Excitement in Nigeria as Okonjo-Iweala gets reappointed WTO DG

World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was reappointed Friday for a second term, in the shadow of the coming return of Donald Trump and his disdain for international trade rules.

Okonjo-Iweala, the first woman and the first African to head the WTO, was the only candidate in the race, and had been all but assured a second term.

The organisation’s 166 members “today agreed to give incumbent Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala a second term as director-general,” the WTO said in a statement.

Appeal court frees Lagos doctor convicted for defiling wife’s niece

The Court of Appeal in Lagos has acquitted and discharged the Medical Director of Optimal Cancer Care Foundation, Dr Olufemi Olaleye.

The court upturned the decision of the Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court which had sentenced Dr Olaleye, to life imprisonment for defiling his wife’s 16-year-old niece.

Justice Olukayode Bada who read the lead judgment which was adopted by the two other justices on the panel held that the trial court erred in convicting Dr Olaleye based on “tainted” and ‘unreliable’ evidence of his estranged wife, Oluremi and the alleged survivor.

The other members of the panel were Justice Zainab Abubakar and Justice Abdulazeez Dogo.

The appellate court agreed with the submissions of Olaleye’s lead counsel, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Kemi Pinheiro, who insisted that there were material contradictions in the evidence gathered by the prosecutions which should not have been relied on by the lower court.

The court also faulted some other parts of the evidence of the prosecution during the trial, which was from a child forensic specialist, a medical doctor from the Mirabel centre and the investigating officer, which were found to be “worthless”

READ ALSO:

• Fani-Kayode accuses private operators of undermining Port Harcourt Refinery
• Terrorism: Court discharges, acquits 50 persons alleged to be IPOB members
• 2024 FIFA Best Awards: Lookman, Ekong, Oshoala, Onuachu, others shortlisted

For the appellate court, the trial judge, Justice Rahman Oshodi also descended in the arena and interfered in the proceedings to bridge what it described as “the yawning gaps in the prosecution’s case”.

In the judgment, the court of appeal also queried why the prosecution failed to present material witnesses such as two family members who were said to have witnessed the appellant’s alleged confession.

The court added that a trial within trial ought to have been conducted during the trial to verify the voluntariness of the appellant’s confessional statements while he was in police custody, especially as he said he made it under duress after he had been detained for six days.

The court of appeal determined all five issues of appeal against the prosecution and in favour of the appellant.

Appeal court frees Lagos doctor convicted for defiling wife’s niece

Fani-Kayode accuses private operators of undermining Port Harcourt Refinery

Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, has alleged that private operators seeking monopoly in the petroleum refining sector are working to discredit the Port Harcourt Refinery Company (PHRC), which was reopened on Tuesday.

In a post on his X handle, Fani-Kayode said: “It is a pity that some elements in the private sector who are new in the field are doing all they can to undermine and understate this great victory for Nigeria. The oil business is not the same as selling sugar, spaghetti, cement, or rice, and no matter how hard you try, you cannot muscle your way and create a monopoly on the sale of refined products as you did for other commodities over the years.”

Fani-Kayode described the revival of the refinery as one of the most promising developments in Nigeria’s petroleum sector in years, crediting the achievement to President Bola Tinubu and the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPC.

READ ALSO:

• Terrorism: Court discharges, acquits 50 persons alleged to be IPOB members
• 2024 FIFA Best Awards: Lookman, Ekong, Oshoala, Onuachu, others shortlisted
• FIJ journalist Fisayo Soyombo arrested at oil bunkering site

He expressed optimism that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) would continue to grow and, once its other refineries are fully operational, bring relief to Nigerians.