NEWS

Halima Shehu: Tinubu Asked To Follow Due Process In Removing Public Officers

Published

5 months ago

January 3, 2024

Stephen

Halima Shehu: Tinubu Asked To Follow Due Process In Removing Public Officers

President Bola Tinubu has been asked to follow due process in handling issues relating to the suspension or removal of public officers and political appointees confirmed by the Senate.

The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Rafsanjani, stated this on Tuesday following the suspension of the National Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Halima Shehu.

World Wide Gist recalls that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had earlier approved the suspension of Shehu and ordered an investigation over corruption allegations.

However, according to Rafsanjani, there is a need for strict adherence to due process in the suspension or removal of public officers and political appointees.

He argued that public officer and political appointees can only be suspended or removed if they are declared to be corrupt, incapacitated, or resign, as provided by existing laws.

Rafsanjani insisted that the government must follow proper and transparent due process on issues that warrant the suspension or removal of any appointee screened and confirmed by the Senate.

He said, “If the President appointed her and you have any cause to remove her, the Presidency should have also go through the same process of appointing and removing but if you do this as an outright thing, it would suggest that we are not a country or due process and there must be reason.

“The Constitution is very clear on how to remove a public official. If the person is not corrupt and there is no evidence of corruption if the person is not incapacitated and there is no evidence of the person being incapacitated, or if the person has not willingly resigned, I think those are the key issues that our constitution always look at, on how to remove or suspend public officials.

“But you cannot just wake up and suspend somebody just like that. I think the question of security tenure, the question of ensuring that in the first place, you find public officials who are competent, who are qualified, who are not corrupt, is the major reason why we are emphasising that government at all levels must shop for quality and those who have no deficiency in terms of their capacity and intellectual experience in the work that they are assigned to do.”

NEWS

Abia Judicial Panel orders arrest of Ikpeazu’s former Chief of Staff, Deputy

Published

4 months ago

January 12, 2024

KOLLYLAD

Abia Judicial Panel orders arrest of Ikpeazu’s former Chief of Staff, Deputy

The Chairman of Abia State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the recovery of Government Property and Funds, Justice Florence Doruoha-Igwe (Rtd) has issued a Bench Warrant on Anthony Agbazuere and Don Ubani, who served as Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff, respectively, to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.

This is even as Don Ubani has said that he never received any invitation from the panel.

The Bench Warrant on Agbazuere according to Justice Duruoha-Igwe was because of his alleged failure to appear before the Panel to give evidence in respect to a Toyota Hilux Land Cruiser alleged to be in his possession since he left office.

Justice Doruoha-Igwe (Rtd) who adjourned the matter to January 24, 2024, directed that Agbazuere should be arrested and produced for further cross examination.

The Panel said that the Bench warrant on the former Deputy Chief of Staff to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Don Ubani, was because of his alleged failure to appear before the Panel and his inability to file a response to a notice served him on 30th of November, 2023.

Speaking before adjourning the matter to 24th of this month, the Chairman Justice Doruoha-Igwe (Rtd) directed that Ubani should be arrested and produced on January 24, 2024, to defend himself.

But reacting to the development, the former Deputy Chief of Staff to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Don Ubani said he was shocked to read that a Bench Warrant had been issued on him, saying that he was never invited by the Panel.

“I am shocked to read that a Bench Warrant could be issued on me without ever being invited to a Panel either by writing or even through a telephone call,” said Ubani who also described the arrest order as ‘false propaganda and political witch-hunt’.

But the former Deputy Chief of Staff also promised to appear before the Panel of Enquiry if he received an invitation.

NEWS

No date yet for inauguration of Supreme Court’s new Justices – NJC

Published

4 months ago

January 12, 2024

KOLLYLAD

No date yet for inauguration of Supreme Court’s new Justices – NJC

The National Judicial Council, NJC, has clarified that no date has yet been fixed for the swearing-in of the newly appointed eleven Justices of the Supreme Court.

The Council said that the purported news by an Abuja based media organization suggesting Monday January 16 for the inauguration of the Justices did not emanate from it.

A statement by the NJC’s Director of Information, Barrister Soji Oye clarified that neither the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, who is the NJC Chairman, nor the Council itself authored or endorsed the purported date.

While asking members of the public to disregard the news, the NJC said that the date for the swearing-in of the Justices would be made public at the appropriate time.

NJC’s statement read in part, “The attention of the National Judicial Council has been drawn to a trending story purportedly informing the public that the newly appointed 11 Supreme Court Justices would be sworn in on Monday 16 January 2023.

“The Council by this medium expressly denies the news as it did not emanate from the Council or the Office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of the National Judicial Council, Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola.

“The date for the swearing-in of the Justices will be made public at the appropriate time. Members of the public should please disregard the trending news.”

NEWS

MACBAN demands probe of alleged extra-judicial killing of members in Kaduna

Published

4 months ago

January 12, 2024

KOLLYLAD

MACBAN demands probe of alleged extra-judicial killing of members in Kaduna

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, Kaduna State, has demanded a probe of alleged extra-judicial killing of their members.

WORLD WIDE GIST recalls that an online report alleged that 11 decomposing corpses of Fulani natives, from Tulde Fulbe, Ladduga Grazing Reserve in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State, were on Monday discovered in a forest.

They were alleged to have been killed by the Nigerian Army.

But the Headquarters, 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, in a statement on Thursday night, by Lt. Col Musa Yahaya, Acting Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, denied involvement of the Army in the said killing.

However, in a statement by MACBAN Kaduna chairman, Haruna Usman Tugga, he insisted that the organisation as an umbrella body of Fulbe in Nigeria received with serious concern the information.

The statement condemned what they described as “extra-judicial killing of law-abiding Fulbe youths of Tilde Fulbe community and other areas of Ladduga Grazing Reserve in Kachia Local Government Area of the state by military personnel at Kachia, headquarters of Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State.”

He said they called an emergency executive meeting of the association to get to the root of the matter and find out the remote causes, perpetrators and names of the victims.