Crime Facts

Appeal court dismiss Sylva’s petition, upholds Diri’s tribunal victory

  A three-man panel of Justices of the Court of Appeal, Abuja division, on Thursday, dismissed the appeal of the All Progressive Congress and its governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva, seeking to set aside the Bayelsa governorship election Tribunal judgment. The appellate court while delivering judgment in the appeal, upheld Governor Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party re-election victory. The court held that it found no reason to set aside the earlier judgment of the tribunal which refused to nullify the outcome of the governorship poll held in the state on November 11, 2023. The court dismissed Sylvia’s appeal for being incompetent and lacking in merit. The appellate court also awarded N500,000 each as a cost in favour of the respondents. Details shortly….

Reps to donate 50% of salaries to fight hunger

  The House of Representatives at a plenary session on Thursday pledged to give up 50 per cent of their salaries for six months to address the hunger across the country. During the session presided over by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu amended the motion, urging his colleagues to sacrifice 50% of their salaries. He made this plea when it was his turn to speak, seeking their support for this gesture. “This government is doing its best but one year is not enough to address the challenges of this country. I want to plead with our colleagues to sacrifice 50 per cent for a period of six months. “Our salary is N600,000 a month. I want to plead that we let go of 50 per cent of our salary for a period of six months,” Kalu said. With each member paying N300,000 into a common purse, the legislative chamber will be contributing N108m monthly to the Federal Government and N648m for six months.

BREAKING: Tinubu approves N70,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers

  President Tinubu has approved a N70,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers with a promise to review the national minimum wage law every three years. The Nation reports the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) are at the Presidential Villa, Abuja for a scheduled meeting with President Bola Tinubu. A statement by Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, said: “President Tinubu also promised to find ways to assist the private sector and the sub-nationals to pay the minimum wage. President Tinubu announced the decisions at the meeting held with leaders of TUC and NLC on Thursday in Abuja, the second time the parties met in 7 days. “The Labour leaders applauded President Tinubu for the fatherly gesture as the President also promised to use his discretionary powers meet the demands of university unions demanding unpaid 4 months salaries

Minister Bows To Pressure, Accepts 16 Years As Admission Age For 2024

  Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, has waved the 18 years benchmark for admission into tertiary institutions. At an ongoing policy meeting organised by the Joint Admission Matriculations Board (JAMB) in Abuja, Mamman had announced that only applicants who were 18 years and above were eligible for admission. This had sparked a controversy as stakeholders across tertiary institutions in the country, kicked against what the minister said. Immediately after Mamman made the utterance, the hall erupted in rowdiness. In a move to calm frayed nerves, the Minister had asked, “Are we together?”, to which the attendees chorused “No!” It took the intervention of JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, before normalcy was restored. While reacting to the grumblings from the participants, he insisted that the law required that their children should be in school at 18 years, having attended six years in primary school, three years in Junior Secondary School and three years in senior secondary school. The Minister noted that the meeting was to ensure that the process of admission for 2024/2024 was fair.   He said the position of the Federal Ministry of Education had not changed from any institution that does admission outside the right process, which is Central Application Process (CAP). One of the participants who did not want to be named said: “That is not possible, how can a child finish school write WAEC and JAMB and passed and you deny him admission?” But the minister later accepted the suggestions of the stakeholders that from 16 years and above should be eligible for this year’s admission while the law would apply from next year.

JAMB Pegs Varsity Cut-Off Mark At 140

  The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has pegged 140 as a cut-off mark for admission into the university. The board also fixed 100 as the minimum cut-off point mark for admission into polytechnics and colleges of education. JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede announced this on Thursday in Abuja at the 2024 Policy meeting of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). The meeting had in attendance the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, vice-chancellors, rectors and registrars of higher institutions and other stakeholders. Minimum Entry Age At the meeting, the minister directed that admission to tertiary institutions should not be given to candidates under 18 years old. Though the announcement elicited mixed reactions from vice-chancellors, rectors and registrars present at the meeting, the minister decried the activities of some parents, who are pressuring their underage wards to get admission into tertiary institutions. Mamman said that the 18-year benchmark is in line with the 6-3-3-4 system of education. “JAMB is hereby instructed from admission this year to admit only eligible students. That is those who have attained 18 years by our laws,” the minister. He insisted that his position was backed by Nigeria’s law guiding admissions into tertiary institutions. He said it shouldn’t require a statement from him for that to be taken into consideration by admission bodies. “Our laws require students to be in school from six years – Yes, there are those who do that from five – and remain in primary school for six years, basic education for three years, and secondary school for three years… It doesn’t require a statement of the minister… we are only restating what is in the law,” he added. Professor Mamman added that for those who will not be able to gain admission into tertiary institutions, the Ministry of Education is taking skills to pupils from primary school.

FULL LIST: 2024 UTME top scorers

  The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board on Thursday unveiled the list of 2024 top scorers of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination. The list was unveiled by the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede during the ongoing policy meeting of the Board in Abuja on Thursday. They are; 1.⁠ ⁠Olowu David – 367- Ondo state 2.⁠ ⁠⁠Alayande David- 367- Oyo state 3.⁠ ⁠⁠Orukpe Joel-367- Edo 4.⁠ ⁠⁠Emmanuel Jeremiah-366- Akwa-Ibom 5.⁠ ⁠⁠Essiet Etini-365-Akwa-Ibom 6.⁠ ⁠Ezenwoko Zara-365-Abia 7.⁠ ⁠⁠Umoh Joshua-365-Akwa-Ibom 8.⁠ ⁠⁠Mamudu Abdulraham-364-Edo 9.⁠ ⁠⁠Adeleke Abdulbasit-363-Kwara 10.⁠ ⁠⁠Echem Victor-363-Rivers 11.⁠ ⁠⁠Etute Emmanuel-363- Edo 12.⁠ ⁠⁠Jedidiah Chidiebube-363-Imo 13.⁠ ⁠⁠Adesanya Oluwatimilehin-363-Ogun

FG bans admissions for under 18

  The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, on Thursday announced a ban on admissions for candidates under the age of 18 into tertiary institutions in the country. Mamman announced during the 2024 policy meeting of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.   “JAMB is hereby notified that there is now a ban on underaged students, those under the age of 18 into our tertiary institutions from this 2024 admissions,” Mamman said. The minister, said the Federal Government was considering the adoption of 18 years as the entry age for admission into universities and other tertiary institutions of learning. Details later…

FG to introduce new curriculum for secondary schools

  The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, said on Thursday a new curriculum would be introduced for secondary schools nationwide by September 2024. Tahir made this known at the ongoing 2024 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board policy meeting in Abuja. “We are working hard to ensure that a new curriculum is introduced for secondary schools by September,” Mamman said. Mamman noted that the exercise has been on for the past year and a stakeholders meeting will be held on August 6,2024. “It is our plan that by September, this programme will be implemented in all schools, public and private,” the minister said. Recently, the National Senior Secondary School Education Commission decried the deplorable state of senior secondary schools in the country and called for collaboration to overcome some of the challenges bedevilling the secondary level of education in the country. The commission listed some of the challenges confronting the sector, including infrastructural deficit, unqualified teachers, obsolete curriculum, and deplorable libraries and laboratories. It was also noted that plans were ongoing to introduce a new curriculum. Details later…

Over one million students admitted illegally – JAMB

  Over one million students were admitted illegally by some tertiary institutions in the country, Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Is-haq Oloyede has said. Oloyede stated this on Thursday in Abuja at the ongoing policy meeting on 2023/2024 admissions. The policy meeting, which has heads of tertiary institutions in the country, and other stakeholders, sets the tone for admissions into tertiary institutions in the country. He said the Board has been able to regularise 600 of the numbers admitted illegally. Oloyede said a lot of the students with illegal admissions don’t have the basic qualifications into the course they registered to study.   “Over 1 million students were admitted illegally. We registered about 600 of them because a lot of them don’t have the basic qualifications,” Oloyede said

Man ‘kills’ 19-year-old son with shovel

  The police in Lagos State have begun investigation into the death of a 19-year-old boy allegedly beaten to death by his father. The Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday. The spokesperson said that the Alagbado Police Division received a report on Tuesday of the alleged crime. He said: “At about 12.00 p.m. on July 5, at about 2.00 p.m., one Olumide gave his son, Adeyemi, a deep cut under moderate correction, at his right hand side with a shovel over an undisclosed offence.” Hundeyin said that the young man sustained injuries as a result of the impact of the shovel attack. “The young man was immediately rushed to the hospital for treatment. “But when the injury became serious, he was taken to the General Hospital Ikeja, where he gave up the ghost as a result of tetanus infection, as confirmed by the doctor on duty. “The scene was visited by detectives of the division. “However, the father of the victim is currently at large, and the case is under investigation,” he said. (NAN)