Author: Vreporters

The Director, Press and Public Relations of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Eddy Megwa, has said that the Minister of Arts and Culture, Mrs Hannatu Musawa, who is currently doing her one-year youth service is occupying the ministerial position in breach of the NYSC Act.

Speaking with our reporter over the phone, Megwa confirmed that the minister had been serving for the past eight months in the FCT.

He explained that it was against the NYSC Act for any corps member to pick up any government appointment until the one-year service was over.

He said Mrs Musawa was originally mobilised in 2001 for the youth service to Ebonyi State where she had her orientation programme but later relocated to Kaduna State to continue the programme.

He said it was when she got to Kaduna that she absconded and didn’t complete the programme.

Megwa noted that the scheme would look into the issue and take action where necessary.

Lawyers react

Reacting, Abeny Mohammed (SAN) said the action was a breach of the NYSC Act which stated that nobody would be legally employed or offer themselves for employment without doing the service and presenting the certificate or would have been exempted and had the certificate of exemption.

Mohammed said, “The situation we have at hand is that this person is still serving as a corper and she has been appointed a minister. It shows the inconsistency in our policies and disregard for our laws.”

Similarly, Femi Falana (SAN) said it was a violation of the law for anybody to still be serving in the NYSC and accept a ministerial appointment.

In a statement titled: “A Youth Corps Member is not Competent to be a Minister in Nigeria”, Falana said by virtue of Section 2 of the NYSC Act every citizen who graduated from any tertiary institution in and outside Nigeria and was not 30 years old shall be mobilised for the one-year compulsory national youth service, while any person above 30 was not eligible to participate in the service.”

The Director, Press and Public Relations of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Eddy Megwa, has said that the Minister of Arts and Culture, Mrs Hannatu Musawa, who is currently doing her one-year youth service is occupying the ministerial position in breach of the NYSC Act.

Speaking with our reporter over the phone, Megwa confirmed that the minister had been serving for the past eight months in the FCT.

He explained that it was against the NYSC Act for any corps member to pick up any government appointment until the one-year service was over.

He said Mrs Musawa was originally mobilised in 2001 for the youth service to Ebonyi State where she had her orientation programme but later relocated to Kaduna State to continue the programme.

He said it was when she got to Kaduna that she absconded and didn’t complete the programme.

Megwa noted that the scheme would look into the issue and take action where necessary.

Lawyers react

Reacting, Abeny Mohammed (SAN) said the action was a breach of the NYSC Act which stated that nobody would be legally employed or offer themselves for employment without doing the service and presenting the certificate or would have been exempted and had the certificate of exemption.

Mohammed said, “The situation we have at hand is that this person is still serving as a corper and she has been appointed a minister. It shows the inconsistency in our policies and disregard for our laws.”

Similarly, Femi Falana (SAN) said it was a violation of the law for anybody to still be serving in the NYSC and accept a ministerial appointment.

In a statement titled: “A Youth Corps Member is not Competent to be a Minister in Nigeria”, Falana said by virtue of Section 2 of the NYSC Act every citizen who graduated from any tertiary institution in and outside Nigeria and was not 30 years old shall be mobilised for the one-year compulsory national youth service, while any person above 30 was not eligible to participate in the service.”

The death of a 500-level student of the Federal University of Akure, FUTA, Ayomide Akeredolu, has led to paralysis of academic activities following a protest by students of the institution over the death of their colleague.

Akeredolu, was said to have slumped inside the hall of residence.

The deceased, who was planning to write his final exam, was immediately rushed to the institution’s health centre but gave up the ghost on arrival.

His death angered the students who mobilised to block the front of their school on the Akure/Ilesha express road for several hours.

They alleged that Akeredolu died due to the lack of basic amenities in the school’s health centre.

However, the protest forced commuters and motorists plying the expressed road to use alternative routes.

Speaking with Daily Trust, an eyewitness and student of the school who pleaded not to be mentioned, said, “He (Akeredolu) slumped while in his hostel at Akindeko Hall of residence and was rushed to the University Health Centre (a proposed University Teaching Hospital), due to the lack of basic amenities, he lost his life at the university clinic.

“We rushed him to the health centre around 8:30 pm, when we got there, there was a power outage, and throughout the oxygen set up, CPR and injections they gave him, the light wasn’t restored, we had to use our flashlights, it was also hard to believe that there is no backup power supply.

“Sequel to the incident, the health centre refused to attend to another student, a former FUTASU Vice President who was in a critical condition and needed emergency attention but because she wasn’t with her ID CARD, no one attended to her.”

But in a swift reaction, the institution’s management, which condoled with the family of the deceased, said Akeredolu was brought in dead.

The management, in a statement released by its Spokesman, Adegbenro Adebanjo, said it was important to point out that the protest was not directly related to the death of the student.

“He was brought in dead. Efforts to resuscitate him through Cardiopulmonary resuscitation and oxygen therapy proved abortive. He was subsequently taken to the UNIMED Teaching Hospital, Akure by the medical personnel on duty inside the University ambulance.”

“Understandably, his friends and colleagues are devastated by the sad Development. The management joins them in mourning at this very difficult time. Our thoughts and prayers are with our students and the bereaved family.

“It is important to point out that the protest was not directly related to the death of the student.

“The representatives of the students, at a meeting with Management called at the behest of the Vice Chancellor, pointed out some lacuna in the process of accessing services at the Health Centre. The Management in the course of the meeting directed that immediate remedial measures be taken to address the lacuna and other issues raised by the students.

“The corrective measures will be reviewed from time to time to ensure that they are being implemented to the letter,and satisfaction of the students.”

President Vladimir Putin of Russia has broken his silence on the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Wagner, a private military company.

Daily Trust had reported how Prigozhin died in a plane crash that resulted in the deaths of 10 people.

Prigozhin, who fought on the Russian side in the war against Ukraine, had rebelled against Putin in June.

Although the issue was later resolved, many had said Putin marked him for punishment, but the Russian leader looked away.

When news of Prigozhin’s death broke on Wednesday, there were conspiracy thoughts that Putin had a hand in it.

There were speculations that the aircraft in which the Wagner boss was flying at the time of the incident was brought down by Russian forces.

President Joe Biden of US had accused Putin of usually having a hand in unsavoury developments in and around Russia.

“I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised. here is not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind, but I don’t know enough to know the answer,” Biden told newsmen when asked to comment on the crash.

However, Putin has remained silent on the issue which caught global headlines.

But speaking at a meeting with head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, the Russian leader said Prigozhin was “a man of difficult fate, but talented.”

“Indeed, if there were [in the crashed plane], and the initial data seem to indicate that there were employees of the Wagner company.”

“I would like to note that these are people who have made a significant contribution to our common cause of fighting the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine. We remember this, we know and we will not forget.

“I have known Prigozhin for a very long time, since the early 1990s. He was a man of difficult fate, and he made serious mistakes in life, and achieved the desired results. Both for himself, and when I asked him about it for a common cause, as in these last months.

“He was a talented man, a talented businessman. He worked not only in our country, but also abroad, in Africa.

Putin said the Wagner chief had, as far as he knew, recently returned from Africa before the crash Wednesday.

Putin said that, based on preliminary information, “Wagner Group employees were also on board” the plane when it went down.

He sent his condolences to “the families of all the victims; this is always a tragedy.”

“There is no doubt here. Let’s see what the investigators say in the near future. And now examinations — technical examinations and genetic ones — are being carried out. This will take some time,” Putin added.

The National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Lagos has nullified the return of the Labour Party (LP) ’s candidate, Seyi Sowunmi as the House of Representatives member for Ojo Federal Constituency in Lagos State.

Instead, the three-man panel led by Justice Abdullahi Ozegya declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Lanre Ogunyemi, as the duly elected candidate of the election conducted on February 25, 2023.

The other members of the panel are Justice Ashu Ewah and Justice Muhammad Sambo.

Ogunyemi, a two-term state lawmaker and former secretary of the APC in Lagos, had challenged the declaration of Sowunmi by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the election on the grounds that the respondent was not duly sponsored and qualified to contest the elections under the candidacy of Labour Party for Ojo Federal Constituency.

In its judgment on the petition, the tribunal agreed with the petitioner that the candidate of the Labour Party was not qualified to contest the elections.

It, therefore, declared his votes wasted and held that the second runner up, APC’s Ogunyemi, ought to have been declared winner of Ojo Federal Constituency.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, says he did not buy a N300m Armoured Lexus car on assumption of office.

Wike, who spoke on Wednesday after his tour of the Abuja Light Rail, denied social media reports and challenged reporters to touch his car to confirm whether it was a bulletproof car or not.

The ex-governor of Rivers State said he has not had a meeting with officials of the FCT Administration let alone approve a car for himself.

He said, “We are now going to the office to have a direct report from each of the departments, but I have seen what is going on in the social media; how you (FCTA Permanent Secretary) bought a bulletproof car of N300m that I am using.

“So, I want you people to go hit your hand there (on the car) and see whether it is a treated car. With all due respect, people should be careful not to destroy other people.

“When I came, the Permanent Secretary said they have a car for us, and the car we use is this. I have never approved any car to be bought and I have not used an official bulletproof car.

“Whether I have cars as governor? Yes, as a governor, what do you expect I should have what? But, I am not using bulletproof car as FCT minister, so we should report the right thing, and not destroy ourselves.

“I want you to take a look at where you have the flag, and see whether it is a bulletproof car.”