The Nation Newspaper

Category: News Update

  • Ondo gets new High Court judges

    The National Judicial Council in Abuja has approved the appointment of four new Judges for the Ondo State judiciary bringing to 21 the number of judges in the state.

    They are: the Chief registrar of the state High Court, Prince Aderemi Adegoroye, the deputy Chief Registrar 2 (DCR2) Mrs. Lara Adejumo, the Director of Civil Litigation in the state Ministry of Justice, Mr. Rotimi Olamide and Mr. Peter Ikujuni of the State High court in Okitipupa

    Briefing reporters at the opening ceremony of the 2012/2013 new Legal Year, the Chief Judge of the State, Justice Olasehinde Kumuyi said the NJC has approved the appointment of the new Judges.

    According to him, the addition of the four new judges to the seventeen judges on ground would fast track dispensation of justice in the state

    His words “We have 25 High Courts in Ondo State with 17 Judges. Now that we have four new Judges, they would occupy some of the remaining vacant courts.

    The new Judges would be sworn-in at a later date.

     

  • Oyerinde: DPP exonerates Ugolor, others

    Oyerinde: DPP exonerates Ugolor, others

    Security agencies might not have arrested the killers of the Private Secretary to Governor Adams Oshiomhole, Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde following the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions to the Oredo Magistrate Court.

    Chief Magistrate Francis Idiake had on August 31 ordered that the police case file on the suspects arrested in connection to the murder of late Oyerinde be sent to the DPP for advice.

    The DPP in a letter addressed to the Inspector General of Police and dated October 29 said two of the suspects, Danjuma Musa and Muritala Usman, have been in police custody since April 24 for unlawful possession of cartridges.

    It said FCID interrogated the suspects who later confessed to the murder of Olaitan that took place on May 4.

    This, it said was “evidently incongruous.”

    The DPP in the letter signed by Ade Irehovbude said the cut to size gun and one cartridge the suspects confirmed was used for the operation at Olaitan’s residence was recovered on April 24 by the Esigie Police Division.

    The letter said, “This is alleged to be a weapon used during the robbery incident that took place on May 4, 2012. Another incongruity. Could a weapon recovered and in possession of the police be confirmed by suspects to have been used for the commission of the offence?”

    The DPP, however, advised that a prima facie case of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and murder be made against Garba Usman Maismari, Auta Umaru Ali, Moses Asamah Okoro and Usman Adamu who confessed to the crime.

    It also said a prima facie case of receiving stolen property be made against Hassan Aliyu Babete and Idris Adulhamid who both made confessional statements.

    On Rev. David Ugolor, the DPP said no prima facie is made against him and ordered him to be released if still in custody.

    It said the confession of an accused person was not admissible evidence against a co-accused.

    Responding, Rev Ugolor said the police had no reason for arresting him apart from Maismari’s evidence which was used to frame him up.

    He said, “We have come to a glorious end of the battle to enthrone justice in my case and I thank God almighty who used great citizens to fight oppression in this country.

     

  • ‘UK, Nigeria trading relationship up by $5.4bn’

    ‘UK, Nigeria trading relationship up by $5.4bn’

    The British Deputy High Commission, Mr. Mike Purves, on Thursday said the trading relationship between United Kingdom and Nigeria went up from $4.5 billion in 2010 to $5.4 billion in 2011.

    Purves said this during the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) Day celebration at the ongoing Lagos International Trade Fair.

    He said UK commercial trading with Nigeria was 74 per cent between 2010 and 2011.

    “It is interesting to note that the trade balance was in favour of Nigeria and not in favour of UK.

    “So is very clear that this relationship is of a mutual benefit and since then it had gone up from $4.5 billion to $5.4 billion so we are on the right track,” he said.

    Purves said that the two countries needed to increase and to surpass the commercial trading activities recorded 2011.

    According to him, UK investments in Nigeria and trading relationship is not a one sided relationship, noting that the commission was working to double UK-Nigeria bilateral trade relationship in 2014.

    The NBCC President, Mr. Emeka Awagu, said the chamber was working hard to strengthen the trade relationship between the two countries.

    According to him, the chamber promotes private sector investment between Nigeria and Britain as well as intervenes on policy issue that affects its members.

    The LCCI President, Mr. Goodie Ibru, commended the NBCC participation at the fairs over the years.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that 2012 Lagos International Trade Fair started on November 2 and will end on November 11.

    The theme of the fair was “Promoting Trade for Sustainable Economic Transformation.”

     

  • Policeman loses four children to inferno

    A police corporal, Jeremiah Yusuf, lost four children in a fire incident at Tudun-wada Quarters of Gusau, Zamfara, on Wednesday.

    Yusuf told the News Agency of Nigeria at a neighbour’s house where he was receiving sympathisers, that “I watched all my children burn helplessly before me and I could not do anything to save them.”

    Yusuf explained that he became aware of the incident at about 1am when his sister-in-law, rushed into his bedroom shouting that the four-bedroom house was on fire.

    “When I woke up I noticed that even the mattress that I was lying on had also caught fire and that was when I thought of my children, who were all sleeping in the same room,’’ he said.

    The bereaved corporal said that before he could do anything the ceiling had caved in and killed them.

    He said that his wife had travelled to Benue with his last son, adding that she been informed of the incident.

    The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Hassan Atto, urged Yusuf during a condolence visit to consider the tragedy as an act of God.

    Atto promised that the State Government would assist him to cushion the effects of the loss.

    The SSG said the government would reposition the Fire Service to meet eventualities, especially “as we enter into harmattan.”

    Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Usman Gwary, and the Divisional Police Officer of Tudun-wada Police Station, Abubakar Shika, had paid their condolence visits to the bereaved corporal.

     

  • ICC prosecutor moves against amnesty for Libyan war crimes

    ICC prosecutor moves against amnesty for Libyan war crimes

    Libya should not grant amnesty for war crimes committed during last year’s uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, regardless of who committed them, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said on Wednesday.

    In her first official presentation to the United Nations Security Council as The Hague-based court’s top prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda said that the ICC’s pre-trial chamber would decide “in due course” on whether the late Libyan leader’s son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi should be tried in Libya or The Hague.

    Bensouda recalled the Libyan authorities’ stated commitment to ensuring that there would be no impunity for crimes committed during the fight to overthrow Gaddafi, who was captured and killed by rebels in October 2011 after a half-year civil war.

    She pointed to a recently approved Libyan law that raises the possibility of amnesty for “acts made necessary by the February 17 revolution,” apparently creating the possibility of not prosecuting crimes committed by anti-Gaddafi fighters.

    “I encourage the new Libyan government, scheduled to be sworn in on Thursday to ensure that there is no amnesty for international crimes and no impunity for crimes, regardless of who the perpetrator is and who is the victim,” Reuters quoted the ICC prosecutor as saying to the 15-nation council.

    Bensouda said she understood that the Libyan government has committed itself to a strategy of addressing all crimes committed in the country.

    “I encourage the government of Libya to make this strategy public, and to work with key partners to receive feedback on this strategy and to seek out the views and concerns of victims in Libya. Early finalization of this strategy will be yet another milestone on Libya’s path to democracy and rule of law.”

    Richard Dicker, an international law expert at Human Rights Watch, welcomed Bensouda’s remarks on the Libyan amnesty law, which he described as “an affront to victims of serious crimes and a flagrant violation … of Libya’s responsibilities.”

     

  • Elder statesman Hope Harriman is dead

    Elder statesman Hope Harriman is dead

    Elder statesman Chief Hope   Harriman is dead.

    He died on Wednesday night in the United States at 79 after a brief illness.

    Harriman, a consummate chartered surveyor and estate valuer was  the principal partner and chairman of Harriman and Company.

    He was a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and one time President of the Nigeria Institute of Surveyors and Valuers.

     

  • Buhari rejects Boko Haram’s mediation offer

    Buhari rejects Boko Haram’s mediation offer

    Says, ‘I don’t know any Boko Haram member and can’t negotiate for FG’

    Former Head of State, General Mohammadu Buhari, on Wednesday broke his silence and said he did not know any Boko Haram member and can never mediate between the sect and Federal Government.

    Buhari was last week picked by the Boko Haram alongside other northern leaders to intercede between the sect and government.

    He said the government lacks the will to deal with the sect even with the military, police, other security operatives and the resources in the country.

    The Congress for Progressive Change leader, who spoke to journalists at the party’s Board Of Trustee (BOT) meeting that lasted over five hours in Abuja, expressed disappointment over what he described as plans by the People Democratic Party government to indict and nail him.

    He said: “My party has done an excellent job unless you do not want to believe in what my party believes. Firstly I do not know any member of the Boko Haram sect. I do not believe and I do not know of any religion that will go and kill people, burn schools.”

     

     

  • Boko Haram: Why Nigeria, ECOWAS will intervene in Mali – Minister

    Boko Haram: Why Nigeria, ECOWAS will intervene in Mali – Minister

    The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, said Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will intervene in Mali because of the security challenge facing the nation through Boko Haram insurgency.

    He also said there is no going back in implementing the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2071 for military and other intervention and assistance to Mali.

    Ashiru made the disclosures in a position paper on the current situation in the Sahel and West Africa at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos.

    In the paper, which was released to the press in Abuja, minister said Nigeria will however not accept the partition of Mali or imposition of an Islamic State.

    He said: “One of the major challenges facing Nigeria today is security. The menace of Boko Haram and its links to other terrorist organisations in Africa such as Al-Qaida in the Maghreb (AQIM) has demonstrated to us in the Nigeria the nexus between domestic situation and foreign policy.

    “It has shown that peace and security of the sub-region is tied to peace and stability in Nigeria. This is why the Federal Government has taken a keen interest in the situation in West Africa beginning with Nigeria’s historic engagements in the restoration of peace in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and now, Mali.

    “Neither Nigeria nor ECOWAS has jettisoned the principle of unconstitutional change of Government. On the country, it was that same principle that informed our unequivocal condemnation of the coup and our intervention is ensuring that the military junta in Bamako handed over to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Diancounda Traore as the Interim President under the Framework Agreement that was first hammered out in Abuja under my watch.

    “ECOWAS has continued to push for the implementation of the Peace Agreement, despite continued challenges. Indeed, an Extra-ordinary Summit of ECOWAS on Mali is scheduled to hold in Abuja in the next few days.

    “This is coming on the heels of the adoption of the UNSC Resolution (2071), which has provided the needed backing for military and other intervention and assistance to Mali. Let me assure this audience that ECOWAS is working hard to respond adequately to this Resolution.

    “In the same vein, the so-called serious dispute between ECOWAS and Bamako appears to have been exaggerated. Mali had since formally requested ECOWAS to deploy its forces to Northern Mali.

    “The issue of support for the military junta by the Malian people had also been raised, but this is no reason to encourage military, unconstitutional change of government, which the AU had adopted as a sacred principle.”

     

  • Senate asks CJN to swear in dropped A/ Court nominee

    Senate asks CJN to swear in dropped A/ Court nominee

    The Senate on Wednesday called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Maryam Muktar, to swear in Justice Ifeoma Jombo-Ofo as a judge of the Court of Appeal forthwith.

    Jombo-Ofo was dropped from the list of judges sworn in by the CJN on Monday on the grounds that she was not from Abia State even though she is married to a man from that state.

    The Senate’s resolution followed a motion by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

    He said that Jombo-Ofo was nominated a judge of the Court of Appeal by the National Judicial Council (NJC) having gone through the due process.

    Ekweremadu noted that Muktar, who refused to administer the oath of office on Jombo-Ofo, was the same person who presided over the processes that cleared her.

    He said it was surprising that Jombo-Ofo was denied the oath even though the 11 other judges were sworn in.

    “The practical implication of the decision of the CJN is that Nigerian women have lost all they have struggled for over the years and Nigeria will be taken 100 years back.

    “It also shows that once a woman is married outside her community, local government area or state, she cannot aspire to any position (appointive or elective) in her husband’s community.

    “It is also very unlikely that she will secure such position in her place of origin since she has been married out,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted Ekweremadu as saying on the issue.

    In his contribution, the Leader of the Senate, Sen. Victor Ndoma-Egba, noted that this was a bad development for women, particularly at a time when a woman was the CJN.

    According to Ndoma-Egba, the implication of this is that rather than being on the part of progress, the country is retrogressing.

    “Once upon a time in this nation, we had Kalu Anya as the Chief Judge of Borno State, a Yoruba man was Attorney- General of Borno and the then Secretary to the State Government was also a non-indigene.

    “Today, three decades after, we are being told that an Igbo woman will not have opportunity in another part of Igbo land. I think we are retrogressing,’’ Ndoma- Egba said.

     

  • Keshi lists Mikel, 10 others for Venezuela tie

    Keshi lists Mikel, 10 others for Venezuela tie

    Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, has called up 11 foreign-based players led by Mikel Obi for next week’s friendly against Venezuela in Miami, United States, MTNFootball.com reports.

    Keshi will also name 15 players from the Nigeria Premier League for this match, which forms part of the country’s build-up for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.

    Besides Chelsea midfielder Mikel, other foreign-based players in the squad are – Newcastle United striker Shola Ameobi, who was cleared to play for Nigeria last year alongside Victor Moses after a long-drawn process.

    Ameobi gets his first call and battles for a place upfront with Moses, Ukraine-based Brown Ideye and Obafemi Martins, among others.

     

    Invited foreign-based players:

     

    Goalkeeper: Austin Ejide (Hapoel Be’er Sheva, Israel)

    Defenders: Elderson Echiejile (FC Braga, Portugal); Onyekachi Apam (Rennes, France)

    Midfielders: Mikel Obi (Chelsea, England); Nosa Igiebor (Real Betis, Spain); Ogenyi Onazi (SS Lazio, Italy); Raheem Lawal (Adana Demirspor, Turkey)

    Forwards: Brown Ideye (Dynamo Kiev, Ukraine); Victor Moses (Chelsea, England); Shola Ameobi (Newcastle United, England); Obafemi Martins (Levante FC, Spain)