News Headlines for the 6th of April 2021.

Table of Contents

FG convenes emergency meeting as ASUP threatens fresh strike

The Federal Government has invited the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics for an emergency meeting to deliberate on how to stop the planned industrial action.
The emergency meeting had been scheduled for Tuesday, April 6, 2021 at 11am.
A statement by the Director of Press in the Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Bem Goong, on Monday, said the invitation followed the threat by ASUP to embark on another round of strike.
Goong recalled that ASUP had issued a notice of strike over what the union described as the refusal of government to implement some of the agreements entered into between them and the Federal Government.

Gunmen in the early hours of Monday attacked the Nigeria Correctional Service, Owerri, the Imo State capital and the state police command headquarters.
Also on Monday, gunmen killed two persons and burnt operational vehicles of the Nigerian Army when they attacked a military base at Umuorji on the Owerri- Onitsha expressway.
The headquarters of the NCoS said 1,844 inmates fled the facility in Owerri during the attack.
An officer of the NCoS, who spoke to one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity, said the gunmen arrived at the correctional centre at 1am and operated till 3am.
Our correspondents gathered that the hoodlums gained access into the centre with the aid of explosives and told the inmates to go home, saying “Jesus has risen, you have no reason to be here again.”

At the state police command, it was learnt that the gunmen burnt almost all the vehicles parked at the command and freed all the suspects in almost all the cells at the state Criminal Investigation Department.
Amid increasing spate of attacks on security formations in the South-East, the President, Muhammadu Buhari described the attacks in Imo State as terrorism and ordered security agencies to apprehend the culprits.
On his part, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, blamed the Indigenous People of Biafra and the Eastern Security Network for the attacks.
But IPOB in its reaction denied involvement in the attack, saying its men were in the bush chasing herdsmen.

The Nigerian Bar Association has faulted the proposed strike by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria scheduled to start today describing it as untimely because of its ‘potentially devastating consequences.’
The organization expressed worry that despite the provisions of the 1999 constitution which confer autonomy on the Judiciary, the executive arm of the government had customarily refused to comply with the provisions targeted at safeguarding the independence of the judiciary.
The President of the NBA, Olumide Akpata, said these in a statement on Monday
The NBA said it was aware of the judgment of the Federal High Court of January 13 2014 which confirmed the autonomy of the Judiciary in line with the spirit and letters of the constitution.
Meanwhile, the Edo State chapter of JUSUN on Monday threw its weight behind the planned strike by the national body, which begins today.
The Chairman of the state chapter of JUSUN, Comrade Uyi Ogieriakhi, said it was in support of the national body because the union was fighting a just cause.

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao, has stated that the events of the past few days involving the crash of an Alpha-Jet aircraft should inspire and spur Nigerian Air Force pilots, technicians and ground troops to remain resolute in the fight against insurgency in the North- East and other parts of the country.
The CAS stated that the videos being circulated on social media claiming that the aircraft was shot down by insurgents were false, noting that “from critical analysis of all available intelligence, it was obvious that the air accident was caused by other factors soon to be unravelled.”
The NAF Alpha jet went missing since Wednesday with two airmen, Flt Lts. John Abolarinwa and Ebiakpo Chapele, on board.
Amao stated that efforts were still ongoing in collaboration with the Nigerian Army and other security agencies to find the crashed aircraft as well as the two pilots so as to bring the matter to closure.

The debts of four states exceeded their net revenues by more than 400 per cent, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission has said. The states are Lagos, Osun, Cross River and Ogun.
The FRC in its report showed that the debts of all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory Administration exceeded 50 per cent of their revenues, contrary to limits set by the Debt Management Office.
The report contained in the 2019 Annual Report of the FRC obtained by our correspondent on Monday said states that had ‘the proportion of Debt-to-Revenue above 50 per cent are assumed to have violated Section F(C) of Debt Management Guidelines, 2012’.
Lagos State accounted for the highest Debt-to-Total Net Revenue as at the end of 2019, with 712.94 per cent. Osun State came second with 650.94 per cent Debt-to-Total Net Revenue. While Cross River and Ogun States were third and fourth with 597.36 per cent and 402.30 per cent respectively.
The report said the revenue and debt situation of the states, however, were not enough to say that the states had over borrowed since the president of the country has not set the borrowing limits for the subnational governments as required by the FRC Act 2007.