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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2013
ASUU distributes foodstuffs, cash to members in Abuja By Usman Shu’aibu
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he leadership of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Abuja Chapter has distributed foodstuffs such as bags of rice and vegetable oil as well as cash loans to members, so as to cope with difficulties arising from its over three months old nationwide strike.
The chairman of the Chapter, Dr. Clement Chup, who disclosed this to Peoples Daily during its congress meeting in Gwagwalada, also said that the union provided soft loans for the members, to assist them financially. He said that as long as government refused to implement the 2009 Agreement the ASUU’s leadership would continue to embark on the strike.
He said that for the past three months now, the government had refused to pay salaries, which according to him, shows that the government is irresponsible to its duties. While commenting on the press interview granted to some purported leaders of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), which described the ASUU strike as selfishly
People undergoing eye test, during World Sight Day celebration, yesterday in Abuja.
motivated, Chup said that those parading themselves as the leaders of NANS were medicine students not NANS leaders. The chairman, however, disclosed that the leadership of the union had visited both Muslim and Christian communities, to enlighten them on the importance of the strike and the need to bear with the leadership of the union.
Photo: NAN
Court orders FHA to produce title documents of disputed apartment in Lugbe By Stanley Onyekwere
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ustice Angela Otaluka, of Abuja High Court yesterday ordered the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to produce the title documents to House 28, 21C Rd., FHA Estate, Lugbe, to determine its genuine owner. In the ruling, Otaluka granted the order after counsel to Mrs. Seyiyah Omeiza, a plaintiff, Mr.
Gabriel Okpata, prayed the court to grant such accordingly. Otaluka ruled that: “The application by the plaintiff’s counsel for a court order compelling the first defendant to produce the identity of the second allotee of the said apartment on oath is, hereby, granted. “Producing the full identity and title documents of the second allotee, are necessary for the proper determination of this
case.” It would be recalled that Omeiza had sued the FHA for failing to deliver a two-bedroom apartment to her after she had fully paid N2.2 million for it. Also joined in the suit is the Federal Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development, as second defendant. The plaintiff’s counsel had told the court that his client
paid for the house on August 12, 2008, but later discovered that it was allocated to another person, who is also laying claim to it. Earlier, counsel to the defendants, Kingsley Jato, had prayed the court to dismiss the applicant’s motion, arguing that it was aimed at wasting the time of the court. Otaluka adjourned the case to November 28 for further hearing.
Theft: Court sentences two students to one month imprisonment
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Dutse Senior Magistrates’ Court in Abuja has sentenced two students, who are juveniles, to one month in prison each for house-breaking and theft. The Senior Magistrate, Mr Chekwuemeka Nweke, sentenced them, after they pleaded guilty. Nweke, however, gave them an option to pay a fine of two thousand naira each. In his judgment, he ordered that the convicts should write an undertaking to be of good behaviour for the next 18 months, with their parents standing as sureties.
Nweke said that the sentence was to serve as deterrent to people of like mind. It will be recalled that on Oct. 4, the Police Prosecutor, Cpl Isaac Kaura, prayed the court to try the convicts, who are juveniles, under Section 71 of the Penal Code. Kaura said that on Sept. 26, at about noon, information was received that three men suspected to be thieves were operating in the neighbourhood at Plot A27, Dawaki Extension, Layout, Abuja. According to Kaura, one Sgt. Dambak Meshak,
and two other policemen from the Dawaki Police Outstation arrested the convicts while they were stealing from the apartment. Kaura said that the convicts were arrested in possession of six different types of wrist watches, two cell phones and one Sony recorder, valued at N200, 000. The convicts, who pleaded guilty, had begged the court to be lenient and to forgive them; and promised to be of good behaviour and to stay away from bad friends, whom they claimed, lured them into the crime. (NAN)
AEPB enforcement of waste bins in commercial vehicles generates mixed reactions
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he move by the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) to enforce the use of waste bins in commercial vehicles is generating mixed reactions from drivers, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports. In separate interviews with NAN on Wednesday, observed that some passengers littered the vehicle with waste materials instead of throwing such wastes into the baskets. A driver with FAB-REM Mass Transit Company, Ambrose Nnodim, said the refusal of some passengers to use the waste baskets often caused misunderstanding between his conductor and passengers. “The company has provided two waste bins for the bus, one in the front and another at the back; but passengers prefer to dump waste inside the bus or throw them out from the windows. “My conductor quarrels with passengers’ every day, because he is the one that normally sweeps the refuse when they get down from the bus,’’ he said. Corroborating, Nnodim’s view, a conductor with Abuja Urban Mass Transit, Sule Abdullahi, said passengers had fought him several times while trying to correct them on the proper disposal of refuse. ``Dropping waste inside the bus can cause a lot of damages; for instance if someone steps on banana peels on the floor, it can make someone fall and sustain injury,’’ he said. Another, driver with FAB-REM, Mr. Jacob Akanbi, particularly complained that passengers’ attitude towards the use of waste bins required proper sensitisation by the AEPB, for there to be any conformity to the directive. “We want government to put proper mechanism in place or to sanction the people involved, to reduce this menace before it gets out of hand’’, he said. On his part, a taxi driver, Jibola Akintola, however said that the AEPB task force had been after them to purchase a waste basket for their vehicles, adding that there was no space for it. Similarly, the Chairman, National Union of Road Transport Workers, (NUTRW), Park Town Services, Jabi Mr. Lawrence Fadipe, also expressed dissatisfaction over the manner the AEPB harassed taxi drivers over the use of the waste bins. He said though AEPB was trying to enforce the regulation to promote sanity, they should consider the lack of space to fix them. (NAN)