I’m a graduate but he’s a welder. I mistakenly got pregnant for him and had no choice but to marry him. My marriage to him is hell because we are not compatible. He once stole my pant and I guess he wanted to use it for ritual.”

Husband reacts: “She treats me with disdain and dictates when we should have sex. I became a common face at canteens because the earliest time she returns home from work is 11:00 p.m.”

A woman, Sadiat Abass has brought a divorce suit against her husband, Lasisi Abass, at Oja Oba/ Mapo Court C Customary Court, Mapo, Ibadan, Oyo State.

Sadiat in her suit claimed that her husband failed in his responsibility towards him and their only child.

She added that he once had sex with her by force and at another time stole her pant for evil purpose.

The plaintiff stated that the defendant later threw her belongings out of his house and threatened to pour acid on her.

Lasisi gave his consent to divorce.

The defendant denied all the allegations brought against him by his wife, stating that she cooked them up in order to have a fair hearing.

Lasisi stated that the plaintiff was in the habit of humiliating him and that she loved to have her way.

According to him, the plaintiff burnt him with a hot iron when he insisted on having sex with her and added that she moved out of his house out of her own volition.

Giving his judgment after he heard both parties, the court president, Chief Ademola Odunade, stated it was crucial that that the court ended their marriage since it showed the display of violence.

Ruling, Odunade put an end to their union and granted custody of their child to the plaintiff.

The defendant was asked to be responsible for the child’s welfare, stressing that his education and health care should be given utmost priority.

According to Odunade, Lasisi must give Sadiat N5,000 every month for their child’s feeding.

This he stated must be carried out through the court.

“I don’t regard Lasisi as my husband. As far as I am concerned, we are just cohabiting,” Sadiat stated.

“I never had the plan of getting married to him because we don’t belong to the same class. I’m a graduate but he’s a welder. I got pregnant for him by mistake and had no choice than to marry him.

“I never enjoyed my marriage to Lasisi for a day because he is irresponsible.

“He neglects my welfare and that of our only child. He doesn’t believe that the provision of food and other necessities in the home should be his duty since according to him, I’m working.

“I work hard to cover up his lapses but he always shows he’s an ingrate.

“Any time I cook, he will empty the whole pot not caring if our child and I had eaten,” the plaintiff explained.

“Lasisi once took my pant and I believe he had an evil motive in mind. His plan was to use it for ritual purpose. I searched for the pant for about two weeks and later found it in his possession. He has failed to explain till date what it was doing among his things.

“I reported him to my parents and they advised that I throw the pant away.

“We once had a misunderstanding and we fought. He locked me out of the house and refused that I enter. I notified my parents and they did all they could to placate him but he remained adamant. I moved to my sister’s place and was with her for two weeks before he agreed that I moved back to his house,” Sadiat added.

She went on, “My lord, Lasisi once raped me. We had sex the previous night which was a Saturday and around noontime the following day he again demanded for another round.

“I refused him. He struggled with me and almost strangled me. He later had his way and we fought after this.

“He took to monitoring my movement and ensured that I had no peace in the home.

“He threw my belongings out and I moved to my parents’ house.

“He has since then sent thugs after me while he also threatened to disfigure my face by pouring acid on me.

“I appeal to this honourable court to dissolve our marriage and restrain him from carrying out his threats,” she said.

In his testimony, Lasisi said: “My lord, Sadiat is deceitful in nature. I am therefore not surprised she told the court so many lies in order to curry its favour.”

“Sadiat does whatever pleases her in the home because she knows I’m a gentleman and hate to beat my wife.

“She shouts on top of her voice when addressing me and treats me with disdain even in the presence of others.

“She dictates when we should have sex and would always insist on having her way.

“I once demanded for sex and she denied me. I got annoyed and insisted I was having my way. There was a struggle and she went for a hot pressing iron and burnt my nect with it.

“I felt a sharp pain and the spot got swollen. It developed into a sore which I nursed for weeks.

“That pain spurred my determination to have sex with her that day.

“Sadiat lied that I didn’t care for her. I rented a shop for her and gave her N20,000 to stock it with goods. I also stood as her guarantor twice when she took loans from a microfinance bank to buy more goods for her shop.

“A friend of mine who resides abroad also gave me N50,000 and this we added to the almost N200,000 loan.

“I was the one who paid back all the loans, yet she stated that I was irresponsible.

“Even though she sells foodstuff and provision, I still give or transfer money to her to buy foodstuff for the home.

“Early in our marriage I would join her in her shop in the evening to pack her wares and lock the shop. But I guess she didn’t want to be seen with me because she would always shout on me. I thus decided to stop going there.

“Sadiat thereafter took to coming home late. The earliest time she returned home was 11:00 p.m. Any time I complain, she would shout on me.

“Since she was never around to cook our meals, I resorted to eating at a nearby canteen.

“She never ceased to fight with me. She moved out of my house twice and it took the intervention of my family members and hers before she agreed to move back.

“On the second occasion she told her father she would soon return to their home.

“I asked her what she meant by that statement when we got back home and she told me she had made up her mind not to have more children for me.

“I never stole her pant, neither am I fetish. I’m a decent person and have always lived a clean life.

“My lord, since she’s insisting on divorce, I pray the court to grant her wish, “he concluded.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said that there might not be a significant change in fuel price when the Dangote refinery begins operation next year.

Ahmed said that fuel will still sell at the international price because of the location of the refinery which is at the Export Processing Zone in Lagos State.

Speaking on NTA’s ‘Good Morning Nigeria’ programme on Monday, the minister said that the advantage with the refinery is that Nigeria won’t pay shipping cost.

Zainab said, “What we are doing is enabling the petroleum sector to actually grow. There have been a number of refineries that have been licensed for several years. None of them was willing to start refining under the regime that we had were fuel was controlled.

“The Dangote refinery is sitting within an Export Processing Zone so they are insulated from that. When we buy fuel from Dangote, we will be buying fuel at the international market price. The only savings that we will be making is the savings of freight which is shipping.

“But we will still have landing cost; labour cost and the marketers will still have to put a margin. These refineries being refineries that are supposed to have come to operate can now come in because they are assured that when they produce, they can sell at market rate and recover their investments and make some reasonable profits.”

She said that investments in refineries will be encouraged due to the deregulation of the sector which is good for the economy despite it leading to an increase in fuel price.

Pointing out the need to encourage private refineries, the minister said that government-owned refineries won’t be rehabilitated because they are old.

Ahmed added, “It will mean more refineries will open, they will employ people and fuel will be available in different parts of the country and not just relying on the government refineries.

“Those refineries are old and even if we turn them around, we will not be able to operate them at optimal capacity so while the NNPC is trying to rehabilitate them, we also need to encourage the private sector refineries to come on stream and even state governments that have the capacity.”

Buttressing her point, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said that refining crude oil locally won’t have a significant effect on fuel price.

According to him, crude oil is what determines the cost of petrol, and as long as it remains high in the international market, fuel price will be affected.

He also said that if crude oil is refined locally – which will save the cost of transporting – the cost of labour which includes hiring expatriates will still have an effect on fuel price.

The minister added, “For now, our supply is coming mostly from imports as we all know. And that doesn’t really have an impact on the price as people would think. The only difference that will happen if our supply was coming from in country would have been the freight price. But whether it is coming from outside or coming from within, it will be about the same cost because when you import, the only difference is that you will have to pay the freight. But it is the same cost of crude and whether you are refining or not, you will have to pay the market price for the crude.”

Operations at the Dangote refinery will commence next year and is expected to refine 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

In a chilling and scary message to its members, the Joint Health Staff Unions (JOHESU) has declared its determination to make everyone, including doctors, crawl on their knees and beg them for mercy to return to work. Other hospital staff, besides doctors, began a nationwide strike today.

The message, sent to Everyday.ng by a medical doctor, reads: “All management staff need to be involved in this important strike.

“No director should go to work.

“Shut down the system completely.

“The doctors salary must suffer during the strike as well. Nothing should be prepared and sent by the accounts department.

“Let the doctors feel the pains. No skeletal work of any form. No attendance to covid-19 patients. Let their Almighty doctors do everything.

“All the offices be locked including the accounts (Patient should be unable to make any payments), all medical records library and offices be locked. The central stores closed. Pharmacy closed. Toilets closed. Generator houses closed. Shut down the system.

“Let them cry for mercy!

“Let the health sector get liberation for once”.

A medical consultant expressed dismay that though JOHESU members were free to fight for their rights, “but to make it look like their battle is against doctors is strange”.

He adds: “We used to be able to spread ourselves to help out with patients, but they want to make that impossible. If you are on strike, just withdraw from the hospital. You can’t lock up support services and police the act, putting the lives of those not on strike at risk. Since your services are important, just walk away and that will prove your point”.

Another source, however, explained that the grouse of JOHESU, and indeed all other hospital staff and stakeholders, “is the arrogance with which doctors carry on as if without them, nothing happens in the hospitals. While they are a core and very important aspect of the health delivery system; in Nigeria, they behave as if it is not a symbiosis. That is the basis for that viral message among medical workers you saw.”(Everyday.ng)

The Kaduna Internal Revenue Service, KADIRS, has shut down 13 gaming offices in its ongoing operation to close all unregistered gaming offices in the state.

Liye Anthony, Head of Gaming in the agency, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Kaduna on Sunday.

Mr Anthony said that the operation, which began on Thursday, had so far shut down five offices of bet9ja and KingBet respectively, two AccessBet offices and one office of DerbyLotto.

He said that there were about 1,500 gaming offices across the state operating illegally without due registration and license.

According to him, the exercise will continue until all the illegal gaming offices are shut down.

“We will continue to go after them until all the operators of the gaming companies regularised their operations and obtained the needed license to operate in the state,” he said.

The Executive Chairman of the agency, Dr Zaid Abubakar, had told newsmen that apart from operating illegally, the gaming companies were owing tax liabilities of close to N500 million.

Mr Abubakar explained that K.C. Gaming Networks, owner of bet9ja was withholding tax of N325 million, Bet King N68 million and Access bet N33 million.

He said that the gaming companies were mopping about N2.0 billion monthly from the state and were not paying a kobo to the state government as tax.

He also said that the operators of the gaming companies were equally required by law to integrate their operations into the KADIRS Service Software, stressing that the companies failed to do so.

NAN reports that the Kaduna State Tax Codification and Consolidation Law, 2020, as amended, mandated gaming companies to register and obtain a license before operating in the state.

Section 86 of the law mandated that any gaming company wishing to operate in the state should, upon payment of nonrefundable N400,000 registration fee, apply in writing for an operating license.

Section 91 also imposed a 10 per cent tax on every stake money and winning amount which should be promptly deducted and remitted monthly to KADIRS by every licensed gaming company in the state.

NAN

Lago – Operations of Arik Air were on Monday shut down by the aviation unions over alleged non payment of staff salaries since April after placing 90 per cent of the workforce on compulsory leave and other anti-labour practices.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that unions included the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and Air Transport Senior Staff Services Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN).

NAN correspondent who monitored the situation in Lagos reports that all Arik Air operations were shut down including airlines as passengers expressed reservations.

Mr Innocent Atasie, Chairman, ATSSSAN, Arik Air Branch told NAN that the workers resolved to shut down Arik operations nationwide when all efforts made to resolve the problem failed.

Atasie said that the unions were miffed that there had been no payment of staff salaries since April after placing 90 per cent of the workforce on compulsory leave.

The unions said the strike would continue indefinitely, until their demands were met by the management of Arik Air.

Their demands included- payment of outstanding salaries arrears, signing of Conditions of Service, remittance of Pension, Tax, and statutory deductions to the appropriate authorities and to resolve other anti-labour issues.

Others were payment of salary arrears of seven months, with a commitment to pay salaries as at when due, henceforth.

Atasie said that the unions also wanted the immediate review of all employee remunerations which had remained stagnant since the inception of Arik Air, over ten years ago.

He said that the unions decided to shut down all operations nationwide when all efforts by the unions were aborted.

NAN reports that on Sept. 13, the management of Arik Air asked for the intervention of the Minister of Aviation, Mr Hadi Sirika, over the planned industrial action by unions scheduled to commence on Sept 14.

The Chief Executive Officer of Arik, Capt. Roy Ilegbodu, made the appeal in a letter to the minister entitled, “Re-Unions in Arik Air threaten to down tools.

NAN visit to local terminals in Lagos, indicated that stranded Arik Air passengers expressed disappointment over the airlines shut down workout informing the passengers.

A passenger, Mr Julius Anifowoshe, told NAN that ” l was shocked when l came to the airport at about 6.30a.m., to board and found out that the airline workers are on strike without due notification.

” Am forced to buy another ticket from another airline to meet up with my appointment in Abuja.

” Government should sanction Arik Air for not reaching out through text messages or e-mail to customers on the planned strike.

” Am going to seek refund of my money whenever am back to Lagos. Arik Air took customers for granted,” he said.

Another passenger, Mrs Beatrice Ikechukwu expressed disappointment over sudden shut down of the operations without due notice to passengers.

Ikechukwu said ” l have to source for money to buy another ticket for what l did not planned for.

“Arik Air operational system is porous, nobody came to address passengers on what was happening. This is really pathetic and disheartening,” she said.

However, Mr Adebanji Ola, the Communications Manager of Arik Air said that the management has scheduled a meeting with the unions on Sept. 15 to resolve all matters.

(NAN)

Muyiwa Ige, a former Commissioner for Lands and Physical Planning in Osun State, has said his father was killed as a result of envy.

Chief Bola Ige, SAN, and former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, was murdered by unknown assailants at his Bodija, Ibadan home on December 23, 2001.

Ige, who was the Deputy National leader of Afenifere, a pan Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, was assassinated at age 71.

Muyiwa, who spoke in Ibadan during the 90th posthumous birth anniversary of his father, an astute politician and legal luminary, at St. Anne’s Church, Molete, Ibadan on Sunday, said his father’s assailants shall “continually be hunted by their evil deeds”.

According to him, his late father bequeathed legacies of selfless service, good leadership, integrity, honesty, and commitment to the plight of common men to his children and loyalists.

Muyiwa recalled that his father, at age 29, was on the global platform with the late Martin Luther King Jnr. in Athens, Ohio in 1959, moving the motion for the blacks to be able to exercise their voting right in America.

He said, “My father really loved young people. He also believed in the emancipation of the common man and elevating young people. A lot of his peers didn’t like him for that because they could not understand the young people.

“But, that was the essence of Bola Ige, and it was part of the envy that ate into the souls of some of those who didn’t like him. Nonetheless, that was their problem. Bola Ige came to this world, did his bit, and his legacy lives on.”

Punch

The Nigerian Working Group on Peacebuilding and Governance has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to initiate dialogue at the national and sub-national levels to address the country’s security challenges.

In a statement on Sunday, the group said Nigerians are suffering from rising insecurity to lives and properties, as well as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their standards of living.

The statement was signed by Attahiru Jega, a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC); John Onaiyekan, the former Catholic archbishop of Abuja; Martin Luther Agwai, a retired military general; Jibrin Ibrahim, a professor; Aisha Mohammed-Oyebode, chief executive officer, Murtala Muhammed Foundation, among others, who are all members of the group.

The position of the group comes after ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo accused Buhari of driving Nigeria into becoming a “failed and divided” state.

Speaking at a virtual meeting last week, Obasanjo accused the Buhari administration of mismanaging the country’s socio-economic development.

He said old fault lines that were disappearing have opened up under Buhari, adding that hatred, disintegration and separation are “being heard loud and clear almost everywhere”.

But the presidency condemned the ex-president, saying he has fallen from the status of Nigeria’s commander-in-chief to its “divider-in-chief”.

The group said Nigeria is rapidly approaching a tipping point, adding that there is an urgent need for Buhari and state governors to commence a dialogue process to address the rising insecurity in the country.

“Nigeria, like the rest of the world is battling the coronavirus pandemic. However, citizens in Nigeria are facing double the suffering because they also have to contend with rising insecurity and violence across the country,” the statement read.

“The Nigerian government must immediately address the rising insecurity if it is to succeed in the fight against the pandemic. A recent USIP-commissioned survey in Nigeria found new linkages between COVID-19, instability, and conflict.

“In particular, the survey found that victims of recent violence are less likely to trust the government’s coronavirus response measures compared to those who have not experienced violence.”

The group said it engaged in series of consultations with a diverse group of stakeholders and policymakers between May and July.

It said this is the time to offer its key observations and recommendations on how the government can strengthen its efforts to manage the coronavirus pandemic by addressing the rising insecurity across the country.

The members recommended that the national council of state should initiate a dialogue process at the national level while the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) would ensure it reaches the grassroots.

“A government strategy to address the coronavirus pandemic without sustainable strategies to also confront rising insecurity and violence poses a significant threat to the democratic development of our country, and could potentially undermine the government’s efforts to address the spread of the coronavirus in Nigeria now, and in the future,” it said.

“Kidnapping for ransom is an acute concern across Nigeria. The North East is witnessing a resurgence in Boko Haram activity, and thousands of people are internally displaced by banditry across rural communities in the North West.

“Criminality in rural areas further complicates the situation by undermining food security, as many farmers have been unable to go to their farms for months for fear of losing their lives.”

The group asked Buhari to direct more training and re-orientation of the police force towards building community partnerships and promoting durable peace in the conduct of their duties.

It said the government should sack the service chiefs if it would ensure an improvement in the security situation.

“There is a growing public consensus that the current leadership of our security agencies have failed woefully, and that our Commander-in-Chief has so far refused to act. This cannot continue. Mr President, you must show more concern and do what is necessary to improve the effectiveness of our security agencies, even if it means replacing the current leadership of our security agencies,” it read.

“The government has been incapable of assuring Nigerians that it cares about our predicament. Numerous conspiracy theories about the causes of the violence continue to circulate, without any reassuring counter-narratives coming from the government.

“Our country is rapidly approaching a tipping point. Enough is enough. The time for action is now.” (thecable)