The Nation Newspaper

Tag: LAW

  • CJN urges judges to be guided by law, conscience

    The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, yesterday gave tips on how judges could avoid being caught on the wrong side of the law as culprits of professional misconduct.

    Onnoghen said the best way a judicial official could avoid trouble, while on the bench is to remain true to his/her oath of office, be guided by the Constitution, the law and his/her conscience.

    The CJN spoke in Abuja while swearing in 19 newly appointed judges of the National Industrial Court, among who were two law professors.

    He said:”I want to advise everyone of us, judicial officers, particularly the newly sworn-in judicial officers, to always be guided by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the law and your good conscience.

    “I assure you that, as judicial officers, if you remain true to the oath of office you have taken, you will have no problem because everything you need to function in that office is contained in that document called the Constitution.

    “I want you to know that you should allow yourself to be guided by the provisions of the Constitution which is the supreme law of the land.

    “You can only checkmate impunity by adherence to the rule of law. And you have the tool to ensure that this country moves in the right direction. Only posterity should be our witness because as human beings, our memory can fail, but time will never fail.

    “Be on the side of the law and you will never fail. Be on the side of the law and posterity will always find you right. Be on the side of the law and your confidence will know no bounds. Be on the side of the law and you will sleep well because after a hard day’s job, you deserve rest. But be true to God and to yourself in respect of what you do,” Onnoghen said.

    The newly inaugurated judges are: Targema John Iorngee (Benue State); Namtari Mahmood Abba (Adamawa State); Nweneka Gerald Ikechi (Rivers State); Kado Sanusi (Katsina State); Adeniyi Sinmisola Oluyinka (Ogun State) and Abiola Adunola Adewemimo (Osun State).

    Others are: Opeloye Ogunbowale A. (Lagos State); Essien Isaac Jeremiah (Akwa-Ibom State); Elizabeth Ama Oji (Ebonyi State); Arowosegbe Olukayode Ojo  (Ondo State); Ogbuanya Nelson S. Chukwudi (Enugu State) and Bashir Zaynab Mohammed (Niger State).

    Others are: Galadima Ibrahim Suleiman (Nasarawa State); Bassi Paul Ahmed (Borno State); Danjidda Salisu Hamisu (Kano State): Hamman Idi Polycarp (Taraba State); Damulak Kiyersohot Dashe   (Plateau State); Alkali Bashar Attahiru (Sokoto State) and Mustapha Tijjani (Jigawa State).

     

  • NSITF threatens to sue employers for breaking its law

    The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) may henceforth sue employers which refused to register with it in line with the law, its Managing Director /Chief Executive   Adebayo Somefun, has warned.

    He said in Abuja that for too long, many employers had defaulted in registering with NSITF.

    The penalty  for defaulters, he said, was too light, adding that  the NSITF would seek an amendment to its Act and the Employees Compensation Act (ECA) in order to enforce compliance.

    “Dialogue is very important, we will try to persuade them and also use the apparatus of  the government and the law. We must mandate them because it is mandatory.

    “Where persuasion has failed, I believe we can try to mandate them. We have written circulars but we still have some recalcitrant employers.

    “We will still try and persuade them and enforce where necessary, unfortunately, the penalty is so small.

    “So, I believe that this Act also has to be amended to give stiffer penalties,”Somefun said.

    He said he was discussing with his management on how  to pursue the Act’s amendment to ensure stiffer penalties.

    Somefun said part of his plans for NSITF the fund was to make Nigerians aware of its core functions.

    The statutory responsibility of the NSITF, he said, was to compensate employees who suffer from occupational diseases and sustain injury or disability from accidents in work place.

    “NSITF provides compensation to the dependants of an employee who dies in their workplace.

    “NSITF helps the employer to save for the rainy day,” he said.

    He described ECA as a no-fault scheme since it is a social fund which intends to ensure speedy compensation of employees.

    Any injured employee could be trained or rehabilitated under the NSITF in any vocation suitable for his condition.

    He said the fund had made it a duty to complete any request for compensation within two weeks, adding that he would work to bring the processing time down to days.

    “Compensation has started, that is why you have not seen people carrying placards saying that they have not been paid.

    “There is no request for compensation that has been brought to us here that has not been treated speedily,” Somefun said.

  • Benue’s open rearing and grazing law

    SIR: The Benue State law prohibiting open rearing and grazing of livestock unarguably marks a watershed in the historic struggle to halt the age long crises between farmers and Fulani herdsmen over land.

    There has been an unending struggle by farmers to protect their farmland and crops from being forcefully taken over or destroyed by cattle in the name of grazing. On the other hand, the pastoralists have over time suggestively claimed the right of access to any land, especially in the lush green vegetation, whether farmland or not, to graze their animals without recourse to the permission or opinion of the land or crop owners.

    While the herdsmen seek protection under the constitutional provision of citizens’ right to free movement and settlement in any part of the country, the farmers are quick to point out that the same constitution criminalises trespass and encroachment on other people’s property including land.

    The result is the incessant avoidable crises between herdsmen and farmers.

    The crisis is worse in Benue State where the last 10 years have witnessed sustained ferocious attacks on farming communities by marauding herdsmen who move about with sophisticated weapons unchallenged.

    From Agatu to Gwer West, Gwer East to Makurdi, Guma to Buruku, Logo to Ukum, Tarka to Gboko, Katsina-Ala to Kwande, the blood of the innocent have been spewed and the landscape has been a picture of blood, tears and sorrow.

    Efforts by past administrations and well-meaning stakeholders to find lasting solution to the seemingly intractable problem over the years have not achieved the desired objective. This is why when Governor Samuel Ortom, on assumption of office, began to champion the campaign for ranching of cattle and all other livestock, instead of open-grazing, he had the support of majority of Benue citizens most of who are directly or indirectly victims of the unwarranted attacks on communities of the State by herdsmen. The consensus is that once cattle are ranched, as is the practice in the other countries of the world, farmlands will no longer be encroached upon and crops no longer destroyed.

    And it follows naturally that once there is no encroachment on farmlands and destruction of crops, there will no longer be crisis and people no longer have to be attacked and killed by the Herdsmen.

    This is simply what the Prohibition of Open Rearing and Grazing of Livestock Law 2017 is all about. Only those who may perhaps have been benefitting from the crises in the past are, or can be against the law which has put paid to such benefits from the blood and toil of Benue people. It is only in this light that we can attempt a comprehension of the recent outburst and threats by the Cattle Breeders Association under the aegis of Miyetti Allah Cattle Kautal Hore over the law which has criminalized the penchant of some of their members to play God over people’s lives and property.

    The outburst of the Group and its threats to fight the Law should worry all well-meaning Nigerians because the posture is not only provocative but offensive to the spirit and letter of the constitution which empowers state Houses of Assembly to make laws for the well-being of their people as long as such laws are not in conflict with the provisions of the constitution.

    Kautal Hore’s claim that Fulani herdsmen were the first to occupy the Benue Valley is not only erroneous and fallacious but also a brazen attempt to re-write history! Benue indigenes must remain one on this issue because the threat by the herdsmen organization is a direct challenge to their existence.

     

    • Igba Ogbole,

    Makurdi.

  • Anti-graft war, law, morality and justice

    SIR; That Nigeria ranks high among the most corrupt nations of the world is no more news. The tree of corruption planted shortly after independence has developed to an IROKO tree with deep seated roots bearing robust but poisonous fruits found all over the country in decayed infrastructure, collapsed educational and health facilities, unemployment, youth restlessness among others.

    The present administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari made war against corruption a hallmark of its manifesto. The battle has been taken to the doorstep of the past administration with mind-boggling revelations of treasury looting. Politicians and public servants have been found with massive wealth in bank statements and property beyond known income. Monies in local and foreign currencies have been found hidden in unthinkable places.

    In developed countries which we constantly refer to as models, corruption has become a moral issue and the burden of name and shame make it degrading to move near anything like it.

    Unlike what it was Nigeria when citizens honour and respect family names, parents were known to have rejected money and gifts from wards whose income could not justify such gestures. Corruption has progressively become a passion and fashion that some parents practically push their children to crave for illicit wealth. More worrisome is the shameful acts of communities and tribal groups who gather to celebrate kinsmen indicted or jailed for corrupt enrichment.

    The battle line in the anti-graft war is between morality, law and justice. The law we inherited from colonial masters that jailed offenders in UK and convicts a poor man in Nigeria is bent in favour of the rich who secures bail on compassionate ground, gets a long adjournment and eventually acquitted on no case submission based on technicalities of law. The victim is the nation and her citizens. Justice perverted is an encouragement to engage in crime.

    The society from households, communities, schools and worship centres must rise and unite in the fight against the challenges and evils that corruption constitutes. Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo enthused that worshipcentres should reject money from thefaithful whose source is unknown.

    President Buhari has justified his election in the fight corruption.Contrary to cries of witch-hunting, corruption war cannot be won on federal character, ethnic or religious considerations. Every finger found in the pot of corruption must be called to account .

    The present economic situation presents an opportunity to say – NO MORE Corruption in Nigeria.

     

    • Remi Oyebamiji,

    Lagos.

  • Above the law?

    •Still on killer herdsmen

    For decades, he has been a prominent feature on Nigeria’s geographical landscape. There is hardly any part of the country that you would not find the ubiquitous herdsman, mostly of Hausa-Fulani extraction, tending his cattle and steering the animals along time-worn paths in search of pasture and water. We have in recent times, however, witnessed the transformation of the herdsman armed with a stick, a small bag by his side containing his water pouch and, perhaps, a short knife, into a menacing monster, wielding the most sophisticated weapons and causing devastation in host communities across the country.

    By some estimates, the victims that the marauding herdsmen have sent to their untimely graves now exceed the number of those murdered by the Boko Haram insurgents, particularly in the North-East zone of the country. The destructive and disruptive activities of the nomadic herdsmen in the South-West dates as far back as year 2000 when they clashed with host communities in parts of Oyo State, leading to a famous face-off between then Governor Lam Adeshina and a delegation of leaders of the Fulani herdsmen. However, it was the abduction of elder statesman and former presidential candidate of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD), Chief Olu Falae, from his farm in Ondo State in 2015, by a band of Fulani herdsmen that drew fresh attention to the temerity these criminal elements had acquired.

    Luckily, Chief Falae was later released without bodily harm but understandably psychologically bruised by the tortuous experience after some ransom had been paid. It is soul-lifting that the culprits were apprehended and made to face the sanctions of law.

    A new dimension now appears to have been added to the herdsmen’s lawlessness in the South-West. Oyo State government has cried out that the herdsmen are now rearing their cattle in some schools in the state. According to the state commissioner for education, science and technology, Professor Adeniyi Olowofela, “there are various complaints on cattle rearing across schools. One was reported to have happened at Government College, Ibadan. Though it is prevalent in Oke Ogun, it happens everywhere in the state. We have monitors going around our schools and we won’t tolerate such”.

    We wholeheartedly endorse the warning of the Oyo State government that such cattle found grazing in her schools will be confiscated and their owners prosecuted. It is surely because they have been treated with kid gloves even as they kill, rape and maim innocent citizens and destroy their sources of livelihood all over the country that the herdsmen have been perpetrating their nefarious activities with impunity, as if they are above the laws of the land.

    We are, of course, not unmindful of the complaint of some of the herdsmen that they are victims of cattle rustlers who seek to rob them of their source of livelihood. It is our position that anybody found violating the rights of others and flouting the law should be brought to book.

    It is the height of insensitivity for herdsmen to rear their cattle in school premises where children and their teachers could easily be put at risk. The relevant security agencies, particularly the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) have been inexcusably tardy in checking the excesses of the herdsmen. It is also difficult to understand why it is taking eternity for the government to actualise its plan to restrict cattle grazing to modern ranches in specific locations, as this will minimise clashes between herdsmen and their host communities.

    We urge governors in the affected states to come up with appropriate laws that will ensure the arrest and prosecution of these criminal elements.

  • Osinbajo at UNIZIK for law teachers’ conference

    Osinbajo at UNIZIK for law teachers’ conference

    It was all excitement at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Awka, Anambra State, last Monday, when the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, stopped by at the school to attend the 50th conference of the Nigeria Association of Law Teachers (NALT) with the theme: Law, security and national development.

    Declaring the conference open, Prof Osinbajo faulted the inability of states to create an inclusive society under existing constitutional arrangements to guarantee the security of lives and liberties of the people. He noted that lack of trust in justice administration fueled the persistent agitations from different parts of the country.

    He said: “First, on the matter of inclusion and inequalities, there is little doubt that the lack of provision of the basics of life to the largest number of our people remains the greatest source of tension in the polity.

    “People at the grassroots struggle daily for basic amenities, such as healthcare. The absence of social justice and lack of education and jobs give opportunities to young people to be recruited into any sort of army, whether for kidnapping, terrorism, violence or anti-social agitation.

    “It is the failure of states to deliver on these essentials of life and livelihood that compels our people to run to their tribal and religious camps to seek succour by way of agitation for basic rights and services.”

    The Acting President said efforts must be made to tackle poverty at the grassroots, noting that hunger does not recognise tribe or religion.

    He said: “There is no doubt in my mind that poverty has the same character in Bodinga Local Government Area in Sokoto State as in Ayanmelum Local Government Area here in Anambra State. Poverty affecting an Igbo man is not more dignified than the one affecting a Hausa-Fulani man.

    “So, the question for us is how to resolve these issues. First is to place responsibility where it rightly belongs. It is the business of all tiers of government– executive, legislature and judiciary to provide the enabling environment for the quality of life that people expect.”

    Prof Osinbajo said the Federal Government was working to ensure that poverty was reduced in all communities. He noted that the 2017 budget had a provision of N500 billion for social investment and N100 billion for social housing, targeting low-income families. He said the government’s N-Power scheme provided thousands of direct jobs to young graduates.

    Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Walter Onnoghen, said the role of laws in solving the nation’s challenges could not be underestimated, noting that security of the nation depends on people’s faith in the law.

    Onnoghen, who chaired the occasion, was represented by Justice Amina Augie, a Justice of the Supreme Court. He said it was necessary for the existing laws to be efficient with the right attitude to their implementation.

    In his goodwill message, Governor Willie Obiano said his administration had transformed the state through good governance, observing that the state won the right to host the event because of its improved security.

    Chairman of Society for Analytical Economics, Prof Godwin Owoh, advocated the need to link the law with the nation’s dynamics of growth in order to sustain the economy and foster development.

    The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Joseph Ahaneku, said the event was in line with the school’s tradition of proffering academic solutions to the nation’s challenges.

    In his address, NALT President and Dean, Faculty of Law, Prof Godwin Okeke, said the conference had become a platform for training and development of law teachers in the country.

  • Bad For Law

    •About one-third fails Bar Exam. Need for holistic approach to academic and vocational training for lawyers 

    The rate of failure in bar exams has been discouraging for the past three cycles. In April 2016, failure rate was 23.6%; in September 2016, 17.8%, and 28% in April 2017, with 6.4% obtaining conditional pass. Out of 2,125 candidates for the April 2017 examination, 1,393 passed and 596 failed. Given that admission to the Bar is a precondition for practicing law and that Law School exam is a test of competence of law graduates to practice the profession, taxpayers deserve to worry about cost-effectiveness of funds allocated to law schools to prepare students for the important exam. This year’s result calls for scrutiny of causes of failure of nearly one out of three examinees.

    What in the distant past was taken for granted by citizens: government’s financial and moral commitment to quality across the spectrum has declined to the point of becoming a perennial national problem. High failure rate in the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Examinations Council (NECO) and Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations was the first to surface, now followed by growing rate of failure in higher-level professional examinations.

    With about 30% failure rate in qualifying exam for admission to the Bar, people should shudder about true level of competence in other professions that do not conduct pre-practice qualifying exams, such as medicine, pharmacy, nursing, engineering, etc. With 66% success rate, it is logical to assume that the problem must go beyond the Law School. It signals serious cracks in the educational system, especially guarantee of quality in academic training of law graduates in the country’s universities.

    The saying that nobody plants hot pepper and harvests cool cucumber is now in evidence in the country’s educational sector. Inadequate attention to the sector now shows its negative effects in professional fields. For instance, while UN benchmark of 26% of national budget of developing countries applies to Nigeria, federal/state allocations to education for the past decade average 15%. Federal allocation to the sector for 2017 is 6.01% (N448.01 billion out of a budget of N7.30 trillion). Budget allocation to education has never been higher than 8% for the past two decades. Universities are underfunded and teachers are under-motivated. Poor funding of universities sparks intermittent strikes and closure of campuses. Despite this, policy about structure of tertiary education changes by the day. With over 100 universities, the federal Government remains enthusiastic about converting polytechnics and colleges of education to universities, mostly without national debate.

    Furthermore, private universities that account for majority of tertiary institutions, like public ones, are not regulated efficiently. Lack of adequate facilities in both public and private universities are too obvious. Academic quality assurance processes that used to be hallmarks of rigorous undergraduate training are now in decline. For example, most universities have jettisoned external examination system, which had served as quality control mechanism in undergraduate training for decades. Libraries are shadows of what they used to be while opportunities to supplement library facility with digital library are smashed by lack of electricity, despite drop in cost of information technology across the globe.

    In addition, academic regulatory mechanism is perceived by most stakeholders to be inefficient and unreliable. Anecdotes about accreditation of universities and of specific disciplines, such as law, medicine, and engineering are not complimentary. Budgets allocated to hospitality by institutions awaiting accreditation are typically outlandish. Every year, candidates for admission are waiting for new cut-off for admission to tertiary institutions, which usually turns out to be lower than in previous years.

    These lapses point to neglect of the source of development and excellence: high quality education and training that produces high professionalism. Governments relish creating high rhetoric about importance of education, without paying adequate attention to what makes education important in the modern world: adequate funding of hardware and software to facilitate teaching and learning.

    Nigeria cannot afford to waste resources on professionals: lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, engineers, technologists who need to take many re-sit exams before qualifying to practice. We call on federal and state governments to provide immediate leadership for comprehensive reform of education. Good rhetoric about education may be easy politics, but it is not good policy.

  • Benue Muslims support anti-grazing law

    The Muslim community in Benue State has supported the anti-open grazing law.

    Leader of the community, Sheik Ibrahim Aliyu, stated this at the Benue Peoples’ House during iftar with Governor Samuel Ortom.

    According to him, those criticizing the law were ignorant of its content and intent, saying it is not against any particular ethnic group, faith or sect.

    Sheik Aliyu said Muslims in the state, who know the extent of carnage and destruction done by herdsmen to life and property, stand behind Ortom. He noted that the law is to safeguard life and property.

    He added that the Muslim Umma in the state will soon undertake a tour of the far North to explain the content and intent of the law to fellow Muslims who are being misled to attack the governor.

    Ortom,who was represented by his deputy, Benson Abounu, thanked the Muslim community for standing for truth and supporting the government’s honest attempt to tackle the incessant farmers/herders clash.

    He said enacting the law is the best thing to do, adding that despite threats and criticisms from certain quarters, there is no going back on its implementation.

  • Mrs Khan and law

    Freedom is sweet. So sweet that we all crave it. Even prisoners have been known to break jail to have a taste of the free world.

    Ex-Rivers Resident Electoral Commissioner Mrs. Gesila Khan must sure appreciate freedom now better than she has ever done. She has had to ‘lose’ her freedom intermittently over investigations into alleged bribery in relations to the conduct of the last general elections.

    Mrs. Khan was picked up on Saturday in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    She was first arrested on April 15, 2016 following multiple allegations of financial fraud, including partaking in N650.9m and $115m poll bribes. She was arraigned two days ago. Her bail application will be heard today.

    Mrs Khan, who was the REC in Cross River State when she was first arrested, was granted an administrative bail on May 3, last year after fulfilling some conditions which included bringing a first class traditional ruler as a surety. It was the traditional ruler the EFCC made to produce her last weekend.

    Mrs. Khan is a remarkable woman. So remarkable her time in Rivers will never be forgotten. On one occasion, the Bayelsa-born Khan was honoured by three groups. I could not keep count of the number of awards she received from shadowy groups while she held sway in Rivers.

    Mrs Khan, while receiving one of these awards, said she complied with the Electoral Act in carrying out the last general elections. She said her efforts contributed to ensuring the violence in Rivers was minimal. She almost said she was able to bring to shame people who expected the state would grieve for a long time after the polls.

    So much was Mrs Khan able to minimise violence that Rivers was hell before, during and after the polls. For months, men without spine, men of brawn—and please permit me to add— who lack humanity and conscience put Rivers State, the Lagos of the Southsouth, on the spot. It was either they were shooting guns or they were throwing bombs. And when they did it, they hid their faces. They acted most times under the cover of the dark and daylight.

    Aside guns and dynamites, they also used machetes and other dangerous weapons. Heads were broken. Necks were twisted. Arms had hot leads pumped into them. And there was a woman whose back was reshaped with bullets. It was simply a tale of blood.

    In 2015, I received the picture of a man on a hospital bed somewhere in dear Rivers. Blood was gushing out of the middle of his head. It looked as though his skull was broken. His name, I found out, is Emenike. In the picture, he looked dead. In fact, he was reported dead and condolences were sent to his friends and families. The picture was to illustrate a story for the next day’s edition of this paper. But, we simply could not use it. It was gory. My Editor, Gbenga Omotoso, cringed on seeing the picture and simply screamed: “We can’t use this. It is gory.”

    He was not the only one attacked that day.  Others were too. They were at a meeting when they were attacked by men of low moral standing, men who are so-called because of their physical possessions.

    Jerry Needam, who speaks for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, alleged that the then Chief of Staff to the immediate past Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Chief Tony Okocha ordered political thugs and APC supporters to attack a former chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government, Timothy Nsirim at a function in Rumueme. Needam described the alleged attack on as “criminal, barbaric and animalistic”.

    Nsirim, he claimed, was physically battered by Okocha and sustained major injuries all over his body and had his clothes torn to shreds.

    “The PDP therefore, calls on the Inspector General of Police, IG and the Rivers Commissioner of Police, CP to arrest and prosecute Tony Okocha. The party also describes Okocha as lawless, blood thirsty and one if not tamed, would cause crisis in Rivers State, ahead of the general elections,” he said.

    But Nsirim’s father, the King of Rumueme community, Nyeweli Omunakwe Nyeche Nsirim, accused his son of using thugs to disrupt the APC rally. According to him, the APC stalwarts in the community had duly obtained the blessing of the chiefs of the community to organise their political rally. He described as false the claim by the PDP that Okocha and other APC supporters attacked the former council chairman.

    The bulk of those at the receiving end of the madness in Rivers were of the APC. The PDP said the APC was the one throwing the dynamites and attacking its own to buy sympathy.  Several APC supporters on their way to the official flag off of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential campaign in Port Harcourt were attacked by masked gunmen near Harry’s Town, in Degema and Sakpenwa, in Tai. The cowards were not bold enough to do it without hiding under face masks. They left many unconscious and in their pool of blood and fled into anonymity to spend the filthy money from their cowardly masters.

    Ask Aadum Pya-Alu, Deemua Beatrice, Sorbari Npebee, Barbe Jack, Victory Vinam and Wisdom Akpogbara and they will tell you tales that not only touch the hearts but break them.  Pya-Alu’s leg shot by the cowards tell all the story; Beatrice’s back-arm can never forget the day hot leads were pumped into it; Npebee, who was shot in the head and neck, is lucky to be alive to tell the story; and elated is Jack for not dying as a result of the gun-attack on his stomach; so is Vinam, who was shot in the leg; and Akpogbara must be thanking God that the bullet he received on the head for daring to identify with Gen. Buhari’s aspiration did not kill him.

    Okrika, the hometown of ex-First Lady Dame Jonathan, never allowed any APC rally. On one occasion, gunshots were exchanged between those who wanted the rally stopped and the police. At the end, a policeman died and a reporter with Channels Television, Charles Eruka, was stabbed. Some other policemen were also badly injured. Yet, Mrs Khan claimed she was able to ensure the violence was minimal.

    Mr Anayo Onukwugha, a journalist working for Leadership in Port Harcourt, was overpowered by youths who collected all they could lay their hands on in his pockets, including his two phones, a digital voice recorder and some cash.

    His colleague, Emeka Amaefula, the Bureau Chief of City, sustained abrasion on his sheen and waist and had an elbow inflammation.

    Of all the killings while Mrs Khan was in Rivers and was supposed to have brought violence to a minimal level, those of the Adubes caught the public’s attention more. Their killers showed no mercy. In one fell swoop, nine persons, including a father, his two sons and daughter were killed. The Adube family members are still in tears and are seeking justice.

    Those killed are: former Caretaker Committee Chairman of Ogba/Egbema/ Ndoni Local government, the late Hon. Christopher Adube, his two sons Lucky and John Adube, his daughter Joy,  a family friend, Mr. Iyk Ogarabe and the family driver, Mr.  Samuel Chukwunonye.

    Gunmen also killed nine persons and burnt the house of a politician in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area in one day.

    My final take: Now that Mrs Khan is having her day before the law, she should be given the right to defend herself, just as the EFCC must also do its best to ensure the case is diligently prosecuted.  Will she defeat the law or will the law defeat her? Time, like we say, will tell.

  • Law student wins oratory contest

    Law student wins oratory contest

    Mr Ugo Ijeoma Ndianiefo, a law student of University of Abuja, who hails from Otolo Nnewi in Nnewi Local Government area of Anambra State, has won the star prize of N1 million in the National Youth Oratory Competition.

    The finalists were Akwue Chisom, Ugwu Simeon, Anidebe Collins, Nwenyi Ogechi, Nweke Chioma, Nwogo Hillary, Eze Nwakuba and Akpalankwu Alexander. Others were Okou-Akirika Ginika, Mgbeoji Chikwelite, Ezennaya Faith, Placid Martins, Ozoani Chukwuebuka, and Adierem Jennifer.

    The winner would also proceed to a week leadership training in South Africa

    Rev Fr. Bonachristus Uchenna Umeogu sponsored the competition. The competition, which is fast becoming Nigeria’s biggest platform for youth interactions and constructive argument, held at Chicotel Hotel and Suites, Awka, the Anambra State capital. Over 1000 Nigerian youths drawn from more than 40 tertiary institutions attended the event.

    The participants spoke on Nigeria’s qualification as Africa’s entrepreneurial hub.

    Fr. Umeogu said, “We are seriously looking forward to seeing the future belonging to the youths; we also need youths who can wait and not be tired of waiting, youths with critical thinking who can solve problems and create value.

    “Some people, especially the youth move with the crowd, lose their vision, identity and point of view in life. We are seriously looking for a civilised future.

    “If one is a leader and doesn’t care about the person he is leading, it is doomed and that is why we must all strive to build a civilized society” he said.

    The oratory battle programme was the brainchild of Fr Umeogu and the triplets that founded VIP-Hub Media anchors, Ekene, Chiagozie and Elochukwu Ezeumeanya who developed the idea.

    The VIP’s hub reality television show was established in 2011 as a literary Insight Network (LIN). It was a university based club that frequently organized book and poetry reading sessions and review for her student members.

    The event was witness by staff and students of various tertiary institutions, parents and other stakeholders including the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Prof, Chinyere Stella Okunna, Commissioner for Education, Anambra State, Prof Kate Azuka Omenugha, represented by the Senior Special Assistant to Governor on Primary education, Lady Pat Offia.

    Other dignitaries at the event included the NDLEA Commander in Anambra state, Mr. Sule Momodu, Deputy Registrar, GSS, UNIZIK, Ngozi Bekky Adirika, Prof Ike Odumegwu, Prof Ngozi Ezeadi, Federal Commissioner of National Population Commission, Prof. Chika Muo, Prof Ogo Ibeneme, state secretary, NBA, Nnamdi Anagor, Nollywood star, Dike Obi, among others.