SEX FOR MARK'S SCANDAL: OAU SACKS PROFESSOR INVOLVED

Prof. Richard Akindele

 

The Governing Council of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) has dismissed Professor Richard Akindele from the services of the University for gross misconduct.

Vice Chancellor of OAU, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, disclosed this to reporters after the meeting of the Council on Wednesday in Ile Ife, Osun State.

He revealed that the Council, after its findings, concluded that Professor Akindele had an inappropriate relationship with one of his students, Miss Monica Osagie, a claim to which he admitted.

The Council also discovered that the don had offered to change Osagie’s 33 per cent result to a pass mark, in consideration for sexual favours.

According to the vice chancellor, this was established in an audio recording that went viral in early April which Akindele also admitted to.

He informed journalists that from the evidence, Miss Osagie had no idea that she scored 45 per cent pass mark as claimed by the erring professor, although the student later found out she did not fail the course.

Professor Ogunbodede noted that the Council, from all findings, found out that Professor Akindele operated in a position of power and authority over Miss Osagie and as such sexually harassed her.

He added that Professor Akindele was found to be liable for all allegations of misconduct levelled against him with all the evidence at the Council’s disposal.

The VC pointed out that this led to the dismissal of the academic from the services of the university, to serve as a deterrent to others.

He disclosed further that the university has taken further steps to ensure total elimination of sexual harassment in the OAU community.

According to Ogunbodede, the institution has a legal duty to prevent sexual and gender-based harassment within the school and to ensure that both men and women are protected from the menace.

To achieve this, he said the university has put a strategic implementation framework for sexual harassment policy in place.

The vice chancellor explained that this would ensure effective and rapid redress mechanisms to incidents of sexual harassment, just as a whistleblower policy is also being developed by the university.

ARMEDMEN ABDUCT, ABDUCT NNPC OFFICIAL IN RIVERS

A group of hoodlums have kidnapped and killed a senior official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation identified as John Ihenacho.

Ihenacho was said to have been abducted by the hoodlums in Ndoki community in Oyigbo Local Government Area last week before he was killed by his captors, who had earlier collected ransom.

It was learnt that the victim was later buried in a shallow grave, even as sources said that ransom was paid in foreign currency.

However, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, said some of the suspected kidnappers had been arrested.

Omoni told our correspondent in a telephone interview that it was during the interrogation of the suspect that they confessed to the crime and took security operatives to where the late NNPC official was buried.

“I can confirm to you that we have arrested some of the suspects involved in the crime and investigation is ongoing. The State Police Command is after other members of the kidnap gang that killed the NNPC official,” the state police spokesman added.

PRESIDENT BUHARI TO SIGN 2018 BUDGET ON WEDNESDAY

President M. Buhari

 
President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to sign the 2018 appropriation bill into law on Wednesday, June 2018.

The weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting for this Wednesday might also not hold due to the budget signing and Public holidays of Friday and Monday.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, at the end of FEC meeting last week informed journalists that President Buhari will sign the 2018 budget this week.

The Presidency had received the appropriation bill from the National Assembly on May 25 after it was signed by the lawmakers.

President Buhari presented a budget proposal of N8.612 trillion to the lawmakers earlier in 2017 with hopes that the bill would be passed in December of that year, but it took six months for that to happen with the lawmakers accusing ministries, departments, and agencies of frustrating the passage by failing to submit the breakdowns of their budget proposals.

The National Assembly, however, increased the proposal by N508billion bringing it to N9.12 trillion from the original estimate of N8.6 trillion.

During the budget presentation, the President had noted that the Appropriation Bill will consolidate on the achievements of the previous budget and that 2018 is expected to be a year of better outcomes.

MASSOB LEADER UWAZURUIKE, JAILED BY COURT FOR CONTEMPT

Founder of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, has been sentenced to one month in prison by a High Court in Owerri, the Imo State capital.

The court order, which was served to the police last Thursday, signed by J.C. Okoro Esq. and dated June 6, 2018, indicates that Uwazuruike will be in prison custody for one month for contempt of court.

News report has it that upon reading through the Motion On Notice filed on July 6, 2017, praying for an order of court to commit the plaintiff in the substantive suit, Uwazuruike, to prison for disobeying the order of court made on Wednesday, April 2, 2014 and after due consideration of the unchallenged oral evidence of the 1st defendant, Chigozie Iheama and exhibits tendered in the contempt proceedings, the presiding judge, Justice Kemakolam Ojiako, ruled that:

“The plaintiff, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, is hereby found guilty of contempt to the said order of court made on April 2, 2014.

“That the plaintiff, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, is hereby sentenced to prison custody and shall be so detained for a period of one month from the date of his commitment to prison.”

Uwazuruike, his agents and proxies have also been restrained from entering into the said land subject matter until the suit is determined. This judgement is coming after Uwazuruike dragged Iheama to court in 2013 over a land transaction issue in suit No. HOW/265/2013. According to Iheama, from 2013 to 2017 that the case was on, Uwazuruike had refused to appear in court in a matter he is the plaintiff.

However before the matter was transferred to the present court, the former judge, Justice Florence Duruoha Igwe, was hearing contempt proceedings against Uwazuruike for defying the orders of court for parties to maintain status quo and commencing building on the disputed land. Iheama alleged that plots by the MASSOB leader to frustrate justice, did not stop when the matter was transferred to the court of Justice Kemakolam Ojiako.

“Consequent order of the court to seal the property by chaining and padlocking the gates was subverted by Uwazuruike who instead removed the gate and sealed up the area with a block wall, making it impossible for court officials to enforce the order,” he said.

On his own part, Uwazuruike had, however, argued that he was not under obligation to be in court as the case was a civil matter. But Iheama differed, saying that the case at hand was the contempt proceedings and not the substantive suit.

While Justice Ojiako noted in his ruling that “the substantive proceeding is adjourned to the July 10, 2018, to await the outcome of the Motion for Stay of proceedings,” counsel to the MASSOB leader, Emma Chukwuka, said that hearing on the appealed suit comes up on October 2, 2018.

WHY WE CANNOT INVESTIGATE OBASANJO’S $16 BILLION POWER PROJECT – SAGAY

 Prof. Itse  Sagay

Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), has said his committee cannot investigate the failed $16 billion National Integrated Power Project carried out during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

However, Sagay speaking to Independent said his committee had not looked into the project because it did not have the mandate to do so. He said investigation and prosecution were the responsibilities of anti-corruption agencies.

He said: “When the time comes, we will meet with Buhari on the power project. It is an issue that we were not seriously thinking about in my committee.

“As I said, the anti-corruption agencies are the ones who have all the facts and figures.

“So, we will meet them and give them the initiatives, but if this thing becomes a political issue, it may be necessary to dig in, get the facts and take the appropriate action.

“If anybody wants to make capital of politics by running down the government – which is the most upright government we have had since Murtala Mohammed government – then, this government may have to show that it is a government of principle and a government that has a will to suppress corruption, and those who challenge it will face the music.

“It is not that we don’t want to look into the issue of the $16 billion power project because of the former president but the truth is that my committee doesn’t have that power.

“We don’t do investigation or prosecution. Our work is mainly that of a think-tank. In other words, we do activities to give the anti-corruption agencies greater capacity to make them more effective.

“We make proposals to the government to help the fight against corruption. For example, we have been engaged in training of judges and prosecutors both at the federal and state levels.

“We have been engaged in preparing manuals for prosecutors to use, preparing sentencing guidelines for judges to use.

“We also draft the bill on proceeds of crime which will give the agencies power to seize assets that they suspect have been acquired by crime or illegitimately, putting anyone claiming it under the obligation of establishing how he got it.

“We have a draft of that; it is with the National Assembly. We have a special crimes court which would have done more effectively what the Chief Justice has done by saying that certain courts should be set aside for crimes, particularly corruption.

“Of course, we also write regular advice to the president over issues that we think are pertinent towards the fight against corruption,” he said.

DO YOU KNOW: FAILURE TO SUBMIT YOUR PUBLISHED BOOK TO THE NATIONAL LIBRARY ATTRACTS A FINE?

FAILURE to submit a copy of one’s published book to the National Library within one month of publication is an offence and is punishable, on conviction by a fine.

This is according to section four of the National Library Act which has been in existence since June 1, 1970.

Titled “deposit obligations”, section 4(1) of the National Library Act read: “The publisher of every book published in Nigeria shall, within one month after the publication, deliver at his own expense to the National Library three copies of the book, two of which shall be kept in the National Library for permanent preservation and one of which shall be sent by the Director to the Ibadan University Library.”

The law also states that “If a publisher fails to comply with any provision of subsection (1) or (2) of this section, he shall be guilty of an offence and on conviction shall be liable to a fine not exceeding N100; and the court before which he is convicted may in addition order him to deliver to the Director three copies of the book in question or to pay to the Director the value of those copies.”

Apparently, many Nigerian publishers do not know about the existence of this law, or they deliberately flout it, perhaps due to the insignificant fine attached to it.

And this could be one of the reasons the National Library is full of outdated books, as revealed by a recent investigation by Premium Times which detailed how Nigeria’s National Library has been left in a state of utter decay, characterised by a bushy surrounding, dilapidated infrastructure, old books and poorly-motivated staff.

A staff of the National Library who pleaded anonymity said the situation was due to poor funding from the federal government. This is despite the fact that N3.5 billion was allocated to the Library in the 2017 budget and another N3.5 billion has been allocated to it in the yet-to-be signed 2018 budget.

“We are supposed to update our shelves yearly but because of the funds, it has not been so. We get our materials from gifts and exchange, book donations and hand purchases and most of our materials are outdated.

“Its not like they bring new books. They only bring the ones processed from the headquarters and the last time we received materials was last year,” the source said.

Experts say there is need for lawmakers to revisit the National Library Act and change some of the provisions that are obsolete, with a view to breathing new life into Nigeria’s National Library, which, in ideal terms, should be a national icon.

FATHERS DAY: SOME FATHERS IN OSUN STATE LAMENTS DIFFICULTIES OVER RESPONSIBILITIES AT THE HOME FRONT

AS Nigerians celebrate this year’s Fathers’ Day, some fathers, who spoke to Sunday Tribune in Osogbo, Osun State, on Saturday lamented socio-economic difficulties they face in fulfilling their responsibilities as fathers.

Sizable number of them blamed their predicaments on poverty and the prevailing harsh economy of the country, which they claimed had been worsened by irregular payment of salaries to workers.

Mr Bimbo Olowookere said, “as a father, to take care of my family has been very difficult due to lack of funds. Everything have changed in the country. Payment of school fees and house rent have not been easy. Feeding the family has been difficult for me.

He continued, “with the situation on the ground, the government is not ready to assist fathers, more so as some of us, who are civil servants, are not getting our salaries as at when due. As a father, your family expect you to take care of them. Nowadays, taking care of the family financially is not easy.

The most important thing that affects us as fathers is the irregular payment of salary”. “Paying half salary to a father is not ideal because you have budgeted for a lot of things and at the end of the month, they give you half salary. That is major reason why things are difficult for us as fathers.

As a father, we face so many responsibilities from our family and family of our father and mother-in laws. Even, socially, we have responsibilities to take care of. I urge the government to come to our aid by paying our salaries and granting us soft loans of zero per cent interest,” Olowookere remarked.

An artisan, Mr Kazeem Adekunle, who is an artisan stated low patronage from customers has negatively affected his string of income, thus preventing him from playing his roles effectively as father in the house.

According to Adekunle, the bad economy has taken a toll on my work.We are not getting jobs from our customers again as we used to get. The complain almost everywhere is that lack of money. When your customers cannot feed well, how do you expect him give you jobs to do?