UNILAG, UI move to tackle menace, Kano poly disowns teacher
The Senate yesterday revisited the sexual harassment bill sponsored by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege (APC, Delta Central) and passed by the Eighth Senate. It specifies a five-year jail term for those who fail to contain their sexual excesses.

The Bill, which was introduced in October 2016, prohibits any form of sexual relationship between lecturers and their students and prescribes jail term of up to five years for those who engage in sexual relationship with students. When passed, randy lecturers found culpable would have to contend with a five-year jail term and N5m fine for lecturers convicted for sexually harassing male or female students.

An educator will be “guilty of committing an offence of sexual harassment against a student if he/she has sexual intercourse with a student less than 18 years; has sex with or demands sex from a student or a prospective student as a condition to study in an institution, or as a condition to giving a passing grade or granting honour and scholarships,” the bill reads.

It also prescribes that: “Any person who commits any of the acts specified in Section 4 of this Act is guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be sentenced to imprisonment of up to five years, but not less than two years without any option of a fine.”

But it suffered a setback, as President Muhammdu Buhari did not sign it into law after its passage by the Eighth Senate.Besides, following the allegation of sexual harassment against two of its lecturers, the University of Lagos (UNILAG) has set up a panel to investigate the matter.

The panel, headed by Dean, Faculty of Law, Prof. Ayodele V. Atsenuwa, was mandated to probe the allegations of sexual harassment leveled against Dr. Boniface Igbeneghu of the Department of European Languages and Integrated Studies, Dr. Samuel Oladipo of the Department of Economics and other related cases.

The university had suspended the duo over their involvement in a sex-for-grades documentary published by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) targeted on lecturers in some West African universities who harass female students for sex in exchange for marks.Also, Vice-chancellor of the University of Ibadan (UI), Prof. Abel Idowu Olayinka, has disclosed that the institution has zero tolerance for sexual harassment, saying a post-graduate student was expelled a few months ago for the act.

He stated this at the quarterly media briefing in Ibadan, adding that the university has two structures to deal with issues of sexual harassment just as he urged any harassed person to report to the university authorities for appropriate action.

“There are two structures in place. We have Gender Mainstreaming Office. In fact, last night I called the Vocal Person, Prof. Olapeju Aiyelagbe and we discussed the news that broke on UNILAG and University of Legon, Ghana. “We also have Gender Harassment Policy, which was developed when Prof. Abiola Odejide was Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics) where she insisted that two bodies should not be merged. So there are structures in place to effectively deal with cases of sexual harassment,” he stated.

Meanwhile, the Kano State Polytechnic has disowned one of its lecturers, who was allegedly involved in sexual harassment of a female student.A Kano Chief Magistrates’ Court yesterday ordered the remand of the 36-year-old lecturer, Ali Shehu, in prison custody for alleged breach of trust and sexual harassment against the student.

Shehu was arraigned for breach of official trust and attempt to commit an offence, contrary to Sections 95 and 98 of the Penal Code.The Chief Magistrate, Muhammad Idris has adjourned the matter to October 15 for hearing. Registrar of the Polytechnic, Ado Mohammadu, who expressed shock on the incident, told journalists that the accused was not a staff of the institution.

Apple on Thursday removed an app criticised by China for allowing protestors in Hong Kong to track police, as Beijing steps up pressure on foreign companies deemed to be providing support to the pro-democracy movement.

The tech giant’s pulling of HKmap.live was blasted as bowing to China and comes as high-profile brands, including the NBA and its Houston Rockets franchise, come under pressure from communist authorities over perceived support for democracy demonstrations in the financial hub.

Chinese state media this week tore into the app, which collates information on police locations submitted by users, charging that it was helping “rioters”.

Communist Party mouthpiece The People’s Daily said by stocking the app, Apple was “mixing business with politics, and even illegal acts”.

On Thursday the app was no longer available on Apple’s Hong Kong App Store.

“We have verified with the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau that the app has been used to target and ambush police,” said a notification sent by Apple and published on the HKmap.live’s Telegram channel, which has more than 70,000 subscribers.

“Criminals have used it to victimise residents in areas where they know there is no law enforcement,” it continued.

HKmap.live’s makers denied their app encouraged criminal activity, and lashed out at Apple’s removal as “censorship” and “clearly a political decision to suppress freedom”.

The online and Android versions of HKmap.live were still available.

‘People are scared’
Hong Kong has been rocked by four months of increasingly violent protests, initially against a now-shelved extradition law, but whose focus has now shifted to broader pro-democracy aims.

The city’s once-respected police force has become the target of anger over what demonstrators say is excessive violence, that has included the use of live rounds to quell unrest.

Hong Kongers took to social media to protest the removal.

“Many people are scared of police using tear gas and rubber bullets, so they use the app and make detours to avoid the uncontrolled police thugs,” Pro-democracy lawmaker Charles Mok wrote on Facebook.

“Does Apple know it has the function to protect personal safety?”

And a user on the Reddit-like forum LIHKG said: “The app actually tells people where not to go. It ensures residents’ safety.”

Apple’s decision comes after the tech giant earlier this week removed the Taiwan flag emoji from its iOS 13 updates for users in Hong Kong and Macau. The emoji was available on phones whose Apple account was based in other jurisdictions.

News organisation Quartz said also its mobile app was removed from the Chinese version of the App Store after complaints from the Chinese government.

Quartz told The Verge website it believes the ban was due to the publication’s coverage of the protests, and said it also received a notice from Apple that its mobile app “includes content that is illegal in China”.

China accounts for around a sixth of Apple’s overall sales and is the company’s third-largest market after the US and Europe.

But the Silicon Valley giant has struggled in recent years, lagging behind local rivals.

The iPhone manufacturer had the fifth biggest market share in the country in the second quarter at 6.7 percent, well behind leader Huawei and other domestic companies, according to data from the Chinese-owned International Data Corporation.

No dissent
The tech company joins a long list of international brands that have fallen foul of China’s increasingly nationalist consumer base, who brook no dissent from the official Communist Party line on issues ranging from Hong Kong to Taiwan to Xinjiang.

The highest-profile spat this week has seen Chinese broadcasters yank pre-season basketball games after the Houston Rockets manager tweeted his support for Hong Kong.

Corporate sponsors abandoned the team, despite apologies from figures including megastar James Harden.

After an initial wobble, which was criticised in the US, the NBA lined up behind the right of its players and officials to speak their mind.

New York-based Tiffany removed an advert showing a woman covering one eye after Chinese consumers accused the jeweller of supporting protesters by referencing a well-known injury.

Footwear brand Vans pulled two entries from an online design competition which featured motifs of the demonstrations.

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) says it has created 11 centres for verification of results and other documents of foreign-trained graduates.

The information is in a statement by the NYSC Director, Press and Public Relations, Mrs Adenike Adeyemi, on Thursday in Abuja.

She stated that the scheme devised new strategies of verifying the certificates and other documents submitted for mobilisation with effect from 2019 Batch ‘B’ Stream 2 Service Year.

She noted that the management of the scheme approved such verification centres across the six geopolitical zones in the country, namely: Lagos and Osun for South-West; Rivers and Edo for South-South and Enugu, and Abia for South East.

Others are Bauchi and Adamawa for North East; Kano and Sokoto for North West and the Federal Capital Territory for North Central.

The scheme, therefore, advised foreign-trained prospective corps members “to physically present themselves with original copies of their degree certificates, transcripts and travel documents for verification.

“The prospective corps members must have successfully registered on the NYSC portal and chose a Physical Verification Centre.

“The verification exercise will start from Oct. 21 to Oct. 26, 2019.

“Only those who present themselves for verification will be assigned call-up numbers, and be allowed to participate in the orientation
course.”

Adeyemi also stated that from 2020, in-camp verification of documents would no longer be allowed.

Meanwhile, the NYSC had so far arrested over 95 corps members for presenting fake certificates during mobilisation.

The Director-General of the Corps, Brig.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim disclosed this during the 2019 Batch “C” pre-mobilisation workshop held in Minna on Wednesday.

German Police was on Thursday pursuing murder and attempted murder investigations after an attack, targeting a synagogue in the city of Halle, left two people dead.

Police searched a residence in Benndorf to the east of Halle and towed away a car in nearby Landsdorf, as investigations got underway following the attack on Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors, who have taken over the case, said evidence had been secured at the residence.

It is reported to be the home of the alleged perpetrator, who has been named by the authorities as Stephan B, and his mother.

A spokesman for the prosecutors’ office in Karlsruhe said B had not previously come to the attention of the authorities as a right-wing extremist.

Investigators are probing whether he had accomplices.

Federal prosecutors see the crime as motivated by right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism, as such posing a threat to national security – a reason commonly given for federal investigators to take over cases.

“He planned to kill people,’’ an investigator said, noting that Stephan B had been unable to implement his plans in full.

Prosecutors are working on charges of murder and attempted murder.

No details were provided on the condition of the 27-year-old man, who was apparently injured when he was detained after being involved in a road accident as he fled in a stolen vehicle to the south of Halle.

His friends and relatives are being probed, the investigators said.

The attacker apparently attempted to storm the synagogue, where some 50 people were marking Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, on Wednesday.

After the attack failed, he is alleged to have killed a woman in front of the synagogue and a man in a kebab shop, and to have injured two others, all the while filming his deeds with a helmet camera and broadcasting them over the internet.

The videos are reported to have been viewed more than 2,000 times before being taken down.

Copies are reported to be in private circulation.

German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was to visit the synagogue in Halle later on Thursday.

Immediately after the shooting, he spoke on the phone with Josef Schuster, the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

(DPA/NAN)

A yet-to-be-identified commercial bus driver has died after he lost control of his Toyota bus with number plate AKD 101 XS while driving on the Sagamu/Ijebu-Ode Expressway in Ogun State, in the early hours of Thursday.

The driver, whose corpse had been deposited at the Idera Hospital Morgue, was reportedly commuting the passengers from the east and was inbound Sagamu to Lagos when the tragedy struck at the Babcock University slope on the expressway.

It was learnt that the driver, who was speeding lost control of the vehicle and rammed the bus into a Fiat van with number plate LAM 528 LG from behind, injuring seven commuters in the process.

The commuters were taken to the Babcock University Teaching Hospital, in Ilisan, for urgent medical treatment.

The Public Relations Officer, State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps, Babatunde Akinbiyi, who confirmed the accident, said men of the Ikenne Police Division had impounded the bus, adding that the van was yet to be evacuated.

Akinbiyi said, “A road traffic accident occurred around 2.30am at the Babcock University slope on the Sagamu/Ijebu-Ode expressway. The accident involved a white Toyota bus with the number plate – AKD 101 XS and a white Fiat van with the number plate – LAM 528 LG.

The driver was driving inbound Lagos from the East, but due to reckless driving, he lost control of the vehicle and rammed it into the white Fiat van from behind.

“The driver died on the spot, while the seven other persons including four male and three female sustained injuries and were taken to the Babcock University Teaching Hospital, for treatment.

“Emergency responders were TRACE, officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps, and men from the Ikenne police division. The scene of the accident has been cordoned off, while the accident bus has been taken to the Ikenne police station. But the van is still awaiting evacuation from the roadside. The highway continues to enjoy free vehicular movements as our patrol team is monitoring the traffic situation.”

A 13-month-old baby, Michael Duniya, is currently battling to stay alive after being almost mauled to death by a pitbull at Mambilla Barracks, Abuja.

The black dog, believed to be a pitbull, was said to have broken free from its cage and wandered off into the block where little Michael was playing with his four-year-old brother.

Upon seeing the dog, his older brother immediately fled into the house but Michael was not quick enough as the dog pounced on him.

The dog subsequently grabbed him by the head and pulled him about 30 metres away and began to bite him repeatedly.

A neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said she quickly raised the alarm.

She said, “I was by my balcony when I saw the dog grab Michael by the head. The dog bit his ear and tore off his scalp, exposing his brain.

“Incidentally, Michael did not scream as his blood littered everywhere. About four of us began throwing stones at the dog in a bid to get him to free Michael to no avail.

“Someone was able to get a cutlass and slashed the dog with it but it would not let Michael go. It was when the cutlass hit the face of the dog that the dog fell and died.”

It was learnt that a soldier, a Regimental Sergeant Major,  who owns the dog, became furious at the killing of his dog when he was informed.

Another neighbour, who craved anonymity because military personnel are not allowed to speak to the press, said the RSM had about seven dogs.

He said the dogs had been terrorising residents especially children but all complaints to military authorities had fallen on deaf ears.

He said, “Some weeks ago, the same dog was let loose and began chasing children all over the place.

“A little girl fell into a gutter while running. I personally had to save the girl and chase the dog away.

“As a soldier I am not afraid of the dog but these little children playing in the barracks are not safe.”

Our correspondent, who visited the block where the RSM resides, was greeted by the loud barks of dogs.

Attempts to speak with soldiers within the vicinity were rebuffed as he was told that he would need to get permission from the military authorities.

Meanwhile, The PUNCH was informed that Michael was given first aid at the barracks clinic before being transferred to Cedacrest Hospital, Apo.

The father of the victim was said to have donated two pints of blood to his son who was still in critical condition on Wednesday.

The father of the victim refused to speak to The PUNCH on Wednesday,  saying, “please get permission from my superiors before talking to me.”

The Deputy Director,  Army Public Relations, Army Headquarters Garrison, Lt.Col Omale Ochagwuba, did not respond to repeated calls on Wednesday.

Some gunmen have reportedly attacked the Government Technical Secondary School, Mararaban Kajuru in Kajuru Local Government Area of the state, abducting the principal of the school.

This is coming barely a week after the abduction of six female pupils and two staff members of the Engravers College, Chikun Local Government Area of the State.

The State Police Command is yet to confirm the incident.

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in Bayelsa says it has sealed ten petrol stations and an illegal liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) station in Yenagoa for expired licences and lack of basic operational equipment.

The DPR on Wednesday, with a team of its officials, led by Mr Ibinabo Jack, Head of Operations in the state field office, paid unscheduled visit to some retail petrol outlets.

The affected filling stations were Tamic Oil and Gas, Paudsiman Nigeria Limited, Ido Oil and Gas, De Arizona Nigeria limitedlimited and Keniyan Oil and Gas limited.

Others were Sohwo Oil and Gas limited, in Swali, Paulo Oil and Gas Sea Bird Oil and Gas, RSK Oil and Gas limited, Emily Oil and Gas.

Jack said: “The sealing of filling stations is not new and it’s not going to be a one-off thing rather, it will be a continuous exercise. We caught some of them dispensing to customers below the variation.

“For instance, a station that is selling at point 41CL of every 10 litres is short-changing the public.

“In other words, where they ought to get 10 litres, they are given maybe six or seven litres. This is not fair,” he said.

The DPR chief said that the stations that were placed under seal had committed so many irregularities, which were punishable, adding that while some were under dispensing, others did not have fire extinguishers.

According to him, some did not even have sand buckets and these are things needed for their safety and that of their facilities as well as their customers.

“The penalties depend on their offences. When they report at DPR’s office, appropriate penalties will be spelt out to each of them.

“The DPR is a regulatory body and there are regulations binding the operations of retail outlets which need to be maintained by the operators.

“The new policy now, is that no gas station should be inside a fueling station, it is wrong; So, the Federal Government is against it,” he said.

He said the Federal Government has urged those in the gas business to look for an alternative by removing the retail outlet to another place that will be more secured.

Jack urged those sealed to always adhere to the rules and regulations of DPR in the interest of the general public.