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Effective Service Delivery: FRSC Commissions Lagos Mini Print Farm

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In its effort to create a conducive and stress-free atmosphere for the processing and production of driver’s license, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has commissioned its first mini print farm in Lagos, the National Association of Online Security News Publishers (NAOSNP) can report.

The event, which coincides with the celebration of the 37th anniversary of the Corps, marks a landmark achievement in the annals of the Corps’ history, and had in attendance top government functionaries including Assistant Corps Marshal Godwin Omiko of Motor Vehicle Administration, who represented the Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed; Permanent Secretary, Motor Vehicle Administration Agency, Mr Abdul-Rasheed Muri-Okunola; Corps Public Education Officer, ACM Olusegun Ogungbemide; Engineer Kayode Oladosu, who represented the Director, Vehicle Inspection Service; Corps Commander, National Driver’s Licence, Ann Oladayo-Odeleye and  Corps Commander Print Farm Kado Abuja, Remilah Haggai, who delivered the Vote of thanks at the end of proceedings.

Others were Zonal Commanding Officer, RS2 Lagos, Assistant Corps Marshal Adeoye A. Irelewuyi; Corps Commander Kehinde G. Hamzat, Sector Commander RS2. 1 Lagos State Command and Deputy Corps Commander Olawale Kareem, DCC, Mini Print Farm, Lagos.

In his address, and speaking through his representative, ACM Omiko, Corps Marshal Mohammed went down memorylane, tracing the achievements of the Corps since inception, and acknowledging the efforts of stakeholders, successive governments and the general public in sustaining the Road Safety legacy, with special emphasis to the creation of the print farm.

He noted that while the Corps maintains a central data base, the print farms have to be strategically located to enable speedy processing and production for those in Lagos and environs. The database remains intact, but for printing purposes and convenience of distribution, all applicants from the southwest will be printed at the mini print farm in Lagos.

“The reason behind having a mini plant was conceived some years ago, 2011 to be precise, when it was rampant and very easy for somebody to abandon his driver license here in Lagos State and go to Ogun State to acquire another one.

“So there was the need to streamline the process and making sure that an applicant is only entitled to one driver license.

“And by 2014, we now have the main print farm, which is there in Kano. Now, the essence of this print farm is, as I said earlier, to ensure that those biometric investigations are done, and to revalidate our driver license for national security and for expository with other nations. We have had this, and of course, not without challenges, as we all know,” he said.

While acknowledging that there were challenges, he noted that the team, led by Corps Marshal Mohammed, were able to resolve all, ensuring that all the backlog of driver licenses are sorted out, and part if the resolution is the activation of the Lagos print farm, which is the third in the series.

He added: “The Lagos mini print farm has the capacity of producing 1,800 cards per hour. Meaning that in a day, full capacity of six hours working, we are having 9,000 cards on a daily basis. To put this together, I believe that in the next couple of months, the backlogs of cards per hour for Lagos State and its environment will definitely be a thing of the past, and we expect that the general public should have their drivers licence in a record time.

“Most of the drivers’ licences that have been produced have also dispatched to the various states internal revenue services. So, as we speak, about 270,000 of these drivers’ licenses are lying in these offices across the nation without been collected by their owners,” he said informing that with the new print farm coming on board, more cards will be injected into the system.”

He therefore, appealed to the general public to go to their various states, internal revenue services, or FRSC offices, where they applied because a lot are lying there uncollected, noting that FRSC is not directly involved in the distribution of licences after production.

“All licences are presently at the point of application,” he concluded while frowning at the fact that a humongous 270,000 licences are lying uncollected.

The essence is to ensure that every man or woman driving on Nigerian road is properly licensed, and also receive their cards in record time.

In his response, Mr. Rasheed Muri-Okunola, who represented the Lagos State Government, thanked the FRSC for the laudable initiative centered on solving problems

“It’s a brilliant initiative. It’s a welcome idea. We hope, like they’ve all said, we hope the backlog and the many problems we’ve been having in the past will come to an end. I can’t wait to see your print farm.

“I was here when you first commissioned and so we think and hope, since it’s going to start running now, all those problems of going to Abuja, waiting for Abuja to give us our driver’s license and all that will end starting from today,” he said.

Another stakeholder in the project, who represented SW Global Limited, Mr Hassan Ozigi, also hailed the initiative, acknowledging the efforts the MVA and CITOS teams have put in place to get it working.

Also speaking, the Director of Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS), Engineer Akin George Fashola, represented by Engineer Oladosu Kayode, appreciated the FRSC for the initiative, and acknowledged that it would eliminate a lot of bottlenecks in receiving processed licences.

“Once it is processed here, of course the same printing will be carried out here. So in no time, we will get this driver’s licence,” he said pledging more cooperation.

Earlier in her welcome address, Corp Commander Anne Odeleye, in charge of the National Drivers License, Abuja, had narrated how far the Lagos project has gone, saying every issue of the past has come to an end with the mini-print farm activation.

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Metro

Edo Special Court Sentences Four Kidnappers to Death

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The Edo State Special Criminal Court has sentenced four men to death for their involvement in the kidnapping of a woman at the Vegetable Market along Airport Road in Benin City.

Justice Aigbona Momodu handed down the sentences after finding the defendants guilty on multiple counts connected to the kidnapping case.

The convicts are Marvellous Isaac, Wisdom Michael, Rufus Emete Michael and Gift Raphael.

Isaac and Michael were sentenced to death on counts two through nine. They also received separate prison terms on other counts, including seven years on count one, while Isaac was sentenced to 10 years on count 10 and life imprisonment on count 11.

Rufus Emete Michael was sentenced to death on counts two, three, four, six and seven, in addition to a seven-year prison term on count one.

The fourth defendant, Gift Raphael, was sentenced to death on counts two, four, six and eight and received seven years imprisonment on count one.

Delivering the sentences, Justice Momodu ordered that the death sentences be carried out by hanging or lethal injection, in accordance with the court’s judgment.

The court also ordered the forfeiture of a JoJef pump-action firearm and ammunition tendered as exhibits during the trial.

The firearm, identified as Exhibit M, along with two unused cartridges and two spent cartridges listed as Exhibits E and E1, was ordered to be handed over to the Edo State Police Armourer at the State Criminal Investigation Department for destruction.

Justice Momodu directed that the exhibits be transferred to the police through the Deputy Director of the Criminal Division and destroyed within 30 days.

The convictions bring to an end the trial arising from the abduction of the woman at the Vegetable Market along Airport Road, an incident that added to concerns over kidnapping and armed crime in Benin City.

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Adeleke Hails Osun’s NECO Performance, Promises More Investments in Education

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Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has hailed the state’s strong performance in the 2026 National Examinations Council (NECO) Senior School Certificate Examination, describing the result as a positive reflection of ongoing efforts to reposition education in the state.

Osun placed fifth nationally in the 2026 NECO ranking, with 74.31 per cent of candidates recording at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics.

While congratulating the students, teachers, parents, school administrators and other stakeholders, the governor noted that the state performance has been improving within a single digit rating for three consecutive years namely 2024, 2025 and 2026.

“Osun has moved from 33rd position in the 2022 NECO ranking to 5th in 2026, while improving its pass rate to 74.31 per cent. This is encouraging, and it shows that our sustained interventions in the education sector are yielding positive results,” the Governor said.

Governor Adeleke said the improved performance reflects his administration’s deliberate investment in the education sector, including the recruitment of additional teachers to strengthen the teaching workforce, while prioritising workers’ welfare and creating a more conducive environment for effective teaching and learning across public schools.

The Governor said the performance reinforces his administration’s determination to continue investing in education, noting that the objective is to build a system that gives every Osun child the knowledge, skills and opportunities needed to succeed.

“This result is encouraging, but we see it as a reason to do more. We will continue to invest in our schools, improve the learning environment, support our teachers and provide our students with the necessary tools to excel.

“We are building an education system that prepares our young people not only for examinations but for life,” the Governor said.

He assured that ongoing interventions in the education sector would be sustained and expanded, while urging students to remain committed to their studies.

His Excellency also commended teachers across the state for their dedication and sacrifices, assuring them that the administration would continue to prioritise measures that strengthen the education system and improve workers’ welfare.

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NATOP Returns to Classroom for WTD 2026, Holds Multi-zone Celebration Across Nigeria

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The Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) marked the 2026 World Tourism Day with activities which capture capacity building, technology, destination promotion and domestic tourism, and celebration.

In the South West Zone, close to 200 tour operators gathered at Ziba Beach Resort, Lagos, for a special training focused on Artificial Intelligence and its application in tourism, equipping operators with digital tools to improve their businesses and destination marketing.

In Abuja, the FCT and Northern Zone, in collaboration with Naija Adventurers, staged a colourful Tourism Awareness Walk and Hike to the Centre of Nigeria.

The celebration also spread to the South-South Zone, where members marked the day with a destination tour, alongside activities to commemorate with the world tourism day celebrations.

In line with the theme for this year’s WTD celebration: ‘Digital agenda and artificial intelligence to redesign tourism’ the NATOP training on AI and application in tour operation at Ziba Beach Resort Lagos saw a large turnout of the members of the association.

The President of the association, Hajia Bolaji Mustapha explained that the idea for the location and training was to train members on how to do tour business, to know how to promote tourism digitally, using different AI tool and everything so that they will grow their businesses.

She said: “we follow the theme and, you know, blend with the old situation. Let’s do the training so that we attach it to the World Tourism Day with the theme that we have achieved something and also celebrate.”

She said the training will go a long way in helping the tour operators do greater content to digitally tell destination stories using AI, and also using the tool for expression.

Mustapha also explained why the association chose Ziba Beach Resort: “We always attach World Tourism Day to a tourism site. And definitely, if you look at this whole area and this community, that’s why we see that Ziba is a tourism site. We want to explore and of course. The resort newly launched its third phase. So, we will use this opportunity to look at their rooms, look at how we can sell this destination, to showcase it that the resort is actually in Nigeria, not Zanzibar. By using the place, we would kill two birds with one stones.
Facility tour of Ziba Beach Resort

“As tour operators who are willing to tell the good story of our Nigeria, we need to bring ourselves up to the speed, align with the digital revolution. Let everybody go digital. Because we also see the content creators are taking our business, we want to align it with what they do. We are the ones that understand the business and we’ll be able to tell the story better, so that anybody coming to Nigeria will be able to discover Nigeria with the experts.”

Also commenting on the celebration, the NATOP Vice President South West and chairman of the WTD Organizing Committee for the zone, Mrs. Wonuola Olatunde-Lamidi explained why NATOP South West’s usage of the 2026 WTD for training. She said many of the members still have a lot to learn about the tour business, and that some do not understand the foundation of the business, including how to create packages hence the need for the training.

Mrs. Olatunde-Lamidi spoke further: “Many don’t understand the foundation of what it is to create a tour package. And when you have people that are not well-trained in an industry, the industry will not grow. The kind of people that you also have will not have enough earning power to do many things. And because this is an industry that I have been in for 16 years, I run Diamonds and Pearls Travels with my husband. And I’ve seen Diamonds and Pearls Travels metamorphose into a company where people don’t just look at us as travel agents. We have become a Destination Management Company (DMC). We have become a trusted brand. We have become a company that when we talk about a destination, people want to go to that destination because of how we have portrayed the destination. And you may not realize that, as tour operators, you can actually decide where people go. You can make people go to a particular destination by marketing it, by letting them know the benefits of that destination.”

The tour operators had opportunity to tour the resort and unwind during the programme.

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