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President Goodluck
Jonathan has reiterated the determination of the government to tackle
the problem of insecurity in the country.

The President was responding to concerns of leaders from the South East, who visited the State House on Monday.

In their letter of
demands, read to Mr. Jonathan by the Chairman of South-East Governors
Forum and Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, the leaders said: “We are
heartened that Your Excellency has personally acknowledged the special
menace of insecurity in the Southeast zone with embarrassing
manifestations in kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent crimes.

Responding to the
issue, the President said, “We are very concerned about the issue of
security, and with the various options available to us, we are
gradually getting on top of the situation.”

Other issues

Another issue
brought to the attention of the President by the group was the
appointment of South-Easterners into federal establishments, claiming
the practice has been declining.

“Some examples
include the headship of Independent National Electoral Commission,
Bureau of Public Enterprises, National Agency for Foods and Drugs
Administration, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Immigration Service,
among others”.

The leaders further
stated that “the South-East is not proportionately represented at the
Supreme Court in spite of large number of qualified legal luminaries in
the South-East or even at the Appeal Courts”, and urged the president
to correct the disparities.

The President
promised the delegation that all their concerns would receive due
attention from the appropriate ministries and departments of
government, .

Besides asking for
an additional state for the South-East zone, the delegation pleaded for
the attention of the federal government to ecological problems in the
zone; the construction of the second Niger Bridge and rehabilitation of
federal roads in the South-East; upgrading of the Akanu Ibiam Airport
in Enugu to international status and the reactivation of the Enugu coal
mines.

Mr. Jonathan told
the South East leaders that he has directed the Ministry of Environment
to provide funds in the next Federal Government budget for the fight
against erosion in the country, because the Ecological Funds were
inadequate. He added that Vice President Namadi Sambo would take a
critical look at the various Ecological Fund projects to ensure proper
execution and timely completion.

The President said
the construction of the second Niger Bridge would be funded by the
government because of its critical role as a link between the South
East and other parts of country, and that efforts at the rehabilitation
of various road projects would continue.

A week after the
Chief Justice of Nigeria, Aloysius Iyorgher Katsina-Alu, admitted that
there is corruption in the judiciary, the Chief Judge of the Federal
High Court, Daniel Abutu, yesterday in Abuja urged Chief Registrars and
Directors of Courts to shun acts of corruption and arbitrariness in the
discharge of their duties.

Speaking at the
opening ceremony of a five-day national workshop for judicial
administrators organized by the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Mr.
Abutu emphasized the need for these judicial administrators to be above
board in the discharge of their duties. “In the management of both the
human and material resources of the courts, transparency and
accountability should be your watchwords,” he said. “You should
meticulously follow the rules and regulations guiding your operations,
for it is only by doing so that you can attain efficiency. Above all,
let the fear of God and the love for your country and your fellow men
control all your actions.”

The judge commended the NJI for putting together the event, saying
“It is intended to expose you all to recent measures development and
best practices not only in the Nigerian Court System, but in all other
court systems around the world.” In his address, the administrator of
NJI, Umaru Eri called the officers “the behind-the-scene operators that
oil the wheel of justice.” He said justice delivery cannot be improved
upon if these crucial administrators in the judiciary are not
constantly trained and re-trained to enable them understand their
duties and execute them properly. “No justice, judge, kadi, [or]
magistrate can sit, hear and determine a matter without your
contributions.”

Ibrahim Makama
Misau, a member of the House of Representatives yesterday renounced his
membership of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) – the platform on
which he was elected in 2007.

Mr Misau,
representing Misau/Dambam federal constituency of Bauchi State joined
the newly formed Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), becoming the

first lawmaker to
join the party floated by the former head of state, Muhammadu Buhari
and his political associates few months ago.

With the
development, there are now five minority parties in the PDP-dominated
360-member House. The others are ANPP, Action Congress, Progressive
Peoples Alliance and Labour Party.

Mr Misau attributed his exit from the ANPP to the crises in the party.

He added that
efforts to resolve crisis in the Bauchi State branch of the party
proved futile, hence his decision to leave the party and join one
“where conscience reigns supreme”.

The lawmaker
explained that his constituent also influenced his decision to join the
CPC since Mr Buhari has been like a father figure to him.

The legislator also
disclosed that he intends to contest next year’s gubernatorial election
on the platform of the CPC adding that he would accept any decision
that may come from the party on his ambition.

So far, 15 members of the Senate and the House have defected from the parties under which they were elected.

The Minister of
Labour and Productivity, Chukwuemeka Wogu, has said a recent report by
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) that the Igbo language might become extinct in the next 50
years is worrisome and calls for prompt attention.

Mr. Wogu, who
represented President Goodluck Jonathan, stated this in an address at
the second International Conference on the Extinction of the Igbo
language in Owerri, Imo State.

“Until the shocking
revelation that Igbo language may go into extinction in the next 50
years, most of us had thought that [the] Igbo language enjoyed a high
level of scholarship,” he said.

Mr. Wogu blamed parents for downplaying the language and called on stakeholders to look inwards for solutions.

“I am of the view
that neither the school system nor the Diaspora factor is responsible
for this problem, for if they were, other major Nigerian languages
would be suffering the same fate. That this is not the case tells the
Igbo to look inwards for the solution,” he said.

“[The] Igbo
language may be getting extinct because the Igbo family stopped
speaking to their children in their mother tongue.”

He also called on other Nigerian groups to emulate the efforts of the Igbo to preserve their language.

“I therefore call on all other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria to
emulate ‘Ndi Igbo’ in demonstrating the urgent need to preserve and
safeguard her language. We must not let our native languages die.”

A Turkish court
indicted 196 people on Monday, among them retired military commanders,
over an alleged plot to overthrow the government, which has its roots
in political Islam, state-run Anatolian news agency said.

Revelations this
year of an alleged 2003 plot codenamed “Sledgehammer” shocked Turkey
and aggravated simmering tensions between the government and the
secularist armed forces, as scores of retired and serving military
officers were arrested.

According to
Turkish media, the plot was said to involve bombing historic mosques
and provoking Greece into shooting down a Turkish war plane to create a
war-like situation and destabilise the AK Party government, in power
since 2002.

Among those named
in the indictment are Cetin Dogan, former head of Turkey’s prestigious
First Army, and retired air force commander Ibrahim Firtina, both of
whom were first arrested early this year.

The indictment,
prepared by Istanbul prosecutors, included calls for jail sentences of
15 to 20 years for the alleged perpetrators, Anatolian said. No date
has been set for a trial.

Turkey’s military,
the second largest in NATO, has overthrown three governments since 1960
and pressured Turkey’s first Islamist-led government into resignation
in 1997.

The military has
said there was no conspiracy and operation “Sledgehammer” was merely a
war game exercise presented at a seminar.

The arrests of
former military top brass highlight a major social transition in
EU-membership candidate Turkey, as power shifts from traditional
secular elites such as the armed forces and judiciary, to a new
political class of conservative Muslims, epitomised by Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party.

REUTERS

The Federal High Court, Lagos, on
Monday, adjourned hearing till 28 October in the application filed by
Sebastian Adigwe, the former managing director of Afribank, to quash
the charge against him.

Mr. Adigwe was re-arrested by the
Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), on 21 April, with four
directors of the bank on a fresh 33-count charge of granting credit
facilities to the tune of N55 billion, without collaterals, after they
had earlier been arraigned and granted bail on a 36-count charge to the
tune of N38 billion in September 2009.

The directors are Osa Osunde, Isa
Zailani, Chinedu Onyia, and Henry Arogundade. Also joined in the suit
are Peter Ololo, the managing director of Falcon Securities, and his
company.

After spending five days in the custody
of the EFCC, the court in Lagos, on 26 April, granted bail to Mr.
Adigwe after EFCC had re-arraigned him and six others including the
chairman of the bank, Osa Osunde, over their alleged involvement.

The accused were said to have failed to
take all reasonable steps to ensure that the account books of Afribank
as at 31 May, 2009, gave a true and fair view of the state of affairs
of the bank as required by Sections 24 (1), 24 (2) of the Banks and
Other Financial Institutions Act. Cap. B3, Laws of the Federation, by
understating the loan portfolio of the bank.

More charges

Specifically, Mr. Adigwe was said to
have perpetrated shares scam by creating a misleading appearance of
active trading in the shares of Afribank on the Nigeria Stock Exchange
(NSE) and also by approving N2 billion credit facilities to Alsmiths
Nigeria Limited to purchase large volume of Afribank’s shares, an
offence contrary to Section 105 (1) (a) of the Investment and
Securities Act, 2007 and punishable under Section 115 (a) of the same
Act.

However, at the resumed hearing of the
case on Monday, counsel to the accused, Tony Idigbe (SAN), told the
court that an application had been filed to quash the charge,
contending that the proof of evidence did not link the accused with the
case.

Mr. Idigbe urged the court to order the
EFCC to release the international passports of the accused, stressing
“it is illegal for the EFCC to hold on to their passports.”

The prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs,
however, did not object to the release of the passports to the court,
but raised objections to the verification of the bail terms.

Justice Jonathan Tsoho ruled that the passports should be deposited with the court and adjourned the case till October 28.

Policemen from the Oyo State Criminal
Investigation Department and the area command, Abeokuta, are
investigating the Ogun State Chairman of Police Community Relations
Committee, PCRC, Shuaibu Aro, for alleged fraud. Mr Aro is accused of
allegedly defrauded two people, Yekini Aliyu and Wasiu Aliyu, to the
tune of N231 million.

His house was searched early last Saturday on the
orders of an Abeokuta Magistrate’s Court, and in the process, the
detectives discovered 31 Toyota Hiace buses parked at the premises. The
suspect, who was said to have resisted arrest on two occasions,
reportedly threatened the deputy superintendent of police, who led the
search team, with dismissal for daring to come to his house for the
job. Messrs Aliyu and Aliyu, whose petition secured the court’s nod for
the search, have taken a step further by petitioning Ogbonna Onovo, the
Inspector General of Police, for further action. They asked the police
boss to carry out thorough investigation on Mr Aro, who is also the
acting chairman of Lagos State Chapter of the PCRC, as well as his
alleged fraudulent activities.

Fraudulent acts

The petitioners alleged that he had been
threatening their lives, boasting that nothing would happen to him
since he is close to most senior police officers in the country. They
stated that they were introduced to Mr Aro by one Rafiu Adesina, who
said he needed to be supplied 3,500 units of motorcycles of different
models. According them, after supplying 3,000 units of Jincheng A x 100
motorcycles, 300 units of Lincoln CG 125 motorcycles, and 200 units of
Lincoln CG (125) Alloy) motorcycles to the suspect, he refused to pay
them the money. They said rather than respond to their repeated calls,
he only threatened them with death if they refused to stop calling. He
was said to have issued several dud cheques within the space of one
month. One of them bears the number, 114371679. The police officer,
whom he threatened to influence his sack, reportedly made him to
understand that he was not above the law despite his closeness to many
of his bosses, saying “We got a search warrant to search your house and
we are here.”

Olusegun Mimiko,
the Ondo State governor, yesterday lamented the huge amount of money
Nigerians spend on schooling in countries like United Kingdom and
United States and said it was enough to develop the nation’s
educational system.

Mr. Mimiko said
this at the opening ceremony of the capacity building workshop for
newly recruited staff of the state ministry of education quality
assurance agency at Ade Super Hotel in Ondo. He said it was a pity that
Nigerians are spending money to acquire knowledge in developed
countries of the world at the detriment of the nation’s education
system.

He said, “If you
have opportunity to be at the airport when Nigerian students are
travelling to UK for studies, you will marvel at the large number of
students planning to travel out for their education.”

Rather, Mr. Mimiko
challenged government at all levels to place special emphasis on the
development of infrastructural facilities in public institutions from
primary to tertiary level.

He noted that
kidnapping and other criminal acts will continue unabated if government
failed to place special emphasis on manpower development, saying the
nation will continue to lag behind among nations, if workers are not
given adequate training.

According to him,
apart from Sub-Shara Africa, which is still lagging behind in terms of
technological advancement and infrastructural development, other
continents have continued to move forward.

More funds needed in government schools

He advised that
more fund should be allocated for the development of infrastructure in
various government owned institutions, so that they can be at par with
their private counterparts.

He stressed further
that the physical infrastructure in public schools in the state is
receiving the desired attention, with the construction of a mega school
in Akure, the state capital.

Mimiko added that
the mega school, which will be equipped with modern equipment, will be
constructed in areas like Owo, Ikare, Ondo and Okitipupa.

“Determined to
situate Ondo State in its rightful place in the twenty first century,
we are building new 21st century compliant schools,” he added.

He added that in
order to sustain the state government education policy, his
administration has decided to strengthen the inspectorate division to
restore the lost glory of education.

“To sustain our projected outcome from this massive investment in
education, we noted that the inspectorate division must be strengthened
and restored to its original role of emplacing standard in our schools.
That is why we set up the quality assurance agency which, in the real
sense, will perform an enhanced role of the old inspectorate division
of the ministry of education in a more efficient and result oriented
manner,” he said.

The National
Chairman of Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Okwesilieze Nwodo, has
charged members of the party to field their best candidates as flag
bearers in the 2011 general elections.

A statement on
Monday by the chairman’s media assistant, Mr. Ike Abonyi, said that
Nwodo made the appeal while addressing members of the party from Enugu
at a reconciliatory meeting in Abuja.

The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) quoted him as saying “We must strive to pick our best
eleven teams because it is not going to be business as usual. Vote will
count and only the best products can be marketed.”

It added that
President Goodluck Jonathan’s mode of appointments, as well as
commitment to international community, explained increased commitment
to free, fair and credible election.

The chairman also
reiterated zero tolerance to political violence, stressing that even at
gun point, he would not send the name of anybody who shoots his or her
way to victory through thuggery.

The statement
further said that Mr. Nwodo reminded the stakeholders of the reform
policy of the PDP, adding that it was aimed at opening up the party and
returning it to the people.

“When we allow the
people to pick our flag bearers, they will pick popular ones and it
would be easy to market them at the general election. We cannot afford
to allow our vote-winning members to be frustrated out to other
parties,” he added.

The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) report said that the stakeholders bared their minds on
the happenings in the state, especially from 1999 to 2007, and
commended Sullivan Chime, governor of Enugu State, for returning peace
to the state.

A 15-member
committee was set up by the National Chairman to meet regularly and
ensure that the roadmap to peace, drawn at the meeting, was sustained.

The high point of the meeting was the resolution of the disputed state congress.

Ray Nnaji, a factional chairman of the party in Enugu, acknowledged Mr. Vita Abba-led executive as the authentic state leaders.

Among those who
attended the meeting were Sullivan Chime, governor of Enugu State;
former senate president, Ken Nnamani; deputy senate president, Ike
Ekweremadu; former governors Jim Nwobodo, Anthony Ogugua, and Chimaroke
Nnamani.

NAN

The Minister of
Education, Ruqquayatu Rufa’i, on Monday, unfolded an action plan
containing key issues, which would be addressed within one year.

Speaking in Abuja,
at the inauguration of the task teams to oversee the implementation of
the plan, Mrs. Rufa’i disclosed that government is focused on those
interventions that will have maximum impact on education. She
identified four areas to highlight, which included access and equity;
standards and quality assurance; technical and vocational education and
training; and funding and resource utilisation.

The minister said
the plan will be reviewed on a monthly basis so that successes will be
measured and necessary corrections made.

“It is my hope that as we review our plan in the next few months, a number of milestones would have been achieved,” she said.

Mrs. Rufa’i said
she hoped to be able to present accurate data on the state of the
Nigerian education sector to the outside world. With accurate data, the
minister noted, government can efficiently allocate resources.

The plan also
provided for a robust communication infrastructure to help stakeholders
keep abreast of activities within the sector so that they are able to
participate in the efforts to improve it.

Further plans

Other activities
that will be addressed within the next year would include enhancing
quality in education delivery and teacher development, which will
include the restructuring of organisations such as National Teachers
Institute to ensure that it can effectively carry out its mandate.

Technical and
vocational education and training will be prioritised, as it has the
potential to revolutionlise the economy, she said. However, she said
the responsibility for implementing the action plan lies with the task
teams.

Six task teams were
set up to exhaustively monitor and where necessary, provide guidance in
the implementation of each area. Members of the six teams were drawn
from the federal ministry of education, international development
partners, academia, and other sectors involved in education and its
administration.

The teams are
expected to provide regular reports to the minister and also ensure
that timelines, as provided in the strategy, are followed.