The Nation Newspaper

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  • Buhari gives Budget Office marching order on Budget 2020

    Barring the unforeseen, the 2020 Appropriation Bill would be transmitted to the National Assembly for consideration next week, it was learnt on Tuesday.

    President Muhammadu Buhari, a source told The Nation, has ordered the Budget Office of the Federation to expedite work on the budget so that he can lay it before the National Assembly before the end of this month.

    The month ends next Monday.

    The Nation learnt that a letter was on Monday dispatched from the President’s Office to the Director-General Budget Office to ensure that the budget gets to the President’s desk for vetting and approval ahead of the transmission to the National Assembly.

    According to a source, the Director-General, Budget Office, Ben Akabueze “has gone into closed door sessions with Schedule Officers in the Budget Office to come up with a clean copy of the budget that will be taken to the President.”

    The source was optimistic that the 2020 Budget will be submitted to the National Assembly in the coming week.

    Read Also: Federal Govt proposes N9.789tr budget for 2020

    Details of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) 2020-2022 show that capital expenditure would suffer successive cuts for the three-year period to N1.76 trillion in 2020, despite increases in total expenditure.

    On the other hand, recurrent was billed to rise from N3.41 trillion in 2018 to N4.7 trillion in 2019.

    The key assumptions of the 2020 Budget Framework, include oil production (2.18 mbpd); oil price ($55/pb); exchange rate N305/$; inflation rate 10.81 per cent; nominal consumption (N122.75) trillion; nominal GDP (N142.96 trillion) and a 2.93 per cent GDP growth rate.

    A lower benchmark of oil price of $55/b (against $60/b for 2019) is assumed considering the expected oil glut in 2020, as well as the need to cushion against unexpected price shock.

    Also yesterday, Senate President Ahmad Lawan said the National Assembly was awaiting the presentation of the budget proposals and MTEF/FSP documents by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Lawan had last Friday expressed the eagerness of the National Assembly to get the 2020 budget proposals.

    The Senate had urged the President Buhari-led Federal Executive to ensure that the 2020 Appropriation Bill was made ready before the federal lawmakers resume from their recess.

    Buhari, Lawan and House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, have been calling  for the country’s return to the January-December budget cycle.

    Lawan, specifically told all the ministers-designate, after their confirmation, to cooperate with the parliament to ensure speedy submission, consideration and passage of the budget once they were inaugurated.

    On September 4, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, had, 2019 announced that, “the 2020 Budget preparation process is well-underway, and we intend to finalise and submit the 2020 appropriation bill to the National Assembly by the end of this month.”

    Mrs. Ahmed repeated herself at the presentation of the 2020-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) in Abuja.

    At the presentation, Mrs. Ahmed said that the next fiscal year would be challenging.

    Earlier in the year, as the 2020 budget preparation commenced, all Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government were ordered to get clearance from the Budget office of the Federation (BoF) before they make any new hires or recruitments.

    A circular from the BoF tagged: “2020 personnel cost budget call circular BD/2000/EXP/S.651/)” and issued to all MDAs ahead of the submission of the budget, noted that consultants, contract staff, Youth Corps members, industrial attaches, legionnaires and the likes should not be included in the nominal roll as they are not permanent/pensionable staff of the Federal Government.”

    The circular, which is another mechanism for easing out ghost workers on government payroll, reads: “Allowances due to Youth Corpers are provided centrally through the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) which is the body charged with the responsibility for paying allowances to Corpers. MDAs are not required to include allowances for Youth Corpers in their personnel cost estimates.”

    “With regards to the impending new minimum wage payout by government, the circular maintained that “the personnel cost template for all employees currently earning below N30, 000 will be immediately amended and used in preparing the budget for affected grade levels.”

    However, for other grade levels, it was revealed that “the existing personnel cost will be used. An omnibus service wide provision will be made to cover the estimated cost of the consequential adjustment as and when negotiations are concluded.”

  • Buhari at UN lashes P&ID for $9.6b swindle attempt

     

    The Federal Government is “vigorously” prosecuting Irish firm Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID) for “attempting to cheat Nigeria of billion of dollars”, President Muhammadu Buhari declared on Tuesday.

    He spoke during his address at the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, United States.

    It was the first time the President spoke on the $9.6 billion arbitration judgment obtained against Nigeria by the firm in what is generally described as a fraud.

    Officials of P&ID were convicted after a guilty plea at the Federal High Court. The firm and its Nigerian affiliate were liquidated by the court.

    An appeal against the arbitral judgment will be heard in London tomorrow.

    Nigeria has filled 13 grounds why the judgment should not be enforced.

    Read Also: Full text of Buhari’s speech at UNGA

    Presenting Nigeria’s statement as the fifth speaker on the first day of the General Debate, the President said: “We are giving notice to international criminal groups by the vigorous prosecution of the P&ID scam attempting to cheat Nigeria of billions of dollars.”

    He described poverty as “one of the greatest challenges facing our world,” noting that “its eradication is an indispensable requirement for achieving sustainable development,” while highlighting his administration’s efforts to overcome the challenge.

    He added: “In this regard, Nigeria has developed a National Social Investment Programme – a pro-poor scheme that targets the poorest and most vulnerable households in the country.”

    On the 2019 presidential elections, he said Nigerians “backed the politics of tolerance, inclusion and community over the politics of protest and division.”

    The President touched on the challenge of education in Africa, saying it was enormous.

    He highlighted his administration’s Home Grown School Feeding Programme as one of the strategies to address the challenge of out-of-school children.

    Reflecting on UNGA’s theme: Galvanising multilateral efforts for poverty eradication, quality education, climate action and inclusion, Buhari said the multilateralism has brought immense benefits to the world.

    He noted that current attempts by industrialised countries to help develop Africa are un-coordinated and plainly incremental.

    Buhari said: “We have the skills, the manpower and the natural resources, but in many instances, we lack the capital – hence my plea for industrial countries to take a long-term view of Africa, come and partner with us to develop the continent for the benefit of all.”

    On climate change, the President emphasised that Nigeria stands resolutely with the international community in observing agreed carbon emission targets which he signed in 2015.

    He said: “We have since issued two sovereign Green Bonds and have added an additional one million hectares of forested land taking our total forest coverage to 6.7 per cent through collective national effort.”

    Buhari spared a thought for New Zealand where a lone gunman killed 50 worshippers.

    He called on major tech companies to be alive to their responsibilities over social media outlets responsible for fuelling major crimes, such as mass killings.

    He said: “They cannot be allowed to continue to facilitate the spread of religious, racist, xenophobic and false messages capable of inciting whole communities against each other, leading to loss of many lives. This could tear some countries apart.”

  • It’s criminal to abandon children, Oyo commissioner tells parents

    Oyo State government on Tuesday said that the act of abandoning newborn babies by their mothers is ungodly and criminal.

    The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, Alhaja Faosat Sanni, who said this when she visited some juvenile correctional homes, child care units and rehabilitation centre for disabled persons in Ibadan, the state capital, noted that such criminal act should not be condoned because God created everybody for a particular purpose that must be fulfilled.

    In 2003, Nigeria kicked against the act of abandoning newborn children and adopted the Child Rights Act for domestication, which forbids the separation of a child from its parents, except in the interest of such a child.

    Read Also: Justice reform should top agenda in Oyo, says report

    Sanni said no condition would warrant any mother to abandon her own child because all children were given by God as a blessing to their parents and mankind.

    She added that the state government would not hesitate to make any mother caught abandoning her own baby to face the full wrath of the law, as the act, according to her, is ungodly and criminal.

    The commissioner restated government’s commitment to the welfare of the people, particularly children and people living with disabilities, while applauding donors, corporate bodies, non-governmental organisations and individuals for giving support to the institutions catering for the less privileged.

    At the Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Persons, Temidire, Moniya in Akinyele Local Government Area in Ibadan, 65 people living with disabilities are currently undergoing training in various areas such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT), bead making, hairdressing, tailoring, shoe making, adult education class and animal husbandry.

  • Tension in community over crown prince’s death

    There is tension in Mbiri in Ika North East Local Government of Delta State following the death of the heir apparent to the throne, Prince Ifeanyi Alekwe.

    It was gathered that angry youths took the body to the palace, laid it on the stool, and crowned it king. Sources, however, described the action as a desecration of the palace.

    The whereabouts of Obi Ifeanyi Alekwe I is unknown following the attack.

    Read Also: Dead cows: Epidemic looms in Ondo community

    A source, who pleaded for anonymity, said the crown prince died on September 22 of alleged poisoning.

    “It’s an abomination for the crown prince to die while his father is still alive and on the throne.”

    A relative of the deceased, Ngozi Usifoh, lamented that the death of the crown prince was a great loss to the people.

    Police Commissioner Adeyinka Adeleke said his men were handling the situation.

    He, however, did not confirm whether or not the palace was attacked, or give details about the whereabouts of the monarch.

  • Cokie Roberts: The voice (1943-2019)

    Cokie Roberts dies, Veteran broadcast journalist was 75, announced The New York Times on Tuesday, September 17, 2019. She has since been buried at Congressional Cemetery, Washington, DC.

    Her tart-tongued voice sounds in my ears as I write and I can visualize her, dissecting American politics and public policy on TV. She had such a professional poise and touch of class that not even President Donald Trump, ever disdainful of the press, could deny her professionalism: “She was a real professional. Never treated me well, but I certainly respect her as a professional”.

    She was the voice of radio and the voice of television. She was the voice of reason and the voice of truth. A legendary political journalist, Cokie Roberts started out as a reporter and then became an analyst, a commentator, and an anchor. She traversed four national networks—CBS, ABC, PBS, and National Public Radio. The print medium was also her terrain: She wrote a syndicated column and authored six books.

    In recognition of her contributions for over four decades, she won numerous awards, including three Emmys; the Edward R. Murrow Award; the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism; and the Women Who Light The Way Award. She topped it with the Living Legends Award by the Library of Congress. She was also inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and named one of the 50 greatest women in the history of broadcasting.

    She left many enduring legacies. First, she was recognised across the United States for her trailblazing role as a Congressional Correspondent and as one of the Founding Mothers of public radio journalism in the country. She played this role for over forty years, sharing the honour with three compatriots on NPR, namely, Nina Totenberg, Linda Wertheimer, and Susan Stamberg. The four women changed the texture of news on public radio and shared space with men in interviewing powerful people and reporting on politics and public policy.

    In the course of her career, Cokie covered at least eight American Presidents and 22 Congresses. The distinction with which she served was echoed by Presidents and Congressional leaders. Former President Bill Clinton said it all: “I liked and respect Cokie Roberts very much. She understood people and politics. For nearly half a century, she was an institution in American journalism—tough but fair, insightful, and with a voice all her own”.

    In her eulogy at the memorial service, a long-time friend and current Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, described Cokie as “an American icon, who will forever be in the pantheon of the greatest professionals of her field”.

    Second, Cokie was unique in traversing radio, television, and print. While remaining with NPR in one role or the other throughout her career, Cokie shared her role on radio as Congressional Corespondent and political analyst with “Newshour”, a PBS TV programme. She later joined ABC, where she also took on additional roles. Among others, she served as a political correspondent for “World News Tonight”, filled in for Ted Koppel on “Nightline”, and co-anchored, with Sam Donaldson, “This Week”, a Sunday morning political affairs programme.

    Third, although Cokie never wore feminism on her sleeves, she nevertheless mentored young women and highlighted the role of women in American history and politics in three bestselling books, namely, Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation (2004); Ladies of Liberty (2009); and Capital Dames: The Civil War and Women of Washington, 1848-1868).

    Her quest for gender balance was evident in the three companion books in which she explored the public and private role of the women who shaped the United States during the early stages. Pelosi foregrounded the significance of this contribution in her eulogy: “Because of Cokie, the women who helped build and strengthen our nation are now taking their rightful place in our history books”.

    Cokie’s interest in political journalism was rooted in her upbringing and supplemented with her degree in Political Science. Both of her parents were politicians, each of whom served for decades as a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from the state of Louisiana. She walked the halls of Congress as a young girl and the experience never left her. Nevertheless, unlike other members of her immediate family, who ran for Congress, she decided early on journalism and political analysis as her way of giving back to society.

    She acknowledged the impact of her childhood experiences on her views about America: “Because I spent time in the Capitol and particularly in the House of Representatives, I became deeply committed to the American system. And as close up and as personally as I saw it and saw all of the flaws, I understood all of the glories of it.”

    It was her deep understanding of the American political system that gave her an early insight into the danger of electing Trump. In an article co-authored with her husband, she called on “the rational wing” of the Republican party to stop his nomination. Their warning now appears prophetic: “If he is nominated by a major party—let alone elected—the reputation of the United States would suffer a devastating blow around the world”.

    A consummate professional journalist, she recognised the proclivity of journalists to blame politicians, while hardly acknowledging their achievements: “We are quick to criticize and slow to praise”, she said of journalists at a commencement address 25 years ago. She then invited the audience to join in holding their political representatives accountable.

    Finally, Cokie left a legacy of consistency. As Obama observed, she was “a constant over 40 years of a shifting media landscape and changing world”. She was also consistent at home as a wife and mother of two. Although she married early (at 20), she remained married for 53 years to Steven Roberts, also an American journalist, writer, and political commentator. The cream of the Washington establishment, including President Lyndon B Johnson and his wife, attended their wedding in 1966.

    True, Cokie was a child of privilege but she used her position to acquire as much knowledge as possible about the American political system and to share her opinion, views, and stories with the public across major media platforms. Her burial at Congressional Cemetery was a befitting reward for over four decades of diligent reporting on Congress and American politics.

  • 2023 can wait!

    I was at a forum during the week where 20 years of uninterrupted democracy in Nigeria was reviewed. Most people came expecting it to be all gloom and doom: they were not disappointed.

    Not even the deliberate efforts of some speakers to shine light on positives from the last two decades, lightened the mood significantly.

    One speaker said he had given up on discussing Nigeria because public discourse had degenerated to the extent where what you had to say is irrelevant, because you are automatically profiled on the basis of ethnicity and faith.

    A middle-aged lady spoke about an all-night conversation she had with her brother 20 years ago. The question they wrestled with was whether this nation could be salvaged. Her brother decided it was impossible and emigrated to the United States.

    Ever the sunny optimist, she stayed back believing she and like-minds could join hands to turn things around. The woman who spoke that morning had become disillusioned with what the country had become.

    Unfortunately, the people and politicians appear to live in a parallel universe. Those in government are quick to dredge up stats that suggest a massive improvement in our collective lot. For the average man, they might as well be speaking Greek.

    Barely four months after governments at federal and state levels were inaugurated for fresh terms, and a clear three years plus to the next polls, trending discussion isn’t about decaying infrastructure or the economy, but about scheming for the 2023 presidential contest.

    This is a country where politicking never stops and governing hardly ever gets done. Perhaps, I exaggerate, but not much.

    The convention in most places is that once an election is done, the new administration settles down to govern. In countries with fixed four or five year election cycles, serious politicking doesn’t get going until 18 months or two years to the next round of voting.

    That is not to suggest that ambitious politicians would not be quietly working to actualise their dreams.

    But they recognise that an election gives a political party the mandate to deliver on its promises. At least 75% of the tenure of the administration would be dedicated to making the slate they sold to the people reality.

    The current feverish discussion of the 2023 prospects of certain individuals and regions, simply confirm what a growing number of our people are have come to believe; that their voices don’t matter in a supposedly democratic setting.

    Politicians and the shadowy figures that hover around the powerful, are only focused on who next gets to sit on the driving seat. The question, however, is to what end, because once the 2023 election is done, the buzz immediately shifts to who wants to be what in 2027.

    In the last couple of weeks this pattern of discussion became accentuated after Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, suggested that at some point in our political journey we might need to discard zoning as our preferred method for power sharing.

    Although he didn’t say this should begin with the next polls, the comments played into the narrative that a powerful tendency in the North was bent on retaining power in the region after President Muhammadu Buhari’s full two-term run.

    Last week, the debate became even more animated against the backdrop of two government actions that appeared to significantly whittle down Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s clout within the administration.

    No matter how it is dressed, a publicised presidential memo asking the VP to always seek Buhari’s approval for contracts and other matters concerning agencies under his office, amounted to some sort of rebuke – no matter how gentle. It suggested that, in the past, he may not always have done so.

    Osinbajo’s comeback that he had always followed the law in running the agencies, showed that he recognised the subtle censure.

    Coming almost in the same 24-hour cycle when the Economic Management Team he used to head was suddenly dissolved and a new advisory council that reports to the president empanelled, it was grist to the mill of conspiracy theorists.

    Many commentators have since concluded that the one-two punch handed the VP, was a brutal tackle to take him down a peg in the 2023 stakes.

    I am not saying it is, neither am I saying it isn’t. But this relentless intriguing and speculation is a distraction from the compelling governance issues that confront this country.

    The level of misery and poverty is mindboggling. In many cities, the major sources of employment today aren’t manufacturing or some IT start-up, but motorcycle and tricycle taxis that are multiplying like germ culture.

    While they provide short term transportation relief, they are no substitute for proper mass transit. They contribute to the general air of chaos because many governments are overwhelmed by their rapid growth rate and lack the capacity to regulate them. Rather than being a sign of empowerment, they have become emblems of decline and poverty.

    Nigeria’s problems are urgent and can’t wait till tomorrow. They can’t wait for our ‘distinguished’ National Assembly members to return from their leisurely holidays. Neither can they abide much longer the president’s famed deliberate style.

    That’s why it is obscene at this point in our history, to be inflaming discussions about 2023 when the promises of 2015 and 2019 haven’t been made good.

    Nigerians truly need for their leaders to, for a change, deliver some genuine ‘dividends of democracy’. In recent times we have been sold the lie that bridges and roads built represent some kind of return for voters.

    But as some have pointed out, we don’t need elected officials to build roads. Some of Nigeria’s most enduring public infrastructure were built by military dictators like Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, Muhammadu Buhari, Sani Abacha and others.

    We need to demand much more from those we invested our time to vote for. In addition to building roads, we should see improved healthcare, greater freedom of expression and association, more participation in the process, respect for the rule of law and better security across the land.

    If the media and politicians persist in enabling this cynical system where politicking never takes a break, the result would be the sort of disillusionment that has seen voter turnout drop by a consistent 10% in the succeeding elections of 2011, 2015 and 2019.

  • Illegal gas plants shut in A’Ibom

    The Eket Field Office of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has shut down three illegal gas plants in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

    Operations Controller of the Department, Mr Tamunoiminabo Kingskey-Sundaye, who disclosed this to journalists yesterday, said the three facilities shutdown exercise took place last week.

    “Last week in the course of our surveillance activities, we noticed three illegal gas plants within Ikot Ekpene axis.

    “These are gas plants…they just brought gas vessels and  planted them just to do business in spite of the dangers posed to people’s property, environment and  to life,” he said.

    Read Also: Gold Rush: Illegal miners invade lands and farms in Minna

    He said that those illegal gas plants lack and does not have standard facilities like engineering, safety, earth and environment.

    “Before the DPR will give you an approval or licence, there are certain engineering and standards you must achieve. You just don’t come and run a facility, you must have an international standard and they are businesses that are governed with same code and same standard,” he said.

    Kingsley-Sundaye said the department had written to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to enforce law and order to the illegal gas plants if operational.

    He explained that any illegal gas plants owners that do not comply with international standard would be arrested and possibly prosecuted in the state.

    He advised gas plants owners to ensure that their plants meet up the minimum standard and guidelines of doing business in the state.

  • Discordant tunes in RTEAN leadership status

    The crisis rocking the Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) took a turn for the worse as one of the factions has headed for the Industrial Court. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE writes that the move was to prevent any person or persons from parading themselves as new leaders of the association.

    In order from the National Industrial Court on Friday may have put spanners in the works of Alhaji Musa who might have been preparing to assume office as the new Acting National President.

    Musa was, until last Tuesday, the Lagos State Chairman of the association. He and his entire executive had sought to secure a second term in office, following the unanimous adoption by members of the state council.

    Everything was going well, until September 12 when the National President Comrade Osakpamwan Eriyo ought to have presented him the certificate of return having allegedly paid the N60 million requested to facilitate that.

    Rather, Musa had been stunned when a faction from the council had protested against his candidacy at the Lagos State Governor’s office.

    Eriyo had been mandated by the Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation Dr. Frederic Oladeinde to mediate and ensure a truce. But the matter became messy as Musa’s team that was expecting a fair arbitration got the boot as Eriyo announced his sack on Sunday.

    The National President, in a widely publicised statement insisted he acted within the ambit of his powers to sack Musa and members of his executive whose tenure had elapsed. He said the five-year tenure of Musa’s executive expired in September.

    He also said that, aside the issue of tenure, the protesters had accused the Musa leadership of corruption, a matter requiring some investigation.

    By Monday, Eriyo came up with a caretaker committee which was to take over from Musa’s executive in order to coordinate the affairs of the council pending the time another election would be held.

    The action drew the flak of the Lagos council, which took Eriyo to task about the proprietary of the action. They argued that allegations of corruption against it were figments of imagination of the National President.

    They also argued that going by the certificate of return presented to the state council, the mandate expires on October 31. Musa out rightly ruled Eriyo out of order, and wondered why Eriyo could rule on a matter as sensitive as sacking a state executive without confiding in the RTEAN National Executive Council (NEC).

    Musa said Eriyo had intended to plant a pliant surrogate in Lagos in order to ensure that Lagos, the association’s biggest honey pot, remains his exclusive preserve. His antics, they said,  had boomeranged.

    Musa said Eriyo had always been afraid of his continuous stay in office.

    “Being the most senior legally elected officer of the association, Eriyo who had imposed himself on the association has always been threatened by my presence and might have waited till the expiration of my tenure to strike.”

    Addressing reporters on Monday, Musa had pointedly accused Eriyo of corruption. He alleged that his executive paid into Eriyo’s private account N60 million to secure the certificate of continuity (second term).

    He added that the decision of his executive to continue in office was unanimous, and wondered how the man who supervised the meeting where the decision was unanimously taken was used by Eriyo to destabilise RTEAN Lagos.

    Aside the N60 million which allegedly was lodged into Eriyo and Adebiyi’s accounts, the state council bought Eriyo a N45 million SUV and paid directly to him another US$3,000 for logistics, while another sum of money was allegedly made available for accommodation for the NEC members who were to accompany him.

    Rejecting the dissolution of his executive, Musa queried how the President can unilaterally take a decision to dissolve an executive whose tenure has not elapsed without the consent of the National Executive Council (NEC) even after collecting its money and assuring the same executive of continuity.

    He said in line with Article 7, section 2 (iii) (a) of the Association’s Constitution, the action of the President and the National Secretary to sack the executive led by Musa and appoint caretaker committee is ultra vires, null and void.

    On Tuesday, RTEAN’s NEC, at an emergency meeting in Lagos State, dismissed Eriyo whom they accused of having taken over office by a coup d’etat. They said Eriyo, who was dismissed by the NEC in 2017, remained dismissed as no other authority in the association had vacated the order.

    They, therefore, decided to revisit Eriyo’s sack and summary dismissal, even as they resolved to press legal charges if Eriyo continues to parade himself as an officer of the association.

    Twenty-Eight  members of the NEC led by the Assistant National Secretary-General Alhaji Adamu Jalaludeen from Kaduna State, accused Eriyo of six offenses, among which are expansionist agenda, which has seen Eriyo disrupting the validly elected executives of Kaduna, Ogun, Niger and most recently Lagos states, with the hope of replacing them with surrogates, massive fraud as exemplified by Lagos where he collected, among others, N60 million in lieu of an election, ticket racketeering where the President personally supervises the distribution of park tickets, a tool which, according to him, has been used to “intimidate, blackmail, harass and suspend state chairmen, large scale fraud and diversion of funds into personal account and the sidetracking of the NEC in critical decisions as exemplified by the Lagos case where the President acted at variance with the association’s constitution.”

    Also sacked alongside Eriyo was the National Secretary of the association Comrade Yusuf Adeniyi Ibrahim, who they accused of colluding with Eriyo to defraud the association and bring it to ignominy.

    Two schools of thought have emerged as to why Eriyo fell out of favour. While the first opined that he was an impostor whose cup was full, the other school of thought said he got his hands burnt having fell out of favour with the power base in the association.

    Though the latest antics to approach the Industrial Court was seen as one of the ways open to the Eriyo leadership to buy more time, sources with deep knowledge of the power play in the union opined that “the owners of the union have spoken and Eriyo had to go.”

    The source, a TREAN NEC member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, accused Eriyo of “insensitivity and high handedness.”

    He said: “If Eriyo had been sensitive, he would have avoided the ruinous outcome that claimed his office last Tuesday.”

    The source said Eriyo’s decision to fight the Lagos executive led by a die-in-the-wool unionist Comrade Mohammed Musa was his undoing.

    The National Industrial Court, on Friday, restrained Alhaji Musa Mohammed and six others from parading themselves as members of the National Executive Council of the Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN).

    Justice Sanusi Kado gave the order following an application filed by Mr. Osakpanmwan Eriyo, National President who was represented by counsel, Olayiwole Afolabi and Simon Ezenwa.

    Kado, in his ruling, ordered the defendants to desist from further harassing, intimidating and subjecting members of the claimant to inhuman treatment pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already before the court.

    The judge further restrained them from holding offices in any capacity as servants, agents, assigns, appointees, privies or whatsoever connected to RTEAN.

    “This includes operations and businesses pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already filed along with the originating process,’’ Kado held.

    The National President insisted that the dissolution of the Lagos State Executive Council on September 13 remained legal and binding.

    He reiterated that the expiration of the branch’s tenure as provided in Article 9 (I) of the association’s constitution as the reason for the dissolution.

    Members of the Lagos State Executive Council, on Monday, disagreed with the action of the national body, describing the dissolution as illegal, null and void, saying that their tenure would lapse on October 31.

    They said the resolution for the continuity of their executive committee had been passed at the chapel, zonal and state executive levels, adding that it had since been forwarded to the national body.

  • Bricklayer ‘rapes’ girl, 15

    Officials of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC) have arrested a bricklayer identified as Fatai Kehinde, 41, for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl.

    The incident occurred at Olisa/Arogundade Street, in Iju Ishaga.

    It was gathered that the suspect allegedly hypnotised the teenager and took advantage of her in his house.

    She was said to be going to work when the incident occurred and had narrated her experience to her colleagues in the office who came for the man almost immediately.

    According to a source, a mob soon gathered and descended on the man following alarm raised by the girl’s colleague who came to his house with her.

    Read Also: Visitor ‘rapes’ host’s daughter

    “They were about to lynch him when LNSC officials arrived the scene. It was around past 11am. They moved in and took the man and the young girl away.

    “But before they got there, people questioned the girl and she said she was going to work when the man touched her and said she was being spiritually monitored by her father’s family.

    “She said after the touch, she did not know what was happening to her again. That the man asked her to go and by egg and salt which she did and followed him inside his house.

    “He told her to take off her clothes and she complied. He raped her and she ordered her to wear her dress and leave.

    “She said she was on her way to the factory she works at when she regained herself and promptly narrated her experience to her colleagues.

    “They followed her to the place and accosted the man. He confessed he slept with the girl and they started beating him,” he said.

    But the suspect told LNSC officials that it was inside his brother’s shop that he raped the girl, adding that he gave her N1,500 after the act.

    He said: “She told me to help her collect money from her boyfriend. From there I took her inside my brother’s shop and slept with her on the floor. After that I gave her N1500. She told me she will come back in the evening and she left.”

    Confirming the arrest, the Public Affairs Officer of LNSC Adewale Afolabi said the suspect, his brother and the victim were handed over to policemen at Isokoko Division.

    He said the man’s house was searched and it was discovered he had three shrines which he and his brother used for alleged fraudulent practices.

  • IPOB threatens protest against Buhari at UNGA

    The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has vowed to stage a peaceful protest against President Mohammadu and his government at the United Nations General Assembly in the United States of America.

    It said the demonstration was to prove its resoluteness and determination for the actualisation of Biafra republic and Buhari’s tyrant style of leadership.

    The group, in statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, said its members in the US had perfected arrangement necessary for the protest.

    It noted that it was aware Buhari departed Abuja for New York with three governors and seven ministers to attend the General Assembly.

    The statement partly reads: “IPOB family worldwide especially our great family members in the US are on ground waiting for Buhari to appear in the United Nations General Assembly this week, the General assembly is scheduled to start deliberation from 25th of September 2019 in the city of New York.

    “Our people in the US perfected every arrangement necessary to protest against Buhari and his government in Nigeria during the summit to prove our resoluteness and determination for the coming of Biafra and how tyrant Buhari has become.

    “The world must understand why Biafrans need outright freedom from unworkable system of Nigeria without much delay.

    Read Also; IPOB takes independence agitation to UN

    “Buhari and his Fulani government in Nigeria have totally destroyed this country and we must let the world know what transpired between Biafra and Nigeria since 1945 till date.

    “IPOB is going to stage a powerful and unprecedented protest against him in US for the purpose of continued and incessant killing, arrest, destruction of properties and secret abduction of Biafrans both men, women and children every day and night in Biafraland.

    “The plans by Fulani government of Nigeria to stop IPOB from demanding their right for free state and independent nation of Biafra will not work.

    “The whole world must see IPOB right in front of UN headquarters in New York.”