A real estate agent in Ibadan, Oyo State, Alhaji Waheed Adetunji, has said the recent police invitation to Chief Sunday Adeyemo a.k.a. Sunday Igboho was meant to question him over his involvement in alleged criminal acts, not because of his agitation for Yoruba nation.
Adetunji, a complainant, provided some documents to reporters, which he said are evidence of his allegations against Ighoho.
He berated the police in Oyo State for allegedly shielding him (Igboho) from arrest and prosecution.
The spokesman for Igboho, Olayomi Kioki, had said that the Inspector General of Police sent a letter to his boss for an invitation, which he refused to collect, alleging that it might be a letter bomb.
Ighoho’s spokesman gave an impression that the Yoruba ‘activist’ has become a target of the state because of his involvement in a secession agenda.
A statement by Adetunji, the complainant, said: “We have used every means to get Ighoho arrested over illegal acquisition of a landed property at Idi-Mango village road, Soka area, on Lagos/Ibadan expressway, in Ibadan, but his strong connection with the police in Oyo State is frustrating efforts to get him arrested.
“However, after many failed attempts to arrest lghoho in Ibadan, we sought assistance of the police from the police headquarters in Abuja and they contacted Alagbon Police Station in Lagos to intervene.
“This has led to the prompt arrest of some of Ighoho’s boys and lawyer, but Igboho has been hiding under activism for the emancipation of the Yoruba race as an independent nation right to shield himself from lawful police invitation and prosecution.”
The management of Dangote Cement Plc has cleared the air over the price of a bag of cement from its factories and plants across Nigeria (as at 12th April, 2021) is N2,450 in Obajana and Gboko, and N2,510 in Ibese inclusive of VAT.
The clarification was made in view of recent insinuations that the company sells cement in Nigeria at significantly higher prices relative to other countries, particularly Ghana and Zambia.
Dangote’s Group Executive Director, Strategy, Portfolio Development & Capital Projects, Devakumar Edwin revealed that, while a bag of Cement sells for an equivalent of $5.1, including VAT in Nigeria, it sells for $7.2 in Ghana and $5.95 in Zambia ex-factory, inclusive of all taxes.
He said that though the company has direct control over its ex-factory prices, it cannot control the ultimate price of cement when it gets to the market. He advised that it is important to distinguish Dangote’s ex-factory prices from prices at which retailers sell cement in the market.
He, therefore, frowned at intentional misinformation or demarketing, allegedly sponsored by some individuals, that Dangote sells its cement at higher prices in Nigeria relative to other African countries at the expense of Nigerians. He described the allegation as false, misleading, and unfounded, while giving the media persons present at the press conference copies of invoices from Nigeria and some other African countries (Cameroun, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Zambia), and urging them to conduct independent investigations on the price of cement across the West African coast.
Edwin further explained that while Dangote cement has 60% share of the market, other companies have the remaining 40%. DCP has no control over neither the prices charged by other cement manufacturers nor the prices charged by retailers in the markets.
He further explained that “Demand for cement has risen globally as a fallout of the COVID crisis. Nigeria is no exception as a combination of monetary policy changes and low returns from the capital market has resulted in a significant increase in construction activity.
“To ensure that we meet local demand, we had to suspend exports from our recently commissioned export terminals, thereby foregoing dollar earnings. We also had to reactivate our 4.5m ton capacity Gboko Plant which was closed 4 years ago and run it at a higher cost all in a bid to guarantee that we meet demand and keep the price of Cement within control in the country.”
He said: “Over the past 15 months, our production costs have gone up significantly. About 50% of our costs are linked to USD so the cost of critical components like: gas, gypsum, bags, and spare parts; has increased significantly due to devaluation of the Naira and VAT increase. Despite this, DCP has not increased ex-factory prices since December 2019 till date while prices of most other building materials have gone up significantly.
“We have only adjusted our transport rates to account for higher costs of diesel, spare parts, tyres, and truck replacement. Still, we charge our customers only N300 – 350 per bag for deliveries within a 1,200km radius. We have been responsible enough not to even attempt to cash in on the recent rise in demand to increase prices so far,” he said.
Sincere apologies for the video tweeted earlier, this is the announcement made few minutes ago by his eminence Sultan of Sokoto on the commencement of #ramadanmubarakpic.twitter.com/xoPUvHNXvL
As Muslims across the globe are in high spirit to welcome one of the most cherished months, Ramadan which according to the Holy Book, Qur’an and the tradition of Prophet Muhammad, the Sunnah, is full of unquantified blessings, some countries have started notifying their citizens about the sighting of moon, which is one of the criteria to consider before the commencement of the thirty or twenty-nine days fasting.
Ramadan is the ninth month in Islamic calendar, which consists of twelve lunar months.
According to Islamic jurisprudence which is based on the tradition of the prophet, the commencement of these months is marked upon sighting the moon, though the Prophet said, if the faithfuls are unable to sight the moon due to bad weather, the month that precedes should be counted as 30.
Below are the list of countries that have sighted the moon and are ready to commence their fasting tomorrow.
Saudi Arabia Kuwait United Arab Emirate, UAE Sudan Qatar Syria Jordan Palestine Malaysia Indonesia Sudan
Countries that are yet to sight the moon; India Brunei Australia Sri Lanka
PS: These Updates are culled from the respective Twitter accounts of the committee designated to oversee the sighting of the moon in each of the countries mentioned above.
Barely four years after The management of Obafemi Awolowo University suspended the activities of students’ Union over alleged security report as contained in a release signed by the then Registrar, Dotun Awoyemi, the institution has disclosed its plan to reinstate the union.
The plan to reinstate the students’ Union was contained in a statement made available to newsmen by the Dean of of Students’ Affairs, Prof. Isiaka Olamilekan Aransi, on Monday.
The statement reads, “It has come to the knowledge if the University Management that the National Association of Nigerian students Zone D is plannin to stage a protest in respect of “resuscitation of Students’ Union in OAU.
“The university management wishes to inform all students that prior to the commencement of COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, OAU had taken steps to ensure that Students’ Union was resuscitated on two diferent occassions but the processes were truncated due to the activities of some group of students on our university campus.
“Meanwhile, protest or no protest, the university management has already determined to reinstate the suspended Students’ Union before the end of this current 2019/2020 academic session.
“In recognition of the right of freedom of association and assemmbly as well as the right to ensure that students play their roles actively in decision-making processes as one of the major stakeholders in the university, the management, through the Dean of Student Affairs, took another step in January this year 2021 to present another proposal to the university senate with a view to ensuring that the students union was resuscitated.
“Accordingly, the University Senate considered the proposal at its virtual meeting in January 2021, and in its wisdom advised that resuscitation of students union being an exclusive preserve of students should not be executed virtually while the students were not on ground in the university.
“The University management hereby wishes to inform all students (and other stakeholders) that as soon as all students return to campus fully during the Rain Semester of the current academic session, machinery will be put in place to set the ball rolling concerning the resuscitation ofthe students union in OAU.”
Recall that the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, South West Zone, last week issued 7-day Ultimatum To the Management of UI, OAU, FUNAAB, and LASU Over Suspension and Rustication of some students Union leaders in relation to their active roles in students unionism, NANS had however vowed to stage a protest in the aforementioned campuses should the management fail to do the needful.
The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, has picked hole in the appointment of six rectors for the newly established Federal Polytechnics stating that the appointment is nothing but a gross violation of the provision of the Federal Polytechnics (Amendment) Act, 2019.
ASUP President, Anderson Ezeibe, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday.
The statement read in part, ”The appointment of Rectors for these polytechnics are in violation of provisions of the Federal Polytechnics (Amendment) Act, 2019.
“Five out of the six new Rectors are not qualified for the positions having fallen short of the requirements captured in Section 8, 2 (a) i of the Act.
”A rundown of the profiles of the beneficiaries of this latest act of impunity shows that five out of the six persons do not fit into the requirements of the law for appointment of rectors in Federal Polytechnics in the country.
”These beneficiaries include the appointees for Federal Polytechnics Ohodo (Enugu), Ugep (Cross River), Shendam (Plateau), Monguno (Borno) and Wannune (Benue).
”It is regrettable that the government, through officials of the Federal Ministry of Education has become principal violators of the laws governing the operations of Nigerian polytechnics.
”This latest assault, in spite of the contents of a recent ruling of the National Industrial Court in Abuja, where the provisions of the Federal Polytechnics (Amendment) Act, 2019 was affirmed by the court and the Federal Ministry of Education and its official undertook to observe the provisions in totality,” he said.
Recall that the Federal Ministry of Education had in a statement recently announced the appointment of Rectors and other principal officers for the six new Federal Polytechnics situated in Enugu, Oyo, Cross River, Plateau, Borno and Benue states.
ASUP president noted that the development however undermined the essence of the union’s current engagement with the government.
He, however, said that the union was determined to reverse the ugly trend of administering Nigerian polytechnics outside extant laws and regulations.
Participants in the Federal Government’s Special Public Works (SPW) programme are protesting the delay in paying their stipend more than three months after kick off, The Nation reports.
The SPW is an adhoc programme designed by the government to provide stop-gap three months jobs to mainly artisans to ean N20,000 monthly doing public works.
One thousand youths were hired from each of the 774 local government in the country as beneficiaries, bringing the figure to 774,000 councils.
The programme was inaugurated on January 5. The first batch of beneficiaries have completed their assignment without being paid.
President Muhammadu Buhari on March 20 directed the release of funds to pay the stipends.
Minister of Labour and Employment Festus Keyamo (SAN) hours after, directed the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the Federal Government agency driving the programme, to start processing the payment plan.
Keyamo, in his official Tweeter handle, (@fkeyamo, assured the participants that they would soon receive alerts of payment.
Twenty two days after, no payment has been made.
Some of the participants at the weekend took to Keyamo’s twitter handle to ventilate their frustration.
One of them described the Federal Government as “heartless” for failing to pay them their stipend.
One Dubagari Jnr, tweeted: “What is happening with the SPW? Up till now, we have not been paid and have successfully finished our work. Please Hon. minister we need explanations on why we have not been paid and you have to start the disbursement before fasting (Ramadan).
Another worker, Maikudi Kolo, asked through a tweet: “Una no go pay 774, 000 workers?”
Abdoul Baqee tweeted: “People are hungry regarding the payment of stipends. Please fast track the payment of these people. 774, 000 people waiting anxiously for their payment with hunger and they don’t even have phone to come to your timeline. When you get hungry just remember those people that work with hunger without their entitlement.”
Yusuf Mohammed Olawuyi asked: “Mr. Honourable minister, what happened to our SPW stipends? You already published that we will start receiving alert from the beginning of April.”
When contacted, Keyamo directed our correspondent to NDE acting Director – General Abubakar Fikpo.
Fikpo said: “We are still in the process; we have identified some loopholes here and there. We want to verify the BVN of the participants. That is why we are working with the banks.
“We are verifying the BVN of those participants in order to avoid double payments to several people or to three or more accounts.”
About SPW Programme
The Special Public Works Programme is a dry season/off season transient job for rehabilitation/maintenance of social infrastructure.
The Programme is designed to employ 1,000 persons each from the 774 Local Government Areas.
It is being implemented by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
In a bid to tame the rising cases of insecurity in the South Eastern part of the country, the Governors in the region after their meeting on Sunday in Owerri, the capital of Imo State, announced a security outfit codenamed, Ebube Agu.
Rising from the first South East Security Summit, the governors agreed to ban open grazing in the entire region.
The governors condemned the burning of police stations, violent attacks on custodial centres with the unlawful release of inmates, and the killings including security personnel, natives/farmers and headsmen.
READ FULL COMMUNIQUE BELOW;
COMMUNIQUE ISSUED BY SOUTH EAST GOVERNORS AND HEADS OF SECURITY AGENCIES AT THE END OF THE FIRST SOUTH EAST SECURITY SUMMIT HELD IN OWERRI ON SUNDAY APRIL 11th 2021
After exhaustive discussions on the current security challenges in the South East and with valuable contributions from participants at the first South East security summit in Owerri on this day Sunday April 11th 2021, it was resolved as follows:
To strongly and unequivocally condemn terrorism and banditry in any part of Nigeria, particularly in the South East. The meeting strongly condemns the burning of police stations, violent attacks on custodial centres with the unlawful release of inmates, and the killings including security personnel, natives/ farmers and headsmen.
That the five South East states are on the same page with the federal government on the issue of security challenges in the country. To this end, the meeting makes it absolutely clear that the South east will stand resolutely with the federal government to fight terrorists and bandits to a finish.
That the political leadership in the South East has resolved to bring together all the arsenals at their command, as one united zone, to fight and flush out criminals and terrorist from the zone.
That the summit resolved that to achieve this, there is a need to galvanise all the relevant stakeholders in the south east, the political class, the business community, the bureaucrats and the intelligentsia to provide all necessary support to security operatives in the five south east states to ensure total success in the fight against criminality in the zone.
That the heads of all the security agencies in the south east have resolved to exchange intelligence in a seamless, effective new order that will help to checkmate crime in the zone.
That to fast track crime-busting in the south east, the heads of security agencies have been mandated to draw up a comprehensive list of their logistics and material needs for sustainable success in the fight against criminality, for the immediate provision by the leadership of the South East.
That a committee made up of security personnel, government officials and relevant stakeholders be set up to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the south east joint security platform.
To applaud the initiative of the South east security summit and to make it a statutory summit that will convene every quarter while its hosting shall rotate among the five south east states.
The meeting resolved to maintain a joint security vigilante for the South East otherwise known as Ebube Agu.
The meeting appreciated the formation of South East joint security outfit co. Named Ebubeagu. Headquarters in Enugu to coordinate our vigilante in the South East.
South East Governors requested the Acting IGP to stop the influx of IGP monitory units but to allow cps and state and Zonal commands to handle their cases.
Meeting approve that the acting IGP and other security chiefs do invite the leadership of Ohaneze Ndigbo and CAN to find out the reason for increasing insecurity of the South East .
Meeting agreed that military policing in the South East should be adequately funded and become effective. Meeting agreed that open grazing has been banned and security agency should implement the ban.
The meeting encouraged a peaceful coexistence of farmers and headers to allow Governors to succeed in the fight against criminality.
As usual Ramadan is approaching and i have been receiving so many messages asking me why our lunar date is different from Saudi’s. I ll try my possible best to explain it in a very simple way inshaallah.
Generally Saudi use their pre calculated Ummul Qura calendar for other months apart from Ramadan, Shawwal and sometimes Dhul Hijjah. In these months the rely on positive sighting of the crescent with naked eye and optical aid ( telescopes etc).
It’s important to mention that on my visit to Makkah clock tower astronomy center I was informed that Saudi has a round the clock lunar observation. The King Abdullah center for crescent observation operates a global network of 5 stations located in Saudi Arabia.
I was also informed at the center that the telescopes points automatically to the moon and are equipped with “ special infrared filters “( Most likely CCD cameras, my opinion though) that makes sightings possible even during the day when the moon is near the sun.
The Saudi Ummul Qura calendar is pre calculated based on a fixed criterion, The criteria is that on the conjunction (New Moon) day, if the conjunction occurs before sunset at Makkah and moonset is after sunset then the following day is the first day of the new month.
While in Nigeria we solely depend on naked eye sighting of the crescent for all the months as prescribed by Sharia ( apart from Dhul hijjah based on a fatwa issued by Fatwa commitee of NSCIA).
Currently Saudi’s date is a day ahead of Nig lunar date bcos Nig completed 30 days in Rajab but based on Saudi’s criteria Sha’baan ll complete 30 days bcos conjunction ll occur after sunset on Saudi’s 29th Sha’baan / 22nd April ( conjunction ll occur on 23rd April 5:26am Saudi).
While in Nig on the 23rd April/ 29th Sha’baan ( Nig’s lunar date) by sunset in Nigeria the crescent will be about 15 hrs 20 minutes and the moon lag time ( time diff b/w sunset and moon set ) will be about 28-30mins, making it possible to sight the crescent with optical aid.
So it’s very likely that Nigeria and Saudi will start Ramadan on the same day 24th April. Though it’s possible to sight the crescent with optical aid on the 23rd April, it is almost impossible to sight it with the naked eye based on astronomical parameters.
From past experience of Ramadan crescents of about same age in Nigeria I’m sure we will receive many sighting claims ( don’t ask me how 😁).
I hope the explanation is clear and I will like to conclude by saying Allahu a’alaam. Allahumma balligna Ramadan ameen.
Simwal is a member of Islamic Cresent Observation Project and National Moosighting Committee.
Note: This Article was first published last year upon request by some Muslim faithfuls who needed clarification on how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia go about the counting of Islamic lunar months in comparison to Nigeria 🇳🇬.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Sunday attributed annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election presumably won by late philanthropist, Moshood Kashimawo Abiola by former Military President General Ibrahim Babangida on “bad belle.”
According to The Nation, Obasanjo said the annulment robbed Egbaland and Ogun State the rare privilege of having three of its prominent sons occupying the number one seat at different times.
The elder statesman, who was referring to former Head of Interim National Government(ING), Chief Ernest Shonekan, himself who was first a military Head of States and elected President, apparently noted that Abiola would have become the third if the 1993 poll was not annulled.
He spoke on Sunday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State shortly after his investiture as a trustee of the Abeokuta Club, a sociocultural organisation of Egba people of Ogun State.
Obasanjo was honoured alongside MKO Abiola who was awarded a posthumous vice-patron of the club.
The former President, who recalled Abiola was his schoolmate at the Baptist Boys High School (BBHS) Abeokuta, said the late politician richly deserved the award bestowed on him by the Abeokuta club.
Obasanjo said: “When Abeokuta Club was in the process of being birthed, things in Abeokuta were not as rosy as they are today. And the sons of Abeokuta who were in Lagos put their heads together in late Chief Sobo Sowemimo’s house to think of what they could do to improve the development of Abeokuta as a city. I pay tributes to all those founding members, those who have departed this world and those who are still here.
“I want to thank the club for this honour being bestowed on me and the honour being bestowed on my school mate MKO Abiola which he richly deserved.
“Kabiyesi, the Alake (of Egbaland) alluded to it. Normally when you win a cup three times, you keep that cup. Isn’t it? If not for bad belle, Abeokuta would have produced President of Nigeria three times, in which case we should have kept it permanently.
“But be that as it may, we have a great heritage. And we should be proud of our heritage. On this note, I will say on this occasion, I thank the President, the patron and grand patron, members of Board of Trustees, the executive; I want to say this, I will continue to contribute my quota to the development and growth of this club and by extension, the development and growth of Abeokuta, of Ogun State, of Nigeria, of African and indeed the of world in whichever way I could.”
Obasanjo pledged his continuous commitment to the development to the club, Ogun state, Nigeria and the world.
Alake of Egbaland Oba Adedotun Gbadebo while presenting the plague to Obasanjo, described Obasanjo and MKO Abiola as proud sons of Abeokuta, adding some “bad blood” didn’t allow Abiola to emerge President.
