Cloned Nigerian Anchor

Author: Doris Israel Ijeoma

  • Court Sentences LP Candidate to Seven Years Imprisonment 

    Court Sentences LP Candidate to Seven Years Imprisonment 

    An Enugu South Magistrate Court presided over by Justice E D Onwu, has sentenced the Labour Party candidate for Enugu South Urban state Constituency, Hon Bright Ngene, to 7 years’ imprisonment.

    The Magistrate, who handed the verdict on Friday had on Thursday, said that he was under instruction to deal with a matter involving the LP candidate who won the Enugu South Urban state Constituency, during the March 18, 2023, general elections.

    Ngene and two others were arraigned in court since 2017 by the Nigeria Police Force, Enugu command in a matter involving himself and his community worth about N15million.

    After he won the 2023 general elections against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, who also challenged the victory of Ngene and sought for the election to be declared inconclusive, which the election petition tribunal agreed and ordered rerun election in eight polling units, the ruling government resurrected the matter involving his community development fund.

    The matter was abandoned since 2017 when he was lawyer for his community, Akwuke, Enugu State.

    SaharaReporters reported on June 25, that Bright Ngene had raised the alarm over an alleged conspiracy between the executive and judiciary arms of the state government to imprison him. 

    Ngene, who spoke to journalists in Enugu, had claimed that the plot was aimed at punishing him for insisting on the mandate he won in the March 18, 2023 House of Assembly Election. 

    He had noted that the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice A. R Ozoemena, the Deputy Chief Registrar, Chijioke Agbo, and Magistrate E. D Onwu colluded to disregard the petition pending before the National Judicial Council which seized the case. 

    Ngene is seeking for an urgent intervention to prevent what he sees as a gross miscarriage of justice aimed at terminating his political and legal careers.

    Ngene of the Labour Party was declared the winner of last year’s Enugu South Rural Constituency election and was sworn into the House of Assembly but was aborted by the court in a petition by his rival, Sam Ngene of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
     
    Re-run elections for the disputed eight polling units in the Constituency have been held twice but were inconclusive, while the scheduled third-time re-run of June 8 was cancelled without notice to the LP candidate.

    In his petition to the NJC, Ngene alleged that “there is corruptive agreement between the Honourable Chief Judge of Enugu State, His Lordship A. R Ozoemena, the Deputy Chief Registrar N.L Chijioke Agbo, His Worship E. D Onwu, Esq and the Enugu State government to at all cost or willy nilly put me behind bars before a re-run is conducted over my seat in the Enugu State House of Assembly.

    “Otherwise, why are these parties applying impunity in continuing with the trial when the NJC has accepted custody of the matter? The ideal thing is that parties in this matter should relax for NJC to decide but they are rushing the matter to put me behind bars and go ahead to conduct the re-run election.

    “I seek the NJC to save me from oppression, persecution, and impeding wrongful conviction bathed by corruption and obvious abuse of judicial office and power.

    “Unless the National Judicial Council intervenes, the Honourable Chief Judge of Enugu State, the Deputy Chief Registrar, and His Worship E. D Onwu will wrongfully and corruptly destroy my ambition to continue to be in the House of Assembly of Enugu State and dent my political and legal career with conviction,” Ngene petitioned.

    But when the matter came up for adoption of written addresses, on Thursday, there was an uproar in court room as three lawyers fought fruitlessly to dissuade the magistrate to give a long adjournment date in a matter against Ngene and two others.

    While the defence counsels, Messrs CJ S Okereke, Benjamin C. Nwobodo and Frabel Awgu asked the trial Magistrate to adjourn the matter till next week to enable them study and reply to application filed by the prosecuting counsel, His Worship E D Ownu insisted that c

  • Just in: JAMB releases 2024 supplementary UTME results

    Just in: JAMB releases 2024 supplementary UTME results

    The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has announced the release of results of candidates who participated in the supplementary Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME.

    Recall that the examination was conducted between Friday, June 21, and Saturday, June 22, 2024. 

    The board disclosed the release in a statement Friday morning by its spokesman, Fabian Benjamin. 

    The supplementary examination was conducted for 28,835 candidates who were unable to be biometrically verified during the main 2024 UTME and were, therefore, unable to take their examination. 

    Similarly, the other category of candidates were those suspected to have been involved in examination malpractices during the main UTME but who were given a second chance to sit the examination. 

    “The exercise, which recorded a huge success nationwide, was marked by heightened security measures put in place by the Board to preclude any instance of examination infractions. 

    As such, some nefarious characters who had attempted to impersonate bona fide candidates were apprehended and handed over to law enforcement agencies for further investigation and prosecution, “the statement read. 

    It read further: “The board would continue to ensure that no candidate benefits from any acts of infractions through the deployment of state-of-the-art technology before, during, and after its examinations. 

    “Candidates are, therefore, urged in their own interest to refrain from engaging in any form of irregularity during their examinations.

     “They are also enjoined to desist from soliciting score upgrades from fraudsters or engage in the mutilation of their result sheets while trying to generate fake result sheets with higher scores.

    “To check their supplementary UTME results, candidates are to send UTMERESULT to either 55019 or 66019 through the same phone number they had used to generate their profile codes at the start of registration.”

  • BREAKING! CJ transfers Amaewhule’s defection case

    BREAKING! CJ transfers Amaewhule’s defection case

    The cases challenging the defection of the 25 State lawmakers in Rivers State from the People’s Democratic Party, PDP to the All Progressives Congress, APC, have been transferred.

    The case was transferred from Federal High Court 4, Port Harcourt, presided over by Justice Steven Dalyop Pam, to court two controlled by Justice E. O. Obele.

    However, there was confusion yesterday among journalists covering the court proceedings and some of the lawyers in the matter as they got to the court, Friday morning, to discover that the cases have been transferred to a different court.

    The lawyers and journalists who were stocked at court four could only realise that the matters have been moved when the notable Senior Advocates of Nigeria in the matter who had arrived the court premises could not be found in court four.

    On approaching the court clerk after over an hour of resumption of court sitting, it was discovered that the matter was transferred Thursday to the new court.

    This transfer came following a petition by a defendant in matter, Hon. Martins Amaewhule, to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Hon. Justice John Tsoho, demanding that the cases against him be transferred to another court.

    The cases are one instituted by BOOT Party and others as plaintiffs in suit number FHC/PHC/269/2024 and another by Civil Society Organsiation in the state against Amaewhule and other, all on the defection of the defendants to the APC.

    When the court had resumed on Monday for hearing, the court was confronted with a petition signed by Martin Amaewhule addressed to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Hon. Justice John Tsoho, seeking the case to be reassigned to another court.

    The Presiding Judge, Justice Steven Dalyop Pam, who read the petition in the open court, had noted that the petitioner, Amaewhule, was praying the CJ of the High Court, to stop the hearing process following the petition.

    When the petition was read, Counsel for the plaintiff, BOOT Party, Mr. Reuben Wanogho, had informed the court that the petition was aimed at arresting the ongoing case and urged the court to discountenance it.

    But, Counsel for the 1st to 25th Defendants in the suit, Ferdinand Orbi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, denied knowledge of the petition by his client, prayed the court to adhere to the petition and stop further proceeding if the letter was addressed to the CJ of the court.

    However, the presiding judge, Pam, noted that in the first instance the petitioner (Amaewhule) has no motion, counter affidavit before him and that he is not yet known in the case.

    Pam in his ruling had noted that the petitioner has not copied his petition on the plaintiffs, noting the court would have no other option than discountenance the petition and move on with hearing of motions for joinder.

  • Iran begins poll for presidential election

    Iran begins poll for presidential election

    Polls in Iran opened on Friday for a presidential election following the death of ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month.

    Around 61 million Iranians are eligible to vote in the polls where reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, 69, hopes for a breakthrough win against a divided conservative camp.

    The Guardian Council, which vets candidates, allowed him to run against a field of conservatives now dominated by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.

    Also left in contention is cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi after two ultraconservatives dropped out — Tehran major Alireza Zakani and Raisi’s former vice president Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi.

    “We start the elections” for the country’s 14th presidential ballot, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in a televised address.

    Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast his ballot shortly after the polls opened and urged Iranians to vote.

    “Election day is a day of joy and happiness for us Iranians,” he said in a televised speech where he also called for a high turnout.

    “We encourage our dear people to take the issue of voting seriously and participate,” he said.

    The election in sanctions-hit Iran comes at a time of high regional tensions between the Islamic Republic and its arch-foes Israel and the United States as the Gaza war rages on.

    Polls opened at 8:00 am (0430 GMT) in 58,640 stations across the country, mostly in schools and mosques.

    Polling stations will be open for 10 hours, though authorities could extend voting time as in previous elections.

    Early projections of the results are expected by Saturday morning and official results by Sunday.

    If no candidate wins 50 per cent of the vote, a second round will be held on July 5, for only the second time in Iranian electoral history after the 2005 vote went to a runoff.

    The candidacy of Pezeshkian, until recently a relative unknown, has revived cautious hopes for Iran’s reformist wing after years of dominance by the conservative and ultraconservative camps.

    Iran’s last reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, praised him as “honest, fair and caring”.

    Khatami, who served from 1997 to 2005, had also endorsed the moderate Hassan Rouhani, who won the presidency and sealed Iran’s nuclear deal in 2015 with Western powers before it was derailed three years later.

    The Iranian opposition, particularly in the diaspora, has called for a boycott of the vote.

    Ultimate political power in Iran is held by Khamenei, the supreme leader.

    Khamenei insisted this week that “the most qualified candidate” must be “the one who truly believes in the principles of the Islamic Revolution” of 1979 that overthrew the US-backed monarchy.

    The next president, he said, must allow Iran “to move forward without being dependent on foreign countries”.

  • Actress Sharon Ooja Weds in Abuja

    Actress Sharon Ooja Weds in Abuja

    By Doris IsraNollywood actress Sharon Ooja tied the knot with her partner, Ugo Nwoke, in a traditional wedding ceremony held in Abuja on Thursday. 

    The actress shared moments from the event on her Instagram page, unveiling the face of her lover to her followers for the first time.

    She expressed her joy, stating, “Introducing the King of my heart, my absolute King!” 

    The wedding was attended by several celebrities, including Nollywood stars Funke Akindele, Bisola Aiyeola, and Jemima Osunde. Big Brother Naija host Ebuka Obi-Uchendu and renowned Nigerian chef Hilda Bassey were also among the guests.

    In 2022, Ooja had mentioned her decision to keep her relationship private, believing there was no need for public validation.

    In an interview with Bella Naija, Ooja revealed that she dated for two and a half months before her husband proposed to her.

    She said, “My love story is one that I’ll say is short of a miracle. I had just recovered from what I considered the worst heartbreak of my life, and I was filming, and my sister had said to me a friend of hers wanted to speak to me and I was like I wasn’t in the mood.

    “I didn’t want to talk to anybody. Anyway, she gives this person my number and he is really smart. I was like, who is this person, and we probably didn’t speak as much as we should.

    “Months passed he kept on trying to reach me, and I was like, this guy is really persistent. We kept on having really cute conversations, and one day, there was just one conversation that struck me. We spoke for about three hours. I was like I think I like this guy.

    “I travelled and realised that he hadn’t called me in like two days, I was like why didn’t you call me, and he was like you told me you were going to go out and have fun and I was like yeah, I’m single and he was like I didn’t I want you to be single no more.

    “We dated for literally two-and-a-half months, and I was engaged in the third month. And we married two months after there.”

  • Hardship: Why Nigerian govt needs to reopen borders – FCCPC

    Hardship: Why Nigerian govt needs to reopen borders – FCCPC

    The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has appealed to the Federal Government to reopen the country’s borders to allow for legitimate importation of food items to combat hunger among Nigerians.

    The commission said that reopening borders would facilitate food importation, while stabilizing market prices.

    It made the call during an advocacy meeting with traditional rulers and other stakeholders held at the Emir’s palace in Bauchi.

    Acting Executive Chairman of the Commission, Adamu Abdullahi, highlighted the FCCPC’s ongoing efforts in advocacy and public awareness regarding price gouging and other unfair trade practices in Nigerian markets.

    Abdullahi explained that the Commission’s visit aimed to sensitize stakeholders on their rights and help them identify counterfeit products and proper channels for lodging complaints.

    “As mediators, we ensure that substandard products are repaired, replaced, or refunded to the consumer if they are unsatisfied with their purchase,” Abdullahi stated.

    He expressed concern about escalating commodity prices due to the recent appreciation of the naira against the dollar, calling the situation unacceptable.

    “The FCCPC remains dedicated to promoting fair competition, protecting consumers, and fostering a regulated marketplace. We encourage citizens to be vigilant and actively report any violations,” he added.

    Responding, the Emir of Bauchi, Rilwanu Sulaiman Adamu, expressed concern over the rising prices in markets, particularly for food items, which he noted are causing hardship for citizens.

    Represented by the District Head of Lame, Alhaji Yakubu Aliyu Lame, the Emir urged the Federal Government to take urgent action to reduce food prices, stressing the suffering of ordinary Nigerians.

    Rilwanu Sulaiman Adamu assured that the traditional institution in the state is ready to help raise public awareness about the commission’s activities to ensure the message reaches the targeted audience.

  • Shettima presides over NEC meeting 

    Shettima presides over NEC meeting 

    Vice President Kashim Shettima is currently presiding over the 142nd National Economic Council, NEC, meeting at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The council meeting is being attended by some members of President Bola Tinubu’s economic team in attendance.

    NEC is a statutory body mandated to advise the President on the nation’s economic affairs and it is comprised of the Vice President, Governors of the 36 states of the federation, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Minister of Finance, and other stakeholders.

    The meeting is coming at a time when the populace, especially the workforce, awaits government’s decision on a new national minimum wage discuss.

    The NEC meeting is expected to create an official interface for both the federal government and the sub-nationals, especially as the last Federal Executive Council, FEC meeting which held on Tuesday, decided to step down discussions on the minimum wage down until President Tinubu consults with other parties in the new pay discuss.

    Among those present at the ongoing NEC meeting are governors, Usman Ododo (Kogi), Uba Sani (Kaduna), Lawal Dauda (Zamfara), Charles Soludo (Anambra), Seyi Makinde, (Oyo), Lucky Ayedatiwa, (Ondo).

    Others are Abdullahi Sule, (Nasarawa), AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq (Kwara), Caleb Mutfwang, (Plateau), Hope Uzodimma (Imo), Biodun Oyebanji, (Ekiti), Muhammed Inuwa Yahaya, (Gombe), Peter Mbah, (Enugu), Francis Nwifuru (Ebonyi), Dapo Abiodun, (Ogun), Umar Radda, (Katsina), Abba Yusuf (Kano), Umar Namadi, (Jigawa) and Umar Bago, (Niger).

    States being represented by their deputy governors include Lagos, Rivers, Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe

  • Tinubu Seeks Senate Confirmation For Fresh Appointments 

    Tinubu Seeks Senate Confirmation For Fresh Appointments 

    President Bola Tinubu has forwarded letters of request to the Senate seeking the confirmation of certain individuals for fresh appointments.

    The President, in one of his letters, read during plenary on Thursday, urged the Senate to consider and confirm the nomination of Dr Olatunji Bello for appointment as the Chief Executive Officer/Executive Vice Chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).

    President Tinubu also forwarded the names of three nominees for consideration and confirmation for appointment as chairman, secretary, and member of the Police Service Commission (PSC), respectively.

    The nominees are the Retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Hashim Argungu (chairman), Chief Onyema Uche (Secretary), and Retired DIG Taiwo Lakanu (member) of the PSC, respectively.

    The letters were read on the floor during plenary by Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

    Bello’s nomination was thereafter referred to the Senate Committee for Trade and Investment, while that of Argungu, Uche and Lankano was referred to the Senate Committee on Police Affairs for further legislative work.

    The committees are to report back to the Senate in one week.

  • Strike: Nigerian govt, ASUU in closed-door meeting

    Strike: Nigerian govt, ASUU in closed-door meeting

    The Federal Government delegation and the leadership of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, are in closed door meeting to discuss lingering crisis and avert strike by the Union.

    The meeting holding on Thursday in the office of the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman,commenced at about 4.30p.m.

    The Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu and other top officials in the ministry are in the federal government” team

    The ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, who led the union’s delegation told newsmen that the meeting was to deliberate on lingering issues affecting the universities to avert the planned strike actions.

    “There are a lot of issues that are outstanding within the system and we believe that before now, they would have been taken care of.

    ‘The issues would have been resolved in line with the promise made by President Bola Tinubu and there will not be strike in the university system.

    “We hope that this meeting will be able to resolve some of these issues so that we can move forward as a country as well as our university system,” he said.

    Earlier, the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, said the meeting would provide an opportunity for both parties to rub minds on issues affecting the university system.

    Mr Mamman said that ASUU had earlier written to the ministry, detailing a number of issues and concerns affecting the universities and the union.

    He said that the issues required interactions between the union and government officials to avert any strike proposed by the union.

  • My dad had a vision that I ended up a gospel artiste – Davido

    My dad had a vision that I ended up a gospel artiste – Davido

    Nigerian music superstar David Adeleke, popularly called Davido, has disclosed a vision his dad, Deji Adeleke, shared about him.

    He made this known at his wedding to his wife, Chioma Rowland, on Tuesday.

    While chatting with some guests at the star-studded event, Davido said his father told him that he had a vision that he would transition from secular music to gospel music.

    “My dad told me, ‘David, I had a vision that you ended your music as a gospel singer,’” Davido revealed in the now-trending video.

    One of the guests responded to this by yelling, “So shall it be!” while a few more people chanted “Amen!”

    The wedding also garnered lots of interest and enthusiasm from fans, content creators and journalists alike, who flooded the internet with wedding-related content under the hashtag #Chivido2024.