The Nation Newspaper

Tag: protest

  • NLC to protest security agents’ response to killings

    NLC to protest security agents’ response to killings

    The Nigeria Labour Congress ( NLC) yesterday said it would protest the massacres in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. It queried security agents’ response to the killings .

    A statement by the congress said the workers could not remain unconcerned about the massacre of innocent people.

    NLC said: “We want to sound a note of warning that we will not fold our hands or be indifferent by-standers while our territory is being ceded away, while scores of innocent lives and priceless property are being wasted on a daily basis.

    “ Accordingly, and consistent with our peace initiative last year christened Peace Summit, we shall mobilise our members to the streets to protest these massacres and the questionable responses of our security forces.

    “This is an open war. Our armed forces cannot afford to be caught napping like this. They must be seen to renew their commitment and capacity to protecting the sovereignty of Nigeria.

    “ In the attack on the students, the Boko Haram members were reported to have operated for hours unchallenged.”

    The attacks on Michika, Madagali and Shua, in Adamawa and Borno States , according to the congress, “were more audacious as the terror elements were said to have moved in murderous convoys of Hilux, chanting war songs in broad day light”.

  • Lawyers protest sealing of chambers in Ondo

    Lawyers protest sealing of chambers in Ondo

    Lawyers in Akure, Ondo State, have criticised the state government for locking up about 15 lawyers and their clients in their offices on Hospital Road last Tuesday.

    Counsel to the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Mr. Charles Titiloye, who was part of those affected, alleged that Governor Olusegun Mimiko directed lawyers in the Ministry of Justice to procure an ex-parte order from the State Chief Judge (CJ) to seal his office and lock him inside.

    This, according to him, was under the pretext that his landlord, who resides in Ekiti State, failed to pay the Personal Income Tax.

    Titiloye said: “When they came to my office with about 20 armed policemen, I asked them if the military had taken over and ordered my arrest as a pro-democracy activist, but they show me the ex-parte order issued by the CJ on January 16 in respect of No. 99A, Hospital Road, Akure. I pointed their attention to the fact that my office is located at 99B Hospital Road, Akure, and I am not a party to that order and they could not lawfully use it to seal my office.”

    Titiloye said as a tenant, he ought to be put on notice.

    He said the ex-parte order’s life span, which is 14 days, lapsed on January 30 and could not be enforced against him, a non-party.

    Titiloye said the police, led by Mrs. M. Olaoye, locked the gate of the office complex, locking him, other lawyers and his clients inside.

    Accusing the governor of being vindictive “in his plan to silence opposition at all cost”, he said: “Imagine, my office has been locked up for seven days and I will surely challenge this illegality in court. I have written the state attorney-general and CJ, but they have all acquiesced to this illegality against me.

    “The Association of Catholic Lawyers, Ondo Diocese, has complained to the CJ, yet, they locked me in my office. We are now witnessing in Nigeria a monumental civilian government tyranny.”

    Activist-lawyer Morakinyo Ogele condemned the government’s action, adding that he would mobilise people to protest it.

  • APGA, PDP protest in Nnewi over LP’s claims on poll

    The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) protested yesterday claims by the Labour Party (LP) that it won the cancelled local government election in Nnewi North last Saturday.

    They asked the party to prepare for another poll since the election was cancelled by the Anambra State Independent Electoral commission (ANSIEC) about 10:30 am that day.

    APGA said the poll was declared inconclusive by ANSIEC.

    The party chairman in Nnewi North, Mr. Dan Nnadi, decried the report he is getting that LP is parading a fake result that it won the election.

    APGA said LP did not win the council poll, adding that before ANSIEC cancelled the election, its candidate was leading in eight wards of the 10 wards comprising 198 polling units.

    Nnadi, flanked by the auditor, Patterson Uzuegbunam and chairmanship candidate, Okey C. Ofor, said anytime the poll is rescheduled, security should be tightened to avoid mayhem.

    He said ANSIEC cancelled the election because of security lapses, as LP members were molesting electoral officials, asking for the result sheets.

     

  • Yaba traders protest demolition threat

    Over 10, 000 traders of old Alaba Market (New Alayabiagba market) have petitioned the Attorney General of Lagos State, Mr. Ade Ipaye, over an alleged plot to demolish their market.

    They claimed agents of the Ifelodun Local Council Development Area (LCDA) are planning to carry out the demolition.

    In the petition dated December 23, written by their lawyer, Mr. Lekan Alabi, the petitioners alleged the market had already been transferred to a private developer.

    The petitioners stated that as law-abiding citizens and in order to avert unlawful demolition of their market, they approached the Lagos High Court for an interim injunction restraining council and the developer from carrying out their threat.

    The petitioners had in suit numbered LD\1128\2013 prayed the court for a perpetual order restraining Lagos State government, Ifelodun Local Council Development Area and TUNDAAS Nigeria Limited from demolition of stalls and taking over of the market.

    The claimants are also asking the court to declare that the temporary occupational license granted them and other market men and women by the Lagos State government in 1980 to operate the market is still valid and subsisting.

    The claimant are praying the court for a declaration the Memorandum of Understanding reflecting a meeting held on February 5, 2013 purportedly entered into by the 3rd defendant (TUNDAAS Nigeria Limited) with unnamed market representatives is illegal being a violation of the letter and spirit of the temporary occupational license granted to them.

    In a 22-page statement of claim filed before a Lagos High Court attached to the petition, the claimants averred that in 1980, Lagos State government exercised its power to establish the market in dispute and gave the market traders temporary occupational licence to run their business activities.

    The claimants added that recently they noticed some strange faces making surveillance at the market and threatening that the market would be demolished.

  • Pupils protest teachers’ strike

    Pupils protest teachers’ strike

    •NUT: we have resumed strike
    •Govt: 25.7% salary increment implemented

    Pupils of UBE Junior Secondary School, NKST Wadata and their counterparts in the primary school on Monday protested the alleged indifference of the Benue State government to the plight of primary school teachers in the state.

    The pupil’s barricaded the NKST Wadata bend. They set bonfires and chanted choruses such as: “no school no road;” “our government is bad,” “Suswam should pay our teachers,” among others.

    Officers of the Nigerian Police were later drafted to the area to disperse the protesters with teargas canisters.

    One of the pupils, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told our reporter that one of their teachers Mr Apa Ehe died because he could not afford to go to the hospital.

    In a similar development, the Benue State arm of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) has started an industrial action to demand for the minimum wage.

    InJune, the state government signed an agreement with the state NUT at the national secretariat to begin the implementation of minimum wage.

    The agreement was signed in Abuja by the state deputy governor on behalf of government, while the NUT officials from Benue also signed on teachers’ behalf.

    With this deal however, the implementation was supposed to have kicked off in August, but teachers accused the government of partial implementation of the agreement, necessitating a renewed strike last week.

    The chairman of NUT, Benue State chapter Comrade Godwin Anya, told The Nation that only N10,00 was posted into their account, adding that this fell short of the minimum wage. He vowed that his colleagues would continue to stay away from classes until the government complies with the agreement.

    But, Special Adviser to the Governor on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Solomon Wombo, said government would only pay what it can afford and advised teachers to go back to classroom.

    Wombo in whose custody is the money released to SUBEB, said there was crisis in the sharing of federation account adding the Federal government refused to augment shortfalls from its revenue. He stressed that state government also got less from the federation account, resulting in financial crisis to meet the minimum wage.

    He, however, added: “Government has already implemented the 25.7 per cent salary increment which is more than the N18,000 minimum as no teacher in Benue is receiving below the minimum wage.”

  • Nigerian embassy protest: Six students withdrawn from Russian university

    The Presidential Amnesty Office has announced the withdrawal of six out of the 24 former Niger Delta agitators studying at the Peoples University, Russia.
    It said the withdrawal followed the indictment of students as the masterminds of last week’s protest at the Nigerian Embassy in Moscow where 16 Nigerian students were arrested by the Russian authorities.
    The students had staged a protest at the embassy, demanding the payment of outstanding allowances for six months among other things.
    All the withdrawn students were beneficiaries of a special scholarship scheme for Niger Delta youths.
    Announcing the withdrawal yesterday in Abuja, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, said the action of the protesting students was uncalled for as their claims were found to be untrue, unprovoked and a gross misconduct.
    A statement from the Presidential Amnesty Office and signed by the Special Assistant (Media), Mr. Daniel Alabra, quoted Kuku as saying: “For going on rampage and violently attacking the Nigerian Mission, these students breached the Code of Conduct for delegates on scholarship that they all signed before their departure from Nigeria. It is also a gross misconduct, which the Nigerian government cannot tolerate. Students on its sponsorship cannot go on rampage on flimsy excuses in a foreign country and damage the image and reputation of Nigeria.
    “Our records show that the students were not being owed their In-Training Allowance (ITA) for six months as they alleged. In fact, the only unremitted allowance was for the month of September 2013, which had been approved and was being processed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the time they attacked the Mission.
    “My office had communicated the students on Friday, September 27, 2013 about the processing of their ITA for the months of September and October 2013 and the need for them to be patient while it was being handled by the CBN.
    “We were therefore shocked when information got to us that the delegates had invaded the embassy, destroyed property and attacked the Mission officials over unpaid allowances. This is absolutely unacceptable.”
    Kuku, who is also the Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme, said the school authorities will be communicated on the development.
    He also dismissed speculations among former agitators in the Niger Delta that they will soon be paid the sum of Two Million Naira (N2m) each by the Amnesty Office.
    “There is no such plan to pay any of them such amount,” Kuku said.
    The rumour, he noted, had caused serious tension in some of the Niger Delta states and that his office had been inundated with unnecessary phone calls and enquiries.

  • Protest in Anambra over PDP candidate

    There was tension in Anambra State, as youths from Anambra North yesterday protested the alleged replacement of Tony Nwoye as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November 16 governorship election.

    The youths, under the aegis of the “Odimma Anambra North Youths Initiative”, marched on the local governments in the senatorial zone.

    They warned the party against replacing Nwoye, saying this would spell doom for it.

    Their leader, Obiora Okafor, said it would amount to political suicide for PDP, if it removes Nwoye, who is from Anambra North.

    He said Nwoye’s candidacy was the answer to the district’s long agitation to produce a governor.

    Okafor called on the party’s National Working Committee to disregard such a plan.

    He said those behind such moves were enemies of the party.

    “All we are saying is for PDP to respect the people’s wishes. It has conducted a primary, which was adjudged to be transparent and Tony Nwoye emerged winner.

    “So, any idea to replace him is akin to thwarting the people’s wishes. We all know that he was certified by the screening committee and he contested and won. So he should be allowed to contest the election,” Okafor said.

  • Retirees protest non-payment of gratuity

    Hundreds of Federal Government workers retrenched in 2007 yesterday protested the anomalies in the payment of their gratuity in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

    The protesters were from the 23 research institutes and River Basin Development Authorities across the country, including the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Forestry Research Institute (FRIN), National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) and National Stored Product Research Institute (NSPR), among others.

    They alleged that the three centres designated by the Federal Government for the payment of their severance benefits were involved in all sorts of malpractices.

    The protest was led by Comrade Bari Oyeladun, the National Coordinator of the affected workers.

    Oyeladun said: “Some of us were paid little; some were not paid at all; some were shortchanged. “.

    He said most hit by the “fraud” was Mrs. Bolajoko Odunmorayo, who worked with CRIN for 26 years, but records provided by those saddled with paying her benefits showed that she worked for only six years.

    Oyeladun said Mr. Odeyemi Mathew, who served the government for 33 years, was paid N1,406,601.52 instead of over N3 million.

    The protesters urged the Federal Government to intervene.

  • Students protest ASUU strike

    Students protest ASUU strike

    The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) yesterday protested the two-month old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    The students, led by the Director of Action and Mobilisation, Comrade Sunday Asefon, marched on the streets of Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, carrying placards.

    They chanted songs decrying the stance of the Federal Government, noting that ASUU was right to insist that the government should fulfil the agreement reached with the union in 2009.

    The students threatened to ensure that academic activities were also stalled in the private universities.

    According to them, the incessant strikes by ASUU had aided what they described as “a continuous recession in the standard of education since Dr. Goodluck Jonathan emerged as the president.”

    Comrade Asefon said between 2000 and 2011, Federal Government earned almost N48.48 trillion from the sale of crude oil alone, as opposed to the N3.10 trillion, which accrued between 1979 and 1999.

    The student leader went on: “The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in the 2012 financial year made N5.12 trillion as the revenue generated from tax paid by the masses.

    “With this tremendous upswing in the revenue at the disposal of the government, one would have expected such to translate to a commensurate improvement in the quality of public education and other social services.”

    Asefon said given the resources at its disposal, the Federal Government should budget a sizeable sum for the development of education as recommended by the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), adding that countries, such as Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya with smaller GDP have done so.

    Part of their demands were that state universities, such as the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Lagos State University (LASU), Osun State University, Olabisi Onabanjo University and others should charge half their current school fees.

    Another student leader from EKSU, Comrade Steven Adara, said those in government and other affluent Nigerians were not helping matters “as they are in the habit of sending their children to private schools, locally and overseas.”

    Said he: “We will mobilise ourselves and ensure that we disrupt academic activities in the private universities, because it is the children of the rich that are in these schools.”

  • Govt begs NANS not to protest

    The Presidential Committee on the implementation of the Needs Assessment of Nigerian Universities yesterday begged the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) not to protest over the lecturers’ strike.

    The committee chairman, who is also the Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswan, made the appeal when students visited him in Abuja.

    He said the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) yesterday disbursed N30 billion earned allowance to the lecturers.

    He added that the Federal Government has also released the N100 billion requested by the union for infrastructure in the universities.

    Suswan, who noted that the rejection of government’s offer and insistence on strike is unfair, urged Nigerians not to politicise the industrial action.

    The NANS President, Comrade Yinka Gbadebo, told the governor that the students were on a mission to ascertain who to blame for the prolonged strike.

    His words: “Students, let me appeal to you that nobody should either incite you to protest against the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) or protest against the Federal Government.