The Nigeria Labour Congress has lambasted the Nigeria Governors’ Forum for pegging the minimum wage at N22, 500. The NLC subsequently plants to settle for N66,500 minimum wage, The Punch reports.
The President of the NLC, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, said this at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday.
Wabba said the NGF was not known to the law and was thus an illegal body.
He said all governors should return to their respective states and consult with workers rather than hide under the umbrella of the governors’ forum.
Wabba also stressed that the organised labour would not accept the N22,500 figure as the new wage is not an award but a figure that was jointly arrived at through negotiation
Wabba, cautioned the Federal Government to:
“take necessary steps to ensure the enactment of a new national minimum wage act, as we cannot guarantee industrial peace and harmony.”
The body of the missing army general, Retired Major-General Idris Alkali found.
General Alkali’s remains were discovered in an abandoned well in a mining village, Guchwet in Shen of Jos South LGA of Plateau on Wednesday.
The leader of the search and rescue operation, Brigadier General Umar Mohammed, while announcing the development, told reporters that a parade will be held for the retired officer as an honour.
He said there will be a befitting burial for the former Chief of Administration, Nigerian Army headquarters
Retired Major General Idris Alkali had been declared missing since September 3, 2018, on his way from Abuja to Bauchi en route Jos.
The Nigerian Army had last week discovered a shallow grave, in its search of Alkali, who is the immediate past Chief of Administration (Army).
The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mr. Chris Ngige, says the Federal Government has rejected the N22,500 minimum wage proposal by the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF).
Ngige stated this on Wednesday during a phone interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“The governors have not even done enough. I told them that this N22,500 is even rejected by the Federal Government,” he said.
Ngige’s comments come 24 hours after NGF unanimously agreed to pay Nigerian workers N22,500 as the new minimum wage as against the current N18,000.
Chairman of the Forum and Zamfara State Governor, Abdul’Aziz Yari, said that the decision of the governors was based on the current realities on the ground.
But Ngige criticised the governors for the figure saying N22,500 is even below the N24, 000 agreement by the Federal Government.
He, however, said that all parties on the ground would resume back on negotiations to see that the welfare of the workers is met.
Ngige added, “The national minimum wage is a national legislation being driven by the Federal Government of Nigeria in pursuance to item 34 of the Exclusive Legislative list.
“But you don’t go and make a law which people will disobey at the initial.
“If you make a law and hoax a figure that is not agreeable, which people don’t have the capacity or ability to pay because the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says in those negotiations, the principle is the ability to pay.”
The minister, however, decried that the Chairman of the Tripartite Committee, Ms. Amal Pepple is not in the country.
Ngige explained that despite her absence for two weeks for a medical check-up, the Federal Government would convene partners involved in the minimum wage to deliberate on the issue and arrive on the same page.
Although workers are demanding N30,000 as minimum wage, the minister said that any industrial action being embarked on the aggrieved workers would not resolve the issues at stake.
A Nigerian based in the UK and elected into political office in the country has resigned after being caught with illegal drugs worth millions of naira.
The Labour councillor caught with a large amount of drugs at a music festival has already left his cabinet post. According to a report by BBC, Ishmael Osamor, 29, had pleaded guilty to having £2,500-worth of drugs, at last year’s Bestival event in Dorset.
The councillor and son of a Labour MP apologised for the “unwanted attention” his case had brought.
Osamor was sentenced to a two-year community order and 20 days rehabilitation, last Friday.
The son of Shadow International Development Secretary Kate Osamor, was caught with ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and cannabis at the festival in August 2017, nine months before he was elected as a councillor.
In a statement to the council’s chief executive he said: “It is with great regret that I am offering this as formal notice of my resignation as councillor, effective immediately.
“I would like to take the opportunity to apologise to the council, as I have to my ward colleagues and residents, for the unwelcome attention my case has brought to Haringey.”
Osamor resigned at a meeting of the council’s Labour group earlier after calls for him to quit.
Councillor Joseph Ejiofor, council leader, said: “Councillor Osamor came to see me on Friday 26 October and explained about an incident that happened in September last year.
“I expressed my concern and disappointment by the actions that he had admitted.
“The Labour Party expects high standards from its elected representatives, and I know that Councillor Osamor has taken some personal time over the past four days to review whether his actions have met this expectation.
“Consequently, Ishmael has decided to resign from Haringey Council. We respect his decision.”
Osamor admitted three charges of possessing drugs with intent to supply and a fourth charge of possession at Bournemouth Crown Court on Friday, the Local Democracy Reporter Service reported.
A team of Nigerian doctors has successfully separated a set of conjoined twins at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital Gwagwalada.
The doctors, led by Nuhu Kwajafa of the Global Peace Initiatives, confirmed the success of the operation that took them several hours on Tuesday in a post on his Instagram account @nuhukwaj.
“We wish to express our profound gratitude, as we say a massive thank you to Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, for his kind hearted and extremely generous gesture to the successfully separated twins and their family…God bless you, Sir,” Mr Kwajafa posted.
Nairabet owner, Akin Alabi, has taken to social media to rant on how a man won a whooping N24million with just N1500 on his bet site.
Akin Alabi, who is the APC candidate for Egbeda/Ona Ara House of Representatives, stated that the win might affect his campaign.
According to him, paying the winner will see a huge chunk stripped off his coffers meant for his election campaign.
“So this guy won over N24m with N1,500 on . Some people have forgotten that I have an election to fund. Haba. �♀️ This must be the work of PDP and ADC. The guy suppose donate to my campaign. � For those that know how to check betslips, the number is 178549440.”
Still in a sober mode, he continued his rant on Instagram:
“Some people are just wicked. I’m planning a political campaign and this one is now chopping all the money �♀️ we created to just be playing o, somebody is now planning to send me to my village.”
PDP governorship candidate in the September 22, 2018 election in Osun state, Senator Ademola Adeleke, was this Wednesday morning arraigned before Justice I.E. Ekwo of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
The lawmaker and four others were docked based on a
four-count charge of examination malpractices filed against them by the Nigerian Police.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, through the Prosecuting Counsel, Simon Lough, had on September 19, 2018 filed the charge against Adeleke and his four co-accused.
Charged by the Police alongside Adeleke were Sikiru Adeleke, the Principal of Ojo-Aro Community Grammar School; Alhaji Aregbesola Muftau, the Registrar of the School; Gbadamosi Ojo and a teacher in the school, Dare Samuel Olutope.
The police accused the five defendants of committing examination malpractices by fraudulently, through impersonation, registering Adeleke and another Sikiru Adeleke, as students of Ojo-Aro Community Grammar School, in Ojo-Aro in Osun State, for the National Examination Council’s June/July 2017 Senior School Certificate Examination in February 2017.
At Wednesday’s sitting, the defendants all pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against them, and alleged political witchhunt.
Adeleke was however granted bail on self-recognizance by Justice I.E Ekwo.
He was ordered to deposit his international passport with the registrar. He was also asked to sign a bond stating that he will always be present at his trial.
A third video of Kano State Governor allegedly receiving bribe in dollars has emerged.
The latest video was posted on Facebook by Kwankwasiyya Reporter and was translated in English.
''A man of the people of Kano State, who is a man of the people of Kano State, he is a man of integrity, a man of integrity, a man of integrity, a man of integrity, a man of integrity, a man of integrity, a man of integrity, integrity, If you have done it, you should be silent, so he should take the money of a contract that is why he'' they posted as the translation.
Recall two videos showing Governor Ganduje allegedly receiving bribe had been previously released, which prompted an investigation and public hearing by the Kano state House of Assembly.
India has unveiled the world’s tallest statue, a 182m (600ft) high structure in the western state of Gujarat to honor leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
The statue, which cost 29.9bn rupees (£330m; $430m) to build.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the “statue of unity” would serve as a major tourist attraction, though locals say this is as a wastage of public money and that the funds could have been put to better use, BBC writes.
Mr Modi, who unveiled the statue at a grand inaugural event, said it is “a symbol of India’s integrity and resolve.”
Air Force planes showered flowers on the statue, which was designed by decorated Indian sculptor Ram V Sutar.
The memorial has been seen as a pet project of Mr Modi, who like Patel, was born in Gujarat. He commissioned the statue when he was the state’s chief minister in 2010.
It is nearly twice as tall as New York’s Statue of Liberty, and has surpassed the height of the Spring Temple Buddha in China which, at 128m, was previously the tallest in the world.
But it won’t remain the world’s tallest statue for long, as the government in the western state of Maharashtra is constructing a memorial to the Maratha warrior king Shivaji that is estimated to be 190m tall.
The statue has become a rallying point for local farmers who are demanding compensation for land that they say has been acquired by the government for various projects, including the construction of the memorial.
Patel was India’s first interior minister and deputy prime minister. He was known as the “Iron Man of India” after he persuaded feuding states to unite and become part of the Indian state after independence.
Officials expect that the site, located some 200km (125 miles) from Gujarat’s main city, Ahmedabad, will attract about 2.5 million annual visitors and will help boost local economy.
Gallant policemen have finally arrested notorious a band of notorious kidnappers and armed robbers terrorizing people in Kaduna state.
The police authorities said no fewer than 93 suspects were arrested over the latest ethno-religious crisis that engulfed Kasuwar Magani town and other parts of Kaduna, claiming the lives of 55 persons besides destruction of property worth several millions of naira. The Force Headquarters, in a statement by its spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, said 43 suspects out of the number were undergoing prosecution at the moment.
The statement also said 50 suspects in police custody were “under investigation and will be arraigned in court soon. Investigation is being intensified to arrest other suspects still at large.
"The Police in the state in collaboration with other security and safety agencies will continue the confidence building patrols throughout the state and sustain the normalcy that have been restored,” it assured.
The statement reads: ”A total number of 93 suspects were arrested in connection with the multiple killings and wanton destruction of private and public properties worth millions of naira in the state. 43 suspects are currently being prosecuted while 50 suspects in police custody are under investigation and will be arraigned in court soon. Investigation is being intensified to arrest other suspects still at large.
“The Police in the state in collaboration with other security and safety agencies will continue the confidence building patrols throughout the state and sustain the normalcy that has been restored.
“The Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim Idris, has directed Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 7 Headquarters to meet with all the stakeholders in the state to give peace a chance and sustain the normalcy that has been restored.”
Meanwhile, the police paraded 10 suspects it arrested in connection with kidnapping, armed robbery and criminal conspiracy in Katsina State.
Items recovered from the suspects, according to Mr Moshood included five AK47 rifles; one locally made Pump Action Rifle and 105 AK47 ammunition.
A nurse has admitted killing 100 patients at two hospitals in Germany. Niels Hoegel, 41, is said to have intentionally administered medical overdoses so he could attempt to impress colleagues by resuscitating the patients.
He confessed on the first day of his trial for the murders, telling a court the charges against him were largely accurate.
Hoegel is accused of killing the patients at a hospital in the northwestern city of Oldenburg between 1999 and 2002, and at another hospital in nearby Delmenhorst from 2003 to 2005.
He is already serving a life sentence in prison after being convicted of two murders and two attempted murders in 2015. The victims in those cases were also patients in his care.
During that trial, he said he intentionally brought about cardiac arrests in patients because he enjoyed the feeling of being able to resuscitate them.
Following his conviction, authorities investigated hundreds more deaths, exhuming the bodies of patients. Others had been cremated so their remains could be not examined.
He was subsequently charged with murdering another 36 patients at Oldenburg and 64 in Delmenhorst. The youngest alleged victim was aged 34 and the oldest was 96.
Prosecutors have said Hoegel injected the patients with a cocktail of drugs to induce cardiac arrest.
They said it was assumed “he did this in order to create a life-threatening situation in order to demonstrate his resuscitation skills to colleagues and superiors,” adding he may also have been motivated by “boredom”.
He was caught in 2005 but it was another decade before the full extent of his actions began to emerge.
The case is sensitive for German authorities because police have said opportunities to stop Hoegel earlier were missed because local health officials hesitated over whether to raise concerns. Prosecutors are pursuing criminal cases against former staff at both hospitals.
An army helicopter crashed in southwestern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing 25 people on board, including a top commander and the head of the provincial council key in fighting off a Taliban attack in May, officials said.
Taliban insurgents fighting the Western-backed government said they shot it down.
Two army helicopters were on their way from Farah province to neighboring Herat when one lost control in low visibility and crashed into a mountain, Naser Mehri, a spokesman for the provincial governor, told Reuters.
Among the passengers were Nematullah Khalil, deputy army corps commander for the western region, and Farid Bakhtawar, the outspoken head of Farah’s provincial council. The other victims, apart from the crew, were soldiers and council members, Mehri said.
Bakhtawar was a major figure in battling the Taliban in the battle for the city of Farah which the militants besieged and threatened to take over in May.
Two students of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State, have lost their lives after they were killed following a clash between the Eiye and Aiye confraternities.
According to reports, the incident occurred at Right Link Villa, Okanlawon Street.
The Eiye cult members were hacked to death and their hands chopped off as a sign that they were killed by the Aiyes. Very graphic pics below please...
