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Doctors Begin 5 Days Warning Strike

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Doctors Begin 5 Days Warning Strike

In a country where downing of tools seem to be to only legitimate means of communication, doctors under the auspices of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, have embarked on a five – day warning strike from today.

This is coming a day after the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, suspended its over five-months-old mass action from which the education sector is still yet to recover.

It would be recalled that NMA had given a 21-day ultimatum to the federal government to fulfil a promise it made regarding its welfare which expired last week.

The implication of the action of the doctors is that services in public hospitals across the country would be withdrawn.

The national president of the NMA, Osahon Enabulele, said the the strike is to protest government’s failure to implement a mutual agreement to meet demands in terms of improved wages, funding of healthcare and to resolve issues of discrepancies in salaries.

“We were in a meeting with government officials from 3:00pm Monday evening to 5:00am on Tuesday morning. All we got was the usual promissory note and MoU to stay action till January 6, 2014,” Enabulele told journalists.

He added: “They said most of the parastatals that would attend to our demands would be on break this festive period. This showed that they did not realize the urgency of the matter. Government has been sloppy in its response. NMA would not rescind on its position.”

The strike is expected to last for five days in the first stage, after which the body says it will proceed on a indefinite strike action if its demands remain unattended to.

2015: Do Not Exclude Adamawa, Borno, Yobe From Election – Gov Shetima

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2015: Do Not Exclude Adamawa, Borno, Yobe From Election – Gov Shetima

The Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, says excluding the three states under emergency rule from elections in 2015 would be amount to capitulating to the Boko Haram sect.

Shettima was reacting to a statement by the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, that elections may not hold in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states if the present breach of peace continues.

The governor noted that the decision may have grave repercussions for the country, as suspending the general election in 2015 in any part of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, on account of Boko Haram activities would amount to making the insurgents supreme over the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“It will be defeatist on our part as a nation. The goal of Boko Haram is to impose their beliefs on us, subvert our constitution and our democracy and replace them with inhuman laws that support killings and destructions and should we suspend any part of the country whether in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa or any place at all from taking part in the 2015 election, the insurgents would presuppose successes on their part and itching close to achieving their goals and we cannot allow that,” he said.

According to him, if Boko Haram is allowed to stop elections in three states, they might in no time target additional states and gradually succeed in stopping elections in The whole country.

He stressed that the sovereignty of the country must be defended and that a minority few should not be allowed to force their views on the majority.

“I expect that as a strategy, Borno and Yobe and indeed any place so affected by the insurgents, should be the main focus for conduct of the 2015 elections by INEC so that we send a clear message to those who want us to go into extinction that we will not cave in to their violent needs, we will move on,” Shettima stated.

He stressed further: “Suspending the 2015 elections in Borno will make mockery of the sacrifices made by those who laid their lives; to defend our constitutional democracy, we will be insulting their memories that we should preserve. I, like all good citizens of Borno, firmly believe in a creed, that we must with courage, say no to those who desire our destruction.”
The governor therefore called on the federal government all stakeholders in the country to examine the issue at stake “with analytical mindset far beyond what reasons we might be talking about now”.

Tambuwal Blames Budget Office For Poor Funding Of Govt Agencies

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Tambuwal Blames Budget Office For Poor Funding Of Govt Agencies

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, on Tuesday blamed the Budget Office and ministry of finance for the poor funding of ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs.

Tambuwal said this when the chairman of the board of directors of Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, Hamman Tukur, who led members of the board on a courtesy visit, accused the National Assembly of not showing the desired interest in the power reforms project.

Responding, the Speaker said that the budget office and not the legislative house was the problem.

“We seek your understanding, we are not your problems, not the problem of any MDA in this country. The problem is the budget office…until we address the challenges of the budget office, which normally changes the submissions of the MDAs whimsically without any expertise, we will continue to have problems, not only of funding budgets but also of implementation,” he said.

Continuing, he added: “Let me say this, we are very ready and amenable to complement the efforts of the government in ensuring that we have stable affordable power supply in this country. That was why the legislation towards the unbundling of the PHCN was passed in 2005.”

He, however, assured that the National Assembly would continue to render support in terms of funding.

“The national assembly will continue to support you in terms of funding but we will also continue to follow the money through oversight,” Tambuwal said.

On the oil benchmark problem, he dismissed the reason adduced by the executive for seeking the pegging of the price at 76.5 dollars in the 2014 budget, arguing that the country could not be saving money on empty stomach.

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He said that efforts should be geared towards fixing the nation’s infrastructure, rather than on saving money.

Contrary to expectations, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF and Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP, proposed a reduction in capital expenditure from 32 percent to 26 percent and increase in recurrent expenditure 68 percent to 74 percent in 2014.

The federal government had lamented that “the level of outlay of personnel cost is crowding out expenditure on capital spending needed to develop the nation and constitutes a major drain on public resources.”

Police Arrest Woman, Pastor-Lover For Murder In Edo

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Police Arrest Woman, Pastor-Lover For Murder In Edo

Caption: Pastor-lover, Udoka Nkanchukwu

From Jefferson Ibiwale, Benin

The police in Benin has arrested a Pastor, Udoka Nkanchukwu, and his lover, Enebong Victor Isonguyo, for the murder of her husband Victor Isonguyo, a deputy manager at the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, NPDC.

The duo was paraded alongside 17 other suspected criminals arrested for various crimes such as pedophilia, kidnapping and armed robbery committed in the state.

The state commissioner of police, Foluso Adebanjo, who paraded the suspects, narrated how Isonguyo’s death was staged by his wife and her Pastor lover.

“What happened was that the pastor called the deceased to come and meet him somewhere along Sapele Road. When the deceased got there the pastor stabbed him twice and then burnt the car. The woman gave the husband’s new car to the pastor and we found the car with the Pastor. A 2013 model of Volkswagen car. It is a very sad and wicked act,” Adebanjo said.

According to him, after killing the man in his vehicle, it was set ablaze.

“The pastor changed the plate number of the car and put a fake one after he murdered the man. It was when we saw the burnt car in his hand that we knew that he was involved. Though he has confessed and after now we will take them to court,” the CP added.

The wife has however denied having extra marital affairs with the pastor but confirmed that she gave her husband’s new car to the pastor so that he can pray for the safe return of Victor when she discovered he was missing.

“When I did not see my husband I ran to the pastor because we have known for a very long time. I took my husband’s new car to him to sow a seed in the church so that my husband will be found. I told him to take it to the church but I don’t know that he went and changed the plate numbers. I had to ask him to pray harder because I love my husband and I don’t want anything to happen to him. I did not kill my husband because I loved him,” she said.

Victor was the father of three before his untimely death

Commenting on another case, Adebanjo said he was yet to receive a court order for the exhumation of the bodies of four armed suspects, including one Samuel Imaikop, who were allegedly killed by operatives of the command in Benin about three weeks ago.
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It would be recalled that a Benin Magistrate Court presided over by Magistrate F. E. N. Igbinosa, ordered the exhumation of the bodies for autopsy to be carried out on them to determine how they actually died.

“We did not commit any extra judicial murder and you people saw one of the armed robbers confessing. However, the police is always a law abiding organisation and we will always abide by any court ruling if we have an order,” the police commissioner said.

Borno Govt Decries Porous Borders

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Borno Govt Decries Porous Borders

Musdapha Ilo, Maiduguri

The Borno State government says that there are over 1,000 illegal routes through which dangerous drugs are smuggled in to the state, a situation which has led to a high utilization of drugs by youths.

This, the government reasoned, has contributed to the growth of terrorism in the region.

The state attorney general and commissioner of justice, Kaka Shehu Lawan, stated this on Tuesday while making public the achievements of Borno state drug abuse control committee.

Lawan, who is also the chairman of the committee, said the challenge for the state government is that most of these routes are unknown, making it difficult to rid the state of illicit drugs.

Notwithstanding, he said that his committee has done so much with the available information at its disposal to curb the activities of illegal drug dealers and that a total of 6,089.575kg of drugs have been seized.

These includes 4,780.565 kg of Cannabis, 979,010 kg of psychotropic substances and 330.000 kg of Cocaine.
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In addition, about 61 suspects have been arrested, with 13 charged to court and convicted to various jail terms.

“Through its intelligence gathering and operations sub-committees carried out raids in areas identified as black spots within the Maiduguri metropolis where such illicit drugs are commonly dispensed and consumed. The raids accounted for several arrests as well as seizures of drugs from the suspects,” the commissioner said.

He lamented that drug abuse partly accounts for the emergence of terrorist activities in the state, but added setting up the committee was part of efforts introduced by the state governor, Kashim Shettima, to restore the state on the path of peace, and socio-economic development.

Lawan added that drug dealers and traffickers are dynamic and always evolving new strategies to beat security checks, but that government is also devising information management strategies to track and arrest them.

Finally, ASUU Calls Off Strike

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Finally, ASUU Calls Off Strike

Nma Shekwolo, Minna

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, on Tuesday afternoon called its over five months old nationwide strike action.

The decision to call off the strike was announced by the national president of ASUU, Nasir Isa Fagge, after a meeting of the National Executive Council, NEC, of the union at the Federal University of Technology, FUT, Minna.

Fagge directed lecturers to return to classrooms and commence lectures in all public universities immediately.

“NEC resolved to suspend the strike embarked upon on the 1st July 2013, with effect from Tuesday December 17th, 2013 and directs its branches to resume work forthwith,” he said.

The ASUU president said that the decision to end the strike action was taken after consultations with the national secretariat and state chapters of the union which all accepted the agreement signed between the union and the federal government on the 11th December, 2013 with the NLC president, Abdulwahed Umar, acting as witness.

The ASUU boss assured that lecturers would try to put in an extra effort to mitigate some of the effects of the strike action and cover lost ground, even as he thanked parents and other Nigerians for understanding the union’s position and supporting it.

“We have undertaken to go back to the classroom, laboratories etc, to do our best for our students, their parents and our country. We are going back to rekindle the motivation and aspiration in our members to strive to encourage our students to excel, all in its expectation that government will sincerely honour its own part of the bargain,” he stated.

Fagge said that ASUU would facilitate the inauguration of the implementation and monitoring committee on the report of the Needs Assessment of Nigerian Universities and ensure compliance of relevant stakeholders.

He also expressed the hope that the federal government would deal promptly with areas of the agreement between the parties that require policy or legislative action in order to address some of the challenges facing public universities.

Gunfire, Explosions In South Sudan After Failed Coup Attempt

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Gunfire, Explosions In South Sudan After Failed Coup Attempt

Gunfire and explosions were heard overnight in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, where President Salva Kiir had declared a night time curfew in response to an attack on the army headquarters.

The renewed shooting followed what witnesses said was heavy gunfire that began late Sunday and had subsided by Monday afternoon.

The city’s airport has been closed and the state TV channel SSTV went off air for several hours.

Shortly after it came back on air, SSTV broadcast an address from Kiir, wearing military uniform rather than his usual civilian clothing and flanked by government officials.

He said the violence “was an attempted coup”, but that the government was now in full control and the attackers were being chased down.

The President said in the broadcast that the fighting began when unidentified uniformed personnel opened fire at a meeting of members of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, SPLM, and was followed by an attack on army headquarters.

He said the attack on the army headquarters was carried out “by a group of soldiers allied to the former vice-president Dr Riek Machar and his group”.

Kiir, however, reiterated: “I will not allow or tolerate such incidents once again in our new nation. I strongly condemn these criminal actions in the strongest terms possible,” he said.

Some arrests have been made and the government vowed to prosecute all those responsible for the disturbance.

The American Embassy in Juba remained closed Tuesday and most cellular telephone services in the city are not working.

The U.S. State Department described the situation as very fluid and called on all parties to resolve their differences peacefully.

Spokeswoman Marie Harf said that given the history of conflict in the region, the United States is concerned that the violence could spread.

U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon is also deeply concerned by the fighting , saying the government must guarantee the security of all civilians regardless of which community they come from.

ASUU May Soon Call Off Strike Action

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ASUU May Soon Call Off Strike Action

Hours after the end of a marathon meeting, between members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, in Minna, Niger state, which lasted the whole of Monday, there are indication that lecturers might soon call off their nationwide strike action.

Although details of the outcome of the meeting are not out yet, feelers indicate that the union might have agreed to end the strike as long as government sticks to agreements recently reached with it.

The chairman of the union in University of Lagos, Karo Ogbinaka told Channels Television early Tuesday morning that another congress meeting would be held with the different chapters of ASUU on Wednesday to inform members and managements of the institutions of the latest development, in line with procedures, before a call-off is announced.

“We expect the students to resume and expect their members to go back to class immediately after the congress meeting and we expect the government to keep to the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU),” Ogninaka stated.

Monday’s meeting which had in attendance all the ASUU branch chairmen and secretaries, the national executive members of the body, coordinators and past leaders, reportedly took place at the senate building of the Federal University of Technology, FUT, Minna.

The gathering which was held away from the prying eyes of the media was to discuss the new Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed with the federal government last Wednesday and to reach a consensus on when the strike should be called-off and how to make up for the lost time for students.

An average semester in Nigeria Universities lasts four months, meaning that for a strike that has lasted over five months, a semester’s academic work load will have to be fitted into next year’s academic calendar to allow students graduate at the stipulated time.

The Federal Government and ASUU had reached a compromise during a negotiation brokered by the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Abdulwaheed Omar last Wednesday, which led to the signing of the MoU.

The agreement was reached barely 24 hours after the special assistant to the President on public affairs, Doyin Okupe presented a proof of payment of N200 billion into an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria for the union.

Magistrate Court Orders Exhumation Of Four Bodies For Autopsy

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Magistrate Court Orders Exhumation Of Four Bodies For Autopsy

From Jefferson Ibiwale, Benin

A Coroner Court in Benin City, has ordered that the bodies of one Samuel Imaikop, along with three labourers who were shot dead by the police on November 24 at the Benin By-Pass, Edo State, be exhumed and an autopsy be carried out on them to establish the cause of death.

The Magistrate, F.E.N. Igbinosa, who presided over the matter expressed displeasure at the refusal of the state Commissioner of police, Foluso Adebanjo to respond to the summon of the court which was served on December 12.

He ordered the police to make the bodies available for the autopsy, by way of showing the location of the burial of the corpses, adding that full medical reports of the autopsy must be made available to the court when it resumes sitting on the December 24, 2013.

The four victims were allegedly murdered by the Police who tagged them as armed robbers, but dissatisfied with this explanation, Imaikop’s family members and civil society groups had proceeded to the court to ascertain the veracity of the tale surrounding the death of the deceased.

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Counsel to the complainants, B.A. Iluobe, expressed dismay that the Police was not represented at the hearing even though he personally ensured that the summons was served on the police at the Edo State Police headquarters in Benin.

“I served the application immediately it was presented. We went with them to the police to ensure they were properly served. It is my supposition that the purpose of service is for the parties to be informed of cases against them in court, the days and time. If a party decides to abandon his case and refuse to come to court, that is a clear case of arrogance, they are not ready to defend, they don’t have a defense,” Iluobe said.

However, the Prosecutor, Ada Johnbull, an Inspector, rose in defence of the Commissioner of Police, pleading with the Court to adjourn the matter to allow the police get proper perusal of the summons and respond appropriately.

UNIBEN Emerges Centre For Reproductive Health In West Africa

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UNIBEN Emerges Centre For Reproductive Health In West Africa

From Jefferson Ibiwale, Benin

The University of Benin, UNIBEN, has received a grant from the World Bank to serve as Centre for Research for Reproductive Health Initiative, CERHI, in the West African sub region.

The university is to partner with seven universities across West Africa to give training in Reproductive Health, safe motherhood, family planning information and services, adolescent reproductive health prevention and treatment of infertility and sexual dysfunction.

The seven named institutions are University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University, University of Ghana, Nigerian of Medical Research, Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research, Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Technology, Ghana.

The universities have pledged their support towards the project and the vice chancellor of the UNIBEN, Osayuiki Oshodin, has said that the grant would be used to strengthen research in reproductive health in the sub region.

Representative of the National University Commission, Eugene Okpere, also promised that the NUC would support the take off of the centre, challenging UNIBEN and the partnering institutions to impact positively on the nation’s health sector through the programme.

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