The Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Abia State chapter, Dr Isaiah Abali, has disclosed that the Abia State Government is owing doctors in the state 24 months’ salary arrears. He disclosed this on Thursday morning while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily. Abali, who disclosed that doctors in the state were hungry, said rather than pay up these salary arrears, the state government had asked the doctors to generate funds to pay the outstanding salaries. However, the state government has denied owing the doctors any salary arrears, claiming the doctors were rather the ones owing the state government 34 months’ salaries they had not worked for. Narrating how the salaries accumulated, Abali said the doctors were owed seven months’ arrears before the present government took over. “The government cleared all the arrears [seven months] by December 31st [2015]. It means that the whole 24 months owed Abia State employed government doctors is from this present administration. “What happens is that they pay one month, give a gap of one or two months and pay another one. And looking at all these things, our doctors are suffering, our doctors are dying, our doctors can not take care of themselves or pay the school fees of their children or their house rent. “As it stands now, the Abia State Government employed doctors are being owed 24 months for those working in ABSUT [Abia State University Teaching Hospital], the resident doctors working in ABSUT are owed 22 months, and the doctors working in the General Hospitals otherwise called the Health Management Board are owed 13 months,” he said. He said the call by the government for the doctors to return to work before any dialogue would not work as experiences had shown that the state government had very low fidelity in keeping promises. “We will call off the strike when our money is paid,” he stated categorically. ‘Doctors owing gov’t’ Responding during the same programme on Channels Television Thursday, the Abia State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Eze Chikamnayo, claimed the strike was “a politically motivated sabotage” by opposition parties. He alleged that the state chairman of the NMA is a member of the Labour Party. While calling the doctors “unpatriotic citizens of Abia State, the commissioner claimed the doctors had not been working for 34 months while receiving salaries within the same period. “They are owing the state government 34-month salary arrears because they have not been working for that period while receiving salaries,” he claimed. “We have paid N11billion to the doctors who have been working in their private hospitals.” He said the hospitals were not generating enough to cater for the salaries of doctors because the doctors were not dedicated to work. He also said the state government had invested heavily in infrastructure in order to make the doctors productive to no avail because their [doctors’] interest was in their private practice.

  A lecturer at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Mrs. Ngozi Uzodike, has been delivered of septuplets – two boys and five girls. Ngozi, who works at the Department of Business Administration, was delivered of the babies at Obijackson Women and Children Hospital, Okija, Anambra, on Sunday. Although, one of the girls did not make it alive, the family was charged N19million by the hospital. Ngozi lamented that she had not been paid salaries since she started working at the institution in December 2020. Her husband, Mr. Celestine Uzodike, confirmed to journalists on Wednesday that his wife, was properly engaged as a lecturer at the institution, but unfortunately, had not been paid since. He lamented that his wife had never earned a kobo as salary, even after she had been promoted from Assistant Lecturer to Lecturer II. He, however, appealed to the Federal Government to pay the two years salary arrears owed, and also come to their aid. He said they aren’t able to foot the hospital bill and take care of the surviving two boys and four girls, alone. He said, “The babies came out prematurely at 26th week gestation period and the hospital said they will need to be placed under intensive care unit and each of them will cost N3million. One of them has died, remaining six babies, that is why they billed us like that.” The mother, who was very weak to speak after the delivery, said, “All I want is for philanthropists both in Anambra State and Nigeria at large to come to our aid in other to offset the hospital bill.”

  A suit challenging the sack of Ifeanyi Araraume as the board chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has stalled at a federal high court in Abuja, over the failure of the company to file its counter affidavit. Araraume, a former senator representing Imo north, had sued President Muhammadu Buhari for removing him as board chairman of NNPC in January 2022. Buhari appointed Margaret Chuba Okadigbo, widow of Chuba Okadigbo, a former senate president, to replace him. In the suit, the former Imo senator is seeking N100bn in damages.   Buhari has since filed a preliminary objection, asking the court to dismiss the suit. Ruling on the case on Wednesday, Inyang Ekwo, a judge, said he would not hear the preliminary objection alone until the counter affidavit to the substantive suit has been filed by the NNPC. “Let me give the NNPC legal team the opportunity to file a counter affidavit to enable me to look at the matter holistically,” the judge ruled. “When I see the calibre of counsel in a matter like this my belief is that there will be an exposition of jurisprudence to develop the law.” Therefore, the case was adjourned till January 23. Meanwhile, some of the reliefs sought by the former senator in his suit are: “A declaration of this honourable court that by the provisions of section 63 (3) of the petroleum industry act, 2021, the 1st defendant cannot lawfully remove the plaintiff as the non-executive chairman of the 2nd defendant for any reason(s) whatsoever outside the conditions specifically listed in the said section 63(3) of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021,” the document reads.   “An order of this honourable court setting aside the removal of the plaintiff as the non-executive chairman of the 2nd defendant vide the 1st defendant’s letter dated the 17th day of January, 2022 with reference no: SGF.3/VIII/86. “An order of this honourable court reinstating the plaintiff forthwith and restoring him to his office with all the appurtenant rights and privileges of his office as the non-executive chairman of the 2nd defendant.”

  The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, says the commission is not contemplating any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone postponing the 2023 general election. Yakubu stated this at the presentation of an electronic copy of the 93,469,008 voter register to leaders of political parties on Wednesday in Abuja. He said that more than ever before, the commission was more prepared for the 2023 general elections and had now successfully implemented 11 out of the 14 activities on schedule for the elections. “Already, substantial quantities of sensitive and non-sensitive materials have been deployed to various locations across the country. “The last batch of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has been received while the ongoing configuration of the critical technology in readiness for elections will soon be completed. “In the last two days, we commenced the airlifting of other sensitive materials to States across the country. “Already, some of the materials for 17 States in three geo-political zones have been delivered. Furthermore, 13,868,441 Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) have been printed, delivered to States and are being collected by citizens as new voters or by existing voters who applied for transfer or replacement of cards as provided by law,” he said. He added that similarly, following the display of the voters’ register nationwide and the conclusion of claims and objections by citizens, a new national register of voters has been compiled. “In short, at no time in the recent history of the Commission has so much of the forward planning and implementation been accomplished 44 days ahead of a General Election. “Therefore, the commission is not contemplating any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone the postponement of the General Election. “For the avoidance of doubt, the Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023, while Governorship and State Assembly elections will hold two weeks later on Saturday, March 11, 2023. “The repeated assurance by the security agencies for the adequate protection of our personnel, materials and processes also reinforces our determination to proceed. “The 2023 General Election will hold as scheduled. Any report to the contrary is not the official position of the Commission.’’ Ineligible persons on voters’ register On the registered voter, Yakubu said after the cleaning up of the data from the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) from June 2021 to July 2022, where 9,518,188 new voters were added to the existing 84,004,084 voters, the preliminary register of voters was 93,522,272. He said that when the register was presented to Nigerians for claims and objections as required by law, INEC received 53,264 objections from Nigerians to the prevalence of ineligible persons on the register by virtue of age, citizenship or death, which were verified and removed from the register. “Consequently, the register of voters for the 2023 General Election stands at 93,469,008. Of this cumulative figure, 49,054,162 (52.5 per cent) are male while 44,414,846 (47.5 per cent) are female. “The distribution by age group shows that 37,060,399 (39.65 per cent ) are youth between the ages of 18 and 34; 33,413,591 (35.75 per cent ) are middle-aged persons between the ages of 35 and 49; 17,700,270 (18.94 per cent ) are elderly voters between the ages of 50 and 69 while 5,294,748 (5.66%) are senior citizens aged 70 and above. “In terms of occupational distribution, students constitute the largest category with 26,027,481 (27.8%) of all voters, followed by 14,742,554 (15.8 per cent ) Farmers/Fishermen and 13,006,939 (13.9 per cent) housewives. “The data on disability was not collected for previous registration. However, the cumulative figure of 85,362 persons from the recent CVR indicates that there are 21,150 (24.5 per cent ) persons with Albinism; 13,387 (15.7 per cent ) with physical impediment and 8,103 (9.5 per cent) are blind.” Yakubu said that the softcopy of the breakdown and analysis would be uploaded to the INEC website and social media platforms shortly. He reiterated INEC’s commitment to a transparent, credible and inclusive 2023 General Election, saying INEC would continue to take every step to protect the sanctity of the votes cast by citizens and to deal with infractions. (NAN)

  The national industrial court has struck down a regulation of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), which forbids unmarried officers from getting pregnant. Pursuant to Regulation 127 of the Nigeria Police Force Regulation, a female officer who gets pregnant outside wedlock will be dismissed. BACKGROUND TheCable had reported that Omolola Olajide, an unmarried police corporal attached to Iye-Ekiti station, was sacked in 2021 for getting pregnant. Babatunde Mobayo, the state commissioner of police, had justified Olajide’s sack, saying the officer contravened section 127 of the police regulations. Following the sack, Olawale Fapohunda, Ekiti state attorney-general and commissioner for justice, had instituted a lawsuit before a federal high court in Ekiti seeking an order of the court nullifying section 127 of the Police Act. But the court had dismissed the suit on the grounds that it is an abuse of court process since a similar suit filed by Olajide is pending before the national industrial court. ‘POLICE ACT DISCRIMINATORY’ Delivering judgment in the suit marked NICN/AK/14/2021, Dashe Damulak, the presiding judge in the court’s Akure division, held that the particular section of the police regulation is “discriminatory, illegal, null and void”. The court held that the regulation “violates section 42 of the (Nigerian) constitution and article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights Ratification and Enforcement Act which abolished discrimination on basis of gender.” “The court… finds and holds that the provision of section 127 of the Police Act and Regulation 127 thereof, which applies to unmarried women police officers getting pregnant while in service but does not apply to unmarried male police officers impregnating females while they are in service, is discriminatory against unmarried women police officers by section 1(3) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended,” the judge said. “If any law is inconsistent with the provision of this constitution, this constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall to the extent of its inconsistency be void.” ‘CLAIMANT CANNOT BE REINSTATED’ Although the court nullified the “discriminatory” regulation, the judge said Olajide cannot be reinstated into the police force. The judge held that the claimant’s dismissal could not be reversed as she was on probation at the time of her sack from the force. “For the avoidance of doubt, the case of the claimant succeeds in part only in terms of prayer B,” the judge said. The judge, however, awarded aggravated damages of N5 million for the violation of Olajide’s fundamental right to freedom from discrimination.

The Rivers State Police Command on Tuesday said its operatives arrested a 17-year-old boy, Noble Uzuchi, and Chigozie Ogbonna, 29, for allegedly working for a baby factory. Also arrested were two female suspects, Favour Bright, 30; and Peace Alikoi, 40, the alleged leader of the syndicate. The four suspects reportedly operated in Obio/Akpor and Ikwerre local government areas of the state.   Also, the police said 10 pregnant girls were rescued. The police spokesperson, Grace Iringe-Koko, in a statement in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, said the feat followed a tip-off which the command acted on. The statement read, “On Saturday, January 7, 2023, around 4.45pm, while acting on credible intelligence available to the Rivers State Police Command, C4I Intelligence Unit operatives raided two houses at Igwuruta and Omagwa communities respectively, where victims of child trafficking were being kept.” The police said Uzuchi and Ogbonna were hired by the syndicate to have marathon sex with the girls and impregnate them. “The victims rescued in the operation are 10, most of them pregnant..” Iringe-Koko, a Superintendent of Police, said investigations revealed that when a victim was delivered of her baby, the syndicate leader kept the child and paid her a sum of N500,000. The police image maker disclosed that some of the babies previously delivered in the houses had been sold. She said, “All the victims confessed that they were lured to the illicit sales of children because of the need to meet some financial challenges. A Honda Pilot Jeep, white, was recovered from the syndicate leader. “The case has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department and efforts are being intensified to track and arrest the buyers of the children already sold out.”

  Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, appears on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, January 11th, 2023. The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, says that no Nigerian should be undecided about the candidates to vote for in the upcoming general elections, considering the abundance of problems facing the country at present. Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, Bishop Kukah argued that there should be a vigorous battle among Nigerians to overcome cynicism. He said, “Why would anybody be undecided about hunger? Why would anybody be undecided about insecurity? Why would anybody be undecided over the fact that they don’t seem to know where the next meal is going to come from? “Why would anybody be undecided over the fact that there are no jobs? Why would anybody be undecided about that? So, there needs to be a vigorous battle to overcome cynicism.” The outspoken Bishop advised Nigerians to lower their expectations on political choices, saying that there is no such thing as “the right candidate” in elections, as that might be a projection of one’s emotions. According to him, the real challenge should be how prepared the people are to engage with the politicians after they have been elected into office. He said this is where the civil society, trade unions, town unions, groups, media and the religious bodies are needed. Kukah asserted that without engagements, the politicians will always take the people for granted. He argued that the Nigerian situation is made worse by the fact that those in power cripple the institutions. READ ALSO: Polity: Buhari Calls Bishop Kukah ‘Most Vigorous Fighter’   On the spate of attacks threatening the conduct of the 2023 elections, he said that violence around polls is almost inevitable across Africa, adding that it is the reward in the political system that encourages such occurrences. He said the automatic change and quality of life of politicians after assuming office make politicians fight to win elections just to reap the rewards attached to it. Kukah believes that if it is all about service, most politicians canvassing for votes might have been doing something else that gives them better income.