Stakeholders have charged Nigerians to vote for candidates with the best economic plans for the country, especially at the federal and state levels.
On his part, the director-general, Michael Imoudu National Institute of Labour Studies (MINILS), Ilorin, Kwara State, Comrade Issa Aremu, urged voters to use their permanent voters’ cards (PVCs) meaningfully by voting for those that will take the country to the Promised Land.
Speaking on the theme: “Beyond Voting: Roles of Citizens in Ensuring a Free, Fair and Transparent Election,” in the second Pre-Election Assessment Workshop, organised by Labour Writers Association of Nigeria in partnership with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Ikeja, Lagos, Aremu wondered why people, especially Nigerian workers should deem it right to vote for those who have no plan to create more jobs and make Nigeria more safer and secured.
In addition, MINILS DG urged Nigerians to use the manifestos of political parties as determinant for voting, saying, “why should voters cast their votes for politicians that had vowed to downsize jobs, to throw people into poverty and implement anti-people’s welfare policy when voted into office? Nigerians! Open your minds and your eyes before you cast that vote. As the media is the true face of democracy, the media also should promote only those that will build Nigerian society.”
In a related development, NLC president, Comrade Joseph Ajaero, who was represented by NLC Lagos State chairman, Comrade Funmi Sessi, explained that, labour decided to watch issues rather than embarking on protesting in order not to be seen as enemies of peaceful elections.
Moreover, Ajaero explained that his leadership is trying to connect both civil organisations and other stakeholders back to the mainstream before taking more decisions because the NLC cannot fight the battle alone.
On her part, former Labour Editor, Vanguard Newspaper, Comrade Funmi Komolafe, charged media houses to shun sensational headlines but use their pens to build the country.
The national president, Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and other Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), Comrade Olusoji Oluwole, said: “on Naira scarcity, banks are not hoarding new Naira notes. They can only give what they have. Hitherto, CBN has not told how much it has released into circulation, how much has been spent in printing of those notes.
“The CBN governor has failed to give clear directions, he has not addressed issues like those unbanked people suffering from the harsh Naira scarcity.”
Similarly, the president, Nigeria Union of Tailors, Comrade Saidat Fridaos Oshodi said, she came to the LAWAN/FES programme to use it as a platform to encourage all tailors across the country to vote only for the people that will help put food on their tables.
Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced a 51-year-old cleric, Nduka Anyanwu, to two terms of life imprisonment for defiling and impregnating two biological sisters in a church complex.
Justice Abiola Soladoye convicted the Lagos-based pastor of impregnating a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old, both of whom have been delivered of babies.
The state government had arraigned Anyanwu before the court on a two-count charge of blasphemy, an offence he committed on June 3, 2020, on Arowojobe Street in the Oshodi area of the state.
The prosecution team led by Olusola Soneye had told the court that the offence contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The prosecution had called five witnesses during the trial; they were the survivors, their parents and a social worker.
The convict testified as the sole defence witness.
In her judgment yesterday, Justice Soladoye held that the evidence of the prosecution witnesses was believable and consistent while she described the convict as morally bankrupt.
The judge also held that the police should have charged the parents of the victims/survivors alongside the convict because they were irresponsible in encouraging the survivors to get defiled by the defendant.
She stated, “on several occasions, one of the survivors returned to the parents to complain about the defendant’s conduct. She was beaten and sent back to the defendant’s home.
“The prosecution has proved the ingredients of the offences against the morally-bankrupt defendant,” the judge held.
The court, therefore, sentenced the convict to life imprisonment on the two-count charge.
Justice Soladoye further directed that the convict’s name should be included in the state’s Sexual Offenders Register.
