Court
Ghana’s opposition NDC to petition against election results this week
Ghana’s main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), which has been crying foul about the results of the 7 December presidential and parliamentary elections, says it is ready to contest the outcome in court. A member of the party’s legal team, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor, said on Saturday that the election petition against the results declared by the Electoral Commission (EC) will be filed by Wednesday. “We’ll go to court. We’ve made that clear… Certainly, by Wednesday, all these matters would be placed before the court,” Dafeamekpor was quoted by the local media as saying. Under the electoral laws, the aggrieved party has 21 days to file its petition at the court. This will be the second time in the Fourth Republic, which started in 1992, that the outcome of a presidential election ...
Olisa Metuh leaves Kuje prison
Former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, has been released from Kuje prisons following the court judgment that upturned his conviction. Newsmen gathered that Metuh left the prison about 4.46pm. on Thursday. Metuh was joyful, according to one his close aides who spoke with newsmen after he left the correctional faciility at Kuje where he had been held since February 25, 2020. “Yes, Oga has just left about two minutes ago,” one of Metuh’s aides told newsmen. He was seen off by the FCT Comptroller of Correctional Facilities and the head of Kuje Correctional Facility. Metuh was sentenced by Justice Okon Abang to seven-year imprisonment on the allegation of money laundering on February 25, 2020. However, the Court of Appeal penultimate Wednesd...
Why we shutdown Total E&P gas plant – Rivers community
Obite indigenes in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State have an advanced reason for shutting down a gas plant operated by Total Exploration and Producing Nigeria Limited in their domain citing alleged insensitivity of the oil multinational to their plight. The aggrieved natives, drawn from the five villages of Obite community also lamented the alleged refusal of the oil firm to honour a Supreme Court judgement that compensation is paid to the community for the land acquired in the area for its operations. Mr Daniel Clifford Uma, one of the natives, who spoke during the community protest march to the oil firm said, “What you are seeing here today is as a result of total negligence from Total E and P. This thing started 22 years ago. Some of the people that started this ma...
Luis Suarez admits he had preliminary agreement in place with Juventus before joining Atletico Madrid
Luis Suarez has told Italian authorities that he had a preliminary agreement in place with Juventus last summer according to Il Corriere dell’Umbria and carried by Football Italia. The Uruguayan striker ended up joining Atletico Madrid instead, but even went through an Italian citizenship exam in an effort to grease the wheels and make the move happen. This exam has become a great controversy. The 33 year-old has admitted that he was informed of the questions of the exam as well as that he reached a preliminary agreement with the Italian club at the end of August. Perugia’s Prosecutor Office confirmed at the beginning of the month the suspension for eight months from the exercise of pubic offices for the Rector of the University Giuliana Grego, the University’s CEO Simone Olivieri and prof...
Court remands five over Rivers PDP chairman’s murder
A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Thursday remanded in the Port Harcourt correctional facility five suspects allegedly involved in the murder of late Mr Nwozuruka Anele, a Peoples Democratic Party Chairman in the Alakahia community, Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of the state on September 21, 2019. The accused persons are Blessing Ogbuagu, Bright Chima-Wali, Nnamdi Emenike, Thankgod Akani and Chibuchi Solomon-Festus. Counsel for the state, Chidi Ekeh, told the court that the defendants were also members of a secret cult known as Icelanders and were illegally in possession of firearms, thereby infringing on the state’s firearm prohibition and anti-cultism laws. The defendants, who are facing five counts bordering on murder, illegal possession of firearms and cultism, p...
Osun mechanic to die by hanging for armed robbery
An Osun State High Court sitting in Ilesa, on Thursday, sentenced a 29-year-old mechanic, Sola Emorua, to death by hanging for armed robbery. The defendant was first arraigned before Justice Isiaka Adeleke on January 29, 2018, on two counts of conspiracy and armed robbery. Justice Adeleke, in his judgment after a trial that lasted almost three years, said the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and subsequently sentenced Emorua to death. The lead prosecution counsel from the Ministry of Justice, Motolani Sokefun, had told the court that the convict and others at large, on May 7, 2015 around 5.30pm in Osu, on the Ilesa-Akure Expressway, while armed with weapons, robbed a tanker loaded with 33,000 litres of kerosene belonging to one Ismaila Azeez. The counsel further expl...
Police ordered to arraign suspect detained for one year
The Independent Investigative Panel probing police brutality in Abuja, on Thursday, gave the police a six-day ultimatum to arraign a suspect, Raphael Toona, who has been in detention for about one year. The Chairman of the panel, Justice Suleiman Galadima (retd.), ordered that Toona should be arraigned on or before December 23. Justice Galadima gave the order following an application by Toona’s lawyer, N. T. Utasha, urging the panel to order the police to either release the suspect or arraign him in court. “The first complaint (Toona) should be taken to Benue State to be arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction on or before December 23, 2020 where his bail should be considered, considering the fact that he has been in detention for more than a year,” Justice Galadima ordered. Too...
Justice Tsoho: Why court froze #EndSARS promoters’ bank accounts
The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, on Tuesday said that contrary to the belief in some quarters that the court intentionally froze the accounts of #Endsars promoters, it only played its part as an interpreter of the law. The CJ noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria had approached the court to ask for an order freezing certain accounts of corporate bodies and names of individuals over suspicion bordering on alleged money laundering. He however stated that the CBN did not attach any names to the applications. Justice Tsoho, spoke at the opening of the 2020/2021 legal year, Abuja on Tuesday. He noted that CBN’s request came about three months before the ENDSARS protest. The CJ was reacting to the speech by the chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olumid...
Ex-President Jonathan: I was judged harshly before 2015 elections because …
Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday said he was wrongly judged by some of his friends and political opponents before the 2015 presidential election because of his personal convictions and the vision he had for the country. He, however, insisted that he does not hold any grudge against his detractors for their harsh criticisms. It would be recalled that the ex-President was widely criticised, before the election, for his approach to alleged corruption in his administration, the perennial problem of insecurity, and the sacking of some top government functionaries within his administration including the former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, ex-Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, among other. Speaking in Abuja during the public presentation of a book ‘Dear...
Enugu to deal with land grabbers, fraudsters
The Enugu State Government has declared its resolve to resist any attempt by land grabbers and fraudsters to short-change the people under any guise. The Commissioner for Lands, Dr Victor Nnam, stated this when he received an award for exceptional service and leadership from the traditional ruler of Amechi Udewo, Igwe Daniel Nnamani, the Ogboo Ogu I of Amechi Udewo, Awkunanaw, Enugu State. The Commissioner said his Ministry was working assiduously to transform land administration in the State, in line with the agenda of the State Governor, Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. He said: ‘I appreciate the entire people of Amechi and Obeagu Awkunanaw. I assure you of my resolve to continue the good fight of faith against land grabbers and fraudsters, as well as the transformation of the land administration...
Iran jails British-Iranian researcher for nine years for subversion – report
A court in Iran has handed a nine-year jail sentence to British-Iranian anthropologist Kameel Ahmady, after convicting him of conducting “subversive” research work, the semi-official news agency Tasnim said on Sunday. Ahmady was also fined 600,000 euros ($727,000) – the sum Iranian authorities said he received for his research from institutions accused of seeking to topple Iran’s Islamic government, Tasnim reported. There was no immediate official comment on the sentence, which was also reported by other Iranian news agencies and a human rights groups, as well as by Ahmady’s lawyer, who said that he would appeal. “Ahmady was accused of acquiring illicit property from his cooperation in implementing subversive institutions’ projects in the country,” Tasnim said. Ahmady, an ethnic Kurd who h...
Nigerian National Assembly spends billions of naira on constitution review
The perennial constitution amendment exercise by the National Assembly is characterised by proposals that keep resurfacing despite gulping billions of naira yearly, an analysis has shown. The federal parliament had from the 5th to the current 9th National Assembly made several attempts to amend some provisions of the 1999 Constitution to no avail. At every session, the parliament officially spends N1 billion shared equally between the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are reports that the lawmakers spend more than what is appropriated for the exercise. While some amendments were successful, several others suffered serial failures but kept appearing in new proposals. Considering the huge spending, lawyers and civil society groups have pointed out that no significant amendments ...