Author: Lawal AbdulSalam Olawale

The General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nuhu Toro, has provided an update on the condition of the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, following his arrest in Imo State on Wednesday.

Channels Television reported that Ajaero was arrested in Owerri, the capital of Imo State on Wednesday during a protest by workers in Imo State over an alleged “serial and habitual abuse and violation” of their rights by the state government.

According to the police, Ajeoro was taken into custody for his protection, but the NLC said he was brutalised after his arrest.

A viral video later showed Ajaero with visible injuries on his face as he was being transported to a hospital in Owerri after his release from detention.

Ajaero is now responding well to treatment,” Toro said while giving an update in a live appearance on Channels Television’s Lunchtime Politics on Thursday.

Toro said the NLC leader and the other leaders with him are receiving and responding to adequate treatment.

“They are still under treatment and I am happy to inform you that they are responding to treatment. The chairperson of RTEAN, an affiliate of the TUC, was also attacked,” he said.

“His phones were taken away by the thugs, and his money was carted away. They are recovering; they are receiving treatment in the hospital.”

He explained that the attack was a response to a memorandum signed by the NLC, TUC, and the Imo State government on May 7.

“The reason why we went to Imo is that the state government under the leadership of Senator Hope Uzozinma refused to honour a memorandum we signed.

“The Governor refused to honour gentleman understanding to set up a committee,” he said

The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, EEDC, has blamed the power outage in Imo State on industrial action by workers

Emeka Ezeh, head of Corporate Communications, EEDC, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.

He explained that the electricity workers union shut down Egbu Transmission Station causing darkness in the state.

The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company PLC (EEDC) wishes to inform her esteemed customers in Imo State that the loss of supply currently being experienced is as a result of the industrial action by the organised labour union in Imo State.

“This led to the union shutting down our source of supply at Egbu Transmission Station, leaving us with no energy to distribute to our customers.

“As a result of this development, the whole of Imo State is without electricity supply.

We appreciate the inconveniences this situation must have caused our customers, and we hope that the issue will be resolved soon.

“Be assured that we are on standby to restore supply once the industrial action is called off.

“EEDC is committed to improving on its processes and delivering improved services to her esteemed customers,” the statement said.

The development comes barely 24 hours after workers in the state staged a protest on Wednesday.

The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, on Thursday, approved the appointment of members of non-statutory boards, as well as chairmen, secretaries and members of Local Government Education Boards, totaling 309.

A statement signed by the spokesperson for the governor, Olawale Rasheed, said the appointments take immediate effect.

The appointees on the board include members of the governing board of all state-owned tertiary institutions, state Christian and Muslim Pilgrims Boards, state Internal Revenue Service and Council for Art and Culture, among others.

Others are members of the state Universal Basic Education Board, Local Government Service Commission Board, while people were appointed to the LG Education Boards for each of the 30 LGAs and area offices in the state.

Charging the new appointees to strictly observe the rule of law, due process and procurement laws in all their doings, Adeleke also implored them to work for the development of the State.

Those appointed to serve as members of the governing council of the Osun State University are Gbadeshin Lawal, Prof. David Oladeji, Tunji Omole, Olawale Oludayo, Hassan Adegoke, Prof. Aworemi and Dr. Kamoru Kadiri.

For the University of Ilesa, the members are Wale Olunloye, Prof. Rotimi Tayo, Prof. Adejumoke Adefisoye-Adelowo, Dr. Adetunji Dare, Prof. Emmanuel Akande; while Sunday Ogundiji, Adesoye Idowu, Hammed Adedoyin, Dr. David Ogunsade, Gbenga Olakolu, Sunday Adebiyi, Ademola Opadola and Brig. Gen. Derin Awodele will serve as the Board members of the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree

Board members of Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke are Sikiru Adeleke, Sola Oni, Michael Aderibigbe, Taiwo Aiyepola, Adeyela Bashiru, Raimi Medina, Liadi Gbadamosi and Bimbo Olukitibi; while Durosomo Ademola, Serifat Bakare, Musiliyu Adeyemi, Isiaq Olaniyan, Dare Ajimotokin, Esan Lawal, Lekan Obisakin and Kamo Adekunle will serve as board members of the College of Education, Ila.

Following public outcry over the allocation of N5.095 billion for the purchase of a presidential yacht in the 2023 supplementary budget, the House of Representatives, on Thursday, said it had scrapped the budgetary allocation.

Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Abubakar Bichi, disclosed this in an interview with journalists on Thursday. He said the budgetary allocation for student loans was also increased from five billion to N10 billion.

He said the committee also increased the budgetary allocation of Ministry of Defence from N 476 billion to N546 billion.

Bichi also disclosed that the minimum wage for workers was considered and approved for onward transmission to the executive. He promised proper legislative oversight to ensure 100 per cent implementation.

The yacht budget

In the supplementary budget sent to the National Assembly by the President, the Federal Government had allocated N5 billion to purchase a presidential yacht.

The proposed sum was under the capital expenditure of the Nigerian Navy’s budget.

According to the breakdown, the Navy will require N62.8 billion for its operations, with recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure gulping N20.4 billion and N42.3 billion, respectively

But Bichi said the five billion naira for the presidential yacht has been yanked off from the budget.

He said: “Actually We have submitted our reports to the House and after careful consideration, the House has approved our submissions and the breakdown is as follows:

As you know, the budget is about N2.1 trillion and the Ministry of Defence has about N456bn but currently the Ministry of Defence has the largest share because we know how important our security is. As you are aware, we had interactions with them yesterday. Currently, we have increased their budget from N456 billion to N546,209,099,671 billion.

For Police formation and command, we gave them N50bn while the FCT has about N100bn. You know FCT is very important to us, so we want to make sure that FCT can compete with any state in the world. That is why we gave them N100bn.

“On the Office of National Security, their initial budget was N27bn but currently we have increased it to N50bn. For the state house, their initial budget was N28bn and we maintained that.

“On Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, you know how important that ministry is. We maintained their initial figure of N200bn as well. For the Ministry of Housing, you know we have a serious housing deficit in the country and Mr President’s agenda, he wants to build as much as he can, so we have approved N100bn for housing.

“Service-wide votes initially was N615 but currently we reduced to N515bn.

INEC budget

“For INEC, initially their budget was N18bn, and yesterday we had an interaction with the INEC Chairman and he convinced us with his submissions and we maintained their N18bn.

“So far, we have approved N2,176,791,286,33. We will continue to support the government so we can deliver democracy.

On the presidential yacht, Bichi said: “Actually, as far we are concerned, we don’t have that anymore. We have increased the student loan.

“Initially, student loan was N5bn in the budget but we have increased it by N5bn so that our students can access that facility in order for them to go to school. We don’t have the yacht anymore in budget.”

He assured that lawmakers would ensure adequate oversight over the way the funds are spent.

He added: “Our members, especially those standing committees, oversight those projects and ensure the money is used judiciously. From now till three months time, we are going to call them and ask them what they have done with the money.”

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, has ordered that sting operations at night be stopped in all the commission’s commands.

Olukoyede gave the directive in Abuja on Wednesday, in reaction to the arrest of 69 suspected internet fraudsters in Ile-Ife, Osun State, by operatives of the Ibadan zonal command of the EFCC.

The spokesperson for the anti-graft agency, Dele Oyewale made the development known in a statement obtained by our correspondent.

Oyewale said, “The chairman gave the directive in Abuja on Wednesday, November 1, 2023 in reaction to the arrest of 69 suspected internet fraudsters in Ile-Ife, Osun State, by operatives of the Ibadan zonal command of the commission.

“Already, many of the suspects duly profiled by the command have been released, while profiling of suspects yet unreleased will be completed, without further delay.

“The commission wishes to assure the public that it will not relent in its adherence to the rule of law, in the exercise of its mandate.”

Students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, stormed the Ibadan zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, protesting the arrest of their students

The anti-graft agency operatives raided two off-campus hostels, arresting over 70 students in the process.

The students’ Union leadership led other students to occupy the commission office in a bid to secure the release of the student.

Akinremi Abass, the Students Union President, said the students would not leave the premises of the commission if the arrested students were not released

A coalition of civil society groups under the aegis of United Action Front of Civil Society has condemned Wednesday’s arrest of the President, of Nigeria Labour Congress NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero, warning that nothing untoward must happen to him in custody.

Head, National Coordinating Secretariat, United Action Front of Civil Society of Nigeria, Olawale ‘Veteran Che’ Okunniyi gave the warning in a State of the Nation address issued in Abuja.

He said, “Hope Uzodinma, the Governor of Imo State today shot himself in the leg as anticipated, and will never know rest” for ordering the arrest of the NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, the leader of the entire workforce and masses of Nigeria and will never know rest again.

By Omeiza Ajayi

A coalition of civil society groups under the aegis of United Action Front of Civil Society has condemned Wednesday’s arrest of the President, of Nigeria Labour Congress NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero, warning that nothing untoward must happen to him in custody.

Head, National Coordinating Secretariat, United Action Front of Civil Society of Nigeria, Olawale ‘Veteran Che’ Okunniyi gave the warning in a State of the Nation address issued in Abuja.

He said, “Hope Uzodinma, the Governor of Imo State today shot himself in the leg as anticipated, and will never know rest” for ordering the arrest of the NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, the leader of the entire workforce and masses of Nigeria and will never know rest again.

“It will therefore be in the interest of the Governor of Imo State that nothing happens to Ajaero in his illegal custody to avoid total shut down of Abuja and Nigeria as the Nigerian people are being pushed by those in power towards mass action”.

On the recent Supreme Court judgment, which affirmed President Bola Tinubu as president, the coalition said as rightly noted by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, the court “ended up legitimizing illegality, including forgery, identity theft, and perjury”.

“Therefore, the United Action Front of Civil Society wishes to unequivocally assert that the Supreme Court failed to live up to the expectation of making justice count as the final arbiter; as it ended up delivering judgements spiced with verbosity and embellishment of technicalities. It is therefore highly disappointing that the Supreme Court in its judgements gave the impression that electoral fraud could be justified and endorsed within the spirit and letter of the Nigerian constitution and electoral law by simply relying on Technicalities. The United Action Front of Civil Society considers it rather curious that both the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) and the Supreme Court endorsed the flagrant flouting of electoral guidelines by INEC and the electoral heists perpetrated across the country by State Captors during the 2023 Presidential elections.

“The United Action Front of Civil Society considers it utterly worrisome that the Supreme Court which ought to be the guardian of the sanctity of the Nigerian Constitution and its Electoral Law has become the very tool for legitimizing illegality, impunity and perjury. Regrettably, the danger inherent in the decision of the Supreme Court is to the effect that future elections may be fraught with greater impunity, manipulation, banditry and violence as the faith reposed in the judiciary to freely and fairly adjudicate in election disputes has been gravely eroded.

“The United Action Front of Civil Society is therefore disturbed by the implicit reality of undermined faith of the Citizens in the judiciary, which signposts danger for the future of democracy in Nigeria. It is in that regard that we are further perturbed by the revelations made by retiring Justice Musa Dattijo Mohammad against the background of elaborate public perception, which speaks eloquently to the worrisome state of the Nigerian judiciary as reality rather than mere apprehension regarding perversion of justice in Nigeria.

“The United Action Front of Civil Society therefore calls on Nigerians to remain resolute and steadfast in the defence of democracy, which must be demonstrated through relentless commitment to the demand for justice notwithstanding political and judicial intimidation. We therefore align with the position of the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that Nigerians must choose freedom over servitude and therefore wish to reiterate his call that the judiciary must never lend itself to politicization as it is currently the norm with nearly every institution in Nigeria. More importantly, however, is the need for Nigerians to brace up for the challenges ahead which demand vigilance, mass resistance, constructive opposition and dogged commitment to the cause of genuine democracy, credible elections, rule of law and justice as the aftermath of the Supreme Court Judgement has clearly shown that Nigeria requires an urgent people’s driven constitutional political and electoral surgery to survive as a democracy.

“We wish to call on leading opposition leaders in the country such as Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Mr Peter Obi, and Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso among others to immediately rise and unite to rally opposition forces in Nigeria to resist heightening impunity and recklessness in the governance of Nigeria, especially in defence of the future of the country’s democracy as done in other advanced democracies around the world. We wish to reaffirm that unless political opposition becomes formidable, engaging and active in any country, popular governance will shrink and die, especially as the FBI begins to release the Files of the President today in far away United States of America

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It is for this reason that the United Action Front of Civil Society shall be joining hands with the newly initiated National Intervention Group, NIG to facilitate a major National Political Summit of Eminent National Leaders, Statesmen and Women as well as Social Influencers, especially among the Youths of Nigeria proposed for Tuesday, 28th November 2023 at a venue to be announced soon in Memory of Nigeria’s departed constitutional icon, Prof Ben Nwabueze, SAN, w