Reps warn EFCC

EFCC boss, Ibrahim Lamorde

The House of Representatives on Wednesday cautioned operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission against allowing themselves to be used to settle political scores.

The commission was urged to investigate and prosecute cases professionally, irrespective of whether the suspects were Peoples Democratic Party members or members of the rival All Progressives Congress.

The House Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes gave the warning in Abuja, when the Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, appeared before lawmakers to defend the agency’s 2014 budget proposals.

Insecurity: Unregistered aliens risk deportation by May

Comptroller-General, Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. David Paradang

THE  Nigeria  Immigration Service has said that it is working to determine the figure of unregistered aliens in the country for possible deportation as from May this year.

“At the end of April, Nigeria Immigration Service will be able to tell you how many non-Nigerians are in Calabar or Uyo; how many Mai-ruwa from Niger are in Abeokuta.

“Every alien must have the new Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card because any expatriate not having the card will be treated as persons not legally resident in Nigeria and is liable to be removed from the country,” the Comptroller-General of Immigration, David Parradang, said this at an interactive session with journalists on Thursday in Abuja.

Court hears defected gov’s motion against PDP March 19

Rebel govs

An Abuja Federal High Court has fixed March 19 to hear applications filed by five governors who defected to the All Progressives Congress to challenge the validity of the hearing notices served on them by the Peoples Democratic Party.

In the hearing notice, the governors – Alhaji Murtala Nyako (Adamawa); Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto); Rabiu Kwakwanso (Kano); and Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara) – were summoned to appear before the court.

They were summoned  to respond to the suit filed by the PDP in a bid to remove them from office.

PDP wants defected N’Assembly members’ seats declared vacant

National Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, Adamu Mu’Azu

The Peoples Democratic Party has asked an Abuja Federal High Court to order the Senate President, David Mark, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, to declare the seats of 11 Senators and 37 members of the House of Representatives who decamped to the All Progressives Congress vacant.

Two judges of the Abuja FHC, Justice Ahmed Mohammed and Justice Adeniyi Ademola, had already fixed March 26 and 25, respectively, to deliver judgment in two related suits – one filed by the defected lawmakers to forestall plans to declare their seats vacant, and another brought by the PDP to stop the House of Representatives from changing its principal officers.

Wife of dead banker petitions N’Assembly

Mr Babatunde

Ebun Oke, wife of Ecobank worker who died in police custody, has urged the National Assembly to probe the circumstances surrounding the death of her husband, Babatunde Oke.

Ebun, in a petition to the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, wondered why the deceased was detained for over 72 hours.

She equally questioned police claims that the deceased took a bottle of soft drink and left the cork in his pocket.

The petition, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent, chronicled the circumstances under which the late Babatunde was kept in the police custody.

13 Lagos pupils slump after inhaling poisonous gas

There was pandemonium at the Ogba Junior Grammar School, Lagos on Thursday when 13 pupils fell unconscious after inhaling a gaseous substance from unidentified source.

The incident was said to have occurred during the 12 noon break time.

PUNCH Metro had on November 1, 2013, reported that 22 pupils of the same school fainted after inhaling a gaseous substance.

Following reports on the incident, a photo laboratory behind the school was investigated and was subsequently shut down by the Lagos State Government.

When PUNCH Metro visited the school on Thursday, it was deserted as the pupils had been sent home immediately the incident occurred.

Vehicles crush 20 pupils in Anambra, C’River

A Toyota Camry lost control on Thursday and ran into some secondary school pupils at the Umuokpu Junction along the old Onitsha-Enugu Expressway, Awka, Anambra State.

The victims were mostly pupils of the Community Secondary School, Umuokpu, and Union Secondary School, Amawbia.

No fewer than seven of them were feared dead, while 10 others were critically injured in the accident.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the pupils had just closed from school and were waiting by the side of the road to catch transportation home when the car ran into them.