The Ebonyi State Police Command has arraigned the Senatorial Candidate of the Labour Party for Ebonyi South in the 2023 general elections, Linus Okorie, for alleged incitement and advance fee fraud preferred against him.
Okorie represented Ebonyi South comprising Onicha, Ohaozara and Ivo Federal Constituency in the House Of Representatives between 2007 and 2015 under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaking after Okorie’s arraignment before Justice Linda Ogodo of the Abakaliki Customary Court 1 on Tuesday, the lead counsel for the accused, Nomeh Chikodili said the arraignment of his client is an abuse of court process.
He said there is a subsisting judgement by a Federal High Court in Abuja baring the police and the state government from arresting and prosecuting Okorie.
Okorie was reported to have been kidnapped Sunday by men of state-owned security outfit Ebube-Agu which the police denied and said he was duly arrested for prosecution.
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and former vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar yesterday said he travelled to Europe on business.
The former vice president travelled last night on a scheduled trip to meet with the technical partners of one his business entities that was impacted by the Covid-19 global lockdown and the consequent economic downturn.
His media aide, Paul Ibe, said the meeting will also focus on conclusive discussions for a planned expansion of its production facility.
Meanwhile, spokesperson of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organization, Kola Ologbondiyan, has said that the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, cannot and should not be trusted with power as the President, given his overtly exposed selfish motives.
Ologbondiyan asserted that from Tinubu’s persistent self-centered assertions, haughty claims, annexation and brazen entitlement messaging, which he further displayed during his interaction with stakeholders in Kaduna on Monday, it is clear that the APC Presidential Candidate is being driven by the lust to appropriate the nation as his personal estate and not for the national interest.
“Nigerians watched with utter dismay as Tinubu, as usual, avoided questions and discussions on critical and imperative national issues, which confirms that he is in the Presidential race for reasons other than the wellbeing of Nigerians.
“The APC Presidential Candidate has not been forthcoming on issues of transparency, accountability and answerability in government, devolution of power, state police, federal character and other key issues that will enhance democratic tenets for the benefit of Nigerians; a development that further confirms a selfish intention against the inclusive interest of our nation.
“Perhaps this explains why the APC Presidential Candidate has not composed a campaign organization; a foretaste of exclusionist agenda.
“Even his proposed economic policies were generalised without addressing the specific problems of galloping inflation and its attendant unbearable rising costs, unemployment, high interest rates and the abysmally low purchasing power of Nigerians.
“Nigerians must therefore resist such tendencies as any government built on what the APC Presidential Candidate ostensibly represents will amount to creating a fiefdom for a self-conceited ruler over our nation.
“Never in our national history have Nigerians seen a politician with this level of self-entitlement.
“It is laughable that since he became the APC Presidential Candidate, Tinubu has sought for endorsement under every guise forgetting that 2023 election is a referendum against the mass failures of the APC in governance.
“Nigerians must note that it will be a disaster for our country, Nigeria, if we allow a Presidential Candidate that will ‘alphabetize’ our revenue generating agencies such as Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Plc among others to take over the reign òf governance,” he said.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) said it had succeeded in closing down 62 illegal Degree awarding institutions in the country.
The commission also said it closed down a fake NYSC Orientation Camp in its bid to tackle corruption in the education sector.
The Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, disclosed this at a Youth Dialogue on Corruption in Tertiary Institutions, held in Abuja on Tuesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the dialogue was organised by ICPC for members of Anti-corruption Vanguards from five tertiary institutions in the FCT.
Owasanoye, who was represented by Mrs Hannatu Mohammed, ICPC Board Member in-charge of youth, said that the Commission had since prosecuted the perpetrators.
According to him, corruption has debilitating effect on the quality of education of any nation, as no nation will develop beyond the level and quality of its education.
He said that the ICPC set up the anti-corruption vanguards in schools to push the fight against corruption in the education sector, particularly tertiary institutions.
Owasanoye further explained that the anti-corruption vanguards provided students the needed opportunity to participate actively in the fight against corruption in their various institutions.
“The vanguards equip the student members with the capacity to develop zero tolerance for corruption and to inculcate attitudinal change among their fellow students.
“The vanguards also enable the students to assist the management of their various institutions to effectively reduce corruption in the education system,” he said.
Owasanoye said apart from the setting up of the anti-corruption vanguards, ICPC had conducted System Study and Review in the University system to identify operations that provided leeway for corruption to thrive.
He noted that the study discovered various infractions in the university system, such as bribery, gratification, sexual harassment and sexual inducement, examination malpractices, over invoicing and over-inflation contract values.
Others according to him include, award of contracts to oneself and cronies, sale of sub standard handouts to students, absenteeism, admission racketeering and certificate forgery.
He, however, stated that the commission had since articulated its findings and recommended effective and workable solutions and forwarded it to the Minister of Education for implementation.
In a keynote address, Prof. Williams Barnabas, Vice Chancellor, Bingham University, said Nigerian education system must be repositioned to contribute significantly to national development.
He called for proper scrutiny of students entering tertiary institutions, to ensure that they have the right maturity and moral background and were willing to develop life skills instead of cutting coners.
Barnabas said corruption in tertiary institutions impact significantly on the availability and quality of educational goods and services and has consequences on access, quality and equity in education.
He added that some of the corrupt practices by academic staff include shrinking hours spent in classroom teaching, using teaching time for private business, and grades inflation among others.
The vice chancellor added that parents also push students into corruption by buying grades or bribing lecturers for good grades for their children.
“The use of teaching time for private business, failure of teachers to plan their lessons, poor methods of evaluation, aiding and abating examination malpractices and using wrong teaching methods are seen as corruption.
“Corruption erodes the core values of the educational process and thereby undermines and distorts hurman capital formation.
“It also weakens social cohesion by engendering distrust in interpersonal and intergroup relation, ” he said.
Barnabas said for the country to get it right, “our tertiary institutions must stick to their mandate of teaching, research and community service.
“We should also promote the culture of transparency at all levels; education against corruption for all; set up anti-corruption committees that utilise strategies in the fight against corruption.”
On his part, Mr Mohammed Ashiru, Director, Public Enlightenment and Education, ICPC, said that the overall objective of the dialogue was to ginger the youth to play the role expected of them in the fight against corruption.
He said this would be done through brainstorming and enumerating the major problems corruption generate in the education sector.
Ashiru added that to address the problem of corruption in the education sector, the ICPC had interfaced with key stakeholders in the sector and identified various restructures in the system.
“The partnership led to the involvement of students to hear their perspective on the problem of corruption in the tertiary institutions, hence the result to organise this dialogue.
“The sole purpose of the dialogue is giving youth the avenue to air their mind freely on the problem of corruption in tertiary institutions in Nigeria without fear or favour.
“Panel discussion from the five participating institutions will be on subjects such as the achievements of Anti-Corruption Vanguards in the fight against corruption in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
“Others topics include, challenges of sensitising fellow students against anti-social behaviour; how to manage sexual harassment in tertiary institutions
“What they understand by vote buying and how they will contribute towards eliminating vote buying in Nigeria’s electorate process; between preventive and punitive measures, which one fights corruption better, among others.” (NAN)
The Federal Government, on Tuesday, pleaded with the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, to stop its opposition to the registration of two new academic unions in the Nigerian public university system.
Recall that the new unions – the Congress for Nigerian University Academics, CONUA, and the Nigeria Association of Medical and Dental Academics, NAMDA – received letters of recognition recently during a ceremony at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in Abuja.
However, the Head, Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Olajide Oshundun, quoted a letter to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, by the President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, which demanded the withdrawal of the letters issued the new unions, on the grounds that their registration contravened the laws guiding trade unionism.
In the reply letter dated October 12, 2022, Ngige appealed to NLC to allow the new unions to exist in the spirit of Freedom of Association, insisting that the Trade Dispute Act 2004 gives him the sole power to register new trade unions, either by registering a new union or regrouping existing ones.
The minister reiterated that the new unions were offshoots or by-products of regrouping and their applications were considered by two committees of his ministry, with the Registrar of Trade Unions participating when the first recommendation for approval was given in 2019, and again in 2022.
He explained that CONUA and NAMDA were regrouped from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), for efficiency and effectiveness in the system and more importantly, to protect these groups of university teachers whose worldview differs from the restive parent union.
Ngige said: “President, do not unnecessarily oppose the registration of these new academic unions because, with ASUU, they are all like seeds on the academic soil of Nigeria and which will grow into big trees we don’t know.
“But the one which her trees are not bearing good fruits, we already know.
“So, as an uncle of the unions, oppose none in the spirit of Freedom of Association.
“It should be noted that Section 3 (2) of the Trade Dispute Act, CAP T14 gives the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, the sole power to register new trade unions, either by registering new trade unions or regrouping existing ones.
“This matter was a subject of litigation in the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) in the most recent case which the President of the NLC failed to mention in his narration of court cases.
“It was the case of the Nigerian Union of Pensions (NUP) and the regrouped Federal Parastatals & Private Sector Pensioners Association of Nigeria (FEPPAN) from NUP, where the Law on Regrouping of Trade Unions was extensively explored and ruled upon unlike the cases cited by the President of the NLC to misinform the general public and unfortunately lead astray his affiliate Trade Union – ASUU.”
He recalled that the NICN in Suit no. NICN/ABJ/219/2019, buttressed its earlier ruling on the matter and which had stated inter alia that the power to register trade unions resides with the Minister of Labour and Employment.
According to the Minister, the “last segment of Section 3(2) does not refer to the regrouping of existing trade unions, hence, the differentiation within the section between registering a new trade union and regrouping existing ones.
“We note your reference to Section 5 of the same Act, which deals with the ‘Procedure on receipt of the application for registration- of a Trade Union.
“Section 5(4) in particular states that the Registrar shall not register a trade union if it appears to him that any existing trade union is sufficiently representative of the interests of the class of workers concerned – CONUA members were ostracised and de-unionised by ASUU.”
Authorities of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, have directed the students of the institution to return to their respective Halls of Residence on Wednesday, 19th October, 2022, while full academic activities is billed to commence on Thursday, 20th October, 2022 for the continuation of the 2021/2022 session.
The management stated this in a release signed by the registrar of the school, Margaret Omosule which was made available to Vreporters by the university spokesman, Mr Abiodun Olanrewaju on Tuesday.
According to the release, the decision was taken at a Special meeting of the University Senate, which held in Oduduwa Hall on Tuesday, 18th October, 2022.
The release partly read: “On behalf of the Council and Senate of the University, we wish our students an uninterrupted academic session and a safe trip from their respective locations”.
The Lagos Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Bishop Stephen Adegbite, has cleared the air on purported endorsement of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Adegbite had stirred the ire of many church leaders within and outside the apex Christian body who had taken a firm position against any political party that floats same-faith presidential ticket after he reportedly said, “God will punish us, if we don’t support Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
According to him, mischief makers misrepresented his remarks during the presentation of the stewardship report of 12 years sojourn in the Senate presented by the Senator representing Lagos Central Senatorial District in the Upper Legislative Chamber, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, OON.
Adegbite, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Relations, Very Rev. Oladapo Daramola, explained further that he quite mindful of his position of trust as the leader of Christians in the Lagos state and would never speak loosely or anything close to invoking God’s curse on those who do not vote for Tinubu.
He said, “Dearly beloved, it’s quite possible that you have read a story published by a national daily where the Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Lagos State, Rt. Rev. Dr. S.T.V Adegbite was quoted as saying ‘God will punish us, if we don’t support Tinubu – Lagos CAN.’
“I can reliably inform you that this headline is not only misleading but totally out of context. This is not a damage control but setting the records straight. “Clearly, the aforementioned was said in his personal capacity and premised on his wonderful relationship with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“He was not speaking on behalf of Christians or as the Chairman of CAN in Lagos.
“The Bishop is quite mindful of his position of trust as the leader of Christians in the State and would never speak loosely or anything close to that.
“The writer of the original story has promised to tell the story as it was gathered and this will be shared as soon as it is done.
“But please accept this as the fact and kindly ignore whatever was published in the media or what has been shared so far.”
The University of Benin (UniBen), Edo, Nigeria has been ranked 6th by the Times Higher Education (THE) in its latest World Universities rankings for Nigeria.
In the rating made available to Newmen on Monday in Benin by the university’s Public Relations Unit, the performance indicators were centred on the four areas of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
The rankings were also based on the analyses of over 15 million research publications and survey responses from approximately 40,000 scholars worldwide.
Reacting to the ranking, Dr Benedicta Ehanire, the Public Relations Officer of the institution, said: “This information has been well received by the University of Benin community as it serves as a confidence booster.
‘’The university is at the conclusion stage of securing international accreditation by the Quality Assurance Agency, United Kingdom.
“It is expected that the University of Benin will be the first to be so recognised among Nigerian universities.”
Ehanire added that with these developments, the institution was now positioned to significantly improve in its ranking in the next exercise
The Enugu Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested 12 bankers for suspected insider fraud in Enugu on Friday.
This was made public on the EFCC’s social media accounts on Saturday.
According to the commission, the suspects moved funds from dormant accounts in an old generation bank to a different account. There were different beneficiaries of the fraud, but the EFCC claimed to have identified the principal beneficiary.
“Preliminary investigations showed that the suspects allegedly stole funds from some dormant accounts in a branch of an old generation bank in Enugu.
“The stolen funds were transferred from the dormant accounts to various beneficiaries, with the principal beneficiary already identified by the EFCC.”
Investigations are still ongoing, the EFCC said, adding that the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations were completed.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), in Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi (JOSTUM) on Monday said their offices are not safe for immediate habitation as reptiles have taken over them.
Chairman of ASUU JOSTUM, Prof. Ameh Ejembi, who spoke to journalists in Makurdi, noted that the congress met earlier on Monday to review its NEC directive for the suspension of the eight-month-old strike embarked by the union and that they resolved to resume work immediately.
Ejembi, “I directed everybody to go to their offices except that the offices are not too healthy for us. There are lots of reptiles in our private offices and laboratories because of the long abandonment and the flood as we are close to the river.
“We have already written to the Vice-Chancellor of the institution to please fumigate the environment as quickly as possible so that people can settle down and feel safe to work.
“Our strike is not like any other strike. For every assignment we ought to do, when we come back that will be the first point we will start with. We had finished exams for the first semester so I have directed our members to mark and submit their work on time.
“But, we are appealing that the government should understand that these people have been out of salary for eight months so for them to be able to come back to work effectively, we should be able to show some goodwill so that the people can be empowered.”
Similarly, the Chairman of ASUU in Benue State University (BSU), Dr Tarnongo Kwaghfan, said that the chapter after congress on Monday morning suspended the strike.
“ASUU did not call off the strike, we suspend it because we are dealing with people who are not honourable and you always have a pinch of salt when dealing with them. What that means is that the university will resume and lecturers will go back to work.
“We are expecting that the government should do the needful so that we avoid these unnecessary breaks in the educational system at the tertiary level. Now, there would be no rest for lecturers and no rest for students. We need to catch up with issues we left behind,” Kwaghfan posited.
Barely 24-hours after the National Executive Council of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, announced the suspension of its eight-month-old strike, a Professor at the department of Educational Foundations and Counselling, Obafemi Awolowo University, Bamidele Faleye, was reported dead.
The professor who died on Saturday, October 15, 2022, was a member of the OAU chapter of ASUU.
Announcing his death in a statement which announced the suspension of the local strike by the OAU ASUU, the branch chairman, Dr Adeola Egbedokun, noted that the branch congress held prayers in his honour.
“The chairman announced the saddened demise of Professor Bamidele Faleye of the Department of Educational Foundations and Counselling who died on Saturday, October 15, 2022. Congress observed a minute silence in his honour and was led in prayer sessions. Professor Abel Afon led the prayer in a Christian way while Dr Saheed Adekilekun led the prayer in an Islamic way.
“The chairman gave a report of the NEC meeting that was held on Wednesday/Thursday. The main highlight of the report was the suspension of the eight-month-old strike action embarked upon by the union to press home demands for a decent work environment and a better welfare package for its members.
“Congress noted the actions of the Minister of Labour to ensure the proscription of ASUU which eventually amounted to nullity. The Congress also noted that the strike was suspended in obedience to the Court of Appeal order.
Furthermore, Congress commended the resoluteness and doggedness of the Principal Officers of the union during the period of the struggle.
“NEC has approved the suspension of ASUU OAU local strike that was declared on January 31, 2022, to demand payment from the previous University Administration. Congress noted the need to consider the plight of our members, respect the interest of our students and the need to honour the new Vice-Chancellor.
“NEC has approved November 16, 2022, as the election date for ASUU OAU.
However, Congress resolved to uphold the suspension of both the national and local strike actions as directed by NEC, adding, “the suspension of the strike was officially pronounced at the ASUU OAU Congress held on Monday, October 17, 2022, at exactly 12:27 pm.
