The Edo State Government has begun the process of establishing mobile courts to try environmental sanitation offenders.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Public Utilities, Maj. Lawrence Loye (retd.), who stated this at the inauguration of the state Technical Committee on Environmental Sanitation in Benin on Wednesday, said the state would no longer tolerate shoddy handling of environmental matters.

He said, “We are working on the introduction of mobile courts to address issues of environmental sanitation offences, where offenders will be tried in accordance with the law.

“The magistrate will be in the mobile court, we will move from street to street. We look forward to bringing environmental standard in the state to an acceptable level comparable with what is obtainable in other parts of the world. We want to see the cities neat and I promise all that it is not going to be business as usual.

“My advice is to encourage all to work as a team, build the structure of enforcement and address illegality associated with enforcement.

“No enforcement team will be allowed in any local government area without the supervision of the technical committee, to avoid cases of extortion and other untoward acts.

“For environmental sanitation, its either you are part of the team or outside of it. If you’re not part of the technical committee, you cannot enforce.”

The Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, expressed dismay at residents’ attitude towards environmental sanitation, “despite government’s huge investment” in the sector.

He said, “We have taken environmental issues very lightly in the state, and even during environmental sanitation, people just stay back at home and wait for time to elapse.”

 

The Nigeria Army has reiterated its commitment to stamp out terrorists and terrorism act in the country.

This assurance was given by the Chief of Defense Staff, Vice Admiral Ola Ibrahim, during an interactive session to foster civil/military relations in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

The parley had in attendance elders, youths, women, traditional and religious leaders and other stakeholders.

Addressing the gathering, the CDS who was represented by the Deputy Director Civil Military Relations, Air Commodore Onitiju, stressed that the military will repel any attempt by unscrupulous elements to turn the country into a war zone.

Onitiju said that his mission in Maiduguri was to consolidate on the peace achieved so far. He tasked the stakeholders to always cooperate with the military operatives in the course of their duties, as according to him, security forces alone cannot achieve success without vital information from the general public.

He admitted that the military might have caused some damages during operations, but that such was never intended.

He revealed that the Defense Headquarters will soon send a team of investigators to interrogate all those detained with a view to release the innocent, while those found wanting will face the full wrath of the law.

In his words: “Anybody working against the peace in the country will be forced to respect the law.”

“Terrorist are like cancer in the body and if not removed it would destroy the whole body, because any part of the country which is affected by any crisis affects the whole nation, as Nigerian one indivisible entity,” he said.

Air Commodore Onitiju said that the military repose great confidence in elders, adding that they should refrain from shielding their children involved in terrorism and other criminal activities.

At the public session held at the Ramat Square Maiduguri, parents and guardians particularly women urged the military to release their children, claiming they were innocent.

A traditional rulers who spoke at the meeting, Bulama Bashir Bukar of London Ciki appealed to the military to release those erroneously detained, even as he gave his word that the elders will work in conjunction with the military to ensure that permanent peace returns to the state.

 


Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo has begun moves to personally prosecute House of Representatives member, Farouk Lawan and one Boniface Emenalo, an ally of Lawan, over bribery allegations by Femi Otedola.

The legislator allegedly accepted a gratification of $620,000 from the businessman during the House ad-hoc Committee probe on Fuel Subsidy, with a promise to give him (Otedola) a clean bill of health in the final report.

Keyamo in a letter to the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke (SAN), said he gave a seven-day ultimatum to the Police to begin the prosecution, but that they claimed investigation into the matter was over and that Adoke’s office was yet to file charges against the suspects.

He said he was giving Adoke till Tuesday to know the next line of action.

He attached a proof of evidence to the letter, which he made available to The Nation, as well as a recording of a telephone conversation where Lawan was allegedly asking for gratification to doctor his report, and appealing to Otedola to keep it secret.

Keyamo wrote: “May I kindly request that, by virtue of Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Act, Cap. C41, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, you endorse on the charge whether, having seen the charge, you are prepared to prosecute Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo for the counts in the charge or whether you have declined to prosecute at the public instance the counts in the said charge.

“The position of the law is that, before I commence private prosecution, you should be given the opportunity to prosecute or to decline to prosecute. This is what I have done by this letter.

“I will expect your reply by the close of official business on Tuesday, January 29, 2013, to enable me determine my next line of action.

“I sincerely hope you will make your decision one way or the other as any indecision on your part will amount to a refusal to act as held by the Supreme Court in the case of Chief Gani Fawehinmi V. Col. Halilu Akilu & Anor: In Re: Oduneye Reported In 1987 (4 NWLR) P. 67.

“In that case, it will be all-clear signal I require to file the Charge.”

The four-count charge prepared by Keyamo, to be filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, reads:

“That you, Honourable Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo, sometime between January and July 2012 in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, within the jurisdiction of Federal High Court, conspired to corruptly demand and receive the sum of $3,000,000.00 (Three Million US Dollars) as gratification from Femi Otedola, and thereby committed the offence of Criminal Conspiracy contrary to Section 96 of the Penal Code Act, Laws of FCT and punishable under Section 97 the same Act.

“That you, Honourable Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo, sometime between January and July 2012 in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, within the jurisdiction of Federal High Court, corruptly asked for, receivedand obtained the sum of $620,000.00 (Six Hundred and Twenty Thousand US Dollars) as bribe from Femi Otedola, and thereby committed the offence of gratification by an Official contrary to Section 12(1)(a) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, Cap C31, LFN 2004 and punishable under the same section.

“That you, Honourable Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo, sometime between January and July 2012 in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, within the jurisdiction of Federal High Court, corruptly agreed to receive the sum of $3,000,000.00 (Three Million US Dollars) as gratification from Femi Otedola, and thereby committed the offence of Gratification by an Official contrary to Section 12(1)(b) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, Cap C31, LFN 2004 and punishable under the same section.

“That you, Honourable Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo, sometime between January and June 2012 in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, within the jurisdiction of Federal High Court, threatened one Femi Otedola with injury to his reputation and his companies, with intent to cause alarm to Femi Otedola and to cause Femi Otedola to give you a gratification of $3,000,000.00 (Three Million US Dollars) in order to avoid the said injury, and thereby committed the offence of Criminal Intimidation contrary to Section 396 of the Penal Code Act, Laws of FCT and punishable under Section 387 of the same Act.”