The Lagos State Ministry of Education has ordered the temporary closure of Chrisland School, Opebi-Ikeja, following the reported death of a 12-year-old student of the school, Whitney Adeniran.
This was contained in a statement on the Instagram page of the Lagos State Government on Sunday night.
It partly read, “A release signed by the State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo said the closure was ordered pending the outcome of a full investigation into the unfortunate incident.”
It added, “We also note the impact of this unfortunate event on family, friends and acquaintance of Whitney and call for calm as we assure that no effort will be spared in investigating the incident.”
Whitney’s parents had on Saturday raised the alarm over the death of their daughter during the school’s inter-house sports event at Agege Stadium.
A pro-All Progressives Congress (APC) group on the agies of Progressive Minds Forum (PMF), on Friday, called for the resignation, suspension or sack of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, over alleged compromised judgements that recently emanated from the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The group lamented that the award of Senatorial tickets to Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Senator Godswill Akpabio by the apex court was a great embarrassment to Nigeria because they did not partake in the primary elections of the APC, won by the original holders of the tickets.
The Forum also insisted that the Supreme Court ruling to extend the use of old Naira notes was not done in the interest of Nigerians but to please and aid certain political forces from the South-West who have been clamouring for the extension because the CJN is from the South-west.
In a statement signed by the Forum’s national coordinator, Barrister Preye Johnson, he said that the comportment of the CJN since assumption of office does not befit a man who occupies such an exalted position and saddled with the responsibility of determining the destiny of litigants that come before the Supreme Court.
The statement said: “The Supreme Court is the last hope of the common man, but under Justice Ariwoola, justice is now for the highest bidder.
“The whole world would want to know how failed presidential aspirants like Akpabio and Lawan were awarded Senatorial tickets by the Supreme Court when they never participated in the primary election for those positions in their Senatorial Districts.
“This is a man who recently attended a state dinner in Port Harcourt and apparently after much champagne that are common in such high level political gatherings, made political statements that were unbecoming of his position as the number one jurist in the country.
“Besides only the CJN and Supreme Court Justices can tell if the recent ruling unbanning the use of old Naira notes was done in the overall interest of Nigerians or to enable the APC access enough cash to buy votes in the forthcoming elections.
“Even the Minister or Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has kicked against the judgement and filed an appeal against it.
“The position of the AGF shows that the ruling lacks merit as it was apparently motivated by partisan motives and tribal sentiments which may likely plunge Nigeria into crisis if not immediately curbed.
“Needless to say that such highly compromised and spurious judgements now emanating from the apex court, under Justice Ariwoola, represent a huge embarrassment to Nigeria both at home and abroad.
“They have also cast a pall of doubt over judgements on disputes that may emanate from the forthcoming general elections.
“Therefore, the need for Justice Ariwoola to either resign his position or be sacked in order to checkmate the gross danger the Supreme Court now poses to democracy and rule of law in Nigeria.
“It is clear that the Supreme Court under Justice Ariwoola’s watch lacks integrity therefore he has no basis to continue as CJN especially in view of the forthcoming general election.
“The CJN must be seen to be above board and also must be blind to all parties in the dispensation of justice in order to display extreme neutrality for justice and fairness. However, this is not what we are seeing presently.
“Since the Apex Court has proved its unwillingness to save democracy, Buhari must rise up to the task of saving democracy by ordering the suspension and investigation of the CJN and the other Supreme Court Justices involved in the above referenced cases.”
The APC members also called on the international community to place visa ban on the CJN and the Justices involved in the controversial cases for working to undermine democracy in Nigeria.
They insisted that the judgements have set bad precedent and gravely breached the provisions of Section 115(D) of the Electoral Act 2022, especially in the case of Lawan and Akpabio.
“The whole world is still waiting to know how the Supreme Court came about its ruling making Ahmad Lawan and Godwill Akpabio candidates when it is clear they were both presidential aspirants under the APC.
“The Electoral Act 2022 is very clear that an aspirant cannot contest for two different positions in one election cycle.
“Section 115 (D) of the Act stipulates that ‘a person who signs a nomination paper or result form as a candidate in more than one constituency at the same election commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum term of imprisonment for two years.’
“We appeal to international community to help save democracy in Nigeria by ensuring that the CJN and all justices involved in the recent ruling on Lawan and Akpabio are placed on visa ban,” he stated.
Popular Nigerian actress and producer, Toyin Abraham, has reacted to a viral obituary video shared on social media over her support for All Progressive Congress, APC, presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the coming 2023 general election.
The actress posted screenshots of the obituary from YouTube via her Instagram account on Friday, 10th February 2023.
Toyin Abraham said that death was not her portion and that everyone should be allowed to make decisions.
She restated her support for the presidential candidate of the APC.
She wrote, “It is no more democracy if you don’t allow people to make their decisions freely
.
“Everyone cannot see things from your own angle only.
“Bullying, harassing, and threatening people’s life because they disagree with you on personal choice shouldn’t be encouraged at all.
“Why would anyone put this out there? Why? Why should anyone wish others bad because they made a different choice? Why? Death is not my portion in Jesus name.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has condemned the attack on supporters of his party in Lagos State on saturday.
It was reported that Suspected hoodlums attacked LP’s supporters said to be on their way to the venue of the party’s presidential campaign rally.
Reacting to the development, Obi via his verified Instagram handle on Saturday, condemned the attack, saying that such political opposition attacks will not be tolerated.
He said, “I received reports that 4 members of the Obidient Family were attacked and injured in Lagos ahead of today’s rally. That incident, premeditated or not, is deeply troubling. Such act stands vehemently condemned.
“We cannot continue to tolerate attacks on members of the political opposition, often fuelled by the incendiary rhetorics of political leaders. The new Nigeria that we seek is one founded on peace and justice, and the respect for the rule of law.
“I call on the Lagos State security agencies to fish out those responsible for the attacks.
Operatives of the Ogun State police command have arrested three suspects in connection with the murder of former CBN staff, Kehinde Fatinoye, his wife Bukola and their only son, Oreoluwa Fatinoye, at their residence in the Ibara area of Abeokuta, Ogun State on December 31, 2022.
A statement released by the spokesperson of the state police command, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, says the suspects, Lekan Adekanbi a.k.a Koroba, Ahmed Odetola a.k.a Akamo and Waheed Adeniji a.k.a Koffi, were all arrested following painstaking intelligence-based investigation embarked upon by men of the Command.
”Upon the report of the dastardly act, the Commissioner of Police directed the Homicide section of the State criminal investigation Department to take over the case and ensure that the culprits were brought to justice.
In the course of investigation, one Lekan Adekanbi, a driver to the deceased family, was arrested based on circumstantial evidence, while investigation continues.
The arrested suspect Lekan Adekanbi suddenly collapsed in the cell on the 2nd of January 2023, and he was rushed to the hospital for medical care. But while in the hospital receiving treatment, he suddenly jumped from the bed and escaped through the fence of the hospital.
His escape further confirmed the police suspicion of his involvement in the case. There and then, the Commissioner of Police ordered the State anti kidnapping unit to join forces with the homicide unit in order to get the escaped driver and his accomplices arrested.
The two teams, in compliance with the CP?s directive, embarked on technical and intelligence driven investigation and traced the movement of the suspect to his elder brother in Iseyin, Oyo State, but he had left the place before the arrival of the police.
The teams further intensified their efforts which yielded positive results, when Lekan Adekanbi was apprehended in his hideout somewhere in Abeokuta on the 21st of January 2023.”
Nigeria remains a destination for the strongest individuals on earth because our nature is very resistant to oppression, exploitation and dehumanization. Resistance is the noblest way to describe our plight in the hands of foreigners, brothers and strangers in a leadership capacity. Every reasonable person wants to escape from this society because we’ve seen electricity turned to candles, we sell maize to buy cornflakes just as we have rivers of oil without oil refineries.
Now, we are denied our sweat by buying money with money. We struggle for everything! We are now struggling to have access to our money in this capitalistic-oriented democracy without regard to humanity and human dignity. Yes, the federal government has extended the deadline for the new Naira note more than once following the announcement on the 28th of October 2022. However, we should be reminded that the masses shall bear the burden; hunger, poverty and untimely death. People are dying.
Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, NBS equally reported last December that the country’s economic situation is a recipe for the crisis, and home to over 133 million multidimensionally poor people. Yet, the government finds it convenient to institutionalize policies without public opinion and proper consultation.
The Governor of the Central Bank must have taken these necessary measures to enhance the welfare of the people, by curbing corruption. The dehumanizing effects of this Naira-saga measure on the poor man are pathetic videos from the naked man in the bank and the bundles of money in the hands of bandits in the forest. If people in the wilderness, not bush, have access to new Naira notes but people in the cities are going to banks with cooking gas, mattress and a small travel bag.
The nobility of the Naira redesign must be judged in reference to the political adventure of the Governor of Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, who is equally the longest serving in Nigerian history since 1999.
Fuel is very scarce that people die, fight and sleep at the filling station in an oil- producing country. Is this not an infringement on our freedom of movement at the eve of general election? The petroleum minister and all stakeholders hold posterity detailed explanations, or truth reveals itself with the course of time.
The ‘smiling’ in the language of Fela Kuti’s ‘Shuffering and Smiling’ needs to be reevaluated; what is the nature of the suffering man’s smile? The degree of suffering should be used as a measure to know the nature of such provocative smile. In matter where tears and laughter fail, it is such a smile that helps fill the gap. And that gap processes the power of life and death, sanity and madness. A kind of smile that preceded the nakedness and madness displayed in different banking halls across the country.
Fuel and naira saga reflects that corruption is the thread that holds the fabric of our existences; every channel these two commodities pass through has a different woeful tale to tell. A tale that questions logic, and living in a society where everyone is not a saint but nobody is dirty. Then, we are doomed. We won’t jeopardize our future with protest that costs lives, and how strong are we to remain poor and vote for our candidate of will? We’ve been so hungry for long that few days hunger shall have no voice in our decision for the next four (4) golden years.
The institutionalization of hunger and poverty has made use known the diferrence between wellbeing and welfare, and also demonstrated that our leaders are either deaf or strangers, but definitely not our brothers.
The gap between the rich and the poor is unreasonably wide, and this is one of the dangers to our human dignitaries. We are pleading for drastic measures that respect our human dignity in the face of our wellbeing, and hopeful of having polling units without armour tanks and guns, We are humans, and not beasts.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu introduces charges free POS as a possible solution to Naira Notes scarcity.
According to the report, the establishment of mobile POS services was carried out as result of the prevailing economic hardship occasioned by the scarcity of Naira due to the money redesign of Central Bank
Since the introduction of the policy, Nigerians continue to wallow in pains and suffering due to the inability of the funds for the people
The All Progressives Congress APC in Oyo state has called on Governor Seyi Makinde to either refund the whopping sum of N5.2billion which his administration purportedly spent on the remodeling of the Lekan Salami Stadium in Ibadan or risk being dragged to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to account for the alleged fraud involved in the award and execution of the ‘failed project’.
This latest reaction from Oyo APC, apparently, came against the backdrop of the reports credited to the Interim Management Committee (IMC) which described the soccer pitch of the Adamasingba Stadium (the home ground of the Shooting Stars Sports Club) as falling below standard and unplayable. IMC is the body set up by the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) to oversee the nation’s elite soccer league.
In a statement issued on Wednesday and made available to journalists in Ibadan by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, Oyo APC berated Gov. Makinde over his refusal to explain to the world the details of all the stadiums and sport facilities he has used the sum of N5.2b to fix since he claimed that the said amount was not expended on only Lekan Salami Stadium, Ibadan.
“Most of our people who visited the Stadium in Adamasingba to watch the recent home matches of our darling team (3SC) against El-Kanemi Warriors and Nasarawa United respectively had given an unpleasant report about the whole stadium facility particularly the soccer pitch which has just been confirmed as an eyesore by the IMC. This is against the impression which the Makinde administration had created through the mass media.
“It is recalled that the lid was first blown open on the very day the purportedly remodeled stadium was being recommissioned and the event attracted disgrace to Gov. Makinde and the good people of the state instead of the anticipated applause. It happened that the whole place became waterlogged and messy as a result of a minor downpour. What happened on that day should have made Gov. Makinde throw in the towel but he only followed it up another media campaign equating the substandard stadium facility with those of Maracana, Emirates and Nou Camp in Brazil, England and Spain respectively.
“Meanwhile, the revelation coming from IMC about the sordid job done on Adamasingba Stadium did not come to us as a surprise since we had established that the present PDP administration of Gov. Makinde is synonymous with fraudulent contract awards and poor delivery. This is a government that would sponsor some cronies to register some companies with the Corporate Affairs Commission today with a view to giving the emergency construction outfits tomorrow without any recourse to Due Process law.
“Sad enough, we also have it on good authority that the orchestrated 5 kilometre road contract award imposed on each of the 33 Local Government Council chairmen totalling 165 kilometres across the state has been given out to the same fake company being used to siphon the resources of the state since 2019. The arrangement this time is for the proxies behind the company to attend to some street roads across Ibadan at random after collecting the full sum for the inflated 165Km road contract and then disappear.” Oyo APC lamented.
Attorney general of Nigeria Abubakar Malami is a public enemy in the footsteps of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, the Bola Tinubu presidential campaign says.
In a tweet, the campaign’s spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, stated that Mr Malami is also a “public enemy like Emefiele.”
Mr Onanuga was reacting to the preliminary objection filed by the justice minister through his lawyers Mahmud Magaji and Tijanni Gazali, asking the Supreme Court of Nigeria to dismiss the suit filed by three northern governors to stop the implementation of the CBN’s naira redesign policy.
Governors Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara had dragged the federal government and the CBN before the apex court seeking to stall the implementation of the naira redesign policy on the grounds that the notice timeline was short and did not fulfil the reasonable notice obligation imposed by law.
The governors also accused the presidency of not doing enough to facilitate the transition of the notes.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime has argued that the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
The AGF also contended that the “plaintiffs have equally not shown the reasonable cause of action against the defendant.”
Some youths in Abuja on Wednesday protested the exparte order of the Supreme Court temporarily halting the move by the Federal Government to ban the use of the old naira notes beyond February 10, 2023.
The protesters, who converged on the headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, passed a vote of confidence in the CBN urging them not to back down.
The protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as, ‘Justice Ariwoola, resist plot to use our Supreme Court undermine democracy,’ accused the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, of allegedly working for the interest of the All Progressives Congress, its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu and G5 governors.
