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Tag: urge

  • Save our future, students’ leaders urge Fed Govt, ASUU

    Save our future, students’ leaders urge Fed Govt, ASUU

    Student leaders from Akwa Ibom State yesterday urged the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to save them from prolonged stay out of school.

    The students, under the aegis of Akwa Ibom Students Leaders’ Forum, in a statement in Abuja, said they were tired of staying at home.

    The statement was signed by 52 student leaders from within and outside the state.

    They are: the Vice President (Special Duties), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Comrade Ubon Marcus; Saviour Ekpe, of the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ) Uyo; Comrade Joshua Akpan, of the University of Uyo and Comrade Uko Michael Ukpong, also of the University of Uyo, among others.

    The students called for a quick resolution of the Federal Government/ASUU impasse to prevent increased crimes in the country.

    They said: “The implication of this strike borders also on internal security, as crime rate will soar, because an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.

    “We are not laying the blame for the current impasse. All we want is to go back to school and we want to do so as soon as possible.

    “We hereby appeal to ASUU and the Federal Government to kindly ensure that the strike is called off and students return to classes because we are tired of being idle. We do not intend to be students for ever.

    “Think about our future; think about our families, which have suffered to send us through school, and the financial implication of our continued stay in school on their lean resources. We are tired of this strike. We want to go back to school.”

    The students regretted that the strike, which was called to improve the nation’s tertiary education, was having a negative impact on the students.

    They said: “While we salute the doggedness and resilience of ASUU towards ensuring that the 2009 agreement is implemented by the Federal Government, we wish to remind both ASUU and the Federal Government that this strike is affecting us negatively.

    “ASUU embarked on the strike with the aim of achieving positive developments in the education sector, but with the prolonged strike, coupled with the Federal Government’s and ASUU’s uncompromising stance, the reverse is the case.

    “ASUU has accused the Federal Government of insincerity in implementing the 2009 agreement, while the Federal Government has accused ASUU of making unrealistic demands.

    “We are hereby calling on both parties to consider the hardship imposed on us due to this strike. As goes the saying that when two elephants fight, the grasses suffer, we, the students, are the casualties in this case.

    “There are some self-sponsored students who make a living through small businesses, like selling recharge cards on campus and other business ventures. But with this strike, economic activities have been paralysed for such students. The question is: How will they survive?

    “Additionally, while the strike is ongoing, we are growing older without commensurate academic attainment but the age limit for employment is not adjusting to reflect strike.

    “In fact, most companies do not employ any person who is above 25 years as a fresh graduate. Is this not a ploy to give our colleagues in private universities and those studying abroad undue advantage over us? What wrong have we done in attending public universities?”

  • ABS duo urge team mates to fight back

    ABS duo urge team mates to fight back

    ABS duo of Ismaila Suleiman and Abubakar Yusuf have admonished their team-mates not to be deterred in their push for premier league survival as they visit Enyimba of Aba in a Globacom Premier League Matchday 36 tie.

    The Ilorin based side are 14th on the log with 47 points from 35 matches and they must avoid defeat at the slaughter slab called the Enyimba International Stadium, if they are to remain in the elite division next season.

    Both players in separate chats with SportingLife shortly before their trip to Aba said they are more than optimistic that ABS would not go down this season despite their present precarious situation on the log.

    Ismaila Suleiman is an attacking midfielder with a class having inspired the club with brilliant performance and has cemented a spot in the starting 11 due to his hard work.

    He has given many assist which his team mates have converted to goals and has also notched a goal in the 2013 Kwara State Challenge Cup competition.

    “I am very optimistic that we have all it takes to remain in the premier league. We have played eye catching football and have always emerged as crowd favourites in most of the matches we have played this season. We do not deserve to be at our present position on the log but it is a phase. We must be confident that we can get good result at Aba on Saturday and we are poised to get one,” Suleiman said.

    Abubakar Yusuf has also had a sterling season despite the fact that the Ilorin side have not been fortunate with good results that matched the level of hard work they put into their games.

    The defender stated that the players of the club must give over 100 percent to ensure that the investment from the club’s financier, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki does not go down the drain.

    Enyimba are fourth on the log with 56 points from 35 matches and need maximum points to remain in contention for the league title after their slip in Lokoja to Kano Pillars last Tuesday.

  • Health workers urge govt to sustain family planning

    THE Principal Nursing Officer and Matron in charge of family planning at the Agbongbon Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Ibadan, Mrs Folasade Olatunde, has urged the government to sustain family planning.

    Mrs Olatunde spoke yesterday during a facility tour of two family planning clinics in Ibadan by the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative(NURHI).

    The family planning clinics are Agbongbon PHC in Ibadan South East Local Government Area and Oniyanrin PHC in Ibadan North West Local Government Area.

    Mrs Olatunde said the government must take over at the end of NURHI’s free family planning programme .

    She said family planning helps families in planning their homes and improving standard of living.

    The matron added that NURHI had helped to increase awareness on family planning.

    According to her, family planning has reduced the number of unwanted pregnancies, abortion and deaths.

    The Chief Nursing Officer at Oniyanrin PHC, Mrs Solademi Oluwatoyin, said the the government must intervene at the end of NURHI’s free family planning programme.

    She said: “Before the inception of NURHI, we used to have about 45 to 60 clients in a month but since the programme started we have about 600 clients a month since commodities are free.”

  • Ondo communities urge Jonathan on NDDC appointments

    Communities in the oil producing areas of Ondo State have urged President Goodluck Jonathan to follow the Act establishing the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in the appointment of the commission’s board members.

    They said the state was short-changed in the past on the appointment of the agency’s Managing Director (MD) and the Executive Director (ED) and was due to fill any of the positions in the new board.

    Former Special Assistant to the President on Youth Matter Kolade Akinjo, who spoke on behalf of the communities, said successive governments had not applied the provisions of the NDDC Act in the appointment of the MD and the ED.

    He said Part 4 of the Act provides that “there shall be for the commission a Managing Director and two Executive Directors, who shall be indigenes of the oil producing areas, starting with the member state in the commission with the highest production of oil and the positions shall be rotated among members.

    Akinjo said the provisions of the Act on the appointment of the commission’s chairman, which is to be rotated among member states in alphabetical order, was being followed.

    The communities said the positions of the MD and EDs had been rotating among Delta, Rivers Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom states.

    Akinjo said the first Managing Director of the commission Godwin Omene from Delta state was succeeded by Timi Alaibe from Bayelsa and later Chibuzor Ugwoha from Rivers.

    He said Ugwoha was later replaced by Christian Ovoh from Rivers, while EDs were also from the four states .

    Akinjo said according to NDDC Act , Ondo State is the next to occupy any of the positions, being the fifth oil producing state in the country.

    He expressed concern that the people of Bayelsa State had started mounting pressure on the president over the positions, stressing that appointing anyone from Bayelsa would amount to injustice.

    The former presidential aide said each of the four states had taken management positions twice since the creation of the commission in 2001, but Ondo had been side-lined.

    He maintained that the action was not only unlawful but discriminating and condemnable, saying: ’’It amounts to internal colonisation and we believe the President, who symbolises the rule of law, should correct the imbalance in the about to be constituted board”.

    Akinjo urged President Jonathan to do what is ‘’just, fair and equitable’’.

  • Shettima, Ribadu urge Muslims to pray for Nigeria to overcome security challenges

    Shettima, Ribadu urge Muslims to pray for Nigeria to overcome security challenges

    The 2011 presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, yesterday urged Muslims to live with the lessons of the Holy month of Ramadan.

    In a Sallah message by his media aide, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, the former EFCC chairman said: “The lessons of piety, compassion and tolerance learnt from the month-long worship should not be discarded with the passage of the month.

    “The essence of the Ramadan fasting was to cleanse both body and soul. Leaving behind the teachings of Ramadan once the worship is over defeats the purpose of the worship.

    “I urge Muslims to translate the virtues of piety and tolerance from Ramadan to the larger Nigerian society so as to deepen religious tolerance, understanding and charity for the needy.”

    The statement also quoted Ribadu as “urging Muslim faithful to use the occasion of the Eid-el-fitr to pray for the country to overcome security and other challenges currently facing it.”

    Borno State Governor Alhaji Kashim Shettima urged Muslims to “let’s work hard to sustain emerging peace in Borno”

    In a Sallah message through his Special Adviser on Communications, Alhaji Isa Gusau, the governor urged all citizens to firmly contribute in respective ways to sustain the peace emerging in Borno State especially in the face of recent incidents.

    The statement said: “Alhamdulillah, we thank Allah for the successful completion of the Ramadan fast and for the Eid festival.

    “We also thank our good citizens who must have devoted their times to offering prayers for the attainment of peace in Borno and the rest of Nigeria. Alhamdulillah, their prayers are Insha Allah being answered because peace is evidently returning to the state even though we have had some recent incidents.

    “The Government is encouraged by the fact that citizens have remained undaunted despite the incidents as they are speedily returning to hitherto deserted areas, Insha Allah, we will remain rooted in our commitment to work for the attainment of peace in our dear Borno State and Nigeria at large .

    “We are bound by constitutional, moral and spiritual obligations to ensure the safety of our citizens and their property and we shall continue to hold these obligations.

    “We, however, need continued support of our dear citizens whose roles in our desperate search for peace is crucial.

    “We will need our citizens to remain dedicated in prayers, cooperative with security bodies, communally vigilant; we urge parents to carry on with guiding their children and wards to be of good and lawful behaviors; we urge citizens to avoid spreading of rumour which can cause false alarms that could lead to general panic and breaches of security while we should all promote peace through making reasonable utterances in private discussions and public discourse.

    “We should at all times realize, that the search for peace is a shared obligation between leaders and the led since peace is basic to our continued existence as individuals and as a society.

    “We must never be deterred by incidents because there is no alternative to the return of peace. I pray that we celebrate the Sallah in peace and harmony.

    “I call on all of us to be kind to our neighbours, relatives, friends and the needy by extending gestures to them in the spirit behind the Ramadan and the Eid-il-fitr. We must be our brother’s keepers to attract compassion from our creator and fellow humans from whom we may also find ourselves in need.

    “Let us always remember that Borno is our collective heritage, it is our home as residents and we have a duty to contribute to its stability, more so that we will, by so doing, work for our own progress as a people.”

  • Youths urge Jonathan to meet with Amaechi, Wike

    Stakeholders in Rivers State, under the auspices of Ikwerre Youth Congress (IYC), have urged President Goodluck Jonathan to meet with Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who is the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, to stem the rising security challenges in the state.

    The call by IYC President-General Chinedum Samuel Smith followed reports that the NGF chairman was favourably disposed to a meeting with the President to resolve the security situation in the state.

    At the time of this report, it could not be ascertained if the Jonathan had acceded to Amaechi’s request, which followed an advice by Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi on behalf of eight governors, who visited Amaechi in Port Harcourt on Thursday.

    The Commissioner for Information, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, told our reporter yesterday that Governor Amaechi “is never averse to dialogue with the President”.

    Smith, who held a briefing at the weekend, appealed to both sides to sheathe their swords.

    He said: “Our congress had watched the political drama and chose not to take any hasty decision. We are a pressure group whose priority and focus is to ensure peace and stability in the polity of our dear Rivers State.

    “We appeal to our father, President Goodluck Jonathan, to please call our big brothers for dialogue and proper settlement. This is because we do not have another other than Rivers. Please do something urgently,” the group appealed.

  • PDP chieftains urge court to remove Bode George as BoT member over conviction

    Two chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos, Alhaji Badmus Agboola and Dauda Ajadi Atomoh have urged a Federal High Court, Lagos, to disqualify Chief Olabode George as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT) having been convicted for corruption.

    George was jailed by Justice Joseph Oyewole of the Lagos State High Court for offences relating to fraud committed during his tenure as the chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

    The judgment was upheld by the Court of Appeal, Lagos.

    The plaintiffs are urging the court to declare that in view of the defendant being an ex-convict, he is not qualified to occupy the office.

    They also joined the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and PDP in the suit.

    The chieftains want the court to determine whether, based on the conviction, the PDP is not obliged to bar George from functioning as a BOT member.

    They urged the court to declare that by the combined effect of Section 223 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Section 86 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), INEC cannot ignore George’s occupation of the office in spite of his conviction.

    They prayed the court to hold that in view of INEC’s constitutionally-assigned supervisory role over political parties, it is obliged to direct the PDP to remove George as BOT member.

    The plaintiffs prayed for an order directing the PDP to bar George from functioning as a BOT member, consider his position vacant and proceed to fill the position in accordance with the stipulations of its constitution.

    They further sought the court’s order removing George from the office, as well an order of mandatory injunction compelling INEC to rectify its records pertaining to PDP by deleting George’s name as a BOT member.

    The plaintiffs said the PDP BOT is one of the highest organs of the party, which greatly influences the emergence of the party flag bearers for general elections in Nigeria.

    “In performing their duty of harmonising the relationship between the executive and legislative arms of government and advising on policies and programmes of government, the members of the National Caucus of the PDP influence the programes of government since the PDP is currently the ruling party in Nigeria.

    “This is an appropriate case in which the 1st Defendant (INEC) ought to exercise its powers under the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act to ensure that the 2nd Defendant (PDP) removes the 3rd Defendant from the membership of its Board of Trustees and National Caucus since he is a person of questionable character and integrity.”

    The suit, numbered FHC/L/CS/973/2013, was filed on July 11, and the defendants are expected to respond.

  • Pray for peace, lawmakers urge Muslims

    Muslims have been advised to use the period of fasting to pray for peace in the country.

    House of Representatives for Ikeja Federal Constituency, James Faleke; his counterpart from Oshodi-Isolo Federal Constituency II, Hakeem Muniru; and member, Lagos State House of Assembly for Lagos Island State Constituency II, Wahab Alawiye-King; said this in their messages to the people.

    “This is a special period for our Muslim brothers and sisters and while congratulating them for witnessing another Ramadan, I urge them to use the opportunity to pray for peace to reign in our country,” Faleke said.

    The Chairman of the House Committee on Anti-Corruption, Ethics and National Values said Muslims should move closer to God and pray for the country to surmount its security and other challenges.

    Muniru enjoined Muslims to use the period to share love and extend hands of fellowship to others.

    “It is a season of love sharing, hence we should extend the hand of fellowship to others especially the less-privileged in the society,” he said.

    Alawiye-King said the less-privileged should be given sense of belonging by drawing them closer through empowerment programmes that would alleviate their suffering and poverty.

     

  • Reps urge IGP, Army to probe murder of Ibadan traders

    Reps urge IGP, Army to probe murder of Ibadan traders

    The House of Representatives has urged the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Abubakar and the Army to investigate the murder of 10 Ibadan traders by suspected Boko Haram insurgents in Borno State.

    The lawmakers also enjoined the IGP and the military authorities to ensure that the culprits were apprehended and brought to justice to act as a deterrent to others.

    The House of Representatives urged the Federal Government to tighten security in Borno State, especially in public places, such as markets, churches and mosques, to forestall a recurrence.

    The resolutions followed the adoption of the prayers of a motion moved by Ajibola Muraina (PDP-Oyo) by the majority of the lawmakers.

    The House also advised the Federal Government to compensate the bereaved families.

    Muraina, presenting the motion titled ‘Gruesome Killing of Ibadan Traders in Borno State by members of Boko Haram’, gave a recap of how the traders were attacked and killed by persons suspected to belong to the Boko Haram sect.

    The lawmaker said 10 of the traders were murdered and millions of Naira were stolen from them.

    He expressed concern that the attack occurred despite the emergency rule in the state.

    Muraina said it was sad that no measures were in place to safeguard the life and property of citizens in Borno State.

    He enjoined his colleagues to support the motion to tighten security in the North.

    The motion was not opposed and was adopted by the House.

    When the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, who presided, put the motion to vote, it was supported.

    The House of Representatives also urged the Federal Government to address the plight of internally- displaced persons in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states.

    It enjoined the National Refugees Commission to take measures to protect the rights of the citizens in the affected areas.

    The resolution followed the adoption of a motion brought to the House by a member, Abubakar Wambai (PDP-Adamawa).

    Wambai, presenting his argument, said the United Nations in its report on the affected areas noted that over 6,000 internally- displaced persons have fled to Niger, Chad and Cameroun.

    According to him, the people still live in fear despite that the military seems to be operating by the rules of engagement.

    He said the situation was worsened by the disruption of mobile telephone services, which is causing economic and social difficulties.

    The legislator said the situation in the affected states would degenerate if the trend was not curbed.

  • Akingbola, Dada urge court to quash N47.1b theft charge

    Akingbola, Dada urge court to quash N47.1b theft charge

    A former Managing Director of the defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc, Dr. Erastus Akingbola, and his co-defendant Bayo Dada, have asked a Lagos High Court, Ikeja, to quash the charges preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Akingbola and Dada were arraigned before the court, presided over by Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo, on an 18-count charge for allegedly stealing N47.1 billion belonging to the bank.

    In a Motion on Notice, dated July 4 and filed by his counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), the accused prayed the court for an order striking out the charges against them, dated May 4, 2011.

    They averred that the charges are unconstitutional, incompetent and illegal.

    Akingbola also sought an order to quash counts one to 14, 19, 23, and his discharge.

    The motion was brought pursuant to Sections 6(6) and 211 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and Sections 249, 252 and 253 of the Administration of Criminal Justice, Law of Lagos State, 2011.

    Arguing the grounds of the motion, Akingbola said the EFCC had no powers to prosecute criminal matters before a state High Court without a fiat by the Attorney-General.

    The former bank chief said he was charged with stealing under Section 390(7) of the Criminal Code Laws of Lagos State 2003.

    “We are talking about a constitutional issue; we are talking about a fundamental issue; we are talking about a recondite issue. We are saying the Federal Government cannot prosecute a case of stealing before a Lagos High Court, under the Lagos State Criminal Code.

    “If Your Lordship overrules us on this issue, it means the Federal Government can come before the state High Court to prosecute a case of reckless driving or environmental offences,” he argued.

    Akingbola also said the counts of the charges preferred against him were not only repetitive, duplicitous and oppressive but that his arraignment also constitutes a gross abuse of court process.

    The judge fixed July 15 for ruling on their application tp quash the charges.