A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has threatened legal action against the Department of State Services (DSS), for refusing to release the convener of the #RevolutionNow Movement, Omoyele Sowore.
On Wednesday, a federal High Court in Abuja, ordered the release of Sowore alongside Olawale Adebayo better known as “Mandate”, but the DSS did not comply with the order.
In a statement on Thursday, Falana said this is the second time the agency would ignore court order to release Sowore.
“On 8th August 2019, the Honourable Justice Taiwo Taiwo granted the application of the State Security Service to detain Mr. Omoyele Sowore for 45 days.
“Upon the expiration of the 45-day detention period the court granted Mr. Sowore bail on September 24, 2019. He met the bail conditions but the State Security Service refused to release him from custody.
“Mr. Sowore and Mandate Bakare were subsequently charged with treasonable felony, cyber stalking and money laundering on September 30, 2019. The trial judge, the Honourable Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu admitted the defendants to bail under very stringent conditions. Upon meeting the bail conditions Justice Ojukwu directed the State Security Service to release the defendants from detention.
“But in utter contempt of the orders of Justice Ojukwu the State Security Service has refused to release Messrs Sowore and Bakare from custody.
“Since the State Security Service is not above the law of the land we shall embark on appropriate legal measures to ensure compliance with the court orders,” the statement read.
The names of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s aides whose sack were reportedly approved by President Buhari on Tuesday November 5, have been released.
Babajide, grandson of late statesman and grandfather of Osinbajo’s wife, Obafemi Awolowo and Jibola Ajayi, daughter of former governor of Oyo state Abiola Ajimobi, were among the 35 sacked aides of the Vice President.
See the full list below;
Jibola Ajayi – special adviser, legal
Lanre Osinbona – senior special assistant, ICT
Imeh Okon – senior special assistant, Infrastructure
Jide Awolowo – special adviser, oil and gas
Lilian Idiaghe- special adviser, research, legal and compliance
Arukino Umukoro – special adviser, Niger Delta
Bala Liman Mohammed – senior special assistant, Economy
Edobor Iyamu – senior special assistant, Niger Delta
Dolapo Bright – senior special assistant, agro allied value chain
Toyosi Onaolapo special adviser, community engagement
Gambo Manzo – special adviser, political
Bisi Ogungbemi – special adviser, political matters
Edirin Akemu – senior special assistant, industry, trade & investment
Akin Soetan senior technical assistant, economic matters
Aondaver Kuttuh – technical assistant, rule of law
Ife Adebayo – special adviser, innovation
Yussuf Ali – special adviser, power regulations
Tola Asekun – senior special assistant, National Boundary Commission
Morakinyo Beckley – special adviser, off grid power
Yosola Akinbi – senior special assistant, NEC
Tochi Nwachukwu – special adviser, power privatisation
Bode Gbore – senior special assistant, political
Abdulrahman Baffa Yola special adviser, political
Kolade Sofola – special adviser, infrastructure
Ebi Awosika – senior technical assistant, community engagement
Muyiwa Abiodun – senior special assistant, power
Forri Samson – Banu special adviser, entrepreneurship
Bege Bala – special adviser, BPE
Feyishayo Aina – senior special assistant, community engagement
Halima Bawa – special adviser, community engagement
Nkechi Chukwueke – special adviser, community engagement
Ilsa Essien – special adviser, media
The Nigerian government has declared Monday, November 11, a public holiday to mark the Eid-ul-Mawlid celebration.
This is contained in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday by the interior ministry’s spokesperson, Mohammed Manga.
The celebration is held by Muslims to mark the birthday of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, made the declaration on behalf of the federal government.
He congratulated Muslims on the occasion and enjoined them to live within the virtues and teachings of Prophet Muhammad which are; love, courage and perseverance.
“Doing so would guarantee peace and security in the country,” he said.
Mr Aregbesola expressed confidence that the challenges confronting Nigeria at the moment will soon be over. He called on Nigerians to remain focused and determined.
“With love, commitment, self-sacrifice, patience and patriotism, we will certainly, build a greater Nigeria,” he said.
He wishes Nigerians a happy and peaceful celebration.
Governor Nyesom Wike has prayed Federal Government (FG) to forgive Rivers state people for any wrong they did to warrant perceived federal neglect currently being suffered by the state.
Wike spoke on Tuesday in Port Harcourt during maiden delivery of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to downstream investor, Stockgap Terminal by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Bonny.
Highlighting some the vexed issues of federal neglect, the Governor said, “Because it’s Rivers, FG has refused funding the Bodo-Bonny Highway even when NLNG has agreed to borne 50% of the (N120Billion) project cost.
“Even if Rivers has done anything wrong, please we are begging, forgive us, but I don’t think we have done anything wrong as Rivers people. Rivers is the better place to invest. We continue to support every investment brought here and the gratitude we get is that key investors are embracing our confidence to invest here why some people are de-marketing the state.”
Declining earlier promise to dredge the Bonny channels for ease of vessel movements, Wike said, “What is the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) doing? Rivers government should now be the one to dredge the channels and NPA is busy collecting levies and revenues from marine operators?
“Why should that be? You don’t expect me to dredge waterways for NPA to be collecting all the money. You (FG) are building a new Port in Lagos, but those in Rivers you rendered idle, grounded with no development attention.”
Wike pledged to upgrade the road leading to the Stock pad Terminal where Rivers and neighbouring states can now get closer and cheaper access to LPG instead of trucking from Lagos before now, the governor, however, cautioned management of the firm to carry the host Rumuolumeni along.
“What we won’t condone about investors investing in Rivers is denying our people deserved employment quota. You must ensure that we get the right quota of our people to work here and give adequate training to them to be better placed to excel in the industry”, Wike told management of the company.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Babajide Omoworare, Wednesday said President Muhammadu Buhari did not relegate Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo by travelling without transmitting a letter to the National Assembly to empower the vice president to act in his absence.
Omoworare stated this while briefing newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday.
Buhari had, on November 2, 2019, embarked on a private visit to London and he is expected to return to Nigeria on November 17.
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, had, on Tuesday, said that the President could “rule from anywhere.”
Omoworare backed Oshiomhole yesterday, saying contrary to worries by some individuals and groups, the president had not, in any way, undermined or relegated the office of the vice president.
“He has no reason to do so. I don’t think there is any way or manner that the office of the Vice President has been relegated. The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can work from anywhere he is in the world,” the presidential aide stated.
The presidential aide insisted that the only case where people could raise issues would be if the president falls ill and is unable to transmit his absence to the National Assembly.
According to him, “The only celebrated case was that of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who was ill and could not transmit any letter to the National Assembly. The National Assembly had to work round the situation by ensuring that executive powers go to the vice president.’’
He said the present circumstance was different from the Yar’Adua era and that Buhari did not breach any law by not transmitting a letter to the National Assembly to enable the Osinbajo exercise executive powers while on his ongoing private trip to London.
The Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari was in the news on Tuesday. He was reported to have travelled to London to have President Muhammadu Buhari sign an Act recently passed into Law by the National Assembly. That, in my opinion, was avoidable and was definitely not necessary.
The President can do better. He was sold to Nigerians and received by most because he was supposedly honest and honourable. That can be challenged now. And evidently so. Most things the President has been all about have been making the common man, on whose back he rode to become President, think he is as they said he was when he was military Head of State. Some of us haven’t been born then, but we have an idea already.
The President was known to always handover the mantle of the State to the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, on this occasion, staying away from the Seat of Power for more than a week, he however chose to hold on to power, preferring national issues run through his Chief of Staff. That’s not what The Law says.
Had Buhari handed over the affairs of State to the Vice-President, the unnecessary expenses on the bills of taxpayers would have been avoided. Could there truly really be an issue in the Villa? Is the Vice-President been ‘humbled’? What’s true about Aso Rock?
The Presidency is sending the wrong message. Nigeria is at a point where every aspect of The Law has to made to function, either we like it or not. To lead is the Presidency. If the Presidency keeps going against the constitution just to settle political scores, it will enbolden the citizens to do worse. Like it or not, a leader represents a country. If we are perceived as corrupt and ill-mannered, President Muhammadu Buhari is also corrupt and ill-mannered. That’s what he doesn’t know.
If President Muhammadu Buhari is anywhere near the man I imagined him to be before I lawyered for him pre-election in 2015, Abba Kyari has no business in the Aso Rock. He should be having his days in court for corruption charges or be behind bars already.
Nigeria comes first. No one is greater than the country. Not even the President. This Abba Kyari’s London trip was avoidable. Why have a Vice-President when resources that could be channelled to better use is spent financing a trip his office was established by The Law to not make happen?
Until we, as a people, decide to consciously monitor and put our leaders in check and on their toes, we may have other countries to leave to our dearly beloved would-be children. Nigeria would be long gone.
Bill to increase VAT in Nigeria passes second reading in Senate
An Executive bill forwarded to the National Assembly seeking to make changes in the Nigerian tax and fiscal law scaled second reading at the upper chamber on Wednesday.
Senators however protested the non-inclusion of details of the bill, which seeks among others, raising the current Value Added Tax from five per cent to 7.5 per cent.
The lawmakers said the absence of the bill details would not enable them to make informed contributions.
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, however insisted that the bill be discussed without the details made available to senators.
Senators Yaroe Binus (Adamawa South) and Betty Apiafi (Rivers West) separately raised points of order, drawing the attention of the President of the Senate to the issue.
Lawan ruled both of them out of order and maintained that the details of the bill would only be made available at the committee level.
Lawan said, “To handle that, we have already asked that our secretariat distributes all the Acts that we want to amend and I want to urge the committee to work very assiduously.
“This should not be compromised at all. Our colleagues who raised the issue did so because they wanted to contribute.
“I think what we have done is still within our tradition and our convention of debating the general principles.
“The issue of revenue in Nigeria today is the major issue affecting our economy.
“The economy of this country like most developing economies depends on public expenditure and until we are able to get it, collate them efficiently and effectively we will not be able to fund public expenditure well.
“This bill will help in generating and collecting this kind of revenue.”
Leading the debate on the bill, the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, said the bill sought to promote fiscal equity by mitigating instances of regressive taxation; reforming domestic laws to align with global best practices; and introducing tax incentives for investments in infrastructure and capital markets.
A Lagos Division of the Federal High Court on Tuesday ordered the suspension of the military exercise tagged Operation Positive Identification which the Nigerian Army said it would begin this month across the country.
A human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, had on October 25 filed a suit against the Nigerian Army, the Chief of Army Staff, and the Attorney-General of the Federation over the exercise.
Mr Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, asked the court to declare the operation scheduled for November 1 to December 23 as unconstitutional, illegal, null and void.
At the hearing of the matter on Tuesday, the Nigerian Army and the Chief of Army Staff who were listed as 1st and 2nd respondents in the matter had no legal representation. But Mr Falana informed the court that they were duly served and that he had spoken with their counsel on a probable date to commence substantial hearing of the matter.
The Attorney-General was represented by Fiyinfoluwa Sobowale from the Ministry of Justice.
Seeking an adjournment, Mr Sobowale said they would be applying for a suitable date to enable them properly respond to the issues.
Mr Falana, however, insisted on the closest date possible, arguing that the case was time-bound and there would be no point in the case if the parties continued with their actions while the matter is yet to be heard in court.
He stressed that the only way the date suggested by Mr Sobowale would be acceptable is if the ministry agreed to ensure that the status quo is maintained.
Agreeing with Mr Falana, the judge, Rilwan Aikawa, said that due to the nature of the case, a delay would reduce the case to a mere academic exercise.
Delivering his ruling, Mr Aikawa said ” in view of the agreement between counsel, I hereby order the 1st and 2nd defendants to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the case.”
He also adjourned the matter to November 18 for the substantive hearing of the matter.
‘Intelligence-led exercise’
The Nigerian army initially began Operation Positive Identification in the north-east last September to check fleeing Boko Haram and ISWAP members in the region.
The military later announced it would extend the exercise nationwide, prompting Mr Falana to approach the court.
Last week, the chief of army staff, Tukur Buratai, while defending the army’s decision before a House of Representatives committee said the exercise would focus on intelligence rather than deployment of troops or mounting roadblocks across the country.
In his suit against the army, Mr Falana argued that the operation violates his right and that of other Nigerian citizens to liberty, “as encapsulated in Section 35 respectively of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as Amended and Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, (Cap A10) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
He also argued that the respondents have no constitutional authority to act in the proposed manner. “Neither the Constitution nor the Armed Forces Act Cap A20 LFN, 2004 has empowered the Nigeria Army to arrest any citizen who is not subject to service law.”
“By virtue of Section 215 (3) of the Constitution, the Nigeria Police Force ‘has the exclusive power to maintain law and order and secure public safety and public order in the country’ and not the army.”
He further argued that by section 217(1) of the Constitution, the Nigerian President could only deploy the armed forces for the suppression of insurrection and acting in aid of civil authorities to restore law and order.
“There is no insurrection in every part of the country which the Nigeria police cannot contain to warrant the deployment of armed troops all over the country from November 1, 2019 to December 23, 2019.
“The 1st respondent (the Nigerian Army) under the leadership of the 2nd respondent is not empowered to take over police duties and the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces lacks the power to deploy members of the armed forces in the maintenance of internal security in any part of the country by virtue of Section 217 (a) (b) and (c) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.”
President Buhari Appoints SA On Finance And Economy
President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Mrs Sarah Omotunde-Alade, as Special Adviser on Finance and the Economy, the Presidency has said.
The office is domiciled in the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
“Dr Alade, who holds BSc (Economics) and PhD in Management Science (Operations Research), retired from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as Deputy Governor in 2017 after spending 23 years in the apex bank.
“She had also acted briefly in 2014 as the CBN Governor”, a State House statement by Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, said on Tuesday.
The leader of God’s Crown Chapel, Ghana, Prophet Reindolph Oduro Gyebi has predicted untimely death in the Nigerian music industry.
In a viral video, the prophet called out names such as Psquare, DJ Spinal, DJ Blaze and DJ Perez, asking them to pray against assassination.
He said that God told him that some popular Nigerians will be assassinated.
According to him, “And I asked God what is this? And God said there is an attack coming after the music industry in Nigeria.
“And I saw some popular people that were being assassinated in the music industry of the Nigerians.
“With all due respect as the voice of God and the mouth-piece of the lord, this message needs to be carried to them and they have to be fortified in their prayer.
“In the music industry of Nigeria, there’s a wind that is blowing demonically entering into the music industry.
“Some of them are the bread-winners of their families, some of them will one day become transformers of peoples’ lives and we have to pray and preserve their lives.
“I saw a list, to be honest with you, I saw a list, on the list I saw, I cannot mention all the names but I’m urging them to pray as a prophet of God with the eyes of an eagle that travels.
“I saw a clear vision. If there’s any person called DJ Perez, DJ Spinal, DJ Blaze and others I pray for their lives. I pray for their destinies. The PSquares and whatever. I don’t know their names but I’m standing as a voice.”
