National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net
South-West
Thursday, January 23, 2014
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our entitlements, NBA, PRAI blame extra-judicial Pay ex-aides tell Mimiko killings on weak justice system T A he Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, and a human rights group, Prisoners’ Rights Advocacy Initiative, PRAI, yesterday decried the spate of extra-judicial killings in the country. The two groups blamed the trend on the people’s loss of confidence in the country’s judicial system. They made their views known while reacting to the killing of two suspected armed robbers by some youths in Sabo, Yaba area of Lagos State. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two unidentified persons were stoned to death for allegedly robbing
a resident of his cell phones on January18. The groups told NAN that ignorance and loss of confidence in the criminal justice system were responsible for the upsurge in jungle justice. Chairman of the NBA, Ikeja branch, Mr. Onyekachi Ubani, said no group or individual had the right to take the life of another person in a civilized society. Ubani said: “There is absolute loss of confidence in our criminal justice system which makes people to resort to self-help. “They no longer believe that those who are arrested for one crime or the other will eventually be
prosecuted successfully.” According to him, most times, the suspects are released at the level of the police, while some are freed due to lack of diligent prosecution. “So, people are seeing that these criminals keep coming back into the society and becoming more dangerous,” he added. The NBA chairman, however, said that jungle justice has grave implications and that those who partake in such dastardly acts should be appropriately punished. Ubani said: “The law provides that an accused is innocent until he is proven guilty by a court of
competent jurisdiction.” On his part, the Coordinator, PRAI, Mr. Ahmad Adetola-Kazeem, said some persons believe that they would not get justice from the system. Adetola-Kazeem said others act out of ignorance, because they did not know the implication of partaking in the lynching of suspects. He said: “If more people know that a person is innocent until proven guilty by a court, they will stop the mob culture. “They will even be able to understand the circumstances that could have led the person to commit the crime and perhaps offer him a second chance.”
OJO OYEWAMIDE AKURE
group of political officeholders who served in the first term of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko’s administration have appealed to the governor to approve the payment of their furniture and severance allowances. The group, who are former commissioners, Special Advisers, Special Assistants and Education Secretaries, among others, said they did not deserve the treatment given to them by Governor Mimiko since they served the state diligently between 2009 and 2011. They said some of their colleagues had been duly paid and wondered why their case should be different, calling all the people close to the governor to
prevail on him to pay the wages of those who served under him since all efforts to get his listening hear have failed. In a letter of appeal dated September 9, 2013 and addressed to the governor, the former aides appealed to him to passionately look into their case and use his good office to order the payment of their outstanding furniture and severance package. The letter was jointly signed by the former Commissioner for Transport, Otunba Omoniyi Omodara; former Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Akin Akingbesote; former Commissioner for Natural Resources, Solagbade Amodeni; former Special Adviser on Politics and Planning, Saka Lawal; Johnson Jimoh and Olakunle Oyegoke.
N963.7m fraud: EFCC claims marketer didn’t import fuel
T L-R: Permanent Secretary, Office of Drainage Services, Mr. Muyideen Akinsanya; Director of Drainage Construction and Dredging, Mr. Dayo Erinle and Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello; during an inspection tour of ongoing drainage projects at Gbajumo area of Surulere, Lagos, yesterday.
FoI: SERAP drags Lagos to court over education votes
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human rights group, the SocioEconomic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has instituted a suit against the Lagos State government over ‘alleged failure’ to release information on its spending on education in the last five years. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the suit which was filed at the Federal High Court, Lagos, under the Freedom of Information, FoI Act, has yet to be assigned to a judge. A copy of the originating summons with suit number: FHC/L/ CS/57/2014, which was filed on January 16, was made available to NAN yesterday by SERAP’s Ex-
ecutive Director, Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni. NAN also reports that state governor, Babatunde Fashola and the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye, are joined in the suit as first and second defendants respectively. The suit followed a request to Fashola seeking for information and documents on government’s spending on furniture and other facilities in public schools in the last five years. The schools included Ewutuntun Grammar School in Mafoluku area of Oshodi; Ikeja Grammar School; Iloro Grammar School in Agege and Fagba Junior Grammar School, Iju Road.
The suit was filed pursuant to Section 4 (a) of the FoI Act and signed by SERAP’s counsel, Ms Oyindamola Musa. SERAP is asking the court to compel the government to release information on spending of the World Bank loan of $90 million meant to improve education in the state’s 639 public secondary schools. The group also wants the government to release details of projects carried out to improve infrastructure and facilities in primary and secondary schools. It argued that it had the right to request for the information under Section 4 (a) of the FoI Act. SERAP said the disclosure of the information
requested would give the public a true picture of how much the government had spent to improve education and also promote transparency in governance.
he Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday, told an Ikeja High Court that an oil marketer, Rowaye Jubril, committed fraud by collecting N963.7 million subsidy for petroleum products he never imported. The EFCC, through one of its officers, Mr. Abdullahi Mohammed, made the allegation at the resumed trial of Jubril before Justice Lateefat Okunnu. The witness testified that Jubril collected the sum from the Federal Government as subsidy payment for petroleum product he never imported into the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Jubril is being prosecuted alongside his company, Brila Energy Limited over alleged fraud. Led in evidence by EFCC’s counsel, Mr. Seidu Atteh, Mohammed told the court that he was part of the special team that investigated the alleged fraud in the Petroleum Support Fund, PSF, scheme. The witness testified that the defendant obtained the said sum from the Federal Government under the pretext that he had imported the agreed 13, 500 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, into Nigeria.
UI ASUU elects new officers, chairman retains position KEMI OLAITAN IBADAN
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he Chairman of the University of Ibadan chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Dr. Olusegun Ajiboye, was yesterday re-elected for a second term. Ajiboye, who was elected along with other new officers, was a distinct vocal voice during the FG/ASUU five-month
face-off over the nonimplementation of the 2009 agreement. He was re-elected for another two years at the biennial congress of the union held at the Lecture Hall of the Faculty of Arts of the premier university. Dr. Deji Omole emerged Secretary while Dr. Peter Olapegba, was elected Internal Auditor with Olisa Moujama emerging as the chapter’s Public
Relations Officer. Prof. M. G. Olujide was elected the new Vice-Chairman. Ibadan Zonal Coordinator of the union, Dr. Nasir Adesola, while performing the traditional introduction of the elected officers, admonished members to work with the new leadership with a view to actualising the goals of the union for education and their members.