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Post Date : October 11, 2023

ASUU opposes TETFund on inclusion of private varsities in projects

  The Academic Staff Union of Universities ((ASUU) has kicked against the plan by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to include private universities as beneficiaries of its projects. ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, made this known at a two-day interactive session between TETFund and all unions of beneficiary institutions in Abuja on Wednesday. Osodeke said that the move to include private varsities in the fund’s project would lead to proliferation of private universities devoid of quality. He charges the fund to work more on its project monitoring method saying that the level of performance by the beneficiary institutions are not in tandem as some of them receive the same amount of money. He called for sanctions against non-performing institutions while also advocating for the abolition of what he referred to as “stakeholders fund”. “ASUU will continue to embark on strike untill the right thing is done in our tertiary institutions. Stakeholders fund should be abolished,” Osodeke said. In his address, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, said the interactive session was conceived as a proactive engagement against the backdrop of the prevailing challenges in the subsector. Echono said that the engagement was also for the purpose of sustaining steady growth and development of tertiary education. He stressed the need to consistently engage and challenge one another on how best to improve the situation. “It is our fervent hope that this interactive session will provide an enabling environment for us to understand some of our challenges and difficulties in the delivery of quality education in our institutions. “Thereby making meaningful contribution to the successful execution of the objective of the fund. “As you all know our primary mandate is to rehabilitate, restore and consolidate tertiary education in Nigeria, using funding alongside project management. “The session is also expected to serve as a platform to discuss and mitigate incidences of industrial disputes in the tertiary education sector and look at ways to prevent and avoid their occurrences,” he said. Echono also explained that the interactive session would bring the opportunity to build and solidify cooperation among the fund, its beneficiary institutions and the unions on matters that affect the growth and development of tertiary education. “I believe that this interaction will bring up issues of concerns that will not only enable us address the areas of intervention in our institutions. “It will also espouse gaps and shortcoming that have resulted in strikes and interruptions of academic sessions, with a view to mitigating them,” he said. He called for urgent need for all stakeholders to unify efforts to reposition our tertiary institutions for the challenges of the times, especially in dealing with strike actions in the institutions. “Studies have shown a link between poor student performance and industrial strike by unions. The arguments generally are that the quality of teaching and learning will significantly improve when teaching and learning are uninterrupted. “Furthermore, building world class institutions requires a consistent and regular academic calendar and this is often affected by industrial strikes. “However, a closer look will also show that many industrial strikes by the unions were for the improvement in teaching and learning conditions for both staff and students. “It is for these reasons that sessions like this are organised to deliberate and find common grounds on issues of mutual interest and benefits,” he added. Also, the former President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, who spoke on ‘The Role of Trade Unions in TETFund Intervention Activities”, commended the fund for its commitment to the elevation of university education. Wabba noted that the NLC had benefitted a great deal from the ideological clarity and consistency of the unions in the tertiary institutions. “The patriotic and historical resistance of the Congress against the debilitating influence and impact of neo-liberal policies of the successive government in Nigeria drew a lot of inspiration. ” This is as well as drawing verve from the intellectually sound positions advanced by unions in our tertiary institutions,” he said.

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Post Date : October 11, 2023

Nigerian Fraudsters Sangode, Adeyinka Jailed 40 Months In U.S.

    Two Nigerian Nationals Based in Maryland Sentenced for Schemes to Steal California and Other States’ Unemployment Insurance Benefits SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Nigerian nationals Quazeem Owolabi Adeyinka, 22, and Ayodeji Jonathan Sangode, 25, currently both residing in Maryland, were sentenced today to 26 months and 14 months in prison respectively for their roles a fraud conspiracy during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. Sangode pleaded guilty in October 2022 to access device fraud, and Adeyinka pleaded guilty in November 2022 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. A third co-conspirator, Olamide Yusuf Bakare, 26, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced in July 2023 to four years and nine months in prison. According to court documents, between June 2020 and July 2021, Adeyinka, Sangode, Bakare, and others participated in a conspiracy to submit fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims to the State of California. More than 200 individual applications were filed with the California Employment Development Department (EDD) indicating that the claimants’ address was the Hyattsville, Maryland, apartment that the co-defendants shared. During the conspiracy, the conspirators obtained the personally identifiable information (PII) of persons who were not eligible for UI or PUA benefits or who did not authorize the conspirators to act on their behalf with respect to seeking such benefits. Such PII included names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers. The conspirators then used the PII to submit dozens of fraudulent UI and PUA claims to EDD under the putative claimants’ identities and without their authorization. The underlying benefit applications contained false representations, including, for example, that the claimants had worked for certain employers and supervisors; had specific annual incomes; worked during certain time periods; were self-employed in various occupations; were laid off and had no work; were newly unemployed due to a disaster including the COVID-19 pandemic; and were currently available to work. Most, if not all, of these claims were false because the claimants were not so previously working, employed, newly unemployed, or seeking new employment. The conspirators knew that these representations were false or lacked the knowledge and authority to make such representations. These actions caused EDD to approve fraudulent UI and PUA claims. For each approved claim, EDD deposited benefit funds into a debit card account administered by Bank of America and under the identity of the putative claimant. Bank of America then mailed unauthorized debit cards to addresses under the control of the defendants. Under the direction of Bakare and others, Adeyinka and Sangode then obtained these debit cards and their PINs and used these cards to withdraw cash at ATMs for the benefit of themselves and co-conspirators. At least 15 debit cards that Adeyinka used during the conspiracy were linked to bank accounts that received approximately $237,911 in fraudulent UI and PUA benefits. Adeyinka was personally involved in $793,844 in attempted loss. And at least 53 debit cards that Sangode used during the conspiracy were linked to bank accounts that received approximately $752,142 in fraudulent UI and PUA benefits. This case was the product of an investigation by the Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security – Office of Inspector General – Covid Fraud Unit, and the California EDD – Investigation Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Denise N. Yasinow prosecuted the case. This effort is part of a California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force operation, one of five interagency COVID-19 fraud strike force teams established by the U.S. Department of Justice. The California Strike Force combines law enforcement and prosecutorial resources in the Eastern and Central Districts of California and focuses on large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors. The strike forces use prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds

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Post Date : October 11, 2023

Naira falls to new low, trades N1,045/$ at parallel market

  The naira, on Wednesday, plunged to a new all-time low at the parallel section of the market. Bureaux De Change operators (BDCs), who spoke to TheCable on Wednesday, quoted the naira at N1,045 to the greenback. The figure represents a depreciation of N45 or 4.5 percent from the N1,000 it traded two weeks ago. The street traders put the buying price of the dollar at N1,020 and the selling price at N1,045, leaving a N25 profit margin. The dollar is presently scarce,” Aliyu, a street trader in Lagos, said. At the official side of the market — the investors’ and exporters’ window (I & E) — the local currency depreciated by 0.70 percent to close at N776.80 to the dollar on Wednesday. According to details on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, a platform that oversees official FX trading in Nigeria, a total of $60.30 million FX transactions were made at the I&E window. The poor performance of the naira against the dollar has been linked to liquidity problems. Data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shows Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves dropped to $33.23 billion (two-year low) at the end of the third quarter of 2023. The international reserves declined by $5.01 billion on a year-on-year basis relative to the $38.25 billion reported at the end of September 2022. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the foreign reserves depreciated by $881.84 million, having closed the second quarter (Q2) at $34.11 billion. The World Bank recently declared the naira and the kwanza of Angola as the “worst performing currencies” in Africa so far in 2023. The organisation said both currencies have depreciated by nearly 40 percent.

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Post Date : October 11, 2023

Tinubu sacks NCC, NIPOST, NIGCOMSAT’s bosses, names replacements

  President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday sacked the Chief Executive Officers of three agencies under the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovations, and Digital Economy with immediate effect. The affected CEOs include the Nigerian Communications Commission’s Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta; the Nigerian Postal Service’s Sunday Adepoju; and Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited’s Tukur Funtua. The President made this known through a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, titled, ‘President Tinubu appoints new leadership across the communications, innovation, and digital economy sectors.’ He listed the new CEOs as Aminu Maida, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of NCC; Nkechi Egerton-Idehen as Managing Director of the NIGCOMSAT; and Tola Odeyemi as Postmaster General of NIPOST. However, the duo of Kashifu Abdullahi and Dr Vincent Olatunji were reappointed as Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency and the National Commissioner of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, respectively. Tinubu also approved the appointment of a new Special Adviser on Technology and Digital Economy, Idris Alubankudi. Alubankudi’s appointment is meant to “maximally leverage Nigeria’s proven technological and digital economic prowess to reposition the nation’s economy toward greater financial inclusion,” Ngelale wrote.

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Post Date : October 11, 2023

Court Convicts Two Vandals For Murder Of Seven DSS Officials

  The Lagos State High Court sitting in the Ikeja area has convicted two members of a group of pipeline vandals for the 2015 murder of seven operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) in the Ishawo area of Ikorodu. Justice Hakeem Oshodi in his judgment held that the prosecution – Lagos State Government – proved the offence of conspiracy to commit murder, murder, and possession of firearms with intent to commit a felony against the first defendant, Clement Ododomu, while the second defendant, Tiwei Monday was convicted for conspiracy to commit murder and failure to report a felony. The offences are contrary to Sections 223 and 298 (3) of the Criminal Law, Cap. C. A Vol. 3, laws of Lagos State 2015. The court, however, adjourned the sentencing of the convicts to Nov. 14th. The prosecution had told the court that in Sept. 2015, the DSS received a distress call about an alleged kidnap. They subsequently despatched a nine-man rescue team. Saheed Adetunji, an investigation officer with the DSS told the court during the course of the trial that seven out of the nine-man rescue team were ambushed by the vandals in the Ishawo area and taken captive. The remaining two managed to escape. “The first defendant said that they took the seven DSS personnel to their hideout, into the Ishawo Creeks, called Barracks,” Adetunji said. The officer also identified the 2nd defendant, Monday, who confessed that he was a part of the group of vandals who used teargas and pepper spray on the DSS personnel. “When they got to their Barracks, the first defendant said he personally shot two of the DSS personnel with a pump-action rifle, while one Agbala shot the remaining five with an AK-47. “The dead bodies were buried in three separate graves. The first defendant said that the graves were dug by some Ijaw boys and three slim operatives were packed in one. And the bigger ones were put in twos into the other graves,” he stated. And though the defendants pleaded guilty and denied committing the offence during their trial, Justice Oshodi in his judgment, held that the prosecution was able to prove part of the charge against the two convicts beyond all reasonable doubt. The judge also rejected the alibi of the defendants, describing it as a ruse and an afterthought as there was no credible evidence to back up their claims of being at different places when the offence was committed. He further held that their attempts to deny their confessional statement were not convincing and that evidence before the court confirmed that their statements were made voluntarily. The Director of Public Prosecution, DPP has urged the court to impose the maximum sentence on the defendants to send a strong message that the state will not tolerate the killing of anyone particularly officers on lawful duty. He also used the opportunity to reiterate the call for the DSS to fish out one Agbala who was said to have shot five of their officers.

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Post Date : October 11, 2023

Tinubu’s Chicago certificates not forged — BBC Report

  There is no evidence that the Chicago State University’s academic certificates of President Bola Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission for the 2023 presidential election were forged, the BBC’s Global Disinformation Team reports. The PUNCH had earlier reported that the university released Tinubu’s academic records, which went viral on social media but were tagged as fake by some opposition party leaders and members, especially his main rivals, Labour Party’s Peter Obi and the Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar. The quest to release Tinubu’s academic documents led to the case filed by Atiku at the US court, where he accused him of falsifying the CSU diploma of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration awarded in 1979 that he submitted to INEC. In the trial, the documents Atiku demanded included a copy of any diploma issued by the CSU in 1979; a copy of the diploma the CSU gave to Tinubu in 1979; copies of diplomas with the same font, seal, signatures, and wording awarded to other students that are similar to what CSU awarded to Tinubu in 1979; and documents from the CSU that were certified by Jamar Orr, who was then a staff member of university, in the 12 months from August 1, 2022. But Tinubu’s lawyers insisted that the documents would not be relevant in Atiku’s appeal against Tinubu at the Supreme Court. The magistrate, Jeffrey Gilbert, however ordered the CSU to provide all relevant and non-privileged documents to Atiku’s legal team within two days. But, according to the BBC’s findings, the Social Security Number in the transcript from Chicago varsity matched what it had in other documents in which Tinubu’s gender was marked as male. The released documents raised questions about Tinubu’s birth date and his secondary school. One of the documents stated that Tinubu attended Government College Lagos in 1970. However, information available on the school website states that it was only founded in 1974. The British medium also reported that aside from the gender discrepancy, the birth dates in some of the released documents differed from the official birth date of President Tinubu, which is March 29, 1952. According to it, Tinubu’s transcript from the CSU has his date of birth as March 29, 1954, while his undergraduate admissions application form had his date of birth as March 29, 1955. Meanwhile, the BBC report claimed that Atiku’s lawyer questioned the date of birth on the certificate during Westberg’s deposition on the forms submitted to INEC because Tinubu was said to have given his date of birth as March 29, 1952. Westberg, during cross-examination, the report said, responded that the discrepancies could have been due to a human error.

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Post Date : October 11, 2023

REPORT: Titanic Submersible Debris, Human Remains Recovered

  More debris and suspected human remains have been recovered from a privately owned submersible which failed catastrophically in June while on a mission to the Titanic, the US Coast Guard said. All five people on board the recreational sub, named Titan and operated by US-based company OceanGate, were killed when the vessel imploded, which is believed to have occurred during its June 18 descent. The sub’s failure was confirmed on June 22, ending a days-long rescue mission which captivated the world. The Coast Guard has launched its highest level of probe, called a Marine Board of Investigation, into the accident. “Marine safety engineers with the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) recovered and transferred remaining Titan submersible debris and evidence from the North Atlantic Ocean seafloor” on October 4, the US Coast Guard said in a statement Tuesday. “Additional presumed human remains were carefully recovered from within Titan’s debris and transported for analysis by US medical professionals,” it added. Some wreckage and presumed human remains were also recovered in late June. The Coast Guard said it was coordinating with the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) “and other international investigative agencies to schedule a joint evidence review of recovered Titan debris.” The five men aboard the Titan were British explorer Hamish Harding, French submarine expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani-British tycoon Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and Stockton Rush, CEO of the sub’s operator OceanGate Expeditions. A debris field was found 1,600 feet (500 meters) from the bow of the Titanic, which sits 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. The victims were presumed to have died instantly when the Titan, about the size of an SUV car, imploded under the crushing pressure of the North Atlantic at a depth of more than two miles (nearly four kilometers). The US Coast Guard and Canadian authorities have launched probes into the cause of the tragedy, which occurred after the Titan lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after plunging into the ocean. The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in 1912 during its maiden voyage from England to New York with 2,224 passengers and crew on board. More than 1,500 people died. It was found in 1985 and has become a lure for nautical experts and underwater tourists. AFP

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Post Date : October 11, 2023

FG asks Hospitals to treat patients first before demanding police report

  Muhammad Ali Pate, the coordinating minister of health and social welfare, says hospitals in the country should prioritise saving lives above a police report. Over the years, there have been complaints from Nigerians over hospitals demanding police reports from gunshot and accident victims before the commencement of treatment. The subject reared its head on social media recently after the Maitama General Hospital reportedly refused to treat Olorunfemi Greatness, a victim of ‘one chance car’, shortly before she died. DIRECTIVE TO PRIVATE, PUBLIC HOSPITALS The treatment and care for victims of gunshot Act 2017, states that every hospital in Nigeria, whether public or private, should treat persons with gunshot wounds, with or without a police report. Speaking on Wednesday when he featured on a Channels Television programme, Pate said the federal government has issued a directive to hospitals to always save lives first before making any other demands. “Recently there have been concerns about patients who show up at the emergency facilities and police reports being asked about gunshots or accidents,” he said. That’s really unfortunate. But in all federal teaching hospitals, for instance — I was in Maiduguri at the weekend — life has to be saved first. “Life first and we have re-emphasised that. All our hospitals I believe are doing that. “No person should come with an emergency, or life-threatening challenge and be made to lose their life while awaiting police report. “Saving lives comes first and that is the directive we have given; that is what we would pursue and we hope that all hospitals, including private hospitals, will have this mindset that in health, it’s save lives first,” Pate said.

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Post Date : October 11, 2023

NECO indicts 93 schools for cheating, blacklists 52 supervisors

  The National Examinations Council, on Tuesday, released the results of the 2023 Internal Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination with a record of 61.60 per cent of candidates scoring five credits and above, including English and Mathematics. However, the examination council disclosed that 93 schools were found to be involved in whole-school (mass) cheating while 52 supervisors were recommended for blacklisting due to poor supervision, aiding and abetting during the examinations. The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of NECO, Prof. Dantani Wushishi, disclosed this while announcing the release of the results of the examination. Wushishi said the erring schools would be invited to the council for discussion after which appropriate sanctions would be applied. He said 1,196,985 candidates, representing 616,398 males and 580,587 females, sat the examinations, adding that 1,543 candidates with special needs also sat the examinations. Wushishi said, “The number of candidates with Special Needs is 1,542, which includes 913 candidates with hearing impairment, 162 candidates with visual impairment, 103 candidates with albinism, 61 candidates with autism, 149 candidates with low vision, and 154 candidates with adermatoglyphic, which are candidates with no fingerprints. “737,308 candidates, representing 61.60 per cent, passed with five credits and above, 1,013,611, representing 84.68 per cent of candidates, had five credits, irrespective of English and Mathematics.” Speaking further on the erring schools, the NECO boss said, “In line with our resolve to identify and sanction erring schools and supervisors, 93 schools were found to have been involved in whole-school (mass) cheating. They will be invited to the council for discussion, after which appropriate sanctions will be applied. “Similarly, 52 supervisors were recommended for blacklisting due to poor supervision, aiding and abetting during the examination. “At this juncture, ladies and gentlemen, I wish to formally declare that the 2023 Senior School Certificate Examination Internal results are hereby released to the public. By this release, candidates can now access their results on NECO website: www.neco.gov.ng, using their examination registration numbers.”

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Post Date : October 11, 2023

REPORT: Suspected Cultists Shot Mechanic Dead In Rivers

  Gunmen suspected to be cultists have shot and killed an automobile technician identified as John Okon in the Diobu axis of Port Harcourt, Rivers State. It was gathered that the incident occured at about 8:55pm on Tuesday when Okon was discussing with a lady in his car. An eyewitness account had it that while the mechanic and the lady were still in the vehicle, about three gunmen arrived at the scene, shot him on the head and fled. The source disclosed that before the gunmen fled, one of them returned to the scene to confirm if the mechanic was dead. There was confusion and serious panic in the area. People living there and those passing by took to their heels,” the source stated. The witness said the lady in the vehicle with him shouted and scampered for safety. Speaking on the incident, Commander of a local vigilante group, Prince Amatari, said the victim was killed in a red Wagon Golf car. Amatari, who is the Commander, Diobu Security Service, disclosed that the mechanic was inside car around 9pm when the assailants struck. Spokesperson of the Rivers State Police Command, Grace Iringe-Koko, said she had yet to get details of the incident.

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