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Lagos Partners CIG Motors To Acquire 5,000 Vehicles For Transport Sector [PHOTOS]

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The Lagos State Government has entered into a partnership with CIG Motors Company Limited to procure 5,000 brand new vehicles for its transportation system.

The agreement was signed at the Government House in Alausa, Ikeja, on Monday. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu revealed that Ibile Holdings Limited, a state-owned entity, played a crucial role in facilitating the partnership.

The project aims to revolutionize road transportation in Lagos, generating employment opportunities and stimulating economic growth for the state’s residents.

“Today, we’ve used our investment outfit called the Ibile Holdings and I think I need to thank them, the current management staff, for responding quickly to their bill to use our investment vehicle, the Ibile Holdings to execute what we believe will be a very successful joint venture,” the governor said.

“The joint venture between the Ibile Holdings and CIG Motors and CIG Motors Company Limited, GAC Motors, especially the brand, in the acquisition of 5,000 new vehicles within our land border.

“We started the first 1,000. We’ve seen how we did. We’ve provided jobs to our people. We’ve created an e-hailing service. But we realise that we need to tweak it.

“We need to provide a lot more fleets and we need to also push the brands to be more acceptable and to be able to move around in different groups and brands of the state.

“In that goal, the first order of vehicles was to see 2,000 coming and in that 2,000, we will be having electric vehicles. That has been the conversation.

“Also these vehicles, we imagine, will begin to change the carbon footprint that we’ve all been talking about as in the future of transportation, as in the future of energy transition, the future of climate change, until we don’t want to take the vaccine.”

Sanwo-Olu also announced plans to introduce carpooling and logistics services, as well as executive chauffeur and rental services, to complement the new transportation system.

“We’re actually a city that is proactive and that lives with other big and major cities of the world and so you will see that this partnership is not just an e-hailing service,” he added.

“It’s also to provide smart taxes for us to be able to do what we call carpool, for us to be able to solve logistic problems, for us to be able to solve delivery problems, and for us to also have executive chauffeur and reliable rental services.”

Sanwo-Olu added that the state plans to venture into air transportation.

“I think the only vertical, which I’m also going to announce here, is that we want to go into air transportation and for us, that will very quickly encircle everything in public transportation that you can imagine in the world,” the governor said.

“Lagos state is also looking at that and we’re doing extensive study, so when we say that we want to build an airport, we just don’t want to build an airport.

“We want to go into that means of transportation and begin and be able to do it and do it very, very well.”

Diana Chen, chairman of CIG Motors, expressed her excitement and honour to partner with the Lagos state government.

Chen commended the governor for his vision and commitment to developing the state’s transportation infrastructure.

She highlighted CIG Motors’ achievements in Nigeria, including the setting up of a fully automated assembly line for automobiles and the delivery of the first affordable brand new cars in the country.

Chen emphasised the company’s belief in keeping promises and delivering on commitments, despite challenges.

“This is our world. We keep our world as our mind. So, come this stage, we have another new and significant key partnership agreement signed today,” Chen said.

“I emphasise that this is an agreement. It’s not an MOU. That means it’s a really official authority and another highly competitive signing today.

“We, all our team here, even our great partner, Mr. Wang, he comes from China, representing JC International. They are giving us full support for this project. Our bank finance, our bank’s people, right? Your people, you know, this is a huge project.

“Mr. Henry, you know, we work together to raise the money from the capital markets. So, they are all my allies. They are all my allies to make sure this project must deliver in the next three, five years.

“In the next three to five years, we are talking to embark over 1 billion brand new cars driving on our east passport. With that 1 billion brand new cars driving on this passport, every chip, think about how much the economy will be.

“So, the GME of that project, we are talking very simple. Within five years or seven years, 1.3 billion USD, that’s our target for the team. We are talking about this one because we have a very strong sense of commercial business analysis.

“That’s why we are able to challenge that. Just contribute 20% GDP. The rest of our business people, our expertise, our international technology partner, to make sure with the deal of this project, we will help the country to revive the economy.”

BIG STORY

Popular Islamic Singer Ibraheem Labaeka Resigns As Kwara Governor’s Special Assistant

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  • Laments Collecting Salaries “For Doing Nothing”

 

Ibraheem Abdulhameed, popularly known as Labaeka, has formally resigned as Special Assistant, Artiste to Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.

Abdulhameed’s resignation was confirmed in a letter dated September 12, 2023.

In the letter, he expressed frustration with his role, citing the lack of a clear schedule of duties and inadequate opportunities to fulfill his responsibilities.

“I cannot continue to break that trust by taking a salary for doing nothing,” he wrote, signalling his disappointment with the lack of clarity surrounding his position.

The letter reads, “I am writing this letter with all sense of humility and gratitude for giving me the opportunity to serve as the Special Assistant, Artiste, in your cabinet.

“Having served in this capacity for a period of 1 year and 7 months, I wish to respectfully tender my resignation.”

He continues, “Your Excellency, as you may recall, I was offered an appointment to serve as your Special Assistant, Artist, on 6th January 2023. I accepted the offer because I saw it as a call to service and an opportunity to showcase my talents.

“Regrettably, I have not been able to achieve any of these things. Aside from the fact that I don’t have a specific schedule of duty, circumstances have not availed me the opportunity to perform my responsibilities maximally.”

He added “since my appointment is based on public trust, I cannot continue to break that trust by taking a salary, for doing nothing”.

“As an Islamic cleric. it is against my beliefs, and I haven’t been at peace with myself. So, I want my salary to be stopped immediately,” he said.

“I am grateful for the confidence reposed in me, and I hope that one day, I will be able to fully utilize my talents for the development of our state.”

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King Charles III Receives President Tinubu At Buckingham Palace

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In a historic meeting, King Charles III welcomed Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Buckingham Palace in London on September 11.

The Royal Family announced the meeting on its verified X handle, @RoyalFamily, stating, “Yesterday, The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria visited His Majesty at Buckingham Palace.”

This significant encounter marks a milestone in UK-Nigeria diplomatic relations, with the two leaders discussing matters of mutual interest and importance.

While specific details of the meeting remain undisclosed, it is anticipated that key issues such as trade, security, and bilateral cooperation were addressed.

President Tinubu’s visit to Buckingham Palace underscores the strong ties between Nigeria and the UK, as both countries continue to foster a strong and lasting relationship.

According to another tweet on his verified X handle, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, recalled that Wednesday’s meeting was the second between both leaders in the last one year.

“President Tinubu visits King Charles in London. They first met in Dubai last November, on the sideline of the COP 28 Climate Summit”, Onanuga said.

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BIG STORY

Husband Dismembers, Blends 38-Yr-Old Model With Blender In Switzerland

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Kristina Joksimovic, a 38-year-old former Miss Switzerland finalist, was allegedly strangled and dismembered by her 41-year-old husband.

According to reports, the husband used a jigsaw and garden shears to dismember Joksimovic, and then allegedly pureed her remains in a blender, as stated by the Daily Mail.

The couple, who married in 2017, resided in a spacious semi-detached house in an affluent area of Basel, and had two children together.

Kristina’s body was found in February in Binningen, near Basel, Switzerland.

Kristina had posted pictures of a ‘couple’s getaway’ on her Instagram account four weeks before her death.

Her husband, identified only by the pseudonym Thomas in local media, had his appeal for release from custody rejected on Thursday by the Federal Court in Lausanne after admitting to killing his wife.

An ongoing investigation has revealed ‘concrete indications of mental illness’ underlying the case.

Kristina’s husband is reported to have claimed he killed her in self-defence after she allegedly came at him with a knife, before later admitting he dismembered the former model.

Kristina’s body was found on the evening of February 13.

Investigators determined she had been strangled before dying.

The verdict states the suspect confessed to strangling his wife.

An autopsy concluded that the body was then dismembered in the laundry room with a jigsaw, knife, and garden shears.

Body parts were then chopped up with a hand blender, ‘pureed’, and dissolved in a chemical solution, local outlet Blick reported.

A medical-forensic report also ‘contradicts his description of self-defence’, according to Swiss outlet FM1 Today.

Thomas, a Swiss national, was reportedly arrested a day after her remains were found.

Investigators have said Thomas, a businessman, displayed a ‘conspicuously high level of criminal energy’ in their assessment.

They cited a ‘lack of empathy and cold-bloodedness after killing his wife’, and his efforts to cover up her death, adding that the defendant exhibited ‘sadistic-sociopathic traits’.

The deceased won the Miss Northwest Switzerland pageant in 2003 and was a finalist in the 2008 Miss Switzerland competition.

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