Rape: UNILAG lecturer laments negative press in court

The courtroom of a Lagos Magistrate Court sitting in Ikeja was filled to capacity on Monday as a University of Lagos lecturer, Dr. Afeez Baruwa, who is standing trial for allegedly raping an 18-year-old admission seeker, showed up in court for trial. This was just as the counsel for the defendant, Kunle Abimbola, lamented the negative press coverage given to his client’s case, adding that such publications already presumed the defendant to be guilty. PUNCH Metro had reported on September 10 that Baruwa, a lecturer from the univeristy’s Distance Learning Institute, who had been in remand at the Krikiri Prison since August 7, failed to show up in court.
The presiding magistrate, Mr. T. Elias, had adjourned the case till Monday, September 21, 2015, for the outcome of the DPP’s advice. However, Baruwa showed up in court for the continuation of his trial on Monday. Our correspondent also observed the victim and her parents sitting among the crowd. The defence counsel, Abimbola, who brought an affidavit sworn to by Baruwa’s wife to show the lecturer’s failing health, sought the court’s permission to perfect the bail of Baruwa. The counsel, who put forward several newspaper publications on Baruwa, said it
was wrong that his client was being tried by the media in the eyes of the general public. He said, “The state of my client’s health should be considered. We also have to seek a protection of the man from the press. It is not fair that the defendant is being tried by the media.
“This is contrary to Section 36 (5), of the constitution. There are several publications that attest to this, including an interview granted to the Dean of the UNILAG’s Faculty of Business Administration, where my client was called all sort of names. “I urge the court to call the newspapers to order, and we urge you to come to the aid of the defendant.” The OPD lawyer, Ibikunle, said the publication of the matter in the newspaper was not unconstitutional as the general public had already been informed, and had the right to have information on the matter as it progressed. She added that the affidavit brought before the court establishing Baruwa’s ill-health, did not have any medical report. The Magistrate, Elias, who went through one of the newspapers’ publication briefly, said the case was awaiting advice from the Department of Public Prosecutions. He thereafter adjourned the matter till November 13, 2015.
source:  The Punch

Pro-Saraki senator barred from APC caucus meetings

Bola Tinubu

The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has barred the lawmaker representing Ondo-Central senatorial district, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, from attending South-West caucus meetings, our correspondent has learnt. It was learnt that the senator was ostracized for allegedly working against the interest of the party’s South-West leadership and for taking sides with Senate President Bukola Saraki. Alasoadura was also among the senators that followed Saraki to the Code of Conduct Tribunal in solidarity on Tuesday.
A reliable source within the party said that Alasoadura had been sidelined from all APC South-West meetings for his disloyalty to Tinubu. The source said, “Alasoadura was a Commissioner for Finance under the late Dr. Olusegun Agagu for over five years. He later defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the Action Congress of Nigeria. Tinubu accepted him and appointed him the Director-General of the Rotimi Akeredolu governorship campaign organisation in 2013. “Alasoadura was not even supposed to have emerged the senatorial candidate of the APC in the last election but the party favoured him. However, when he got to the Senate, he returned to his PDP family and started working against the party. He also supported Saraki against the interest of the party. “When Tinubu convened a South-West meeting in Abuja during the height of the National Assembly crisis, Alasoadura came.
However, Tinubu walked him out of the meeting and told his orderly to ensure that the senator was escorted off the premises. “Tinubu also warned senators present to ensure that sensitive issues were not discussed in the presence of Alasoadura as he was an enemy within.” Two days after the faceoff with Tinubu, however, the Ondo State senator issued a statement wherein he pledged his loyalty to the party and denied supporting Saraki. Alasoadura said he was only working in the best interest of his constituents.

I spent more than 13million Naira in my education here in London: Nigerian newest genus

Odera Ogbodo

Like an unstoppable fast train, Odera Ogbodo, 23, from Enugu State, graduated in First Class division in Information and Communications Technology recently at the University of Greenwich. This came barely few weeks after an exclusive report by Education Review of the Sun Newspaper on 21-year-old Precious Oyelade, born to Nigerian parents living in South London, who also won the best first degree academic project at the Cambridge University. She wrote on a project, titled: Changing Representations of Nigerian Identity: An Exploration through Nollywood and its Audience. Can anything good come from Nigerian education system stymied by decades of neglect and rot?
The young lad who attended the University of Nigeria Primary School Enugu Campus and after the common entrance examinations, was accepted into King’s College, Lagos, which was his first choice secondary school and University of Nigeria Secondary School, Enugu Campus. After a short spell at King’s College, he switched to University of Nigeria Secondary School, Enugu Campus, where he completed secondary education.
He however attributed hard work, mindset and will to succeed as the secrets behind his achievements.
He further revealed that he spent over £9,000 per session as tuition fee with an accommodation cost of about £7000 per year. In three years this amounted to nearly £50,000 (that’s approximately N13.5m) spent on tuition and accommodation alone.
Travel cards, mobile top ups and internet bills, plus other living expenses have not even been included, he said.

54 prostitutes and customers docked in Calabar by the Police

The Cross River State command of the Nigeria Police on Tuesday raided Peace Garden Hotel popularly called `Flower Mills Joint’ and arrested 54 prostitutes and 56 men who had gone to patronize them. The operation was led by the Cross River State Security Adviser, Mr. Jude Ngaji.
Addressing journalists after the raid which lasted for about four hours, Ngaji said the hotel had been turned into a brothel for commercial sex workers in Calabar. He added that the brothel had been used for criminal activities, selling of drugs and a hideout for criminals in the area.
According to him, the office of the State Security Adviser, in collaboration with security agents in the state, is working to ensure that criminals and prostitutes are shown the way out of the state. He said, “In collaboration with the office of the Area Command in Calabar, we used 11 trucks in conveying the girls and men to the Command. “Each time you pass here at night, you find under-aged girls of about 13 and 14 years standing by and waiting for men. This place has become an area of concern to the state and Cross Riverians. “This place has become a Sodom and Gomorrah in Cross River and the raid was carried out to stop prostitution and criminality in the state. All the girls that were caught here are prostitutes and some of them were caught in compromising positions. “There is no law that legalizes prostitution in Nigeria. The girls will be tried in court and we will ensure that they are returned back to their respective states.” He advised teenage girls to take their studies seriously and engage themselves in
meaningful activities, rather than choosing the path of prostitution as a means of livelihood

Fraud uncovered in Cross River pension board by state Auditor-General

Gov. Ayade

There are indications that some officials of the Cross River State Local Government Pension Board might lose their job and face prosecution over an N8m fraud. This was contained in a petition sent by the Cross River Auditor-General for Local Government, Mr. Anthony Ayine, to the Cross River State House of Assembly. The auditor-general also sent the same petition dated September 8, 2015 to the state Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, explaining that in the course of auditing, he unravelled a pension fraud of N8, 883, 150.74 allegedly perpetrated by the board.
He said more fraud could be detected if a further forensic audit was carried out. Ayine, who spoke in Calabar on Tuesday, alleged that the pension board manipulated the payment of pension and gratuity to the beneficiary of a dead official who served for 32 years in the Office of the Auditor-General. He said, “The gratuity due to the late official was N1.24m but that the board allegedly paid over N7m to the beneficiary of the late official. When we concluded our audit report we discovered a pension fraud of over N8m. “In the course of our investigation, we came across fraudulent payment of gratuity and pension to beneficiary of our late official which in actual sense did not receive such amount. The staff served for 32 years and she died on grade level 10, Step 15. “The gratuity due to this official was supposed to be over N1m but because of manipulation we discovered that the board paid over N7m to the beneficiary of the late official.” He alleged that the fraud was perpetuated Mr. John Adie, who was in charge of the local government pension board from 2010 to 2015. Reacting to the claims, a former director of Local Government Pension Board, Mr. John Adie, described the allegation levelled against the board as false. He said, “As far as I know and from all available records, I am the only director that ever instituted reforms in the pension board. There is no fraud in the board rather I introduced a lot of reforms in the place. The kind of reforms I introduced was such that all pension files were captured in the data base and we have a website. “Pensioners can stay anywhere and access their records. For the Auditor-General to come and say that there is fraud in pension board is something I don’t understand; he wants me to expose him.”

Concrete roads cheaper, more durable – Dangote

The Chairman of Dangote Cement, Aliko Dangote, has reiterated his plea to the Federal Government to urgently adopt concrete roads (made of cement and aggregates instead of
bitumen) in the country.
The richest man in Africa said it would be to the benefit of Nigerians if the government embraced the option of using concrete for roads in the country. Aside from being very cheap, he said concrete roads were more durable with near zero maintenance cost. Dangote said, “We are pushing for Nigeria to do concrete roads. It is cheaper to do a concrete road that will last 50 years than to do a bitumen road. “It will also help in eliminating corruption, because if you go and build a bitumen road, it will have to be adequately maintained unlike a concrete road that is very durable.” Dangote Cement, according to a statement, has just expanded its frontiers to Asia by constructing a three-million-metric-tonne per annum plant in Nepal as part of its investment of $4.34bn in 10 African countries. The company is currently in 15 African countries, excluding Kenya, Niger and Mali, which are new projects, the statement added. Its current total capacity stands at 48mmtpa, out of which Nigeria alone has the largest
chunk of 29.3mmtpa. Dangote had recently said, “We are not only building cement plants in Africa, we have gone far away to Nepal to build a three-million- metric-tonne cement plant capacity and by the time all these our new projects are completed in the next two years, Dangote Cement will have more than 70 million capacity, but we are not going to stop there; hopefully, by 2020, our targets is to get to somewhere around 100 million tones capacity.
“I can assure you that Africa will not lack cement now and even in the future. Africa will be self -sufficient rather than be a dumping ground for other manufacturers of cement.” The new plants for which agreements were signed recently with Sinoma were the 3.0mmtpa in Nepal, 2.5mmtpa in Ethiopia, 3.0mmtpa in Kenya 1&2; 1.5mmtpa in Zambia; 1.5mmtpa in Senegal, 1.5mmtpa in Niger; and 1.5mmtpa each in Mali, Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana.

15 Professors employed by Dangote to teach at Kano Varsity

The Chancellor of Kano University of Science and Technology (KUST) and Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has pledged to pay four- year wages of 15 science- based professors to teach at the university. In a press statement addressed to newsmen in Kano to mark the 15-year anniversary of the university, the Vice Chancellor, KUST, Prof Shehu Alhaji Musa added that the business mogul has also promised to construct houses for the professors. The vice Chancellor stated that the university is currently undergoing serious improvement in all spheres where an international acclaimed university wishes to be.

Lamido, re-arraigned with two sons, others for corruption

Sule Lamido

The former governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, and his two sons Aminu Sule Lamido and Mustapha Sule Lamido, were on Tuesday arraigned before Justice Ademola Adeniyi of a Federal High Court in Abuja, on a 27-count amended charge bordering on corruption and money laundering. Also arraigned with them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission were Aminu Wada Abubakar, Batholomew Darlington Agoha and companies through which they
perpetrated the alleged fraud. The companies are Bamaina Holdings Limited, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited, Bamaina Aluminium Limited and Speeds International Limited. Lamido and others accused had on July 9, 2015, been arraigned before Justice Evelyn Anyadike of a Federal High Court in Kano, over misappropriation of funds belonging to Jigawa State.
Their case was later transferred to the Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja, where a vacation judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, granted them bail and adjourned the matter till September 22, 2015. At the resumed hearing on Tuesday at the Abuja FHC, counsel for the EFCC, Chile Okoroma, presented the court with the amended charge, dated September 15, 2015, which added Agoha, Manager, Speeds International Limited, as one of the accused persons. The case was, however, adjourned briefly to allow the registry assign a new charge number to the amended charge sheet, since the case was originally heard in Kano. But when the charges were read to them, all the accused pleaded not guilty and the case was thereafter adjourned till October 21 and 22. One of the charges read, “That you, Alhaji Sule Lamido (while being Governor of Jigawa State, Nigeria); Aminu Sule Lamido, Mustapha Sule Lamido, Bamaina Holdings Limited, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited, and Speeds International Limited, between October 15 and December 18 2008 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did convert an aggregate sum of N124,649,915 paid by Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company Nigeria Limited into the account of Speeds International Limited. Another charge read, “That you, Alhaji Sule Lamido (while being the governor of Jigawa State, Nigeria); Aminu Sule Lamido, Mustapha Sule Lamido, Bamaina Holdings Limited, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited and Speeds International Limited between January 8 and December 10, 2013 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court took possession of an aggregate sum of N101,580,300 paid by Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company Nigeria Limited into the account of Bamaina Holdings Limited.”

Shekau is now irrelevant: Military declares

The Nigerian military said it was not considering the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, or any other particular person in the terror group to be relevant in the ongoing onslaught against insurgency in the North East. “Shekau or any of his cohorts would not deter the spate of the military operations to rid the country of criminals hiding under strange religious ideology to kill innocent Nigerians,” the military said in a statement Tuesday.
The statement came days after the release of an audio clip online dismissing recent gains by the military in the war against the insurgents. The speaker claimed to be Shekau, whom the Nigerian military claimed it killed months ago. The military said it viewed the new audio as “irrelevant and fruitless”. “The Armed Forces is using this medium to appeal to the good citizens of Nigeria not to lose sleep over the concocted audio rhetoric of the waning terrorist sect which is a usual antic of a drowning person struggling to hold on to anything to remain afloat,” the statement signed by spokesperson for the armed forces, Rabe Abubakar, a Colonel. “The Armed Forces wishes to reiterate that it is a well-known fact that the terrorists have been seriously decimated and the tremendous effort and achievement recorded in the recent time by combined forces of the Nigerian Army and the Air Force is commendable. “The Armed Forces did not lie about the successes recorded so far in its counterinsurgency operations and for avoidance of doubt, the liberated communities in the North East, which were hitherto under the throes of Boko Haram terrorists, are free for interested person or body to explore. “The military does re-state that in the recent time a number of Boko Haram members have been surrendering and denouncing radicalization. Our candid advice to Shekau or his ghost; cohorts or impersonators is to toll the line of their fellow comrades and surrender now as no more hidden place for him or his criminal gang to operate freely any longer. “It is also necessary to tell those that are still masquerading as leadership of Boko Haram in whatsoever guise to quickly come to term with the fact that era of cheap propaganda is over and in no distance time Nigerians and the whole world will know who is saying the truth. “Therefore, while urging Nigerians and the nation’s well-wishers to disregard the audio clip purportedly released by Shekau in its entirely, the Armed Forces is calling on peace-loving people of our dear nation to go about their normal businesses as the military is working round the clock to rid the country of this devilish and anti-human group. “Our compatriots too are called upon to report any suspicious person or object to law enforcement agencies for prompt action. It is in doing this that we would jointly restore the dignity of our dear country from the claw of terrorists,” the statement said.