11/05/17

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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.
Chief Okoi Obono-Obla

The Federal Government has removed Chief Okoi Obono-Obla as Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property.

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, in a statement on Sunday, said that recent actions of Obono-Obla who is equally an aide to President Muhammadu Buhari on prosecution, ran contrary to the enabling act that established the panel.

Consequently, the AGF directed Obono-Obla to “henceforth desist from carrying out any operation in his capacity as head of the panel”.

Obono-Obla was notified of his sack via a letter dated November 1 with file number HAGF/SH/2017/VOL/1/60, which was signed by the AGF.

In the letter, Malami maintained that activities of the panel contravened established administrative procedures and protocols in the nation’s civil service structure.

He warned Obono-Obla to strictly comply with FG’s directive that he should hands-off from further presiding over any activity in the name of the panel.

Obono-Obla was also barred from further granting press interviews without firstly securing permission to speak on any official matter.

“Obla is also instructed to henceforth seek clearance from the AGF before granting any media interview or making press releases on official matters, while he is directed to promptly provide a detailed up-to-date report on the activities of the panel to the Minister for onward transmission to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.

Malami’s letter titled, ‘RE: Directive In Respect of Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, Chiarman of the Special Investigation Panel on the recovery of public property’, was said to be a follow-up to a previous letter from the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

According to the statement, Malami’s letter to Obono-Obla read: “I have received a letter Ref. SH/OVP/DCOS/FMJ/0424 dated 20thOctober, 2017 in respect of the above subject from the Office of the Vice President.

“In the said letter, the Vice President expressed his concerns on the activities of the Special Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property which runs contrary to the enabling Act establishing it. 

He also noted that the activities of the Panel run foul or contrary to established administrative procedures and protocols in the Federal Civil Service structure. 

“In view of the foregoing coupled with the directives contained in the letter under reference, you are hereby directed to refrain from any further action or taking any step in your capacity as the Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property with immediate effect until directed otherwise by His Excellency, the Vice President. 

“While you are to await further instructions in respect of the Panel’s mandate, you are hereby directed to promptly provide a detailed up-to-date report on the activities of the Panel to the undersigned for onward transmission to the Vice President. 

“Furthermore, you are required to henceforth seek clearance from the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice before granting any media interview or making press releases on official matters. 

“While appealing for immediate and strict compliance with the contents of this letter, please, accept the assurances of my warm regards and best wishes”.
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The Borno Wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has appealed to Gov. Kashim Shettima to use the third tranche of the Paris Club refund to clear teachers’ entitlements. The state Chairman of the NUT, Mr Bulama Abiso, made the appeal in an interview with newsmen in Maiduguri on Sunday.
Borno NUT Chairman, Mr Bulama Abiso

Abiso said that some retired teachers in Borno had yet to be paid pensions and gratuities, while serving teachers were being owed salaries.

“The Federal Government has advised state governments to use between 50 and 75 per cent of their shares of the refund to clear arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuities.

“The Borno Government must, therefore, utilise the money to settle arrears of the entitlements of retirees, some of whom have been waiting since 2009.

“The government used the previous fund to settle part of pensions and gratuities, but much needs to be done to fully address this problem,” he said.

Bulama said that the education sector could not be revolutionalised without government giving priority attention to teachers’ welfare.

The chairman said that the state government had yet to pay death benefits to families of 500 teachers killed by Boko Haram in the course of their duties across the state.

He said that the NUT had been catering for the welfare of over 1,500 widows and 2,500 children of the slain teachers.

“Some of the teachers left three wives, some had even four wives, and the NUT has never received any intervention either through the government or UN agencies to support our teachers.

“While it is paramount for the government to focus attention on the rehabilitation, reconstruction and resettlement, there is also the need for them to focus directly on the educational sector.

“There are about one million children roaming the streets of Borno without going to school. “There are also more than 500,000 of vulnerable unaccompanied children who don’t even know their parents as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency,” Abiso said.

The chairman, who commended President Muhammadu Buhari for signing the North-East Development Commission Bill into law, hoped that the law would fully address the menace of Boko Haram in the state.
NAN
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The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) command in Borno on Sunday said it had uncovered a prostitution ring in various colleges and tertiary institutions in the state.

The Corps Commandant, Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri.

Abdullahi said the culprits were girls aged between 25 and below. He added that “the girls have their facilitators and a chief pimp outside the schools who usually communicate on how to arrange the girls.

They usually charge between N10,000 and above for a night. “The girls don’t usually go out looking for men, as they are being patronised mostly by visitors who come into town for weekend or for a programme.

“Our investigation also revealed that the teenage girls are also into various forms of nefarious activities like smoking of cannabis sativa and abuse of Codein cough syrup.

“We, therefore, want to appeal to parents in particular to monitor the activities of their children in schools and know the type of company they keep at all times.

“Bad friends in school are some of the genesis of this form of anti-social behaviour.”

The commandant, who gave assurance that the culprits would be made to face the full weight of the law, also urged school authorities to ensure strict monitoring of students.
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Enugu CP, Mohammed Danmallam

The Police Command in Enugu State on Sunday confirmed that no life was lost before, during and after the state’s Nov. 4 local government election.

The Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC) conducted election into 17 council areas and 261 political wards on Saturday, Nov. 4.

The command’s Spokesman, SP Ebere Amaraizu, told newsmen in Enugu that the speculations that some persons were killed were false and unfounded. “There was no loss of life anywhere in the state,” he insisted.

Amaraizu said the police and other security agencies were able to persuasively calm nerves and return normalcy in locations where violence broke out on Saturday.

He added that some groups’ resistance that the election would not hold was professionally handled by police and other security agencies as the agitators were peacefully dispersed.

He explained that “against the backdrop of rumours that some persons were killed in Oji River Local Government Area on Saturday, the command wish to make it categorically clear that there was no loss of lives in Oji River and throughout the entire state.

“The command wish to state that there was an issue in which some electoral officials and materials were held hostage by some group of persons.

“The group insisted that election would not hold in Oji River and its environs and also threatened to burn down the council secretariat should the election go on.

“However, the situation lasted until the arrival of the Commissioner of Police (CP) in the state, Mr Mohammed Danmallam and his entourage, who had been on visitation to polling stations and booths monitoring security situations.

“Following the commissioner’s arrival, the issues were professionally handled as the agitators were peacefully dispersed.

“Normalcy returned to the area immediately, leading to commencement of distribution of electoral materials to centres and wards in Oji River and its environs.”

Amaraizu said officers and men of the police and other security agencies were still in their various election positions to ensure that there was no breakdown of law in the next few days.

NAN
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The Federal Government has told the Federal High Court in Lagos that the record of spending of N388.304billion London Paris Club Loan refunds by 35 states released to the states by Federal Government “is protected by professional privilege, and therefore confidential.”

The Federal Government said this through the Accountant General of the Federation Alhaji Ahmed Idris while responding to the suit number FCH/CS/523/17 filed by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

The Federal Government’s response filed last Friday followed the ruling in June by Justice Muslim Hassan that SERAP could proceed with the legal challenge to unravel how exactly 35 states spent Paris Club loan refunds. Justice Hassan had while granting leave stressed that it was important for the authorities “to come and tell us how they spent our money.

However, in its defence, the Federal Government is now arguing that “The relationship between the Accountant General and the 35 states is professional and confidential. It is a fiduciary one akin to that between a bank and its customer and allied professionals. On that score, the record of the spending of N388.304billion London Paris Club Loan refunds by the 35 states is exempted from publication, assuming the Federal Government has the information sought by SERAP.”

The Federal Government is also arguing that “The Accountant General does not have custody or possession of the information or record relating to the spending of N388.304billion London Paris Club Loan refunds by 35 states which the government gave them. The Accountant General did not release the funds to the states. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the Accountant General argues that assuming we have the information sought, the government is not obliged to comply with the request.”


According to the government, “SERAP has the right to the information sought but not to request that the information be passed to the Attorney General of the Federation. In any case, the Accountant General has no record of the spending of N388.304billion London Paris Club Loan refunds by 35 states and therefore cannot be compelled to release the record, as the court does not act in vain. An order of mandamus should not be issued because it will be unnecessary and not effective and will not serve the purpose.”

SERAP’s in a statement signed by its Deputy Director, Timothy Adewale on Sunday, November 5, however, challenged the Account- General’s position saying that the Accountant General owes no duty of confidence and that the disclosure of information to Nigerian citizens doesn’t constitute a breach of confidence.

The statement which read in parts said, “The Accountant General owes no duty of confidence to the 35 states but rather to the entire citizens of Nigeria. Disclosure will not constitute an actionable breach of confidence if there is a public interest in disclosure which outweighs the public interest in keeping the information confidential.”

“The FOI Act does not say that the information requested can only be issued to the person making the request nor does it say that SERAP cannot request information for the use of another person, especially when that person is the Attorney General of the Federation who is constitutionally obliged by law to act in the public interest, including in matters relating to the spending of the Paris Club Loan refunds by the 35 states.”

“The intention of the drafters of the FOI Act as shown in its preamble and its sections is to allow access to information, enhance and promote transparency, accountability, openness, justice and development. Therefore, all public officials including the Accountant General ought to strive to ensure the effective implementation of the FOI Act.”

It would also be recalled that the Federal Government released N388.304billion of the N522.74 billion to 35 states as refunds of over-deductions on London-Paris Club loans. The amounts received by the states are as follows: Akwa Ibom N14.5bn; Bayelsa N14.5bn; Delta N14.5bn; Kaduna N14.3bn; Katsina N14,5bn; Lagos N14.5bn; Rivers N14.5bn; Borno N13,654138,849.49; Imo 13bn; Jigawa 13.2bn; and Niger N13.4bn.

Others are: Bauchi N12.7bn and Benue N12.7bn, Anambra N11.3bn; Cross River N11.3bn8; Edo N11.3bn; Kebbi N11bn; Kogi N11.2bn; Osun N11.7bn; Sokoto N11.9bn; Abia N10.6bn; Ogun N10.6bn; Plateau N10.4bn; Yobe N10bn; and Zamfara N10bn. Other states are: Adamawa N4.8bn; Ebonyi N3.3bn; Ekiti N8.8bn; Enugu N9.9bn; Gombe N8.3bn; Kwara N5.4bn; Nasarawa N8.4bn; Ondo N6.5bn; Oyo N7.2bn and Taraba N4.2bn.
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Abia State Police Command has arrested some suspected members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) caught with Biafra currency in the state.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Anthony Ogbizi, disclosed this to reporters on Saturday while parading the purported IPOB members along with other suspects at the Police Officers’ Mess in Umuahia, the state capital.

“These IPOB members were arrested with Biafra currency, so when we say that IPOB has gone beyond a particular stage, the public may seem to disbelieve us because of their propaganda,” he said.

“Gradually you are seeing it, these three IPOB members were caught with the Biafra currency”.

Ogbizi said the arrest was made as a result of the level of professionalism and respect for diversity deployed by men of the Police Command.

He said the suspects would be made to face the full wrath of the law to serve as a deterrent to others.

Others paraded alongside the supposed IPOB members include suspected murderers, kidnappers, armed robbers and child traffickers among others.

Items recovered from them are 10 bags of suspected cannabis, Biafra currency, a pump action gun and phones among others.

Although the suspected murderers and kidnappers made attempts to deny their involvement in crime, Ogbizi insisted that their outcry cannot change the evidence before them.
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With improvement in technology by the day, tonnes of new tech gadgets, devices, games and other related innovations to keep us informed and entertained are being developed. No doubt, one of the expectations from the improvement in technology is increased productivity. If not checked, however, the productivity of the average tech gadget or device user today may likely start to decline.

Why do I say so? It simply is because of the distraction that some of these tech gadgets, devices and other activities online are causing, to contribute to the decline in productivity. Ordinarily, one would expect that with the many text tools that are cropping up every day, productivity should also increase automatically. In some cases, this is not so but it largely depends on usage.

The interesting thing about technology is that, both the good side and the bad side of it exist in reality and they both abound on the internet. Before the advent of the internet, however, improvement in technology had always had its good side and bad side.

Take, for instance; the invention of dynamite by Alfred Nobel in the 19th century, to help blow up rocks to allow for construction of roads, rails, etc. also created the opportunities for bad use of technology to start using dynamite in the production of mass military weapons and for use by miscreants to blow up rail lines and banks, etc. so they can rob trains, banks, etc.

This twist in use of an otherwise good process to simplify the use of breaking rocks into use for an evil cause prompted Alfred Nobel to initiate the Nobel Prize for just causes, one of which was the Nobel Prize for peace. This, he did, to make up for the bad use of his invention when an obituary titled “The merchant of death is dead” was mistakenly put out for him when the newspaper thought he had died, not knowing that it was his brother that died.

Today, the social media platforms, created for simplifying access to information and also for the ease of communication among people, are now sort of slowing down work and adversely affecting productivity at work for many adults and in school, for many youths and students.

Instead of facing their studies, many students prefer to watch movies online, play the numerous games available online, chat all day with their friends on the various social media platforms on their devices.

The resultant effect of this is scoring low grades in examinations and in many cases, falling for various scams and antics evolved online by cyber criminals! Parents should try as much as possible to guide their children in this regards.

There should be a specified time that these kids are to be allowed to play games on devices. It should be specified to them that they cannot play games on the devices until they have completed their assignments given to them in school..

Adults are also not left out. Some of them are caught up in this web of information overload, wasting valuable time and other resources in patronising mundane things online, chatting away with friends and watching movies online instead of concentrating on their jobs at work. This leads to a whole lot of inefficiency and reduction in productivity at work.

Having observed the above problems, do we then say we should discard technology and go back to the old ways of doing things? I will say a big ‘NO’ to that. We should continue to advocate for the smart use of technology.

The arrival of technology does not mean that we should discard our time-tested time management processes. There is time for everything. Time management entails that we plan how we use the 24 hours available to us every day.

Plan your time to work or study daily, time to eat daily, time to engage the social media platforms daily, time to sleep to recoup lost energy daily, time to exercise your body daily and lots more. Doing these and adhering strictly to the time allotted to each activity requires a whole lot of discipline.

If you discipline yourself and work strictly in accordance with the time allotted to each activity on daily basis, you are sure to earn the benefits derivable from the use of technology which include increase in productivity, improvement in accessing information and communication.

Here is an excerpt from a similar article computerworld.com that I find quite interesting. “The worst part of all of this is that as Internet distractions gobble up more of our time and attention, we feel like we’re working harder while our real work keeps piling up. So we force ourselves to work more and longer hours and bring more of our work home. The more we work, the more our minds rebel and gravitate to the amusements. It’s a self-reinforcing phenomenon that results in not really enjoying fun, and not getting our work done. Both at work and at home, we’re never fully working and never fully enjoying our time off.”

My most important piece of advice is to learn where to draw a line so as to ensure a balance. Time spent on a number of less beneficial activities such as chatting continuously or reading gossip blogs every second or watching X-rated movies online can, instead, be used to learn something new or even a new language.

There is need for everyone to review their activities online and learn to use technology smartly in order to avoid distractions for our own good as well as the collective good of the society at large.

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 Professor Wole Soyinka



Professor Wole Soyinka is going back to Donald Trump’s America, less than a year after he tore his Green Card following the election of Donald Trump as president.

He will be delivering from 14-16 November the Richard D. Cohen Lectures at Harvard University Centre for African Studies.

“I’ll go in as an alien, an alien from outer space. I love that designation,” Soyinka said in an interview with Financial Times of London published on Friday.

The lectures will be in three parts, under the theme: ‘Beyond Aesthetics: Use, Abuse and Dissonance in African Art Traditions.’

The first part, “The Acquisitive Eye: Oga, I swear it’s Original Fake” will be delivered on 14 November.

On 15 November, Soyinka will speak on: “Heirs to the Procreative Deities – the Yoruba at Large.”

He ends the talks on Thursday 16 November with the third lecture: “From Aso Ebi to N****ywood.”

The venue for the three lectures is Thompson Room, Barker Centre, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA. Richard Cohen Lectures.

Before the emergence of Trump, Soyinka had spent much time in the US, where he taught at a number of universities and lived in California with his wife, Folake.

“My life has been involved with the Diaspora on a very personal and visceral level,” he said of his interaction with prominent African-Americans.

Donald Trump’s election marked an end to his US sojourn. In what has become known among Nigerians as “Wolexit,” he cut up his Green Card.

“To have some redneck ride into power on the steed of racism was, for me, too much,” he told the Financial Times.

In a statement in 2016, he detailed why he chose to drop the Green Card: “I was in New York during the run-up to elections. I watched this face, its body language, listened to his uncouth, racist language, his imbecillic harangues, the insults to other peoples, other races, especially the Hispanics, Africans and Afro-Americans, even citing once – I was told – Nigeria as an instance of the burdensome occupation of global space.

“I watched and listened, disbelievingly, since this was America, supposedly now freed to a large extent – as we like to believe and have a right to expect – from its lamentable history of racism.” (NAN)
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Saudi Arabia on Saturday intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile over Riyadh after it was launched from conflict-torn Yemen, with debris landing inside the capital’s international airport, officials said.

Residents in Riyadh reported a loud bang near the airport after the missile, the firing of which was claimed by Iran-backed Huthi rebels, was shot down, but authorities reported no major damage or loss of life.

The attack underscores the threat posed by the raging conflict in Yemen, increasingly spilling across the border since a Saudi-led coalition began its military intervention in 2015.

“This evening a ballistic missile was fired from Yemeni territory towards the kingdom,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki as saying late Saturday.

“The missile was launched indiscriminately to target the civilian and populated areas… Shattered fragments from the intercepted missile landed in an uninhabited area of the airport and there were no injuries,” he added.

Civil aviation authorities said the airport was functioning normally and that flights were operating as scheduled.

Yemen’s Shiite Huthi rebels, who fired the missile from Yemeni territory more than 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) from Riyadh, said they were targeting the airport, according to the Huthis’ Al-Masirah television channel.

Saudi Arabia led a 2015 intervention in Yemen to prop up the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after the Huthi rebels forced him into exile.

But two years later, the kingdom appears to be in a quagmire.

Hoping for a quick victory against what it saw as Iranian expansionism in its back yard, Riyadh has so far been unable to remove the Huthis from Yemeni capital Sanaa.

Aside from occasional missiles, Saudi territory has also been hit repeatedly by the rebels’ cross-border incursions, raising fears the conflict could drag out yet further.

In July, a ballistic missile fired from Yemen was shot down close to Mecca, a month before the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest site.

In the frontier provinces of Jizan and Najran, thousands of mortar rounds and crude rockets have hit schools, mosques and homes.

Thousands of residents have been evacuated from border towns across the southwest to create a buffer zone.

Saudi Arabia does not officially disclose military fatalities, but state media has frequently featured funeral notices for “martyred” soldiers.

United Nations-backed talks have failed to broker a political settlement to end the fighting in Yemen, which has left more than 8,600 people dead since the coalition intervened.

A cholera outbreak has claimed more than 2,100 lives in Yemen since April as hospitals struggle to secure supplies amid a coalition air and sea blockade.

The United Nations has warned that Yemen now stands on the brink of famine.
AFP
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Senator Dino Melaye



What would have resulted in horrendous personal injury was averted on Saturday as the senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye, escaped from a mob that had pelted him with stones and other dangerous objects at the Kabba Day celebration.

Governor Yahaya Bello reportedly got the news of the attack on the senator and allegedly made a U-Turn before he reached the venue.

Melaye was pelted with stones and other dangerous objects at the township stadium venue of the celebration, our correspondent has reported.

The senator, who arrived the venue at about 11 ‘o’clock in the morning, was welcome by a crowd as he posed for photographs with supporters.

He was then invited to make a speech and announce his donation before the arrival of the governor who was already in Kabba for the occasion.

Shortly after Dino announced a donation of N3m cash, he headed for his car, but some suspected thugs started throwing stones and other objects at him as he made for his G-Wagon.

The security men had to use tear gas to bring the situation under control.

Meanwhile, all the security apparatus of the governor, led by his ADC and the Chief Details, were at the venue ahead of Governor Yahaya Bello who was expected to grace the occasion.

According to the source, there was strong indication that some people might also cause crisis if the governor had attended the programme.

Our correspondent gathered that when the news of Dino’s attack reached the governor, he decided to boycott the event and, instead, sent his donation of N20m on behalf of the state government.

The swift intervention of security personnel on ground saved the day, as one of the thugs was arrested and whisked away in a prison van with registration number PS 300 A/O.
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