Sahara Reporters Latest News Saturday 16th November 2019

Sahara Reporters Latest News Saturday 16th November 2019

Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 16/11/19

BREAKING: Two Out Of Six Soldiers Injured By Boko Haram In Borno Attack Dead Over Lack Of Medical Care

Two out of six Nigerian soldiers injured on Wednesday by Boko Haram terrorists has died due to lack of immediate medical intervention.
“Out of the six casualties on our side on Wednesday, due to lack of quick medical intervention, we have lost two soldiers,” a military source told SaharaReporters.
SaharaReporters had earlier on Friday reported that the Nigerian Army repelled an attack by Boko Haram terrorists on one of its bases in Borno State at about 5:30pm on Wednesday.
In the exchange of gunfire, three insurgents were killed.
The attack, however, left six soldiers injured and needing urgent medical attention.

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NAF Training Helicopter Crashes In Enugu

A training helicopter belonging to the Nigerian Air Force has crashed in Enugu State after returning from a routine exercise.
According to NAF Twitter account on Friday, the crash occurred on Thursday.
It said that although there were casualties, the cause of the incident was still sketchy and unknown.
The tweet reads, “NAF helicopter suffers mishap upon landing in Enugu.
“Helicopter has crashed on landing in Enugu after a routine flight today. Fortunately, there were no fatalities or injuries to any crew member or persons on the ground.
“@CAS_AMSadique has directed that a board of inquiry be constituted to determine the cause of the accident.
“@NigAirForce continues to solicit the understanding and support of the general public as it daily strives to ensure the security of Nigeria and Nigerians.”

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Reps Makes Genotype Test For Intending Couples Compulsory

The House of Representatives has okayed compulsory genotype tests for intending couples as part of measures to prevent sickle cell disease, according to a report by PUNCH.
The House charged government registries, churches and mosques to demand the tests before joining persons as husband and wife.
This is part of the resolutions passed by the lawmakers at the plenary on Thursday when they unanimously adopted a motion moved by Mr Umar Sarki titled ‘Call on the Federal Ministry of Health to develop an efficient system for management of sickle cell disease in Nigeria’.
Adopting the motion, the House called on the Federal Ministry of Health to introduce free and compulsory new-born screening programme, which will include screening for sickle cell disease in all hospitals in Nigeria.
The House also called on the ministry to provide free treatment and counselling service to patients with sickle cell disease, while asking it to “sensitise religious institutions and the judiciary to include results of genotype tests as one of the conditions for marriage”.
They also urged the Federal Ministry of Education to include sickle cell education in science subjects in all primary and secondary schools, while mandating the House committees on Health Care Services, Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values, and Basic Education and Services to ensure implementation of the resolutions.

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NECO Dismisses 70 Staff Over Certificate Forgery

The National Examinations Council have been dismissed 70 of its staff over certificate forgery.
This was made known through a statement by the Head of Information and Public Relations Division, Azeez Sani, in Minna, Niger State.
It was gathered that the dismissal affects mostly the junior staff while substantial number of the senior staff were affected.
According to the statement, the dismissal of the staff was as a result of a report submitted by a committee constituted to verify the certificates of staff by the management of NECO.
Further investigation by NECO revealed that when the body approached the schools of the affected staff where they claimed they had attended, the various institutions denied issue such certificates to the affected staff.
The statement reads, “The Certificate Verification Committee carried out its assignment diligently by inviting all staff with questionable credentials to appear before it, during which some staff actually attested that their certificates were fake.
“The committee also contacted the schools and institutions the affected staff claimed to have attended and the schools and institutions denied having certificated them.”
According to the statement, this will be the first phase of the dismissal of staff as more verification was still going on to reveal more people in the organisation.

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BREAKING: Sowore Prefers To Be Kept In Our Custody, DSS Claims

The Department of State Services has claimed that pro-democracy campaigner and Publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, on his own volition made a choice to be kept in their custody instead of a correctional centre.
DSS claimed that instead of being remanded at the Kuje Correctional Center in line with the order of the court, Sowore preferred to be kept in their facility.
In a statement on Friday, Public Relations Officer of the DSS, Peter Afunanya, said, “There has been outcry about alleged illegal detention of some notable persons undergoing trials at the courts and disobedience to court orders by the Service.
“To put the records straight, the Service wishes to advert public attention to the circumstances that warranted the custody of Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.) and Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky in its facility.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the duo had appealed to the courts to be left in the custody of the Service instead of being taken to the correctional centres.
“Well-meaning Nigerians are equally witnesses to the case of Omoleye Sowore, who, on a similar order of the court was to be remanded at the Kuje or Suleja centres but preferred to be kept with the DSS.”
Afunanya added that Sowore had been accorded and treated with respect and courtesy in its facility.
He said the activist was allowed access to people and use of facilities like telephones, gymnasium, television, newspapers and medical treatment.
Recall that Sowore spoke from detention on Friday, alleging that the DSS was making frantic efforts to ensure that he was not be freed and that there were attempts to infiltrate the ranks of the #RevolutionNow movement by the secret police.
The DSS had come under intense pressure from within and outside Nigeria to release Sowore and Olawale Bakare widely known as Mandate after twice meeting their bail conditions.
Sowore was arrested on August 3, 2019 for calling on Nigerians to take to the streets in peaceful demonstrations to demand a better country from the administration of President Buhari.
The government has cooked up frivolous charges against him – among them insulting Buhari and trying to overthrow his administration – claims analysts around the world have described as laughable.

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Tanker Explosion Kills Two, Destroys 17 Vehicles On Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway

Two persons were confirmed dead and six others injured in a fire accident involving a petroleum tanker at Bible College bus-stop along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway on Thursday night, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
Federal Road Safety Corps’ Assistant Corps Commander in Ota, Ganiyu Akeem, disclosed that 17 vehicles were also burnt in the accident that happened around 11:55pm on Thursday.
He said the incident happened when the tanker fell and spilled its content into a drainage by the roadside.
He said the tanker ignited the fire that burnt many vehicles.
An official of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps, Mr Adekunle Ajibade, revealed that the fuel-laden truck was heading to Lagos from Sango-Ota when it developed a gear fault and overturned in the process.
He said, “The driver was trying to change the gear of the vehicle and lost control.
“The truck overturned and caught fire immediately.”
The FRSC commander said that seven fire-fighting trucks, three from Ogun and four from Lagos, were promptly mobilised to the scene.

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Policeman Rapes Nine-year-old Daughter Of Policewoman In Lagos Barracks

A 45-year-old policewoman has narrated to an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court how a policeman named Mohammed Alidu allegedly defiled her nine-year-old daughter inside a police barracks in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the policewoman was the second prosecution witness in the trial of Alidu, a police sergeant, for defilement.
She said the defendant accosted her daughter on her way home from school, dragged her into his apartment and defiled her.
She stated, “We live at Makinde Barracks, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos.
“On June 29, 2018, I was at work when my husband, who was out of Lagos, called to inform me that Sgt. Mohammed had defiled our daughter.
“I went to the police station which is within the same compound of the barracks and my daughter was there.
“My daughter told me that when she was coming back from school, Mohammed called her but she ignored him.
“She said he forcefully took her to his apartment, put her on a bed, tore her underwear and defiled her.”
According to the woman, Alidu was also at the police station begging and telling the Divisional Police Officer that it was the work of the devil.
The policewoman said her daughter was taken to the Mirabel Centre (a sexual assault referral centre) for medical examination, and doctors confirmed that she had been defiled.
During cross-examination by defence counsel, Mr Sunday Odise, the policewoman told the court that the defendant lived near her residence.
She said, “He did not have a house within the barracks. He was sleeping in a shop opposite our home.”

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Bayelsa Election: Court Directs INEC To Retain APC, Candidate On Ballot

David Lyon

The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Friday directed the Independent National Electoral Commission to retain the All Progressives Congress and its governorship candidate, David Lyon, on the ballot ahead of Saturday’s election.
The directive followed an ex parte motion filed by Lyon’s counsel.
On Thursday, the Court of Appeal in Abuja granted stay of execution on the judgment delivered by the Federal High Court nullifying the primaries of the All Progressives Congress ahead of Saturday’s governorship election in Bayelsa.
Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, made the disclosure after the court’s decision.
That ruling followed an earlier order by the court declaring that the APC in the state held no genuine primaries, automatically ruling it out of the ballot on Saturday.

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Nigeria, Bangladesh To Sign Bilateral Agreement On Agriculture

President Muhammadu Buhari receives Letter of Credence from Bangladesh High Commissioner to Nigeria, Shameem Ahsan in Abuja

NAN

The Bangladesh High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Shameen Ahsan, has announced plans by the country and Nigeria to sign an agreement in the area of agriculture.
Ahsan, who spoke at a Nigeria- Bangladesh business forum in Lagos, said there was the need to create a better link to foster commercial activities between the two countries.
According to him, “It is very important to interact with members of the civil society to further create a better understanding between the two countries and dispel misconceptions, while I try to make the country familiar in front of the Nigerian audience.
“We are currently working on signing an agreement on cooperation, in the field of agriculture and that would provide key platform to share best practices between the two countries.”
Also speaking, President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Babatunde Ruwase, disclosed that both nations had expressed mutual interest to expand bilateral relations overtime.
He said, “The Bangladesh Tariff Commission in 2014 prepared a feasibility study for the benefits of signing preferential trade agreement with African states and recommended that Nigeria along with Mali was the most promising countries for signing such agreements.
“We therefore urge Bangladeshi businessmen to invest in agriculture, ICT, food processing, garment production and industrial sectors of the economy.”

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Never Stop Voicing Out Against Rape, Sexual Abuse, Says Busola Dakolo

Busola Dakolo

For Busola, wife of Nigerian musician, Timi Dakolo, her coming out to give account of her alleged rape experience at the hands of Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly, was a victory for her beyond the court hearing of the case.
Busola, a professional photographer, made this known on Thursday night while reacting to the judgment by Justice Oathman Musa, who had earlier that day dismissed the suit filed by her and asked the she pays N1m for wasting the court’s time.
The judge posited that the matter amounts to injustice and an abuse of judicial process, adding that the case was empty and purely sentimental.
Justice Musa insisted that the case was aimed more at cruelty than obtaining justice.
But reacting to the ruling shortly after the judge’s pronouncement, Busola, through her lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, disclosed that she was going to appeal the matter.
In a post on her official Instagram handle, Busola said, “When I set about confronting one of my biggest fears and a horrible experience from my past, the first hurdle was finding the confidence to. Victims usually do not find a place for their voice, certainly not in our deeply conservative country where might is right and a virtue while innocence is a licence for abuse and disregard.
“I had no illusions about the herculean task before me in not only openly confronting the man behind the mask but seeking remedy and sanction against him before the court.
“I set out to ease the hurt, the sense of shame and abuse, the nightmares and traumas not by securing judicial victory only but by boldly sharing my story and calling out my transgressor robed in the vestiges of clerical power and pretence.
“I understood and accepted that by voicing out was silencing the screams in the night.
“Ever since my story broke, the reactions were mixed but largely comforting. I noted that otherwise hushed victims of rape and sexual abuse were taking a cue from my stoicism in the face of ridicule and opposition and sharing their equally appalling stories.
“It is in this response that my victory was sealed, in knowing that one woman’s boldness could encourage others and challenge the institutionalised silence and the repression of the victim’s narrative by a culture of guilt-tripping, stigma and an inexplicable clamour to make irrational excuses for sexual offenders.
“Even so, there is much to be said about what transpired in court.
“In the court’s wisdom, my legal action is statue barred and that means the time has passed within which I could or should have initiated the suit.
“The substance of the suit which is my allegations of sexual abuse leading to emotional distress on my person against Mr Biodun Fatoyinbo has neither been entertained by the court nor ruled upon. I believe that the effect of the injurious claim is a continuous one that transcends time and place.
“This has only made me to wonder more what a country we have. I was particularly surprised at the hearing of the case when the court said the file was missing and later when the court said my own processes cannot be found and finally the case is out of time. This only shows that we have a lot to address to bring sanity to our country.
“Today, I am glad that my voice is not silenced and this is victory for me. I must encourage every woman out there to keep the pace and never stop voicing out against the evil of rape and sexual abuse.
“We must not give up for our victory lies more in finding our voice than anything else.”