Seven suspected political thugs arrested last week with firearms in Ose Local Government, Ondo State, have been remanded at the Nigerian Correctional Service Centre, Olokuta in Akure.

They were remanded by an Akure Magistrate Court presided over by Magistrate Tope Aladejana.

The seven suspects were arrested by security agents along Ikaro road, Ifon headquarters of Ose LGA on September 19, 2020 while parading the town with a branded campaign vehicle of Eyitayo Jegede, candidate of the People’s Democratic Party for the Ondo governorship election.

Jegede has since disowned the suspected thugs.

The Magistrate therefore ordered the suspects remanded to enable the police conclude investigations into the incident.

Ondo Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice Hon. Adekola Olawoye, said prosecution of the suspects was part of the duty of any responsible government to protect its citizens under the provisions of law.

Hearing on the matter has been adjourned to October 22, 2020.

A trader, Adijat Omooni, on Wednesday prayed an Ile-Tuntun Customary Court in Ibadan, to dissolve her 10-year-old marriage to husband, Badmus over his alleged refusal to send their two children to school.

Omooni also told the court that she was afraid that her children would end up without an education if the court refuses to grant her prayer for divorce.

”My husband threatens to kill me whenever we argue. He has told me that he will not invest in his children’s education.

”He beats me in the presence of our children and my mate,” she alleged.

Badmus who resides in Fatusi area in Ibadan, gave his consent to the suit, but denied most of the allegations leveled against him.

“She is a troublesome woman. I have never enjoyed any single moment in the 10 years we have been married,” he said.

Chief Henry Agbaje, President of the Court, advised the couple to produce their parents, children and relatives in court.

He adjourned the case until Oct. 5 for judgment.

Truck drivers in the country have dragged the government of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) before a Federal High Court in Abuja over what they described as ‘increasing excruciating taxes’ being levied on them by the governments.

In the legal action, the drivers under the aegis of Heavy Duty and Haulage Transport Association of Nigeria is praying the court for an order compelling the Attorney General of the Federation and those of the 36 states to stop the road blocks and collection of tax, levy or fee from heavy duty vehicles and haulage.

In an originating summons marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1198/2020 and dated September 21, 2020, the drivers also joined the 774 local government areas in Nigeria through the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and the National Freight Haulers Association as defendants in the suit.

The plaintiffs, through their lawyer, Mr. Abel Ozoko, are asking the court to determine whether under the provisions of Sections 59, 62(a) and 63 of Part 1 of the Second Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As Amended) and Sections 2 (2) and 3 of the Taxes and Levies (Approved List For Collection) Act, the states and local governments are prohibited from mounting road blocks for the purposes of tax collection.

The truck drivers attached newspaper publications which decried the extortion and harassment of its members on the highways, and the rising food crises as a result of difficulty faced by their members in conveying food to various parts of the country.

They are seeking a declaration of the court that the defendants “are by the provisions of Sections 2 (2) and 3 of the Taxes and Levies (Approved List for Collection) Act prohibited from mounting a road block in any part of Nigeria for the purpose of collecting any form of tax, levy or fee from heavy duty vehicles and haulage drivers.

“A declaration of this court that by Section 2 (2) and (3) of the Taxes and Levies (Approved List for Collection) Act, the four to 41 defendants are not empowered to collect any form of taxes, levies or fees from heavy duty vehicles and haulage drivers on any federal highway or federal/trunk roads in Nigeria.”

They are further demanding an order restraining the defendants from multiple taxation or further stopping or erecting or hindering movement of the plaintiffs by any means in any part of Nigeria’s highway or federal or trunk on any federal roads in Nigeria for the purpose of collecting any tax, levy from vehicles and haulage or fee from heavy duty drivers.

Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for hearing of the suit.

Supreme Court was yesterday urged to reject request by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited to review and set aside a N17billion judgement entered against it last year.

The Supreme Court had in January 11, 2019, upheld the judgement of the Court of Appeal which slammed a whopping N17billion damages against the oil giant for oil spillage in Ejama-Ebubu in Tai Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State.

The plea is contained in a preliminary objection filed by Chief Isaac Agbara and nine others to the application by Shell asking the apex court to set aside its earlier judgment in the matter.

The respondents, arguing the preliminary objection yesterday through their lead counsel, Chief Lucius Nwosu (SAN), described Shell’s request as scandalous and an affront to the finality of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Nwosu, while urging the court to dismiss Shell’s application for being incompetent, submitted that the Supreme Court cannot sit on appeal in its own judgment.   He further argued that the action of the oil giant was a deliberate abuse of court process with a weighty request based on 23 grounds.

Nwosu further contended that the Supreme Court by its unanimous judgement of January 11 last year put an end to the over 30 years old legal tussle on the oil spillage suffered by the respondents and their people in the oil producing region, drawing the attention of the panel to a letter of the Supreme Court in which the current Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, while reacting to the January 11, 2019, judgement, made it clear that the appeal by Shell had become spent.

He further informed the court that the judgement being sought to be set aside had already been partly executed with over N1billion recovered by the respondents, adding that section 235 of the 1999 Constitution makes the Supreme Court the final court in the land and that no appeal could be entertained from the Supreme Court decision.

He therefore pleaded with the apex court to reject the invitation by Shell Company.

But Shell Petroleum Company, through its team of lawyers led by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), described the opposition of the respondents as frivolous because it had no bearing with jurisdictional issue.

Olanipekun contended that what the respondents tagged a judgment was a ruling and not a final judgment.

He submitted that Shell’s request has a judicial precedence, adding that the oil giant would not have come back to the Supreme Court to seek for review of its judgment if there was no precedent.

He faulted the claim that the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal in its January 11, 2019, decision, arguing that there cannot be a dismissal when a matter had not been heard on merit, and therefore pleaded with the apex court to dismiss the preliminary objection to its client’s application for judgment review.

The five-man panel led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, after listening to the submissions of parties, adjourned to November 27, 2020, for ruling.