Tag: get

Five years after the legal icon, Aare Afe Babalola, left the University of Lagos (UNILAG) as its Pro-Chancellor/Chairman of Council, leaving behind a resounding success, he will return to the institution on February 8 to receive an Honorary Doctor of Letters at its Golden Jubilee Convocation.

Babalola was nominated for the Honorary Doctoral Degree with two others- former Prime Minister Alhaji Tafawa Balewa and Arthur Mbanefo.

The legal icon was Unilag’s Pro-Chancellor and Chairman-of-Council between 2002 and 2007 during which he won the ‘Best Pro-Chancellor Award’ in 2005 and 2006.

Aare Babalola was given an Honorary Doctor of Letter by the Kogi State University, Ayingba in November last year.

A letter dated November 5, 2012, signed by Unilag’s Registrar, Mr. Oluwarotimi Shodimu, reads: “The award is in recognition of your immense contributions to the development of education, advancement of knowledge, learning and research. Also, note is taken of your unrelenting philanthropic contributions to the advancement of education and your passion for seeking the general welfare of the society. The university noted in particular that as a former Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council for the two periods that you were appointed, you contributed immensely to the development of the university and you have remained consistent, putting the university on the world map. You laid the foundation and provided the roadmap for the present enviable ranking of the university as the best in Nigeria and 16th in Africa. Your unrelenting drive and passion for excellence are unquantifiable.

“The university’s memory is filled with the remarkable achievements you made in the course of restoring values on the academia, providing the blueprint for income generating units and creation of new avenues of endowment in the university. The benefits remain obvious till today…”

Aare Babalola, also the founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), described the honour as ‘the most fulfilling’ of his career, adding that the experience at Unilag helped him establish and nurture ABUAD to a reference point today.

Said he: “Of all the letters of award I have received from Nigeria and beyond, the letter of award dated November 5, 2012 addressed to me by the University of Lagos, is the most inspiring, exciting and moving.

“Significantly, it was my experience garnered at that time which, in large measure, has assisted me in the planning and execution of ‘the project ABUAD’, which has now metamorphosed into a model, reference point and pace-setter university in reformatory education in Nigeria.”

The management of the British American Tobacco (BAT) at the weekend pledged to continue to support the Federal Government’s initiative on agriculture through the provision of “strategic input”.

The Demand Chain General Manager of BAT Nigeria, Mr. Hugo Norman, spoke in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, at the ninth BAT Nigeria Scholarship Award.

The 10 beneficiaries of the award were given a cheque of N120,000 each.

Norman urged stakeholders to support the government’s effort to restore agriculture to its leading position as a critical sector.

He said the time has come for subsistence farms to be expanded into large-scale mechanised farms.

Norman said this would ginger agricultural practitioners to design and implement sustainable methods to revolutionise the sector.

He said: “BAT Nigeria has made a firm corporate commitment to support the growth of Nigeria’s economy in various ways, including agricultural development.

“The time for self-sufficiency has come and the need to attain food security cannot be over-emphasised. Across many nations, a combination of factors, such as agricultural productivity, increase in population and decline in the economy, threaten food security.

“Nigeria, as the giant of Africa, is endowed with immense human and natural resources. These, coupled with efficient methods of food production, present a huge potential for Nigeria to grow its agricultural sector, feed its rapidly growing population and reduce its reliance on imported food.

“BAT drives schemes devoted to building a generation of well-educated agricultural entrepreneurs. We provide financial and technological support to young Nigerians, who are passionate about agriculture.

“We are also enabling rural Nigeria to use improved technologies and modern management approaches that help ensure farm profitability and sustainable resource use.”

Commissioner for Agriculture Mr. Peter Odetomi urged the beneficiaries to take good advantage of the award.

Odetomi said: “I am glad to be part of this year’s BAT Nigeria award. It is part of the company’s corporate social responsibility initiative to promote skilled manpower development in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.”

The Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, BAT Nigeria, Mrs. Oluwasoromidayo George, said the beneficiaries distinguished themselves in their different fields.

A US based charity, Starkey Hearing Foundation, has distributed 2000 pairs of hearing aids worth N720 million to hearing-impaired Lagosians.

The process started last year when Starkey came to Lagos in response to the request made by a group of Nigerian charity organisations for the supply and fitting of hearing-aids.

“This is happening for the first time in Nigeria. We contacted about 45 international organisations and only Starkey responded. They came to screen about 1,600 pupils and promised to be back with the hearing aids by December,” said Oluwatoyin Towobola of Women Protection Organisation (WOPO), one of the five local organisations involved in the project.

Other organisations are BSA Hearing and Speech Consult, Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN), Inner Wheel Club of Lagos, and Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board.

The long wait for the hearing-aids had made the beneficiaries to lose hope of getting them.

“I really didn’t believe it when they brought the message to my house because we thought they are not coming again,” said Hannah Oyewale, whose 12-year-old deaf daughter, Sarah, heard clearly for the first time.

For the four days that the fitting of the device lasted, the beneficiaries were happy following a change in their fortune.

“Hearing impairment constitutes almost 50 per cent of all disabilities but all they need is just that little support and they are completely free. Once they have this hearing aid, the sky is their limit,” said Wale Ogunbekun of BSA Hearing and Speech Consult.

Gboyega Ilusanya of ESSPIN said the device “will ensure access and equity in our schools.” He promised that his organisation, in collaboration with WOPO, would monitor the devices and ensure they are properly used.

A former education commissioner in Lagos State, Dr. Leke Pitan, described the gesture as a challenge “for corporate bodies in Nigeria because if you could come all the way from US to Nigeria, they should look to see what they can do.”

According to him, giving hearing-aids to the needy “must not be seen as a sympathetic act but as an intervention to harness human resources. If we don’t do this, we’ll be wasting a lot of potentials that are locked up in the physically-challenged people.” He advocated screening of newborns for deafness to prevent them growing up with the knowledge of their impairment.

The executive chairman of Lagos SUBEB, Gbolahan Dawodu, said Starkey is not giving back to pupils of their own country, but in Nigeria, an act she said would be more rewarding for Nigerian corporate organisations than lottery draws.

A Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, yesterday sentenced four policemen and an accomplice to 25 years’ imprisonment each for robbery.

Justice Joseph Oyewole convicted Bestman Dennar (52), Musa Mohammed (45), Peter Enidiok (53), Godwin Williams (44) and Emmanuel Ajogbor (48) on one count charge of conspiracy to commit robbery.

The sentence will run concurrently, beginning from March 3, 2005 when they were first remanded in prison.

The judge said: “I hold that sufficient facts exist beyond reasonable doubt upon which the court could infer conspiracy in the present circumstances and hold all the defendants guilty accordingly.

“I therefore find each of the defendants guilty of conspiracy as charged in Count 1.

“In conclusion, I hold in respect of Count 1 that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendants are guilty of the offence of conspiracy to commit robbery contrary to Section 403 (A) of the Criminal Code.

“I hereby convict each of them accordingly.

“I further hold that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendants are guilty of the offence of robbery simpliciter contrary to Section 402 (1) of the Criminal Code and I hereby convict them accordingly.”

The defendants were said to have conspired to commit robbery on November 17, 2002 on Ikorodu-Ijebu-Ode Expressway, Ikorodu, Lagos.

The prosecution said they robbed a lorry loaded with George and Lace textile materials.

Justice Oyewole said the fourth defendant, Williams, though not present on the crime scene, was part of the planning, execution and disposal of the robbery proceeds.

“He had a common intention with the others who were physically present,” he said.

After listening to the defendants’ plea that he should temper justice with mercy (alucutus), Justice Oyewole said the fact that they were policemen was an “aggravating factor” to impose the maximum penalty.

He rejected a request that the sentence be mitigated as the defendants have been in prison for about 10 years.

“I’ve duly considered the alucutus. However, four of the five defendants are policemen trained to protect the public and not otherwise.

“This in itself is an aggravating factor in handing out the sentence.

“The image of the police should not be dented to the extent that the public will begin to see police checkpoints as armed robbers’ locations,” Justice Oyewole said.

He said the defendants took advantage of their status to rob the citizens they were supposed to protect.

The judge noted that using the police uniform to rob was capable of eroding the public’s confidence in the force.

The court heard during the trial that the lorry’s three occupants came across a checkpoint mounted by the first, second, third and fifth defendants along with a fifth person, on their way to deliver goods.

The driver reportedly offered the policemen “the usual bribe of N100.” But on sighting the vehicle’s contents, they asked for more.

They were said to have shot into the air and seized the lorry’s key from the driver.

The court heard that the passengers were told that they would be taken to a police station, but the driver was not allowed to drive.

In the vehicle, the policemen could not extort more money from the passengers.

They instead dropped them off several kilometres away in the middle of the highway and drove away with the goods.

The passengers walked back to the spot where they were stopped, but could not find the vehicle nor the goods.

The lorry was later discovered at Acme area of Agidingbi, Ikeja where it was abandoned with the key in the ignition, but the textile materials were no longer in the vehicle.

The case was taken over by the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, Lagos.

Police investigators later found some of the stolen goods with an herbalist, who confessed that he bought them from the first defendant.

The officer’s home was searched and 10 bundles of the stolen items were found.

He was arrested and he named the other men who committed the crime with him, leading to their arrest.

However, the court did not find them guilty of armed robbery, as evidence that they used a gun was inconclusive.