The lead counsel for Endsars petitioners, Adeshina Ogunlana, has voiced his disagreement with the Lagos State Government’s stance on a leaked memo approving the mass burial of 103 EndSARS victims.

The memo, which surfaced on social media on Sunday, suggested that the state government had approved N61,285,000 for the mass burial of 103 individuals identified as victims of the 2020 EndSARS protests, causing significant public outcry.

In response to the leaked memo, the Lagos State Government clarified that those scheduled for the mass burial were not victims of the infamous Lekki Tollgate shooting.

During an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, Ogunlana criticized the state government’s explanation, stating it was being “clever by half.”

He said, “The government is being clever by half and they are not telling the absolute truth. Yes, I agree with the position that the 103 bodies were said, not all of them were picked up from the Lekki toll gate and its environs.

“To use the word the pathologist used at the panel, that is Professor Obafunwa, he said bodies were scavenged, and corpses were picked from different places. But around the area of Lekki Toll Gate, they were corpses too, some of them were dumped at the General Hospital, Lagos Island and all that.

“For the government now to be saying oh no there is no named citizen, the question I want to ask them is this, even the 103 corpses that they want to dispose of, do they have any names? There was no name.

“The bodies that were taken around the environment of Lekki toll gate when Baba Fafunwa was speaking, he at least identified three that were perforated with missiles.

“People saying that the 103 is proof that actually 103 people were killed at the Lekki toll gate is a very grave error and I will not join anybody saying that.

“But to say that there was no body recovered in the environs of the Lekki toll gate incident of 2020 is completely wrong,” he said.

Ogunlana asserted that government was attempting to “profit from the cruel loss of lives” by approving as much as over N60 million for the mass burial.

He added, “Even now the system of government that we have in Lagos State and by extension Nigeria is showing that they want to profit by cruel loss of lives.

“How could you say that you have approved N61 million to bury 103 degraded bodies in a mass grave? People that are unidentified, people that nobody came up to claim and all that, I mean that is horrendous.”

The Federal Government has said the tuition of students in Federal Government Colleges, also known as Unity schools, excludes tuition.

According to the government, the hike only affected boarding and textbook fees, as well as uniforms.

Naija News reported on Friday that school fees of Federal Government Colleges, otherwise known as Federal Unity Colleges, across the nation, increased from N45,000 to N100,000.

The platform gathered that the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, has directed that new students of these colleges across the federation would pay N100,000 on resumption.

The new directive was contained in a circular from the Office of the Director of Senior Secondary Education Department of the Federal Ministry of Education, reference number ADF/120/DSSE/I, dated 25th May 2023 and addressed to all Principals of Federal Unity Colleges.

However, the government had clarified that the additional N49,500 added to the fees of JS1 students in the new school fees regime reflected on uniform, boarding, medical, utilities, textbooks, notebooks, and prospectus fees.

The documents also show that the increase in the fees for J.S.1& S.S.1 (new students) was not in tuition fees.

Similarly, other contents in the same circular ADF/120/DSSE I, addressed to Principals of the Federal government colleges for J.s.1,2 & Senior Secondary School 1&2, indicated an increment of N15,000 in boarding fees, N3000 in textbooks, and the sum of N2000 added for notebooks.

Speaking to the fee hike, the office of the Director, Senior Secondary Education Department of the Federal Ministry of Education said overheads in the federal government college system are still very low.

The office revealed that the government released funds for April 2023 two weeks ago, so fees paid by students are used to augment their feeding and other school running costs.

The office said, “The school fees were reviewed by the last administration. If you check the date on the circular, it was before President Bola Tinubu assumed office, and we released it in May to sensitise parents.

“So the slight increase is not in tuition fees. As a matter of facts, with evidence, tuition fee is still free because which child will you put in school that you will not buy books for and also buy uniform?

“The increase is insignificant as projected in the media. True be told, we don’t charge school fees. Which school will you put your child and feed him or her for three months with N30,000?

“The entire fees were reviewed across the board, not only for JS1 students.

“Uniform was added because of adulterated uniforms procured by parents for uniformity’s sake the school changed the idea so that all parents will buy same color of uniform.”

Below is a document obtained by VON with break down of the hike:

THE convoy of Governor Godwin Obaseki was stranded at the dilapidated and flooded RCC junction on the Benin- Sapele-Warri highway that has become a nightmare to road users.

This came as the governor said conflicting Federal Government’s position on federal roads in states had made it impossible for his administration to fix dilapidated federal roads across the state.

In a viral video of the incident, a background voice was heard urging viewers to share the video to show that it was payback time for leaders, who fail to take needed action to help the people.

The background (male) voice said: “The governor is the one inside the vehicle but it has stopped moving. This is his vehicle, he cannot come down as he is ashamed. Everyone is feeling the brunt of bad policies in the country.”

Meanwhile, Obaseki, during a visit to the Edo State secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, said: “The position and location of Edo, particularly Benin City, which has been a blessing is now becoming a curse. A blessing because we are very centrally located in Nigeria and we are one state where all major federal trunks pass through.

“We are a transport hub, so you have the dual carriage coming from the West, one coming from the East, one coming from the South-South and one is supposed to be going to the North.

“And a federal policy relating to its roads is very confusing. In the past, we could go as a state, rehabilitate and give the Federal Government the bill for refund. At one point, they said states can apply to take over those roads but I am yet to see one state that they have given a federal road to.

“The Auchi-Ibillo Road was so bad that some of our contractors couldn’t go to their quarry site. We appealed to the Federal Government to do palliative work on that road but they refused, saying the road is under contract.

“If I want to do the same to Benin-Sapele Road, I am not allowed to because first, it is not our road and second, the Federal Government said it had already given it out to a contractor. So, I cannot do anything on that road. So, we are in a very difficult situation in Edo.

“It is like our hands and our legs are tied and they say we should run because the only government people know is their state government.

“I am not here to criticise the Federal Government but I am here to say that we are all Nigerians and it is only fair and proper that the Federal Government, which has 52 per cent of our revenue allocation should treat Nigerians as human beings and that they all come from this country.

“You don’t have to vote for a Federal Government for the government to care about you but it is like there is nobody to talk to. Nobody cares about us in Abuja.”

A Senator representing Edo North Adams Oshiomhole has said they did not promise miracles to Nigerians when they campaigned for the election of President Bola Tinubu.

Oshiomhole, a former National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), said this on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

The former Edo State governor said Nigerians need to be patient with the new government, noting that the president is not a magician that will immediately solve all problems in the country.

“They know they were not electing a magician. And nobody promised a magical solution,” Oshiomhole said.

“You don’t need to give me an example. I know what we (APC) promised more than you who was reporting it. Whatever you reported, we were the source. We did not promise a 24-hour solution. We did not promise miracles. We did not promise an overnight solution.

“You show me any document that says in 48 hours, this will be done. In 14 days, this should be done. In 21 days, this should be done.

“I think you are the one who has the illusion that once a promise is made, automatically once you get into office, either spiritually or by miracles, solutions will emerge.”

The former Edo State governor said since the removal of fuel subsidy, Tinubu has taken steps to address the impacts of the decision.

“What Nigeria needs is what President Tinubu has demonstrated the courage to make decisions and to be humble to admit some of the unintended consequences of those decisions, and, the will to deal with those consequences. And he has put in place instruments to deal with them.”

On the N30,000 minimum wage in the country, the former Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president described it as a criminal wage.

“What we call minimum wage is a criminal wage,” he said. “If you exchange N30,000 at N800 or N700 to the dollar, what does that translate to? So, the value of that minimum wage when it was N125 – when it was first introduced under, I think, (Shehu) Shagari’s government – is about two times or three times the value many years later, even in the public service.”

Parents, under the aegis of the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria, NAPTAN, have called on President Bola Tinubu to apply the brake to the spate of increment in tuition fees and others by government-owned schools.

The parents said life was being snuffed out of them as a result of such increases in almost all sectors, such as fuel, electricity and now school fees.

According to them, the increases are becoming too many and pouring on the citizens like a heavy rainfall.

Speaking in a chat with Vanguard yesterday, the Deputy National President of NAPTAN, Adeolu Ogunbanjo, urged the President to, as a matter of urgency, put a stop to the tuition fee hike in public schools.

“It is unfortunate. We support the President regarding the removal of oil subsidy, but it does not mean everything should just be hiked at the same time.

”You still want to remove subsidy on electricity, and also hike tuition fees at the same time. That will be too killing on parents and their children.

“The President should by tomorrow, mandate schools to revert to their old fees. They should not snuff life out of parents and their children.

”He should temper justice with mercy. The moment the government increases fees payable in its schools, others will follow – the state governments and private school owners. He should just stop it,” he stated.

Giving advice to the President on how to bring down the cost of fuel in Nigeria, Ogunbanjo said though licenses had been given to some importers to bring in fuel, the solution did not lie in that step.

He said: “Prices of petroleum products would still continue to be on the high side as long as they are imported and the process is dollar-denominated.

”What he needs to do is to encourage modular refineries. That will bring succour to the people and the country entirely. He should address that and set standards for those operating such modular refineries if he is not pleased with what they are doing now.

“While the modular refineries are working and meeting the people’s needs in their own little ways, then the big ones, such as Dangote Refinery, can come on stream.

”The huge impact of the subsidy removal is already affecting businesses and many may close down. If that happens, it is still parents that will be the worst for it if they lose their jobs and still have family commitments to handle.”

Recall that federal government’s unity colleges recently increased fees from N45,000 to N100,000 and federal universities have done same.

The University of Lagos, UNILAG, for instance, weekend increased fees from N19,000 to N190,250.

Parents are apprehensive that by the time new session begins for primary and secondary schools in September this year, a number of parents might find it difficult to cope with fees and buying books.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, had expressed fears that the introduction of the Student Loan Scheme by the government would lead to hike in tuition fees.

Presidents of both unions, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke and Dr Anderson Ezeibe, had said the government would just be referring any indigent student who cannot pay fees to approach the Student Loan Board, but wondered how many of such students the board would be able to assist.

They also faulted the repayment method and timelines.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Abubakar Atiku has pleaded with the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to summon enough courage to do substantial justice to his petition seeking the nullification of Ahmed Bola Tinubu as winner of the February 25 election.

Atiku said on Sunday that contrary to the threat of Tinubu, heavens would not fall when he (Tinubu) is sacked by the tribunal as Nigeria’s president on the account of massive electoral fraud that brought him into office.

In his final written address, Atiku dismissed Tinubu’s threat as an empty one deployed to scare the tribunal from upholding justice in the petition challenging Tinubu’s election.

In the final written address by his lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, the former Vice President recalled the courageous position of the Supreme Court in the case of Rotimi Amaechi, where the apex court held that heavens would not fall when justice is done in the manner prescribed by law.

Justice George Adesola Oguntade, who delivered the Supreme Court judgment in the cited authority, had said: “I must do justice even if the heavens fall. The truth, of course, is that when justice has been done, the heavens stay in one place and in peace.”

Atiku asked the tribunal to invoke the courage displayed in the past Supreme Court judgment to settle his petition against Tinubu by disregarding the threat of monumental chaos issued by Tinubu to shield himself from justice.

The former Vice President maintained that Tinubu had lost the moral and legal rights to be in office as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, having admitted a punitive forfeiture of $406,000 in a narcotics and money laundering-related matter.

Besides, Atiku accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of manipulating the results of the presidential election in the most corrupt manner in favour of Tinubu and thereafter, unlawfully proclaimed him (Tinubu) the winner of the election.

Citing the alleged brazen subversion of the popular will of the voters by INEC in favour of Tinubu, the former Vice President appealed that the proclamation of the electoral body is voided and set aside and in its place, declare him the winner of the election having convincingly scored the majority of the lawful votes.

The naira maintained its downward trend against the dollar as it traded for 876/$ at the parallel market on Sunday.

Some Bureau de Change operators, who spoke to News-men, said the local currency had earlier exchanged to the dollar at 820 a week earlier.

Since the unification of the exchange rates in the country by the Central Bank of Nigeria in recent weeks, the naira had continued to slide to the dollar, due to liquidity crunch, speculations, and other challenges.

Speaking with our correspondent, a BDC operator in Lagos, Alhaji Sanni Abdul, stated, “Naira is currently bought and sold at 850/$ and 876/$. The exchange rate has not been stable for some time now.”

Another BDC operator, Alli Ibrahim, said, “Things are getting more expensive. As of Friday, we were buying and selling the naira at 850/$ and 865/$.”

Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr. Muda Yusuf, said the foreign exchange market was evidently under pressure as a result of a number of factors.

He said there was a curious surge in monetary expansion in the last month.

Yusuf said, “Money supply grew by an unprecedented 15 per cent in one month between May and June 2023. Broad money grew by over N9tn, from N55.7tn to N64.9tn. This surge in monetary growth is unprecedented. Obviously, this must have had an effect on the exchange rate.”

He said the monetary authorities should investigate this drastic growth in money supply and take steps to curb subsequent expansion.

“Such dramatic growth in money supply poses a significant risk to macroeconomic stability, especially price stability,” he said.

Over the last few years, he said, there had been a cumulative backlog of unmet foreign exchange demand, running into billions of dollars as a result of acute illiquidity in the foreign exchange market.

With a more liberalised forex market, he said, the pressure of the backlog of unmet demands and other maturing forex-related obligations had been unleashed on the investors’ and exporters’ window.

However, at the Investor & Exporter forex window, naira appreciated by 3.24 per cent against the dollar in the previous week.

According to the data from the official trading platform of FMDQ Securities, there was a slight appreciation of the naira by 3.24 basis per cent, bringing its value to 777.82/$. It ended the previous week at 803.90/$.

As of Friday, the naira traded at an intra-day high of 855/$ and a low of 665/$ with a total turnover of $77.99m.

The National Vice Chairman, Northwest, of ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Salihu Lukman, said yesterday that the level of impunity under the leadership of the erstwhile national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, reached its height when he sought to unilaterally impose a presidential candidate on the party.

He said apart from freezing statutory organs of the party, Adamu wanted to foist then Senate president, Ahmad Lawan, on the party but was swiftly cut to size by state governors and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who was then an aspirant.

Lukman in a statement, said it was, however, regrettable that the APC had continued to move from one leadership crisis to another, lamenting that today, the National Working Committee, NWC, had become a distant observer in the process of recruiting a new national chairman.

He said: “After winning the campaign to get the caretaker committee organize a national convention, which produced the current NWC, led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu, in no time the party was returned to the old mode of business as usual where statutory organs of the party were frozen.

”No meetings of party organs were taking place and the NWC became practically an observer whereby the National Chairman and National Secretary basically usurped the powers of all organs of the party.

“The height of it was when the national chairman attempted to impose Senator Ahmad Lawan as the 2023 presidential candidate of the party. Progressive Governors and many members of the NWC had to rise to the occasion and check his excesses, which produced President Bola Tinubu as the candidate of the party for 2023 elections. The rest, as is often said, is now history.

“However, we continue to move from one unhealthy situation to another during both the 2023 electioneering campaigns and the process of negotiations to produce leaders of the National Assembly after the elections.

”It was as if the party under the leadership of Senator Adamu was either contesting the authority of President Tinubu or at the least working at cross purposes.”

Agreed zoning formula favours North Central

Lukman also reminded President Tinubu and the Progressives Governors Forum, PGF, that the agreed zoning formula in the party ceded the position of national chairman to North Central.

According to Lukman, restoring constitutional order to APC will require some demonstration of commitment to give life to the statutory organs of the party, so that the debate about replacing the national chairman and all existing vacancies, including that of the national secretary, would be done within the structures of the party.

Lukman was again reacting to reports that former Kano State governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, had been tipped to replace Senator Adamu as the next national chairman.

According the him, the inability to revive statutory organs of the party will suggest that the process of replacing existing vacancies will be manipulated to suite some narrow interests within the party, even if it meant violating provisions of APC constitution.

Says some lecturers haven’t collected salaries for 30 months

Advises Tinubu on who to appoint education minister

President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, has described the education sector under former President Muhammadu Buhari as catastrophic.

He also said the administration of former President Buhari was the worst thing to happen to the country, lamenting that no government had ever given the education sector a paltry five per cent as the administration did.

He further noted with dismay that some lecturers had not collected salaries for about 30 months, while some had yet to collect the consequential adjustment paid about two years ago.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Vanguard, the ASUU boss advised President Bola Tinubu to ensure that the person he would appoint as the minister to oversee education sector was someone who knew what education was all about.

Asked to rate Buhari’s administration in terms of funding of the education, he said: “It was catastrophe, that was the worst that even happened to this country. There is no regime that had given five per cent to education but he did and even that five per cent was not monitored.

“As I speak today during that regime, University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, Ife, ABU get just eleven million per month for overhead cost.

”Meanwhile, my university (Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia State) spent more than N20 million on diesel a month, UNILAG should spend not less than N50 million to N100 million on diesel a month but the government just gave N11 million. Here (Michael Okpara University), they gave N5 million and it’s hardly released.

“The take home pay of one senator is more that what have you have as overhead cost of University of Ibadan and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife. How will that run? That’s why we have the problem we have today, nobody is interested.”

Further asked what kind of minister of education he would recommend to Mr. President, Osodeke said: “Such a minister should be somebody who knows what a university is and who knows what education is. Two, it should be somebody who will have the interest of Nigerian pupil, young boys and girls at heart.

”Three, the person should be somebody who must have his family in Nigerian university system, secondary and primary schools, not somebody whose child is outside, you go and do matriculation and convocation there but you don’t have a child here.

“So those are some of the things that should be considered in appointing the next minister of education. A person who believes in Nigeria and not those who believe Nigeria does not exist, we must go abroad. ‘You have headache you go abroad, a president had toothache, he ran abroad for treatment.”

On ASUU’s expectations of the present administration, Professor Osodeke said: “If you have watched, most of the past leaders have really not given the attention to the education system for growth. That is why we are having these problems, especially the issue of funding.

“If you check in West Africa, Ghana, Cameron and even South Africa, no country gives less than 15 per cent of its budget to education but last year, we got 5.3 per cent and it has never gone beyond 10 per cent in the past ten years.

“So that’s the critical issue. In the early 60s and 70s, the regional government, especially the western region, was giving 30 per cent. In some countries, they give up to 30 per cent because of the importance of education, but here we don’t regard it.

”Do you know why? Because the children of those who should ensure that it is done are not in the country.

“The first six months of last year we paid $600 million as tuition fee to UK universities. If you multiply that, it is more than N200 billion. That is what we have been saying should be put in education every year to revamp it but they are not interested. So that is the reason we are having this.”

The Federal Government, through the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, has issued a cease-and-desist order to Point of Sale operators from conduct that constitutes an infringement of the law.

This follows the move by PoS operators, under the umbrella of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria, to fix new prices for PoS transactions.

The new pricing model began on July 17, 2023.

According to the commission, PoS operators that are found in violation of the order will pay N10m for corporate entities and N1m and, or, a prison sentence of up to three months for individuals.

The FCCPC, in a statement signed by its Executive Vice Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer, Babatunde Irukera, on Monday, said, “The Commission advises PoS operators that violation of an order of the Commission attracts additional consequences apart from the underlying illegal conduct that is the subject of the order such as up to N10,000,000 for corporate entities; and N1,000,000 and or a prison sentence of up to three months for individuals.”

The commission noted that it has not sought to limit the prerogative of PoS service providers to determine and set prices for services in a manner of their choosing, subject to Section 127 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018, which prohibits manifestly unjust or exploitative prices.

It stated that it respects and encourages a pricing methodology that is the product of market forces in a free, competitive, and undistorted market. However, it said there is no evidence that the PoS market lacks sufficient players or competition in Lagos or anywhere else.

The commission said, “While the Commission continues to provide consideration to, and for small businesses, enforcing the law must remain non-negotiable.

“Accordingly, the Commission, in escalating this in accordance with the FCCPA and ancillary instruments, has entered an Order & Notice (ONC) of the Commission to AMMBAN, persons identified as executives, members, and non-member PoS operators to Cease and Desist from conduct that constitutes an infringement of the law.”

It said the ONC had been served on AMMBAN. It was also noted that not all members can be personally served or will become aware through service on AMMBAN.

It further stated, “In addition, some persons, such as non-AMMBAN members, may become subject to the ONC. Accordingly, the Commission has, and is by this again publicly disseminating the ONC. Members are however invited to consider sufficiency of service of the ONC under Section 158(4) of the FCCPA which deems such service on their association or executives as adequate and acceptable.”

According to the commission, it had tried the cautious and collaborative approach but has now adopted the ONC to convey its will to enforce the law, including, and up to prosecuting violators and affiliates who may otherwise be statutorily liable for the conduct of a violating company or business.

It added, “In addition to stipulated statutory consequences, although the Commission prefers not to disrupt the business and operations of small enterprises, it will (if it becomes necessary) prohibit merchant services and privileges to PoS operators or AMMBAN members who persist in conduct that is inconsistent with law and economic efficiency.”