Headlines
Mother of Three Siblings Killed in Akungba Crash Dies of Shock, AAUA Shut
The management of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, on Sunday ordered the closure of the institution until further notice.
The development was not unconnected to the protest that followed the fatal accident, which occurred opposite the campus of the institution on Saturday, in which no fewer than nine persons, including some students of the university, were killed.
The directive to close down the school was contained in a circular issued by the acting Registrar, Mr Opeoluwa Akinfemiwa.
The circular read, “Further to our circular of Saturday, January 23, 2021 and the attendant protest by students on Sunday, January 24, 2021, the acting Vice-Chancellor, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Prof. Olugbenga Ige, on behalf of the Senate, has directed that the university be closed with immediate effect until further notice.
“All students are therefore advised to vacate the campus latest by 6pm today, Sunday, January 24, 2021.”
It was gathered that three siblings were among the victims, who lost their lives in the crash.
According to the Ondo State Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps and the state command of the Nigeria Police, no fewer than nine persons were killed, while several others were injured in the accident that involved a truck belonging to Dangote Cement.
It was gathered that the cement-laden truck was heading for Owo from Obajana in Kogi State, when its brake allegedly failed. As a result, the driver lost control of the vehicle and swerved off the road and rammed into some shops directly opposite the university.
In a Facebook post, a former spokesman for the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Joe Igbokwe, said the mother of the three siblings killed in the crash also died of shock on Saturday after hearing the sad news about her children.
Igbokwe’s post was titled: ‘I am in deep pains and totally diminished as a mortal’.
He wrote, “An accident occurred yesterday (Saturday) in Akungba, Ondo State….these three guys were from same parents, a trailer crushed the three of them together in their shop and they all died instantly. Their mum died on the spot on hearing the news. Two of them are final year students of Ondo State University…….”
Similarly, a former Student Union President of the university, Samuel Adesomoju, popularly known as Sampraise, was also confirmed to be one of the victims of the crash.
The Global President of the National Association of Ondo State Students, Ayoade Kikiowo, confirmed this to journalists.
The body of Adesomoju, a 500-level law student, was discovered in the mortuary after the crash. One of his friends, Iyantan John, also confirmed this on his Facebook page.
He wrote, “The ugly event that happened yesterday in Akungba community will not concern the ‘Authorities’ that is why these incidents continue to happen often and often.
“The most painful thing is that I lost a brother who is so dear to me. Former SUG President and 500level law student, my acquaintance while in AAUA. May God console his family and the families of the late students. #RescueAkungba.”
Following the incident, students of the university took to the streets of the town to protest against incessant road crashes in the community, particularly along the university road.
The protesting students, who were singing solidarity songs, barricaded the roads that entered into the town and asked vehicles going into the town to turn back.
The angry students also sent back the state government delegation led by the Chief of Staff to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu. All efforts to appeal to them failed.
They demanded the personal appearance of the governor and not a delegation. The students stopped the delegation at Iwaro junction, in Akungba Akoko, stating that the government had neglected the community as no effort was made to curb incessant road accidents in the community.
However, they allowed the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Bolaji Salami, to enter the town with his security aides, while the government delegation returned to Akure.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Senate Leader, who is representing Ondo North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Prof. Ajayi Boroffice, has described as unfortunate the avoidable crash that led to loss of lives and propertys in Akungba on Saturday.
The senator said in a statement by his media aide, Kayode Fakuyi, on Sunday, “It is time to stop the incessant carnage on the Akungba Road.
“It is deeply disturbing to hear about another accident on the Akungba Road. It becomes more confounding that the accident claimed many lives and property.
“Many accidents have occurred along that route in the past and worthy counsels and viable suggestions have been offered.
“The situation is not helpless and it is time to put an end to the incessant carnage on roads in Akoko land.”
The Punch
The Secretary-General of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Prof Is-haq Oloyede, has urged leaders in the South-West geopolitical zone to support the establishment of Sharia panels in the six states of the zone.
According to him, the establishment of Sharia panels, which are essentially committees of Islamic scholars set up to settle marriage and inheritance disputes, will foster sustainable peace in the zone.
Oloyede, who doubles as Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), was a guest on the Sunday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.
He said Nigerian “leaders should have a rethink. For sustainable peace, there is nothing bad in Muslims having” Sharia courts in the South-West.
Of late, the proposed establishment of Sharia panels in states like Ogun, Oyo, and others in the South-West has triggered disquiet in the zone with traditional institutions and the Christian community rejecting the move while state governments in Ogun and Oyo have also ruled out the idea. But despite the pushbacks, the Muslim community in Nigeria and the NSCIA led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, have stressed the importance of the panels as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism for Muslims.
Oloyede said: “I believe that Nigeria is great and Nigeria will continue to be great but it requires a lot of rethinking. Recently, people are talking about Sharia Panels in South-West and I was just smiling; I was smiling that I had never seen that level of ignorance being displayed. Sharia Panel in Oyo State, somebody did a PhD thesis on it in 2007 which means it had been there before 2007. The person who wrote on that appraisal is a professor today in Ibadan. He is Prof Makinde, and the governor coincidentally is Makinde. I don’t know whether they are related.”
The former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin said the matter is something so trivial, and warned against building unnecessary tension around it, especially in the South-West where Muslims, Christians and traditional institutions have co-existed peacefully for ages.
He, however, said the Muslims in the South-West are paying psychologically for the harmony enjoyed in the zone.
Oloyede said: “When you have such a situation (of religious tolerance) and you do not continue to monitor what you are doing, you will be living in the past. I’m a Muslim from the South-West. The Muslims from the South-West pay psychologically for the peace and harmony that we are talking about.
“The churches are licensed by the government to conduct marriages that are statutory and if you have any dispute within your marriage, you go to government-funded high courts for dispute resolution.
“If there is a dispute in my marriage, where do I go? I don’t have the opportunity because I married according to Islamic rites, I will have to go to customary court where the customary judge knows next to nothing about my faith, about the laws on the basis on which we got married. He would now use customary law to determine Islamic marriage and the Constitution of Nigeria allows it to say where the state of assembly allows it, there should be Sharia Courts of Appeal.
“There have been Sharia Courts of Appeal in different parts of the country, particularly in the northern part of Nigeria. When we say there is harmony, it means somebody is suffering in silence but when the person speaks, they say: ‘Why are you making noise?’”
He faulted those criticizing the Sultan of Sokoto for speaking up, saying that Muslims in Nigeria practice the same Islam. “I think we should be able to tolerate one another,” he said.
An appeal filed by Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, challenging the leadership of the Rivers State House of Assembly has been dismissed by the Supreme Court in Abuja.
Fubara was also ordered to pay N2m to the Assembly and the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule, by a five-member panel led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji on Monday.
The case was dismissed after Fubara’s lawyer, Yusuf Ali, withdrew the suit.
Recall that on October 10, 2024, the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, admonished Fubara for failing to follow the rule of law in his actions.
The court further held that Fubara’s actions violated Section 96 of the 1999 Constitution, which requires at least one-third of the Assembly members to form a quorum.
The court noted that “four out of 31 members cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, constitute the required quorum for legislative business.”
Meanwhile, Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court also ruled against Fubara’s presentation of the 2024 budget before the four-member Assembly led by Edison Ehie.
The budget presentation was a result of the leadership crisis within the Rivers State House of Assembly. Fubara had argued that the Amaewhule-led faction lost its legitimacy after defecting from the People’s Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.
However, the lower courts ruled that he failed to provide evidence of their defection and, therefore, could not legally present the budget to a four-member House.
Following the Court of Appeal judgment, Fubara approached the Supreme Court to set aside the lower court’s ruling and allow him to present the budget to the Ehie-led faction.
However, when the case was called on Monday, Fubara’s counsel, Yusuf Ali, informed the Supreme Court that the governor had decided to withdraw the appeal.
Ali stated that a notice dated February 6 had already been filed, explaining that the appeal had been overtaken by events.
All 17 respondents in the case, represented by various lawyers, did not oppose the withdrawal. However, J.B. Daudu (SAN), representing the 3rd to 12th respondents (National Assembly and its leadership), and Wole Olanipekun (SAN), representing the 1st and 2nd respondents (Rivers State House of Assembly and Amaewhule), requested a cost of N2 million.
Daudu further urged the court to dismiss the appeal rather than strike it out, as issues had already been joined.
The five-member Supreme Court panel dismissed the appeal after confirming that the withdrawal was not opposed.
In a brief ruling, Justice Abba-Aji declared the appeal dismissed and awarded a cost of N2 million in favour of the 1st to 12th respondents.
The Punch
The Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), on Friday, disclosed that the recently re-streamed Warri refinery has been shut down for routine maintenance, and would be back soon.
The company, through a statement by its Chief Communications Officer, Mr. Olufemi Soneye, clarified that there was no explosion at the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC), describing any report suggesting otherwise as “completely false”.
Soneye said: “On January 25, 2025, operations at WRPC Area 1 were intentionally curtailed to carry out necessary intervention works on select equipment, including field instruments that were impacting sustainable and steady operations.
“These intervention works are essential to ensure the production of on-specification finished and intermediate products, particularly Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) and Kerosene (Kero).
“The routine maintenance is progressing as planned, and Area 1 will be back in operation within the next few days. Despite ongoing interventions, over the past 11 days, AGO loading has been maintained at an average of eight trucks per day, with a sufficient supply available to sustain ongoing truck load-out operations.
“NNPC Ltd remains committed to ensuring uninterrupted product supply and appreciates the patience and cooperation of all stakeholders as it completes these essential maintenance activities”.
The 125,000 barrels per day refinery was re-steamed just before the new year after over 10 years in comatose with NNPC saying it was operating at 60 percent capacity.
The Federal Executive Council, in August 2021, approved the contract for the rehabilitation of the Warri and Kaduna refineries at the sum of $1.48 billion.
