The Nation Newspaper

Tag: hails

  • Oyo ACN hails police on union leader’s arrest

    The police have been hailed for arresting the factional leader of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Oyo State, Alhaji Lateef Akinsola, a.k.a. Tokyo, who has been on the police wanted list.

    In a statement, the State Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mr. Dauda Kolawole, said the police should also arrest Akinsola’s rival, Alhaji Mukaila Lamidi, a.k.a. Auxiliary.

    The party said: “It is only in Oyo State that those who disturbed the peace throughout their party’s reign, who used NURTW kingpins as their shield and spilled the blood of Eleweomo and many of our kinsmen, are walking the streets freely.

    “More frightening is the fact that these remorseless groups are regrouping to bring back the period of blood, using the same NURTW kingpins.

    “We hail the police for arresting Tokyo, but the command should not rest until it arrests Auxiliary too. The truth is that the NURTW kingpins behind the bloodletting of the past did not do so in isolation. They were crudely abetted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government of that time.

    “Tokyo and Auxiliary are the untouchables in the crime world of Oyo State. They have been boasting that some PDP governorship hopefuls in the state would use their link to the Federal Government to reverse their ‘Wanted’ tags.

    “Oyo people will resist every attempt by the PDP, using hoodlums, to destabilise the peace-loving administration of Governor Abiola Ajimobi. Before now, no one could sleep with an eye closed. If you leave your home in the morning, you would not be sure of returning in one piece. Only God knows how many of our people were killed in the alliance of evil between these NURTW kingpins and the PDP.

    “We urge the police to ensure that Tokyo accounts for what transpired in those bloody years. His arrest and, hopefully, arraignment would be a litmus test on the police’s integrity and a demonstration of its political partiality or otherwise.

    “In the last few months, a former senator, who is aspiring to become governor in 2015, has been in cahoots with Tokyo and Auxiliary. He has been telling them that the President directed him to be meeting with them.

    “The plan is to use them to foment trouble and make Oyo ungovernable for the ACN. Now that Tokyo has been arrested, he should be properly grilled and the truth of this allegation teased out of him.”

  • Itemuagbor hails minister over NSF policy

    Itemuagbor hails minister over NSF policy

    Foremost sports marketer and Chairman, Pamodzi Sports Marketing, Mike Itemuagbor, has saluted the speech of Sports Minister, Mallam Bolaji Abdulahi, during the opening ceremony of the National Sports Festival. Abdulahi had said at the occassion that the festival will henceforth be thrown open to both the elite and budding talents.

    “I just hope the Minister’s speech will not just be mere rhetorics but will be implemented and I must also say that competent men and women should be drafted to help organise a proper National Sports Festival as those presently saddled with that task are lacking in the proper organisation of a games of the magnitude of the National Sports Festival,” he said.

    Speaking at the weekend in Lagos, Itemuagbor said that throwing the festival open from the next edition will not only make the games a commercial attraction to corporate organisation and government but make states to jostle to host the event as well as attract the right crowd to venues. “Closed festival has actually killing the original ideals of the games. We need young talents to slug it out with the established ones and that will bring out the right competition as well as create the right ambience for the festival”.

    He recommended that the National Sports Commission should make it mandatory for all the 36 states of the federation and Abuja to host state sports festival as a condition to participating at the NSF, where athletes for the National Sports Festival will be selected to join the various invited elite athletes to compete. “I just imagine that a new athlete is competing today and Blessing Okagbare is invited and the new athlete is able to beat Okagbare, that will instantly be a future star and the world and corporate organisations will line up to support the new discovery. That is why it’s important to throw open the festival and we must commend the Minister,” he added.

    There had been controversy over the status of the NSF, with many holding different positions. Itemuagbor’s position has now helped to strenghten that of government at the highest level as Nigeria hopes to use the festival to prepare for the next Olympics in Brazil in 2018.

  • Nigeria hails security pact with Niger

    The Federal Government has described its recent security pact with the Republic of Niger as a major breakthrough in the fight against Boko Haram.

    Interior Minister Abba Moro said the security pact would also help reduce the movement of illegal arms and small arms along the border.

    Nigeria and the Republic of Niger at the weekend agreed to begin immediately joint border patrols between the two counries.

    The agreement is part of the efforts to curb the activities of terrorist groups.

    The agreement was reached at the end of the sixth session of the High Authority of the Nigeria-Niger Joint Commission for Cooperation, held in Niamey, the capital of the Republic of Niger.

    President Goodluck Jonathan led the Nigeria delegation to the session, where issues ranging from security to trade were discussed.

    Moro said with the country’s security challenges assuming international dimension, it has become imperative that the country is able to effectively check its border.

    One of the gains of the agreement said the minister “ is the fact that we must take off immediately the joint patrol of our borders and so I believe that with the two Heads of State agreeing now to provide the necessary logistics for the take off of this joint patrol of our borders, it means that a new dimension has been added to the desire to ensure a secure border between the countries and I hope that by the time we get back to Nigeria we will immediately set into motion the necessary steps to be taken.”

    On checking small arms, the minister said: “There is no magic about ensuring effectiveness in checking the movement of small arms and live weapons. The truth is that these arms do not move by themselves, they are carried by human beings and peddlers and by the time we secure our borders and make it unattractive so as to reduce consequently the movement of these illegal arms.”

  • Amunike hails Eagles passage

    Amunike hails Eagles passage

    Ex-Super Eagles winger Emmanuel Amunike has joined Soccer Loving fans in congratulating the Super Eagles of Nigeria for qualifying for South Africa 2013 AFCON.

    The Ex-Barcelona wing wizard who is part of the U-17 Golden Eaglets told mtnfootball.com that “ believe me, I’m happy with Stephen Keshi and his Boys for making us proud again. Our qualification for the AFCON in South Africa has brought back some confidence in the minds of most Nigerians, I’m proud of the team and its Officials.”

    The one time African Footballer of the Year winner also called for the support of the NFF officials to give the team all the needed support and also asked Nigerians to be patient as the Super Eagles will deliver in South Africa.

    “Since we’ve now qualified, Coach Stephen Keshi will now go back and evaluate his teams performance and see were he will improve on, Nigerians should have patience with the team as most of the players are just playing together for the first time, there will also be need to once again throw the team open for even more players to come in and compete for a place in the team,” he added.

    “So let’s all give them their full support. Nigeria will join their counterparts for the South Africa 2013 AFCON which will kick off on January 19 2013 in South Africa.”

  • 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.