Prof Ogundipe and Prof Soyombo

Contrary to widespread rumours of an atmosphere of unease at the University of Lagos, Akoka, one week after the removal of the erstwhile Substantive Vice–Chancellor, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, indications have emerged of a gradual shift of the hitherto hard-line posture by the overwhelming majority of academic staff of the Institution.

The softening of minds by many of the lecturers who are influential elders and members of the University Senate is a fallout of mediatory roles spearheaded by former branch Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU), Prof Ayo Olowe.

Although, the ASUU leadership chaired by Dr Dele Ashiru continues to insist on its call for the reinstatement of the former VC, there is a newfound reality that the only path to avert a prolonged crisis in the University is to cooperate with the Acting Vice–Chancellor, Prof Omololu Soyombo.

Prof Ayo Olowe

Said a Professor at the Faculty of Engineering: “We are beginning to have a rethink on this issue. For all we care, Prof Soyombo who is the acting VC is not part of the crisis. He has only a 6-month tenure. It is better to even allow him to settle down quickly so that we can begin to strategize on who becomes the next VC”

Also speaking in the same vein, Prof Olowe, who was Asuu branch Chairman during the period, 2005 to 2010, confirmed that given the unblemished personality of the acting VC, many senior academics in UNILAG Senate are closing ranks and are gradually backing off from their previous stance.

The former Head of Finance Department disclosed that many Professors are now better enlightened that the key issues involved bothered on alleged corruption and not any power tussle in the Council.

Wale Babalakin, Pro-Chancellor

Olowe said: “What is happening now is because corruption allegation is involved, everybody is being careful. If I am in that position of VC, the good option was to have stepped aside and allow the Council to carry out its investigation without using my position to influence their judgement. there’s no way you will not influence the outcome.

“There is no way a sitting VC with all his powerful clout would not affect thorough investigation. And if he is innocent, there is no reason to be afraid. That’s the proper thing to do. He should allow the process to go on and defend his good name.

“Yes, i am a key figure in ASUU. But this is a corruption case we are talking about here. They all know that I am principled. Everybody knows this on campus. A lot of the lecturers have calmed down. They agree with my position. Nobody can dispute my position. 

Jubilant crowd of staff at Senate House on Wednesday

But we need to tell ourselves the truth. I am part of ASUU and I am part of Senate. When it comes to corruption cases, ASUU cannot help anybody.”

He argued that the premises on which ASUU and the Senate predicated their resolutions were fatally wrong as the Union cannot defend any Senate meeting holding during its current strike while no Senate could have met without its principal officers.

“As things stand today, the only person who can call a meeting of Senate is Prof Soyombo. He holds the key to peace in UNILAG. Anything short of this is illegality”, he stressed.

Acting VC, Prof Omololu Soyombo

Prof Olowe also justified the decision of the Governing Council on all fronts, insisting that the Babalakin-led Council followed due process.

He stated: “The Babalakin Council has done the right thing. Their decisions are 100% correct. Very correct. That man Babalakin was very intelligent in handling the situation. No matter what people say about him.

“He has given them queries since 2018 and patiently waited for their responses. He has read the University Act.

“The man knows what he is doing. He followed due process. He is a lawyer. He is a SAN. The man followed a process that I like. In this university they have never followed that process. He started the investigation in 2019. He set up a Panel of Inquiry and instituted a Council committee to investigate finances. 

“And he made them face a Council Disciplinary Committee.They responded to the query. It’s been a long process. They followed the due process, the truth is just that the decision didn’t favour us in ASUU. We must protect the interest of the University. We cannot allow the ship of UNILAG to sink.”

Also yesterday, more and many more unions and concerned interest groups have continued to demonstrate support for the acting Vice–Chancellor, whom they tasked to courageously trudge on with his leadership.

Among these groups are the Senior Staff Association of Universities(SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union NASU), both of which dissociated their unions from collaborating with ASUU. They instead pledged to cooperate with Prof Soyombo to effectively steer the ship of the university out of the present crisis.

On campus yesterday, the acting Vice–Chancellor arrived the Senate House to a thunderous ovation when he held a meeting with a crowd of staff.

Prof Soyombo assured that he would hit the ground running to tackle immediate challenges having to do with staff welfare and other matters.

Eniola Akinkuotu, Abuja

The Nigerian Bar Association has withdrawn its invitation to Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, following protests from some lawyers.

The NBA said this in a tweet on Thursday via its Twitter handle @NigBarAssoc.

The tweet read, “The National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association at its ongoing meeting resolves that the invitation to the Kaduna State Governor, H.E. Nasir El-Rufai, by the 2020 Annual General Conference Planning committee be withdrawn and decision communicated to the Governor.”

A petition to stop the governor from attending the Annual General Conference which was started by a lawyer, Usani Odum, had garnered over 3,150 signatures on Change.Org as of 4 pm on Thursday.

In a separate letter titled, ‘Request to Withdraw the Offer of Platform at the 2020 Annual General Conference of the NBA to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai,’ addressed to the Chairman, Technical Committee on Conference Planning, NBA, Prof. Koyinsola Ajayi, some lawyers said the governor must not be allowed to speak at the conference.

The letter, which was signed by Silas Onu and Auta Nyada, listed 10 allegations against el-Rufai and his son, Bello, who is a Special Adviser to Kaduna Central lawmaker, Senator Uba Sani.

They faulted the NBA for inviting el-Rufai, citing his alleged poor human rights record and his inability to stop the killings, particularly in southern Kaduna.

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The lawyers also referenced many controversial utterances of the governor, including a threat during the run-up to the general elections in 2019 that any foreigner that interfered in the poll would leave Nigeria in body bags.

The NBA virtual conference, which holds from August 24-26, 2020, is expected to have Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), in attendance.

Others expected to speak at the event include former Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, Governor Wike of Rivers State and a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili.

The theme of the conference is: ‘Am I a Nigerian – A Debate on National Identity, the Indigeneship-Citizenship Conundrum.’

The University of Ibadan has said it could not submit its audit report to the Auditor-General of the Federation since 2014 because the external auditor engaged to prepare the report became blind while on the job.

The bursar of the university, Michael Alatise, said this on Thursday in Abuja when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts.

But after the committee also found that the university paid the“blind external auditor” full retainership last year, it ordered a full investigation into the finances of the university.

Speaking on the discovery, Oluwole Oke, chairman of the committee, chided the university’s representative. “That somebody went blind does not mean that the firm will go into extinction. It can’t,” Mr Oke said.

“And, sincerely speaking, it is not palatable that from 2014 to date, the University of Ibadan does not have an account with the Auditor-General. No, you won’t get money in the next budgetary allocation.”

In defence, Mr Alatise said the tenure of the auditor in question expired in 2010. He said a new external auditor who the school employed had it rough “because there were some static figures that needed to be cleared” by the former auditor.

“Actually, they (UI) are on their last account, which is 2015. We are about to engage another audit firm next week, the 13th of this month.”

While ordering an investigation into the university’s finances, Mr Oke said in matters of auditing, the University of Ibadan ought to be dealing with an auditing firm and not an individual.

“If you have an audited account signed and ratified in place, why did you need a blind man to take over from there? Besides, you are not dealing with him as a person, you are dealing with a firm. So, he has a partner, he has workers,” Mr Oke said.

“And for UI to engage such a firm. Let us conduct a KYC (know your customer). Let us know who the firm is. Let us investigate the firm. Let us know the partners and workers in that firm.”

premiumtimesng

The leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, has condemned the Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA, 2020 that was assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari recently calling for its immediate suspension.

In a statement on Thursday, CAN President, Pastor Adebayo Oladeji, maintained that by implications, Buhari has repealed the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990.

According to Oladeji, “The law, to say the least, is unacceptable, ungodly, reprehensible and an ill-wind that blows no one any good. It is a time bomb waiting to explode.”

CAN recalled that during the First Term of the President, there was a Public Hearing conducted by the National Assembly on the Non-Governmental Organisations Bill tagged: ‘Bill for an Act To Provide For The Establishment Of The Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs, Regulatory Commission For The Supervision, Co-ordination And Monitoring of Non-Governmental Organizations’ which CAN attended by and many NGOs.

Oladejo stated, “At the Public Hearing, the Bill that sought to bring the religious organizations and NGOs under the control and influence of the government was totally rejected because it would snuff life out of the church and rank the church as a secular institution under secular control.

“We thought it was all over until we heard of the CAMA that was assented to by the President, making the rejected bill a law.

“The satanic section of the controversial and ungodly law is Section 839 (1) and (2) which empowers the Commission to suspend trustees of an association (in this case, the church) and appoint the interim managers to manage the affairs of the association for some given reasons.

“While we are not against the government fighting corruption wherever it may be found, yet we completely reject the idea of bringing the Church, which is technically grouped among the NGOs, under control of the government.

“The church cannot be controlled by the government because of its spiritual responsibilities and obligations.

“This is why we are calling on the Federal government to stop the implementation of the obnoxious and ungodly law until the religious institutions are exempted from it.

“We call on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently return the law to the National Assembly for immediate amendment. Nigeria should not be compared with any other nation when it comes to the relationship between religious institutions and the government. In Nigeria, people’s religions are tied to their humanity and of course, their life.

“How can the government sack the trustee of a church which it contributed no dime to establish? How can a secular and political minister be the final authority on the affairs and management of another institution which is not political? For example, how can a non-Christian head of Government Ministry be the one to determine the running of the church? It is an invitation to trouble that the government does not have power to manage.”

CAN, therefore, urged government to face the business of providing infrastructure for the people, focus on better health provision, food, education, adequate security employment, among others.

Oladejo continued: “The government should not be a busy body in a matter that does not belong to it. The government does not have the technical expertise to run the church of God because of its spiritual nature.

“If the government is bent on imposing a law on us which the entire Church in Nigeria is against, then, they have declared war on Christianity and the agenda to destroy the Church which we have spoken against before now is coming to the open more clearly.

“If you cannot give us good amenities of life, we would not allow you to take away our liberty to worship our Maker.

“What good thing again will you not take away from the people in the name of being in power? Are we not running a democracy which is a government of the people by the people and for the people? Is this not gradually becoming a dictatorship or what was the essence of the Public Hearing you called us to when you had made up your mind not to consider the position of Christians at all which we presented during the Public Hearing?

“We call on all well-meaning Nigerians to ask the Federal Government to suspend the law because we do not need it in this nation.”

THE Nigerian High Commission in Canada, says it is suspending consular activities indefinitely till further notice due to lack of passport booklets and unruly behaviour of applicants.

The Commission located in Ottawa, announced this in a statement published on its official website on Tuesday, noting that there has been an influx of requests for passport renewals by Nigerians.

“The high Commission of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Canada wishes to inform Nigerian communities in Canada and the general public that the Mission remains closed to the public. The special intervention arrangement whereby emergency cases were being handled on a discretionary basis is hereby suspended,” the statement read.

“We would like to draw attention to the fact that with the closure of the air space our ability to bring much needed passport booklets into the country has been impaired. This is another area we intend to focus on.”

The High Commission stated that it had previously devised a system to attend to emergency cases following directives from the Federal Government of Nigeria and in line with public health guidelines informed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, it alleged that citizens defied the system, disclosing that many applicants would show up at the chancery without appointments and insist on gaining audience with staff members in charge of processing passport renewals.

“On a number of occasions people seeking passport renewal came to the chancery without an appointment and acted in the a most unruly manner, disturbing the peace and acting in an abusive manner, banging windows,” it said.

It further stated things got worse on August 14, when a group of applicants caused mayhem at the embassy, refusing people entrance and holding a staff member hostage for several minutes.

“Matters came to a head on Friday August 14, when a group showed up at the high commission and refused to allow the embassy staff members to attend to those who had appointments. They insisted that we had to attend to everybody who showed up,” the statement read.

“They went as far as holding a female staff member who went to address them hostage for over twenty minutes and subjected them to physical abuse.”

Premium Times reports that an applicant identified as Ruth had been left disappointed after traveling a long distance for passport renewal.

According to the report, Ruth who works as a researcher booked an appointment to enable her secure a new passport before travelling to Turkey but had her plans disrupted when no one attended to her upon arrival.

“The man who I had informed before booking my flight ticket, told me that they couldn’t attend to me because I did not tell him prior to the trip. I spent 1,500 Canadian dollars on the trip alone. I was so angry.”

“I was not the only one. I met so many Nigerians who came from Alberta, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and other cities in Canada. They were all angry,” she told Premium Times.

According to Ruth, several other people suffered the same fate and must have driven a revolt against the staff members of the commission.

“I wasn’t there so I can’t say much. However, it is to be expected that people will revolt when being treated like they don’t matter on sensitive issues. They must have been extremely frustrated. We push people to the wall too often as Nigerians,” Ruth narrated to Premium Times.

Meanwhile, Nigerian passport is ranked 47th in Africa, making it 7th least influential in the continent and 95th in the world.

This is according to the 2020 passport index report published by Henley & Partners, with data from International Air Transport Association (IATA); a trade association which maintains the world’s largest database of travel information.

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu, has said that the lingering banditry in the North-West and North-Central Nigeria has an international dimension.

Adamu said this during a town-hall meeting on peace and security held on Wednesday in Zuru, Kebbi State.

“We have realised that most of the banditry has an international dimension. The bandits come from outside the country. We arrested Sudanese, Nigeriens and Malians, among other nationals.

“Also we believe that because of what is happening in the North-East and the fact that the military troops are doing a great job in the fight against insurgency there, most of the bandits are running toward the North-West of the country and we have evidence.

“When we operated in Kaduna, Birnin Gwari, where we attacked a group of bandits, we realised that most of them came from Islamic State of West Africa, who are terrorists, kidnapping for ransom.

“So, the issue is not at the level you are looking at it, it is a big issue and we must work together to address it.

“This is why President Muhammadu Buhari does not rest because of these complaints coming from the North-West

and North-Central on banditry,” the IGP said.

Adamu urged every Nigerian to see the fight against insecurity as a collective responsibility.

NAN

The police in Kaduna State have been accused of beating up and forcefully evicting one Paul Ojo, an 85-year-old retired Staff Sergeant of the Nigerian Army and his family from his house in Kaduna.

The incident happened on Tuesday at L2 Kasupda Quarters, Kabala Costain, Kaduna. 

SaharaReporters gathered that the police invaded the house without any prior notice or court order and asked the occupants to vacate the building.

Armed policemen drafted to carry out the operation were said to have descended on Ojo, who insisted that the property was still under litigation and pending before the court. 

He also demanded from the gun-wielding officers the court order or warrant that authorised his eviction.

The request did not go down well with the police as they pounced on the old man, dragged him on the floor and threw out his properties. 

Also, his 75-year-old wife, Veronica, and children were not spared in the assault as the policemen inflicted injuries on one of the son, Isaac, for challenging them for beating up his father.

Paul’s son, Isaac Ojo.

Leader of the team, one DSP Ahmed, reportedly fired several gunshots during the operation.

Findings revealed that residents, who initially bidded and bought the houses in the area from government, were predominantly christians and had in 2017 instituted a suit at the state high court challenging the decision of the state government to revoke the properties.

A bank draft sighted by SaharaReporters also showed the payment of the sum of sum N235,000 made by Ojo which represented the 10 per cent of first installment of the total sum.

It was also gathered that buyers of the properties according to the terms and conditions were to pay in three installments of 10, 25 and 65 per cent respectively.

Ojo said he had paid the first installment in line with the agreements and wanted to pay the second installment but was turned down.

He explained that he wrote several letters notifying them of his readiness to pay the second installment but all to no avail.

In a  court document obtained by SaharaReporters with suit No. KDH/KAD/904/2017 between Paul Ojo ( plaintiff) and Kaduna State governor, Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice and Committee on the Sale of Residential Houses in Kaduna State, as 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively.

The plaintiff (Paul Ajayi) had prayed the court that he was the rightful and legal owner of the property and his allotment was based on public auction of the Kaduna State Government residential quarters.

The eviction was allegedly authorised by the state’s Solicitor-General, Chris Umar, who delegated one Samuel Madaki to lead the operation.

In an interview with SaharaReporters,  Ojo’s lawyer, Kimi Livingstone Appah, said the matter on the property was pending before the court and that they had close their case but the state government represented by Tahir Ladan from the Ministry of Justice had refused to open defence.

He confirmed that his client was assaulted by the police, who came to carry out the eviction without any court order.

Appah said the house in question was  bought by his client but later allocated to one Mr Abbas Mohammed Ango, who filed a suit at the Customary Court of Tribunal with the intention to taking over the house.  

He explained further that he had filed a preliminary objection in the suit challenging the jurisdiction of the court in the matter.

He said the police physically assaulted and dragged his client on the floor in his presence when he approached Madaki, who was leader of the team to provide the warrant or court order to carry out the eviction.

He said, “When we met Samuel Madaki who is the leader of the team that you cannot do this and it is wrong, he told us to go to hell that as far as the governor had given order, he was following the directive. 

“In my presence, they were beating the old man who just came back from the hospital. He was dragged on the floor like a goat. He is an hypertension patient and has leg problem. 

“They also beat up his 75-year-old wife and arrested two of his sons, Isaac and Michael. They were detained in the police station for 10 hours.

“There is a pending matter over the property. There is no judgment yet, the case is in court. The governor sold the houses and most of the people including my client bidded and bought the properties but government later revoked it and gave it to their Muslim brothers. 

“We went to court and challenged it that since they had.not returned the money to those who bought the houses, they had no right to allocate it to another buyer or evict them.”

DOCUMENTS: Police In Kaduna Allegedly Assault, Evict 85-year-old Retired Army Officer, Family Members On Or… by Sahara Reporters on Scribdhttps://www.scribd.com/embeds/472997143/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-CZ4JD8dncAoS362ms5zL

When SaharaReporters reached out to leader of the team, Samuel Madaki, for reaction, he said he was not in best position to speak on the matter.

Police spokesperson in Kaduna could not be reached for comments as of the time of this report.

SaharaReporters