Group Charges Ajimobi On Oyo NURTW Crisis

An interest group in Oyo State has charged the State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, to handle the crisis rocking the state branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) diligently and with fairness.

The group, Movement for Peace and Good Governance, in a statement signed by its coordinator, Mr. Segun Ajani, charged the state government to treat “both factions of the union equally and fairly without any bias,” adding that “the faction that started the crisis at Iwo Road can be traced and dealt with as prescribed by the law.”

Ajani added in the statement that, “Governor Ajimobi has promised us peaceful governance and the only way to achieving this is for the government not to be one-sided and ensure that any of the factions found guilty should be treated as such.”

The group said, “we enjoin the state government to allow the police to do the job they were trained for as just arming the police will not solve the problem.”

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Alleged rape of corps member: Osun monarch placed under house arrest after dramatic appearance in court

THE appearance in court yesterday of the Alowa of Ilowa-Ijesha, Oba Adebukola Alli, ended with Magistrate Adewunmi Makanjuola placing him under house arrest.

The judge also ruled that the travelling documents of the accused, who was supported to step into the court room by his wife and driver, be submitted to the court with immediate effect.

The court at its sitting two Fridays ago ordered that the accused, who had failed to come to court for four consecutive sittings, be arrested or in the alternative his surety be brought to court on Friday June 24, 2011.

The Alowa of Ilowa-Ijesha in Obokun Local Government Area, Osun State, accompanied by his wife and pastor, was yesterday brought into court in his green RAV 4 Toyota SUV car.

Claiming not to be strong enough because of his poor health, the monarch lay on a sofa in the court room while his wife fanned him with a scarf.

The monarch also came to court with a blood pressure machine to convince the judge of his health condition.

At a stage, the judge stepped out of his seat to where Oba Alli lay and asked the wife where the accused was brought to court from. In tears, the wife replied that he was brought to court from a private hospital in Ibadan, Oyo State, saying the Oba was removed from the hospital because of the arrest order placed on him.

Counsel to the accused monarch, Victor Okpara, presented a medical report signed by one Dr. A.A. Adeyanju from Gold Cross Medical Clinic, a private hospital located at 36, Adeoyo, Oje Road, Ibadan, Oyo State to the court.

Okpara, who said the monarch had been receiving medical treatment from the hospital shortly after he was discharged from the University College Hospital, Ibadan on June 10, told the court that Alli’s previous absence from court was not delibrate but due to his health codition.

But the prosecutor, a senior state counsel, Olufemi Adedokun, urged the court to disregard the medical report presented by the defence counsel because it conflicted with the previous report, which showed that the traditional ruler was discharged from the UCH in sound health.

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Fuel Subsidy: NNPC Gets Mandate To Spread Retail Outlets Nationwide

Ahead of planned removal of fuel subsidy, the Federal Government has mandated the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to ensure that its retail outlets being opened nationwide reach a considerable parts of the country.

Saturday Tribune gathered that the mandate became necessary as the Federal Government is said to have resolved to address a situation where the independent marketers will not hold fuel consumers to ransom by refusing to lift fuel or cause artificial scarcity once the subsidy is removed.

The Federal Government, according to sources, who spoke with the Saturday Tribune on condition of anonymity, is yet to decide on the time the fuel subsidy will be removed, even as widespread condemnation has trailed the state governors’ call on the Federal Government for the planned removal.  

Reports had indicated that President Goodluck Jonathan has been put under pressure by the state governors to remove fuel subsidy running into billions of naira as a precondition to pay the N18,000 minimum wage, which has been a contentious issue since the coming of new government on May 29, 2011.

The governors had initially been working towards getting the revenue sharing formula hiked to 42 per cent in favour of states to enable them pay the minimum wage to their workers conveniently.

Presidency source informed the Saturday Tribune that though the issue of fuel subsidy removal is topmost on the agenda, he, however, disclosed that the government would not rush into it just because the state governors made the call for “their own selfish reason.”

According to the source, the new government will stabilise itself before deciding on when and how the fuel subsidy removal policy would take effect.

Meanwhile, a cross section of the people who spoke with the Saturday Tribune in Abuja on the governors’ panicky call for fuel subsidy removal stated that the state chief executives had betrayed the trust of the people who voted them into power.

Mrs. Florence Ijeoma, an assistant director in one of the key ministries, described the call as highly insensitive to the plight of the common man.

According to her, because the civil servants in the states are clamouring for N18,000 minimum wage , the state governors, who have  no hiding place unless they pay the money just wanted a situation where the money so collected by workers would have no impact on them.

An Independent petroleum marketer,  Alhaji Hassan Ibn Ahmed, informed the Saturday Tribune that the removal of fuel subsidy at this time would greatly hurt the average Nigerian.

Condemning what he described as the governors’ hasty call for fuel subsidy removal, Alhaji Ahmed said the governors should have allowed the NNPC to complete its programme of having its retail outlets in all the nooks and crannies of the country before calling for subsidy removal.

Urging President Jonathan not to listen to the governors, the oil magnate said the ripple effects of oil subsidy removal at this point in time would be more than what the governors bargained for when crisis erupts.

A man of God, the General Overseer of Our Lords Vineyard, Rev. Pastor Adamu Sule, admonished the president not to listen to the governors whom he described as not having the love of their people at heart.

However, the governors have an ally in the person of the interim president of the Nigerian Association of Small Scale Enterprises (NASSI), Dr. Albert Akinyemi, who said the governors were right in demanding for fuel subsidy removal if that would increase the revenue accruable to the states and local government councils.

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JAMB Releases 2011 UTME Results •Withholds 22, 664 Candidates’ Results •197 Prison Inmates Wrote Exam

THE Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has withheld about 22, 664 results of candidates who sat for the 2011 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination UTME last Saturday for examination malpractices and further scrutiny.

Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, Professor ‘Dibu Ojerinde, made this known while announcing the release of the UTME results, in Abuja on Friday barely six days after its conduct.

This is coming just as the JAMB Registrar, has vowed to sanction any tertiary institution involved in late conduct of admissions by deleting the name of the institution from its brochure. This, by implication means the erring university, polytechnics or colleges of education, as the case may be would not be allowed to admit students for the session.

A total of 1, 493, 604 registered for the examination but the JAMB Registrar said only 1, 450, 143 candidates actually sat for the examination, indicating about 43, 461 absentees.

According to him, a total of 15, 160 results were withheld for examination malpractice representing 1.014 per cent of the candidates that sat for the examination, a drastic reduction in the cases of examination malpractices in the past JAMB examinations.

He said the results of about 7, 160 candidates mostly from Lagos, Rivers and Abia examination centres were questionable because of what he described as “centres of excellence” and that the results would be subjected to further scrutiny before there are released.

Prof. Ojerinde, said the biometric verification of candidates introduced by the Board scared away some of the mercenaries who were hired to sit for some registered candidates.

Ojerinde disclosed that the Board was also able to  drastically reduce the high incidence of invalid or incomplete results. In 2010, a total of 96, 451 candidates’ results were withheld as invalid, with a total of 82, 000 of the results declared incomplete results because of improper shading.

However, this figure was reduced to 28, 069 this year because of intensive sensitization of examiners on the need to check candidates during examinations. “Our target is to totally eliminate this phenomenon by drumming it to our examiners to do checks on candidates during the examinations,” he said.

A total of 197 prison inmates mainly from Kaduna and Ikoyi Prions sat for the 2011 UTME.

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Two Killed In Anambra Communal Clash •School, 11 buildings razed

The lingering communal crisis that has bedeviled the Owerre Ezukala and Ogbunka communities in Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State, on Friday, took a dangerous dimension when two persons were killed and about 11 houses burnt.

Briefing newsmen on the incident, the caretaker committee chairman of the Owerre Ezekala Improvement Union, Mr. Alphonsus Ikegwu, lamented that the people of the community have been living in fear occasioned by continuous invasion of the community by hoodlums from Egbunka who have intimidated, harassed and raped their women, adding that all efforts to bring the attention of government to the predicament of the people was yet to yield any result.

According to him, the two communities, which share ancestral ties, have been on warpath for more than three decades over boundary adjustments with Egbunka laying claim to the sole ownership of a stone quarry site located between the two communities.

Ikegwu, who disclosed that most indigenes of Owerre Ezukala could no longer visit their village for fear of being kidnapped or killed as the only road to the village is through Egbunka village, maintained that their plea was for government to mobilise security personnel to maintain law and order and ensure security of lives and property. He added that they are law-abiding and cannot take up arms in self-defense.

The visibly shaken community leader insisted that government has not done enough to restore peace and order in the crisis-torn communities, stressing that all pleas and letters to Anambra State governor, the state Commissioner of Police and other relevant authorities had not been given the seriousness it deserved.

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PDP Blames ACN For Pre-election Violence In A/Ibom

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State has laid the blame for the March 22, 2011 carnage in the state at the doorstep of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

The party attributed the remote cause of the mayhem to the “inordinate ambition” and “desperation” of the ACN gubernatorial candidate, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, by employing “thuggery” to pursue his ambition.

Chairman of PDP in the state, Prince Uwem Ita Etuk, made the assertion in his presentation before the presidential fact-finding committee on pre and post-election violence in Akwa Ibom and other states of the federation sitting in Uyo.

Represented by the state legal adviser of the party, Mr. Dominic Okon, the PDP recounted how thugs allegedly engaged by the ACN had unleashed mayhem on Ikot Ekpene and Uyo, leaving in their trail, the death of two PDP supporters and burning of property belonging to the party, including the president’s campaign office and about 1,000 new cars and tricycles acquired by the state government to ease public transportation.

Prince Ita Etuk said it was curious that the ACN had claimed that his party was the aggressor, but could not present evidence of any of their members who was injured or killed in the mayhem, or the property belonging to the ACN or its members which was destroyed in the inferno.

Counsel for the ACN, Barrister Andem Ndem, had tried to persuade the panel that the pre-election violence in the state erupted because the PDP had allegedly prevented other parties from campaigning in Ikot Ekpene, a view which was debunked by many witnesses, who confirmed that the ACN had actually held its rally in the city unmolested until it decided to attack members of the PDP.

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Boko Haram: Trial of seven cops stirs anger in Police

The ongoing trial of seven police officers for allegedly killing the leader of the radical Boko Haram Islamic sect, Mohammed Yusuf, his father-in-law, Baa Fugu Mohammed, and an alleged financier of the group, Buji Foi, is causing ripples in the Nigeria Police Force, it was learnt yesterday.

Yusuf was shot dead in July 2009 during one of the crises masterminded by the Boko Haram. Since then, the sect has allegedly engaged in a series of bombings and killing of policemen which culminated in the bombing of the Police Force Headquarters last week Thursday in Abuja.

A senior police officer, who spoke under condition of anonymity ,told our correspondent that most officers and men of the force are angry over the issue.

The source said officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force were not happy over the terrorism charges preferred against them because four of the accused officers had already been suspended with three others dismissed.

He contended that though Mohammed Yusuf died in "questionable circumstances" during the Boko Haram’s uprising in Maiduguri,there were many police officers and members of their families who also lost their lives."

"How can the officers be facing terrorism charges for what they allegedly did while fighting terrorists? Yusuf, the leader of the group, died in questionable circumstances after his arrest during the sect’s uprising, but many police stations and patrol vehicles were also burnt. Many of our officers and members of their families were also murdered then and up till now they are still being killed by members of the sect.

"To be candid with you, the development has not gone down well with most officers who feel the accused persons are being unjustly persecuted to please people in certain quarters. But one thing is clear, the trial is not good for the morale of officers and members of the rank and file," the source said.

Another source said: "What do they expect the police to do when they are being killed and attacked by the Boko Haram? Do they expect them to fold their hands until all of them are wiped out? This is rather unfortunate?

"If they are trying them for terrorism, who will try those who killed our officers and members of their families during the crisis and thereafter?"

Investigations by The Nation revealed that four of the accused officers were suspended from the force with effect from July 7, 2010 while three others were dismissed.

While those suspended included Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) John Abang, ACP Muhammed Akeera Yoonus, Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Mohammed Ahmadu and Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mada Babu; those dismissed from the force were Sergeant Adamu Gado, Corporal Anthony Samuel and Corporal Linus Luka.

According to a copy of a brief on the charge number FHC/ABS/KD/10C/2011 which was sighted by our correspondent in Abuja, the investigating team said: "Sequel to wide outcry after the airing in Aljazeera Cable Network which depicted extra judicial killings of the leader of the Boko Haram sect, Muhammadu Yusuf, and his followers on July 30, 2009 by some members of the NPF, apparently in response to the sect’s sustained attacks on police properties and other government buildings and facilities and killing of members of the force, the IGP directed a discreet investigation aimed at fishing out the police officers involved.

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