Crime
SERAP urges Buhari to recover ‘missing N105.7b’ from MDAs for funding of varsities
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently recover “missing N105.7 billion” of public funds from ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to fund the Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions, improve welfare of staff members and ensure the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) returns to class without further delay.
The group also implored the Nigerian leader to redirect some of the Presidency’s budget of N3.6 billion on feeding and travels, as well as the N134 billion allocated to the National Assembly in the 2022 budget to meet lecturers’ demands.
ASUU has consistently accused government of lacking commitment to payment of academic earned allowances, poor funding of universities, continued implementation of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System and alleged refusal to adopt the Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), among others.
In the letter dated July 2, 2022 and signed by its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP said meeting the ASUU demands would address the “persistent and widening inequality in educational opportunities and promote equal protection for poor Nigerian children.”
It pointed out that the “apparent failure by your (Buhari) government to agree with the reasonable demands by ASUU, implement the good faith agreement with the union and to satisfactorily resolve the issues has kept poor Nigerian children at home while the children of the country’s politicians attend private schools.”
The organisation argued that the “inequalities in education have a rolling effect, leading to even more and continued inequalities in the future.”
SERAP continued: “Meeting ASUU demands would also ensure protection against the harms of discrimination and educational deprivation.
“The poor treatment of Nigerian children in the country’s public tertiary institutions is inconsistent and incompatible with the Nigerian Constitution and the country’s international human rights obligations.
“Widening inequalities in the area of education bear all the more dramatic consequences, given the importance of education, as an empowering right, in giving the possibility to all to explore and realise their potential.
“Apart from being a right in itself, the right to education is also an enabling right. Education creates the ‘voice’ through which rights can be claimed and protected, and without education, people lack the capacity to achieve valuable functioning as part of the living.
“If people have access to education they can develop the skills, capacity and confidence to secure other rights. Education gives people the ability to access information, detailing the range of rights that they hold and government’s obligations.”
The Anambra State Police Command has foiled a cult initiation ceremony in Nawfia, Njikoka Local Government Area of the state.
Spokesperson for the Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, disclosed this in a statement issued on Tuesday in Awka.
According to Ikenga, the operation was carried out by police operatives around 9:30am on June 15, leading to the arrest of six suspects at the scene.
Recovered during the raid were one Jojef pump action gun, two cartridges, and a golden-coloured Lexus SUV with registration number ATN 202 AE. Other items found include two cutlasses, two scissors, a cap bearing the inscription of the Supreme Vikings Confraternity, charms, and substances suspected to be hard drugs.
“They are currently undergoing police interrogation to get more insight into their modus operandi, after which the case will be charged to court on the conclusion of the investigations,” Ikenga stated.
The police spokesperson reassured residents of the command’s unwavering commitment to fighting cultism and other related crimes across the state.
An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, on Wednesday, remanded two persons, Olaitan Fasasi and Kehinde Tobiloba in a correctional facility over alleged attempted murder.
Fasasi, 40, and Tobiloba, 26, whose addresses were not provided, are being charged with conspiracy, attempted murder and membership of a secret society.
The Magistrate, Mr L.A Owolabi, did not take the plea of the defendants for want of jurisdiction.
Owolabi directed the police to forward the case file to the Director of Public Prosecution for legal advice.
He thereafter adjourned the case until May 31 for mention.
The Prosecutor, Josephine Ikhayere, told the court that the defendants committed the offences at about 5.02p.m on Feb. 15, at Mushin, Lagos.
She said that Fasasi, Tobiloba and others now at large, attempted to commit murder by shooting at a resident, Alfred Ademola.
“They armed themselves with a locally made gun. They belong to Eiye Confraternity, a group proscribed by law,”, she said.
Ikhayere said that the offences contravened Sections 230(1) and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2012.
He said that the actions of the defendants also contravened Section 2(3)(a)(b)(c)(d) of the unlawful societies and Cultism Law of Lagos State Law.
An Area Court in Jos, on Tuesday, sentenced one Jeptha John, to three months imprisonment for stealing a Redmi mobile phone valued at N165, 000.
The judge, Shawomi Bokkos, sentenced the John after he pleaded guilty to the offence.
The judge, however, gave the convict an option to pay N20, 000 fine and N50, 000 restitution to the complainant.
Bokkos said that if the convict defaulted in paying the restitution, three months should be added to his sentence to make it six months imprisonment.
Earlier, the police prosecutor, Insp Monday Dabit, told the court that the case was reported at the B Division Police Station, Jos, on Dec. 1, 2024, by Ms Nerat Danjuma.
He said that the complainant alleged that the defendant trespassed into her house and stole her mobile phone valued at N165, 000.
The prosecutor further told the court that the offence contravened the Plateau State Penal Code, Law of Northern Nigeria.
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