Sahara Reporters Latest News Monday 10th June 2019

Sahara Reporters Latest News Monday 10th June 2019

Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 10/06/19

target=_blank>BREAKING: AIT Goes Back On Air, 24 Hours After Suspension By Broadcasting Regulators

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24 hours after the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) suspended its licence over alleged violation of the regulatory body’s rule, the African Independent Television (AIT) is back on air.
The development comes after Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja nullified the suspension of operating license of Daar Communications PLC, operator of AIT and Ray Power.
Ekwo, while delivering the order, gave the federal government and NBC till May 30, 2019 to revert the ban on Daar Communications PLC.
More Details later…

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E2%80%99s-disqualification target=_blank>Speakership: Court Adjourns Suit Seeking Gbajabiamila’s Disqualification

A Federal High Court on Friday adjourned for further mention a suit challenging the nomination of Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, a member of the House of Representatives vying for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 9th National Assembly until June 14.
Gbajabiamila was sued before the court in the suit with No. FHC/ABJ/CS/539/2019, by one Philip Undie, a businessman.
Undie is challenging the eligibility of Gbajabiamila to contest the speakership of the house on the ground that he was convicted in the state of Georgia, US.
Gbajabiamila is one of the leading candidates vying for the position.

E2%80%93icpc target=_blank>Judge Asked Politician To Pay N200 Million To Give Favourable Judgment –ICPC

Justice Eze Njemanze of the Imo State High Court has fixed July 11 for the arraignment of a former presiding judge of the Owerri Federal High Court of Appeal, Justice Ladan Tsamiya.
The head of public enlightenment of the ICPC in Imo State, Chinwe Nwozo, told journalists that the anti-graft agency had arraigned Tsamiya for allegedly demanding N200 million from a politician to influence an appeal case before his court.
She said, “We are arraigning Justice Mohammed Ladan Tsamiya for asking for N200 million to influence an appeal. The appeal before him was an electoral matter and it was from a politician that he was demanding the money.”
“The court has asked us to come back on July 11 to enable us to arraign him. His absence frustrated his arraignment today. But I am happy that the court reprimanded him through his lawyer. Hopefully, we will arraign him on July 11.”
The absence of the Justice at the court on Friday in Owerri stalled his arraignment by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission.
Counsel to the accused, David Adegbe had told the court that the accused had travelled abroad for medical treatment.
But the counsel for the ICPC, George Lawan, who opposed the defence counsel, said that the accused was taking the court for granted.
In his ruling, the presiding justice adjourned the matter until June 11 for the arraignment of the accused by the anti-graft agency.
The judge frowned upon Tsamiya’s absence in court, warning that if the accused failed to appear on July 11, he would issue a bench warrant against him.

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target=_blank>LUTH Resident Doctors Begin Indefinite Strike

The Association of Resident Doctors, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, on Friday embarked on an indefinite strike over non-payment of outstanding salaries and allowances.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the association was also demanding for the payment of outstanding arrears owed house officers, resident doctors, and residency training fees.
Other issues, they are seeking interventions include the lack of resident doctors and house officers across all units and better lighting in the dark portions within the hospital environment.
NAN reports that resident doctors and house officers had staged a peaceful protest on May 22 followed with a two-day warning strike on the same issues.
Dr. Kayode Makinde, President, LUTH ARD, told NAN on Friday that the hospital management had not called leaders of ARD for another meeting after the warning strike.
Makinde said ARD executives had no option than to embark on the indefinite strike, adding that members of the association would not resume work until all their demands were met.
According to him, 65 house officers were being owed between one and five months’ salaries.
“With the present numbers of house officers (177), it means one out of three house officers is currently being owed salaries.
“House officers are not enrolled on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System platform so what is the reason for the perennial delay in payment of their salaries?
“House officers are bona fide members of the association of resident doctors LUTH.
“As of today, there are 255 resident doctors in LUTH; between 2014 and 2015, there were 547 resident doctors in LUTH.
“So, 86 resident doctors are being owed one to three months salaries on the IPPIS platform.
“Some have their pension funds credited with deductions from both employers and employees,” he said.
Makinde said that no resident doctor in LUTH has been sponsored for examinations and update courses in five years, and LUTH is the only centre in Nigeria in this regard.
“The residential quarters of doctors and house officers are still in darkness in spite of the availability of 24 hours of power supply in the hospital.
“The No Work, No Pay policy is currently a subject of litigation at the National Industrial Court. Will the LUTH management hold the court in contempt?
“This is a clarion call to all resident doctors and house officers of LUTH to cooperate because together we can achieve and get our demands,” he said.
When contacted, Prof. Olufemi Fasanmade, the Chairman, LUTH Medical Advisory Committee told NAN that the present agitation started when the association demanded the withdrawal of the administrative query given to some of its members.
Fasanmade said LUTH management does not employ resident doctors and house officers, noting that each of these cadres was admitted periodically for training under specific rules.
“Admission into each of these training programmes is based on extant approvals from the appropriate government agencies.
“It is, therefore, not the call of ARD to dictate when or how trainees are being admitted.
“Currently, 189 house officers are on our payroll; LUTH has enough house officers for the care of about 400 patients on admission.
“LUTH management had secured assurances from a corporate organization to install bright LED streetlights within the premises.
“LUTH owes no salaries to any resident doctor; rather, IPPIS does, as no money was paid to LUTH for any resident doctor salary,” he said.
Fasanmade also said that LUTH management and representatives of LUTH management met with the ARD leadership two weeks ago during their warning strike.
“Specifically, the representative of the board chairman reminded ARD that most of the issues it tabled were not within the control of the hospital.
“It will be conveyed to the appropriate authorities and implore them to tow the path of peace and not disturb or try to disrupt essential services in LUTH.
“The general public is hereby assured that the hospital will be opened for business and no services will be shut down in LUTH,” he said.

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E2%80%99-licence-suspension-%E2%80%98blatant-illegality-serap target=_blank>DAAR Communications’ Licence Suspension Is ‘Blatant Illegality’ -SERAP

Raymond Dokpesi, AIT Chairman

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has described the suspension of the operating licence of DAAR Communications by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) as blatant illegality.
The group said it was considering all legal options to challenge NBC over the suspension of DAAR Communications’ licence.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Friday by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare.
“We are considering all the legal options to challenge this blatant illegality. These grounds are so subjective that if allowed to stand would seriously undermine freedom of expression, media freedom and access to information in the country. The mere fact that forms of expression on AIT/Raypower are considered by NBC to be insulting is not sufficient to justify the indefinite suspension. These grounds do not meet the requirements of legality, reasonableness, due process, necessity, and proportionality,” the statement said.
Serap stated further that the suspension amounted to an “unnecessary or disproportionate interference” with freedom of expression and media freedom.
“NBC ought to show a greater level of independence in the exercise of its statutory powers. Without independence, NBC cannot satisfactorily perform its duties. If allowed to stand, this suspension may be perceived as a threat to restrict the media and open the door to limitations on expression and media operations. This would be entirely inconsistent with constitutional provisions and international law and undermine the government’s commitment to fighting grand corruption,” it said.

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target=_blank>Rape Allegation: Neymar Gives Statement To Police In Brazil

Neymar Jr with his father Neymar Snr.

Brazil football star Neymar has attended a police station in Rio de Janeiro to make a statement following a rape allegation, his lawyer says.
The star denies raping Najila Trindade at a hotel in Paris on 15 May and thanked his fans outside the station for their support.
Ms Trindade filed the allegation last Friday, telling a Brazilian TV channel she wanted justice.
MasterCard has suspended an advertising campaign with Neymar.
The credit card company said it would stop using images of the star, who is the world’s most expensive signing and plays for French champions Paris St. Germain until the situation was resolved.
Sportswear manufacturer Nike Inc said earlier it was “very concerned” about the rape accusation against Neymar, whom it sponsors.
Neymar attended the station on crutches after having sustained an injury to his right ankle during Brazil’s game with Qatar in Brasilia on Wednesday.
His lawyer, Maira Fernandes, told Reuters news agency: “Neymar has just given a statement. He made the point of coming as soon as he could to give a statement, to clarify everything that needed to be clarified.
“We are absolutely confident that we will prove the innocence of our client… The process was thorough but he provided all the clarifications that were to be provided.”
Speaking at the door of the police station, Neymar said: “I appreciate the support and all the messages that the world has sent, my friends, my fans, that the world is with me. I want to say thank you for the well wishes, and say that I have felt very loved.”
Ms Trindade, who is also from Brazil, says she met Neymar on Instagram.
She told the SBT Brasil channel she had been attracted to the footballer and had wanted to have s** with him. She said she had been flown to Paris and put up in a hotel at his expense.
When she met Neymar, she said he was “aggressive, totally different than the boy that I got to know through the messages”.
She said she had been initially prepared for consensual s** but had demanded the use of a condom. Neymar had refused, become aggressive again and raped her, she said. She said she had told him to stop but he had refused.
She described the incident as “an assault together with rape”.
SBT published part of the interview on Twitter (in Portuguese).
Video has surfaced. What does it show?
The video footage shows an altercation purported to be between Ms Trindade and Neymar in a hotel room, reportedly filmed by Ms Trindade.
The pair lie down on a bed, after which the woman stands and starts to slap the man, who defends himself with his feet.
The woman says: “I’m going to hit you, you know why. Because you beat me up yesterday”, suggesting the altercation was a second meeting. Neymar has said that he and Ms Trindade met twice.
In the SBT interview, Ms Trindade said she had only begun to understand everything that had happened to her after the first meeting ended, and that she had returned because she wanted to prove the events and “wanted justice”.
The video was shown on the Brazilian channel TV Record EXCLUSIVO! Assista ao vÃdeo da suposta briga entre Neymar e modelo que o acusou de agressÃ£o e estupro #JornalismoRecord #JornalismoVerdade pic.twitter.com/0K7N4mZe2X— Record TV (@recordtvoficial) June 6, 2019

The lawyers who first represented Ms Trindade say her initial complaint was of “aggression” or “physical violence” by Neymar. They said they had discussed a settlement with Neymar’s lawyers but that those lawyers then rejected it. The two legal teams dispute who initially asked for the meeting.
Ms Trindade then filed a rape allegation in São Paulo last Friday. Her lawyers said the allegation was “incompatible with the strategy” they had agreed, and they parted company with her on Saturday. She now has new representation.
In her interview, Ms Trindade said of a lawyer in her first legal team: “He didn’t fully believe me. I felt he was prejudiced. He portrayed it as if I’d not been raped, that I had wanted it.”
Neymar could also face investigation over publishing the images of Ms Trindade without her permission, as the act may infringe laws designed to protect privacy.

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target=_blank>Metering Gap Will Be Closed In Three Years, Says NERC

James Momoh, Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC)has said the metering gap in Nigeria’s electricity supply industry will be closed in three years.
The NERC boss stated this at the graduation of 38-meter installers from the MOMAS Electricity Meters Manufacturing Company LTD (MEMMCOL) metering school.
Momoh, who was represented by Shittu Shuaib, General Manager Consumer Affairs, said during the graduation ceremony at the MEMMCOL factory in Orimerunmu, Ogun State that the deficit of 5.04 million will be cleared by 2022 as a result of the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme which was operationally launched in May.
“Metering is of great concern to the commission and the Federal Government. In light of this, the commission has instituted measures to accelerate metering through regulatory measures such as the MAP regulation of 2018. Data available to the commission indicates that the present metering gap in Nigeria as of April 2019 is about 5,046,906 when compared to total consumers of 8,840,801, representing a 57 percent deficit in metering.
This is a challenge and a marvellous opportunity. It is expected that the present metering gap would be closed within the next three years with the effective implementation of the distribution companies (Discos) meter rollout plan under the MAP scheme,” Momoh said.
Speaking on the need for the metering school, Kola Balogun, Chairman of MEMMCOL, said there was a need to plug the manpower deficiency in the distribution subsector of NESI.
“Since inception, MOMAS as a group has been a major participator in the power industry, not for a quest to acquire wealth but to address some of the major obstacles hindering the delivery of quality electricity to Nigerians,” Balogun stated.
He said the school was set-up to meet the global standard of metering schools across the globe.
“We make bold to say that we are the only indigenous meter manufacturing company that can boast of 100 percent local content in the design and manufacturing of our world-class standard electricity meters of various types for the Nigerian market”, he noted.
Balogun urged the distribution companies and the government to work with meter manufacturers to carry out research that would help the industry to grow.
Under the MAP scheme, consumers are to be metered in 10 days after they have made payments to a meter asset provider endorsed bythe distribution company.

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target=_blank>It’s Not Your Role To Shield The Government From Embarrassment, Media Groups Tell NBC

Three media sector non-governmental organizations have condemned the suspension by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) of the licence of Daar Communications Limited, owners of the African Independent Television (AIT), Ray Power FM radio and Faaji FM Radio, describing the NBC’s action as unwarranted, unjust, and a violation of the right to freedom of expression and media freedom.
In their joint statement signed by Mr. Edetaen Ojo, Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA); Mr. Lanre Arogundade, Director of the International Press Centre (IPC); and Mr. Richard Akinnola, Director of the Media Law Centre (MLC), the organizations accused the NBC of constituting itself into the accuser of Daar Communications, the prosecutor and the judge, in violation of the rules of natural justice and the right to fair hearing.
Announcing the suspension of Daar Communications’ broadcast license at a press briefing in Abuja on June 6, Mr. Is’haq Modibo Kawu, the NBC Director General, accused AIT/Raypower of embarking on the use of inflammatory, divisive, inciting broadcasts, and media propaganda against the government and the Commission.
Mr. Kawu had said: “Recently, NBC monitoring reports on AIT and Raypower indicate the use of divisive comments accredited to the segment of Kakaaki, tagged, ‘Kakaaki Social’ where inciting comments like, ‘Nigeria is cursed,’ ‘We declare independent state of Niger Delta’, ‘Nigeria irritates me’, ‘This country is gradually Islamising’ and other similar slogans are used without editorial control in breach of the broadcast Code.”
But the media groups disagreed, arguing that the content referred to by NBC did not violate any legitimate international professional broadcast media standard as the comments were not hate speech or inciting.
They stressed that it is not the role of a broadcast regulator to protect a government from scrutiny or criticism, adding that by seeking to shield the government from embarrassment contrary to acceptable standards of media regulation.
In addition, they pointed out that the NBC had become too partisan, thereby exacerbating its obvious lack of independence and concerned only with ingratiating itself with the political party in power.
The media NGOs expressed concern that the NBC as currently constituted is held hostage by the government with its immediate past Chief Executive Officer and the current Director-General both facing trial on charges of corruption, adding “under these circumstances, it is difficult to see how the commission can perform its functions independently, fearlessly and with credibility when it continues to operate under such a cloud.”
They argued that the role of the media is to serve as the marketplace of ideas with a clear responsibility under Section 22 of the Constitution to hold the government accountable to the people and provide the government with unvarnished feedback from members of the public who rely on the media to express their views on all issues relating to the management of their affairs.
They described the NBC’s action as an attempt to muzzle the press and unduly restrict freedom of expression, adding that it is unacceptable for the commission to attempt to punish a media organization for providing feedback to the government from members of the public by airing opinions which embarrass the government.
The organizations contended that even if the NBC was correct in its claim that the airing of certain content in a single programme on AIT was wrong, that could not justify the closing down of the entire station and other sister radio stations which had not been accused of any wrongdoing.
They called on the NBC to immediately reverse its decision by lifting the suspension of the broadcast license of Daar Commission, saying if it failed to do so within one week, they would approach the court to enforce their right to receive information and ideas through the media under section 39 of the Constitution.

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target=_blank>EFCC Arraigns University Lecturer For N19m Fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Makurdi Zonal Office on Friday, June 7, 2019, arraigned one Moses Peter Adoga before Justice Simon O. Aboki of the Nasarawa State High Court sitting in Lafia, Nasarawa State. The EFCC in a statement signed by Tony Orilade, head media, and publicity on Friday said, “Adoga was arraigned on a one-count charge for dishonestly converting the sum of N19,765,200, being a Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) grant to study for a PhD, to other purposes, an offence punishable under Section 312 of Penal Code Laws.”The count charge read: “That you Moses Peter Adoga sometime in 2011 in Keffi within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court being entrusted with the sum of N19,765,200 from Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) paid into your United Bank for Africa account through Nasarawa State University Diamond Bank Account for the purpose of Academic staff training and development at Bangor University in the United Kingdom; did dishonestly convert same to your own use and thereby committed a criminal breach of trust contrary to section 311 and punishable under section 312 of Penal Code Laws.”He pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the one-count charge.In view of his plea, prosecution counsel, Mary Onoja prayed for a date for the commencement of trial. She also prayed that the defendant be remanded in prison custody pending the hearing of his bail application.However, the defense counsel, S. K. Sheltu orally applied for bail for his client and Justice Simon O. Aboki granted the defendant bail in the sum of N2,000,000 with two sureties in like sum. The defendant is to surrender his passport to the registrar of the court.The judge adjourned the matter until July 10, 2019, for the commencement of trial.Trouble started for Adoga, a lecturer with the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Natural and Applied Science, Nasarawa State University Keffi, when a petitioner alleged that the suspect obtained a Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) grant for the sum of N19, 756, 200 through Nasarawa State University in 2010 to study PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology at Bangor University, United Kingdom.He obtained this money under disguise of overseas PhD training and never presented any evidence of going or graduating as he claimed and yet he kept giving excuses.Analysis of his statement of account showed that the suspect diverted the funds for business and sundry purposes other than the reason the funds were given. Eight years after the grant of the money to the suspect, he could not produce a PhD certificate from any university.

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FAAN Closes MMIA Apron Gate 1, Taxiway Apron Linkage

Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has shutdown the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos Gate 1; apron and Taxiway F for six weeks in order to enable apron linkage between the ongoing terminal under construction and the existing one.
The new terminal, which has been under construction since 2013, is being handled by the China Civil Construction Company.
The contractor has promised to end the construction and handover to the government within 20 months, but is yet to do so six years later.
A statement by the General Manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, said the closure would also affect vehicular movement to the area within the period.
She added that the closure was necessary in order for the contractor to link the proposed apron under construction to the existing one.
“This closure is to enable the contractor handling the construction of the new terminal (China Civil Construction Company) link the proposed apron under construction to the existing one. To maintain orderliness and ensure safety of operators, while the project would last, the authority has developed and deployed specific procedures for vehicular movements and officers of the aviation security department have been mobilized to ensure compliance.
“The authority will like to solicit the understanding and cooperation of all concerned towards ensuring a safe airside for aircraft movement and personnel safety during the construction,” she explained.

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