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Post Date : December 21, 2020

IPOB security outfit could become a militia, says Fredrick Nwabufo

Fredrick Nwabufo, journalist and columnist, says the Eastern Security Network (ESN) set up by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) could become a militia. During a BBC Igbo programme on Monday, some of those featured also said the formation of the security outfit is illegal as IPOB has no constitutional backing. TheCable had reported how IPOB — which had been proscribed by south-east governors — launched the outfit to protect the south-east and south-south regions from “criminal activity”. While some have welcomed the development, it was kicked against by other stakeholders including the South-East Governors Forum. David Umahi, Ebonyi state governor and chairman of the forum, said the leaders have no hand in the move which he described as “very laughable and should be totally ignored”. During a BBC Igbo interview session on Facebook, Nwabufo likened the group to a militia whose operation could go out of hand. “The security network can go out of control; it could become a militia,” Nwabufo said. “Some may argue that it will be used to protect the south-east from attacks by various groups, including herdsmen, but it has the potential of being used to wage war against our people. “So, it is not something to be endorsed. This is exactly how Boko Haram started gradually.” His views aligned with that of Ozioma Izuora, a lawyer, who said while the security of lives is important, any measure in that regard must follow due process. “Considering the laws of Nigeria, it is illegal because IPOB is a mere group with no constitutional backing,” she said. “Usually, in the creation of such outfits, there is often a backing for it in the constitution. If not, who is going to check their powers? If they err tomorrow, how can you prosecute them and under which law can you do so? Whatever is good must be done well.” Charles Oputa, Nigerian singer and activist better known as Charly Boy, however, disagreed that the formation of the security outfit is a wrong move. He said it is high time such an outfit was formed to help secure residents in the south-east and south-south. “Igbo sons and daughters, we must not sleep. We cannot afford to sleep because we are surrounded by the enemy. So, the security outfit is a commendable move,” Oputa said.

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Post Date : December 21, 2020

Ngige: ASUU’s deal almost done, schools may reopen January 2021

Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige said Monday that the federal government has met 98% of the demands of the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, assuring Nigerians that the nation’s universities are likely to reopen by January next year. Addressing reporters at Alor in Idemili North local government area of Anambra State during the flag-off of medical outreach in the town, the minister said final decisions will be taken on Tuesday during a meeting he would hold with ASUU leadership in Abuja. He said: “We have met about 98 percent of the request of ASUU. The remaining two percent is what you can call promissory notes. “So, I am very hopeful that by midnight Tuesday, there is work we are supposed to get on to do and ASUU members also have some work they are supposed to do on their own side with their people. “We will meet in the afternoon and we will compare notes. “We will put everything on the table and compare. I believe that we might have come to the end of the strike when we meet. “Well, it is a journey of a thousand miles, which you will have to take one step first. All things being equal, we will agree now to agree because we were disagreeing before. “We will disagree to agree and agree to disagree formerly. But I hope we will agree to agree. Once we do that, schools will open in January.”

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Post Date : December 21, 2020

FG Extends Deadline For Telcos To Block SIMs Without NIN

The Federal Government has extended the deadline for the provision of National Identification Number by telecommunication service subscribers. This was contained in a statement on Monday by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. The statement titled, ‘ Extension of Registration Period and Cancellation of USSD and Verification Fees’ , was jointly signed by the Executive Vice -Chairman , Nigerian Communications Commission , Umar Danbatta ; and Director-General , National Identity Management Commission , Aliyu Aziz. It read , “ The National Task Force on National Identification Number and SIM Registration met today, 21st December , 2020. “ The meeting was chaired by the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami with major stakeholders in the sector including Chairman – NCC , EVC – NCC , DG- NITDA, DG-NIMC , ECTS /ECSM- NCC , Chairman ALTON, CEOs of MTN, Airtel , Ntel , Glo , Smile , and 9Moble in attendance . “ Based on the endorsement of the Federal Government of Nigeria , the following resolutions were made : “ Three ( 3) weeks extension for subscribers with NIN from 30th December , 2020 to 19th January, 2021; and “ Six ( 6) weeks extension for subscribers without NIN from 30th December , 2020 to 9th February , 2021. ” The statement further stated , “ NIMC has provided strategies to enable citizens attend the registration in full compliance with Covid- 19 protocols – particularly the use of facemasks which remains mandatory and maintenance of social distancing. ” The NCC had last week ordered telecommunications companies to within two weeks suspend phone subscribers who have no NIN. Large crowds had besieged NIMC offices in Lagos on Monday in a bid to register and obtain the National Identity Number. The House of Representatives and several Nigerians had expressed concern over the sudden directive of the Federal Government and had asked that the deadline given for the registration be extended.

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Post Date : December 21, 2020

Don’t Distract Me With 2023 Presidency, Says Yahaya Bello

Governor Yahaya Bello says he does not want to be distracted by calls for him to contest in the forthcoming 2023 presidential election but he is focused on delivering his mandate of rebuilding Kogi State. The governor said his administration’s ability to curb insecurity in Kogi State and massive youth empowerment has been attracting support leading to the calls for him to join the 2023 presidential race, a call he does not want to be distracted with. Bello said this on Monday through his Chief Press Secretary, Nnogwu Sani Mohammed at the ongoing security and economic summit of the Northcentral Governors Forum in Makurdi, the Benue State capital. He, therefore, called for support to deliver his second term mandate of rebuilding Kogi State. Bello said the issue of the 2023 presidency should not be put on the front burner and heat the polity and assured that he is focused on his mandate of improved security, economy, and youth employment.

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Post Date : December 21, 2020

Reps Move To Sanction Lawmaker Over Call For Buhari’s Impeachment

The House of Representatives has said it will take disciplinary measures against one of the lawmakers Kingsley Chinda who called for the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari. Hon. Kingsley Chinda is the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, House of Reps Caucus, and is representing Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency in Rivers State. The House Majority Leader, Ado Doguwa, during plenary on Monday said that Hon. Chinda was not representing the position of the PDP caucus of the House as he claims and is acting alone. He also noted that the President’s decision not to honour the House was due to the utterances of the lawmaker calling for his impeachment, and concerns that the President would be embarrassed If he honoured the invitation. Hon. Chinda in a press release on December 7, called on Nigerians irrespective of political party, tribe, or religion to compel their representatives to commence the impeachment process against the President. The lawmaker’s call for impeachment is not unconnected with the rising cases of insecurity being witnessed across the country. However, House spokesman Hon. Benjamin Kalu described Chinda’s call as the “opinion of a single member of the opposition party in the house.” He said calls for impeachment were not logical as the President is yet to appear before the House to explain what his administration is doing to address the security issue. “If this call came post-President’s visit for the failure to dialogue well enough in securing solutions or due to his inability to put our positions to use, it would appear logical. “Unfortunately, this call is not only illogical, but it also appears as a tool mischievously thrown up to disrupt the agenda of the coming visit with all it sets out to achieve in the spirit of nation-building which remains the mantra of the 9th Assembly and is considered a joint task”, Kalu added.

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Post Date : December 21, 2020

NIN: NIMC closes Lagos office due to COVID-19, as FG approves use of agents

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) on Monday shut down its office in the Alausa area of Lagos State due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This is as the Federal Government has approved the use of agents in the National Identity Number (NIN) registration process. Tribune Online gathered that NIMC shut down its operations for the day and asked people to return the next day. It would be recalled that the Federal Government recently gave Nigerians two-week ultimatum for the registration and linking of National Identity Number (NIN) to mobile numbers, otherwise risk their SIM cards being blocked. In the early hours of Monday, an official of the commission who addressed the people present at the office explained that there was an instruction to shut down the office due to the crowd that was likely to increase the vulnerability of the people to the deadly coronavirus disease. He further explained that there is a spike in the number of cases in the state specifically and the country at large; hence, the need to take precaution and adhere strictly to COVID-19 protocols. Meanwhile, NIMC headquarters on Monday revealed that due to overcrowding issues at most of its enrolment centres across the country, the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy has approved the appointment of agents to support the agency in the National Identity Number (NIN) registration. Speaking to the Nigerian Tribune exclusively on overcrowding issues noticed at most of its enrolment centres nationwide, spokesman of NIMC, Kayode Adegoke explained that the deadline didn’t just come up this year. According to the NIMC spokesman, “The ultimatum to get National Identity Numbers (NIN) was first raised last year September. It was reiterated in March of this year and also reiterated in August of this year, that anybody without NIN will have his mobile number deregistered. “However, due to the crowding noticed at some of our enrolment centres, the Honourable Minister of Communication and Digital Economy has approved the appointment of agents to support our enrolment centres. “Very soon, these agents will come up and act as support to our enrollment centres, thereby reducing the crowding noticed today. “The agents will act on-behalf of NIMC and help us carry out the enrollment process. So everybody will not need to flood our enrolment centres since some offices of these agents will be closer to them than our enrolment centres.”

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Post Date : December 21, 2020

COVID-19 second wave: Churches should be shut if necessary, says Ituah Ighodalo

Ituah Ighodalo, senior pastor of Trinity House Church, says the government should not hesitate to shut down churches during the second wave of COVID-19 infections if there is a need to. Ighodalo said this when he featured on Arise TV “Morning Show”, on Monday. As part of measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19, schools, churches, recreational centres and other public places were shut down in March after the country confirmed its first infection but they were later reopened. But owing to the second wave of infections, some states including Lagos, Kaduna and Benue have put new measures in place to reduce the risks of transmission. Asked if the government should shut down churches again, Ighodalo replied that if church gatherings would cause a rise in infections, then they should be closed. “If we need to. There is nothing sacrosanct about a religious house; a religious house is a gathering of people wanting to worship God,” Ighodalo said. “If that gathering and that intimacy in the gathering will lead to the spread of germs or disease, God, because you want to worship Him, would not say that the physical things that you need to do should not be done. “So, if we need to shut down the churches, why not? Churches were shut down several months ago. We didn’t die, we survived. The churches learnt to go online, on Zoom. Christianity benefited from it because we now began to use more technology to offer our evangelism and our worship of God and we quite enjoyed it. “The Zoom meetings are not as intimate but we have managed to reduce things to house fellowships and life must go on.” The cleric, however, disagreed with the notion that worship centres are part of public places that have led to the rise in COVID-19 infections in the country. Ighodalo said though a few churches might have violated measures put in place to curb the disease, he noted that most of them have tried to follow laid down protocol. “To speak to the issue as to whether churches are the ones who have not allowed COVID-19 cases to go down or who are the ones going against COVID-19 protocols, I regret to say I don’t quite agree,” he said. “I think the government has bigger fishes to fry –If you go to any of the markets, any of the bus stops, any of the busy places, people don’t even wear masks. So, those gatherings of people are much more than the gathering in any church from time to time. “In fairness to most churches, they have tried, a few no doubt have flouted the rules here and there but most of them have tried to keep to the COVID-19 protocols. So, it is not fair to say that it is the big churches that are flouting COVID guidelines.” He also asked churches not to feel singled out as whatever decision the government takes to prevent the spread of the disease is not a form of persecution against them. “No church should feel the government is against them. No, we are a social gathering. The same government is against night clubs, event centres and so on. It is nothing personal and I don’t take it personally. I think we are in a moment of crisis and if the churches need to pay some price and go through some situations, let’s do it,” he said.

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Post Date : December 21, 2020

Matawalle to APC: saying that I sponsor bandits is insulting

Zamfara State Governor , Bello Matawalle , says he finds it insulting for the ruling All Progressives Congress to accuse him of sponsoring bandits in his state. The Zamfara State governor , who was elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2019, said the state was “ a colony of banditry in the whole world ” during the APC administration of his predecessor , Abdul’ aziz Yari. Matawalle , however , claimed that though insecurity has not totally been eliminated in Zamfara but terror attacks have drastically reduced in the state since he came into office . In a string of tweets on Sunday night, Matawalle wrote, “ I find it insulting that the APC is accusing me of sponsoring bandits in my own state. We all are living witnesses to the fact that during APC’ s tenure , Zamfara State was adjudged as a colony of banditry in the whole world . We are not claiming that insecurity has totally been eliminated in Zamfara but it is on record that terror attacks have reduced drastically in the state in less than two years than APC’ s unfortunate eight years when people were running away from the state. “ This is a malicious calumny by the ruling party, releasing a statement as sensitive as that , knowing fully how miserable they governed the state for the past years. Their statement is not only laughable but shows the type of leadership they have. ”

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Post Date : December 21, 2020

Rapists to get life imprisonment in Nasarawa as assembly passes bill

The Nasarawa State House of Assembly has passed into law a bill which prohibits all forms of violence against persons, provides maximum protection and effective remedies for victims. Speaker of the House, Ibrahim Abdullahi, who also sponsored the bill, announced its passage during the House proceedings in Lafia, the state capital, on Monday, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported. Abdullahi disclosed that the bill stipulated that perpetrators of rape are to get life imprisonment to serve as deterrent to others and for peace to reign in the state. The speaker thanked his colleagues for supporting the bill and making it to see the light of day. “This is a bill that I have personally sponsored. The bill, if assented to, will address the issue of violence against all persons in the state. “I appreciate you all for the support and particularly the committee that handled this bill for a job well done, as we have taken oaths to provide quality legislation to our people,” he said. The speaker said that the bill provided for an offender, who was less than 14 years of age, to be liable to a maximum of 14 years imprisonment. “Depriving a person of his or her right(s) except through a court order is an offence in law. “Where the offender is less than 14 years of age, the offender is liable to a maximum of 14 years imprisonment. “Violence by state actors is one of the offences the bill seeks to provide for in the bill. “It states that a state actor who commits political violence commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a term of imprisonment not exceeding four years or fine not exceeding N1 million or both,” Abdullahi said. He added that the bill also provided that no person should publish any information which might directly or indirectly reveal the identity of any person to the proceeding. This, the speaker said, was to give assurance to parties that whenever they came to testify in respect of any matter in the court they had a cover. He directed the Clerk of the House to produce a clean copy of the bill for the governor’s assent. Earlier, Alhaji Tanko Tunga, the Majority Leader of the House, moved a motion for the passage of the bill into law. Mr Danladi Jatau, the Minority Leader of the House, seconded the motion. The House unanimously passed the bill for governor’s assent.

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Post Date : December 21, 2020

Alleged Money Laundering: Court Frees Atiku’s Son-In-Law, Abdullahi Babalele

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has freed Abdullahi Babalele, a son-in-law to former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar on a two-count allegation of alleged money laundering of $140,000. Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke threw out the charge and discharged the defendant on the grounds that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had chosen a wrong venue. The court held that the charge against the defendant ought not to have been filed in Lagos when the alleged offence was said to have been committed in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. Justice Aneke relied on the Supreme Court’s decision in a case between the EFCC and Mohammed Dele Belgore on territorial jurisdiction. Babalele was arraigned in 2018 and then re-arraigned on October 8, 2019. The EFFC accused him of giving former President Olusegun Obasanjo $140,000 on the instructions of Atiku Abubakar, who was vying for the office of President in the 2019 elections. But Babalele pleaded not guilty. During the trial, the EFCC called two witnesses and tendered several documents that were admitted in evidence, before closing its case against the defendant on November 25, 2020. At the last hearing on December 7, Babalele’s counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), filed a no-case submission asking the court to dismiss the charge. He contended that no case had been made against his client warranting him to make any defence.

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