Ekweremadu decries discriminatory admission practices

By Taiye Odewale Abuja

Wants mission schools returned to original owners

Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, yesterday raised the alarm over what he termed discriminatory practices in the admission of prospective students into public educational institutions. Th is was even as he strongly canvassed the return of schools, hitherto, belonging to the Church and other religious organisations to their original owners, noting that government had fared badly in building upon the successes recorded before the forceful takeBy Jedidah Silas Kiman Gombe Jama’atu Izalatul Bid’ah Wa Ikamatis Sunna in Nigeria (JIBWIS) has expressed concern over the increasing number of beggars in the nation’s streets.

Its National Chairman, Sheikh Abdullahi Bala Lau, stated this yesterday in Gombe, stressing that there were approximately 20 million beggars roaming the streets in the country. Th e cleric said he was in the state for a discussion on a way forward out of the current economic situation.

According to him, the organisation has already set a committee to advise it on ways to sensitise members on how to embrace farm business and improve their livelihoods. “We don’t want our people to become beggars, we want them to be self reliant, everybody should go back to farm, we want our people to be comfortable and progress because without hard-work, we can’t progress.” Lau, who paid a courtesy visit on the Emir of Gombe, Alhaji Abubakar Shehu Abubakar, appealed to the emir to support the move against idleness among the people. In his response, the emir promised to support the organisation in all areas of human development. By Vivian Okejeme Abuja Justice Adebukola Banjoko of a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Gudu, yesterday, adjourned to April 27, for further hearing on trial of former Plateau state Governor, Joshua Dariye. Dariye is facing a 23-count charge bordering on money laundering and diversion of state ecological funds to the tune of N1.2billion leveled against him by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission EFCC.

At the last adjourned date March 16, Garba Pwul, prayed the court to grant him leave to withdraw from handling Dariye’s case. Counsel to Anti-graft agency, Rotimi Jacobs, vehemently objected the application for withdrawal. According to him, a counsel had a greater responsibility to the court not only to the client. “A legal practitioner, other than a law offi cer, engaged in any matter shall be bound to conduct the case on behalf of the prosecution or defendant until fi nal judgment, unless allowed for any special reason. “Where a legal practitioner intends to disengage from a matter, he shall notify the court, not less than three days before the date fi xed for hearing and such notice shall be served on the court and all parties,” he submitted. He, thereby, urged the court to dismiss the application as incompetent. In her ruling, Justice Banjoko, pointed out Rule 21 of the Rules of Professional Conduct in the Legal Professional which addresses circumstances surrounding the withdrawal of a lawyer from employment. Justice Banjoko, in her response, granted Dariye time to get a new counsel.

Th e matter was adjourned till April 27 and 28, 2017, respectively. By Tope Musowo Lagos Lagos state government yesterday began the process of building up data on criminal suspects to aid in gathering important intelligence that would eventually assist in tracing defendants and providing accurate bio-data to the courts during prosecution of criminal cases. Speaking while handing over 750,000 criminal suspect forms to the Lagos state Police Command, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem, said the decision of government on the profi ling policy was aimed at bringing about ease of justice delivery and to help in quick record keeping of criminals in the state. He said: “Th is data base will hold information about previous convictions, nature and types of off ences committed by convicted persons in the State. Th e forms will also assist the DNA data base to be built on the completion of the Lagos State DNA Laboratory which can be interfaced with these collection of data and samples of DNA from suspects and convicted persons which will be warehoused in the Criminal Data Base that will be rolled out to the public soon.” Responding, the Lagos state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, who was represented by a Deputy Commissioner of Police in the Command, Bolaji Salami, thanked the Governor for his commitment to making the job of policing in the state to be more eff ective and effi cient. over. Ekweremadu, who stated this at the 46th Convocation of the Bigard Memorial Seminary in Enugu, drew the nation’s attention to how quality education had raised South Korea from the ruins of war and poverty at the end of the Korean War in 1953, to one of the global economic super-powers, even with virtually no mineral resources. He said the forced take-over of schools in the 1970s “should never have happened.” On the contrary, he said the “Church and other religious institutions, when they held sway, lifted the education sector to lofty academic, disciplinary, and moral standards. He, therefore, urged government to “give to the Church what belongs to the Church.” He observed that the handover of schools by Anamabra state to their original owners saw the state rise from previous 25th and 26th positions on a table of 36 states, to fi rst position in National Examination Council (NECO) performance in 2011 and 2013. Ekweremadu added that such handover should not serve as a ploy by states to evade the responsibility of funding quality education for their citizens as “quality education costs good money.” On his part, the Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, regretted that the country was yet to truly takeoff , even more than 50 years after independence.

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