The Director-General of the Department of State Services, Lawal Daura has been sacked by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

According to a tweets by Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the Acting President,
Osinbajo has directed the termination of the appointment of the DG of the DSS, Mr. Lawal Musa Daura.

Mr. Daura has been directed to hand over to the most senior officer of the State Security Service until further notice, Akande said.

AgP Yemi Osinbajo has directed the termination of the appointment of the DG of the DSS, Mr. Lawal Musa Daura.

AgP Yemi Osinbajo has directed the termination of the appointment of the DG of the DSS, Mr. Lawal Musa Daura.

— Laolu Akande (@akandeoj) August 7, 2018

AgP Yemi Osinbajo has directed the termination of the appointment of the DG of the DSS, Mr. Lawal Musa Daura.

— Laolu Akande (@akandeoj) August 7, 2018

Mr. Daura has been directed to hand over to the most senior officer of the State Security Service until further notice.

Laolu Akande (@akandeoj)

Operatives of the DSS, wearing masks blocked the gates of the National Assembly this morning, preventing senators and workers from gaining entrance.

Some PDP senators, who were caught in the blockade interpreted it as a move to impeach Senate President Bukola Saraki. But it turned out there was nothing like that in the offing as no APC senator was in the National Assembly when they were creating the row outside the gate.

The blockade has been roundly condemned as anti-democratic and has made the leadership of the National Assembly to call off a scheduled meeting this afternoon, that would probably have paved way for the reconvening of the Assembly.

Members of the two-chamber legislature went on break on 24 July. They were scheduled to resume on 25 September. The executive arm of government has issued a red alert that the recess may lead to a government shutdown.

Source: NAN

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN said the blockade of the National Assembly gates by operatives of the Department of State Services(DSS) was unauthorized and slammed it as a gross violation of constitutional order, rule of law and all accepted notions of law and order.

According to him, the unlawful act which was done without the knowledge of the Presidency is condemnable and completely unacceptable.

A statement issued by Laolu Akande,Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity,Office of the Acting President, said that the action of the DSS was not authorised by the presidency.

By this statement, Professor Osinbajo is consequently assuring Nigerians that all persons within the law enforcement apparatus who participated in this travesty will be identified and subjected to appropriate disciplinary action.

Osinbajo had earlier sacked Lawal Daura, the Director-General of the secret service and asked him to handover to the most senior person in the organisation.

Daura was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari on 2 July 2015, following the dismissal of his predecessor Ita Ekpeyong.

He once worked in the service and retired.

He was born August 5, 1953, in Daura Katsina state.

Source: NAN

Akwa Ibom Deputy Governor, Mr Moses Ekpo said he has not resigned his position and is not leaving the Peoples Democratic Party for the All Progressives Congress.

Umoh, said that there was no iota of truth in the story.

He said that the deputy governor had travelled on official assignment to represent the Gov. Udom Emmanuel at Ati Annang Convention holding in New York.

The CPS said the deputy governor in a telephone conversation with him on Monday denied the story as groundless.

The attention of the Office of the Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State has been drawn to certain rumours and misrepresentations in a section of the media to the effect that the Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Moses Ekpo, has resigned from office.

The reports particularly from the online community further make allusions to the effect that the Deputy Governor has also defected from the Peoples Democratic Party.

Given the temperament of the times and the implications of suchinnuendos, we are constrained tocategorically state that there is no iota of truth in the story making the rounds

That the purported report is therefore nothing but a poorly concocted piece of a malicious hatchet job and a pack of lies, and should be appropriately ignored.

It is instructive to note that currently, His Excellency, the Deputy Governor is representing the State Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel as Special Guest of Honour at the 2018 International Convention of Ati Annang holding in New York, United States of America and is yet to return to the state.

In his reaction to the rumour from New York on phone today, the Deputy Governor said: I have not resigned.

I haveno reason whatsoever to resign or jump ship from a government that is both responsive and performing optimally, while giving practical meaning to democratic dividends for the people of Akwa Ibom. I cannot, and will not jump ship.

According to him, the 77 year-old deputy governor has called on Akwa Ibom people, both at home and in the Diaspora, as well as the PDP family in the state to remain resolute and committed to support the Gov. Udom Emmanuel.

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Source: NAN

By Opeyemi Aremu-Gbemiro

The Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ado Ekiti on Monday granted the prayers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to inspect election materials and results of the July 14 governorship election in the state.

The APC was represented at the tribunal by Yomi Ariyo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who led six other counsel.

Justice Suleiman Belgore, while granting the prayers, gave reasons for granting the application which was filed on July 31.

He said the counsel had sought the order of the court to access the election materials in order to make photocopy of the documents of the election materials and to use forensic equipment to view the handwriting of the election result and the fingerprint of the election materials.

The request, he also said, was to obtain and photocopy all the election materials which were also in custody of the first respondent, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He added that the request was to seek forensic experts to access both machine and other materials used in the conduct of the election.

The tribunal chairman granted the application, saying this was also approved for the PDP.

APC candidate, Dr Kayode Fayemi, was declared the winner of the election by the Chief Returning Officer, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, after securing 197,459 votes.

The PDP candidate and current Deputy Governor, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, scored 178,121 votes.

Source: NAN

An Osun High Court sitting in Osogbo has adjourned till Wednesday ruling in the certificate suit involving Sen. Ademola Adeleke, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the Sept. 22 governorship election in the state.

Justice David Oladimeji, adjourned proceedings onMonday after all parties had accessed the relevant documents.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that two members of the PDP in the state had approached the court for an interlocutory order setting aside the election of Adeleke as the PDP governorship flag bearer over alleged non-submission of his Secondary School leaving certificate.

Adeleke was declared the winner in the PDP primary held on July 21 having polled 1,569 votes to beat by seven votes, his closest rival, Dr Akin Ogunbiyi, who had 1,562.

The plaintiffs, Rasheed Olabayo and Oluwaseun Idowu, in the suit filed on July 24 sought an interlocutory order setting aside the election of Adeleke, arguing that he did not satisfy the constitutional requirements to contest the governorship election.

Counsel to the plaintiffs, Mr Olufemi Ayandokun, had earlier told the court that the certificate tendered by Sen. Ademola Adeleke to INEC and the court was forged.

He urged the court to take judicial notice of the date the certificate was issued and the year statedon it.

The counsel argued that at the time the certificate was issued, Osun had not been created as a state.

He described the certificate as fake.

Ayandokun prayed the court to adopt and rely on the written address in support of the response to the notice of preliminary objections and asked the court to strike out the counter-affidavits.

The defence counsel, Mr Edmund Boriomoni, told the court to also strike out the originating summons and the motion on notice for want of competency and jurisdiction.

He said that another affidavit had earlier been filed for preliminary objection and a counter-affidavit for the originating summons.

Boriomoni said there were 22 grounds, 48 paragraphs of affidavits and three exhibits marked in support of the affidavits and nine issues for determination.

He urged the court to dismiss the suit filed against his client for lacking in merit.

Source: NAN

In a bid to make the recently passed financial autonomy more effective, the National Assembly has commenced push to enshrine administrative autonomy in state Houses of Assembly.

This was the main advocacy at a workshop organized by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) for members of the State Houses of Assembly.

The conference tagged: Two-Day Conference For State Houses of Assembly on Operating Within The Context Of First Line Charge, was organized for members of the 36 houses of Assembly.

In her Welcome remarks, the Director General of NILDS, Prof, Ladi Hamalai told the lawmakers that there cannot be effective financial autonomy without the establishment of a service commission.

She explained that for the legislature in the states to be truly autonomous, they must be fully responsible for all the affairs that concern them.

With particular reference to the principles of separation of power, she said that the legislature could not be said to be independent if the executive arm was still in charge of employing and deploying staff members of the legislature.

We must all pass the Act establishing the Service Commission, it is part of the principles of separation of power.

She said that the financial was a good stepping stone for the legislature in states, but stress that there was still a long way to go after the autonomy had been well domesticated.

Reiterating the role of service commission in effective autonomy, the Secretary of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) Mr Olu Ajakaye, said that without administrative autonomy.

He recalled that the period of financial dependence was very torturous as the legislature had to always go cap in hand to the executive anytime they had a programme or project.

He therefore admonished the lawmakers that they must also push for administrative autonomy and take over the management of their staff if they must reap the benefit of the financial autonomy recently granted them.

This financial autonomy would be incomplete without administrative autonomy: a situation in which the employees of the state assembly are controlled by the state civil service commission does not aurgur well for the autonomy of the legislature.

It is on this note that I call on all states that are yet to establish their state service commission to do so immediately.

We must try and distinguish the legislative service by also entrenching he nomenclatures that are peculiar to the legislative service.

Today the legislature has its own unique concepts, norms practices and procedures.

Therefore we must imbibe our own structure in line with our procedures. Many secretaries of commissions or clerks of assemblies prefer to be addressed as permanent secretaries.

The earlier we drop the civil service hangovers, the better for the legislative service. This will not only create an identity for the service but will also make the service robust and enviable, he said.

He commended the efforts of the DG NILDS for her pragmatism in convening the conference and other relevant conferences.

Declaring the conference open, the Clerk to the National Assembly, Mohammed Sani Omolori however cautioned the lawmakers to handle the autonomy with responsibility.

He said that the financial autonomy was not an avenue for the legislature to become financially reckless, stressing that any form of misappropriation would be treated as an act of corruption.

He therefore urged all lawmakers to endeavor to declare their assets before assuming office.

Source: NAN

The All Progressives Congress (APC) appears to have recorded its first victory at the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ado Ekiti on Monday as it prayers was granted to inspect election materials and results of the July 14 governorship election in the state.

The APC was represented at the tribunal by Yomi Ariyo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who led six other counsels.

Justice Suleiman Belgore, while granting the prayers, gave reasons for granting the application which was filed on July 31.

He said the counsel had sought the order of the court to access the election materials in order to make photocopy of the documents of the election materials and to use forensic equipment to view the handwriting of the election result and the fingerprint of the election materials.

The request, he also said, was to obtain and photocopy all the election materials which were also in custody of the first respondent, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He added that the request was to seek forensic experts to access both machine and other materials used in the conduct of the election.

The tribunal chairman granted the application, saying this was also approved for the PDP.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that APC candidate, Dr Kayode Fayemi, was declared the winner of the election by the Chief Returning Officer, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, after securing 197,459 votes.

The PDP candidate and current Deputy Governor, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, scored 178,121 votes.

Source: NAN

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) says that no fewer than 2,700 Federal employees from FCT and Niger due to retire in 2019 have commenced their verification and enrollment in its Abuja centre.

Mr Peter Aghahowa, the PenCom Head of Corporate Communications, said on Monday that the Abuja centre was part of phase II of the nationwide verification and enrollment programme.

He said the phase II of the enrollment was ongoing in two other centres of Lagos and Ibadan, adding that phase one had been concluded in 12 other centres across the nation.

The exercise in Abuja has been on since July 30 and will end on Aug. 17.

It is meant for Federal Government employees due to retire between January and December 2019.

Their retirement is hinged on attainment of 60 years of age or 35 years in service whichever is earlier or 65 years by age for employees of tertiary institutions or 70 years of age for professors.

According to Aghahowa, the verification and enrollment are designed to facilitate payment of retirement benefits of the potential retirees.

He said the physical enrollment also covered those who had already retired, but were yet to be enrolled.

Aghahowa said affected employees were requested to attend with originals and copies of letter of appointment, evidence of transfer of service and acceptance letter where applicable.

Other documents are birth certificate or declaration of age, promotion letters, payslip indicating grade level and step as at June 2004.

Others are: Promotion letter and payslip indicating grade level and step as at January, 2007, promotion letter and payslip indicating grade level and step as at July,2010.

Promotion letter and payslip indicating grade level and step as at December 2013, Letter of introduction from the MDAs, staff identity card, letter or evidence of retirement where applicable, letter of indemnity from the MDA, the PenCom spokesperson said.

He said prospective retirees were also requested to come with evidence of registration with a Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) indicating Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA) and Personal Identification Number (PIN).

Aghahowa said the MDAs were expected to send their Pension Desk Officers to identify potential retirees and confirm authenticity of the documents presented by the employees.

He, however, said that potential retirees who were medically unfit were exempted from the exercise.

Aghahowa said PenCom had earlier advised PDOs of medically unfit employees to present their documents and letters from qualified physician certifying that the affected employees were not capable of attending the exercise.

According to him, the commission advises all prospective Federal Government retirees to take part in the exercise as it is a pre-condition for payment of their retirement benefits.

Source: NAN

Ogun State Nigeria took a comfortable position on the list of top five best performing students in the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board.

According to statistics by JAMB, three of the 5 students who made the highest score, had links to Ogun state.

The highest scoring candidate Mr Galadima Zakari, although from Biu in Borno State, sat for the examination in Ogun state and emerged with 364 out of 400.

The second highest scorer, Adekunle Jesufemi, with a score of 358, is from Ogun state and also sat for the in the state.

The third highest score of 357 however went to Alikah Oseghale from Edo State who sat for the examination in Ekpoma.

Ogun state also produced the 4 highest scorer, Ademola Adetola who is from Ogun State but sat for the examination in Lagos and recorded a score of 355.

While Akinyemi Paul from Ogun state, who wrote his examination in Lagos, Ape Moses from Benue who wrote the examination in Makurdi and Obi-Obuoha Abiamamela from Rivers who wrote the examination in Port Harcourt came fifth with a tie score of 354.

The boards Head of Media, Dr Fabian Benjamin, said in a statement on Sunday, in Abuja said that the information became necessary and to put the records in proper perspective following a circulated misinformation in some quarters.

According to him, the attention of the board is drawn to publications that Ape Moses from Benue came top in the entire exercise.

The report, he said, was untrue and incorrect.

He, however, explained that Moses with 354 score was the highest scorer from Benue State and the entire North Central.

Benjamin added that it was imperative to set the records straight in order to ensure that the public was not misled by unverified report.

The Board appeals to all interested individuals and organisations who would want to use its data for research, reportage and other national necessary disposition to always contact it for accurate and up to date information.

This is so as not to misdirect the public into taking wrong and misleading conclusions.

Our doors are always open to any request especially when the nation would be the ultimate beneficiary.

Source: NAN

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says the opposition is using fake news and hate speech as campaign tools to de-market President Muhammadu Buhari, ahead of the 2019 general elections.

The minister said this on Monday when he paid official visit to the Abuja office of The Authority Newspaper.

Buhari has indicated interest to contest the 2019 presidential election under the platform of his ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC).

The opposition has latched on to the use of fake news as a campaign tool ahead of the 2019 general elections.

With the Buhari Administration delivering on its promises to fight corruption, build the nations economy and tackle insecurity, the opposition has realised it will not make any impact if it takes on the Administration on that turf.

So, it has decided to take the easy route, which is to use fake news and hate speech to de-market the Administration, pitch Christians against Muslims and one ethnic group against another.

In short, it wants to plunge the country into turmoil. It is said that the easy way is not always the right way.

The opposition knows that but it doesnt care. It is hell bent on dividing Nigerians along ethnic and religious lines, he said.

The minister said the opposition had been using fake news to blame all the killings in a certain part of the country on herdsmen.

He said it ignored the band of deadly militia groups that were being sponsored by unscrupulous people to kill innocent people and put the nation on edge.

The minister stressed that the clashes between the farmers and herders were being aggravated by climate change which had heightened the contest for scarce natural resources like water.

With a population of 45 million in 1960, Nigeria is today approaching the 200-million mark.

Yet, the resources have not expanded and have in fact been shrinking.

Mohammed said his visit to the newspaper began a media tour aimed at pushing the national campaign against fake news, launched on July 11, to sensitise Nigerians to the dangers posed by fake news.

He noted that though fake news was a global phenomenon, it is a danger to the peace and security of Nigerias nascent democracy and corporate existence.

It is a time bomb. It has wreaked havoc in other lands. In 1994, over 800,000 people died in Rwanda due to a combination of fake news and hate speech.

In India, about a dozen people have been killed after they were falsely accused in a message circulated on Whatsapp, of abducting children.

The US is still reeling from the role that fake news played during the countrys last general elections.

Mohammed said that fake news had aggravated the farmers/herders clashes in the country but that the Administration had put all necessary measures in place to stem the killings.

In Zamfara, for example, you can see how the military has put the bandits on the run.

In Benue, the police and the military are working hard and that has resulted in a drastic fall in the spate of killings.

Sadly, the media has either downplayed or ignored this. This government will not relent until every Nigerian can sleep with his or her two eyes closed.

The minister called on Nigerians to be wary of the fake news being deliberately pushed, especially on social media platforms, to exploit national fault lines.

He said Nigerians should check the source of any news item being pushed their way and stop sharing whatever they could not vouch for.

The minister specifically thanked the management of the Authority Newspaper for supporting the campaign against fake news, especially with a recent editorial it published on it.

Mr Madu Onuorah, the Managing Director of the Newspaper, thanked the minister for the visit and assured him of support to ensure the success of the campaign against fake news.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister fielded questions ranging from politics to economy from the management team of the newspaper.

Source: NAN