MEMBERS of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, Shiite sect on Tuesday stormed the National Assembly premises, clashing with police officers and other security operatives with the number of casualties yet to be officially ascertained.
The members of the sect who were demanding the release of their leader, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, succeeded in gaining entry into the complex before allegedly disarming a policeman and used his gun to shoot two others.
The protesting members also damaged some vehicles including a police van in the complex, injuring a policeman in the process.
Manza Anjuluri, Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Police Police Public Relations Officer in a statement stated that officers of the police force had put the rising tension under control.
“The FCT Police Command has foiled a violent move by members of the El-Zakzakky Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, to forcefully invade the National Assembly on Tuesday, 10th July 2019.”
“Members of the sect during the violent protest shot two (2) police personnel on the leg, while clubs and stones were used to inflict injuries on six other policemen. The injured policemen have been taken to the hospital for prompt medical attention.
“Meanwhile, forty members of the sect have been arrested in connection with the violent protest while investigation is in progress,” he stated.
El-Zakzaky has been arrested since December 2015 after soldiers clamped down on his supporters and killed at least 347 of them. The soldiers accused the Shiite group of blocking a major road that was to be used by army chief Tukur Buratai.
Since the December 2015 incident, El-Zakzaky and his wife Zeenah have been in detention, first without trial for about a year. They were eventually charged with murder for the death of a soldier during the December 2015 incident.
Dozens of other Shiite members have been killed in different protests mainly in Abuja and Kaduna since the December 2015 incident.
The security agencies have often accused the Shiites of instigating violence by using various weapons including petrol bombs, allegations the Shiites have denied.
PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has approved the promotion of Lamidi Adeosun, the Nigerian Army Chief of Training and Operations from major general to Lieutenant General which is the same rank with Tukur Buratai, the country’s Chief of the Army Staff.
This was made known in a statement released by the Nigerian Army on Tuesday.
Apart from Adeosun, Buhari also approved the promotion of Brigadier General Abdulmalik Biu who is the General Officer Commanding 7 Division in Maiduguri, to the rank of Major General.
According to the statement, the two senior army officers were promoted for their patriotic and committed role in ending Boko Haram insurgency in the country’s north-east region.
“The present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to demonstrate total and unflinching support to the Armed Forces of Nigeria in the bid to effectively contain the security situation in the country especially activities of terrorists in the North East,” the statement read in part.
“The two senior officers are Major General LO Adeosun, the Chief of Training and Operations at Army Headquarters who has been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and Brigadier General AB Biu, General Officer Commanding 7 Division and Commander Sector 2 Operation LAFIYA DOLE Maiduguri, promoted to the rank of Major General. Also, promoted to the rank of Captain is Lieutenant AJ Danjibrin of 211 Demonstration Battalion Bauchi.”
The Nigerian Army noted that the two officers displayed “extraordinary feats, courage, exemplary leadership, loyalty, uncommon commitment and valour in the counter-insurgency operation in the Northern region”.
Buhari charged them to continue to be shining examples to their colleagues.
Meanwhile, Buratai, on behalf of officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army,has extended his best wishes to Adeosun and others promoted, the statement indicated.
Lieutenant General position of the Nigeria Army is the second most powerful rank, besides the General rank which is the highest. Until Adeosun promotion, Buratai was the only Lieutenant General of the nation’s Army, thereby holding the position of the Chief of Army Staff.
WHEN security footage showing him assaulting a nursing mother at an Abuja adult toy store got leaked last week, many were hearing the name, Elisha Abbo, for the first time. Very little was known about the 41-year-old senator and online searches didn’t offer much help either. Persons who have had interactions with him have, however, been opening up about what they know of the lawmaker’s unfamiliar past. One of them is Eunice Nkechi Ojukwu.
Eunice, Abbo’s sister-in-law and junior sister of his deceased wife, messaged after reading The ICIR‘s report about him. She had observed that her “late sister never had any kids for” him. What followed was a half-hour-long interview where she narrated the ordeal her sister, Uche Eucharia Ojukwu, went through before her death in 2013.
She felt offended after seeing Abbo’s televised apology. She thinks it was pretentious and full of lies, and this pushed her to finally speak up.
“[However] whatever I’m telling you now is what a dying person told me and the little I know about him when I saw him physically,” Eunice warns.
Domestic violence
Uche is the fifth child in a family of nine. She studied Economics at the University of Lagos and subsequently enrolled at an institution in Yola for a Master’s degree. It was while she participated in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in Nasarawa that she met Abbo, whose first wife already had a son for him and left. Then in 2009, they got married in Mubi, Adamawa.
During their marriage, Abbo was said to be frequently abusing his late wife.
“On several occasions, my junior sister has been called to come, that my sister’s husband was hitting her and all that,” Eunice recalls.
“There was even a time they went there and he had torn her dress, brought her out half-naked in front of the compound, and locked her out. It was the neighbour who gave her wrapper to cover herself and all that.”
At another time, Eunice reports that her siblings told her, he brandished a pistol to scare them off, but the gun wasn’t found when a friend eventually arrived to help. “I wasn’t there, I can’t even tell. But I know the two can’t be lying against him.”
Whenever Uche was urged to leave her husband, she would insist on carrying her cross and trying to fix her marriage. The lawmaker’s in-law says, sometimes when she helped her sister to clean up, she would notice new scars. “She’ll be like one of those days,” she adds with a shaky voice and then sniffles.
“It’s just terrible. It’s just terrible,” she continues, still sobbing quietly. “It’s just terrible that somebody can do this to a human being and he’s just walking the street so freely, and he has the gut to come on national television and open his dirty mouth to say he is a Christian.
“I’ve never hated any human being in my life, but this guy I’ve hated him since my sister died, and I’ve always wished him dead. But I know I’m a Christian, I’m not supposed to be doing that.”
Infected with HIV, medical complications
When Uche and Abbo married in 2009, she had no idea he was HIV positive. He didn’t inform her. She told her elder sister that, when the issue was raised, he refused to go for a test with her. He later went to a different hospital and returned with a result. Uche kept having one medical complication or the other but eventually died of kidney failure.
When she was diagnosed with osteomyelitis “as a result of trauma to the bone”, Eunice put the pieces together and figured it must be as a result of the frequent assaults she suffered.
“An open wound from trauma (post-traumatic wound) over a bone can lead to osteomyelitis,” confirms John Cunha, a U.S. board-certified Emergency Medicine Physician. “With an open fracture, bacteria may come in contact with the bone that punctures through the skin.”
The condition has also been directly linked to domestic violence in a 2014 study. “When they brought up the issue, I knew he was molesting her, do you understand? He kept beating her and all that; so when they brought up this story about trauma to the bone and all that, I said it makes much sense because he was beating her. He must’ve caused it,” Eunice says, heaving a sigh.
She explains that it seemed the bone infection “then led to the anaemia she had”, which caused her to lose a lot of blood.
The Sexual Offences Bill, passed in 2015 by the Senate, criminalises the act of intentionally infecting another person with a life-threatening sexually transmitted disease such as HIV. Such person, it adds, “shall be guilty of an offence, whether or not he or she is married to that other person, and shall be liable, upon conviction, to imprisonment for a term of not less than twenty years but which may be enhanced to imprisonment for life”.
A husband (not) in need
At first, Uche received treatment at the National Hospital in Abuja. But then, her husband was “forgetting” to send her food supplies—sometimes a whole day, sometimes two days. When she called home, they would arrange for friends residing in Abuja to prepare food and give to her. Eventually, they knew she had to be transferred closer to home.
“On one occasion, she called and there was no food… the excuse he gave was he was going to watch a football match between Arsenal and I-don’t-know-what-other team. You understand that; so I don’t know which kind of human being does a thing like that,” Eunice says.
From April 2013 until death in October, Eunice stayed with her sister at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Anambra State. Not a day within those six exhausting months did Abbo visit. He also did not contribute financially to her treatment and “was busy gallivanting, campaigning for a position in Adamawa.”
“I didn’t even know how to go about it because I don’t know anywhere in the world. I couldn’t have gone to the north to find somebody. And I was the daughter of a nobody, so I didn’t know where to start. When my sister was dying, I put it up on Facebook and pleaded for money. Nobody answered me,” she says.
“All these things are now bringing back the memories,” she adds mournfully.
Their dad eventually had to sell his land to pay her hospital bills.
According to the sister, Uche’s last wish was not to be taken back to Mubi and to be buried there in Nnewi. This wasn’t what Abbo wanted though because, after she passed away, he requested for her corpse to be sent northwards.
“How would we allow him take her corpse away,” Eunice asks sobbing, “when he wasn’t even there when she was alive?”
Nigerians should know the truth about him
Eunice says she simply wants Nigeria to find out the truth about the senator. She also thinks someone like Abbo is not fit for the lawmaking role he has been placed in.
“In the Senate, you put people who are supposed to secure our rights and our dignity; not people who are animals like him,” she says.
“That’s not the first time he has done it and he has lied on national television that he has not done it before, but he will be doing it again and again. I swear to you, this he just did, Karma has just used that to bring him out. He’s going to do more. He’s going to do more.
“…What kind of human being does that? Then somebody screens him and puts him as a senator to go and represent us. Which kind of calibre of people do they screen and put into the Senate? Is that what it is supposed to be? They are supposed to be decent people.”
‘Not ready to disturb her rest’… Abbo responds
In response to a text sent to his phone, Abbo said he will not be reacting to the allegations levelled against him and looks to God to expose the plots.
“My brother, I am not responding to such allegations I read on the newspapers,” he wrote.
“My wife died about 7 years ago and I am not ready to disturb her rest. God that sees the hearts and intentions of men will expose this conspiracy.”
BEFORE the presidential election tribunal on Tuesday, the Katsina state chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Salisu Maijigiri, testified that Atiku Abubakar, his party presidential candidate, polled the highest in Katsina.
Maijigiri said the results collated by the PDP in the state showed that Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress who has since May 29 sworn in as the president, had 872,000 votes in Katsina.
This is in contrary to the result announced by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) where APC polled a total of 1,232,133. PDP, according to INEC, got 308,056 total votes. Thus, Buhari won in his state of origin after giving Atiku a difference of 924,077.
Atiku and the PDP have petitioned the tribunal on the result of the 2019 election, stating simply that Atiku won the 2019 presidential election held on February 23. The PDP had supported the claim with a result alleged to have gotten from the electoral commission electronic server.
At the presentation of the case today before the five-man tribunal led by Justice Mohammed Garba on Tuesday, the eighth witness who was Maijigiri said he served as the party’s collation agent in Katsina state for the presidential election. And he said the PDP won in the state after it secured a total of 905,000 votes, while APC had 872 thousand votes.
“We ( the PDP) are the one who won the election, not the APC,” Maijigiri said. “The APC scored 872,000 and PDP scored, 905,000.
“These are our own results we collated in our state not the ones from the server.”
According to INEC in February while announcing Katsina state result, the total number of accredited voters in the state are 1,628,865, while the total number of votes cast equals to 1,619,185. The total valid votes were 1,555,473: Buhari had 1,232,133 votes, Atiku got 308,056 votes. A total of 63, 712 votes were rejected.
When the Kastina result was announced by INEC in February, the PDP had rejected the result. The party alleged that there were some election irregularities committed in some local government areas of the state during the election such as uncustomised result sheets used to enter results.
“The world is debating local solutions to global problems using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda2063 as a benchmark in accelerating inclusive development that fosters economic growth” ~ Hamzat.
A MODERN state must be capable of providing socio-economic services; driving structural reforms and economic transformations, and mobilizing citizens for social change. Conversely, an underdeveloped state is characterized by (at least) the following dysfunctions: a hyper-centralization of authority and administrative decision-making; an over-dependent citizenry, powerless and incapable of serious engagements with political executives.
Inevitably, these dysfunctions produce corruption, clientelism and rent-seeking; neo-patrimonial redistribution of public resources; and opaque administration of coffers by officials which they consider a normal extension of their personal wealth. Indeed, great challenges present great opportunities!
In Nigeria, this is the picture of the Federal (central) government in general, and Local (grassroots) governments in particular. Public infrastructure in disarray; widespread and extreme poverty; and deep social inequality. Specifically, health care, basic education, economic opportunities, social protection, etc. are poorly delivered and/or broken. Critically, the situation is dire but neither hopeless nor incurable.
Since politics is local; solutions to broken politics are not unfamiliar principles. As far back as 1914, the British colonial masters had fully recognized the need for a local government system to serve as the foundation for a democratic political system at the centre. The system was to be efficient enough to run the services required by the people, representative so as to endure and local – close to the people, in order to be beneficial and meaningful.
Therefore, the local government system as we know it today in Nigeria can be traced back to the system of indirect rule instituted by the Lugard’s government in 1914. By simple logic, this was for convenience – to effectively govern the vast territory created by the amalgamation policy.
Consequently, in July 1975, as part of its political programme preparatory to the transition to civilian rule, the military government of General Murtala Mohammed announced a commitment to a systematic and deliberate re-organization of the local government system.
Accordingly, General Olusegun Obasanjo, who took over from General Murtala reinforced the policy that “the local government reforms are based on the need to stabilize and rationalize government at the local level which entails the decentralization of some functions of the state government to the local levels in order to harness local resources for rapid development and ensure grassroots participation in our developmental process”. For the first time, the local government was officially recognized as the Third Tier of government in Nigeria. Such was the spirit of Local Government Reforms of 1976.
The 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) recognizes 774 Local Government Areas (henceforth LGAs). Financially, the LGAs are supposed to generate internal revenue through property, capitation and general rating. However, statutory allocation from the Federal and State governments form the main support of the LGAs. Under the current sharing formula, the Federal Government takes the lion’s share – 52.68% from the Federation Account. The 36 states take 26.72% while the 774 LGAs make do with the remaining 20.60%.
Howbeit, because the 36 state governments operate a State Joint Local Government Account (SJLGA) with the LGAs, state governors control the cumulative 48% of federation revenues that are allocated to the states and LGAs. Although the 1999 constitution of the FRN recognizes LGAs as the Third Tier of government, it is not treated as an autonomous body in a great number of respects. First, the functions performed by the LGAs in most states are those “permitted” by the state government rather than those specifically listed in the constitution. Second, the Federal government’s channelling of local government budgetary allocations through the SJLGA (instead of sending it directly to the LGAs) is a tacit subscription to the notion of non-autonomy. This provision – fiscal non-autonomy, became the bane of local government administration in Nigeria, up till today.
Potable water is a kind of luxury commodity for most rural dwellers. For domestic uses, water is sourced from open wells and consumed directly without treatment. A vibrant local government administration can end the water crisis and save thousands and/or millions from waterborne diseases.
It is in efforts to debottleneck the administration of LGAs and ensure financial independence that the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) Guidelines of May 2019 was pronounced by the central government. Prominent Nigerians and legal luminaries have expressed informed views – both in morality and constitutionality, on the new guidelines. Under the current revenue sharing (Federal Allocation) arrangement, and obvious constitutional technicalities, state governors possess tremendous fiscal power and freedom but little accountability in the use of the monies under their control. There are few checks and balances because state legislatures are typically weak. State governors exercise undue influence and most legislators serve, regrettably, as political pawns.
Surprisingly, the constitution provides for immunity for governors while in office, making it difficult (almost impossible) to hold them answerable and/or accountable. In the 20 years of democratic government (fourth republic) in Nigeria, only a very few governors behave in a fiscally responsible manner as required of them by Nigerian statutes. They run their cabinet meetings and conduct official matters (budgets, strategic policy documents, audit reports, etc.,) like occultism or esoteric organizations. As active citizens, if you insist on a few hard questions on fiscal transparency through legal instruments e.g. Freedom of Information Act 2011, some governors do not mind sending armed personnel against you – for intimidation and suppression.
An abandoned primary healthcare centre (PHC) in Mgbele community, Oguta LGA, Imo State. Funds were budgeted under Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) but the project remains undone. Reconstruction of abandoned PHCs can be properly handled by local governments but they often lack funds.
Generally, because of rabid politics, the legality of the new NFIU guidelines remains largely argumentative. In the meantime, permit that we defer the constitutionality of the policy to the courts since lawsuits have been appropriately instituted. Whatever the outcome of the judicial challenges, the moral foundation of the policy must not be hastily sacrificed. What is democracy without dividends? What is development without inclusion? Grassroots populations remain the most marginalized segments of the Nigerian society, abandoned and neglected in most instances. Propositions for fiscal autonomy of LGAs are not for semantics. From the history of national development, they are genuine and compelling. While they are not one-size-fits-all, it does possess potential as a game-changer.
For the second time, after 1976 Local Government Reforms, a government and/or regime appears passionate and committed to rapid and inclusive rural development seen by her policy interventions, notably by the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) and Fiscal Autonomy for LGAs. The point is simple: the spirited intentionality of Fiscal Autonomy for LGAs to strategically cause a disruption in the administration of the financially-starved third tiers of government will surely accelerate grassroots revitalization and rapid rural development. Another laudable policy option that needs widespread public support and reinvigorated political will is Financial Autonomy of State Legislature and State Judiciary.
At this very point in our national life, one of the obligations we – patriotic citizens, owe those we have entrusted with political powers is constructive engagements. At one time, we rebuke bad public policies, at the other time we provide popular support for transformative reforms and public choices. Such is the spirit and the very essence of civic participation and democratic governance. For it is often said: precepts upon precepts, a house is built. God bless Nigeria!
In part 2 of this report, Evelyn OKAKWU spotlight the condition of the victims of poor administration of justice in Kaduna prison.
CHUKWUDI Onyeamachi was remanded at the Augwu police station, Enugu, in November 2018 for allegedly trying to poison his brother who was in police custody.
“How does one explain that the reason for his detention is an alleged attempt to poison his own brother and benefactor?” the 20-year-old said in a telephone conversation with PREMIUM TIMES after his release.
“I was shocked when I saw the charge,” he continued.
Mr Onyeamachi, however, said his real offence was protesting against a N2,000 bribe demanded by police officers at the station to allow him visit his detained brother in prison.
When he visited his brother, Ezinna, at the police station in Enugu State on August 26, 2018 to deliver food and anti-malaria drugs to the detainee, Mr Onyeamachi had hoped the visit would be his last and that his brother would be allowed to return home.
Mr Ezinna had been detained over a fight in public with another young man.
But at the station, Mr Onyeamachi said a female officer, identified as Uche O. A, who was the sergeant on duty, demanded N2,000 before he could see his detained brother.
“When I saw that they were bent on extorting me, I called Charles Ekene, who is a popular civil rights activist in my area.”
Mr Ekene was the first to inform this newspaper about his subsequent arrest along with Mr Onyeamachi.
He said he had advised Mr Onyeamachi to stand his ground on not give the bribe. He said when he arrived the police station, Mr Onyeamachi had been detained for two days.
To secure Mr Ezinna’s bail, the activist said the divisional police officer, Raymond Oguejiofor, demanded another bribe of N20, 000. Mr Oguejiofor retired from the force in September 2018.
Mr Ekene said he reminded the officers of the general information from the police that bail is free. He began calling the Rapid Response Team of the police to ensure the release of Mr Ezinna.
That action, considered an affront by the police officers, resulted in a fresh allegation against Mr Ekenne and the man he was at the station to rescue.
In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, their lawyer, Fidelis Onuma, said the two were later arraigned “for allegations that they attempted to poison Mr Onyeamachi’s brother.”
The Enugu State Police Command, Amarizu Ebere, did not respond to calls or text messages by this newspaper on the allegations.
Messrs Ekene and Onyeamachi were charged before a magistrate court in Enugu State that August. They were later remanded by an order of the magistrate, Laurence Ukpai, in November, 2018.
Charles Ekene, a prison inmate awaiting trial
They were detained till January, before their release after the prosecution withdrew the charge against them.
On his observations in the prison, Mr Ekene said: “Prison officials detain inmates for years without taking them to court, even when they have cases in court.
“They lock them up and would not go to court with them unless the prisoners pay for their transportation. If you dare to complain, they will beat you blue-black.”
Mr Ekene said he was beaten up in prison for the same reason.
He decried the general condition of the prison.
“Whenever the toilet is full, they ask inmates to go and clear the place. I don’t understand that,” he added.
UGLY TREND
Mr Ekene’s account is similar to those of 150 inmates this newspaper and a group, the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, (CDHR), spoke within four prisons across Nigeria.
The inmates at the Kaduna Central Prisons, Kirikiri Minimum Prisons in Lagos, Warri Prisons in Delta State, as well as Kuje Prisons in Abuja narrated harrowing experiences in the prisons.
“The food we eat is not fit for dogs,” said an inmate who requested not to be identified,” he said.
“They give us watery beans in the morning, garri in the afternoon and, sometimes, Semo in the evening with a bad draw soup. Many of us try to find other ways of feeding ourselves because the food is just tasteless.
“We have nothing to wash our toilet. All we use is ash to try and reduce the smell. I have not spent two weeks here without having one infection or the other,” he added.
“We do various labour in this prison to make ends meet. But you cannot survive here, unless you have a kind of a godfather. These godfathers are inmates like us who have strong ties with some officers.”
Although efforts by this reporter to reach the female inmates was not successful, some prison officials who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES said their situation is not different. According to information provided by the Nigerian Prisons Service, the country’s prison population include seven per cent of women awaiting trial.
Prison Population
Nigerian prisons are overcrowded and are poorly equipped. PREMIUM TIMES’ and interviews with 150 inmates prove those challenges.
For example, the official record of the Kirikiri Prisons in Lagos gave credence to the claims of the inmates that they are forced to sleep on each other for lack of sleeping space. According to the records, the 1,700-capacity facility has 3, 912 inmates.
Kirikiri Medium Security PrisonFirst-Chart
108 of the 150 inmates this newspaper visited had been unable to contact their families for at least one month.
A 24-year-old inmate, Haruna Shuaibu, who has been held at the Kaduna State Central Prisons since February 2015, had not met his family till December 2018 when this newspaper spoke with him at the prisons. Another inmate, Bello Mainasara, 40, was also only able to contact his family after two years in prison.
Also, 106 inmates, or 80.3 per cent of the inmates, had a problem getting good lawyers. While some of them claimed to have been defrauded by some lawyers, others said they could not afford the fees of good lawyers.
Ninety-eight of the inmates, or 65.3 per cent of them, are within the ages of 19 and 35 years. Some were obviously brought in before they were 18.
The charges against most of those in the groups stated above ranged from robbery to drug trafficking, with the former being the reason for most of the arrests.
Many of the people in this group have been held for the failure of their families to provide their bail bonds or reach a reasonable conclusion on the requirements for their bail. One of such persons, John Odumare, who was accused of murder. He told PREMIUM TIMES that his co-accused had since been released on bail. That point was restated by his mother, Victoria Govina, in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES.
The remaining 52 inmates, 34.6 per cent, are within the ages of 36 to 55 years, with many of them held for alleged rape.
Out of the 73, 248 inmates in Nigerian prisons, 23, 373, or 32 per cent, have been convicted, while 49, 875, about 68 per cent, are awaiting trial.
More Challenges
This newspaper and civil rights group, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), observed that a common challenge inmates face is their cases being abandoned midway and their case files misplaced.
One of the lawyers with the CSJ, Gregory Okere, said he abandoned the case of Yusuf Umar, who is at the Kuje Prison awaiting trial because the man’s case file could not be traced.
“Mr Umar had told me that he was arraigned at the Jabi High Court. I went there with the hope that I would find his file, but after searching all the places I could think of, his file was nowhere to be found,” Mr Okere said.
The lawyer worked to ensure the release of nine other inmates from those visited during this report at the Kuje Prisons, Abuja.
Even in cases where the files are known and offences clearly stated, the causes of protracted detention in Nigerian prisons are endless.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported how 39-year-old Inalegwu Ochife was held by officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) from January 2018 till April 2019 before a case was filed against him at a high court in Abuja.
Inalegwu Ochife, a prison inmate awaiting trial
Not even a court order issued in October 2018 for the release of Mr Ochife was respected by the security operatives.
Mr Ochife and other accused persons were arrested for alleged robbery at the residence of the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.
After their arrest, the accused persons were detained for over two months before the police paraded them before the media for alleged robbery.
Over a year after that illegal parade, the suspects were left in SARS custody, without any charge preferred against them till April, when a fierce struggle by Mr Ochife’s family and lawyers for his release resulted in a fresh charge at a high court in Kwali, a suburb of Nigeria’s federal capital.
Reactions to Allegations
Responding to the issues raised by the inmates, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Prisons, Francis Enobore, said although some of the claims were being checked, most of the allegations could not be true.
“The prison population is such that you may have from 15 to 24 in a cell room; that is when it is not congested. A part of the room is carved out for their convenience. The door is usually a short door, not isolated from the toilet, for security reasons. And it’s always water system. It cannot be true that the toilet will smell so bad,” Mr Enobore said.
Mr Enobore was reacting to claims that some of the inmates are locked up in smelly toilets to serve as punishments, among other allegations.
He also refuted the allegations that inmates were made to clear the sewage cans when it is filled up.
“We have sewage trucks, I don’t know whether we will leave sewage trucks and ask them to start packing the toilet. Where will they take the waste to? However, when the sewage trucks are working, a few of them may be asked to join them in either controlling the hose, which any other person does. I have done it in my own house. And when they finish, they are asked to clear the place to keep it neat.
“You know that one of the natural odour killing instruments is charcoal. I do it in my house, so there is no big story that you are asked to use wood ash or charcoal to douse the smell,” Mr Enobore said.
According to the 2018 budget, N1billion was appropriated for the general maintenance of prisons across the country.
On the repeated complaints by the inmates about poor feeding, Mr Enobore explained how food is provided and distributed to the inmates.
“What the federal government approved is N450 per day. N300 for foodstuff and N150 for gas per person daily. The money was increased from N200 per inmate, per day in 2016,” Mr Enobore said. His explanation implies that government spends N100 per meal on an inmate.
Mr Enobore said that the service is currently embarking on a large-scale food production programme to reduce the burden of lack of food.
In the 2018 budget, N15, 335, 541, 250. 00 was allocated for general foodstuff and catering supplies for the service in 2018.
More Reactions
Regarding the allegations that inmates pay for their movement to court, Mr Enobore had this to say:
“We were having an acute shortage of logistics. In Kuje, for example, a prison that will need to take at least 400 inmates per day to court will have only two vehicles. You should know without much calculation that that is impossible.
“The officers in charge will discuss with the courts to fix the trials at dates that will make it possible to ensure that the inmates can come to court. However, their families will sometimes insist that they cannot wait till such a time. They were making arrangements for their inmates to be taken to court early.
“When they make such arrangements, we provide security even at the risk of our personnel’s lives. It continued like that until 2016 when the federal government gave us money to buy 217 operational vehicles, then we were able to increase our fleet. Then in 2017 we added another 49 vehicles and in 2018, we added another 115 operational vehicles. So I can tell you boldly that there is no prison where an inmate will be asked to pay for them to be taken to court. If you observe any such thing, call me,” Mr Enobore said.
According to the 2018 budget; N160, 000, 500 was allocated for maintenance of motor vehicles and transport equipment, across the country.
The spokesman added that the service has also made adequate provision for drugs so that inmates are not asked to pay for drugs whenever they come to the health centres within the prisons.
Absence of official data
PREMIUM TIMES wrote the Nigerian Prisons Service in November, 2018 for detail of inmates detained and those released in the last 15 years from the four prisons visited.
After tracing the letter in vain for weeks, Mr Enobore requested a more concise application for the said data.
A further request for a similar data, to cover five or ten years, was not granted by the service.
The subsequent letter was also lost between the statistics and operations units of the service.
The head of the statistics department maintained that he had sent the copy of the letter to the operations unit for further actions. At the operation’s unit, the officer in charge, Abubakar Talba, however, told PREMIUM TIMES that the letter was not in his office.
Justice Ministry evades comments
In a similar vein, the department of the Federal Ministry of Justice responsible for prison decongestion declined responses to calls text messages and emails by this newspaper regarding its efforts.
At a meeting with the head of the decongestion unit, Leticia Eniola-Daniels, she asked this reporter to send an email containing our inquiries to the official email address of that office as well as her personal mail.
After weeks of calling and texting her, Mrs Eniola-Daniels failed to respond either to the mails or to subsequent messages sent to her phone line.
This investigation was supported by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR).
MELEE Kyari, the incoming group managing directorof the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on Monday vowed to make all the four refineries in the country working before 2023.
He made this pledge at the valedictory session organised for the outgoing group managing director of theNNPC, Maikanti Baru, held at NNPC Towers in Abuja.
“We will deliver all our four refineries within the life of President Buhari’s administration. We shall seek strategic partnerships to ensure Nigeria becomes a net exporter of petroleum products,” he said.
He also stated his resolve not to compromise on his stand for transparency and accountability.
“To my family members, from today, if you accept any gift from anyone, then it is not from me. So those who want to give my family members gifts, let them know that my family members can never influence me,” he said.
In his remarks, he thanked President Buhari for the chance to serve with a promise to deliver on the mandate of the corporation.
“I’ll like to thank President Buhari for giving me the opportunity to serve. It is a challenge and I promise to do this job with integrity. I will never do anything against the interest of this Corporation,” he stated.
The current NNPC boss joins a long list of Nigerians who had given a timeline to make the nation’s refineries fully operational but only time will tell.
In May 2017, Ibe Kachikwu, a former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources during an interview on BBC World Service programme, HardTalk, anchored by Stephen Sackur vowed to resign if Nigeria’s refineries were not working by 2019.
Unfortunately, he failed to meet the target and also did not honour his word by resigning from his position as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.
About 445,000 barrels per day of refining capacity can be produced across the four facilities which operate well below capacity, forcing the NNPC to import greater quantity of the country’s petroleum products.
NNPC manages the nation’s major refineries, two located in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, which combine to form the Port Harcourt Refining Company, PHRC, with a combined installed capacity of 210,000 barrels per stream day, bpsd, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited, KRPC, capable of 110,000 bpsd and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited,WRPC, which boasts of 125,000 bpsd.
Nigeria currently produces an average of 1.8 million barrels of oil daily, despite, huge resources spent on Turn Around Maintenance, for the refineries none had worked up to 50 per cent of their capacity at any time during 2019, according to official figures from the state oil firm, NNPC.
SENATOR representing Adamawa North, Elisha Abbo, alleged to have assaulted a nursing mother, has on Monday pleaded not guilty.
Abbo was arraigned on two counts of criminal charges at the Chief Magistrate court, Zuba on Monday.
He had pleaded not guilty to both charges, sidestepping his admission of wrongdoing and an apology to both the victims and Nigeria last Wednesday, Premium times reports.
The court had granted the senator bail of N5 million on counts of criminal assault.
The magistrate said Abbo must present two competent sureties to the court to secure his appearance in subsequent hearings on the criminal charges.
Abbo, had on Friday, June 5, allegedly assaulted a nursing mother, at a sex toy shop, in Abuja, following a viral video disclosed by Premium Times.
The video clip had drawn a national wide outrage calling on the immediate prosecution of the lawmaker.
Consequently, Abboh had in a press statement, apologised to the family of the assaulted, maintaining such an attitude does not describe his personality.
“I have never been known or associated with such actions in the past.”
He surrendered also to the police of the FCT, which led to his arrest on Friday but was granted bail afterward.
FEDERAL High Courts in Nigeria, on Monday, commenced the annual long vacation for the year 2019.
In a circular signed by the Federal High Court Lagos, Chief Registrar, Emmanuel Gako, the 2019 long vacation would commence on July 8 and end on September 13, while normal court activities were expected to resume on September 16.
NAN reports that the long vacation is observed annually, pursuant to the provisions of Order 46 rule 4 (a) of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules 2009.
According to the circular notifying the general public of the scheduled vacation, only divisions like Abuja, Lagos, and Port Harcourt would remain functional during the vacation, and litigants were at liberty to approach only these courts.
The circular revealed that the Abuja division would cater to cases from the Federal Capital Territory, North Central, North Western, and the North-Eastern parts of the country.
The Lagos division would cater to cases from the South West, while the Port Harcourt division would cater to cases from the South-South and South East.
Federal High Courts in Nigeria, on Monday, commenced the annual long vacation for the year 2019, reports the News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN).
In a circular signed by the Federal High Court Lagos, Gako, the 2019 long vacation would commence on July 8 and end on September 13, while normal court activities were expected to resume on September 16.
The long vacation is observed annually, pursuant to the provisions of Order 46 rule 4 (a) of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules 2009.
According to the circular notifying the general public of the scheduled vacation, only divisions like Abuja, Lagos, and Port Harcourt would remain functional during the vacation, and litigants were at liberty to approach only these courts.
The circular revealed that the Abuja division would cater to cases from the Federal Capital Territory, North Central, North Western, and the North-Eastern parts of the country.
The Lagos division would cater to cases from the South West, while the Port Harcourt division would cater to cases from the South-South and South East.
“Only cases of extreme urgency are to be entertained during the period,” Gako said.
Meanwhile, in Lagos, Justices Nicholas Oweibo and Chuka Obiozor, have been assigned to sit as vacation judges during the period.
JUNIOR secondary school students from across the country participated on Saturday in the grand finale of a national spelling competition, Solutions Spelling Bee, where the top three winners were awarded cash prizes of up to N1 million.
Organised by Decipher Solutions, the competition which is in its seventh year, took place in Abuja. The participants, 60 in all, were the top spellers from five regional rounds held in Lagos, Enugu, Gombe, Kano, and Abuja.
Emerging the grand prize winner, Praise June Seth, 13, a student of Zamani College, Kaduna, coasted home to victory with N500,000. The first runner-up and second runner-up, 11-year-old Ugosinachi Okoli of Starville School Abuja and 10-year-old Ugochi Okoli of Spring of Life International School Enugu, received N300,000 and N200,000. All three winners also got Samsung tablets.
The final round of a writing competition also took place as part of the event, where Indrani Okeke, a student of Spring of Life International School, Enugu, emerged winner. The second and third prize winners were Okpe Akondu of Starville School and Cleopatra Nkemsinachi Udoh of Spring of Life International School.
Zainab Haruna, the founder of Decipher Solutions, said in her opening address that the goal of the competition is not only to teach students how to spell and expand their vocabulary but also to equip them with skills that will make them productive in the modern world.
“That is why we teach about financial literacy. Every person today must be financially literate. We want you to be good writers,” she said.
“Writing and speaking are two skills you should have to be educated in the 21st century. Some of you already have it. Some of you have it but you do not realise that you do, you will have to nurture it. We want you to be excellent writers, that is why we introduced the essay contest as a component of the spelling bee program.”
She added that the organisers deliberately incorporated workshops on public speaking, essay writing, boardgame design, and prose and poetry composition so as to improve the students’ skills and creativity.
Some of the student participants at the event
The competition was sponsored by the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), National Agency for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), and also received support from a host of other organisations.
Among personalities at the event were Eugenia Abu, deputy director of training at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) headquarters; Imevbore Ohiomokhare, head of the Business and Economic Desk at the African Independent Television (AIT); and Nwokedi Moses, an On-Air Personality (OAP) with Wazobia FM.
