News 12
Daily Times Nigeria Friday, September 11, 2015
Group faults fresh query to Osun judge by NJC Sodiq Adekunle Osogbo
ÎÎÎThe Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEO) has faulted the fresh query issued to Justice Folahanmi Oloyede by the National
Judicial Council(NJC) and accused it of bias and acting under false information. The Osun judge had called for the removal of the State Governor, Mr Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola and his deputy,Mrs Grace Titilayo Laoye-Tomori
over an alleged financial misconduct. The Osun State House of Assembly investigated the judge’s petition but did not find Governor Aregbesola guilty. Members of the OSHA and prominent lawyers,
including Prof. Itsey Sagay recommended that the Osun judge be punished, after which the NJC issued her a query. Apart from them, the Osun Civil Societies Coalition(OCSC) also wrote another petition against the judge, amount-
ing to another query. Commenting on the latest query, CSCEO’s Chairman, Comrade Adeniyi Sulaiman, in a statement on Thursday in Osogbo declared that those who authored the purported petition which NJC relied on to issue the fresh query to Justice Oloyede were people of questionable characters. He also alleged that the second petition was the handiwork of aides to Governor Aregbesola, who wanted Justice Oloyede sanctioned for daring to expose allege mismanagement of resources. He said: “It is very unfortunate that Mr Aregbesola through his cronies mislead the public, particularly, the respected apex body of bencher, National Judicial Council(NJC) to issue a query wrongly to the courageous Justice Olamide Folahanmi Oloyede, not knowing that those who signed the petition are direct beneficiaries of Mr
Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola’s government.” Sulaiman continued: “It also a surprise to the people of Osun State, especially, members of CSCEO that the NJC can act on the purported petition of Osun Civil Societies Coalition(OCSC) without investigating the petitioners as being stipulated in the revised ‘2014 National Judicial Council discipline Regulations’ to know the veracity of their genuineness. “We believe that NJC under the leadership of Justice Mahamud will therefore stands to reason that such doubtful elements cannot and will never find anything wrong with the inability of their principal, the embattled Governor Aregbesola, to discharge his constitutional duties to Osun citizens and his gross mismanagement of the State resources which has left education,health and commercial sector of the State in comatose.”
Labour holds nationwide anti-graft rallies President Muhammadu Buhari (right) welcome the visiting President Faure Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo who is on two –Day state visit to Nigeria at the Presidential Villa, Abuja… on Thursday
Massive losses at stock exchange Continued from page 6 Onadele, FMDQ’s managing director, told Reuters. Analysts estimate foreign holdings of Nigerian bonds at less than $2.75 billion. Traders said domestic pension funds were picking up the slack as foreign buyers exit. In another development, the central bank reduced the time limit for funding currency purchases to 24 hours from 48 hours to stem a surge in the demand for the dollars, dealers said. “Investors are concerned about how the proceeds from the sales will be funded based on the current level of the external
reserves at $31.5 billion,” said Ayodeji Ebo, head of research at Afrinvest. “The central bank’s ability to defend the naira may be hampered, hence devaluation may be inevitable. Foreign investors exposed to Nigerian equities will prefer to exit positions ahead of any official devaluation.” An equity market selloff which started on Wednesday continued as foreign investors panicked by the bond expulsion sold shares to exit Nigeria. The stock market, which has the second-biggest weighting after Kuwait on the MSCI frontier market index, was down 1.87 percent in early trade.
According to Bloomberg, Nigeria has gone almost full circle from a favored investor destination in Africa three years ago -because of its status as the continent’s largest crude producer and most populous nation -- to being rebuffed. While most of the weakening sentiment is due to the more than halving in oil prices since last year, a series of missteps by the central bank and President Muhammadu Buhari’s delay in appointing an economic team are adding to the slide, it added. The JPMorgan news is “a clear signal of dampened investor sentiment,” Manji Cheto, vice presi-
dent of Teneo Intelligence in London, said by phone on Wednesday. “For things to turn around so quickly in three years’ time shows how important it is for governments to recognize that market sentiment is so fickle, and I don’t think the Nigerian government ever really understood this.” Nigerian bonds were added to JPMorgan’s Government Bond IndexEmerging Markets Index, or GBI-EM, in 2012 after the central bank under Lamido Sanusi had scrapped foreign investment restrictions and took measures to control inflation and steady the currency.
Continued from page 6 the moves for the recovery of the looted funds in the past.” The workers also took the message to the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), David Lawal Babachir, where the workers said that they were always at the receiving end of corruption, and as such, they would not continue to tolerate it. While receiving a letter on behalf of Buhari, the SGF reminded the workers of the President’s commitment to the fight against corruption. He assured them that the President is aware of the demand for a corrupt-free society, and pledged to give utmost attention to their demands. At the National Assembly, the anti-corruption message was also passed to the legislators. The workers demanded that the law makers revisit the call for the enactment of the Whis-
tle blowers Act. The workers however requested that the outcome of past probes on corruption, including the possible outcome of the ongoing power sector probe by the Senate be published for public scrutiny. They warned that they would not hesitate to mobilise against the legislators if any legislation that would whittle down the strength of the anti-corruption fight is contemplated. The workers also pleaded with judges handling corruption cases to desist from frustrating the effort through frivolous adjournments. Receiving them on behalf of the leadership of the National Assembly, Senator Sani Zoro, assured the workers of the commitment of the 8th National Assembly to support the fight. He promised to immediately hand over the letter to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki for proper attention.