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FRSC unveils plan to curb road accidents in ‘Ember months’

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FRSC unveils plan to curb road accidents in ‘Ember months’

The Federal Road Safety Corps has unveiled a robust strategy to reduce Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) during the ember months and beyond across the country.

Speaking at the maiden town hall meeting organised by the FCT Sector Command, FRSC, on Thursday in Abuja, the Corps Marshal, Malam Shehu Mohammed, emphasised the need for collective efforts to ensure road safety.

Mohammed, who was represented by the Assistant Corps Marshal (ACM) in charge of operations, Hyginus Omeje, said that the essence of the gathering was to address pressing issues that affected everyone across the nation.

He said that the responsibility for creating safer roads is with every individual, civil society, and all levels of government.

“This town hall meeting aims to encourage dialogue and forge a path towards a safer motoring environment.

“Road safety is a matter of national priority because road traffic crashes are one of the leading causes of death and injury globally.

“Over the years, Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) have claimed thousands of lives and left countless others disabled, in addition to the huge toll they take on our annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

“As you are all aware, FRSC has been at the centre of playing a critical role in enforcing traffic regulations, promoting safer driving practices, and educating the public about road safety matters.

“To address this, we have launched some initiatives such as staff development, strategic partnerships, digital transformation, and discipline and staff welfare, among others,” he said.

According to Online explains that “ember months” are the last four months of the year ending with “ember”.

They are September, October, November, and December.

Mohammed, however, said that strategic partnership was also needed to complement the effort of the corps.

He said that the partnership was necessary to ensure every individual takes responsibility for their action on the road.

“This is the strategic imperative of this town hall meeting,” he said.

The FRSC boss emphasised that the recently launched FRSC Mobile App and the National Crash Reporting Information System were a further demonstration of the Corps’ collective resolve to make the roads safe

Mohammed said that it was expected to raise awareness and sensitise both drivers and passengers on potential causative factors of RTCs.

“It is our duty to ensure that commuters utilise these digital platforms to reduce road traffic crashes on our highways.

“Further to my assumption in May 2024, I unveiled an administrative blueprint to rejig and reposition operation strategies: train and retrain staff to align with realistic expectations: to improve strategic partnership.

“To adopt a digital transformation in our operations: and to promote discipline and staff welfare in the Corps.

“Pursuant to these objectives, we have commenced the implementation of a range of initiatives and programmes to enhance road safety in Nigeria.

“The process of harmonisation of the lower cadre ranks has already commenced while the promotion exercise for senior officers has been concluded, and the promotion exercise of the middle cadre and junior officers is on course.

“This is expected to motivate staff for greater productivity,” he said.

The FRSC boss urged stakeholders at all levels to engage in meaningful discussions to address critical challenges and explore effective solutions.

This, he said would be to safeguard lives and ensure a secure and enjoyable journey for every road user.

(NAN)

Osun pastor arraigned for calling gospel artiste prostitute

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Osun pastor arraigned for calling gospel artiste prostitute

A clergyman in Osun State, Niyi Peter, was arraigned on Thursday before a Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Osogbo for allegedly defaming popular gospel artiste, Bunmi Akinnaanu, also known by her stage name Omije Ojumi, via social media.

Peter, facing a three-count charge, allegedly posted a picture of the artiste on social media and labeled it “prostitute song,” sparking outrage among her fans and colleagues.

Appearing before Magistrate Dr. Olusegun Ayilara, details from the charge sheet read that, “You, Apostle Niyi Peter, male, in the month of April 2024, at about 12:00 pm at Oke-Odo Area, Osogbo, in the Osogbo Magisterial District, did defame the character of one Bunmi Akinnaanu, a.k.a. Omije Ojumi, by posting her picture and tagging it ‘prostitute song’ on social media via your WhatsApp number 08065352473.”

The clergyman was also accused of sending a threatening voice note to Akinnaanu, stating that she “will perish and never rise again.”

The charge further read, “You, Apostle Niyi Peter, on the same date, time, and place, conducted yourself in a manner likely to cause a breach of peace by falsely damaging the character of Bunmi Akinnaanu, a.k.a. Omije Ojumi.”

The offences are said to contravene sections 373, 88, and 249(D) of the Criminal Code Cap 34 Vol. II, Laws of Osun State of Nigeria, 2002.

Peter, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges. His counsel, Mr. Okobe Najite, urged the court to grant him bail.

Ruling on the bail application, Magistrate Ayilara admitted Peter to bail in the sum of N1 million with two sureties, both of whom must be civil servants.

The case was adjourned until Tuesday, October 22, 2024, for further hearing.

Bill for independent candidacy scales first reading 

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Bill for independent candidacy scales first reading 

The House of Representatives on Thursday approved for first reading a bill seeking an alteration to the 1999 Constitution to allow independent candidates to stand for elective offices in future elections.

The proposed law is titled, “A bill for an Act to alter the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended) to allow for the participation of candidates who are not sponsored by political parties in the presidential, governorship, National Assembly, State Houses of Assembly and local government council elections.”

Sponsored by the House spokesperson and member representing Ikole/Oye Federal Constituency, Ekiti State, Akin Rotimi, the bill seeks to amend Sections 7,65, 106,131,177, and 221 of the constitution.

Section 7, sub-section 4A of the bill provides that “Notwithstanding any other law, any individual eligible to vote or contest an election into the State House of Assembly, shall have the right to be a candidate for election to any local government office notwithstanding that such individual does not belong to, or is not sponsored by any political party.”

Section 4B provides that “A candidate who does not belong to or is not sponsored by any political party shall only contest an election if (i) In the case of a chairmanship election, such a candidate has obtained the verified signatures of at least ten per cent of registered voters from at least two-thirds majority of all the electoral wards in the respective local government area;

(ii) “In the case of a councillorship election, such a candidate obtains the signatures of at least ten per cent of registered voters from at least two-thirds majority of all the polling units in the respective electoral wards, provided always that the signatures shall be verified by the Independent National Electoral Commission or the State Electoral Commission; and that a registered voter shall not sign for more than one independent candidate in respect of the same office.”

Recall that a similar bill introduced during the 9th Assembly did not receive the requisite approval from State Houses of Assembly as mandated by law.

Addressing reporters at the National Assembly Complex, Rotimi said the time had come for qualified individuals without sponsorship from political parties to run for any office of their choice without hindrance.

“This bill will broaden the democratic process, thereby allowing citizens who are not affiliated with any political party the opportunity to run for public offices,” Rotimi said.

While noting that he was sponsored by the All Progressives Congress, Rotim stressed that in advanced democracies, people vie for various positions as independent candidates.

He said to qualify to contest the main election, independent candidates will be required to meet certain requirements such as getting the endorsement of a certain number of registered voters in the area he wants to represent.

A copy of the bill obtained by The According revealed that an independent candidate is expected to get the endorsement of at least 10 per cent of registered voters spread across at least two-thirds of the constituency.

Section 221 of the Constitution was amended to provide for the Independent National Electoral Commission to “Develop and publish guidelines and procedures for the nomination, verification, and participation of independent candidates in all elections.

The electoral umpire is also required in the alteration to “Prescribe a security deposit to be paid by an independent candidate seeking election into any elective office created by the constitution or any other Act of the National Assembly.”

Speaking at the briefing, the Executive Director of a non-governmental organisation, ElectHer, Ibijoke Faborode, said the bill was targeted at expanding the democratic political space.

“It is democratising the space, you know, for people like you and I to also have access to the electoral process as well and to ensure that every Nigerian is also part of the process.

“It will also ensure that most vulnerable populations such as women, youths, and persons with disability are given a level playing field, to explore opportunities within the political and electoral system,” she said.

IPCRC sensitises election observers, media personnel

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IPCRC sensitises election observers, media personnel

The International Peace and Civil Responsibility Centre has held a one-day training and sensitisation workshop for accredited election observers and media personnel ahead of the Anambra State local government election holding on Saturday, September 28, 2024, across the 21LGs of the state.

The organisation said the programme, held at Mano Hotel & Suites, in Awka, on Thursday, is aimed at equipping participants with the knowledge of the electoral process, voting procedures and their roles in ensuring a peaceful, free, fair and credible election.

Speaking at the event, the president, IPCRC and Coordinator, Accredited Observers, Chris Azor, urged accredited observers to be of good conduct, commit to free, fair, credible and accurate reporting of incidents so as to ensure peaceful Anambra local government election

Azor said, “This is a platform to educate and sensitise election observers and other stakeholders. As accredited observers for the forthcoming Anambra State local government election, we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring a free, fair, credible, transparent, and peaceful electoral process.

“Accredited election observers, while playing their role should observe voter verification, voting procedures, counting, tabulation of results, collation and declaration by electoral umpire.

“We pledge to ensure Impartial and independent observation. Adherence to extant electoral laws, rules and guidelines. Promotion of voter education and awareness, observation of voting procedures and counting processes.

“Accurate reporting of incidents, malpractices and irregularities. And utmost good faith and impartiality. The election management body of the Anambra state Independent Electoral Commission has demonstrated full preparedness and commitment to the integrity of the entire exercise.”

Similarly, he urged political parties and candidates to commit to promotion of peaceful conduct, stakeholder engagement and non violence, advising security agencies to maintain neutralty, fairness and impartiality while preserving human rights and rule of law.

The body further urged eligible voters to exercise their franchise peacefully without let or hindrance, while refraining from any act contrary to electoral law and code of conduct.

“Our organisation shall mobilise observers across the state, and set up a Situation Room in Awka, capital city for real time coordination and timely reportage for desired result.

“We call on all stakeholders to be mindful of the long road to this democratic process, after over ten years absence of democracy at the local government level. We are therefore, enjoined to avoid any act that would undermine the process and take us backwards,” Azor added.

Also speaking at the event, the Commissioner in charge of Information and Logistics at ANSIEC, Tony Nnalue, warned election observers not to announce results, insisting that only the electoral body has the exclusive right to announce results.

Nnalue also disclosed that the Commission will not use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System for the local government council elections, but instead, had opted for manual accreditation.

He stated that over 5,720 ad-hoc staff have been trained to conduct the elections across the state’s polling units.

“We will not use BVAS but the manual. BVAS is not reliable; it has distorted the electoral process in Nigeria. We don’t want a situation where election results are tampered with at night in the name of BVAS.

“Elections are not a gift; those who are serious will win. The commission will utilise voter registration data from the Independent National Electoral Commission for the elections,” Nnalue added.

LG poll: PDP no longer popular in Rivers, afraid of defeat—APP

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LG poll: PDP no longer popular in Rivers, afraid of defeat—APP

The Action Peoples Party has mocked the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State for pulling out of the forthcoming local government elections in the state scheduled for October 5, 2024, saying the action shows fear of defeat. This is as the APP vows to clinch the chairmanship position in all 23 local government areas of

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New York mayor charged with bribery, fraud refuses calls to step down

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New York mayor charged with bribery, fraud refuses calls to step down

New York’s scandal-plagued mayor Eric Adams was federally charged Thursday with crimes including wire fraud, soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations and bribery conspiracy, a stunning indictment unsealed amid calls for him to resign.

The grand jury indictment follows a sweeping probe into the mayor’s campaign and his close associates on whether he conspired with Turkish government officials to receive illegal contributions in exchange for official acts.

A defiant Adams told reporters on Thursday that he looks “forward to defending myself,” and refused a chorus of calls to step down, urging New Yorkers to “wait to hear our side of the story.”

The 57-page document accuses the mayor of the most populous city in the United States of crimes going back a decade, when Adams took office as Brooklyn’s borough president.

He accepted luxury international travel including from at least one Turkish government official, the charges allege.

As he began planning to run for mayor in 2018, Adams “not only accepted but sought illegal campaign contributions to his 2021 mayoral campaign, as well as other things of value, from foreign nationals,” according to the court documents.

“As Adams’s prominence and power grew, his foreign-national benefactors sought to cash in on their corrupt relationships with him, particularly when, in 2021,” it became clear he would become mayor, reads the indictment.

“Adams agreed, providing favourable treatment in exchange for the illicit benefits he received.”

Upheaval in the Adams administration has been mounting for months and grew particularly acute in recent weeks, as scandal swirled around his administration that saw a number of high-ranking allies resign as many were indicted or raided by federal agents.

The drama culminated in a pre-dawn raid of his official residence early Thursday.

– Calls to resign –

Adams, who is up for reelection in 2025, has put up a front of business as usual throughout the mushrooming investigations.

But on Wednesday, influential congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, from New York, called on the 64-year-old mayor to resign “for the good of the city.”

The indictment risks embarrassing Democrats just 40 days before the US presidential election between Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, who are neck and neck in the polls.

The charges cap a dark week for Adams, whose team has been shaken by the resignations of Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan and Education Chancellor David Banks, a close friend of the mayor whose department manages the city’s public education system that serves one million students.

Those departures, effective at the end of 2024, follow the immediate resignations of police chief Edward Caban, who quit just one year after he took charge of the city’s police force and its 36,000 uniformed officers, and Adams’s chief legal adviser, Lisa Zornberg.

Caban, whose electronics were seized by federal investigators, stepped down as federal agents appeared to be zeroing in on his twin brother’s nightclub security business.

Revelations of the probes have laid bare personal and business ties among the inner circle of the mayor, raising potential conflicts of interest.

One investigation involves the activities of a consulting firm run by Terence Banks, whose brother David was the school’s chancellor, and whose other brother Philip was appointed in 2022 by Adams as deputy mayor for public safety.

Adams, the second Black mayor in the city’s history, won the 2021 Democratic primary vowing to reduce crime.

Under his leadership, violent crime in the city has fallen, after rising during the pandemic.

But the city of 8.5 million people faces a housing crisis that has seen rents skyrocket to unprecedented levels.

Adams already faces a smattering of primary contenders in the run-up to next year’s vote, all of them to the left of the centrist mayor.

Should he eventually step down, the city’s public advocate, the progressive Jumaane Williams, would become acting mayor ahead of a special election.

AFP

Senate passes Bill for South West Development Commission

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Senate passes Bill for South West Development Commission

On Thursday, the Senate approved a bill to establish the South West Development Commission in plenary.

The measure was passed after the Chairman of the Committee on Special Duties, Sen. Kaka Shehu (APC-Borno), submitted the committee’s findings.

In his presentation, Mr Shehu stated that the measure was intended to foster socioeconomic growth in the South West.

“If the Commission is formed by presidential approval to the law, it will be similar to other development-driven commissions established on a zonal basis.

“It will receive funds from the federation account, donations from development partners, among others, to address infrastructural deficits and tackle ecological problems in the region, “he stated .
Following Mr. Shehu’s presentation, the Senate resolved into a committee of the whole to study the bill section by clause, after which it was read for the third time.

Sen. Barau Jibrin (APC-Kano), Deputy President of the Senate, who presided over plenary after the measure was passed, praised Sen. Kaka’s committee for its work.

Read Also: Malian singer Rokia Traore to be extradited to Belgium

According to Barau, the South West Development Commission, like other recently founded organizations, will address the South West’s infrastructure and environmental concerns.

“The purpose of the many development commissions being established is to accelerate the development of the entire country.

“President Bola Tinubu has assented to similar bills passed for zonal development – driven interventions and will surely assent to this one,” he told journalists.

Malian singer Rokia Traore to be extradited to Belgium

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Malian singer Rokia Traore to be extradited to Belgium

Malian singer Rokia Traore will be extradited from Italy to Belgium over an outstanding two-year prison sentence handed down in a child custody dispute, her lawyer said Thursday.

The singer and guitarist was sentenced in absentia by a Brussels court last year on charges of parental abduction.

She was arrested in Italy in June and challenged the extradition order, but a Rome court ruled Thursday that “Rokia will have to be transferred to Belgium within 10 days from today,” lawyer Maddalena Claudia Del Re told AFP.

Traore had been arrested in Paris in March 2020 on a European arrest warrant over a Belgian court ruling ordering her to return her daughter, now aged nine, to the child’s Belgian father.

She defied a ban on leaving France and flew home to Mali several months later, before she could be sent to Belgium.

A lawyer for the child’s father said he had not had any contact with his daughter, who lives in Mali, since she turned four.

The lawyer said the father had offered to draw up a new custody agreement with Traore, validated by Malian and Belgian courts, to “find a way out of this nightmare and guarantee their child a future with two parents”.

Beyond her feted music career, Traore is also known for her advocacy work for refugees, and was made a UN ambassador for refugees in 2015.

AFP

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Rivers: Court restrains PDP from dissolving pro-Wike excos

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Rivers: Court restrains PDP from dissolving pro-Wike excos

The National Assembly has inaugurated the reconstituted leadership of the Public Complaints Commission led by the Chief Commissioner, Hon. Bashir Abubakar.

Speaking during the inauguration on Wednesday in Abuja, Senate President Godswill Akpabio encouraged the chief commissioner and his team to not just ensure thoroughness but also maintain a high degree of transparency and honesty while displaying commitment to delivering on their mandate.

Akpabio added, “To those of you who have accepted this tremendous responsibility, we want to remind you: to whom much is given, much is expected. You are moving into responsibilities that not just require dedication and integrity but a sincere commitment to serve the good people of Nigeria.

Read Also: How Bobrisky pleaded for financial assistance to get VIP treatment in prison – Falz

“You have now joined us as co-labourers in nation-building and custodians of the public’s trust, and it is your duty to uphold that trust with honour, commitment and dedication.

“As you embark on this journey, we urge you to live up to the expectations that come with your positions. Represent the National Assembly, and more importantly, represent the people of Nigeria with pride.

“Remember that your work will touch lives, inspire hope and remind us all that justice is not merely a privilege but a right for every citizen.”

APC vows to defend votes

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APC vows to defend votes

The All Progressives Congress in Kano State, has vowed to defend its votes in the forthcoming local government elections scheduled for October 24, 2024.

The state Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Abbas, disclosed this in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday.

Abbas said that the party would soon organise its primary elections to pave the way for the emergence of candidates for the elections across the 44 LGAs.

“We are doing everything humanly possible to ensure that our teeming supporters participate in the elections.

“APC is mobilising its supporters to participate in the elections, with focus on protecting votes and ensuring a peaceful process,” he said.

Abbas appealed to the state electoral commission to ensure that it provides an enabling environment for all participating political parties towards free, fair, and credible elections.

“We demand equal opportunity from the commission for all contestants to participate without showing any bias.

“We also demand a transparent electoral process in addition to a peaceful atmosphere for the entire elections.

“The party has embarked on house-to-house sensitisation of its teeming supporters to come out en-mass and participate in the Oct. 24, local government elections across the 44 LGs,” he assured.

While urging supporters of the party to shun all forms of violence before, during, and after the elections, the chairman said the party would not tolerate any form of intimidation during the electoral process.

“Kano state still remains a stronghold of APC, the party wants to maintain its lead, we therefore, urge the commission to ensure integrity of the electoral process, which is crucial for Nigeria’s democratic development,” he said.

(NAN)

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