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Tag: Idris Wada

  • INEC, PDP, Wada urge Supreme Court to dismiss case

    INEC, PDP, Wada urge Supreme Court to dismiss case

    Judgment on February 21

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Kogi State Governor Idris Wada yesterday urged the Supreme Court to dismiss an appeal filed by a chieftain of the party, Jibril Isah Echocho.

    Echocho is challenging the legitimacy of the December 3, 2011, election, which produced Wada as governor.

    At the hearing yesterday, INEC, PDP and Wada, represented by J. M. M. Majiyagbe, Olusola Oke and Chris Uche (SAN), faulted the competence of the appeal and urged the court to dismiss it.

    Echocho challenged the legitimacy of the election before the Federal High Court on the grounds that it was wrongly held.

    The Federal High Court declined jurisdiction, as the case involved governorship election issues over which it lacked jurisdiction.

    Echocho went to the Court of Appeal, which upheld the decision of the Federal High Court, prompting his appeal to the Supreme Court.

    Adopting his brief yesterday, Majiyagbe urged the court to dismiss the appeal because he said the reliefs sought by Echocho could only be granted by an election tribunal.

    “The narrow issue is whether the Federal High Court can entertain electoral matters, especially in light of the reliefs sought by the appellant, one of which is that the court should set aside the election.”

    Uche noted that the Apex Court on September 10, last year upheld the election.

    He argued that having not taken part in the election, it was strange that he would seek to be declared the winner of the election he did not participate in.

    “The appellant sought to rely on the primary election of January 2011, which he won, but was canceled. In the case of Sylva against PDP, the Supreme Court held that the cancelled primary had become no issue and no one could rely on it.”

    Oke said Section 285 (2) of the 1999 Constitution vested exclusive jurisdiction in the election tribunal to determine issues relating to the conduct of elections and that Isah was wrong to have come to the High Court.

    To him, the High Court and Court of Appeal were right in dismissing the case, and urged the Supreme Court to do same.

    Oke told the court that PDP had the right to abandon a primary and conduct a new one.

    Echocho’s counsel Wole Olanipekun (SAN) submitted that the case was novel because it raised issues that had not been decided before.

    “This appeal has no precedent in this country. It calls for your Lordships’ intervention to protect the sanctity and potency of the judgment of the Supreme Court and the constitution.”

    He argued that the December 3, 2011, governorship election was held in violation of the Supreme Court’s judgment, which terminated the tenure of five governors.

    Olanipekun said his client could not have gone to the tribunal because his case did not fall within the grounds for filing a petition.

    Justice Mahmud Mohammed adjourned till February 21.

     

  • Governors’ convoys of death

    SIR: It has really become pitiable how our dear nation has been turned into a theatre of tragedies. It is more worrisome that the people whose statutory duties include the aversion of tragedies have become the harbingers of calamities and death. The rate at which the convoys of  public office holders and other such ‘powerful’ men get involved in road accidents, in recent times, has become a cause of worry. Innocent lives have been wasted while other road users have been endangered by the recklessness of many of our governors.  It is very unfortunate and unbelievable that one of the finest and very courageous university dons in Nigeria, Professor Festus Iyayi, a former president of the Academic Staff Union of  University (ASUU) ,would be killed in a road crash involving the convoy of Kogi state’s governor, Captain (rtd.)Idris Wada. It is of great concern that in less than a year, this is the second time Governor Wada’s convoy will be involved in ghastly crashes. In December 2012, while he was lucky to escape the crash along the Lokoja – Ajaokuta road with a fracture, his Aide-de-Camp, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) was not. He died on the spot.

    It is laughable that the only way some of our leaders could show that they have ‘arrived’ is to intimidate fellow citizens, ironically those who voted them into power,  with the ridiculous blare of siren. How else would you differentiate the common man from the ‘big man’ and this is the reason they would buy just two cars for almost half a billion naira in a country where just  N10,000 could restore the hope of many. That is the reason many of them arrogantly loot the public treasury to continue to intimidate and oppress the citizenry. They are completely detached from the people they govern, the same people they are to be role models to. This is not right.

    It has now become imperative for the political class and public office holders to begin to have a change of attitude. They must realise that the office they hold is in trust for the people they govern. The only way the public office holders will not incur the wrath of the people is only if they begin to have deep respect for the people. They must lead by example. They should emulate the governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, who has shunned the use of sirens and will never display bragging right of way with other road users.

    • Sola Ogunmosunle

    Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

     

     

  • In memory of Festus Iyayi

    Forget the trauma university education in Nigeria is currently going through, no thanks to the ongoing strike action by academic staff and Federal Government’s reluctance to meet the lecturers’ demands fully.

    Pocket your anger, if you have any, towards the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian University (ASUU) and Abuja for the near five months forced stay-at-home they have jointly imposed of the hapless students.

    Look instead at the contributions of ASUU over the years to Nigeria’s development and the calibre of its leaders and you’ll appreciate what a tragic loss the death of one time ASUU president Professor Festus Iyayi is to the nation.

    Death as the saying goes is a necessary end and will come when it will. But while no one can say exactly where and when he/she would take his/her exit from this world, it is always painful when the death is self-inflicted or avoidable/preventable so to speak.

    In the case of Professor Iyayi, he did not invite death on to himself but death was visited on him by a driver in the unnecessary long and reckless convoy of Kogi State Governor, Captain Idris Wada Tuesday last week along the notorious Lokoja-Abuja Highway. He was on a mission along with his ASUU colleagues to Kano for the union’s NEC meeting to see how the crisis bedevilling Nigeria’s university system can be resolved and bring the students back to school.

    One of the best known ASUU leaders of his generation, Iyayi together with the likes of current Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Attahiru Jega perhaps best epitomised the struggle for a better university education in Nigeria that ASUU is known for. Even if not a few Nigerians would raise questions over ASUU of today, (Federal Government’s sometimes irresponsible action notwithstanding) the contributions of the likes of Iyayi and the direction he took the ASUU of his era should serve as a guide to those presently at the helm at the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities.

    His death, though painful, should bring all concerned in the protracted negotiation between ASUU and the Federal Government to their senses and act in the best interest of the nation. No meaningful negotiation is achieved if the parties stuck to their guns; the game is called give and take. That’s why it is called negotiation. I think we have gone beyond the level of apportioning blame; both parties would definitely have something to say to justify their different positions. But if the two parties truly have the interest of the nation at heart it shouldn’t be difficult to reach an implementable agreement and remaining faithful to it.

    Iyayi would have died in vain if this strike should continue beyond this moment or happens again in the near future over the same issue of funding of our university system and remunerations for the academic staff. Those involved on both sides should act responsibly now.

    And for Professor Iyayi to sleep well, those who caused his death should be punished. But I doubt if the driver of the convoy car that recklessly overtook the rest of the vehicles in the governor’s convoy and caused the crash involving the bus in which Iyayi and other ASUU officials were travelling would be punished. He is the driver to a ‘big’ man so to speak, and people like him are rarely punished for any offence committed while on duty. This is Nigeria where impunity like this happens.

    But if we are in the same country and operating under the same law, then nobody should be above that law. I hasten to bring to your notice the story of one citizen Sulaiman Awwal from Kogi State that appeared in this newspaper last week and the kind of ‘justice’ the system meted out to him to justify the call for the punishment of the government driver that killed Iyayi.

    Awwal, a fire prevention consultant was released from Agodi prison in Ibadan last week after 11 months awaiting trial in jail for the offence of manslaughter. How did he find himself at this notorious jail? Well, according to Awwal, he was driving from Saki in Oyo State to Ibadan the state capital on January 7, this year when an aged woman ran across the road around Moniya on the outskirt of the city and he knocked her down with his vehicle.

    The villagers came out and mobbed him as he tried to rescue the woman and they handed him over to the police. Death came for the woman as she was being taken to hospital. Three days later Awwal was charged to court for manslaughter and remanded at Agodi prison by the Magistrate. He was there until Monday last week when the family of the deceased applied to the court to discontinue the case and the Magistrate duly struck out the case.

    Don’t ask about his experience in prison, it was horrible. The concern here is what took him to prison? The vehicle he was driving had an accident and one person was killed by him in the process, the same way one of the drivers in Governor Wada’s convoy drove recklessly causing the death of Professor Iyayi. Shouldn’t that Wada’s driver be charged with manslaughter?

    Well, if the Attorney-General and chief law officer of Kogi State would act in accordance with the demands of that office, yes the driver should be so charged. But would he? Let’s wait and see.

    The death of Professor Iyayi in the hands of Governor Wada’s driver should finally draw Federal Government’s attention to the recklessness and lawlessness of drivers of government vehicles especially those who drive dignitaries including State governors, ministers, police and military chiefs and even local government chairmen.

    When these drivers are on the road, especially when they are driving their bosses, often in a long convoy, they drive as if they are on a mission to commit suicide and any motorists unfortunate to stand in their way albeit legitimately, often have sad stories to tell. They drive without regard for traffic rules and regulations. Most times they drive above the normal speed limit and officers and men of the Federal Road Safety Corps are often helpless to act.

    It is about time they are told and shown that they are not above the law and making an example out of the Kogi State governor’s driver would go a long way in letting them know that the immunity from prosecution extended to their bosses (governors) by the constitution does not cover them.

    Beyond this however, the mentality of our public officers especially the political leaders that they are superior to the rest of us has to change. They enter the road blowing sirens to scare the rest of us out of their way; and woe betides that person that stands in their way. Many have gone the way of Professor Iyayi in the process and nothing happened to either the offending driver or his boss. This is part of the culture of impunity that we carried over into this political dispensation from the military era of the past. We have to purge ourselves of all the evils of the military era and embrace the rule of law and accept equality of all Nigerians for this nation to move forward. This is the only thing that can atone for the killing of Professor Festus Iyayi who died in the struggle to make our country especially university education in this country better.

    May his soul rest in perfect peace. Amen.

     

  • Convoys of the high and mighty

    Convoys of the high and mighty

    OFFICIAL convoys in Nigeria are today seen as symbols of power and authority. As they blaze their ways through the over-chocked traffic in the busy Nigerian streets and broad expressways, they leave behind them tales of glamour, power, recklessness and blood.

    Over the years, the harvest of souls in this dangerous game of exhibition of raw power and grandeur has continued to grow, leaving behind the wailing of helpless citizens.

    The latest casualty is former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and popular award-winning novelist, Professor Festus Iyayi.

    The great don and man of letters was forced to bid the world farewell last Tuesday in Lokoja, when a vehicle in the convoy of Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State rammed into the bus conveying him and other colleagues to Kano for the National Executive meeting of ASUU.

    It was believed that the meeting the professor was to attend would have led to the university lecturers calling off their four-month old strike.

    All that has again been kept on hold.

    Iyayi was President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) between 1986 and 1988.

    Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Kogi State Sector Commander, Mr. Olakunle Motajo, who first gave an official account of the accident to newsmen, said preliminary investigation revealed that there was wrongful overtaken by the governor’s convoy. He said investigation had started.

    Dr. Sunday Abada, an ASUU member who was also part of the ill-fated ASUU delegation, had also given The Nation an account of how the accident happened.

    According to him, “About 15 union members from various institutions, moving in a three-vehicle convoy, were on their way to Kano to participate in the NEC meeting scheduled to hold in Bayero University, Kano (BUK) today.

    “We were on our way to Kano State for our NEC meeting holding tomorrow when a vehicle in the convoy of Governor Idris Wada on full speed left its lane and collided with the vehicle conveying our members along the Abuja-Lokoja Expressway. Prof Iyayi died on the spot.”

    Some residents of Banda community, who witnessed the accident, according to earlier reports, also said the two vehicles collided and the ASUU bus somersaulted three times before hitting a big tree in the bush.

    It would be recalled that the accident, which occurred at about 11am at Banda village on the Lokoja-Abuja Road, is the second fatal crash in one year involving the governor’s convoy.

    On December 28, 2012, Wada’s convoy crashed on its way to Lokoja from Ayingba, Kogi State.

    Wada’s Aide-de-Camp (ADC) died on the spot. The governor’s leg was broken. Other officials suffered varying degrees of injuries.

     

    History of convoy crashes in Nigeria

    Convoys of Nigerian officials have been involved in fatal accidents since the days of military administrations. In most of the cases, over speeding and reckless driving have been identified as the major causes of the crashes.

    While many observers explain away the habit of convoy drivers of military leaders, that of the drivers of civilian presidents, governors and other top officials since 1999 have remained a puzzle.

    It is on record that Nigeria has lost several lives as a result of this habit.

    In the year 2000 alone, it was reported that senior officials were involved in at least 15 fatal crashes, most of them in convoys.

    On June 8, 2001, one person was killed and several others injured when a car in the convoy of the then president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, “somersaulted and crashed.”

    An eyewitness account said the accident occurred when Obasanjo paid a visit to Sokoto. He said the driver lost control of his car at high speed as he was trying to avoid an oncoming truck. In the process, his car somersaulted several times, leaving a passenger dead and several others injured. He said the driver, who survived, however lost an arm in the crash.

    On Friday, October 9, 2011, a police sergeant was killed and another one injured in an accident involving the convoy of Zamfara State Deputy Governor, Ibrahim Wakkala Muhammad.

    Muhammad was travelling to Sokoto State to flag off the airlift of intending pilgrims for the year’s hajj when the incident occurred.

    In the first week of January 2013, it was reported that the convoy of the Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Lawal Jimoh, was involved in a ghastly motor accident that killed a police escort.

    The Speaker was travelling to his Okene home town when a heavy duty truck ran into his escort van at Osara, along Okene road.

    Though the Speaker’s vehicle was not affected by the accident, the Speaker’s Chief Press Secretary, Austin Akubo, who confirmed the report admitted that a police corporal, Lamidi Akeem, who was in the affected escort car, died at the hospital from injuries sustained in the crash.

    That was barely a week after Governor Idris Wada of the same state had an auto crash which claimed the life of his aide, Idris Mohammed.

    It was on December 28, 2012, that the governor’s convoy was involved in the fatal accident that killed his security aide while the governor, Wada, broke hs leg. Two other top officials reportedly got injured in the cash..

    On April 19, 2013, it was reported that Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, narrowly escaped death, as his convoy was involved in a near fatal accident along the Orlu/Owerri road.

    In that incident, the governor’s official car was involved in a head-on collision with a Mercedes Benz car, whose driver rammed into the governor’s convoy after losing control of his car.

    Just this month, November, there was controversy when two innocent pedestrians died as unidentified government convoy allegedly caused an accident in Lagos.

    Media reports said the two pedestrians were killed, while no fewer than nine others were injured after a tipper rammed into pedestrians at the U-turn end of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.

    Eyewitness accounts and Federal Road Safety officials said the tipper was avoiding a government convoy of seven vehicles that allegedly drove recklessly into the expressway from a side road around 11.30 am that day.

    Although it was not immediately established which government official was in the said convoy, a report quoted an eyewitness as saying: “It was a convoy of about seven vehicles. There were four jeeps and three escort vans. The escorts were riot policemen.”

    According to some eyewitnesses, about 11 persons were hit, while two died on the spot.

    Since the number plates of the vehicles in the convoy were allegedly covered, there is still controversy over the owner of the guilty convoy.

    There is also the crash involving the convoy of Governor Adams Oshiomhole along Auchi-Warrake Road in Etsako Local Government Area of Edo State, where three journalists died.

    Reports claim the accident occurred when Oshiomhole’s back-up vehicle, conveying security personnel and the government house press bus, collided with a tipper.

    Shortly before then, the convoy of Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State was involved in an accident along the Ogoja-Abakaliki Expressway in Ebonyi State. The governor was on his way back from the funeral of Governor Martin Elechi’s mother in-law. The accident reportedly occurred because the driver did not see the potholes.

    Also, the convoy of Delta State governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, was involved in a crash on the Asaba-Ughelli expressway. It was gathered that the accident happened when the driver of a commercial vehicle, who came face to face with “the lead vehicle in the convoy at a very sharp and narrow bend, lost control and somersaulted repeatedly into a nearby bush, leaving the occupants with wounds.

    Few months earlier, two persons died while six others were wounded when their vehicle had an accident while travelling in the convoy of Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu to Lapai area of the state for a campaign rally.

    Another five persons died when the convoy of Katsina State Governor Ibrahim Shema crashed. The Aide De Camp, ADC, to governor Shema and four others lost their lives in that crash.

    The list appears endless.

  • ASUU chief Iyayi dies in Kogi governor’s convoy accident

    ASUU chief Iyayi dies in Kogi governor’s convoy accident

    •Falana to push for trial

    Festus Iyayi, a University of Benin (UNIBEN) professor, writer and rights activist, is dead. The unionist died yesterday in an accident involving the convoy of Kogi State Governor Idris Wada. He was 66.

    The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) between 1986 and 1988 was in a three-vehicle lecturers’ party travelling to Abuja enroute Kano.

    The accident occurred at about 11am at Banda village on the Lokoja-Abuja Road.

    The lecturers were heading for Kano for today’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of ASUU where a vote on whether to end the on-going university teachers’ strike or not is to be taken.

    Wada was travelling in the opposite direction. He was returning from Abuja after an engagement in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    This is Wada convoy’s second fatal crash in one year.

    On December 28, last year, his convoy crashed on its way to Lokoja from Ayingba, Kogi State.

    Wada’s Aide-de-Camp (ADC) died on the spot. The governor’s leg was broken. Other officials suffered varying degrees of injuries.

    ASUU’s National Welfare Secretary and Head of UNIBEN’s Foreign Language department, Dr. Ngozi Iloh is injured. She was unconsciou. UNIBEN ASUU Chair Dr. Tony Moye-Emina and the bus driver were also injured.

    Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Kogi State Sector Command Mr. Olakunle Motajo said preliminary investigation revealed that there was wrongful overtaken by the governor’s convoy. He said investigation had started.

    Iyayi’s body, according to Motajo, had been deposited at the Kogi State Specialist Hospital’s morgue. The injured are also receiving treatment in the hospital.

    ASUU President Nasir Fagge describe Iyayi’s death tragic.

    A member of ASUU, Dr. Sunday Abada, in the ill-fated ASUU delegation, recalled how the accident occurred.

    Speaking to our correspondent on the telephone yesterday, he said:

    “About 15 union members from various institutions, moving in a three-vehicle convoy, were on their way to Kano to participate in the NEC meeting scheduled to hold in Bayero University, Kano (BUK) today.

    Abada, a senior lecturer of Political Science at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), said: “We were on our way to Kano State for our NEC meeting holding tomorrow (today) when a vehicle in the convoy of Governor Idris Wada on full speed left its lane and collided with the vehicle conveying our members along the Abuja-Lokoja Expressway. Prof Iyayi died on the spot.

    “It was later, at 4pm, the govenror led a group of reporters to the Specialist Hospital where the remains of Iyayi are deposited. We had to chase him away because we discovered that he was trying to politicise the incident. But I can confirm to you that only Iyayi died in the accident; the other victims are receiving treatment at the Specialist Hospital.”

    Abada said today’s NEC meeting could be put off because “ASUU is very interested in the welfare of its members”. He said the recklessness of drivers attached to Wada’s convoy could prolong the strike, noting that the lecturers stuck to all road safety measures as they drove on the highway.

    Injured Monye-Emina, who spoke to our reporter in a soft voice, said the governor’s convoy was on full speed. “The governor’s vehicle left its lane and rammed into our union vehicle. The impact made our bus to somersault several times. It was by the grace of God that I survived but we lost Prof Iyayi and I learnt Dr Iloh is critically injured,” he said.

    The Kogi State Government, in a statement on the incident said the governor’s convoy was “on a speed of 80 kilometers per hour when a bus collided with the escort van”. “Sadly, in the storm, it was discovered that a renowned academic and respected human rights advocate, Prof. Festus Iyayi, who was in the other vehicle, died in the accident. There were other victims with varying degrees of injuries from both sides.

    “The victims were immediately evacuated to the State Specialist Hospital in Lokoja on the governor’s directive. The injured are responding to treatment.

    “The Governor has ordered full scale investigation into the matter and paid a visit to the injured. Capt. Wada sympathised with the victims and their families. He wished the deceased a peaceful repose of his soul.”

    Lagos Lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) said last night that he would push for the prosecution of the driver who drove the governor’s convoy’s vehicle.

    But, he stressed that the Nigerian state killed Iyayi. “The trip would not have been necessary, if the President did not wait till now to resolve the ASUU matter. If the train had been working, may be they would have gone by train,” Falan said.

  • Court dismisses appeals against Wada’s election

    Court dismisses appeals against Wada’s election

    The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on Wednesday threw out two different appeals challenging the election of Kogi State Governor, Ibrahim Wada.

    In a unanimous judgment, the court declined jurisdiction and held that since the issues raised in both appeals related to election matters, the proper forum was the election tribunal.

    The judgment was on the appeals by the Congress for Progressive Change’s (CPC) governorship candidate, James Ocholi, (SAN) and the All Nigerian People Party (ANPP).

    The court had in an earlier decision, refused a similar appeal by Jilbrin Isah, a member of Wada’s party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Justice I.T.A. George-Mbama, in the lead judgment, upheld an earlier decision by the Federal High Court on the ground that the trial court was right in dismissing the suit jointly filed by the appellant and from which the appeal was raised.

    Justice George-Mbama frowned at the decision of the two appellants to file two separate appeals when they jointly filed the case as plaintiffs at the trial court.

    “The second appeal is similar to the one earlier decided. The parties are the same. At the lower court they were together.

    “They have similar interest. They still have the same interest even in the appeal. It is therefore surprising to see them file different appeals. This is an unwholesome practice as it had overburdened the court.

    “The mere fact that a federal agency is a party does not make it a case for a Federal High Court. It is the issue in dispute and the law that determine jurisdiction,” Justice George-Mbama held.

     

  • Church donates to Kogi flood victims

    Church donates to Kogi flood victims

    The Good Tidings Bible Church in Abuja has donated relief materials to flood victims in Kogi State.

    Kogi State governor Idris Wada, who commended the initiative, called on other religious organisations to come to the aid of flood victims in the state.

    Relief materials ranging from medications, clothes, food stuffs, toiletries, and accessories were presented to the victims

    Wada expressed deep appreciation to the Senior Pastor of the church, Pastor Dayo Olutayo for his deep thought to help the needy. He prayed that God should continue to strengthen his ministry.

    He assured that the relief materials would be distributed judiciously to the beneficiaries.

    He said: “The church has made it a point of duty to bring fulfilment to lives of people.”

    He expressed deep concern over the flood disaster which ravaged so many communities in several states of the country. He therefore urged Nigerians to come out en masse and support these victims in any way they could in order to alleviate the sufferings they experience on daily basis.