Isoko South LG doles out N11.5m for WASCE registration, notebooks
By LILIAN EZENDO
Isoko South Local Government of Delta State has taken two firm measures to boost public sector education in the area, with a vote of N11.5million.

The measures are the payment of the WASCE registration fee for final year students of public secondary schools in the area, and the procurement of N7.5 million worth of exercise books for public primary and junior secondary schools in the council area.

A total of N4 million was committed to the WASCE registration exercise for the 17 public secondary schools in the area.

Disclosing these in Na So We See Am, a vote of Delta, Asaba, pidgin English programme monitored in Ibusa, the Chairman of the council and State Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Chief Askia Ogeah, said the council took the actions in an attempt to ease the burden of parents in meeting the financial cost of buying books and registering their children for the WASCE.

Chief Ogeah, equally, said that the measures, particularly the WASCE registration, was intended to curb the exodus of final year students to the so-called miracle centres outside of the state.

He pledged to continue with the measures, if they prove effective in meeting the intended goals.

The Chairman urged parents to desist from withdrawing their pupils from public primary schools.

Rather, he added, parents and other stakeholders must cooperate to resolve whatever perceived problem that was encouraging parents to withdraw their pupils from the public primary school system.

Effective teaching, he added, would end the exodus of final year secondary school students in the area to the so-called magic centres in other parts of the state.

Bishop Miyerijesu rehabilitates 95 repentant armed robbers, prostitutes with N1.2 million grant
By MICHAEL IKEOGU
It was a classic confluence of repentance and charity at this year’s annual baptismal/thanksgiving service of God’s Grace Ministry Incorporated, Warri, when the leadership of the sect handed out N12 million grants to ninety-five self-professed former armed robbers and commercial sex workers.

The grant was in lieu of their repentance of their evil practices and genuine embrace of christianity.

Some 45 young men – who confessed to have been armed robbers – were involved in the emotive ceremony at which Bishop Dikeji Miyerijesu, founder of the church, personally handed out the grant to the converts.

A total of 50 prostitutes were equally involved in the extraordinary grant, organized by the church as part of its charity/social responsibility activities.

The N12m cash grant to the former robbers and prostitutes is without prejudice to the 65 motorcycles which the church, equally at the occasion, handed over to other members of the church at the historic event, penultianate Sunday.

Each of the 45 repented robbers had a grant of N100,000, while more than 50 prostitutes got N80,000 each.

The grant, Bishop Miyerijesu said, was to enable them start new businesses to earn a decent living.

He stressed that, by the grant, the church was living up to its social and responsibility to its members and the society in which it operates.

The cleric advised them against returning to the evil practices from which they had since turned their back.

He held, strongly, that unless one was born again of the holy spirit and water, he could not make heaven.

Harping on the theme of baptism, he said it was a rebirth, which, in itself, was equal to repentance, and urged christians to see God as their only strength and support, and to be dedicated to His work.

At the event held at the church’s corporate headquarters, some of the repented robbers, pleading not to be identified in print, expressed joy at the development.

They said that they had been in bondage, but that they had now been set free after their repentance, acceptance of christ and admission into the church which had given them strong moral and financial support.

They commended the effort of Bishop Miyerijesu for proding them a means of livelihood after repenting, which, according to them, would encourage their faithfulness to God.

Some of the prostitutes also spoke in the same vein, adding that they were now elated to be free of the trade that had impaired their consciences and traumatized them for long, and vowed never to return to it.