The protest in Enugu state by the Enugu Residents against Peter Mbah for Sealing their shops has resulted to an innocent citizen loosing his life to the law enforcement agencies.
It’s quite unfortunate that a promising future and destiny has been cut short.
Peter Mbah definitely wouldn’t have it easy with the people of Enugu state with the way he is going.
Meanwhile, the 5 eastern Governors know exactly what to do to end the precarious sit-at-home…
Locking of people’s shop can never be a solution to this as you can force people to go home but can never force someone to come out…..
Someone wrote :
A young man has just been gunned down for joining the ongoing protests at Ogbete market, Enugu. Why were they protesting? They were protesting against the sealing of shops by Peter Mbah; a directive which he gave to discourage sit at home. You want to end sit-at-home, yet, you lock up people’s shops? You see why some of us continue to decry the high-handness of these politicians, especially, the wicked and illegitimate ones? And as for the stupid, trigger-happy and untrained cowards that have been empowered with guns and uniforms by their fellow cultists, may you also meet violent ends. I hope the rest of the protesters were able to catch that unfortunate shooter and make him face the law.
Niger President Mohamed Bazoum is being detained by members of the Presidential Guard, who have been given an “ultimatum” by the army.
Disgruntled members of the guard sealed off access to the president’s residence and offices, and after talks broke down “refused to release the president,” the source said, adding: “The army has given them an ultimatum.”
Bazoum was democratically elected in 2021, taking the helm of one of Africa’s poorest and most coup-prone countries.
President Bola Tinubu who is the chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has frowned at the unfolding “mutiny” scenario, stressing that the body will not tolerate acts that undermine democracy in the region.
In a terse statement, Tinubu said the leadership of the ECOWAS region will not tolerate any situation that incapacitates the democratically-elected government of Niger.
“The ECOWAS leadership will not accept any action that impedes the smooth functioning of legitimate authority in Niger or any part of West Africa,” Tinubu said.
“I wish to say that we are closely monitoring the situation and developments in Niger and we will do everything within our powers to ensure democracy is firmly planted, nurtured, well rooted and thrives in our region.”
The president noted that he was in close consultation with other leaders in the region, and vowed to protect “our hard-earned democracy in line with the universally acceptable principle of constitutionalism”.
“As the chairperson of ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, I state without equivocation that Nigeria stands firmly with the elected government in Niger and equally conveys the absolute resolve of leaders in our sub-region that we shall not waiver or flinch on our stand to defend and preserve constitutional order,” he added.
Niger is one of the most unstable nations in the world, experiencing four coups since independence from France in 1960.
An Onitsha High Court in Anambra state, presided over by Justice D. A. Onyefulu has sentenced a notorious robbery kingpin, Ikechukwu Udensi (a.k.a Ikanda) to death by hanging for killing a successful Onitsha businessman, late Ndubuisi Nwokolo in the state.
Udensi had been standing trial since 2019 for the gruesomely murdering the late Nwokolo on June 29, 2018, a day to the ban of commercial motorcycles in Onitsha.
The convict who until his arrest and prosecution was a revenue collection agent to the Anambra state government
and on the process of trying to extort a commercial motorcyclist conveying Ndubuisi Nwokolo at No 21 Otumoye street Odoakpu, Onitsha, stabbed him to death for daring to stop him from extorting the commercial motorcyclist.
The death of Mr Nwokolo generated public outcry in the state, raising concerns why Ikanda should be killing people in the course of revenue collection or at any slightest provocation.
After committing the crime, Ikanda was on the run untill Anambra State Police Command under the leadership of CP Mustapha Dandaura declared him wanted and placed one million naira bounty on anybody that could give information leading to his arrest.
He was subsequently arrested on March 31 2019, paraded, prosecuted, committed to prison custody in Onitsha and now convicted.
His conviction gave succour to Nwokolo’s family, who for the past five year, has been crying for justice; and here, the long-awaited justice came at last.
Delivering the judgement at High Court Onitsha, Justice Onyefulu said the convict Ikanda shall be hanged untill life goes out of him and shall be committed to the prison custody before his death.
The mother of the deceased, Mrs Kate Nwokolo has continually cried for justice against IKANDA over the unwarranted gruesome murder of his son and breadwinner of the family (Ndubuisi Nwokolo), leaving behind his wife and children to wallow in penury for the past five years.
She thanked the God of Justice for allowing the truth to prevail and expressed satisfaction with the judiciary for doing the needful at this moment in time.
In a judgement paper made available to newsmen, the case was contained in Charge No 0/48c/2019 between the State versus Ikechukwu Udensi (Ikanda); the prosecuting counsel was Tonia Nnabuife, Senior State Counsel for the state while Barr C. J Agbata stood for the convict.
SOURCE: 247UREPORTS
The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) on Tuesday night declared an indefinite nationwide strike.
President of the association, Dr Orji Emeka Innocent, said the strike will commence at 12 midnight on Tuesday.
He said the strike was declared during the National Executive Council meeting of the association in Lagos.
According to Innocent, the major demands of the association are : immediate payment of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) , immediate release of the circular on one-for-one replacement , payment of skipping arrears and upward review of CONMESS in line with full salary restoration to the 2014 value of CONMESS.
It had in a communique issued after its virtual extraordinary national executive council (NEC) meeting decried government‘s slow response to it’s demands despite giving it several ultimatums and embarking on a five day warning strike from May 17th to 21st this year.
It said, “The resolutions of the conciliatory meeting chaired by the then Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment were yet to be implemented, seven weeks after, despite the set time lines for their implementation.”
NARD said the major demands of the association are : immediate payment of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) , immediate release of the circular on one-for-one replacement , payment of skipping arrears and upward review of CONMESS in line with full salary restoration to the 2014 value of Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS).
Others are payment of the arrears of consequential adjustment of minimum to the omitted doctors , reversal of the downgrading of the membership certificate by Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN ) , payment of MRTF, new hazard allowance, skipping and implementation of corrected CONMESS in State Tertiary Health Institutions and payment of omitted hazard allowance arrears.
The National Industrial Court in Abuja has dismissed the suit filed by the Academic staff union of Nigeria (ASUU) challenging the registration of Congress of Nigerian University Academics, CONUA and Nigeria Association of Medical and Dental Academics, NAMDA, as trade unions by the federal government.
The President of the court, Justice Benedict Kanyip, while delivering judgment, held that section 27 of the Trade Union Act allows for more than one trade Union in employment, as the section does not depict trade monopoly.
Justice Kanyip held that the evidence presented by ASUU was inconsequential because when the suit was filed on October 26, 2022, CONUA and NAMDA registration had not yet been gazetted in line with section 523 of the Trade Union Act.
The court further held that ASUU also committed an error by filing against NAMDA as the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics instead of the Nigeria Association of Medical and dental academics.
Justice Kanyip who held that NAMDA was not in existence at the time ASUU filed the suit and refused all the reliefs sought by ASUU.
A federal high court in Lagos has granted bail to Godwin Emefiele, suspended governor of as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in the sum of N20 million.
The bail application was filed by Emefiele’s lawyers led by Mr. J. B. Dauda SAN.
Dauda prayed the court to grant the banker bail on self recognizance, noting that his client had fulfilled all the conditions necessary to make the application ripe for hearing.
He noted further that the proof of service endorsed by the AGF’s office was in the court’s file.
Dauda urged the court to end the oppression of his client by the Department of State Security (DSS) which arrested him and hear the bail application.
“There should be an end to oppression,” he said.
But the government’s lawyer, a Deputy Director of Prosecution (DDPP), told Justice Nicholas Oweibo that she had “not been given the bail application. As I stand here, I have not set eyes on it.”
But in a ruling on Tuesday, Nicholas Oweibo, the presiding judge, said the charges against Emefiele are bailable.
Emefiele is standing trial on a two-count charge which accuses him of possessing a single-barrel shotgun (JOJEFF MAGNUM 8371) without a licence on June 15 at Ikoyi.
The Federal Government, which is prosecuting him, maintained that the offence was contrary to Section 4 of the Firearms Act, 2004, and punishable under Section 27 (1b) of the same Act.
In the second count, the suspended CBN Governor was accused of having in his possession 123 rounds of live ammunition (Cartridges) without a licence, which was contrary to Section 8 of the Firearms Act 2004 and punishable under Section 27 (1)(b)(il) of the same Act.
The senator representing Edo North senatorial district, Adams Oshiomhole, has said his cleaner is paid a salary of not less than N60,000 monthly.
Gists9ja reports that the lawmaker knocked the current monthly minimum wage of N30,000 in the country while describing it as a criminal wage.
He observed that the average responsible private-sector employer in the country is a better employer than the Federal Government or state government.
He says, “What we call minimum wage is a criminal wage.”
Oshiomhole, who made the submission during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, stated that “If you exchange N30,000 at N800 or N700 to the dollar, what does that translate to? So, the value of that minimum wage when it was N125 – when it was first introduced under, I think, (Shehu) Shagari’s government – is about two times or three times the value many years later, even in the public service.
“I can tell you what I have decided to pay my cleaner. My cleaner is just a primary school – I’m not sure she has even a school leaving certificate. But she’s knowledgeable enough to clean the house.
“I found myself unable to pay her less than N60,000 – in fact, N60,000. It’s about my conscience. I’m trying to imagine what she has to pay for a house. She told me she has four children.
“I’m trying to imagine how she has to look after those children, and I cannot question why she should have four children.”
The lawmaker further noted that he understands the cost of living and couldn’t have decided to pay less than that “in a clean conscience.”
Speaking further, Oshiomhole said, “If I have chosen to employ a cleaner and chosen not to clean the house by myself, that is the least I thought I could pay.
“If I do that to my cleaner, I have to do a little more to my driver because he requires some training and, sometimes, even retraining, and my security is in his hands.”
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) helped his case by failing to provide clear copies of election results.
The LP flag bearer stated this in his final written address submitted to the Presidential Election Petitions Court, Abuja.
According to Obi, INEC inadvertently confirmed his claim that the electoral umpire shortchanged him by 2.5 million votes in the final results of the February 25 presidential election declared by the commission.
Akelicious recalls that Obi’s fourth witness at the PEPC, a professor of Mathematics at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra, Eric Uwaduegwu Ofoedu, had tendered expert reports stating “I observed that, from the IREV portal, scores on Form EC8As of 39,546 polling units were inaccessible – contain uploads not connected with the Presidential Election.”
The professor added that “From the IREV portal, 18,088 polling units results were blurred. This number of Pus negatively impacted the votes of 2,565,269 accredited voters and 9,165,191 voters that collected their PVCS.”
However, INEC had insisted that there was no “credible evidence” that the 18,088 blurred polling units results Obi’s team downloaded from the INEC Results Viewing Portal(IREV), amounted to 2,565,269 additional votes in his favour.
But Obi’s lead counsel argued that when INEC was subpoenaed to produce Form EC8As, including the scanned copy it uploaded to IREV, the electoral body presented certified documents that where either manifestly blurred or blank, purporting they were the results of the election in respective polling units.
He argued that the blurred copies certified by INEC cannot by any stretch of imagination be described as the authentic version of the actual Form EC8A containing the records of the figures obtained by the candidates in the respective polling units, “yet INEC certified these blurred copies/images as true copies of what is in their possession.
He urged the court to declare that “a certified copy is a copy of a document certified as true by the officer who has the custody of the original.”
Obi’s lawyers further contended that the electoral umpire has helped their case by producing a certified unreadable Form EC8As uploaded on IREV as a copies of the original in its possession.
Good Governance Ministry has advised Nigeria Politicians including the Presidency to stop deceiving Nigerians. In short message released by the group and posted on her Twitter page ,the group advised President Tinubu to pay cash award of N200,000 monthly to all Nigeria workers both in Federal ,State and Private employment . The cash award should be paid immediately and for a period of 6 months . Also ,all the unemployed adults from the age of 18 should be paid social security package of N50,000 monthly . This payment will be done through National identification numbers and should be done immediately. GGM believes that timely execution of this policy will assist to achieve even and equitable distribution of windfalls from the removal of oil subsidy, end people suffering and increase people purchasing power to keep the domestic market afloat . However ,GGM noted that this is short term measure .
In a medium term period ,the Country should be returned to true federal system as promoted by President Tinubu and Afenifere during military era. Nigeria is the only federation where the resources are shared from the centre and that is why the Country has not progressed. GGM stands for a restructured Nigeria anchored on true federalism based on Regional / State Autonomy.
GGM advises that no multi-ethnic Nation can thrive under a political structure and culture that concentrate power and functions at the centre.
GGM therefore insists that the resources of Nigeria must be evenly distributed to create happiness and economic prosperity.
This statement was signed by Ndubuisi Anaenugwu for Good Governance Ministry
The Federal Government is leaning towards tackling the hardship caused by the removal of fuel subsidy with a twin agenda.
This, according to Vanguard and Empowered Newswire sources, includes the provision of palliatives to cushion the effects of the removal of subsidy and N200,000 minimum wage put forward by labour.
Vanguard learned that this might set labour and organised private sector on a collision course with the Federal Government, as their processes at arriving at minimum wage, which the government is not following at the moment.
It was also learned that the absence of a Labour Minister to drive the negotiation process might further compound the issue.
It will be recalled that the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC, demanded this figure, against the current N30,000 minimum wage, which they described as too meagre to mitigate effects of fuel subsidy removal.
President and Secretary General of TUC, Festus Osifo and Nuhu Toro, respectively, had put forward labour’s demand: “Minimum wage should be increased from the current N30,000 to N200,000 before the end of June 2023, with consequential adjustments on the cost of living allowance, COLA, like feeding, transport, housing, etc.
“A representative of state governors will be party to this communiqué and all the governors must commit to implement the new minimum wage.
“Tax holiday for employees both in government and private sector that earn less than N200,000 or $500 monthly, whichever is higher. PMS allowance to be introduced for those earning between N200,000 and N500,000 or $500 to $1,200, whichever is higher.
“The exchange rate for retailing PMS in the country must be kept within a limit of two per cent for the next 10 years where the fluctuation is more than two per cent, the minimum wage will automatically increase at the same rate.
“Setting up of intervention fund where the government will be paying N10 per litre on all locally consumed PMS. The primary purpose of this fund is to solve perennial and protracted national issues in education, health and housing. A governance structure that will include labour, civil society and government will be put in place to manage the implementation.’’
‘FG disposed to N200,000 minimum wage’
But Vanguard gathered that though the Federal Government was disposed to paying the N200,000 minimum wage, governors have restated their inability to pay, as it happened when minimum wage was raised to N30,000 some years ago.
Consequently, it was learned that the government has set up a technical working group, led by Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo, to work out the technical details, with a view to resolving the issues.
A source told Vanguard last night that the matter was tabled and discussed at last month’s National Economic Council, NEC, meeting, led by the Vice President Kashim Shettima.
At the meeting, the source said the Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission assured that government could meet up with the responsibility of paying the N200,000 minimum, per month, citing money that could be saved from subsidy removal and the floating of the value of the naira.
The commission reportedly explained that with money to be saved from these policies, more money would be allocated to states to enable them pay the new wage.
But at the meeting, the state governors who make up the membership of NEC were said to have raised questions querying the proposal, insisting they might not be able to pay.
The source added that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was personally convinced that the demand of Labour was not unrealistic, pointing to his campaign promises as a proof of his readiness to pay.
Also recall that before his swearing-in on May 29, the President had on Workers Day on May 1 stated that: “In the Nigeria, I shall have the honour and privilege to lead from May 29, workers will have more than a minimum wage. You will have a living wage to have a decent life and provide for your families.”
It was learned this explained the reason the President was unperturbed when labour demanded the N200,000 minimum wage.
‘Need to know where money for this is coming from’ the governors at the meeting was Anambra State governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, who was said to have argued that before adopting the presentation to significantly raise the National Minimum Wage, it would be important for NEC to first understand where the money would come from, how much would come and what states would get.
This, according to a source, necessitated the explanation of the national salaries, income and wages commission.
It was also gathered that at the June NEC meeting, a sub-committee was formed to review the situation as was publicly announced.
The committee comprised governors, led by Kebbi State governor and six others representing the geo-political zones of the country.
According to a source, they include Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo (South East); Bwenue State Governor Rev Fr Hycinth Alia (North Central); Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed (North East); Cross Rivers State Governor, Bassey Otu (South-South); Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani (North-West) and Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde (South-West).
In the Sub-Committee are the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, the Accountant-General of the Federation, and the representative of NNPCL.
Others include representatives from Organised Labour (TUC and NLC) and Ms Rukayyat El-Rufai,
according to a statement from the Office of the Vice President.
It was learned that the responsibility of Soludo’s technical working group, was to interrogate issues around a new minimum wage, with the understanding that both the federal and state governments would pay the new minimu wage.
Under Soludo’s leadership the TWG has met at least thrice last month — 24th, 27th and 30th; and it resolved that “negotiations with labour must be two-tracked between the federation on the one hand and the Federal Government on the other.
Vanguard gathered that later this month, NEC will meet to receive the report of the sub-committee and take a final decision on the National Minimum Wage which would then be forwarded to the President as an advisory.
Minimum wage to be reviewed in 2024
However, President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Joe Ajaero, had at the recent 111th Session of International Labour Conference, ILC, in Geneva Switzerland, said what the Federal Government is working on does not amount to minimum wage, stressing that it is just an award, similar to the Udoji award of the 70s.
Ajaero had said: “Minimum wage will be due by early next year. And we will review minimum wage statutorily. Because they have removed subsidy without providing anything in the agreement we had with the government, that is why they are talking about minimum wage.
‘’Now, the Federal and state governments are talking at cross purposes. It is important that people understand the concept when they use minimum wage wrongly or rightly. We have proposed to them a wage award, which could be implemented immediately without waiting for the statutory period for the minimum wage law or for it to expire.
“What we are going to do is to look at the rate at which this wage award will be, whether it will be N100,000 or N200,000. This will not stop the review of minimum wage by early next year. It is good we draw this demarcation.
“There is wage award and there is minimum wage. Even early this year, the Federal Government paid some of its workers such money. They gave them a kind of wage award of about 40 per cent that has nothing to do with minimum wage. But it was to cushion the effects of the suffering effects of COVID-19 and others.
“Now that we are having the effect of this subsidy removal, we will look at an award that will cushion it. In this country, even in the 70s, we had the Udoji Award and others. Whatever we are going to come up with we will achieve, but not minimum wage.
“Why will you engage in minimum wage negotiations now because they remove subsidy. The ruling class, especially state governors, have not abided with the Minimum Wage Act and have not been able to convince anybody why they are not paying N30, 000 minimum wage.
“They are the people who are pronouncing the salary increase.
“For somebody that is still paying N18,000 when minimum wage is N30, 000, if you increase it to N100,000, what will he pay? Some of them are trying to prove that they don’t have any idea about the economy of the state. They are now saying there will be three working days and so on as a temporary measure.’’
