The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Illegal

  • ‘Illegal’ structures go as varsity clears twin-campus

    ‘Illegal’ structures go as varsity clears twin-campus

    For one week, bulldozers rumbled through the Owerri and Orlu campuses of the Imo State University (IMSU), demolishing structures which the authorities described as illegal. Many business centres were affected.

    Traders and shop owners watched helplessly as their structures were demolished during the exercise supervised by officials of the university’s Works Department.

    Students also had a taste of the demolition. The cafeterias where they get cheap food were pulled down.

    On the Owerri campus, Indomie Spot, a students’ restaurant close to the school’s indoor games centre, was flattened. The students’ cafeteria at the back of the Faculty of Engineering was not spared.

    IMSU’s Mr. Bigg’s, a regular joint for medical students in Orlu, suffered the same fate. Desolate buildings and abandoned lecture rooms were also pulled down.

    CAMPUSLIFE learnt that the demolition order came from the government. It is to create spaces for new structures. Before the exercise, the management gave the shop owners two weeks to leave. Our correspondents learnt that the traders complained that the notice was “too short”.

    When the Works Department officials embarked on the exercise, it was learnt that students prevented them from pulling down a row of computer centres, complaining that their demolition would hurt them. The students also prevented the demolition of the cafeterias.

    The officials reported to the management and returned the following week with some security men to demolish the cafeterias. The exercise was carried out when customers were having their meals and many students rushed out in order not to be trapped inside.

    A female trader, who was in tears as her shop was being pulled down, said she paid about N350,000 to the management to open her computer centre three months ago. “Since they knew that they are coming to demolish the building, why did they ask me to pay that huge money? Now, they have ruined my business in a day,” she said.

    CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof Ukachukwu Awuzie, ordered the demolition after consulting the Senate. The demolition was followed by the clearing of sites for the erection of structures for new departments and existing ones.

    Faculties that will get new buildings include Law, which lost its accreditation because of the old facilities in which students were being taught.

    An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “The demolition is a directive from the school management, acting on the order of the state government that wants space for more structures to be erected for lecture halls and classrooms. So, I can tell you that the VC or any member of the management does not hate the people affected. It is for the progress of the school.”

    Students, who spoke with our correspondents, complained that the exercise would bring difficulties to them because the demolished businesses offered cheap services.

    Okechukwu Nwaigwe, 300-Level Religion, said: “I am not happy because of this demolition. It will affect students badly because those were the places we get food cheap.”

    Clara Ezeagu, 100-Level Optometry, said: “It is sad. What is making me angry with the school is that the demolition of IMSU Mr Bigg’s was carried out when students were still eating in the building. Here, in Orlu campus, before one can buy anything, one must go out of the school. It is very painful.”

  • Ill-fated boat was illegal, says NIMASA

    Ill-fated boat was illegal, says NIMASA

    The ill-fated wooden boat, which capsized off the coast of Calabar, Cross River was traveling to Gabon illegally, a source at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in Calabar said yesterday.

    The source said the passengers decided to use the boat because they did not have valid travel documents.

    The source said the wooden boat was not registered with any transport company.

    He said: “Apart from the fact that the transport fare charged by operators of the wooden boat might be cheaper than that of the normal vessels, those using the boat do not have valid travel documents. They enter it illegally because the operators manoeuvre their ways and do not use the normal entry jetty when they get to Gabon.”

    The Director-General of the Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), told reporters yesterday evening that rescue operations were still ongoing

    He said wreckage of the boat was yet to be found.

  • Nigeria loses N90b worth of fish to illegal fishing

    More than N90 billion worth of fish are pirated out of the nation’s waters each year, an expert in fishery, Prof. Martins Antekhai, has said.

    Antekhai, who is of Department of Fisheries, Lagos State University(LASU), said the livelihood of local fishermen are being threatened by the many foreign industrial trawlers, which operate illegally in the nation’s waters.

    He said there are zones that are reserved for local fishing which should be recognised by the industrial boats.

    He said it is illegal for industrial boats to fish in areas near the shore designated for local fisherman, adding that the laws are ignored.

    He added that Illegal, Unreported and Unregistered Fishing( IUU) decrease the operating costs for vessel owners who avoid paying for licences, on-board observers, vessel monitoring systems (VMSs) or catch documentation systems.

    He said: “A reason the IUU fishing takes place is that its activities are facilitated by some shortcomings in national control, including flags of convenience (FOC), insufficient monitoring, control and surveillance in exclusive economic zones on the high seas, ports of convenience, and uncontrolled at-sea transshipments.

    “As a punitive measure, countries make a point of not licensing FOC vessels or vessels with an IUU fishing history, as it will increase deterrence and reduce options for IUU fishing operators.”

    Antekhai called for a record to track vessels with illegal fishing. He expressed concern over the violation of international law against illegal, unreported and unregistered fishing.

    He said over the years due to illegal fishing practices marine resources are being rapidly depleted. He urged that steps be taken to prevent the country from being deprived of huge income through seafood t but also livelihood of hundreds of thousands of fisherman families would be put on stake.

    Illegal fishing is a major threat to the sustainability of the world’s fisheries. Some estimates are that illegal and unregulated fishing causes yearly financial losses of up to $23.5 billion worldwide and accounts for up to 20 per cent of the wild marine fish caught. In some parts of the world, the situation is even more dire. For example, fisheries scientists estimate that illegal fishing accounts for about 40 per cent of fish caught in West Africa.

    Pressure on the world’s fish stocks is high. Fishing fleets use modern technology and massive vessels to fish in places that until were out of reach because they were too deep, remote, or dangerous to exploit.

    Massive processing vessels allow fishing vessels to offload catch at sea. The result is: Too many vessels chasing too few fish.

     

     

  • NCC arrests 75 agents running illegal Sim cards registration

    NCC arrests 75 agents running illegal Sim cards registration

    National Communications Commission (NCC), said it has arrested 75 agents operating Sim Card registration for engaging in fraudulent practices.

    Five of the agents were apprehended in Minna, will the remaining 70 were arrested in other states in the North Central and South West regions of the country.

    The NCC Head of Enforcement, Mr. Efosa Idehen, disclosed this on Wednesday after the arrest of five agents who engage in fraudulent registration of Sim cards in Minna.

    He accused the arrested agents of pre-registering and selling registered and fully activated Sim cards to the customers.

    Idehen further said the mop-up of agents into illegal Sim cards registration will be extended to other parts of the country in the next six weeks.

    According to him, ‘’agents of fraudulent Sim cards registration have no where to run as the Commission already have the details of everyone and we have been trailing and monitoring these agents since 2012’’.

    He disclosed that five out of identified six suspects had been picked up in Minna, Niger state capital lamenting that some of the agents had more than one machine with them.

    “Today, we came to Minna trailing six lined for three mobile operators. One of the operators, MTN had three lines while Airtel had one and Glo had two machines. The operators fully coperated with us as they brought the agents to their office where they were arrested. We learnt that some agents had machines from each network.”

    The Head of Enforcement then pleaded with Nigerians to allow the registration process work the way it was planned to work stressing that if it works, it will go a long way in being able to track up criminals, help for research purpose and help NCC in having a clean and organized database.

     

     

  • Illegal school shut in Port Harcourt

    Illegal school shut in Port Harcourt

    The Rivers State government has closed Our Saviour’s Academy along Ada George Road in Port Harcourt for operating illegally.

    The school was closed after an unscheduled visit by the Inspectorate Department of Ministry of Education, Rivers State. Its Director, Samuel Wigwe, said the school was shut because it was operating illegally and was not conducive for learning.

    The Director said apart from not being up to the standard prescribed by the state government, the school did not have enough facilities to run pre-nursery, nursery, primary and secondary in the same compound.

    He directed parents/guardians of the affected pupils having problems in enrolling their wards to another school to meet the Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Education for onward absorption in other schools.

    Wigwe also said the punishment would serve as deterrent to other private schools that are operating illegally or with sub-standard facilities. He added that the era of illegal private schools in the state would soon be over.

     

  • N5b lost to illegal importation of caps

    The Cotton Textile and Garment (CTG) sub-sector is said to be losing N5billion yearly to the illegal importation of caps, as a result of the porous state of the country’s border posts where about 50 million caps find their way into the country.

    The Head of Operations, Crown Natures Nigeria Limited, Mrs Busayo Gbaluwe, who spoke at the presentation of caps and hats in Lagos, said about 50 million inferior caps are imported yearly, thereby denying local manufacturers of their share of the market.

    Mrs Gbaluwe said the need to transfer technology and bridge the gap, especially for people that go out of the country to import caps, informed the decision of the company to float the outfit with its focus on using traditional African fabrics, such as adire and ankara, to make caps.

    Again, she said the company was floated as an agent of wealth and job creation, as a result of the innovation it introduced in cap making, saying the move by Crown Natures Limited is the first in Nigeria.

    The company, which is a beneficiary of the N100 billion CTG intervention fund, managed by the Bank of Industry (Bol) admitted that without the fund, the project would not have been a success.

    She lamented that prior to the introduction of the fund, their experience with a leading commercial bank in Nigeria was traumatic because the interest rate was high and as such, they could not break even with the funds sourced, which she said, was released for a short tenure.

    The fund has helped her firm to reposition and expand its operations beyond the level it was in 2006 when they started operations, saying the company employs over 64 workers and planning to employ more.

    Besides, she said before the company accessed the CTG, the firm produced about 500,000 units of caps yearly, saying this has shot up to 1.2 million at the moment with more room for improved productivity.

    On local content, she explained that about 45 percent of raw materials are sourced locally while the remaining is still imported because there are no companies producing the items locally at the moment.

    Also speaking, the Managing Director of BoI, Ms Evelyn Oputu, lauded the resolve of the firm to promote local fabrics.

    She tasked the management of the company to look beyond the local market and explore the potential in the export market. She assured that the bank would support the firm

     

  • Army investigates men on alleged illegal duty in Edo

    The Army Headquarters has begun investigation into the presence of some soldiers on guard at an oil company in Iwevbo quarters of Obagie-Nunaume, an oil-rich community in Orhionmwon Local Government Area of Edo State.

    The soldiers were allegedly on illegal duty having abandoned their duty posts without clearance from the commanders.

    It was gathered the lid was blown off the illegal security surveillance by a petition from the Obagie-Nunuamen Community Development Association leadership against the activities of Newcross Petroleum limited.

    Sources confirmed that a fact-finding Military Police investigation (MPI) team was deployed from the Second Division of the Nigerian Army, Ibadan to the community last week on the strength of the petition.

    The community accused the oil firm of exploration without regard to the rules that govern the process and illegal hiring of  men of the Nigerian Army from a unit outside and unknown to the 4 Mechanised Brigade in Benin City to provide security for its field staffers at Iwevbo quarters.

    The MPI officer-in- charge of the investigations, Sergeant Steve Unas, said the team was mandated “to come and look into the community issues raised in their petition of unwanted soldiers’ faces and Newcross Petroleum Limited that are encroaching on their land to exploit their oil without permission.”

    He said the aim of the investigative team was “to know whether the military personnel are there by federal government permission to do so on their (community) land or not.”

     

  • Baribote: NPL’s Congress illegal

    Baribote: NPL’s Congress illegal

    Rumson Baribote has described Tuesday’s Congress of the NPL as illegal declaring the NFF does not have the power to order for such gathering.

    Baribote-led board was impeached at the Congress in Abuja which had 19 of the 20 Premier League clubs in attendance but he said the move will only exacerbate the troubles of the domestic league.

    “The way they are going about it, they just want problem in Nigerian football because we wanted peace. It is only the board that can call a congress and not the Nigeria Football Federation. Article 17 says it is only the chairman that can preside over congress and meetings of the NPL. If I’m not unavoidably there, it is the vice chairman that can preside. I don’t know whether in any article of the statute, there is s provision for one of the club chairmen to preside over the congress,” he said.

    Baribote, who will also lose his post as a vice president of the NFF, is however optimistic of surviving the turmoil as he said he is looking forward to Thursday’s Annual General Assembly of the NFF.

    “We are looking forward to the Annual General Assembly in Port Harcourt and we will be sending our complain to them that they should not recognise such an illegal congress because if they do, they will be setting a bad precedence,” he added.

  • Two held for ‘illegal sale of arms’ in Delta

    TWO middle-aged men have been arrested by the police in Ozoro, Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State for “illegal sales of arms and ammunition”.

    Felix Efenijigho and Johnson Ugweba were arrested at a compound in the community during the alleged sale of arms and ammunition to spies spent by the police.

    Items recovered from the suspects included one double barrel, 30 live cartridges, two jack knifes, one Army kit bag, one locally made single-barrel gun and six ammunition.

    The Divisional Police Officer of Ozoro Police Division said the case had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

  • ‘Oyinlola’s appointment of ex-CJ was illegal’

    The Chief Judge nominee for Osun State, Justice Oyebola Ojo, has said the appointment of the former Chief Judge, Justice Olaniyi Ojo, by the ousted administration of Chief Olagunsoye Oyinlola was illegal.

    She said the appointment of the former CJ, who was then President of the Customary Court of Appeal, violated the order of seniority and precedent.

    Justice Ojo spoke on the floor of the House of Assembly during her screening.

    Answering questions from lawmakers, she said the then number two Judge, Justice Awotoye, should have been appointed.

    Justice Ojo said she would maintain a good working relationship among the three arms of government, if she is appointed CJ.

    On a petition sent to the National Judicial Commission (NJC) by a group within the state judiciary, called Body of Judges, Justice Ojo said it was to convey the feelings of Osun Judges to the NJC, when they heard that a judge would be brought to Osun from Lagos State.

    She said: “The letter written by the Body of Judges was not meant to be confrontational, but to convey our feelings on the Judge that was to be brought from Lagos State to the NJC.”

    When Mr. Folorunso Bamisayemi asked why the Body of Judges did not resist the alleged illegal appointment of the former CJ, Justice Ojo said it was the decision of the State Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and she had no power to tinker with it.

    Speaker Najeem Salaam debunked a story published in the Nigerian Tribune yesterday, where it was reported that the lawmakers shunned the sitting for the appointment of CJ.

    He said the story was in bad faith.

    Some lawmakers rejected the nominee on the grounds that the Assembly cannot act on a matter pending in court.

    After a hot debate, Mr. Timothy Owoeye moved the motion for the nominee’s rejection and it was seconded by Mr. Folorunso Bamisayemi (Ife South).

    Mr. Johnson Ojo (Ede South) moved a counter motion for the nominee’s confirmation and it was seconded by Mr. Kamorudeen Akanbi (Ede North).

    Majority of the lawmakers rejected the nominee and the speaker urged the governor to fill the vacant post in acting capacity until the litigation against the JSC, in which the Assembly and the governor are joined as respondents, is disposed of.