Agbakoba drags FG to court over non-inclusion of Igbos in NNPC board

A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) has filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, challenging the non-inclusion of the South East Zone of Nigeria, in appointments to the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation of Nigeria.

Strike: Kogi workers begin 3-day fasting

The organized labour in Kogi State has called on civil servants in the state to begin a 3-day corporate prayers with fasting from Wednesday, October 11. In a statement jointly issued by the state chapters of the NLC, TUC and the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council (JPSNC), Olakunle Faniyi, Kolawole James and Isah Abubakar, Secretaries of NLC, TUC and JPSNC respectively, Labour urged Kogi workers to observe the 3-day fasting and prayers in their respective estates, settlements and villages from Wednesday 11th to Friday 13th October 2017 as from 10.00 am each day. “You are to use the period to gather in Mosques, Churches and other agreed places close to your residences at an agreed time for corporate prayer to call upon God for His divine intervention in our matter in Kogi state. Pray to God to continue to give us the boldness and confidence to continually resist the temptation to sell our future for a morsel of porridge. We are resolute as we take our case to God. “As you are already aware, the government is sending what it refers to as the balance of July salary into the account of some workers. Come to think of it- workers/pensioners who have not taken salary/pension between two (2) and twenty­ one(21) months, what is their fate? Our future as represented by our demands worth more than the balance of July salary, so let us not be deterred from this struggle for our emancipation. “We emphasize once more that nothing other than government meeting all our demands would make us retreat in this struggle. Where the government feels this is not practicable for now, our doors, as always, remain opened for dialogue because Kogi State belongs to all of us. “On Friday 13th October 2017, all Muslims are to book for prayers in their respective Mosques during the Juma’at Prayer, while Christians are to do the same on Sunday 15thOctober 2017 in their respective Churches during the Sunday Service. “Those that received the so-called balance of July salary should be benevolent to those that have been without salary all these while, even though is insufficient. You are advised that in your spending, let emphasis be on food as salary payment is not yet guaranteed in this state. “Workers who are fond of being used to lure others to offices through text messages and phone calls are advised to desist henceforth, as their contacts will soon be made public as saboteurs,” the statement read. The Labour urged workers to stay away from government offices as the strike continued indefinitely.

My government has failed Benue workers – Ortom

Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, says his government had failed in its responsibility of paying workers’ salaries. He admitted this in Markudi after meeting with national leaders of organised labour on Monday. “A worker deserves his wages, but the Benue government has not been able to fulfill that obligation. We have failed the workers in this regard,” Ortom said in Makurdi, He, however, said that factors responsible for the inability of the state government to pay salaries were beyond it. “Government is worried by its inability to pay workers and has constituted a Joint Technical Committee, comprising civil servants and government officials, to look into the issues surrounding the inability to pay salaries. “The committee will also work toward bringing down Benue’s high wage bill of N7.8 billion,” he said. National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, who also spoke to journalists after the meeting, said that the state government had made offers toward addressing the industrial action embarked upon by the state workers. Wabba advised government to plug loopholes that had pushed up the state’s wage bill which he said was “too high”. Wabba and Ortom, however, refused to disclose the offers made by the government.

Wike reveals those who ganged up to make Jonathan lose to Buhari

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has claimed that most cabinet members in the government of former President, Goodluck Jonathan took advantage of him. Wike also alleged that members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the north ganged up against Jonathan, in the build-up to the 2015 presidential election. Jonathan lost the election to President Muhammadu Buhari. “PDP in the north ganged up against Jonathan. Let the truth be told! Nobody will die! They were not sincere to him,” Wike said in the current edition of The Interview. “Let me tell you the truth; so many people were not sincere with Jonathan. You saw that even in the way some were being unduly sycophantic on issues that were totally out of point…I saw there was a lot of deceit. “Some of them would say, ‘Your Excellency, Sir, as I’m speaking with you now, so and so state is down for PDP’. It was all lies,” he said.

Biafra: How Nnamdi Kanu took advantage of Buhari’s medical absence – Aisha

Wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha Buhari, on Monday said the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu took advantage of the president’s absence to carry out his activities. Mrs Buhari while speaking at the presidential villa in Abuja said the absence of the president created a setback, that the IPOB leader leveraged on. “As a result of the president spending several months outside Nigeria, a 40-year-old man who was still living in his father’s house created a state out of a state and that is a major set back for the country and the health sector did not benefit,” she said. Earlier, Mrs Buhari had called for the probe of the management of Aso Rock clinic. She recall how she recently fell ill and was advised to travel to London for treatment, but she refused.

Ekiti APC LG chairmanship aspirant imprisoned over traffic offence

A blogger operating in Abuja and member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, Mrs Abimbola Adeniyi, was yesterday remanded in prison for alleged traffic offence. Adeniyi, 39, mother of three, who was supposed to declare her aspiration for the December 23, 2017 local government chairmanship election in her Iyin Ekiti countryhome in Irepodun /Ifelodun local government, allegedly committed the offence on Friday, October 6. She was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Richard Adegboye alongside a 23-year old mechanic operating in Ado Ekiti, Tope Ogidiolu, . The accused persons were arraigned by police prosecutor, Inspector Caleb Leramo . The charge sheet reads: “That you, Abimbola Adeniyi conspired with one Tope Ogidiolu to commit felony to wit serious assault and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 516 of the criminal code cap 616 volume 1 laws of Ekiti State 2012. “That you Abimbola Adeniyi and Tope Ogidiolu on the say day time and place at the aforementioned magisterial district did assault and willfully obstruct number 458158 corporal Adeosun Taiwo while performing his lawful and legitimate duty and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 356 subsection 2 subsection 5 of the criminal code Cap 616 volume 1 , Ekiti State laws of Nigeria 2012. “That you Abimbola Adeniyi and Tope ogidiolu assaulted Andrew John Adeyemi , a staff of the Ekiti State Traffic Management Agency while performing his lawful duty and thereby committed offence contrary to and punishable under section 356 subsection 1 (5) of the criminal code cap 616 volume 1, Ekiti State Laws 2012. “That you Abimbola Adeniyi and Tope Ogidiolu did willfully and maliciously damage the uniform of number 458158 corporal belonging to Adeosun Taiwo and thereby committed an offence and punishable under section 451 of the criminal code cap 16 volume 1 of the laws of Ekiti State”. The accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges . However, lawyer to the accused persons, Mrs Taiwo Ajibulu, applied for bail which was objected to by the prosecutor. Ajibulu said issues of traffic offence was bailable and that it will be a breach of the rights of her clients to be deprived of bail on account of flimsy excuse that she could jump bail. Magistrate Adegboye ordered that the accused persons be detained in police custody till October 13, 2017. Adeniyi , while speaking with journalists, said her detention was a clear case of political victimization and attempt to block her from declaring her chairmanship ambition.

Buhari is a growing cancer that should be cut out – Fani-Kayode

​Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode has described President Muhammadu Buhari as a “cancer” that should be cut out. Fani-Kayode made the remark while insisting that he would pay any price to deliver Nigerians from the “tyranny, evil, manifest corruption and double standards of the Buhari administration.” In a post on his Facebook page, the former Minister maintained that he would continue to speak out against the current government. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain stressed that his persistent criticism of the Buhari’s administration was based on the truth. According to Fani-Kayode, “There will be times that we are powerless when we face evil, injustice and tyranny but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. “This man Buhari is a cancer that keeps growing and the only proper thing to do is to cut it out. Some say that the path of uncompromising and relentless opposition that we have chosen is a dangerous and unpredictable one. They forget that the wounds of honor are self-inflicted. “If you want to be set apart and regarded as a man of courage, truth and honor, the champion of the oppressed and the voice of the voiceless you must be ready to take the blows, wounds and dire consequences that go with it. “William Shakespeare wrote “cowards die many times before their time but the valiant die but once” whilst Wole Soyinka wrote “the man died in him who remained silent in the face of tyranny”. “To top it all one of the most courageous souls of the 21st century, Edward Snowden, who is the American spy that defected to Russia two years ago, wrote “speak not because it is safe but because it is right. “Some of us have chosen to be valiant and have refused to remain silent. We made a choice to stand up and resist the chicanery and wickedness of this administration and we are prepared to pay the price for the choice that we have made. “I for one would rather live a short life and die as a free man than live a long life as a slave. The Bible says “he who holds on to his life will lose it and he who is ready to give up his life for my cause will gain it. “I do not fear any man or any circumstance because I know the God that I serve. I am a servant of truth, a warrior of light and a child of the Living God: I bow to no man and I do not tremble before tyrants. “I will endure anything and pay any price to liberate my nation and deliver my people from the chains of perfidy, ignorance and oppression and from the tyranny, evil, manifest corruption and double standards of the Buhari administration.” The former Minister had accused Buhari of bringing darkness that covered the glory of Nigeria.

Assemblies Of God Pastor Allegedly Stabs Nurse To Death

The Imo State Police Command, Umeneke Division has arrested an Assemblies of God pastor, Esom Jehovah, for allegedly stabbing a trainee nurse to death. The victim identified as Callista, approached the pastor over a missing phone battery and charger she was given to charge. An eye-witness told Sun that a boy in the compound gave the deceased a phone battery and charger to assist him recharge but Pastor Esom Jehovah’s first daughter stole the items which were later found in her custody five days after. ”The Pastor reacted angrily to the allegation against his daughter and beat up the deceased before his daughter went and picked a kitchen knife and stuck it deep into her back while her father held her down.” It was gathered that the 21-year-old daughter is currently on the run, while the Pastor who almost fled after stabbing the deceased with the knife was arrested by the police. The corpse has been deposited at the Holy Rosary Hospital morgue in the state.