Wishing you a happy April

Happy New Month everyone.

Senate Orders Aero Contractors To Recall 650 Sacked Workers

Committee on Aviation gave the directive at a meeting with the management of Aero and the unions in the aviation sector to intervene in the on-going industrial dispute in the airline. The management of Aero Contractors on March the 13th dismissed 650 workers, a move that prompted an industrial action by the workers. The industrial action has since crippled the services of the private airline. At the meeting, the managing director of Aero Contractors, Mr. Obaru Ibru explained that the airline had recalled three hundred of the dismissed staff, but the chairman of the committee on aviation maintained that the workers should not have been dismissed in the first place.

One killed in Ekiti violence

Violence broke out in Erijiyan Ekiti in Ekiti West Local Government Area on Saturday night as hoodlums shot dead a man identified as Mr. Ayo Jeje in front of his house. The deceased was said to be one of the members of the Action Congress of Nigeria, who were scheduled to defect to the Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday. Our correspondent gathered that an elderly woman and another man were shot and injured by the hoodlums, who unleashed terror on the community. The hoodlums were also said to have vandalised houses and vehicles of members of PDP in the community. A PDP member, Dr. Emmanuel Fasanu, told our correspondent on the telephone on Sunday that his vehicle and those belonging to other PDP members were also vandalised by the hoodlums. Fasanu alleged that the killing and the destruction were carried out by hoodlums allegedly hired by ACN to disrupt the planned defection of thousands of members of the ruling party to PDP. Chairman of PDP in the state, Mr. Makanjuola Ogundipe, in a statement by his media aide, Mr. Femi Omolusi, claimed that Jeje, Adewumi and others were attacked “where they were meeting to fine-tune their preparation for a programme, during which Mr. Segun Adewumi wants to lead over 1,000 members of ACN to PDP.” Ogundipe charged the police to arrest the killers of Jeje and those who unleashed terror on the community.

Power cut interrupts Jonathan’s Easter message in Lagos

President Goodluck Jonathan had a good dose of the epileptic state of the nation’s power supply as his Easter message during a service at Our Saviour’s Church (Anglican Communion), Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, was punctuated by an outage on Sunday. Power supply to the church auditorium went off about six minutes into the President’s speech and lasted till he ended the message. The President used battery-powered microphone to continue his speech which lasted for nine minutes, 40 seconds. The service which ex-Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, also attended had earlier been interrupted by an outage for few minutes before the President mounted the podium to deliver his message. Jonathan, however, made a joke of the situation, saying the power was deliberately put out in order to remind him of the urgent need to tackle the problem in the country. “They know that I’m here; that’s why they took light, at least to remind me that I must not sleep until we stabilise power. God willing, next year they will not take light,” Jonathan said. The President assured Nigerians that the country would survive the incessant terrorists’ attacks and other challenges facing it.

Pope calls for peace in Nigeria

Pope Francis used his first Easter Sunday address to call for peace in the world and appealed for a diplomatic solution to the crisis torn countries and regions of the world such the Korean peninsula, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Mail and the Central Republic of Africa. The Pope decried the continued insurgent attacks in Nigeria when he prayed for Africa and and referred to Mali and Nigeria, “where attacks sadly continue.” He sued for peace across the world. In his first “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message, Francis also called for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, an end to the civil war in Syria, and political solutions to conflicts in several African countries.

EFCC Arrests 5 Internet Fraudsters In Enugu With Exotic Cars and Laptops

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has arrested five suspected internet fraudsters in Enugu State. They were picked up from their hide out in GRA, Enugu following an intelligence report. The suspects, Uche Nwakor, 27; Ejikeme Oluchukwu, 30; Ifeanyi Ejikeme, 28 ;Nnamani Ikechukwu,30 and Ibe Kodili are alleged to be serial scammers who have defrauded several victims. Some of the items recovered from the suspects include Eight Thousand, Two Hundred and Twenty Seven United States Dollars ( $8,227); Seventy Three Thousand Naira (N73,000.00); eight (8) exotic cars; nine (9) laptops; twenty one (21) mobile phones; two (2) internet routers; one (1) currency counter and one (1) Sony camera.

Three political groups fight over APC identity

Confusion over the use of the acronym, APC, worsened on Thursday as a third group, the All Patriotic Citizens, which is seeking registration as a political party, laid claim to it. Two groups – the All Progresssives Congress and the African Peoples Congress – had earlier engaged in a war of words over the ownership of the acronym. The All Patriotic Citizens and the African Peoples Congress said they had submitted their registration applications to the Independent National Electoral Commission for registration as political parties. But the merger committee of the sponsors of the All Progresssives Congress – the Action Congress of Nigeria, the Congress for Progressive Change, the All Nigeria Peoples Party and the All Progressive Grand Alliance – said there was no going back on the decision by the group to use the acronym. “We have informed the whole world of our decision to merge under the name All Progressive Congress with acronym, APC,”the Chairman of merger committee, Chief Tom Ikimi, said during a press conference in Abuja. “We are determined to pursue the process to its logical conclusion in the interest of our fatherland. The feeble attempt by any other entity to pretend to use the same acronym is an exercise in futility which must fail because it amounts to what in law is called passing off,” ”Ikimi added. But as the press conference went on, the National Director of Operation, All Patriotic Citizens, Mr. Oliver Ike, released a statement in which he said that the group had submitted its application for registration to INEC. “We are committed to the re-engineering of our political, economic and social foundations to eschew politics of bitterness and build a new, united and prosperous Nigeria under good democratic governance,” Ike stated. A copy of the application, which was made available to one of our correspondents, was dated March 8, 2013. INEC’s acknowledgement stamp was dated March 11, 2013. The political group’s logo includes a lantern. It has its national office at Plot 1385 Gurara Street, Off IBB Street, Abuja. The group said that its membership consisted of patriotic Nigerians that had genuine concern for the plight of Nigerian masses. Besides the All Patriotic Citizens, the African Peoples Congress on Thursday beat the merger parties’ APC to the submission of requirements for its registration. The party also unveiled its logo, manifesto and constitution with a call on Nigerians to reject “over-recycled forces that are totally spent and without equivocation.” The National Chairman of the African Peoples Congress, Chief Onyinye Ikeagwuonu, in his speech at the event, faulted all the allegations by the ACN, CPC, ANPP and APGA. He said, “Today, we have submitted the long list of requirements as prescribed by INEC and have completed the constitution demand on us for registration as a political party.”