Police arraign 62-year-old businessman for allegedly raping 14-year-old girl

A 62-year-old businessman identified as Donatus Deshi, who allegedly raped a 14-year-old girl, was on Wednesday charged in an Upper Area Court, siting in Kasuwan Nama, Nasarawa State.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Deshi, who lives in Angwan Rukuba, was charged with one count of rape of minor.

The police prosecutor, Ibrahim Gukwat, told the court that the victim’s father, Adukuchili, reported the matter at the Nasarawa Gwom police station.

According to Gukwat, the accused allegedly lured the girl into his room and raped her.

He said, ‘’after raping the girl, he gave her N200 and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about it.’’

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the crime.

The judge, Mr Lawal Suleiman, after listening to his plea, admitted the accused to bail in the sum of N200, 000 and a surety in like sum.

Sulieman ordered that the surety must reside within the jurisdiction of the court and must submit to the court a copy of his driver’s license or permanent voters card with two recent passport photographs.

The act contravened section 282 of the Penal Code, an offence which attracts up to 14 years imprisonment if convicted.

The case was adjourned until Dec.3, for hearing.

- Daily Post

Ifa Priest wants public officers to take traditional oath

An Ifa priest, Chief Fashola Faniyi, has advocated the swearing in of public officers through traditional oath.

Faniyi, who is also the Founder of the Ancestral Pride Foundation (APF), an NGO, spoke on Wednesday on the side line of a news conference to mark the first anniversary of the foundation in Ota, Ogun.

The foundation was established to promote African socio-cultural heritage.

The Ifa priest argued that as long as government at all levels refuses to recognise traditional religion alongside Christianity and Islam, true change would be difficult to achieve in the country.

Faniyi said: “Why can’t we swear in our public officers through traditional methods such as the god of iron and the god of thunder to mention just a few.

”Why must our president and governors take oath of office only with the Bible and Quran?’’

Faniyi noted that politicians know the implications of swearing with traditional gods “because it will result in instant punishment when they indulge in sin or immorality.’’

He implored Nigerians to change their perception of traditional beliefs and practices.

“People believe that most of our traditional practices are fetish and this is not true,’’ he said.

He also said that the foundation was established to assist the less privileged as well as for the promotion of African traditional beliefs.

Faniyi further said that the foundation had concluded plans to donate items worth over N500, 000 to orphanages in Ota and its environs.

He said the foundation would also introduce Yoruba quiz competition in both primary and secondary schools in Ota.

Faniyi, however, appealed to parents to always speak their indigenous languages to their children at home.

“Majority of the children today cannot communicate in their local languages and this does not portray a good image of our culture,’’ he added.

He further urged the nation’s film makers to take urgent measures to portray indigenous culture in positive ways in order to change the orientation of the people.

- PM NEWS

Otedola finally testifies in court over Farouk Lawan’s $500,000 ‘bribe’

Femi Otedola, founder of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, on Wednesday testified that Farouk Lawan, a former lawmaker, demanded $500,000 bribe from him.

Lawan is a former chairman of a house of representatives committee probing the multi-billion naira fuel subsidy fraud.

He chaired the probe committee in the seventh assembly.

The former lawmaker is accused of receiving money from Otedola to remove Zenon from the list of oil companies allegedly involved in the fuel subsidy fraud.

In 2013, he was charged by the office of the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) for allegedly receiving bribe.

During the hearing of the case at a federal capital territory (FCT) high court in Abuja on Wednesday, Adegboyega Awomolo, counsel to the federal government, played the tape showing Lawan receiving the said sum.

While giving his testimony, Otedola said Lawan removed Zenon from the list of indicted oil companies after he collected the money.

He said $2.5 million was the balance he was expected to pay the ex-lawmaker.

“I could not have put him under pressure because Zenon Oil was not involved in the theft of subsidy funds,” he told the court.

“If he did not demand (for money), why will he collect the $500,000 and was expecting $2.5 million. He did mention to me that the $3 million was going to be shared by himself and other officers of the house.

“I did not offer any $3 million. I was one of the biggest players in the business and I reported the matter when I found out about the scam.

“He did mention to me that several companies involved in the scam were paying and I reported to the DSS.”

After Awomolo finished quizzing Otedola, L Azuka, a lawyer from the chambers of Mike Ozekhome, counsel to Lawan, asked the court for an adjournment.

Azuka told the court that Ozekhome, the lead counsel, was “unavoidably absent.”

“The witness has given lengthy evidence. We will need time to study the evidence that he presented today viz-a-viz the statement he gave to the police,” he said.

“We don’t have copies, we need to obtain copies and prepare for the cross-examination.”

The counsel added that he was sick and would not be able to cross-examine the witness.

The federal government’s lawyer protested, urging the court not to grant the request of Azuka.

“We will ask our lordship to utilise the day,” he said.

However, Angela Otaluka, the judge, granted the prayer of the defence counsel and adjourned the matter till January 28, 2019.

- TheCable

‘N2.1bn fraud’: Court orders Dokpesi to open defence

A federal high court in Abuja has ordered Raymond Dokpesi, former chairman of Daar Communications PLC, to open his defence in a corruption allegation levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

After going through all the arguments and counter-arguments, John Tsoho, presiding judge, on Wednesday rejected Dokpesi’s no-case application and ordered him to open his defence at the next adjourned date.

Tsoho said Dokpesi’s claim that he had no case to answer could not be substantiated and so was a false claim.

“I hereby strike out the application,” the judge said.

Dokpesi, his company, DAAR Investment and Holdings Ltd and Raypower, are being arraigned on a six-count charge bordering on alleged procurement fraud and breach of public trust.

He is alleged to have received N2.1 billion from the office of the national security adviser (ONSA) between October 2014 and March 2015, during the tenure of Sambo Dasuki, former national security adviser, for services not rendered.

The EFCC had through Abubakar Madaki, its 12th witness, said the defendant “did not do any contract but was paid”.

However, rather than open its case, Dokpesi had through Kanu Agabi, his counsel, filed a “no-case” submission arguing that he had no case to answer in the alleged fraud.

The case was adjourned to February 20 and 21, 2019.

- TheCable

UNESCO: Boko Haram has killed 2,300 teachers, destroyed 1,000 schools

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says Boko Haram has killed 2,300 teachers in Nigeria’s northeast since the start of the insurgency in 2009.

In the 2018 UNESCO global education monitoring report (GEM), the UN agency said 19,000 teachers have been displaced in the region, affecting access to education.

“In north-eastern Nigeria, as of late 2017, there were 1.6 million IDPs, including an estimated 700,000 school-age children, as a result of violent attacks on civilians by Boko Haram, which began in 2009 (UNOCHA, 2017b),” the report read in part.

“Boko Haram has destroyed nearly 1,000 schools and displaced 19,000 teachers (HRW, 2016). Reports indicated it had killed almost 2,300 teachers by 2017 (UNOCHA, 2017a).

“The latest education needs assessment found that out of 260 school sites, 28% had been damaged by bullets, shells or shrapnel, 20% had been deliberately set on fire, 32% had been looted and 29% had armed groups or military in close proximity.”

SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS IN THE NORTHEAST

UNESCO lamented the shortage of qualified teachers in the northeast, stating security and poor remuneration as reasons why the teachers are emigrating from the region.

“Ongoing safety concerns, coupled with teacher salaries that do not cover even basic expenses and delays in payment, perpetuate a shortage of qualified teachers,” UNESCO added.

“Most of those who remain work on a voluntary basis”.

The report also revealed that there is a shortage of teachers in the Almajiri school system, predominant in northern Nigeria.

“In the almajiri system, a teacher can be responsible for up to 100 students, predominantly poor boys who often end up on the street begging for alms,” the report read.

The leading presidential candidates for 2019 election in Nigeria have said they would work on education in the country.

While incumbent Muhammadu Buhari is promising 10,000 smart classrooms per year, Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education says she would incentivise teaching with a housing scheme for teachers.

- TheCable

Drogba confirms retirement from football

Chelsea legend Didier Drogba has confirmed his retirement from playing, ending “an amazing 20 years”.

The Ivory Coast striker, 40, had two spells at Chelsea, scoring 164 goals in 381 games and winning four Premier Leagues and the 2012 Champions League.

BBC reports that he spent the last 18 months of his career with US side Phoenix Rising, the club he co-owns.

Drogba had been expected to retire after the United Soccer League Cup final earlier this month.

His last game finished in a 1-0 defeat by Louisville City in the final of the United States’ second tier.

“After 20 years, I have decided to put an end to my playing career,” he told BBC World Service’s Sportshour. “It’s the best way to end, helping some young talent to develop.

“To give something back to the game was the best way to finish as I have learned so much in the game.”

Drogba did not play top-flight football until the age of 23, when Guingamp signed him from Ligue 2 Le Mans in January 2002.

He moved to Marseille 18 months later – and the following year completed a reported £24m move to Chelsea, where he had the best spell of his career.

Drogba won three Premier League titles in his first eight years at Chelsea, including in each of his first two seasons in England as well as four FA Cups and two League Cups.

He also won the Premier League Golden Boot in 2006-07 and 2009-10.

He left on a high, scoring the winning penalty in the Champions League final shootout against Bayern Munich.

Drogba then spent six months with Shanghai Shenhua and a year and a half with Galatasaray before returning to Chelsea.

He scored seven goals in 2014-15, winning a fourth Premier League title and a third League Cup, leaving the club as their fourth highest scorer of all time.

In 2015, he joined Major League Soccer side Montreal Impact and then became player-owner of Phoenix Rising.

He scored 65 times in 105 caps for the Ivory Coast, playing in three World Cups and being named African Footballer of the Year twice.

- PM News

Police arrest 7 Customs officers for killing woman

The Nigeria Police in Badagry, said it had arrested seven customs officers over the killing one Mrs Patience Oni and injuring an innocent man at Forte Oil Filling Station near popular Badagry Roundabout in Lagos state.

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Badagry Police Station, Mr Samson Akhiromen, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Badagry that the men of customs were arrested for indiscriminately shooting and killing of innocent people.

According to the DPO, the customs officers, under the code name Anti-flying, were raiding an illegal rice depot near a filling station around 12 noon on Tuesday, when they started shooting.

“They started shooting indiscriminately to scare away traders and residents from the area.

“During the shooting, the bullets from one of the officers hit two people, one died immediately, while the other one is receiving treatment in an undisclosed hospital.

“The husband of the woman killed is a police inspector serving in Area K Police Station, Morogbo,” he said.

The DPO said that he arrested the officers with his team of officers when the situation was getting out of hand.

He, however, said the arrested officers had been handed over to the SCIID Panti for further investigation and prosecution.

- PM News

We want 2nd Niger Bridge ready in 24 months, Southeast governors tell Buhari

South-East Governors’ Forum on Wednesday appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the construction period of the Second Niger Bridge be reduced from 42 months to 24 months.

Chairman of the forum and Governor of Ebonyi, Mr Dave Umahi, made the appeal when he spoke to State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with the president at the State House, Abuja.

Umahi stated that members of the forum were at the Villa on behalf South-East people to thank the president for the award of the N206 billion contract of the Bridge.

He said: “we came to thank the president on behalf of South-East for the award of the second Niger Bridge to Julius Berger at the sum of N206 billion.

“We understand that N7 billion has been paid as mobilization.

“So, we came to ask the president if there is the possibility of paying up to 50 per cent of the sum and secure the other 50 per cent as bond.”

According to him, this is expected so that we can sleep with our two eyes closed and be assured that the job will not be abandoned.

“We also asked that the construction period be reduced from 42 months to 24 months. We made it clear to Julius Berger that it is achievable.

“We are also asking for economic free trade zone in Eyimba in Abia and he promised to come and commission it; the license has been given.

The governor disclosed that the meeting also deliberated on the state of Enugu international airport, saying that the president was urged to ensure the completion of the cargo section of the airport and extension of the runway.

“Of course, we talked about the geometric power plant in Aba and we asked him to assist in resolving whatever the issues are so that power will be deployed to the industrial clusters in Aba and environs.

“We reminded him that the Enugu state government has done quite a lot on the issue of relocating major infrastructure that has been obstructing smooth operations of lives. We requested that he should take over the compensations of the affected lands.

“And of course, the issue of gas distribution should be linked to the five eastern states, to the industrial clusters so as to boost economic activities,’’ he added.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, who also spoke to the correspondents after the meeting, said the visit by the leaders was remarkable.

He debunked the impression that the Federal Government was not doing enough for South-East people.

He, therefore, pledged that the zone would continue to be accorded their appropriate place in the scheme of things.

Mustapha reminded the people that their political investment in the re-election of Buhari in 2019 election would determine their fate in 2023.

He said: “we received very high-powered delegation today led by the Deputy President of the Senate and three of their governors and a deputy governor, and the Director-General of Forum of South-East governors.

“I think it is a remarkable visit because they came essentially to thank the president over the major activities that have taken place in the South-East.

“They appreciate the fact that the second Niger Bridge was a paper issue in the last five, six decades.

“They are convinced that the decision to complete the Niger Bridge is real; contract has been awarded by this government for N206 billion.

“It is a mark of appreciation for the leadership that President Muhammadu Buhari is providing for this country.

“The South-East is an integral part of this country; it must be accorded its appropriate place in the scheme of things and we believe strongly that this particular government has extended its hands of friendship to the South East.”

He expressed hope that South-East leaders would continue to cooperate with the government to ensure the development of their people and bringing prosperity, peace and tranquility to the area.

The SGF reiterated that the Buhari administration would continue to do everything possible to ensure speedy development of the zone as well as other parts of the country.

On whether Buhari solicited the votes of the South-East at the meeting, Mustapha said: “this obviously might not be most appropriate time.

“You remember there was a programme in the South-East where the president asked me to represent him and I flew the kite by telling the Southeast states that their quickest and easiest means to presidency is to support Buhari’s second term.

“This means that they can short-circuit the period in terms of only having him there for another four years.

“Whatever they do in 2019 will determine what will happen thereafter because politics is a game of numbers and it is like a cooperative society.

“Whatever you bring as an investment when dividends are going to be shared, you will get proportionate with your investment and your investment in politics is what you bring to the table.

“I urge the Southeast to look at this matter seriously that every time we have a presidency in Nigeria, it is negotiated in several ways.

“It is either negotiated by votes or what you bring to the table and you must negotiate from the position of strength. You can’t negotiate from the point of weakness.”

- PM News

Jonathan’s book is simply fiction, devoid of facts swept under carpet – Shettima

The Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima has accused former President Goodluck Jonathan of sweeping the report by an investigative panel on the abduction of the Chibok Girls ‘under the carpet, describing the book as mere fiction devoid of facts.

According to him, the book is simply a fiction designed to pass guilty verdicts to anyone but himself, with respect to the open failures of his administration to rescue our daughters and in tackling the Boko Haram challenge.

In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Communications and Strategy, Malam Isa Gusau on Wednesday, Shettima stated that the former President failed to publish the report in his book titled, ‘My Transition Hours’ which was launched on Tuesday.

He said this in reaction to Chapter Four of the book titled, ‘The Chibok School Girls Affair’.

He described the alleged omission of the report as a “clever attempt to sweep under the carpet, incontrovertible facts surrounding the April 14, 2014 Chibok abduction”.

The statement read in part, “The whole of Tuesday night, I took the pains of reading His Excellency, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s book, My transition hours, from the first to the 177th page.

“I took particular interest in Chapter Four (the Chibok School Girls Affair) which has 42 paragraphs written on pages 27 to 36. I was amused that despite ‎admitting in paragraph 15, that he had (in May 2014) constituted a Presidential Fact-Finding Committee under Brigadier General Ibrahim Sabo and many others “to investigate” the Chibok abduction, former President Jonathan refused to mention any part or whole of the findings by that panel which had submitted a highly investigative report submitted to him on Friday, June 20, 2014 after the panel held investigative meetings with the then Chiefs of Defense Staff, Army Staff, Air Staff, the DG, DSS and IGP, met all security heads in Borno, visited Chibok, met with parents of abducted schoolgirls, met surviving students, interrogated officials of the school and the supervising ministry of education, interrogated officials of WAEC and analyzed all correspondences.

“What has become very clear is that the former President decided to sit on facts in his custody while he published, in an elementary standard, a book of fiction designed to pass guilty verdicts to anyone but himself, with respect to the open failures of his administration to rescue our daughters and in tackling the Boko Haram challenge”.

Governor Shettima further stated that “At the end, the panel submitted it’s report directly to President Jonathan on Friday, the 20th of June, 2014 in Abuja. President Jonathan has refused to make public the findings submitted to him.

“I was expecting the findings in his book but he has deliberately swept that report under the carpet”.

He also claimed that in page 31 of the book, the former president noted that the Boko Haram Insurgents wanted a Muslim President rather than himself who was a Christian.

He described the idea as laughable saying that it was clear to him after reading the book, that he (Jonathan) “still lives with poor understanding of issues under his presidency”

“The insurgents actually began their deadliest attacks in Borno under the regime of late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, a Muslim from northern Nigeria.

“We know for a fact that as vicious cycle of evil, Boko Haram fighters do not care about the religion of their targeted victims. ‎They attack Mosques and churches.

“They are lunatics who regard anyone who doesn’t share their ideology as an infidel. So, I wonder how the former President didn’t take time to understand the biggest challenge under his presidency” Shettima said.

- Channels TV

US Embassy to close Abuja, Lagos offices Thursday

The United States Embassy in Nigeria has announced that its offices in Abuja and Lagos would be closed on Thursday, November 22, 2018.

The US Embassy stated that the closure would be in observance of Thanksgiving.

The embassy announced the closure in a post through its official Twitter handle, @USEmbassyAbuja

The tweet read: “The U.S. Embassy in Abuja, and the U.S. Consulate General in Lagos, will be closed on Thursday, November 22, in observance of Thanksgiving. Thank you for being part our community!!! Happy Thanksgiving!”

Thanksgiving is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.

- Daily Post