NATIONAL NEWS
OSUN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS SUSPEND STRIKE
Both the Academic and non-Academic Staff Unions of the fourOsun state owned institutions have agreed to end the five month long strike.
The Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, and Public Relations Officer of the Council of Academic Staff Union of Osun State Tertiary Institutions, Mr. DotunOmisore, disclosed the decision of the union to newsmen in Osogbo.
The non-academic staff union of the tertiary institutions had on Monday returned to work while the academic staff resumed duties on Friday.
The affected institutions are Osun State Polytechnic, Iree; Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke; Osun State College of Education, Ila-Orangun, and Osun State College of Education, Ilesa.
LAGOS PDP IN DILEMMA
The Lagos state chapter of the PDP is currently divided over the choice of candidate to raise its flag for in the 2015 gubernatorial election.
While Bode George and some other political stalwarts in the party have gone to woo the former Democratic Peoples’ Alliance (DPA) candidate in the 2007 election, Jimi Agbaje to PDP promising him an automatic ticket for the gubernatorial race, they seem to have met a brick wall as senator Musiliu Obanikoro is strongly opposed to the move to bring Agbaje into the party.
AMAECHI TO RECEIVE IMPEACHMENT NOTICE WHEN JUDICIARY RESUMES
The speaker, Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Evans Bapakaye told newsmen that GovernorAmaechiwould be given an impeachment notice once the judiciary is in session.
He said the impeachment notice is ready and would have been served last week if not for the break the judiciary is on.
“I and my colleagues met last week to serve Amaechian impeachment notice but we have been delayed because there is no Judiciary, which is why we have to hold on. As soon as the Judiciary resumes we will serve him” Evans said.
PRESIDENCY INSTRUCTED PDP TO USE RELIGION AGAINST AREGBESOLA- APC
The All Progressive Congress, APC, has alleged that the president has instructed the Osun state chapter of thePeoples Democratic Party, to intensify its Religious campaign against the Incumbent Governor, RaufAregbesola.
This statement was disclosed by the APC in Osogbo on Saturday, speaking through the PRO, Barr. KunleOyatomiwho said the APC has expressed sadness and deep concern that the presidency, for any reasonwhatsoever, is playing politics with religion which is already causing grave problems for Nigeria in the phenomenon called boko haram.
BOKO HARAM KILLS OVER 100 IN BORNO
A Civilan Defense spokesman and human rights activist says Boko Haram insurgents have killed more than 100 people in DamboaBorno state.
Damboa, atown that is just 85 kilometers away from Maiduguri has been under siege for the past two weeks after the exit of the soldiers.
Survivors said, on Saturday the insurgents lobbed homemade bombs into homes and gunned down people trying to escape.
They have also hoisted their black and white flag as a symbol of conquer of the town.
OFFA POLY LECTURER DIES IN FLOOD
On Saturday, a 45- year old man identified asAdeniyiAdebowale, a senior lecturer inthe department of Food Technology, Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara state was submerged in a flood at Oke- Gada area, Ede in Osun state.
The late teacher who was resident at that area with his family was coming home from Offa when he met his death a short distance away from his house.
NYAKO’S IMPEACHEMENT:TINUBU ACCUSES JONATHAN, PDP OF BEING THE MASTERMINDS
Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, has accused President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of being the masterminds behind the impeachment of the Adamawa State governor, MurtalaNyako.
Mr. Nyako, a member of the APC, was on Tuesday impeached by the State House of Assembly, which found him guilty of gross misconduct.
In a statement released on Friday,Tinubu argued that Mr. Nyako’s crime was but his decision to join the APC as well as his letter to the Northern Governors Forum, accusing the Jonathan-led government of genocide against the North and not the false allegations contained in the articles of impeachment.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
EBOLA DEATH TOLL PASSES 600 IN WEST AFRICA
The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has risen to 603 since February, with at least 68 deaths reported from three countries in the region just last week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported.
WHO said on Tuesday that there had been 85 new cases between July 8 to July 12, highlighting continued high levels of transmission.
International and local medics were struggling to get access to communities as many residents feared outsiders were spreading rather than fighting Ebola.
“It’s very difficult for us to get into communities where there is hostility to outsiders,” WHO spokesman Dan Epstein said at a news briefing in Geneva.
PHILIPPINES RECOVERING AFTER DEADLY TYPHOON
Millions of Filipinos have endured a second day without power after typhoon Rammasun paralysed the capital Manila, and killed 38 people as it swept across the country.
Rammasun was headed towards China on Thursday after cutting a path through the Philippines’ central and southern islands, shutting down the capital and knocking down trees and power lines.
The storm’s 160km/h winds destroyed about 7,000 houses and damaged another 19,000 said Alexander Parma, the chief of the national disaster agency. It has been the strongest storm to hit the Philippines this year.
Many of those killed were outdoors, killed by falling trees, collapsing buildings and flying debris, according to the council’s data, despite national warnings to remain indoors or in shelters.
In Manila, a city of 12 million people, streets remained littered with fallen trees, branches and electrical posts as repairmen struggled to restore power services.
AUSTRALIA’S ABBOTT REPEALS CARBON TAX
Australia’s government has repealed the carbon tax on the nation’s worst greenhouse gas polluters, ending years of contention over a measure that became political poison for the politicians who imposed it.
The senate voted 39 to 32 on Thursday to cancel the tax introduced by the centre-left labour government in July 2012.
The tax had charged the highest polluters $22.60 per metric tonne of carbon dioxide produced.
Conservative politicians burst into applause as the final tally was announced, AP news agency reported.
Tony Abbott’s conservative coalition government rose to power last year partly on the promise of getting rid of the tax, assuring voters that removing it would reduce household electricity bills.
Abbott plans to replace the measure with a taxpayer-financed $2.4bn fund to pay
industry incentives to use cleaner energy.
US SENTENCES BRITONS FOR SUPPORTING TALIBAN
A US judge has sentenced two British nationals to far shorter prison sentences than prosecutors were seeking after the men pleaded guilty in December to supporting armed groups through print and online publications.
Babar Ahmad was sentenced on Wednesday to 12 and a half years of a maximum 25 years for the crime, which prosecutors said included helping raise money and recruit fighters for the Taliban before, and after, the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.
“It is my conclusion that the defendant does not present a risk of becoming involved in future crimes, and was never involved directly with al-Qaeda,” Judge Janet Hall said.
ETHIOPIA CHARGES JOURNALISTS WITH ‘TERRORISM’
A group of Ethiopian bloggers and journalists held in jail for nearly three months have been charged with terrorism for having links to an outlawed group and for planning attacks, a judge said.
The seven members of the blogging collective Zone Nine and three journalists were arrested in April, prompting an outcry from rights groups who said the case was an assault on press freedom.
“They took training in how to make explosives and planned to train others,” Judge TarekeAlemayehu told the court on Friday.
The judge said their work was a cover for “clandestine” activities and accused them of plotting “to destabilise the nation”.
The group is accused of planning attacks in Ethiopia and working in collusion with the US-based opposition group Ginbot 7, labelled by Ethiopian authorities as a terrorist organisation.
THOUSANDS MARCH IN INDIA OVER SCHOOLGIRL RAPE
Thousands of people have marched in India to protest against alleged police inaction after a six-year-old girl was raped at a school in Bangalore, the country’s technology hub.
More than 4,000 parents and relatives of children who attend the school shouted slogans against the school’s administration on Saturday, and demanded that the police arrest those involved in the July 2 incident, which was reported only this past week.
The rape has raised questions about the safety of India’s schoolchildren and sparked nationwide outrage over rampant sexual violence against girls and women.
The school has refused to take responsibility for the crime.
The protesters squatted outside a police station and refused to move until the city’s police chief assured them the suspects would be arrested.
Police said eight members of the school’s staff had been detained for questioning.
