it is assumed that the counsel knows the case so that we can start, except he is going to withdraw these applications and take a decision if he wants to continue with the trial-within-trial.

I can give him the opportunity to watch the video, (statement recording video of the defendant), invite him to my office and let him watch the video, if he sees anything then he let us know so that we can save the court’s time,” he said.

Fraud

Addressing the defence counsel again, Justice Kutigi said, “How can you say you want to do this case and at the same time you filed applications of jurisdiction, stay of proceedings and so on. What do you really want? You have to decide on what we are coming here to do on the next adjourned date.”

Maina’s counsel in his response made an oral application to withdraw the stay of proceedings while confirming his readiness to carry on with the trial-within-trial on the next adjourned date.

Justice Kutigi granted his oral application to withdraw the stay of proceedings, dated February 10, 2026 and adjourned the matter till February 26, 2026 for trial-within-trial.

Aku Uka Of Wukari, Judiciary, NBA, NSCDC, Partners EFCC To Curb Corruption In Taraba

Aku Uka of Wukari, Judiciary, NBA, NSCDC, partners EFCC to curb corruption in Taraba. The Aku Uka of Wukari, His Royal Majesty, Manu Ishaku Adda Ali, CFR, has commended the EFCC for its resilience in the fight against economic and financial crimes in Nigeria.

He gave the commendation in Wukari, Taraba State, on Friday, February 20, 2026, while playing host to the Makurdi Acting Zonal Director of the EFCC, ACE I Effa Imoh Okim, who paid a courtesy visit to the Emir in his palace.

Taraba

The Acting Zonal Director made similar visit to the Taraba State Chief Judge, Hon Justice Joel Agya and the presiding judge of the Federal High Court, Hon Justice Mashkur Salihu, as he pledged with the judiciary to deepen cooperation in the fight against corruption and financial crimes. In continuation of the courtesy visit, ACE I Okim also interacted with the Nigerian Bar Association Taraba State Council and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC.

While the NBA promised sustained collaboration, the NSCDC, assured of collaboration in the area of intelligence sharing on illegal mining. Visit www.efcc.gov.ng for details and more stories.