The Senate has passed a bill which prescribes life jail, as against the current 10 years maximum sentence , for kidnappers .
The bill contains amendments to the criminal code which is currently in operation in the southern part of Nigeria .
The proposed legislation , sponsored by Senator Oluremi Tinubu , is titled, “ A bill for an Act to amend the Criminal Code Act CAP. C. 38 , Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2004 . ”
It seeks to delete the statute of limitation on defilement , increase punishment for the offence of kidnapping , and remove gender restrictions in the offence of rape and other related matters.
The bill eliminates time frame for prosecuting defilement cases by increasing the period from two months to as many years as the victim decide to take up the manner .
It also removes gender restrictions on the offence of rape by explaining that both male and female could be raped .
The Minister of State Labour , Festus Keyamo (SAN ), has secured the approval of the President , Major General Muhammadu Buhari ( retd . ) to begin the recruitment of 774 , 000 youths under the Special Public Works Programme.
Keyamo confirmed that the President had directed him to continue with the exercise which was earlier suspended by the National Assembly following a disagreement with the minister .
The minister in a text message to news correspondent said , “ I have the instructions of my boss , Mr President , to proceed with the supervision of the preparation for the execution of the programme in accordance with the law . ”
He argued that the lawmakers had no power to give directives to the executive under section 88 of the 1999 constitution .
He stated, “ I only insisted on the provision of the constitution; I insist that they have no power under section 88 of the 1999 constitution . Their powers under section 88 of the 1999 Constitution is only limited to investigations, but not to give any directive to the executive. ”
Findings indicate that the SPWG portal , https /specialpublicworks . gov . ng/ site / is now live . It contains the list of state selection committee members inaugurated by the minister a few weeks ago and other tips on the exercise .
The House of Representatives has called on the President , Major General Muhammadu Buhari ( retd . ), to order a partial reopening of schools to allow pupils sit for the 2020 West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination .
The House made the call at the plenary following a unanimous adoption of a motion moved by a member , Nnolim Nnaji .
The Committee on Basic Education and Services had earlier on Friday faulted the decision by the Federal Government to suspend the plan to partially reopen schools for pupils in final classes to take external examinations .
The committee had particularly criticised the decision to disallow Nigerian pupils from sitting for WASSCE to be conducted by the West African Examination Council for the 2019 /2020 academic session .
Schools at all levels have been shut since March due to the COVID- 19 pandemic .
Ivory Coast’s Vice President, Daniel Kablan Duncan, has stepped down, the presidency said , an announcement that comes on the heels of the sudden death of Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly on July 8.
Kablan Duncan, 77, “handed his resignation to the president on personal grounds on February 27”, it said in a statement read by chief of staff Patrick Achi.
“After several conversations, the latest of which took place on July 7, the president accepted (it) and on July 8 signed the decree ending Mr Kablan Duncan’s duties.”
Rumours that Kablan Duncan would be leaving office have circulated for several days.
He has traditionally been seen as close to President Alassane Ouattara, even though he is a member of a party that was once part of his political alliance before joining the opposition.
A veteran figure of Ivorian politics, Kablan Duncan served as foreign minister from 2011-12 and then as prime minister in charge of economy and finance from 2012-17.
In January 2017, he became the first vice president in Ivory Coast’s history, taking up a post created under a new constitution adopted in 2016.
Ouattara “would like to pay tribute to a great servant of the state, a man of power and commitment,” the statement added.
His departure was announced just five days after the shock death of Coulibaly, 61, a popular figure seen as Ouattara’s anointed successor for elections due in October.
The Kwara State branch of the Nigeria Medical Association has said that people should avoid paying unnecessary visits or consultations to hospitals to minimise the spread of the coronavirus pandemic .
It said 35 doctors had so far been tested positive for COVID – 19 since the virus manifested in the state .
Dr Kolade Solagberu , NMA Chairman , disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Ilorin on events heralding the association ’ s 2020 Annual General Meeting .
Solagberu , however , noted that the association had not recorded any casualty among its members.
He cautioned residents to disregard the beliefs that COVID- 19 was not real and was only a money – making avenue for the government .
” Residents should help the doctors to help them by not paying unnecessary visits or consultations to hospitals.
” For now , people should avoid visiting the hospital except for life- threatening issues .
” We advise people to engage in e -health service instead of physical consultation to avoid contact as much as possible .
” People should stop unnecessary visits to patients in the hospital . Those who follow a patient waiting to be attended to , are not encouraged for now.
” You should just help us to help you because the less the number of patients we attend to , the less the chances of spreading the virus .
” This is because every patient is a potential COVID- 19 case , ” he said .
South Africa has introduced new restrictions, including another ban on alcohol sales, to help contain the spread of coronavirus.
A night-time curfew will also be in place from Monday, and the wearing of masks outdoors is now compulsory.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the alcohol ban – South Africa’s second this year – would take the pressure off the national healthcare system.
It comes as total infections exceed a quarter of a million.
Deaths resulting from coronavirus have also risen to more than 4,000, and government projections estimate this could rise to 50,000 by the end of the year.
South Africa remains the hardest-hit country on the continent, and earlier this week recorded its highest-ever single-day increase in cases. Nearly half of them were in Gauteng, a province that’s become the outbreak epicenter.
In a public address, Mr. Ramaphosa acknowledged “most” people had taken action to help prevent the spread, but he said there were still some who acted “without any responsibility to respect and protect each other”.
“There are a number of people who have taken to organising parties, who have drinking sprees, and some who walk around crowded spaces without wearing masks,” said the president.
Mr. Ramaphosa said the new measures were being introduced to help the country to weather the storm of coronavirus, and a state of emergency would be extended until 15 August. The night-time ban would be in place from 21:00 to 04:00.
The alcohol ban comes just weeks after another three-month ban was lifted in an effort to prevent drunken fighting, cut domestic violence, and eliminate weekend binge-drinking prevalent across South Africa.
Doctors and police say the previous ban contributed to a sharp drop in emergency admissions to hospital. But the country’s brewers and winemakers complained they were being driven out of business.
State governments in the country have been told not to go ahead and enrol their schools in this year’s West African Senior Secondary School Examination. WASSCE, if the Federal Government-owned schools are not going to take part in same.
If they go ahead, according to the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, and the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria, NAPTAN, it will not only distort the education sector but will also create chaos that may be very difficult to remediate.
The National Treasurer of the NUT, Mr Segun Raheem and the National President of NAPTAN, Haruna Danjuma, said this in separate chats with newsmen.
Raheem said there was a stakeholders’ meeting with the Federal Ministry of Education and other government agencies concerned with the COVID-19 pandemic in which NUT was present, and where it was agreed that anything that would lead to chaos should be avoided.
“We all know that education is on the Concurrent List in the Constitution and that is why when the Federal Government said its schools would not open now, and advised the state governments to key into that. NUT has asked every state chapter to look into the peculiarities of their states and be guided accordingly.
” Some states have gone far in preparing their terminal students for their final examinations. I am from Lagos State and I can say boldly that the Commissioner for Education has done a lot in this respect. However, schools cannot be reopened unless it is safe to do so.
‘Before the pandemic got to this level, the NCDC said each state should prepare at least 300-bed isolation centre, how many states were able to do that?
“We have to be careful not to use our children as laboratory rats. If the affected students sit for WASSCE now, will they be admitted to the university immediately? No. Some countries reopened schools.and shut them down almost immediately. It is not appropriate that some states will sit for WASSCE and others will not,” he said.
Raheem also noted that it would not be proper to compare Nigeria with other member states of the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, saying the countries were not up to four states in Nigeria in terms of population.
While empathising with private school owners and teachers, the NUT national treasurer opined that it would be in the best interest of all if schools are reopened in a safe environment.
NAPTAN National President, Danjuma, in his opinion, said even if it is the National Examinations Council, NECO, solely owned by Nigerian, nobody should contemplate some states sitting for WASSCE while others would not.
“WAEC is an international body and the examination it conducts is recognised globally. It won’t be appropriate for it to handle examination for a few states and others won’t take part. I advise state governments to liaise with the FG and do the needful. I also hope the FG would have a rethink about the issue too,” he stated.
The suspended Acting Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, has again been accused of allegedly failing to give a proper account of missing 332 out of the 836 recovered real estate property in March 2018.
A report by the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets, PCARA, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, confirmed the development, indicating that the said property worth billions of naira.
The report also noted massive wastage and deterioration of physical assets (including landed property, cars and vessels) recovered by the EFCC due to poor management.
It also noted with concern the failure to preserve and realise the economic value of the recovered assets, noting that some of the assets were recovered over 15 years ago and left fallow.
“A disturbing example is the two vessels that allegedly sunk at NNS Beecroft Naval BASE, Lagos and NNS Pathfinder Naval Base in Port Harcourt without trace under the watch of the acting Chairman of EFCC.
“The vessels named MT GOOD SUCCESS, MV PSV DERBY and MV THAMES were allowed to sink in spite of several warnings from the Navy on the need to evacuate the petroleum products in the vessels.
“The total value of the assets lost due to the negligence runs into millions of US dollars.
“The (suspended) acting Chairman is yet to provide a report on what happened to these vessels,’’ the report said.
The report read in part: “For instance, EFCC stated 836 as the number of Recovered Real Estate in the Original Returns it made to the President on 07/04/2017.
“However, in its 1st Returns to PCARA on 13/12/2017, EFCC short-changed the system and gave the figure of 339, thereby failing to account for 497 property.
“It is interesting to note that when the Acting Chairman was further queried on this lapse, he made further contradictory 2nd return of 504 on 09/03/2018 thereby bridging the gap to 332 property.’’
The suspended EFCC boss was also alleged to have neglected and refused to comply with the Regulations on the Management of Recovered Assets, 2019 as he embarked on disposing of some of the property without regard to extant law.
“These Regulations were issued in line with international best practices and to ensure that all the anti-corruption agencies report all their recovered assets in a database provided by the Federal Government.
’’It is important to note that the (suspended) Acting Chairman in apparent disregard of the regulation is disposing of these properties without regard to extant laws, and regulations and without reference to the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and in effect, there is no way to have an audit of the property.
“This is also a clear sign that there is a deliberate attempt to hide the exact figures of recoveries, which is an indication of fraudulent intent.
“These actions of the (suspended) Acting Chairman in refusing the Regulation is a clear case of refusal to follow lawful instructions and directives contrary to the provisions of the Act that establish the EFCC,’’ a separate report on the matter, addressed to the President, further noted.
The report also listed the number of the affected properties suspected to have been illegally acquired as well as the bank accounts of those individuals serving as fronts for the affected EFCC officials.
“Most of the recovered assets are allegedly sold without anyone knowing and without proper records and without recourse to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing that has the mandate to undertake the evaluation of such property.
“Some of the assets have been taken over by EFCC officials while some are sold at a giveaway price to friends and cronies of the officials, who maintain different accounts, using proxies.
“These funds are then used to procure property and lands in the names of some of the proxies,” the report further stated.
Doctors employed by the Lagos State Government will on Monday begin a three- day warning strike , according to reports.
The Chairman of the Medical Guild, Lagos , Dr Oluwajimi Sodipo, at a briefing , said the doctors were embarking on the strike after the ultimatum given to the Lagos State Government had expired .
He said , “Following the emergency congress of the Medical Guild held on June 27 , we resolved that the previous 21 days ultimatum given to the state government be extended by a further two weeks during which representative council meeting should be held to review the resolutions of the congress and activate the three-day warning strike if 70 per cent of the Guild’ s demands are not met . ”
Sodipo said the demands of the Guild include the wage disparity between the federal and Lagos doctors .
“ The issues of COVID- 19 hazard allowance and inducement allowances MOU approved by the federal government to her doctors have not been approved by the Lagos State Government to her doctors .
“ The doctors working in the COVID- 19 isolation centres are still being owed two months’ salaries which have remained unpaid at the moment . They are also being unceremoniously disengaged without recourse to their welfare.
“ The issue of shortage of doctors in the health facilities are yet to be resolved and with no substantive action taken by the state government t resolve the issue, ” Sodipo said .
/specialpublicworks . gov . ng/ site / is now live . It contains the list of state selection committee members inaugurated by the minister a few weeks ago and other tips on the exercise .
LatestNewsUpdates 