PEOPLES Gazette, a Nigerian online newspaper, has suspended one of its reporters, Ayoola Babalola for one month without pay for violating the newspaper’s social media policy.
Babalola is on the political desk of Peoples Gazette and has previously worked with Sahara Reporters.
According to a statement issued by Peoples Gazette, his suspension was disclosed in a memo sent to all reporters and signed by Deputy Managing Editor, Boladale Adekoya, on Tuesday, April 4.
The development is coming few days after the newspaper published a report authored by Babalola alleging that the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, in a phone call sought the support of David Oyedepo to secure Christians’ votes a day to the just concluded presidential election.
According to Peoples Gazette, the management made the decision after carefully reviewing the reporter’s responses to online trolls and concluded that he did not act with decorum and professionalism expected of the medium’s employees.
“Ayoola Babalola met with the HR, where he was directed to proceed on suspension for one month without pay,” the online newspaper stated in the memo.
“Mr Babalola is a vibrant and respected member of the organisation’s editorial team,” the statement noted, but stressed the reporter’s “conduct on social media, both from months past and as recently as last weekend, grossly violated the organisation’s guideline on personnel conduct.”
“Still, while the organization sympathises and stands strongly with Mr Babalola and all staff members who come frequently under social media onslaught, the manner with which colleagues handle online trolls is what distinguishes us as professionals.”
The statement added that the reporter would undergo counseling during the one month suspension and will be reinstated afterwards.
LOSS in the share prices of Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Zenith Bank and 19 other stocks dragged the total market value of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) down to N29.44 trillion at the end of the Tuesday, March 4, trading session.
The session’s market capitalisation, which is the total market value of all the stocks listed on the Exchange, opened at N29.52 trillion but fell by 0.27 per cent, leaving investors with a N81.14 billion loss.
The All-Share Index (ASI) also moderated by 0.27 per cent 54,035.39 basis points (bps), even as the year-to-date gain of the Exchange fell to 5.43 per cent.
The performance of the banking and industrial indices were negative relative to other sub-sectors – insurance, consumer goods and oil and gas indices – which were positive.
Pressure on the banking stocks led the index to fall by 1.34 per cent to 445.72bps. The 0.04 per cent to 2,455.42bps suffered by industrial stocks contributed to the loss on the Nigerian stock market on Tuesday.
Opening at N25.40, GTCO share price dropped by 0.80k to N24.60, and Zenith Bank lost 0.65k to N25.15 at the close of the day’s trading session.
Other banking stocks that fell included FCMB Group, which lost 0.15k to close at N4.00; Ecobank Transnational Incorporated dropped by 0.30k to N10.60; and United Bank for Africa (UBA), fell by 0.05k to N8.35.
On the industrial sub-sector, Lafarge Africa’s share price dropped by 0.20k to close at N25.80.
A further look at the losers’ table showed that Lasaco Assurance’s share price lost 0.02k to N1.21, while AIICO Insurance dropped by 0.03k to 0.57k, although the insurance index printed a gain of 0.89 per cent to close at 179.64bps.
While Oando shed 0.19k to close at N5.56; Eterna dropped by 0.55k to N5.60 despite the 0.25 per cent to 510.50bps posted by the oil and gas index.
The share price of the Nigerian Exchange Group fell the highest by N1.50 to close at N26.00, compared to other stocks traded on Tuesday at the floor.
Market activity was, however, positive as 296.74 million units of shares were traded, valued at N3.07 billion that exchanged hands in 4,590 deals.
Analysts at GTI Group were of the view that “investors’ sentiments continue to rally towards defensive stocks as today’s sector’s performance showed a mixed sentiment, even as companies continue to release earnings and dividends.”
LABOUR Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi has reacted to the allegation by the Federal Government that he is trying to incite insurrection over the outcome of the presidential election.
The Federal Government, through Minister of Information and culture, Lai Mohammed, had accused Obi of treason.
In a tweet on Tuesday, April 4, Obi denied the accusation, describing the allegations as “malicious” and “fictitious.”
He said the allegation was part of attempts by political opponents to “demarket” him.
The ICIR reported that the Minister of Information, Mohammed, had while speaking with some media organisations in the United States, accused Obi of treason and attempting to incite insurrection over the outcome of the presidential election.
The minister called Obi “desperate and undemocratic” while describing his actions as treacherous.
Responding to the accusation, Obi said he has never tried to undermine or sponsor an action against the Nigerian state.
It is most unfortunate that these consistent efforts to portray me quite contrary to what I am, and my core values, is coming from such high quarters. Minister Lai accusing me of stoking insurrection is totally malicious and fictitious.
“Those initiating these actions have increasingly used their official positions and agents to make false allegations against me,” he said.
The former governor of Anambra State denied campaigning based on ethnicity or religion for the presidential election.
The LP candidate noted that he has been committed to “due process” even in his effort to get redress in court.
“I am on record, as always, advocating for peace and issue-based campaign and never campaigned based on ethnicity or religion. I am committed to due process and presently seeking redress in court.
“I urge those engaged in this demarketing process to stop presenting Nigeria in such a bad light. Our future generations deserve a new Nigeria where they can live a secure and decent life like their counterparts in other climes. It is possible,” Obi added.
MINISTER of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has stated that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deliberately withheld the real-time upload of the presidential election results from polling units due to a suspected cyber attack.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mohammed stated this during his official engagements with some international media organisations in Washington DC, the United States, on Monday, April 3.
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The minister said the cyber attack was why INEC did not upload the results to preserve the data’s integrity.
“INEC, suspecting cyber attack, withheld the uploading of the results in order to preserve the integrity of the data.
“It immediately proceeded to float an alternative platform while asking its technicians to investigate what happened to its original portal.”
Mohammed stated that the controversy was unnecessary and had been the fulcrum of the argument of the critics of the election.
The minister explained that IREV, a platform whereby election results at the polling level are uploaded, was not a tool for the collation of election results or to transmit results electronically.
He said under Nigerian laws, the management of election results is manual, and the court has ruled that INEC has the exclusive right to determine the mode of election, its collation and transmission.
He added that as soon as the original portal started working, the results were viewed from the two platforms.
Mohammed said that allegations of fraud being bandied by the opposition and naysayers did not add up.
Mohammed’s statement contradicts the Commission’s assertion that it failed to upload the results due to technical glitches, not cyber attacks.
INEC had come under fire over its inability to upload results immediately on its Result Viewing portal during the presidential and National Assembly elections held on 25 February.
The issue of real-time upload was one of the bases on which two opposition candidates are challenging the results of the election won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.
THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to combat drug trafficking in the country.
The Chairman of the NDLEA, Mohamed Buba Marwa and the Comptroller General of the NCS, Hameed Ali, signed the MOU on Tuesday, April 4, at the NDLEA Headquarters in Abuja.
In his brief remarks at the ceremony, Marwa expressed delight at the decision by the two government agencies to document their working relationship in an MoU, even as he listed the vast benefits of such to the country.
He specifically commended Ali for his excellent performance record as Customs CG and his past years of public service in the Nigerian Army, especially as military governor of Kaduna State.
“This is certainly a benchmark for information and or intelligence sharing. It is also a platform for sharing operational and administrative experiences with a view to adopting best practices that work.
Chairman NDLEA, Buba Marwa and CG Customs Hammed Ali during the event
“With this united front, there can only be one assurance that the criminal elements in our society will definitely be the losers, and I assure you that they will certainly lose big as we come for them to put them where they rightly belong and cripple their crime syndicates.
“While there is no doubt as to the benefits that this MoU will provide to our two services and the nation at large, it is my hope that its successful execution and implementation will provide the necessary impetus for an extension to other sister law enforcement agencies (LEAs) operating at our airports, seaports and land borders.
“On this basis, it is imperative to drive the implementation of the MoU to ensure that its objectives and derivable are achieved,” Marwa stated.
He assured the public of the commitment of the NDLEA to the MoU and promised to provide all the necessary support required to drive the implementation process to ensure the realization of all accruable benefits.
While stating the great significance of the MoU, Marwa said the document contains several innovations that will encourage interpersonal relationships amongst the rank and file and at the various levels of command and administration of the two organizations.
“The expected outcome of these series of interactions is to foster a better understanding of the respective roles and mandates of our two organizations and how they complement one another in a mutually inclusive way.
“The ultimate objective is to dissolve suspicion, friction and general interagency rivalry that does not do our nation any good in terms of effectively securing the entry and exit points of our dear country,” he added.
He said the agreement would provide a good defence line at various ports of entry and exit to prevent the influx of offensive materials and substances that undermine national security.
In his own remarks, the CG of Customs Ali praised Marwa for initiating the MoU.
Ali said the MoU will send a very strong signal in the fight against crime.
“We believe that coming together shows commitment to saving this nation from drugs and other substances.
“I want to take this special opportunity to thank my senior for initiating this MOU.
“When my attention was drawn to this initiative, I knew this was the Marwa trend. I thank him for initiating this event and creating an avenue for us to synergize and come up with a veritable way to fight drug abuse in this nation.
“The essence of our being here has been underscored by my brother, but I want to reiterate that our coming together does not send a signal only to our nation but to the international partners, that we are committed to protecting our borders from illicit drugs.”
Ali added that the Customs had been involved in finding drugs in the borders and expressed happiness that the sole responsibility has been removed from the agency.
He expressed the commitment of the Nigerian Customs Service to the implementation of the MoU and noted that the two agencies must invest in technology to fight the drug menace.
THE Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) is collaborating with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to ensure compensation for road crash victims and prosecution of drivers and their employers whose activities on the road lead to the injury of road users.
In a statement released on Tuesday, April 4, the Corps spokesman, Bisi Kazeem, stated that the partnership is a concerted effort to ensure that victims of road crashes are duly compensated through established legal processes.
Bisi said the organisations finalized the agreement to collaborate during a courtesy visit of the Corps Marshal, Dauda Biu to the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Yakubu Maikyau (SAN).
The statement stressed that the two organizations have an antecedent of partnership towards ensuring compensation for victims of accident.
The FRSC boss said the organization has secured a Memorandum of Understanding with the Femi Falana Chambers aimed at prosecuting drivers and their employers during the prosecution of the driver who killed a former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Professor Festus Iyayi.
The statement stressed the need to leverage on the national strength of the NBA to ensure swift prosecution of drivers and adequate compensation for victims.
According to the statement, the partnership is important to bring to an end the current reign of impunity on roads by ensuring that any driver whose actions or inactions led to the loss of lives or injuries of other road users was made to face the wrath of the law.
The FRSC boss further urged the NBA President to play a proactive role by constituting a team of lawyers that will aid in stemming the tide by filing civil actions against the concerned drivers and their employers.
The Corps Marshall also requested the intervention of the NBA President in reshaping the erroneous position of some state governments that insist that the FRSC lacks the powers to operate on state roads.
According to the FRSC boss, some state high courts had given judgment against the Corps to the effect of lack of jurisdiction.
The Committee set up by the partnership would be headed by Barrister O.A Sule, SAN, has the Association’s branch chairmen in Suleja, Gwagwalada, Keffi, Bwari, Kwali and Abuja Municipal Area Council as members.
Other members of the committee include the Corps Legal Adviser and some members of the FRSC legal team.
A 34-YEAR-OLD woman, Marla McEntire, living in Georgia, has given birth to a baby in a toilet and claimed she was unaware of the child’s pregnancy.
Marla has been on birth control since she was 18.
The New York Post reports that she claimed to have taken labour pain for constipation on the day she gave birth and had rushed to the toilet five times.
Her fifth attempt to empty her bowel in the restroom allegedly brought her to a rude shock – a baby dropped from her into the toilet and had a larger part of his body covered with the toilet water.
“I have just had Atlas in the toilet, I looked down and saw that he’s alive, and I yelled for my dad. My dad came in there and helped me get the baby out of the toilet because, obviously, he was still attached at this point, and it was a little hard for me to get him out.
“I looked down in the toilet, and he is in there with water up to his ears and right under his chin, just looking back up at me, like, ‘Are you going to get me out of here, mom?'”
Marla McEntire and her newborn Photo credit: Daily Mail
The young mother said though she had loved having a baby, pregnancy and labour pain were her fear.
Marla argued that she had no sign of pregnancy for 40 weeks when the baby was in her womb – no kick, no sickness, and her belly button didn’t pop up, she claimed.
Speaking further, she said: “I just looked like maybe I ate a big burrito. If you saw my size and the way that I didn’t show, it’s astonishing how he could be in there and me not know it.”
At the early stage of the pregnancy, the woman had missed one period and went for a pregnancy test that turned out negative — her periods had come uninterruptedly after that.
Her father, Kevin, with whom she shares an apartment, immediately called 911 for advice after she gave birth. The mother and baby were taken to the hospital for checkups – and they have been fine.
Marla’s baby is a five-pound, 18-inch son – whom she named Atlas Cohen.
But the happy mother has yet to ascertain the child’s paternity.
Daily Mail reports Marla taking to her Tiktok account at marlamactastic to narrate her story after the delivery. ‘I’m 34 years old, and I’ve never had a pregnancy scare before.
“I got pregnant last May, and I never showed. My stomach was squishy, my belly button didn’t pop out, no morning sickness, and I never felt a kick – nothing.
“Around January, I started having some hip pain and some stomach issues. So I went to a chiropractor and went to a doctor, and no one caught the fact that there was a baby in there.”
Marla’s baby boy Photo credit: Daily Mail
Speaking with The ICIR, a reproductive expert and former Country Director IPAS, Ejike Oji, said Marla’s claim could be true.
Oji, the chairman management committee of the Association for Family Planning and a senior special assistant to the Minister of FCT on Health and Hospital Management, however, put a caveat – there’s is a need to check Marla’s mental health status.
His words, “It is very rare (for a woman to be pregnant without knowing), but it is possible. You have to check the mental state of the woman. Most women don’t know they are pregnant until the pregnancy has advanced.”
The secretary of the Nigeria Medical Association (FCT chapter), Michael Olarewaju, a consultant obstetrician gynaecologist, holds a different opinion.
He told The ICIR that Marla’s claim is untrue.
“These are things we see daily, people coming to tell us they didn’t know they were pregnant. It is a lie. In one aspect, they could have wanted to dispose of the baby.
“There was this one lady that delivered in a toilet. I was still at Maitama Hospital then. She allegedly delivered in a toilet in Maitama. They wanted to give the baby up for adoption, but along the line, she developed complications. She started bleeding so badly. They brought her to Maitama General Hospital. I was the doctor on call. When I saw her, she was a young girl, about 19 or so.
“I counselled her. Immediately I saw the lady; I knew that they wanted to put the baby up for adoption. I told her that if she had made any mistake about having the pregnancy, the best thing for her was to return to her parents. I advised her, and she gave me her mother’s number. Her mother was in Enugu. She said they had not seen the girl in six months. This is a girl who told me she was not sure she was pregnant.”
Olarewaju said when the lady discovered she was pregnant, she ran away from school. When she was about to deliver, she took a flight from Enugu to Abuja and gave birth soon after, probably because of the stress from the flight.
The doctor said the claim by women that they don’t know when they are pregnant was false.
According to him, there are many signs for women, including periods, baby kicking, and falling sick.
Another doctor, Nabila Abubakar, who works at the National Hospital, Abuja, said any woman’s claim that she doesn’t know she is pregnant till the point of delivery is likely untrue.
“This is highly improbable. There are uncountable symptoms to it, in addition to the lack of menstruation and hormonal changes,” the doctor stated.
Similarly, a consultant family physician, Safiya Ojo, who works at Cedarcrest Hospital, Abuja, said a woman couldn’t be pregnant for nine months without knowing.
She said there are hormonal changes when a woman is pregnant.
“There are some things you feel were not there that will make you suspect you should go to the hospital and be diagnosed.”
She listed nausea, vomiting, unusual eating pattern, and abdominal discomfort as some of the factors.
“I’m sure the woman also menstruates. Didn’t she miss her period?”
When told that Marla was on family planning, the doctor said for somebody to be pregnant for nine months, the abdomen will protrude, no matter how slim the person is.
THE PROMAD infotech foundation has highlighted some of the issues affecting youth civic participation in Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The nonprofit organisation, which combines evidence-based strategies with civic technology to bridge gaps that exists between citizens at grassroots communities and governments released its research policy memo in Abuja on Tuesday, April 4.
Speaking on the project, the Founder and Executive Director of Promad, Daisi Omokungbe, noted that the Accelerating Youth Civic Participation and Development in FCT (AYCP) Project is a youth component of its Grassroots Advocacy Project (GRAP).
“The project is a youth component of our Grassroots Advocacy Project (GRAP) that focuses on community needs assessment for budget making, enhancing citizens opportunity to nominate projects that meet the needs of their community into the budget. AYCP project attracted, educated and mobilised youth across the six area councils for civic participation such as in the 2023 general elections, collection of community and youth needs assessment data and empowered them to track projects in their communities to drive participatory and accountable governance in the pursuit of the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and #TheNigeriaWeWant.
“In the last four months, we’ve engaged young people at community levels and held town hall meetings across the six area councils of the FCT. We conducted the survey on youth civic participation and development challenges through the deployment of our home-grown civic-tech needs assessment platform–https://grap.org.ng, targeting young people mostly at the grassroots, as well as qualitative interviews and observations made during town hall meetings. All of these led to the production of this research policy memo,” he said.
On Promad findings, Omokungbe stressed that 46 per cent of youths are unemployed and depend on someone else to survive, while 26 per cent are self-employed, according to its quantitative and qualitative analysis.
According to him, 28 per cent are employed by government, Non Government Organisations and Private companies.
“52.35% of respondents belongs to a youth group involved in political participation and 51% of respondents belong to political parties. This shows that there is high interest. 82.72% of respondents have voter cards, 86.38% of respondents know where to collect their PVC. This points to the high level of awareness and interest amongst young people.
“75.91% of respondents voted in a past election and 76.43% of them would vote in 2023. According to INEC’s data on 2023 elections compared to the past elections, there was an increase in voters’ turnout in the FCT. However, they identified violence (the biggest challenge), corruption, high cost of participation and youth only meant for thuggery as barriers to youth participation. Violence was their biggest hindrance. This choice and feedback from the interviews strengthens the idea that young people view elections as the ultimate form of civic participation.”
Speaking on dividends of governance and empowerment, he noted that 83.24 per cent of their respondents have never benefited from government or lawmakers youth empowerment schemes, implying that there is a gap in service provision that ought to cater for the youth population.
“This evidence proves the sentiment of neglect expressed in the interviews.
“ There is a wide disconnect between young people and elected officials. 76.96% of respondents have not engaged NASS members or government agencies, this indicates that the youths do not understand or respect their responsibility to engage with the government. On the other hand, elected officials are also not engaging them as indicated by 88% of the respondents that are not aware and know for sure that no representative has organized a town hall or consultation session.”
According to him, there is a wide acceptance of women and PWDs’ inclusion with 90.05 percent of their respondents supporting their inclusion in governance and leadership.
He further appealed to all state governments to involve youths in government and policy making, noting that only Lagos and Rivers state have made attempts to domestics the National youth policy.
According to him, youth must be front and centre of budget formation and must be involved before in empowerment schemes to avoid misplacement of priorities.
“Young people must organize to pursue their cause_No one can fight the cause of young people like their critical mass coming together to pursue a common goal. The government and leaders understand that the youth are the majority, and with their numbers, they can achieve anything they want if and only if they come together and engage relevant authorities.”
He stressed that youth inclusion and empowerment would facilitate new ideas and solutions to fast-track development not only in the FCT but the whole country. “This is particularly important as Nigeria is on the verge of democratic transition from one democratically elected administration to another which will create new political changes, efforts must be directed on actual youth development not ‘frivolous budgeting’ for the youth,” he added.
MINISTER of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has accused Peter Obi of inciting insurrection in the country over the outcome of the just concluded presidential election.
The minister described Obi’s alleged action as “treason”.
Mohammed spoke during an official engagement with some international media organisations in Washington, DC, the United States.
Speaking on the polls, Mohammed said his visit was to balance the skewed narratives and “to tell the world unambiguously that the just concluded general elections in Nigeria are the fairest”.
He described Peter Obi as desperate and undemocratic.
“Obi and his vice, Datti Ahmed, cannot threaten Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria. This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing.
“The Constitution has stringent criteria for anybody who wants to be President of the country.
“Only the President-elect met the criteria by scoring 8.79 million votes and having one-quarter of all the votes cast in 29 states of the federation.
“You cannot win an election in a poll where you came to a distant third position and failed to meet constitutional requirements,” the minister said.
The minister also said a victory for either Obi or Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in their challenge of the election results is impossible.
He noted that they both failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as President.
The event is slated for April 19, 2023, to April 23, 2023, in Perugia, Italy.
Sessions will cover topics on Ukraine, AI, data journalism, climate reporting, podcasting, audio and video, collaborative journalism, investigative journalism, and more.
Entry to all in-person sessions is on a first-come-first-served basis.
All festival sessions will be live-streamed and available for viewing on the festival’s website.
Sessions will be conducted in English or Italian.
Journalists can attend the International Journalism Festival for free.
Plan to attend in person or via live stream. The application is rolling. Interested applicants can register here.
