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Adegboruwa Replies Keyamo, Says #EndSARS Panels Legal, Set Up By FG Through NEC

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A member of the Lagos panel constituted to probe the Lekki shootings of October 20, 2020, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), has said that the EndSARS panels set up by state governments across the country are legal and can probe the brutality and extrajudicial killings committed by members of the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Army.

The senior advocate said the judicial panels were set up at the behest of the Federal Government, through the National Economic Council, and so, cannot be termed illegal because the findings of some of the panels aren’t in favour of the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN), on Sunday, had dismissed the EndSARS panel set up by the Lagos State Government and the report it presented to the state government recently.

Keyamo had said the panel was illegal because it was out of the jurisdiction of the panel to investigate the activities of Federal Government institutions and officials such as the Police and the Army.

But in a statement on Monday titled, ‘The Legality Of #EndSARS Panels’, Adegboruwa said, “The Federal Government has recently muted the idea that all the Judicial Panels of Inquiry set up by the various States across the Federation, especially that of Lagos State, are illegal.

“It has never been part of our legal system in Nigeria, for a plaintiff who approached the court in the first instance, to turn around to challenge the legality or jurisdiction of the court.

“The EndSARS Panels were set up at the behest of the Federal Government, through the National Economic Council. In the case of the Lagos Panel, the federal government, through the Nigerian Army, voluntarily submitted itself to the jurisdiction of the Panel, the federal government called witnesses, it tendered documents and it made very lengthy presentations.

“A party cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time. Thus, a party who initiated a process and willingly and actively participated in that process, cannot turn around, after judgment, to plead illegality or absence of jurisdiction, simply because the outcome is unfavourable. We must strengthen our institutions to make them work.

“While we all await the White Paper from the Lagos State Government, it is important for the government to build trust in the people in all its dealings and utterances.”

It was earlier reported that the Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel on November 15, 2021, submitted its report to the Lagos State Government, noting that at least nine persons were confirmed dead at the Lekki toll plaza when soldiers stormed the tollgate to disperse EndSARS protesters on October 20, 2020.

The 309-page leaked report stated, “The atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian flags and while singing the National Anthem can be equated to a massacre in context.”

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who received the report, said he had constituted a Committee to bring forward a White Paper within the next two weeks to be considered by the Lagos State Executive Council.

United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on a two-day official visit to Nigeria recently, had said that the submission of the report by the Lagos panel was an important step towards accountability for killings and rights abuses allegedly committed by soldiers and policemen.

Blinken had met with the Nigerian President at Aso Rock in Abuja, and Buhari had said the Federal Government was waiting on Lagos State and other state governments to come up with their conclusions.

But Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed subsequently said, “It is simply incredible that a judicial panel set up to investigate an incident has submitted a report laden with allegations, the same allegations it was set up to investigate in the first instance.

“Instead of sitting for all of one year, the panel could have just compiled social media tales by the moonlight on the incident and submitted, saving taxpayers’ funds and everyone’s time. That report is nothing but the triumph of fake news and the intimidation of a silent majority by a vociferous lynch mob.”

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Two Brothers In Police Net For Alleged Gang-Rape In Ogun

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Olamijuwon Noibi and Lukman Olatunbosun, two brothers, have been taken into custody by the Ogun State Police Command on charges of gang rape at Oke Eri, Atan Ijebu Area, Ogun.

A trustworthy law enforcement source, on Thursday, revealed that Noibi had tricked Aminat Yakub into coming to his flat, where he then allegedly sexually abused her while plotting with Olatunbosun, his younger sibling.

Yakub was allegedly invited by Noibi to visit his mother on Saturday, but when she got to his residence, she didn’t get to see her.

After making her consume an alcoholic beverage called “Bullet,” he allegedly physically attacked her before raping her.

According to The Punch, Noibi was also coerced his younger brother, Olatunbosun, with a knife so he could join him in the act, and filmed both of them while they were having sex.

When contacted, the spokesperson for the Ogun Police Command, Omolola Odutola, confirmed the incident and said that the suspects had been arrested and would be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for a discreet investigation.

“On the 24/4/2024, at about 13:00hrs, one Aminat Yakub ‘F’, Aged 21 years, of Main Estate Oke Eri Area, came to the station and reported that on the 21/4/2024, at about 12:30hrs, she went to the house of one Olamijuwon Noibi ‘M’ at Oke Eri on invitation to come and greet his mother. When she got there, she discovered that his mother was not at home.

“Juwon forcefully pushed her into his room, then forced her to drink Black Bullet and forcefully had sex with her twice after a serious beating. He later invited his younger brother, Lukman, to come and have sex with her but when his younger brother refused, he took a knife threatening to kill both of them. In the end, his younger brother ended up having sex with her after a serious beating and equally took a video of them.

“Upon the receipt of the complaint, the team of patrol led by Asp Ayoola Alidu at the station and went to the scene of incident. The two alleged suspect was arrested one Olamijuwon Noibi, ‘M’, Age 27 Yrs and one Lukman Olatunbosun, ‘M’, Age 20 yrs,” a police statement.

The PPRO noted that both brothers confessed to the alleged crime, and the victim was taken to the General Hospital Ijebu-Ode for examination, saying that the suspects would soon be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for “discreet investigation and further development will be communicated.”

Earlier report had it that the operatives of the Rivers State Police Command had arrested a 30-year-old man identified as Jeffrey for allegedly defiling the teenage daughter of his landlady in an estate in Abuloma, Port Harcourt Local government Area of the state.

It was learnt that the suspect, who had a tailoring shop at the estate, lured the 13-year-old girl to his business place one evening under the guise of showing her clothes.

But Jeffrey ended up locking the shop, overpowered the girl, and allegedly had his way with her.

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Lagos Government Pays N1.5bn WASSCE Fees For 58,000 Students

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58,000 pupils will be registered for the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination this year, with the state government spending N1.5 billion, according to Tolani Alli-Balogun, Commissioner of the Lagos State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education.

In announcing the ministry’s efforts to mark the first year of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s second term in office, the commissioner made this statement on Thursday.

On May 29, 2023, Sanwo-Olu took the oath of office for a second term as governor, vowing in his inauguration speech to disappoint the people of Lagos.

The commissioner, who spoke at the state secretariat, said, “The administration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu has never defaulted on the payment of WASCCE fees of all public school SS3 students in the four years of Governor Sanwo-Olus’s first term in office. The state government paid over N4.2bn between 2020 and 2023 to keep our promise of full payment of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination fees.

“In the current school year (2024), the governor has approved the sum of N1,571,076,000 as registration fees and other cost for 58,188 SS3 students writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.”

Last year, the West African Examination Council, which conducts WASSCE, noted that it had concluded plans to begin computer-based examinations in 2024.

It released the results of the first-ever CBT exam, 2024–First Series, in March this year.

The analysis of candidates’ performance showed that out of the 8,139 candidates that sat the examination, 3,424 candidates representing 42.07 percent obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects (with or without English Language and/or Mathematics).

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Dana Air Has Been Flying With Unhealthy Status, We’ll Audit All Local Airlines — Aviation Minister Keyamo

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Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, says Dana Airline has been flying with an unhealthy status for a while now.

In an interview on Channels television on Thursday, Keyamo said that an audit report completed by his predecessor verified the airline’s unhealthy status and that internal reports from two years ago demonstrated that Dana Air was unfit to operate.

He also stated that the airline’s repeated incidents prompted him to call for a suspension.

Replying to the criticisms that trailed the suspension, Keyamo said he never wrote to the airline but instructed the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to do so.

“Before I came into office, I am sure you have heard consistent incidents involving perhaps Dana Airline, to mention a few of them. I am sure you heard that, at a point, on approach to the runway, the door flew open,” the minister said.

“I am sure you know that popular incident. Who are the engineers that are supposed to look at this? Who are the engineers that are supposed to check for the safety of the aircraft and its parts?

“There are also incidents involving one or two of its aircraft at different times, consistent. Of course, after the fatal crash of Dana, the other time that killed Nigerians.

“There were internal reports before I came in under my predecessor about a series of infractions by Dana Airline and the conclusion was that they were not healthy enough to fly but they went into the skies after such a report. What they did, how they did it before they told them to start flying again, we don’t know.

“While we argue back and forth about who has power and who doesn’t have power, the point is that the flying public is at risk, and if any tragic incident happens, it is the minister that would be called to resign. Nigerians will not spare the minister.

“For me, the last thing I want to happen to me as minister of aviation is to have blood on my hands. I mean the blood of innocent Nigerians as a result of either the negligence, deep complicity or corruption of those who are supposed to be regulators of the aviation industry.

“As minister, my job is to supervise them and to ensure that they carry out their duties. My duty is not to regulate. For those quoting the law, they should know that I know the law more than them.”

Speaking on the irregularities in the aviation sector, Keyamo said “there is deep complicity within the system”, stressing that the cleansing process would start and continue until they are resolved.

The minister said if the aircraft in the country’s aviation sector are not properly checked, then there will be “flying coffins” in the air.

He said beyond the suspension of Dana Air, the NCAA would carry out a comprehensive audit of all local airlines in the country to guarantee the safety of passengers and the health of the civil aviation industry.

On April 24, Keyamo directed the NCAA to suspend the operations of Dana Air after one of its aircraft veered off the Lagos airport runway on April 23.

Reacting to the suspension, the Aviation Safety Roundtable Initiative (ART) said it was unlawful for the minister to direct the NCAA to suspend an airline, urging the minister to respect the autonomy of the regulator.

Describing the directive as “external interference”, the aviation group advised the minister to focus his efforts on policy issues that positively impact the airline industry.

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