National News
320 Nigerians expected from South Africa
nThe first batch of Nigerian returnees from South Africa will be airlifted from Johannesburg to Lagos today, according to the Nigerian Consul-General, Godwin Adama. The 320 passengers, who are among over 600 Nigerians to be airlifted by Air Peace Airlines, are expected to arrive the Murtala Muhamed International Airport, Ikeja at 9 am.
Geoffrey Onyeama
Adama said their evacuation followed the conclusion of their documentation in the aftermath of the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and other foreign nationals in South Africa.
He said: “We are documenting people through the
filling of relevant forms with information such as place of birth, state of origin, local government areas. We also check nationality and discourage wives with different nationalities to avoid bringing in other nationals. We equally discourage those wanting to take advantage of the flight.”
The Consul-General, who added that the second batch will leave South Africa tomorrow, shed light on the evacuation and flight schedules.
He said: “The manifest for the first flight is ready and we are working on the next flight. The two missions are working together to make a success of the evacuation. Nigerians will be conveyed in buses from the two missions to the airport at early hours of the morning to ensure smooth operations.”
The Chairman of Air Peace Airlines, Mr. Allen Onyema, who confirmed the deployment of the B777 aircraft to South Africa, said the returnees will be airlifted free of charge.
Onyema, however, lamented that he had received an e-mail from South Africa that some unauthorized persons were illegally collecting 1,000 dollars from each Nigerian that wanted to take advantage of the flight.
He said: “We have not designated or recruited any agent in South Africa to collect money on behalf of Air Peace. So, nobody should pay money to anyone or group of persons posing as Air Peace agent or staff. Any Nigerian who has paid money for repatriation to Nigeria with Air Peace should request for a refund and report to appropriate authorities.”
Adama assured Nigerians of a hitch-free evacuation, saying that the Nigerian Mission in South Africa had put in place measures to ease the process.
He also said the mission had introduced measures to ensure that other nationals do not take advantage of the free flight by Air Peace to come into Nigeria.
Ahead of the evacuation, the pan-Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, appealed to Southeast governors to come to the aid of the returnees who are of Igbo extraction.
Labor leaders said on Monday they will insist on the ‘consequential increment’ in their negotiation with states on the payment of minimum wage. Any governor not ready to pay should be ready for a showdown, they threatened.
Labour leaders who spoke in separate interviews with our correspondents, ;the union leaders were united that states should pay as expected.
Secretary-General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Musa-lawal Ozigi, said: “The governors are jokers. You know why? Because they were part of the minimum wage committee, they cannot say they don’t know what happened. The state governments are only playing games. They were represented in the minimum wage committee. They cannot come round to deny their responsibility. They are simply courting labour anger and we are ready for them.
“The statement is only to test Labour’s resolve to ensure that the dividend of minimum wage gets to everybody and we are ready for them.
“All the governors in Nigeria receive the same salaries. Even the states that cannot produce anything, they receive the same salaries with states that can produce something. So, they cannot also deny their workers what they should get.
“We have finished battling with the Federal Government and the consequential increase has been signed. It is time to go to the states to ensure that justice is done to everybody.
“Once the template we signed with the Federal government is passed to the states, we will then know which state said it cannot implement or pay. The template is not for negotiations but for implementation.
BBC Africa Eye’s on Monday released a documentary targeted at lecturers in some West African universities harassing their students for sex in exchange for grades/marks. After gathering dozens of testimonies, BBC Africa Eye sent undercover journalists posing as students inside the University of Lagos and the University of Ghana.
It was disclosed that female reporters were sexually harassed, propositioned and put under pressure by senior lecturers at the institutions – all the while wearing secret cameras in a 13-minutes video documentary released.
A UNILAG senior lecturer, Faculty of Arts, who doubles as the head pastor of a Foursquare Gospel Church in Lagos, Dr. Boniface Igbeneghu, was exposed as one of the culprits.
The undercover journalist posed as a 17-year-old student who wanted an admission at the University of Lagos.
The “student” endured a couple of sexual harassment from the Dr. Igbeneghu.
Igbeneghu, who invited the teenager to his office for a number of tutorials, subsequently began to have inappropriate conversations with her.
On their first meeting, he commented on her appearance.
In the 13-minutes secret filming, the lecturer revealed how his colleagues tossed and passed around UNILAG female students for sex.
He disclosed further how his colleagues patronised UNILAG Staff club ‘Cold room’ to commit series of atrocities on female students.
“Do you know that you are a very beautiful girl,” he asked her.
“Do you know that I am a pastor and I’m in my fifties. What will shock you is that even at my age now, if I want a girl of your age – a 17-year-old, all I need is to sweet tongue her and put some money in her hand and I’ll get her,” Igbeneghu said to her on camera.
Despite repeated requests, the lecturer failed to react to the BBC’s allegations.
Also, authorities of UNILAG dissociated itself from the lecturer’s actions.
It revealed to the BBC that the institution had a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment.
Furthermore, it refused to comment on the alleged ‘cold room.’
The Senate on Wednesday directed its revenant committees to probe the loss of $21bIllion revenue accruable to the Federal Government due to the failure to amend the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) Act.
This resolution followed a motion entitled: “Urgent need to review and recover additional revenue accruable to the government of the Federation from the Production Sharing Contracts pursuant to Section 16 of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract Act CAP D3 LFN 2004 and amend the Extant Act.”
The motion was sponsored by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah (Anambra South) and co-sponsored by 16 other senators.
In his lead debate, Ubah urged the Senate to note that “as a result of the non-review and amendment of the PSC Act, the Federal Government has lost about US$21 billion (about N7trillion) over a period of 20 years due to the failure to review and amend the PSC Act as stated by the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources following the meeting of the Federal Executive Council on the 14th day of December, 2017.”
Senator Ubah’s prayer which is to: “Mandate the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources Upstream to investigate the reasons for the failure to review the salient provisions of the PSC Act, identify the best fiscal regime for the PSCs and review the provisions of the PSC Act to ensure that beyond the crude oil price of US$20, the share of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) in the additional revenue is adjusted in accordance with the provisions of the Act,” was unanimously adopted when it was put to voice vote by the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan.
