The presiding judge, Justice Polycarp Hamman, gave the order while ruling on the matter.
Recall that Amannah Peace and three others representing sacked workers from the Polytechnic formerly known as Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori, had dragged the Rivers State Government to court for unlawfully sacking them.
Justice Hamman, who ordered that the 217 workers be reinstated, also mandated the authorities to pay all their outstanding salaries.
Speaking to newsmen outside the courtroom, one of the lawyers for the sacked staff, Courage Nsirimovu, said it was clear that the Rivers State Government erred in its decision.
Nsirimovu advised the Rivers State Government not to appeal the judgement.
“Every party had the right to appeal. The moment court has said they should be reinstated, the status quo is that right now, they are employees of Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic. Any person that harasses them will have to face the court for contempt proceedings,” he said.
Pantami, who disclosed this at the 10th edition of the Nigerian Internet Governance Forum organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission held in Abuja, added that government was working to ensure that the average price of broadband goes down to enable low income earners afford it.
“There is a lot to be done in terms of broadband penetration because as it is today, in rural communities, only 10 per cent globally have access to fixed broadband infrastructure.
“Because of this, we are working to ensure that broadband infrastructure is accessible and affordable in the rural communities. It is for this reason that most of our policies are arranged to address the challenges that make the internet expensive.
“Average price of broadband in 2019 was 1200 per linear but now has dropped by more than 50 per cent, it is around 500.
“To me this is not sufficient. We must continue to work to ensure the average price of broadband goes down so that low income earners can afford it.
“In addition, we have been addressing the issue that increases the cost of production. Before now the charges for RoW was 6000 per linear metre now has dropped by more than 98 per cent, some states charge as low as 145.
“One of the issues preventing our service providers from lowering the price of broadband.
“Also, Mr. President has directed the office of the Nigerian Security Adviser to give protection to all ICT infrastructures for free. This lowers the cost of production.
“We are also engaging with the ministry of finance, Governors Forum and the Federal Economic Council to address the issue of multiple taxation and we have recorded tremendous success.” Pantami said.
Buhari disclosed this in his nationwide broadcast to Nigerians to mark the nation’s 61st independence.
The President said, “Social media is a very useful platform that has enabled millions of Nigerians to connect with loved ones, promote their businesses, socialise, and access news and other information.
“However, recent events have shown that the platform is not just an innocuous platform for information dissemination.
“Rather some users have misused the platform to organise, coordinate, and execute criminal activities, propagate fake news, and promote ethnic and religious sentiments.
“Following the suspension of Twitter operations, Twitter Inc. reached out to the Federal Government of Nigeria to resolve the impasse. Subsequently, I constituted a Presidential Committee to engage Twitter to explore the possibility of resolving the issue.
“The Committee, along with its Technical Team, has engaged with Twitter and have addressed a number of key issues. These are National Security and Cohesion; Registration, Physical presence and Representation; Fair Taxation; Dispute Resolution; and Local Content.
“Following the extensive engagements, the issues are being addressed and I have directed that the suspension be lifted but only if the conditions are met to allow our citizens continue the use of the platform for business and positive engagements.
“As a country, we are committed to ensuring that digital companies use their platform to enhance the lives of our citizens, respect Nigeria’s sovereignty, cultural values and promote online safety.”
The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba,made the disclosure yesterday in Abuja at a symposium organised by the Ministry of Education.
The symposium is part of activities to mark the forthcoming 2021 World Teachers Day with the theme “Teachers at the Heart of Education Recovery”.
“The President has approved the enhanced salary structure and we will finish it very soon.
“The president specifically approved that it should take effect from 2022.
“We are doing all to finish it to ensure that by January 2022, teachers should get the remuneration they deserve.
“We are fast tracking the process of implementation to see that by the end of year we will be able to tell Mr President that all the incentives he has approved are ready for implementation,”he said.
He further said: ” The President has taken the lead by approving a far reaching and revitalising programme for the teaching profession in this country and there are many soft incentives in that.
“All that is required is for other actors down the line like state governors, the National Assembly and others to key into this initiative and ensure that the implementation is seamless.
“For instance, we are tired of hearing how long teachers are being owed salaries in states.
“It is criminal. So, with the new initiative, we have incentives to attract the best brains and retain them in the teaching profession.
“All welfare issues including housing, training and retraining, enhanced remuneration, allowances are being taken care of,” he said.
Head of Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan, briefed State House correspondents after the FEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Yemi-Esan said that the annual leave would henceforth be calculated based on working days instead of calendar days.
“We presented a memo on the revised Public Service Rules (PSR); and we are all aware that the PSR is an old important tool in the public service; it is what governs the actions of public servants at work.
“The last time these rules were revised was in 2008; and so, we recognise that the revision was long overdue.
“And so, we put everything that we got to ensure that we did the vision; these rules ideally, are supposed to be revised every five years.
“But this has taken more than that for us to get the revised PSR 2021.’’
“We set up different committees to look at what we got; and finally, a technical committee that consisted of permanent secretaries serving and retired and directors were put together to look at the zero draft that we got.
“After they reviewed it, we took it to the National Council on Establishment.’’
“Those revisions have been done; and so, we brought it to FEC this morning for approval and we got approval for it.
Gbajabiamila stated that the NYSC lied about its consequent denial of the advice if the Scheme indeed inserted the worrisome sections in its official pamphlet to corpers.
The NYSC, on Page 56 of the handbook titled ‘Security Awareness and Education Handbook For Corps Members and Staff,’ had advised corps members travelling on “high-risk” roads to alert their “family members, friends and colleagues to have someone on hand to pay off the ransom that could be demanded” in case they are kidnapped.
It listed such roads as “Abuja-Kaduna, Abuja-Lokoja-Okene, or Aba-Port Harcourt” roads.
Gbajabiamila, however, noted that the NYSC had denied that such advice was in its handbook.
“I am aware that they tried to deny it but I have before me the pamphlet – the public document – which I got from the NYSC certified and Section 65(e) is very clear and unambiguous. And this is the pamphlet that they have been using everywhere,” Elumelu said and went further to read out the part.
Responding, the Speaker said, “If that is from NYSC, it is definitely problematic…if it is. But where an institution has come out publicly, not privately, and officially denied something, we must also take cognisance of the fact – which is a problem in this country – about documents, even the Constitution – unfortunately, you find fake (copies of the) Constitution being sold on the streets – and something needs to be done about that.
“I find it difficult that if they (NYSC) truly put that in there – and I am not holding a brief for them; maybe they did; if they truly have that in their official pamphlet and they still come out and deny it; that is not a denial, that is a lie. There is a difference; that is actually a lie if they actually did that.”
Armed robbers has attacked a branch of Wema Bank in Iragbiji, Boripe Local Government Area of Osun State.
As of the time of filing this report at 3:33pm, the robbers were said to be inside the bank, located few meters away from the Palace of Aragbiji of Iragbiji.
The Public Relations Officer of the Osun Command of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Daniel Adigun, confirmed the incident.
He, however, said details of the incident was not available yet.
Today’s attack is coming about one month after robbers stormed two commercial banks in Iree, Osun State, wreaking havoc on customers and members of staff of the banks.
The Federal Government has said it has not received any official communication from resident doctors on their minimum demands for an end of their 56-day old strike.
The government however, assured that it would make its position known to the doctors once it received such communication from the striking doctors’ umbrella body, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).
When contacted by newsmen, Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige said” “We have not gotten that (the 72-hour ultimatum). We have not received their new demands. Let them write their employers, the Minister of Health. Let them also write me.
“We have not seen all those demands. When we see their demands we will then have an answer if it is true.
“They normally send me the communique of their meeting. When we see it we will respond.”
The union’s National President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
Recall that ASUU had issued ultimatum to the Federal Government and accused the government of deliberately ignoring its demands.
Osodeke said, “For now, there is nothing new from their (government’s) side. They have deliberately continued to do this in a bid to make us bad.
“We have given them enough time and we are sure the public has heard our cries. The NEC will be meeting next week. No particular day yet but it is next week.
“We are hoping they do something before next week. When we meet, we will weigh our options and decision will be taken.
“We will update you with other things. But we are meeting next week and they have till next week.”
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