Some lawyers have backed a petition seeking to strip Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami of the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

The petition, registered by a lawyer, Izu Aniagu on change.org, had received 378 signatures by 7:48pm on Sunday.

The petitioner claimed among others that Malami unilaterally deleted the provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) which provide for stamp and seal as well as bar practice fee for government lawyers.

According to Izu, the AGF had no such power.

Malami was conferred with the SAN rank, in 2008, 16 years after being called to the Bar.

He courted controversy last week when he purportedly amended the RPC for Legal Practitioners 2007, removing the requirement for the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) stamp and seal on court processes.

The gazette also seemingly abolished the requirement of payment of annual practice fees by government lawyers.

Membership of the NBA has been compulsory for all lawyers and the stamps and seals were sold at N4, 000 for 72 pieces and were given upon payment of NBA dues.

Without the stamp, a lawyer could not submit any document or letter to the court and the sale of the stamp and seal was one of the major sources of NBA’s revenue.

However, with the amendment of the process by Malami, the use of the stamps is no longer necessary.

The explanatory note to the Instrument suggested that it was done to bring the RPC into conformity with the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act, the Law Officers Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

This is the second time the AGF will be facing attempts to strip him of his title.

In July 2019, Malami was reported to have agreed to appear before the disciplinary panel of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee to face two petitioners seeking to strip him of the title for alleged misconduct.

A petition was filed against him by some family members of the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, while another one was filed against him by a firm ‘Interstellar’.

NBA President, Olumide Akpata asked lawyers to shun Malami’s directive.

The Lagos State Government has disclosed that plans are being concluded to accelerate policies,  action plans and set up air control stations among other pollution strategies aimed at improving air quality across the State.

It explained that call had become imperative after statistics have shown that air pollution was the number one public health risk associated with millions of death worldwide, a development which the government claimed called for serious attention.

The General Manager, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), Dr. Dolapo Fasawe, said that the statistics of health challenges associated with air pollution had been something of concern to the government and that the efforts were to drastically reduce air pollution across the state.

Through a statement by the agency’s spokesman, Bola Ajao, Fasawe spoke during a webinar session themed Clean Air for A Healthy and Sustainable Environment in Lagos (Fantasy or Reality), in commemoration of the First International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies last week.

According to her, rapid urbanisation and industrialisation of Lagos have contributed to the exposure of people to ecological problems and changing climate conditions, with its attendant negative effect on human health.

Fasawe noted that policies and other actions being taken by the government was to improve  air quality as part of efforts  to increase the chances of preventing mortality associated with air pollution.

She listed vehicular and industrial emissions as major sources of air pollution in the state, noting that the metropolis observed and enjoyed very good Air Quality Index (AQI) during the period of the nation-wide lockdown as a result of the restrictions placed on both human and industrial activities.

“The  government is committed to the deployment of Air Quality Monitoring Stations at strategic locations in Lagos to enable the government measure criteria air pollutants on a 24-hour, real-time basis, to serve as foundation for developing informed policies and actions towards improvement of air quality.

“To mitigate the health risk associated with air pollution, the Agency will also be carrying out a public air quality awareness campaign particularly in exposed communities such as people living in areas with high vehicular movement and industrial activities. This campaign will target high-risk communities with high prevalence of avoidable high-risk behaviours,” the quoted her as saying.

In his presentation, a Consultant Pulmonologist & Professor of Medicine, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Prof. Gregory Erhabor, analysed the risk of air pollution on respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

According to him, the World Health organization (WHO) reported in 2016 that 91% of the world populations were living in places where the air quality guidelines levels were not met.

“Particulate Matter (PM), Ozone (03), Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) are major pollutant with adverse effect on human health. He listed the effect of exposure to air pollutants on humans to include respiratory, cardiovascular, dermal and neurological diseases, especially in countries with high industrialization and lax air quality legislation,” he said.

He, however, called for strict legislations to protect the lives of people in polluted industrial areas.

Ahead of next Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Godwin Obaseki, and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osagie Ize-Iyamu, have differed on job creation, health, and other sectors that could spur development of the state.

Obaseki said that within his four-year tenure, his administration had taken over 200,000 residents off the street and engaged them to boost Edo Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but Ize-Iyamu argued that his PDP counterpart, the current governor, was misrepresenting appointments with job creation for the unemployed youths in the state.  

They spoke at a debate on Sunday organised by a national television station in partnership with the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) and agreed that level of insecurity in the country particularly in the state required quick creation of state police to address high rate of kidnapping and other sundry crime cases in the state.

Addressing the audience, the APC candidate alleged that the governor was getting the facts wrong and that he had been brandishing the false claims at different campaigns in the state.

He said: “I am sure he is not going to misplace the appointments he is making now as jobs,” Ize-Iyamu said during the debate in Benin City. I know in the past one month, he has appointed over 2,000 people as SSA s on social media and the rest of them.

“Those are not jobs. When you say that you have created jobs, in what area? We know for example that there is a glaring vacancy in the teaching profession and every school we went to, they practically had no teacher”.

The governor, while defending his performance in the area of human capital development, stated that over 150, 000 persons were already employed by his administration

According to him, at the onset, I promised to create a minimum of 200,000 jobs within a four-year period. Just before COVID-19, we had created both direct and indirect jobs for Edo people as much as 157,000 jobs”.

Countering Obaseki’s claim, the APC candidate argued that the numbers were not true and if it was as the governor claimed, the state economy should have recorded significantly boost since theed the state’s economy.

“If it is true that we are able to have the number of jobs that the Edo State governor claims, our IGR will not be where it is. There will be a significant leap,” he added.

On health, Ize-Iyamu argued that the sector had been allegedly left unaddressed by the governor and that the negligence was responsible for the challenges confronting the sector in the state.

The APC candidate added that the state School of Nursing which had earn the state recognition had been shutdown by the Obaseki led administration and if the school had been functioning, the state would have not be confronted with dearth of health workers and other facilities.

Responding, the governor disclosed that aside from the huge investment his administration had done in the health sector, atleast three private specialist hospitals have indicated interest to establish their outfit in the state to boost healthcare standard in Edo.

In the education sector, Obaseki argued that the policies introduced under his administration was responsible for the improvements recorded in the sector particularly in primary education.

While Obaseki argued that he had raise the bar in education above where it was in 2016, his opponent faulted the claim and stated that the learning was better than where it was when he assumed office and that teachers were not trained to delivered on needed goal.

Both candidates, however, said that level of insecurity in the state could only be addressed with a formidable and well structure state police.

The APC candidate, who doused the fears that they could turn violent in future, stressed that he would ensure a proper coordination to ensure the personnel provide essential services which the paramilitary was established for.

Also, Obaseki I formed that he had submitted request to the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Muhammad, for onward consideration of the state for creation of a state police force.

In its bid to cushion effect of deregulation on Nigerians, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclosed that plans had been concluded to set up Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) refill stations for motorists across the country.

It explained that the move had become imperative as part of the national oil company’s commitment toward supporting ongoing initiatives by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to provide an alternate energy source to Nigerians after increase in pump price of petrol.

The NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, said that the corporation keyed into the gas penetration agenda as championed by the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, to give Nigerians breath of fresh air.

Speaking on TVC Business Show, Business Nigeria Live, according to a statement released to newsmen on Sunday by the NNPC Spokesperson, Kennie Obateru, the GMD said that the corporation would continue to work with other stakeholders in the industry to provide viable alternatives to petrol which would ultimately lead to reduction in demand for the product and eventual reduction in price.

Furthermore, Kyari reiterated the commitment of the corporation towards openness and greater transparency in its operations, noting that in the months ahead NNPC would make public its 2019 Audited Financial Statements as a sequel to the 2018 AFS released in June.

Kyari also clarified the status of the nation’s refineries, noting that the plants were deliberately shut down to allow for a robust diagnosis of the issues which have overtime made it impossible for the facilities to operate up to their nameplate capacity.

“The shutdown also became inevitable due to difficulties in feeding them with crude oil via the pipelines that have been completely compromised by vandals.

“The Corporation was moving rapidly to execute complete rehabilitation of the refineries under an exercise that would guarantee restoration of the facilities to at least 90 percent capacity utilization,’’  the statement quoted him as saying.