Monday, 27 February 2017
Kwara assembly summons MTN over mast installation
Ilorin – The Kwara House of Assembly on Monday summoned the management of MTN Nigeria over alleged “wrong installation’’ of mast at Budo Egba area of Ilorin.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the summon was sequel to a complaint a resident filed before the House Committee on Public Petitions.
The committee’s chairman, Alhaji Adeayo Mohammed, said that the petition was filed by Chief Oladele Olanrewaju, through his counsel, Mr Teju Oguntoye.
According to him the petitioner claimed that the installation of the mast was causing environmental hazard to residents.
Mohammed said the committee would investigate the matter thoroughly and directed MTN management in the state and other stakeholders to appear before the committee on March 3.
The post Kwara assembly summons MTN over mast installation appeared first on Vanguard News.
Vía Vanguard News http://ift.tt/2ltqppj
Proposed constitution, Electoral Act amendments: Office-holders with pending cases won’t be sworn in —Nnamani
By Dennis Agbo & Chinedu Adonu
ENUGU— Political office seekers, who have outstanding election petitions hanging over them, would not be sworn into office under proposals being championed by the Senator Ken Nnamani-led Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee, it emerged yesterday.
Senator Nnamani made the disclosure even as Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, blamed the dwindling fortunes of Nigeria’s democratic experiment on inability to conduct a free and fair elections over the years.
Nnamani spoke at the South-East zonal public hearing on proposed amendments to the Constitution and Electoral Act conducted by the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee.
The hearing, which was attended by political stakeholders from the South-East heard strong proposal for amendments and reforms of both the Electoral Act and the country’s constitution.
Setting the stage for presentations, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Nnamani, said the proposed reform would discourage swearing-in of office holders with cases pending at election tribunals.
Nnamani said the measure would discourage attempts by politicians to win at all costs, noting that politicians were in the habit of deploying unwholesome means to be declared winners following which they would dare their opponents to go to the tribunal.
Nnamani said: “We want to come up with a new system whereby no one can be sworn into office if they have election petitions hanging on their necks. Politicians are fond of fighting to win and saying ‘let us go to court.’
“Experience has shown that majority of the cases in our courts are either pre-election or post-election matters and we want to find a way out of this.
“We want to ensure that after a candidate had spent time to campaign and given the mandate by electorate, such mandates will not be dropped at the court by way of losing in the case.”
Ugwuanyi callsfor reforms
Earlier at the Government House, Governor Ugwuanyi had called for reforms to strengthen the country’s democracy.
He said: “It is a well known fact that our inability to conduct free and fair elections had impacted negatively on our efforts to deepen democracy over the years. Necessary reforms must, therefore, be carried out to resolve all the issues required to be carried out to promote peace and stability in the country,” he said.
Ugwuanyi commended the committee for giving the South-East zone the opportunity to send their views on how to entrench credible, acceptable, violence and rancour-free election in Nigeria.
Stakeholders at the hearing were drawn from the judiciary, political party groups, civil society organizations, the academia and the executive arm of government.
Speaking on the electoral challenges faced by the judiciary in handling both pre and post electoral petitions, Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice Ngozi Emehelu, demanded extension of 21 days time lag for filling of petitions after elections and the 180 days statutory period within which election petitions are given to be decided upon.
On it part, a civil society group, Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, demanded that the appointment of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and its board members should no longer be left solely to the discretion of the President but should involve the input of the National Assembly, civil society organizations and other relevant stakeholders, adding that section 221 of the constitution should be amended to give room for independent candidacy.
The post Proposed constitution, Electoral Act amendments: Office-holders with pending cases won’t be sworn in —Nnamani appeared first on Vanguard News.
Vía Vanguard News http://ift.tt/2m5NIJF
Sacked Sen. Akpan asked to refund all monies collected while in office
By Henry Umoru, Emmanuel Ayungbe & Chioma Onuegbu
UYO—A Federal High Court sitting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, yesterday, sacked the Senate Committee Chairman on Oil and Gas, Senator Bassey Akpan, representing Akwa Ibom North East senatorial district.
Trial judge, Justice Fatun Riman, in a judgment in the pre-election matter brought before the court by a former House of Representatives member, Elder Bassey Etim, challenging the wrongful substitution of his name with that of Bassey Akpan, as a winner of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, primaries for Akwa Ibom North East senatorial district in 2014 by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said it was unconstitutional, null and void.
“I have carefully read the written submission of counsel to parties and the replies on point of law and the facts of exhibit placed before me. In consequence, therefore, I enter judgement in favour of the plaintiff, Elder Bassey Etim,” the judge held.
Justice Riman ordered INEC to immediately issue fresh Certificate of Return to the plaintiff as the true and bona fide candidate of Akwa Ibom North East senatorial PDP primaries.
He ordered INEC to set aside the certificate of return issued to Akpan as winner of the 2015 senatorial election.
The judge also ordered that “All monies collected or earned by Senator Akpan during his membership in the Senate to date in whatever source should be refunded to the Federal Government.”
Justice Riman awarded N200,000 cost in favour of the plaintiff, Bassey Etim, against the first and third defendants.
Meanwhile, Senator Akpan and the PDP, yesterday, said that they will appeal the judgment.
Senator Akpan, in a statement, yesterday, said: “This judgment justifies and reflects the biased conduct of Justice Riman throughout the trial of this case which culminated in my petition to the National Judicial Council, NJC, and the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court on November 7, 2016, accusing Justice Riman of bias and antagonism towards me and requesting him to disqualify himself from the case.
“I wish to inform my teeming supporters and the good people of Akwa Ibom North East that this is a pre-election matter and therefore, the judgment of Justice Riman is not final as I have directed my lawyers after their legal briefing on this matter to exercise my rights of appeal to ensure that we get justice at the Court of Appeal.”
On its part, PDP Publicity Secretary, Iniobong Ememobong in a the statement on behalf of the state Chairman, Obong Paul Ekpo, said the party has directed its lawyers to immediately appeal the judgment.
He maintained that Senator Albert was the party’s choice for the Akwa Ibom North East senatorial district, adding that the PDP will stop at nothing to ensure that Albert retains his seat for the senatorial district.
The post Sacked Sen. Akpan asked to refund all monies collected while in office appeared first on Vanguard News.
Vía Vanguard News http://ift.tt/2ltsGRq
Friday, 17 February 2017
Poor visibility forces Osinbajo to cancel trip to Ondo (Read full details)
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo
Hazy weather and poor visibility yesterday morning forced Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, to reschedule his visit to Ondo State.
A statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, yesterday said the visit has been rescheduled for Monday, February 20.
The trip had been scheduled in continuation of his tour of the oil-producing communities, which has taken him to Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Imo states.
According to Akande, Osinbajo was already air-borne when weather reports indicated dusty haze and very poor visibility at the Akure Airport and other alternative airports nearby.
He said the presidential jet had to return to Abuja, following which the weather condition was closely monitored until about 2:30pm, when it became clear that the situation would not change in time for the Acting President to achieve the purposes of the visit.
Meanwhile, the Presidency has extended apologies to Governor Olusegun Mimiko, the governor-elect, Rotimi Akeredolu, traditional rulers and the generality of the people of Ondo State who had waited to receive the Acting President.
Vía Uzomedia http://ift.tt/2m6D7dB
Thursday, 2 February 2017
Samsung, Apple , Tecno top list of mobile brands with highest SOV in Q2 of 2016
Latest report released by Teksight edge Limited showing online mentions of mobile phone brands released for May and August 2016 has revealed that Samsung, Apple and Tecno topped the list of mobile brands with the highest Share Of Voice, SOV, in the second quarter of 2016 while Nokia, Injoo and Microsoft appear to be struggling to make a mark in the market.
Unsurprisingly, the latter case seems to be prevailing because it is expected that a mobile phone consumer who has used more than two mobile phones in his lifetime is likely to have used devices from at least two different mobile phone manufacturers.
Accordingly, the report effectively captured the SoVs of 18 different mobile brands operating across different markets of the world.
[d]
From the report, Samsung generated the highest conversations month-on-month over the competition. The mobile giant’s impressive online engagement figures may be attributed to the launch of its Samsung Galaxy A and Galaxy J Series at different intervals across different markets of the world in Q2 2016 bolstered also by the release of its flagship Samsung S7 March the same year (visit Teksight Edge’s official blog to access free version of the full report).
Tecno, according to the report launched Tecno Boom J8 and Camon C9 within this same interval in the local market.
However, on the global scene, Samsung and Apple enjoyed much stronger aspirational value.
Interestingly, while the top mobile brands narrowly edged out Africa’s No. 1 mobile brand Tecno, in the share of voice (SOV), the chart revealed the Chinese mobile phone maker rising profile and clever positioning on the international scene.
The online media analysis conducted by Teksight Eedge for this report covered major mobile markets in Africa and the world including Nigeria, Kenya, China, Europe, America, South Africa, Russia, France, Germany, Japan and Korea.
Consequently, a look at a chart showing media impression of some mobile brands in Nigeria revealed Tecno as commanding 40% of market’s SoV; surpassing Samsung which is second on the chart.
Meanwhile, Tecno, according to the report is estimated to have about 25.3% mobile phone market share across six of Africa’s biggest mobile phone markets that are, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Egypt, Ethiopia and Cameroon.
The Launch of Tecno’s Phantom 6 & 6 plus as well as Apple’s iPhone 7 & 7 plus in September 2016 however significantly changed SOV results in the 4th quarter. For Tecno, the international launch of its flagship Phantom 6 & Phantom 6 Plus at Burj Khalifa Dubai increased the brand’s global competitiveness and value.
For obvious reasons, the mobile phone market is a survival of the fittest so brands will either have to continually innovate or gradually fade.
Which mobile brand will boast of having the highest engagement figures at the end of fourth quarter 2016? Well, we might just have to wait and see.
Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2k2bYIm