Coalition of women groups has vowed to continue in their struggle to demand for justice until the Supreme Court deliver justice in the governorship dispute in Nasarawa state.
The group in their doggedness embarked on four kilometers match from the ‘Welcome to Lafia’ entry gate carrying placards with different inscriptions, Count every vote, protect democracy in Nasarawa State, injustice kills democracy, Appeal Court has failed us, Supreme Court review BVAS records of Gayam and Ciroma Electoral Wards.

The group included Nasarawa Indigenous Peoples Movement, (NIPM) Wind of Transformations, (WOT), Nasarawa State Christian/Muslim Coalition for Peace.
From Daniel Abel, Lafia
Speaking at the end of the protest, Helen Dalyop said they have been on the streets for the past six months demanding for their rights since the wrong pronouncement of the result of governorship election in March.

She said that they were called all categories of provocative names, but that does not mean anything to them because they are all responsible parents.

She added that nobody is sponsoring them and they were doing all this because of the love they have for the state and for better future.

“We are out on a peaceful protest and prayer seeking God’s intervention on our matter and we believe that we will smile at last.

Mummy Barau from Akwanga Local Government Area said they transport themselves everyday from Akwanga to Lafia just to ensure that they liberate themselves and thier children.

She added that they had voted for David Ombugadu of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the March 18 governorship election and not Gov. Abdullahi Sule of All Progressives Congress (APC).

She explained that if votes would not count then what is the essence of wasting tax payers money in conducting elections.

Similarly, Juliana Affiku from Lafia called on the Supreme Court to review the BVAS records of Gayam and Ciroma Electoral Wards of Lafia before passing its judgment to ensure that justice is seen to have been done.

She appealed to judges of the apex court to save democracy from collapse by refusing to succumb to pressure from any person or group of persons in compromise.

It could be recalled that the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday, November 23 had set aside the judgment of the tribunal of Oct. 2 and declared Gov. Abdullahi Sule of All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of March 18 governorship election.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party had since filed an appeal at the Supreme Court challenging the verdict to the Court of Appeal.

The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 Election, Peter Obi in a has admonished President Bola Tinubu to make Nigeria great by competing with China in the area of production and not on the size of delegations to a specialized conference of experts.

Obi in a series of tweets in his X handle on Sunday was reacting to the trending large number of Nigeria delegations to the United Nations, COP28  in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

He decried the waste and wrong imitation of a country dutifully pulling their people out of poverty.

Reports from Dubai show that Nigeria equals China with 1411 contingents to the conference, the highest in the global event aside from the host UAE.

But in a satirical response to the size of Nigeria’s contingent, Obi said “In a twist of sad irony, let me congratulate the giant of Africa, Nigeria, for matching the great China, with the same number of contingents at the ongoing COP28  in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Nigeria’s contingent to COP28 totaled 1411, the same number as the Chinese contingents.

Obi noted that While China’s budget for 2024 is about $4 trillion, about $2,860 per head; Nigeria’s budget is about $33 billion, about $165 per head. China has a high Human Development Index, HDI, with a ranking of 79 out of 191 countries measured, and Nigeria has a low HDI, with a ranking of 163 out of 191 countries measured. Nigeria has more people living in ‘Multi-Dimensional’ poverty than China, despite China having seven times our population.

“Most importantly, the vast majority of those in the Nigerian delegation to COP28 are either non-relevant civil servants or relations, friends, and hangers-on of high government officials. Most of them hardly understand or have anything to do with Climate Change.

“This huge contingent is at public expense and at a time when most Nigerians can hardly afford food and basic needs as a result of economic hardship. I pray earnestly that a day will come soon enough when we can focus on competing with China on productivity and the miracle of migrating the highest number of its citizens out of poverty over a relatively short time.

“As we have kept emphasizing, we must stop waste as an addition to our government and nation. We urgently need to cut the cost of governance and invest in production.

According to him, “We need to de-emphasize unnecessary ceremony and showmanship as a mode of government behaviour.We need to tie spending to necessity and national Priority pointing out that a New Nigeria is possible but we only need to do the reasonable and the necessary.

Fresh facts have emerged over allegations of admission racketeering involving the management of Nigerian Law School.

Multiple sources told the Newspoint that the process of entrance into the Nigerian Law School has been made so rigorous that university authorities pay huge amount of money, which they get through the parents of the students or the students themselves, so the paying university can get a high number of its undergraduates into the Law School.

A deputy dean from one of the South-West universities, who spoke on condition of anonymity said, ‘it’s an established fact that universities pay the Nigerian Law School huge amount of money to be able to give admission to the graduating Law students. These unfortunate acts have been going on for many years. ”

“It’s just sad that there is nothing anybody can do about it, the whole system is corrupt and if you don’t pay, some other universities will pay and take your slots and that will be to the detriment of the graduating students”, the university don lamented.

A parent of one of the graduating Law students who wouldn’t want their name mentioned added that, “I am surprised when my daughter asked for N1.5m for admission push into the Law School. I was shocked, I kept wondering if the people that are supposed to sanitise the law are these corrupt, then the profession is in trouble. ”

“I launched a private investigation through other families and colleagues and it was then I gathered that graduating Law students are made to pay from N1m to N4m each for entrance into the Law school”, the parent added.

Also speaking, a junior staff in one of the branches of the Law school told Newspoint that, its an open secret for the institution to collect money from univerisities and students, according to him, “you can hear the senior staff telling foreign Law students that, ‘you can pay dollars outside the country, we will collect ours too”.

For the record, admission racketeering in the Nigerian Law School can simply be described as money for admission. It is a practice or situation whereby persons, particularly staff of Nigerian Law School, demand money from prospective universities in exchange for admission.

This exchange can also be said to be willing extortion, given that the universities or, in some cases, parents/guardians of the students agree to the offer to pay money for the admission. Worst is, such students do not qualify for admission to study in the law schools but are asked to pay for such, thereby reducing the chances of those qualified to get placements in this institution.

While it may seem like a new practice, this newspaper learnt that admission racketeering in the Nigerian Law School undoubtedly has been silently “normalised” as it has been going on for decades, and by extension, impacts the country itself as the quality of lawyers produced annually begs for question.

Also, many of these lawyers are incapable of navigating the tough realities of the legal profession or in the words of the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, “unlawyerable” thereby preventing the country from developing legally.

Similarly, in 2022, the Ministry of Justice, in a publication, stated categorically that the caliber of lawyers graduating from the Nigerian Law School might not be able to handle the intricacies associated with the legal profession.

The Nigerian Law School, established in 1962, plays a pivotal role in the legal education system of Nigeria. It serves as the final bridge that transforms law graduates into full-fledged legal practitioners.

All efforts to reach the spokesperson of the Nigerian Law School have proved abortive as text messages and calls were not responded to as at the time of filing this report.

Culled from Newspoint