The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Guber poll: Four governors in Ngige’s campaign team

    Guber poll: Four governors in Ngige’s campaign team

    Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State will lead the Governorship Campaign team of Sen. Chris Ngige in Anambra State.

    Other co-leaders of the campaign team are Governor of Edo State Adams; Oshiomole, Governor of Osun State; Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Governor of Nasarawa State; Alhaji Umaru Al-Makura.

    Sen. Osita Izunaso will serve as the Secretary of the Committee, while Chief George Muoghalu will be the Chairman of the campaign team.

    The National publicity Secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Sen. George Akume, Chief Tom Ikimi, Gen. Ahmed AbokiAbdullahi and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai will serve as members.

    The party’s national leadership will storm Anambra on Tuesday to inaugurate its national campaign committee for the election.

    Other members of the team are – Dr. AnyimNyerere, Madam Sharon Ikeazor, Abubakar Lado Suleja, OlisaemekaAkamukali, Mr. James Ocholi (SAN), Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, Abubakar Kari, Hon. Charles Odedo, Chief Uzoma-Igbonwa and Rt. Hon. Donatus Onyemena.

    Also in the team are members of Interim National Executive Committee from the South -East Zone, Hon. GozieAgbakoba, Barr. C.J Chinwuba, Hon. Chibuzor Obiakor, Eng. (Mrs) Constance Iloh and Dame Dozie Ikedife

     

     

  • Plea bargaining speeds up justice dispensation – Fashola

    Plea bargaining speeds up justice dispensation – Fashola

    Contrary to calls for the abolition of plea bargaining in the country criminal justice system, Lagos Governor, Babatunde Fashola, on Monday said the system aids speedy dispensation of justice.

    Fashola spoke at the Central Mosque, Lagos at a service to mark the commencement of 2013/2014 Legal Year in the state judiciary.

    Represented by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, the governor said plea bargaining was necessary especially in situations where prisons are congested.

    Fashola noted that nation’s judicial system relies on witnesses rather than forensic evidence, a development which he said makes it difficult to discard the plea bargain concept if cases are to be concluded on time.

    He called on all stakeholders in the justice system to get involved to avoid delay in the administration of justice.

    “Everybody must be involved if the administration of will not be delayed. They should comply with new court rules and ensure adherence to e-filing and the digitalisation of the judicial system.”

    While disclosing that about 100 litigants received legal aids from the state in the last legal year, Fashola urged lawyers to do more pro bono services with a view to assisting those who cannot afford the services of a lawyer.

    In his remarks, the National Education Secretary, Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, Prof. Tajudeen Gbadamosi , urged members of the legal profession not to allow their selfish interests to interfere with the dispensation of justice.

    Meanwhile at the Cathedral Church of Christ, where a simultaneous service was also held to mark the year, judges were urged to rise up and fight corruption in the country.

    The Bishop of Lagos, Rev. Adebayo Akinde, who decried the spate of corruption in the country admonished the judges to always have the fear of God in the discharge of their duties.

     

  • Court adjourns hearing on ‘My Pikin’ manufacturers’ appeal

    Court adjourns hearing on ‘My Pikin’ manufacturers’ appeal

    The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, on Monday, adjourned hearing in an appeal filed by two employees of Barewa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, challenging their conviction by a Federal High Court in Lagos.

    The appellants, Adeyemo Abiodun and Ebele Eromosele, were on May 17, sentenced to seven years imprisonment each, by the lower court, for the production and sale of a killer syrup, “My Pikin.”

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Appeal Court hearing of the case stalled, as the court had yet to resume its normal sitting.

    The court clerk, however, informed counsel representing the parties, that a later date will be communicated to them through hearing notices, once the court resumed normal activities.

    NAN recalls that the appellants were prosecuted by the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), before the lower court, on a six-count charge.

    The trial judge, Justice Okechukwu Okeke had convicted them on two counts of production and sale of the adulterated syrup, and had accordingly sentenced them to seven years concurrent jail terms.

    The judge had also ordered that the company be wound up, and its assets forfeited to the Federal Government.

     

     

  • Aviation contract: Absence of counsel stalls Borishade’s trial

    The absence of defence counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), on Monday stalled hearing in a suit filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission against a former Aviation Minister, Babalola Borishade and three others.

    At the resumed hearing, Counsel to the EFCC, Mr. Sebastian Hon, had told the court that Awomolo, who is the counsel to Timothy Dairo, a former personal assistant to Borisade, was absent in court.

    He told the court that he received a letter from Awomolo that he would be absent in court due to other matters.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that as a result of this, Justice Abubakar Umar, adjourned further hearing in the case to November 7.

    Borisade and Dairo are standing trial alongside Rowland Iyayi, a former Managing Director of the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency, and George Eider, an Australian, for the alleged mismanagement of N5.2 billion Aviation Safe Tower contract.

    They were arraigned on November 19, 2009 by the EFCC on a 15-count charge of taking bribe and forging aviation contract documents.

     

     

  • Gunfire, explosions rock Kenyan Mall

    Gunfire and explosions sounded on Monday from the Nairobi mall where militants from Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group threatened to kill hostages on the third day of a raid in which at least 68 have already died.

    Reuters journalists near the up market Westgate complex heard sporadic shots and also heavy bursts of rifle fire and muffled blasts on at least two occasions after daybreak.

    Kenyan troops moved around outside the building. A Kenyan Red Cross official, Abbas Guled, said there had been clashes inside the building.

    But there was no indications of the fate of people whom the authorities had said on Sunday were being held by 10 to 15 gunmen – and possibly women inside a large supermarket.

    An al Shabaab spokesman warned that the Islamists would kill hostages if Kenyan security forces, who were being assisted by Western and Israeli experts, tried to storm their position.

    “Israelis and Kenyan forces have tried to enter Westgate by force but they could not,” Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said in an audio statement posted online. “The mujahideen will kill the hostages if the enemies use force.”

    Security forces had secured most of the complex by Sunday, freeing many people who had hidden in terror. Though they hoped for a quick solution, rescuing those held will be difficult.

    Survivors’ tales of Saturday’s military-style lunchtime assault by squads of attackers hurling grenades and spraying automatic fire, has left little doubt the hostage-takers are willing to kill.

    Previous such raids around the world suggest they may also be ready to die with their captives.

     

     

  • Ajimobi dissolves cabinet

    Ajimobi dissolves cabinet

    The governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has dissolved the state executive council.

    According to a statement issued by the Director, Cabinet, Mr. Dotun Omokemi, the decision was taken after the state executive council meeting held on Monday.

    In the statement, Governor Ajimobi said there was the need to inject fresh blood into the administration, in the quest to serve the state better.

    The governor thanked the commissioners and Special Advisers who made up the executive council for their contributions so far and asked them to hand over to the Permanent Secretaries in their various ministries.

     

  • Gunmen kill policeman in Kano

    … Another wounded

    The Kano State Police Command on Monday confirmed the killing of a police corporal by gunmen in Kabuga area of Kano metropolis on Sunday night.

    The command’s Public Relations Officer, ASP Magaji Majiya, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano that some policemen were attacked in their patrol vehicle by the hoodlums around 7.52pm.

    ‘’One police corporal lost his life and another one had some bruises and the injured had been treated and discharged.’’

    According to him, the suspects who hid in the dark, opened fire on the vehicle soon after it reached the area.

    ‘’When our men responded, the gunmen took to their heels and escaped in the dark,’’ Majiya said.

    He said investigation had since begun while security was beefed up in the area to ensure the arrest of the hoodlums.

     

  • Ideye ends goals drought in Ukraine

    Ideye ends goals drought in Ukraine

    Nigeria international Brown Ideye scored his first league goal of the 10-week-old Ukraine Premier league on Sunday, MTNFootball.com reports.

    Ideye scored the only goal of the game, which gave Dynamo Kiev the maximum three points against Karpaty.

    The former Sochaux of France forward scored in the 84th minute, two minutes after he was thrown into the fray as a replacement for Sergiy Sydorchuk.

    The big forward, who scored a brace in Nigeria 4-1 drubbing of Burkina Faso in a friendly, has scored two goals this season for Dynamo Kiev in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers.

    He has played only four games in the league this season.

    Compatriot Lukman Haruna was not listed for the Karpaty game.

     

  • Merkel triumph in German election

    Merkel triumph in German election

    Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party has won Germany’s election, but finished just short of an absolute majority, official results show.

    Mrs. Merkel urged her party to celebrate “a super result” as she looked set for a historic third term.

    Her conservative bloc took about 41.5 per cent of the vote – but her liberal partners failed to make it into parliament, BBC reports.

    It is thought she is likely to seek a grand coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) who won 26 per cent.

    The results showed that the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) won only 4.8 per cent, which report says is a disaster for the junior coalition partner, leaving it with no national representation in parliament for the first time in Germany’s post-war history.

    Party chairman Philipp Roesler called it “the bitterest, saddest hour of the Free Democratic Party.”

    The FDP was beaten by the Green Party (8.4 per cent) and the former communist Left Party (8.6 per cent). It almost finished behind the new Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD), which advocates withdrawal from the euro currency and took 4.7 per cent, just short of the parliamentary threshold.

    There was at one point speculation that Mrs. Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister CSU might even win enough seats for an absolute majority – the first in half a century.

     

     

  • 2013 Africa economic report out Thursday

    The 2013 African Economic Outlook (AEO) Report will be launched at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on September 26 in Addis Ababa, a statement said.

    Notice of the launch is contained in a statement issued by the ECA Information and Communication Directorate in Addis Ababa on Sunday.

    The statement noted that the annual report is jointly produced by the Commission, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

    According to the statement, this year’s report, which has “Structural Transformation and Natural Resources’’ as its theme, shows that Africa’s economic growth has been resilient in the face of global head winds and regional shocks.

    It said the AEO 2013 provided medium-term projections on economic growth and selected macro-economic indicators covering 53 countries.

    The statement noted that only Somalia was not included in the study, which included a rich statistical annex.

    It highlighted the state of play in African countries with respect to structural transformation and what policy instruments needed to harness the continent’s diverse natural resources for more sustainable and inclusive growth.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that synopsis of country case studies showed the endowment of regional member countries in human and natural resources, which provided unique opportunities to foster structural transformation through close linkage with other sectors.

    The AEO Report had gained analytical rigour and readership since its inception, making it a hugely anticipated premier publication on Africa’s development prospects.