Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Pastor Kola Oluwawole, has assured the people of the state that neither would the House be polarised nor bicker with the executive in the name of politics.
This twin problems, according to the speaker, was “responsible for the ‘war’ waged against the state by the group of 19 lawmakers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last Assembly.”
According to a statement by his Special Assistant (Media), Mr Stephen Gbadamosi, Oluwawole stated this while featuring on a live state television programme on Saturday.
“Ekiti people voted for us 11th of April in expectation of new things. By the grace of God, we, the 26 lawmakers, have resolved to do our jobs well. We will not cheat the people; we will not cheat Fayose.
“We won’t wage war against Ekiti State. We won’t disappoint or betray you. See what happened recently: Our governor was voted for and all stakeholders saw that he was voted for, but some people said they wanted to sack him, against the wish of the people,” it read.
They waged war against the state. We won’t do that to the people of Ekiti,” Oluwawole said.
The speaker said, that the House was an all-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) affair was an indication that the people of the state had unwavering belief in the party and its candidates, adding that it was a plus for the state as the members would all galvanise their energies towards making the robust programmes of the Ayo Fayose-led government bring gains of democracy to them.
“The peopel have spoken with their votes. They believe in the PDP. As a House, we shall promote the laudable programmes Governor Fayose has lined up to bring good governance to the peoples’ doors.
“Though our state has been plunged into debt, the governor is doing everything to source for funds to provide the needs of the people,” he said.
Saturday, 18 July 2015
IBB, Abubakar urge Nigerians to support FG in the fight against terrorism
Two former military heads of state, Generals Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, on Friday, in Minna, Niger State capital, joined their Muslim counterparts both in Nigeria and across the world to celebrate the Eid-el-Fitr, as they called on Nigerians to support the Federal Government in the fight against the Boko-Haram terror group.
Speaking shortly after prayers, which took place at the Minna Central Mosque, IBB solicited for the support of Nigerians, without which it would be difficult for President Muhammadu Buhari to do much for the country.
The best thing Nigerians can do for President Buhari at this trial moment, the former military president said, was to support whatever moves he is making to put an end to insurgency, and as well make the nation’s economy buoyant.”
According to him, “my prayer is an end to senseless killings by Boko Haram soonest. I call on all patriotic Nigerians to rally round and support the present administration at the centre in whatever effort it is making towards ending insurgency and make our economy buoyant.”
In his own remarks, General Abdulsalami Abubakar said he was worried by the seeming endless activities of the terrorists who have continued to claim the lives of innocent Nigerians. He then solicited for prayers from all patriotic Nigerians.
“I call on all Nigerians to be vigilant so that together we can maintain peace without which there will be no progress”, Abdulsalami pointed out as he urged all Muslims to show love to all Nigerians irrespective of tribal, religious and political affiliations.
Both former military rulers were, however, unanimous in their resolve that by being vigilance and prayerful, the issue of Boko Haram will come to an end as according to them, “Boko-Haram members are humans living with us, with useful information to security forces their activities will be brought to an end”.
Speaking shortly after prayers, which took place at the Minna Central Mosque, IBB solicited for the support of Nigerians, without which it would be difficult for President Muhammadu Buhari to do much for the country.
The best thing Nigerians can do for President Buhari at this trial moment, the former military president said, was to support whatever moves he is making to put an end to insurgency, and as well make the nation’s economy buoyant.”
According to him, “my prayer is an end to senseless killings by Boko Haram soonest. I call on all patriotic Nigerians to rally round and support the present administration at the centre in whatever effort it is making towards ending insurgency and make our economy buoyant.”
In his own remarks, General Abdulsalami Abubakar said he was worried by the seeming endless activities of the terrorists who have continued to claim the lives of innocent Nigerians. He then solicited for prayers from all patriotic Nigerians.
“I call on all Nigerians to be vigilant so that together we can maintain peace without which there will be no progress”, Abdulsalami pointed out as he urged all Muslims to show love to all Nigerians irrespective of tribal, religious and political affiliations.
Both former military rulers were, however, unanimous in their resolve that by being vigilance and prayerful, the issue of Boko Haram will come to an end as according to them, “Boko-Haram members are humans living with us, with useful information to security forces their activities will be brought to an end”.
PDP trying to ambush Buhari’s government — Ex-general
A retired military general, Brig.-Gen. Ayodele Ojo, has accused the Peoples Democratic Party of trying to cause instability in the country for President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
Ojo told our correspondent that the action of the PDP senators to allow Ike Ekweremadu to emerge as the Deputy Senate President in a chamber controlled by the All Progressives Congress was aimed at destabilising or ambushing the new administration.
Ojo said, “I think that is not the best way to play the role of opposition. The opposition should be credible and constructive. As for the distinguished Senator Ekweremadu, he should have declined his nomination on moral grounds. What new innovation or added value is he bringing to that office?
To my mind, PDP should have allowed the new government to successfully transit instead of deliberately promoting instability or trying to ambush it even before it takes off. My suggestion to Ekweremadu is for him to resign as the Deputy Senate President in the interest of peace and stability of Nigeria. That to me is the path of honour.”
Ojo, who was a director in the Defence Headquarters, also criticised the National Assembly for being the weakest link in the nation’s democracy. He stated that Nigerian lawmakers need to exhibit democratic traits as exhibited by the United States’ congress after which the Nigerian legislative system was fashioned.
On the President’s delay in appointing ministers, the retired general argued that a serious government with a mission for change could not afford to hastily form its cabinet.
According to him, the President must resist any attempt to be stampeded by the PDP and other opposition elements into appointing ministers.
Ojo told our correspondent that the action of the PDP senators to allow Ike Ekweremadu to emerge as the Deputy Senate President in a chamber controlled by the All Progressives Congress was aimed at destabilising or ambushing the new administration.
Ojo said, “I think that is not the best way to play the role of opposition. The opposition should be credible and constructive. As for the distinguished Senator Ekweremadu, he should have declined his nomination on moral grounds. What new innovation or added value is he bringing to that office?
To my mind, PDP should have allowed the new government to successfully transit instead of deliberately promoting instability or trying to ambush it even before it takes off. My suggestion to Ekweremadu is for him to resign as the Deputy Senate President in the interest of peace and stability of Nigeria. That to me is the path of honour.”
Ojo, who was a director in the Defence Headquarters, also criticised the National Assembly for being the weakest link in the nation’s democracy. He stated that Nigerian lawmakers need to exhibit democratic traits as exhibited by the United States’ congress after which the Nigerian legislative system was fashioned.
On the President’s delay in appointing ministers, the retired general argued that a serious government with a mission for change could not afford to hastily form its cabinet.
According to him, the President must resist any attempt to be stampeded by the PDP and other opposition elements into appointing ministers.
Osun surveillance helicopter to launch soon — Aregbesola
Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has said the surveillance helicopter purchased by his administration would soon be given the necessary assistance it requires by the Federal Government.
According to a statement made available to our correspondent by the media aide, to the governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, on Saturday, the governor said this when the Police Community Relations Committee paid him a courtesy visit.
The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State, Mr. Gboyega Famodun, had on June 22, accused the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan of frustrating the plan of the governor to put the chopper into use to assist security agencies in surveillance.
Famodun said the FG-controlled Nigerian Communications Commission refused to provide the special code for the helicopter to be linked with ground equipment provided by the state government for surveillance.
But Aregbesola said, “With the recent government at the centre, the helicopter we purchased for aerial surveillance will be in full operation with the issuance of the sort code needed for its operation.”
Aregbesola also called on the police committee to treat the issue of cultism with seriousness, noting that cultism must not be allowed to grow in the state.
He said, “I want all hands to be on the deck to make our state a no-go area for people with criminal intent. Despite our ranking as one of the least state with crime in the country, much still needs be done to get rid of the little criminals still hanging around the state.
“We are among one of the states with the purchase of high numbers of equipment, we have armoured personnel carrier that can convey 20 armed policemen with surveillance camera and other security gadgets mounted on it.
“We are conscious of the fact that without security, their can’t be a state, that’s why our administration is handling security with utmost importance.”
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Abubakar Marafa, lauded Aregbesola for providing operational vehicles and other equipment for the police in the state.
The CP, who was represented by Mr. Tunde Showole, said with the numbers of vehicle and other equipment provided by the state government, the police does not have any excuse regarding operation vehicles.
According to a statement made available to our correspondent by the media aide, to the governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, on Saturday, the governor said this when the Police Community Relations Committee paid him a courtesy visit.
The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State, Mr. Gboyega Famodun, had on June 22, accused the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan of frustrating the plan of the governor to put the chopper into use to assist security agencies in surveillance.
Famodun said the FG-controlled Nigerian Communications Commission refused to provide the special code for the helicopter to be linked with ground equipment provided by the state government for surveillance.
But Aregbesola said, “With the recent government at the centre, the helicopter we purchased for aerial surveillance will be in full operation with the issuance of the sort code needed for its operation.”
Aregbesola also called on the police committee to treat the issue of cultism with seriousness, noting that cultism must not be allowed to grow in the state.
He said, “I want all hands to be on the deck to make our state a no-go area for people with criminal intent. Despite our ranking as one of the least state with crime in the country, much still needs be done to get rid of the little criminals still hanging around the state.
“We are among one of the states with the purchase of high numbers of equipment, we have armoured personnel carrier that can convey 20 armed policemen with surveillance camera and other security gadgets mounted on it.
“We are conscious of the fact that without security, their can’t be a state, that’s why our administration is handling security with utmost importance.”
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Abubakar Marafa, lauded Aregbesola for providing operational vehicles and other equipment for the police in the state.
The CP, who was represented by Mr. Tunde Showole, said with the numbers of vehicle and other equipment provided by the state government, the police does not have any excuse regarding operation vehicles.
DSS detains Jonathan’s Chief Security Officer
The Department of State Services has detained Gordon Obua, the Chief Security Officer to former President Goodluck Jonathan.
It was learnt that Obua was arrested last Thursday and detained at the DSS headquarters in Abuja.
His detention, our correspondent gathered, was part of the probe of officials under Jonathan’s administration ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The reason for Gordon’s detention could not be immediately established, but it was gathered that investigators may extract salient information on key officials in Jonathan’s government from the former CSO.
Sources stated that the detention of the former security aide to Jonathan was meant to show that no former official in the past government would be spared if found to have mismanaged or embezzled public funds.
“The arrest and detention of the former CSO is an indication that every former minister or senior official under Jonathan’s government are not exempted from probe except those that have no criminal suspicion or record of wrong doing in office,” a source explained.
The DSS had last Thursday moved against the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, seized his passport and other vital documents and prevented him from leaving the house for about 24 hours.
Findings indicated that many more former officials would be visited and arrested by the DSS which has been mandated by Buhari to recover all looted public funds by the previous government functionaries.
The DSS could not be reached for comment as it has not announced a replacement for its former spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, who was removed from the agency’s Public Relations Department last week.
But a former Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Tsav, said Obua might have breached a security regulation hence his arrest and detention, noting that nobody is above the law.
He said, “Security is the most important thing in a nation and if he (Obua) had breached a law, he could be arrested and detained. If his former boss (Jonathan), had immunity while in office, he doesn’t have immunity. So, he must have done something wrong for them to have arrested him, I think they (DSS) are in order.”
It was learnt that Obua was arrested last Thursday and detained at the DSS headquarters in Abuja.
His detention, our correspondent gathered, was part of the probe of officials under Jonathan’s administration ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The reason for Gordon’s detention could not be immediately established, but it was gathered that investigators may extract salient information on key officials in Jonathan’s government from the former CSO.
Sources stated that the detention of the former security aide to Jonathan was meant to show that no former official in the past government would be spared if found to have mismanaged or embezzled public funds.
“The arrest and detention of the former CSO is an indication that every former minister or senior official under Jonathan’s government are not exempted from probe except those that have no criminal suspicion or record of wrong doing in office,” a source explained.
The DSS had last Thursday moved against the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, seized his passport and other vital documents and prevented him from leaving the house for about 24 hours.
Findings indicated that many more former officials would be visited and arrested by the DSS which has been mandated by Buhari to recover all looted public funds by the previous government functionaries.
The DSS could not be reached for comment as it has not announced a replacement for its former spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, who was removed from the agency’s Public Relations Department last week.
But a former Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Tsav, said Obua might have breached a security regulation hence his arrest and detention, noting that nobody is above the law.
He said, “Security is the most important thing in a nation and if he (Obua) had breached a law, he could be arrested and detained. If his former boss (Jonathan), had immunity while in office, he doesn’t have immunity. So, he must have done something wrong for them to have arrested him, I think they (DSS) are in order.”
Standing order used for Saraki election a fake, say ex-Senators
Senators who served in the 7th Senate, on Saturday, disowned the 2015 edition of the Senate Standing Orders as amended.
The senators who are from different political parties, said they were not aware of any amendments to the 2011 Senate Standing Orders.
Acting on a petition by Senator Sulaiman Hunkuyi (All Progressives Congress, Kaduna State), the police had on July 6 quizzed the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, and the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Salisu Maikasuwa, over an alleged forgery of the standing orders.
The ‘forged’ orders were said to have been used in the election of Ekweremadu and the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki.
The PUNCH had exclusively reported on Thursday that the police said that they would release the report on their investigation into the alleged forgery this week.
The petition alleged that some parts of the 2015 Senate Orders were different from the one ratified by the 6th Senate in 2010, which was used by the 7th Senate as Standing Orders 2011.
One of our correspondents who perused both orders, reports that in the 2015 Senate orders, Rule 3 as contained on page four of the standing rule, which has to do with the election of presiding officers, is different from the 2011 Senate Order.
Rules 3(e) (I) and (ii) have been included in the 2015 document to accommodate electronic voting and secret ballot, whereas secret ballot and ballot papers were not specifically mentioned in the 2011 Standing Orders.
The Senate Order 3 (E ii) of 2011 states, “Voting shall be conducted by the Clerks-at-the Table, using the Division List of the Senate with the Tellers in attendance. The Clerk of the Senate shall submit the result of the division to the Clerk of the National Assembly.
“(iii) The Clerk shall then declare the Senator-elect who has received the greater number of votes, elected as President of the Senate.”
The same section in the 2015 Senate Order however reads, “Voting by secret ballot which shall be conducted by the Clerk-at-Table using the list of the Senators-elect of the Senate, who shall each be given a ballot paper to cast his vote with the proposers and seconder as Teller. The Clerk of the Senate shall submit the result of the voting to the Clerk of the National Assembly who shall then declare Senator-elect who has received the highest number of votes as Senate President-elect.”
The open ballot procedure was adopted by the Senate to produce the past Senate President, David Mark and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu. Senators were called, one after the other, and they openly identified with the candidate of their choice.
Apart from ‘alteration’ to the procedure for election, the order 95 of the 2011 rule on the chairmanship and membership of the Committees is also different in the 2015 version.
In the 2011 document, provisions in Order 95 reads, “The membership of all committees shall not be less than 11 and not more than 13 senators. (2) No senator shall serve in more than three committees (3) No committee chairman shall serve in more than one other committee.”
However, a new insertion in the amended version reads: “The appointment of Senators as Chairmen and members of committees shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the six geopolitical zones of the country and there shall be no predominance of senators from a few geo-political zones.”
A large number of the Peoples Democratic Party Senators refused to comment on the topic but the few who spoke with SUNDAY PUNCH, said they were not privy to any amendments to the standing rule.
Senator Victor Lar (PDP, Plateau South) declared, “As at the time we left the Senate, there were no alterations (to the Senate Standing Orders).”
He said, “The Senate did set up a committee to amend the provisions of the Standing Rules of 1999, that amendment was adopted and so the Senate rules as at 2003, 2007, and 2011 have been the same.”
Similarly, a former high ranking member of the PDP in the Senate, who spoke on condition of anonymity said, the controversy over whether or not the rules were altered was unnecessary.
According to him, the bureaucracy of the National Assembly is in the best position to explain what happened if at all there was any infraction.
He said, “Usually, at the beginning of any new session, you are given a copy of the Rule Book (Senate Standing Orders) which is printed by the management. If any change needs to be done, senators agree on it. I will give you an example, we used to have a rule called rule 101 that was introduced towards the end of the 5th Senate but when we came back in the 6th Senate, we realised that that rule ran contrary to Section 64 even though we had approved it at plenary, in another plenary we agreed to remove it.”
However, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business in 7th Senate, Senator Ita Enang, explained that the Standing Orders that should have been used for the inauguration of the 8th Senate is the Standing Orders that was used and closed within the 7th Senate.
Enang was in the PDP when he was in the Senate, but he later defected to the APC.
He said, “I made proposal for amendments between 2011 and 2015, I laid the report on the floor, but we did not consider the report. We did not amend the Standing Orders.
“Before we left, I had approved the reprinting of the Standing Orders and the reprinting did not include inserting anything which was not in the old one. Reprinting is, simply reproduce what we have because there are no more copies,” he added.
Also commenting on the development, Senator Babafemi Ojudu (APC), who represented Ekiti Central in the 7th Senate, said, “There were no amendments at all. I spoke with Senator Ita Enang, who was the custodian of the rules and he expressed shock.
“Any amendments done to the Senate Rules which we used in the 7th Senate is criminal and perpetrators should be charged for forgery.”
Senator Adesoji Akanbi, (Oyo Central, APC); Senator Solomon Adeola, (Lagos West, APC); and Senator Gbenga Ashafa, (Lagos East, APC) said they were not aware of any such amendments when contacted on Saturday.
It is a forged document — Marafa
Senator Kabir Marafa, (Zamfara Central, APC ) who was a member of the 7th Senate and had been re-elected into the 8th Senate alleged that order 3 (2) (iv) had been added into the new rule book which now made it compulsory to spread committee members and chairmanship across the six geopolitical zones.
Marafa, who is a member of the present 8th Senate, was also in the 7th Senate.
He also said that a careful study of both the old and new standing rule at its disposal, showed that the insertion of order 3 ( 3e i – iiii ) was done deliberately to accommodate a member of the opposition party as deputy senate president.
Marafa said, “The problem is that the senate was inaugurated using a forged document. Who forged that document? We can’t gloss over or sweep that criminality under the carpet, Nigeria is not a Banana Republic!”
“The insertion of order 3 (2 iv) & 3 (3e i-iiii) in the 2015 edition is a deliberate act perpetrated by fifth columnists operating within the National Assembly to sabotage the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“It was done to cause friction, disaffection and generate bad blood among senators from different zones and provoke confusion in the senate with the sole aim of stagnating government business to give them time to perfect their agenda.”
He further alleged that the insertion of order 3 (2 iv ), was done to favour the PDP caucus in the senate who supported Senator Saraki, to become the Senate President.
He said, “For 16 years of PDP leadership, the presiding officers and committee headship was skewed in favour of the zones that produce more PDP senators but suddenly they introduce equality of zones in the distribution of these offices because they lost out, this is unacceptable by APC senators.”
Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi West, in the current 8th Senate, neither denied nor confirmed whether the rules were ammended legally or illegally when contacted on phone.
Although Melaye is in the APC, he belongs to the group, Like Minds Senators, loyal to Saraki.
He simply said, “The issue will be sorted out on resumption of plenary. There is no cause for alarm.
Procedure for amending orders
Another senator from the South-West geopolitical zone, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was no time that the 7th Senate made such amendments.
The senator, who was a member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, which has the responsibility to initiate such amendments described the new 2015 Senate Standing Order as a forgery and called for the immediate prosecution of the perpetrators.
He said, “We did not change anything in the rules used for the 7th Senate. The procedure for such amendments are clearly stated even in the rule itself and none of the process took place throughout the life time of the 7th Senate.
“Even in the proposed amendment, we did not include the issue of secret ballot system. Who inserted it? When the ballot box did become a matter of the chamber?
“The only thing we inserted in the proposed one was to insert the Committee on MDG. There was the Committee on Commerce and Industry, the Senate President abolished it and created Committee on Investment. There was a dispute between Senators Nenadi Usman and Odion Ugbesia, so we created the committee on investment and deleted the committee on trade and industry.
“We then assigned more functions to the Committee on Special Duties. Apart from these amendments, we didn’t touch any other aspect. The resistance of Senator David Mark to approve the aspect which would assign specific productive functions to the deputy senate president delayed deliberation on the proposed amendments.
Special Adviser to the Senate President, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, said he was not in a position to answer whether the rule was properly amended or not and he consequently directed our correspondent to the management of the National Assembly who inaugurated the 8th Senate.
He said, “I cannot speak on the issue because Senator Bukola Saraki was not yet the Senate President when the Standing Order was produced. I think you should direct your enquiries to the management of the National Assembly for further information”
The Clerk to the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa, also declined comments when contacted.
Attempts to speak with the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to former Senate President David Mark, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, were unsuccessful as his mobile phone was switched off when our correspondent called him on Saturday. Also, the Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Paul Mumeh, did not pick his calls when contacted.
Also, attempts to reach the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, were unsuccessful.
Repeated calls to the mobile telephone number of his Special Adviser (Media), Mr. Uche Anickuwu, indicated that it was switched off.
A response to a text message sent to him was still being awaited as at the time of filing this report (8:00pm).
The senators who are from different political parties, said they were not aware of any amendments to the 2011 Senate Standing Orders.
Acting on a petition by Senator Sulaiman Hunkuyi (All Progressives Congress, Kaduna State), the police had on July 6 quizzed the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, and the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Salisu Maikasuwa, over an alleged forgery of the standing orders.
The ‘forged’ orders were said to have been used in the election of Ekweremadu and the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki.
The PUNCH had exclusively reported on Thursday that the police said that they would release the report on their investigation into the alleged forgery this week.
The petition alleged that some parts of the 2015 Senate Orders were different from the one ratified by the 6th Senate in 2010, which was used by the 7th Senate as Standing Orders 2011.
One of our correspondents who perused both orders, reports that in the 2015 Senate orders, Rule 3 as contained on page four of the standing rule, which has to do with the election of presiding officers, is different from the 2011 Senate Order.
Rules 3(e) (I) and (ii) have been included in the 2015 document to accommodate electronic voting and secret ballot, whereas secret ballot and ballot papers were not specifically mentioned in the 2011 Standing Orders.
The Senate Order 3 (E ii) of 2011 states, “Voting shall be conducted by the Clerks-at-the Table, using the Division List of the Senate with the Tellers in attendance. The Clerk of the Senate shall submit the result of the division to the Clerk of the National Assembly.
“(iii) The Clerk shall then declare the Senator-elect who has received the greater number of votes, elected as President of the Senate.”
The same section in the 2015 Senate Order however reads, “Voting by secret ballot which shall be conducted by the Clerk-at-Table using the list of the Senators-elect of the Senate, who shall each be given a ballot paper to cast his vote with the proposers and seconder as Teller. The Clerk of the Senate shall submit the result of the voting to the Clerk of the National Assembly who shall then declare Senator-elect who has received the highest number of votes as Senate President-elect.”
The open ballot procedure was adopted by the Senate to produce the past Senate President, David Mark and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu. Senators were called, one after the other, and they openly identified with the candidate of their choice.
Apart from ‘alteration’ to the procedure for election, the order 95 of the 2011 rule on the chairmanship and membership of the Committees is also different in the 2015 version.
In the 2011 document, provisions in Order 95 reads, “The membership of all committees shall not be less than 11 and not more than 13 senators. (2) No senator shall serve in more than three committees (3) No committee chairman shall serve in more than one other committee.”
However, a new insertion in the amended version reads: “The appointment of Senators as Chairmen and members of committees shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the six geopolitical zones of the country and there shall be no predominance of senators from a few geo-political zones.”
A large number of the Peoples Democratic Party Senators refused to comment on the topic but the few who spoke with SUNDAY PUNCH, said they were not privy to any amendments to the standing rule.
Senator Victor Lar (PDP, Plateau South) declared, “As at the time we left the Senate, there were no alterations (to the Senate Standing Orders).”
He said, “The Senate did set up a committee to amend the provisions of the Standing Rules of 1999, that amendment was adopted and so the Senate rules as at 2003, 2007, and 2011 have been the same.”
Similarly, a former high ranking member of the PDP in the Senate, who spoke on condition of anonymity said, the controversy over whether or not the rules were altered was unnecessary.
According to him, the bureaucracy of the National Assembly is in the best position to explain what happened if at all there was any infraction.
He said, “Usually, at the beginning of any new session, you are given a copy of the Rule Book (Senate Standing Orders) which is printed by the management. If any change needs to be done, senators agree on it. I will give you an example, we used to have a rule called rule 101 that was introduced towards the end of the 5th Senate but when we came back in the 6th Senate, we realised that that rule ran contrary to Section 64 even though we had approved it at plenary, in another plenary we agreed to remove it.”
However, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business in 7th Senate, Senator Ita Enang, explained that the Standing Orders that should have been used for the inauguration of the 8th Senate is the Standing Orders that was used and closed within the 7th Senate.
Enang was in the PDP when he was in the Senate, but he later defected to the APC.
He said, “I made proposal for amendments between 2011 and 2015, I laid the report on the floor, but we did not consider the report. We did not amend the Standing Orders.
“Before we left, I had approved the reprinting of the Standing Orders and the reprinting did not include inserting anything which was not in the old one. Reprinting is, simply reproduce what we have because there are no more copies,” he added.
Also commenting on the development, Senator Babafemi Ojudu (APC), who represented Ekiti Central in the 7th Senate, said, “There were no amendments at all. I spoke with Senator Ita Enang, who was the custodian of the rules and he expressed shock.
“Any amendments done to the Senate Rules which we used in the 7th Senate is criminal and perpetrators should be charged for forgery.”
Senator Adesoji Akanbi, (Oyo Central, APC); Senator Solomon Adeola, (Lagos West, APC); and Senator Gbenga Ashafa, (Lagos East, APC) said they were not aware of any such amendments when contacted on Saturday.
It is a forged document — Marafa
Senator Kabir Marafa, (Zamfara Central, APC ) who was a member of the 7th Senate and had been re-elected into the 8th Senate alleged that order 3 (2) (iv) had been added into the new rule book which now made it compulsory to spread committee members and chairmanship across the six geopolitical zones.
Marafa, who is a member of the present 8th Senate, was also in the 7th Senate.
He also said that a careful study of both the old and new standing rule at its disposal, showed that the insertion of order 3 ( 3e i – iiii ) was done deliberately to accommodate a member of the opposition party as deputy senate president.
Marafa said, “The problem is that the senate was inaugurated using a forged document. Who forged that document? We can’t gloss over or sweep that criminality under the carpet, Nigeria is not a Banana Republic!”
“The insertion of order 3 (2 iv) & 3 (3e i-iiii) in the 2015 edition is a deliberate act perpetrated by fifth columnists operating within the National Assembly to sabotage the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“It was done to cause friction, disaffection and generate bad blood among senators from different zones and provoke confusion in the senate with the sole aim of stagnating government business to give them time to perfect their agenda.”
He further alleged that the insertion of order 3 (2 iv ), was done to favour the PDP caucus in the senate who supported Senator Saraki, to become the Senate President.
He said, “For 16 years of PDP leadership, the presiding officers and committee headship was skewed in favour of the zones that produce more PDP senators but suddenly they introduce equality of zones in the distribution of these offices because they lost out, this is unacceptable by APC senators.”
Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi West, in the current 8th Senate, neither denied nor confirmed whether the rules were ammended legally or illegally when contacted on phone.
Although Melaye is in the APC, he belongs to the group, Like Minds Senators, loyal to Saraki.
He simply said, “The issue will be sorted out on resumption of plenary. There is no cause for alarm.
Procedure for amending orders
Another senator from the South-West geopolitical zone, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was no time that the 7th Senate made such amendments.
The senator, who was a member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, which has the responsibility to initiate such amendments described the new 2015 Senate Standing Order as a forgery and called for the immediate prosecution of the perpetrators.
He said, “We did not change anything in the rules used for the 7th Senate. The procedure for such amendments are clearly stated even in the rule itself and none of the process took place throughout the life time of the 7th Senate.
“Even in the proposed amendment, we did not include the issue of secret ballot system. Who inserted it? When the ballot box did become a matter of the chamber?
“The only thing we inserted in the proposed one was to insert the Committee on MDG. There was the Committee on Commerce and Industry, the Senate President abolished it and created Committee on Investment. There was a dispute between Senators Nenadi Usman and Odion Ugbesia, so we created the committee on investment and deleted the committee on trade and industry.
“We then assigned more functions to the Committee on Special Duties. Apart from these amendments, we didn’t touch any other aspect. The resistance of Senator David Mark to approve the aspect which would assign specific productive functions to the deputy senate president delayed deliberation on the proposed amendments.
Special Adviser to the Senate President, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, said he was not in a position to answer whether the rule was properly amended or not and he consequently directed our correspondent to the management of the National Assembly who inaugurated the 8th Senate.
He said, “I cannot speak on the issue because Senator Bukola Saraki was not yet the Senate President when the Standing Order was produced. I think you should direct your enquiries to the management of the National Assembly for further information”
The Clerk to the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa, also declined comments when contacted.
Attempts to speak with the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to former Senate President David Mark, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, were unsuccessful as his mobile phone was switched off when our correspondent called him on Saturday. Also, the Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Paul Mumeh, did not pick his calls when contacted.
Also, attempts to reach the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, were unsuccessful.
Repeated calls to the mobile telephone number of his Special Adviser (Media), Mr. Uche Anickuwu, indicated that it was switched off.
A response to a text message sent to him was still being awaited as at the time of filing this report (8:00pm).
Buhari to make 6000 appointments – Presidency
At least 6, 000 appointments would be made by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In an interview with Sahara TV on Saturday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, stated that Buhari would be fair to all. He also called for patience reassuring Nigerians that there are more than 6,000 appointments the president is yet to make.
Buhari, who recently sacked the country’s service chiefs that served under ex-President Goodluck Jonathan and dissolved the boards of many Federal Government parastatals across the country, has been criticised for not constituting his cabinet and appointing people into various boards of parastatals.
The President is also being pilloried for allegedly favouring the North in the appointment he had made so far. But, “I think President Muhammadu Buhari is sensitive to the diversity of this country. He has more than 6,000 appointments to make. Therefore, why would anybody use less than 10 appointments to judge the President on this matter? Again, it boils down to the lack of patience. This man is an experienced leader. Nigeria stands to gain from the accumulation of wisdom that he has garnered over his long life on earth. He has sworn to an oath that he’s a President of all.
“This government will make as many as 6,000 appointments. And he is bound, even if he doesn’t wish it, by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to reflect federal character.”
In an interview with Sahara TV on Saturday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, stated that Buhari would be fair to all. He also called for patience reassuring Nigerians that there are more than 6,000 appointments the president is yet to make.
Buhari, who recently sacked the country’s service chiefs that served under ex-President Goodluck Jonathan and dissolved the boards of many Federal Government parastatals across the country, has been criticised for not constituting his cabinet and appointing people into various boards of parastatals.
The President is also being pilloried for allegedly favouring the North in the appointment he had made so far. But, “I think President Muhammadu Buhari is sensitive to the diversity of this country. He has more than 6,000 appointments to make. Therefore, why would anybody use less than 10 appointments to judge the President on this matter? Again, it boils down to the lack of patience. This man is an experienced leader. Nigeria stands to gain from the accumulation of wisdom that he has garnered over his long life on earth. He has sworn to an oath that he’s a President of all.
“This government will make as many as 6,000 appointments. And he is bound, even if he doesn’t wish it, by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to reflect federal character.”
Buhari wants to imprison Jonathan, Niger Delta group
Buhari wants to imprison Jonathan, Niger Delta group
A civil rights organisation, Vanguards of Nigeria’s Democracy, on Saturday raised the alarm over alleged moves by President Muhammadu Buhari to “investigate, malign and imprison” ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on trumped-up charges.
The group accused the President and his All Progressives Congress-led administration of anti-Niger Delta tendencies.
The group referred to the ongoing controversy between a former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole over Excess Crude Account and allegations as a ploy to get at former President Goodluck Jonathan.
But the Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity), Mr. Femi Adesina, described the allegation by the group as mere speculation.
Adesina asked why people would dwell on speculations when nothing concrete has been established against former President Jonathan.
He said, “All these are speculations and I cannot react to speculations because there is nothing concrete yet against the former President.”
The spokesperson of VND, Mr. Osaghae Ogiemudia, in a statement obtained by SUNDAY PUNCH in Abuja, also claimed that anti-Niger Delta and anti-Ijaw posturing of the APC-led government of Buhari has been demonstrated in several ways.
He said, “We the members of the Vanguards of Nigeria’s Democracy, are aware of some clandestine moves made by the APC-led government to probe, investigate, malign and imprison ex-President Jonathan. We are already aware of the trumped-up charges the APC government is levelling against a man who has diligently served the Nigerian state at the highest level of government.
“The APC led government should take notice that the appointments made so far are skewed in favour of the North, as no Ijaw man has been appointed. While an Ijaw President did not discriminate in appointment, President Buhari is implementing a Northern agenda thorough some of the appointments.”
According to him, Buhari unilaterally cancelled the waterway surveillance and security contract awarded to the Delta-born Ijaw businessman, Mr. Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo.)
The group also criticised the sacking of the Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Patrick Ziakede Akpobolokemi and described it as “one of the principal appointments given to the Ijaws of Bayelsa State.”
A civil rights organisation, Vanguards of Nigeria’s Democracy, on Saturday raised the alarm over alleged moves by President Muhammadu Buhari to “investigate, malign and imprison” ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on trumped-up charges.
The group accused the President and his All Progressives Congress-led administration of anti-Niger Delta tendencies.
The group referred to the ongoing controversy between a former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole over Excess Crude Account and allegations as a ploy to get at former President Goodluck Jonathan.
But the Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity), Mr. Femi Adesina, described the allegation by the group as mere speculation.
Adesina asked why people would dwell on speculations when nothing concrete has been established against former President Jonathan.
He said, “All these are speculations and I cannot react to speculations because there is nothing concrete yet against the former President.”
The spokesperson of VND, Mr. Osaghae Ogiemudia, in a statement obtained by SUNDAY PUNCH in Abuja, also claimed that anti-Niger Delta and anti-Ijaw posturing of the APC-led government of Buhari has been demonstrated in several ways.
He said, “We the members of the Vanguards of Nigeria’s Democracy, are aware of some clandestine moves made by the APC-led government to probe, investigate, malign and imprison ex-President Jonathan. We are already aware of the trumped-up charges the APC government is levelling against a man who has diligently served the Nigerian state at the highest level of government.
“The APC led government should take notice that the appointments made so far are skewed in favour of the North, as no Ijaw man has been appointed. While an Ijaw President did not discriminate in appointment, President Buhari is implementing a Northern agenda thorough some of the appointments.”
According to him, Buhari unilaterally cancelled the waterway surveillance and security contract awarded to the Delta-born Ijaw businessman, Mr. Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo.)
The group also criticised the sacking of the Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Patrick Ziakede Akpobolokemi and described it as “one of the principal appointments given to the Ijaws of Bayelsa State.”
D'banj Dedicates MAMA Award To Don Jazzy (Photo)
Singer-songwriter, harmonica player, and businessman, Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo (D’Banj) who won the maiden MAMA Evolution awards, has dedicated the prestigious prize to his former business partner and producer, Don Jazzy, who is the boss of Mavin Records.
The Evolution category is meant for established artistes who have made a huge impact on the African music scene, taken African music to new heights around the world and pushed the boundaries of creativity. D’Banj beat fellow Nigerian representatives Asa, Psquare and 2face to the awards. Fally Ipupa (DRC), Samini (Ghana), HHP (South Africa) Chameleone (Uganda), Black Coffee (South Africa) and Anselmo Ralph (Angola) were also nominated It will be recalled that the musical marriage between D’Banj and Don Jazzy ended on a sour note in 2012. Breaking: D'banj dedicates MAMA awards to Don Jazzy - Vanguard News http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/breaking-dbanj-dedicates-mama-awards-to-don-jazzy/   |
Court Determines Suit Between Nigeria, Biafra On Sept 22 -daily Sun
The Supreme Council of Elders of Indigenous People of Biafra, has dissociated itself from the brains behind Radio Biafra and their operations, which it said were inciting, belligerent and full of hate speeches. We have no business with any group or individual not operating under our customary laws and in obedience to the laws of Nigeria”, It stated.
In a statement signed by its Deputy chairman, Dr Dozie Ikedife, the pro-Biafra group said that the pressure group did not believe in threat or wars, illegality, insults and abuse of individuals or groups in pursuit of self-determination for indigenous people anywhere.
“The leadership of the indigenous people of Biafra under the customary laws and in obedience to the laws of Nigeria do not subscribe to violence, rough or abusive language. We know that the law has created a wide window, indeed a door, for actualising self determination for indigenous people not just of Biafra but for any other indigenous group.” Dr Ikedife said.
Meanwhile, September 22, 2015, has been fixed for the next hearing of the suit against Nigeria by the Supreme Council of Elders of the Indigenous People of Biafra using its legal arm, Bilie Human Right Initiative at the Federal High Court, Owerri.
In suit no FHC/OW/ CS/192/2013, the Bilie Human Rights Initiative representing the Indigenous People of Biafra, who are indigenes of the South East geo-political zone of Nigeria, parts of South South and the Middle Belt zones, as claimants and Federal Republic of Nigeria, Attorney-General of the Federation as defendants, according to the originating summons, sought to enforce their right to self-determination pursuant to Articles 19 -25 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap 10 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990, and to redress all wrongs occasioned on them by the defendants. As a result, the claimants are praying for the determination by the court whether the Indigenous People of Biafra, who are the remnants that were not consumed in the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967 –1970, have the right of self-determination pursuant to Articles 19 –25 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The summons also sought the determination by the court whether the claimants who identified themselves as Biafrans by indigenous identity were committing any offence by doing so contrary to any provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 or contrary to any provision of the Criminal Code and whether it is a crime under any national or international law to mention the name of Biafra or for the remnants of the Indigenous People of Biafra who were not consumed by the war to maintain their indigenous identity as Biafrans with their native emblems and symbols as they do now even though they are Nigerians by citizenship and nationality laws; and if the answer is in the negative, whether the defendants are justified to arrest, shoot and kill the children of the claimants for identifying themselves as Biafrans.
In a statement signed by its Deputy chairman, Dr Dozie Ikedife, the pro-Biafra group said that the pressure group did not believe in threat or wars, illegality, insults and abuse of individuals or groups in pursuit of self-determination for indigenous people anywhere.
“The leadership of the indigenous people of Biafra under the customary laws and in obedience to the laws of Nigeria do not subscribe to violence, rough or abusive language. We know that the law has created a wide window, indeed a door, for actualising self determination for indigenous people not just of Biafra but for any other indigenous group.” Dr Ikedife said.
Meanwhile, September 22, 2015, has been fixed for the next hearing of the suit against Nigeria by the Supreme Council of Elders of the Indigenous People of Biafra using its legal arm, Bilie Human Right Initiative at the Federal High Court, Owerri.
In suit no FHC/OW/ CS/192/2013, the Bilie Human Rights Initiative representing the Indigenous People of Biafra, who are indigenes of the South East geo-political zone of Nigeria, parts of South South and the Middle Belt zones, as claimants and Federal Republic of Nigeria, Attorney-General of the Federation as defendants, according to the originating summons, sought to enforce their right to self-determination pursuant to Articles 19 -25 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap 10 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990, and to redress all wrongs occasioned on them by the defendants. As a result, the claimants are praying for the determination by the court whether the Indigenous People of Biafra, who are the remnants that were not consumed in the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967 –1970, have the right of self-determination pursuant to Articles 19 –25 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The summons also sought the determination by the court whether the claimants who identified themselves as Biafrans by indigenous identity were committing any offence by doing so contrary to any provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 or contrary to any provision of the Criminal Code and whether it is a crime under any national or international law to mention the name of Biafra or for the remnants of the Indigenous People of Biafra who were not consumed by the war to maintain their indigenous identity as Biafrans with their native emblems and symbols as they do now even though they are Nigerians by citizenship and nationality laws; and if the answer is in the negative, whether the defendants are justified to arrest, shoot and kill the children of the claimants for identifying themselves as Biafrans.
My mother threatened to kill me – Six-year-old boy stabbed by mom
Promise before his wounds were dressed
Six-year-old Promise Eboye, should not be alive, at least going by the four gory looking stab injuries on his back. The boy survived an attack that would have killed even an adult had the injuries been sustained in vital parts of the body.
Promise, a bright and sharp boy lives with his mother and step-father in Kollington area of Ijaiye, Lagos, while his biological father lives in Benin, Edo State.
At about 8am on Monday, Promise’s mother, Comfort, stabbed her son four times, inflicting life-threatening injuries on the boy’s body.
The broken bottle the woman used on her son tore into the boy’s flesh inflicting one three-inch injury and another two-inch injury on the boy’s back. Two other wounds looked equally horrific but were not as long and deep as the other two.
Neighbours said if Promise had not run away from his mother, who held tight to his wrist and stabbed him as he screamed, he would have been stabbed to death.
What manner of crime could such a young boy have committed, people who witnessed the scene have asked.
On Wednesday, our correspondent visited the woman’s house on Olawoyin Street. The story that Promise, his neighbours and the hospital workers told could only be described as incredible.
Promise, who seems to have a remarkable memory, told Saturday PUNCH that his mother has a “N30 cane”, which she uses to flog him, even when he had no idea what he had done wrong. He said she would sometimes beat him till he could not walk.
“My mother is wicked,” Promise said simply, quietly. As shocking as that sounded, coming from a six-year-old, it explained the kind of treatment the boy had been experiencing in the hands of his mother.
Promise said he had been living with his father in Edo State since he was one year old. But when he was five, his mother came to take him from his father’s house.
The boy said, “I was sweeping the day she came. I did not know her as my mother. My father then told me that she was my mother and she had come to take me to Lagos.
“When we came to Lagos, I started to live with her and my step-father. But she beat me all the time.”
Asked what happened on Monday to make his mother stab him, Promise said he tripped and fell.
He said, “When I fell, my mother asked me what pushed me and why I fell. She was angry and went to take her N30 cane. When she was beating me too much and I was screaming, one of our neighbours came to hold her hand to take the cane away from her. The woman said I should run away because my mother would kill me the way she was beating me.
“My mother said ‘I will kill you, I will kill you’. When she could not find anything else to beat me with, she took a broken bottle on the ground and started to stab me on the back.”
Promise was rescued by alarmed residents, who took him to a private hospital nearby.
But by the time the boy was taken to the hospital, Comfort had planted another story in the boy’s head.
Pastor Charles Agboola, a pharmacist who founded the hospital, said the two people who brought Promise in said the boy fell down and landed on a broken bottle. When Agboola’s wife, a nurse, asked the boy what actually happened, Promise told her that he was watching two people fight when he sustained the injury.
The nurse told our correspondent, “He told me that they pushed him and he landed on the broken bottles but when I informed my husband, he said immediately that the story could not be true. I also noticed that the wounds were not consistent with that story.
“It was shocking that the boy’s mother was not remorseful in any way. It was when she dashed out of the door under the pretence that she was going to look for money for the boy’s treatment, that a crowd from their street, who were coming to the hospital ,grabbed her and told the true story of what happened.
“When we asked Promise why he lied, he said his mother had told him what to say when asked how he sustained the injury.”
Mr. Agboola told Saturday PUNCH that by the time the boy was about to leave the clinic, he was crying.
“He said he did not want to go back home. We fed him, gave him any kind of food he wanted because I could not leave the boy to suffer even though nobody paid us any money for his treatment. We even prayed for him. Anytime we brought up the issue of who would take over his care when he was released from our hospital, he became very sad,” the pharmacist said.
Neighbours told our correspondent that Comfort sometimes punished the boy by smashing his head against a wall whenever he did something wrong.
Comfort was later handed over to the police at Ijaiye-Ojokoro Division.
Comfort, who is nursing a toddler, said Promise stepped on her baby, which was why she became angry.
When Promise’s biological father was later contacted, he initially said he wanted nothing to do with the issue.
“I have other children – I have produced boys and girls. Whatever she likes, she should do with her son. When she likes, she would take the boy to a motor park and send him to me through a driver,” the man said.
Later when he was told that his ex-wife was in police custody, he said he would come to Lagos to pick the boy.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Kenneth Nwosu, said Comfort would be arraigned as soon as possible.
He explained that Promise had been treated and discharged from hospital. As of the time of filing this report, Promise was being housed at the Lagos State social welfare home.
Later on Thursday, Comfort was arraigned at an Ojokoro Magistrate Court, Lagos on charges of assault occasioning harm and attempted murder.
Promise’s father also came to Lagos on Thursday to take the boy. The father declined to speak on the issue when our correspondent tried to ask him some questions. “I only came to Lagos to pick the boy,” he said.
Six-year-old Promise Eboye, should not be alive, at least going by the four gory looking stab injuries on his back. The boy survived an attack that would have killed even an adult had the injuries been sustained in vital parts of the body.
Promise, a bright and sharp boy lives with his mother and step-father in Kollington area of Ijaiye, Lagos, while his biological father lives in Benin, Edo State.
At about 8am on Monday, Promise’s mother, Comfort, stabbed her son four times, inflicting life-threatening injuries on the boy’s body.
The broken bottle the woman used on her son tore into the boy’s flesh inflicting one three-inch injury and another two-inch injury on the boy’s back. Two other wounds looked equally horrific but were not as long and deep as the other two.
Neighbours said if Promise had not run away from his mother, who held tight to his wrist and stabbed him as he screamed, he would have been stabbed to death.
What manner of crime could such a young boy have committed, people who witnessed the scene have asked.
On Wednesday, our correspondent visited the woman’s house on Olawoyin Street. The story that Promise, his neighbours and the hospital workers told could only be described as incredible.
Promise, who seems to have a remarkable memory, told Saturday PUNCH that his mother has a “N30 cane”, which she uses to flog him, even when he had no idea what he had done wrong. He said she would sometimes beat him till he could not walk.
“My mother is wicked,” Promise said simply, quietly. As shocking as that sounded, coming from a six-year-old, it explained the kind of treatment the boy had been experiencing in the hands of his mother.
Promise said he had been living with his father in Edo State since he was one year old. But when he was five, his mother came to take him from his father’s house.
The boy said, “I was sweeping the day she came. I did not know her as my mother. My father then told me that she was my mother and she had come to take me to Lagos.
“When we came to Lagos, I started to live with her and my step-father. But she beat me all the time.”
Asked what happened on Monday to make his mother stab him, Promise said he tripped and fell.
He said, “When I fell, my mother asked me what pushed me and why I fell. She was angry and went to take her N30 cane. When she was beating me too much and I was screaming, one of our neighbours came to hold her hand to take the cane away from her. The woman said I should run away because my mother would kill me the way she was beating me.
“My mother said ‘I will kill you, I will kill you’. When she could not find anything else to beat me with, she took a broken bottle on the ground and started to stab me on the back.”
Promise was rescued by alarmed residents, who took him to a private hospital nearby.
But by the time the boy was taken to the hospital, Comfort had planted another story in the boy’s head.
Pastor Charles Agboola, a pharmacist who founded the hospital, said the two people who brought Promise in said the boy fell down and landed on a broken bottle. When Agboola’s wife, a nurse, asked the boy what actually happened, Promise told her that he was watching two people fight when he sustained the injury.
The nurse told our correspondent, “He told me that they pushed him and he landed on the broken bottles but when I informed my husband, he said immediately that the story could not be true. I also noticed that the wounds were not consistent with that story.
“It was shocking that the boy’s mother was not remorseful in any way. It was when she dashed out of the door under the pretence that she was going to look for money for the boy’s treatment, that a crowd from their street, who were coming to the hospital ,grabbed her and told the true story of what happened.
“When we asked Promise why he lied, he said his mother had told him what to say when asked how he sustained the injury.”
Mr. Agboola told Saturday PUNCH that by the time the boy was about to leave the clinic, he was crying.
“He said he did not want to go back home. We fed him, gave him any kind of food he wanted because I could not leave the boy to suffer even though nobody paid us any money for his treatment. We even prayed for him. Anytime we brought up the issue of who would take over his care when he was released from our hospital, he became very sad,” the pharmacist said.
Neighbours told our correspondent that Comfort sometimes punished the boy by smashing his head against a wall whenever he did something wrong.
Comfort was later handed over to the police at Ijaiye-Ojokoro Division.
Comfort, who is nursing a toddler, said Promise stepped on her baby, which was why she became angry.
When Promise’s biological father was later contacted, he initially said he wanted nothing to do with the issue.
“I have other children – I have produced boys and girls. Whatever she likes, she should do with her son. When she likes, she would take the boy to a motor park and send him to me through a driver,” the man said.
Later when he was told that his ex-wife was in police custody, he said he would come to Lagos to pick the boy.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Kenneth Nwosu, said Comfort would be arraigned as soon as possible.
He explained that Promise had been treated and discharged from hospital. As of the time of filing this report, Promise was being housed at the Lagos State social welfare home.
Later on Thursday, Comfort was arraigned at an Ojokoro Magistrate Court, Lagos on charges of assault occasioning harm and attempted murder.
Promise’s father also came to Lagos on Thursday to take the boy. The father declined to speak on the issue when our correspondent tried to ask him some questions. “I only came to Lagos to pick the boy,” he said.
Uproar as Nigerians in UK pay N10, 000 for BVN
Nigerians on queue for their Bank Verification Number in London... on Friday. | credits: Source: Nairaland
Nigerians in London, United Kingdom, have expressed frustration over the compulsory payment of £30 (about N10, 000) for the registration of the Bank Verification Number, as directed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Apparently sad over their plight, some of them during the week stormed the Nigeria High Commission in London to protest against the directive of the apex bank. Others took to the social media to vent their anger.
The CBN had recently extended the deadline for the BVN registration from June 30 to October 31, 2015 as disclosed in a circular issued to all deposit money banks operating in the country.
The Director, Banking and Payment Systems Department of the CBN, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, said the extension became imperative in order to give bank customers more time to participate in the enrolment exercise.
The circular had read in part, “It has come to our notice that the BVN registration has elicited tremendous interest from the Nigerian banks’ customers who crowded the banking halls in order to beat the deadline.
“Furthermore, there is the need to give Nigerian banks’ customers in the Diaspora ample time to enrol on the programme. The guideline for their enrolment is being finalised and will be released soon.”
Though the BVN registration in Nigeria is free, Nigerians living in London have had to part with N10, 000 to enrol on the exercise.
The directive was said to have been issued by the apex bank, as confirmed by the UK chapter of the All Progressives Congress and Zenith Bank.
The APC, UK chapter, had asked the bank on Twitter about the authenticity of the directive and the bank replied, saying, “The letter is genuine. The fee is as communicated by CBN and the enrolment company was contracted by the CBN. We trust this helps.”
Meanwhile, a user of a popular blogging platform, Nairaland, by the name klem93, said he was shocked to have seen photos of Nigerians thronging the Nigeria High Commission in London in frustration.
He wrote, “I thought it is going to be smooth sailing as I read that BVN for Nigerians in London had begun. I didn’t know it is going to be the same way as it went in Nigeria. A reader of my blog who lives in London wrote me an email: ‘The Nigeria High Commission in London needs an urgent overhaul. This afternoon, we Nigerians were treated like animals in Fleet Street, London, all because we wanted to do BVN for those of us who have accounts in Nigeria.
“Things soon became chaotic and someone called police on us. They allowed us to converge on the street and then locked us out. We were also being forced to pay £30.00 each, but none of the officials or the website could explain what the money was meant for. Is it not free in Nigeria?”
Eleojoe23, another user of the platform, protested, “£30? What for? They truly deserve an explanation. Maybe the high commission thinks that since they live in London, they should have enough money to spare. Do they think people just go out and pick money on the streets in London?”
Another user of the platform, Julioralph, said, “30 pounds for what? Members of staff at the high commission should be changed. Even the CBN is at fault as well; they don’t have proper plans for those abroad concerning this BVN stuff.”
Attempts to get the comment of the ministry’s spokesperson, Ogbole Ahmedu-Ode, were not successful as he could not be reached on the phone. He also did not respond to a text message that was sent to him.
But investigations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs showed that the ministry was not involved in the BVN registration held in the UK.
A highly placed official in the ministry explained that the Nigeria High Commission in UK was not involved in the BVN registration, stressing that it was handled by a private firm which has no relationship with the embassy.
The source said that the high commission officials saw the posters advertising the BVN registration in London like other members of the public, noting that the “BVN registration was the private affair of a private company.”
“Neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Nigeria High Commission in the UK was involved in the BVN registration; the programme was handled by a private company which has no relationship with the ministry or the high commission,” the official said on Friday.
Also, the Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Mr. Mu’azu Ibrahim, could not be reached for comments as repeated calls made to his mobile phone did not connect.
Nigerians in London, United Kingdom, have expressed frustration over the compulsory payment of £30 (about N10, 000) for the registration of the Bank Verification Number, as directed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Apparently sad over their plight, some of them during the week stormed the Nigeria High Commission in London to protest against the directive of the apex bank. Others took to the social media to vent their anger.
The CBN had recently extended the deadline for the BVN registration from June 30 to October 31, 2015 as disclosed in a circular issued to all deposit money banks operating in the country.
The Director, Banking and Payment Systems Department of the CBN, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, said the extension became imperative in order to give bank customers more time to participate in the enrolment exercise.
The circular had read in part, “It has come to our notice that the BVN registration has elicited tremendous interest from the Nigerian banks’ customers who crowded the banking halls in order to beat the deadline.
“Furthermore, there is the need to give Nigerian banks’ customers in the Diaspora ample time to enrol on the programme. The guideline for their enrolment is being finalised and will be released soon.”
Though the BVN registration in Nigeria is free, Nigerians living in London have had to part with N10, 000 to enrol on the exercise.
The directive was said to have been issued by the apex bank, as confirmed by the UK chapter of the All Progressives Congress and Zenith Bank.
The APC, UK chapter, had asked the bank on Twitter about the authenticity of the directive and the bank replied, saying, “The letter is genuine. The fee is as communicated by CBN and the enrolment company was contracted by the CBN. We trust this helps.”
Meanwhile, a user of a popular blogging platform, Nairaland, by the name klem93, said he was shocked to have seen photos of Nigerians thronging the Nigeria High Commission in London in frustration.
He wrote, “I thought it is going to be smooth sailing as I read that BVN for Nigerians in London had begun. I didn’t know it is going to be the same way as it went in Nigeria. A reader of my blog who lives in London wrote me an email: ‘The Nigeria High Commission in London needs an urgent overhaul. This afternoon, we Nigerians were treated like animals in Fleet Street, London, all because we wanted to do BVN for those of us who have accounts in Nigeria.
“Things soon became chaotic and someone called police on us. They allowed us to converge on the street and then locked us out. We were also being forced to pay £30.00 each, but none of the officials or the website could explain what the money was meant for. Is it not free in Nigeria?”
Eleojoe23, another user of the platform, protested, “£30? What for? They truly deserve an explanation. Maybe the high commission thinks that since they live in London, they should have enough money to spare. Do they think people just go out and pick money on the streets in London?”
Another user of the platform, Julioralph, said, “30 pounds for what? Members of staff at the high commission should be changed. Even the CBN is at fault as well; they don’t have proper plans for those abroad concerning this BVN stuff.”
Attempts to get the comment of the ministry’s spokesperson, Ogbole Ahmedu-Ode, were not successful as he could not be reached on the phone. He also did not respond to a text message that was sent to him.
But investigations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs showed that the ministry was not involved in the BVN registration held in the UK.
A highly placed official in the ministry explained that the Nigeria High Commission in UK was not involved in the BVN registration, stressing that it was handled by a private firm which has no relationship with the embassy.
The source said that the high commission officials saw the posters advertising the BVN registration in London like other members of the public, noting that the “BVN registration was the private affair of a private company.”
“Neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Nigeria High Commission in the UK was involved in the BVN registration; the programme was handled by a private company which has no relationship with the ministry or the high commission,” the official said on Friday.
Also, the Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Mr. Mu’azu Ibrahim, could not be reached for comments as repeated calls made to his mobile phone did not connect.
Eid- el-Fitr: Boko Haram kills 50 at Yobe prayer grounds
MUSLIM FAITHFUL DURING THE EID EL-FITR PRAYER AT THE ALIKAZAURE CENTRAL EID PRAYING GROUND IN JOS... ON FRIDAY. PHOTO: NAN
Fifty persons were killed in two bomb explosions in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital on Friday.
A military source told one of our correspondents that 43 persons died in the first explosion which occurred at 7.40am and seven others in the second explosion, suspected to have been caused by Boko Haram insurgents.
Several other people were also said to have sustained various degrees of injuries from the explosions.
The source said the attacks were carried out by two female suicide bombers- an elderly woman and a ten-year-old girl- who were said to have detonated the explosive devices.
Also, residents confirmed that at least 50 persons were killed in the blasts.
The residents said the twin blasts occurred close to prayer grounds and at a time when Muslim faithful were gathering for the congregational prayer to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
The incidents occurred at Layin Gwange and ‘Phase 1’, opposite the former state secretariat in Damaturu.
A resident, Musa Yusuf, who spoke to one of our correspondents on the telephone, said the explosions had heightened the level of apprehension in the city.
He said, “There is apprehension in Damaturu as I’m talking to you; we are celebrating Sallah in fear with this morning explosions.”
It will be recalled that a ban on vehicular movements was announced in the state before the end of the Ramadan to forestall any breach in security.
An aid worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said as of that time, his team had evacuated “ten corpses from Phase I area.”
He said the bomb was targeted at the praying ground in the area and that several persons who were injured had been taken to a general hospital.
The aid worker also said that some aid workers had been dispatched to assess the situation at the scene of the second explosion, which he said occurred on the outskirts of the town.
However, the acting Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, in an official statement, said nine persons were killed in the attacks.
He said, “Four persons died in the first explosion and seven people (were) injured, while five people lost their lives in the second explosion and 11 wounded.”
Following the attack, the streets of Damaturu were deserted.
But the blasts did not affect Eid-el-Fitr prayers as hundreds of Muslim worshippers attended prayer grounds to thank Allah for the success of the Ramadan fast.
The Chief of Army Staff, Maj.-Gen. T. Y. Buratai, joined Governor Ibrahim Geidam Yobe State, some government officials and military personnel to pray at the state mosque and Islamic centre.
Buratai sympathised with the victims of the attacks and the people of the state, urging them to “stay calm and be security conscious.”
He said, “No amount of terrorist act would deter our resolve to stamp out terrorism and insurgency.”
In a related development, the Catholic Church in Borno State has said that Boko Haram has in the last one year bombed all the major bridges on four of the five highways linking Maiduguri with the rest of the country.
Lamenting that residents of the city were going through untold hardship and pain, the Social Communications Director of the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri, Borno State, Rev. Fr. Gideon Obasogie, claimed that the insurgent group had also planted landmines on roads, killing several travellers continually.
He added that commuting along the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway had become deadly.
He said, “Our people are still being massacred daily. Travelling from one part of the diocese to another has become dangerous. Commuting along the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway was halted again for the fourth time in a week, as security operatives battle to prevent travellers from driving into an ambush by the bloodthirsty insurgents.”
Meanwhile, the Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has described Boko Haram as a shame to the nation.
He said this at the Muslims praying ground in Abeokuta, shortly after the Eid-el-Fitr prayer.
Fifty persons were killed in two bomb explosions in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital on Friday.
A military source told one of our correspondents that 43 persons died in the first explosion which occurred at 7.40am and seven others in the second explosion, suspected to have been caused by Boko Haram insurgents.
Several other people were also said to have sustained various degrees of injuries from the explosions.
The source said the attacks were carried out by two female suicide bombers- an elderly woman and a ten-year-old girl- who were said to have detonated the explosive devices.
Also, residents confirmed that at least 50 persons were killed in the blasts.
The residents said the twin blasts occurred close to prayer grounds and at a time when Muslim faithful were gathering for the congregational prayer to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
The incidents occurred at Layin Gwange and ‘Phase 1’, opposite the former state secretariat in Damaturu.
A resident, Musa Yusuf, who spoke to one of our correspondents on the telephone, said the explosions had heightened the level of apprehension in the city.
He said, “There is apprehension in Damaturu as I’m talking to you; we are celebrating Sallah in fear with this morning explosions.”
It will be recalled that a ban on vehicular movements was announced in the state before the end of the Ramadan to forestall any breach in security.
An aid worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said as of that time, his team had evacuated “ten corpses from Phase I area.”
He said the bomb was targeted at the praying ground in the area and that several persons who were injured had been taken to a general hospital.
The aid worker also said that some aid workers had been dispatched to assess the situation at the scene of the second explosion, which he said occurred on the outskirts of the town.
However, the acting Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, in an official statement, said nine persons were killed in the attacks.
He said, “Four persons died in the first explosion and seven people (were) injured, while five people lost their lives in the second explosion and 11 wounded.”
Following the attack, the streets of Damaturu were deserted.
But the blasts did not affect Eid-el-Fitr prayers as hundreds of Muslim worshippers attended prayer grounds to thank Allah for the success of the Ramadan fast.
The Chief of Army Staff, Maj.-Gen. T. Y. Buratai, joined Governor Ibrahim Geidam Yobe State, some government officials and military personnel to pray at the state mosque and Islamic centre.
Buratai sympathised with the victims of the attacks and the people of the state, urging them to “stay calm and be security conscious.”
He said, “No amount of terrorist act would deter our resolve to stamp out terrorism and insurgency.”
In a related development, the Catholic Church in Borno State has said that Boko Haram has in the last one year bombed all the major bridges on four of the five highways linking Maiduguri with the rest of the country.
Lamenting that residents of the city were going through untold hardship and pain, the Social Communications Director of the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri, Borno State, Rev. Fr. Gideon Obasogie, claimed that the insurgent group had also planted landmines on roads, killing several travellers continually.
He added that commuting along the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway had become deadly.
He said, “Our people are still being massacred daily. Travelling from one part of the diocese to another has become dangerous. Commuting along the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway was halted again for the fourth time in a week, as security operatives battle to prevent travellers from driving into an ambush by the bloodthirsty insurgents.”
Meanwhile, the Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has described Boko Haram as a shame to the nation.
He said this at the Muslims praying ground in Abeokuta, shortly after the Eid-el-Fitr prayer.
Worries as poor fathers turn homes to torture chambers for children
Eight-year-old Shina Adegbolu, a basic three pupil of a primary school in Ikotun area of Lagos was taken for treatment at the Igando General Hospital on July 5, 2015. But an observant nurse knew something was wrong as soon as he saw the boy and his injuries.
Shina’s 34-year-old father, Idris, took him for treatment with the complaint that the boy fell down and sustained an injury on his buttocks.
But the nurse tactically separated the boy from his father and asked about the true cause of the extensive sore that had developed on the boy’s buttocks.
Shina quietly explained that he had not been able to sit for about five days since his father gave him a violent beating with a stick for stealing.
The nurse treated the boy but rather than confront the father, she took down his address and phone number and contacted a non-governmental organisation for action on the boy’s case.
When our correspondent tracked down the man, he confirmed the boy’s story even though he tried to play down the impact his beating had on his son.
“I only beat him once because he stole N500. I don’t usually beat him and I was just angry that day. That was why I beat him. The beating did not cause the sore. It was after he could not sit down that his step-mother used warm water to treat the buttocks and a tiny wound there developed into the sore,” Idris told our correspondent.
A subdued, shy and gaunt Shina told our correspondent that he was simply very hungry the day he took the money because his father and step-mother refused to feed him.
“When my father started to look for the money, I returned the N500. But he was angry and beat me till neighbours came to drag me away from him. I could not sit when I went to school and my teacher sent me home when I could not sit to write,” Shina said.
Neighbours at their Ikotun residence told Saturday PUNCH that Idris beat his son mercilessly regularly that they feared that he was going to kill him one day.
“Nobody said he should not discipline his child but it is no longer punishment when you beat a child as if you want to kill him,” one neighbour told our correspondent.
Cases of extreme corporal punishment in the hands of parents in Nigeria may not be an entirely new phenomenon but the recent rise in such deadly torture calls to question the laws protecting children and the reasons parents have to resort to such deadly means to discipline their children.
The United Nations Children’s Fund explains that child abuse includes all forms of physical and emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, and exploitation that result in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, development or dignity.
According to a UNICEF report on violence against children, on average, about six in 10 children worldwide (almost 1 billion) between the ages of two and 14 are subjected to physical (corporal) punishment by their caregivers on a regular basis, many of which lead to death.
UNICEF says Nigeria had the highest number of such deaths (due to intentional injuries) in 2012 with almost 13,000 deaths, followed by Brazil with approximately 11,000.
UNICEF agrees that reliable data on violence against children in Nigeria is scarce “because violence is often not reported as it occurs mostly within the context where it is regarded as ‘normal’ such as within the family circle or behind the privacy of homes.”
Deadly parents, frightening homefront
Idris maintained he was just trying to discipline his son to make him a better person. But for little Shina, that home is the most dreaded place in the world for him.
Our correspondent noticed the body language between Shina and his father. It was clearly of a boy that was terrified of the man he called father.
“My mummy is dead. I want to run away because my daddy beats me too much. But I don’t know where to go,” Shina told our correspondent out of the earshot of his father.
Idris was handed over to the police. But he was not charged to court.
He was made to write an undertaking that he would never hurt the boy and any extreme punishment would land him in bigger trouble.
“I am not a monster that they made me out to be. Is it wrong for one to punish his own child for wrongdoing?” he said.
Elsewhere in Lagos, a father fled home after nearly killing his daughter.
Thirty-seven-year-old Monsurat Kazeem was crying when she told our correspondent about her ordeal and that of her children in the hands of her 40-year-old husband, Kamoni.
“He has been acting like someone with a mental illness since he lost his job. Our lives have been hell,” she said.
But the problem in their house goes beyond just the maltreatment in the hands of Kamoni.
On July 7, 2015, vigilantes on a patrol rescued their 12-year-old daughter Kafayat, in the middle of the night as she hid in front of a shop at Oyingbo Market, Lagos.
The state in which the girl was found prompted the vigilantes to instantly rush the girl to the hospital.
She had been beaten brutally with a wire, leaving scary marks on the girl’s chest.
Kafayat said her father turned on her when she intervened in a fight between him and her mother as he brutalised her for playing lotto.
“My mother screamed for help as my daddy beat her. She was shouting for help but the neighbours did not come out. He was always beating her. But when I held his hand to stop, he started to beat me also.
“He did not use his hands to beat me, he used wire and I thought he was about to kill me. But after taking more than 20 lashes, I was able to run away. I want mummy to take us back to Ilorin. I am afraid of living with our father again.”
But Kafayat’s mother told a slightly different story.
She said, “Please, don’t think that I am trying to cover up for my husband. The truth is losing his job has affected him very much that he has become aggressive.
“I am a petty trader and whenever I go out to hawk, he accuses me of having an affair. There was a time he was arrested and sent to prison for something he did not do. I sold everything I had for his legal defence. I had to resort to playing lotto just to survive at the time.
“When he got back from prison, he started to harass me for playing lotto. He is always suspicious about everything I do. He always punishes the children but not up to inflicting so much injury like he did on Kafayat. Kafayat sometimes steals and that day, she did something wrong that angered her father. I only came back from hawking to see that he had brutally beaten and injured Kafayat and he was sorry for what he did.”
The police are looking for Kamoni presently as he has fled his home.
When our correspondent spoke with him on the phone, he was sobbing as he explained that his action was “the devil’s work.”
“Please, government should have mercy on me. I was not in my right mind when I beat my daughter to that extent. I was only afraid that they would lock me up; that’s why I ran away,” Kamoni said.
But for Kafayat, the scar of such violent treatment in the hands of her father is something she probably would live to remember. When our correspondent spoke with Kamoni on the phone, he was profusely apologetic.
“Please, I was only angry. I regret everything I did now. I love my daughter. But my anger overwhelmed me that day. I am willing to report myself to the government now. But please, I don’t want to be locked up,” he said.
For children like this, the home, which is supposed to provide the expected protection and warmth needed for their balanced development is like a torture chamber.
A United Nations’ report on violence against children states, “A basic assumption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, contained in its preamble, is that the family is the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members — and particularly children — thereby recognising that the family has the greatest potential to protect children and provide for their physical and emotional safety.
“The exposure of children to violence in their homes on a frequent basis, usually through fights between parents or between a mother and her partner, can severely affect a child’s well-being, personal development and social interaction in childhood and adulthood.”
The Nigerian Child Rights Acts 2003 expressly criminalises any form of punishment that harms a child either physically or emotionally.
Section 11 of the CRA states, “(a) No child shall be subjected to physical, mental or emotional injury, abuse, neglect or maltreatment, including sexual abuse; or (b) subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
But few parents seem to be aware that beating their children to the point of inflicting deadly injuries on them has become criminal in the country.
Ugly trend, frightening punishment
In May 2015, Ibrahim Bello, the father of a 16-year-old secondary school student, Kafayat, inflicted severe burn injury with a hot iron all over her body as punishment for leaving her duty post in her mother’s shop to play with friends. He had initially whipped her till the girl could not walk.
Around the same period, a five-year-old boy, Olamilekan Mustapha, was beaten to a coma by his father, Adigun, at Surulere area of Lagos, leaving gory looking stripes on the boy’s body when he was rescued by sympathisers.
More shocking was the case of 40-year-old Surulere Raphael, who cut off one of his daughter’s fingers in Jos, Plateau State on June 23, 2015 for stealing N1,500 and meat from a pot of soup.
These cases attest to the ugly trend of extreme punishment, which have turned homes to torture chambers for many children in the country.
Our correspondent went in search of Kafayat and Olamilekan to find out what has happened to them since their cases reached the authorities.
Deaths from extreme punishment
The culture of corporal punishment goes beyond the home front as many schools in the country still engage in this form of correctional action.
But unfortunately, every year in the last three years, one case or another has hit the consciousness of the nation as showing the danger in corporal punishment.
In October 2012, a teacher in a school in Awka, Anambra State, flogged a pupil, Chidinma Ukachukwu, to death for failing to do her homework. In November 2013, a primary school teacher in Ondo State flogged a female pupil, Elizabeth Wanogba, to death for being stubborn in class. He beat her till she fainted and she was pronounced dead in a hospital thereafter.
In one of the most alarming cases in recent times, in February 2014, Chris Elvis, a computer accessory trader in Lagos, padlocked the mouth of his son, Godrich, locked him up in the room and beat him to death accusing him of being an ‘Ogbanje’ (an evil child that dies and reincarnates repeatedly).
Shina’s 34-year-old father, Idris, took him for treatment with the complaint that the boy fell down and sustained an injury on his buttocks.
But the nurse tactically separated the boy from his father and asked about the true cause of the extensive sore that had developed on the boy’s buttocks.
Shina quietly explained that he had not been able to sit for about five days since his father gave him a violent beating with a stick for stealing.
The nurse treated the boy but rather than confront the father, she took down his address and phone number and contacted a non-governmental organisation for action on the boy’s case.
When our correspondent tracked down the man, he confirmed the boy’s story even though he tried to play down the impact his beating had on his son.
“I only beat him once because he stole N500. I don’t usually beat him and I was just angry that day. That was why I beat him. The beating did not cause the sore. It was after he could not sit down that his step-mother used warm water to treat the buttocks and a tiny wound there developed into the sore,” Idris told our correspondent.
A subdued, shy and gaunt Shina told our correspondent that he was simply very hungry the day he took the money because his father and step-mother refused to feed him.
“When my father started to look for the money, I returned the N500. But he was angry and beat me till neighbours came to drag me away from him. I could not sit when I went to school and my teacher sent me home when I could not sit to write,” Shina said.
Neighbours at their Ikotun residence told Saturday PUNCH that Idris beat his son mercilessly regularly that they feared that he was going to kill him one day.
“Nobody said he should not discipline his child but it is no longer punishment when you beat a child as if you want to kill him,” one neighbour told our correspondent.
Cases of extreme corporal punishment in the hands of parents in Nigeria may not be an entirely new phenomenon but the recent rise in such deadly torture calls to question the laws protecting children and the reasons parents have to resort to such deadly means to discipline their children.
The United Nations Children’s Fund explains that child abuse includes all forms of physical and emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, and exploitation that result in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, development or dignity.
According to a UNICEF report on violence against children, on average, about six in 10 children worldwide (almost 1 billion) between the ages of two and 14 are subjected to physical (corporal) punishment by their caregivers on a regular basis, many of which lead to death.
UNICEF says Nigeria had the highest number of such deaths (due to intentional injuries) in 2012 with almost 13,000 deaths, followed by Brazil with approximately 11,000.
UNICEF agrees that reliable data on violence against children in Nigeria is scarce “because violence is often not reported as it occurs mostly within the context where it is regarded as ‘normal’ such as within the family circle or behind the privacy of homes.”
Deadly parents, frightening homefront
Idris maintained he was just trying to discipline his son to make him a better person. But for little Shina, that home is the most dreaded place in the world for him.
Our correspondent noticed the body language between Shina and his father. It was clearly of a boy that was terrified of the man he called father.
“My mummy is dead. I want to run away because my daddy beats me too much. But I don’t know where to go,” Shina told our correspondent out of the earshot of his father.
Idris was handed over to the police. But he was not charged to court.
He was made to write an undertaking that he would never hurt the boy and any extreme punishment would land him in bigger trouble.
“I am not a monster that they made me out to be. Is it wrong for one to punish his own child for wrongdoing?” he said.
Elsewhere in Lagos, a father fled home after nearly killing his daughter.
Thirty-seven-year-old Monsurat Kazeem was crying when she told our correspondent about her ordeal and that of her children in the hands of her 40-year-old husband, Kamoni.
“He has been acting like someone with a mental illness since he lost his job. Our lives have been hell,” she said.
But the problem in their house goes beyond just the maltreatment in the hands of Kamoni.
On July 7, 2015, vigilantes on a patrol rescued their 12-year-old daughter Kafayat, in the middle of the night as she hid in front of a shop at Oyingbo Market, Lagos.
The state in which the girl was found prompted the vigilantes to instantly rush the girl to the hospital.
She had been beaten brutally with a wire, leaving scary marks on the girl’s chest.
Kafayat said her father turned on her when she intervened in a fight between him and her mother as he brutalised her for playing lotto.
“My mother screamed for help as my daddy beat her. She was shouting for help but the neighbours did not come out. He was always beating her. But when I held his hand to stop, he started to beat me also.
“He did not use his hands to beat me, he used wire and I thought he was about to kill me. But after taking more than 20 lashes, I was able to run away. I want mummy to take us back to Ilorin. I am afraid of living with our father again.”
But Kafayat’s mother told a slightly different story.
She said, “Please, don’t think that I am trying to cover up for my husband. The truth is losing his job has affected him very much that he has become aggressive.
“I am a petty trader and whenever I go out to hawk, he accuses me of having an affair. There was a time he was arrested and sent to prison for something he did not do. I sold everything I had for his legal defence. I had to resort to playing lotto just to survive at the time.
“When he got back from prison, he started to harass me for playing lotto. He is always suspicious about everything I do. He always punishes the children but not up to inflicting so much injury like he did on Kafayat. Kafayat sometimes steals and that day, she did something wrong that angered her father. I only came back from hawking to see that he had brutally beaten and injured Kafayat and he was sorry for what he did.”
The police are looking for Kamoni presently as he has fled his home.
When our correspondent spoke with him on the phone, he was sobbing as he explained that his action was “the devil’s work.”
“Please, government should have mercy on me. I was not in my right mind when I beat my daughter to that extent. I was only afraid that they would lock me up; that’s why I ran away,” Kamoni said.
But for Kafayat, the scar of such violent treatment in the hands of her father is something she probably would live to remember. When our correspondent spoke with Kamoni on the phone, he was profusely apologetic.
“Please, I was only angry. I regret everything I did now. I love my daughter. But my anger overwhelmed me that day. I am willing to report myself to the government now. But please, I don’t want to be locked up,” he said.
For children like this, the home, which is supposed to provide the expected protection and warmth needed for their balanced development is like a torture chamber.
A United Nations’ report on violence against children states, “A basic assumption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, contained in its preamble, is that the family is the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members — and particularly children — thereby recognising that the family has the greatest potential to protect children and provide for their physical and emotional safety.
“The exposure of children to violence in their homes on a frequent basis, usually through fights between parents or between a mother and her partner, can severely affect a child’s well-being, personal development and social interaction in childhood and adulthood.”
The Nigerian Child Rights Acts 2003 expressly criminalises any form of punishment that harms a child either physically or emotionally.
Section 11 of the CRA states, “(a) No child shall be subjected to physical, mental or emotional injury, abuse, neglect or maltreatment, including sexual abuse; or (b) subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
But few parents seem to be aware that beating their children to the point of inflicting deadly injuries on them has become criminal in the country.
Ugly trend, frightening punishment
In May 2015, Ibrahim Bello, the father of a 16-year-old secondary school student, Kafayat, inflicted severe burn injury with a hot iron all over her body as punishment for leaving her duty post in her mother’s shop to play with friends. He had initially whipped her till the girl could not walk.
Around the same period, a five-year-old boy, Olamilekan Mustapha, was beaten to a coma by his father, Adigun, at Surulere area of Lagos, leaving gory looking stripes on the boy’s body when he was rescued by sympathisers.
More shocking was the case of 40-year-old Surulere Raphael, who cut off one of his daughter’s fingers in Jos, Plateau State on June 23, 2015 for stealing N1,500 and meat from a pot of soup.
These cases attest to the ugly trend of extreme punishment, which have turned homes to torture chambers for many children in the country.
Our correspondent went in search of Kafayat and Olamilekan to find out what has happened to them since their cases reached the authorities.
Deaths from extreme punishment
The culture of corporal punishment goes beyond the home front as many schools in the country still engage in this form of correctional action.
But unfortunately, every year in the last three years, one case or another has hit the consciousness of the nation as showing the danger in corporal punishment.
In October 2012, a teacher in a school in Awka, Anambra State, flogged a pupil, Chidinma Ukachukwu, to death for failing to do her homework. In November 2013, a primary school teacher in Ondo State flogged a female pupil, Elizabeth Wanogba, to death for being stubborn in class. He beat her till she fainted and she was pronounced dead in a hospital thereafter.
In one of the most alarming cases in recent times, in February 2014, Chris Elvis, a computer accessory trader in Lagos, padlocked the mouth of his son, Godrich, locked him up in the room and beat him to death accusing him of being an ‘Ogbanje’ (an evil child that dies and reincarnates repeatedly).
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