The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment has given the committee responsible for the consideration of request for registration by the Congress of University Academics (CONUA) four weeks to submit its report. The move came just as federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have scheduled to resume their negotiations today. scheduled to resume their negotiations today. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, while receiving a delegation of the CONUA leadership in his office in Abuja yesterday, assured them that their application for registration as trade union would be treated with fairness and without fear or favour. Ngige also said the vision of CONUA on what should be their major focus in the university aligned with his. The minister accused ASUU of toying with the future of the students by subjecting the universities to long period of closure on academic work. Speaking on the request for registration by the splinter group, Ngige said what they did is permitted by law. According to him, “Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution gives you the right to relate with persons of like minds, and to that extent, it says you can form trade unions, and to we the politicians, we can form political parties subject to registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as a valid political party. “So CONUA has done the right thing by applying for registration, and the ministry has also done the right thing by processing your application for registration. “Your application to the Trade Union department of the ministry was earlier rejected, but you applied to the minister for review which is within your right and that review is ongoing now.” Also, the minister said a committee has been set up to look into the appeal by CONUA for the review of its application. He said: “I have set up a committee to do that review, and I will ask that committee to wind up their work, as we are giving them four weeks from today to turn in their report to the ministry “I do hope that by the middle of December, we would have gotten the final work of the committee and then, the permanent secretary will convene a meeting to look at the report.” The minister pledged that he would ensure fairness in the consideration of CONUA’s application for registration, adding that the ministry will take decision on the report “without fear or favour.” Earlier in his speech, the Coordinator of CONUA, Nyi Summonu, pleaded with the minister to use his good offices to ensure the registration of the association as an independent academic union. Summonu said the members of the new body believed that the existing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) does not represent their interest, and its mode of operation is not in line with what they believe in. He promised that his group would pursue issues differently and will not subject students to frequent disruptions in their academic pursuit in order to compel the government to accede to their demands. Summonu, who claimed that CONUA membership has reached 3,000 from 17 universities in the country, also requested the minister to cause the stoppage of remittance of check-off dues from its members to ASUU pending the conclusion of work on the registration of CONUA.

On Wednesday, CNN published an investigation on the Lekki incident, alleging that soldiers used live rounds on protesters who had converged on Lekki tollgate on October 20. The report had drawn the ire of the federal government who threatened to sanction CNN over “irresponsible reporting”. At a press conference on Thursday Lai Mohammed, minister of information, described the alleged killings at the tollgate as “massacre without bodies”. But in a statement on Thursday, CNN said the report was carefully and meticulously researched. The news outlet said the report is based on multiple witness account, adding that the army and police declined calls to respond to the investigation before the story was published. “Our reporting was carefully and meticulously researched, and we stand by it,” the statement read. “The report was based on testimony from dozens of witnesses, and photos and video obtained and geolocated by CNN. It painted a picture of how members of the Nigerian army and the police shot at the crowd, killing at least one person and wounding dozens more. “CNN verified photos and videos acquired from multiple eyewitnesses and protesters using timestamps and other data from the video files. “Video footage shows soldiers who appear to be shooting in the direction of protesters. And accounts from eyewitnesses established that after the army withdrew, a second round of shooting happened later in the evening. “Prior to publishing the report, CNN tried multiple times to elicit comment from the Nigerian army and police. A Lagos State police spokesman declined to comment because of an ongoing investigation. “While a statement from the Lagos State government said that there would be no comment while a judicial tribunal was underway.”

The Federal Government says the sanctions imposed on some broadcast media stations in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests were justified and that the affected stations already paid their fines. Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated this on Thursday in Abuja at a media briefing on the #EndSARS protest and its aftermaths. The minister said that two of the stations paid their fines in full, while the third paid a part of the fine, with an appeal for time to pay the balance. Mohammed stressed that the fines imposed on the stations by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) were not only justified but that the NBC was indeed lenient. “In the aftermath of the EndSARS crisis, NBC fined three broadcast stations for using unverified and dangerous information from social media. “Commentators, many of whom didn’t even know why the NBC imposed the fine, rushed to allege an attempt to stifle free speech. “Unknown to them, the stations themselves knew that they breached the Broadcast Code. “It is sad to see the traditional media jettisoning the age-long gate-keeping process and instead rushing to rely on the free-wheeling social media, devoid of any gatekeeping, for news,’’ he said. The minister also said it was imperative for the traditional media to authenticate the information from social media or from any source, for that matter, before publishing or broadcasting the same. He condemned the emerging trend in which traditional media freely used materials from social media sources without taking the pains to verify their authenticity. “This is a dangerous trend that must be curbed, in the interest of media practitioners themselves, the profession and indeed the country,’’ he said. Mohammed said if NBC had wielded the big stick during the protest, some broadcast media organisations would have faced more severe sanctions than mere fines. “Recall that an otherwise reputable broadcast media organisation had carried a fake report that the Ecumenical Centre in Abuja was on fire during the violence that followed the protest. “Though the organisation in question later retracted the story, the kind of reprisal attack this could have sparked is better imagined. “Also, another reputable broadcast media organisation featured a report that identified a maintenance worker atop a bank building overlooking the Lekki tollgate in Lagos as a sniper, leading to attacks that destroyed many of the bank’s branches. “The organisations have not even been sanctioned for these terrible disinformation, yet rabble-rousers have latched on to the fines to make all sorts of baseless allegations,’’ he said The NBC fined Channels Television, AIT and Arise TV N3 million each on Oct. 26 over their unprofessional coverage of the #EndSARS protest and the crises that followed it. Acting Director-General of NBC, Prof Armstrong Idachaba, announced the sanctions at a news conference in Abuja. (NAN)

Adamawa state high court VII has sentenced Bappa Alti of Ganji village in Gombi local government area for killing his son, Buba Bappa for money ritual. The court presided by Justice Fatma Ahmed Tafida, convicted Bappa for chopping-off his son’s head with a cutlass. Investigations revealed that the convict was tricked by some suspected ritualist that are at large, in order to make money. The late Buba went to the bush to rear his cattle on the 13th July, 2013 unknown to him, his dad had hatched a plan to take his life. Bappa was said to use his rearing stick to hit Buba’s head which lead to his dead and then uses a cutlass to chop his head leaving the body in a pool of blood. On getting home, the evil dad enquired from his wife whether Buba had return from the farm. The wife said the son didn’t return leading to tension and confusion in the family, that led to the deceased search in the bush. The convict in company of the community and his brothers searched for the deceased the first day but to no avail and continue the next day. The search team went the next into the bushes and they found Buba’s body without the head which lead them to become suspicious of the father and they immediately apprehended him. The community reported the case to Gombi Divisional Police headquarters who arrested Bappa instantly before investigations. He was later referred to Criminal Investigation Department Yola, for further investigation where he confessed to his crime. The convict lead the CID team to the scene and where he buried the head which was exhumed by the Police as evidence. The middle aged suspect was arraigned before the court for culpable homicide punishable with death contrary to section 221 of the penal code of law.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan has denied allegation of receiving N2billion to facilitate confirmation of the nominated chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu. Lawan described the allegation as spurious existing only in the minds of the purveyors of the fake news. The Senate President, in a statement by his Special Adviser (Media), Ola Awoniyi, said: “The attention of the Office of the Senate President has been drawn to a report by SaharaReporters alleging that a group led by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, collected N2billion from Professor Mahmood Yakubu to facilitate the confirmation of his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari to a fresh five-year tenure as chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). “It is noteworthy that the publication, as always with its ridiculous fabricated reports, could not even expand the entertainment of its readers by providing the names of members of the fictitious group and where the group operates from. “To be sure, that group exists only in the mischievous imagination of the writer of the fiction. “We, therefore, wish to enjoin Nigerians to ignore the report as yet another incident of hallucination by the comical characters operating the fabricated news platform. The online medium has long earned its notoriety as a purveyor of fake news with high profile public officials as its targets. “It is well known that only the President can nominate a candidate for appointment or reappointment as Chairman of INEC. And only the Senate as a body can confirm or reject the appointment, after due screening of the candidate. The parliamentary process for the confirmation of nominations by the President is open and involves all distinguished senators. “The Senate President is only a presiding officer of the Senate and does not lead any group in or outside the august chamber that acts in any way to circumvent the processes of the Senate. We reassure Nigerians that the Senate President did not receive any gratification, in his or behalf of others, to help Professor Yakubu get a second term as chairman of INEC. “We challenge SaharaReporters and the sponsors of the false publication to provide whatever evidence that they can in support of their glib claims, failing which Nigerians should dismiss the report as another cheap blackmail from a platform that has no reputation for credible reportage and ethical journalism practise.”