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Tag: Damian Okoro

  • Wike urged to respect judgment on stoppage of workers’ salaries

    The lawyer to the 255 workers of three Rivers State government-owned tertiary institutions, whose salaries were stopped in February 2016, Damian Okoro, has urged Governor Nyesom Wike, also a lawyer, to respect the judgment of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria on the matter.

    Okoro, Monday in Port Harcourt, disclosed that eight of the 255 affected workers from Rivers State University and Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, both in Port Harcourt and Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori-Ogoni had died due to hardship, since the affected staff last received salaries in January 2016, making 31 months at the end of August.

    Read Also:By-election: Wike, APC chair clash over ‘N200m bribe’

    The lawyer also stated that children of the affected staff could no longer go to school, in view of their parents’ inability to pay the required fees.

    Okoro said: “It has become very difficult for the affected staff to also pay their house rent. The psychological breakdown and emotional torture can just be imagined. Many of the staff have put in over 20 years in the service of Rivers State government.

    “The workers want the Wike’s administration to pay their outstanding salaries to enable them to live normal life, as they have continued to carry out their daily activities in the various schools, since the stoppage of their salaries.”

    Rivers governor, in February 2016, ordered the stoppage of salaries of the 255 workers in the Demonstration Schools of the three tertiary institutions, stating that the state government would no longer pay salaries of the staff, where the students pay some fees.

    The affected workers, in May 2016, filed a suit on the shocking development at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Yenagoa Division, but the case was moved in November 2017 to the Owerri Division of the court.

    In a judgment after over two years, the presiding judge, Justice Salisu Danjidda, said: “The claimants’ (255 workers’) respective employments are valid and subsisting, because they have statutory protection. The first defendant’s (Governor of Rivers State’s) directive stopping the payment of the claimants’ salaries is unlawful, null and void.

    “The defendants (Rivers State Governor, Attorney-General/Commissioner for Justice and heads of the three tertiary institutions) are restrained, whether by themselves or through their agents, privies or proxies from interfering with the employments of the claimants.”

    Justice Danjidda also awarded a cost of N2 million to the affected workers against the defendants, which he said should be paid within 30 days of delivering the judgment.

  • Rerun election: Rivers denies ‘bribing’ INEC officials

    Rivers State government on Tuesday denied that Governor Nyesom Wike allegedly spent N111million to bribe Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) staff during the December 10, 2016 rerun legislative election in the state.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a panel constituted to investigate the electoral and other offences perpetrated during the rerun election alleged that it recovered N111 million from 23 INEC officials.

    The Chairman of the panel, Mr. Damian Okoro, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, made the allegation while presenting the team’s report to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, in Abuja on Tuesday.

    He alleged that three senior electoral officers collected N20 million each out of the N360 million given to them by Wike, while the remaining officers received N15 million each.

    The Special Assistant to the Rivers Governor on Electronic Media, Mr. Simeon Nwakaudu, said the allegation was false and politically motivated.

    Nwakaudu said in a statement in Port Harcourt that the police allegation was aimed at diverting attention from the real issues about the election.

    “The statement is patently false, politically motivated and cooked by the police to justify the violence they visited in the people of Rivers State during the rerun,” he said.

    According to him, Governor Wike did not spend N360 million to rig the election.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, did not spend N360 million to rig the rerun legislative elections of December 10, 2016.

    “The people of Rivers State overwhelmingly voted the PDP across the state because of the outstanding performance of Governor Wike since May 29, 2015, Nwakaudu said.

  • Rivers rerun: Panel recovers N111million from INEC officials

    Rivers rerun: Panel recovers N111million from INEC officials

    Over N111 million was recovered from 23 officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who were deployed to Rivers State for the recent rerun parliamentary election in the state, the police said on Tuesday.

    The unnamed officials have been indicted for their involvement in the incidents and violence that occurred during the election.

    Also, six police officers who were indicted for their roles in the election have been dismissed.

    The findings were contained in the report of the Joint Investigation Panel constituted by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, on December 22, 2016 and presented at the Force Headquarters in Abuja..

    The panel which comprising 12 officers of the Nigeria Police Force and three from State Security Service was mandated to investigate the various infractions, incidents, and violence that marred the rerun elections in Rivers State and any relevant matter.

    The panel attributed the violence recorded in the election to lawlessness and leadership failure.

    Speaking during the presentation, the chairman of the 15-man panel, DCP Damian Okoro, said “the sum of N111, 300,000 was recovered from 23 INEC electoral officers. Out of N360million, 15 million was given to each of them while three senior electoral officers were given N20million each.”

    Okoro said the committee established “cases of misconduct on the part of some electoral officers and law enforcement agents who unfortunately allowed themselves to be compromised in their line of duties and deserved to be disciplined appropriately.”

  • Rivers re-run: Panel recovers N111m from 23 INEC officers – Chairman

    Rivers re-run: Panel recovers N111m from 23 INEC officers – Chairman

    The panel constituted to investigate the electoral and other offences perpetrated during the Dec. 10 Rivers Parliamentary re-run election, has alleged that it recovered N111 million from 23 INEC officials.

    The Chairman of the panel, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Damian Okoro, made the allegation while presenting the team’s report to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, in Abuja on Tuesday.

    He alleged that three senior electoral officers collected N20 million each out of the N360 million given to them by Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers, while the remaining officers received N15 million each.

    Okoro further alleged that there were some cases of misconduct on the part of some electoral officers, who were compromised in the line of duty.

    “By this investigation, this panel has diligently unraveled what went wrong with the re-run election in Rivers, the details of which are contained in the report.

    “We discovered that failure of leadership and followership rather than law enforcement was responsible for the political upheaval in the state,” he said.

    He added that the task given to the panel was challenging because of the tense political and security atmosphere in the state.

    The chairman said that lawless elements targeted political opponents of their sponsors, and law enforcement agents, especially the police.

    He attributed some of the violent acts to inflammatory statements by some narrow-minded politicians.

    “Apart from their utterances, politicians in their desperation for power, also armed thugs who unleashed terror on their opponents,” he said.

    He said that six police officers, who were indicted, had been tried and dismissed from the force.

    Speaking, the inspector-general of police, said that a report and recommendation would be forwarded to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice for his advice.

    He said appropriate action would be taken against indicted persons to serve as deterrent.

    “We are going to take appropriate action in conjunction with other security agencies to put an end to this problem,’’ he said.

    He urged Nigerians to have confidence in the security agencies and believe the panel report.

    Idris alleged that Wike refused to cooperate with the panel even when the team visited him in Port Harcourt.

    He said that the investigation would go a long way toward ending electoral malpractices in the country.

    “We will be failing in this country if we allow this to continue,’’ he said.

    He said that the money recovered would be paid into government coffers.

    It will be recalled that the I-G on Dec. 22, 2016, constituted a 15-man special joint investigation panel to investigate electoral and other offences in respect of the Dec. 10, 2016 re-run election in Rivers.

    The membership comprised 12 police officers and three officials of the Department of State Services.

    The panel was, among other things, mandated to thoroughly investigate the various infractions, incidents and violence that marred the election.