as Blessing, has been hospitalized after one of her lecturers, Mr Ukwueze Ogochukwu, allegedly broke her head on Monday, February 13. It was gathered that Ukwueze, from the Faculty of Humanities, threw a stone at a group of students and it unfortunately hit the girl. According to reports, trouble started after his class ended at 7:00 am and the students scrambled to sign his attendance. Out of annoyance, Ukwueze allegedly threw a stone into the crowd of students. The stone hit Blessing on the head and she started bleeding profusely. She was said to have passed out a moment later and was rushed to the school’s medical center. In one of the videos currently circulating on social media, Blessing could be seen being carried away in a bike. In another video, she was lying in a hospital bed and in visible pains. Meanwhile, her colleagues later stormed the admin office to stage a protest and demand for the lecturer’s immediate dismissal. Narrating what happened in a video obtained by JOURNALIST101 one of the students said the lecturer simply threw stones at them. “…before we knew what was happening, we just saw stone, the stone almost hit me. I was like, was it stone that this man threw at us? Before we know what’s going on, the man picked up another stone and aimed it at the girls’ head and she started bleeding.   “We thought it was a play until Blessing fainted. Her blood could be found along the road. The students helped to take her to the medical centre using a motorcycle. “The students out of annoyance, accosted the Lecturer but the final year students came to his rescue.”

  Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano state, says RUGA — an acronym for rural grazing areas — is the only option to mitigate clashes between herders and farmers. In 2019, the idea of establishing RUGAs across the country was met with stiff resistance by some governors. At the time, David Umahi, governor of Ebonyi and chairman of the South-East Governors Forum, said no area in the geo-political zone would be given for the establishment of such settlements. The National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP), which promotes ranching, appeared to be accepted by a majority of the governors but there has not been much in terms of implementation.   Speaking at the National Conference on Livestock Reforms and Mitigation of Associated Conflicts in Abuja on Monday, Ganduje said RUGA would afford herders land to graze their livestock and prevent them from going into farmlands. “The RUGA or ranching, which has been deliberately politicised, remains the only option that would go a long way in mitigating existential problems, as pastoralists would have lands to graze without cattle encroaching on people’s farmlands,” the governor said. “Because herders need fodder for their cattle and promote alternative means of producing feedstock, which reduces the need for grazing land. “We have gone far in the establishment of RUGA settlement in Kano. Already, 25 housing units out of the projected 500, situated on 4, 413 hectares of land at Dansoshiya Forest in Kiru local government have been completed and handed over to the herders. The replica of the houses will be displayed during an exhibition planned as part of this conference. “Modernising the livestock sector is not only key to resolving the herder-farmer conflict but was envisaged that this economic investment pillar will support and strengthen the development of market-driven ranches for improved livestock production through breed improvement and pasture production.” Ganduje said there is a need to educate the herders about the development of grazing reserves in order to curb conflicts between them and farmers. “It is also very important that we must also avoid the dangers of allowing these conflicts to harden to religious or ethnic conflicts,” he said. “This is the responsibility of political, religious and all other parts of our leadership elite in Nigeria.”

  Ahead of the February 25 and March 11, 2023 general elections, the Federal Government of Nigeria has ordered the closure of all polytechnics in the country. The directive was issued by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu in a letter signed by an official of the ministry, I.O Folorunsho. The letter, which was made available to journalists in Abuja, was addressed to the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Idris Bugaje. The minister directed that the instruction be conveyed to rectors and provosts of all polytechnics and that academic activities should be stopped between February 22 and March 14, 2023. The letter reads in part, “In view of concerns expressed on the security of staff, students, and properties of our respective institutions, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has, following extensive consultations with the relevant security agencies, directed that all polytechnics be shut down. “And academic activities will be suspended between Wednesday, Feb.22 and Tues. March 14, 2023.” Similarly, the National Universities Commission (NUC) had ordered the closure of universities across the country within the same period to enable students to participate in the February 25 and March 11 general elections.

  The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba has said that some separatist agitators under the aegis of Oduduwa Nation are amassing weapons in an attempt to disrupt the February 25 and March 11 general elections in the South-West geopolitical zone. The IGP disclosed this during a meeting with strategic police managers at the Force Headquarters in Abuja on Monday. He also lamented that small arms and light weapons are being trafficked to advance political violence, political extremism and intolerance, while cyberbullying for political ends is on the rise daily. Secessionist agitation gained prominence in the South-West geopolitical zone mid-2021. The agitation was champion by Yoruba Nation campaigner, Sunday Adeyemo popularly known as Sunday Igboho. However, the agitation slowed down with the raid of Igboho’s Ibadan residence by the Department of State Services on July 1, 2021. The agitator later escaped to Benin Republic where he was detained by the security agents in the francophone West African country. He was later released on bail but has not returned to Nigeria. There have been pockets of agitations by Yoruba Nation protesters of late but the police have warned that no disturbance of public peace would be allowed. Addressing police officers on Monday, the IGP said, “As you are aware, some crimes of national security importance could undermine our efforts towards entrenching a peaceful electioneering process, if not adequately curtailed. “These include banditry and terrorism which has ravaged many communities in the North-west and North-Central with adverse effects on the economic and social well-being of the residents. “Similarly, violent secessionist campaigns by IPOB/ESN members have been targeted at various symbols of democratic governance including INEC assets, police stations and personnel as well as other security agencies and Federal Government infrastructures, all in an effort to disrupt the 2023 general elections in the South East geopolitical zone. “Other major crimes are the growing activities of the Oduduwa Nation Agitators who, from intelligence sources, have been attempting to amass weapons and mobilise other resources towards disrupting the peace, security and electoral process in the South-West geopolitical zone.”   The IGP charged the officers to conduct themselves “within the dictates of the Electoral Act and other laws”, while he assured Nigerians of the commitment of the police to a peaceful, secure, free, fair and credible elections.

  A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja has sentenced a teacher, Chukwu Ndubuisi, to life imprisonment for defiling a six-year-old pupil (name withheld) of Mind Builders School, Lagos. Justice Sedoten Ogunsanya handed down the sentence to Ndubuisi aged 41 for his act of forceful penetration of the minor. Ndubuisi was the art teacher of the school as of June 2016 when the offence was committed. He was first arraigned at an Ogudu Magistrate Court on a charge of forceful penetration which he pleaded not guilty. His case was later transferred to High Court before Justice Sedoten Ogunsanya following the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Ndubuisi was charged before the court on a one-count charge of child defilement. Delivering judgment in the matter, Justice Ogunsanya citing several authorities, held that the prosecution has proved his case against the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt. The judge held that the fact, circumstances, and quality of evidence against the defendant were compelling. The court noted that the first time the survivor told her mother of her experience was when she was discussing the case of a seven-year-old girl that was defiled and killed and which went viral. She said the survivor whispered to her mother that she wanted to discuss something with her. The court noted that they went outside and the survivor narrated her experience to her and pleaded with her mother not to tell her father and brother. The court noted that the mother told the father, following which they went to her school but the art teacher was not around. She noted that the parents reported the matter at Omole Police station following which the matter was investigated and a test conducted on the survivor at Ikosi Health Center which revealed that the survivor had been defiled. She said the matter was later taken up by the Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA). Justice Ogunsanya held that the account of the survivor and that of her mother were uncontroverted, corroborated each other, and that they gave a good account of the assault. The court also noted that the defendant usually sends the survivor’s friend to call her and that the first time the defendant defiled her was in the female toilet and the second time was in the art room. She said the survivor told the court that sometimes her teacher (defendant) asked her to remove her uniform and put his “bumbum” into her “bumbum”. At another time he called her into the art room, he put her on the table, parted her panties, and put “his thing into my thing”. She said the survivor told the court that when the defendant is finished, he would clean up the survivor with tissue paper. The court noted that the defendant had unhindered access to the child and defiled her several times. Justice Ogunsanya discountenances the evidence of two prosecution witnesses who are medical doctors for being contradictory, pointing out that they did not come as expert witnesses. She also dismissed the submission by defence witnesses that the incident was not recorded on the school’s CCTV. She upheld the result of the test conducted at the Mirabel Center which showed that the survivor had a torn hymen and reddish vulva and that there was evidence of forceful penetration. She, therefore, convicted the defendant as charged. Counsel to the defendant, O.C. Olagunju pleaded with the court passionately to temper justice with mercy saying that no case of improper behaviour has ever been brought against the defendant nor had he ever had any case at any police station until this case. But the prosecution, Jubril Kareem, argued that the law under which the defendant was charged does not give the court any discretion. He urged the court to impose the mandatory sentence stipulated in the law. Justice Ogunsanya subsequently sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment.

  The Spokesman of Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, has denied collapsing its South West structure in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress. This is even as Tanko’s counterpart in the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, called the LP flag bearer, Peter Obi, a ‘joker’ for nursing a belief that he can win the February 25 presidential poll. Both parties spoke with our correspondent in separate interviews on Monday evening. Their reactions came on the heels of a report that an alleged LP South-West Chairman, Omotoso Banji, led some party members to collapse its structure because it ‘lacked the clout to win the forthcoming general election.’ But Tanko told The PUNCH that the report was false. He said, “It is wrong information. There is nothing like LP collapsing structure for anybody in the South West. Is there a different South West we don’t know about? “It is just a creation of some disgruntled elements and irrelevant persons who just want to cause disharmony in our party. Nobody is decamping from our camp to anywhere. Our structure in the South West is still very much intact.” Keyamo, on the other hand, believed that the ‘Mama, Papa and Pikin’ party is living in denial. “The voting day is getting very closer and people are beginning to see the light. It is sad that the LP that prides itself on wanting to change Nigeria is referring to some members leaving the party as irrelevant. “We welcome those who just collapsed the structure into the APC. They have seen the light after discovering that they were on a journey to nowhere with the Labour Party. I repeat it for the umpteenth time that LP cannot and will not win,” he said. While stating that Obi stands no chance in the presidential election, the Minister of State for Labour likened his situation to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), who failed on three occasions before winning the 2015 elections. According to him, Obi would need more than luck to win the poll with his perceived ‘One and a half’ regional votes. He said, “At the height of the election, Buhari cleared the North West, North East and North Central, yet could not win. “Not to talk of Peter Obi whose support base is numerically weak in terms of voting strength. How does he want to win? He has only one and a half regions where the people are passionate about him. “He only has the South-East support but the South-South would be shared equally with the PDP. I said it before and I am saying it again. “Peter Obi is a joker. Candidates are going to stadia to the campaign, they will rather choose a drive to a crowded small space, especially places where your ethnic people are. It is disgraceful, to say the least.”

  The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has declared that the old Naira Notes of N200, N500 and N1000 have ceased to be legal tender in Nigeria since the 10th of February, 2023. The declaration was made by the Branch Controller of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bauchi, Haladu Idris Andaza while briefing Journalists on Monday at the CBN, branch in Bauchi. He said that “In the last 24 hours, we have been inundated by questions from various angles of the general public about our operational guidelines on the old currency notes, be that as it may, there are so many questions here and there which people have been asking about.” According to him, “So for the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state categorically that CBN is ready and is opened to receive all of those old notes based on certain conditions and criteria.”   “Customers are free to come to the Bank and deposit which they cannot do at the Commercial Banks anymore because the currency has seized to be a legal tender since the 10th of this month. “Consequently, the management of the CBN decided that those customers will have a sigh of relief by coming to the offices of the CBN in all the 36 states in the Federation including FCT to deposit their money. “The customer has to go to the CBN portal and fill a form in the portal, there will be a form there concerning this currency redesign and exchange.”   Andaza further explained that “After filling the form, you generate a code, you either print it or come with it in your mobile phone, give us the code and the information contained therein. In the form, you are expected to provide all the basic information about yourself, your account details and the amount you want to deposit. “By the time you have done it correctly, you come to the CBN where the code will be accepted from you as well as the money, process and confirm the genuineness or otherwise of the money to avoid receiving fake notes because there are some fake notes in circulation now.” He warned that “If anyone wants to try us by bringing in fake notes, he should be ready to be arrested, so don’t go and print old fake naira notes and bring them to the CBN, whatever happens to you, don’t blame us, you caused it.” He however assured that “We will receive the money from you and do our internal checks before we give you an acknowledgement which is evidence to show that we have collected that amount from you and we go ahead with our internal processes, after finishing with the internal processes, we now hit your account and credit it through your Commercial bank. “All the Commercial banks are expected to bring all old notes deposited to us and we will collect, that is the final. Some of the Banks have started depositing with us because they want to close their books, as soon as they do that, they will not collect from customers again, that is the reason CBN decided to open this portal for the general public especially the vulnerable who are still having problems of cash used for trading and now that the deadline has expired, they need to deposit their money.   “The CBN is trying to minimize risk involved in losing that money, we are trying to minimize hardship also, we know that people are having some hardship, people are suffering, we not unmindful of that fact, that why the management of the CBN has magnanimously decided to open that portal to assist those who were unable to deposit the money into their bank accounts, that is our process flow in a nutshell. “The portal will be there, opened for some time, depending on the circumstances and the directives from the management, we expect that within this period, people should have been able to deposit all they have, it is a privilege given to Nigerians to ensure that they deposited that money even though they are no longer legal tender. “For the people in the remote areas, if you can recollect, we have gone round virtually all the villages in Bauchi state with some commercial banks asking the people to open accounts which many of them did and were able to deposit their money, I doubt if there are still people who have not keyed into the system now who are still having old money. “We used the media, NOA and Traditional rulers just to let the people know, no limit to the amount that can be deposited provided the form was properly filled. “There are a lot of firewalls that can protect the people accessing the portal, no any cause for alarm.” In his remarks, CBN Team Lead, Bauchi who is the Director, Medical Services of the Apex Bank, Dr Abdulkadir Jibril explained that “It is a point we have made before, I just want to emphasize it, not everybody in Bauchi state is privileged to be at this meeting and so, there is the moral and professional responsibility on their shoulders to ensure that this information gets to every nook and cranny of the state and even beyond.” He emphasized that “There is a limited time that has been given by the government and the law, just as I have emphasized earlier on, it is the magnanimity of the government, so, this is just an additional time and opportunity to assist people to get their monies into their bank accounts safely so that nobody misses a dime or loses any money.” Jibrin concluded saying, “I am appealing to our people both men and women to carry or propagate this message everywhere so that people can do the needful.”

  Tuesday 14 February 2023 AK-47-bearing pastor arrested, policeman faces probe, church apologises Atiku Rivers rally cancelled to prevent deaths – PDP Whitney: Protesters besiege Chrisland as govt orders inquest Collapsed structure: LP debunks claim as Keyamo mocks Obi El-Rufai: I no longer believe in leadership quality around Buhari Obi Promises Restructuring, Says He’ll Pull Nigerians Out Of Poverty INEC’s 240 Polling Units With No Registered Voters Oduduwa Nation Agitators Attempt To Disrupt Elections In South-West — IGP Elections: FG Directs Closure Of All Polytechnics Fani-Kayode Released On Bail, Asked To Report On Wednesday Court Sentences Teacher To Life Imprisonment For Defiling Minor Buhari, Emefiele Meet Again Alleged N3bn Fraud: Ruling On Ali Bello, Others’ Bail Application, Stalled Court Remands Actress In Kirikiri For Tampering With New Naira Notes RUGA is only way to end farmer-herder clashes, says Ganduje Visit a newspaper stand this morning, buy and read a copy for yourself…

  Pastor Uche Aigbe of House on the Rock, Abuja, is currently being detained by the Federal Capital Territory Police Command. A source told Daily Trust that the pastor arrived at the Guzape office of the anti-car theft of FCT police command on Monday morning in company of the policeman whom he collected the rifle he mounted the pulpit with. The police officer was identified as Inspector Musa Audu “He and the police officer have been taken to his house for a search. They were handcuffed and taken away,” the police source said. The pastor caused a stir during Sunday Service when he mounted the pulpit with the rifle. “Some people are looking for my trouble. And I came here prepared. Today, there are some pastors with the gift of divination who go about ripping people off. This is why we should carry our ‘guns’ and defend ourselves. I will particularly be coming very soon for some of you sleeping in the church,” he said as the church erupted in laughter. Earlier, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, Force Public Relations Officer, had said the pastor had a case to answer. In a series of tweets, Adejobi said AK-47 rifle falls under the prohibited firearms in Nigeria and only certain law enforcement officers are allowed to do carry it. He said he had forwarded complaint over the pastor’s action to the FCT Police Commissioner to act. “But if its true, the pastor will have a case to answer. AK47??. It falls under prohibited Firearms in Nigeria, and no one bears it except an officer of the law, and not all of them have the right, selected sec operatives, but no individual has the right to bear it. “The FCT police command will investigate it, i trust the new CP FCT, CP Sadiq,.. its shocking,” he wrote. Contacted for reaction to the detention of the pastor, Josephine Adeh, Police Public Relations Officer in FCT, simply said, “We are on it.” Quizzed for further comments, the PPRO said a statement would be issued soon. CHURCH SPEAKS House on the Rock has explained why Uche Aigbe, its Presiding Pastor in Abuja, mounted the pulpit carrying an AK-47 rifle. Aigbe caused a stir during Sunday Service when he mounted the pulpit with a rifle. The incident took place during the second service, which frequently has a high turnout of the congregation who come from different parts of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). This created a scene as the congregation tried to figure out the motive behind such. “Some people are looking for my trouble. And I came here prepared. Today, there are some pastors with the gift of divination who go about ripping people off. This is why we should carry our ‘guns’ and defend ourselves. I will particularly be coming very soon for some of you sleeping in the church,” he said as the church erupted in laughter.   In a statement on Monday evening, the church said Aigbe carried the gun to illustrate his message to the congregation. The statement reads: “On Sunday, February 12, a resident pastor of House on the Rock, Abuja Church, Pastor Uche Aigbe in a message about fighting the good fight with spiritual weapons, carried an unloaded gun to illustrate his message on ‘Guarding your Faith.’ “Pastor Uche has been a leader in House on the Rock, Abuja since 1999 and has always shown exemplary leadership. However, he realises that even with the best of intentions, carrying a gun to illustrate his message was ill-advised and regrettable. “Without hesitation, Pastor Uche has acknowledged the gravity of his actions and apologises unreservedly for them. “As a church, House on the Rock rejects all forms of violence and we stand on the good news gospel of Jesus Christ which embraces peace and goodwill for all of mankind. “We are cooperating fully with the authorities as they carry out their investigations into this incident, and we will continue to engage internally to ensure this break in protocol does not happen again.”