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The Ekiti chapter of the People’s
Democratic Party said on Tuesday that it would appeal the minority
judgment of the state election petition tribunal governorship re-run
election in the state.

The majority judgment, which was read
by the chairman of the tribunal, Hamma Barka, declared that the
petitioner failed to prove and establish the allegations of
malpractice, corruption, and non-compliance with the Electoral Act
pleaded in his petition. But the minority judgment, read by Abiodun
Adebara, nullified Governor Segun Oni’s election on grounds of
irregularities and declared the Action Congress governorship candidate,
Kayode Fayemi, as the winner of the election.

The party’s chairman in the state, Bola
Olu-Ojo, told a news conference in Ado-Ekiti that “the major plan of
our appeal will be based on minority judgment which was not in our
favour.”

While noting that the party was yet to
receive a copy of the minority judgment, Mr. Olu-Ojo said it would
refrain from “disparaging” any government agencies on the tribunal’s
split judgment. Adding that sentiments do not win court cases, the PDP
chairman observed that the party would present hard facts to prove its
case at the tribunal.

The chairman of Gudu Local Government
Area of Sokoto State, Yusuf Kurdula, says his administration has taken
measures to contain the influx of Nigeriens into the country.

He said this in Balle, headquarters of
the council, when he received a team of the state’s chapter of the
Nigeria Union of Journalists, which was on a monitoring tour of
projects. Mr. Kurdula said though the council shares borders with the
neighbouring Niger Republic, it has taken proactive measures to
forestall breach of peace due to the influx.

He said the people had been sensitised on the need to promptly
report all suspicious persons and their movements to security agents.
“They are also being sensitised on the need to live peacefully with
each other. Nobody should take the laws into his hands,” he said.

The Nigeria Academy of Science (NAS) on Tuesday,
called on journalists to get more active in popularizing science
reporting, as this will influence policy decisions that will improve
social and economic development of the nation.

Science reporting, which covers health, medicine,
environment, technology, agriculture, is under-reported in Nigeria,
owing to insufficient information on the part of the journalists as
well as scientists and the society at large, the Academy believes. At a
meeting announcing the onset of a new prize called the NAS-Pfizer
Science Award for journalists, Oye Ibidapo-Obe, the president of the
Academy (which is a body of foremost Nigerian scientists, including
experts in various fields of science, engineering and medicine), told a
group of journalists that it is not enough to report science
superficially. “You, as journalists, need to go the extra mile of
explaining issues of scientific significance to the public. The
scientists cannot go out there, but you are what they rely on for
information, so you need to live up to your calling.”

The prize

According to him, the new prize, which will be given
at the end of each year for the best science report, is designed to
encourage and improve the media’s knowledge in communicating science
topics to the public. Sponsored by Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals
through the Academy, it also aims to strengthen the media’s coverage of
scientific issues particularly those relevant to policy decisions.

“The Nigerian Academy of Science seeks to establish
science reporting prizes for both electronic and print media. This will
be administered by a panel of judges at the end of each year,” Mr
Ibidapo-Obe said. To this end, he says there will be a couple of
training sessions for journalists on science reporting, in order to
enhance their capacity to win the prize.

Akin Jimoh, a science and public health media trainer said the
importance of science reporting cannot be overemphasized, as effective
reporting has the potential of driving important policy decisions. “As
journalists, we ought to do investigative science reporting. There are
issues everywhere that we are not looking at. For example, we have the
budget issues; we can write about what effect the science budget can
have. We have the Abalaka HIV issues which no one is looking at now.
There are lots of issues. We just need to be better trained and
sensitive to science issues.”

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.