Nigeria Content Online

A freelance
broadcaster, Wole Sorunke, popularly called MC Murphy, yesterday
signified his intention to run for the governorship seat of Ogun State
in the forthcoming 2011 general election, boasting that he is going to
change governance in the state if elected into power.

The radio presenter
said he would contest as an independent candidate and has held a number
of meetings with various groups in the state towards this.

‘I am not going
back on this, and towards this I am contesting as an independent
candidate,” he said. “I want to change governance, and it is high time
for this. I have and continue to consult necessary quarters, and I am
optimistic. I have held meetings with traditional rulers across the
geo-political zones and party chieftains as well as who is who in the
state politics. All these have given and assured me of their support.’

Mr. Sorunke said
his formal declaration is going to be flamboyant, as a number of
musicians have expressed their readiness to grace the occasion slated
for Abeokuta in support and to propagate his campaign across the four
corners of the state.

Meanwhile, as at
the time of filing this report, the campaign posters of Mr Sorunke have
started surfacing in Abeokuta and its environs.

The aspirant said
his mission in politics is to address the welfare of the citizens and
make the state better than he met it if elected into the office.

‘I am optimistic
that we shall get there, it is time for the youth to rule this state
since its creation over 30 years ago,’ he said.

“Youth unemployment will be issue to be tackled, so that the crime rate would be drastically reduced.”

The Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria
(PMAN), has called on state and national assemblies to enact stricter
measures against piracy if the war against pirates is to be won.

Emeka Maduka, the head of Anambra chapter of PMAN,
stated that the association was not satisfied with the efforts of
government agencies in the fight against piracy, and was therefore
relying on the lawmakers for help.

“Government has the might to tackle this monster,
but its efforts have not yielded much dividend,” he said. “For us
artistes, there’s equally very little we can do except to continue to
shout.”

The association boss also accused the police of
undermining the fight against piracy by always freeing culprits
apprehended by PMAN, and lamented that the music industry had suffered
untold damage as a result of the activities of pirates.

“If piracy can be stopped, other crimes like
kidnapping and robbery will also be stopped because piracy is also
robbery,’ he said. “The damage we have suffered cannot be quantified,
but it runs into several billions of naira and this is why we are
calling on the legislature and government to come to our aid.”

He also urged the Anambra state government to
donate land to the body order for them to build a secretariat, pointing
out that such a development would enable them to better co-ordinate
their activities.

PMAN in Anambra State has an estimated membership of over 300.

Jibola Olanipekun,
who died seven years ago, regained 20 acres of land yesterday through
the order of an Oyo State High Court. Mr Olanipekun was murdered in his
Ibadan residence on June 20, 2003 and there is still no clue regarding
who might have been the perpetrators.

He had acquired the
piece of land at Podo area of Ibadan and been duly issued a Certificate
of Occupancy by the then military government of Oyo State. According to
available records, the Certificate of Occupancy was dated August 11,
1988, and was issued through the Lands Registry, Ibadan.

But, Khadijat
Olanipekun, the deceased’s widow, in the statements of claims filed in
court, alleged that a former governor of the state, Lam Adesina,
approved another Certificate of Occupancy in respect of the same parcel
of land, in favour of his wife Modupe Adeola Sarat Adesina.

The ‘C of O’ was processed in file LUD 75/7c, dated May 28, 2001, which was relied on to encroach on the disputed land then.

The widow said the
former governor and Deed Registrar, Lands Registry, Ministry of Lands,
Oyo State, who are the second and third respondents in the suit,
‘failed or refused to correct the wrong deliberately made’ despite
series of protests.

Speaking through
Agboola Olaleye, her lawyer, Mrs Olanipekun prayed the court to issue
against Sarat Adesina, her husband (Mr Adesina) and the Ministry of
Lands the following: “A declaration that the purported grant of
certificate of occupancy dated 28 May, 2001 N0. 41, page 41, Volume
3390 of the Register of Deeds to the first defendant (Modupe Sarat) is
invalid, ineffective, made malafide without regard and or due regard to
the principles of natural justice and is therefore null and void and of
no effect; an order setting aside the Certificate of Occupancy dated 28
May, 2001; and an order that the Certificate of Occupancy dated 11 May,
1988 is viable and subsisting”.

Mrs Adesina’s lawyer, G.F. Ido, who also represented the then Commissioner for Justice,

Bayo Lawal, had
pleaded the court to get the judgment arrested, but the presiding
judge, Segun Olagunju, said, “It is too late in the day to arrest the
judgment.”

The court, instead,
granted all the plaintiff’s prayers, arguing that it was the business
of the defendants to file their statements of defence while the matter
lasted.

He told them to go
to the Appeal Court if they had anything against the judgment. Instead
of the N5, 000 the plaintiff’s counsel asked from the court as cost,
the judge awarded N2, 500 each against the defendant, and in favour of
the plaintiff.

The Nigeria Labour
Congress has advised President Goodluck Jonathan to stop consulting
former President Olusegun Obasanjo on issues of national importance,
claiming that Mr. Obasanjo has done more harm to the current democratic
process than good.

Speaking with
journalists at a session held yesterday at the Labour house in Abuja to
celebrate Maurice Iwu’s removal as the Independent National Electoral
Commission chairman, the labour union’s chairman, Abdulwahed Omar, also
said that the group will mobilise to resist the appointment of any
partisan personality as the new chairman of the electoral body.

“We will not
dictate to Mr President whom to relate with or whom to consult on
matters of national interest, we wish to also categorically state, like
many concerned patriots, that we are very uncomfortable with Mr.
President’s seeming romance with former President Obasanjo,” he said.

“If President
Jonathan desires the trust and confidence of Nigerians, he must stop
hobnobbing with Obasanjo for he represents the most formidable danger
to the future of our democracy.”

According to the
union, “recent media reports which tend to suggest that Mr President is
considering the appointment of personalities that are clearly partisan
and known card carrying members of political parties or who had served
or are still serving the PDP government is disturbing.

“We will not, and
Nigerian people will never accept such characters to head our electoral
body. We will mobilise to resist any such appointment.”

The group also
asked Mr. Jonathan to respect Nigerians view on the kind of personality
to bring into the office, stating that though his removal of “Professor
Maurice Iwu despite the obvious diabolical backing by former President
Obasanjo is commendable, we want to make it clear that Iwu’s removal is
merely the beginning of the journey to credible elections.”

It further called
for the implementation of the Uwais panel recommendations to ensure
that electoral process in the country is credible, while stating the
position of an acting chairman in person of Solomon Soyebi should
quickly be addressed to assure a good preparation ahead of 2011
elections.

Due to increased public outcry against the
declining performance in public examinations and the high incidence of
examination malpractices, the federal government said it is now ready
to revamp the examination sub-sector.

Ruqquayatu Rufa’I, the Minister of Education, said plans are underway to review the examination policy in Nigeria.

Speaking yesterday at the National
Examination Summit held in Abuja, the minister said the new arrangement
would be for students to register for subjects that will help them gain
admission into tertiary institutions.

“The policy on registration for
examination will be reviewed to allow candidates to have the option to
register for only the subjects they need to qualify for admission,”
Mrs. Rufa’I said.

“The appalling performance by students
is not without causes, which apparently include gaps in the curriculum,
poor teaching methods, non availability of syllabuses in some schools,
government policies on compulsory registration for all subjects by
candidates who require just one or two subjects to qualify for
admission,” she said.

Mrs. Rufai therefore, directed the
Education Trust Fund as a matter of urgency, to liaise with the
Nigerian Education Research and Development Council, West African
Examination Council, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, and the
National Examination Council to produce copies of national syllabus and
the school curriculum and pass to primary and secondary schools
nationwide.

This, she said, is necessary as the
unfolding worrisome scenario in the examination sub-sector calls for
urgent attention in order to revamp the sub-sector and reduce the high
failure rate recorded in public examination.

She added that “the poor results of
candidates announced by NECO recently whereby only 1.75 percent of the
candidates that sat for the November/December Senior Secondary School
Certificate private examinations in 2009 had five credits and above,
while in the June/ July SSCE school examinations for the same year only
10.53 percent of the students also had five credits and above,
including English and Mathematics, were obviously symptomatic of an
ailing education sector, which requires urgent intellectual diagnosis
by education experts and valuable solution.”

Pai Obanya, an international education strategist, in his remark at
the summit, said another way out of the ruts is to make curriculum
development participatory; as well as explore online examination
option. He also stated that government should start to invest in
education.

The foundation laying ceremony of a primary school in Ologbo,
Ikoba-Okha local government council, Edo State, embarked upon by the member
representing Ikpoba-Okha/Egor federal constituency, Ifaluyi Isibor, was
yesterday disrupted by angry youths.

The youths were led by a middle aged man simply identified as
Jackson, after they complained that they were not happy with the level of
representation so far given by the lawmaker and they were not consulted before
the decision to build a block of three classrooms was taken.

They said that the project was coming at the end of the tenure
of Mr. Isibor, a development they said was to hoodwink them to vote for him for
re-election.

The angry youths were eventually pacified by leaders of the
Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the area, including the former state
representative in the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC),
Matthew Iduorinyemkemwen, who came to the scene to allow the ceremony continue.

Communication problem

This development is just 48 hours after the state governor,
Adams Oshiomhole, called on all PDP federal lawmakers in the state to account
for constituency projects allocated to them. The youths forced the advanced
party of Isibor to leave the place, and even forcefully dismantled the canopies
mounted for the ceremony.

But when the ceremony eventually started about two hours behind
schedule, Mr. Isibor said he identified the school to be in a very dilapidated
state and overcrowded during his campaign, and therefore, made it one of his
constituency projects.

He said the three blocks of classrooms would be “furnished with
chairs and headmaster’s office. We are also going to put aluminum doors and
windows, and the roofing will be aluminum sheets. This is the fourth school
that I am building and added to other projects that we have attracted to this
constituency.”

The project, he said, would cost N8.7 million, and is expected
to be completed in three months.

Isibor attributed the obstruction of the ceremony to communication gap: “It
was a communication problem. Some groups said they were not informed; they
believed that what I have done for the constituency deserves a higher ovation.
When I arrived, they were quarreling that their women were not told. That some
of them have gone to the market, and it will look as if they were not
interested in my project. That was exactly the issue, so we pleaded with them.”

At least 394
companies have indicated interest in the Abuja Mass Housing Scheme, the
Minister of FCT, Bala Mohammed, was quoted as saying in Abuja on Monday.

A statement from
Muhammad Sule, the Chief Press Secretary to the FCT Minister, said the
move would enable the authority to provide affordable houses for the
residents of the territory.

Mr Sule said after
the monthly FCT Operations Briefing Session in Gwarimpa District, that
318 of the applicants had collected documents while 50 had made
submissions which were being evaluated.

“The FCT
administration is now working on the evaluation of bid documents for
the engagement of consultants for auditing of the existing mass housing
schemes.

“This is in
addition to the in-house collation of data on the existing mass housing
developers and computerisation of such data,” he said.

He also added that
relevant departments of the FCT administration and the Federal Capital
Development Authority (FCDA) were already meeting with the stakeholders
as well as the developers, to ensure better results.

He further said
that 25 beneficiaries of the recent allocation under the mass housing
scheme had commenced regularisation of their allocations with the mass
housing department, which would be considered on merit, and that the
Department of Urban and Regional Planning was currently identifying
suitable areas in the Federal Capital City and the satellite towns for
the preparation of comprehensive site development plans for the mass
housing scheme.

He noted that the
FCT administration had reviewed existing lease agreements in line with
the approved guidelines for the scheme by the Federal Executive Council.

Mr Sule, however,
recalled that the housing policy of the Federal Capital Territory
Administration was to be implemented through the
public-private-partnership with the administration providing the land,
and the developers constructing the houses, and the secondary and
tertiary infrastructure for sale to recoup their investments.

“All actions taken must be in consonance with the approved
guidelines of the Federal Executive Council in addition to sound
technical base without compromise, because Abuja has a standard that
must be maintained and we have a duty to satisfy the yearnings of
Nigerians,” he said.

Dele Oye, one of the persons the Economic and
Finanacial Crime Commission (EFCC) alleged was fronting for Cecilia
Ibru, the former managing director of Oceanic Bank, has returned from
his hideout to Nigeria, without being arrested by the commission.

The EFCC had threatened to move for the
repatriation of Mr. Oye and Nanashetu, the former nanny of Mrs. Ibru,
who is also wanted for her role in the fraud, from their hideouts in
the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

A source close to Mr. Oye said that “the EFCC has dropped all charges against Mr. Oye and he is now a freeman.”

However, Femi Babafemi, spokesperson for the commission, denied that the EFCC has cleared Mr. Oye of the charges against him.

“He was with us for over a week. He was only
granted bail last week,” said Mr. Babafemi. He added that
investigations are still ongoing into the matter.

It was gathered, however, that Mr. Oye may have
entered into a deal with the anti-graft commission to serve as a
prosecution witness in the case.

Sources close to the CBN say however, that the CBN
was unhappy with the agreement reached between Mr. Oye and the EFCC, as
Mr. Oye’s case is criminal in nature.

“It was a clear case of forgery. He forged some of
his former employees’ signature for the company he used to help siphon
Mrs. Ibru’s fund,” the source stated.

Mohammed Abdullahi, the spokesperson for the CBN, refused to comment on the issue, referring enquiries to the EFCC.

Mr. Oye is accused of collecting $110 million from
Mrs. Ibru in the name of Waves Nigeria limited. As at 2006, Waves was
owned by one of the sacked directors of Oceanic Bank and Mrs. Ibru. The
ownership of the company was later handed over to Mr. Oye and
Nana-Shetu. Waves is the company constructing Oceanic Bank headquarters
in Victoria Island, Lagos.

It was alleged that Oceanic Bank, under Mrs. Ibru, had paid a $22
million rent for 10 years, while the edifice was still under
construction.

Investigators at
the site of Saturday’s plane crash in India found the cockpit voice
recorder, which may help uncover the cause of the disaster as search
for the flight data recorder continues. The investigators scoured the
slopes of a ravine in southern India on Sunday looking for the black
box of the Boeing 737-800 that crashed off a hilltop runway, killing
158 people.

Crash site experts
sifted through the wreckage and collected some parts, but were still to
find the flight data recorder which could provide clues about
Saturday’s crash.

The Air India
Express flight carrying 166 people, including the crew from Dubai,
crashed while negotiating a tricky landing at Mangalore city’s
‘table-top’ airport overlooking a ravine. Eight people survived, mostly
by jumping out of the plane that broke into two after crashing.

“It is not
possible to give any reason for the crash unless we find the black
box,” Peter Abraham, Mangalore airport director, told news agency.

About a dozen
experts were seen examining the jet’s mangled hull. At a distance,
workers used bulldozers and metal-cutters to clear debris. A US
forensic team arrived in India to help the investigations, officials
said. A Boeing team is also expected.

“It is better to
have an independent view and understand what has happened,” said Arvind
Jadhav, chief of the state-run Air India. Air India Express is the
budget arm of Air India.

Although it was not clear what caused the crash, some Indian TV channels focussed on the possibility of human error.

India’s Civil
Aviation Minister Praful Patel said there were no indications of any
trouble during the plane’s landing. The weather and visibility was
good, he said.

“All other
parameters like the aircraft functions and the runway looked to be very
normal, so it should have been a normal landing,” he said. “But I do
not want to speculate on the cause.”

India has seen a
boom in private carriers due to growing demand from India’s middle
class. It was the first big crash in more than a decade but a series of
near misses at airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, have caused
concern India’s creaking infrastructure was failing to keep pace with
an economic boom.

Chaos at the morgue

Officials said all 158 bodies had been found.

At Mangalore’s A.J. hospital, two of the survivors were still to come to terms with their survival.

“I remembered when
a plane crashes it bursts into flames, so tried to get as far away as
possible,” Sabrina Haq, a 22-year-old medical intern told Reuters from
her hospital bed. “I don’t remember if someone picked me out or I fell
out of the plane. I didn’t want to die.” She suffered a broken leg and
had bruises on her face.

Some chaos was
seen at the hospital’s morgue. Wailing relatives crowded to claim the
bodies of their loved ones. But 12 bodies were still to be identified,
Jadhav said.

Doctors said they were conducting DNA tests on these bodies. Family
members of passengers killed in Saturday’s Air India plane crash are
being asked to give DNA samples as the grim task continues of
identifying the dead. Police kept away a crowd of reporters trying to
speak to the relatives. Dozens of grieving relatives of the victims
arrived on a special flight from Dubai.

In
an attempt to rid Benin City of the mentally ill roaming its streets,
no fewer than 50 people were taken off the streets at the weekend by
officials of the ministry of women affairs and social development.

The raid was
carried out around Ring Road, Mission Road, Ramat Park, New Benin
Iyaro, along Urubi Street, and Ugbowo areas of the city.

At the end of the
exercise, which lasted several hours, a total of 43 men and eight women
were taken off the streets. The Director of Rehabilitation of the
Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Olorunfemi Oikeh,
disclosed that they will be handed over to the 14 government approved
traditional herbal healing homes for confinement, treatment and cure,
after which they will be re-united with their families.

He further stated
that the exercise is one of the routine duties of his department and
called on members of the public to report the presence of any mentally
ill people in their environs.

Some of the
traditional healers who took part in the raid commended the state
government for keeping the streets of Benin clean and free of the
danger the mentally ill pose to the society.

They, however, appealed to the state government to increase their
monthly subvention, which they claimed was grossly inadequate, adding
that mentally ill persons are voracious eaters.