The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Abuja chapter, has begun an indefinite strike to draw attention to developments bordering the union.
The Abuja chapter of ASUU announced its decision to embark on the strike on Thursday at the end of its congress, held at the Permanent Site of the institution.
Sylvanus Ugoh, who is the UniAbuja Chairman of the union, told Leadership that the union had resolved to embark on a total and indefinite strike with immediate effect.
The Federal High Court in Abuja has authorised the issuance of notices of contempt proceeding against the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Olayemi Cardoso and the Director of Legal Services Department, Salam-Alada Kofo over their alleged failure to obey an order of the court.
They were said to have failed to comply with a February 22 garnishee order absolute made in a ruling by Justice Inyang Ekwo, directing the Central Bank to pay a judgment debt of N63.7 million and $10000 awarded against the federal government for the unlawful arrest and detention of a German, Martin Gegenheimer by men of the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS.
The notices, Form 49, requiring Cardoso and Kofo to show cause why the order of committal should not be made against them, endorsed by a Registrar of the court, are specifically addressed to Cardoso and Kofo.
In the notice, the two CBN senior officials are directed to attend court on a date to be communicated to them.Part of the notice reads: “This court, having delivered its ruling, made the order nisi dated 14th February 2023 order absolute against the garnishee (CBN) on 22nd day of February 2024.
“Take notice that you are hereby required to attend the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja on the first mentioned day to show cause why an order for your committal should not be made after due services upon you of the orders and the notice of the consequence of the disobedient to the order of this honourable court.”
In the notice of the consequence of the disobedience to the order, Form 48,) earlier issued to the two CBN officials, they were reminded of what could happen to them should they persist in disregarding the order.
The earlier notice reads in part: “The garnishee (CBN) deliberately failed, refused and or neglected to obey the order of this honourable court made against her more than 44 days after the order.
“This is far more than the timeline allowed by the Garnishee Charter for service to the public wherein: all issues of law touching and concerning the Garnishee ought to be resolved and or responded to within 10 days. The judgment creditor is yet to enjoy this provision.
Unless you: Mr Olayemi Cardoso and Mr Salam-Alada Sirajuddin Kofo, the Governor and the Director Legal Services, CBN (the alter egos of the garnishee), obey, the order absolute made against the garnishee, (the CBN) on the 22nd day of February 2024, both of you will be in contempt of the Federal High Court order made against the garnishee, which you both control and direct its activities and you both will be liable to be committed to prison at the correctional centre of Nigeria.”
The order absolute was made in a garnishee proceeding, marked: FHC/ABJ/NJR/M3/2022 initiated by Gegenheimer (through his lawyer, Daniel Makolo) to enforce the judgment of the ECOWAS Community Court delivered on March 4, 2021, in which the N63.7 million and $10000 were awarded in his favour.
In the February 22 ruling Justice Ekwo ordered the CBN to deduct the judgment sum from the federal government’s funds in its custody to settle the judgment debt. Justice Ekwo rejected CBN’s claim that the Fed Govt’s foreign exchange accounts were currently in deficit thereby making it impossible to pay the entire judgment sum.
Justice Ekwo agreed with Makolo that, as against the contention by the CBN, the ECOWAS Court’s judgments do not qualify as foreign judgment in the strict sense of it and could be enforced by Nigerian courts.The judge said: “Upon a keen perusal of the provisions of the Foreign Judgments Reciprocal Enforcement (FJRE) Act 2004 it cannot be said that the judgement sought to be enforced in this case, is stricto sensu (in the strict sense) a foreign judgement.
“I agree with the learned counsel for the judgement creditor (Makolo) that, by Article 15 of the Reviewed Treaty of ECOWAS, and Article 24 of the 2005 Supplementary Protocol (which amended the 1991 Protocol), the judgement of ECOWAS Court can be registered and enforced in Nigeria by this court without referring to it as a foreign judgement, in the same manner that the judgement of any other court in Nigeria can be registered and enforced in this court,” the judge said.
Justice Ekwo proceeded to make absolute, the garnishee order nisi he earlier issued against the CBN.The German said he visited Nigeria on a business trip but while returning to Kenya on 23rd February 2020, he was stopped by men of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) at the boarding gate of the Kenya Airways aircraft after all necessary departure formalities were completed.
Gegenheimer said the NIS officials arrested him, seized his passport and detained him in a jam-packed detention cell between February 23, 2020, and March 4, 2020, despite the COVID protocol and without acceptable food as well as medical care. He subsequently challenged his arrest and detention before the ECOWAS Court, in a suit marked: ECW/CCJ/APP/23/2020.
In the March 4, 2021 judgment a three-member panel of the sub-regional court, presided over by the court’s president, Justice Edward Amoako Asante, declared Gegenheimer’s arrest and detention illegal.
They ordered the Nigerian government to pay him N53,650,925 as special damages for various losses suffered and costs incurred while under unlawful arrest and detention by the NIS.The costs, the court said, relate mainly to hotel expenses incurred by the German while under forced detention by agents of the Nigerian government.
The court further ordered the Nigerian government to pay him another N10m in general damages as reparation for all violations and moral prejudice suffered for the violation of his rights, and an additional $10,000 being the expenditure incurred by the applicant to secure his bail.
The ECOWAS court equally ordered the Nigerian government to remove the German from its watch list and to immediately and unconditionally release his German passport, which was “arbitrarily and unlawfully,” seized by agents of the Nigerian government.
Police have arrested the alleged mastermind of the killing of passengers of the Abuja-Kaduna train.
The incident happened in March 2022.
The mastermind was Identified as Ibrahim Abdullahi, also known by the ominous moniker of Mandi.
The Police Public Relations Officer in Kaduna, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi made this known on Thursday.
He informed the media that the suspect had also participated in the abduction of students from Greenfield University in 2021.
The Police said that 48 AK-47 rifles were seized during Mandi’s arrest and efforts are underway to identify his sponsor and supplier of weapons.
Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, Chief Edwin Clark, has decried the freedom enjoyed by alleged corrupt politicians in the country.
Clark went further to accuse former President Muhammadu Buhari of imposing Abdullahi Adamu, a former Governor of Nasarawa State, who was charged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for alleged corruption, after his tenure as governor, as national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
He noted that nothing has so far been heard about 15 former governors and ministers who were dragged to court during the period when Nuhu Ribadu was the chairman of the EFCC.
In 2007, more than 15 former governors and ministers were charged to court during Ribadu’s time as the EFCC chairman,” he recounted during an interview on Arise TV.
“Some of them were charged to courts in Lagos, Abuja and so on. But after some time, some of these cases were not heard again.
“All we heard was that these same governors had been cleared to contest senatorial seats. Let me take a case of Abdullahi Adamu, who was the governor of Nasarawa State in 1999. He was charged to court for embezzling money from his state to the tune of N15 billion with other commissioners who were to be charged to court in Nasarawa State.
Then after being charged to court he contested election to the Senate and he won and he has been there and nobody cared about him. Thereafter, former President Muhammadu Buhari imposed him as the National Chairman of the APC.
“We have many such people in the APC. Nobody heard about his trial again. He became an honest man and talked about corruption more than any other person.”
The Lagos State Government has revealed that its Gross Domestic Product, GDP, has moved from N27trn to N41 trillion within four years of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration.
Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Ope George, disclosed this on Thursday, during the ongoing ministerial press briefing to commemorate the first year in office of the second term of Governor Sanwo-Olu, held at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.
According to George, “Over the last couple of years, Lagos had face numerous challenges particularly when COVID 19 and Endsars struck.
“And so we have had a lot of shocks within our system over the last couple of years and with everything going on around the world.“We are currently riding the curve and we are coming out on a better side. “You hear sometimes when they say Lagos is one of the largest economies in Africa and truly, it’s not static, we will continue to move based on what’s going on in the world.
As we speak now, I believe that we are currently ranked 7th in terms of GDP in Africa. “We contributed at least a minimum of over 20 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP and you will find that over a period of review, during the first term of Mr Governor, we are moving in the right direction.
“Our GDP has moved from about N27trn to N41 trillion, everything shows that our indices are climbing in the right direction despite all the shocks and all the problems we have witnessed in the past.”GDP is the standard measure of the value added created through the production of goods and services in a country during a certain period. Otherwise, is the monetary value of all finished goods and services made within a country during a specific period.
Meanwhile, World Economics Research, London, showed the official estimate for Nigeria’s GDP was $1.116 trillion at the end of 2023 in Purchasing Power Parity Terms, PPPT.
World Economics has developed a database presenting GDP in PPPT with added estimates for the size of the informal economy and adjustments for out-of-date GDP base year data.World Economics estimated Nigeria’s GDP to be $2.113 trillion- 89% larger than official estimate.
CBN has directed fintechs OPay, Palmpay, Kuda Bank, and Moniepoint to suspend new customer onboarding until further nnotice.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ordered four fintech companies to suspend the onboarding of new customers until further notice.
The affected fintech firms, namely OPay, Palmpay, Kuda Bank, and Moniepoint, have come under scrutiny due to allegations of their accounts being utilised for illicit foreign exchange transactions.According to reports, representatives from two of the companies acknowledged that the CBN’s directive is connected to these allegations.
However, they expressed concerns that the directive might be misdirected, highlighting that the majority of the implicated accounts are held by commercial banks rather than fintech platforms.
Earlier, it was reported that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had obtained a court order to freeze at least 1,146 bank accounts owned by individuals and companies allegedly involved in illegal foreign exchange transactions.
Justice Emeka Nwite, in a ruling on the ex-parte motion presented by the anti-graft agency’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho, granted the commission’s request to conclude the investigation within 90 days.Although the verdict was issued on April 24, its certified true copy was provided on Monday.
The EFCC is also investigating other offences, including money laundering and terrorism financing.
An examination of the list of affected accounts reveals that the majority are deposit money bank accounts.
The EFCC stated in its request for the account freeze that its preliminary investigation indicated the accounts were linked to individuals exploiting virtual cryptocurrency exchange platforms to manipulate the Naira’s value illegally and launder proceeds from unlawful activities.
It cited the necessity to preserve the funds in the identified accounts pending the investigation’s conclusion and potential prosecution.Despite a court order citing most of the accounts involved in alleged illegal forex trading as commercial bank accounts, the banks have not been instructed to halt new customer onboarding.
Nigeria recorded 227 total and partial national grid collapses from 2010 to April 2024 amid epileptic power ssupply.
Ndidi Mbah, the General Manager of Public Affairs at Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.However, she said grid collapse declined by 76.47 per cent in the last five years, with 20 grid disturbances compared to the previous five years, when there were 85 collapses.
In recent years, the number of grid disturbances/system collapses has gradually reduced, contrary to popular opinion.
“Clearly, between 2020 to date (five years), we recorded fourteen total and six partial grid disturbances totalling twenty (20), which represents a 76.47 per cent reduction in grid disturbance, when compared to the previous five years, (2015 to 2019) where we had sixty-four total and twenty-one partial grid disturbances, totalling eighty-five (85) times”, he stated.Meanwhile, the development comes amid the recent 240 per cent electricity tariff hike announced by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission on April 3, 2024.
Several Nigerians, as well as the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, manufacturers and other organisations have called for the reversal of the hike.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, recently said that the nation would be plunged into darkness without the electricity tariff hike.
The Organised Labour has given the Federal Government till May ending to finalise the process of implementing the new national minimum wage for workers.
The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Mr Joe Ajaero, made the demand on Wednesday in Abuja at the 2024 edition of the International Workers Day.This year’s celebration focuses on ‘Ensuring Safety and Health at Work in a Changing Climate’.
The labour leader warned that if the negotiation is not concluded by the ending of May, there may not be industrial peace in Nigeria.Ajaero said the process of fixing a new national minimum wage was still ongoing and had witnessed robust engagements.
“All parties in the tripartite process are well represented and the engagement has been robust.
We have placed our demand of N615, 000 only before our social partners while we await their offer.“If, however, the negotiation of the minimum wage is not concluded by the end of May, the trade union movement in Nigeria will no longer guarantee industrial peace in the country,” he said.Ajaero also said labour had placed a demand that the new Act would have a two-year life span with an agreement for automatic adjustments in wages any time inflation exceeded 7.5 per cent.
He said the union further demanded that every employer with up to five workers should pay the new minimum wage.Ajaero called for the strengthening of monitoring and compliance mechanisms in order to penalise non-complying state governments.He said that Nigerian workers deserve to have a national minimum wage that approximated a living wage
The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, has clarified that the 25 per cent and 35 per cent increase in workers’ salaries announced by the federal government is not the minimum wage.
The president of the association, Mr Tommy Okon, clarified while fielding questions from newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja.Okon, who is also the Vice President of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, said that the approval of the salary increase was to close the salary gap that existed in some ministries, departments and agencies.
Other sectors have benefitted from these increases; it is only the core Federal Civil Service. So, it is a good development, no doubt, but the people need to be informed.
“Some even saw it as if the government had ambushed the labour unions and then come out unilaterally to increase the minimum wage to that amount. Whereas, it is not the minimum wage.
“The minimum wage is ongoing, what the government did was to correct some gaps that existed among the pay of those in those sectors listed,” he said.
Okon said the clarification was important for the generality of workers and the masses at large because the salary increase was to bridge the wage gap in the civil service.
NAN reported that the Federal Government on Tuesday announced an increase of between 25 per cent and 35 per cent in the salary of civil servants on the remaining six consolidated salary structures.
They included Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure, CONPSS, Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure, CONRAISS and Consolidated Police Salary Structure, CONPOSS.
Others were Consolidated Para-military Salary Structure, CONPASS, Consolidated Intelligence Community Salary Structure, CONICCS and Consolidated Armed Forces Salary Structure, CONAFSS
The brutal assault on a nurse by a group of masquerades in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State on Sunday has sparked widespread condemnation and calls for justice. Identified as Miss Blessing Ogbonna, she was attacked while rushing to her duty call at a private hospital in Nsukka.
A video circulating online captured the nurse, dressed in her uniform, being relentlessly beaten until she fell off her motorbike. Despite her attempts to escape, the masquerades continued their assault, eventually causing her to fall into a drainage.
In her account to an online TV owned by Mr. Chinedu Anichi, Miss Blessing recounted how a tipper obstructed her view, leaving her vulnerable to the masquerades’ attack. She pleaded for justice, expressing ongoing trauma from the merciless assault.
This incident has evoked outrage, with many Nigerians demanding the prohibition of the ‘Oriokpa Nsukka masquerade’, notorious for its criminal activities besides extorting money. Additionally, concerns have been raised about the possession of weapons by these masquerades.
Various groups, including the Heroine Women Foundation, have called for a thorough investigation and appropriate sanctions against the perpetrators. Amb. Onyi Mama, Executive Director of the Foundation, emphasized the need for swift action to prevent such incidents from recurring.
Similarly, the Otobo Nsukka Cultural Zone Community Developmental Initiative vowed to ensure justice for Miss Blessing. They have located her receiving medical treatment and urged local authorities to apprehend those responsible.
Professor Damina Opata, a renowned university professor, described the incident as troubling, highlighting the deviation of the Oriokpa masquerade from its traditional role as a cultural and moral guardian. He attributed this shift to various factors, including lack of mentorship and the influence of modernity.
Efforts are underway to address the situation, with calls for the involvement of traditional leaders and law enforcement agencies to curb the excesses of these masquerades.
As of now, there has been no official statement from the traditional ruler of the Nsukka community where the incident occurred.
