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How mum tried to bribe an examiner ‘in kind’ so daughter could pass UTME

Kingsley OBIEJESI
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How mum tried to bribe an examiner ‘in kind’ so daughter could pass UTME

The 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) was littered with several incidents of malpractice, including that of a woman who offered to pay an examiner in kind if he agreed to help her daughter cheat.

According to Reuben Abati, former media aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, this was revealed during the post-UTME review meeting chaired by Ishaq Oloyede, Jamb registrar.

The meeting was attended by members of JAMB’s technical team, field officers, all the chief external examiners who supervised the 2017 UTME and members of the civil society.

He narrated an incident that occurred at one of the exam centres, as relayed in the meeting by a chief examiner.

“In one centre, a mother was said to have approached the chief examiner to ask him to assist her daughter to pass the examination,” Abati said in an opinion published on his website.

“The chief examiner reportedly told her to leave the examination venue, but she insisted that if the chief examiner was ready to help, as requested, she was prepared to pay in kind.

“The alarmed professor and examiner told her it was not part of his function to do what she wanted. The UTME, he said, is a merit-based examination.

“The woman, not giving up, asked for the hotel where the professor was staying. She offered to join him in the hotel later in the day!

“In another state, an invigilator lured a young lady to the control room with the promise that if she would co-operate with him, he would help her to pass the UTME. Other invigilators caught the two of them and promptly reported the matter. When the young lady’s mother was informed about what had happened, her response was most unusual.

“She was not willing to press charges, or talk about the scandal. She was in fact not bothered at all. She would rather talk about something else.

“What did she want? She wanted JAMB to compensate her daughter with additional 10 marks or more, to make up for the sexual harassment. We were all alarmed. Strange things really happen.”

He continued: “We were informed that a total of 1,386 candidates, all properly identified and documented, were guilty of the following offences: impersonation, possession of prepared answer scripts, smuggling of foreign materials into the examination venue, possession of electronic gadgets including telephone, copying and spying from foreign materials, unruly behaviour, violent conduct, collusion, multiple registration and examinations.

“We were all shocked when Oloyede asked his staff to present to the meeting, concrete evidence of examination malpractice.

“We were shown shirts, with presumed answers written out in the inner lining, slippers, belts, handkerchiefs, and all kinds of strange devices that candidates across the country smuggled into examination centres.”

 

CAN: With satanic topic like ‘Is Jesus the son of God’, this new curriculum can NOT stand

YEKEEN Akinwale
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CAN: With satanic topic like ‘Is Jesus the son of God’, this new curriculum can NOT stand

 

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has described the secondary school curriculum introduced in 2015 by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) as an “obnoxious, divisive and ungodly time bomb”.

The Christian umbrella body said the implementation of the curriculum must be stopped until all the grey areas are addressed.

It warned that “if our call is taken as for granted and nothing is done quickly about this curriculum, we may be tempted to take further action on this curriculum”.

Reacting to the explanation given by the Federal Government over the merger of Christian Religion Study (CRS), Islamic Religion Study (IRS) and Civic Education under Religion and National Values in the curriculum, Samson Ayokunle, President of CAN, issued a statement on Thursday to reiterate that the introduction of the curriculum is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good.

While calling for a workshop where all the stakeholders must be represented to review the curriculum, Ayokunle urged the Federal Government to direct the federal ministry of education to publish the full details of the curriculum on its website to enable everyone know the content.

He argued that both the Federal Ministry of Education and the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) should publish details of the controversial new curriculum of education if they have no hidden agenda.

Speaking on “some perceived discrimination” against Christian students in the curriculum, the CAN president said: “If the new curriculum is treating the two religious subjects separately as being claimed, why do we have a satanic topic in the Civic Education like ‘IS JESUS THE SON OF GOD’? Or is the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, who disclosed to CAN leadership that this was in the curriculum he earlier saw, lying too?”

He also added that there was nothing wrong with the old curriculum on Christian Religious Studies and Islamic Religious Studies, noting that what people are yearning for is a return to Civic Education and History for obvious reasons as distinct subjects.

“…In this curriculum, Islamic and Christian Religious Studies will no longer be studied in schools as subjects on their own but as themes in a civic education. This undermines the sound moral values that these two subjects had imparted in the past to our children which had made us to religiously and ethnically co-exist without any tension…” he said.

“Islamic Religious Knowledge was equally made available as a subject in another section without any corresponding availability of Christian Religious Knowledge. Is this not a divisive curriculum that can set the nation on fire? Is this fair to millions of Christians in this nation?”

Besides the call for the suspension of the curriculum, CAN also asked that the heads of the parastatals and agencies in the Federal Ministry of Education should be overhauled with a view to balancing the religious dichotomy.

“A situation where 13 of their heads are Muslims while the remaining four are Christians is an ill-wind that would blow no one any good,” he said.

NUPENG warns of possible fuel scarcity in Lagos

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NUPENG warns of possible fuel scarcity in Lagos

The gridlock being experienced by petroleum tankers and articulated vehicles on Apapa-Wharf Road may result in fuel scarcity, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has warned.

Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, the South-West Chairman of the union, said this in an interview with NAN in Lagos on Thursday.

The gridlock is due to ongoing reconstruction of the Apapa-Wharf Road

Korodo said that since the reconstruction began, petroleum tanker drivers had been queuing for hours, finding it difficult to gain access to the tank farms to get products.

He said tank farms within the Apapa Marine Bridge Road received petroleum products from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which was to be distributed by petroleum tankers to different parts of the country. However, the reconstruction has affected movement of articulated vehicles to the port, also taking its toll on tanker drivers as they now find it difficult to load at tank farms in the area.

“The reconstruction work on Apapa Wharf Road will affect loading of our petroleum tankers at the depots,” he said.

“Since the inauguration of reconstruction works, our tankers have queued up on the roads finding it difficult to gain access to tank farms. Even queuing of articulated vehicles going to the port has blocked the access road and tankers have been on the same spot for three days now.

“We want to apply to NNPC to use its System 2B distribution channel to pump products to its depots in Mosinmi, Ejigbo, Ibadan, Ilorin and Ore so that most of the tankers will stop coming to Apapa to load. It is irrational now for tankers to come and load at Apapa tank farms because the access roads are blocked and traffic is the order of the day.”

Korodo called on NNPC to address the lingering issues before it degenerates into fuel scarcity, adding that the delay in getting petroleum products to filling stations would be seen as lack of products.

On Saturday, Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, had signed a N4.34 bnn Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dangote Group and other stakeholders for reconstruction of the road.

The project is to be funded by AG Dangote Construction Company Ltd, an arm of the Dangote Group, as well as the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Flour Mills of Nigeria.

The site was handed over to the stakeholders for commencement of reconstruction works after the agreement was signed in Lagos.

Fashola explained that the gridlock in Apapa became compounded and had reached an unbearable level as transporters ignored the old system of moving cargo through rail to trucks and containers.

The man who wants Igbo to leave the north lives in Lagos, says Falana

YEKEEN Akinwale
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The man who wants Igbo to leave the north lives in Lagos, says Falana

Femi Falana, lawyer and human rights activist, says it is wrong for Shettima Yerima, President of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), to be issuing quit notice to south-easterners resident in the north when he does not live in the north but in Lagos.

“Please, information is very crucial to all of us and I want to say this publicly; the man who is giving quit notice does not live in the north, he lives in Lagos,” Falana said in Abuja on Thursday at a press conference organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on recent divisive statements in the country.

“Yerima lives in Lagos, he is a Lagos man. So to stay in Lagos and be giving quit notice is not the answer.”

He urged Nigerians to stop following those who want to divide the country, saying: “We have to look at those things that tie us together and not those that the ruling class are using to divide our people.”

Falana, who went down the memory lane to relive the killing of four students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria by the police on May 26, 1986, during the regime of Ibrahim Babangida, former military president, said that late Chima Ubani, an Igbo student, led a protest against the killing at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

He recalled that the comments by Ango Abdullahi, who was then the Vice Chancellor of the university, that only four students were killed, angered Nigerians and sparked protest across campuses of universities in the country.

“The boy who led that protest was late Chima Ubani. What happened? The state did not like the fact that there was a national protest against the killing of students of ABU. What did the government do?

“They didn’t arrest students in the north; they didn’t arrest people who were demonstrating in the west, the Babangida regime went for Chima Ubani and arraigned him and eight of his colleagues under the military decree that required that they were sentenced to death.

“I left Lagos and went to Enugu to defend those men. We got them freed. When they returned to campus, the vice chancellor expelled them; again, I went to court and got them.

“This is important, a Hausa vice chancellor invited police and they killed young Hausa people, four of them and Nigerians protested. An Igbo man led that protest in the east against injustice.  A Yoruba lawyer in the west went to free them; there are lawyers in the east.  We have to look at those things that tie us together and not those that the ruling class is using to divide our people.”

SPOTTED: Ronaldo walks to the pitch with physically challenged child

Rebecca Akinremi
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SPOTTED: Ronaldo walks to the pitch with physically challenged child

Portugal defeated hosts Russia at the ongoing FIFA Confederations Cup on Wednesday with a solitary Cristiano Ronaldo goal but that is not the only high point of the encounter.

One other is how the goalscorer was spotted walking onto the field at the start of the match accompanied by Polina Khayeredinova, a physically challenged 10-year-old girl.

This is the first time in the history of FIFA that a player was accompanied to the football pitch by a physically challenged.

The history, though, was made possible by McDonald’s, sponsor of the Confederations Cup, which wanted to portray football as open to physically challenged children.

Captains of football teams taking part in the tournament will be accompanied to the field by disabled children in each of the host cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan and Sochi.

More than 350 kids aged between six and 10 are participating in McDonald’s children’s programme in the four host cities. Most of them come from orphanages, foster homes and low-income families.

The match between Russia and Portugal was played at the over 42,700-capacity Spartak Stadium, a newly-built facility in the Russian capital.

Ronaldo scored the only goal of the match in the ninth minute — a headed effort by a man who is favourite to win his fifth World Footballer of the Year award to equal the record of rival Lionel Messi

 

Melaye: I’ve seen the names of dead people on my recall register

Editorial
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Melaye: I’ve seen the names of dead people on my recall register

Dino Melaye, the senator representing Kogi West senatorial district at the National Assembly, has mocked the kogi state government for its “stupidity” in the handling of his planned recall from the legislature.

According to Melaye, for whom a petition has already been lodged at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), some of the people listed to have signed the document are already dead.

“It can not succeed. It is a hoax and absolute comedy of errors. I’m laughing at the stupidity of kogi state government,” he tweeted on Wednesday.

“Many appointees will go to jail for forgery. Even dead people’s names on the recall register.

“A governor who does not know what double registration is may not as well know the procedure for recall. Every lie has an expiry date.

“This comedy of errors will soon end. No shaking at all. This won’t solve the problem of not paying salaries for over 15 months.No retreat no surrender. Truth is my only Defence.”

Court orders Lagos govt to suspend Otodo-Gbame demolition

Kingsley OBIEJESI
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Court orders Lagos govt to suspend Otodo-Gbame demolition

Celebrations erupted at the Lagos State High Court on Wednesday after Justice Surajudeen Onigbanjo ordered the state government to stop further demolition of Otodo Gbame, a waterfront community in the state.

Onigbanjo ruled that it was wrong for the residents to have been forcibly evicted without plans for their relocation.

He described the actions of the state government as unconstitutional, but urged both parties reach an agreement on how to resettle the residents before their homes would be demolished.

The presiding judge agreed that “the land occupied by the applicants is under the control and the management of the executive governor of the state” but he also pointed out that the residents “never claimed ownership of the land, but have over the years settled on the land”.

“It will be wrong for them to be forcefully evicted from a land they have been [on] for several years,” Onigbanjo said.

“The respondents’ failure to provide alternative settlement before embarking on the forceful eviction of the applicants is unconstitutional.

“Both parties are hereby ordered to carry out proper consultation on how to resolve the relocation of the applicants.

“The respondents are hereby restrained from further carrying out evictions of the applicants from the settlements, if alternative settlements are not made available.”

According to a report by Amnesty International, an international human rights organisation, more than 30,000 people were rendered homeless by the Lagos State government in Otodo gbame, Ilubirin and Ebute Ikate waterfront communities in November 2016.

And only last week, another demolition exercise was carried out at Badia East, another slum community in the state.

More than 500 persons, mainly women and children, were reportedly displaced in the exercise, and a policeman was reported to have injured a woman with a knife when she tried to retrieve some of her belongings from her apartment that was being destroyed.

Indonesian firm to build 10,000-bpd refinery in Nigeria

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Indonesian firm to build 10,000-bpd refinery in Nigeria

PT Intim Perkasa Nigeria Ltd, an Indonesian firm and subsidiary of PT Intim Perkasa, Indonesia, has indicated interest in building a refinery in Nigeria.

When completed, the modular refinery will have refining capacity for 10,000 barrels per stream day. It will be located in Akwa Ibom State.

Ndu Ughamadu, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

THE FULL STATEMENT
The Federal Government’s plan to attract investment in modular refineries as part of efforts to boost local refining capacity has started gaining momentum with an Indonesian firm, PT Intim Perkasa Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of PT Intim Perkasa, Indonesia, indicating interest to build a refinery in Nigeria.

Mr. Adi Hartadi, the Head of Investor Relations of PTPP (Persero) Tbk, partners to PT Intim Perkasa Nigeria Ltd, who disclosed this in Abuja during a business meeting with the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, stated that the proposed refinery would be located in Akwa Ibom State.

The refinery, a modular one, will have refining capacity for 10,000 barrels per stream day.

Mr Hartadi stated that their company has more than 50 years of experience in construction and engineering and it was desirous of diversifying into downstream operations in Nigeria.

Responding, the NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, who was represented by the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Refineries and Petrochemicals, Engr. Anigbor Kragha, stated that NNPC placed high premium on investment in the nation’s refining sector.

The GMD stated that the Corporation had a Greenfield Refinery Department that specialized in new refinery projects and also provided professional support to potential investors in modular refinery in the country in line with the Federal Government policy on modular refineries.

He explained that the country’s three refineries with a combined capacity of 445,000bpd could not function optimally over the years due to lack of investment, adding that NNPC would give necessary support to the Indonesian Company interest in the downstream sector.

“On our end, we have embarked on ambitious plan to fast-track programmes to restore our capacity utilization from 30 per cent to a minimum of 90 per cent in the next 24 months. To do that, we are working on securing financing from third parties, not just funding, but also technical expertise to help us increase our performance to world class levels that they should be,” Dr. Baru stated.

He explained that given Nigeria’s expected population, by 2025, more than 40 million litres of petrol would be required for local consumption, adding that the combined capacity of the nation’s 3 refineries would only be able to satisfy just above 50 per cent of the projected local demand.

He expressed optimism that with this kind of investment coming steadily, Nigeria could serve as a regional hub of refined petroleum products for West Africa and beyond.

He called on the investors to be mindful of clean fuel policy across African countries and ensure that they produce fuels that meet specification with regards to sulphur content.

Earlier, Dr. Dwiyatna Widinugraha, Third Secretary for Economic Affairs, Indonesian Embassy in Nigeria and the leader of the Indonesian delegation, stated that the visit was a follow-up to the earlier visit by the Indonesian envoy to NNPC, the bilateral meeting between the Indonesian Trade Minister with his Nigerian counterpart as well as the visit of Indonesian Prime Minister to Nigeria.

It would be recalled that the Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Harry Purwanto, had recently expressed interest in purchasing more crude oil from Nigeria during a courtesy call to the NNPC GMD, Maikanti Baru.

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CONFIRMED: INEC receives signed petition for Melaye’s recall

YEKEEN Akinwale
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CONFIRMED: INEC receives signed petition for Melaye’s recall

The independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has received a signed petition from voters in Kogi West Senatorial District demanding the recall of Dino Melaye from the National Assembly.

According to Sahara Reporters, the document, addressed to Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of INEC, was submitted on Wednesday and marked received the same day.

The Kogi State government says 188,588 voters, representing 52.3 per cent of the total number of registered voters in Kogi West senatorial district, approved Melaye’s recall from the Senate.

petition

His constituents said they voted for him to represent them at the Senate and now they are using the same method to call him back home.

The submission of the petition is in line with the requirement in Section 69 of the 1999 Constitution that “A member of the Senate or of the House Representatives may be recalled as such a member if – (a) there is presented to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission a petition in that behalf signed by more than one-half of the persons registered to vote in that member’s constituency alleging their loss of confidence in that member”.

Fayose: I’m the speaker of Ekiti assembly… Go and perish if you don’t like it

Kingsley OBIEJESI
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Fayose: I’m the speaker of Ekiti assembly… Go and perish if you don’t like it

Ayodele Fayose, Governor of Ekiti State, has boasted that he is the speaker of the house of assembly.

The governor made the boast on Wednesday while addressing citizens of the state at a ceremony to commemorate his third anniversary in office.

While introducing Kola Oluwawole, Speaker of the Assembly, Fayose said that he was the person directly in charge of the state’s legislature. He pointed the microphone in the direction of Oluwawole and asked him to confirm his claim; Oluwaole responded, “Yes, you are.”

Fayose pointed out that in other south western states, it was only in Ekiti State that all elective positions are being held by members of the Peoples Democratic Party.

“I am the Speaker of the house of assembly,” he said. “I am the speaker. Anyone who doesn’t like it should go and perish.

“Any opposition, we take it out. That other one too is going unpopular. That other one [the former speaker], we cannot glorify him by mentioning his name.”

Fayose also that the investigation into the Ikoyi cash claimed by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), which was discovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has since been swept under the carpet.

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