An assistant Director of the National Biotechnology Development Agency, Christopher Orji, has allegedly committed suicide in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
He was, until his death, the coordinator of the agency’s Bioresource Centre in the Langtang Local Government Area of Plateau State.
According to a report by Daily Trust, the lifeless body of the deceased was found dangling with a rope tied to a ceiling fan at his residence in the Federal Housing Authority Estate, Lugbe, Abuja, at about 4pm on August 30.
Police homicide detectives were said to have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death.
It was further learnt that the deceased had been invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to report at its Abuja office on the day he was found dead.
However, one of the staff of the agency, who pleaded anonymity, said Orji could not have killed himself as no suicide note was found at his residence.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has said it does not award “preferential cut-off marks” to students who sit the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination from the northern part of the country.
The board also said the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, was wrong in saying that UTME candidates of northern extraction enjoyed special privileges or lower cut-off marks not benefited by candidates in other parts of the country.
JAMB’s Head of Information and Media, Fabian Benjamin, said this in an exclusive interview with The PUNCH on Tuesday in reaction to the governor’s comment on Monday.
El-Rufai, on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily breakfast programme on Monday, said students from the North should not be awarded lower cut-off marks, but should be made to compete with their counterparts from other parts of the country for them to be competitive.
But Benjamin said JAMB had not been setting the minimum scores for schools since its inception in 1978 as a government agency saddled with the responsibility of “conducting matriculation examinations for entry into all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in the country and to place suitably qualified candidates in the available places in these institutions.”
The JAMB spokesman said, “We don’t give preferential or differential cut-off marks to candidates. Candidates are admitted on the scores as defined by institutions. As for the UTME, they sit for the examination and it is what they obtain that is the basis for their selection after the policy meeting has authorised the commencement of admission.
“There are no preferential cut-off marks for anybody. What people refer to as the cut-off mark is the minimum score and each institution sets its own minimum score; it is a function of performance in the UTME for the year, subscription to programmes and institutions that is how many candidates have applied to the institutions or for the programmes. These are what push the minimum score either up or down for institutions or programmes.
“The determining factor is the subscription to a particular programme or school. If the subscription is very low, technically, it will affect the minimum score for the programme.”
Tonto Dikeh, a Nigerian actress, said she would have killed her former husband, Olakunle Churchill, with ‘rat poison’ if they were not divorced.
Dikeh has been in a protracted feud with Churchill since they ended their short-lived marriage, a union that has birthed numerous allegations and repeated counterclaims.
In a leaked audio exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters and confirmed by different sources, the Nollywood actress said she burnt her former husband’s clothes on several occasions.
She said, “I dealt with him, if Churchill slap me once, I slap him ten times before the second slap landed. He didn’t know what was hitting him. If I see any bruise on my body, I’m burning his whole clothes and you know he likes designer (sic).
“I’ll burn down the whole cloth, burn down everything. In fact, there was a day I locked him outside, took his things outside. All his clothes with box outside my house, I snapped it and sent to all his family. I say tell your son to come and pick his properties. His mother started begging me.
“When my father heard, he said, ‘You are a mad woman, you mean you locked a man outside the house and his family members were begging you like this’. I say, ‘Daddy, you won’t understand’. If I’m still with Churchill till today, Churchill would have been dead. I will give him rat poison, simple as that, and I won’t feel bad nor guilty. I will walk away like a widow because it’s better that I became a widow than all these kind of things.”
Churchill had in 2020 filed a N500 million suit against Dikeh after she made some claims about him, which she said had prompted their divorce.
In 2019, Churchill also threatened legal action against the actress, petitioning the Inspector General of Police over her “illegal sale” of his N22 million Toyota Prada SUV.
Dikeh and Churchill got married in 2015 and the union was blessed with a son.
They, however, called it quits in 2017, following a series of heated quarrels and “irreconcilable” differences.
Authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, have dismissed a senior lecturer at the Department of English, Adebayo Mosobalaje, for allegedly sexually harassing a former student of the institution.
This is coming barely two weeks after an attempt by the university management to give Mr Mosobalaje softlanding based on the recommendations of the university’s senate to the governing council was reported.
The university announced the lecturer’s dismissal through a statement issued on Tuesday afternoon by its public relations officer, Abiodun Olarewaju.
The statement reads in part: “In its avowed determination to rid the university of any form of sexual intimidation, harassment and, or coercion, the Governing Council of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, has dismissed another lecturer who was found guilty of sexual demeanor against a female student.”
The statement added that the “decision to dismiss Dr Adebayo Mosobalaje of the Department of English Language in the Faculty of Arts, was taken by the University Council at its last sitting that was held on Monday and Tuesday, September 6 and 7, 2021.”
“Having exhaustively deliberated on the report of the Joint Committee of Council and Senate, which investigated the case of sexual harassment against Dr Mosobalaje, the University Council, unambiguously declared its zero tolerance for sexual harassment in any form or guise and, accordingly, applied the appropriate university sanctions for such an offence as contained in the university regulation,” the statement added.
Backstory
This newspaper had on August 25 reported the allegations against Mr Mosobalaje, who is popularly called “Mosob” on th campus, and how the institution’s Senate had attempted to circumvent the law by recommending lesser punishment for the indicted official.
The lecturer was specifically accused of breaching the provisions of the university’s Code of Conduct “in the manner he related with a student of the department, Rachel Momoh.”
A verdict passed by the university’s joint committee of council and senate noted that “in the process of its deliberations, the Committee FOUND Dr Mosobalaje culpable and was deserving of the highest punishment of dismissal.”
But in its recommendations, many feel the committee was lenient with the lecturer as his punishment included a warning letter, and forfeiture of cumulation of half of his salaries which have been continued to be held by the university since he was suspended.
The committee also said he should not be allowed to hold any management position on the campus for the next five years.
Also, he will not be promoted for two years.
These recommendations, which formed a subject of debate at the Senate meeting of the university three weeks ago, led to a division among members in attendance.
While some endorsed the recommendations, others queried the reasons behind the committee’s alleged inconsistency.
They asked why the committee allegedly ‘bent the rule’ when it already concluded that Mr Mosobalaje’s culpability “was deserving of the highest punishment of dismissal.”
Council Overrules Senate
In exercising its power as the supreme organ of the university, the university’s governing council under the chairmanship of businessman, Oscar Udoji, overruled the senate and opted for what many described as the deserving punishment for the lecturer.
Reports on the matter which had exposed the antics of some forces within and outside the university to bend the university’s rule was cited by many as part of the reasons for the governing council’s decision.
But the university in its statement claimed it also recently launched an anti-sexual harassment policy with the wives of the governors of Osun and Ekiti States, Kafayat Oyetola and Bisi Fayemi respectively in attendance.
A member of the university’s joint committee of the council and the senate which indicted Mr Mosobalaje in its report, Oluyemisi Obilade, was the keynote speaker at the event.
More Accusers Against Mosobalaje Emerge
Meanwhile, following the report by PREMIUM TIMES, some former students of the university, who also accused the lecturer of sexually harassing them, narrated their ordeal.
One of the fresh accusers, a journalist, who craved anonymity, told our reporter how she was forced to invite her sister and mother to the school to plead with the alleged randy lecturer.
“Surprisingly, when my parents visited him, they discovered that he was somebody known to them and we thought everything was over.
“But soon after they left, he just told me that he knew my sister separately and knew my mother separately, and so he must know me separately by having an affair with me. I was shocked. I kept on getting poor grades in his course. I cried many times but I made sure he never had his way,” the victim narrated.
Another former student, who said she eventually dated Mr Mosobalaje out of fear, also narrated her ugly experience.
She said she even reported the matter to a counsellor on the campus but “I couldn’t pursue the case because everyone was telling me that I would regret my action if I did. I was very young then.”
The visitim, who also does not want to be named, said; “I was 16 years old when it happened. Dr Mosobolaje was taking literature and a few other lecturers. He noticed me and started asking me out. I didn’t even realise it was trouble yet until he found a way to include my name in his tutorial group.
“On a good day, my name shouldn’t be there because it was arranged alphabetically. My name starts with the letter “A”, so I was supposed to be in another lecturer’s group entirely. I confronted him- yes, I did. He told me he wasn’t aware that it might be a mistake somewhere.
“I knew that was a lie. It dawned on me that I was in big trouble if I refused. And coming from a home where I didn’t have an iota of exposure and boldness to talk, I relied on my friends for counsel. What do you expect them to say? We all dreaded these people.”
She said her friends told her that the lecturers would not say anything but that she would not pass their courses.
The former student added: “And of all courses to fail in English, Literature is the worst especially if the failure isn’t from you but a randy witch-hunting lecturer. So, at a point, I was tired and fed up. I got to know a guy who tried to encourage me to see the school counsellor. I did but had to discontinue the visit.
“From what the counselor said, I foresaw big trouble and got scared. If anything had happened then, I wouldn’t have graduated. These people know how they frustrate female students out of school. They are like a cult. You don’t get to win over them.
”I’m glad steps are being taken now because during my time, the student in question is more in trouble than the randy lecturer. Do you know that if these people notice a particular guy around you all the time, that guy is also in trouble.”
Varsity Vows Zero-Tolerance For Sexual Offences
But the university management has said it would not hesitate to wield the big stick whenever anyone flouts its laid-down rules and regulations.
“At several fora, the Vice Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, has reiterated the commitment of his administration to uphold the “Zero tolerance policy” for Sexual harassment and other social vices.
The Council of University Chaired by Mr Udoji has also pledged to support policies that promote mutual co-existence among all the members of the university community,” Olarewaju said in his statement.
Leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has asked the High Court of Abia State to compel the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN); the Department of State Services and six others to pay him N5bn in damages being monetary compensation for the “physical, mental, emotional, psychological and other damages” suffered as a result of the alleged infringements of his fundamental rights.
Kanu, who is currently in DSS custody, filed the suit on Tuesday through his special counsel, Aloy Ejimakor.
The IPOB leader also secured an order from the High Court of Abia State to serve by substituted means an application for enforcement of the fundamental rights of Kanu.
Kanu contended that his rights have been infringed upon since 2017 when he fled the country due to an alleged threat to his life by security agents and after his extraordinary rendition to Nigeria from a foreign country recently.
In the suit, no HIH/FR14/2021, the respondents include the Federal Government of Nigeria (1st), Attorney General of the Federation (2nd), Chief of Army Staff (3rd), Inspector General of Police (5th), Director General, State Security Services (7th) and three others.
The reliefs place before the court include:
“A declaration that the expulsion of the Applicant from Kenya to Nigeria by the Respondents or their agents and their consequent detention and planned prosecution of the Applicant in Charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015 (Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Nnamdi Kanu) is illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and amount to infringement of the Applicant’s fundamental right against unlawful expulsion and detention, and to fair hearing, as enshrined and guaranteed under the pertinent provisions of CFRN and the Charter).
“An order restraining the Respondents or their agents from taking any further step in the prosecution of the Applicant in Charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015 (Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Nnamdi Kanu) pursuant to said unlawful expulsion of the Applicant from Kenya to Nigeria.
“An order mandating and compelling the Respondents or their agents to forthwith release the Applicant from detention and restitute or otherwise restore Applicant to his liberty, same being his state of being as of 19th June, 2021; and to thereupon repatriate the Applicant to his country of domicile (to wit: Britain) to await the outcome of any formal request the Respondents may file before the competent authorities in Britain for the lawful extradition of the Applicant to Nigeria to continue his prosecution in Charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015 (Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Nnamdi Kanu).
“An order mandating and compelling the Respondents to issue an official Letter of Apology to the Applicant for the infringement of his fundamental rights; and publication of said Letter of Apology in three (3) national dailies.
“An order mandating and compelling the Respondents to pay the sum of N5,000,000,000.00 (Five Billion Naira) to the Applicant, being monetary damages claimed by the Applicant against the Respondents jointly and severally for the physical, mental, emotional, psychological and other damages suffered by the Applicant as a result of the infringements of Applicant’s fundamental rights.”
Justice K. C. J. Okereke set September, 21 as next hearing date.
It had earlier been reported that Malami at a press briefing in Abuja on June 29, 2021, announced that the IPOB leader was arrested in a foreign country and extradited to Nigeria.
Kanu, who was born on September 25, 1967, is a holder of Nigerian and British passports. He had earlier jumped bail in June 2018 before leaving for the United Kingdom though he said that he fled because his life was no longer safe in Nigeria.
Upon his re-arrest and extradition in June 2021, he was re-arraigned before Justice Binta Nyako for terrorism-related charges and has since been remanded in the DSS custody in Abuja.
Justice Nyako did not attend to the prayer of Kanu’s lawyers that the court should grant a pending application before it to transfer Kanu from the custody of the DSS to a correctional centre in Abuja.
Justice Nyako had adjourned the trial of Kanu to October 21, 2021 for continuation of hearing.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, whose organisation is on a U.S. terrorism list, has been named interior minister in the new Taliban interim government.
Mullah Hasan Akhund, an associate of the movement’s late founder Mullah Omar, was named the new head of government.
Mr Haqqani is the son of the founder of the Haqqani network, designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States.
He is one of the FBI’s most wanted men due to his involvement in suicide attacks and ties with Al Qaeda.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the movement’s political office, was appointed as Mr Akhund’s deputy, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference in Kabul.
Mr Baradar’s appointment as Mr Akhund’s deputy, rather than to the top job, came as a surprise to some as he had been responsible for negotiating the U.S. withdrawal and presenting the face of the Taliban to the world.
Mr Baradar, also once a close friend of Mullah Omar, was a senior Taliban commander in charge of attacks on U.S. forces.
He was arrested and imprisoned in Pakistan in 2010, becoming head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha after his release in 2018.
Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of Mullah Omar, was named as defence minister.
All the appointments were in an acting capacity, the Taliban spokesman said.
It was not clear what government role would Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban supreme leader, play.
He has not been seen or heard in public since the collapse of the Western-backed government and the seizure of Kabul by the Islamist militant movement last month, as U.S.-led coalition forces completed their withdrawal after a 20-year war.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One, as President Joe Biden flew to New York, there would be no recognition of the Taliban government soon.
The Taliban have repeatedly sought to reassure Afghans and foreign countries they will not return to the brutality of their last reign two decades ago, marked by violent punishments and the barring of women and girls from public life.
Mr Akhund has been close to supreme leader Mr Akhunzada for 20 years and is longtime chief of the Taliban’s powerful decision-making body Rehbari Shura, or leadership council.
He was foreign minister and then deputy prime minister when the Taliban were last in power from 1996-2001.
Mr Mujahid, speaking against a backdrop of collapsing public services and economic meltdown, said the acting cabinet would respond to the Afghan’s people’s primary needs.
He said some ministries remained unfilled pending a hunt for qualified people.
Five-time Ballon d’Or Award winner, Cristiano Ronaldo, has met with Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, at the club’s Carrington training ground today.
United last week completed the signing of the 36-year-old who rejoined the club after time at Real Madrid and Juventus.
A statement issued on the club’s website today expressed hope that the striker will help in Saturday’s Premier League game against Newcastle.
“As he is suspended for his country’s World Cup qualifier in Azerbaijan this evening (Tuesday), Ronaldo was granted permission to come to Manchester last Thursday.
“Cristiano met with boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, his former team-mate, in the manager’s office before being introduced to the players who are currently hard at work in training.
“The spectacular signing from Juventus joined the session with his colleagues and wasted no time in getting acquainted with the group.
“With challenges to come at home and abroad in the near future, including Saturday’s Premier League match against Newcastle and next Tuesday’s start of the Champions League at Young Boys, it is hoped the striker will be ready to assist the side and begin to have an immediate impact in his second spell at the club,” the statement read in part.
Ronaldo and Solskjaer (Photo: Man United website)Ronaldo and Solskjaer (Photo: Man United website)Ronaldo and Solskjaer (Photo: Man United website)
The Fulani socio-cultural association, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, has lambasted the Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, for saying most bandits are of the Fulani ethnic stock as himself.
In recent times, many states in the Northern part of the country have witnessed a series of attacks by suspected bandits, leading to abductions, murder and cattle rustling, a development that has stirred public outcry.
Speaking on Monday as a guest on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme, the governor had alleged many of the bandits are Fulani indigenes whose main occupation is rearing cattle.
“They are the same people like me, who speak the same language like me, who profess the same religious beliefs like me. So, what we have here on ground are bandits; they are not aliens, they are people we know, they are people that have been living with us for 100 of years,” Masari had said.
“The infiltration we have from some West African countries and North African countries are also people of the Fulani extraction.
“Majority of those involved in this banditry are Fulanis whether it is palatable or it is not palatable but that is the truth. I am not saying 100% of them are Fulani but majority of them are, and these are people who live in the forest and their main occupation is rearing of cattle.”
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the National Secretary of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Saleh Alhassan, asked Nigerians to ignore the governor.
“Did you take that drunkard serious? My governor, do you take him serious? Can’t you see that he is already tired? Records should come from security operatives, not a confused human being.
“He knows them now, is he not a Fulani man? All of them talking, they are stealing security votes, they should find solutions, create ranches for these herders and accommodate them.
“Which people do you find along the Sahel Sahara desert? They are many tribes, is it by physique that you now identify a Fulani man? The bandits are criminals, why should you attach tribe to it, that’s why we are not happy. You don’t need to attach a tribe because it will affect innocent person.
“Forget that man, that man is the worst Governor Katsina has had; we are just praying for his time to lapse.”
Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, has condemned the current military offensive against armed herders and bandits operating in the North-west region of Nigeria and declared that it would not stop their activities.
Mr Gumi in a long rant on his verified Facebook page on Monday, said the reported military successes against bandits in Zamfara forests will only complicate the crisis.
“Let us face the reality, these herdsmen are going nowhere, and they are already in battle gear, and we know our military very well, so before things get messy, we need cold brains to handle this delicate situation. Its common sense that if you allow your neighbours to be your enemy you are already conquered. Because they can easily be used against you by other forces as we see now the herdsmen are ultimately used to destabilise the region, pauperize and even depopulate it.”
In the statement, which he titled ‘Zamfara: The Flaring of Crisis’, Mr Gumi stressed that the military action “is no solution or wisdom.
“Now with the prodding of the government to take more military actions of an already ugly situation whereby they were left to amass weapons, a huge military budget that is almost draining the economy to a standstill in the purchase of fighter aircrafts (sic) and conducting military operations in the region has become to the authorities in their calculations a necessity.
“Unfortunately, this is no solution or wisdom. When you don’t have the monopoly of the instruments of violence, then dialogue has the monopoly of resolving the conflict.
“This is what the UN is all about. i.e., roundtable resolution of conflicts. What we are seeing is more than just criminals and criminality, yes it may have started as such but like any conflict, it is dynamic.
“Military actions in the past have worsen(ed) the situation stimulating herdsmen resistance. Any more action will push them closer to religious fanaticism. It gives them protection from discrediting them as thieves and also reinforce their mobilization of gullible young unemployed youth as we saw with BH.
“I have met many of the bandit leaders to see a way out of this gridlock. I have talked to the political class and security agents. Except for an exception, most state governors want a peaceful resolution of the conflict. The Police and other security outfits have also realized the enormity of the problem. But, unfortunately, the presidency for what appears to be political gullibility and the military for budgetary reasons as they are the most beneficiary of conflicts of this nature doesn’t seem to be on the same page.”
Sheikh Gumi is a proponent of dialogue with the bandits despite their bloody imprint in most communities in the north.
He has visited many of them in their forest hideouts and urged the government to dialogue with the bandits in order to bring an end to banditry in the region.
Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle had engaged bandits in his state in dialogue but failed to end the menace. He has now withdrawn from the process and endorsed military actions.
Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai and his Niger State counterpart, Abubakar Sani, are also opposed to dialogue with the outlaws.
The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has urged the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to stop giving “preferential scores” to students in Northern Nigeria who sit the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
He stated this on Monday as a guest on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ breakfast programme monitored by reporters.
According to the governor, students in the North should not be given lower cut-off marks but the same cut-off marks as their counterparts from other parts of the country for them to be competitive nationally and internationally.
He said, “The north has always been behind in education, we’ve continuously been the disadvantaged region right from independence even though we’re given preferences, JAMB scores and all that. That has not helped; in fact, it has made our people lazy.
“Against this differential JAMB and FG (Federal Government) scores, I think people should be encouraged to work hard and compete and we are prepared to make our children in Kaduna State to be competitive, not only in the state but globally.”
El-Rufai also said the current closure of schools in the state was the major goal of bandits and terrorists oppressing the state but he vowed that they won’t win.
“The schools are closed now because, on the advice of security agencies, they need a couple of months to undertake massive security operations. We are confident that from the next two weeks, we would start the gradual reopening of schools.
“The continuous closure of schools is exactly what bandits and Boko Haram want and we are not going to let them win but we must put the safety of our children and teachers first,” the governor noted.
Furthermore, the governor said that the state has attracted over $3bn foreign and local investments in the last two years despite the menace of banditry.
