Sahara Reporters Latest News Wednesday 10th April 2019
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 10/04/19
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target=_blank>Appeal Court Cancels High Court’s Sacking Of APC Senator, David Umaru
Federal High Court of NigeriaFederal High Court
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has reversed the judgement of a Federal High Court in Abuja that sacked Senator David Umaru as the All Progressives Congress(APC) candidate for the Niger East senatorial seat.
In a verdict delivered on February 7, 2019, the Federal High Court had declared Muhammed Sani Musa the validly-nominated candidate for the seat, a decision that was appealed by Umaru, who is the current Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human rights and Legal Matters.
A fresh judgement given on Tuesday by a three-man panel of the Court of Appeal unanimously upheld Umaru’s appeal and dismissed the objection filed by Musa.
Delivering the lead Judgement, Justice Stephen Adah voided the Certificate of Return issued to Musa by the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In its judgement on Tuesday, the appellate court agreed with the appellant that the trial court erred in law to have assumed jurisdiction over the suit brought by Musa and granted the reliefs sought.
While giving reason for his decision to reverse the Federal High Court’s ruling, the appellate court held that the suit filed at the lower court was statue-barred and against Section 285(9) of the 4th alteration Act of the 1999 Constitution.
Justice Adah said: “The suit was caught up by the prescribed constitutional time limit of 14 days, having been predicated on the event that took place on the 2nd October 26, 2018.
“The originating summons was dated and filed on October 26, 2018, while the subject matter of the suit centred on the event of October 2, 2018.”
However, in his objection, Musa challenged the appeal on the grounds that the appellant had no locus standi to have filed the appeal without the name of his political party: APC.
He argued further that the conduct of the election and emergence of a winner had rendered the appeal a mere academic exercise.
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target=_blank>BREAKING: INEC Confirms Kogi, Bayelsa Governorship Elections Will Hold November 2
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has confirmed that governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states will hold on November 2, 2019.
Festus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, made the announcement on Tuesday evening, following a meeting of the commission to finalise the schedule for the only two governorship elections left for the year.
“The Commission at its meeting held today approved the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the Governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States which will hold in both States on Saturday2nd November 2019,” Okoye said in a statement.
“The official notice for both elections will be issued on 1st August 2019 while political parties that intend to sponsor candidates are to hold their primaries for the nomination of such candidates from 2nd-29th August 2019.
“Campaigns by Political Parties in public shall commence on 2nd August 2019 and end on 31st October 2019.
“The parties sponsoring candidates are required to submit the list of their agents not later than 2nd October 2019.
“The stated timelines are in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended). All stakeholders are urged to take cognizance of and adhere strictly to them.
“Details of the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election are on the Commission’s website.”
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target=_blank>DEVELOPING: Damaturu Residents Currently Fleeing As Boko Haram Attacks With Anti-Aircraft Guns
Thousands of residents of Maisandari area of Maiduguri, capital of Yobe State, are currently fleeing for their lives as their end of Damaturu is being attacked by Boko Haram insurgents.
A villager who pleaded not to be named so as not to put his life at risk told SaharaReporters that the attackers came through the eastern part of the town and started shooting sporadically.
“We were outside my house when I saw them approaching in hilux vans that are laden with anti-aircraft guns,” he said.
“We all scattered. If you listen well, you’ll hear sounds of gunshot in the background. Please pray for our souls.”
SaharaReporters can confirm that the Military is currently providing resistance, as heavily-armed soldiers were sighted advancing towards the direction of the insurgents in many hilux vans and five armoured personal carriers with many hilux vans.
More to follow…
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target=_blank>Civic Media Lab Hosts Elections Debrief
As the dust raised by the 2019 election settles, the Civic media Lab, a MacArthur-funded centre for mediatal and media innovation around accountability, transparency and good governance, has started a series of convening by stakeholders in the electoral process.
This convening, which has representation from the civil society, media and political parties, discusses data sets from the lab’s elections data project to uncover the truth behind the numbers.
The ‘Election Debrief’ is a programme designed to capture all the issues around the elections as experienced by the various stakeholders in the process.
According to Oluwaseun Akinfolarin, Director of the Civic Media Lab, the Election Debrief would make Nigerians know issues that affected the election process from the perspectives of key stakeholders.
Key stakeholders, including candidates, journalists, campaign executives, and CSOs will be interviewed as special guests in a two-hour programme as they share their experiences during the electioneering process.
“It is important that we document the experiences of the people who had the closest encounter with the electoral systems and its flaws,” Akinfolarin said. “The programme will help Nigerians understand the issues around the 2019 elections and allow expert opinions on ways to fix the broken elections administration in Nigeria.”
He stated that the programme will hold every week of the month of April 2019.
“Election Debrief will come up every week with different guests throughout the month of April 2019,” he confirmed. “Every episode will be available to watch and download online and across our social media platforms.”
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target=_blank>Creating Light Out Of The Darkness: Take It Back Volunteers Create A Library For Community School In Ogun
The only way to light the path at a child’s feet is to educate that child; feed a curious mind with learning, knowledge and ideas. Indeed, the only way that a nation can liberate itself from abject subjugation is through education and constant learning.
It is for this reason that, in keeping with its ongoing commitment to move Nigeria forward with intervention projects, the Take It Back movement, in association with other well-meaning bodies and organisations, took an empty room and created a well-equipped library for the students of Alaro Community High School, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.
The school had purposed a classroom to be used as a library but other than a few shelves, the room lay empty, with the school producing students without a reading culture, students graduating with inquisitive minds but few answers.
Like many schools in Ogun State and indeed, nationwide, Alaro Community High School had received no help from the government, relying instead on generous donations from interested individuals and organisations.
A joint effort from GAIN and the Take It Back movement, and kind donations of materials from First Baptist Church, Laurel, Maryland, USA saw this empty shell transform into a centre for learning, with books and computers, everything a twenty first century student needs to become one of tomorrow’s leaders.
“It was a joy to be able to watch the students happily partake in changing their own destinies, joining in the arrangement of the shelves and books, their faces lighting up as they thumbed through books they’d previously heard of but never had the opportunity to read,” Rachel Onamusi-Kpiasi, Director, PR, Media and Communications Take It Back movement, said in a statement announcing the completion of the project.
“In a state that enjoys the amount of resources, educational budget and governmental handouts that Ogun State does, this should not be the reality for these children, but sadly, it is. They have been abandoned, neglected by a government that does not care about them and has no plans for them or their future. While we might not be able to solve all of the problems, we can start, we can act, and we can begin changing lives today.
“We will continue to advocate for the government to do the right thing for Nigerians, but we cannot sit and fold our arms while Nigerians die from terror, ill-health and ignorance. We will continue with these initiatives and ask that you join us in being the change you want to see. ”
Onamusi-Kpiasi enjoined those interested in being a part of the initiative, who wish to volunteer or have project ideas, to send an email to impact@tibglobal.org.
PHOTONEWS: Creating Light Out Of The Darkness: TIB Volunteers Create A Library For Alaro Community High School
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target=_blank>Rapid Response Squad Officers Brutalise Protesting Caverton Helicopter Workers ‘On orders From Abuja’
Leaders and members of the aviation unions in the Nigeria industry have been brutalised by men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) following the picketing of Caverton Helicopters over welfare issues.
No fewer than 12 of the protesting workers and union leaders were whisked away by the men of RRS on the order of the helicopter company.
Some of the brutalised workers were later hosptialised due to the injuries they sustained from the assault from the RRS men, while their items such as phones, money, eye glasses and others were either missing or damaged in the melee.
Leaders of the unions — Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) — were seen displaying different placards to express their displeasure with the management of Caverton.
Comrade Paul Igene, the Lagos Branch Chairman of NUATE, alleged that the RRS officials destroyed their vehicles with the order of Caverton Helicopters.
He empahsised that the unions had been in discussion with the management of the helicopter company on the retirement benefits of its members, but the management was reluctant to implement it.
According to Igene, the management had agreed to pay the terminal benefits to the workers end of March 2019 but reneged on the agreement.
According to him, rather for the management to negotiate further with the unions, the management took laws into its hands by inviting RRS officials from Oshodi, Lagos to brutalise its members unjustifiably.
He said that when quizzed, men of RRS said they acted based on “order from Abuja”, as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was due to use one of the helicopters of Caverton on Tuesday. He vowed that the unions would resist any form of intimidation by any organisation in the sector, adding that the welfare of its members would be uppermost.
He said: “Officials of Caverton Helicopters ordered our members to be brutalized by RRS men.
“They invited them to come and disrupt our peaceful protest. No fewer than 12 of our members were whisked away by the RRS, while others were hospitalised because of the assault. The RRS officials also towed our vehicles away. We are going to hold Caverton responsible for whatever damage we may have suffered. This is definitely going to be the beginning of it.”
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target=_blank>Okowa Tells SERAP: Your Ultimatum Is Nonsense And Pure Blackmail… We Will Not Respond
Ifeanyi Okowa, Governor of Delta State, has described the seven-day ultimatum issued him by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to provide information on details of the budgetary allocations and actual spending on primary school education in the oil-rich state as “nonsense and pure blackmail”.
On Sunday, while reacting to the video of Success Adegor, a pupil of Okotie-Eboh Primary School 1, Sapele, Delta State, who was dismissed from school for failure to pay her exam levy, SERAP had issued Okowa a seven-day ultimatum to provide information on details of the budgetary allocations and actual spending on primary school education in the oil-rich state.
Reacting on Monday through his Chief Press Secretary, (CPS), Charles Aniagwu, Okowa told SaharaReporters: “There are 36 states of the federation. In these 36 states, the governors of these states and indeed the federal government budget for education of their different states and ministries of education. If SERAP wants to know what anybody is spending with respect to education, why are you going to wait for the story of Success to begin to make such demands? Why don’t you ask every state?
“Let people ask of things for the purpose of developing Nigeria and we will move with them. We encourage anybody who is interested in what we are doing here. We don’t have anything to hide. Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa runs a very transparent government and the businesses we do here is on the basis of the transparency and if SERAP wants to know how transparency exist in the system, let them come to Delta but giving ultimatum as if they are the owners of the government in Delta state is not something that we are going to fall for. Nobody is going to blackmail us for cheap popularity.
“Why didn’t they give ultimatum to many other states where people are learning under the trees? Why don’t they give ultimatum to other places where they are not able to pay their teachers? In Delta, we not only pay our workers we also assist local governments to ensure that the teachers are well paid as at when due. There are states in the federation where teachers are even paid half salaries. In some other states, they are owed more than six months. I expect SERAP to go there and begin to demand for ultimatum so that we know that indeed they are very much interested in the development of this country and not playing to the gallery.”
When asked if the state government would respond to SERAP’s demands, he responded angrily, asking: “Respond to what?
“Our business is to govern our people in Delta State with the highest sense of accountability. I have not seen anywhere it is written in the oath of office that there must be one body who will come and harass us and make us abandon what we are doing. There is nothing we are hiding; our budget is very clear. We put it on the website. Let them go there; they will see it. We don’t have anything to hide.
“We have a House of Assembly. Those are the ones that should be giving Governor ultimatum in the first place, because the House of Assembly represents the people but when somebody else comes from somewhere, we don’t even know those who constitute them. Have they spoken to anybody? Have they come here to talk to us? Before you give ultimatum, you must first of all show what effort you have made to say I went to this man, he didn’t answer me. How do you just go to the media and give us ultimatum in the media? And you expect us to jump? We don’t even know who is giving the ultimatum.”
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target=_blank>More Money Coming To The Police As Senate Passes Police Trust Fund Bill
The Nigerian Senate has passed the Nigerian Police Trust Fund Bill (HB 1583).
The bill was passed at the Senate’s plenary on Tuesday.
This comes days after Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, the Inspector General of Police, was given the assurance that the Senate would fast-track work on both the Police Trust Fund Bill and the Police Reform Bill.
The House of Representatives has also given assent to the bill.
Speaking on the passage of the bill on Tuesday, Senate President Bukola Saraki said: “By passing this bill, we will be creating big strides towards providing and improving security and the policing in our country.
“One of the major concerns has always been the issue of funding. We believe that this bill will provide the funding needed for training and recruitment. I am confident that by the time we lay the report on the Police Reform Bill, we would have gone a long way in moving the Police in the right direction.”
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target=_blank>BREAKING: Saraki Gives Budget Committee Thursday Deadline To Submit Report Or Else…
Senate President Bukola Saraki on Tuesday gave the Appropriations Committee till Thursday to submit the 2019 budget report, otherwise the executive submission will be activated.
Briefing the Senate on the progress made so far on budget reports, Sunday Ogbuoji, Vice Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, had said just 24 out of the 61 sub-committees had submitted their reports.
Reacting to Ogbuoji’s submission, Saraki insisted that the budget report must be presented on Thursday, April 11 ahead of the April 16 approval of the money bill.
Saraki added that the Appropriations committee will be forced to use executive submissions if the sub-committee fails to submit their reports to the committee by Wednessday.
“It is unfortunate that only 24 committees have submitted their reports,” he lamented.
“Last week, we all took a decision here that we are not going to waiver on our position. Our position is very clear: that all committees should submit (their budget reports). And those that don’t submit, then the Appropriations Committee should use the Executive submission.
“That position is still where we are. And I want to appeal to all our committees that you really have till tomorrow Wednesday to make sure that your reports get to the Appropriations Committee because Thursday, you must lay this report.
“Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, if you don’t get report from our committee by tomorrow, then you just use the submission of the Executive. But come Thursday, you must lay that report.”
Last week, the Committee on Appropriations missed what was supposed to be the deadline for submitting its report on the 2019 budget.
At the plenary on Tuesday April 2, where the report was scheduled to be presented, Ogbuoji had said it was not ready because some committees were yet to submit their reports.
He said less than 10 committees had submitted their reports, and issued an ultimatum to the committees, stating that for any committee that fails to submit its report by Friday April 5, the Senate Committee on Appropriations would go with the submission of the executive.
President Muhammadu Buhari presented an N8.83 trillion budget proposal to a joint session of the National Asembly on Decembetr 19, 2018.
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Police Dismiss Nine Senior Officers For Gross Misconduct
Nigeria’s Police Service Commission (PSC) has approved the dismissal of nine senior officers from the Force for gross misconduct.
The dismissal, which is to take place with immediate effect, was part of the outcome of its fifth Plenary Meeting that was held in Abuja on March 26 and 27.
Presiding over the meeting, Musiliu Adeola Smith, Chairman of PSC, also approved the demotion of six officers for different cases of misconduct.
A statement released by the commission read: “The Police Service Commission has approved the dismissal of nine senior Police officers for gross misconduct.
“The dismissal takes immediate effect. The Commission also approved the reduction in rank of another six officers for different cases of misconduct.”
At the meeting, the commission approved punishment for 10 officers, while CP Austin Agbonlahor was exonerated of the offence he was accused of.
“The Commission also approved the punishment of severe reprimand for five officers and reprimand for another five. One officer, CP Austin Agbonlahor, was however exonerated.
“Those dismissed were Abdul Yahaya Ahmed, a Superintendent of Police who will also be prosecuted; Adamu Damji Abare, another SP who also had his promotion from SP to CSP withdrawn before his dismissal.
“The Commission further requested the IGP to furnish it with information on the punishment awarded to other officers mentioned in the Police Investigation Reports involving SP Abare with regards to irregularities in the conduct of the 2011 recruitment exercise.”
Names of other officers dismissed from the force are DSP Osondu Christian, DSP Samson Ahmidu and DSP Pius Timiala who will be prosecuted and whose promotion from DSP to SP was withdrawn.
“Four ASPs were also dismissed for various wrong doings. They are Agatha Usman, Esther Yahaya, Idris Shehu and Usman Hassan Dass. Oluwatoyin Adesope and Mansir Bako were reduced in rank from SP to DSP, while Gbenle Mathew, Tijani Saifullahi, Sadiq Idris and Alice Abbah were reduced from the rank of DSP to ASP.”
The Commission said the decisions taken had been passed across to Adamu Muhammad, acting Inspector General of Police, for implementation.
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