The Senate on Wednesday said that the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) wants N1.5 trillion to end its ongoing strike. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, released the figure in his contribution on a motion urging the striking lecturers to call off their strike. The motion sponsored by the Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, and 106 others is entitled: “Appeal to Academic Staff Union of Universities to call off the strike action and return to work.” Chukwumerije, who read the controversial 2009 agreement between the Federal Government and ASUU, said that part of the component of the agreement on funding stipulated that “all regular federal universities shall require the sum of N1.5 trillion for the period 2009 to 2011.
The police in Abuja on Wednesday arrested the Executive Director, Anti-Corruption Network, Dino Melaye, after the former House of Representatives member led pro-democracy activists on a protest, calling for the removal of the Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, over the armoured car scandal. The minister has recently come under fire for allegedly ordering the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to buy her two bullet-proof BMW cars, worth $1.6m (about N255m). The protest, which held at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja, around 11am, was not without drama as some groups also staged a counter-protest, to drum up support for the embattled minister.
President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday set up a three-man administrative panel of enquiry to probe the embattled Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah, over the purchase of two bullet-proof BMW cars worth $1.6m (about N255m) by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority on the minister’s order. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting which the minister failed to attend.
The Lagos State Government has confirmed the outbreak of Cholera in the state. The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris who confirmed the development in Lagos on Wednesday that out of the 13 cases reported, three persons have died. Worst affected places are, Ajeromi, Apapa, Lagos Island, Oshodi and Surulere. The commissioner attributed the epidemic to contaminated wells, local food and non-washing of hands. He urged residents of the state to report any known case to the nearest health centre. Source: The Nation
As the tussle over ownership of late Chief Odimegwu Ojukwu’s transport company and his estate rages, some members of the late warlord’s family have asked his wife – Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain, to provide evidence of legal marriage to him. The Ojukwu brothers along with Ojukwu Transport Limited, in a 19 paragraph statement of defence filed before Justice Funmilayo Atilade of a Lagos High Court, also demanded proof that Bianca’s two sons, Afamefuna and Nwachukwu are biological children of the late warlord. Bianca had on behalf of her sons, dragged Prof. Joseph Ojukwu; Emmanuel Ojukwu; Lotanna Putalora Ojukwu; Dr. Patrick Ojukwu; Edward Ojukwu; Lota Akajiora Ojukwu and Mrs. Massey Udegbe before the court, seeking a declaration that her children are entitled to the possession and occupation of 29, Oyinkan Abayomi Street, Ikoyi until the harmonisation of the management and administration of the assets of OTL.
The widow of former Libyan leader, Muammar Gadaffi, has demanded that his body and that of their son, Mutassim, killed and secretly buried during their country’s 2011 uprising, be returned. Safia Farkash Gaddafi asked the United Nations and the European Union and Libyan authorities to disclose the location where the two were buried. She also called on the African Union to investigate their deaths of the “martyrs”, and appealed to the international community to assist her family contact another of the Gadaffis’ sons, Saif al Islam. “I demand that all the members of the UN Security Council, the European Union and everyone who has direct or indirect connection with this murder must tell where the remains of these martyrs are and allow their relatives to bury them in a proper way,” she said.
The Vatican confirmed on Tuesday that Catholics who remarried after divorce are barred from receiving communion, dashing hopes that the ruling could change soon. Archbishop Gerhard Mueller, head of the Holy See’s doctrinal office, said in a long article in the Vatican newspaper that such couples could receive communion only if they had a Church annulment. But he said “even if there is no possibility of admitting remarried divorcees to the sacraments,’’ priests must show particular pastoral concern for people in difficult circumstances.
Detectives attached to the Obosi Police Division in Anambra State have arrested a man, Tonna Enedo from the Umuezeshime royal family in Obosi, Idemili North Local Government Area, for allegedly killing his mother. Enedo spoke yesterday on why he killed his mother. He blamed the incident on his quest to make money at all cost, adding that he was lured into a fraternity. He said he has slept in the mortuary for seven hours as part of the money-making rituals.
The Ebonyi State Government has demoted 15 lecturers from its College of Education for possessing forged Doctorate and Masters Certificates. The lecturers were suspended in March, while the matter was being investigated. An internal memo obtained by PREMIUM TIMES showed that the lecturers claimed to have obtained their dubious degrees from local study centres of two American Universities: Montclair State University’s African Institute Global Critical Creative and Caring Community of Inquiry (AICCOCCOI), Enugu, and Pacific West University’s Macbes Global Studies Center, Owerri.
Minister of Aviation Ms Stella Oduah is in Israel to sign an agreement today with Israeli officials on behalf of Nigeria. A Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) to be signed, is to enable airlines from both countries fly directly to each other’s territory without stop-overs in other destinations. Oduah left Abuja yesterday ahead of President Goodluck Jonathan’s trip to Israel on pilgrimage today. The BASA agreement signing is the culmination of 12 months of negotiations between officials of the Department of Transportation of Israel and Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Aviation. Three other Middle East countrieshave air services agreement with Nigeria. The aviation agencies yesterday denied that the embattled minister is involved in the the purchase of bullet proof cars.
• Say suspects have links with Boko Haram • Kill 37, govt arraigns four insurgents FOR their alleged links with terror group, Boko Haram, six persons have been arrested at the Maiduguri International Airport while returning from hajj in Saudi Arabia. A combined team of the Seventh Division of the Nigerian Army and the police in Borno arrested the terror suspects on Monday. The suspects, according to the army and police authorities, have been on the wanted lists of the Joint Task Force (JTF) since February this year over their alleged membership of the Boko Haram.
Two weeks after his admission into the Orthopaedic Ward of Princess Grace Hospital, Nottingham Place, London, Feyi, ailing son of the late former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Agagu, was yesterday, discharged. One of the doctors treating Feyi, who confided in Daily Newswatch yesterday, said he was discharged after British medical examiners deemed him fit and considered him out of danger. It will be recalled that Feyi, who had multiple fractured bones, was also suffering from a neck injury, which doctors said may permanently incapacitate him if not hurriedly treated. Apart from the neck injury, Feyi was also said to be suffering from what the doctors called one-per cent burn.
The Nigerian Army yesterday said apart from the country’s current terrorim challenges, its decision to recruit about 9,000 new hands as recently announced by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, was also informed by the country’s recent election into the Security Council of the United Nations. The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Attairu, said this in Abuja, during its monthly briefing to inform the public of the recent happenings within the formation, at the same time provide update on its ongoing war against the Boko Haram sect. While responding to a question on its planned recruitment of 9,000 soldiers, Attairu explained that although, recruitment in the army was a normal process with or without the country’s security challenges, but that the security issues and Nigeria’s election into the UN Security Council had made it necessary considering the need to inject fresh hands within and outside the country. “The issue of recruitment is a normal procedure with or without insurgency, there will be recruitment.
For reasons yet unknown, THISDAY Foreign and Diplomatic Editor, Mr. Paul Ohia, was yesterday found dead in his official car, a white Kia Optima along Marine Road, Apapa, Lagos. According to eyewitness reports, the deceased had parked his car for several hours by the side of the road, which aroused the suspicion of passersby, prompting them to move closer to check on him. The eyewitnesses said the deceased had reclined the driver's seat and lay on it as if he was sleeping; until they opened the car doors to find out that he was motionless and lifeless.
Electricity workers in the country have threatened to shut down the nation’s electricity if the federal government forces them out of work without paying them their entitlements. The workers stated this though their union, the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), on Monday in Jos. The federal government had promised to pay off the over 40,000 workers as part of the privatisation of the electricity companies, successor companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). The General Secretary of the Union, Joe Ajuero, made the union’s intention known on Monday at a media briefing in Jos, shortly after addressing staff of the Jos zonal office of the union on their unpaid gratuities and pension.
Nigeria has again rebuffed the calls by some western nations to recognise same-sex marriage. The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Bello Adoke (SAN), while addressing the Human Rights Council of the United Nations at the 17th Session of the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, Switzerland, said Nigeria did not accept the recommendation on same-sex marriage because it was against the country's national value. He said Nigerians’ moral and religious obligation forbade same-sex marriage and that to accept the recommendation to legalise same-sex marriage would amount to staging a coup against the people. According to him, recent polling data suggests that 92 per cent of Nigerians support the Anti-Same-sex Marriage Bill passed by the Senate.
President Goodluck Jonathan will today embark on holy pilgrimage to Israel. In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, Jonathan will meet with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. According to the statement, talks between the president’s delegation and Israeli government officials are expected to focus on the enhancement of bilateral relations between Nigeria and Israel in areas including trade, economic development, infrastructure, transportation, agriculture, communications, culture, education and tourism.
One month into the ongoing strike by members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), the federal government yesterday warned new and successful graduands of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) to desist from abusing the medical oath they swore to protect. The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, while admonishing resident doctors currently on strike in various public hospitals in Abuja, urged them to negotiate their terms, rather than making demands on the federal government. Speaking at the swearing in ceremony for foreign medical graduates who were successful in the MDCN’s assessment examination held between October 2 and 4, the minister stated that negotiation meant to give a little and take a little.
Health officials have confirmed the spread of cholera across various local government areas of some states in northern Nigeria. Latest reports showed that the disease, which outbreak was reported in Zamfara state two weeks ago, has spread to Sokoto. This was after medical authorities, at the weekend, confirmed that it killed eight people in southern part of Plateau state. cholera has killed no fewer than 63 people in the past week, across Plateau, Sokoto and Zamfara states. The medics said the disease hit Namu, a village in Qua’an Pan local government area Plateau state at its border with Nasarawa state where eight people were killed, while 61 were hospitalised. Namu hosts displaced people in the violent crisis that broke out in the Obi local government area of Nasarawa state.
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has denied reports that the agency bought four Limousines along with other brands for the ministry of aviation or its leadership. In a statement by NAMA General Manager Public Affairs Supo Atobatele, the agency described the information as false, misleading and malicious . Atobatele said: “We hereby make it categorically clear to the unsuspecting public that this evil story as being promoted, is patently false in its entirety and calculated to put the agency and the office of the minister into disrepute.
THE police in Lagos State have started investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a 14 - year - old girl , who was allegedly beaten to death by his father over which church to attend. The police in the state have arrested the 72-year-old father, John Udin, who was accused of killing his daughter for refusing to follow him to his church. The mother of the deceased girl, Comfort Udin, accused her husband of being excessively angry since the deceased refused to attend his church. She accused the man of using a log, laced with nails, to hit the deceased, simply identified as Ejiro, in the forehead, which subsequently led to her death.
Fidelity Bank Plc has appointed Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, Chief Executive Officer designate, to take over from Mr. Reginald Ihejiahi, who is expected to retire from the bank, February 2014. According to a statement by the bank, Okonkwo, who is currently Executive Director in charge of South Directorate of the bank, holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agric Economics from the University of Benin and an MBA in Banking & Finance from EnuguStateUniversity. The bank also said he is a graduate of the Advanced Management Programme of INSEAD Business School, Fontainebleau, France, adding that he has attended various business and management training locally and overseas, including HarvardBusinessSchool, Oxford. Experience
The Senate on Tuesday said that the calls for a Sovereign National Conference by some Nigerians could lead to anarchy. It also pledged to provide the required legal framework to ensure the success of the proposed National Constitutional Conference. The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said this when he received the Senator Femi Okurounmu’s Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue, on behalf of Senate President David Mark, at the new Senate building in Abuja. He said, “When we hear people talking about Sovereign National Conference, there must be a legal framework for it.
The declining fortunes of the domestic airlines have made President Goodluck Jonathan’s 10-aircraft Presidential Air Fleet larger than the fleets of three domestic airlines combined, investigations by our correspondent revealed on Tuesday. The three carriers are Chanchangi, MedView, and FirstNation airlines. Chanchangi has one aircraft; Medview Airlines, three; while FirstNation has two. IRS Airlines, with five aircraft in its fleet, has only one that is currently operational. The four others have been sent overseas for routine maintenance for a long time now. It can be technically assumed that the PAF is bigger than the four domestic airlines, according to industry experts.
