Rivers State Police Abort An Elaborate Bank Robbery

Following an extensive intelligence operation, the Rivers State Police Command in the early hours of Friday 26th July, 2013 aborted a planned Robbery attack targeted at one of the leading commercial Banks in the State when a cache of weapons were recovered from three vehicles hidden at a Mechanic village in Ihugbo, along East-West Road, Ahoada, Rivers State.

The weapons recovered include: i. Two (2) General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG) with five hundred and ninety three (593) rounds of GPMG ammunition; ii. Eight (8) AK–47 rifles with one thousand, six hundred and thirty five (1635) rounds of AK-47 ammunition and 57 magazines; iii. One (1) G3 rifle with magazine; iv. Two (2) dynamites with detonators and other explosives
canes; v. Two Gas cylinders with welding accessories vi. One sledge hammer, one axe and vii. Three (3) vehicles in which the weapons were concealed.
The three vehicles involved; One Volvo S40 car, One Mercedes-Benz Saloon car and One Nissan Pathfinder Jeep (all vehicle registration numbers withheld) have been impounded by the Police. Efforts to track down the criminals behind the aborted plan are being intensified as other incriminating exhibits linking the perpetrators to the weapons were also recovered at the scene by Police operatives.
Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police, IGP MD Abubakar, CFR, NPM, mni has commended the officers and men of the Rivers State Police Command for the impressive recovery. He enjoined all Police Commands/Formations to up their game particularly in the area of intelligence gathering towards providing adequate security for the citizenry. The IGP reminds Nigerians of the need to always report all suspicious activities to the Police, and also urges the citizens to remain confident in the ability of the Nigeria Police Force in the discharge of its Constitutional duties.
- See more at: newsdiaryonline.com

ASUU denies plan to call off strike

ABUJA — ACADEMIC Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has described as speculative reports that the strike embarked upon by the union over the inability of the Federal Government to implement the 2009 agreement it willingly entered into with the union would be called off this Thursday.

National President of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Fagge, told Vanguard that he was surprised to hear that the union was going to call off the strike on Thursday when the issues tabled before government had not been resolved.

Faggae said: “There is nothing like that (suspending the strike). I am also surprised to hear people say that we are going to call off the strike.

He said: “Our members have made it categorically clear what they want. This meeting we had with government on Friday at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, is just exploratory.

Graduating students

“We are trying to look at issues holistically and see how we are going to address them. So assignments were given to various people that attended the meeting and the expectation is that we will meet tomorrow (today), Monday and look at the assignment given and also look at it on Thursday again.

“So, that is why I’m surprised to hear people say that we are going to suspend strike on Thursday. The mandate of our members is very clear. So, we will wait and see what the Monday and Thursday meetings unfold and then we report back to our members.”

On how long it would take ASUU leaders to convene a meeting with its members after the meeting with government on Thursday, the ASUU boss said “we are in constant consultation with our members, we don’t really have problems with that.

“After the meeting, we will decide when to link up with our members depending upon what is placed on table on Thursday.”

Commenting on the speculation that the union might suspend the strike if the government met up to 50 per cent of the agreement, Faggae said the union would prefer to get to the bridge before crossing it.

He commended the positive disposition of the Joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Education towards the resolution of the crisis.

Fagge added: “For us, the interaction we have had with the Joint Committee clearly indicates that they are concerned like other Nigerians”.

“This is expected of the representatives of people. You see the problem has always been that the executive arm of government does not really hearken to advise that are given on how best to address the problems on education in this country.

“We are convinced as a union that the only thing the government can really do for Nigerians is to avail them of education.

“Once you are able to do that, you will see that people will be able to generate jobs and they will be able to take care of themselves and contribute to nation building. So that is the argument we are placing on the table.”

Culled from vanguard Nigeria

SENATE DROPS SIX-YEAR SINGLE TERM

senate president: David Mark

The Senate yesterday rejected a proposal by its ad hoc committee on the review of the 1999 constitution for a six-year single term for president and state governors.

If approved, this would have barred President Goodluck Jonathan and the 36 state from re-contesting in the 2015 general elections.
However, 86 Senators yesterday voted against the proposal, 14 in support while one senator abstained.
Senators also voted down financial autonomy for local governments which would have removed the control of council funds by governors.
Also rejected is a mayoral status for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Senators also voted 57 to 39 votes against the scrapping of the office of minister for the FCT. Each clause needs two-thirds of the 109 senators to pass.
Similarly, attempts to separate the office of the Attorney General and that of Minister of Justice failed when 62 Senators voted against and 35 for.
The new amendments also bar the president from signing it into law in clause 2 which amended section 9 but provides for a national referendum to be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) where Nigerians will vote to obtain a simple majority in any future constitutional amendment.  The section was approved by 83 Senators, 3 voted against while one abstained.
Eighty six senators voted to grant life pension to all former senate president and their deputies and Speakers of the House of Representatives and their deputies and 13 voted against. 
Similarly, the Senators also scrapped the N18,500 minimum wage by removing wages from the exclusive legislative list and added it to the list of items on the concurrent legislative list to allow each state to determine its own minimum wage. 
In the same vein, each State will now have its own labour union which tactically weakens the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) as the nation umbrella of all labour unions in Nigeria.
The States Houses of Assembly have also been put on the first line charge funding from the consolidated revenue fund thereby granting them financial autonomy. 
However, the proposal to allow states establish and own prisons was rejected. However, states were disallowed from constructing, owning maintaining and administer.
In the same vein, attempt to remove the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the Land Use Act from the constitution was overwhelmingly rejected. States Houses of Assemblies have also been allowed to legislate on road safety and stamp duties.
Speaking after the votes were concluded, Senate President David Mark said the upper legislative chamber was done with the constitution amendment and will set up a conference committee that will meet with that of the House of Representatives to harmonize possible areas of differences.

Culled from DAILY TRUST

ASUP Finally Calls of Strike After 81 Days

Students demonstrating during the strike

Respite came for students of polytechnics across the country as the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP called off its strike  yesterday(Tuesday).ASUP Chairman Dr. Chibuzor Asumogba yesterday affirmed that the ASUP strike has been called off. This was made known in a phone interview he had with journalists yesterday .He  said the decision was made by the National Executive Committee of the Union. This was as a result of ASUP’s meeting with  the joint committee of the Senate and House of representatives on education. He also said that the union gave the government one month to respond to their demands and release the white paper on visitation panel to federal polytechnics.

The ASUP chairman however called on lecturers to resume work “All lecturers are to resume work at their various institution today”, he said.

The strike was embarked upon because, the federal government had refused to resolve pressing issues concerning the nation’s polytechnics,such as; non-constitution of governing councils for Polytechnics, Monotechnics and Colleges of Technology, non-release of government white paper of the visitation panels to the federal polytechnics and non-commencement of the NEED Assessments of the Nigerian polytechnics.

It also described the state of the state government-owned polytechnics, monotechnics, and colleges of technology across the country as worrisome; and frowned at the appointment of unqualified persons as Rectors and Provosts by some state governments. The strike lasted for 81 days.

‘Sad Day for the Media’:Insider Reacts to Sack of AIT’s Aruleba, Amarere

By Muhammed Ibrahim
AIT Chairman, Chief Dr Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi has sacked two senior editorial staff of AIT reports said Sunday night .Those shown the way out include Gbenga Aruleba and Imoni Amarere.They were reportedly booted out over an interview with frontline Social Critic And Human Rights Activist ,Mr.Richard Akinnola . Aruleba interviewed him on AIT two days ago upon the acquittal of Major Hamza Al Mustapha,former chief security officer of late General Sani Abacha.
In Mr. Akinnola reportedly condemned the release of the fomer CSO as a miscarriage of justice.He also alleged that it was as a political judgment to pacify the North ahead of 2015 general elections .
This did not go down well with Dokpesi who swiftly querried Aruleba.He later fired the duo.
The sacked journalists are very well known across the country for their professionalism.The Sack of the broadcasters has raised eyebrows in the industry.One industry insider who does not want to be quoted said “this is a sad day for the media”. Ibrahim is an Intern with Newsdiaryonline.com

FG, Please Dialogue with ASUU to End This Strike

The higher institution is the brain box of every nation. One cannot state categorically how a nation can function with its education sector in devastation. It is quite unfortunate that education is taken for granted in this part of the world as many do not value it. Only a few are long sighted while others remain myopic about the dividends of education. For this reason many would rather introduce handwork to their wards rather than send them to school as they believe it is a waste of time and resources.
This is the reason why parents always tell their wards to come home when there is a strike instead of telling them to fight for their right. The present ASUU strike is a perfect example of this instance. Some students did not even wait for the strike to be announced officially before they started going home and when you ask them why they are going on such a short notice, they tell you that their parents have ordered them to come home. This is very discouraging especially in a developing country like ours.
This present ASUU strike has rendered students idle and jobless. We Nigerian students are not happy as we stay at home doing absolutely nothing except hope that the strike be called off and we return to school once again.
According to a bulletin I saw at the Kashim Ibrahim Library of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, the strike was embarked upon because the federal government did no fulfil the promises made to ASUU in 2009.
We all know that the government has serious issues of corruption, embezzlement, and insecurity to tackle; we are appealing to the government to please dialogue with ASUU for the strike to be called off.