08/17/17

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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.
Minister of Education, Malam Adamu

The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, has said that the ongoing ASUU strike will end in one week. ASUU had on Monday 14 embarked on indefinite strike.

But after the meeting, both sides said there was tremendous progress following offers made by government and position of the union on the new offers
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, on Thursday August 17 said the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities may be called off within one week.

NAIJ.com gathered that the minister stated this at a meeting of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund in Abuja.

He said that the ministry and other major stakeholders were already holding meetings with the union to resolve some of the issues that led to the strike.
He assured that with the level of progress made in the negotiation, there was hope that students and lecturers would return to classes within one week.

“The issue of renegotiation is already going on. I have already written a letter formalising the meeting I had with the union because I went alone to face them and I wrote a letter which I gave them yesterday.
“From the way they received it, I think it is possible that the strike will be called off within a week, maximum,’’ he said.

Adamu said while explaining reasons for the strike, ASUU accused the Federal Government of failing to keep its side of the agreement.

He assured that the Ministry of Finance had agreed to do the needful with regard to releasing funds as soon as possible. “The union had asked for N23bn to be paid.

“We said the condition for that N23bn to be released was for them to account for the N30bn they had taken which is a total of N53bn and they were not able to account for it.

“The Minister of Finance then undertook to do the audit from the ministry and we agreed that the result will be known within six months.

“The Federal Government undertook to be paying them N1.5bn each month during the time they are waiting for the outcome of the audit.

“Their grouse now is that the forensic audit promised by the minister of finance has not been done and the money promised has not been paid.

“So, at our meeting two days ago, we agreed that we will pay them and do a forensic audit on the entire N53bn. “I wrote to the minister and she has already approved it and this money will be paid; probably on Monday, they will be able to receive the cheque,’’ he said.

Adamu, however, stated that his ministry did not agree on some issues during the meeting with the union. He said: “There are other issues which we did not agree on and that is their request to be taken out of Treasury Single Account.

“I told them that it is not possible because this is a new policy and government is not going to change it for anyone. “Concerning their salary shortfall, we said a lot of the reasons spring from what they are doing wrong. They do a lot of employment without proper authority.

“For instance, a university can decide to recruit 50 people and IPPIS is not aware. So, we insisted that institutions must stop doing that and they accepted.

“There is also the issue of the registration of their pension commission. I think they have one or two issues to iron out with PENCOM and I believe they will also be able to solve the problem within a week.’’

The Chairman of the Senate committee, Sen. Barau Jibrin, said the committee was impressed with the briefing by the minister on the matter.

He explained that the seriousness of the issue made the committee members cut short their recess, and said that from the assurance given by the minister, students and lecturers would return to school shortly.

Jibrin said: “We hope the proposal sent to ASUU by the minister will be accepted. “On our part, with regard to getting some of the issues captured in the budget, we will do our best to actualize it.”(NAN)
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The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, is dismayed at the back-pedaled position recently taken by the Federal Government over the much talked-about free supply of the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Initiative (CAPMI METERS by the DISCOs).

The directive then for the supply of the CAPMI meters was solely to replace the old-fashioned and exploitative billing system that could only belong to the analogue era. It was purportedly aimed at responding positively to the seemingly unending cries of the average Nigerian consumer of electricity. So quite expectedly consumers received the news with so much excitement, hoping that their sufferings would soon end.

That Nigerians have overtime been bearing the pains of poor electricity supply and with no hope of relief in sight has become a situation that’s extremely intolerable and unacceptable. The apparently extortionist-prone billing system which allows the distribution companies (DISCOs) to charge consumers for services not rendered while applying all forms of arm-twisting methods to extort money from the latter must be halt. There is no logic in transferring consumers paying for meters at all. It is akin to asking them to pay for meters at fuelling stations.

When sometime last year, the Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Mr. Raji Fashola came out to direct the DISCOs to supply the CAPMI Meters, otherwise known as Pre-paid Meters, FREE OF CHARGE, to their customers, consumers generally heaved a sigh of relief from the massively condemned arbitrary billing system that lacks all rational justifications.

Consumers generally have reasoned that, even though they are helpless over their fate in regard to the consistently deplorable state of power supply, implementing the Minister’s directive would at least relieve them of having to pay for services not enjoyed. Following this directive it was observed that some DISCOs went out to effect the installation of the CAPMI meters especially in some parts of the city of Lagos but for a relatively insignificant fraction of the populace.

However the exercise was short-lived; consumers kept wondering why. No reasons were given by the DISCOS for the sudden discontinuation until the Minister, issued further directive that the exercise should wind down “because of the distrust and disaffection it was creating between consumers and DISCOS with government caught in the middle with numerous customers who paid for meters that were not delivered within the approved time.” He is also quoted as hinging his action on the excuse that the action has not violated the Electric Power Sector Reform Act in any way. What does this therefore mean? Well it simply means that the DISCOs can continue to exploit the helpless consumers at will!

Record also has it that, even though customers out of frustrations had indicated their readiness to pay for their meters, the meters were still not made available. The contradiction in the position of relevant parties in the whole thing is particularly disturbing: while Fashola maintained that meters could be procured from any source so long as the source meets the approved specification and that government has not vested the monopoly of supplies to the DISCOS, we reliably gathered that approval of meters for supply lies squarely with the relevant DISCOs and it’s most unlikely that any DISCO would want to accept meters brought from elsewhere.

Clearly, we see what the government has done here as sheer abdication of its responsibility to the people and a brazen act of irresponsibility and insensitivity to the plight of the same people that voted it into power.

Indisputably, with this unfortunate policy reversal on the part of government in regard to this issue, majority of electricity consumers who are still connected with the old exploitative ‘crazy bill’ system, would remain at the mercy of the merciless DISCOs as their hope of a mass supply of the much desired CAPMI meters may remain hanging in abeyance for a long time to come. The DISCOs make far more money in the ‘crazy bill’ system than the CAPMI. They rather would prefer operating the archaic method which swells their bank accounts.

CACOL therefore demands that government revert to its former directive that the CAPMI meters be supplied to all and sundry if only to demonstrate to Nigerians. The attempt to ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’ is not acceptable and must be rejected by Nigerians.

Quintessentially, it must be stated that this situation has fundamentally been thrown up by the fraudulent privatization of the power sector. This crisis and the associated ones all stem from the fallacy of ‘government has no business in business’ (market fundamentalism). The mode of governance where the commanding heights of economy such the power sector are handled to private hands who are majorly cronies of the corrupt ruling class that been lorded over the socio-political and economic spaces in the country in successive governments since the incursion of neo-liberalism in the late 80s.
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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.
Nigeria Police Widows Association

The Enugu State chapter of the Nigeria Police Widows Association has urged the Nigeria Police Force to settle their late husband’s entitlements to ameliorate their sufferings.

“Life has become unbearable for us since we lost our bread winners. It is becoming increasingly difficult for us to survive,” its Chairperson, Kelechukwu Kalu, said in Enugu on Wednesday.

Kalu spoke at the launch of the association’s 2017 calendar.
She said some members had nothing doing to sustain their families and were finding it difficult to feed and pay school fees.

Kalu, who was represented by the Secretary of the association, Dr. Florence Ochigbo, said some of the widows’ children had graduated from higher institutions but were yet to secure jobs.

She said: “Those that have graduated are even lucky; many others got admission into secondary schools and universities but could not register because the mothers had no money.”

She appealed to the NPF to pay their late husbands’ entitlements “without further delay”.
Kalu also pleaded with governments at all levels to give employment to widows to enable them cater for their families.
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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.
The Minor & The Baby Girl

A 10-year-old girl in India who had been raped, but whose abortion plea was turned down by the country’s Supreme Court, on Thursday delivered a baby.

Both the minor and the baby girl were safe at the state-run hospital in northern city of Chandigarh, according to Dasari Harish, the Chairman of the committee, which was set up to treat and take care of the girl.

“The girl is stable. The infant has been admitted to the neo-natal intensive care unit for quick recovery,” Harish said by phone from Chandigarh.
The girl was repeatedly raped by her uncle over several months.

The crime came to light when the girl was taken to hospital complaining of stomachache in July, and was found to be over 20 weeks into the pregnancy.
Her uncle was arrested shortly afterwards.

Indian law prohibits medical termination of pregnancies after 20 weeks except when the mother’s life is at risk.
Lawyers had approached the Supreme Court on behalf of her parents but the judges refused their plea to allow an exception.
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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

A notorious criminal in Benue popularly known as Ghana has been short dead. The Benue state Police Command claimed that Ghana, a notorious and wanted criminal in the state known has been shot dead by its operatives.

Ghana who is believed to be a member of the dreaded Terwase Akwaza group has been terrorizing Benue state and environs for quite some time now.

The report of his death was disclosed by the state’s Police Command’s Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Moses Yamu.
He claimed that the Operation Zenda Special Crack Squad of the Command last week, engaged in a gun duel with the gang members of the wanted criminal at about 3:00am.

According to him, the gun battle ensued when the Crack Squad stormed a criminal hide-out at a location on the border with Taraba state, following information that Ghana and his gang members were holding a meeting in the area, the Sun reports.

“The bandits immediately opened fire on sighting the Police team and in the ensuing gun duel, one Danladi Awudu aka Jerry who was hosting the meeting was hit by a bullet while others escaped with bullet wounds as there were traces of blood stains all over the place, however, he was confirmed dead on reaching the hospital.”

The Sun also reports that "Yamu who disclosed that the team recovered an assault rifle No. 2051679 with one hundred and fifteen (115) rounds of live ammunition, ten (10) live cartridges, assorted charms, two (2) army camouflage shorts and other items maintained that search for the fleeing members and the Gang leader was still ongoing."

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