Drunken motorcyclist in court for killing woman

The victim
| credits: Afeez Hanafi

A commercial motorcyclist popularly called okada rider, Solomon Eni, has been arraigned before an Ojokoro Magistrate’s Court sitting in Ikeja for allegedly causing the death of a woman.

Twenty-five-year old Eni was said to be taking the unidentified woman, said to be to in her 30s, to the Jankara Junction bus stop in the Ijaiye area of Lagos around 9.30pm on June 27 when the accident occurred on Clem Road.

It was learnt that Eni rode on top speed, overtaking vehicles indiscriminately. He reportedly veered off the road and rammed into the fence of a transformer while trying to overtake a car.

The woman was said to have been thrown from the okada and smashed her head on the fence. She reportedly died on the way to a hospital where she was rushed to.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the deceased’s family, as of Sunday, had yet to be reached as her mobile phone was reportedly stolen at the scene of the incident.

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Our correspondent was told that the rider, who confessed to the police to have taken a local gin shortly before the incident, was reeking of alcohol when he was arrested.

Eni told the police that the driver of the car forced him off the road.

He said, “I was going to Kola from Alakuko when the woman stopped me. We passed through Clem Road on our way to Jankara Junction where she was going to.

“I was on top speed when a vehicle overtook me. I marched break and I was forced to ram into the fence of a transformer. I didn’t know what happened again until the following day when I found myself at the police station.

“I just took hot Sabri (local gin) that day. I know I am not supposed to drink and ride. I regret my action.”

A police prosecutor, ASP Lugard Ahonle, brought the suspect before a chief magistrate, Mrs. T. Akani, on five counts bordering on reckless riding, manslaughter and riding without licence.

The offences, according to the police, are punishable under sections 3 (2); 7 (1);18, Cap 548, Vol. 7; 27, Cap 548; and 33, Cap 124, Vol. 6, of the Road Traffic Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2012.

The charges read in part, “That you, Solomon Eni, on June 27, 2015, at about 21.35hrs on Clem Road, Ijaiye, in the Lagos Magisterial District, being the rider of a motorcycle with registration number, JGD 129 WY, did ride same in a dangerous and reckless manner on the highway without due care for other road users.

“That you on the same date, time and place, in the aforementioned magisterial district, did ride the said motorcycle in a dangerous and reckless manner, causing the death of a woman, whose name and address have yet to be known.

“That you rode the motorcycle on the public highway without licence and certificate of insurance.”

The defendant owned up to four of the charges.

He however pleaded not guilty to the second count, which accused him of causing the death of the woman.

The magistrate adjourned the case till July 30, 2015 for hearing and sentencing.

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Eagles won’t underrate Djibouti —Oliseh

Sunday Oliseh

Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh, has said his team will not underrate any opponent as Nigeria brace up to face either Djibouti or Swaziland in the second round qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Nigeria have a bye in the first round, alongside 26 other teams, as revealed in the preliminary draw held in St.Petersburg, Russia on Saturday.

The Super Eagles will begin their campaign for a place at the 2018 finals in November, away to the winners of the Djibouti vs. Swaziland first round playoff.

Nigeria are ranked 57th in the current FIFA ranking, while Swaziland and Djibouti are ranked138th and 207th respectively. But while expressing his joy at the draw, Oliseh would rather not dismiss any opponent as minnows.

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“I am happy with the draw. We are not playing the first round, which is a preliminary round. We will also be playing the first leg of the second round away which means we have an advantage of playing the more crucial return leg at home, in front of our fans,” Oliseh said on the Nigeria Football Federation website.

The 40-year-old former international warned against complacency, admitting that there are dangerous teams that could spring surprises if taken for granted.

“Djibouti and Swaziland need to be given the respect that they deserve and either of them that we face in the second round will not be underrated. We respect every team and we will battle anyone that emerges with our full strength,” the former Borussia Dortmund midfielder said.

“With the draw now concluded, we can safely say that the race to Russia has officially started. I am optimistic we will run this race very well. We will give it our very best and pray it will be good enough to get us one of the five slots available for Africa.”

Oliseh will lead the Super Eagles to his first competitive match as the coach when they regroup in September to visit the Taifa Stars in Tanzania for a 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match. He also plans to release a provisional team list for the match in August.

And ahead of the game against Tanzania, the Eagles coach is reportedly seriously considering capping Flying Eagles stars Musa Mohammed and Kelechi Iheanacho.

A top team official informed AfricanFootball.com that Oliseh is rebuilding with the future in mind and as such he wants to start working immediately with Musa, Iheanacho as well as Moses Simon, who has already been capped by the Eagles.

“The top three Flying Eagles stars under consideration by the Eagles coach are Musa at rightback as well as Iheanacho and Moses Simon in attack,” the official said.

“Oliseh already is very much abreast of the exploits with Moses Simon at Gent as he followed him last season.

“He has also followed Musa and Iheanacho when he was on the FIFA study group for the 2013 FIFA U17 World Cup, which Nigeria won in style in Abu Dhabi.”

‘Baba Go Slow’ Appellation Given To Buhari Is What Best Suits Nigeria

YORUBA Monarchs have said the slow and steady approach adopted by President Muhammadu Buhari to tackle daunting challenges facing the country has shown that Nigerians have now elected a president with quality and good leadership traits.

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Ramos will stay at Real Madrid – Agent

| credits: Getty Images

President of Real Madrid, Florentino Perez, has met with the player and he is ready to meet the defender’s requests of $10 million per season, his agent has confirmed.
The Spanish defender had been linked with Manchester United in the summer transfer.

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WAEC threatens to withhold May/June 2015 results over debts

Hundreds of candidates who sat for the May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination may not have their results released in the next two weeks, the West African Examinations Council has announced.
No fewer than 19 states of the federation owe the council about N4bn examination registration fees.
The WAEC Head of National Office, Lagos, Mr. Charles Eguridu, announced this on Monday at a briefing in Lagos.
He, however, failed to make public the affected states.
Eguridu said, “A total number of 19 states in the country owe the Council in respect of entry fees for state government sponsored candidates for the May/June 2015 WASSCE. Some states also still owe the Council registration fees for the May/June 2014 WASSCE.
“We have written to the affected state governments without any response. The poor response of the debtor states is threatening the smooth operations of the Council.
“We, therefore, want to publicly plead with the affected states to off-set the registration fees of their candidates as soon as possible, as we cannot guarantee that the results of their candidates for the May/June 2015 will be released along with others.”

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Nigerian graduates globally competitive, says UNIlorin VC

The Vice-Chancellor of University of Ilorin, Prof. Abdul Ambali, has said that Nigerian graduates are competing favourably with their peers from across the world.
Ambali said Nigerian graduates were able to compete favourably because of the acceptable standard of education in the country.
The vice-chancellor, who said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday in Abuja, added that Nigerian graduates had always acquitted themselves creditably in the Diaspora.
Ambali said, “I think the standard is acceptable because if you look at our graduates anywhere you go around the world and you see them, they are working in high places and they are proving themselves.
“So if the standards were lower they would not be able to compete with their peers where they are now. So, to me it is a relative term because the standard in not falling to me.
“We have a lot of room to improve; for example, we need to improve the quality of our teachers especially at the primary and secondary school levels.

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“I have been saying this; it is whatever we harvest at those levels especially the secondary school level that comes to the university and in the university you can do minimum modelling to shape them into what the country wants.”
Ambali, therefore, urged state governments to invest more on secondary education in view of its position as the bridge between basic and tertiary education.
He said,”Students should have better classrooms; they should have better teachers and better learning environment because it is the products of these three issues that make up a good candidate for the next level.
“For example, if the classrooms are crowded; if there are no teaching facilities in the classroom; no teaching aids in the classroom; no enough materials to carry out the necessary practical, then the quality of education will become questionable.
“If the teachers are not well paid; they are not well mobilised; they cannot concentrate on their primary assignments.”
On the issue of the cut-off mark for admission into Nigerian universities, Ambali said 180 had been pegged as minimum score required of Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) candidates.
He said though some universities were under pressure to offer admission to candidates, each university could still fix a score in conformity with its own standard to enable them to get the best applicants.
According to him, JAMB’s minimum cut-off mark for Medicine is between 230 and 235, but individual universities are at liberty to conduct post-JAMB screening to get the best of the candidates.

Waku: Saraki's Wife Ordeal Mastermind By Tinubu

A frontline politician and former Vice Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Senator JKN Waku on Saturday, pointedly accused a National Leader of the APC, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu of being the mastermind of a petition over which the wife of the Senate President, Mrs Toyin Saraki, has been invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).


The APC chieftain decried a situation where Tinubu will be exploring his personal relationship with the EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, to embarrass and torment fellow party members as well as overheat the polity.


According to him, "I have chosen to speak out on this issue and make my findings on this issue known to the public. After days of painstaking enquiries, I discovered that both Tinubu and Lamorde maintain a mutually beneficial relationship since the days of Lamorde as the EFCC Director of Operations and based in Lagos between 2003 and 2007 when Tinubu was equally the governor of Lagos.”


Waku, who is also an ACF member of Board of Trustees (BOT), said: "I also discovered from my findings in EFCC that the so called petition against Mrs Saraki was personally given to Lamorde by Tinubu under the guise that he was submitting the petition on behalf of the APC leadership to punish Saraki for working against the party's leadership on the choice of National Assembly leaders.


"This was followed by a promise to help secure a second term for Lamorde as EFCC chairman."
Senator Waku said he is highly disturbed that EFCC is again being dragged into the political arena to settle political scores like some years ago.


Waku said: "I want to use this opportunity to caution our leaders that no individual's ambition to create a fiefdom for himself should be allowed to drag our party into unnecessary controversies and endlessly overheat the polity.


"The party has done its beat to send lawmakers to the National Assembly to work for the nation and no particular political party, and as such, they should allow our Senators and Reps members to settle down and work in the overall interest of the nation, which is far and above every other sectional interest.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/waku-sarakis-wife-ordeal-mastermind-by-tinubu/215580/

Diamond Bank Stuns Shareholders With Worst Quarterly Result Since 2012 
 Diamond Bank Plc released its 2015 half year results showing earnings per share dropped year on year by 45% to N0.52 (2015 H1: N0.95)

The Bank in its second quarter result posted Net Interest Income of N29.7billion 3.2% higher than the N28.8 billion it posted in the first quarter of the year.

However, the bank saw income from commissions and fees rise 14% to N9.5billion.
Things however went south for the bank after it posted an operating expense of N27 billion (N24.1billion).

Diamond Bank also continued to take in impairment charges recording another N6.5billion this quarter alone. Most of its provisions have come from bad overdraft loans
The Bank has now provided for a cumulative loan loss of N65billion since Q1 2013.

We also noted that the bank’s deposits dropped significantly by 9% to N1.4trillion
Also of note was the fact that the bank lent about 18.7% of its Loans and Advances to other banks.

http://nairametrics.com/diamond-bank-stuns-shareholders-with-worst-quarterly-result-since-2012/

House Crisis 'Over', As Dogara And Gbajabiamila Factions Reconcile

The crisis in the house of representatives over principal positions is over, Abdulmumin Jibrin, spokesman of Consolidation Group, has said – ahead of Tuesday’s reconvening of the lower chamber.

According to Jibrin, “gladiators” in the Femi Gbajabiamila camp have settled for the “Dogara formula” for the allocation of principal positions.

Gbajabiamila and Yakubu Dogara, the speaker, had been enmeshed in a rift over the sharing of principal positions of the house.

While Jibrin is pro-Dogara, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, the newly proposed majority leader, is pro-Gbajabiamila.

Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Saturday, Jibrin said: “Please recall that since the inauguration of the house, the issue of those that will assume the positions of the remaining principal officers among members of our party, All Progressives Congress (APC), has been enmeshed in deep controversy.

“Specifically, this controversy surrounded those who will occupy the vacant positions of House Leader, Deputy House Leader, Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip. Several efforts were made to find solution to the crisis and a couple of proposals were advanced. It is in this spirit that the Speaker, Hon Yakubu Dogara, proposed in what is now known as the Dogara formula an equity team.

“Mr Speaker’s argument has always been since the north-east and south-west have produced the speaker and deputy speaker, the remaining principal officers positions should go to the north-west, north-central, south-south and south-east in the spirit of equity, fairness, justice, a strong precedence and provision of the constitution. In the interest of peace, unity and harmony in the House, Speaker Dogara reached out extensively to individuals and groups and committed lot of energy and time toward finding an amicable solution to the nagging issue.

“This became extremely necessary in order to actualise the needed peace and unity in the House so as to commence work for the Nigerian people and provide support for our President, Muhammadu Buhari. Let me reiterate our resolve that President Buhari is going to enjoy the maximum and unprecedented support of the APC caucus in the House in order for him to achieve all the laudable programmes of this government.

“Permit me to point out, however, that the intense consultations carried out by Speaker Dogara is what eventually led to the birth of the Dogara Formula that saw the emergence of what is now known as the Equity Team. In line with the Formula, the Equity Team has Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa (APC Kano, North West) as House Leader, Hon Buba Jibrin (APC Kogi, North Central) as Deputy Leader, Hon Pally Iriase (APC Edo, South South) as Chief Whip and Hon. Chika Okafor (APC Imo, South East) as Deputy Chief Whip.

“Interestingly, both the Speaker and a great majority of the APC caucus in the House including gladiators in the Gbajabiamila’s group like Hon Mongunu, Hon Doguwa and Hon Pally support and stand by the Equity Team. We have  commenced collection of signatures which has reached advanced stage to affirm the Dogara formula. All other interests, including those excluded from the principal officers, specifically Hon Gbajabiamila and Hon Mongunu will be duly accommodated with commensurate responsibility to serve. Since the Speaker has about 200 positions to share out, many members will have the opportunity to serve the country.

“In light of this development, it is heart-warming to announce to you that the disagreement in the House, which many have erroneously labelled as crisis, has finally come to an end. We hereby express our deep appreciation to Mr President for his fatherly disposition during this disagreement. We also commend our party for its patience and understanding and re-affirm our continued support for the realisation of its objectives.

“We thank Speaker Dogara for his maturity and gentle disposition towards ensuring that the disagreement is amicably resolved. We thank our other colleagues who disagreed with us for their willingness to dialogue and accept our compromise position for the peace and stability of the House and overall national interest.  We will make a particular mention of Hon Mongunu, Doguwa and Pally for their patience, maturity and understanding. Finally, we thank Nigerians and once again pledge that this House will now get down to work for the Nigerian people.”

Gbajabiamila is yet to comment on the latest development, which means he can no longer be majority leader as proposed by the party leadership.

World's First Malaria Vaccine Approved 

The world’s first malaria vaccine has received a green light from European drugs regulators who recommended it should be licensed for use in babies in Africa who are at risk of the mosquito-borne disease.

The shot, called RTS,S or Mosquirix, would be the first licensed human vaccine against a parasitic disease and could help prevent millions of cases of malaria in countries that use it.

The vaccine was developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative,

Recommendations for a drug licence made by the European Medicines Agency are normally endorsed by the European Commission within a couple of months.

Mosquirix, also part-funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will also now be assessed by the World Health Organisation, which has promised to give its guidance on when and where it should be used before the end of this year.

Malaria killed an estimated 584,000 people in 2013, the vast majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

More than 80 percent of malaria deaths are in children under the age of five.

Andrew Witty, GSK’s chief executive, said EMA’s positive recommendation was a further important step towards making the world’s first malaria vaccine available for young children.

“While RTS,S on its own is not the complete answer to malaria, its use alongside those interventions currently available such as bed nets and insecticides would provide a very meaningful contribution to controlling the impact of malaria on children in those African communities that need it the most,” he said in a statement.

http://www.punchng.com/news/worlds-first-malaria-vaccine-approved/

Nigerians Turned Back From Buhari's Town Hall Meeting

So Many Nigerians were turned back from the townhall meeting with President Buhari in the US after they failed to secure an invite to the event. The Nigerians who were angry at their inability to enter the venue for the meeting said they drove many miles only for them to be barred by security men