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The airport workers’ unions are
angry with the concessioning of the Lagos Airport, saying government
has replaced a public monopoly with a private monopoly.

Gideon Ogbuji, general secretary,
National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), argued that FAAN is
losing enormous revenue to concessionaires operating in the airports,
“We have on different occasions carried out peaceful protests against
concessioning of not just that terminal (GAT), but of other revenue
yielding arms of the airport, and this is because most of the
concessionaires are not keeping to agreements,” he said, adding that he
terms of the agreements are not being adhered to by the concessionaires

“FAAN has lost huge sums, some of
which cannot be accounted for because of the inability of these
concessionaires to remit as at when due, and that is why we are
determined not to allow the error of handing over GAT to Bi-Courtney,”
he said.

Jerome Marinho, chief operating
officer of Bi-Courtney, said the unions were not party to the
concession agreement. “Bi-Courtney has no relationship with the unions.
We deal with the unions on the legal front. The issue with the unions
has to do with GAT transactions. They came in and aired their views.
The agreement was signed by the Attorney-general, minister of aviation,
the managing director of FAAN, and under the supervision of the Bureau
of Public Enterprise. So we have no direct relationship with the
unions.”

According to Mr. Ogbuji, the House
of Representatives Committee on Aviation asked the unions to resolve
their differences with the MMA2 operators instead of disrupting
activities at the airports, stressing that up till now, both parties
have not being able to agree.

“We (unions and Bi-Courtney) were
asked by the House Committee to discuss and come up with a resolution,
but so far no positive agreement has been reached. But the case is
still pending in court and we hope that we will reach agreement,
otherwise the situation remains the same; which is, GAT (general
aviation terminal) was not, and is not, in the concession agreement
between FAAN and Bi-Courtney,” he said.

Aturu Samuel, second national
president for the union, said the concessioning of the airports will
“definitely lead to serious job cuts among FAAN staff. They have taken
MMA2, and if they succeed in concessioning MMA Lagos, Kano, Port
Harcourt, Abuja, and Calabar from us, then FAAN will no longer exist,
and it is already collapsing if we allow them to do so,” he warned.

Mr. Aturu, however, disclosed that
workers are not against investors who wish to invest in the sector, but
maintained that the government should make “judicious use” of funds
meant for the industry. “We are not averse in foreign investors coming
to invest in Nigeria, but the government should abide by the rules
regulating the aviation industry globally,” he said, adding “Where is
the N19.5 billion naira aviation intervention fund?”

The leadership of the Action Congress (AC) has said
the party will field a strong candidate against President Goodluck
Jonathan if the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fields him as its
candidate. The party however refused to comment on whether Nuhu Ribadu,
former anti-graft czar, was a primary contender for its presidential
ticket.

A guarded affair

The National Chairman of the party, Bisi Akande, who
addressed the press in Abuja yesterday, said that the PDP has again
foisted another crisis on the country as a result of its zoning
arrangement. He also accused Mr. Jonathan of being too “inconsistent.”
Mr. Akande said that the AC has closely watched as the PDP has tried to
elevate the internal problem within the party to the level of national
discourse. “It has become an unnecessary distraction,” he said. The
ruling party, he remarked, is being pushed by a large pool of confusion
that may rapidly swell into “the abyss of destabilization, disunity and
abject poverty.” He added that the PDP has allowed the daunting
challenges of unemployment, poverty and security challenges to go
unchecked. Instead, he said, it has shifted its focus on where the
presidency should be zoned to.

Mr. Akande did not directly address which AC party
members are likely to run for office but took another swipe at the PDP
by saying that zoning is not an issue. “We have 50 well qualified
presidential candidates drawn from various parts of the country, he
said. “We are out to encourage and persuade a younger generation of
Nigerians to seize the moment and fashion out creative and practicable
solutions to the myriads of problems facing the country.” Mr. Akande
added that good and capable hands abound across the country,
irrespective of geo-political location or ethnic background.

According to him, while the ruling party has stolen
enough and is presently fighting on sharing formula for the heist,
those of them in AC have set up a high level committee to go round the
entire country to consult widely on what should be their attitude to
the issue of geopolitical, religion and ethnic separateness. On the
rumoured merger between the Progressive People’s Alliance and PDP, he
disclosed that the AC face pressure to merge with other political
parties, associations, groups and individuals.

“We are keeping this in view with an aim of expanding membership
composition and renewing our thinking horizon about leadership roles
that would encompass inspiring a shared vision and keeping hope alive,”
he said.</

EDO

Edo State House of
Assembly has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to
take immediate steps to stop the oil spill at Urhokuosa N’owa and
Oke-Akhianmwan communities in Uhunmwode Local Government Area. A member
representing Uhunmwode, Amadasun Uwamose, drew the attention of the
House, under matters of urgent importance, to the leak on Monday. Mr
Uwamose said the pipeline that passed through the villages was recently
vandalised by some hoodlums resulting in the spill. He explained that
the farmland and the source of water (Akhianmwan Stream) had been
polluted by the spillage in the last two days. The Majority Leader of
the House, Philip Shaibu, and the Deputy Speaker, Paul Ohonbamu
condemned the activities of the hoodlums. The House resolved that it is
the responsibility of the government to ensure the safety and welfare
of the citizens, adding that NNPC should take steps to stop the
spillage and to avert explosion.

EKITI

The Ekiti State
Chapter of the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) has suspended
the three-month-old strike embarked upon by members of the union.
Chairman of the union, Michael Ibiyemi, confirmed the immediate
suspension of the strike in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday. Mr Ibiyemi said that
though the state government was yet to fully address their demands, its
decision to call off the strike was informed by the need to allow for
collective bargaining. He said that the state government had agreed in
principle to meet with the union’s demands as soon as its finances
improved, but that the workers resolved to return to work out of
patriotism. He called on all JUSUN members working in various courts
and offices across the state to resume work immediately

IMO

The Court of Appeal
on Thursday, in Owerri, dismissed the application by the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Abia State, Onyema
Ugochukwu, challenging its earlier decision in the state’s governorship
poll in 2007. The court had earlier upheld the April 14, 2007 election
of the serving governor, Theodore Orji, but Mr Ugochukwu filed a motion
praying the court to reverse its decision. It had earlier set aside the
Abia Election Tribunal’s nullification of Mr Orji’s election on the
ground that he belonged to a secret cult; the Okija Shrine. Delivering
judgment, the presiding judge, Suleiman Galadima, said the court
dismissed all the applications for lack of merit and substantial
evidence after thorough examination.

RIVERS

Properties worth
millions of naira were recently destroyed following a heavy downpour in
Opobo, Rivers State on Tuesday. The worst hit areas were Brown
compound, Pombe area and buildings close to Opobo New Layout. The
Chairman of Opobo Local Government Area, Maclean Uranta, who conducted
journalists around the disaster area on Thursday, said that the council
had concluded arrangements to tackle the perennial flooding in Opobo
town. Mr Uranta said the council had engaged experts to study the
causes of the flooding and advise the council on the best approach to
combat it. He sympathised with the victims and assured them that
arrangements were ongoing to assist them. A victim, Clement Daasang,
described the disaster as unprecedented, “I have not witnessed this
kind of flood in this town in the over 30 years that I have lived in
Opobo.”

ABUJA

Chief Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, on Thursday, announced the
appointment of Sunday Olorundahunsi as the Acting Chief Registrar of
the Supreme Court. Mr Katsina-Alu announced Mr Olorundahunsi’s
appointment at the swearing of eight new high court judges in Abuja. He
said the move followed the elevation of the former Registrar, Usman
Musale, as a high court judge of the Federal Capital Territory. Mr
Katsina-Alu said the appointment is was with immediate effect.

The Abia State House of Assembly, on yesterday, commenced impeachment moves against the Deputy Governor, Chris Akomas.

The impeachment notice, which was
brought under ‘matter of urgent public importance’ by the member
representing Aba Central, Uzor Azubuike, was signed by 21 out of the
24-member legislature. The notice accused Mr. Akomas of gross
misconduct in the performance of the functions of his office. In the
six point allegation of misconduct, Mr. Akomas “has since May, 2010,
willfully and consistently absented himself from office and duty
without any lawful excuse or permission.”

Disrespect and fraud

In addition, the petition alleged that
the deputy governor refused to attend the official ceremony held in the
state Executive Council Chambers Government House, Umuahia, in May
2010, for the signing of the Abia State Appropriation law 2010, after
he was invited. He was also accused of failing to show up to receive
the Governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi, who was accompanied by
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, a respected Igbo leader on July 2 ,2010.

The notice, which was dated July 7, 2010, also accused him of
converting public funds to personal use. “That Comrade Akomas, as
Deputy Governor of Abia State, between January 2009 and March 2010,
unlawfully converted public funds to his personal use by causing and
directing proceeds from official cheques meant for government work to
be paid into his private bank account,” stated the notice. Mr. Akomas
was also accused of stating publicly that the only achievement of the
Abia State government in the past three years was in the field of
cocoa. The lawmakers also stated that he allegedly said that the office
of the deputy governor is only a spare tyre, and also abbused his
office “when as a result of amorous relationships with staff of his
office, his wife, Uchechi Chris Akomas, engaged a female staff in
physical combat thereby bringing the state government to ridicule.” The
legislators prayed the Speaker to direct Mr. Akomas to respond to the
charges brought against him. However, political analysts in the state
say the move is not a surprise considering that Mr. Akomas did not join
his boss, Theodore Orji, in defecting to the APGA. </

Determined to address ecological problems such as
flood, soil erosion, desertification, and general environmental hazards
holistically, the federal government is to set aside N30 billion for
ecological projects before the end of the year.

Ibukun Odusote, permanent secretary of the ecological
fund office, disclosed this on Thursday, in Abuja, while briefing
journalists on the ecological fair scheduled to hold next week in the
federal capital.

Environmental challenges

“The federal government is looking at investing N30
billion into ecological projects this year,” she said, adding that
because ecological projects are weather prone, most of the projects
would commence in the last quarter of the year.

This year’s emphasis, according to her, will be laid
on afforestation programme, in which not fewer than 30 million trees
will be planted across the country.

“The afforestation programme covers every part of the
country. For this year, it is in plan that 30 million trees will be
planted. We are developing nurseries for at least 30 million seeds and
based on what we are able to do, we will follow up next year and in no
time, there will be trees planted everywhere in Nigeria,” she added.

While funding for this year’s project is being
processed, the office, according to her, is currently handling about
200 projects left over in 2009, revealing that they are being funded
directly from the federation account.

On how the fund will be disbursed, she said “The
fund, which originally constitutes one percent of the federation
account, was upwardly reviewed to two percent in 1992, and later, one
percent of the derivation allocation was added; making the total
percent of the ecological fund as of today to be three percent.

“Of the amount, 48.5 percent goes to the federal
government, while 24 percent and 20 percent are for states and local
governments respectively.”

The federal government had recently approved a new
guideline for the disbursement of Ecological Funds. Under the new
guideline, drought and desertification control will receive 60 percent;
soil erosion, flood/gully control takes 25 percent; pollution control
has five percent, while administration of Ecological Fund
Office/National Committee on Ecological Problems and other emergencies
will gulp 10 percent, which will be disbursed at the discretion of the
president.

Mrs. Odusote equally hinted that all ecological
projects will be assigned to competent contractors who will deliver
value for money in terms of quality work and timely completion of
projects.

This underscored the need to organise a fair designed
to attract experts, contractors, and consultants with requisite
experience in the ecological sub-sector.

“Eco-Fair 2010 is a further demonstration of the
efforts of the federal government to create awareness among people on
its intervention to alleviate consequences of ecological problems.

“It is also intended to draw people’s attention to ecological
problems in Nigeria with specific reference to erosion, pollution,
desert encroachment, deforestation, and flood, and lay emphasis on
prevention and reducing the adverse effect of ecological problems in
the country,” she said. </

Senior officials of
the Oyo State government, including Layiwola Olakojo, who is the
Secretary to the State Government, were yesterday quizzed by operatives
of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences
Commission (ICPC) at the commission’s head office in Abuja. Other
officials interrogated alongside Mr. Olakojo are the Commissioner for
Lands, Housing and Survey, Moshood Oyebamiji; the Commissioner for
Finance, Adebayo Bankole; and the state’s Accountant General, Florence
Okeniyi. The officials were quizzed for over five hours over
allegations that they purchased choice property belonging to the state
government in Ibadan, the state capital at “ridiculously low prices.”

Illegally purchased property

Some of the
property allegedly purchased include the state government quarters in
Iyaganku, and other posh areas of Ibadan. The petition against the
officials, NEXT learnt, was sent to the ICPC, by indigenes of the state
last week. The officials, who were accompanied by the state’s Attorney
General, Abdul-Salam Abdullahi, were later granted administrative bail.
Mr. Abdullahi applied for their bail and also stood as a surety for the
accused persons. The involvement of the state Governor, Adebayo
Alao-Akala, and his deputy Taofeek Arapaja, in the said property grab
could not be ascertained. Both men, being immune from prosecution, were
not invited for interrogation by the agency. The officials later left
the ICPC premises at about 3.00pm. The media consultant to the ICPC,
Folu Olamiti, while answering questions on the reason for the state
officials’ presence at the commissions head office stated that “we are
carrying out investigations on a petition we received. We questioned
them over their involvement in allegations of underhand dealings in the
purchase of Oyo State government quarters.”

The interrogation of the officials is coming less than two months
after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) interrogated
Mrs. Okeniyi, three other officials of the state, including the
Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hosea
Agboola, over allegations of an N8.2 billion fraud. In that case, the
state officials were alleged to have deducted N250 million each from
the 33 local government areas in the state for the construction of
155km “special roads project.” When contacted, Dotun Oyelade, the media
assistant to the Governor Akala, declined knowledge of the invitation
and interrogation of the officials by the ICPC. “No, I am not aware,”
he said, and asked this reporter to call back by 6.15pm. However, his
number could not be reached by that time.

Striking workers in Adamawa State have called off their six week long strike.

Mr Mohammed Tuki,
the chairman of the state Joint Public Service Negotiating Council,
communicated the decision to workers at the Labour House.

Nevertheless,
labour officials insisted they were calling off the strike only for a
two-week duration as a result of arbitration; they vowed to return if
negotiations with the government during that period fails.

The state
government had taken labour in the state before the Industrial
Arbitration Court in Abuja, as way of resolving the dispute with the
angry workers whose action grounded social and economic activities in
the state.

A two-week truce

“We urge you
workers to go back to work tomorrow. We are only calling off this
strike for two weeks only, and if the government fails to meet our
demands within this time, we shall call on you to continue the strike
action,” the chairman of the joint public service negotiating council
in the state said to the workers, also thanking them for their support.

Mr Dauda Buba, the
state chairman of the Labour Congress, in his statement, said the
workers were honouring the arbitration by the National Industrial Court
on the matter directing both labour and the government to go back to
the negotiating table. He said they were expected to submit a signed
and sealed agreement reached by both parties, to the industrial
arbitration court.

“On that basis, the
court appealed to the labour side,” he said. “So we are now suspending
the strike for two weeks to enable us complete all necessary
agreements.”

As the court awaits
both parties to appear before it with an agreement reached by both
parties, it remains to be seen what would transpire. However, the state
Attorney General is confident that the matter will be resolved amicably.

The bone of
contention in the dispute which has crippled governance in Adamawa
State, is Labour’s demand that the government re-instate 56 workers
claimed to have been arbitrarily sacked from two parastaltals in the
state – the College of Legal Studies and the state-owned Transport
Company. The state government on its part disagrees, accusing Labour of
“blackmail”, and maintaining that the striking workers have seen all of
their demands agreed to except its “refusal to remove the provost of
the College of Legal Studies and the General Manager of the State
Transport Company”.

Until the recent truce reached through arbitration, both the
government and labour had remained adamant, neither refusing to
compromise.

The World Bank has earmarked $180 million for research in technology development in Africa universities.

The fund is to be
administered through the Africa Technology Policy Study (ATPS) the
Executive Director ATPS Network Kevin Chuka Urama disclosed in Yola, at
a workshop.

Participants urged
policy makers, researchers and the government to embrace the use of
local scientific and technological innovations in exploiting the vast
raw and mineral resources of their respective nations, for the
wellbeing of their members.

The Federal
University of technology Yola (FUTY), which hosted the event, is among
the category of institutions set to benefit from a $7 million dollar
funding grant benchmarked upon its successful award as ATPS’ centre of
excellence.

The Minister of
Science and Technology, Mohammed Abubakar, represented by the Director
General, Raw Materials Development Council, P.A. Onwualu, urged science
practitioners in the country to come up with strategies that can lead
to development of a “home grown” technology based policy for the
transformation of the Nigerian economy, and move it from its monolithic
economy of oil as its sole source of revenue.

The ATPS network
Nigerian chapter berated the failure of many African states to develop
their scientific and technological capacities through funding of
research and training in science and technology, explaining that “much
of the efforts made so far to develop research and training in science
and technology in Africa have been through Western international
scientific cooperation initiatives.

The Minister of Science and Technology said that most governments in
Africa have come to the realization that science and technology
education is the only way the continent can be “lighted” and move “from
being called the dark continent to a continent of light.”

The Appeal Court,
on Thursday, dismissed the application brought on behalf of the 33
local government chairmen elected and sworn-in at the tail end of the
administration of the former governor, Rasidi Ladoja, in Oyo State.

The appellate court
ruled in favour of the defendant on the ground that since their tenure
had expired before the appeal, there was no point looking at the merit
of the case.

The applicants were
elected on 24 May, 2007 and sworn in the following day. But their
elections were upturned immediately after Adebayo Alao-Akala took oath
of office as the state governor, and another set of elections, which
produced the incumbent chairmen in the state councils, were held.

The ground of the
fresh elections was based on an existing High Court order which
restricted the then Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC)
from conducting the original election.

Justice Iyabo
Yerima of the state High Court had acceded to the prayer of one Yinka
Olona and others, seeking to stop the OYSIEC from conducting the
election.

Since then, the two
elections have remained issues of litigation, and only climaxed
yesterday as the appellate court struck out the application to
reinstate the winners of the original election.

Chidi Uwa, who read
the lead judgement, said she was compelled to dismiss the application
because the term in question had expired and further examination of the
substantive matter would amount to mere academic exercise which would
not benefit any of the parties to the suit as well as the court.

Extinct rights

According to her,
all the record available before the court established the fact that the
election was held on 24 May, 2007 and that the elected officials were
sworn in the next day.

Among the records
was an affidavit deposed to by one of the applicants, which established
the fact that the tenure lapsed on 24 May. This, she added, assumed
that the three-year term of the elected officials started that time and
ended on 24 May.

The judge also
explained that the application of the applicant was brought before the
court in June, when the term had already expired.

“The rights of the
appellant as the chairmen of the local government have become extinct,
and the appellants are no longer in the position to lay claim to the
seats,” she said.

On the prayer by
the appellant to the court to allow them restart their tenure from the
day they were driven out of office and replaced by another set of local
government executives, the court held that: “The definite term cannot
be completed piecemeal, whether interrupted.”

Adesina Adeyemo,
who represented Akin Olujimi, counsel to the applicants, said he would
have to get the text of the judgment and meet with the lead counsel to
know whether or not they would proceed to the Supreme Court for further
action.

But Richard Ogunwole (SAN), counsel to the respondents, expressed satisfaction at the outcome of the matter yesterday.

The federal
government is to explore the large deposit of coal discovered in some
states of the federation, according to the vice president, Namadi Sambo.

He told the States
and China Machinery and Equipment Company (CMEC) delegation which
visited him yesterday that the federal government is resolved to
diversify efforts in the positive search for solutions to the nation’s
power problem.

He expressed
concern over the way the China Exim Bank responded to the issue of the
provision of the planned 84 megawatt of electricity in Kaduna State,
noting that the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC)
contract was almost stalled by the bank’s response.

Coal as power provider

Mr Sambo charged
the company to explore the potentials inherent in the coal power sector
in the country, especially the large deposits of coal in Enugu, Benue,
Kogi and Nasarawa States. “I can confirm to you that one trillion of
coal deposit is being explored by a German firm in Gombe State, for the
purpose of generating a coal power plant,” he said.

He called on the company to fast-track its activities, to meet with the challenges of the time.

Earlier in his
address, Bashir Ishaq Bashir, the leader of the delegation and the
Nigerian partner to the company, Leda Green Power, had stated that the
purpose of their visit was to felicitate with the Vice President over
his appointment and to wish him success in his tenure.

Mr Bashir
associated the company with the efforts of the federal government in
trying to solve the perennial power problem in the country. He seized
the opportunity to invite the Mr Sambo to China to meet with officials
of the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing. He thanked Mr Sambo for
accepting their request for such a visit. Members of the delegation
included: Wang Quingxin, Chief Representative of the CMEC, Liu Bin of a
subsidiary of the Central Southern China Electric Power Design
Institute of China Power Engineering Consulting Group, and Li Nan, a
Director of the company.

In a related
development, the vice president also received in audience on behalf of
Goodluck Jonathan, a special message from the President of Zambia,
Rapiah Bwezani Banda. The special message was delivered by the Zambian
Envoy to Nigeria, Major Richard Kachingwe in the Vice President’s
office in State House, Abuja.