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Nigerian Military Operations Guided By Extant Laws – Irabor

By
Koko Lawrence
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The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Lucky Irabor, says the operations and activities of the Nigerian armed forces are guided by extant laws, rules of engagement and standard operating procedures.

Irabor said this when he received participants of Promotion Staff Course 4 of the Institute of Defence, Senegal who are on a study tour to Nigeria on Monday in Abuja.

The Director, Defence Information, Maj.-Gen. Jimmy Akpor, said the Chief of Defence Civil-Military Cooperation, Rear Adm. Adeseye Ayobanjo, received the visitors on behalf of the defence chief.

Irabor said the Nigerian military was created through appropriate constitutional provisions, adding that its operations and activities were guided by extant laws as well as regional and global regulations.

He said the Nigerian armed forces would continue to leverage on the laws in conducting its operations towards securing the nation’s territory as well as the lives and property of Nigerians and foreign nationals.

The defence chief commended the leadership of the Senegalese Defence Institute for the visit, which he said would boost the existing bilateral and diplomatic relations.

He added that the visit would afford Nigeria and Senegal the opportunity to further foster the collaborations between their armed forces, particularly in combating transnational security threats occasioned by global terrorism.

Irabor commended both nations’ militaries for their contributions toward peace support operations in Africa.

Earlier, the Head of the Senegalese delegation and Director, the Senegalese Institute of Defence, Colonel C Gueye, said the visit was to enable participants gain firsthand knowledge on the roles of the Nigerian military.

Gueye said the institution’s mission was to build the capacity of staff officers in the areas of crisis management and maintenance of global peace.

The Senegalese delegation, which comprises three members of directing staff and 26 students are expected to visit other military establishments, institutions and formations during their stay in Nigeria.

INEC Agrees To Extend Voters Registration By 60 Days

By
Koko Lawrence
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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has agreed to extend the ongoing continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise by 60 days.

INEC’s initial deadline for voters’ registration was at the end of June 2022.

Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters, Aishatu Jibril Dukku disclosed this while briefing fellow lawmakers on the committee’s efforts to ensure the implementation of a House resolution reached last week.

“The Committee held a meeting with INEC yesterday (Tuesday) and they agreed to extend the CVR, all our resolutions were approved,” Dukku told members of the House at plenary on Wednesday.

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday stopped INEC from ending voter registration on 30 June 2022.

Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon of Court 10 granted an order of interim injunction following the hearing of an argument on motion exparte by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

SERAP and 185 concerned Nigerians had filed the lawsuit against INEC asking the court to “declare unconstitutional, illegal, and incompatible with international standards the failure of the electoral body to extend the deadline for voter registration to allow eligible Nigerians to exercise their rights.”

The House of Representatives last Wednesday urged INEC to extend the deadline for continuous voter registration by an extra 60 days from June 30, 2022, to enable more Nigerians to register.

The House also called on the Commission to deploy additional staff and voter registration machines across the country to meet the objective.

The chairman, House Committee on media and publicity, Benjamin Kalu, through a motion, had noted that the ongoing CVR by INEC was scheduled to end on June 30 ahead of the 2023 general elections.

NBA Calls For Urgent Reforms In Judiciary

By
Koko Lawrence
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The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) say there is an urgent need for fundamental reforms of the administration and governance of the Nigerian Judiciary.

In a press statement issued by the President, Olumide Akpata, the NBA describes as disheartening and unfortunate the conditions highlighted in the letter written by 14 Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (“CJN”), alleging various improprieties and administrative inefficiencies and the subsequent response of the CJN.

The NBA noted that the situation has not only affected the judicial responsibilities of the justices but also impacted on the justice administration process.

While advocate for the independence and financial autonomy of the Judiciary, the NBA also noted that it is important that the Judiciary must not only be, but should be seen as being, above board and transparent in the management and allocation of the resources currently available to it.

“The Judiciary must entrench the principles of accountability and probity in the manner in which it expends allocated resources. While the fight for increased budgetary allocations for the Judiciary continues, it is important that the available resources be used for the welfare and wellbeing of our Judicial Officers, as well as for the improvement of the infrastructure and facilities required by our Judges and Justices to effectively discharge their duties.

“There is a clear need for mechanisms to be put in place to ensure that the Judiciary (with the Supreme Court leading the charge) is providing the necessary template to other arms of government on transparent procurement and budgeting. This will reduce the perception in some quarters that the Judiciary is not accountable to anyone and is also not self-regulating.”

The NBA President also says that with the election season, and the humongous war chests that the politicians and political parties are amassing, the only way to insulate and make our Judges and Justices immune to the temptations of being corrupted by these politicians is to assure them of decent working conditions and adequate compensation both in and out of service.

The judges and Justices, on their part, have a duty to ensure that the honour and respect that is accorded the Judiciary by the public is not lost or dwindled, and that the public continues to hold the Judiciary in the highest esteem.

Banditry: IGP Deploys Additional Policemen To Kaduna-Abuja Highway

By
Koko Lawrence
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The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, has deployed additional policemen to boost security along the Abuja-Kaduna Highway and tackle banditry and kidnapping.

Addressing the personnel on Wednesday at the Force Headquarters shortly before their deployment, the Commissioner of Police in charge of Police Mobile Force, CP Matthew Akinyoshola urged the mobile policemen to be vigilant and alert at all times in their areas of responsibility.

He warned the Policemen to be civil and firm in the performance of their duties while dealing decisively with all persons threatening the peace and security of the nation.

The Abuja-Kaduna highway has been experiencing series of attacks by bandits who maim and kill innocent motorists as well as kidnap residents of the area.

Despite repeated assurances by the Federal Government and the Kaduna State Government, with the deployment of security operatives, including soldiers, the bandits have continued to have a field day.

On Sunday, no fewer than 36 people were kidnapped by bandits who attacked four communities in the Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Residents of the area told security agencies that the constant attacks have affected their means of livelihood, as they can no longer go to their farms to avoid being killed or kidnapped by the bandits.

They appealed  to the Federal Government to establish a military base in Kajuru as the only way the security situation could be addressed.

UK To Introduce Law To Override ECHR After Blocked Deportations

By
Koko Lawrence
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The United Kingdom government has said it will introduce legislation allowing it to ignore certain European Court of Human Rights decisions after a judge in Strasbourg blocked flights removing asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab will bring the new Bill of Rights to parliament on Wednesday as the government attempts to implement its Rwanda plan, aimed at deterring immigrants from making illegal crossings of the English Channel.

Rights groups and church leaders have criticised the policy as “shameful”.

British courts earlier this month gave the go-ahead for the first removal flight to leave, but the ECHR stepped in at the last minute with an interim ruling to block its departure.

A UK full judicial review of the plan’s legality is due next month.

Thousands Of Dutch Farmers Protest Against Emissions Targets

By
Koko Lawrence
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Thousands of farmers have gathered in the central Netherlands to protest against the Dutch government’s plans to rein in emissions of nitrogen oxide and ammonia, driving their tractors across the Netherlands and snarling traffic on major highways.

Wednesday’s protest was organised earlier this month after the government published nationwide targets for reducing emissions, sparking anger from farmers who claim their livelihoods – and those of thousands of people who work in the agricultural service industry – are on the line.

Calling it an “unavoidable transition”, the government mandated reductions in emissions of up to 70 percent in many places close to protected nature areas and as high as 95 percent in other places.

The government has been forced to act after courts in recent years began blocking permits for infrastructure and housing projects because the country was missing its emissions targets.

By early afternoon, many protesting farmers had arrived at a green field in the small agricultural village of Stroe, about 70km (45 miles) east of the capital, Amsterdam, where a stage was set up for speakers to address the crowd and music blared out of speakers while children bounced in a giant inflatable pig.

Texas Mass Shooting: Mayor Says Uvalde School To Be Demolished

By
Koko Lawrence
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The primary school in Uvalde, Texas where a gunman wielding a semi-automatic rifle fatally shot 19 students and two teachers will be demolished, the city’s mayor has said.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin did not give a timeline for when the school would be demolished.

“You can never ask a child to go back or teacher to go back in that school ever,” McLaughlin said at a council meeting on Tuesday.

The move echoed the decision to demolish the Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut a year after a gunman killed 20 children and two staffers inside.

The mayor’s announcement came several hours after a senior Texas official said the law enforcement response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School was “an abject failure”.

Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Director Steven McCraw told a Texas Senate hearing that the onsite commander made “terrible decisions” during the May 24 attack and that officers at the scene lacked sufficient training, costing valuable time during which lives may have been saved.

“There is compelling evidence that the law enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary was an abject failure and antithetical to everything we’ve learned,” McCraw said.

Days after the shooting, the Texas DPS said as many as 19 officers waited for more than an hour in a hallway outside classrooms 111 and 112 before a US Border Patrol-led tactical team finally made entry.

McCraw detailed what he described as several needless delays in the response, including a search for a key for the door to the classroom where the gunman was attacking, even though the door was not locked, and could not be locked from the inside.

“Three minutes after the subject entered the west building, there was a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armour to isolate, distract and neutralize the subject,” McCraw added.

“The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering Room 111, and 112, was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children,” the director said in the hearing, referring to Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo.

Arredondo, who did not speak at the hearing, had previously said he did not consider himself the commander in charge at the scene of the attack and that he did not order officers not to breach the door. He said he left his radios outside of the school, snarling communication, in order to respond to the attack more quickly.

On Tuesday, the US Senate agreed to the first major federal gun-control legislation in decades, although the legislation does not include an assault weapons ban long sought by gun control advocates.

Buhari Nominates Mohammed Shehu As RMAFC Chairman

By
Koko Lawrence
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President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday urged the Senate to screen and confirm Mohammed Shehu for appointment as the Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).

Buhari’s request for the confirmation of Shehu was contained in a letter read at plenary by Senate President, Ahmad Lawan.

The letter reads in part: “In accordance with the provision of Section 154 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, I am pleased to forward for confirmation by the Senate, the appointment of Mohammed Bello Shehu, as the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission.

“It is my hope that the Senate will consider and confirm the nominee in the usual expeditious manner.”

NAFDAC Urged To Screen Fast Food Outlets For Antibiotic Use

By
Olasunbo Okoromi
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A Nigerian scientist and professor of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Bamidele Iwalokun, has called the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control to develop a strategy for screening fast food outlets for the possible use of antibiotics in their preparation.

Prof. Iwalokun, who is a Director at Central Research Laboratory, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, Lagos, said this has become imperative, citing reported cases in other countries where antibiotics were used in fast foods.

He said, though no case had been reported in Nigeria yet, the practice could be ongoing in the country, “NAFDAC should raise awareness of the dangers of abusing antibiotics and sanction any food vendor involved in the practice.”

According to the scientist, one of the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance is the use of antibiotics in livestock, poultry, and also in ready to eat foods also known as fast foods.

The researcher explained, “Now, in livestock and poultry, farmers normally use antibiotics as growth promoters. They want to get a bigger size of their farm products to make more money.

“Another reason farmers use antibiotics is to prevent livestock from having diseases. In as much as the same antibiotics would be used to treat diseases when they occur, the first instance of use is an abuse of antibiotics while the last one is the responsible use of antibiotics.

“Currently, there is that indulgence in the use of antibiotics as growth promoters. It should be stopped.

“As much as now they are using drugs like paracetamol to tenderize meat, there is also a high possibility of using antibiotics for similar purposes since a vendor may not be able to distinguish between a paracetamol and an antibiotic,” he added.

According to the World Health Organisation, antibiotic resistance leads to higher medical costs, prolonged hospital stays, and increased mortality, adding that antibiotic resistance is rising to dangerously high levels in all parts of the world.

To prevent antibiotic resistance, the expert said it was also important that farmers stop using antibiotics in their feeds, poultries, poultry water, livestock, and pigs’ rearing.

This is because these antibiotics will contribute to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that would move from the farm to the plate because they will not stay on the farm.

“NAFDAC should carry out the screening in case such practice is being done unnoticed. By the time we screen and find residues of antibiotics in them, such food vendors should be sanctioned. This is because it is a practice that will further promote the spread of antibiotic resistance if not forestalled.”

Two More Senators Defect To Labour, NNPP At Plenary

By
Koko Lawrence
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There are now five minority political parties with representation in the national assembly following the latest defection of two Senators from the governing All Progressives congress and the main Opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party.

The minority political parties are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Young People’s Party (YPP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and Labour Party (LP).

The ranks of the minority caucus increased following the mass defection of lawmakers unhappy with the outcome of their party’s primary election and other contentious issues.

Again, at Wednesday’s Plenary Session, there were two fresh defections.

Senator Dauda Jika representing Bauchi Central and elected on the platform of the APC; and Senator Ezenwa Francis Onyewuchi representing Imo East Senatorial District, elected on the platform of the PDP, submitted their resignation letters to the leadership of the Senate.

Both Senators in separate letters addressed to President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan, conveyed their decision to resign their membership of the APC and PDP, to join the Labour Party (LP) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), respectively.

This latest defection brings the number of APC Senators to 66, with the total number of members of the minority parties standing at 43.

A gale of defection has hit the two dominant political parties in the National Assembly since the conclusion of Party primaries at all levels with most members who lost out or are dissatisfied with the outcome.

The fallout of the Primaries within all Political Parties is expected to continue until at least the general election.

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