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Tag: Bill

  • Sexual Offences Bill and the online mob

    In the past one week, I have been inundated with calls, emails and text messages from all over the world over some mystical issue called “age of consent” supposedly pegged at 11 years in a bill passed by the Nigerian National Assembly. What is amazing to me is that some of the people who have been furiously peddling this story are supposedly learned people. But for some reasons best known to them, they have failed to apply the usual rigor to check out their facts before broadcasting.

    I am not just amazed, I would say I am even amused that the furor is about a bill that I presented, something that has been in the works since the Sixth senate; has gone through the scrutiny of legal drafters; has passed through an intense public hearing with many judges, state attorneys general and law reform people participating. What is most intriguing is that with the exception of a few persons, others simply joined the wave, ranting and cursing on the web over something that they have no clarity on. And when I read a former Minister join up with utter banalities like: “the Senate has passed a law which makes it legal to have sex with an 11 year old child”, I was ashamed for the hecklers, worried for the young men and women out there who may be looking to such persons for example.

    Now what exactly did Senate do? It passed a bill to protect Nigerians big or small, male or female and especially the young and vulnerable persons—children, persons with mental disabilities, elderly persons– from all forms of Sexual offences. It is called “THE SEXUAL OFFENCES BILL 2015” and I am proud to have proposed it.

    Just recently, I read a story in one of the national dailies about a six year old girl who was first raped to death and then set ablaze. In the past, such stories would have been aberrations that would dominate news for weeks. But now, people hardly notice because they are common occurences. Nigerians have been numbed by horror. Many don’t feel anything anymore. The crimes that happen here are so horrendous they cry out to heavens. But no one listens.

    However, the Senate decided it is time to not just listen but act. It passed the 47 page landmark bill. On the two occasions that I have presented the bill, not one Senator opposed its spirit and intent. Infact, the Senate was so concerned this time around that it toughened some of the provisions and prescribed stiffer penalties while minimizing the gaps in our legal system which created room for dangerous offenders to get away with a slap in the wrist almost all the time.

    From clause 1 to 46, the bill comprehensively covers offences ranging from the common to the unknown: from rape, sexual assault, defilement, gang rape, child sex tourism, child prostitution and child pornography; incest by male and incest by female persons; to indecent exposure, sexual harassment, sexual offences related to positions of Authority, administering substance with intent to stupefy and overwhelm, deliberate transmission of HIV and any other life threatening sexually transmitted diseases.

    The bill updates laws passed as far back as 1945 and handed over to Nigeria by the Colonial Administration and brings them up to scratch with contemporary practice. It also includes some crimes that have not yet manifested in Nigeria but which we know will soon arrive because Nigeria is well hooked into the global village.

    The bill also introduces innovations to strengthen the practice and further protect the vulnerable such as supervision for dangerous offenders, disclosure of conviction of sexual offences, vulnerable witnesses protection, punishment for false allegation, admission of forensic evidence, and medical treatment orders for offenders etc.

    For the avoidance of any doubt, in the 47 page document, there is no where it states that 11 years is “the age of consent”. Infact, the bill passed by Senate makes no mention of 11 years. The whole noise and fury is a clear case of someone reading a legal document up-side down; choosing to retain a phrase in the draft which had been rejected and cancelled out during the final reading and then reading it totally out of context. It was a classical case of mischief or ignorance but here’s what Senate passed in reference to the Defilement of Children in clause 6 (2): “A PERSON WHO COMMITS AN OFFENCE OF DEFILEMENT SHALL UPON CONVICTION BE SENTENSED TO IMPRISONMENT FOR LIFE”.

    Nowhere did the issue of age come up. If that had happened, many of us would not have been party to that kind of law. Mercifully, The Sexual Offences Bill, as passed, does not deal with the definition of who is a child. That has already been done by established laws . However, in clause 6(3) it makes allusion to the age of 18 years as the terminal point of childhood when it talks of deception as defense. This conforms with section 29 of the constitution and the Child Rights Act.

    Given the foregoing facts, all the fire and brimstone rained by the online mob was about nothing and came to nothing. People were merely making vacuous noises without attempting to get the true facts. Had some reporters who were quoting the social media taken the trouble to get and read through the Votes and Proceedings of Senate for that day, they would have been able to educate the public on what actually transpired.

    No one who has gone through this revolutionary bill passed by Senate and concurred by the House would have nothing but gratitude and respect for the 7th Senate. It is now clear that mischief and ignorance fired this undeserved insult. In these “change” times, it will help if we all learn new ways. We must refrain from being too quick to judge and condemn.

    • Senator Anyanwu wrote in from Abuja

  • The Sexual Offences Bill: Soyinka got it wrong, says Senator Anyanwu

    I have read your open letter published in PM NEWS and re-published on BELLA NAIGA, Premiumtimesnig.com and a number of on-line papers and also The Nation.

    No one who read that letter could miss the fury embedded in your words. I know where that fury comes from: moral fiber, good conscience, and love of people. I want to assure you that it was the very same sentiments that drove me to come up with that bill and the same sentiments that led senators and members to pass it.

    As always, your aim was to speak as the voice of reason in our increasingly confused society.  I know you meant well. I know you acted out of your deep compassion for Nigerians and fatherly love for the children. But as I read your open letter, my heart sank because this time, my dear Baba, my dear icon, you are wrong; very wrong.

    You have been misled by the misinformation circulated by someone who could not read or comprehend a legal draft; someone who did not have the patience to read through a proposal, see what was recommended and what was finally accepted. You were misled by someone who deliberately distorted the content of one of the most profound bills ever passed by the Nigerian legislature, scandalised the proponent and the institution for reasons that you and I may not know.

    No where in the SEXUAL OFFENCES BILL That I proposed; no where in the bill passed by Senate was it stated that you can defile an 11 years old. No where in the bill passed by the Senate was the age “11 years”  mentioned. Here is what was passed in relation to your area of pre-occupation which is defilement clause 6 (2):

    “A person who commits an offence of defilement shall upon conviction be sentenced to imprisonment for life”.

    You claimed that the bill re-defined “female adulthood as marital status”. Where in the bill proposed by me and where in the bill passed by Senate did you see adulthood linked to marital status? The extreme distortion of the spirit, intent and even content of this bill leads me to think that you may be talking about an all-together different piece of legislation. For emphasis, let me state that the bill makes no such linkages as you erroneously stated. I think it may be fear of Senator Yerima that is at play here. For  your information, Senator Yerima and all other Senators who  participated in the debate the two times the bill came up on the floor supported it as a vehicle for instituting a stringent law barring all ranges of sexual offences in Nigeria. They did this because they also have children, wives, daughters, even mothers and cannot afford to leave them in the current state where abuses are rewarded with a slap on the wrist of the perpetrators

    because our laws are outdated, without strong in-built deterrence and mechanisms for monitoring and control are absent.

    This is just another case of people demonizing what is clearly in the public good because of deeply-set negative pre-dispositions towards individuals in an institution. By your strong advocacy against the bill, you have unwittingly stamped your feet in favor of maintaining the statusquo. Where we are now..the statusquo.. is a world in which a six year old child is raped to death and then set ablaze. Where we are now is a place where a father rapes his 3 year old boys repeatedly and the mother weeps at night and cannot speak out out of shame and fear of her life. Where we are now is a place where young Cynthia in her struggles for self employment ran into a gang who drugged her, raped and murdered her. Where we are now is a place where foreigners come for tourism and turn children into their objects of tourism.

    With all due respect Sir, I want to express my deep disappointment with your hastiness in flowing with the mob on this matter. I blame your press officers. I think they should have advised caution.  You have known me since the 1990’s. There is no way you could have sent fellers and I would not jump into the next flight to answer you.  Infact, a mere telephone call could have dispensed with the matter. If you had even asked someone to get you a copy of the Votes and Proceedings of Senate for that day which published the exact words in the legislation passed, you would have spared yourself the time and emotions spent over what is clear mischief circulated through the web. The people who started it all are hate-mongers. They merely took advantage of the negative public feelings they have built up against the legislature. You have no business with such people Sir.

    I am sure in the most inner recesses of your mind you know I cannot in anyway be associated with any anti-people law. Nothing in my personal history, professional antecedents or even the hard work I did to push through pro-people legislations in Senate, could lead anyone to think of me as capable of working against children, the very people I fought for over the course of my 8 years in Senate. The Sexual Offences bill is only one of many I did. I also proposed the Occupational Safety and Health bill protecting workers in virtually all sectors of the economy from hazards at work.  The only group excluded are those in the oil and gas sectors who have been extensively provided for in the PIB.

    There was no “accident” as you call it involved in this legislation. Neither was there an error in judgement. The bill has been fabricated to provide a strong deterrence against abuses. When implemented, It will mitigate the private sufferings of parents; reduce their fear of what happens in their absence to their children at school, in the play grounds, in the neighborhoods, even in religious spaces.

    Nigeria today is not a safe place for children; not a safe place for girls; not a safe place for small boys; and it is not a safe place either for old women.  This legislation is proposes condign punishments for abhorrent crimes such as we are seeing in our country today. It even covers crimes yet to arrive our shores. Under this bill, pedophiles will be put away for life not made rock stars as we do today. This bill will bring sanity to our society. It will make Nigeria a better place for all.

    I suspect that some of those fighting against the bill are fixating on the short title. Its long title shows what it is:  a sexual offences prevention bill; a tough deterrence to crime.  I want you to take time and read the final copy of the bill. You will be proud. You will realize that good things can come from Nigeria and Nigerians. It is not only legislations initiated by outsiders and handed to us locals to push for their passage that should be deemed as good for us. By passing that bill, National Assembly has kept faith with the people of Nigeria. It has provided the cover of protection under which Nigerian children can live normal lives of fulfillment without fear. By your robust advocacy against the bill preventing sexual abuses of children, you foreclose the future of children in this society. But if I read you correctly, I have no doubt that you will reverse yourself on this once you have the correct information. This is why I have written you this letter.

    You have made your first “imposition” on Mr. President based on your understanding of the false information circulated by the very offenders you despise. I plead with you as a man who has been found to be a great man of honor and bestowed with the highest literary honor in the world to reconsider.

    Let me on behalf of the innumerable victims of abuse in Nigeria; let me invoke the spirit of Cynthia who fell victim in Lagos; and let me plead  on behalf of the many wives and husbands deliberately infected with HIV by their partners whose suffering impelled this bill, that you reverse your instruction to Mr. President.  The President of the Federal Republic looks to old sages like you for positive direction. That was what you intended to give him. But now that you know the truth, for the sake of your long established reputation and known love for Nigeria, turn it around and urge Mr. President to sign this bill that will protect our people, restore sanity to society and make Nigeria a better place for all.

    I remain your loyal admirer and sister.

  • For SGF, Ogbeh fits the bill

    SIR: The thoroughness deployed to the President- elect’s choice of cabinet members will determine the extent to which he is willing to go to effect the change that he and his party have been professing. The revolutionary outcome of the just concluded elections must be matched with an equally revolutionary cabinet that is truly capable of effecting a radical change of guard.

    Nigerians are looking forward to a cabinet that is vintage Buhari, reflecting all the fine ideals and principles that the General is known for.

    The major concern here is the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF – an office which is the single most important and strategic office to the president.

    The office coordinates government business, supervises MDAs and serves as secretariat to Federal Executive Council. Most importantly, it is the engine room of policy formulation and implementation which is the crust of government business. It is to be assumed that the occupant of an office this close to the president should be above board and as a confidant of the president, he must be trustworthy, honest, and dependable if he is not to become a liability to or lead the President astray on matters of state.

    Audu Ogbeh is one of the few politicians in the country whose background recommends him for the office. I am rooting for him because he shares one or two qualities with the President-elect that make them a good pair to partner on good governance. They are both respected for their good names and integrity which should naturally endear the one to the other and engender mutual trust and confidence between them.

    In a country where public office reduces erstwhile saints to moral dwarfs, Ogbeh, like Buhari, has always lived a noble and unblemished life. Neither has been found wanting, both in his public or private life.

    Also, they share an unwavering and burning passion to repair and rebuild Nigeria. Recall Buhari’s untiring attempt, four times in a row, to seek the platform of the presidency to deliver good governance to Nigerians. Ogbeh in his various talks and lectures on leadership leaves no one in doubt as to what good governance entails and how to deliver it.

    The other reason why I prefer Audu Ogbeh for the SGF job is because he is sufficiently endowed for it. He possesses the intellectual and administrative capacity to run the office. He has the drive and passion for work that is almost unprecedented among public office holders in contemporary Nigeria.

    Audu Ogbeh is a multi- talented personality who fits into life’s many departments. A seasoned politician, administrator, lawmaker, academician, agro consultant and playwright, his greatest strength ever lies in his chosen vocations, farming and politics.

    The country has everything to gain and the incoming administration certainly has nothing to lose if a man with this rich background is drafted as a key functionary of its government.

     

    • Alex Ohemu,

    Makurdi, Benue State

     

  • Association urges NASS to pass local content bill

    Association urges NASS to pass local content bill

    The Construction and Civil Engineering Senior Staff Association (CCESSA) has called on the National Assembly (NASS) to take all the necessary steps to fast tract the deliberations on the Local Content Bill to ensure that the policy is established as a Local Content Act in the construction industry

    CCESSA’s National President, Comrade (Dr.) Augustine Etafo made the declaration in Lagos while interacting with newsmen on the dangers of government refusal to intervene in the challenges facing construction workers in the country

    He said: “We call on the NASS to take all the necessary steps to fast track the deliberations on the local content bill to ensure that the policy is established as a local content act in the construction industry to save the industry from collapse”

    “We also call on the federal, state and local governments to start as a matter of urgency, to address the unemployment needs of the youths”.

    According to Etafo, the association has specifically looked at youth unemployment, high level of corruption that create a wide gap between the rich and the poor, and poor infrastructural facilities as some of the key challenges which the government must pay attention to in order to address the security challenges in the country.

    While identifying policies that would help to boost the level of economic activities in the construction sector as well as necessary changes to be effected to ensure job creation and also minimize brain drain in the industry, he called on the three tiers of government to intensity effort in the creation of job for the teeming youths who are graduating from the higher institutions on yearly basis.

  • Bill to merge Criminal, Penal Codes coming

    Bill to merge Criminal, Penal Codes coming

    The Senate is expected to conclude works on the Administration of Criminal Justice (ACJ) Bill which seeks to unify the procedure for administration of criminal justice and replace the present criminal procedure codes applicable in the Northern and Southern parts of the country.

    The Criminal Code currently operates in the Southern party of the country, while the Penal Code is applied to criminal prosecution in the North. The ACJ Bill is one of the most important justice sector reform Bills pending before the National Assembly.

    The Senate, it was learnt commenced clause by clause consideration of the committee report on the Bill last Tuesday. The House of Representatives passed the Bill since 2013 after which the Senate Introduced additional innovative provisions aimed at improving the administration of criminal justice in the country.

    The Bill, an initiative of the Panel on Implementation of Justice Reform (PIJR), contains guidelines for sentencing, bail, arrest protocols, prison decongestion, alternatives to imprisonment and plea bargaining. It also provides for electronic recording of court proceedings as well as establishment of central criminal justice database, witness protection and restorative justice techniques.

    PIJR, in a statement yesterday, commended the Senate “for bringing up the ACJ Bill for urgent consideration despite the extremely tight schedule.”

    A member of the PIJR, Professor Yemi Akinseye-George (SAN), who endorsed the statement, said stakeholders of the Criminal Justice Administration including Ministries of Justice, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), development partners, police and other agencies of criminal justice participated in the development of the Bill.

    “All are looking forward to its passage by the Senate. The Attorney- General of the Federation has assured on several occasions that he will recommend the Bill for Presidential Assent as soon as it is passed by the National Assembly. All eyes are therefore on the Senate to complete the good work it has already started,” Akinseye-George said.

     

     

  • LCCI opposes bill on firms’ compulsory listing

    LCCI opposes bill on firms’ compulsory listing

    Should  companies with shareholders funds and yearly turnover, exceeding N40 billion and N80 billion become Public Liability Comapnies (PLCs) listed on the Stock Exchange?

    No, says the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), which is opposing the Private Companies Conversion and  Ling Bill 2013 now before the National Assembly.

    The bill is seeking to compel vibrant firms to become PLC’s and listed on the exchange.

    Instead, the Chamber is advocating the creation of an incentive regime that would encourage voluntary listing on the exchange. It asked the National Assembly to discard the Bill and take steps to amend the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2004.

    In a communiqué signed by its Director-General, Mr. Muda Yusuf, after a stakeholders meeting to discuss the Bill, LCCI noted that the Private Companies’ Conversion and Listing Bill 2013 contravenes the provisions of existing laws in Nigeria, which encourages the right to own property, movable or immovable, as well as the right against expropriation of private property as contemplated by sections 44 of the 1999 Constitution as amended and section 25 of the Nigerian Investment Promotion CommissionAct, 2004, respectively.

    Quoting section 25 (1) (b) of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission Act, CAP. NI17 LFN, 2004, LCCI said it categorically provides that “No person who owns, whether wholly or in part, the capital of any company shall be compelled by law to surrender his interest in the capital to any other person.” The statement said the Bill which did not emphasise the need to amend the ‘out-of-tune-with-reality’ CAMA, which was enacted in 1968 but last amended in 1990 without recourse to the new ways of doing business is a minus.

    It further stated that the Bill serves as a disincentive to entre-preneurship and foreign investment, which the government has continually advocated as a means of creating employment for the teeming unemployed youths and reducing poverty. In addition, the Bill, LCCI said, is replete with bad draftmanship. It noted, for instance, that the Bill adopts a definition of a private company under the (CAMA), but goes further to extend the definition to cover “any body corporate, firm or partnership or any entity that participates in the sectors contemplated” in the Act.

    He said the inclusion of firms and partnership in the definition is curious as one wonders if the Bill expects the qualifying professional firms to equally go public and be listed on the floor of the stock exchange. Equally worrisome is the use of the phrase “public liability company” throughout the Bill. LCCI argued that the phrase is not defined in the Bill and CAMA uses no such phrase.

    “The term used in CAMA is “public limited company”. The phrase “anybody corporate” could also mean that the Bill covers State owned corporate bodies such as the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), “ the statement said.

    Yusuf argued that in the face of falling oil prices and the need for government to generate more revenue from taxes, the tax reliefs proposed by the Bill to companies that comply with its mandatory conversion and listing requirements is not desirous at this critical moment, especially in view of the fact that the companies that would benefit from the relief constitute about 32 per cent of diligent tax payers in the country.

    He further argued that the Bill signifies a drastic shift in Nigeria’s policy on foreign direct investment. He stressed that a lot of companies have come into Nigeria on the belief that Nigeria operates a free enterprise system that guarantees them the right to own and repatriate their hard earned funds. To him, the Bill negates this concept of free enterprise in Nigeria and has the undesirable consequence of constituting a disincentive to foreign investment in Nigeria.

    He therefore, called for its rejection in its entirety, insisting that the Bill, which is currently before the House of Representatives and has scaled second reading should not be allowed to see the light of day.

    Prior to this time, LCCI had on January 27, 2015 organised a Stakeholder’s forum to discuss the Bill. The forum was attended by representatives of NSE and the private sector, including the multinational companies. At the end of the forum, representatives of NSE agreed to the tenets of the Bill, but not in its current form. The NSE therefore, sent representations to the National Assembly as to what they think the Bill should contain.

    However, representatives of the private companies, the multinationals and other stakeholders present would have none of that. They were unanimous in rejecting the Bill in its entirety.

    The controversial was sponsored by Deputy Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market Institutions, Honourable Chris Emeka Azubogu. The Bill, when passed into law, will compel a private company that falls into the category to, within 12 months from the commencement of the bill, take all necessary steps to convert from a private limited liability company to a public company within the provisions of the CAMA.

    Such a company shall, within 12 months from the date of conversion, take all necessary steps to list its shares on a stock market for brokerage. A private liability company, which the provision of the bill applies, shall maintain or cause to be maintained proper accounts and records to enable fair view to be formed of its assets, liabilities, income and expenditure.

    Thehope was that the bill would deepen the capital market and also boost the economy, a position now being hotly contested by the LCCI.

     

  • Legislators urged to pass anti-tobacco bill

    Legislators urged to pass anti-tobacco bill

    Non Governmental organisation (NGO) is pushing for the passage of the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB).

    The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) said Nigeria is among the 180 countries that signed the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) treaty 10 years ago, to control the use and sale of tobacco products.

    The organisation spoke on the 10th anniversary of the treaty.

    ERA’s Director, Corporate Accountability and Administration, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said the occasion should be a re-commitment to fighting the devastating health, social, economic and environmental consequences of tobacco and tobacco use.

    He said Nigeria’s effort to domesticate the treaty in form of the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) has suffered setbacks, adding: “For instance, in 2011 when it went through the readings, scaled Public Hearings and was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives it was not signed by President Goodluck Jonathan.”

    Oluwafemi said there is a renewed attempt to pass the bill by legislators, adding: “It is still suffering from tobacco industry attempts to ensure only a weak legislation is passed.”

    He also said: “As we join the rest of the world to celebrate the 10th year anniversary of the FCTC we are renewing our call for the National Assembly to pass the NTCB into law without further delays”

    “The health of our citizens continues to hang in the balance as the National Assembly delays the passage of the bill. The tobacco industry is very content with the delays and hiccups bedeviling the passage. The anniversary should therefore be a wakeup call for our lawmakers to expedite action and take this life-saving treaty serious”

    Oluwafemi said life-saving provisions of the FCTC can help to cut down growing tobacco-induced deaths, which the WHO puts at 5.4 million yearly, stressing: “It can also ensure price and tax measures, ban on Tobacco Advertising Promotion and Sponsorships (TAPS), provisions of packaging labeling, ban on sale to minors, among others.”

    Quoting the WHO, he said, the full implementation of the FCTC will support worldwide commitments to achieving a 25 per cent reduction in premature deaths from non-communicable diseases by 2025.

    This, he said, includes a 30 per cent reduction in prevalence of tobacco use in persons aged 15 years and over.

  • Electricity bill: Residents insist no payment

    Electricity bill: Residents insist no payment

    Residents of Papa Ashafa and Alagba Community Development Association (CDA) in Agege, Lagos, last Saturday stick to their words that they will not pay electricity bills to Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) until the distribution company improves the condition of service.

    At a meeting with the IKEDC’s officials, the aggrieved residents came out in hundreds to lodge their complaints before the officials. These include “outright cancellation of power shedding, bills amnesty, stoppage of crazy billing, immediate circulation of pre-paid meters, poor maintenance of transformers and electric cables, nonchalant attitude of officials to the residents, among others.

    The residents had on February 23, marched to Dopemu Distribution Centre of the IKEDC to protest  the poor situation of the power supply within the area.

    Youth Alliance for Better Nigeria Coordinator, Moruf Niniola told the IKEDC officials that the residents are fed up with the poor service, noting that they are paying for the electricity which they didn’t consume.

    Niniola said gone are the days residents spent their incomes to buy generators, fuel it and pay for electricity at the end of the month, even at higher billing.

    He urged the officials to quickly proffer solution to the problems, saying that the residents didn’t mind removing all the electricity poles and the cable within the area if that would provide solution to the problems within the maximum of four weeks of their projection.

    A community leader, Chief Afolabi Oniyide, demanded to know the reason for the delayed of the prepaid meters paid for over 7 months ago.

    Oniyide said he paid N12, 000 for the prepaid meters when he discovered non-transparency in the company’s billing.

    He presented documents to back his claim.

    Another resident Olawale Orebayo, described the company’s over-billing as broad-day robbery.

    “There was a time I travelled out of the country for over two months, I could not believe my eyes when I met N28, 000 bill despite that all my home appliances were switched off even the electric cut-out was removed,” he said.

    He wondered why residents should be levied heavily when there was not electricity supply.

    Orebayo said the company is yet to attend to his complaints after several messages and mails concerning the outrageous bill.

    A widow, Mrs Taiwo Adedoyin called for a quick revisit of crazy bills accumulated in her house. She said her tenants have refused to continue paying for the electricity due to the monthly high billing.

    She said the tenants had switch to generating set instead of electricity due to power outage and paying higher amount for electricity bill monthly.

    Mr Nzebude Uzoma told The Nation that the community have spoke in one voice that no house within the area will pay for electricity bill until the authority solve the crisis.

    The Marketing Manager, Dopemu Distribution Company, Mr Victor Amaraegbu, said most of the problems were caused by the country’s low power transmission, but pledged to deliver their message to the company’s higher authority.

    He urged the residents to stop tampering with their metres.

    Tampering with metre, he said, might cause high-speeding.

    He also appealed to them to shun employing local electricians to work on the electricity cables, transformers or connection in case of disconnection.

    These, he said, added to the problems of poor maintenance.

    The Branch Team Leader, Mr Banji Ogunleye said the branch had been doing all it could to ensure the damaged cables within the area are replaced.

  • Disabled persons urge Jonathan to sign bill

    Disabled persons urge Jonathan to sign bill

    Persons living with disabilities have called on President Goodluck Jonathan to sign into law the Discrimination Against Persons With Disabilities’ Bill.

    This, they said, would reduce their pain and enable them to function well.

    According to the Executive Director, Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), Mr David Anyaele, “it is not about given them alms all the time but for the President to sign the Bill into law. The bill provides for prohibition of discrimination against persons with disabilities, right to access to public premises and establishment of a national commission for persons with disabilities among others.

    This bill is a legacy bill as no President has ever signed such in the history of the country, he said.

    Anyaele complained that provisions were not made for people with disabilities to vote in the forthcoming elections, urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reverse this.

    He also noted that parties and their candidates are not including issues concerning disabled persons in their campaigns.

    He urged INEC to make adequate arrangements to ensure that eligible Nigerians with disabilities collect their Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) for them to participate in the coming election and also urged Nigerians to do away violence, saying it can lead to a means of disability.

  • Cancer patient escapes from UBTH without paying bill

    A cancer patient, simply identified as Mrs Enoyin, has allegedly run away from the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) without paying her medical bill.

    Her 15-year old son, Esosa Ukponayusi and his younger sibling, are also being held at the Ugbowo Police Station in Benin, the Edo State capital, for alleged “unruly behaviour and assault” on the whereabouts of their mother.

    Authorities of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) accused the children of rudeness to the workers.

    Mrs Enoyin, a widow and indigent patient, was receiving treatment at the UBTH.

    She was reported to have escaped from the hospital, following her inability to pay the balance of her medical bill.

    Mrs Enoyin reportedly sold bean cake (akara) to cater for her children.

    One of her breasts was cut off to prevent the spread of the cancer.

    The poor woman was allegedly detained for eight weeks at the hospital before her escape.

    It was learnt that her two children, who had spent the Christmas in detention, had been released.

    They were said to have gone to check their mother at the hospital but were shocked to learn that she was no longer there.

    The children were alleged to have assaulted UBTH’s security personnel, demanding the whereabouts of their mother.

    But a member of the Medical Advisory Committee (MAC), who spoke in confidence for security reasons, confirmed the incident.

    The Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof Michael Ibadin, could not be reached for comments.

    But the source said Mrs Enoyin’s son was detained for allegedly assaulting the security personnel and not because of the woman’s inability to pay her medical bill.

    The source said: “The truth of the matter is that they were not detained because the woman escaped but because they beat up our security. Whenever people behave like this, we usually write up their medical bills. They actually arranged for her to escape because when our security insisted on conducting a search in their house, they resisted. This led to the fracas.”

    On the allegation that the patient was detained for eight weeks, the source added: “If you are on admission, you are expected to pay your bill before you leave. But because she had not done that, she was in the ward. So, it is not as if the police were watching her. What she would have done was to approach the Medical Social Service, where her matter would be looked into for help. But she decided to run away.”

    But other sources at the UBTH said the doctors and nurses responsible for the woman’s treatment would lose their salaries in lieu of her medical bill.

    The source said: “It is not unusual to have those responsible for escaped patients being surcharged and punished for dereliction of duty. That is why in most cases, we demand payment from patients before commencing treatment. It is not really our making. Rather, it is the kind of system we find ourselves.

    “It is even more painful when you stick out your neck for some patients who were rushed in on emergency. Some of them escape when they have recovered, on the pretext of trying to buy some items at the gate. It is really unfortunate.”