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Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has asked the National Judicial Council through the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Mohammed, to sanction Justice Mohammed Idris, and other judges for presiding over cases in Federal High Court despite their elevation to the Court of Appeal. In a statement on Wednesday, National Coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the CJN and the NJC should immediately recommend punishment for Idris over the “malicious prosecution” of former governor of Abia State, Uzor Kalu. HURIWA, in an earlier letter to the CJN dated February 14, 2022, recalled that on Friday…

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has fixed April 8 to decide whether the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, will be discharged from the 15- count terrorism charges instituted against him or not. Kanu’s lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, had urged Justice Binta Nyako to quash and dismiss the amended 15- count charges for being incompetent. Details to follow…

Human rights lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome(SAN), who is the lead counsel to the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, on Wednesday, raised the alarm that his client’s sight had deteriorated. Ozekhome told the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, that Kanu, who is currently in custody of the Department of State Service, DSS, may go blind if nothing was urgently done to restore his sight. The senior lawyer, who recently took over the defence team of the embattled IPOB leader, said his client’s pair of eyeglasses was confiscated in 2015, when he was initially arrested…

The ECOWAS Court has dismissed the application by the Federal Government seeking to stop the judgment in the Twitter ban case. The court said the application is frivolous and lacking in merit. The case is now adjourned to 10 May 2022 for judgment. One Love Foundation (OLF), a social rights group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 195 other organisations had sued the Federal Government, questioning the legality of its ban on use of Twitter by Nigerians.

The Deputy Clerk of the Senate Isabella Ugochi Iloba has formally assumed duty as the Acting Clerk of the Red Chamber. Iloba took over from the outgone Clerk Mr. Ibrahim El-Ladan following his retirement on age grounds. El-Ladan was retired by the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) on February 9, 2022. The Commission had directed El-ladan and another officer, Adebayo Anthony Adebanjo, to proceed on retirement with immediate effect, while Michael Okpara should retire in six months. Iloba was appointed by the NASC as acting Clerk to the Senate to take over from El-Ladan. The letter obtained by The Nation…

The Nigeria Police Force Disciplinary Committee has recommended the demotion of the suspended Commander of IRT, DCP Abba Kyari, to the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police. This was after the Committee reviewed the report of the Special Investigation Panel that investigated Kyari over an indictment by an affidavit of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, The Committee found Kyari to have fraternised with fraudsters and also violated the social media policies of the Nigeria Police Force by responding to the FBI’s indictment on his Facebook page without recourse to laid down procedures. The Police have begun further investigations against…

POLICE investigations have revealed how members of a syndicate led by international scammer, Ramon Abass, popularly known as Hushpuppi paid N235, 120, 000 to a younger brother of a former Commander, Intelligence Response Team, Abba Kyari The probe also indicates that Kyari, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, equally funnelled N44m to his brother’s bank account in multiple transactions. However, the investigation report obtained by our correspondent on Monday, failed to disclose whether Kyari’s brother was acting as a proxy for his embattled elder brother who is currently in custody of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. The DCP, who was…

President Muhammadu Buhari has confirmed the appointment of Mohammed Bello-Koko as the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). The confirmation was announced in a release signed by a spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation, Eric Ojiekwe. The appointment is to take effect immediately. Mr Bello-Koko was first appointed acting MD of the agency in May 2021 after the previous managing director, Hadiza Usman, was suspended. President Buhari approved Ms Usman’s suspension after the transport minister, Chibuike Amaechi, accused her of “insubordination” and “refusal to take or carry out lawful instruction from superior officers/higher authorities”. The government said the…

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the Department of the State Services, DSS, not to take over the security arrangement of the court on February 16 until 12pm when the trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu on terrorism charges would kick off. The directive was given to allow other judges to attend to other cases slated for their respective courts. Justice Binta Nyako affirmed that trials of other cases had been aborted and they were made to suffer unnecessary adjournments each time Kanu’s trial took place due to heavy security…