Reports reaching our news desk reveals that Bala Haruna, the Bauchi man who made frantic efforts to fulfill his vow to spend ten minutes inside a gutter and drink the gutter water should president Buhari win the 2019 presidential election, has reportedly died.
According to reports around social media, Bala was rushed to the hospital after complaining about severe abdominal pains and severe stooling of blood for two days.
Bala, after series of tests conducted, was diagnosed with Gastrointestinal bleeding including hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia which was contacted from the gutter water he drank which was contaminated.
He spent several days in the hospital before he gave up the ghost early Tuesday morning.
Nigeria’s efforts at turning waste to wealth is paying off, as over 10,000 direct and indirect jobs have been created in the recycling of pet beverages bottles.
This is even as the initiative has created million dollars in foreign exchange earnings to support the nation’s ailing economy.
The Executive Director of Lexsz plastics, Oba Olufemi Akowe, said the $8 million dollar factory located in Ogun state was established in 2011 and presently has over 400 direct staff and ten thousand local workers for the factories recycling plastics.
He noted that the company’s initial target was to export the recycled plastic fiber to China, which it has effectively done in the past eight years.
He said, “But now the company is set to expand and supply Nigerian industries that may need our products as their raw materials.
“The company’s products not only save a lot of energy and resources, but also effective for environmental protection areas in Lagos State and has contributed millions of dollars in foreign exchange earnings and job opportunity for many Nigerians.”
He added that the company had in its eight years of operation taken the lead in waste to wealth management by empowering Public, Private Sector Operations in clearing waste in the environment which are later bought and paid for by the company as raw materials.
“We rely on individual who go around the cities and towns picking wastes which are later sold to us. We also help governments in some South West states to clear theIR dump sites and even pay their agencies.” He said
Akowe explained that with the four production lines refining and processing, Lexsz production scale of PET bottles and preforms per year amounted to over 100, 000 tons thus meeting the major chemical Yangtze River Delta region of China class enterprise demand for a large number of raw materials.
He stated that since the company entered the plastics manufacturing business through waste recycling, it has played a prominent role in enhancing and consistently cleaning environmental waste in Ogun State and other surrounding states.
He however lamented that the government has not been supportive of private sector operators, who daily faced challenges of poor infrastructure, multiple taxation and others.
“We appeal for co-operation, support and a conducive business environment so that our business can flourish. We particularly appeal to our stakeholders to redouble their efforts by ensuring that our waste to wealth efforts through recycling of the environmental wastes are successful,” he said.
A four-time minister of the federation, Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglas, has appealed to the Federal government to carry out a critical evaluation of the attacks on the Nigerian military and the attendant killings on Saturday, February 23, during the presidential and National Assembly elections in Abonnema, Akuku Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Graham-Douglas, who is also a monarch in Abonnema town, made the call when he spoke in Port Harcourt, on the heels of tension in the area, which has forced some residents to flee their homes.
He noted an influx of suspected militants in the community ahead of the last presidential and National Assembly polls, urging the Federal government to investigate who invited the hoodlums into the area and provided them with sophisticated weapons.
The former Minister of Aviation, Labour, Sports, Culture, and Tourism also said that reports available showed that over 30 persons were killed during the botched polls in the area. He said: “The Abonnema situation, which now concerns the Federal government, should be used to resolve multiple inquisitions, namely: ‘who hired the large numbers of militants and brought them to Abonnema?
“Who provided the sophisticated weapons, like the AK-47 to those militants that came into Abonnema? Who accommodated them in Abonnema? Who were the political leaders and actors in the community who aided and abated the opposing political youths? Which of the groups actually confronted the law enforcement agencies on the day of the elections? he asked rhetorically.
“What happened during the presidential and National Assembly elections in Abonnema was very unfortunate. There was massive importation of hoodlums. Where did they come from?”
He frowned that militancy had become a profession in the Niger Delta, and urged security agencies to nip the culture in the bud.
He, however, advised Rivers people to be peaceful and vote on Saturday according to their conscience.
