The Nation Newspaper

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  • Tanker drivers block Lagos-Ibadan Expressway for 13 hours

    Tanker drivers block Lagos-Ibadan Expressway for 13 hours

    Tanker drivers blocked the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at Ogere-Remo at 11pm on Wednesday, leaving commuters stranded for about 13 hours.

    They were protesting the alleged unprovoked attack on a tanker by a policeman.

    It was gathered that some policemen shot the three tyres of a tanker, marked JIGAWA XC 405 DUT, which was loaded with fuel.

    Ogun police spokesman Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi said: “We understand that a policeman attached to a VIP shot at the tyres of a fuel tanker. I am telling you authoritatively that the policeman is not from the Ogun Command.

    “In their usual manner, other drivers blocked the road to show solidarity. The police, led by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abdulkadir, swung into action immediately.

    “We engaged them in negotiations and they have agreed to take their tankers off the road as you can observe now.”

    Adejobi said the command gathered that the policeman and the person he was escorting were coming from Lagos when the incident occurred.

    As at the time of filing this report, the tanker, whose tyres were deflated, was still blocking Lagos-Ibadan lane.

    Other tankers drivers were already removing their trucks from the Ibadan-Lagos lane.

    One of the tanker drivers, who pleaded for anonymity, said: “It will take a lot of time to fix even one tyre, because of the fuel in the tanker.”

    Ogun Sector Commander of the Federal road Safety Corps (FRSC) Mr. Ayobami Omiyale said he had instructed motorists on both axis to make use of alternative routes.

    Ayobami led FRSC officers in controlling traffic when the Ibadan-Lagos lane was opened at about 11:20am.

  • Suswam’s Wife enlivens flood victims’ camps

    Suswam’s Wife enlivens flood victims’ camps

    As in other parts of the country, flood-induced misery has also been the lot of some residents of Benue State. But the wife of the state governor, Yemisi Suswam, has been working hard to lift their spirits.

    She visited them. She danced with them. She also came with food. The gesture put a smile on the faces of the displaced people.

    The floods have forced over 4,000 people including children from their homes, and have been sheltering in three primary schools in the metropolis.

    Apart from bringing bags of rice, oil, soaps and toiletries, she shared what she brought with them, giving the people a sense of belonging.

    For instance, she came with a large cake which she cut and distributed to the people.

    In her brief remarks, the wife of the governor urged the children to be strong and trust in God that very soon, they would return to their homes, adding that the flood was one of the natural disasters which were unexpected.

    She assured them that Benue State government would do everything possible to ensure their comfort in the camps.

    Mrs Suswam also assured them that government would provide basic neccesities of life like food, clothes; mattresses and medical services for them.

    A popular comedian entertained the children, keeping them singing and dancing with the wife of the governor.

  • APGA crisis: NJC queries Enugu CJ

    THE National Judicial Council (NJC) has queried the Chief Judge (CJ) of Enugu State, Justice Innocent Umezulike, for his conduct in a suit between Ichie Jude Okuli and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh.

    Umezulike was given a month to answer to the query, which was dated October 4 and signed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and NJC Chairman, Aloma Mariam Muktar.

    It reads: “I forward herewith a petition dated September 21 by Chief Sir Victor Umeh, APGA National Chairman, on the above subject matter. The petition is self-explanatory. I shall be glad to have your comments within one month from the date of receipt of this letter, please.”

    A complaint Umeh reportedly lodged with the NJC reportedly prompted the petition.

    The APGA chairman was said to have complained about an abuse of due process by the Chief Judge.

    He also reportedly accused Justice Umezulike of erring in his handling of the case, especially by refusing to rule on the preliminary objection which he brought before the court, and was duly argued by both counsel.

    Umeh reportedly told the NJC that the Chief Judge extended the ex-parte order he made against him on July 25 by extra 48 days.

    The petition reads: “By July 31, the CJ took full arguments on notice of preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the case. The CJ adjourned the matter to September 17 for a rendition of the considered ruling of the court on the notice of preliminary objection

    “In adjourning the matter, the CJ stated that ‘if this court accedes to the contentions of the defendants/applicants on any of the above issues, this suit shall legitimately come to an end …In the event, I shall adjourn the case for a considered ruling on the merits. In the circumstances, the interim order of this court shall endure against the parties and against the convention of any APGA Executive Committee Meetings as stated under the order until the court’s rendition of a ruling which I now fixed for September 20,” Umeh said.

    He, however, regretted that on the 17th September when the ruling ought to have been delivered by the Chief Judge, to the amazement of the people who gathered in court, the Chief Judge declared that he has remanded his ruling and would instead hear the main suit and deliver judgment on the preliminary objection and the main suit together.

    The direction taken by the court, Umeh said, has exposed the Chief Judge as being desperate to get into the main matter and deliver judgement against him, knowing that the notice of preliminary objection was strong enough to have legitimately terminated the suit, being grossly incompetent as APGA was not made a party.

    The APGA Chairman noted that in his letter of 19th September 2012 to the Chief Judge, he requested for the Transfer/Re-assignment of the case to another judge”, and informed the Chief Judge that he no longer has confidence in obtaining justice in his court, being reasonably satisfied that he is biased, compromised and was intent on causing mischief for their dear party, APGA.

  • 320,000 jobs coming yearly, says Okonjo-Iweala

    IF the words of Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala are anything to go by, the Federal Government would create 320,000 jobs, beginning from next year.

    The figure is a far-cry from the government’s initial plan to provide one million employment opportunities every year.

    Dr. Okonjo-Iweala said the 320,000-job proposal has been built into the 2013 Appropriation Bill.

    According to her, the government is going about the job creation in two ways.

    She said: “We are approaching the issue of jobs in two ways; the first way is diversification of the economy by encouraging agriculture and solid minerals development, housing and construction”.

    Her words: “We are embarking on some programmes that were launched by Mr. President for youths, women and people with disabilities. We are expected to create 370,000 jobs through that.”

    Defending the proposed vote to security, the minister said adequate security would stimulate economic development.

    According to her, the government “amalgamated all the budget allocations to all the security agencies. We are putting together the votes fo the police, defence, intelligence agencies, border patrol and immigration.

    “The vote covers every agency that has something to do with security. That is why their is a substantial vote for security in the proposal.

    “We have continued to pay attention to security as being demostarted by Mr. President. Without security, development would be difficult. We have to secure the nation first. Securing the nation in one way also includes economic empowerment.”

    Also defending the budget, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’ s Minister of State, Yerima Lawal Ngama said: “If you look at security, the budget of the police covers the payment of salaries and the provision of operational equipment. So, it is mostly reoccurring expenditures. That of the ministries of works and power is mostly capital expenditure.”

  • How to control HIV/AIDS’

    Farmers screened, sensitised

     

    Former chairman, National Agency for the Contriol of AIDS (NACA), Prof Shehu Umaru has recommended existing testing, treatment and prevention tools for the control of HIV and AIDS.

    Speaking at this year’s Faculty Day Lecture of the National Post-Graduate Medical College of Nigeria, entitled: The Challenge of HIV/ AIDS in Nigeria.

    Shehu said strengthening research capabilities in behavioural communications, prevention and treatment programmes and care, would go a long way in curbing the disease.

    “Strengthening the integration of HIV services with other health programmes including sexual and reproductive health, maternal and child health, TB, malaria and health systems; promoting task sharing or task shifting towards addressing health human resource gaps to ensure that other cadres of health care workers, especially nurses can provide some services usually provided by doctors to people living with HIV (PLWH) will help to reduce, if not stop, the spread of the disease,” he added.

    On the part of the government and relevant partners, Shehu said they should review the supply chain management system and come up with an effective central supply chain management system that will reduce, if not totally, eliminate stock outs and wastage of HIV commodities.

    “For PLWH and those affected by AIDS and vulnerable children, there should be comprehensive care and support by developing policies and guidelines that can promote a minimum package and standards acceptable at all levels throughout Nigeria,” he said.

    Counselling, he stated, is a key entry point for prevention, treatment and care investment for people living with HIV which lies in creating awareness that can be instrumental in improving access to care, protecting sexual partners and preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS thereby reducing risky sexual behaviour generally.

    Minister of State for Health, Dr. Mohammed Ali Pate, said HIV/AIDS is a public health problem across the world with its attendant health, social and economic implication on the development of the country.

    He said the disease affects the society, including the women and children, who are regarded as the vulnerable group and the reproductive and productive segments of the society.

    Pate, represented by the Director-General, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Prof. Innocent Ujah, said HIV/AIDS not only causes untold psychological and financial hardship on the families but also affects the resources of developing countries, including Nigeria.

    He said the promotion of behaviour communication, community involvement and participation, HIV counselling and testing and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) will help to prevent and control the spread of HIV/AIDS.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • ‘Poverty, corruption, police abuse caused militancy’

    poverty, corruption, police abuse and impunity have created a fertile ground for militancy in Nigeria, the Human Rights Watch has said.

    The group said the Boko Haram insurgence had claimed 2,800 lives since it started in 2009.

    Its African Director, Daniel Bekele, urged the Federal Government to bring to justice Boko Haram members and security agents who have committed these heinous crimes.

    Bekele spoke yesterday at the launch of a report in Lagos on the crime committed by the fundamentalist group.

    The 98-page report, “Spiraling Violence: Boko Haram Attacks and Security Force Abuses in Nigeria,” indicted security forces, which it claimed engaged in numerous abuses, including extra-judicial killings.

    The report, the group said, is based on a field research conducted between July 2010 and July, and media reports on Boko Haram attacks and statements since 2009.

    It said the Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed 135 people, including 91 witnesses and victims as well as lawyers, civil society groups’ leaders, government officials, and senior military and police personnel.

    The report said in the first nine months of this year, more than 815 people died in some 275 suspected attacks by the group – more than in 2010 and 2011 combined.

    The group said Boko Haram has targeted police and other government security agents, Christians and Muslims working for or accused of cooperating with the government.

    It noted that the group has also bombed newspaper offices and the United Nations building in Abuja; attacked bars and robbed banks and burned down schools.

    Quoting media reports in Nigeria, the group said 211 police officers have been killed in these attacks.

  • Vice Chancellors to Jonathan: monitor disbursements

    Through its chairman, Professor Ishaq Oloyede the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNV), yesterday applauded President Goodluck Jonathan for according education a topmost attention in next year’s Budget.

    He however, urged the President to measure success through achievements and not money spent.

    Oloyede spoke in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, shortly after delivering the 116th inaugural lecture of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN).

    The professor of Islamic jurisprudence, who is also the outgoing vice chancellor of UNILORIN said: “I want to congratulate Mr. President for devoting the chunk of 2013 budget on education. He has justified that he had a Ph.D and when somebody has a Ph.D as president there must be a difference. That is one aspect, the other aspect is that I advise him to stop measuring our success by money spent, success should be by achievement.

    “A situation where we say we have spent X on Y makes the public disillusioned as they are not in position to know. The fact of the matter is for the President to be talking in concrete terms of what he has achieved.

    “I think the language of our public officers is also a problem engendering mistrust between the government and the people. Most of them in a bid to satisfy the president they are making a negative thing out of him. This issue of attributing everything to him is what is making the press ascribe all negatives to him. That gives the impression that anything he does not do is not done.”

  • Rights group hails verdict on HIV discrimination

    A human rights group, the Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC,) yesterday praised a Lagos High Court, sitting in Ikeja, for declaring as illegal the sacking of Mrs Georgina Ahamefule by her employer for being HIV-positive.

    Justice Yetunde Idowu delivered the judgment on September 27 in the first ever HIV discrimination lawsuit filed against Imperial Medical Centre and Dr Alex Molokwu.

    The plaintiff joined the hospital as an auxiliary nurse in 1989. In 1995, while she was pregnant, she developed boils on her skin and allegedly sought medical help from Dr Molokwu.

    He was said to have examined her, but did not disclose the outcome of the tests. Instead, he referred her to another doctor with a note in a sealed envelope. Again, she was not told the outcome of the second test. She subsequently learnt of her HIV-positive status.

    Dr Molokwu allegedly terminated her appointment on the ground of her status, saying in the sack letter that the hospital could not compromise its facility or its patients by exposing them to risks associated with HIV.

    She was said to have been given a letter recommending her for employment in other medical facilities. The plaintiff even had a miscarriage, which was evacuated at another hospital.

    On her behalf, SERAC filed an action, seeking a declaration, among others, that her dismissal was unlawful.

    In her judgment, Justice Idowu held that the purported termination of Mrs Amamefule’s employment is illegal, unlawful and “actuated by malice and extreme bad faith.”

    She declared that the defendants’ action in subjecting the plaintiff to HIV tests without her consent constitutes an “unlawful battery on her.”

    The judge added that not affording the plaintiff’s pre-test and post-test counselling constitutes an unlawful negligence of a professional duty to her.

    Denying Mrs Ahamefule medical care, the judge said, constitutes “a flagrant violation of the right to health.”

    She awarded the plaintiff N5million general damages for wrongful termination of her appointment, and N2milllion as compensation for unlawful conduct of HIV test on her without her permission.

    SERAC’s Executive Director, Mr Felix Morka, at a press briefing yesterday, said the judgment represents a major victory for the plaintiff and for all those living with HIV in the country, adding that it is triumph of justice over illegality and unfairness.

    “The N7million awarded against Dr Molokwu and the Imperial Medical Centre sends a strong signal that this kind of unjustifiable and unlawful discrimination against people living with HIV will no longer be tolerated,” he said.

    Meanwhile, Lagos State government has begun criminal proceedings against Dr Molokwu and Shamsudeen Aileru, a clerk in the law firm of Prof Abraham Adesanya (SAN).

    They were arraigned for aleged perjury and conspiracy to commit felony after Aileru allegedly deposed to an affidavit on oath that Mrs Ahamefule had died in her hometown.

    In another development, SERAC said it has filed a petition at the World Bank Inspection Panel to challenge the continued implementation of the Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project (LMDGP) at the Makoko/Iwaya Waterfront Community.

    It said “illegal” demolition of the Makoko community and burning down of houses of residents of the Ijora Badia community on March 6, “are an egregious violation of the human rights of the residents of the communities.”

    “Notwithstanding its contractual commitments under LMDGP and its legal obligations to respect the human rights of all citizens under the Constitution and International Law, the Lagos State Government has continued to treat residents of these impoverished communities as expendables,” SERAC said.

     

  • Abia Varsity closed as students protest

    The final year students of Abia State University (ABSU), Uturu, have protested the authorities’ decision to stop them from taking the final examinations if they do not pay their school fees.

    The univeristy’s authorities reportedly stopped the final year students from writing the examinations unless they complete their school fees.

    It said many students had failed to pay after taking the examinations, leading to loss of revenue.

    The protest led to the indefinite closure of the institution.

    The management said this was to stop the students from destroying the property, as they had done previously over similar matters.

    In a statement by the Registrar, Earnest Onuoha, the Senate, at its 192nd regular meeting, resolved that only final students, who had paid their fees in full should be allowed to write the examinations.

    The statement reads: “No student owing school fees would be allowed to write the second semester examinations due to begin on Tuesday, October 9, and any examination missed on account of non-payment of outstanding fees would be treated as having failed the examination.

    The affected students would carry the failed courses over to the next academic session and any staff on invigilation duties, who allows a debtor-student to write any examination, would be sanctioned”.

    Following the protest and destruction of property, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Chibuzo Ogbuagu, ordered that the school be closed.

    Onuoha said: “The Vice-Chancellor of Abia State University, Prof Chibuzo Ogbuagu, on behalf of the university’s Senate, has approved the immediate and indefinite closure of the university.”

    The students were advised to vacate the campus before 6pm last Wednesday.

    Speaking with The Nation, the Assistant Registrar (Media), Acho Elendu, said of about 20,000 students in the university, only 1,000 had paid their fees.

    This, he said, forced the university management to shift the examination date from October 3 to 9, “to enable them pay”.

    Elendu said the directive made the students to rush to the banks to try and pay their school fees, “but the number was not enough when one recalls that there are still many who have not paid and the school directed that only those who have paid should sit for the examination”.

    The Assistant Registrar (Media) explained that when the school fee was increased the VC did not allow the students to suffer and therefore set up, ‘work study programme’ with the aim to assist indigent students to work and pay their school fees.

    He said at the last count that about 60 students had been employed by the school authority as casual workers to help them pay their school

  • Child rights’ activists call for sex education

    ex education is necessary for the prevention of sexual molestation of children, child rights’ advocates have said.

    They called for the enlightenment of children on how to resist undue attention from others, especially adults.

    The activists spoke at a stakeholders’ meeting at the Office of the Public Defender (OPD), Lagos State Ministry of Justice.

    The forum, organised by the Child Protection Network (CPN) with OPD, saw members of the non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community leaders, and government agencies deliberating on issues and actions that would protect children in the state.

    OPD representative Mrs Folashade Bossman said: “Society has a duty to look out for young people and be at alert against child molestation.

    “We have a duty to identify traits of mental imbalance in a child from the cradle because he/she may grow up to become a menace to the society.”

    Child rights’ advocate Taiwo Akinlami, said children become vulnerable if their parents and guardians do not pay attention to them.

    CPN chairperson Mrs Ngozi Ekwerike-Okoro called for sex education to be extended to schools the grassroots.