The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, dismissed a suit seeking the declaration of the Igbo social cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, as illegal organisation. Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling, also rejected the call for the arrest, probe and prosecution of the President General of the association, Prof George Obiozor and other leaders of the group over alleged contempt. Justice Ekwo held that the applicant; The Registered Trustees of Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly, led by Barrister Onuorah Basil Onyeachonam, failed to show that Obiozor and others committed any offence known to law to warrant their arrest, investigation and prosecution. He said after…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
Abdulrasheed Maina, former Chairman, defunct Pension Reformed Task Team (PRTT), on Friday, told the Federal High Court, Abuja, that his leg would have been amputated if he did not travel to Niger Republic for medicare. Maina, in his affidavit to support the bail application filed before Justice Okon Abang, said a surgical operation was performed on his kneel to save his leg from amputation. He urged the court to grant his prayer for bail so that he could attend to his current deteriorating health challenge. Maina had, on January 20, approached Justice Abang for another bail after his arrest for…
A total of 570 police officers have succumbed to COVID-19 in South Africa while over 27,000 were infected, said Police Minister Bheki Cele on Friday. Cele made the remarks in Pretoria while releasing the crime statistics for the third quarter of the 2020/2021 financial year. He stated that COVID-19 continues to affect the healthcare system, economy and livelihood, adding that it “is also impacting on policing, infecting over 27,000 members and claiming the lives of 570 of them.’’ “It is painful to see members of the police force dying of COVID-19. “At the same time we remain encouraged that over…
The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, granted an application by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to destroy forfeited narcotics drugs and psychotropic substances, weighing 15.660kg and worth N150 million. Delivering a ruling, Justice Inyang Ekwo, gave the order for forfeiture and leave to destroy the drugs sought by the NDLEA in an ex-parte application argued by a senior lawyer to the agency, Mike Kassa. In the application marked: FJC/ABJ/CS/1142021, the NDLEA prayed for “an order for forfeiture and leave to destroy, by burning in a public place, all narcotics drugs and psychotropic substances tendered in cases already…
Germany could see a new spike in coronavirus infections in the coming weeks, warned Lothar Wieler, president of the country’s disease control agency, Robert Koch Institute (RKI), at a press conference on Friday. “We may once again be at a turning point. The downward trend of the last few weeks is apparently no longer continuing,’’ Wieler said. The RKI registered 9,113 new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour period on Friday, which was still slightly below the previous week’s level. To date, about 2.37 million COVID-19 infections have been officially registered in Germany since the outbreak of the pandemic. Also in…
The Federal government, on Friday, said it had signed a 25 megawatt Independent Power Project (IPP) agreement, to enhance electricity supply to industries in the Kano Free Trade Zone (KFTZ). Mr Richard Adeniyi-Adebayo, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, who stated this during a facility tour of the KFTZ, in Kano, explained that the agreement was signed with a reputable firm and that the project was expected to be completed within 11 months. He said the government also initiated viable programmes to fast track infrastructure development and provision of other facilities to encourage investment in the KFTZ. “We are…
Gombe state ogvernment has imposed a 24-hour curfew with immediate effect on Billiri local government area of the state, following the eruption of violence in the area. Prof. Abubakar Njodi, Secretary to the State Government made this known at a news conference in Gombe on Friday. Njodi said that imposing the curfew became necessary to contain the violence which erupted in the area; as this could threaten lives and property. “What we want to establish is peace so that we can reach out to the people and conclude issues with regard to the appointment of the new Mai Tangle,” he…
The number of COVID-19-inflicted deaths in Africa has reached 100,294 on Friday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent also stood at 3,796,354, according to the continental disease control and prevention agency’s Africa COVID-19 dashboard. South Africa has reported the highest number of deaths related to COVID-19 in Africa, at 48,708, followed by Egypt, at 10,201, and Morocco, at 8,524. The southern Africa region is the area most affected by COVID-19 in terms of the number of confirmed cases, followed by the northern Africa region.…
Poland on Friday confirmed that the South African variant of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has been reported in the country. Poland’s Health Minister Adam Niedzielski disclosed this at a news conference. The first case of the South African variant was reported outside the Polish city of Suwalki, near the border with Lithuania. The share of the British variant of the virus recently estimated by Health Ministry officials at some 10 per cent of new infections is also rising in the country, with both variants speeding up pandemic processes, Niedzielski said. On Friday, Poland reported nearly 8,800 new coronavirus infections and 241 fatalities,…
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson kicked off the online G7 meeting on Friday with a call for a joint effort to defeat the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). “We’ve got to make sure the whole world is vaccinated because this is a global pandemic and it’s of no use one country being far ahead of another. “We’ve got to move together,’’ he said, according to the Press Association news agency. Vaccines must be distributed `at cost around the world, he said. dpa