News

Panel chairman regrets signing UNILAG VC reinstatement report

Published

6 years ago

November 12, 2020

The chairperson of Special Visitation Panel set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to probe the crisis at the University of Lagos, Prof. Tukur Saad, has said he was deceived into signing the report that informed government’s decision to reinstate Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe as the vice chancellor of the university.

A statement by the Director, Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Education, Ben-Bem Goong, on Tuesday, said the FG had reinstated the VC and dissolved the university council.

Saad, in different correspondences to the Chief of Staff to the president, Ibrahim Gambari, and the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, cast doubts on the integrity of the report.

According to him, “The recommendation was that the VC should be cautioned against contract splitting. To me this was enough for Government to reject this recommendation and subject the culprit to the consequences.”

Expressing his reservation, Saad said, “The recommendation that the VC should be reinstated was limited to the procedure of his termination. It did not mean he should be absolved of all wrong doing.”

He said the report of the panel was one-sided because majority of the members were biased towards Ogundipe, adding that the Terms of Reference (ToR) were also skewed against the estranged chairperson of the governing council, Wale Babalakin, who had since resigned his appointment.

According to him, although Ogundipe was wrongly removed, he was not given a clean bill of health as he was indicted for contract splitting.

He also accused Babalakin of “committing hara-kiri” by removing the VC and appointing another one, and by deciding to step down from his position when the crisis got messy.

Saad said he was cajoled into signing the report with the understanding that the content would be subjected to review by the Chancellor of the University, the Shehu of Borno.

He said he agreed to sign the report to abort another stalemate and save the government from embarrassment but regretted that he had now been “stabbed on the back” by people he trusted.

“As Chairman, I didn’t want to sign the Final Report but I felt that would be a slap on the face of the government and it would generate so much bad publicity in the public domain, that I would rather sign on the understanding that the matter would be referred to the Shehu of Borno as the Chancellor,” he wrote to Gambari.

The professor of architecture said he felt betrayed by the conclusion reached by government after he was made to believe in a different course of action.

“The final recommendation of the panel was that the matter should be referred back to the Chancellor, irrespective of what the panel recommended.

“As it stands now I feel I was made a fool of and stabbed on the back by people I trusted,” he said.

Drawing attention to some of the recommendations contained in the report submitted by the committee, Saad said it will be impossible for any Council to manage a university in this country, if the recommendations of the panel are implemented in a White Paper.

He complained that “A White Paper based on the report submitted by the panel and neglecting the final recommendation of referring will raise many questions.”

Saad had in a letter to the education minister, dated October 7, 2020 and titled ‘Re: Submission of Report of The Visitation Panel on University of Lagos Crisis to Honourable Minister’, drawn attention to a number of instances where he said the report was skewed to favour Ogundipe.

“When you read the report, you will notice that it was very one-sided, so to speak, the option was for the chairman to refuse to sign the report and that would have been a slap on the government’s face.

“In any case, the issue is not that the report was false but it contained half truth in order to protect one party and magnified the facts from the other party by pushing the blame to one side, omitting what could have balanced the report.”

On allegation of contract splitting against the VC, Saad said the report did not represent the findings and position of the panel on the matter.

“Take the issue of splitting contracts so that the figures would be within his approval limits; in the renovation of his house and that of some principal officers, the evidence was clear, one contractor would be given four contracts on the same project on the same day each packaged to be within VCs approval limit.

“A number of such cases were evident, but the only way the Chairman could get that in the report was to compromise by rendering such as “Contracts were packaged in a way that bordered on contract splitting, in order to keep them within approval limits.”

International

Truly Depraved Rapist Jailed for 17 Years After Violent Attack on Woman

Published

6 minutes ago

September 9, 2026

Hamdalat Bisiriyu

A 24-year-old Nigerian national, Gift Oladele, dragged a young woman into woodland and violently raped her has been jailed for 17 years after a judge described his actions as “truly depraved”.

Gift Oladele carried out the attack in Wrexham, North Wales, in September last year after approaching the victim, who was 19 at the time, as she walked home from a night out.

Oladele was convicted of rape and sexual assault at Mold Crown Court in March. He was sentenced on Thursday.

How the Attack Happened

The court heard that Oladele approached the woman and her friends outside a takeaway in Wrexham city centre. He initially appeared friendly and flirtatious before offering to walk home with her.

According to prosecutor James Coutts, Oladele accompanied the woman until they reached an isolated area, where he grabbed her by the mouth and forced her into the woods.

He then carried out a violent rape.

“She described being terrified,” Coutts told the court. “She did what she thought she needed to do to get through the attack.”

Oladele threatened to find and harm the victim if she reported the rape. He also threatened to take photographs of her and post them online.

Despite the threats, the woman returned home and immediately told her parents, who contacted the police.

Oladele was arrested the following day at his cousin’s home in Wrexham. Officers said he had attempted to hide a mobile phone, which contained searches relating to sexual attacks.

The court heard that Oladele had a “fascination in forced sexual abuse and rape” and that he appeared to be acting out a fantasy shown in the videos he had searched for.

Victim Describes Lasting Trauma

In a victim impact statement, the woman told the court that she continued to wake up from nightmares in which Oladele had tracked her down.

“I’m petrified,” she said.

She also described taking medication to prevent HIV infection after the assault and suffering long-term emotional and psychological effects.

“I feel ashamed, and somehow damaged, since what he did to me,” she said.

“The emotional impact has been very significant.

“I can’t go anywhere on my own anymore.

“I feel unsafe.”

Judge Simon Mills praised the woman for her courage during and after the attack.

“You showed exceptional courage during the incident and afterwards,” he told her.

Previous Conviction and Deportation Appeal

At the time of the Wrexham attack, Oladele was already on bail over another rape allegation in Manchester dating from November 2024.

He had also been jailed in 2022 for a sexually motivated attack.

The court heard that Oladele was later due to be deported to Nigeria but successfully challenged the decision on human rights grounds.

An immigration tribunal judge described the deportation case as “finely balanced”, acknowledging the seriousness of Oladele’s previous offence and the public interest in deporting foreign criminals.

However, the tribunal also considered his ties to the United Kingdom, where he had grown up, and the consequences of relocating to Nigeria.

The Home Office made two attempts to appeal the decision, but both appeals were rejected.

Judge Calls Defendant Dangerous

During sentencing, The Judge described Oladele’s actions as “truly depraved”.

“You subjected her to a terrible violation,” he said.

“You are a dangerous offender.”

The judge said Oladele posed an exceptionally high risk of harm to young women and had shown “absolutely no remorse whatsoever”.

The Home Office described the case as horrific and said Oladele’s imprisonment was the right outcome.

The victim’s account has highlighted not only the brutality of the attack but also the lasting fear and emotional damage that sexual violence can cause long after the offender has been convicted.

News

Missing Billions: Lawmakers Summon NNPCL and 146 Marketers Over ₦432bn Downstream Debt

Published

2 hours ago

September 9, 2026

Hamdalat Bisiriyu

Nigeria’s federal lawmakers are putting the downstream energy sector under the microscope after audit records revealed that state oil firm NNPCL and private fuel marketers have piled up at least ₦432 billion in unpaid regulatory obligations.

The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) confirmed the formal probe this week, following persistent warnings raised in the Auditor-General’s 2023 and 2024 annual reports.

Regulatory Levies Left Unpaid

The mountain of debt has accumulated over a six-year period from 2017 to 2023, remaining largely uncollected despite the country’s tight fiscal squeeze.

Audit records track a steep rise in default:

The 2023 audit initially captured ₦392 billion in total arrears, with NNPCL carrying over ₦162 billion and commercial marketers responsible for ₦230 billion.
The 2024 report revealed that private marketer debt alone had swelled to ₦432 billion, separate from state-owned NNPCL liabilities.
Regulatory data from the NMDPRA confirms that 146 companies affiliated with DAPPMAN and MEMAN owed ₦327 billion by 2025.

No Hiding Place for Defaulters

PAC Chairman, Rep. Bamidele Salam, made it clear that parliament expects compliance from corporate leaders, issuing a firm directive against corporate stonewalling.

Salam emphasized that the committee will scrutinize why statutory revenues were permitted to sit idle without vigorous enforcement from the NMDPRA. Defaulters will be forced to present audit trails detailing every transaction, outstanding balances, and proof of any remittances made to date.

For lawmakers, the objective is unambiguous: plug commercial leakages, enforce fiscal discipline, and recover every outstanding naira owed to the federation.

News

Fresh Blackout Hits Abuja as Apo Substation Transformer Trips

Published

2 hours ago

September 9, 2026

Hamdalat Bisiriyu

Parts of the nation’s capital have once again been plunged into darkness following an early-morning equipment failure at the Apo Transmission Substation on Wednesday.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) confirmed the outage, attributing the disruption to the tripping of a 100MVA TR4 power transformer at its 132kV/33kV facility. Preliminary findings trace the failure to an oil spillage on the transformer’s red-phase High Voltage (HV) bushing, which forced four critical 33kV feeders, H31, H33, H35, and H37 offline.